Cats And Dogs

by Kare Uta

Mr Dickinson hires someone to help train the team, or maybe even do a bit more than that. Most of the team easily adjust to her, one doesnt though. KaiOC and frinedship story between Kai and the rest of the team.

24. Where'd You Go?

Chapter 24

Tori lay back on the sofa, she'd parted her legs just slightly as Kai rested his form in between, his head resting on her stomach. Before anyone thought such things, no they hadn't just had sex. Really, it needed to be said, particularly because some people would get the wrong idea. They'd just made out, talked for a while, made out some more and that took a lot out of the two, Kai feeling tired and Tori feeling her head pounding from the tumour that suffocated her mind.

Tori just smiled the whole time, gently running all her fingers through Kai's soft hair. Happiness running through her the whole time as she watched the boy resting peacefully on her. She rested her head back against the pillows that her head heavily rested on for support.

Kai carefully lifted his head off his girlfriend's stomach and looked up at the girl's sweet face. He tried his best to form a small smile and spoke quietly, "Get some rest."

Tori smiled at his words, "Maybe I should…you clearly are making yourself comfortable." She said quietly with a laugh at the end.

Kai placed his hands by Tori's sides for support before pushing himself off of her. "Sorry." He whispered.

Tori smiled more and wrapped her arms around Kai's neck, "Don't be. I don't mind." She whispered, "It feels nice to watch you be so…relaxed." She added.

"I wish it could last." Kai whispered back, returning to his former position as Tori pulled him down into it.

"Maybe it could."

"I doubt it." Kai muttered.

Tori went back to tracing her fingers through the boy's hair, seeing that he found it soothing. "Yeah, well don't because you never know what could happen."

Kai rested up on his elbows by Tori's sides, looking up at her in search for the right words to tell her. "You know…after so many years of pain…you can't really expect me to believe everything in life will be good." He told her softly.

"I don't expect you to do that…" Tori remained smiling, even with something as serious as this, she remained smiling. Smiling was the comforting side of her, as long as she was smiling at someone it made them feel a certain sense of safety which she thought was good for Kai to feel. "I just think that you shouldn't be so quick to think that the world is out to get you."

"But that was the way I was raised."

"You think I don't know that?" Tori asked him. "I know very little about how you grew up but with the little I know, I use it fully and I know you were raised in ways that doesn't count to how things are now and it'll take some time to change but you have to try."

Kai frowned a bit, pushing himself to sit up. "But…you know I'm trying right?" he asked.

Tori sat up to join him and smiled caringly, reaching a gentle hand out to stroke his cheek. "Of course I know."

Kai pulled away from Tori's hand, moving to the end of the sofa before sitting back comfortably. He shuddered against the contact of a cold breeze touching his skin, a breeze he hadn't felt when lying down and being warmed up against Tori. Although, now something quickly ran through his mind and after a moment he glanced around, turning his head to look at Tori before tilting his head slightly. "What were we just talking about?" he asked quickly.

Tori's eyes widened at him and she sat forward, "Kai?"

"What?"

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

Tori sat back again as she had been before and picked up Kai's hand, a light squeeze from her hand onto his. Kai just lay back, staring on ward at the ceiling in some thought, and preferably suppressing the memories. Although, through his best efforts of holding them back, one got through.

---Flashback---

Two bodies, of two young, eight year old innocent boys, fell to the solid concrete ground with a sickening thud, both dead, a bleeding stab wound right through their chests. Kai, just as young and innocent as those two boys, looked on, fear, pain and mild anger shining in his crimson orbs as he stared on at the dead forms of the two he'd called his friends for a day. He would have cried, burst into tears in a second if it weren't for the tall, terrifying man with the blooded knife in hand looming over him. "I thought I had made it clear that no one was to be friends with those boys." Boris said angrily as he stared down menacingly at the frightened child. "The only thing…keeping me from doing the same thing I did to them to you…is the fact that your grandfather will never forgive me for it." Kai backed up against the wall, trying so hard to hide his fear but found that that was now impossible. "Although…I'm almost sure he'd make an exception to you getting hurt,"

Kai shut his eyes tightly as he felt the stinging sensation of the cold steel knife being dragged along his arm for only a second at the speed that Boris had pulled at it. The child bit down tightly on his bottom lip, pulling back a yell of pain as he slowly tasted blood from his lip that had been cut open from the pressure he put on it.

