Chapter Dedication: A true friend, one of the most understanding people I've ever met and one of the best yaoi writers on the site, fallen phoenix of darkness.
Chapter 3
Next day, Kai started off training and there was soon hell to pay the second it started. Tori had been late, well, late by about five hours. She hadn't showed up in the morning and the team got worried while Kai grew angry. Then again, angry was a tad of an understatement but whatever you want to call it, it wasn't pretty.
Later in the day at about 1pm they started a beybattle amongst themselves and a figure snuck in through the entrance when a dark blue blade flew right at her. She pouted and crouched down, her hands shielding her head, "So much for keeping a low profile." She whispered to herself.
"You're late." Kai said angrily, calling his blade back to him.
"Nothing gets past you, Kai." Tori said, standing up straight.
"So why are you late?" Kai asked, getting right in front of her, the others walking up behind him hurriedly.
"Hey, maybe she had something to do, Kai." Tyson said, standing up for her.
"It's fine, Tyson." Tori said, holding up a silencing hand. "But hard to believe, he is right Kai. My mom and dad signed me up for a school round here and they called me to check it out, it was short notice and I didn't have time to call." She explained.
"So you'll be skipping more training sessions?" Kai asked.
"I'm sure you'd love to get rid of me Kai but no I'm not, I'll just be late by about an hour or two." Tori replied, "Now, I don't know if you've realized but this interrogation is taking up more training time." She pointed out to him wisely.
"Wha--? We've been training all day; you're still going to train us?" Tyson asked, disbelievingly.
"Of course." Tori replied, "Training won't kill you." She added, setting her backpack onto the porch, Kei's little head peeping out.
"Who says it won't?" Max asked.
"I'm saying, now stop being so lazy." Tori said, walking past him.
"We're not." Tyson muttered.
"I beg to differ." Tori said aloud.
"Same." Kai added.
"Yeah so go run laps, here to the beach twice and back." Tori ordered. She turned to Kai, eyes widening slightly in fake surprise, "Wow, we agreed on something? What a miracle." She said.
"Yeah, huge." Kai muttered to himself, Tori not hearing him.
"Whatever grumpy. Have they ever learnt martial arts?" Tori asked him, sitting on the porch, stroking Kei kindly.
"Tyson has with his grandfather, not too sure about the others though." Kai replied.
"And you?"
"Yeah, I have."
"Good, one less person to worry about during training." Tori whispered, "Think you can spar with me as an example?" she asked.
"You're going to try to teach them martial arts?" Kai questioned, raising an eyebrow at her.
"Well it'll certainly do them some good." Tori replied honestly.
"Well good luck with it." Kai smirked.
"You don't think I can do it, right?" Tori asked, smirking too as she stood up.
"With them? No." Kai answered himself simply, walking out of sight from the Dojo.
'Denzelle…may I please strangle him?' Tori asked her bit beast politely, strangely, in the calmest of voices.
'Well I really suggest that you don't.' Denzelle laughed.
'Have I ever mentioned how annoying he can be?'
'Yes Mistress, twice yesterday evening.'
'I can't mention it enough.' Tori groaned, picking up Kei.
'Just ignore him and continue with your job.' Denzelle advised.
'How can I? He obviously doesn't like the way I run his team and the fact that he doesn't have another choice but to deal with me probably annoys him all the more.'
'Well just don't let him get to you then.'
'It's going to take every shred of power in my being for that.' Tori said, sighing.
'Yes and you'll lose your lovely life in the process.' Denzelle said sarcastically.
---That Evening---
Four teenagers sat in the Dojo, all except Kai of course, who was off somewhere. Tori had finally decided that they'd had enough for the day soon after an argument with Kai had broken out and she lost all will to continue for the day and easily gave in to them when they begged for them to stop. Seeing as Kai was gone she regretfully explained her concerns about Kai and all the arguments she was getting into with him.
"We've all had arguments with Kai, he'll forget about it sooner or later so don't worry." Tyson said, grabbing another sandwich.
"Maybe but I was out of line." Tori said, lying back on the ground.
"Maybe so but he'll forget about it and I'm sure if you apologize he'll forgive you." Max started, taking her hand and trying to pull her into a seated position.
"I hope so." Tori whispered, sitting up with Max's help. Within seconds of that being said started to rage outside making Tori groan, fall back again and turn on her stomach. "What a day." Came her muffled comment.
"It could be worse." Ray told her.
"How?" Tori asked quietly.
"Can't think of anything at the moment." Ray replied quietly.
"That's helpful!" Tori said sarcastically.
