Chapter 2

Pairing(s): Kai/Ray, the possible love triangle (IF you wish to see it that way), little mentioning of Bryan/Tala and hell, because it was Christmas when I wrote this, I even mentioned my obsession-pairing. I'm proud of myself.

Warning: It's a Christmas-story, and it's not even Christmas anymore, gahh! If you hate Christmas and are happy that it is over, this might not be the proper story for you. Also, if you hate the idea of boy x boy and possible strong language, run! Run for your life!

Disclaimer: The song "If I thought you'd ever change you mind" and it's lyrics or Beyblade and it's characters do not belong to me, I'm just borrowing them to amuse myself and (maybe?) the others.

Beta: Nancy, who did great job once again. I am such an evil person really, giving her my stories to be fixed up on Christmas...

A/N: I am late, yes, I know and I apologize! Writer's block hit me good. I'm still not completely over it, so I'm a bit worried whether the story is good at all. I do like most of it, but... well, there are some parts which could have been done better, but I just don't know what to do with them. Bear with me, I'm still just a novice.

Thanks for the chapter and for the whole story goes to the best Finnish KaiRei-cult there is, and to it's members of course. They helped me to create this story, and they make me love Kai/Rei even more. So thank you ladies. I -heart- you.

And thank you so much, the lovely people who reviewed the part one! The constant running around and screaming "Squeee!" non-stop made my parents doubt my mental health, but then again, that's nothing new.

Reviews and polite criticism for this chapter are yay.

I would bring you happiness

Wrapped up in a box and tied with a yellow bow

I would bring you summer rain and rainbow skies to make your garden grow

And in the winter snow my songs would keep you from the cold

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The next morning was Christmas. Not in the traditional sense, it wasn't the right day and there was no sounds of smashing furniture or anything else, but Kai had to admit that the decoration Ray had put up last night really gave the mansion an odd feel of a movie-sort Christmas. There was also a lovely, spicy aroma coming out of the kitchen, and Kai guessed that the thanks for that one went also to Ray, not to mention his unbelievable cooking skills. The boy was a prodigy of some sort, even if he didn't admit it.

"Do I smell gingerbread?"

Kai turned to look at Tyson, who had just entered the dining area, the rest of the group right behind him.

"Of course you do silly, nothing else in this world smells just like it", Hilary said her eyes closed, focusing on that lovely, enthralling smell now floating all around the room.

"I can't understand where Ray got his cooking skills and why can't anyone of us cook like him", Kenny wondered out loud.

"We haven't seen Kai cooking, though. Who knows how good he would be?" Max said and gave Kai a friendly smile. Kai felt nice enough to return the gesture before answering:

"You may never know."

"Hope not. It's nice to live in the belief that if I would suddenly go away, you would all starve."

Everyone turned to look at Ray, who was currently watching them from the kitchen doorway, and grinned to him.

"Even if we wouldn't starve, we'd definitely miss your cookings", Tyson said, took few steps and patted Ray on the back.

"So my cookings are all that matters to you guys, huh?" Ray said, pretending to be insulted, and smiled challengingly to all of them.

"I'm sure we'd miss the whole Ray."

Suddenly it became very quiet around Kai. He looked around and felt seriously awkward. If he wouldn't have learned to control his emotions during his childhood years, he would have most likely also blushed radiantly.

"Aww, Kai, that was so sweet of you!" Hilary suddenly cried and, for reasons no one knew, hugged Max and then ran to Tyson and hugged him too.

At this point in was only fair to mention that Max, Tyson and Hilary had made up their arguments at some point during the last night. In the morning they had all been enjoying the breakfast together, laughing, and seemed to be closer than ever, touching each other frequently and talking more openly. Kenny had been relieved beyond limits. Ray and Kai, on the other hand, weren't surprised. The fights between those three seemed always end like this, though Kai did admit that something seemed to be different than it used to be. He wasn't sure whether he really even wanted to know, so he tried not to think about it.

"Woah, you are choking me!" Tyson yelled, making Hilary loose her grip.

