Chapter 18
"Nice way to start the day huh?" Tori smiled once they were alone again.
"I'm sorry it started out like this."
"Don't be, it's not your fault." Tori said quietly. She smirked a bit and added, "It's not your fault you're problematic."
"Really? And here I thought I did something to deserve all this." Kai muttered.
"You deserve to have more good things happen to you." Tori told him. She watched as Kai shook his head a bit, as though he didn't care what happened to him. She smiled caringly at him, hope shining through, "I'll go make some breakfast, I'll call you when it's done, k?"
"Sure."
Tori got off the bed and walked out of the room, keeping the door open after she left. Kai looked on to where she disappeared down the hall before he rested his head back into the pillow. 'What a day.' He thought.
'Isn't it a bit early in the day to be saying that?'
'Apparently it's not early enough into the day for me to be already having a bad day. Why does this always have to happen?'
'You have been very stressed lately, it's no surprise…'
'I know but how can I possibly not be stressed out right about now?'
Dranzer sighed, 'I don't know what to say.'
'You don't need to say anything, Dranzer. I'll handle this.'
'Not by yourself I hope.'
'I think that even if I wanted to do it by myself, that I wouldn't be allowed to.'
'Yes, you almost always seem to be surrounded by the people that want to help you.'
'That's not a bad thing is it?'
'Of course not, Master. What makes you think it is?'
'Isn't it obvious?'
'When it came to friendship and pain, Boris was always wrong, Master.'
'It's not just that though.'
'Then what is it?'
'It makes me feel far too much like I have a problem and I hate feeling pitied just because I have something to deal with.'
Dranzer felt he understood a little more now, feeling like he got to the root of what was going on, 'Then wouldn't it be a good idea if you spoke to your team about it before you tried to confide in them?'
'I can't do that.' Kai answered sternly.
'Well then maybe you could get Tori to tell them for you.'
'As if…' Kai would have continued but heard a crashing coming from an other room. He rushed off the bed as quickly as he possibly could and ran out of the bedroom. The kitchen was empty, not seeing Tori in there he checked all the other rooms. Tori was found sitting on the ground in her bedroom, clutching the back of her head tightly with pain burning through it.
Kai sat on the ground beside her, pulling the pain-stricken girl into his arms, fingers brushing through her hair as he whispered for her to relax. Tori's arms snacked around his waist as she rested against him, her head against his chest and tears slowly dropping from her eyes and soaking Kai's shirt. Tori let out a sob as her pain subsided, then peeled the soaked bit of the shirt off from sticking to Kai's skin, "I'm sorry." She whispered, regarding the soaked shirt.
"Don't be stupid." Kai told her, tightening his arms around her.
"Kai…I don't know what I'm going to do." She cried hard with the words that crossed her lips.
Now Kai was lost in between his own pain and problems and those of the girl that lay crying in his arms. Being unsure of what to even say he just quietly calmed her down, making the same soothing sounds she had made for him days before.
---That Afternoon---
The whole team sat outside on the porch talking. More like, Tori, Max, Tyson and Ray where talking, Kai was in a corner by himself, mostly listening to the conversation and keeping an eye on the auburn-haired girl. She had worried him so much that day and after that he was more than positive that she was actually scared of taking the surgery, of the chances she'd have to take, that's why she wasn't taking the surgery to save her life, even if a part of her wanted to keep living.
Though he had to say, he was impressed by her. She was dieing, in most probably a month or so and there she was, lying on her stomach on the porch, smiling and laughing at all the others said and joked about, joined in on the jokes. Her shirt showed off her bare shoulders now and her auburn hair fell graciously over them, her hair shining bright in the sun light against her pale skin. She sat there like nothing mattered to her anymore, that he break down was one little mistake she made and now it was all over, that all was done with. Everything she did that way really impressed him.