Tori slowly turned over, staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, "What do you guys do when you're bored and it's raining outside?" she then asked.
"At this time…we'd still be outside training. Kai doesn't care whether it's raining or not, he just makes us train anyway." Tyson answered.
"Yeah, I'll bet he's real tough on you." Tori laughed slightly.
"Yeah, very. There are days I think he enjoys torturing us." Tyson said, thinking back on some tough training days.
"Maybe he does," Tori started, smirking, "I mean, who doesn't enjoy torturing poor defenceless creatures?" she asked, jokingly.
"That's not fair though." Max pouted.
"Apparently, life isn't fair to some people." Ray said wisely, watching as the others nodded.
"Where do you think Kai went to?" Tori asked quietly.
"Not sure."
Tori shook her head, "I've had it, I'm going to go look for him." She informed them quickly, getting off the wooden floors. Before they could protest she walked out of the Dojo, stopping when she caught sight of Kai in the dark as he walked inside and up to his room.
Tori walked back to the others, asking Tyson for some towels. He gave her some but was still confused as to why she needed them but didn't get the chance to ask as she left to talk to Kai.
She knocked on his door and Kai opened it ajar, "Can I come in?" she asked, quietly and politely. Kai sighed but opened the door more and let her walk inside. He turned to her, the look on his face questioning her as to why she was there. She answered his question when she bit her lip shyly and passed him the towels, "Sorry bout earlier; I was really out of line with what I said." She apologized.
Kai took the towels, dropping two onto his bed and used the other to try drying himself off. He stared out the window while he wiped off the water from his dripping arms and neck, not answering Tori at all.
"An answer would be nice." Tori said from by the door.
"It's fine and…you didn't have to do this." Kai answered her, refusing to look at her at the time but Tori accepted it anyway.
"I felt I needed to." Tori told him, smiling. "Would you like me to get you anything?" she asked.
"No, I'm fine." Kai answered, still not looking at her.
"Ok well I'm going home, then probably to work so I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Tori informed, leaving she paused on her way out the door to see if he'd say something, he didn't and she quickly left.
---A Few Hours Later---
Tori's shift at the café was finally coming to an end and she couldn't be happier about it. She was exhausted after the long day of school, training the others, yelling, getting yelled at; it was all just tiring for her. She then saw Kai walk in, confused as to why he was out again, by himself none the less. She walked over towards the table he had just sat down at, "What are you doing here?" she asked him.
"I was hoping for peace and quiet but seeing as you're here maybe I should leave." Kai answered.
"No need to, my shift's just ended and I'm leaving." Tori replied, "I'll get someone to serve you." She added, walking behind the counter, she picked up her backpack and was about to leave when she saw her co-worker serving Kai coffee, "Hey Mel," She called before walking out; "It's on me." She said, finally leaving.
---Next Morning---
Tori walked quietly to Tyson's, eyes firmly cast on the ground beneath her as she walked. She looked up once she arrived, smiling when she saw Kai sitting on the porch. She walked over, sitting next to him, "Hey, where are the others?" she asked, knowing he wouldn't answer her if she just said a simple 'hey.'
"Ray is making breakfast and Max is trying to wake Tyson." Kai replied simply.
"Ah, you'd think it would take more than one person to do that though." Tori laughed.
"It does but I'm not in the mood to help."
"Something wrong?" Tori asked, some worry evident in her eyes.
Kai grimaced slightly as another memory resurfaced, he shuddered but then answered her simply, "No." he then stood up and walked away.
Tori sat there uncertainly for a moment, not sure whether she should go after him or if she should give him some space. She chose her second option and tried to shrug it all off for the moment and walked inside. She instantly picked up the smell of food and followed it to the kitchen, seeing the plates of food lined over the table and counters. Tori stood by the door, eyes widened to the size of plates, "Who are you feeding, the army?" she asked Ray.
"Close enough; Tyson." Ray replied, laughing as he sat at table.
"I think I should wait outside, just to stay alive." Tori joked, walking back out. She sat down on the damp grass, lying back and staring into the pale blue sky, feeling the sun's warmth wash over her.
After patiently waiting about an hour for everyone to have breakfast, Tori explained to them that she wanted to teach them some self-defence. When asked why they'd need it she brought up their record on getting kidnapped and so on, claiming it was about time they learnt how to defend themselves properly.
She called Kai out to spar with her and he opened his eyes, seeing everyone staring at him he heaved a sigh and stepped towards her while the others stepped away to stay out of the fight. In minutes their fight started and kicks and punches where launched at each other. Neither of them were winning nor losing. Kai did seem somewhat distracted though, no one had really noticed it but at times he was in fact slowing down and his vision tended to fog up.