"If the hugging-quota is full, we might start eating now", Ray suggested laughing.

"And then we could decorate the tree, right Maxie?"

"You bet, Ty!"

Kai's thoughts were rather shady during the dinner and the tree-decoration, all he could think about was the moment in which the gifts would be given. Also, he could feel – he didn't know how exactly, he just felt it - Ray giving him questioning looks from time to time, but he wasn't able to answer to them right then.

After a long wait, it finally happened.

"Maybe we should open the presents now?"

Kenny's suggestion was widely accepted and they all gathered around the Christmas tree. The gifts had been wrapped and put under the tree earlier, now everyone was just staring at each other, waiting for someone to give the first present.

"Hey, idea! Let's open Daichi's packet first!" Tyson shouted and grabbed a brown package that seemed to be delivered by post office.

"It's kinda heavy. There could be rocks inside it."

Tyson took the card and waved it around until Hilary grew bored and stole it.

"To my friends, happy holidays and I hope that the next year is as cool as the last one was", she read and smiled.

"He's just trying to make us believe that he's nice and on our side and all. I bet there's a snake inside that package!" Tyson said and glared at the brown paper covering the unknown, possible snake-like object.

"Ty, you said something like that about Kai's present last year, too", Ray reminded, sounding amused. Tyson didn't seem to pay attention. He opened the covers carefully and took a peek.

"It's something colorful!"

"That narrows the possibilities down a lot, then", Kenny said and took the package from Tyson before he could stop him. He opened the covers a bit more and looked at it critically.

"It looks like candy to me."

"Great! The kid sends us all some candy with rocks and the candy is probably out-of-date anyway", Tyson said, crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

'Some candy' turned out to be a collection which weighed more than 10 pounds. While the four youngest members were browsing through the variety of candies, Kai suddenly remembered something. Horrified, he turned to look at Ray and saw similar look on his face.

"We didn't get anything for Daichi. He's going to be angry to us for weeks", Ray said, face paling while remembering how annoying the youngest member of the team could be while aggravated.

"Isn't it a lucky thing you got great friends like me and Max? We wrote your names on the sender-part too. We sent Daichi a gift-card to a backpacking-store", Tyson said, looking extremely smug. Kai had a feeling that he and Ray would be hearing about this for a long time to come.

"Well, I might as well be the first one to share my presents, most of you already know what you are getting from me", Kenny said, picked a few neatly wrapped gifts under the tree and gave them to their owners.

Kenny had asked for their blades some weeks ago. Everyone knew he had planned to upgrade them as a Christmas-present and, at the time, they had all (except Kai, who didn't really expect anything as a present from anyone anyway) secretly though that it wasn't the kind of gift they had hoped for. But now, when looking at their blades, all new and ready for action, all of them smiled and thanked the brown-haired boy for all the hard work he had done for them. Hilary, the only one who wasn't a blader from their group, found a sweet teddy-bear from her package and hugged Kenny to thank him. As a group-effect, Tyson and Max run over to Hilary and Kenny and also hugged the startled boy. Ray did so too, and when everyone (excluding Kenny, who seemed a bit embarrassed by all the attention) looked at Kai expectantly, the blue-haired blader walked slowly to the others and hugged Kenny too. A bit clumsily, but since it was Kai they were talking about, all they cared about was the fact that he had actually hugged someone.

"Kai in a hug. Now where's the camera when you need one?" Tyson said loudly, making Hilary jog him.

"Always ruining the mood, aren't you... My gifts are next!"

They all received suspiciously soft packets.

"I hope you like them, it took me months to finish all of them", Hilary said and gave them a bit worried smile. Kenny was the brave one who opened his present first. The result was something fluffy and green.

"Umh.. It's..." Kenny said and tried to figure what it exactly was.

"Scarf. I made one for all of you!" Hilary said, smile turning more worried every second.

Everyone looked at each others with a certain look, which Kai was very familiar with. An 'uh-oh'-look is rather easy one to recognize, after all.

