Warning : Strong language, eventual yaoi, violence

Disclaimer : I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters. The characters you do not recognise are mine and are not to be stolen/used in any story other than my own.

"………" - Speech

'………' - Thought

Italics - Something written (e.g. e-mails)

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Rei POV

I never thought I'd be able to come back here again. The thought of having all those people around me, most of whom I don't even know the name of, is a daunting thought. I'm not entirely sure if I can bring myself to get out of the car. I watch people, some I half-recognise, some I don't have a clue about, walking past the car window. None of them notice me though. But why should they? They don't know me, they don't know who this kid is that got stabbed and had his name plastered across the front of the newspapers for a day. None of them wonder 'Where did Rei Kon disappear to?' or 'Rei hasn't been to school for weeks, where is he?' They don't know me, they don't care. They only know the Falcon, or know of the Falcon, and the fact that he was recently expelled from their school for something that nobody knows much about. Nobody knows, but nobody dares to ask. He was one of them. One of Infamous. He was the bad one of the pack, the others are alright. I mean, MFT doesn't speak to me and Ginge still glares… But Kai is nice. So nice, in fact, that he is Kai to me now and no longer 'Red-eyes'.

Yeah… He's nice.

Sighing deeply, I find myself staring out the window at my school again. The place looks a lot more intimidating than before, even though I've always been fine here. I've never had any problems at school before, apart from the occasional person calling me a geek and that one time Falcon tried to strangle me, but apart from that there has been nothing… I sigh again. Falcon. Every time I think of, or even hear that name, I can see his face leering down at me. It sends shivers up my spine. I'm still scared, but I'm not too scared to admit that. Still scared, and it happened four weeks ago… A month.

I spent two weeks in hospital being patched up by the nurses, talking to a psychologist who believed she could help me get through the shock and the fear. I guess it helped a bit… A bit. I also spent two weeks at home, mainly due to the fact I couldn't leave my house because I found it too frightening. Still, Tyson came over every day after school and brought me my homework, which we did together while we sat and chatted and drank hot chocolate with marshmallows floating in the top. Things were going well, life began to feel okay again. I started to smile again, I hadn't done that since it happened. And so, that's when it was decided by my parents that I was alright to go back to school. I didn't want to, but I didn't say anything. I knew that the longer I put it off, the less likely it would be that I'd ever want to go back again… I can't be blamed though, I'm scared, but I didn't want to have to start a new school. New people, trying to fit in all over again… I knew it wouldn't happen. I only have one real friend at this school and I've been coming here for almost three years.

Three years… One friend in three years.

The two weeks at home were… Pleasant. All I'd do would be sitting around all day, drawing or writing or simply thinking about random stuff like how to make the world better, where I should go after high school is over and what I should do with my life, what flavour ice cream I should eat for desert… Real trivial stuff. I guess I was just keeping my mind busy so I couldn't think about what happened. Makes sense, really. I hate reminding myself of the 'event'.

However, I do love reminding myself of how my friends took the news. Tyson was in a state… He sat with me in hospital and looked after me, cried too though for a bit. Other friends of mine, childhood friends, called me up to offer condolences and comforting words… They all said they'd come to visit at some point, but I'm still waiting on that one.

Then there was Kai's reaction… The day I got a surprise. I was outside… In my garden. It was quite a nice day, warmish with a gentle breeze, though it got cold every now and then when the clouds took the sun's place in the sky and a shadow was cast across my parents' lawn. However, I was sat in my usual place under the tree, sketching. I'd been there for about an hour so I still felt perfectly comfortable slumped sluggishly against the huge trunk of the oak behind the shed. I was colouring in the pictures I'd been drawing with pencil crayons when he showed up, exactly the same way as before…

­-Rewind­-

"Rei!" A voice called me from above, making me feel an all too familiar turn in the pit of my stomach that could only mean one thing. Red-eyes. I hadn't failed to notice that it had been a different kind of turn this time though, not like it used to be. I felt… Excited in a way. Happy. I tilted my head backwards and felt a slight twitch at the corner of my mouth as if I wanted to smile, even if I didn't feel like I could. Raising a hand in greeting, I mused that, for some reason, it didn't seem to surprise me that he had come to visit, though I did find myself wondering why he couldn't have knocked the front door like everybody else. Why risk breaking a leg?

"Hey." I sighed. I found myself sighing an awful lot when I thought about him, still do, and my mum said that she thought I had concussion because I was a bit dreamy sometimes, like I was in a world of my own and not listening to anything… It's all because of him. Much as I hate to admit it, I like him… In that way.

I didn't even flinch when he landed gently by my side, rubbing the chipped bark from off of his hands and t-shirt front and readjusted his scarf, flashing a quick smirk in greeting before seating himself gracefully next to me. He immediately adopted a relaxed pose, arms behind his head, leaning against the trunk like I was, his legs crossed loosely. His eyes flicked toward me to check I was alright with him being there, then gazed skyward at the leaf green canopy above us.

"Tala told me." He said simply, explaining his presence; and I noticed that, for once, his eyes weren't glaring like they usually were, this time they looked… Soft. He looked soft. His gentle stare leant my way again, his normal sinister and intimidating look settled upon his brow, yet his eyes still gave him away, he looked almost sweet. "Are you… Okay?" He asked carefully, crimson orbs returning once again to the tree tops and clouds above. He can be a really nice guy, and I think that this day was the day that I realised I had some kind of 'thing' for him… The day I found him special.

I nodded my reply, even though I think we both knew I wasn't okay really – After all, I had just been Falconed. I wanted Kai to think I was alright though, mainly because I didn't want to talk about it.