Tori was just about to punch him but strangely Kai blanked for a second. She was about to step away from him since he didn't seem too well but something took him over, he punched her in the jaw which knocked her straight to the ground in one movement.
Kai stared down at his fists in shock as the others ran to the fallen Tori. "What the hell are you doing, Kai?" Tyson asked, hurriedly and angrily.
Kai stood there, speechless as to what had happened. Tori stood up, eyes rising off the ground to look at Kai as she massaged her cheek and jaw. "Guys, its fine, I'm sure it was just an accident." She told them. She took in all their expressions, all were concerned for her while Tyson looked a little angry at Kai while Kai just looked shocked. "I promise you, I'm fine." She assured. "In the mean time go battle each other while my jaw stops throbbing." She told them, walking past them and sitting on the porch, her blade sitting beside her.
Kai was about to walk right past her but he heard her whisper a quiet 'sit.' He was planning on ignoring her, pretending he didn't hear what she said, already knowing what she was going to talk to him about. His pause made she knew he had heard her so there was no sense trying to ignore her and no sense running. He sat beside her, his hand behind him for support as he pretended that his wrist didn't hurt.
"What happened over there?" She asked quietly, watching as the beybattle unfolded in front of her.
"Just got dizzy that's all." He lied, not looking at her.
"That's all it was?" Tori asked.
"Yeah."
After that both had conversations in their own heads, not looking at each other, nor saying anything else. 'Master, maybe you should go for a walk, clear your head.' Dranzer suggested.
'The others will ask more questions and so will Tori.' Kai replied, his mind's voice sounding exhausted.
'It never stopped you before.' Dranzer stated.
Kai tried to ignore the voice of the intruding bit beast, staring sadly at the exit.
'What do you think happened to him, Denzelle?' Tori asked worriedly.
'Not really sure, Mistress.' Came the unsure reply. 'Mistress, maybe you should suggest that Kai leave, maybe it'll make him feel better.' She suggested.
'Oh? What good will that do?' Tori asked confusedly.
'I just think that it may help him.' Denzelle replied hesitantly.
'Well alright, if you think it'll help.' Tori said, glancing over at Kai.
'Thank you, Mistress.' Denzelle thanked quietly before leaving Tori's mind.
Tori thought about how she would confront him, thinking for only a minute before placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. Kai looked at her and watched her smile at him, "You need to go?" she asked quietly.
"No, why would I?" Kai asked coldly.
"To clear your head."
"I'm fine."
Tori leaned in from behind him, keeping her eyes straight forward on the dish where the battle continued. "Just go, I'll cover for you." She whispered, nodding slightly.
Kai nodded back slowly, getting up he walked out and quickened his pace once he got further away. 'How'd she know I needed to leave? And why's she covering for me?' he asked himself rather urgently.
'Maybe she's trying to be a friend?'
'Maybe, but why me, we just argue all the time.'
'But she always does something good in the end.' Dranzer noted, 'Personally, I think she's quite nice and certainly good at blading.'
'She isn't strict enough on the others though.' Kai said bitterly.
'Ah, that may be true but she does teach them some necessary techniques without needing to be harsh to them during their training.'
'She needs to be tougher on them or they'll never learn.'
'Your training sessions were always hard and no one was ever easy on you, I don't blame you for training them the way you do.'
'Just leave me alone!' Kai yelled coldly.
Dranzer held back a sigh and quickly left Kai alone with his own thoughts. Kai soon regretted treating Dranzer like that as he quickly felt a certain emptiness and seemed much colder than he ever wished to be. He continued making his way to the park, he sat alone on the grass and tried to clear his mind as best he could of everything and everyone.
---A Few Hours Later---
Kai's crimson eyes shot open, sitting up abruptly on the grass, "How long was I out?" he whispered to himself.
'A couple of hours.' Dranzer replied simply.
'Why didn't you wake me?'
'You've been avoiding your sleep, you needed to rest.'
'You should have woken me up!' Kai lashed out angrily, gritting his teeth.
'I couldn't, it was for your own safety. I'm sorry.' Dranzer said regretfully, whispering the sorry as though it were a forbidden word.
'Just forget it! It's getting late, another storm is coming and I need to get back.' Kai said, pushing himself up and walking back towards the Dojo.
'Yes, they may be worried.'
"I doubt it." Kai muttered.
A/N: I so hope that was a good chapter. I dont think I had many spelling mistakes, if I did then please point them out to me and I'll try to fix them. Please review!