Jiraya stood at the bar. She didn't understand what had just happened. One moment they were both enjoying each other's company and then he'd suddenly gone off the deep end and stormed off. Kai was strange, that was for sure. However, despite the way he'd just treated her, she wanted to know more...

Chapter 9.

Ray couldn't understand. It had been three days since he'd dropped Kai off at Samuel's for his date with Jiraya and he hadn't seen or heard from Kai. They had agreed to meet up the day after so that Ray could find out how it had gone, but Kai had never shown up. He was worried about his friend. It was extremely rare that Kai was late for anything let alone not show up at all. This was why he was on his way to Kai's house, for he hadn't been returning Ray's calls either.
Ray soon reached Kai's door and knocked it. He stepped back a pace and waited... No answer. He knocked again, a little harder this time. Again he waited. He was about to knock a third time when the door opened and Kai appeared.
"Hello Ray." Ray tried to read something in Kai's expression but as usual the stalwart ex-blader was giving nothing away.
"Hi Kai. May I come in?"
"I'm a little busy..." Kai replied.
"I won't stay long," Ray pushed.
"Ok, just for a short while." Kai finally relented, and moved aside to allow Ray through.
Kai shut the door and walked through into the kitchen. Ray followed and sat down at the table.
Kai poured two glasses of water and put one in front of Ray before sitting opposite him with the other glass. Ray gratefully took a long drink of the water as his mouth had suddenly gone dry looking at his former captain, sitting there looking extremely calm and unfazed.
"So how are you?" Ray began, not wanting to jump straight into the events of the date. "Fine."
Ray struggled to think of anything else to ask and so had no other choice but to get on with it.
Ray coughed and finally asked, "How did your date with Jiraya go?"
"Fine." Kai replied tartly, taking a swig of his water.
Ray looked at Kai in disbelief. He was being so calm about something which had been causing him so much trouble only a few days earlier. He peered more closely at Kai who feeling the intensity of Ray's stare shifted uncomfortably. Ray noticed this and realised that Kai was hiding something.
"Really?"
"Yes. It was fine." However, Kai's answer did not hold the same confidence as his first reply, and Ray picked up on it immediately.
"What happened?" Ray asked softly.
Kai again shifted in his seat. He didn't want to talk about what had happened. He didn't want to talk about the fact that he'd been weak, about the fact that he'd come home and drunk so much that he hadn't even made it up the stairs and had ended up instead waking up at the bottom of them in the morning, still holding the bottle of vodka. He didn't want to tell Ray that he'd then thrown himself into his work and hadn't left the house since that night. Just thinking about all this was making Kai angry at himself again.
"Nothing." Kai said, his voice cracking slightly with his annoyance at himself.
Ray shrank back in his seat slightly. He sensed Kai's reluctance to talk, but wanted to help his friend get over whatever had happened.
"You can talk to me. I won't judge you. I won't even talk. I'll just listen." Ray said, keeping his voice calm and soothing. However, Kai was beyond kind words. "I don't want to talk. Now can you please leave." Kai's voice was barely below a shout as he struggled with the feelings that were reigniting within him.
"I just want to help y.."
Kai stood and walked out of the room towards the front door and opened it.
"I have work to do. Goodbye Ray." Kai's whole body was tensed and Ray felt that he could turn at any moment, and so made to leave but not before turning to Kai, "Ok. I'll go. But remember that I'm always here to talk. I'm your friend Kai. Remember that."
Kai said nothing but shut the door after Ray. He then turned and walked into the study and over to the drinks cabinet where he poured himself a large vodka...

Ray walked down the street with more questions than he had arrived at Kai's house with. What had happened that night to get Kai so worked up? He knew that there was only one place he would get the answers he sought as stepped up his pace to find them...

Not a great chapter, but I kinda needed to write this to help me get onto the next chapter cos I was a bit stuck, but I know what I'm doing now, so the next chapter should be good. I'll try to update soon too. Please keep reading and thank-you for all the lovely reviews. They really help spur me on to write!