November 26, 2011

Warning: Coarse language.

Thank you for the reviews and faves. About the house, thank you as well! I know I'm not the best interior designer...or architect...or engineer...but I hope it is sufficient enough!

As always I believe it is my duty to inform you guys that my stories are usually slow-paced and long.

Also I apologize for my slow updates. There's no excuse for it except for procrastination.

Disclaimer: Beyblade not mine!

Stress Reliever
Step Three

The rest of the day went uneventful. Aside from the "snacks" as Kai so eloquently put it, and by that he really did mean eating snacks—specifically sweets—they were talking about some business stuff that Rei still had no idea what was about. Then evening came, they had a silent dinner, afterwards Rei decided to go to the study to check out the books. Unfortunately most of them were in Russian although there were a few English and Japanese, and with the little choice he had he took one to bed and read until he fell asleep. And that was still fairly early, about nine in the evening...well. Not much to do anyway.

Rei woke up at six AM. His normal routine.

"Ugh..." he stirred awake from his sleep, blinking his eyes open. What—this wasn't his room—

Oh, right. Kai's house in good ol' Russia.

He glanced at his left, finding a burly pale-haired man sprawled on his bed on the other side of the room.

Oh, right. Boris' room.

Slowly, he sat from the bed and put a hand on his head. Did he need to remind himself where he was every time he wakes up? If he's going to go through with this he might as well do a decent job at it. Not wanting to dwell on it any further he got off the bed and rummaged the drawer for a fresh set of clothes. He didn't even bother thinking if he was too noisy to wake up his roommate, he probably assumed that the other person was a heavy sleeper. Stretching his limbs, he proceeded to go out and into the bathroom next door.

Boris let out a muffled growl before turning to the other side.

x

About thirty minutes passed and Rei already finished taking a bath, currently taking liberties in the kitchen preparing some coffee, when a voice stopped him from his musing.

"If I want to look for you, I check the kitchen?"

"Ooh, I'm Kai, I'm such a comedian!" was Rei's lame comeback as he handed the Russian a mug of coffee. Kai only smirked at him and took the offering.

Completely forgetting that he was ridiculed, Rei happily took a sip from his own coffee. It was just something he had been accustomed to for the past years—how much he enjoyed drinking this hot, bittersweet beverage early in the morning.

Kai was staring at him again. Maybe it was a habit he formed himself over the amount of time they haven't seen each other? He definitely didn't do that back when they were still blading...did that mean Rei have to get used to this nagging unusualness?

"I never thought you'd be the coffee type," Kai finally spoke up before bringing his cup to his lips.

"Hah, I bet you're thinking that I should be drinking tea instead."

Kai let out a "Hn." before resuming drinking his coffee.

Rei heaved a contented sigh. It's been a while since he experienced this kind of bliss; rising up early in the morning to have delicious, warm coffee while basking in the sun's rays in peaceful silence. Not thinking about anything, worrying about nothing. How did he miss this, anyway?

Oh...right.

"Do you have anything else to do today?" Kai broke him off from his contemplation as Rei took a glance at the Russian.

Did he have anything else to do? At all? He remembered that night before he arrived here at Moscow; he was actually thinking of the same thing at that very moment. But he didn't dawdle on it though and let his instincts take over. Next thing he knew he was standing in front of this building with a paper clutched in his hand, his messy handwriting scrawled on it with the address of a certain Kai Hiwatari.

"No, not really," he answered truthfully, setting down his now empty mug by the sink. "Except maybe water the plants."

Kai chuckled—a genuine chuckle—Rei couldn't help but feel impressed with himself, he actually made Kai laugh. It was such a nice and fulfilling feeling. "Then you will join us today."

"Join where?"

The slate-haired Russian put down his cup. "If you're staying here, I might as well tell you what I do for work."

x

"You're bringing him?"

Yuriy's angered voice sliced through the vast, office-like room. His face only gave confirmation of his fury.

"I see no wrong with it," Kai replied coolly as he arranged some papers on his desk.

No wrong? "First you let him stay without questions, now you're letting him interfere with WORK?" The redhead slammed his hands on the desk, slightly shaking with rage. The other three of the Russians were on the other parts of the room, just silently watching the exchange.

