A/N: Thanks for the reviews, here's a new chapter:) Don't forget to review this one too. Please?
Disclaimer: Don't own the characters.
Rei's POV again.
I didn't see Kai anymore after lunch break. I hope Max and Takao's sudden impact didn't bother him too much. Sure, he doesn't exactly seem like a people person, but still I hope he didn't leave because of them. Now that I think about it, it was weird. I mean, he didn't seem to be bothered by me at all. Well, at least not much. Does it mean he doesn't consider the thought of being friends with me impossible?
"Hope so," I mutter to myself as I shove my hands in my coat's pockets.
I'm sitting on our porch. In fact, I've been doing that since I got home from school. Which happened like, I glance at my wristwatch, one and a half hours ago. Why I'm sitting here is because I don't have a key and I have to wait for my Mother to get home, hopefully with a key. If she doesn't have one we're screwed.
I'm pretty sure I'm going to be sick tomorrow because it's damn cold out here even though it's only early September and the rain, which just started, isn't helping my situation much either.
I wish I could have gone to visit Max or Takao. Or Brooklyn, though I'm not sure where he lives. We are more like just school friends, so I guess I can count him out. This is one of the reasons why it sucks that all my friends live so far.
Well, Kai lives here now. But we're not friends. I glance at the house next to ours. Besides, it looks like he's not home.
I sigh heavily and drop my head onto my knees. Soon I however straighten up again as I hear a car approaching. Maybe it's Mother! My eyes light up with hope, but it dies as soon as I remember that Mother doesn't even have a car. Well done, me.
Then I see the car I heard with my sensitive ears. It's a very small, black convertible with it's roof closed due to the rain. It's windows are a bit darkened so I can't see the driver.
I watch it slide smoothly to the driveway of the Hiwatari residence. The big doors of the garage open slowly and the car disappears in almost soundlessly. After a moment I see Kai stepping out of the garage. He shows no signs of noticing me. He pushes a small button of some small black object in his hand and the doors of the garage close. Then he walks to a mailbox and takes it's contents out.
"I suppose there is a reason why you're sitting out there, Kon," Kai suddenly says without looking at me. I feel my face getting hotter. I can only imagine how stupid I look.
"Yeah, well I… um, don't have a key," I mutter my reply. He hn's and takes a cigarette from the pocket of his long, black leatherjacket. He lights up the cigarette and walks to our yard. I stare at him, confused, as he sits down next to me. He ignores me and after a while I turn my eyes away from him.
We sit there for a while, both of us staring into the distance without saying a word. I play absentmindedly with my long hair and Kai occasionally brings the cigarette to his lips and inhales the poison from it. I smoked too a few years ago, but I've quit. Still, right now I feel like I could take just one inhale from Kai's cigarette. As if he heard my thought, he offers his almost burnt cigarette to me and looks at me, asking the silent question. I stare at the cigarette for a while and bite my lip. No, I shouldn't. But if just this one, it can't hurt me. For the old days. I hesitantly take the stick from Kai's hand and slowly raise it to my lips. Closing my eyes, I take the last breath from the cigarette and then crush it on the ground. Slowly I exhale the smoke and open my eyes. I see Kai looking at me with slight curiosity and I give him a small smile. Surprisingly he smiles back at me. And by smile I really mean a real smile, not that I-know-all –smirk I've seen a couple of times earlier.
Then Kai stands up.
"Would you like to come over to my place?" he asks looking down at me, "Out here you will catch some death disease or someone will catch you," he starts walking slowly towards his own yard. I look at him, totally puzzled.
"Huh?" I ask standing up, "Why would someone catch me?" I hear him chuckle. He turns around and examines my body from top to toe. Then he looks deep into my eyes and raises an eyebrow as if asking, 'You still don't get it?' Sure, I got it. I don't want to sound self-lovesick, but I think I can admit that I might not be the most hideous-looking guy on planet, but still, what Kai's eyes are hinting is exaggerating. I send him my 'Yeah right' –look and quickly walk past him. I can nearly hear him smirking behind me.
Once I step inside through the front door after Kai I'm simply amazed of what I see as I look around me. The house is slightly bigger than my and mother's and everything looks so wonderful. It was only yesterday Kai moved in and the house already looks all tidy and like the furniture had always been there in their rightful places. I really like the furnishing of the house. It looks kind of old-fashioned but modern at the same time. The bookshelves, tables, and such are the colour of dark wood and the huge, very comfortable-looking couch is eggshell-white as well as the couple of huge armchairs. On the wall opposite to the couch, there is definitely the biggest wide-screen television I've ever seen and a massive sound-reproducing equipment. Everywhere I see interesting paintings, statues and other things, which are most likely collected from all over the world.
Everything looks so expensive, but not snobby. The house actually looks unbelievably inviting and beautiful.
I know Kai must think I'm a total idiot spacing out like this, but I can't help it. It all just looks so wonderful. I should have known Kai is rich. He looks like it.
Finally I return to earth and look at Kai. He's leaning against a wall and watching me.
"Do you live here on your own?" I ask. He shakes his head.
"With my Grandfather," he answers straightening up, "Do you want something to drink or something?" He walks to the kitchen, "Coffee?" I follow him.
"Thanks, but I don't drink coffee," I say. He nods without looking at me and opens the door of the big fridge.
"Hmm… somehow I feel like going to the grocery store wouldn't do any harm," he mutters after a while. Then he turns to look at me again, "We do have some orange juice and that's about it."
"I don't need anything, thanks," I smile at him, "Except if you have hot chocolate?" I always have room for hot chocolate. Immediately Kai shakes his head.
