Chapter 15
The tall vampire walked out of his bedroom in time to meet Kai in the hallway, passing off a small smile to the young beyblader, "Morning." He greeted in a whisper. Kai replied to him quietly in the same manner but not loud enough for Kyoshi to tell if Kai was still frustrated with him for what had happened the night before, "Still mad?" he asked curiously.
Kai grumbled quietly beneath his breath for just a second at being reminded of the night's incidents, then sighing, "No," he answered, then adding, "You helped Tala after all, how mad could I be?"
The vampire raised an eyebrow at him, asking, "Honestly?" He got a punch onto his shoulder, reacting by laughing, stopping in the living room and pulling Kai back to talk to him, "If it's any consolation…" he began, a smile playing at his lips, "I could have given you a stronger dosage but I didn't think you were stubborn enough to need it."
The Russian beyblader smirked and rolled his eyes, "Thanks." He said sarcastically, walking off into the kitchen, followed by Kyoshi. The two entered as far as the doorway of the kitchen, looking down at Tala who was eating at a table full of food.
The innocent redhead looked up at them, "Hey I just came in here and she was cooking like crazy." He defended himself.
"Sakura, are you alright?" Kai asked her cautiously, confusedly looking in her direction.
The girl turned round, smiling softly, "Yeah, fine. I just thought everyone would be hungry after last night." She explained, laughing quietly, a strange action for Sakura, especially this early in the morning.
"Well yeah we're hungry but don't you think this is overkill?" Kyoshi joined the other two males at the table, his eyes gracing over everything on the table, being unable to decide where to start from.
"Speaking of overkill I've got a few people to murder this afternoon." Sakura told them, still sounding shockingly casual about it.
Kyoshi looked up at her a little worriedly, "After last night are you actually up for that?" he asked.
"After last night I'm definitely up for it." Sakura mumbled angrily, turning and walking out of the room to leave everyone alone to eat. She heard Kyoshi hurry up and follow her to the vampire's bedroom, turning and finding him standing there, "Yes?"
"You aren't handling your anger very well."
"What better time to go on a killing spree?"
"When you're in the right state of mind preferably!" Kyoshi exclaimed, sighing he visibly relaxed momentarily, "Though that's not my concern. I saw how you got back here yesterday; you could barely walk straight for the first few minutes."
"You know as well as I do that I know how to take care of myself in these situations, you're just using it as an excuse to protect me for some other underlying reason."
The vampire sighed, rubbing at his temples as he paced in front of her, "I'm just worried about you and your health, that's all it is."
Sakura stepped closer to him, crossing her arms and looking up at him caringly, "I appreciate your concern but as always it's unnecessary."
"I can't believe you're still saying that!" Kyoshi shouted out with frustration. He walked over to the bed, sitting down and resting his head in both his hands, "I don't want to start my day with yelling, or a migraine but I am worried about you, I want you to slow down or at least make a better attempt at being less reckless."
"Let me get through what I've got planned for today, then if things don't work out as well as intended then I'll slow down."
Kyoshi exhaled silently, looking up at her with still some uneasiness in his dark blue eyes, "Be careful for me, alright?" he confirmed, pleading entering his eyes.
The lone girl pulled back her raven-coloured hair, nodding slowly, "For the last few years I've always been careful…I'll just make it a point to be a little more careful today." She told him. She sat down abruptly beside him, her hands in her lap just before she gave his arm a poke, "What are you thinking about?" she asked him, crossing her arms.
Kyoshi shrugged a little, continuing his long stare at the ground in front of him, "Don't you think we should tell Kai and Tala everything by now? They've been here what…two weeks? It's about time we tell them everything."
"Do we have to?" Sakura sighed. She got another shrug as a reply so she exhaled again with some realization, "Fine if it means that much to you then we'll tell them." At that arms swung around her shoulder, hugging at her tightly with a whisper of a happy thanks in her ear, "Alright alright, don't get clingy." She laughed quietly, tugging at his arms, "But we're not telling them today, we'll wait till tomorrow at least. I think they've had enough serious heart palpitations for twenty-four hours."
Kyoshi smiled at her truthfulness, moving closer and setting a quick kiss on her mouth, "Thanks." He whispered softly.
The young girl smiled and stood up, "Stop being thankful towards me. We should be past the stage of saying our thanks every few minutes." She walked over to the doorway in her attempt to exit but paused and looked back, "Go get something to eat." She ordered before she left.
The vampire sulked a little, looking up at where his fiancé left, shaking his head and standing up, "If only you knew why I worry." He mumbled, making his way out of the bedroom and back to the kitchen to join the others. He walked back into the kitchen just as Tala pushed his plate away from himself, turning to look at him at the same time.