Every morning he used to wake up feeling horrible, not at all looking towards the day and all he had to get through before he could try to get some peace and maybe, hopefully, some sleep. But he stood there the whole time and watched her be the total opposite to him, he watched her get up in the morning with a smile on her face the second she woke up, even if she was reminded that she was dieing. She woke up every morning with a smile on her face, he would catch her laughing ten minutes after she would have collapsed but the thing was, that it wasn't all a show, it was real, she really was happy with things. Very little pain from her decision of dieing prayed on her mind as a problem.
Now there she was standing in front of him, her hands behind her back as she smiled happily towards him. "Hey Kai, you want to come get some ice-cream with us?" she asked.
"No, thanks." Kai answered her coldly.
"Come on, Kai. We're not leaving you here alone." Ray informed.
"And besides, it's getting warm we need to cool off and you do too." Tori persisted, placing a hand on Kai's forearm.
Kai stared down at her hand that touched his arm so softly. "Fine." He muttered icily, pushing himself off the wall.
Tori smiled happily towards the others and they all headed towards the beach. Tyson and Ray had been walking ahead of them all, Tori had been with them but then remembered about the other two teenagers who were behind, apparently not many people cared that Kai was walking by himself but it seemed like they had forgotten that Max wasn't as faced as he used to be because of the healing twisted ankle he had. So Tori stayed behind, talking both to the blonde boy and to her worrying boyfriend.
The whole team settled at a table not far from the beach, each of them with their ice-cream. The time had seemed to slip by and even in little time Tori got Kai to get some ice-cream for himself too, it took a while but she managed. Looking up from her own ice-cream, Tori glanced at Kai as he ate his own, she grinned a bit and sat forward to be a bit closer to him since she was sitting on his right. "Hey, Kai?" she called.
Kai turned to her but was a bit late, suddenly seeing Tori's hand move to his ice-cream, she tipped it a bit which got some chocolate ice-cream on Kai's face, making Tori laugh immensely at that. Kai shook his head, wiping off the ice-cream on his face with a napkin, a devious smirk on his face along with the irritation. On hearing the others, particularly Tyson, laughing at him he took it as a chance for him to have his own fun for once. He reached towards Tyson, pulled the cone out of Tyson's hand and wiped the ice cream on the front of Tyson's shirt and then putting the cone back in his hand.
Tori now was really laughing at that, probably her downfall considering that Kai turned to her and pushed her ice-cream in her face, sparing her from doing to her what he had done to Tyson, considering she had white tank top on. She gasped when the freezing cold substance touched her face, not even believing Kai had actually done that. She wiped off some of the ice-cream that was on her face, before picking up more napkins and cleaning herself up. "That wasn't fair." She pouted.
"It was more than just fair." Kai pointed out.
"No it wasn't fair, Kai! I can't help laughing when it comes to you having ice-cream all over your face." Tyson told him.
"Neither can I." Kai retorted, smirking.
"Touché, Kai." Tori smiled.
"That was pretty funny." Max laughed.
Ray agreed, "Yeah, most definitely."
"Yeah, you got me." Tori admitted.
"Glad that you admit it." Kai nodded towards her in thanks, his smirk never leaving his face.
"You know, I'll get you back eventually right?" Tori smiled kindly at him as she said it with a mischievous glint in her eyes again.
"Most likely." Kai shrugged, leaving the ice-cream on the table, crossing his arms and sitting back in his chair.
"Or you and I can just do something to take our minds of annoying each other." Tori grinned.
"And what's that?"
"Torture the others instead." Tori replied, smiling innocently at the others.
"Sounds tempting." Kai thought aloud.
"Tori!" Ray, Max and Tyson yelled at her in unison, all sitting forward in their seats.
Tori laughed, "It was only a joke. I know for a fact Kai would much rather torture me than torture you guys…He's had so much time to torture you guys, you got boring." She said, looking quite serious for someone who was only joking.
"You're so unfair." Tyson told her.
"I try." Tori shrugged, now a bit of humor showing in her voice.
"I think you're just too lazy to try anything sometimes though." Ray teased.
"I don't think she's that lazy." Kai disagreed.
Tori smiled a bit and turned to Kai, "No, Kai, he just might be right about that."
