Chapter 7

The next day Tori walked to the Dojo, seeing everyone outside so early made her smile happily. Though out of the bunch, as always, Kai was missing, no where to be seen. "Morning." Tori greeted. "How are you all this morning?" she asked, some humour in her voice and a smile on her face.

"We're fine."

"Yeah and we managed to keep Kai resting in his room." Max informed her happily.

Tori laughed lightly, "So I've heard." She said. "I'm going to go check up on him, if you don't mind." She told them, walking past them to go inside.

"We'd be careful if we were you." Tyson called after her, warning her.

"Oh? Why?" Tori asked, turning back to them as she walked backwards the last few steps.

"You'll see but just be careful." Ray answered for them.

"Sure…why not?" Tori asked herself, throwing her hands up in defeat as she turned and walked inside. She slowly made her way up the steps, opening Kai's bedroom door and peeked inside for him. She saw him lying down on his bed on his stomach with his head buried in his pillow.

She smiled, opening the door a little more and slowly began to step inside. "Hey, Kai." She said quietly. She ducked quickly, shielding her head with her hands. She opened her eyes, looking down at the object that was thrown at her. The pillow sat there in front of her, she slowly looked up at Kai, seeing him lying on his side with his back towards her.

She picked up the pillow and walked over to his bed, sitting down next to him as she peered over him to see if he was alright. He did look exhausted and his eyes were a little red, apart from that he did look fine to her but she highly doubted that he was okay and knew he was just very good at covering up how he felt. "What was that for?" she asked him.

"Watch it." Kai whispered, rubbing his temples as her voice bolted through his head painfully.

"Answer my question and maybe I will." Tori said, the level of her voice remaining the same.

"That was for making them keep an eye on me, or better yet, for keeping me locked in my room to rest." Kai replied, not lifting his head to look at her.

Tori sighed heavily, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder only for Kai to shrug it off a second later. She didn't persist, instead she sat back against the headboard and spoke quietly as he had asked, "You know it was only done for your own good."

"Don't start!"

"It's the truth. They're trying to look out for you, as am I."

"Which is no reason to lock me in my room with nothing to do." Kai said angrily.

"There wouldn't be any need for that if you would just listen to us when we tell you things for your own good." Tori told him. She blinked surprisingly at a sudden thought, "Ok, I'm going to go downstairs, you're getting the mother instinct out of me and I'm too young to be sounding like my parents." She quickly stood up and walked to the door, "You can come downstairs when you feel up to it." With that she quickly left, hurrying down the stairs.

Kai made no attempt at a reply, nor did he try or bother trying to get up, he just lay there tiredly. He opened his dull crimson eyes, turning over onto his back to stare at the ceiling but his vision was still a bit foggy. He sat up and got off of his bed, walking into the bathroom and staring at his reflection in the mirror, the sight almost frightening him. His eyes where far too red for his taste and he looked far paler than usual though apparently Tori hadn't noticed, otherwise she would have commented on either one which she didn't do. He rinsed his face with cold water and by the time he started to go downstairs his eyes had cleared up and no one had noticed a thing.

Tori kept a constant eye on him as always, checking up on him constantly but trying not to draw any attention from the others. He remained quiet all day and, while trying to stay on Kai's good side, Tori asked him if he wanted to battle the others during training but strangely enough he refused, not giving an answer as to why.

Max, Tyson and Ray where thankful Kai was taking things easy but Tori found it strange, that maybe some of her words, and Danielle's of course, where finally getting through to him. Now all she needed was him to cooperate a little bit more though she was more uncertain of whether his co-operation would continue at all after the day was done.

Kai felt himself being pulled out of the comforting darkness that was surrounding him, he tried to resist, but to no avail. Soon, he could see the bright light coming closer to him as he floated to the surface. It felt like he had been drowning for so long, and finally he was given the chance to break clear of the surface. He struggled to open his eyes, feeling like they weighed a ton. When he finally managed, a burst of light shone into his eyes and forced him to close them again. He felt a warm presence by his side that was speaking to him calmly. Kai decided to give it one more try, this time slower and with a bit more caution. When he did, he found that the lights had been dimmed and didn't hurt his sensitive eyes as much anymore. He took a deep breath, his eyes focusing again on the person that looked down at him with some worry in her eyes. "Tori…" he whispered hoarsely.