"I though that jade would match with your style and... Aren't the rest of you opening up your gifts?" Hilary inquired, now starting to look a bit offended. Max and Tyson started opening up their packages rapidly.

After a few seconds, Max lifted up something that was also fluffy, but it's colour was light blue.

"It's cyan. The vendor said that it would go well with your eyes," Hilary said and looked at the blond boy expectantly. Max managed to put on a smile and entangled the scarf around his neck.

"I love it."

Hilary looked happy, and when Kenny put his own jade-green scarf around his neck too, she hugged the both boys.

Meanwhile, Tyson had also opened his present. It was fluffier than the others, and red. The boy seemed to be desperately looking for something nice to say about it.

"I always thought you would look lovely in scarlet", Hilary said, now smiling completely happy. Then he spotted Tyson's look and glared at the boy.

"You should be glad, my other choice of colour was shocking pink. And the one I sent for Daichi is neon-green."

Tyson quickly twined the scarf around his neck and hugged Hilary.

"Ray, Kai, aren't you going to open your presents?" Tyson said after the hug, clearly ready to be spiteful if the possibility would come. Slowly Ray started unwrapping his present and everyone seemed to hold their breath. The outcome was something ridiculously fluffy.

"Umh. It's very... purple", Ray managed to say. Hilary smiled in a rather distressing way.

"Well, I always thought you were rather purple person", she said giggling, almost as if laughing to some joke only she knew about. Kai felt somehow uneasy.

Ray too put his scarf around his neck and after a hug, the attention turned to Kai. He didn't really want to see his possibly scary and non-white and overfluffed scarf, but Hilary would never forgive him if he wouldn't open the present. He sighed and did what he had to. The result shocked him.

"Making that one took the most time of them all; the more different filaments you use, the slower the process it. But I just thought you needed more colour into your life", Hilary said, smiling innocently.

It wasn't fluffy. That was the only nice thing Kai could say about it. There were six different colours, and the result made his eyes hurt.

What was she taking when she made this? Did she honestly think I would like it? I mean, come on... She made this for me and she used red, orange, yellow, green, blue and vio – hoooold on.

Kai looked at the smiling, angelic girl.

She wouldn't dare.

Kai looked at the scarf and then Hilary again. She had dared. And her smile reminded Kai of how a devil could have smiled.

Kai put on the loveliest smile he could, wrapped his rainbow-scarf around his neck and gave Hilary a warm hug.

"You are going to pay for this", he whispered with a low voice, making sure no one else heard but Hilary. The girl just snickered.

"Eh, right then. Now that all of us have our scarfs, thanks to Hilary, we could move to my and Kai's presents for you guys?" Ray suggested, apparently sensing the tension between Kai and Hilary. The others must have sensed something too, so eager they were to get to the other presents. Or maybe they just wanted to forget the scarfs around their necks.

Kenny received his chessboard, Tyson and Max the CD-player and Hilary her perfume. Another hugging-tour went on, and everything was just fine until it was Kai's and Hilary's time to hug. Kai glared at Hilary a long time, clearly saying he wasn't going to touch the girl even with a stick. Hilary answered by glomping Kai and declaring that he was cute when he was angry. When Hilary finally let him go, Kai's eyes were gleaming with malicious rage. Ray put his hand on Kai's shoulder to stop the possible slaughter. Kai's rage-scale went from 96 to 2 in only few seconds. He felt quite impressed.

"Our gifts next!" Tyson shouted and stormed to pick some packets under the tree. Kai did realize that he hadn't given his present to Ray - nor had the other boy given any present to him – but since Ray hadn't said anything about it, Kai wasn't about to mention it either.

Kenny got his token, looked extremely surprised about it and hugged the boys. Ray received a cookbook from his sweetly smiling teammates. Jestingly he started beating others with the book, muttering something about ungrateful youth. He didn't bother to stop the thwacking when Tyson and Max hugged him. Ray said he didn't care about the possible hospital-bills, because he could secretly add them to Kai's bills and he could pay them and not even notice. At that point Kai took the book off from Ray and hit it under his own legs. He was almost disappointed when Ray didn't even try to get it back.

