Mechanical Bruising
Chapter 8

The rain had stopped sometime during the night...though the dark gloomy clouds still hung over the city of Tokyo like a thick blanket to keep the sun out, to keep all happiness down. In the little box of the alley icy blue eyes fluttered open to blink sleepily a couple of times before they looked around cautiously. For a moment Tala didn't know where he was, or why he was inside this...tiny box. He felt uneasy at the small space and crawled outside, his trousers absorbing the water pooling on the ground, his hands cold.

Stretching his limbs carefully he let out a yawn and rubbed his eyes. It was early in the morning still, he could tell with his inhuman senses that the day had barely begun. Tala made sure Wolborge was in his pocket before he sneaked out of the alley. There were people out on the streets already, hurrying to and fro, passing him by without taking notice of him at all.

He felt like avoiding the grown ups. They had called him freak, like he was worth less than them. He already hated them for calling him names. His name was Tala...though they couldn't possibly know that. Hands stuffed in his pockets, he walked down the street at his feet, not being familiar with these paths and alleys yet. He might as well try to find his way around here so he wouldn't get lost. His stomach growled in hunger, and he ignored it. Food was not the most important thing right now.

But as he passed by shop after shop, his nose catching the delicious smell of newly made bread, cakes and such, it became harder to resist. He stopped outside a cafe window, staring in at the people on the other side of the glass. Some of them gave him looks that clearly had pity written all over, others looked disgusted. But he couldn't care less...what made his eyes water was the fact that they all looked happy, accompanied by either family or friends. Both of them things he didn't and couldn't have-not even in his dreams. It hurt so badly, he wanted someone to take care of him…like Olivia had done, he missed her. But he couldn't go back to that life, no way!

He walked away with his head hanging low in defeat, tears in his eyes. People were about to bump into the young boy several times, but he made no move to get out of their way or even to look at them. He stopped in front of a small shop selling fruit and cakes, raising his head. Maybe he could...no one would miss an apple and some cake if he took, would they? Making up his mind that they wouldn't, he hurriedly snatched some apples and a piece of chocolate cake before running off, the shop keeper shouting at him to drag his ass back there. Tala ran for dear life, his heart pounding in his head insanely fast. He ran and ran…until he suddenly found himself lying on his back on the cold pavement.

Looking down at him were two boys, both of them apparently older than him. They did so not look pleased, he thought. The one on the left jerked Tala to his feet, fist clenched in front of the redhead's face. "Little thief…you stole from our district...do you really think we can let you get away with that?" the boy sneered, his grey eyes giving of a dangerous sparkle.

Their district?

"I was hungry" he simply replied. A knee gutted him in the stomach, making him bend over. He was used to torture back at the Abbey, he could handle this...this was nothing compared to what Boris had put him through. He stood back up straight, a blank look on his face. It was when a gun was pointed at his face that he understood that this time he'd better run instead of staying behind to fight...


Kai left the building where his lover lay frozen, tears still in his crimson eyes as he walked down the pavement. Shouting could be heard further ahead. He didn't care, it was something that happened all the time…probably just some gang members from different gangs that had crashed into each other and now were fighting like the fools they were. But as he spotted a redhead, about his age...maybe a little older getting threatened by two older boys something went off in his mind. Those two bastards...they had been in on killing Cain, he could remember their fucking faces!

The redhead turned around and dashed off at full speed, closely followed by the other two that apparently were set on hunting him down no matter the cost. A low growl emitted from his throat. That boy...if he didn't interfere, the redhead would suffer the same fate as his lover had done...shot dead by the guns the fuckers had stolen somewhere. He didn't care about the redhead...he just didn't want anyone to end up dying the same way as Cain had done...With that thought in mind he followed.


Where could he hide? He didn't know these streets at all...and he was already lost, he could tell. Looking over his shoulder he sighed in relief when no one was there...he had lost their tail.

Tala gasped in surprise as he was thrown into a wall by rough hands. Looking up he found one of his stalkers smirking evilly at him, the gun directed at him…again. "You got him?"

"Yeah...say your prayers, little shitball".

Tala closed his eyes and waited to the bullet to come…

"Leave him the fuck alone!" shouted another voice...a voice being slightly familiar. Cracking one eyes open he found the beautiful boy holding out his beyblade at the two bastards. There was a lump in his throat from fear. Why would the beauty be helping him?

"Oh...it's you…you're the captain of the Blade sharks right?" asked one boy, a mocking tone to his voice, as if he was considering the team unworthy. There was a flash of something dangerous in the blunettes eyes as he launched his beyblade at the boys, calling out his bit-beast in the middle of the street. People stopped to watch, curious and horrified by what was going on…and Tala, he was staring in awe as the little bluenette ordered his phoenix to attack.