Tori smiled gently and very lightly, "Hey…I was starting to think you'd never wake up." She said quietly.

Kai looked up at her confusedly, before looking around him to see what was going on. He was lying in his bed back in his room which confused him the most as the last thing he remembered was watching the team practice and back then it was about 6pm. But now, now the sun shining through the blinds of his window and he was wrapped up in bed again. He pulled his hand out from under the warm covers and reached towards the draw of his nightstand. He pulled it open but before he had the chance to pull out his alarm clock Tori took his hand and placed it back onto the bed. "You…don't remember what happened do you?" she asked him.

Kai shook his head slowly, feeling another intense headache coming on at the sudden movement.

"Well you collapsed again."

"How……?" Kai began to ask.

"How long?" Tori asked, rephrasing what he was trying to say. "All night and its 2pm now." She answered.

"The…others…"

"They're all fine, a little worried but fine."

"I'm not…asking how they are…I'm asking if they're practicing." Kai said, exhaustedly shutting his eyes again.

Tori laughed, with Kai, something's never changed and in ways, it was a good thing, "How nice of you to show so much concern for them." She informed with a laugh, "They're practicing hard and doing well." She answered the earlier question. "You aren't going to tell us what happened are you?" She asked him, moving off the chair to sit on his bed.

Kai didn't answer, just turned his head away from her and opened his eyes to stare out the window.

Tori smiled caringly, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder, "It's alright." She told him.

Kai's eyes widened slightly, her words surprising him to the point that his head shot to look at her. Though it wasn't a smart move, his head began to hurt even more and he began to rub his temples, silently hoping the pain would stop. He heard Tori's faint voice say that she was going to go get him something for that, he felt the light weight on his bed move and heard his bedroom door quietly close behind Tori.

'What's wrong with me?' He suddenly asked himself, his inner voice actually choking up on what felt like tears.

'Master, please go and ask for some help.' Dranzer pleaded.

'No! Just leave me alone!'

'But Master…'

'Just go!' Kai lashed out at him, much more out of pain than anger. Dranzer instantly left him alone, leaving him to lie there till things got better. Tori quietly walked back into the room, worriedly looking down at Kai. She passed him two pain killers and held out a glass of water to him but he didn't take it. She left the glass on the nightstand and walked over to the door, after turning back to look at him for another time she stepped out of the room and closed the door behind her.

She walked down the stairs slowly, 'Go and keep an eye on him.' She ordered Denzelle.

'But what about you Mistress, my job is to protect you first, before anyone else?'

'I know and I appreciate it but I'm only going to be downstairs, he needs your help more than I do.' Tori told her, walking into the Dojo where everyone sat.

'I understand Mistress. You know where to find me if you need me.' Denzelle said, leaving her Mistress to deal with the others by herself.

Tori smiled at the others as she sat down next to them, taking in all of their strange looks. "What?" she asked.

"How is he?"

"I think he'll be ok." Tori answered even though she knew that that wasn't the question that they had on their minds.

"Why…are you keeping us away from him?" Tyson asked, a hint of ice in his voice.

"Yeah, we're his friends; we deserve to go see him." Ray added.

Tori sighed, eyes saddening as she looked at each of them, "I have my reasons."

"Then what are they?" Ray asked, encouraging her to explain.

Tori thought for a moment, not for an excuse because she could just go with the truth but she wasn't sure if she should say anything at all, "The last thing he ever wants you to see is him in a bad state and if you were to go up there and talk to him then he's going to lash out at you and that'll start a whole argument."

"What makes you any different?" Tyson asked hurriedly.

"He hasn't known me as long and like it or not we get into arguments anyway, it'll make no difference to our friendship." Tori continued to explain.

"But still, we want the chance to go talk to him about this." Ray informed her.

"Hey well you go ahead and do that if you want to, it's your friendship on the line, not mine." Tori informed them coldly. She stood up and walked outside, not looking back at them as she tried to make a statement. Pulling out her phone she began to text Kai;

'The others plan on checking up on you. Tried to stop them but they obviously wouldn't listen.' Her writing was beginning to become shorter and straight to the point as she heard the others going up the stairs to Kai's room. 'Just watch out and for everyone's sakes, try not to get angry' she sent it and bit her lip impatiently, hoping he got the text in time.

She sat down on the porch, sitting there for quite a while before everyone walked back out to talk to her. "So how'd it go?" she asked them.

