Chapter 3
The whole band raced off stage after a total of six different songs, Kyoshi and Sakura behind the rest to talk, "If they keep following us they're going to get hurt." Sakura whispered harshly.
"They need to be protected so them catching up to us might be a good thing." Kyoshi disagreed with her, probably not his wisest decision but that never stopped him from speaking his mind at least.
"Well that could…" Sakura was about to take her next step when her knee gave way, making her land on her knees as she held herself up on her hands.
Kyoshi sighed and kneeled down beside her in the small hallway. He didn't dare touch her, he knew better than to try that but he still looked concerned, an emotion that couldn't really be helped by anyone, "You need to get checked out, you drank far too much before the show so let's go before this kills you." He stood up again, watching over her as she pushed herself off the ground and walked on down the hall to the backstage room.
Sakura hoped up onto the table, sitting there uncaringly swinging her legs as she unbuttoned her shirt and placed it by her side. Kyoshi turned back to her with a back pack in hand before placing it beside her, taking in her pale skinny form covered in randomly placed scars. A body he wasn't exactly ashamed to say he knew well, since seeing her like that was a daily thing. He stood in front of her, placing two gentle hands on both her shoulders, arching them forward slightly so he could take a look at the deeper stitched up cuts on her back.
The young girl squeezed her eyes shut, gripping onto Kyoshi's shirt as she rested against him while he traced his hand along each of the stitches to make sure all were secure. That action along with all those that were to follow where cut short, as Kai and Tala chose that to be the perfect time to barge in. Kyoshi turned to them, standing in front of Sakura as she sighed and put her shirt back on. "Can we help you?" Kyoshi asked, crossing his arms. These were the times Kyoshi tried to play the tough guy, whenever he wanted to do one thing but Sakura held him back because she was telling him things he knew she was right about.
"You both can apparently." Kai said coldly, crossing his arms too as he looked on at Kyoshi.
"Your friend over there stopped some psycho girl from attacking us today." Tala informed Kyoshi, probably not realizing that Kyoshi already knew where Sakura had been the other day, "And I saw you following us in the street yesterday."
Sakura jumped off the table, standing beside Kyoshi and staring on at the two across the room in a cross manner, "If you're here to thank me for saving you then it isn't needed but as for what Kyoshi was doing following you that's up to him to give you a reason for." She spoke as coldly as she looked before she walked forward to the door but once about to open it Kai placed an arm out in her way to keep her from leaving.
Sakura and Kai began glaring daggers at each other for a minute before Kai decided to speak, "I think him stalking us is the least of our worries at the moment."
"Oh so you don't want an apology for walking in the same street as you?" Kyoshi asked, quite enjoying it when he was able to act stupid.
"So what is it you do want?" Sakura asked. She sat down comfortably on the sofa, her arms behind her head as she put her feet up on the table.
"An explanation, why is that person or thing after me?" Tala was quick to ask that, stepping forward and staring right down into Sakura's face which only remained cold and passive, staring back at him till she could possibly think of a plausible answer.
The girl clearly wasn't bothered to be quick enough to give him one and just remained staring on at him. Kyoshi couldn't stand such arguments, there just was too much tension, "She wont be coming after you again if that's what you're worried about." He intervened.
"So she's dead?" Kai asked, turning to him.
"No. Technically not at least."
"Just tell us who she is." Tala lashed out now at Sakura, hoping so much for answers. Some people wouldn't think that the guy would take such a thing to heart but the thing was that he was getting tired of being followed around and not being able to have a peaceful life. Not to mention that for the past week, he thought he was going crazy and now that he found out that he wasn't, he wanted to know who that girl was and who the other two in the room where.
Sakura sighed quietly, the three males in the room making her drastically uncomfortable, "Her name is Hana and if you think she has some kind of personal grudge against you or something, that's not it, she's just like that with a couple of people. You're one out of a hundred."
"Saku!" Kyoshi shouted, clearly a little upset with the way she was speaking.
"What? I'm telling it like it is." Sakura shrugged, turning her head to look at Kyoshi who began a small glare of his own.
"You could be just a little bit more polite to them." Kyoshi insisted loudly.
Sakura closed her eyes for only a moment, then looking up at Kai and Tala with a forced kindness, "Fine, what I'm trying to say is that this is not the first time things like this have happened, you aren't the first and you're not the only one that needs to be protected so get out of here."
"Saku!" Kyoshi shouted again, his hands dropping by his sides in an action of defeat.
"I tried! I give up." The lone girl in the room pushed herself up off the sofa, pushing harder past the intruding beybladers and out the door, picking up her backpack on the way out. Once being out in the loud bar she muttered, "Why didn't I storm out sooner? Right, its cause Kyoshi would have killed me sooner." She reasoned with herself.
Kyoshi sighed, walking closer to the other two, "Excuse her, she hasn't been well lately." He apologized.
Kai raised an eyebrow at him, looking on disbelievingly, "You mean to tell me she isn't always like this?"
