Disclaimer: I do mot own beyblades.

Last time-

"I remember now, that was back when you were going through your rogue phase. Mind you, you didn't ever really get over it properly. Wait, you liked me back then?" Kai put his arm around Jess's shoulder and pulled her closer to him.

"Yeah I did but then I convinced myself that I didn't like you because I knew Tala would have a massive problem with it. Anyway it's not my fault I don't like people and besides, the way I see it I have all the people in my life I need." Kai pulled Jess even closer to him and placed a soft kiss on her temple. "C'mon lets go back." Kai and Jess walked back down the hill hand in hand, both feeling very content with what there relationship was and where it was going.

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Chapter 26

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Jess tossed and turned. Once again her dreams were dogged with nightmares of her past, there was nothing she could do to get rid of the dreams and she expected they would plague her for the rest of her life.

Sitting up, Jess rubbed her eyes and looked down at the sleeping form of Kai beside her. He was so good to her and he cared so much. Jess let out a soft sigh mixed with a yawn before she swung her legs over the edge of the bed. She slipped her feet into her slippers while she reached for her dressing gown the traipsed out of the room and down to the kitchen.

Jess put a mug of milk into the microwave to heat up while she got the Milo out of the pantry. A few minutes later Jess was snuggled down on the couch infront of the TV while she flipped through the channels. It was surprising how little there was on at three in three morning. Giving up on spending the next four or so hours infront of the TV Jess finished her Milo and returned the empty mug the kitchen before she headed up stairs but at the landing she stopped. She felt slightly uneasy about going back to bed. Looking around trying to figure out what to do Jess headed down the hall to where Tala's room was. She pushed open the door, there he was sleeping soundly like a baby. Jess walked over to the edge of the bed.

"Tala" Jess whispered as she poked Tala in the cheek using her old means of waking her brother.

Tala didn't stir.

"Tala?" Jess poked a little harder. Tala grumbled something incoherent before rolling away from her and rubbing his cheek.

"Tala." Jess gave him a shove. "Wha?" Tala demanded as he rolled over just missing Jess with his out flung arm.

"Tala." Jess hissed at her brother.

"Wha, Jess. Are you alright?" Tala asked as he rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"Can I sleep with you?" She wanted to know.

"Has Kai done something." Tala looked around now fully awake. If Kai had done something to Jess she didn't like he was going to go and kill him where he lay best friend or not.

"No. nothing like that I just wanted to sleep here." Jess told her brother.

""Yeah you can sleep here." Tala let out a groan as he moved over onto the cold sheets so Jess could climb in next to him.

"What are you doing up at this hour anyway?" Tala wanted to know as he adjusted the cold pillow that was now under his head.

"I had another bad dream." She told him as she snuggled down into his warm spot.

"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked.

"No, not really. I'd rather forget about it." Jess sighed.

"One day we will have to talk about it Jess."

"Yes, but not now."

The following morning Kai woke to find the bed empty apart from himself. He rolled over to look at the clock 5:23, true Jess was an early riser but not this early. Kai rubbed his eyes and contemplated going back to sleep. For some reason he couldn't explain he felt incredibly tired. His eyes felt heavy as he sat up in bed before stretching his arms above his head. Kai let out a soft sigh as the stiffness in arms and shoulders eased as his muscles loosened. As the sheets fell away from his bare chest a shiver ran down Kai's spine. He knew that Jess had had a bad dream the previous night but he also knew that Jess didn't like to talk about them so when she went to get out of bed he hadn't stopped her.

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"Aren't you ready yet?" Jess was waiting for Riven to finish getting ready so that they could go into town to find a dress for the dance.

Riven let out a disgusted noise from behind the door before she came out. Jess radiated happiness and some times it was just too much for Riven to take. "Yeah I'm ready." Riven walked pasty Jess and out of Clare's cottage to where Jess had parked Tala's rental car.

When Riven settled into the soft leather seat of the Jaguar she let out a whoosh of air, when she closed her eyes she remembered a time when her family had been a family not a minority.

