Chapter 12

Tori placed the cordless phone onto the table in the living room, jumping back onto the sofa next to Kai. "Well the others are taken care of." She informed happily.

"How disappointing." Kai said sarcastically.

""Yes, I can tell how disappointed you are."

Both teenagers laughed together. Tori smiling most of all, watching the smile on Kai's face, one he really didn't show that often. "So where do you want to go later?"

"Hey, you wanted to take the day off so you decide."

"I guess I didn't really think things through."

"I've noticed."

"Let's go for a short walk. Then we can make things up as we go along."

"Sounds good to me." Kai said with a slight shrug.

Tori smiled and shot up off the sofa, placing a hand out in front of him to help pull him up. Unfortunately he just brushed past her hand and walked past her. "Kai…" she whispered.

Kai turned back round and looked at her confusedly at hearing his name. "What?" he asked.

"You're doing it again." She replied with a smile, walking past him.

Kai groaned and walked behind her to leave the apartment. "Can't help it." He muttered.

"You have every right to be mad with me Kai but why ruin a friendship over things that I can't change?"

"I think…that even if there were a short percentage of it working, I think I'd do it anyway."

"Would you really?" Tori asked, a disbelieving look on her face as they walked through the streets.

"This isn't about me." Kai reminded her, "I'm different."

"Life is life, Kai. It's all the same." Tori told him.

"It's different with me though."

"How?" Tori asked, sneaking her hand into his.

"Let's just not get into that." Kai replied. He felt Tori's hand go limp in his and he took a short glance at her, seeing her worried gaze fixed onto the ground beneath them as they walked on ahead. He squeezed her hand supportively, that's all he needed to do to get her to stop worrying for a moment and he knew it because next second she was smiling again and looked in front of her instead of at the ground.

In the little time they knew each other, or more precisely, in the little time they got along they suddenly learnt how to comfort each other. Not that they had had that much practice at it but Kai still knew that even the little things seemed to comfort her even when she was worrying out of her mind about him. They started off as what looked like worst enemies but now they're acting like closest friends. Kai couldn't even understand why she was being so kind to him; after all, he did treat her like dirt for a long time.

Even the first time they came across each other, he didn't even know her, he knew nothing about her and he treated her like dirt but there she was walking a long the streets with him, worrying about him and holding his hand no less. It all just made no sense to him. Then again, not many things about the girl in general made any sense to him but that was besides his point. The point was that he had gotten really attached to her in a short period of time, now she's got 5 months left to live and he was there feeling horrible because he knows he's about to lose a good friend, as though he'd known her his whole life.

Then again, if he had known her his whole life than maybe his life would have turned out even the slightest bit better. Every little helped, where he could repair the damage in his life he would every chance he got. Unfortunately that kind of chance doesn't come every day but now a chance was here but he was scared of it. He had to admit that much, at least to himself.

"You alright?" Tori asked quietly.

"Yeah, sure. Why?" Kai asked, looking down at her.

"You're really quiet."

"Well what else is new?" Kai asked her.

Tori laughed at that, he was right after all. It's not like he always spoke but spacing out was different and she could tell that he had been thinking. "You thinking about much?" she asked.

"Nothing in particular. Why the sudden curiosity?"

"Just asking that's all."

"Curiosity killed the cat."

"Though satisfaction brought it back." Tori retorted with a laugh.

Kai groaned and rolled his eyes, "I just can't win with you."

"Wow I must really be good then."

"Don't go getting a big head over that."

"I wouldn't try, I'm sure there's a ton of stuff you can do better than me."

"You got that right."

"Now look who's the one with the big head." Tori laughed. Unfortunately her laughed quickly subsided this time, pain seared through her skull and she could barely hear through the ringing in her ears. She fell on her hands and knees, eyes blank as she moved herself to sit against a wall.

Kai knelt down in front of her, trying hard to get through to her but finding she couldn't hear a word he was saying. He held her up by her shoulders, being sure not to put too much pressure on them at the same time, in fear of hurting her anymore. Sitting there he didn't know what he could really do, so he tried to calm down and waited a moment to see if any of her pain had stopped yet.

Tears almost started welling up in Tori's eyes but she suppressed them as best she could at the time. Sub consciously her left hand moved to the back of her head where the core of the pain was. Luckily for her she gained her hearing back soon enough and the pain followed by slowly stopping. "Are you alright?" Kai asked urgently.

Tori smiled slightly but in an attempt to nod she collapsed into Kai's arms. Kai took a deep breath; he just couldn't understand how he got into the mess in the first place.

