Chapter 6 - Ty's Point of View
I always think it's kinda funny when Kaido hisses at some one. They normally get scared and run. Not Ryoma and Momoshiro though. The two had run over to us when we were walking to school. It didn't seem to bother Kaido that they were with us anyway. I guess he didn't really care too much about his reputation either since he was letting me walk with him.
For the most part, the walk to school was pretty quiet. Occasionally Momoshiro would say one of his remarks that really didn't make any sense to me. I glanced around as we finally arrived at school.
"I'll see you later, Ty. I got some things to do before class starts." Ryoma waved at me as walked away with Momoshiro. I looked up at Kaido and smiled a little.
"Anything you need to do before class?" He asked me.
He was headed for the changing room. I shook my head.
"Good. We can get some practice in before the first bell. Alright?"
I nodded.
"Sounds good to me."
We changed quickly and ran out to the courts. I was kinda scared that he would try his Snake on me, so I had to watch him carefully. He didn't do it though. Instead we started a volley with the ball. It was like when me and Ryoma were playing. It just went back and forth. I could tell he wasn't even trying and I knew that I wasn't as good as him. It was fun anyway.
The warning bell went off and we ran back to the changing room. I gave Kaido a hug after we changed and before we stepped out of the room. Then I ran to class before I was late.
Class seemed to drag on so slow for me that day. I sat through what seemed like hours of math which I might add is my worst subject. I kept looking at the clock which seemed to slow down time even more. It sucked. I wanted out of the class and onto the courts. Mostly to see Kaido, but also to practice. Ryoma and me had some plans to start training together and I wanted to get started.
I groaned a little as I waited for the last bell to ring. It seemed to just take forever, but it finally happened.
I practically leapt out of my seat the moment it went off. I forced myself to calm down and quickly gather my things. Once I had them I rushed out the door, but not to quickly. I didn't want to see like I was in that big of a hurry.
I ran into the changing room and ran right into Inui.
"Oh! Sorry." I took a step back and looked up at him.
Inui pushed his glasses up and started down at me through them.
"You shouldn't run like that. You might run into the wrong person instead of some one that knows you." With that said Inui walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.
I knew he was right. I had a habit of running into people and one of these days I could just run into the wrong crowd. That wouldn't be good for me.
I just kinda shrugged it off and got changed. I opened the door and looked around for Ryoma. After seeing I ran over to him.
"Hey! You ready to start practice?" I asked.
"Yeah. We can go to some courts near my house after practice here. How's that sound?" He replied.
"Can I come?" It was Momoshiro.
"I don't see why not. What do you say Ryoma?" I asked looking from Momoshiro to Ryoma.
Ryoma shrugged.
"Sure, but it's going to be only me and Ty practicing. Alright?"
Momoshiro nodded.
"That's not a problem. I wanna see how good Ty is anyway." Momoshiro had a grin on his face as he spoke.
I smiled. I had kinda hoped that Kaido would want to come, but I didn't want to ask him. I thought he would say no anyway. Although he did over hear us talking.
After practice ended I changed quickly and stepped out of the changing room.
"Hey. I heard you were going some where with Ryoma." Kaido was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest.
"Yeah I am. I'm going to the courts to practice. I wanna improve my game." I replied.
"I would've asked if you wanted to come, but I wasn't sure what you'd say."
He shook his head a little.
"I'm busy today. Call me later, okay?" He handed me a piece of paper with his cell phone number on it.
I nodded and pocketed it quickly.
"See ya later then, Kaido." I glanced around to see if anyone was watching. There was no one in sight so I quickly gave Kaido a kiss on the cheek and ran off to find Momoshiro and Ryoma.
It didn't take long to find them.
"There you two are." I ran over to them quickly.
"Ready to go?" Ryoma asked as he started walking away.
I nodded and followed him with Momoshiro close behind.
We came to the courts rather quickly and got ready to practice. No one else was around so we had the courts all to ourselves. Momoshiro decided that he would be the referee. Our practice session went on until well after dark.
"We should get home. We don't have school tomorrow so we can continue then. It's getting late as it is." Ryoma said as he packed his things.
I nodded and got my stuff together as well. Momoshiro had fallen asleep at some point and I really want to just dump a bottle of ice water on his head. Unfortunately Ryoma told me not to and woke him up before I actually had the chance. I just laughed and walked away.
"See ya tomorrow, Ryoma." I called over my shoulder.
"See ya." Ryoma replied quickly heading the opposite way with Momoshiro.