Jess looked across at Riven snorting slightly at the look on her friends face. "Do you want me to leave the two of you alone?" Riven's eyes snapped open and looked at Jess. "No it's fine we can go." Jess started the car, letting it idle for a minute before she reversed out of the drive way. She didn't know why she had to do it but Tala had told her to let the car idle for a minute before she drove it. Tala did the same thing when he drove the car so there must be a reason cause Tala knew quite a lot about cars and mechanics.

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When the two girls got to the dress store Riven felt slightly uneasy, the place looked expensive and she didn't have the money anymore to buy the clothes in the store before her.

"Don't worry about it Riv, I got this one." Jess smiled at Riven. She had known she wouldn't be able to afford a dress but both Kai and Tala had money to throw away. Jess pulled out a two credit cards. "Pick one." Riven looked at Jess as if she had lost her sanity. Jess let out a dramatic sigh. "Just pick one will you?" Riven looked at the cards and selected a Gold Visa card. Jess's face broke into a wide smile. "How sweet Tala is buying your dress." Riven just shook her head before she turned away from Jess so the colour on her cheeks wouldn't be seen.

(Back ground information.- When Tala and Jess's parents died being the only and oldest male Tala inherited his family fortune. Because everything went to Tala including his parents company his aunt and uncle didn't get any money for looking after both Tala and Jess. When Tala turned 18 he regained control over his company from its CEOs. Tala now owns a multi million dollar company, a house in France, Japan, America and Australia along with a collection of cars.

Kai pretty much has the same deal as Tala but Kai liquidated his company when he took control over it and now owns an advertising agency though he appointed someone to run it for him while he is at school.)

Riven looked at all the dresses lining the wall and felt slightly sick. Dresses weren't really her forte, actually they weren't her thing at all. She hadn't worn a dress since she left home, so many years ago. Jess appeared beside her at the same time as the sales assistant appeared infront of her. Riven hated sales assistants in stores like these, they always made her feel like she shouldn't be in the store.

"How may I help you girls?" the woman asked in a over the top French accent.

"We are here to look at dresses for a dance." Jess gave the woman a forced smile. The woman turned away to find some dresses to show the girls. "Don't worry about her what you have to remember is she only works here, she couldn't afford something from here if she saved her pay checks for a month." Riven gave a small laugh, the sales assistant was in the same boat as her.

"Look it's her job to make you feel little, she's just pissed that you can afford this stuff and she can't. Kai taught me that. I used to be like you." Jess guided Riven to the seats in the middle of the floor. "But I can't afford this place Jess." Riven hissed across at the slightly younger girl.

"You are holding a credit card that had no limit, enjoy it!"

Oliver had had to go home unexpectedly so that only left Tala and Kai in the chalet. "So when are you going to ask her?" Tala gave Kai an expectant look.

"Ah." Kai hadn't been paying attention to what was going on around him.

"Asking Jess to marry you?" Tala wanted Jess to be happy but he wasn't sure if he wanted her to marry Kai. Letting go of Jess was going to take a lot from Tala and he wasn't ready to do it besides Jess was still a kid maybe after Kai asks her he should have a talk to her.

"I was going to ask her before the dance, when she is all dressed and ready to go. I was going to take her aside before we leave to ask her." The dance was tomorrow so Kai was starting to get slightly apprehensive with the nearing quest.

"That soon?" Tala wanted to know.

"This isn't something new Tala, I asked you if I could propose to her before Christmas."

"I know, I'm just not ready to let her go yet." It was the first time Tala had voiced his feeling towards the idea of giving Jess away.

"Tala I'm not taking Jess away from you. I don't want to get married before Jess has finished collage and what ever else she wants to do. We are both to young to get married but being engaged is a commitment that I want to share with Jess." Kai told him.

"And what if she says no?"

"I don't know." Kai admitted.

Mai moped around Kai's house all on her own. She knew that she wasn't meant to like Jess but the girl was company which was more that she had now. Mai hated being alone, it gave her time to reflect on some of her less savoury actions. She didn't feel guilty, why would she? But the feeling in the bottom of her stomach told her that what she was doing was wrong. She didn't care though, nothing good had ever happened to Mai so why should any one else be happy? That was the way Mai saw things.

