¤ -No Time Like the Present- by Destiny Quill
¤ Disclaimer: see part one
¤ Summary: see part one
¤ Pairing: BL- Brooklyn/Kai
¤ Side Pairing: N/A
¤ Warnings: see part one
This is an experimental two-shot. Continue to expect formatting explosions and randomness.
"Face the facts and don't look back."
-No Time Like the Present-
Part Two
-¦-
Mentally sighing, Brooklyn tried to concentrate on the friendly chat and laughter surrounding him. He wasn't the most sociable person, but he made an effort to have fun for the sake of those who were kind enough to organize such an event.
Even though he tried, his mind kept drifting back to a familiar slate-blue-haired blader. 'Why isn't Kai at the party?'
Luckily, Garland saw through his fake smile and approached, sitting at Brooklyn's side.
"Tala tells me that Kai went for a walk to get away from the crowd. He'll be back soon, now that you've discovered the surprise party."
'How did he –'Brooklyn was astounded by his friend's clairvoyance. "Oh, thank you. And I appreciate your organizing of this celebration. I would have forgotten my own birthday without you."
Garland smiled. "I just wanted to remind you that you have many more friends than you may believe."
Brooklyn felt truly blessed at that moment.
"Happy Birthday, Brooklyn!" Crusher called as he passed his friend while dancing with Monica on the kitchen floor. This exclamation prompted another round of 'Happy Birthday' singing from Max and Tyson, who continued to inhale the leftovers of a cake dedicated to their friend.
The girls were giggling and chatting, and Spencer pulled down a streamer from the ceiling to emphasize his playful banter with Bryan, all in the apartment of their friend.
Friends. They were all Brooklyn's friends.
And then there was Kai.
'What makes Kai so different? It doesn't feel the same without him here as well.' The orange-haired blader rose from his chair to find Kai outside.
"I left your coat in the closet in the spare room," allowed Garland, as if reading the other blader's mind again. He led Brooklyn to the spare room, sliding the right part of the four-paneled closet door to one side. Garland felt a bit confused, since the inside of the closet was different than how he remembered leaving it. All of the storage boxes were pushed to the back of the closet.
Brooklyn noticed Apollon's blader hesitate. Gradually, as if it were constantly in the background but only now realized, he became acutely aware of a low rumbling behind him. He turned around and saw the gift box left in the spare room.
Instantly captivated by the size of the present and the fact that the rumbling was coming from inside it, he warily headed towards the box. Oddly enough, it had breathing holes. The soft rumble continued to stop and start in a soothing rhythm.
Garland also noted the box with curiosity. It might have been a stereo playing a relaxing thrum, but he doubted it. Brooklyn finally lifted the lid off of the box.
What he saw inside made his breath hitch in his throat.
-¦-
Rei was growing worried. Brooklyn and Garland had left for the spare room and hadn't returned yet. 'What if they found out?' he couldn't help but think.
Snagging Tala by the sleeve, he asked covertly, "Do you think that Brooklyn and Garland will be back soon?"
Tala was upset at having been stopped in the middle of his game of trying to tie Tyson to the table (A/N- alliteration!), but answered nonetheless. "They went to the spare room, right?"
"Yes, and don't forget what we left in the spare room!" Rei hissed.
"The box."
"Exactly, and won't they be curious?"
Silence. Unfortunately, it wasn't a contemplating silence or even a stunned silence. Tala had merely managed to grab Tyson's hat and was now waving it above his head.
Rei's patience was wearing thin. "Tala, what do we do if they open the box and find –"
"Find what?" Miguel had come up behind the two during the conversation. Rei abruptly let go of Tala's sleeve and turned around, startled.
"The presents, of course," the tiger replied quickly, although he hated to lie.
"Does that mean Brooklyn will be opening his presents shortly?" the Spanish captain questioned.
"I'm not sure when, but it would be best if everyone wrapped up their games for the moment," Tala said confidently. The other bladers were informed, and everyone grabbed their presents to give to the birthday boy.
Everyone except for Garland, Brooklyn, and Kai.
-¦-
The only thing that Kai could see – he couldn't actually see it, rather, he just knew it was there – was a drape of hazy black, red, and blue. His first view went in the direction of some kind of pseudo universe. Then his mind rewound and desperately tried to regain its sense of reality as he opened his eyes to the swirling fog of drowsiness.
'Have I really opened my eyes?'
A piano's pure notes rang delicately through the phoenix's ears for the longest time. He lost all senses for... how long, an hour? Three hours at the most.
Then, as if by command, the music stopped. The last wisps of lethargy stilled, and then they evaporated.
At last, the drapes were pulled aside, and Kai could see a new colour. Green... everything was green. The green subsequently compressed itself into smaller orbs, which Kai found strikingly attractive. He felt his far-off body lift a lazy arm and attempt to touch the green – those two faultless, iridescent, unearthly emeralds.