"He would not be interfering. In fact he might prove useful."

Yuriy glared. "You're opening up too much, Kai."

Kai would not let it deter his decision. "He was a teammate. And a friend."

A friend? Yuriy walked away from the office desk and paced towards the other side of the room, his hands fisted at his sides, still shaking. "Aren't WE your friends too?"

Kai couldn't understand. What was it that's bothering Yuriy so much? "What do you have against him?"

And as if it was the question he's waiting for, the scarlet-haired man turned around again to face his friend. "WE," he put as much emphasize on the word as he could, "do not trust him!"

"...I do."

...

"Of course..." Yuriy mumbled as he finally calmed down, settling himself on a plush chair and crossing his arms. The other three were still quiet, mulling over what the hell just happened.

Kai cleared his throat to rid of the forming silence. "Anybody else who have something in their minds?"

Boris, who was leaning on the wall with arms crossed on his chest, did have something in mind. "He better not touch my stuff."

"Anybody else who have something relevant in their minds?"

x

Aside from the increased intensity of the glares during breakfast, it went pretty well actually. Rei wasn't exactly sure what caused it, but he'd bet his bank account that it had something to do with his sudden accompaniment to their workplace. It didn't bother him at all to be honest; of course they would hate the idea, he could take that. But what struck him as sort of odd was the fact that Kai had complete control of the situation.

Hm. Well it's Kai, so that's to be expected. During the times that he returned to the Neo Borg's lineup he was always assigned as the captain.

With six of them now leaving the house, they had to use the SUV, Boris muttering something about "useless brat" as he drove them off to their supposed workplace. Rei was seated at the middle of the vehicle, and thankfully Kai decided to sit by him and needed little force to make Yuriy go to the passenger seat instead. Ivan and Sergey were at the back, not even thinking of sitting next to him.

As the vehicle travelled across the distance, Rei couldn't help but notice some things that he failed to pay attention to before; they were going to work but it seemed none of them were wearing formal suits or even uniforms, except for Kai. Most of them were just in casual clothes and it made Rei wonder what kind of work do they do in the first place. And, as funny as this may sound, but even though the Chinese had been on several encounters with Kai for the past two days, it was only then in that car that he realized that he no longer had those blue markings on his face.

It was something obvious and yet he didn't see...but it's not like Rei was complaining; Kai looked a whole lot nicer without those things on his cheeks.

Maybe it was because that he had associated those triangles with his face that Rei no longer found the intent to notice it. Or maybe it was because that he had always stared at those crimson eyes whenever he found himself talking with Kai. Either way, it didn't really matter.

The vehicle came to a gradual stop, as Kai turned to him and said, "We're here." In a matter of seconds they all got out and Rei was left gaping at the building they were in front of.

"A cafe?" Rei's golden eyes were still wide open as he studied the sign on top of the door: Cafe Euphoria. A sign full of cute little designs of flowers and ribbons. The door and the windows had the same theme too.

Kai stood next to him as the rest of the team went inside the so-called cafe.

"A CAFE?" Rei repeated, turning his head towards Kai who smirked in response.

"What's wrong with a cafe?"

"Well, nothing, but...but the fact that you? Or them? Working in a quaint little cafe serving coffee and pastries..." It just didn't connect! Scary Neo Borg plus cute cafe equals? Cannot comprehend!

"Would it make you feel better if I say I don't serve because I am the owner?"

What.

Rei fidgeted uneasily. "Not really."

Alright. So in a matter of six years, a lot could happen. A lot could change. Maybe the Neo Borg's preference of line of duties had changed too. It wasn't...impossible, just really, really inconceivable. Rei suddenly froze on his spot—maybe he hadn't known them right after all.

"Shall we take a look inside?" Kai offered, gesturing for the door.

When they got inside, it held the same, cutesy feeling the sign had; flowers and ribbons adorned the interior, and everything was designed with a pink and brown theme. PINK! He didn't have anything against pink but relating the color to the Neo Borg was disturbing. Besides, pink reminded him of fuzzy and pleasant things, not to mention his very close friend Mao—

His face faulted.

Kai noticed.

"What's Boris doing over there...?" Rei tried to distract himself as he pointed to the man sitting at the corner of the shop, looking as bored and evil as one could get...times two because this is Boris.

