Chapter 11

"I screwed up big time huh?"

"What do you think?"

"There's nothing I can do now, Kai. What do you want me to say?" Tori asked in a pleading voice.

"Say you'll go through with that operation!"

Tori's breath caught in her throat and she stared at the ground again, tears almost slipping from her eyes, "I…"

"Just save it. I give up anyway." Kai turned to open the door and walk out but Tori shot off the bed and grabbed his arm, pulling him round into a hug. Kai shoved her off, pushing her onto her bed as he turned and left. Tori opened her eyes, staring up at the ceiling, wincing as she heard the front door slam shut and the others running over to where she now lay.

"Hey, what happened?" Tyson asked, about to help Tori sit up, being interrupted when Denzelle appeared by Tori on the bed.

"Mistress, are you ok?" Denzelle whispered worriedly.

"I screwed up." Tori whispered back, keeping her eyes set on the same mark on the ceiling.

"What happened?" Ray asked her.

Denzelle looked down at her Mistress, understanding what she had to do, she ushered the others out of the room and with one last cast look at Tori on the bed, she left. "Aren't you going to tell us what's going on?" Tyson asked, watching as Denzelle got ready to walk out of the apartment.

"Kai got a bit close to Tori these last few days and now he's upset she's dieing."

"There's nothing Tori can do about it, he shouldn't be so upset." Max said. "I mean…we're all upset but there's nothing we can really do apart from let her enjoy the time she has, right?"

"He's probably mad that she got him to open up when she was just going to leave him, Max." Ray suggested.

"Yeah that's about it." Denzelle said, opening the door, "I'll be back soon." She added, leaving the room in a rush. She ran down the street in hopes of finding Kai before anything bad could happen to him that late. It's not that she didn't have faith in him; she knew he could take care of himself well enough but she just didn't trust him enough not to do anything stupid after what had happened. She ran into a park where she could have swore he had went to, sensing Dranzer with him somewhere but not being able to see him. "Leave me alone." Kai's voice called out.

Denzelle's head shot to the top of the tree where she heard the voice coming from. Kai sat there on a branch, leaning against the trunk of the tree as he stared up at the night sky through the leaves of the tree. "What are you doing up there?" Denzelle asked.

"I said leave me alone."

"Yeah. I heard you, doesn't mean I'm leaving. Now, you could either come down here or I could come up there." Denzelle yelled threateningly. Kai didn't make any move from where he sat and Denzelle sighed, "I'm really not sure if you're stubborn, stupid or stubbornly stupid." She commented, grabbing onto a tree branch below the one Kai was on. "What's wrong?" she asked, sitting on the branch.

"What do you think?!"

"Ok, I get it." Denzelle whispered, "You're upset that my Mistress has to die."

"And you figured that part out now?"

"No I haven't. I understand that it's painful, I know, I'm having a hard time trying to deal with it myself."

That one comment caught Kai's attention and he looked down at Denzelle who sadly stared at the ground beneath them as she swung her legs.

"I've tried for so long to convince her to undergo the surgery but she sticks by her decisions."

"Apparently."

"It's not easy for her."

"How the hell does she think I feel?!"

"I was talking about you too. She feels horrible that you feel so bad about her dieing and that it's ending like this." Denzelle started. She turned a little and looked up at him, "She doesn't want the friendship to end like this but she can't do anything."

"I don't want to watch her die."

"Don't ruin what's left of the time; you'll regret it when she's gone." Denzelle said, pulling herself onto the branch Kai was on.

"I'm regretting a lot right now."

"Kai…please be careful."

"With what?! The damage's been done; I got close to her when I shouldn't have." Kai yelled angrily.

"You haven't been looking after yourself too well. You haven't been eating, you haven't been sleeping and all you've really done was stress yourself out with the things that are going on around you."

"So what?"

"So you should be careful and look after yourself more."

"I'm looking after myself just fine."

Denzelle placed a hand on his forearm, lifting his short sleeve over his shoulder seeing the deep and wide cuts over his shoulder blade, "Yeah, you've been taking great care of yourself." She said sarcastically.

Kai jerked his sleeve back down as much as it could go while Denzelle just sat close by. "Go back home."

"You're coming back with me, we're going to have those cuts cleaned up, we're going to get you something to eat and you're going to get some sleep." Denzelle told him as though he didn't have a choice. She took his hand and jumped onto the branch below the one they sat on as she pulled on Kai's arm for him to follow her. "Come on." She said quietly.