"Yeah because we've seen how angry looking she is on stage." Tala added, agreeing with Kai's statement.
Kyoshi really really didn't want to answer a question like that for mainly two reasons, Sakura would kill him and it was none of their business so he attempted in changing the subject, "I don't think that's the reason you came here." He reminded.
"Right, so you're going to tell us who that girl was?"
Kyoshi bit down hard on his lower lip, bad thing to see was what he'd figured out, "Not intentionally but I can tell you that you wont be in any danger. Sakura and I are working on it so you kids shouldn't have to worry."
"Hey, first off we aren't kids." Tala pointed out angrily, sounded like someone was a little touchy when being called a kid.
"What are you? Fourteen or something?"
"Seventeen." Kai answered coldly, that not seeming to change through out the whole conversation.
"Sixteen." Tala accounted for himself, his tone of voice not changing either.
"You are kids." Kyoshi muttered to himself, not letting the other two know he'd said anything.
"None of that is the point though. The point is that we got attacked today by something that isn't even human and we want to know what that thing was." Kai shouted.
"How many times must you be told that there's nothing to worry about?" Kyoshi asked him calmly, he wasn't the type that was just going to lash out at the others.
Tala smirked, he just loved trying to trick people into talking, "If it's nothing to worry about then you wouldn't have any problems whatsoever with telling us about it."
Kyoshi rolled his eyes though, things weren't going according to anyone's plans that day. He turned, picked up his things and walked towards the door, "I need to go before Sakura gets hurt but I'm sorry you came here and wasted your time."
With a nagging sense of guilt dragging at him he turned and left the room, hurrying down the hall so they wouldn't catch up with him and he could leave without being forced to speak about the girl he'd been asked so much about.
---2am- With Sakura---
The girl sat tiredly on the sofa, dark bags already appearing under her eyes as she slowly got more and more tired. She continued running the bristles of her hair brush through the long raven-black silky hair. She heard the front door click open and she placed her brush on the glass table, sitting there with her hands in her lap, tightening on the hem of the mid-thigh baggy white t-shirt she was wearing.
Kyoshi stepped into the living room, at first in an attempt to walk into his bedroom, well until he saw Sakura sitting on the sofa at least. "What are you doing still up?" He asked her, a little alarmed.
"Waiting for you, I got a little worried when you didn't show up."
The blonde-haired boy couldn't help but smirk at her answer, then walking past her and into his bedroom, "I just went out for a while, needed to enjoy the night while it lasted. You should know by now that there was no need to worry or stay up so long." While speaking he dropped back onto his leather bed, sitting up and kicking off his shoes by the bed.
"You have been acting stupid lately, I wasn't sure what to think you'd do once the sun came up." Sakura got off the sofa and into Kyoshi's room, standing with her shoulder against the solid wall that was the entry way's frame. "So what did you do about those kids? Have you killed them or should I let Hana do it?"
"They seem like good kids, a little too curious which might get them hurt so we should keep an eye on them."
"We? You're the one who wanted to be nice to them."
Kyoshi looked over at Sakura, looking on blankly with one question running through his mind, 'How could she be so cold about this?' He sighed and placed his hands behind his head, staring up at the white ceiling, "You know as well as I do we need to make sure Hana doesn't go after them again. If you don't help me look after them then I'll do it by myself…no matter what it costs me." He sounded like he was warning her at the same time as threatening her, sound monotonous the whole way through, sounding like what he was saying didn't damper his bravery in the least.
Sakura smirked, pushing herself off the wall and taking a step into the room, "You know I'm only messing, I'll keep an eye on them tomorrow but right now, they're not my priority, you are."
"I told you I'm fine."
The girl continued to look on at him for a few minutes, after a while walking over to his bedside table and kneeling on the ground. She slid the lighter off the surface and slowly began lighting each of the candles that the room was adorned with. She'd always thought that Kyoshi's love for candles was stupid but she knew it was comforting to him and didn't hesitate in trying to make him feel better in one of her many ways. She turned back to him, in the meantime tossing the lighter onto the bedside table, "She went after you today didn't she?" She sat down on the armchair, running her fingers through her hair the whole time she waited for an answer.
Kyoshi looked over at her, his eyes holding a shred of some certain emotion, one a little identifiable. An emotion that was a mixture of sadness and confusion along with something else that couldn't be read, "How'd you know?" he asked her.
"You still have the bullet holes in the back of your shirt and the blood is staining your bed."
Kyoshi sighed, frustrated as he'd forgotten about the blood on his back. The bullet wounds heal within seconds of piercing the skin but the holes in his shirt and blood on the material always remained there so he constantly forgot about cleaning it up to keep Sakura from finding out. "Yeah she found me but I'm fine…I always am." He told her, sounding bored as he slid his shirt off over his head and dumped it onto the floor. He wiped at the blood that was on the leather, wiping his hand in his jeans before lying back down, "You should go to bed, you need to sleep."