"Sorry, I don't drink it and neither does my Grandfather, so you can't find it here."
"How come you don't drink hot chocolate?" I ask and watch as Kai starts making coffee for himself.
"I don't like it," he says simply. I raise an eyebrow at that. I practically live on hot chocolate, so it's difficult for me to think that someone doesn't like it.
"What's wrong with hot chocolate?" Kai grins and glances at me quickly.
"When I was little our housekeeper made me drink the hot chocolate she made and it tasted disgusting," I laugh.
"So, it's only a childhood trauma," I say. He shrugs, "Maybe I can fix it," I suggest. Now he shakes his head slowly, "Oh, come on! I can make really good hot chocolate."
"I have no doubts about that," Kai says pouring fresh coffee into a cup, "But hot chocolate just is not my thing."
"You have to give it a chance," I defend my source of life. He just shrugs taking a sip from his drink.
"Are you sure you don't want anything?" He asks changing the subject. I shake my head, "Let's go to my room then, okay?" I nod and follow him out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the second floor.
He opens the door of his room and motions me to step in, which I do.
"Sorry if it's a bit messy," I hear Kai say behind me as he closes the door, "I still have some unpacking to do," he explains. I raise an eyebrow.
The room looks perfect. There's only a few boxes piled up in one corner and that Kai considers messy. The room is furnished with as much style as the living room. Only dissimilarity is that the colours are a bit different; the light natural colours of the living room are here replaced with blue and black. In one corner there is a dark wooden bed, big enough for two person, with dark blue and black sheets and next to it a small table with a bedside light. Against a one wall stands a black wardrobe and a big mirror. Opposite to them on the other wall there is a dark wooden desk and a same-coloured chair. Kai also has an own television in his room. It's not as big as the one in the living room, but I wouldn't call it small either. Close to the television he has a came console, which I find surprising since he doesn't look like a guy who would play videogames, and a nice-sized stereo. In one corner I spot an electric guitar and a keyboard.
"You can sit on my bed if you want to," Kai says placing his cup of coffee on the desk, "Or on the chair, whichever you prefer," I nod and walk over to his bed and sit down.
"Your room is nice," I remark in a lack of anything better to say. Kai shrugs and walks over to the pile of boxes in the corner.
"Do you want to listen to music?" he asks opening one of the boxes.
"Sure," I reply. He takes a hold of the box and drags it across the room next to the bed.
"I haven't organized my CDs yet, so they're somewhere in there middle of all the other junk," he says dropping himself on the bed beside me, "You can pick," he offers. I nod and look into the box. There really is everything inside of it, possibly hundreds of CDs, as many DVD-movies, some games, photographs, cables and other pieces of electronic devices, books, scissors, pencils and a lot more other stuff. I take one book in my hand and look at the strange writing on its cover.
"Is this… um, Russian?" I ask hesitantly since I don't have a very good knowledge of languages. Kai nods, "Are you a Russian?" I look at him.
"Yeah," he says, "You're Chinese?" he asks in return. I smile at him and nod my head, "As I thought. Neko-jins only exist in China, so I've heard," Kai says lying on his back on the bed. I turn my eyes away from him and get back to examining the contents of the box on the floor. I can't stop a small smile forming to my lips as I think how much different Kai is at home than he is at school. He talks and is actually nice.
"Ah, you've got too many CDs," I say after a while, breaking the silence, "I can't decide," he chuckles a bit and sits up again.
"Really?" I nod, "Well, I have a better idea," Kai informs standing up. He walks to the pile of boxes and opens one of them. He takes a laptop and some cables from it and walks to his stereo. He sets the computer next to the stereo and connects the devices together with a cable. Then he turns on the stereo and the computer and waits for a moment. Then he starts a programme on the computer and the stereo starts playing music, "The music from all my CDs is here, so you don't have to pick just one," Kai says smirking. I raise an eyebrow at him.
"You didn't figure that out any sooner, did you?"
"Of course I did," he says, "Dragging heavy boxes around the room is just something I do for fun, you know," he grins and returns to the bed and takes his previous position. I chuckle quietly and follow his example and lie on my back next to him.
"Well, that's a nice hobby," I say placing my hands behind the nape of my neck, "But seriously, what are you interested in, Kai?"
"Why do you want to know?" he asks quietly. I roll over to lie on my stomach and rest on my elbows. I look straight into his eyes and take a serious expression on my face.
"Because I want to know you," he raises an elegant eyebrow at me.
"No one usually does, so why you?"
"Why do you expect me to act like everyone else?" I flash him a small smile. He is still looking at me right into my eyes, but this time I don't feel uncomfortable about it, "I find you interesting, that's why," I sigh softly and rest my head on the dark blue blanket.
We lie there in silence for a long time until Kai opens his mouth, "I like football," he says. A smile finds it's way to my lips.
"Oh, really?" I ask, "Brooklyn plays in the school's team," I continue after receiving a nod from the boy beside me, "He told me a while ago that the team is in need of new players."
"It is?" Kai turns his head to look at me.
"Yeah," I nod, "The tryouts are soon. Maybe you should try to get in the team," I suggest.
"Yeah, maybe," Kai says drearily, turning his gaze back to the ceiling.
"Oh, please calm down, there's no need to get so excited about it," I joke.
"Hmm," his voice comes softly, not coldly but instead hiding a hint of genuine amusement. I really like his voice, especially when he does that. I don't feel like saying anything anymore so I just stay quiet and close my eyes, concentrating on the rock music floating from Kai's stereo.