"He's off limits from the cashier and kitchen duty..." Kai replied as he remembered the awful memory from yesterday. "So he's doorman now."

Rei stifled a laugh. "Doorman?" More like a bouncer! The slate-haired Russian didn't share his sentiments though as he only got a shrug in response. Oh well...moving on. "So what do the others do?"

"Sergey's the cook, Yuriy's the cashier. Ivan waits or helps Sergey in the kitchen."

"So...what do YOU do?"

"I...supervise?"

Rei chuckled as he sat down on the nearest chair. "Typical Kai." Pausing a bit to stare at the two-toned-haired man, he continued, "Your suit seems out of place in a cafe though."

"I just got used to it." Hah, another typical Kai answer. Never straightforward, always vague. Rei could only shake his head and smile; another aspect of Kai that didn't change. That's going to be under the "Still the same" category. But anyway, something just didn't make sense out of this, and it's been bugging Rei to no end the moment he stepped out of the car.

He decided to ask and take his chances. "So who thought of the pink theme?"

"Hired interior designer. She said it gives off a warm and homey feeling, whatever that meant," Kai answered nonchalantly as if the question had been asked to him so many times before...which wouldn't be surprising—heck, if you see a cute little cafe and found out the owner and staff were a bunch of manly, burly Russians wouldn't you be curious too? That designer was right though, it certainly made Rei feel a little bit homesick—

He smiled cheekily. "Really? I would've bet my soul it was Boris who presented the idea, after all he seems like the type, y'know?" That made Kai laugh a bit, and suddenly Rei lost all feeling of homesickness.

"I will kill you, Kon," a grumpy, angry voice made the Chinese felt like he had won something that moment...then he remembered, he really shouldn't be messing around somebody who could kill when they will it. Well, Boris couldn't touch him when Kai's around! And both him and Rei were living in Kai's house so he's technically invulnerable—aside from the bedroom where there's only the two of them.

Oh crap...maybe Boris would kill him later when he's sleeping.

"He won't kill you," Kai stated as if he was reading his mind. "Like I said, Boris knows not to touch you." He turned his eyes to the fuming Russian, waiting for confirmation.

However Boris only gritted his teeth. "Fuck you and your fucking money," he growled, pulling away from the chair he was sitting on and stomped outside the cafe.

"He has this weird belief that I use my wealth for everything," the slate-haired Russian explained when Rei gave him a quizzical look. Ah well, still didn't explain that weird reaction...but he decided to take the reason nonetheless.

Trying to change the subject once more, Rei questioned, "When do you open?"

"In about ten minutes," Kai replied as he glanced at his watch. "By the way, could you please follow me to the kitchen." It was more of an order rather than a request, but Rei wasn't bothered by it and did as he was told. Moments later they were at the cafe's kitchen, undoubtedly clean and well-kept, with Sergey preparing ingredients for the different sandwiches that went with the shop's coffee selections. At that point something was beginning to unravel to the Chinese, but he still wasn't quite sure about it yet and made no comment about it. Kai however was decisive with what he was about to do and when he noticed the brief look of realization on Rei's face, it made him feel somewhat complacent.

"Here," he broke off Rei from his thoughts as he neared into an archway leading to a different room—the staff room. This place was bigger than Rei thought, apparently.

"So..." the black-haired man trailed off, unsure of voicing out his thoughts but when Kai prompted him to continue, he did. "So I take it you'd like to talk to me about something."

The other man nodded.

"You didn't bring me here just to 'show me around'," Rei went on, analyzing the situation he was put in. "You want to ask a favor. Or threaten me to do something, whichever works."

"Threatening is always more effective."

"Against me? Think again buddy," Rei chuckled, and Kai gave him a smirk. "So what is it?"

"We're short on staff," the man crossed his arms over his chest, back to his serious and indifferent atmosphere. "This place is more popular than we expected. Another cook would be very helpful..." He stopped to study the expression on the Chinese's face—he wasn't surprised a bit, that must mean he figured it out right earlier. As expected of Rei.