"I have plenty of time to sleep in the daytime."
"You need to look after those kids in the daytime." Came the blonde boy's reminder.
"True but I'll manage and I'm not going to bed till I make sure that you're alright."
"I can't even get scratched, remember?"
Kyoshi had just been sitting up, his legs stretched out in front of him with his hands behind his back to support himself. The position made it easier for Sakura to sneak into a sitting position behind him, placing both her hands onto his shoulders and carefully massaging them. Kyoshi crossed his arms over his chest, catching both of her hands and squeezing them tightly in his, "Don't." he ordered her. Sakura wrapped her arms around him the way they were, resting her cheek against his bare back, looking down at it and the scars pale scars that ran down the even paler flesh. Her long nail ran deeply along some of the scars on the lower right side of his back, pressing down on some of the seemed to be bruised places with her finger till she was sure he cringed, "Stop doing that." He growled coldly.
Sakura sat up straight and tilted her head to the side slightly, smirking scarcely, "Because it hurts?" she asked him quietly.
"And because it's annoying!" Kyoshi barked at her, shrugging her off of him.
Sakura placed her palm against the small of Kyoshi's back where the sensitive skin had been, forcing her hand down onto it slowly harder and harder to increase the pain on it. "I'm going to go to bed and you're going to relax but tomorrow before I leave to look after those kids, I'm going to check on all of these." She didn't get an answer from the boy in front of her, instead she watched for a second as he kept on staring at the curtain outside in the hall way. "Heard me?" she asked him, increasing the pressure. The stubborn boy continued to refuse to answer her which in turn made her increase and tighten her hand around the already bruising skin to force an answer out of him, "Heard me?" she asked him again.
"Yes." Kyoshi breathed out painfully, the pressure being too much, making his hand jolt to his side to try to pry off her hand from the wounded skin of his. His vampire healing wasn't to perfection clearly as he always had the after-pain of all his wounds, even if they'd healed for him.
Sakura smiled, giving him a peck on the cheek before getting up and turning to leave, "Good night." She told him, flicking off the light switch, leaving the bedroom and walking down the hall to her own room.
Kyoshi arched back slightly, stretching his side muscles carefully before lying back. He reached over to the other end of the bed, his hand gently coming across a thin white sheet, almost transparent like the curtains. He dragged it over his body and continued to look at his magnified shadow on the wall that was warmly lit by the soothing candles in the room.
---In The Meantime- With Kai and Tala---
Kai walked out of his bedroom, running his fingers through his hair as he looked at the upset red-head sitting on the sofa with unfocused eyes, "What are you doing up? It's 2:30 in the morning, you've had a rough couple of days so you should be sleeping at this time."
"Couldn't sleep." Tala told him, sitting back and staring up at his ex-captain and current best-friend, looking on with some sadness.
Kai took in a deep breath, exhaling quietly as he said down beside Tala, sitting forward with his forearms resting on his knees, one hand rubbing the sleep out of his eyes, "That whole Hana thing?" he asked him quietly.
"It's nothing. Go back to bed." Tala ordered coldly.
Kai put a hand on Tala's shoulder, giving it an intentionally kind squeeze, the only form of support and kindness he was really capable of. Tala being around was changing him slightly as all Kai wanted to do was protect and care for his friend, something he couldn't do without getting rid of his cold façade for a while. "Tal, talk to me."
"She's after me for some reason and I don't know why, I don't even know who she is and its all getting to me."
"Then don't let it." Kai told him, making it sound easier than it actually was. "What I mean is, don't let something you can't control bother you for now. Tomorrow we'll find those two again and we'll get some answers but to be able to you're going to need your rest." He tried to sound as reasonable and supportive as he possibly could at 2:30am and through his cold hearted attitude but it seemed as though he got through to the other teenager partly.
"I think I see now why Boris chose you to be the leader." Tala smirked, making Kai smirk with him once he'd said it.
Kai stood up, looking down at Tala with an almost peaceful and kind look on his face, as peaceful and kind as he could get of course, "Go to bed, I'll see you in the morning."
"Sure, good night." With their good nights they both parted to get a few more hours of sleep as both knew till they found out who was after Tala they weren't going to be taking things so lightly and they needed all the help and rest they could possibly get.
---Next Morning---
Kyoshi sat up a little startled on his bed, looking around him frantically. He looked down at the ground, his blanket had fallen off of him during the night due to all the movement and now just lay on the ground. He looked over at the bedside table, the alarm clock clearly had been switched off since now it read that it was three in the afternoon when the alarm was meant to ring at ten. "Good afternoon!" A cheerful voice rang out from the living room.
Kyoshi looked up, startled for the second time within five minutes. Entering his room he saw a young girl walking in with a tray of breakfast in hand, smiling happily, "Hey, I didn't know you were going to be here." He whispered, not realizing how hoarse he actually sounded.