I smiled as I watched them leave. A part of me wanted to walk with them. I didn't really like walking home by myself in the dark. I just kinda shrugged it off and made my way home. I decided to take a shortcut and save myself some time getting home. That turned out to be the biggest mistake in my life and it also made me wonder why I hadn't asked some one to walk me home.
Kaido's Point of View
I was asleep when I heard my cell phone go off. At first I thought it was my alarm clock. Then I realized that it was almost midnight and that it was Friday night so I didn't even have school in the morning.
I fumbled around on the floor a little looking for my pants. Upon finding them, I pulled the phone from my pocket and opened it.
"Hello?" I mumbled sleepily.
"Kaido? Can you come get me?" It was Ty. His voice was weak and he sounded tired.
"What's wrong, Ty?" I asked becoming almost completely awake.
"Just come get me please. I can't move any more. I don't wanna go home." Was his reply.
I jumped to my feet and grabbed my clothes pulling them on quickly. I was already down the stairs and too the door when I remembered that I didn't even know where he was.
"Where are you, Ty!" I asked quickly opening the door.
"I'm almost two blocks from your house." He whispered. His voice was almost inaudible.
I ran as fast as I could to find Ty. When I did, he was a mess. I put my phone back into my pocket and picked him up.
"What happened to you?" I asked as I made my way home with him in my arms.
"I was walking home. I wanted to take a shortcut, but I was jumped by some guys. The looked like they were in highschool. They thought I had money, but when they found out I didn't they beat me up." Ty replied resting his head against my chest.
"When we get back to my place I'll clean you up." I muttered.
I opened the door to my house and walked up to my room. I then laid him down and went into the bathroom to get a washcloth and some antibacterial cream for his cuts. I went back into my room to find Ty half asleep on my bed. It made me smile.
"Hey. No sleeping yet. I gotta get you cleaned up." I stepped over to the bed and sat him up. He smiled at me as I helped him take his shirt off. He had bruises on his stomach and arms. It looked like he had been grabbed and possibly kicked a few times. It made me very angry. I knew I had to control my temper so as not to scare him.
"Will you be ok?" I asked as I cleaned him.
"I should be. I'm gonna be sore for a while though." He replied.
"Probably. Do you remember what the kids looked like?"
He shook his head and closed his eyes. I could tell that he was trying to show me that he wasn't scared or anything, but I could also tell that he was scared.
"Try to fool me. I know you were scared. It's alright to be. Just don't let it get to you too much. I'll be there next time to protect you."
He smiled and nodded.
"Thanks, Kaido."
I finished with the cuts and quickly put the washcloth into the hamper in the bathroom.
"We should get some rest now." I sat down next to him and stroked his hair. He smiled and laid against me.
"Alright." Ty mumbled.
I could tell that he was already almost half asleep. He leaned up and pressed his lips against mine and I wrapped my arms around his small waist being careful not to hurt him. I then carefully laid him down and after what happened next nothing else seemed to matter to me.
The morning came quickly. I stretched a little and glanced at the clock. It was nearly noon. I looked at the sleeping figure beside me.
"Hey. Wake up, Ty." I shook him a little and got to my feet.
It felt cold when I got out of bed. I glanced down at myself and realized that I was standing naked. I glanced back at Ty and then I remembered what I had done last night. It had been amazing and yet very unlike me at the same time. I hoped that Ty wasn't mad at me for it.
I continued to stare at him for a few more moments. My eyes finally left his perfect face and I grabbed my clothes, pulling them on quickly. I looked back at him. His eyes fluttered a little and opened. A smiled crossed his face as he watched me.
"Morning." He said and stretched with a slight yawn.
"Morning." I replied sitting back down on the bed.
He sat up and gave me a quick hug before grabbing his clothes and pulling them on. The bruises were still visible all over his pale skin and my anger flared once again. I bit my lip in order to stop myself from an outburst that I knew would probably scare the hell outta him.
"Let's get something to eat. You're probably hungry."
I got to my feet and pulled Ty off the bed. We made our way downstairs and into the kitchen. My parents weren't home. They left for work pretty early in the morning. That didn't bother me though. I really didn't want to play twenty questions with them.
"You should tell Ryoma what happened. I'm sure he'd want to know." I said to Ty as I fixed us something to eat.
"Probably. I can tell him later today. I have to meet him at the courts to practice. Wanna come?" He watched me with a smile on his face.
"Sure. Why not? I could use the exercise." I replied.
I handed him a plate and sat down next to him to eat.
"What time do we have to leave?"
He shrugged a little and scarfed down his breakfast.
"Ryoma never gave me a time to be there. I can call him and ask."
"That sounds like a smart thing to do."
Ty got up and put his plate in the sink.