"Give me the recipe list then."

x

Rei just finished eating his lunch when he was suddenly pulled out of his chair not-so-gracefully. It had only been about three hours since the shop opened; Kai wasn't kidding when he said the cafe was popular—he already had to work extra hard because the orders kept on piling up and him and Sergey were just barely keeping up. Thankfully a bit later than the normal lunchtime—it was already about one in the afternoon—people had stopped pouring in and the cooks and the waiter had enough time to eat their lunch.

Well what about the cashier?

Back to Rei being pulled out of his chair not-so-gracefully.

"Sub," Yuriy commanded, his fist still clamped on Rei's collar.

Rei panicked. He didn't know how to use their hi-tech register—

"On second thought," the redhead interrupted him before he could even voice out his thoughts, "you wait. Ivan, cashier," he turned to the teen who was still in the middle of eating his sandwich.

"Oh c'mon! I'm still eating—"

"NOW."

With a glare and a flip of his finger Ivan stormed back to the counter, taking his half-eaten sandwich with him, not really caring if the customers would find it appropriate for the cashier to be eating while taking orders.

"You," Yuriy turned back to the Chinese who was standing there confused and amused at the same time, "what the hell are you still doing here?"

Rei didn't know if he should answer truthfully and risk angering the Wolf. He's already on bad terms with them and making it worse wouldn't make anything better...but what the heck man, he asked. "Well for starters, you're still gripping my collar—" And it was immediately released! Bravo for excellent reflexes! On a side note, there were no signs of anger. "Thanks...by the way where's Kai?" Completely irrelevant, yes, but he wanted to slip that question for a while now because after that incident three hours ago, the suit-wearing cafe-owner suddenly vanished. Without a word.

Yuriy shot him a who-the-hell-do-you-think-you-are look. Yeah, like Yuriy's going to answer him. Real smart Rei.

Shrugging, he just went to obey the scarlet-haired Russian before Kai finds his body in a ditch somewhere. Besides if he thought about it, basing on their team's "hierarchy"—if ever they had such a thing—if it wasn't Kai giving orders, it would definitely be Yuriy since he was the team captain during their Beyblading days. And about Kai's disappearance? He should ask the person himself, preferably when he was actually around.

"Did you try a new recipe, Sergey? It's pretty good," Rei heard Yuriy's voice from a distance as he neared the kitchen door to the main area—

Whoa. The place was packed. Thankfully most of these people already had their orders with them.

"Where the fuck were you?" Ivan snapped at him when he appeared from the other side of the swing door. "You're so slow I had to get Boris to wait! And I bet you know how that goes, since you eavesdropped on us and all."

What? It's not as if he intended for that to happen—they were screaming their heads off he bet even the neighbors heard what they were fighting about—and fluently, at that! He barely understood what was going on and—

Ivan hastily shoved a piece of paper on his chest while he was having this internal dialogue which he pathetically did not voice out. Again. "Table six. Go, go!" he grumbled, pushing Rei back in the kitchen as he went to take the order of the next customer.

Rei's not mad. No, not even if they were treating him like this. They could just ask, you know? Instead they had to resort to pushing and pulling him around—literally—but to be honest, he's somewhat used to this kind of this treatment. Though it gets tiring after a while...one of the many reasons why he decided to go to Russia in the first place—

He glanced at the paper; "Sunshine Salami Sub" was first on the list and as with the different names for the food here, he refused to think about who the hell named these things.

Minutes later he had the orders on a tray, carefully treading his way to table number six...which took a while since he wasn't really sure where he was going. Thankfully the two girls who were waiting for their orders didn't look ready to strangle him. "Here are your orders," Rei slurred in his unpracticed Russian, placing the plates of sandwiches on their table. "Sunshine Salami Sub and Eggstatic Delight!" He swore he didn't want to know whom of the Neo Borg thought of these names.

"Are you new here?" one of the girls smiled at him, her English covered in thick accent. Rei inwardly sighed; thank you for the globally-used language.

"Yes," partially true. He didn't work here but he was new in Russia in general. "Just yesterday." Now that one's entirely true!

"I told you words Cafe Euphoria morewords pretty boys!" the other girl whispered to her friend and they both giggled in unison.

Rei didn't get some of the Russian but he was pretty sure he heard "Cafe Euphoria" and "pretty boys" in one sentence.