The girl laughed and placed the tray of food down on the nightstand, "None of us knew really. Sakura called me this morning and said you had a rough night, she had to go out to run some errands for you and she asked me if I could come over and make breakfast."
"You didn't need to."
"I felt like I did and I'm glad I didn't come, I haven't seen your cheeks this red since you fell down the stairs with a fever and that was about four years ago." The girl continued to laugh quietly as she sat down at the end of the bed, her hands in her lap as she looked on at Kyoshi with a smile on her face.
Kyoshi laughed, remembering that time a few years back when he'd had a severe fever and had insisted he was fine. Sakura had let him out of bed just so that she could prove a point and she did, a point that was later filled with laughter. He'd just got to stairs, just finished telling Sakura and the other girl that he was fine and just when he turned to the stairs he slipped and fell down to the bottom of the staircase. It may have sounded cruel but Sakura and the girl could only laugh at him for that while Kyoshi sat up and just turned bright red with humiliation. "It's just the heat is getting to me at the moment, don't worry about it, Nin." He assured her quietly.
Nin stood up, walking over by the door and leaning against the wall, her hands behind her back, "Well Sakura sounded a little concerned, even if it was just a little bit, it was there and that takes a lot for her to feel."
"She doesn't have any reason to be concerned but I'll assure her I'm fine when she gets back."
"You'd better be fine." The girl moved off the wall and smiled again, "Have breakfast and rest, I need to go back home, I've got a ton of things I still need to do there but if you need anything then call me." She moved off the wall and past through the bedroom door, waving happily at Kyoshi as she left, "Bye!"
"Hey, Nin! Before you leave could you close the curtains please?" Kyoshi asked, irritation growing slightly at the amount of sun light that lit the hallway.
Nin appeared in the door way again, crossing her arms and staring out the window, "Sakura gave me very strict orders not to, I'm not sure why but she was serious so I can't, sorry." She sounded a little uncomfortable, even guilty for going against Kyoshi's request, even if she didn't know why Sakura wanted them open. "I'll call and check in on you later if Sakura isn't back soon, ok?" she asked.
"Sure, bye." Kyoshi lay back down, staring at the ceiling but sometimes glancing at the breakfast on the table beside him as he closely listened and heard Nin leave the house. He sleepily rubbed at his eyes, widening his eyes slightly to try to focus on the a point on the ceiling, his vision blurring too much and the sun's heat that shone in not helping him in the slightest. Bright white lights continuously danced in front of his eyes, all cutting through his eyes and heart like a painful saw.
Through it and the ear piercing sound that rang in his head constantly he hadn't heard Sakura enter the house and stand just outside his room out of his view. Once she couldn't hear his ragged breathing anymore she peeked into the bedroom, "Hey." She said.
Kyoshi sat up slightly, seeing her there without a shred of emotion on her face, "Hey." He greeted.
"We should talk." Sakura said, walking into the room and sitting at the end of the bed.
Kyoshi struggled to sit up but managed after a while, "What about?" he asked her.
"Last night. I didn't mean to hurt you so much, alright?"
Kyoshi shrugged, "Okay I guess." He said. His eyebrow furrowed, looking on with a bit of confusion as he took her hand and stretched her bandaged arm slightly, taking a good look at it before looking up at her, "What happened?"
Sakura smiled as best she could, a sincere sweet one that was rarely seen, "Don't worry but let's not talk about me for now. Have you decided what you're going to do for blood?"
Kyoshi sighed, his head in his hands as he shook it, "I can't right now."
"Alright, just make sure you get some soon." Sakura warned.
Kyoshi ignored that statement and didn't answer, thinking that since he couldn't promise anything then he shouldn't talk about it. He shook his head slightly of some thoughts and closed his eyes for a second, "How'd it go with those kids?"
Sakura accepted the subject change and nodded, "I found little about them but amongst the little things, I found out their names are Kai and Tala. Tala moved here from Russia about a week ago and moved in with his friend. They spent the day inside for the most part so they were safe." She explained.
Kyoshi nodded as he took in all she said, "That's good."
"It is. If they stay out of trouble that means we have time to tackle your problems."
"You're lying on the bed yet you still look like you're seconds from falling over and that's a little hard when you're already lying down." Sakura pointed out to him, watching as he kept fading out.
"I just need an hour's sleep." Kyoshi told her quietly, lying back and shifting comfortably.
Sakura picked the blanket up off the ground and carefully placed it over him, "So get that hour of sleep that you need so you'll feel better." She got off the bed in a bit of a hurry, walking out into the hall and closing the curtains to keep the sun out. She glanced over at Kyoshi again, watching as he was close to falling asleep again. She smiled and left the hallway and walked into the living room and lying down on the sofa, thinking as a cigarette kept passing through her fingers.