---Later---

Tori lay on the stone wall by the beach, she was still unconscious but she seemed peaceful and not in any pain. Kai, in the meantime, was by the water doing nothing more than picking up pebbles and throwing them across the water. He didn't have anything to do or anyone to talk to in the time that Tori was unconscious and he didn't feel like going back to the apartment just yet. Denzelle had offered countless times to stay with him but he refused each time, saying that she needed to keep Tori safe and that he didn't want Denzelle to get hurt after spending too much time out of her blade.

He'd been waiting for Tori to wake up for about an hour or so and in that time he grew even more tired and weak. Sighing he turned back to where Tori lay resting, he sat on the wall, silently he began hoping that she was alright. "Damn it, at this rate will she ever wake up?" Kai muttered to himself, frustrated with worry.

As if on queue Tori's eyes fluttered open, shutting quickly due to the sudden burst of light that shone into the sensitive eyes. She sat up, opening her eyes again before looking up at Kai and smiling. "Thanks." She whispered.

"I did nothing."

"I know better." Tori told him, smiling more with that comment.

"How are you feeling?" Kai tried to change subject off of him.

"I'm fine now." Tori answered honestly, "What about you though? You aren't looking too well."

"I'm ok, don't worry."

"Come on; let's go get something to eat." Tori said, pulling on his hands as she jumped off the wall.

"I'm not hungry." Kai answered, not budging from where he sat.

"But I am so let's go." Tori said, pulling him again. This time Kai did as she asked, jumped off the wall and followed her to the small café that was across the street. Soon Tori had ordered herself a small piece of apple pie and a glass of water. Kai just sat across from her, his hands wrapped around a mug of hot coffee. "So how come you aren't eating?" Tori asked quietly.

"Let's not get into that again, it's no big deal."

"If it's no big deal then you wouldn't mind telling me." Tori said wisely. Kai just didn't look at her, nor reply. He just sat there staring at his coffee with nothing to say to the young girl in front of him. "Kai, just tell me already." She continued persisting.

"I feel sick when I eat." Kai muttered.

"What?" Tori asked, not quite hearing him.

"Doesn't take a genius to realize that I don't sleep well at night."

"Yeah, I guessed that far. What's that got to do with your eating?"

"If I can't sleep I feel sick, throw up everything I would have eaten throughout the day and that only makes me feel even worse after I'm done so I figured that if I didn't eat then I wouldn't have to deal with it at night."

"Kai…" Tori started, sadness filling her quiet voice.

"You don't need to say anything you know."

"Maybe it does help you for now but you can't keep this up for too long."

"I know, I'm working on it."

"Well…not sure if you already know this but my parents are both doctors. My mom is an expert on nutrition, maybe I could ask her for some advice. Maybe she can suggest something to do so that you could eat but keep down your food."

"You don't need to do that."

"If it could help then I want to." Tori said. By now she had totally abandoned her apple pie and all she could focus on was on trying to get Kai to believe she could help. He wouldn't have told her anything if a part of him didn't believe that she could somehow in someway help him but he still had his stubbornness and she wanted to get past that.

"Don't go through any trouble."

"It won't be. I talk to my parents every couple of days anyway, mom won't mind me asking."

Kai nodded in thanks, only raising his eyes to look at her for moment before turning back to stare at his coffee again.

"Hey Kai…" Tori called quietly. Kai looked up at her; she held her fork out with a bit of apple pie so that he could take it. He shook his head quickly and sat back in his chair, "One little piece won't kill you."

"I never said it would but I did say food makes me sick."

"Yeah I know but you can't go the rest of the day with absolutely nothing." Tori pointed out.

"I don't like apples." Kai said, coming up with a quick excuse.

"Liar, you ate an apple right in front of me about a week ago."

"You and your damn memory." Kai muttered.

"Please." Tori begged, pouting adorably.

"No."

Tori sighed; still pouting she took the last bit of apple pie, seeing that no matter how much she convinced Kai he wasn't going to eat anything.

---About an hour later---

Tori ran energetically down the street while Kai was the opposite, he was exhausted and was walking slowly but still trying to keep up with the suddenly hyper Tori. Tori stopped quickly and pulled out her phone that vibrated in her jacket pocket. "Finally she stopped." Kai muttered, catching up to her. "You alright?" he asked.

"Yeah." Tori said, a confused look on her face as she read over the text she got.

"What's up?" Kai asked, looking over her shoulder at the text.

"A co-worker told me to get to the café, though I'm not supposed to be working this week and she didn't say what she wanted."

"Well we could always go to the café and see what she wants."