"Leave me alone." Kai pulled his hand out of hers.

"I'm not leaving you here by yourself, Kai."

"Just give me a few minutes." Kai said quietly.

"Sure." Denzelle nodded, "No running away." She warned, jumping off the tree and walking to the park's front gate. Patiently she waited there, leaning against the gate for a few minutes, her heart beating fast while her hair tickled her neck as the wind played with it. 'Please listen to me Kai.'

Kai showed up soon after though he didn't say a word and all that could be heard on the way back to the apartment was the wind blowing against them. They both arrived at the apartment and found the whole place quiet, seeing Tori peek out of her bedroom. "Hey." She said quietly.

"Hey, where are the others?" Denzelle asked, indicating to Kai for him to go wait for her in the living room.

"They went back to Tyson's; everyone was getting pretty tired so they decided to leave a little earlier than planned." Tori answered her, "Where have you two been?" she asked quietly.

"We had a talk in the park, it's no big deal but he's got a few cuts on his shoulders so I'll sort those out, you go back to getting some rest."

"How did he get the cuts?" Tori asked worriedly.

"They were self-inflicted like I thought."

Tori nodded slightly, "The first aid kit is in the bathroom." She told her, walking over to Kai in the living room. He sat alone on the sofa, staring down at his hands the whole time, only looking up at the person beside him when he felt someone sit so close to him. "You alright?" Tori asked carefully.

"I'm fine." Kai answered, trying so hard just to force a smile.

"That's good. Are you alright staying here for the night?"

"I should get back to the others."

"The others are probably asleep by now and it probably wouldn't be wise to wake any of them. You're welcome here, you know." Kai nodding slowly, they both smiled a little at each other, the first real small sign of friendship they'd shown each other in hours.

They're short moment was interrupted by a light crashing, glancing over to the hallway Denzelle had dropped the first aid kit and fallen on her hands and knees, white lights emitting from her hands. Tori walked over to the fallen bit-beast, stroked her hair softly for a moment, "I think it's you that needs your rest." She whispered in her ear, "Go." She ordered. Denzelle looked up at her, unsure on what to do next, "I'll take care of things here." She picked up the first aid kit and walked over to Kai.

In the mean time, Denzelle gave in and disappeared in her usual white light.

"What happened to her?" A hint of worry in Kai's voice.

"Nothing to worry about, I assure you."

"You also said something along those lines about yourself."

"Touché. Well bit-beasts aren't the types of beings to be walking around the planet all the time, after being out of her blade for too long Denzelle loses all her energy and gets tired. That's what just happened." Tori explained to him, giving him an honest smile when it looked like he didn't believe her. "So where are these cuts she was so worried about?" she asked.

Kai sighed, seemed like arguing with her was no use. Arguing wasn't going to make her health any better, it wouldn't get her to go through with the operation she needed and it would only stress him out more so with a quick breath he took off his jacket and showed her the cuts that covered his shoulders muscles and his left shoulder blade.

"Ouch, that looks like it's got to hurt." Tori said, seeing how wide those cuts actually were. "If…" she started cautiously, "…all you want to do is hurt yourself, why not clean these cuts up yourself afterwards?" she asked him.

Kai shrugged with no real answer to give her but with one glance at the look on Tori's face he answered with, "I guess…I just can't be bothered to."

"Well you should bother. This is your health after all."

"If I told you that you wouldn't care."

"I'm different though."

"Just get this over with."

Tori nodded and began to work on each cut, doing nothing more than cleaning up the little blood that seeped out, dried them and bandaged them up before they got infected, since, knowing Kai's luck and carelessness with the cuts, she was surprised the hadn't been infected yet and if she could stop that from happening, she would. What surprised her was as to how brave Kai actually was. He didn't seem phased at all by the sight of blood or by the pain when she cleaned the cuts, most people would complain the whole time but instead he just sat there and didn't utter a word and barely wince at the stinging of the antiseptic. "Is that any good?" she asked him when done.

"Yeah." He replied, his hand brushing over the soft cloth that covered his arm, "Thanks." He added quietly.

Tori nodded and smiled happily, she was glad she could get that much out of him, made her happy that she could do something right around him since according to him, the way he trained the team wasn't right either. "Do you need anything?" she asked.