---With Kai and Tala---
Tala was at the computer, answering some emails he'd gotten from his ex-team mates in Russia. He'd decided he wasn't going to tell them about what was going on, or at least not until they knew more about what they were up against. At the same time Kai walked into the living room, ending a call that had lasted about ten minutes. "The club says that the band isn't planed to play there again for about another week so basically, we have no clue where they're going to be tonight."
"At least we know who they are now…" Tala told him, never taking his eyes off the screen.
"We do?" Kai asked, blinking confusedly.
"Yeah, I looked up the bar's list of bands and went through them all till I found the right one."
Kai walked up to Tala quickly, pulling a chair up beside him to sit at the computer with him, "How long did that take?" he asked hurriedly.
"Considering the bar is new and there are only five bands on their roster, not very long."
Kai smirked and looked at Tala with a bit of amusment in his eyes, "Since when did you get so good at this?"
Tala looked over at Kai, a smile on his face, "The Abbey was filled with computers, practice makes perfect I guess." He answered.
"The Abbey's turned you into a sneaky rat…" Kai told him, turning back to the computer screen, "Don't change that, it might come in handy again." He finished, making the younger blader laugh quietly.
"If I didn't know you any better I would have taken that as an insult." Tala told him.
"Don't think otherwise just yet." Kai joked. He hit him in the shoulder slightly with the back of his hand, prodding him to tell about what he'd discovered, "So what did you find?"
"Not much that we haven't figured out by ourselves so far." Tala opened the web page again for Kai to see, sitting back so Kai can move closer to see the screen. "But about the band, they're a group of four that started out with the current lead singer, Sakura, meeting an American drummer named Danny. They tried to put a band together which is the band they are now, Danny, Sakura, Kyoshi and James."
"Well the guy that Sakura is always with must be Kyoshi so doesn't say anything about them because right now they're our priority."
Tala nodded in agreement and spoke again, "That's where it gets strange. The whole band is said to be more…divided compared to most bands because they all go different ways. Danny and James are good friends and are the outspoken ones of the group and have no problem talking about their personal lives. Kyoshi on the other hand, never says a word at any interview they're at and pretty much the only time people hear his voice is during sound checks and back up for some songs. Then there's Sakura, her personality in the band isn't much of a surprise, she's the cold type that keeps her past and personal life to herself, some people aren't even sure if 'Sakura' is even her name anyway since a lot of information she's given before had turned out to be fake."
"That's taking privacy to a whole new level." Kai muttered under his breath. "So by her paranoid privacy and him being a mute, I'd take it that no body knows where in this country they actually live right?"
"Right now, they're not even sure they even live anywhere in this country. Fans know that since the band only plays in the area that it shouldn't be too hard to look for them but it's harder than they think it is."
Kai sighed and sat back, staring off into space, or rather the ceiling with some thought, "So how do we find them?" he asked him.
Tala turned to look at Kai, a little frustrated and spoke coldly, "I can't think of everything."
"Sorry." Kai muttered.
Tala laughed, "Can't believe you actually bought that, stupid." He hit Kai in the arm hard, as he couldn't help but smile because of Kai's stupidity.
"That's cold." Kai told him, hitting Tala upside the head as he stood up to leave the room.
Kai was just about to exit when Tala turned round in the chair and called after him, "Don't you want me to tell you how we could find them?" he asked.
"I thought you didn't know." Kai said, turning and crossing his arms and he leant against the wall.
Tala smirked, trying to leave it at that and not to laugh, "I never said that." He corrected.
Kai rolled his eyes, "I like the fact that you're taking it easy but this isn't the time to be acting like a witty kid." He said coldly, and the old grumpy Kai was back!
"Fine, then I'll find the two by myself."
"Don't be stupid, we're finding and grilling them together. With that girl after you I'm not stupid enough to leave you alone." Kai shouted.
"Then let's find them."
---With Sakura and Kyoshi---
Sakura had remained on the sofa, the TV opposite her on but set to mute, the coffee table so close to her legs that they left a mark in her black jeans and papers were littering the table and their files covering the surrounding floor. She sighed, sorting out all the pages in different piles, all of different subjects yet all a mess. She picked up the lit cigarette from sitting on the ash tray, placing it to her lips and moving it there while both her hands tended to sorting out more pages. While looking down at one of the many files she began to hear staggering sounds, rapid and uneasy breathing coming from the other room.
She looked up, her grey eyes looking on with some disappointment in them as she continued staring through the white curtains, seeing the shadow of the shaking form the room held inside it. She hurriedly pulled the cigarette away from her mouth, dropping it into the ashtray and putting it out as she stood up quickly and jumped over all the files on the floor, "Not this again." She muttered angrily. She entered the bedroom in a hurry, sitting down beside Kyoshi's form, placing a hand on his waist while the other one went to hitting his face gently but a little roughly at the same time.