"Guys! How did you afford this?" Hilary cried suddenly. He had opened her present and found a very expensive-looking necklace.

"Well, we wanted to give something special to you", Max said, smiling

"And we kinda didn't get any presents for each other", Tyson added.

"Yeah, we didn't buy anything for each other", Max verified and smiled even brighter. Hilary made a sobbing-sound, looked as though she was about to start crying and leaped to hug both Max and Tyson in the same time. It all looked very touching. Kai, Ray and Kenny all stared at the three of them, and then looked at each others. Kenny just shrugged and started examining his gifts. Ray fingered his purple-colored scarf and looked everywhere else except at the three hugging teens. Things were even more difficult to Kai. Ray and Kenny just needed to avoid looking at one thing: he had to both avoid looking at the three huggers and also at Ray. Or at least make sure he wasn't staring.

Then it occurred to Kai that already three persons had given out gifts, but hadn't given any to him. He fought against feeling offended - he had been the one who had always said that he didn't even want presents, after all - but still, it welt a bit flattening that they hadn't got absolutely anything for him.

Ray does have a present for me. He said so himself. Patience, Kai.

Kai had often suspected that Ray could read people's minds. Maybe he had been right all along, because all of a sudden Ray turned to look at Kai and said:

"I think that I could give my present to you now. Those three might never stop."

Kai just nodded, fearing that his anxiousness would gleam of his voice if he had spoken.

There was only one, fairly big package left under the tree. Ray took it and gave it to Kai.

"What is it?" Kai asked, just to make the space sound less quiet. Kenny was enchanted by his gifts, and the others seemed to be busy with hugging, sobbing and whispering.

"Open it", Ray urged. Kai carefully shred the gift-wraps off and noticed that he was looking at himself, only in painted version. So the gift he had been waiting for the whole night was, instead of a possible coffee-mug or a office-lamp as he had been expecting it to be, a painting. Almost like a portrait, really. There was also Ray in it, right next to Kai, smiling. Tyson was there, as well as Max, Hilary, Kenny and Daichi. Kai could notice that there were many other people on the background of the painting too. First he recognized Tala, thanks to the famous, flaming red hair, and Bryan, whose arm was wrapped around Tala's shoulder in an almost possessive way. Soon he noticed many other familiar faces too; Spencer, Ian, Brooklyn, Michael, Johnny, Garland... there seemed to be a great deal of people he knew.

"It could have been better, but I do am pretty proud of it", Ray said, obviously becoming somewhat concerned about the fact that Kai hadn't commented anything yet.

"I love it", Kai said softly, smiling at the little Garland-figure who was glaring at the figures of snuggling Brooklyn and Mystel. He wasn't even lying by saying so. The painting might have not been a Dali-quality one, but it was nevertheless skilfully made and definitely a gift that meant something more than the one's you buy just to buy something and be done with it.

"You do? Oh. Well. Good."

Kai turned to look at Ray, who was standing in front of him, looking more than a bit lost and clearly pondering what to do. Kai put the painting down and wrapped his arms around Ray to give him a hug. He felt honestly touched.

"Thanks", he muttered into Ray's ear. He managed to not to bite or lick anything, even though he wanted. He didn't even bury his hands on Ray's hair. A nice, clean and innocent hug. Nothing wrong with that.

"You're welcome", Ray mumbled back and patted Kai on the back. Then they broke off from the hug.

"Now that would have really been the Kodak moment of the year", Max declared, grinning.

"Oh, so you three stopped hugging already? What's the rush, you only did it like three or four minutes", Ray threw back, picking up the painting and giving it to Kai.

"Hey Kai, cool painting! Did Ray give it you?" Max said hastily, as if changing the subject would have been a matter of life and death. Kai only had the time to nod before Tyson started talking:

"Ray is good at everything. That is so unfair! You will have to make us cake so that we won't feel so bad about ourselves. I know a good recipe, it's in that book we gave you, page 173. You could start now, and it would be ready within few hours."

Tyson dodged the pillow Ray threw him at, but just barely.