"Who would've thought that Kai was wrong about something?" Tyson said jokingly.
"Hey, Kai can be wrong about a lot of things. It's you guys that are just probably too stupid to notice." Tori defended Kai, turning Tyson's joke against the group.
"Hey, what's with all this teasing all of a sudden?" Max asked, pausing the others.
"We all really are childish." Tori laughed, being a bit more aware of all the teasing they had actually done now.
"Correction; you guys are all childish, I'm just sitting here watching the show." Kai said, pointing at each and every one of them.
"Yeah, I think he's got us there guys." Tori said, admittedly.
"Most probably." Ray added, nodding.
Tori looked around, seeing the place slowly darkening, "Guys, shouldn't we be heading back to the Dojo?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah."
"I guess we should."
The whole team left their table, making their way back to the Dojo in some silence since they left the ice-cream bar. Tori paused and stood back from all the others, staring out at the sea for a short while, taking in the sight of the sandy beach and the marine waves that washed up on it, taking in the salty smell of the beach too. She saw Kai had stopped and looked back at her, she started walking again, walking past him a little before he caught up and pulled an arm around her. "Are you alright?" he whispered in her ear.
Tori's frown quickly turned to a smile, the best one she could possibly get herself to pull off. "I'm fine." She sounded so convinced this time, she even surprised herself with it. She quickly saw something, noting Ray had looked back at them, she pushed Kai off of her and walked a bit ahead of him in the end.
Ray had noticed the close contact between the two, despite Tori's and Kai's best efforts to hide it. He laughed a bit and turned back to looking in front of him, following the others and joining them in a conversation while Kai walked furthest away from them, silently cursing Ray's sharp hearing and timing.
---That Night---
Tori walked out of Kai's room, the bedroom she'd been spending her past few nights sleeping in. She stepped into the living room, peeking in, she saw Kai lying on his side on the sofa watching some TV, a bottle of vodka in hand, half of it still being in there, thankfully. "Hey…" Tori said almost in a scolding tone, walking up to him.
Kai sighed inwardly, 'Great, now she's going to go on about this.' He thought.
"If you're planning to get drunk for the night and wake up with a hangover tomorrow…" Tori snatched the bottle from him, "do me a favor and don't leave me out of it." She scolded, before taking a drink from the bottle and jumping down next to him.
Kai glanced at her, confused as to why she was suddenly taking such a thing so lightly and then, finally, it actually hit him… "Rough day?" he asked her, sitting up a bit.
"More like…rough week." Tori corrected after thinking, placing the bottle of alcohol on the ground. "How was yours?" she asked, looking at him.
"About the same…" Kai whispered softly, looking up at her.
"At least your parents aren't coming to visit." Tori muttered, taking another sip of alcohol.
Kai had heard her and took the bottle from her, "I don't have any parents to be visited by." He took a sip too before sitting back against the arm rest and passing her the bottle back.
"What ever happened to them?" Tori asked quietly.
"They died when I was young, my dad died in a car crash in Iwate and my mom was ill." Kai answered her as though he were saying nothing to her, suddenly feeling like secrets he had kept shouldn't be a secret between them.
"That's so…sad." Tori whispered, turning to look at the carpet in thought.
"I barely knew them, I don't care."
"It's still sad though." Tori told him quickly, looking at him with sadness in her eyes and a pout on her face.
"Maybe." Kai shrugged a bit.
Tori sat back a bit, "Don't…you miss them at all?" she asked.
"How can you miss something you don't know?" Kai asked her quietly.
"I'm sorry…" Tori whispered, moving close to him.
"I don't need your pity." Kai was quick and stern but then slowly faltered with thought, "There's nothing you or I could have done." He added.
"I know…I'm sorry for bringing it up."
"Don't be."
Tori smiled a bit, "We've been saying that to each other a lot lately, haven't we?"
"I guess so." Kai smiled, seeing her smile at her own comment.
'I won't let it end like this.' Tori thought determinedly.
'Mistress…'
"Are you going to be alright, Kai?" Tori's voice came out quiet and sensitive, meanwhile ignoring her bit-beast.