Tala laughed up at him, "I see why you said you don't like eating out, why eat out when Sakura cooks like this?" he asked rhetorically. He glanced at Kai for a second then, smirking up at Kyoshi again, "Me, I have to eat out, it's healthier for me to eat out, because Kai can't cook at all."
Kai rolled his eyes at the statement, then again at the two glances he got from the other males, "I don't like cooking." He mumbled angrily.
"Maybe you're just afraid of poisoning Tala with your cooking." Kyo thought aloud, sitting down to begin his breakfast.
The older Russian sighed, just a little frustrated which sprouted a glare from across the table to the innocent vampire, "Its not that I can't cook, it's just that I choose not to cook."
"Poor Tala." Kyoshi said, sympathetically.
He vampire's new friend smiled, "It doesn't matter…I can enjoy the food here at least."
Still Kyoshi didn't look all to convinced, finishing a glass of cold water before he spoke, "After we're done with all this I should tell Sakura so we keep in touch, maybe she could make you both some decent cooked meals once in a while."
"Still meeting would be great..." Tala mumbled.
Kyo nodded, smiling vaguely, "We'll still meet. I'm not stupid enough to lose good friends."
"At least." Tala murmured to himself.
---Hours Later---
The three males sat around in the living room with nothing in particular to do; Kyoshi sitting upside down on the sofa, holding a notepad above his head with a pen in hand, obviously working as always. Kai just sat in the quiet room reading the newspapers that had been left on the coffee table, it being his only way to pass the time for the moment. Tala in the meantime sat curled up on his side in an armchair, Kyo's player hooked to his ears while he relaxed listening to the various music that played on it. Silence had all dawned onto the room for no particular reason but the fact that Kyoshi had his own work to do, Tala was too innocent to bother interrupting anything and Kai was just being quiet and stoic as always. Sakura, on the other hand, had disappeared into her old bedroom long ago and hadn't come out, even after Kyoshi had checked on her, having found her feeling ill in the bathroom.
Tala, having been facing the direction of the hallway was able to catch sight of the girl walking down the hall, the other two catching on as they'd heard her heavy footsteps. She stopped in the doorway, turning to the large mirror in the living room, fixing up the collar of her black jacket. "So how do I look?" she asked them.
It was really hard to tell for the others though, in all honesty they couldn't tell if she was going out for a business meeting with someone very important or if she planned on killing someone. She was currently wearing a short black skirt, the business kind, with a white shirt underneath a black jacket and her knee high boots looking like she could decapitate someone with the heal.
"Wonderful as always but come to think of it you never did quite tell me what your afternoon plans where." Kyoshi informed Sakura, arching his head all the way back so he could see her while remaining upside down.
"Inagawa-kaï family lost their general a while ago; they're holding a vote for the new general today." Sakura explained, still admiring herself in the mirror.
Kai raised an eyebrow at her, a part of him not believing what she was saying, "Inagawa-kaï? You're voting for the new Yakuza family general?" came his rather surprised question.
Saku laughed softly at that and turned them all, then walking slowly to the door, "Of course not," she answered, opening the door, "I'm running for general." She added.
While Tala just sat there quietly, he wasn't sure whether he should be worried or trust her to do what she intended but either way he remained quiet, leaving Kai to be the only person voicing such opinions, "You trust her to do this?" Kai asked sharply, glaring at the vampire.
Said vampire didn't seem phased at all by the fact that his fiancé was running for Yakuza general or by Kai's ever growing death glares, "She's a big girl, she knows what she's doing." As sure as he sounded, his heart was beating just a little bit harder in his chest with uncertainty and some worry but his mind overran his heart at times and reassured him that she was strong enough to handle things as she was.
Kai gave up, he couldn't argue with Kyoshi, or Sakura and Tala was making no attempt at vouching for him so he just shrugged, "Fine, good luck then." He called to her.
"Thanks." Were Sakura's last words before she left the house, the front door banging hard behind her.
The eldest Russian groaned heavily and went back to reading the paper, the groan being heard more than clearly by the vampire who lifted his head which darted in the boy's direction, "What?" he asked the teen.
Kai slammed the newspaper back down, suddenly frustrated, "I can't believe you let her do that. That's the third largest Yakuza family she's running for, if they find her…"
Kyoshi sighed in the middle of Kai's rant, resting his head back to the way it was earlier, "She'll know exactly what she has to do and she'll be fine." He cut him off through gritted teeth. He spent so much time trying to convince himself that things would be alright; now with a few sentences Kai was undoing all his hard work.
