LV: Ignoring my rather embarrassing outburst this morning…
Max: I still can't believe you actually whooped with joy because they uploaded a new episode of Bomberman Jetterz. --;
Rei: -coughFangirlcoughcough-
LV: …Shut up. AND IT'S GEEK, cat-boy!
Some pre-chapter notes: Yes, I live in America and use the American system for measurements; however, I'm using metric for this story for believability – the central characters for this story are Japanese, remember? And before anyone asks me, yes, the temperatures Tyson mentions (for non-metric users, it's roughly 74-78°F) are considered "chilly" for PR. And Kasumi's most recognizable feature (which wasn't mentioned last chapter) has had research put into it. Ah, the joys of being a medical student…
Oh, and do forgive the ending. I seem to making a bad habit of that sort of thing.
Viper's Nest
Written by Lunare Valhart
Batuken Shoot Beyblade is © Aoki Takao
All original characters are © Lunare Valhart, and are not to be used without permission
Chapter 7: Cat and Mouse
Rei was an honest sort of guy. He liked it when people told the truth. But his neko-jin nature tended to give him insatiable curiosity, which in turn had a tendency to get him in trouble. As a result, he was more than a little miffed when, despite his best efforts, Kasumi refused to let him or anyone else catch what she hiding behind her long dark bangs veiling the right half of her face.
He hadn't noticed it, at first. He just thought that having her hair in her face didn't bother her that much. However, several times he caught her raising a hand to brush aside her bangs, then abruptly freeze and drop her hand to her side or randomly point out something to them to cover her movement. She was careful not to make any sudden movements that would cause her hair to fly – and if she did, she was facing away from them. Not to mention she seemed to be avoiding the shopping districts where she was bound to bump into someone that would recognize her…
If anyone knew the reasoning behind this odd quirk, he reasoned, it would be Tyson.
When Kasumi's attention was diverted towards something else, Rei made his move. "Hey, Tyson. What's up with her?"
"Huh?" The bluenette blinked.
"Kasumi," Rei clarified. "Is there something wrong with her?"
"Why?"
"You haven't noticed?" Max cut in, eyes wide. "She seems a bit OCD with the right side of her face. I don't know how she's managed, but she's kept that part of her face hidden in the entire hour we've known her!"
Kenny frowned. "Who hasn't noticed it? It's not typical behavior for anybody, not unless they're hiding something."
Hiromi chewed on her lower lip. "Guys, I don't think we should be talking about this… Sure, it's strange, but she's got to be doing it for a reason."
"Who's got to be doing what for a reason?"
The five jumped at the sudden intrusion, flushing guiltily as they looked up to see Kasumi watching them warily.
Tyson sighed and looked at her. "Kas, could we talk for a moment? There's something I've gotta ask you privately."
She shook her head. "If you're going to question my behavior so far, then it's probably best to say it in front of your friends. They're going to find out by the tournament anyway, so I'd prefer to have you guys hear it from me."
"It deals with the accident, doesn't it?" Tyson deducted with a furrowed brow. The others looked at him in alarm.
"Accident?" Kenny parroted. "What accident? When?"
"An accident that had me worried sick because I couldn't contact her for months because she was being hospitalized, that's what," Tyson grumbled sourly.
"Last year, I… got a little too involved in the tournament," Kasumi explained carefully. "As a result, I was… I got too careless, and I got hurt bad enough to warrant several months in and out of the hospital and a specialized treatment center." She lifted a hand, fingers hooking around the curtain of hair still veiling her face. "This is the result of my pride and my carelessness."
With that, she finally brushed aside her bangs to reveal the face beneath. A thick, long scar cut across the expanse of her right cheek, the outer edges veining out in webs while the surrounding area appeared a dusted red. The skin just beyond the borders of the central injury looked unnatural, almost asymmetrical with the left half of her face.
