Chapter 30
Tori pulled tighter around Kai's waist, always keeping her eyes on the scar of the major wound Kai had optained from his grandfather, making sure that she didn't touch the scar in fear that it would cause him more discomfort. She looked up at him for a moment, then returned to resting her head on his shoulder, "Are you alright?" she whispered softly. She had to admit that what Kai's grandfather had done to him had come to a bit of a surprise, not expecting that he was that heartless. She was worrying a little now though. Kai had been open with her about what had happened to him but the coldness of his grandfather had worried her, making her innocent mind wonder about how someone could be so cold hearted to a teenager.
"Of course."
Tori tightened her hand's grip on Kai's shirt as she bit down on her lip again for a second before speaking, "Now that you're talking a little. Do you mind if I ask a question? You don't need to answer it but its just been something on my mind."
"Go ahead." Kai patiently waited as Tori took her sweet time to ask the question, probably going on in her mind whether or not she should ask him or not. He gave her arm a squeeze which made her head jolt up to look at him, his eyes then locking with hers, practically ordering her to ask her question.
Tori sighed and rested her head on Kai's stomach lightly, "Why did you fight to remain alive when your grandfather stabbed you? I mean, I'm not complaining about it or anything but you seem to have hated everything around you, why fight for a life you didn't want?"
"That's easy; because I couldn't let him win, if I died then I would have been proving him right."
Tori sighed yet again and closed her eyes, "Finally I found a good reason for the male pride."
"It's in the past now so you don't need to think about it." Kai told her quietly.
"You do."
"I was also the one that went through it, I have reasons to think about it."
"And I'm your girlfriend and I worry about you so I have a reason to think about it too." Tori kept persisting, obviously; it was in her nature after all, not to mention the fact that she's stubborn beyond the human belief, by now she's proved that.
"You don't need to worry, at all for that matter. It's my problem and not yours and I'm dealing with it just fine."
"I suppose."
Kai held tighter onto Tori, moving her arm a little just so that he could tighten his hold on her. He reached forward and picked the phone up off the table and handed it to her, "Let's order in." he told her.
"I'm not hungry actually." Tori sat up and lay on the other side of the sofa, gently setting her head onto a pillow for some comfort to her aching skull.
"What? Since when?" Kai sat up properly too and looked over at her, eyes holding some concern for her.
Tori looked at him oddly, "I'm just not hungry." She repeated.
Kai reached a hand towards Tori, stroking her hair and her cheek with his thumb, trying a small but worried smile, "Alright." He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead, held their fixed looks in their eyes before Kai got off the sofa and walked to the kitchen, taking the cordless phone with him. Tori remained lying there in absolute silence, occasionally concentrating enough to be able to hear Kai on the phone down the hall, probably ordering in a pizza for dinner. After a while though Tori lost strength completely and closed her eyes, falling asleep in a few seconds, a peaceful warmth washing over her.
Tori remained lying there in absolute silence, occasionally concentrating enough to be able to hear Kai on the phone down the hall, probably ordering in a pizza for dinner. After a while though Tori lost strength completely and closed her eyes, falling asleep in a few seconds, a peaceful warmth washing over her.
"Tori, come on wake up."
Tori opened her dark eyes and looked up into Kai's crimson ones, looking confused and tired at the same time, "What?" she whispered.
"Come to bed." Kai ordered softly, picking up her hands to help her off the sofa.
Tori groaned tiredly, swinging her legs off the side of the sofa and using Kai's help to haul herself off the sofa before she walked past him to her room. She entered her bathroom, changed as fast as she could with the sleepiness swirling in her head before staggering back into the bedroom and falling onto the bed, crawling under the covers and not saying another word after a faint 'good night' to Kai who'd just lay down next to her.
Kai took a deep breath, turned onto his side with his back towards Tori to finally get some rest of his own. Despite Tori's exhaustion she found a little strength in her to do one more act from her heart. She crawled over to Kai's side of the bed, gave him a sweet peck on the cheek and lay down close to him for added warmth. In cases like these Tori would usually wrap her arms around his waist but considering the circumstances and her exhaustion she decided against it for once and instead just kept a soft hand on his arm for some form of comfort to him.
For the most part, the two teenagers in love fell asleep quickly and peacefully. Tori's night was quiet, feeling a warmth as she slept and a small smile was on her face through most of the night. Very early in the morning though she felt a light cold breeze against her bare legs, apparently the covers had been tugged right off her as the breeze touched the rest of the bare areas of her body soon after. "Stop that." She whispered to Kai, tugging the sheets back before they were pulled off her again. She huffed angrily and sat up in bed, moving her hand out to her bedside table before flicking the switch while speaking, "Kai I swear if you pull the…" she paused one she looked over at Kai in the light.