The huge firebird released a fiery scream and went for the two gang members, ripping through their clothes with her claws, melting their skin with her heat. Screams of pain emerged, and all the time as the murders took place, Tala had his eyes glued to the face of the bluenette, seeing the cold and icy stare his eyes held, how lifeless he seemed. And it scared him like nothing else had ever done before.

Tala didn't know how many seconds or minutes had passed by before the two boys lay dead on the ground, screams rising from their spectators. Suddenly he was jerked to his feet for the second time that morning, a hand holding a tight grip on his wrist and pulling him along, away from the crowds. He ran for dear life, clinging onto the hand with all he had left of force in his body.


Kai actually had no idea where he was taking this stupid idiot for a boy. Who in this part of the city actually acted like he did? So clueless- he must have been from a higher state of mind and status, people like that made Kai sick, so it was yet another question to why he was saving this boy.

He had no answers… he just kept running, holding that thin and graceful hand within his own, keeping the owner of it close so the people running after them wouldn't catch him.

His ears were almost ready to burst, he could hear everything yet nothing at the same time, the wind rushing by blurred all the hatful curses people threw at them as they crashed their way through fruit and other kinds of shop stands, sending everything to the floor and raising the crowd's anger.

He actually didn't know why he'd acted so irrational in front of such a big crowd… normally he stuck to his blading away from prying eyes, deep within his personal back street boundaries where anything and everything was his, and if anyone else found out it was only said to make them fear him.

He didn't act as if he knew what they were saying but he did. They called him murdering, called him heartless and even though these accusations made him angry he couldn't help but think about them as he sometimes lay on the roof of the Beysharks warehouse, just waiting for someone to come along and grab him up, wanting to be away from everything yet stay at the same time.

He didn't want to be heartless or cold- he knew he wasn't, at least…he hadn't been. He'd been able to cry, he was snow, he wasn't ice, he was soft and caring and white not blue. He'd had someone to love and he'd been loved back.

Why did everything he touched die...

And he suddenly let the red heads fingers slip from his grip as if the fingers burned him, a horrific yet confusing thought coming to mind.

I don't want him to die by my touch


Tala, although running wildly and breathing deeply, was thoroughly enjoying what was happening. As they ran away he couldn't help but smile even through everything.

His feet were sore, they were twitching. At the abbey he didn't have to the runs, he hated wearing shorts and hated to run even more. Olivia had managed to talk Boris into letting him out of this sport.

Tala hated himself in shorts and T-shirt because of the back of his legs and arms, all the way down the back of his arms there was a soft pink line of flesh that didn't stand out but shimmering in the Russian sun. And the back of his legs looked fake, big scars that seemed to curl into each other to not completely meet and huge silver staples holding them together yet apart.

He hated his body. He wore polo-necks as well because of the bare-wire scar embedding into the flesh. He knew he was different but even so he didn't like it when people told him he was fake, he was a copy of a human, because he didn't really know it all that well. He knew lots of things, and Mr. Boris knew even more, and Tala wondered why he was seen so worthless in that man's eyes.

He wondered about a lot of things really, about life, death, these memories that came to him at random times, they all were of him yet he couldn't remember anything about them.

How could he have memories he couldn't remember? Was he really just a fake… just a copy?

He hoped not, because this blue-haired boy's hands, they felt warm as they held his own.


Kai stopped running as he let go of the boy's hand, the boy stumbled with the sudden movement and fell to the ground, scraping his face in the snow/dirt and crying out in shock more than anything else.

As he rose he was on his knees and it seemed tears were running down his face which shocked Kai because the fall was so soft that not even a child would cry. What kind of wimp had he picked up now?

But he found, looking at the boy as he tried to wipe away the dirt and small trickle of blood from his tongue, that it was so oddly and pathetically adorable.

He found himself, with one look from the pathetic eyes on the ground next to him, noticing the red head was shorter than him, even though he looked older, and he helped wipe the dirt and tears away roughly. The boys face moving with his movements was made it difficult though.

When he was done he found his eyes connecting with frozen blue ones, the colour of ice yet somehow he found himself thinking of snow as he looked at them. When he finally ripped his own eyes away from the boy's he stood up but the boy stayed down on his knees.

He was really going to walk away, getting ready to turn…however he was stopped by a voice flowing light velvet and innocence.

"My name's Tala…" the boy seemed to be blushing and looking to his knees while he spoke and he made Kai beyond confused.

It was silent and Kai thought maybe the boy had gone mute but then he piped up again as he was thinking of leaving again.

"Do you have a name?"

Kai didn't think a boy like this- so weak and pitiful- deserved to know the name of someone so high in place, someone so powerful in these areas yet his voice box didn't agree.

"People call me CEO- but you can call me Kai" he grunted.

"Kai's a nice name" the boy blurted out smiling up at him and Kai felt his stomach do funny flip-flops as he found himself thinking that even though there was dirt smudged on those cheeks it didn't make this boy less perfect.