"Eventually." Kai answered, drinking more out of the vodka bottle.
"Damn, how can you drink that much?" Tori asked.
Kai answered her, "Quite easily actually."
Tori muttered, staring on, "Yeah, so I see."
"Shouldn't you be going to bed?" Kai asked her, placing the almost empty bottle back on the ground.
Tori looked at him confusedly, her lower lip sticking out just a bit, "What am I kid?" she asked.
"No but you've had a long day, maybe you should get some sleep."
"If you get to stay up and get drunk than I should be allowed to do the same for once, no?"
Kai sighed and looked up at her, "What are the chances you can get drunk within half an hour?" he asked her, smirking a bit.
"I don't know, I just want to know if there's enough alcohol around here to be able to get at least one of us drunk." Tori laughed.
"Well I'm already half way there and you're generally acting like you're drunk." Kai joked.
"Yeah, quite true." Tori agreed. "So I'll leave you alone, just finish up the bit in the bottle and come to bed." She ordered quietly as she stood, planting a soft kiss on his cheek.
"Sure, thanks." Kai kissed her back.
Tori smiled and was about to totally disappear from the bedroom before turning back at him, "Oh hey, before you get back to bed, rinse the smell of alcohol off you, that stuff is nasty." She laughed at the end before leaving.
Kai nodded, she was right, this particular alcohol wasn't good in general. But at the time he just didn't care about that, the alcohol tended to numb the pain and he hadn't done this in a while so seeing as it had been a while he didn't feel as guilty as he usually would.
It took a while and a lot more clearing and berating before Kai finished up the little that was left in the vodka bottle but he managed it. Wavering slightly he got off the sofa, walking to the bathroom and locking himself in there for about an hour. Tori stepped out of Kai's bedroom, looking on at the bathroom door which she had heard close behind him so long ago. She was worried, very worried but she tried her hardest not to let it show, she tried to smile, to keep smiling for all she did, for all that happened.
She walked back into the bedroom and got back into bed, warming up under the covers. The room was pitch dark and Tori just stared at the empty space on the bed beside her. The empty space didn't remain empty for too much longer after that, Kai lay down beside her soon enough, pulling a strong arm around her waist. "I guess you didn't get as far as you wanted to in getting drunk then huh?" Tori smiled.
"Not really, you drank some of it too and it's really hard to find alcohol around here though I'm pretty sure that it's enough to leave me with a hangover." Kai told her, a smirk on his face as he closed his eyes to sleep after the long day.
Tori moved closer to him, kissing him softly, running her cold hand along Kai's shoulder and side. "I don't like to keep stuff like vodka around here…at least that way I can be sure you're not always drinking." She told him.
"I don't drink that often though."
"Well I don't see you drink that much so I'm pretty sure you're saying the truth about that but still, you never know what could happen."
"Very true." Kai whispered in agreement.
"Good night, Kai." Tori whispered sleepily.
"Good night."
---Next Morning---
Tori was in the kitchen making herself some breakfast, poured her cereal out into the bowl and poured the milk over it. She picked up her spoon and settled in the living room. She sat back on the sofa comfortably while eating her cereal, then raising her eyes a bit when Kai sat on the ground at the coffee table across from her. His head crashed onto the table as he tried to support it with his arm, "You'd think you'd learn by now." Tori told him.
"You drank too." Kai pointed out.
"And sometime during the day I just might regret it but in the mean time it's you who's paying the price."
Kai got off the ground once he saw that Tori had placed her emptying bowl onto the table. He sat down next to her, supporting his pounding head in his hands. "This isn't fair." He muttered.
"That's what you get for drinking, ne?"
"That's not the unfair part." Kai pointed out.
"Then what is?"
"The fact that your head has been through so much that you can barely feel that part of the hangover!" Kai almost yelled at her, matter-of-factly.
Tori laughed at that, rubbing his back soothingly for a minute, "That's quite true, I can't feel that part of the hangover but you know, if you keep complaining than you're only going to make things worse."