'Green,' his mind churned to recognize the colour. His lips parted to murmur almost noiselessly.
Kai felt himself tip forward, bringing his body closer to the green, sighing apologetically. 'I know that green,' he continued to repeat in his mind.
Feeling strangely comfortable, Kai allowed himself to fade away into the darkness again.
"Green."
-¦-
Brooklyn couldn't believe his eyes. Worried at his friend's pause, Garland came to Brooklyn's side and stared into the box too. He involuntarily gasped.
Inside the large gift box laid the infamous, bad-ass blader Kai Hiwatari, curled up on his side, hands clenching a baby blue blanket, his lips slightly parted. He was the source of the low rumble – Kai was purring.
Once Brooklyn overcame the initial shock, he gently lifted the petite bluenette by the armpits, surprised at how light he was. Garland watched suspiciously as an mp3 player and earphones fell from Kai's ears. The martial artist picked up the mp3 player, raising an eyebrow when he realized it was playing a lullaby.
Kai mewled softly and opened his eyes just a hair's breadth. Brooklyn resisted the urge to coo at how cute that was. Although, he was sure that Kai must be either sleepy or on some sort of drug to be acting this way.
As if to confirm those thoughts, Kai lifted an arm sleepily, reaching for Brooklyn's eyes. He stroked the taller blader's cheek, bewildered crimson eyes opening in search of recognition. His pouted lips murmured something Brooklyn couldn't quite catch.
Meanwhile, Garland was seriously considering taking pictures of the angelic scene.
"Green." Kai leaned even closer, resting his head on Brooklyn's upper chest. His hand slipped away from the other's face as he fell back into a doze.
A few cherished seconds later, Brooklyn broke the silence.
"Now my birthday is... perfect."
-¦-
Contrary to popular belief, plots and trickery do not always hatch on dark and stormy nights. Tala and Rei's plot had started in a sunny parlor, and had ended the moment Brooklyn opened his wonderful present.
Green eyes gleamed mischievously. The gift box hadn't had a name tag, but whoever had trapped Kai in a box was going to be in for one heck of a surprise.
"Open it, Brook!" pleaded Max about his gift, which was the last one.
So far, Brooklyn had received a scarf from MingMing, two butterfly catalogues from Matilda and Claude (which prompted some nudging and snickering from Tala to Rei), a cactus from Mystel, and some plant seeds and assorted supplies.
"Hey, where's Kai?" wondered Tyson aloud. "He's such a wet blanket."
'Oh, you'll see...' Brooklyn had left the snoozing blader on his own bed, planning to wake him up later and surprise whoever had planned on giving Kai as a present. "Thank you, Max! These scientific studies are great entertainment," he exclaimed halfheartedly.
Max gave a wide grin. "No problem, man."
At the moment, Rei was fidgeting in anticipation. He considered himself extremely lucky that Garland and Brooklyn had come out of the spare room without further ado, abandoning their trip to find Kai outside in favour of opening presents. Now, Tala had snuck off to drag their shared present out into the open.
They both thought that everything was going according to plan.
-¦-
Upon entering the spare room again, Tala couldn't detect anything wrong. The box was quite light, but he hadn't thought to test its weight after loading Kai into it. He shrugged it off, pulling the box along the floor, down the hall and into the living room.
Miguel gave Tala a surprised glance, but kept silent. Soon everyone else noticed Tala.
"This is our present to you, Brooklyn, an excellent friend," Rei declared, gesturing to Tala. "Kai has a part in it as well, although he seems to be missing at the moment."
Garland and Brooklyn exchanged looks. 'He has no idea.'
Zeus' blader was given the box with a flourish. Soon, almost every blader was quivering in curiosity as he took his time taking the lid off of the box. Brooklyn was relieved to see that there was no wrapping paper – the box was decorated itself – since he found the pesky decorations a waste of valuable trees. However, he thought grass was a much more intrepid plant. 'I hope that Kai likes grasses too.'
Clearing his head of such irrelevant thoughts, Brooklyn removed the lid.
At last, he gave a fake gasp.
"What is it?"
"Let me see!"
"It's..."
"...empty."
Brooklyn reached a hand into the box and pulled out the mp3 player and blue blanket. "Thank you, Rei, Tala! You shouldn't have. I love blue!"
'It doesn't look like it,' thought Miguel, taking in the green drapes, green couches, and green walls. His observant gaze landed on Rei, whose jaw was practically hitting the floor. Tala was also gaping in shock.
"B-but... there's supposed to be something else!" Rei scrambled to his knees, almost crashing into the coffee table. "H-how?"
"Do you mean that these aren't mine?" Brooklyn held out his 'presents'.
A yawn interrupted the confused silence that followed.