Kai watched as the boy closed his eyes in happiness and found his own mouth twitching to mirror the same smile, yet he couldn't -no matter how much he wanted to- he couldn't be seem without his mask.

He chose instead to think of his own speech to counter the boys, "Tala is okay" better not compliment the runt, "It sounds Russian… is it?"

The boy's eyes opened in a little surprise and he nodded again, "Yes- I come from Russia, I think I like Japan better though"

Kai stared at this boy with a face one can't quite explain. He was amazed by the innocence of this boy and how incredibly cute he seemed, he was shocked by how he felt so strange around someone he knew was below him, was trash, and he was also slightly afraid and suspicious.

Tala sounded so familiar- sure there were lots of people he knew called Tala, but it just seemed to spark something with his mind he couldn't quit pin-point.

"You know Tala's a girl's name- don't you?"

Kai thought it was sickingly cute when he boy puffed up his cheeks and chest in offence.

"It is not!" the boy protested childishly- and Kai found himself replying in the same matter.

"Is too"

And his mouth curled up into a smile.

"So...Tala," he started, putting extra emphasis on the name to tease the red head, "What are you doing here in Japan? Your Japanese is really bad"

Tala puffed his cheeks out again and cast him a glare that was supposed to be intimidating…but ended up making Kai smirk slightly instead.

"I came here with someone...and I ran away," he explained.

It was strange...This blue-haired beauty, as he had nicknamed him in his own silent mind, seemed so cold...like the way of life had made him hard. But there was also something in his eyes that Tala was fascinated by, a thing he couldn't quite explain. Kai longed to be accepted...to be loved, just like he did, he was certain of it. In that case, they were both the same...Tala thought, a sad look coming to his face as he sat on the ground.

"Don't go crying on me...people around here won't pity you if you cry," he told him bluntly, just like Cain had told him a long time ago...when he first met his love. How utterly weird that fate should lead him to tell this boy the same thing as he had been told…back when he was innocent himself. Tala...reminded him of how he had been before he met Cain, before his life on the streets. And somewhere in his cold, aching heart there was made a room for Tala: he pitied him.

"Why did you run away?"

"Because they didn't treat me well...They were always hurting me and forcing me to be their puppet...always forcing me to take care of the unworthy...I hate him," came the weak reply, spoken in a low voice coloured by anger and hate. Apparently Tala had his share of the bad side of life as well.

He raised his head to stare at the sky, seeing the grey clouds still covering the sun. When would the sun come out again...?

Tala had said he was from Russia...his own birth country. He started walking away from the other boy, and didn't even stop as Tala called his name.

"Kai! Wait for me! You can't leave me here!" he shouted in Russian, forgetting that he was in Japan now...and not back home. Kai shuddered as the redhead grabbed him by the arm, holding him back. "Don't go...I don't know my way around...please?" he begged, trying to speak Japanese again. Kai almost wanted to laugh at the lousy attempt to speak a language one did not know, and turned to Tala, eyes cold and blank.

"I saved your life...manage on your own, just like I did," he said and brushed off the hand clinging to him for dear life. It was not true though, what he had said. He hadn't managed on his own; Cain had been there to help him out, to save him every time he was in danger, to keep him warm through the cold winter nights.

He stood still, deep in his own thoughts and memories that were now flashing through his mind, leaving him with a bitter feeling and an aching heart.

"Please..."

He looked at Tala, the pleading look in his eyes making him go soft. If he left this boy alone, he would most likely end up dead by the hands of the enemies, shot dead or worse, left to rot in some back alley. If he did that...then he would indirectly be guilty for another murder…on someone innocent, a person whom had done nothing to hurt him in any way. He couldn't do that...he was no killer or cold hearted person for real, and this boy seemed so alone.

And as Tala's delicate, slim fingers curled around his own, entwining and pressing their palms together, the warmth from the other hand held onto his own, he made up his mind to help out Tala…this innocent boy. It had been a long time since anyone held onto his hand for comfort...a long time since he had been in the company of anyone caring.

Tala's eyes widened as Kai squeezed his hand lightly, lacing their fingers together. A little smile crept onto his lips.

"Come on then," Kai said in Russian and pulled him along.

"Y-you speak Russian too?"

"I am from Russia, girly"

And even though he had just been called girly by the other boy, Tala couldn't have cared less at the moment. Right now...he had someone holding his hand, and that was all that mattered.

Maybe fate isn't so cruel after all...? He thought as they walked down the path at their feet together, hand in hand.


Woa, I totally forgot about this story, SORRY! Kanni and I wish to tell u, that this story has 11 chapters, and yes, all of them are completed! (cheers)

we're sorry to anyone reading this that got annoyed at our sheer neglectance of this story. Let me tell u, the ending of the story is one i adore (sniffs)

Bra-Two & Kannilla