---EndFlashback---

Kai's head shot up again, breathing heavily, just trying to grasp one clear breath of air. Tori sat up, placing a careful and hesitant hand on Kai's shoulder, maybe he'd realize she was there, which he did. He looked on at her; almost blankly the whole time till Tori cupped his chin and moved closer to him. "Talk." She whispered. She didn't think she had ever caught him when he felt so defenceless. Usually he'd remain as strong as he could after a nightmare and say it was nothing but since she'd been so close when it had happened it only made it easier for her to talk to her, even if he didn't want to.

Kai sat forward, his breathing now clear and rhythmic again as it usually was. His right hand traced along his shoulder, the same one that had been cut through so many times by the male mentor, or more like…tormentor. "Two boys are dead because of me." He whispered weakly.

"What?" Tori asked, she hadn't heard him the first time as he had been too quiet when speaking so she moved closer to him to make it easier for her to hear him.

"Two boys are dead because of me." Kai said it louder this time, turning his head to the side just slightly, on his features only being seen the slight flinches of pain but otherwise, he kept things together as best he could.

"Why is it your fault?" Clearly Tori was confused. Yes, she'd been told about some things that went on in the Abbey, the experiments, the training, the beatings, the deaths but the fact that Kai blamed himself for the death of two boys was something new to her ears.

"I tried to be friends with them." Kai replied.

Tori looked on disbelievingly but moved herself closer to him. "You didn't do anything wrong." She told him quietly.

"For that time and place, I did."

Tori placed a gentle hand on Kai's back, almost completely feeling Kai's heartbeat from there. Her eyes looked on sympathetically, even though they never made contact with Kai's, "Is this what you've been living with? That…it's your fault they died?"

All Kai did was listen to what she said before nodding almost numbly, completely out of the state and probably not paying as much attention anymore.

Tori pulled her arms around Kai, and pulled at him a little so he'd sit back against the back of the sofa. "It's not your fault. You were young, you were a kid…" none of what she said was getting through to Kai, until she added something at least, "you were human."

Despite the bit of shock those words obtained from Kai, he just replied coldly towards her, "It's still not a good reason."

"Maybe not now that you're older but you need to give yourself some credit."

"I don't care…it doesn't change the fact that they're dead and that they can't live their lives the way they wanted to."

"So you think they'd want you to destroy your own life because of them?" Tori asked, very reasonably actually. "Wouldn't they want you to live life well? Like they would have wanted to live their lives."

"What choice do I have? Whether I like it or not I'm always going to remember those events. Not just because of what happened to them but because of what happened to me too."

"But you got through it, didn't you?"

"Yes, once! But because I got through it that one time, it doesn't mean I'm ready to go through it every day."

"I didn't say you have to go through it everyday." Tori smiled. Kai didn't even give her an answer, he was just too busy being lost in his own thoughts that he was just shoved out of the world that was around him. Tori alerted him back to the present by squeezing his hand tightly again, she usually had to do that just to get him to pay attention.

Kai stood up slowly and looked down at her for a second, "I'm going for a walk." He said quietly, then hurriedly turning and leaving the room.

Tori leant against the living room door, from where she could see Kai opening the front door to leave. "You'll come back right?"

Kai looked at her for a second, nodding, "I always do."

Then Tori just watched him leave, crossing her arms she went back to the sofa and lay down again. "His fault? That's stupid." She whispered.

'Agreed.' Denzelle whispered in her Mistress' mind.

'I wish he weren't so…destroyed by what's happened to him. I wish it didn't have to affect him.'

'Then he wouldn't be the same person you know at the moment.'

'I know that, a lot would change if he hadn't gotten hurt the way he did but I just wish he could finally let it go.'

'I know.'

'And a real lot has happened within the last few years.'

---Flashback---

Tori sat cross-armed in the doctor's office at a large table, her parents by her side. "You can't be serious." The doctor said.

"I'm dead serious." Tori smirked. Saying that sounded perfect for the time. She'd just been given the news of her brain tumour and was given the option of dieing without the surgery or taking the surgery within the next month and by now…everyone knew what she'd chosen.

"Sweetie, re-think this." Maria told her daughter weakly, at the same time tightening her grip on her skirt.