"Thanks again for the painting Ray. I'd put in on my bedroom-wall, but the thought of Tyson being forever in my bedroom just scares me."

Ray chuckled and ruffled Kai's hair in almost brotherly way. It felt weird, but not unpleasant. It also made everyone else stare at them, mouths open and eyes wide. Kai felt annoyed.

"If anyone says anything about Kodak or cameras, I swear that I'll throw you guys outside and you will spend the following night sleeping in a tent", Kai threatened. Hilary snickered almost evilly.

"Will Ray stay inside with you or will he be thrown out too?"

Kai wasn't stupid, he could see where Hilary was going with the subject. He worried that others might see too.

"Depends how civilized he acts. I haven't given all my presents yet, so unless you have something else in mind, I might hand over the last one of them", Kai said, hoping Hilary to keep her mouth shut. She must have been in a merciful mood, because she said nothing.

"Why is the gift not here yet?" Max asked, looking around in hopes of spotting a mysterious packet.

"I forgot to bring it", Kai lied, stood up and quickly fetched the package from his bedroom When he came back, everyone was staring at him. Kai ignored everything, just walked in front of Ray and without a word, he gave his gift to him. It was wrapped up in a box and tied with a yellow bow.

"It looks huge!" Tyson shouted, but neither Kai nor Ray really heard those words. Ray just stared at the box, and Kai stared at Ray.

He must have got my drift.

Slowly, as if in dream, Ray started tearing the bow and and he opened the box.

"Well Ray, tell us what it is", Kenny said, looking anticipating.

"Is it something alive?" Max asked cheerfully.

Ray lifted up something black and quite heavy.

"It's... it's a coffee machine", Ray said in an almost frightened way.

- Flashback -

Kai had just returned to the house from his usual jogging-trip and had heard Max screaming, Hilary sobbing and Tyson throwing stuff at something. Determined to know the reason for all of it, Kai had decided to search down the only sensible person around, excluding himself. He found Ray in the kitchen. The black-haired teen had a large coffee-mug is his hand.

"Hey Ray, what's all this? Hilary is using my shirts as her tissues, Tyson is clearly trying to exit his room through the wall and the neighbors will soon start complaining about Max's yells and ask why on earth are we testing our smoke alarms over and over again. I was only gone for few hours, what could possibly happen during... why are you looking at the coffee machine like that?" Kai changed the subject, feeling quite curious and following Ray's tired gaze at the white, shiny, mildly babbling gadget. Ray sighed.

"Because in mornings like these, it's the only thing that keeps me happy."

Kai smiled a bit and decided that knowing what had happened wasn't that important right now. He walked towards the machine, took a tea-mug for himself and looked at Ray.

"Should I pour another cup of coffee for you?"

Ray just looked at him.

"That, my friend, could be the dumbest question I've heard in a long time."

Kai just kept smiling, picked the largest mug he owned and poured it full.

- Flashback ends -

Ray just stared at his gift. Kai was desperately expecting a hug which he never got.

"Um", Tyson started, but even he couldn't come up with anything to say.

It was Hilary who finally destroyed the silence, looking somehow more disappointed than Kai did.

"Tyson, Max, maybe you should give Kai your present now so that we can all move on with our lives?"

Kai wasn't sure was that a "sorry man, he just doesn't like you like that, I though you'd be a good couple but nope"-sort of hinting or just talk without any particular double meaning. He didn't even notice when Tyson and Max left the room for a while. All he did was look at Ray, who seemed to avoid his stare and instead just gaze at the empty, brown box.

Tyson and Max came back, looking exited.

"Your present is in your room, Kai", Tyson said and gave Kai a nudge. Through the apathy, Kai felt just a bit curious about his last present.

Maybe it is a Ray-clone?

But Kai didn't want replicas, he wanted the real thing.

Maybe it's an inflatable Ray-doll. Judging by the looks of things, I'm going to spend the rest of my life alone, so the doll might get useful.