"I'm ok."

"Aren't you hungry?" Tori asked, almost confusedly.

"No." Kai lied. Truthfully, he was starving but the uncomfortable nights he tended to go through didn't serve very well with food in his stomach so where he could avoid food, he did and only let himself have a small snack once in a while.

"Alright, well there's food pretty much everywhere you look in the kitchen so you can take something from there if you get hungry." Tori said, laughing a little as she stood up. "C'mon. You're room is this way." She pulled him up and led him to the room at the far end of the hall. "Bathroom is two doors down and my room is next door in case you need anything, alright?"

"Yeah." Kai replied, sitting down on the bed, feeling a little uneasy about all that was going on.

"Good night." Tori said happily, walking to her room and shutting the door behind her. She was happy, she had to admit that whatever Denzelle may have said it worked for her and Kai seemed to be acting at least a little bit better around her. Despite her happiness, concern for the loyal bit-beast could clearly be seen on her young features as she walked over to the beyblade that sat on her bedside table. "Denzelle…" she whispered.

Denzelle appeared in a white light, though this time lying on the ground on her side. The bit-beast looked a bit paler than usual, breathing rather heavily from the lack of energy to do anything at all. Tori sat down on the ground, rubbing the bit-beast's back soothingly as she whispered to her the whole time about how grateful she was for what she did for her though every time Denzelle tried to speak Tori stopped her, saying that she understood and that they could talk later. Tori had a unique relationship with her bit-beast, the bit-beast that was with her through thick and thin, the bit-beast who despite her worries for her Mistress, began to accept the decisions and fate that was dealt for her.

Denzelle went back into her blade and Tori got off the cold ground. She went into the bathroom and changed quickly for bed, in need for some rest and the warmth her body needed. Through her sleeping hours she thought of two people that she cared about the most, probably the two people that made her worry the most too.

---2:00am---

Tori woke up early that morning, finding that she was thirsty she got out of room and walked to the kitchen. Pouring herself a glass of water, from over the counter and through the small window that overlooked the living room she saw Kai quietly sitting on the sofa. Tori walked out of the kitchen and into the living room, settling onto the sofa next to Kai, "Why are you up?" she asked.

"Couldn't sleep." Came the quiet answer from the male teen.

"Could be an empty stomach."

"I really don't think that's it." Kai answered with a slight smirk on his face.

"Then what is it?"

"It's nothing. It'll pass."

"Ok I guess. Just try to get some sleep but come wake me if you need anything." Tori said. When she didn't get an answer she just went back to the kitchen, topped up the water and took the glass to her bedroom. She placed the glass on her bedside table and she crawled back underneath the covers of her soft bed for some added warmth. "I hope he's alright." She whispered finally before sleeping again.

---With Kai---

He was lying back on the sofa, thinking back to see if he should get up and try to go get some sleep. He wanted to, he really did, he just didn't feel like getting off the sofa to go back to bed. Finally he got irritated trying to get himself up and tried to just get it over with, getting off the sofa quickly and quickly walking back to his room. Getting into bed, he just barely decided to cover himself from the cold, instead finding that his own head began to ache with painful memories and he buried his head under the soft pillow that was gripped in his hands.

---Next Morning---

Tori woke up at 5am and she quickly got out of bed to go make herself some breakfast. Her senses told her to just go back to sleep but she found she couldn't, instead being far too worried about Denzelle and the other blader sleeping in the next room. She walked up to Kai's room, opening the door and peeking inside to see if he was awake yet. He still had the pillow over his head and she wasn't sure if he was just trying to block the sunlight shining through his window or if he was actually trying to suffocate himself.

She stepped closer to him but paused when the pillow moved from Kai's face and he turned to look at her, "Oh, I'm sorry. Go back to sleep." She apologized, hurrying back out of the room. She closed the door behind her and sighed heavily, feeling quite like an idiot, especially for waking him. Though what also surprised her is that how alert Kai was, the night before when she went to the kitchen, she knew he had heard her when she opened her bedroom door, he just decided not to say anything. Even now, if he was asleep, how'd he react to her so quickly?

She heard Kai's bedroom door open again and Kai walked out, "Hey, if you want to go back to sleep you could you know." Tori told him.

Kai smirked and went into the living room, "Hardly slept all night, it wont make too much of a difference now."