Kasumi watched indifferently as her brother and his teammates paled. "The sad part is, the doctors think that this is as good as I'm going to get. This is also the reason Cheres didn't want me to participate in this tournament – because it happened during last year's SAC. She's terrified I'll get hurt, again."
"So that's the reason she chewed out that receptionist for having a beyblading magazine?" Hiromi frowned, remembering the strict woman's face. Kasumi faltered.
"What? Cheres chewed out Tracey, again?" She groaned. "Jeez, that poor girl never catches a break!"
Kai rose a brow questioningly. "You mean it happens often?"
"More than anyone cares for," Kasumi huffed, causing a quick ripple of smothered snickers and giggles among the group. The seriousness of the situation gone, Kasumi grinned and continued her tour, "By the way, none of you've met Señora Romero, have you?"
…
A faint rustling of cloth catching on concrete.
"Great, Granger's still with them…" A low growl hissed as the youth ducked into the alley to avoid being seen.
The shorter of the pair gave a rather unsympathetic shrug and attempted to walk away. "Oh well. We're gonna bump into them sooner or later, so there's no real need to ru – gack!"
The taller youth had grabbed hold of the shorter's collar, glowering at him darkly as he sharply pulled him back. "You, pest, aren't going anywhere. I'm going to find an opening, and I will introduce myself without a hitch, even if it kills me." His eyes narrowed at the shivering boy that was still just short of being strangled in his much stronger grip. "Or worse yet, you."
As best he could, the shorter boy gulped, "Er… why are we just standing around for? It's better to get a handle on the competition before seeing them in the dish, right?"
"That's better," the taller youth snorted with a haughty air, releasing his shorter companion and ignoring said companion's nervous twitching. "Follow me, I think I know a short-cut…"
…
There was a knock on the office door. The woman sighed and looked up tiredly. "Yes?"
"Señora Romero? It's me."
Surprised, the woman sat up straighter in her chair. "Kasumi? What brings you to my office?"
The girl poked her head through the door, her dark braid falling over her shoulder. "I just thought I'd bring you some stray bladers that hadn't gotten their bands, yet."
"Bands?" Another voice from behind the door questioned with an audible gape. "What bands?"
"I can explain that inside my office," the woman answered, gesturing Kasumi to let the team inside. She knew it was rather rude of her to do so, but she couldn't help but think the bright look to the girl's features strange, and it led her to wonder what on Earth could have lifted her mood to this point.
The door's crack widened to allow Kasumi to enter, where she was followed by a group of what looked to be six teens, five Asian and one American. The woman lowered her pen in surprise, wondering why all but the brunette girl looked familiar. Kasumi turned to the six, and the woman was surprised to see how there wasn't even the faintest hint of the bitterness that normally marred her features in her brown eyes.
"Guys, this is Señora Elena Romero, Puerto Rico's head official of the South American-Caribbean Tournament," Kasumi introduced warmly. She then turned to Sra. Romero, who was stunned further by the girl's cheery mood. "Señora, these are the Bladebreakers from Japan. My brother's team."
'Bladebreakers? Japan? Brother? …Oh.' Sra. Romero tittered to herself, everything suddenly falling into place. "So this is why you readily accepted the terms of agreement after hearing about the BBA sponsorship. You just wanted an excuse to see him again." The faint pink dusting the dark-haired girl's cheeks gave her away, and Sra. Romero smiled to herself; this had been a very good idea.
"Anyway, the bands I mentioned earlier are part of the new battling system," Kasumi explained as she glanced back at the Japanese team. "It's a tag-team affair, so you'll have two sub-teams in addition to your main team. The bands are a way of identifying which team members are partners."
"The bands themselves are micro-chipped and each chip writes data involving the team's wins and losses, as well as personal performance for the wearer," Sra. Romero explained further. "In addition, points are awarded for pairs that exhibit qualities such as teamwork and the ability to adapt quickly and seamlessly from one situation to another. In a sense, two contests are going to be running for the duration of the tournament: one for beyblading and the other for sportsmanship and team mentality."
