Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade. If I did half the cast would be gay and Mariah would not exist.
Warning: swearing, mention of rape and all around, not something for the little ones.
Chapter 2: Pretending.
It wasn't long before the red-headed Russian started to regain consciousness. In fact Kai hadn't even finished his drink before he heard the sound of Tala groaning. He downed the rest of his drink in one swallow, the liquor burning it's way down his throat as he walked towards the boy on the ground.
Kai took one of the lighter blankets off his bed and covered the shaking red-head with it, but not before pulling on his boxers and pants. He sighed as he ran a pale hand down Tala's now covered back, causing him to flinch away from the contact.
"Are you okay." Kai asked Tala as he pulled his hand away.
Tala's body continued to shake as he responded with a weak 'yeah'. But if one to look at his blood and tear covered face, they would know that wasn't true. He was far from being 'okay'.
"C'mon." Kai said as he wrapped his arms around Tala's lithe waist so he could pick him up. But in panic of what might happen to him at Kai's hands he pulled away, causing him to fall back to the ground. "Tala." Kai had a demanding tone in his voice that said that if he didn't get his way, somebody would pay. And at that moment, that somebody would be Tala.
So this time when Kai tried to pick him up, Tala didn't pull away. Instead he was forced to be tensely carried by Kai, with one arm under his knees and the other supporting his lower back.
They walked to the bathroom that way, until they entered it and Kai placed Tala on the shower floor. He removed the blanket that he had wrapped Tala in just moments before, and turned on the faucet. Kai didn't even look at the other boy in the room as he waited for the water to heat up. When it was, what he considered, warm enough he turned it so that the water came out of the shower head.
The warm water hitting Tala's skin did nothing to stop his shivering. He sat completely still as tremors racked his body. When he made no move to clean himself, Kai shifted closer and began running his hand threw Tala's hair.
"Don't tell anyone about this ok. If you keep your mouth shut we can still be friends." As he said this he was working his hands through the red-heads hair, trying to get the drying blood out that was slowly turning brown.
At first Tala made no response. He just let Kai clean him up. "No. No, it was my fault. All my fault." Tala mumbled out in a barely audible whisper, but Kai heard.
All Kai did in response was give a firm nod. It was weird, it almost seemed like he cared the way he lathered up a small washcloth and began to run it over the pale skin that was before him. Occasionally, when the cloth had too much blood on it, he would rinse it out and re-lather it.
He only had to do that twice, before he brought the wash cloth up to Tala's face to remove the last of the blood. It was when he did that, that he realized how much Tala looked like a broken angel. His beautifully pale, almost translucent skin, covered in blood. His bright red hair falling down around his face. And his once almost innocent eyes, now dull and dead looking.
Kai remembered when he first met Tala, at the abbey. He, at first, reminded Kai as a child solder, standing upright and with no emotion on his face. It wasn't until a few days later that he realized there was an emotion clearly shown. But it wasn't an emotion per say. It was a mischievous little twinkle in his eye that he never showed when any of the adults where around. After seeing this, Kai realized that he wanted to protect the younger boy.
When all traces of blood had been removed from the red-headed Russian, Kai turned off the water flow before getting a towel and wrapping it around him. He picked him up and, almost lovingly, carried him back to his room and laid him down on the bed. He roughly rubbed the towel over Tala's body, trying to remove all the little water droplets that still clung to his skin.
Kai picked up Tala's boxers and pants, moving to put them back on their owners body. As he slid them up over pale hips, he saw the beginnings of what was undoubtably going to be a rather nasty bruise. Upon closer inspection, he saw many spots where there where going to be bruises. The one place that stood out the most was on Tala's face. What kind of monster was he to mark the face of an angel.
"I'm sorry." he said as he ran a hand over the spot on Tala's face that was bruising, causing said boy to flinch from the sting it caused. "You're going to have to borrow one of my shirts." He held up Tala's shirt to emphasize the fact that he couldn't wear his own.
After Kai finished redressing Tala, he put his shirt back on and pulled Tala to his feet. When Tala found his balance, he followed Kai out of the room and down the steps with a sleight limp.
When the got to the lounge where everyone else was, Tala was thankful to no longer be alone with Kai. It was weird. Only about half an hour earlier he could have sworn that he loved Kai. Now though, he was afraid to be alone with him in fear of what might happen to him. But still, Tala felt something when he thought of Kai. It was like a tug on his heart. Not that he could ever act on that feeling. Not now that he knew what Kai could, and would, do to him.
They both sat down, with everyone in the room watching them. Everyone that is but Rei, who was missing. It was then that the black-haired boy walked back into the room. "Oh, your back. Good timing, I just finished making dinner."
"Good." replied Kai. "Cuz I'm starving."
Everyone walked to the dinning room ready to eat. As they sat and talked, while waiting for the food to be served, Tala said nothing. He was just pretending that nothing happened up in Kai's room.
Rei brought out a bowl with spaghetti in it, and another with tomato sauce. Tala loved spaghetti and, usually, would have been the first to dig into it, ending the meal with loads of sauce on his face. But not this time. It was almost like he didn't notice the food before him.
"Don't you want any spaghetti?" Kenny, also known as chief, asked getting his attention.
Tala nodded before reaching for the pasta that he so loved. After serving himself he looked up and saw everyone's eyes on him, wondering why he was acting so weird and being so unusually quite. He just ignored them and started to eat.
'That's right. Just act like nothing happened. In fact, nothing DID happen. Nothing happened at all.' But Tala couldn't seem to make himself believe that. He wanted to. He really did. But he just couldn't. After several bites he started to feel uneasy, knowing that all eyes where on him.
He quietly excused him self before whipping his face and standing up. As he began to exit the room Bryan stood up. "Tala..." but as he moved to follow his friend, worried by his behavior, Kai told him to stay.
Tala left the room and walked up to his room. That night he cried himself to sleep.
A/N: I know that not much happened in this chapter. I just didn't want to over do it with all the action. Well i look forward to hopefully getting some reviews.