"There isn't anything to re-think."

"But you're young and if successful, you can live a perfectly normal life again."

"And if not successful?" Tori asked, smirking as she asked the question, already knowing the answer.

"You could bleed out…"

"Which is dieing anyway…no?"

"But we caught it an early stage so there's a chance…" The Japanese doctor started. Five years ago, they had been in Iwate, a place in Japan, surprisingly the same place that Kai's father had died in a car crash.

Tori stood up, hands tightening on the table. Her usual bright auburn hair fell over her shoulders, her thin pale arms barely supporting her when she stood but she remained firmly there and didn't weaken. "Let me tell you this in a language you'll understand…" She started. "Watashi…shuno."

---EndFlashback---

'And from the second I said those two words my parents knew how serious I was.'

'It wasn't easy for them to deal with, not then and not now.'

'I know but the whole time I had things I had to deal with too so I didn't really care.'

'I think back then everyone knew that.' Denzelle smiled.

Tori laughed, mostly because she knew that the bit-beast was right about it. 'Yeah, I think they did.'

'You're tired, Mistress?'

'As the time gets closer tiredness drags at me more everyday.'

'I see that. I'll leave you to get your rest.'

Tori closed her eyes, smiling and nodding in thanks towards the bit-beast. She opened her eyes, took one last glance at the clock that showed it was seven thirty and then she closed her eyes and gave in to the darkness.

The whole sleep was refreshing and peaceful, no pain being released through her head for the first sleep she'd had in ages. At the same time, her loving bit-beast watched over her, as Tori did to her many times before. She pulled the blankets tighter around herself, since despite the heat outside, the air conditioner was starting to make her feel too cold and she was still far too tired to be bothered to get up to switch it off.

A few more hours of sleep went on but when Tori finally caught sight of the clock again she instantly sat up again, her mind swirling with dizziness and tiredness. She wiped the sleep out of her eyes, looking on at the clock, 10:45pm. "Kai?" Tori called out into the house from where she sat on the sofa, not hearing any reply from the boy in question. The girl sighed heavily and got off the sofa, wavering slightly at first before pulling together the strength to walk in a straight line to the kitchen. She poured out some water in a glass, turning to put the bottle back in the fridge, she saw a paper stuck to the fridge with a magnet.

The writing was clearly Kai's, that much she knew. 'Got home, saw you asleep, decided to go see the others at the Dojo. Don't wait up.'

Tori smiled slightly, clearly Kai knew her too well. He'd known where to put the message and he'd known that she actually would wait up for him. She walked out of the room, still smiling happily at every thought that went through her mind, each memory a large part of the story of her life. She jumped onto her bed, lying back comfortably on the soft mattress. Turning onto her side she raised an eyebrow when she saw a box and something else on her dressing table.

She stood up quickly and ran over to the objects on the surface. One thing she saw was a neatly closed envelope, 'Tori' written on the front. The auburn-haired girl slowly picked up the letter, opening it hesitantly yet curiously as she sat down on the bed, then began to slowly read the neat words on the delicate page she held in her hand.

'Dear Tori,

We all know that your time is almost up soon so we decided to put something together, although Kai isn't around to be a part of it as always. Well I guess we all just wanted to tell you that it's been great having you around for the past few months. Did you know we've known you for about half a year? It seems like we've known each other forever but time went by so fast. We all know its been great knowing you, you were a pretty strict coach for a while, and you did give us our fair share of scares every now and then.

We had to admit, that first time we heard we were getting a trainer we didn't really like the idea but then we got to know you and things got better. Then we found out how much you were trying to help Kai and that increased things. True, we argued a lot when it came to some things like our breaks and about who thought what was best for Kai but we got over things and we managed and I guess we all think that our friendship went through a lot. Well the point of this letter was just to thank you for all you've done for us since we've met you, so really, from the whole team, thanks for your help and support and I'm sure if Kai were here, he'd say the same thing, we know him that much.

Your friends, always,

Tyson, Max & Ray.

Tears streamed heavily down from Tori's crystal brown eyes, the tears slipping faster as she found a picture of her and the team attached to the letter. She wiped at the dampness on her cheeks with the back of her fingers, placing the letter and picture beside her on the bed. She took a deep breath, pulling back her tears as she fought to smile, standing up and walking over to the last thing that was left on her table.