Kyoshi's form just seemed to continue trembling in his sleep, hissing as he felt the stinging of the hits on his face and the pressure put on his side. He slowly gasped for air in his sleep, trying endlessly for a breath of fresh air, a break from the reckless cold that his body suddenly endured and the painful tightening in his chest. Sakura moved her hand off his face, placing the other hand on the other side of his waist while slowly waiting for Kyoshi to wake up from the nightmare. He did after a few more minutes, shooting up quickly which almost knocked Sakura right off the bed if it weren't for her hold on him and her knowledge that that were to happen. He trembled forward, not being fully aware of what was happening, not even realizing that Sakura was there until she'd put her hands on his shoulders and held him away from her.
Kyoshi tugged at his arms, pulling the thin arms close to his body for some warmth and comfort. The cold continued to freeze at the base of his skin, causing goose bumps to appear on the skin. Fright and panic ran through his body and mind, his breathing slowly calming down as he was seconds away from collapsing into the girl's arms. "Sit up." Sakura ordered quietly.
And now, Kyoshi could hold back all his tears for not much longer, they began to sting his eyes and escape down his cheeks.
"Are you alright?" Sakura asked, her cold stature never leaving her as she looked at him as she normally would since the kindness and concern she was showing earlier had disappeared once he'd gotten up, without releasing how much more her words where hurting the boy.
The sandy-blonde haired boy nodded, "I'm fine," he said.
"You're crying." Sakura pointed out, and the little, barely audible affection in her voice forced another sob from between Kyoshi's lips.
"I'm terrified," Kyoshi admitted, Sakura obviously didn't miss the trust that had gone into that confession as she'd let the boy know she was listening when she increased a sensitive and kind hold onto the other's shoulders. "I'm absolutely terrified that I'm going to wake up in that prison and this will all have been a dream. I don't know if I could handle that, Saku."
"It's not a dream." Sakura whispered with an accompanying sigh. "I'm here, Kyoshi, I'm with you."
Kyoshi's breath was shaking constantly, trembling with every breath that he attempted to take in. "Cold…hurts." He muttered, just seconds away from that…
Sakura took a deep breath and shook her head a little, pulling her arms around Kyoshi and pulling him to bury his face in her shoulder, running her fingers through the long strands of hair at the back of his head. She tugged him closer to her body, letting her fingers roam over his bare shoulders, a hand then dragging the blanket over Kyoshi's back. "There's no need for this, stop it now." She ordered quietly, kissing the top of his head softly. Kyoshi didn't obey the order, only making Sakura hold on tighter and tighter till he was sure bruises where rising in places on his shoulders and back where she held him, "I'm serious, stop it." She repeated.
Kyoshi quickly pushed himself off of Sakura once he heard the second order, tugging at the blanket to warm himself up. It appeared as though his body could barely make up its mind on what it was feeling, one minute he was burning and the next minute he felt like he was in a freezer. He slowly began dragging back together every shred of a nerve to pull himself together and to stop the irritating fear that coursed through him.
Sakura got off the bed, looked down at the trembling boy and left the room quickly. Kyoshi took her departure quite badly, thinking that his weakness would have upset her and she was leaving him alone because of it. He held back all his emotions, trying his best to regain all his composure which worked after a few minutes. He looked up, a little shocked when he saw the dark-haired girl walk back into the room, her backpack and the first aid kit in her hand. She placed both objects on the ground by the bed, rummaging through her backpack for something, pulling out a small red vial of some importance to her. She looked down at it for a moment before handing it to Kyoshi, "You need this sooner than I thought. Drink it."
The boy stared on at the glass bottle, watching the red liquid inside with an unbelievable hunger. The monster in him almost took over but he was able to hold the vampiric monster back for long enough to ask, "Where'd you get that?"
Sakura continued to look down at it, moving it closer to him, "Where it's from doesn't matter, just drink up before…"
"Is it yours?" Kyoshi cut her off in a hurry.
Sakura raised her eyes to look at him, the usual coldness in them, "You said yourself you wouldn't be able to handle drinking blood by taking someone's life, now you're not so drink."
"That's why your arm is all bandaged up?"
Sakura sighed with an endless amount of frustration, obviously Kyoshi wasn't going to drink the blood or relax until she answered all his questions, "After keeping an eye on those kids for a few hours I went to the hospital, a friend owed me a favor for a while so I asked him to draw some of my blood. Just enough for you to feed off until you could go back to drinking other people's blood."
Kyoshi softened up slightly, tugging at the blankets even harder as he stared down at the bottle suddenly, "You didn't have to do that." He told her.
"But I feel like I did have to so get to drinking while I tend to you alright?" Sakura almost sounded like she was on the brink of pleading for him to listen to her and drink up the blood before he severely hurt himself. Kyoshi tried to smile and nodded numbly, taking the cold glass vial into his hand. The vial had just been in the fridge just before Sakura had dropped it into her backpack so the glass was freezing on the outside but Kyoshi didn't mind so much as his body slowly heated up.
