A/N: Wowza. It's been, what, two years? Yeah I said I was retiring from writing here but I couldn't help but post this one. I can't promise more in the future, but I'm just letting you guys know I'm still writing. And possibly giving a little follow up.

Chapter 8: Close Enough.

It was the day after the whole date fiasco and the house was eerily quiet. It was already midday and only a few bothered to come out. Most of the people were holed up inside their rooms after such a horrible night. Everyone was avoiding someone in the house that day.

Tyson was still sore at Kenny for getting them kicked out of the festival, and Kenny was in bed nursing a stomachache. Both Chelsea and Max were depressed after their date, but neither of them divulged as to why their night went sour. The last of the recluses, Kitty, was in bed with a fever. Apparently whatever Kai had the previous night had been given to her when they kissed. Ha. Ha. Ha. Oh, how life kicked you in the ass.

Kai tiptoed silently to Kitty's room, hoping to check up on her. He kind of felt bad that she got sick because of him. Kind of. But more importantly, he wanted to talk to her about the night before, and their kiss. The blue haired captain winced, remembering it vividly. The memory as accompanied with a strange, foreign feeling in his stomach.

He opened the door slowly, trying extremely hard not to make any noise in case she was asleep. He didn't need to, because Kitty was sitting upright in bed, scrutinizing the instructions on a bottle of medicine. When she noticed him at her door, she looked less than pleased to see him.

"Hey…" He said, approaching her bed. "Mind if I come in?"

She shrugged. "You're already in here…you might as well." Kitty reluctantly scooted over, making room for him to sit down. "What do you want anyways?"

"I just wanted to check up on you and see how you're doing." He sat down, draping an arm around her shoulder, which, to his amusement, caused her face to turn pink. "How are you?"

"I'm alive." Kitty muttered quietly. She was playing with her blanket, trying to avoid eye contact. "I think the medicine's working."

Without missing a beat, Kai pressed his hand on her forehead, checking her temperature. "You're still warm." He stated bluntly.

Kitty's cheeks turned an even deeper pink at his touch. She swatted his hand away quickly, and took his arm from off her shoulders. "That's because I'm still sick, duh." Kai chuckled at her flustered actions, which only made her more annoyed. "Why are you really here, because you can't just be here out of your concern for my health."

"Can't I have innocent, altruistic intentions?" He feigned innocence, shooting her a puppy dog look.

"No." She said flatly.

"You can see right through me, can't you?" Kai sighed. He shifted uncomfortably. "Actually I wanted to talk about…Y'know last night."

"Oh. That. I was hoping you weren't going to bring it up."

Kai nodded. "So here comes the tricky topic of-"

The dark haired girl cut him off immediately. "It's okay, Kai. I know how you work. I don't expect a repeat experience or a real relationship. It was a one time thing, no strings attached, right?"

His face fell. She'd stolen the words right from his mouth! Was he that transparent? "Yeah, exactly. No strings attatched. " Why did his stomach hurt a little when he said that?

"Consider it done." Kitty stifled a yawn. "Sorry, I just took some cold medicine. I'm gonna go to sleep in a few… minutes…"

However, within seconds her eyes closed, and she slumped over, resting on her head on his shoulder. Kai's eyes widened.

"Kitty?" He asked, gently shaking her. It was no use for she only wrapped her arms tighter around him. "How much of that stuff did you drink?!"

After a few minutes, he gave up on trying to wake her up. Instead, he leaned back against the headboard and watched her sleep. He wondered how she could go from the loud, short tempered girl he knew, to this tame sleeping kitten just from a few ounces of cold medicine. Kai eyed the bottle, wondering if he should keep it for emergencies after she was better. She looked...different in this light...What was the right word?

'Adorable' was the first word that came to mind, causing his eyes to widen even more. What? Where the hell did that come from?! She wasn't adorable, or even that pretty for that matter. She was simply another girl.

Kai narrowed his eyes. Of course, she was a girl who was sleeping in his arms...and a girl who he had kissed, on more than one occasion. She wasn't exactly ugly either. As his mind supplied more and more examples, it became astonishingly clear to Kai that Kitty wasn't simply a girl. She was the girl.

Kitty was the girl he wanted to be around everyday, the girl that reduced him to stupidity on a regular basis, and the girl who he had apparently fallen for. He cursed under his breath, angry that he had been reduced to acting like a little boy all because of her. This was the first time he'd ever lost his composure due to a woman, and he doubted it would be the last. The situation was completely humbling, and he hated it. Being wrapped around someone's finger was something Kai Hiwatari wasn't used to.

Slowly he realized how obvious it was. He never noticed, so he never thought to conceal it. Ray and the others must have known it by now, and Kai wondered how long it took them to figure it out. He glanced down at her sleeping form and he felt the same strange feeling settling down in his stomach. It definitely wasn't happiness or joy, or any other feeling associated with love. It felt more like fear coupled with nausea. Oh yes, he was afraid for the first time too.