She carefully picked up the box, staring down at it as she walked backwards and sat down on the bed again. Carefully she opened the box, looking on with widened eyes as she saw what was in there. She placed her hands into the box, slowly picking up a white music box, the same music box that Kai had seen her looking at in the store when they were shopping for Max. Sobs caught quickly in Tori's throat, tears streaming even faster than before as she opened the elegant music box.

As the music played Tori noticed the slip of paper that was found inside the box. She picked it up, trying to blink the tears out of her eyes to be able to see the few words that were written on the page. 'Thought you might like this as a thank you for what you've done to help me.'

'I can't believe…he actually remembered.' Tori thought, smiling just slightly through her tears. She left the music from the box keep playing when her eyes drifted off to look outside and didn't shift the gaze for about five minutes.

---Three Hours Later- With The Others---

"Are you sure you're okay Kai?" Tyson asked, glancing at his captain again. The whole team was grouped in Kai's room at the Dojo and an hour before he'd said that something was wrong and he looked like he'd break down at any moment. Since then the whole team was worried about him and total him to relax since they decided it wasn't safe for him to walk back to Tori's apartment.

"Yeah, fine."

"You don't really believe that, do you?" Ray asked him.

"Kai…" Max tried to snap Kai out of his thoughts, realizing he'd succeeded when Kai's head shot in his direction.

"I have a feeling something bad has happened." Kai whispered, the team hearing him though.

"I get that." Max whispered to himself.

A banging sound was heard from downstairs and all turned their attention to the door, then glancing at each other to see who was going to see what was downstairs. Kai, being the oldest, and most mature, just got off the bed without a problem, walking to the door and opening it. What landed against him amazed him, and at first, frightened him when he hadn't see what it was.

Denzelle was sobbing in his arms, her own arms wrapped around his neck as she cried into the side of his neck. "What happened?" Kai asked hurriedly, gripping the girl's slender shoulders and moving her off him slightly so he could look at her.

"She disappeared." Denzelle cried out.

"What do you mean?" Max asked, the others and him rushing up beside Kai to look at Denzelle.

"She…she said I should go take a break…from looking after her and she ordered me to go for a walk to cool off and when I got back she was gone and I can't get back to my blade!"

"Wait…what do you mean you can't get back to your blade."

"I don't know, it's like it doesn't exist!"

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kai asked angrily, not even taking in the fact that he'd increased a large amount of pressure on the fragile bit-beast's shoulders.

Ray moved Kai's hands off Denzelle and lured the girl over to the bed, setting her down gently, keeping his arms around her as he sat down beside her.

Kai turned to Denzelle, calming down, kneeling down on the ground in front of her. "Answer me, is she dead?" he asked her, trying to hold his voice down to its usual calm manner.

"I don't know." Denzelle told him angrily, frustrated that Kai thought, or at least acted as though he were the only one hurting over it.

"Where could she have gone?" Tyson asked quietly, pushing Kai away from the distressed girl.

"I checked everywhere that I thought she would be."

Kai turned away from the group, pulled out his phone and dialled Tori's number in a hurry. Denzelle bit her lip once she noticed this, pain surging through her as she stepped towards Kai and from behind him, held something between her two fingers and placed it in front of him.

Kai's jaw dropped just slightly and picked up the small object from between her fingers. The small cold piece of plastic and metal was clearly the card of Tori's phone. "Wherever she's gone to…she really doesn't want to be found." Kai thought aloud.

---An Hour Later---

Ray walked downstairs into the kitchen, leaning back against the table, not taking his strict eyes off his captain who had been sitting on the kitchen counter, a bottle of alcohol in hand as he stared on at the ground. "I put Denzelle in my room for the night, and Tyson and Max are sharing a room so I'll take Tyson's. You should go get some rest too."

"I knew something had happened."

"Don't blame yourself."

---Flashback---

Kai sat with the others outside the Dojo, all of them where talking and he was just listening to all they had to say to each other. It amazed him really, because they spoke to each other so much it was as though they hadn't spoken to each other in years. But that was when he'd felt it, his heart skip beats, feeling his heart stop completely for at least twenty seconds and something in his mind kept racing.