Sakura watched for only a second as her friend sipped at the bottle of her blood, then taking the opportunity to pick up the first aid kit and move over to sit behind him. Her finger tips touched Kyoshi mid-back, slowly pressing down and moving her hands to different areas of his back and side. Like the night before, the same part on his side was being a problem to him as she could tell that the moment she touched the sensitive area he was about to choke on the blood he'd just sipped from the bottle. She smiled a little as she got up, left the room and walked down the hall, coming back with a cloth soaked in cold water. Sitting back down she placed a dry cloth on the bed underneath the swelling side, then placing the cold cloth over the skin.
Upon some examination you could tell there wasn't much of a problem with Kyoshi, physically at least. There was no sign of bruising, just very very mild swelling in some areas but nothing too serious but Sakura still wanted to be careful as she'd much preferred to be tending to the boy than to leave him in pain, even if there wasn't much she could do. She smiled slightly upon seeing him drink the blood so slowly, "You don't need to salvage it for so long, there's more of it." She told him.
"You know…if I turn on you now that it'd be your fault, right?" Kyoshi ignored her words and just spoke about what was on his mind at the time he was given the chance to.
Sakura returned back to her cold façade, checking under the cold cloth for a second while nodding, "I know."
Kyoshi took a deep breath, closing his eyes and rotating his neck and shoulders to release the tension in his sore muscles, "You have no idea…what danger you've put yourself in."
The girl's black hair waved in front of her face and eyes as she shook her head, "I have to disagree with you there. I knew what danger I was putting myself in a long time ago."
Kyoshi again ignored her words but just proceeded in finishing off the vial of crimson blood, thinking that as long as she still remembered the danger she was putting herself in by being anywhere near him then he was fine and she wouldn't be able to say that he never warned her. Although, by now he'd given up on trying to keep her out of his fights, out of his situations and out of his habits but she was stubborn and ruthless and she wasn't about to move or change her way of life unless it was entirely her choice rather than a given order from an over-protective friend.
"Once you're done with this…we should go and check on those kids." Kyoshi informed her.
"Once I'm done with this you're going to sleep." Sakura corrected him casually.
"I just got up." Kyoshi reminded her, turning his head to try to look back at her.
Sakura shrugged indifferently, lifting the cold cloth again and placing it on the nightstand, "Whether you just got up or not isn't the point, the point is that you aren't having a good couple of days and need sleep."
Her phone rang from her backpack, "Pass that for me would you?"
Kyoshi leaned forward and picked up the backpack, pulling the phone out of the front pocket and handing it to her as it continued to ring. "Who is it?" he asked her, watching as she looked at the person on the phone.
Sakura replied with, "The doorman." Just before she answered the caller, "What is it? Alright thanks, I'll be there soon." She hung up quickly, tossed her phone on the table and stood up.
"Saku…we don't have a doorman." Kyoshi stood up, looking at her strangely and blinking with confusion.
Sakura rolled her eyes and walked into the living room, pulling on a thin black long-sleeved jacket to hide the gun that she adjusted on the back of her jeans, "I'm well aware of that."
"So what doorman?" Kyoshi walked into the living room, pulling on a meager red tank top that covered the top half of his jeans properly, then pulling on a dark red shirt on top.
"Those brats live opposite a hotel, I know the doorman there and asked him to call me if he saw them leaving the apartment."
Kyoshi exhaled, opening the draw to a dressing table and pulling out his own gun. "You're a cold hearted bitch yet you amaze me because you still have so many friends." He spoke, sounding almost disappointed.
Sakura lit another cigarette, leaving it in her mouth while she fixed the laces of her trainers. Once she stood up again and pulled the cigarette from her mouth she walked over to the door, "This is strictly business, I wouldn't call them friends…rather associates." She walked out the door, Kyoshi running straight behind her.
---With Kai and Tala---
"So you really think they'll show up just because we left the apartment?" Kai asked, leaning back against the wall, crossing his arms as always.
Tala look a little upset and probably annoyed with Kai's lack of trust in his plans, "Working under Boris' rule for so long you learn how these kinds of people think." He said.
"What makes you think that they'll show though? We haven't known them for very long to know what they'd do."
Tala leaned back against the wall, moving his head back and looking up at the starry night sky with anger slowly burning up, "They 'assured' us that Hana wouldn't come after us again but the girl isn't dead and she seemed pretty determined. Sakura was there when Hana first showed up, if Sakura thinks we're in any danger by being out here then she'll show up."
"You two plan on standing there all night or do you have some sort of plans?" Sakura called, walking down the street right up to Kai and Tala, Kyoshi following close behind her while he stared up at the beautiful sky with a longing to get off the ground.
The two beybladers pushed themselves off the stone wall and turned to look at the other two, fierce looks on both their faces, Tala muttering a quiet, "Told you they'd show up."
Kyoshi stopped looking at the sky and turned his attention back to the two stubborn bladers that stood in front of him, "It's risky leaving yourself out here, you're willing to risk your lives for some information that you don't need to know?" Kyoshi now returned to being the old careless and slightly more heartless one than the one that was usually seen when he was alone at home.
