A/N: Introducing Chapter 4: No Gain Without Pain
Ray clung to the barrier of the ice rink like a life line, point blank refusing to cooperate with Tala, who was getting VERY annoyed. The red head was a natural on the ice as Ray had predicted, and having a show off as a tutor was not what Ray wanted. But sure enough Tala was skating smoothly along the ice, aqua eyes closed, red hair flying out behind him, making goading comments to Ray. So basically the necko jin was now pissed off and making a silent protest against Tala by not moving an inch. The wolf glided over to the tiger and prodded him with the blade of his skates. Ray snarled and moved away. Tala sighed
"How are you going to learn if you refuse to let go of the rail?"
"How am I supposed to learn when my teacher doesn't want to teach me?!" Ray countered angrily. Tala frowned and stepped in front of him, Ray looked up when he felt a light touch on his arm, steadying him.
"First distribute your weight evenly between your feet, you'll only fall if you're unbalanced Ray." Tala instructed, guiding Ray to lean to the left. Ray's breath caught in his throat and it had nothing to do with the cold temperature. Tala nodded and pushed him forward ever so slightly away from the rail. Ray did a very good impression of a deer caught in the headlights before lunging for the rail again.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME TALA IVANOV?!" he shrieked. Tala put his hands on his hips, frowning.
"Do you want us to win this or not Ray? Because if we're gonna stand a chance you have to show a bit of courage, and start by letting go of the edge!… Er- and stop drooling."
Real smooth Ray.
Ray shook his head slightly, the distracting presence beside him was obviously turning him slowly insane, but nevertheless closed his eyes, took a deep breath and let go of the edge, striking out blindly onto the ice. He felt his hand grabbed by another, he opened one gold eye and was surprised to find himself gliding smoothly, the ice streaking underneath him. He looked round and found Tala holding him firmly by the arm.
"Hm, at least your not a complete scaredy cat then." the wolf told him, giving a strange lop sided smile. If a very small one. Ray grinned, which soon turned to a silent scream as Tala let go. He floundered in panic before Tala's voice cut through him
"Pull yourself together! Your legs work right?!" Ray cursed and started to move his feet, one, two, three, left, right, left… And then it hit him. He was ice skating. Properly ice skating! A huge chibi grin spread across his face, golden eyes alight.
"Woohoo! Oh yeah! Who da cat? Ray's da cat!!!" he yelled happily speeding up. Tala looked on amused, and then worried as he came up to the turn, foolishly assuming Ray would know to slow down. He didn't.
"Ray slow down or you'll blow the turn!" Tala yelled.
"ARGH!"
CRASH
"Ow… That's gotta hurt." Tala muttered, gliding over to where Ray lay in a dishevelled heap. The necko moaned and sat up rubbing his head to find the Russian looking down at him in disgust.
"I'm competing with the village idiot." Tala stated, covering his eyes in shame. Ray hissed at him, he'd had just about enough of the stupid, arrogant, moron. Sure he was a sexy, stupid, arrogant, moron but it didn't give him any excuse to speak to Ray like that. Hang on… What was he thinking? Ray put the strange issue to the back of his mind and blurted out his comeback.
"Hey! Who's the bigger idiot?! The idiot or the idiot who gets tricked into competing with the idiot by his worst enemy?!" Tala regarded him coolly.
"You, because that didn't even make sense." Tala glided away before Ray could retaliate, not that he didn't try…
(1 hour later)
"Tala it really hurts!"
"Correct me if I'm wrong but I was not the one who rammed into the side and then tripped me up was I? NO! So shut up and stay still." Tala snapped, taking a look at Ray's swollen ankle, it wasn't a pretty sight. Purple bruising surrounded the bone and there were several blisters on Ray's toes. They were sitting on the benches at the side, and it was revealed to Ray that Tala actually had a great deal of skill in first aid. Tala had conjured a medical kit from seemingly nowhere, and was in the process of bandaging Ray's foot. (1) Ray winced and Tala looked up, the cold aqua eyes narrowed not for once in scorn, but in concern.
"Are you O.K?"
"Want a list?" Ray replied. Tala shook his head and continued, the shadows hiding the slight blush on his pale cheeks as he rubbed the healing cream into the bruise. He finished bandaging Rays foot and helped the other boy up. It wasn't easy, Ray was limping all the way to the taxi, leaning heavily on Tala for support, the red head not used to the intimate touch was blushing furiously by the time they actually got in the car door. Once inside the two realised there was absolutely nothing to talk about, and the awkward silence was deafening. Ray scratched his head and gave Tala an encouraging smile
"So where did you learn first aid then?"
"At the abbey." was the stoic reply "Do you really think I'd be here today if I hadn't learnt it?" Ray winced, knowing he was treading on thin ice, but decided as the red head was being so amicable he might as well take his chances.
"So what about the ice skating? I mean you're practically a professional."
"A rare treat when we worked particularly hard or sold another rule breaker out. I never did that of course, because my team were the only rule breakers, but there were a couple of grasses at that hellhole." Tala replied coldly. Ray sensed the barriers going up that usually surrounded Tala, making him cold and unresponsive. So he kept him talking, steering away from the painful memories of the abbey.
"So when do we next practice?"
"As soon as your foot gets better we'll be back on the ice rink. In the meantime we do theory and tactics, and pick some music for the performance. And we need to see how your beyblade copes on the ice. So come to the ice rink tomorrow, I'm sure I can persuade Mr Dickenson to close off the ice rink again for a day, bring Driger and we'll try some actual Beyblading." Tala replied curtly. Ray blinked. Tala just said a whole paragraph. He was obviously more comfortable stating facts than personal issues. Ray frowned, letting himself drift into deep thought. Tala hadn't spoken a lot to him about life in the abbey, in fact the 2 had not even conversed before today about such matters, but the fact that Tala hadn't shied away or became defensive and he had spoken, indicated that he was willing to trust Ray. Essential for the competition of course, but Ray could still sense insecurities between them that threatened to crumble that trust, and more importantly it seemed like Tala was hiding something.
A/N: I had to go back into my other style because we needed a little more description in this chapter. So the yaoi has started, kinda… Not really but we got hints. ;) Oh and before I forget thankies go to:
. SeReBrO- hugs again
. Not the usual baka.- Thanks so much
I appreciate the reviews they really do keep me going.
Now, PLEASE I would like a couple of opinions
Tala- Uke or Seme? Personally I prefer Tala as Seme cos of his bad boy attitude but Ray is going to be the one who gets the relationship going, so technically he's more dominating in some respects. I can't decide!
For those who don't know:
Uke: Shy, submissive
Seme: dominant partner
Me need opinions! (soz high on caffeine, AND I've gone into text talk. Oh crud.)
(1) Based on my recent experience at martial arts class. I could hardly walk and I had to wear a bandage for a week. But I'm O.K now ;)