---In his mind/vision---

Tori smiled as she was on her way out the apartment door and Kai stood far across from her, he couldn't even see himself though, as if he were just watching her. She looked happy, smiling at him as she waved with her left hand and her right one was about to pull the door closed behind her when she spoke, happily as always. "Ja, Kai. Itekimasu!" she called out.

---End Vision---

By the end of that, vision, or day dream or whatever you wanted to call it, everyone around him had noticed his change in breathing and all eyes where on him.

---EndFlashback---

"I just need to know what she said to me." Kai muttered to himself.

Ray sighed, walking over to Kai and grabbing the bottle from his hand but Kai just tightened his grip around it and wouldn't budge, even though he hadn't drank much from it. "What would Tori say if she knew you were drinking like this?" Ray asked him, in hopes of breaking him down.

"If she were here, I wouldn't be drinking." Kai reminded him stubbornly.

"That's not the point."

"It bloody well is the point, Ray!"

"You two got really attached didn't you?"

"NO! I've just been staying at her place these past few months because I enjoyed yelling at her every morning." Kai yelled at him, sarcastically.

Ray sighed and sat down at table, "Alright, I get it, calm down." He told him. "What do you think happened?"

"I have no clue, I've run out of ideas." Kai replied, taking another sip of vodka from the bottle, wincing slightly as the liquid ran through his body painfully. "Maybe she just got scared and ran away." He tried.

"It doesn't sound like something she'd do though."

"Taking her own life doesn't sound like something she'd do either."

"What?" Ray asked confusedly.

"She had the option of taking surgery to save herself but the chances surgery worked was slim but she still lied to you guys when she said that there was no way she could be saved."

"And you knew the truth?" Ray raised an eyebrow at the older captain.

"Yeah, she told me the same day she told you that she was dieing."

"I don't think that would be considered taking her own life though…would it?"

"She's avoiding the one thing that could save her life and she's dieing a painful death, to me, that's taking her own life."

"She's avoiding the one thing that could save her life and she's dieing a painful death, to me, that's taking her own life."

"I'm sure she didn't mean for it to be like that. She probably made the decision a long time ago."

"Five years ago, she had plenty of time to take that surgery, even more time to change her mind."

"I'm sure she has a reason for what's she's doing."

The two teenagers then heard and caught a glimpse of a thin figure running past the kitchen door and both ran after it outside. "Hey!" Kai called out to the dark figure.

Denzelle spun around, standing straight before the two boys. "I'm going to find her." She said coldly.

"You can't go out this late." Ray told her, "She doesn't want to be found, not for now at least."

"Itekimasu." Denzelle turned away and was just about to leave the gates in a quick run.

"Wait! What did you just say?" Kai asked, once recognizing he'd heard the word before, recently, too recently.

Denzelle heard something in Kai's voice, hope? Something that made her stop dead in her tracks, "It means 'I'll go and come back.'" She replied hesitantly.

Kai stopped for a moment, taking a breath as he stared at the ground, a small smirk on his face before looking up at the others, "Tori's coming back, soon."

"How do you know?" Denzelle asked, stepping closer to Kai.

"Come on, tell us Kai."

"Its like she had told me…before when we were out here."

Ray looked on at Kai, confusion written all over his face as he stepped closer. "You're serious…aren't you?" he asked, disbelievingly.

Kai nodded and looked up at Denzelle, his eyes reading something Denzelle couldn't quite understand, nothing he did or said, or showed in his eyes could be read accurately, he was a complex person and being there, standing in front of him, with the person she's known all her life, gone, she could see that no matter how complex Kai was, he was almost always right about things and now, she saw how her Mistress could have fallen so hard for such a person. "Go back inside, get some rest. If we don't hear from Tori by tomorrow morning than we'll go look for her but staying out here isn't going to bring her back."

Denzelle stood there looking on at him before hesitantly nodding and walking past the two males and back into the Dojo.

A/N: Sooooo….what did you think of that chapter? I know that last chapter had a ton of mistakes and the site ended up screwing up a paragraph I had edited, the one that was repeated. Forgive me for all my spelling and grammatical mistakes in that chapter but I was under a lot of stress and I suppose you could see that through the chapter. I'm sorry that maybe this chapter wasn't to your expectations but I had less days to work.

Please review people and I'll try to work on another chapter soon.