"We got attacked by something that isn't normal, it said it'd be back for Tala so that concerns us more than you think it does." Kai spoke coldly.
"If you keep asking for trouble you're going to get it." Sakura warned, snarling angrily at the two younger boys.
"Cool it." Kyoshi muttered rudely under his breath, Sakura hearing him clearly enough, causing her to visibly relax and cross her arms.
"Let's go somewhere more private." Sakura said suddenly, much calmer than she was a minute before.
"Upstairs in our apartment." Kai was just about to turn to the door to go inside but was stopped by Sakura speaking again.
Sakura stepped forward quickly and speaking before Tala followed Kai, "No."
"Can't we even agree on a place to argue?" Kai asked her angrily, not bothering to turn to her.
"She's right this time. All of us all together in somewhere like an apartment isn't a good idea in case Hana comes after us again." Kyoshi reasoned with him. The good thing about the large difference between Kyoshi and Sakura was that Sakura was one that was always argued with but Kyoshi was the one that when he spoke and agreed with Sakura, it was because she was actually right. He wasn't about to agree with her over a fight or to make things more difficult, he was going to do things his way.
"Then where do you suggest we go?" Tala asked them.
Sakura and Kyoshi looked each other, a cool and rather mischievous smirk appearing on Sakura's face as she watched Kyoshi's warning face then turned to the other two boys, the sadistic and playful smirk never leaving her face, "I love kids like you who act so tough." She told them.
Kai sat on the ground in a deserted alley, resting his arms on his knees, sighing and shaking his head, "We ask for a quiet place to talk and she drags us to the most dangerous part of the country." He said, staring on distantly.
"Guns go off as much as car alarms around here, no one's stupid enough to talk if they hear firearms going off." Sakura said, sitting down opposite Kai on the other end of the alley.
"You really have the weirdest way of living for a teenager." Tala told her, walking over to Kai and standing beside the sitting form.
"Let's cut to the chase, what is it you two want to know and if we tell you will you leave us alone?" Sakura asked, rudely as always, rubbing at her temples as she already felt a headache coming on.
"We're not guaranteeing anything!" Kai exclaimed.
"You two are constantly fighting, calm down would you?" Kyoshi interjected, standing in the middle of the large dark alley, looking from Sakura to Kai till he watched them both avoid the others gaze. "Good now let's answer their questions before something bad happens." He continued.
"So what do you want to know?" Sakura asked quietly.
"Who is she?" Kai asked her.
"She's a water demon who is more than slightly obsessed with gaining power."
Kai looked up at Tala, raising an eyebrow at him, "You really seem to have a knack for attracting people who want power don't you?"
Tala turned back to Sakura and Kyoshi, ignoring Kai's stupid yet true statement, "So why is she after me?" he asked them.
"You probably have a power that attracts her to you. That's why we've been saying that it's not something you can help or that you should take as a personal offence." Kyoshi answered him, giving a small warm smile of some kind of hope or support.
"So she plans on killing me?" Tala asked them.
"We've told you already that we're not going to let her get to you." Sakura reminded, an exhale escaping her lips with some despair.
Kai watched as his best friend sighed and arched his head back, resting it against the stone walls. He could tell that the red-head was obviously upset, not being able to catch a break and all, "How can you assure us of that?" he turned back to them and asked.
"We're dedicated in what we do. We haven't lost someone yet and we're not about to lose someone now." Sakura said, looking up at Kyoshi, watching as he stared longingly at Tala's pale neck, clearly holding himself back. Kyoshi moved his tongue to the side inside his mouth, biting down on it and turning his head away from the group, not even realizing the words that Sakura had spoken which she was sure would get some sort of bad reaction out of him.
"How can we help?"
"You can stay out of it!" Kyoshi growled, turning back to them in one swift neck movement.
Sakura visibly flinched painfully, then raising her head to look at Kai, "You have to trust us to look after you and destroy her."
"I don't want to be kept out of this."
"You'd be helping us and keeping yourself safer if you stay out of it as best you can. Coming after us is just going to get you and Kai hurt." Kyoshi continued, looking on at Tala with fierce eyes.
"We should all leave." Sakura said suddenly, pushing herself off the ground and standing over Kai, watching as he got up. "We'll speak about all this again some time soon."
Kyoshi agreed with her, walking up beside her and trying a small smile at the other two, "Yeah, maybe next time we meet we could all be more friends than enemies."
A/N: A long, most likely very boring chapter. My reason for having this chapter so long is because I don't know when exactly I'll update again, probably next weekend like usual but I'm not sure since I have exams starting up soon. One thing I didn't mention last chapter was the song, the song that the band had played in the chapter was 'The Sharpest Lives' By My Chemical Romance. I'd forgotten to mention it sooner, sorry.
Please leave me a review telling me what you think of it so far. Take care everyone!