Tyson and Max took Kai by his hands and started leading him towards his room. Due to the fact that he didn't feel like his normal self, he didn't say anything about the unnecessary physical contact. He couldn't help but to feel a bit happier though when he saw that Ray was following them along with Hilary and Kenny.

They came to the door which led to his room.

"Go on, see if you like it!" Max said happily and opened the door. Kai peeked inside carefully. He saw nothing disturbing, so he stepped inside. He looked around for a while.

"I see nothing", he said blankly.

"What? I swear, it was here just a minute ago", Tyson said, sounding alarmed. Then they heard a soft mewl.

"Ray, was that you?" Kenny asked innocently.

"No, I think it was the cat", Kai said in a stifled voice. He had noticed a black-and-white creature, which was laying on his bed and glaring at them all.

"We got her from an animal rescue house. We heard that she's had a pretty rough life, so she might be a bit resentful at first. She'll warm up eventually, I'm sure", Max said, not sounding quite assured. Kai said nothing, he was in a middle of a staring contest. The cat seemed to be winning it.

"Her original name is something like You Damn Bastard, but the employees there just called her Lady. She doesn't really have an official name", Max kept explaining. Kai just nodded. He never lost staring contests, not even to Tala. He wasn't going to let a damn cat beat him.

"Hilary told us that you love cats, so we decided to give you one. To keep you accompanied when we are not around, you know?" Tyson said, looking both Kai and the cat.

"And it doesn't give you as much work as a kitten would; this one is house-clean and pretty independent", Max said, beginning to wonder was the cat a good idea after all.

"Damn it", Kai muttered. He had lost the competition. And the cat dared to look smug about it.

"Um, should we have bought something else?" Tyson asked, looking worried.

"No no, it's perfect. Thank you for the gift. It's very considerate of you."

Tyson and Max looked relieved and ran to give Kai a hug. The cat kept glaring at them.

"I think we should let Kai to get to know with his new pet. Come on guys. Let's go", Hilary said tactfully and dragged Kenny along with her.

Kai walked towards the cat and witnessed it's eyes gleaming more fiendishly every second he got closer. It was clear that the cat was evil.

Kai had never met a creature which reminded him so much of himself. He fell in love instantly.

"Hey little fuzzball, come to Ka-aauch!"

His new love had decided Kai was suspicious and scratched him. The wounds actually bled.

"Evil, lovely, damned cat", Kai muttered, wiping the blood off with his shirt.

"We'll leave you now alone. You two need some private-time. Eh, good luck?" Max said, Tyson already getting away from the hostile cat. Max closed the door behind him and Kai could hear them running away as fast as they could. He hadn't turned his eyes away from the cat for even a second.

"I guess it's just you and me then, huh?"

It wasn't sure which Kai had spoken to: to the cat or to the black-haired boy leaning on the door.

Kai remembered someone saying that Christmas wasn't just a date, it was also a state of mind. This state of mind gave Kai a serious headache.

Ray came to sit next to Kai on the bed and looked as though he wanted to ask something. Kai kept his stare on the cat. The cat looked at both of them and wondered something along the lines "Why me?"

There's always something glamorous about that moment which defines the rest of your life.

I'll try to add the last chapter here as soon as I can, I promise!

The thing that Kai saw the lady carrying in chapter one? It was a mug in which was written "I -heart- coffee". He remembered what Ray had said about the coffee machine, he remembered the song and he had an idea.

Okay, I admit, coffee machine might not be that romantic, but I thought that the idea was kinda cute. If someone read the story, is now reading this and can't understand the deal with the coffee machine, think about the gift-packet, the flashback and the lyrics that were in the beginning. Or just mumble something about weird imaginations and glare around suspiciously.

Grin to everyone who understood what was so funny or "funny" about Kai and Ray's scarfs.

... Hilary is a Kai/Ray-shipper, I tell you!

Snicker to everyone who was certain that Kai's gift to Ray would be a cat.

... But I did need to add a cat in it. If it's a Christmas-story with Kai/Ray-pairing, there needs to be a cat. It just seems to be one of those things.

Yay for Brooklyn/Mystel!

Emh. Reviews, anyone?