"So, we have to register for this?" Kenny asked simply, rather relieved that the woman could speak English fairly well, despite the accent. Sra. Romero nodded.
"This is mostly due to the fact that the team needs to decide who should pair with whom." Sra. Romero's face became pained. "The only exception to this are the members of our diplomatic team, where it was decided by the council that the two finalists from the year before should form one pair and the remaining two form as the second. Kasumi can assure you that it makes for a rather… unpleasant arrangement."
"Wait, so your team captain's your blading partner, even if you two don't actually like each other?" Tyson asked Kasumi as a flash of ire crossed her features.
There was a snort from behind them. "Just dislike? Man, Kas, what kinda trash have you been feeding these guys?" Turning around, the Japanese team saw a tall, dark-skinned girl with short black hair and a cocky aura radiating off her as three other girls stood behind her, all of clearly different descents. "Sayin' you "dislike" that guy is like sayin' you only "sorta-like" that chino we bumped into last year!"
Kasumi, to everyone else's surprise, went a brilliant shade of red. "Torre! Not in front of my brother!"
Tyson narrowed his eyes suspiciously at his blushing sister. "What Chinese guy is she talking about, Kas?" The girl quailed with an audible squeak, trying to veil her brightly burning cheeks with her bangs. "Kas, quit the turtle act! Who's this Chinese guy she's talking about, and how come you never told me?"
"Lies!" Kasumi managed to blurt, looking completely unconvincing with the crimson staining on her features. "All lies! I never met a cool Chinese guy and I certainly don't have a crush or anything like that on him, even if he is sweet and really cute and – eep!" She clamped her hands over her mouth immediately, the red flush creeping down her neck as the other Japanese stared at her and the group of girls started to laugh at her mortified expression.
"Oh, Kas," the tall blonde managed between giggles as she wiped a mirthful tear from her violet eyes. "You're really something else. It's cute how worked up you get denying it."
"Calisto, he's like, five years older than me!"
"Hakan is three years older than me, Kas," the petite redhead countered with a poorly stifled laugh.
"Aerie, you're the nice one – you're supposed to be on my side!"
"Kas, just admit you like the guy and we'll get off your back," the lilac-haired girl sighed as she folded her arms over her chest, the large blue and golden-yellow parrot on her shoulder bobbing its head up and down in a nodding manner. …And for some reason, Rei found himself idly wondering why the bird looked like it wanted to say something.
Kasumi deflated. "You, too, Felix? Man, who else are you going to put against me!"
Hiromi looked at their flustered guide, then to the Hispanic girls that had stepped in unannounced and found herself wishing – again – she knew Spanish well enough to figure out what on Earth the new girls could have said to make Kasumi blush like that. "Uh, am I the only one that doesn't know what's going on?" She asked meekly, turning the attention towards her.
The girl Kasumi called Torre raised a brow at her. "Huh. Hey, look; another Japanese girl," she said without missing a beat, this time in accented English. The blonde girl Kasumi called Calisto gave her a warning look, causing the other female to shrink back passively. "What? I wasn't gonna say anything!"
"You say that every time, and we just got away from Gabriela and her lot threatening to run you through with a machete, again," she stated flatly, her accent much lighter and adding a slight aesthetic quality to her soft voice. The redheaded Aerie and lilac-haired Felix nodded in pained agreement.
"Word to the wise, Torre," Felix told her with an exasperated tone, an accent also clipping her speech. "It's never a good idea to tell a physically-sensitive girl that she should "lay off the extra chocolate" for the sake of the tournament!"
"Yes, I couldn't stand it when people hinted I was fat when I was with Nikki," Aerie frowned, surprising the others with her near-inaudible accent.
Kasumi, who had regained both her composure and her normal color, blinked in surprise. "Hey, speaking of Nikki, where is she?" Aerie grinned a sugary smile.
"Daddy said he wanted to spend some time with his baby girl, so he said he'd watch her for me while I was busy with the tournament," she cooed warmly, causing Torre to gag silently and earn a smack across the head from Calisto in the process.