Despite every bone in his body wanting him to get up, and despite every instinct telling him to run for the hills, Kai Hiwatari stayed put. He drifted off to sleep with a girl, the girl, in his arms.

--

While this was all happening, Starr knocked softly on Chelsea's door. After a few moments, Ally popped her head out.

"Oh, it's you." She said, sounding disappointed.

"Can I talk to Chels?"

The redhead shook her head sadly. "She doesn't wanna talk to either you or Ray."

"What? Why not?"

Ally briefly looked in the room, checking to see if Chelsea was listening, before answering. "She kind of blames you two for all of this."

Starr's jaw dropped, "You can't be serious. I didn't mean for any of this to happen!"

Her friend shrugged, whispering a soft apology before shutting the door in her face.

As she walked back down the hall to her and Kitty's room, Starr felt even more dejected. She figured that Kitty would hold some insight or advice for her problem. However, at the exact moment she placed her fingers on the doorknob, Ray came up to her.

"How'd it go with Chelsea?" Ray asked. It was an innocent question, but the blonde replied angrily anyway.

"She blames us for the whole Max disaster! Can you believe her?"

Ray sighed. "Yes."

"Well I was just about to go talk to Kitty. Chelsea's not pissed at her, so maybe she knows something. C'mon."

Starr opened the door without knocking and found the room to be very dark. It was late in the morning and the sunlight was peeking through the corners of the curtains. She squinted her blue eyes and was able to make out a large lump on the bed, and presumed it was Kitty taking a nap.

"Kitty!" She sang, walking up to the bed. "Wake up! I need to-"

"Will you shut up?" A deep voice asked in irritation. Starr gasped in surprise. She was able to make out Kai's features in the dim light. He didn't even open his eyes when he spoke to her! There was a mess of black hair lying next to him, wrapped snugly in his arms "You'll wake her up, you stupid-"

"Why are you in her bed?!" Starr cried loudly.

"None of your business." Kai snapped angrily. His own nap had been disturbed, and he had been very comfortable! "Now could you please leave before your hollering wakes her up?"

"No! I need to talk to her." As Starr moved closer to the bed, Kai chucked a pillow with ease, barely moving enough to wake Kitty. If Ray hadn't caught it in time, Starr would have been hit square in the face.

"We'll just see her later then." Ray said politely, not wanting to see a fight erupt. He dragged the angry blonde out of the room.

--

A while later, they were in the den, playing cards.

"So has Chelsea come out of her room yet?" Ray asked, looking at his hand.

"Nope, and neither has Max." She sighed in frustration, slamming her cards on the table. "We shouldn't have interfered. Things would have been perfectly fine if we had left them alone."

"You know perfectly that we meant well. Relax, Starr." He soothed. "It's simply a minor setback. I'll figure something out."

Of course, Ray had no clue what that something would be or if they could fix their meddling by meddling again. This stopped being a game a while ago. She looked at him doubtfully, but trusted against all knowledge that he could fix it.

It was then that Kitty chose this moment to walk in. She glanced over at the gloomy pair and decided it was best to leave them alone. Their problems were too messy. Instead she opted to lie down on the couch and watch some TV. However, Kai had already claimed the whole couch for himself. He was lying down, taking up the whole couch, reading. He put it down when she walked into the room.

Starr saw Kitty walked in, and tried to call her over, hoping she would finally talk. However, she completely ignored Starr's waving and made a beeline for Kai.

Ray nudged her arm. "This will be the test." He said, quietly leaning towards Starr. "We'll know by how they talk to each other."

"Know what? If they're really into each other, of if they're just doing the dirty?" Starr remarked sarcastically. Nevertheless, she was also focused on her two friends.

Kai's gaze was fixed on Kitty as she approached the couch. As soon as he realized she was making a move towards the remote, he immediately grabbed it and turned on the television.

"Hey!" Kitty exclaimed. "I was going to watch something!"

"Yeah, well a show I wanted to watch just started!" Kai snapped, flicking through the channels. "So you can just go away."

"It's 1:23 in the afternoon. What starts now?"

Kai made a face, trying to find an answer. The best he could think of was: "Shut up."

But she wasn't going to be brushed away that easily. She stood in front of him, blocking his view.

"What the hell? Move out of the way!" He growled, tossing his book at her, which she dodged. She didn't reply, only putting one hand on her hip and holding out the other.

They remained at this standoff for a while, and their two audience members had given up on anything happening. However, as soon as they picked up their cards, Kai gave the remote to her. He sat up and let her lie down on the couch, placing her head on his lap. Neither of them looked happy, but at least they weren't bickering!

"Well, it's not quite love…" Ray admitted, picking up another card.

"But it's a start." Starr smiled.

--

A/N: Well. There was chapter 8. I'm planning on revising this story over the summer, since my writing has vastly improved from when I started. I'm not planning on posting chapter fourteen of Sweet 16though. We'll see how everything goes from there. Thanks a bunch to anyone and everyone who still reads this. You all have been great to me.

Love,
Rena.