"Then you wonder why I don't let you train with the others."

"Because I don't manage to sleep?"

"Yeah, can't have you passing out during training."

"Of course not, that's your job."

"Not sure if that was a joke or if you were being spiteful."

"A bit of both actually."

"Kai…"

"Don't worry, I get it."

'Denzelle you have so much to teach me.' Tori thought. "Now that's a sudden change of heart."

"I can't be mad forever."

"You want to test that?" Tori asked, raising an eyebrow as she walked into the living room.

"I'd prefer it if I didn't because I think if given the chance I could be."

"Yeah, you probably could." Tori agreed, nodding. "So…" she started, staring at the ground, "do you mind if I give the others the day off?" she asked.

"How come?" Kai asked confusedly.

"I'd rather spend the day here…maybe we could just…hang out a little?" Tori started off, then asking as she bit down on her lip.

Kai's heart skipped a beat though all he could do was shrug in reply.

"Come on, you've got to have a better answer than that."

"Not really."

"You'll never change." Tori said, patting him on the back, "But that can be a good thing." She furthered, getting off the sofa. "Make yourself some breakfast." She called from her bedroom before shutting the door. She smiled happily, walking over to her beyblade and calling Denzelle out again. She appeared with her usual white light surrounding her, sitting on the end on the ground in front of Tori. "I hate it when you do that." Referring to Denzelle sitting on the ground. She placed her hands out in front of her and pulled her onto her feet, "Are you alright today?"

"Yeah, I'm doing alright. What about you?"

"I'm pretty great actually."

"Yeah so I've noticed." Denzelle said, nudging Tori slightly. "So should I take this little thing between you and Kai as a date?"

"Not really, it's just spending the day together."

"So it's a date."

"It's not."

"You can't deny the fact that you have feelings for the guy though."

"Isn't there some sort of bit-beast rule that the bit-beast can't tease the Mistress about this kind of stuff?"

"We have our respect towards our Masters and Mistress' but there is no such rule."

"No fair."

"Hey, we bit-beasts need some perks."

"Fair enough I guess." Tori said, picking up her clothes. "Hey, can you go check on Kai while I go have a shower."

"Sure." Denzelle said with a mischievous grin on her face as she went to walk out.

"You're walking on thin ice Denzelle." Tori called after her.

"That's ok, it's my element." The bit-beast said, peeking back into the room, winking and Tori before leaving again.

"Smart ass." Tori muttered jokingly, stepping into the bathroom.

Denzelle walked into the small living room, sitting down on the armchair in the corner. Kai was lying back on the sofa, his arm on the armrest as he held his head in his hands, "What you thinking about?"

"Nothing." Kai answered dully.

"Last time Tori told you that you said it was stupid."

"I'm a hypocrite so sue me."

"Do I sense some self-loath?" Denzelle asked casually.

Kai lowered his arms onto the armrest and rested his head on them, looking fed up and exhausted already. "Probably you do."

"Why are you like that with yourself then?"

"It's nothing."

"Yes, well, maybe you should talk to my Mistress about it."

"I'm not going to be doing something like that for a while."

"You should try to though, I'm sure that she could try to help."

"You can't help with something that's already happened."

"But maybe she could help with what's happening now."

"I doubt it."

"If you deny this and doubt that she could ever e able to help you, then you're just like her when it comes to the surgery."

"Only difference is that I may listen one day." Kai said calmly.

"Denzelle, leave Kai alone." Tori called from the kitchen.

Denzelle's eyes widened slightly, she stared at the ground for a moment then after giving Kai an apologetic look she disappeared.

"Sorry, I asked her to be good company not annoy you." Tori said, sitting down next to him. "You seem really upset." She pointed out.

"Don't worry."

"You must not know me very well because I always worry."

"I'm going to be fine." Kai told her, probably trying to convince her as much as himself.

"You promise?"

Kai paused for a moment, thinking about it hard before nodding in agreement, "I promise."

A/N: How was that chapter?! I hope you're liking how this fic is turning out. Probably this is going to be one of the most emotional fics I've ever written and also the one that is the most friendship based out of all the things I've written. I'm not too sure when I'll have next chapter up since I start school tomorrow but I will try my hardest to get another chapter up as soon as I can. In the mean time, please review and tell me what you think!

Ja!