Felix seemed to be the only one to notice the impatient looks and cleared her throat nervously. "Sorry about the intrusion. We're the Guardias, Kasumi's former team." Everyone stared.
Kasumi made an embarrassed cough. "Yeah, sorry about that. Torre just went flying into embarrassing the crap out of me and I didn't get the chance to introduce you. As Felix said, they're my old team. You know, the one I was pulled from to be stuck with that pain in the – jerk." Torre rose a brow curiously at the sudden change of insult, but didn't question it otherwise. She wasn't the only one who noticed, either; Kai narrowed his eyes suspiciously, wondering if the girl's strange behavior involving her team captain had anything to do with the prickling sensation that felt vaguely like someone was trying to burn holes through the back of his head. Ridiculous as it sounded, the disturbing feeling hadn't worn off since they met the girl at the café.
Sra. Romero made a soft laugh, dispelling the sour mood as the teenagers looked over at her curiously. "Well, girls, what brings you to my office?"
"Oh, that," Aerie laughed sheepishly. "We were just going to sign up. We can wait until these guys are done, though. It's not every day we get to meet Kas' famed twin brother and his friends!"
Kenny stared at her and the rest of the Guardias, watching as they all nodded (even the parrot, it seemed, though he brushed it off as a trick of the heat) and slowly turned to his dark-haired friend. "Let me get this straight: your sister talks about you, but you fail to mention her even once?"
Tyson made a nervous chuckle as he scratched the back of his head, a faint pink brushing the apples of his cheeks. "Uh… sorry?"
Kenny nearly screamed in frustration.
…
The shorter of the two sighed irritably, quite annoyed at being dragged around the city for the past few hours. "Can we do it now?"
"For the hundredth time," the taller ground out, becoming more and more tempted to just strangle the boy, "not yet! Granger will throw a fit if she sees us, and that will ruin my perfect first impression!"
"Gee, I thought you didn't care what she thought," he grumbled. He squeaked fearfully when a strong grip yanked at his collar again, forcing him to see the ire in the taller youth's eyes.
"If anything Granger says threatens my chances with him," he hissed darkly, "that's enough reason for me to care what comes out of her mouth."
"Yeesh," the shorter coughed as the other unceremoniously dropped him without another word, "you sure the one you like is the guy?"
He regretted his words immediately after he said them, and paled when the taller youth stopped to glare at him. "Bobby?"
He gulped. 'I'm so dead!' "Y-yeah?"
"Shut up," the taller snorted, turning to walk away, "before I permanently make you."
…
Hiromi turned to her, brown eyes bright. "What's this place called?"
Kasumi allowed herself a proud smile as her brother and his friends took in the impressive outline of the old Spanish fortress. "This is the smaller of the two forts here in Old San Juan, San Cristobal. And this is the one with the rumored haunted lookout tower…"
Max and Tyson lit up as Kenny paled. "Really?" Knowing what was going through their teammates' minds, Kai and Rei exchanged pained glances.
"We're not going up there, you two," Kai shot down the request before it was mentioned, to Max and Tyson's dismay and Kenny's relief.
"Aw, party-pooper!" Tyson griped.
Kasumi shrugged. "Hey, it's not like all of us could fit in there, either – there's only room for two, at most."
"Ooh, a private overlook of the Caribbean," Rei snickered as Max gave Tyson a suggestive nudge towards Kai. "Nice. No cameras, no paparazzi…"
"No breaks for either of you, if you keep this up," Kai added threateningly, glaring at the two. Max and Rei only shrugged at each other, snickering to themselves when he turned away.
The two females in the group sighed in irritation. "Men," Hiromi huffed.
"You sure about that?" Kasumi grumbled, "The way they gossip, I could've sworn they were whiny teenage girls." Hiromi smothered a laugh at that remark.
"They did sound like that, didn't they?" She reflected in amusement. Kasumi allowed herself a snicker and glanced around.