Just a plain, thin, shaking figure in the space on the bed beside her. Tori sighed, got off the bed and walked over to her wardrobe before pulling out some more blankets. Placing them at the bottom of the bed she unfolded two before placing them carefully over Kai, then taking the last one to her side of the bed and lying down, setting the blanket over her own form.
---Next Morning---
It was almost 11:30 and Kai was just on his way out of the apartment when Tori had stepped out of her bedroom, pulling the door closed behind her when she saw Kai leaving. "Hey, where are you going?" she asked, walking down the hall to stand beside him.
"Tyson's." Kai replied casually.
"You're not training, Kai."
Kai walked out the door and into the hall, "I'm fine now so I'm capable of training."
"You aren't." Tori tugged at his hand and pulled him back into the apartment, "You need to stop moving around all the time."
"I told you I feel fine."
"Have you actually counted how many times you've been wrong?" Tori asked, aiming it for it to be a bit more of a rhetorical question.
"I need to get out of here."
Tori huffed angrily, crossing her arms and leaning back against the wall, "You really need to look after yourself more."
"I'm looking after myself just fine."
"Nooooooo, you're not." Tori told him.
"Let's go out then, but I just need to get out of here and get some air."
Tori pushed herself off the wall and continued to look at him, contemplating in her mind, "Fine, we'll go for a walk, then maybe check in on the others later but no training and no dictating."
Kai groaned and turned to leave the apartment, muttering, "Fine."
"Smart choice, honey." Tori smiled, running out the door and pulling the door behind her.
"It was the only choice." Kai pointed out, obviously frustrated as he walked down the stairs to the street, Tori following close behind.
Tori stopped for a second, jerked her thumb over her shoulder and asked, "You want to go back upstairs?"
"No. Thanks."
"You're a very smart person." Tori latched onto his arm, smiling contently.
---Later---
Tori ran through the gate of the Dojo, Kai following far behind her as he gave up on trying to catch up with the other girl. Tori entered the Dojo, seeing everyone else there as she smiled down at them, obviously the whole team on a break. "Hey, guys!" Tori jumped and sat down on the ground between Tyson and Max, smiling happily.
"Hey."
"What are you doing here; I thought you were meant to be resting?" Ray voiced, almost worriedly.
Tori pouted, seeming a little upset by his words which surprised everyone, "You're not happy to see me?" she asked, an almost adorable sadness in her clear brown eyes.
Ray was taken slightly aback by the look on her face and replied with a small stutter at first, "Of course I'm happy to see you but that's not the point."
Tori quickly cheered up again, smiling and blinking as it seemed as though her eyes where smiling with her lips, "So what is the point?"
"The one where we had an argument yesterday that ended with us agreeing that I'd be in charge of training and you and Kai would be at home resting."
"Kai and I wanted to go out for a while so we went for a walk and lunch." Tori said hurriedly in her defence.
"And where is Kai now?" Tyson asked her.
When Tori opened her mouth to speak she noticed Kai walk into the Dojo and up behind her, looking down at them all with some anger in his cold crimson eyes. "Hey, Kai!" Tori greeted happily.
"Kai, what's wrong with Tori?" Ray stood up so he could be closer to Kai as both males stared down at the girl, confusion on Ray's face while annoyance and frustration clouded Kai's along with the tint of exhaustion stirred up in there.
"Her head was hurting so she wanted to get ice-cream and she had far too much for anyone's good."
"I like Tori when she's hyper." Max told the rest of the team, laughing as he said it.
Kai didn't find anything of any importance to say to the team so he prepared to leave again with a last few words, "Baby sit Tori for a while, I'm going for a peaceful walk."
"Can I come?" Tyson asked quickly.
"I thought I said I was going for a peaceful walk, that's why I'm leaving Tori behind. And don't feed her anything else with sugar…otherwise she'll be bouncing off the walls all night." Kai told them, muttering the last part.
"He's mean." Tori crossed her arms and rested back against Max's shoulder.
"You want to go get some chocolate?" Tyson asked her quietly, purposely so that the one in charge of looking after the troublesome ones wouldn't hear them.
"I'll race you to the kitchen." Tori whispered back mischievously. The three got off the ground and ran out of the room to the kitchen, leaving Ray alone in the empty room. Ray sighed and slid back down onto the floor, leaning back against the wall till he could be bothered to get up and wrestle different sugars out of the hands of the three most immature teenagers he knew. Before he could get up to go after them Tori practically flew in and sat in front of him quickly, "Chocolate?" she asked him, handing him a bar of white chocolate.
"No thanks."
Tori tilted her head slightly, "Is Kai fed up of me?" she asked.
"What? No, of course not. Why would you think that?"
"I don't think I've ever seen him so eager to leave me behind." Tori commented.
"I'm sure he just needed a few minutes alone, he'll be back soon but it's no reason to believe he's fed up of you."
"Alright. So you want some chocolate?" Tori offered again.