"He wouldn't tell us a thing." Tyson said disappointedly.

"No surprise there, you aren't going to get anything out of him if you force him." Tori told him. With that all eyes where on her, questioning her on what she knew, "Well I haven't known him for too long but what I do know is that the more you try to make him tell you how he feels and about what goes on with him, the deeper he goes into his shell. The force only makes him feel worse and the deeper he gets, the harder it'll be to get him to talk later on." She continued explaining.

"How'd you know all this?" Max asked, blinking in surprise.

"I'm a good…observer." Tori said quietly, eyes cast on the ground.

"Apparently."

"Well what did he do then?" Tori asked them.

"Didn't figure that part out yet?" Tyson asked, almost mockingly.

Tori shrugged casually and answered, "I have my suspicions but I'd like to keep those to myself until I know I'm right."

"Well even if you did understand what he did it wouldn't be right because it wasn't…" Tyson started.

"Normal?" Tori asked, finishing for him. "Yeah, I'll bet he just told you to leave him alone but didn't bother to yell at you or kick you out himself." She said with a sly smirk on her face.

"How'd you know?" Max asked, running and sitting right in front of her.

Tori blinked and pushed herself back a little, "Lucky guess?" she tried.

"Something must really be wrong with him if he didn't bother yelling at us." Ray thought aloud, "Not that I'm complaining that he didn't yell." He added quickly.

"Good. Just don't complain." Tori told him with a warning tone.

"But we still don't get what's wrong with him." Max brought to everyone's attention again.

"It can't be just a fever." Ray added on.

"Well I don't know anything either but all I do know is that you shouldn't stress him about this." Tori continued, advising them as best she could.

"We can't leave him like this though."

"We don't know what's wrong with him so there shouldn't be any sense in worrying just yet. Besides if he feels the need to tell us then he will eventually." Tori said.

"That's where you're wrong. Kai won't tell us anything, even if he does need our help with even the littlest thing. I don't think he'd tell us what was wrong even if we rammed him into a wall and force him to talk." Tyson objected.

"Let's not test that, shall we?" Tyson's example sending shivers down Tori's spine.

"To be totally honest…" Ray started, staring at the ground, "I think that every single time he seemed fine, something terrible was constantly happening to him."

"Yeah." Tori agreed quietly. "You've got some of the day off, I'm going to go upstairs and stay with Kai for a while. If he asks, you've been training all day." She said, smiling as she got up. She walked inside and slowly made her way up the stairs. She opened Kai's bedroom door, usually she'd knock but was afraid to considering he had a headache. She stepped inside, seeing Kai walk out of his bathroom.

"Thanks for the warning." He thanked quietly.

Tori smiled, nodding as a sign that it was no problem. "You feeling any better?" she asked.

"Yeah."

"Look…I might be out of line in saying this but maybe you should go see a doctor about this." Tori said quietly, sitting on the bottom of his bed.

"You're right; you were out of line in saying that." Kai said coldly, "But thanks for the thought." He whispered.

"Hey I don't mind helping out at all. Like I said, I'm here to help you out."

"Yeah I see that but why are you doing this?" Kai asked her, more than anything sounding as though he were ungrateful for any of the help he got.

Tori sighed and stared down at the ground, "You know that a while back the others said I was part of the team. So despite how much we tend to argue with each other you're still my team mate and team mates help each other out when they're in trouble."

"You don't even know what's wrong, you don't have a clue about what could be going on with me but you're still here trying to help."

"I know that." Tori whispered, looking back up at him.

Kai opened his mouth to speak, being cut off by a ringing coming from Tori's jacket pocket. She raised her index finger, signaling her to give him a minute though freezing when she noticed that it was Mr. Dickinson calling. She picked up the call, "Hello." She greeted.

"Hello Tori, how are things?" Mr Dickinson asked her.

Tori put the phone on loud speaker when Kai gave her a confused look, "Things are alright, thanks."

"Where are you?"

"Oh…well I'm at Tyson's. I left the others training by themselves for a while since I'm checking on Kai at the moment." Tori answered, her eyes rising from her phone to Kai, watching as his eyes widened.

"Oh? What's wrong with him?"

"He's just a little ill." Tori answered. Kai looked at her fiercely, silently telling her to stop talking.

"Then maybe he should get checked out by a doctor, I can send one over if you like."