She froze, eyes narrowing at a particular spot. "Oh, Hell no…"
Hiromi blinked. "Excuse me?"
Turning back to the brunette, Kasumi forced a smile. "Hey, you guys go on ahead! I'll catch up in a few!"
The boys turned to look at the lagging girls. "You sure?" Max asked in surprise.
"Positive!" Kasumi assured as she walked away. "It shouldn't take long!"
The five boys blinked at each other as Hiromi caught up with them.
"What was that for?"
…
'Of all the inconsiderate, immoral, irresponsible things that moron can do…!' Kasumi fumed as she stalked over to the alleyway she had caught glimpse of an olive-green tip of hair slipping into the shadows. 'How stupid does he think I am? Of course I'll notice him stalking us all afternoon – ay Dio, you'd have to be blind to not notice a giant like him sneaking around!'
She caught sight of a brown leather string and knew she had found her target. Racing around to the other end of the alley, she stood firmly in the center of the cobblestone path and growled when the two youths skidded to a stop to avoid colliding into her.
"I knew you were low a long time ago, Flavien," Kasumi growled at the taller male, "but this is a whole new level for you! Stalking us? What's the matter, too afraid of an honest introduction?" She glanced down towards the shorter of the pair, quirking a brow. "And why're you dragging Bobby around with you? Isn't that normally your lap-pets' job?"
Bobby burst into tears on the spot. "Sonbre made me do it, honest! He threatened bodily harm if I didn't cooperate! I had better things to do than tail you all afternoon!"
"Didn't we all?" The taller of the pair suddenly said aloud, straightening up and stepping closer to the lighted area. "But either way, it's a good thing Roberto here found you."
"What?" Kasumi and Bobby both demanded, completely lost at this sudden diplomacy. As he passed, the tall youth nudged Bobby pointedly, daring him to argue.
"Well, practice is rather pointless when we are missing teammates, don't you agree?"
"Uh," Bobby gulped, "r-right! Th-that's why I was tailing you! I could've been working on a good, strong launch in the time it's taken me to find you!"
Kasumi, however, was still in the dark. "What the Hell are you two babbling on about?"
"Makes perfect sense from here, actually," a voice bit out from behind her, and she groaned when she recognized the even tone.
"Come on, Kai, they're just joking around," she grumbled, surprised to see that the entire team had gathered behind him with equally annoyed and exasperated looks. "What?"
Rei shook his head despairingly. "Earlier, it seemed that you were actually quite responsible. But really, just using us as an excuse to ditch practice?"
"I mean, Tyson moans and groans about it," Max added with a scolding tone to his voice, "but he still attends practice unless he has other really important stuff to get out of the way first."
Abruptly, the whole 'practice' charade made sense. Rather insulted and mildly embarrassed at this point, she tried to explain, "Guys, there was no practice today, I swear! The bastard here's just saying that to – !"
"Wow, isn't that a bit harsh, Kas?" Tyson reeled, surprised his sister would even consider calling someone such a cruel name. "I mean, I know you don't like the guy, but he can't be that bad…"
Kasumi was completely shell-shocked by this otherwise-innocent statement, and she could just feel the glee radiating off the ridiculously tall youth behind her. "Ty, do you know who you're talking about? This guy's the slimiest – !"
Stepping out of the shadows completely, Sonbre fully made his appearance. The youth's olive-toned hair ended roughly between his shoulders and mid-back, tied neatly in a low ponytail while his bangs, too short to stay clipped back, fell into exotic serpentine-green eyes. His attire was simple and loose, almost archaic in design. As if this weren't impressive enough, the youth stood at least head-and-shoulders above the others, towering over everyone – even Kai, who still remained the tallest of the foreign teens.
"Now, Granger," Sonbre said blithely, sparing her a smug glance as he passed her to approach the foreigners. "If you had simply given me the proof that you were, indeed, related to the World Champion like I asked, I wouldn't have wasted an afternoon trying to hunt you down… How irresponsible of you!" Kasumi growled at him, knowing from his expression he was milking this opportunity for what it was worth.