The house seemed so dull without anyone else in it. Kai had given the cleaning lady a paid vacation so Mai didn't even have her to talk to to ease the loneliness. There was always Hillary, AA and Kate but they always wanted to bitch about one or another of their problems, they very seldom had fun. Not like Jess, Kai and Tala.

She would never admit it but she did miss them. Life without them was dull and boring, she never laughed anymore and that was depressing. These were meant to be the best years of her life and here she was spending them wrecking someone's life.

By now Mai had worked out that the boys had probably figured out what she had been doing which would explain why they had gone, taken Jess and not told her they were going. She doubted very much that Jess would know what was going on. The boys had probably fed her some stupid lie and Jess would have just lapped it up. She was always willing to believe anything that Tala and Kai told her. Jess to her seemed completely gullible. But that didn't change the fact that she missed them.

After a while Riven settled down in the dress store and even started to enjoy looking for hers and Jess's dresses for the dance. One of the reasons she enjoyed it so much was she didn't have to try the cloths on herself, they had models to do that. Jess had started playing with the sales assistant and Riven often had to smother her laughter at some of the things she made them do. Kai was right after all. They couldn't afford anything in this store if they worked for a month none stop so that made her feel better. Not that she enjoyed belittling people but these women were not very nice people so in her mind they deserved it.

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After several hours Jess and Riven had decided on their dresses after making the models try on every dress in the store several time each.

Once they left the store and were settled in the car once more Jess insisted on going to a café for a cup of coffee. Granted they were already awash from coffee and tea that they were served whilst viewing dresses, Jess had had so much fun with Riven she didn't want the trip to end.

"Jess if I drink any more coffee I'm going to pop." Riven's slight French accent made the sentence sound slightly amusing and the idea of Riven actually popping from drinking coffee made her smile. Though at times her accent made Jess laugh, she did love it. It made Riven sound sophisticated and elegant and Jess wished she sounded the same way. Jess was eloquent and very seldom used slang but she wished she had a fancy accent, Mai even had one after spending several years in London at boarding school. Jess knew she was intelligent but it didn't stop her from regarding herself as simple. Everything she ever wanted to do was always over shadowed by the feeling that she wasn't good enough but with the support of Tala she had always been able to accomplish what she set out to do.

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Jess and Riven sat outside the café on the patio eating a collection of sandwiches and cakes trying to soak up some of the coffee. Both had had to make several trips top the bathroom due to the excess fluid in their systems. They had set off for town early so neither had had breakfast.

"So are you happy with your dress?" Jess had seen the way Riven had looked at some of the dresses and she did have the same reaction but she did like some of them. Riven who never wore dresses had found the whole thing slightly disconcerting.

Riven had decided on a floor length black evening dress. The dress had a slight medi evil feel, the top of the dress was set in a stiff corset that came down just below her waist and was dressed with black beading. The skirt flowed down to sweep the ground where it draped heavily around her feet with a slight train so that the skirt trailed behind her slightly when she walked.

"Yeah I love it, actually it was the only one I liked." Jess smiled, she was glad Riven was pleased with her dress and she had a sneaking suspicion Tala would like the dress as well.

Jess's dress was a silk autumn gold halter V neck floor length dress with no back. Against her ivory skin the dress looked like spun gold add in her blonde hair and it was a stunning picture. Riven had actually spotted the dress and told Jess that that was the dress she should wear and when she tried it on she agreed readily, it was a beautiful thing and once again she was going to turn heads.

Once they had finished the cake and sandwiches Jess suggested it was time to go and look at shoes to go with their dresses.

Riven offered up a silent prayer hoping that the shopping would be over soon. She wasn't in the slightest way religiously inclined but anything was worth a try.

There you all go. I hope everyone enjoyed it. Ah stupid Mai is feeling sorry for her self, I think she deserves everything she gets after all she did do a very low thing/things but more of that is yet to come in future chapters. Somewhere in the next for because I'm aiming to finish this fic after chapter 30. I have put the part of my life that this fic relates to behind me and I am mow ready to move on, this is my final loose string.

Please review.

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The Perfect Oasis