"You're going to make things worse if you keep rubbing my back like that." Kai's voice came out muffled but a bit angry as he covered his mouth a bit.
Tori smiled and took her hand off him, "Life is quite like a hangover Kai." She laughed, getting off the sofa and taking her bowl back into the kitchen.
Kai groaned at that, lying down on the sofa in hope of his migraine passing with less movement. He heard Tori walk back into the room but didn't take much note of her since his eyes where closed and he was comfortable in not knowing what she was doing. He just heard her come up beside him, then put something on the table and leave the room again. If he strained his ears enough then he would have heard her go back to her room and close the door behind her too.
After a few minutes, Kai had already begun to feel a bit better and opened his eyes and sat up. He took in what was left for him on the table, seeing Tori had left two pain killers and a glass of water. Taking them both back to the kitchen he took the painkillers while in there, silently wishing that they would take an affect quickly. While he hoped that'd happen he went to his room, picked up all his clothes for the day and dumped them in his bathroom to get ready for the long day ahead of him.
---A Few Minutes Later- With Tori---
Tori stood in front of her mirror, brushing the morning knots out of her thick auburn hair, "So you think Kai is alright?" she asked to the other being in the room.
Denzelle sighed at being asked that again, "I'm sure he's fine, Mistress." She answered, yet again. She was currently lying on her stomach on Tori's bed, sprawled about with nothing to do but to fidget with settings on Tori's phone. "It's amazing, you don't even worry about me this much."
"I do worry about you." Tori told her.
"I know you do, but these days no one can worry you more than Kai does."
"Well I really love him so yeah, no one can worry me that much, I don't think so at least." Tori laughed, pulling her hair back into a tight pony tail before sitting on the bed next to her bit-beast.
"You don't care about me." Denzelle said with a fake hurt, faking tears in her eyes too.
Tori smiled, rolling her eyes, "You're so dramatic." She pointed out to her.
"Well I try to be." Denzelle said, batting her eyelashes at her Mistress, a smile on her face now.
"You do it very well, I must say."
A light knock on the door frame was heard, making both girls turn to Tori's bedroom door to see Kai at the entrance, all ready for the day and looking a bit better. "Hey." Denzelle greeted kindly.
Kai nodded in reply, all he could really do before glancing at Tori. Tori got the idea and looked at Denzelle, the bit-beast suddenly looked up at her Mistress, taking in her Mistress' look before realizing what was to happen. "Fine." She said, sounding a bit bored, getting off the bed and walking past Kai.
Kai looked back at where Denzelle disappeared to, seeing her walk into the living room and disappear from there. He turned back to Tori, closing the door behind him as he walked into the room and closer to her. "Are you feeling better?" Tori asked him quietly.
"Yeah, I'm fine now." Kai nodded a bit, looking so convincing that Tori couldn't tell if he was faking it or not. He slowly reached out to her, smiling lightly, hands moving from brushing against Tori's shoulders to Tori's cheeks before leaning in close enough for a kiss. Tori's eyes fluttered closed at that, softening up and leaning more into the kiss. The two settled back at the bottom of Tori's bed, sometimes parting for breath while Tori was sometimes unsure of things. By now she'd wrapped her arms around Kai's neck and leaned back against one of the pillows, Kai's hands on her waist.
Someone clearing their throat was heard and both teenagers froze in place, Tori and Kai screwing their eyes shut with a bit of irritation in them. "Can it wait, Denzelle?" Tori said through gritted teeth.
"Depends…" Denzelle started a bit rudely, "Shall I bring your parents up and let them see the show or should I leave them waiting outside?" she asked.
Tori gasped a bit and moved away from Kai, closing her mouth. "What are they doing here?" she asked, after a few minutes.
"Ask them." Denzelle retorted before leaving.
A/N: Another chapter up before the weekend. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. I'll try to get the chapter up as soon as I can and I'm sorry that this chapter was a bit shorter than usual but I wanted to get it up. Please review, I'd like an opinion on this chapter. Please. //Pouts like Tori// lol somehow that wont work with me huh?