Mistaking the angry growl for one of incoming danger, Tyson stepped forward to intervene, giving Sonbre an apologetic smile. "I'm really sorry about all the trouble we caused you, uh…"
"Sonbre," he offered charmingly, bright jade eyes gentle and oddly warm. "Sonbre Flavien. You must be the great Tyson Kinomiya."
Tyson, a bit abashed by the ego-preening, laughed somewhat nervously. "Gee, is my face that recognizable?"
"Of course," Sonbre assured. "It would be a shame for such a well-known person to not be recognized by the people, especially after all you've done for us."
"Er… it wasn't that big a deal…"
Kenny glanced back and forth between the two and sighed. "Has anyone else noticed how he's ignored everyone, including his own teammates, in favor of sweet-talking Tyson?"
"Yup," came the reply from Max and Rei. Bobby's face showed his full agreement. Hiromi frowned at the two somewhat enviously. 'Since when has Tyson been such a hot guy magnet?'
Kasumi glared daggers at Sonbre, snarling, "Back off of my brother, freak." Sonbre made a mock-injured expression.
Before Tyson could intervene again, Kai grabbed his wrist and pulled him back, garnet eyes narrowed suspiciously at the taller teen. "We've wasted enough time this afternoon. We're headed back to the resort. Now."
With no room for argument, Max and Kenny shrugged at each other and followed without a word. Rei snickered to himself as he followed, noting how Kai's brow was furrowed dangerously low and the other male's face clearly showed a certain amount of smugness. Hiromi lagged at the rear, giving the other Japanese girl a quick apologetic smile before turning to catch up to the boys again.
As soon as the Bladebreakers were out of sight, Kasumi turned on Sonbre with a dark growl. "You set me up, you bastard! You saw them coming and made me look bad – and in front of my brother, no less!" She turned to glare at Bobby. "And you helped the bastard!"
Bobby made a panicked squeak and cowered. "It was self-preservation, I swear! He'd tear me a new opening if I didn't play along!"
"You were planning on doing the same, Granger!" Sonbre hissed in retaliation. "I saw how you were hinting to them all afternoon that I was some sort of heartless dictator!"
"What the hell are you on? I was too excited seeing my brother after so long to ruin it by mentioning you!"
"Oh, of course – that's why you were ranting on and on about how unfair I was and how I had no respect for you!"
"You don't have any respect for me, you bastard!"
Bobby blinked and, realizing he had been forgotten by the two, decided to make a tactical retreat while they were still distracted with their pointless squabble.
…
Sunset cast a coppery glow to the resort, causing the whitewashed walls to beam a brilliant amber and the colored tiled roof and shutters to shine red-gold. The sugar-sand beach became tea-stained as a young couple, most likely newlyweds on their honeymoon, walked along the stretch of sun-tinged sand as the copper-blue sea brushed frothy waves onto the shore.
Gazing over these sights from their fifth-floor room, Tyson sat with his back against the side of the plush resort bed and his arms loosely laced around Kai's waist, who leaned back comfortably into the shorter boy's body as Tyson nestled his head in the nook between Kai's broad shoulders and neck.
"It's pretty, isn't it?" Tyson sighed, nuzzling Kai's paint-free cheek with his own and smiling slightly to himself when the gesture was returned. Kai had been fairly subdued – even for him – since they left their guide at the fort and it worried him. Although, it had been reassuring to see him snickering at the miserable and grouchy faces of the Demolition Boys as they passed them in the lobby, who clearly had never stepped foot out of Russia and were suddenly stuck on an island where "chilly" was considered anything between twenty-three to twenty-six degrees Celsius… Okay, so it was funny, now that he thought about it.
Kai glanced at him out of the corner of his eye and made a neutral huff. "I've seen prettier." He felt rather than saw Tyson's annoyed look, and turned his head just enough to press dry lips against the soft skin of the younger boy's cheek. "You, for instance." The rush of heat from the flesh still brushing his mouth following the remark made him smile satisfactorily – only he was allowed to make the World Champion blush like that.