Tori looked up at Kai, watching him step back, annoyance and somewhat fear in his crimson eyes. She turned back to looking down at her phone, thinking for a second, "Nah, I don't think that will be needed. I think he'll be just fine with a little rest." She answered Mr. Dickinson, a small smile evident on her young face.

Kai breathed a sigh of relief, leaning against the bathroom door.

"You're the expert Tori; I'll leave you to it. Take care dear."

"Bye Mr. Dickinson." Tori ended the call and turned back to Kai. "That good for you?" she asked him.

"Yeah though you shouldn't have mentioned anything in the first place." The taller Russian told her.

"Be grateful." Tori said, narrowing her eyes.

"I am. Trust me, the last thing I wanted was to go to a doctor bout something that's not a problem."

"I partially agree with you there but I'm telling you from now, that I covered for you today but if things get worse you have to see a doctor and if you don't then I will personally drag you kicking and screaming to a hospital." Tori threatened him, though it sounding like a joke she looked very serious.

'And she's crazy enough to do it.' Denzelle muttered, not realizing that Kai could hear him.

"Denzelle get back here." Tori called out aloud.

"Do I even want to know?" Kai asked, raising an eyebrow at the younger girl.

"Not really." Tori replied, shaking her head.

"Tell me anyway."

"Ah it's not much." Tori said, "I just sent Denzelle up here to keep an eye on you." She answered quickly under his cold glare.

Kai sighed heavily, walking over to his bed and sitting down, "Yet for some reason I can't bring myself to be mad."

"Oh well that's good on my behalf." Tori smiled happily upon hearing him say that. "I think I should get back to the others now, I'll check on you a little later."

"Can't I just go downstairs?" Kai asked.

"No, not just yet." Tori said, placing a hand on his shoulder, ignoring the fact that he winced under her touch. "I need you to stay up here for a while longer, maybe then you'll feel a little better."

"But I'm fine now." Kai argued with her, brushing her hand off his shoulder.

"Maybe so but a little more rest will do you some good." Tori informed him, turning to leave the room, "I'll see you later." She said before walking out of the room.

---Later---

Kai pulled on his jacket, walking out his bedroom door and running down the stairs. He snuck right past the Dojo where everyone else was, where he could hear them talking quietly amongst themselves, so wrapped up in the conversation that they'd never hear him leave. He made his way down to the beach; he had gotten a message from Tori earlier that evening after she left. She said she was going to be down by the beach and said that if he was well enough he could always join her.

He didn't really want to be around her, especially alone with her though as always, his curiosity tended to get the better of him and he wanted to know what she wanted to talk about, why she even bothered to invite him along. He did have to admit, Tori always surprised him. He would treat her like absolute dirt but she was still ready to help him, even when she didn't even know what the hell was going on. He still didn't think that she had enough leadership to be able to train the team but she did have other aspects that the team enjoyed. Also, he couldn't argue with Mr. Dickinson so he had to learn to deal with her.

He arrived down by the beach and from where he stood he could see Tori's thin silhouette by the water, dipping her feet into the cold water as she stared out where the moon reflected on the clear waters. He walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder, making her turn around in fright. Once seeing who it was she visibly calmed down and smiled sweetly, "Hey there!" she said happily. "How are you?" she asked when she didn't get a greeting.

"I'm fine. Why'd you call me here?" Kai asked, getting straight down to business apparently.

"Friendly gesture. I thought that maybe you'd want to get out of there for a while but I'm not really trusting you to go out by yourself."

"Really? What could I possibly do that's so bad?" Kai asked her, folding his arms across his chest.

"I wouldn't know, that's why I don't trust you." Tori said with a grin. "So anything you want to do?" she asked him.

Kai shrugged, walking ahead of her along the beach with nothing really to say to her.

"Let's just go for a drink then, that good?" Tori asked him, watching as Kai nodded in reply.

They both did so, going to get a drink while they talked for a while. Kai just seemed out of it, sometimes not paying any attention to what was going on but trying his best at the conversation at hand. They spoke for hours, walking around the area before both went their separate ways to go back home. Tori was going back home to a quiet home by herself, while Kai was more than sure that the others had noticed his absence and where bound to question him on where he had been so he prepared himself for an argument as he made his way back to the Dojo.

A/N: Hope this chapter was any good! Please tell me what you think in a review and please tell me if there is something in particular that you liked and enjoyed in any of my chapters. Merry Christmas everyone!