"Yeah, I just hope she doesn't want me to work." Tori said, walking on ahead a bit disappointed now. The café was only a few blocks away and they arrived there in a matter of minutes, "Hey Mel, what did you want?" Tori asked the girl behind the counter.

The blonde rushed out from behind the counter, eyes narrowing slightly, "You'd think you would have told me but no, I had to hear it from my grandmother."

Tori stepped back a little, almost afraid of the other girl. Had she found out that she was going to die?

"My grandmother was in the hospital and told me that you where singing in the children's ward! Singing!"

Tori smiled slightly, letting out a sigh of relief, "It slipped my mind?" she tried.

"But a couple of weeks ago, when the band cancelled on us you could have done something."

"I wasn't feeling well." Tori lied. Her plan, lie, deny everything until proven guilty.

"Well how are you now?" Mel asked with a smile.

"I'm fine."

"Good. The lead singer of the band this week has come down with the flu and cancelled today's show so you're up."

Tori's eyes widened at that, feeling even worse when she heard Kai laughing a bit from behind her. "What?!"

"You have half an hour to prepare." Mel called as she walked back behind the counter.

Tori turned round to look at Kai, seeing him sitting at a table close by, still with a smile on his face. "This isn't funny."

"From where I'm sitting it is."

Tori sat down opposite him, resting her head in her hands, "What am I going to do?" she asked.

"Try this genius, how about you sing and get it over with?"

"I'm so screwed."

"What's so bad? I've heard you sing before and you're really not that bad."

"I can't believe she's making me do this."

"Yes well you're going to do it, you're going to go up there and sing and I'm going to sit here and watch you."

"You're so comforting." Tori said sarcastically. "I'm going to go talk to her about this, maybe next time you see me I'll be dieing on that stage." She said, indicating to the stage as she got up.

"You're joking on the dieing part right?"

"Yeah." Tori said with a smile, turning and walking over to the back room. 'I hope.' Sitting in the back room she sighed, swinging her legs impatiently. Mel peeked her head into the room with a mischievous smile on her face, "You're up." She called.

"I'm going to kill you one day." Tori threatened, walking past her.

"Ok, do that after you perform please." Mel said happily.

Tori took a shaky breath and got onto the stage, shifting uncomfortably when he saw Kai there, to make it worse, a particular tiger bit-beast was there too. Denzelle waved at her but quickly stopped because if looks could kill she would have been a goner with the glare that Tori shot at her. Tori picked up the microphone and nodded towards Mel to start up the music. The music started up and Tori bit down hard on her bottom lip till it came her time to start singing,

"Hin'yari hanabira wo nigirishimeteru
Eien ga tsuzuku you na kumo no kirema
Mieta ki ga shita no

Futatsu no yume
Fureru yubisaki
Namida mau haru no hi
Riyuu nanka mitsukaranai
Sugu tachidomaru
Tsuyoku nareru no?
Itsuka wa

Zutto sagasu shiroi tenshi no sugata
Kitto futte kuru
Atarashii watashi kureru hane

Kazahana tsuretette maboroshi no EDEN made
Koko de nara sukoshi dake wa
Sunao ni nareru ka mo ne

Kami-sama nante inai
Dakedo dareka shinjitai
Ima wa mada otona ni naritakunai
Sakura fubuki hisoka ni

Murasaki RAIRAKKU kaoru koro ni wa
Tooi yuki no kioku wa
Massara ni sarasara nagareteku

Zutto ou wa
Kono fukai mori no mukou
Kitto matte iru
Issho ni aruite kureru hito

Toori ame yo yande
Yozora ga mite mitai no
Koko de nara toki ga tomaru
Shoujo no mama de itai

Kami-sama nante inai
Dakedo nanika shinjitai
Sonna koto omou
Oborozuki yo
Sakura fubuki toketeku"

At this point the music slowed down just a bit and Tori stood there till she had to continue. For no real reason tears began to well up in her eyes and when she began to sing again they started slowly slipping.

"Kami-sama nante inai
Dakedo dareka shinjitai
Ima wa mada toki wo tomete
Otona ni narenai kara

Kamisama nante inai
Dakedo nanika shinjitai
Sonna koto omou
Oborozukiyo
Sakura fubuki toketeku."

Tori switched off the microphone and put it back on the stand before jumping off the stage. "That any good for you?" she asked Mel, through the applause of the small audience. Mel didn't answer and Tori smiled, "Have a nice day." She said before walking to the door. Kai and Denzelle followed behind her, Denzelle disappeared and went back into her blade.

"Why the hell where you so worried? You did fine."

"I just don't like audiences."