"Mind if I use your phone?"
I nodded. He picked it up and dialed a number that I didn't see. I listened to him talk for a little while, but I wasn't really paying attention to what he was saying. Soon I heard a click and I glanced up at him. He had put the phone down.
"Well?" I asked getting to my feet and heading towards my room to gather my tennis equipment.
"He said to be there in an hour if that's ok with you." He replied.
I nodded and grabbed my tennis bag.
"Let's just go now."
Ty grabbed his tennis bag and followed me out the door. We walked in relative silence with an occasional car that passed. Neither of us seemed to have anything to talk about as it was. It seemed that we could have a conversation without talking. I kinda liked it that way. I never was good with words. The only time that our silence was broken was when we both heard the rather annoying voice of Momoshiro.
"HEY! You two!" He called to us and came running. I rolled my eyes and scowled at him. He didn't even flinch.
"What do you want, Momoshiro?" I hissed. Ty giggled.
"Are you guys going to meet Ryoma?" He asked disregarding my question. Ty answered for me.
"Yeah we are. You're welcome to come along you know. Just try not to get into too much of a fight with Kaido. Okay?"
Momoshiro nodded and fell into step beside Ty. I really just wanted to wring his neck. Me and him never got along even when we were younger. Every thing to us was a competition. I didn't do anything to him though. I didn't want Ty mad at me. Besides, Momoshiro could make Ty laugh and he was a friend to him, so I guess I could lay our differences aside for a little while. Momoshiro's voice cut into my thoughts and I knew then that I had thought too soon.
"So, Kaido? What are you doing here?" Momoshiro looked at me and smirked as if he was making fun of me.
"That's none of your business." I hissed and continued to walk.
Ty frowned and looked up at me. I sighed a little and gave him a quick pat on the head as if too reassure him. He smiled and looked back at Momoshiro.
"Don't bug him. He's not doing anything to hurt you." Ty said to him.
"Alright. I won't bug him." Momoshiro seemed reluctant to leave me alone, but I was glad he did. He bothered me most of the time and we often ended up in fights.
We came to the tennis courts and saw Ryoma sitting on a bench drinking some water. I could tell he had been waiting for us. Ty ran over to him and they started to talk, but I was too far to hear what they were saying. I saw Ryoma turn and look at me. He had the same expression he was always wearing on his face. It felt weird to be around Ryoma know that he knew about Ty and me.
"Hello, Kaido." Ryoma said getting up. I nodded a little in his direction and sat down. I didn't want to practice right yet so I was just going to watch Ty and Ryoma. They grabbed their tennis rackets and walked out to the courts. Momoshiro sat down as well, but kept his distance from me. I really didn't want to deal with him.
I sat there watching Ty closely. After what had happened to him last night there was no way I was going to let him out of my sight. I didn't want him to get hurt again.
Ryoma's Point of View
Our practice went pretty smoothly. When we stopped to take a drink I noticed that Ty had bruises on his arms.
"Where did you get those?" I asked pointing them out. He looked at them and I could tell that he was turning a little red.
"Last night. When I was walking home I got jumped..." He mumbled. His head was down.
I shook my head and got myself a drink.
"You shouldn't have gone in the dark." I said to him putting a hand on his shoulder.
He nodded.
"Kaido came and got me. I was fine after that." He replied.
I looked over at Kaido and a small smile crept over my face. It was great to know that some one was looking out for my friend. I still couldn't believe that it was in fact the viper. One of the meanest people on Seigaku. It helped me to stop worrying about him a little more. I glanced at Momoshiro and saw that the two were sitting pretty far away from each other.
"What do you think is wrong with them?" Ty asked me.
I shrugged. I didn't really know what was wrong. I had never seen them act this way before. They didn't seem to like each other very much from where I was sitting. It made me chuckle a little.
"Come on let's go get those two and get something to eat. I'm starving." I said starting towards them.
Ty followed. We told them where we were heading and packed up our things. We decided on an inexpensive restaurant seeing as none of us had a lot of money. We order our food and sat down. Ty sat next to Kaido and I sat next to Momoshiro. Momoshiro and I ended up trying to out eat each other. This made Ty laugh his head off and almost choke on his food. Kaido had to give him a pat on the back in order to stop him from choking. The rest of the day was spent just wandering around the city.
We went into a few shops and got some things. Nothing special though. Ty seemed to have the most money out of all of us. That was because he got an allowance from his mother. By the end of the day we were all beat and ready to get home. Kaido told Ty that he would walk him home so he didn't get jumped again. After they had left I realized something. It was pretty fun hanging with Ty and Kaido for the day.