"Could you both just stop?" Tala cut in, now angry himself as it had seemed the other two had forgotten he was sitting right there. Now everyone's attention was on him and all he could do was continued where he'd left off, "I'm sure a part of Kyo is just as worried about Sakura as you are so you aren't helping, Kai." Clearly he'd startled Kai at the thought that he was once again siding with Kyoshi and not his best friend so he continued, "Even I'm worried about her but she knows what she's doing. She's smart; she's not going to go there unless she was sure that she could get herself out of anything."
Kyo exhaled heavily at the sudden silence that fell upon the room again, turning over and sitting up, crossing his legs underneath him, "Tala, I appreciate your defence for us and Kai, I understand where your concern is coming from." He hated having conversations like this; they pained him so much to even have such seriousness where it wasn't necessary. "Tala, understand that Kai almost lost you yesterday, whether he chooses to admit it to you and me or not, he was scared out of his mind because he almost lost you, his best friend. He doesn't want to have to deal with death, he doesn't care who's death but he doesn't want to deal with it at all that's why he's this uptight about Saku." Once he saw Tala relax visibly in his seat he knew he'd gotten his point across so he turned his attention to Kai, "You on the other hand, need to stop worrying so much and trust me when I tell you that Sakura is trained well enough to be able to handle her job. I worried about her for years but every single time she came back here alive, so a part of me stopped worrying. Naturally I still worry about her but I trust her at the same time."
Underneath Kai's cold exterior he couldn't help feeling a certain feeling of discomfort, sitting there with Kyoshi being able to tell almost everything that was bothering him in such a precise manner, was startling and uncomfortable for him. In front of his best friend too.
A vampire's senses are said to be some of the sharpest of all, and Kyoshi could clearly vouch for this once he picked up on some of the teen's discomfort. He turned to Tala momentarily, locking his much calmer eyes with Tala's concerned blue ones, "Could you give us a minute?" he asked, gaining a small respective nod from the boy. Getting his answer he stood up, tapping Kai's arm and walking to the bedroom, followed shortly by a usual stoic character.
"You didn't need to pull me out of there." Kai spat rudely at the vampire.
Kyoshi put both hands down onto Kai's shoulders, pushing him to sit down on the bed, then kneeling down in front of him, "Kai…"
The Russian smirked, annoyance growing, "Great, now you're talking to me like I have some kind of problem." He murmured.
"If you need to talk about what happened last night…"
"I don't need to talk!" Kai blurted out hurriedly, quietly all the same to keep Tala in the other room from hearing. He waited for a second for Kyo to compose himself before asking a solid question, "Why do you and Sakura assume I need to talk about it?"
"Kai, be sensible, Sakura and I are in the business of death but don't think for a moment that we don't feel anything." The blonde brushed away hair from Kai's face so he'd be able to look at him, sending shivers down Kai's spine, "You almost lost your best friend…you mean to say you don't want to try and deal with that?" he only got a shake of the boy's head as a reply, an avoidance of each other's gazes. "Then if you can't talk to me, what about Sakura?" he asked, slowly giving up on the boy.
"I already told you, I don't need to talk. Can't this conversation just end here?"
"No. Nothing good comes out of holding these kind of things back Kai."
Slowly but steadily Kai was at a loss for words with each time he spoke to Kyoshi about something serious. He wanted to say something, something that would at least buy him some time till he knew he could say something, or better yet nothing at all, "I just need to think for a while."
Kyoshi softened up a bit at the sound of that and got up, sitting beside him, "That's fair but…" he paused, staring through the white curtain into the other room, "don't be too hard on yourself. Trust me enough to get through to you that none of this is your fault."
Kai smirked lightly, "I thought the point of letting me think alone was so that I could be the one to evaluate things like that." He said softly, a slight hint of humour in his voice.
This made Kyoshi chuckle quietly and nod, "It is but if you've got someone who can save you half the headache then that's always good, isn't it?"
"But why are you taking this thing with Sakura so lightly?" Kai asked him, clearly still being unable to understand this kind of relationship the two older people had with each other.
Again they were on the subject…one Kyoshi really didn't feel like discussing. Although, Kyoshi would hate to be a hypocrite; having Kai talk to him about his problems, but he himself refusing to discuss a 'simple' matter. "I'll admit, I'm a little worried about her but she can handle this. She grew up doing these kinds of jobs; I don't see why this one time should be any different to all the others."
"You act like it's different…" Kai said, suddenly getting a little confused look from the other, "Different from the other times." He rephrased.
The vampire laughed half-heartedly, staring down at the ground as though it where the most interesting thing in the room, "I've become a little paranoid lately…particularly worried about her health." Really, that was only half of what was bothering him, though he thought he'd give Sakura the respect she deserved by telling her before he told anyone else, she'd kill him if it where done any other way.