Ray smiled a little at her sound of persistence, "I already said no thanks."
"Oh…right…you did. Sorry."
"It's ok. So what kind of mess are Max and Tyson making?"
"Nothing they can't sleep off."
"That's comforting."
"I thought so too." Tori laughed. "You better go keep them out of trouble." She advised quietly, a smile never leaving her face.
"Yeah, probably. I'll talk to you later then." Ray stood up, flashed Tori a sweet smile before he left the room. Tori smiled too, only this time there was no one left in the room to see it but they all knew it was there, it almost always was. She got off the ground and walked outside, settling down on the porch so she could greet Kai once he arrived back to the Dojo.
---With Kai- Half An Hour Later---
The Russian captain was miles away from the Dojo by now, he'd run the for a few blocks to be certain that Tori, nor the other team members would follow him and question him about anything. Now he was moving at a slow and steady pace, his hands in his pocket as he walked down the streets, mild thoughts of different parts of his life going on in his head, forcing himself to evaluate his life and himself and his reasons for being there.
They were all thoughts that had started resurfacing when he was walking with Tori and was held deep into the thoughts that Tori constantly caught him spacing out so he decided to put off the thinking until he was alone long enough to think for himself without any interruptions, or so he hoped that there wouldn't be any at least. Most of the time he was trying to keep self-loathing thoughts as far off as he could and just tried to pick out all the things that Tori and his team had said about him in the past. The team had always considered him a good part of the team, all of them saying that without him the team would have fallen apart but sometimes he thought that it was him that broke the team up in the first place.
He'd discarded that idea soon after, thinking that if he were the one who had broke the team up then they wouldn't be together at present, and they wouldn't have let him continue being part of the team. Then there where all the things his grandfather had done and said to him over the years. Everything he had been called wasn't anything that special, just the usual stuff anyone can call you but these hurt because they were said by a family member, not to mention the family member he had tried to please for many years, the one he looked up to despite all he had had him been put through. That night Tori forced him to think about all those things and made him cry, a few days later she singled out every single insult Kai had been called in the letter and found some proof to prove his grandfather wrong and in a sense it was comforting to know that there was someone who believed in him.
It wasn't that he didn't believe what Tori said and her disagreements with Voltaire but once words like his grandfather's got in, it was a little hard to get them out and believe someone else, someone you didn't know for as long. It was just the psychological ways of dealing with things that he actually went on to hating himself, but now it just took too long to try to get rid of the irritating feeling.
Then he was startled by a ringing in his pocket, he sighed, stopped for a second and looked around the streets, not realizing where he had been walking and took a moment to take it all in. He then turned back to his pocket and slid out his phone, sighing with frustration as he saw Ray calling him. He rested his back against the wall and just shoved his phone back into his pocket, ignoring the ringing before he kept on walking. Groaning and taking a deep breath when he finally heard his phone ringing for a second time in five minutes. He looked at the phone, contemplated for a minute on whether or not he should answer but he did after a third ring, "Yeah?" he sounded monotonous as always, not caring about how cold he sounded at the time.
'Hey Kai, where are you?'
'Out for a walk.'
Ray was obviously frustrated with Kai's answer and Kai was more than positive that Ray had muttered, 'That's helpful.' Before he actually spoke to him, 'How far are you from the hospital?'
'About three blocks away, why?'
'You promise that you're going to remain calm?'
'I am calm!' Kai said through gritted teeth.
'You're not but whatever. Tori collapsed again and she's just been admitted to the hospital.'
'What?!'
'Doctors are checking on her now, so far there's nothing to worry about but you should be here soon.'
'I'll be there in a few minutes.' Kai shut the phone before Ray even had a chance to take in what he'd said, turned and sprinted to the hospital that was three blocks away from his current location. Once he arrived there he looked for the same section of the hospital where Tori could always be found, especially her doctor. He saw Tyson and Max standing outside a hospital room and he raced up to them, "So?" he asked them.
"She's fine, Ray is seeing her now." Max answered, standing up.
"So what happened?" Kai asked them urgently, he couldn't help but panic and the other two could tell.
"Her head was just hurting and she collapsed again, don't worry so much." Tyson tried comforting, placing a hand on Kai's shoulder and bringing him to sit down.
"And what did the doctors say?!"
Max smiled and sat down beside Kai, "I think if one were here he'd tell you to calm down before you gave yourself a heart attack."
"Just answer the question, please." Kai told him, sounding already annoyed that people were taking so much concern over his worry.
"The doctors said that it's normal that she collapsed after brain surgery, saying that they'd be more worried if she didn't collapse." Tyson answered, almost too quickly, most likely afraid of his angering captain.
A/N: Extremely short chapter! Blame my sister who decided to slice and dice my face with her nails and ram my shoulder into the ground and bruise the bone so forgive me but at least it shows she's better for those of you who were concerned. Nothing much to say! Please review!