"So you're shy?" Kai asked, a bit of disbelief in his voice.

"For lack of a better word, yes." Tori admitted.

"Now that's new."

"Why are you suddenly such a jerk?" Tori asked.

"I'm a jerk because I'm having fun?" Kai asked, raising an eyebrow at the girl.

Tori pouted and crossed her arms, almost hating to admit it she had to agree with Denzelle when she interrupted and said she looked like a spoilt brat like that. "Having fun doesn't mean you have to take the Mickey out of me."

"You know I'm only joking."

"So? You still shouldn't be so mean to me you know."

"Hey, what are we doing here again?" Kai asked, realizing when Tori stopped that he'd followed her all the way to the beach again.

"I just love it over here." Tori replied quietly.

Kai didn't reply to that, instead he sighed and sat down on the stone wall. He sat there for a moment, his head resting in his hands and because of the heaviness, he didn't hear nor see the auburn-haired girl sit next to him on the wall. She wrapped her arms around him, which certainly startled him at first but he quickly gave in to it, seeing she wouldn't do him any harm.

Tori rested her chin on his shoulder and whispered a quiet 'thank you' in his ear. "I know you aren't well, that's why I told you thank you now so that you don't have any energy to argue." She joked quietly.

"Unfortunately for me…you're right." Kai told her.

"Yes well I didn't want to be right, Kai. Are you sure you don't want me to go get you something to eat?"

"I'm sure. Don't worry, it'll pass in a few minutes."

"I'll hold you to that." Tori whispered, pulling away from him. Kai got off the stone wall and walked towards the water and stood there for a while, watching all the colours from the sunset shine over the dark sea before him. He was already starting to feel better, just like he had promised Tori but when he took a deep breath it was rather shaky and all he focused on was keeping his mind clear. "Kai…" Tori said quietly.

"Yeah?"

"How are you?"

"I'm feeling better." Came Kai's honest reply.

"That's good." Tori said. When Kai couldn't see her, she smiled almost evily and glanced at Denzelle that stood beside her. The two stood behind Kai and without Kai even knowing what the two where planning, they shoved him into the cold water. Denzelle disappeared in the blink of an eye to keep herself out of Kai's reach but Tori couldn't do anything more than stand there laughing. Kai looked up at her, quickly standing up he ran after her across the beach. Finally he caught her by her belt and from there he tossed her into the deep water.

Tori resurfaced, coughing up the salty water. She smiled and swam towards Kai, "Watch your back, Kai." Tori called.

Of course, Kai thought she was telling him to be careful of her but in actual fact, she was warning him about what was now behind him. Denzelle sneaked up on him and with a wave of her hand Kai fell in the water again. Kai tried to stand up in the water and both girls splashed more water in his face till Denzelle disappeared and Tori got tired out. "That…wasn't fair, two against one." Kai said through breaths as he walked back to the beach and sat on the sand.

"It was fun though and I got to pay you back for laughing at me." Tori said, falling onto the ground next to him.

"Yeah it was fun, I'll admit that much but now I'm exhausted."

"Yeah and my head is throbbing."

"You're alright though, right?" Kai asked, sitting up and looking at her.

"I'm fine." Tori replied, smiling up at Kai. "It's 9:00pm already you know, we should get you back to the Dojo." She said, getting off the wet sand.

Kai got off the ground too and followed Tori to the Dojo. 'Someone's in a good mood.' Dranzer pointed out.

'Is it that obvious?'

'Quite obvious, Master.'

'I can't help it.'

'Yes I know. It's good that you had an enjoyable day, it's done you a lot of good to relax for once and I don't think I've ever seen you so happy. Well I have but not in a long time.'

'It feels great not to be so uptight for once.' Kai said, 'Hey Dranzer…do you think she'd be able to help at all?' he asked carefully.

'You can always give her the fair chance she needs but I have complete faith in her.'

'Yeah.'

The walk to the Dojo was quiet from then on, Tori sometimes talking to him which led to laughs and smiles from the both of them. Needless to say they were on better terms with each other now, both just hoped that they could keep it that way. They're time alone was ended when they arrived in Tyson's yard where the others sat on the porch talking. "Hey guys." Tori greeted happily.

"Hey."

"Hey, why are you two soaked?" Tyson asked.

"Tori and Denzelle decided to push me into the sea."

"And then Kai paid me back by throwing me in." Tori added, sitting on the porch with the rest of the group.

"How nice of him." Max said sarcastically with a grin.

Tori smiled, glancing up at Kai, "Yeah, I thought so too."

"I'm going to go dry off." Kai said coldly, walking past the group and up to his room.