"Yeah…" I said, trailing off and avoiding his eyes. I wanted to ask what had happened to the Falcon, even though Tyson had already insisted that he was locked up good and tight in prison. It had been three weeks then, it was possible that he was already locked away, but I didn't think he'd give up that easily. Still, I was too afraid to ask Kai about it, though I guess I didn't need to – He already knew what was one my mind.

"He's in jail, Rei… For now." Propping himself up with one hand, he turned himself toward me slightly and sighed, closing his eyes. "He won't give in very easily." He told me. "He'll go all the way through the court processes just in case there's a slight chance he'll get off and out." He paused, opening his eyes to give me a gaze that was somehow both hard and soft at the same time, making it known that he meant what he said… He didn't want me to get hurt again. "Don't let him win."

Without warning, he pulled the bottom of his t-shirt up so that it was level with the top of his abs and a short, thin scar came into view. Had Falcon done this to him too? Before I realised what I was doing, I had reached out and touched it, tracing the line with my finger, unknowingly open-mouthed at the mere thought of somebody doing this to their own friend. I could never hurt Tyson! Or any of my friends… They're too precious to me. Plus it's just morally wrong… And against the law.

Kai took a small intake of breath when my fingers collided with his skin and I felt him shiver slightly at the touch. I pulled my hand back and looked at him, wide eyed.

"Did he...?" I asked slowly. I'm not sure what exactly what I was asking, but I know that I was some how insinuating that Falcon had done this to Kai, but the slate-haired teen shook his head.

"No." He replied simply, readjusting his shirt to cover himself again. "Not exactly."

I quizzically raised my brow, curious as to how someone can 'not exactly' stab another person.

"So..." I began, but I couldn't find any more words. I was wondering what happened, I wanted to know, but I didn't have to wait long. The Russian soon continued.

"Bryan, that's Falcon to you…" He stopped as I noticeably shuddered at the name, but I collected myself and silently urged him to go on. "Was angry with Ian, the little guy who got expelled from our school a couple of years back. They've had an ongoing feud, they grew up together you see. Bryan was angry. Really angry. I can't tell you why, because not even I know that." He paused, staring up the huge trunk toward the canopy once more before bringing his head back down to look at me again. "Ian provoked him. All I saw was a knife and knew straight away what was going on. Course, I tried to pull them apart but Bryan tried to push me away." He sighed, shaking his head again. "He wasn't being malicious to me… It was going to be either me or Ian, and Bryan would have killed Ian."

I felt sorry for him. I wanted him to know that he could trust in me if he wanted to, and I wanted to say those things. Could I?

Course not.

It would seem that the body registers with things before the mind does, because as my mind was still toying with the images of a fight like that, my body was unconsciously moving itself toward the former victim. Of course, as soon as my mind caught up and I noticed just how close to Kai I had got, I blushed like hell. I started moving myself backwards, eyes to the ground as I didn't dare look him in the face because I knew I'd just blush even more, but then I felt something in my way. There was something stopping me from going backwards... I looked up, and I suddenly realised just how much I wanted to smile.

I blushed some more at the mere fact that we were barely centimetres away and his arm was behind me, blocking my way so I couldn't back off any more than I already had. I couldn't help but stare into the crimson depth of his eyes, they were amazing. I'd never seen such beautiful eyes before… They were so striking and magnificent. They made him somebody. I'd always wondered how Kai could intimidate people and silence a grown adult with a simple glare, because I knew it wasn't just because he was part of Infamous. He would have had to have done something to make people anxious like that, but now I understand. Even the tiniest bit of emotion that flows through these veins would be magnified. If Kai was to get upset, I imagine the world would cry if they saw the sadness within him. But right then, right there, they looked perfect.

"You have really nice eyes." I told him quietly, unsure of why my voice had dropped several decibels. He smiled softly, the first smile I've ever seen from him… And it extended right through his eyes, those beautiful eyes that showed so much feeling, I couldn't stop myself from suddenly grinning like a fool.

-Present time-

That's when I nearly passed out. I'm glad I didn't though, it would have just been embarrassing… Or should I say even more embarrassing than it already was. See, I'm a bit of a loser. I'm the school geek, what do you expect? I've never kissed anybody before! I didn't exactly know what to do and so when he leant in toward me, not only did I freak out slightly and almost fall unconscious but I also made a bit of a shit-up when we were actually kissing. It's not my fault I don't know how to do it properly… Still, the second, third and fourth times were much better, and the fifth and sixth were just plain heavenly.

"Rei, time to go now sweetie." My mum tells me, interrupting my thoughts.

Sighing, I nod slowly, still watching people pass by my window. "Yeah, I thought it would be soon."

I feel her hand on my shoulder and force myself to give her an encouraging smile. That's always the way I've been, having to be strong for others. I give her a kiss on the cheek and let her do the same to me before opening the car door, yanking my bag behind me. I stare up at the building and, as I hear her pull away, tears come to my eyes and I once again feel lost and insignificant.

Trying to push that feeling away from me, I stride toward the building, ignoring everyone who recognises me from the news… And everyone else. I think about going straight inside, but find myself calming down when I think of a better idea. Taking a sharp left turn round the side of the school, I see a small cloud of smoke drifting thinly upward from inside a thicket. I'll be okay once I'm there with him. We're going to keep things a secret for now, he says, but maybe when he's broken the news to Ginge and MFT gently then we can be a real couple.

He sees me walking toward them through a small clearing in the brush and discretely winks at me from where he's leant casually up a small tree, arms folded, looking relaxed since he's with his friends. I sigh absentmindedly; it's like I've always dreamed. Though, to be honest, in my dreams I was never falling for the Big Bad Leader of a widely feared gang, but to hell with the dreams… Reality somehow seems better now.

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