"All right, now I know something's wrong," Tyson muttered, willing away the flush that had instinctively colored his mocha-toned features at the sugar-coated compliment. As nice as it was to hear, especially from Kai, he wasn't one of those people that needed reassurance that he was attractive or worth being seen with – and for some reason, Kai's way of fishing for compliments when he was feeling insecure involved using some of the corniest lines on him when they both knew it wasn't necessary.
Kai sighed, knowing he'd been caught in the act again (and now that he thought about it, that had been a particularly bad line, too) and returned his gaze to the burning ruby orb sinking into the horizon's rippling azure expanse. "That guy, from earlier. I don't like him." Tyson blinked.
"Because he was flirting with me?"
"There's that," Kai conceded, and let his hand squeeze Tyson's offered one to reassure the both of them. "But it has more to do with his presence. There's something about him that's… just not right."
"I know what you mean," Tyson shuddered. "He holds himself differently than your typical person, and quite frankly, those eyes of his are the freakiest things I've ever seen – his pupils are slitted, for crying out loud!"
Kai nodded grimly. "And his height is extremely intimidating, especially with that build of his; as tall as he is and with a body that doesn't offer much wind resistance, I can imagine that running from him's a lost battle."
"He knows he's menacing and uses it to his advantage." Tyson worried at his lower lip. "Sheesh, no wonder Kas doesn't like him. I'll bet that's the real reason she skipped practice today; she may have been talking big, but I get the feeling she's as creeped out by him as that poor kid he was with – you saw how bad he was shaking, right?"
Kai snorted, "The question is, who didn't? It almost makes me wonder who was telling the truth: him, or your sister."
"But why would a team captain lie about practice?" Tyson frowned. "Even if he's a bit… off, he can't be that cruel…" Tyson blinked in surprise as he suddenly found himself sprawled against the side of the bed, Kai hovering over him with a familiar challenging gleam in his garnet eyes. The fierce intensity in those eyes made the shorter boy shiver, even as he found himself grinning in anticipation.
"He's cruel, huh?" Kai murmured into the shell of his ear, one of his hands resting on his captive's thigh as the other snaked around him to carefully untangle the hair-tie from the dark, dark blue mane. "Then, does that make me kind?"
Tyson answered lowly, "Oh yes, very kind… especially to me." He felt Kai's worn hand cup his chin, and parted his lips to meet the older youth's in a drinking kiss. Someone made a noise akin to a purr, neither knew, and Tyson slipped from being supported by the bed to the plush carpet, only parting to free Kai's hand from being trapped underneath their combined body weight.
Kai's freed hand wandered, slipping up the hem of Tyson's shirt as he pecked the lines of his features and lapped tenderly at the spot of blood dotting the dusky-eyed youth's lower lip from Tyson's earlier nipping. They met again in a soft embrace, and Kai's hands rose to cup Tyson's cheeks as they pulled apart and simply gazed into each other's eyes.
Tyson truly did look beautiful in that moment, Kai thought dazedly, with his midnight blue hair fanned out under him and his storm cloud blue eyes heavy and lidded in want and longing. His tawny skin glowed in the sun's departing rays of light, and the soft red staining the apples of his cheeks seemed surreal as gulls made faint cries in the distance, the sweet song of the coquí, as he later learned the tiny frogs were called, crooning on the sea-bound breeze.
He lowered his face again, and his partner lifted his up to meet his.
"You're not getting any dessert before dinner, Kinomiya." And Kai had the gall to smirk as he pushed himself up from the floor and sauntered into the bathroom. "You'll ruin your appetite, and what would the others think?"
Tyson stared after him, propped onto his elbows with his dark hair tumbling down his shoulders and features flushed, before he managed to narrow his eyes irritably.
"Augh, Kai! Get back here, you damn tease!"