"So you guys had a nice day?" Tori asked.

"We didn't do much."

"Yeah but it was great as long as we didn't have training."

Tori nodded, smiling more. Soon her smile faded a little though and she looked up at them, "And…you guys are ok with what's going to happen?" she asked quietly.

All their looks saddened at the reminder of that and neither of them spoke up, except for Ray when he realized that no one else was going to say anything. "Well there's nothing we could do right? So we're just all going to have to deal with it sooner or later."

"And we promised ourselves we're going to try to be strong, it's not going to be easy but we can try." Max added.

Tyson nodded in agreement and was next to speak, "We already know what we're getting into. It's painful to know that we're going to lose you but there's nothing we can really do is there?"

"No."

"So we're going to stick around this whole time and be there for you, then we're there for each other when the worst happens."

Tori smiled, "You guys are really great friends, to me and each other. I'm really glad to have met all of you." She said honestly.

"Aw, don't start with that, now you're going to make us cry." Max said, wiping away the tears that had welled up in his own eyes.

"I don't mean to, Maxie, I promise." Tori said, wrapping an arm over his shoulders. "I'm just going to go run up to talk to Kai and I'll have to go before I catch a cold." She said with a light laugh.

"Sure."

Tori went inside and ran up the stairs, she knocked lightly on Kai's bedroom door and heard a quiet 'come in' she stepped inside. There she saw Kai lying on his bed, his hands behind his head as he stared at the ceiling. "Hey, you alright?" Tori asked, leaning against the door as she shut it behind her.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Kai replied, taking a quick glance at her.

"Shouldn't you go change?" Tori asked.

"Shouldn't you?"

"I'm going home soon. I just thought I'd check on you before I left."

Kai sat up and smiled just a little bit at her, "I'm fine. Now go before you get sick." He ordered.

Tori smiled wider and walked up to him, she gave him a quick hug before turning to leave the room. "Thanks for the day, Kai."

"I'll see you tomorrow?" Kai asked.

"I'm not going anywhere just yet." Tori said before leaving.

"Good, 'cause I don't want you to." Kai whispered, staring at the ground.

---Later That Night---

Tori lay on her side on the large sofa in her living room, the cordless phone to her ear. She had been on the phone with her mother for about an hour or so already. Tori loved her mother, that she did but she was really eager to get off the phone so she could go tell Kai what her mom suggested. Her mom's suggestion seemed to make enough sense, which actually confused her as to why her nor Kai had thought of it before. Thankfully for her the phone conversation soon ended and Tori hung up and left the phone on the sofa. She jumped on her bed and her hand grabbed her phone that was sitting on her bedside table.

A/N: This is probably my longest chapter of this fic yet, its over almost 5000 words long, my reason for this length? Because I've got exams soon and I can only update on weekends so I made the chapter longer than usual. Please tell me what you thought of this chapter, I really need opinions on how this fic is turning out.

Now in this chapter there was a song in Japanese. The song is called 'Sakura Fubuki' by Keiko Kitagawa. In English 'Sakura Fubuki' means 'Cherry Blossom Storm' and here are the translated lyrics to the song:

Grasping the cool flower petals tightly
I felt as if I saw a break in the clouds
Going on forever

Two dreams
Touching fingertips
Dancing tears on that spring day
I can't find any reason
Soon they will come to a stop
Can I become strong
Someday?

I'll search forever for the sight of a white angel
I know they will fall
Wings that will bring a new me

Take the snowflakes on the wind to the illusory Eden
If I'm here, perhaps I can become accepting
If just a little

There's no such thing as a God
But I want to believe in someone
Now still I don't want to grow up
A cherry blossom storm secretly

Back when I smelled purple lilacs
Memories of distant snow
Smoothly covering the ground

I'll chase forever
Beyond this deep forest
I know someone's waiting
The one who will walk along with me

Stop, distant rain
I want to see the night sky
If I'm here, time will stop
I want to stay a young girl

There's no such thing as a God
But I want to believe in something
That is what I think
On this cloudy moonlit night
A cherry blossom storm dissipates

There's no such thing as a God
But I want to believe in someone
Now still keep time at a stop
Because I can't grow up

There's no such thing as a God
But I want to believe in something
That is what I think
On this cloudy moonlit night
A cherry blossom storm dissipates

It's a really nice song in my opinion and just had to choose it for this chapter. Like I said, please please please review because I really want an opinion on this chapter. Please be patient with me and wait till next weekend for the next chapter, its not my fault that I can't update quicker, blame school and exams. Thanks for reading and please leave a review!