Kai was standing in the far end of the kitchen, his eyes half-lidded and his silky hair disheveled. His loose navy blue shirt was slipping off a pale shoulder, giving him an innocent appearance.
"Kai!" Tala looked about ready to faint in surprise. He probably would have, had he not been one of the coldest and most ruthless beybladers in the world.
Brooklyn also felt like fainting, not because of astonishment, but because of the incredible hotness displayed in front of him. The girls giggled as Kai ran his fingers through his tousled hair and a slack fist across his glazed-over eyes.
"Happy... Birthday," the bluenette murmured to Brooklyn.
"Kai, dude, you took a nap!?" Tyson cried in disbelief.
"You look pretty tired; you can rest in my room," said Garland, amused.
"But it was a LULLABY!" Rei was up on his feet, pointing at Kai. "You're supposed to be in the box!"
By now, everyone was staring at the neko-jin like he had cut his hair and started singing 'Promiscuous Girl' by Nelly Furtado.
Tala tried to save the situation. "He means that Kai should be resting at home, since he has the flu and all! Right, Rei?" he laughed nervously.
The tiger was blinking rapidly, the cogs in his brain grinding away. Before he could answer, Brooklyn delivered the punch line: "Then, earlier, why did Garland and I find Kai in this box before me now?"
There was a collective gasp and some chuckles.
"I... Happy Birthday?" Tala managed to say.
Kai opened his eyes fully, although they were still hazy. "Green!" The slender teen mumbled in an uncharacteristically high pitch and padded gracefully over to Brooklyn. He fell into the orange-haired teen's lap, leaning his head on his shoulder and apparently falling asleep again. Drowsiness was probably a side-effect of Kai's reaction to lullabies.
"Awww!" cooed Hilary, whipping out a camera. Bryan nudged Tala, saying something about planning ahead for worst-case scenarios
Eventually, the party resumed, after Rei had finally recuperated from his shock.
Brooklyn had never been more content in his life.
-¦-
When Kai woke up, his face was nestled in the crook of Brooklyn's neck, while Brooklyn's hand rested on his left hip. He rubbed the slumber out of his eyes, yawning slightly in a catlike manner. Sitting up, he was fully alert at last.
The partygoers had left a short time ago, and Garland was cleaning the apartment with the help of Tala.
"Hey," Brooklyn said softly, nibbling Kai's earlobe. Kai stiffened automatically. This had never happened to him before – at least not in his waking conscious.
"Brooklyn?" he whispered, unsure of himself. A peculiar feeling ran across his cheeks with each of Brooklyn's breaths.
"Tala and Rei gave you to me," Brooklyn told Kai, feeling him sit up quickly, sending his famous glare to Tala. That was the kind of strength that drew the genius to Kai in the first place. Now, he felt it was something more.
"Why you..." Kai was being held back from standing up. Since it was Brooklyn, he didn't really mind the restriction. That was new.
"Realize that, since you're my gift," Brooklyn paused for effect, "you're mine."
The bluenette blushed faintly before leaning back again into the taller teen's gentle embrace. Without any uncertainty, he brought his nose up to nuzzle the other's own nose. Now that Brooklyn was so close, Kai could clearly see his captivating green eyes, free of flecks. Where had he seen those before? Oh, right, they were that green.
Both boys gave contented half-smiles, one remembering how Kai had been lost in a dreamlike state, and the other highly embarrassed about what he could remember.
"Don't forget that I'm still here, so don't try anything," Tala warned Brooklyn playfully, dumping some paper plates into a garbage bag. He seemed to be getting along well with his previous enemy, Garland.
Kai's smile widened. "Brooklyn," he whispered, "do you feel what I feel?"
The green-eyed teen didn't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out what Kai meant by that. "The fluttery, heart-racing sensation?"
"You sound like a smitten fangirl," Kai chuckled breathlessly. Brooklyn's face was well within his personal space, yet he felt completely at ease.
"Only for you, beautiful."
Words make thoughts more solid. Brooklyn had never believed in affection, but now he realized he had always wanted to experience it for himself. 'I can't properly tell you what I feel; only I'm drawn to you... I want you... I need you...'
Emotions are felt, not spoken.
One does not need to hear to sense.
What does it matter when you name an emotion?
Forever is in the heart.
'There is no time like the present to start anew – together we can...'
At last, Kai and Brooklyn's lips touched in a chaste, yet thrilling, first kiss.
'...name our own emotions.'
-¦-
"Live life before it's over, and love until you can no longer."
·°¤ Owari ¤°·
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NOTES:
• Thank you to Ethereal Flower, NKingy, XxSweet MitsukaixX, Rios Masquerade, Vendetta-Rose, MikaMiko, limecandy, and Tuli-Susi for reviewing the previous part! You're so nice.
• Please leave a review for my first fic.
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