HOLD ON—so this place was known to have pretty boys as staff? He didn't know if that's a good thing or not; he's been called "pretty" on numerous occassions and he didn't mind, after all, his hair that he refused to cut was giving people the impression, not to mention his lean body and—okay, getting off track now—and well, the point was he's used to it. He didn't know about the Russians though. And besides, pretty? Kai and Yuriy pretty, maybe, but BORIS, pretty?

"Are you okay?" the girls asked him when he was being silent and shaky all over.

"I'm...I'm f-fine," he mumbled, still fighting the laugh that was trying to get through.

"Are you done flirting now?"

A different voice interrupted him this time—and it wasn't even remotely girly, it was definitely a male's...a very familiar male, at that.

"Hi Boris," Rei turned to the other waiter who looked ready to strangle him. Wow, so Kai wasn't kidding when he said Boris scared customers off, just look at that face! These girls seemed to be the exception though since they glanced at him and actually giggled again instead of being scared shitless. Anyway, he didn't want to have an argument, and if there ever would be one, he didn't want it to be in front of the customers. So he bid his farewell to the two girls and pulled Boris to the side.

"Just for the record, I was not flirting," Rei explained, clutching the tray at his side.

"The fuck I care?" Boris sneered.

Oh, right. To each his own, minding his own business. But still he was not flirting!

The pale-haired man grimaced and nudged his head towards the counter. And by that he actually meant Ivan, and when Rei glanced at the teen he wished he didn't because the Neo Borg was notorious for looking evil almost all the time. Just like now.

Kai, just where the hell were you?

x

Closing time was around five PM. That was also about the same time Kai appeared in the cafe again after his disappearance in the morning earlier.

"Did anything interesting happen?" Kai asked, watching Boris and Ivan put the chairs upside down on their tables. The cafe was now devoid of customers and Yuriy was there leaning on the counter, looking bored but still menacing as ever. Sergey was still in the kitchen cleaning up the space.

"Cat flirting all day?" Boris replied indifferently, not even bothering to glance at Kai.

"...Huh," was only the slate-haired man's reply. It wasn't even a word, it was just more like a breath...or something.

"Okay, first of all, I was not flirting." Oh, by the way Rei was still there wiping the counter clean. "Second, they're the ones who started the conversation." And by they he actually meant the customers; after the first table he waited, Ivan decided, with the former captain's consent, to make him the waiter for the rest of the day. Rei didn't protest because he remembered his promise to Kai—he'd help in any way he could for letting him stay in his house.

And during the four hours he served customers, it dawned to him that about three-fourths of them were...girls. Not just any female, but girls, ages ranging from teens to about early twenties. Some of the girls were fans from their Beyblading career—Rei was actually surprised that they recognized him as the "White Tiger"—but most of them were...let's just say, fans of the cafe...to say the least. And yes the girls were the ones who initiate conversation; they knew he was new and was only getting to know him a bit. Which always took some time, much to the Neo Borg's dislike.

"It doesn't matter," Kai sighed, crossing his arms. "What bothers me is you were supposed to be helping Sergey, not waiting."

"My idea," the purple-haired teen admitted as he finished putting up a chair. "You know I hate waiting!"

"And I gave him my yes," Yuriy added. "I'd rather be in the kitchen than face people all day."

Rei facepalmed. So making him the waiter was just a product of these men getting away from their supposed tasks, after all. But he's not complaining; it's just that small flicker of hope that maybe somehow, no matter how ridiculous it sounded, that they knew he felt uncomfortable staying in the kitchen and helped him get out—quickly vanished and it made him realize again that these were the people that hated his guts and would never, ever have thoughts of helping him. Hell, if they knew he was getting uncomfortable they'd probably leave him there forever.

"Rei."

His head shot up from the sound of his name being called; that's when he noticed that five pairs of eyes were watching him, mostly irritably.

"Rei," Kai repeated, cocking his head to one side, "are you fine being the waiter?"

"I'm okay with it." He preferred it.

Kai nodded and signaled for their car parked outside. Without saying any more the Russians exited the cafe one by one, but Boris didn't forget to give Rei a good, long glare and Yuriy rolling his eyes at him. Wow, such cheerful company.

"So Kai," Rei began before Kai could step out of the building, "where did you go?"

x

Thanks for reading, till next chapter.

Lei-Lei