"She's reckless, she doesn't care about the way she fights and true, she's so skinny it must be unhealthy but by overall appearance and by the way she handles things I wouldn't say she's ill enough for you to worry about it."
Kyoshi quietly laughed it off; obviously not about to give the other the real reason he was this worried, "Yeah, like I said I've become paranoid." He defended himself.
"I never would have guessed." Kai smirked sarcastically, rolling his eyes.
Kyo punched Kai lightly, "Well it's just been Saku and I for years, one of us had to be the sensitive caring one."
"I didn't know the sensitive caring one secretly got to feed ipecac to the cold untouchable one."
"I know…sorry about that."
Kai laughed just slightly and turned away from him, "Yeah, you're forgiven this time but next time you try to help, let me be fully aware of it." He said in a slightly more ordering tone.
Kyoshi gave him a firm pat on the shoulder, laughing at the tone in which the order was said, "Sure." The two got up with that agreement, walking back into the other room ready to tell Tala that the two had sorted out their argument but upon arriving there they'd found Tala'd pulled a blanket over himself and fallen asleep, still curled up onto his side in the chair. Kai proceeded towards him, ready to wake him or at least check to see if he was alright but Kyo had caught his hand just in time, "He's exhausted, let's leave him alone." He gave a jerk of his head in the direction of the kitchen as a sign to Kai to just leave Tala in peace and follow him.
Kai sat down in the kitchen, a part of him still a little uncertain about a lot of things that went on around him. "Coffee?" he heard Kyoshi asking from behind him.
The Russian sighed, a little flustered and undecided, "Yeah, sure." He accepted finally. Moments later a mug sat in front of him on the table and he glanced up at Kyoshi who'd gone to sit down, "Thanks." He whispered tiredly. He heard Kyoshi groan then watched him stand up again, hearing him mumble something about needing to get his work, which indeed he did; coming back into the room with the notepad and pen. Kai took a sip of coffee, staring at Kyoshi's work at an angle as the vampire stared at the half blank page while sipping his own drink, "You work too hard." Kai mumbled.
Kyo made a growling sound at the back of his throat, smirking, "Right, I'll bet you don't." Came his sarcastic retort.
"So I do but I stop after a while, sometimes when I don't have people looming over me, which in case you haven't noticed, Sakura is no longer doing."
The vampires laugh was quiet, sweet and honest at the same time, "I don't write like this because she makes me do it, or because it's my job, I do it because I just enjoy it."
This surprised Kai. It was as though a lot of things the creature said surprised him these days, he was a surprising and different character. "You enjoy pouring out your emotions on pieces of paper?"
"It's not like that...its productive...helpful for a lot of people."
"Like?"
Kyoshi smirked at the boy's stubbornness, "Me; it keeps my emotions and moods as orderly as I can keep them. Sakura; she has something to sing and she's got someone to brush up her own writing. The other band members; they've got their jobs which keeps them out of trouble. Then there are the fan's, they appreciate the feeling in our music so who am I to deny them that?"
Kai shrugged, not entirely sure about the way to answer, this was probably the most he'd actually spoken to someone at once, "Well if you enjoy what you do..." he trailed off.
"I do..." He whispered, suddenly locking eyes with the teen again, "I love anything that attempts making me feel better. Being locked up in here almost all my life...tends to bring a person down so I try to make the best of things."
Understanding a person's situation is just overall hard but when the person you're trying to understand isn't even human, it's a hundred times harder to try to understand. When the person is just complicated in general, how do you expect an attempt at trying to understand something that the person himself can understand?
"I don't get any of this but I suppose in any situation positivity is best."
By now Kyoshi had come to the point of sketching lines against the edge of his page, keeping his eyes fixed on the page while he continued to talk to Kai, particularly about how good thinking positively was helpful for everyone in many occasions. Naturally Kai disagreed to most of the things that he said but at least it meant that the two hadn't spent the afternoon in miserable silence.
---3am---
The front door opened quietly, shutting behind the shadowed form of the staggering girl. She sighed, feeling irritated by the heat that coursed through her whole body. She staggered backwards at the sight of Kai standing up from the sofa, "Kai..." she breathed out with relief, Kai having shocked her, "What the hell are you doing up at this time? It's late, or have you not noticed?" she bit out a little rudely but was too exhausted to actually be too angry with him.
Obviously ignoring the girl's rudeness that was as bitter as his usually was, Kai was drawn to look at her thighs. Not because he was deciding it was time for dirty thoughts but because bright red blood was more than just noticeable on milky white skin.
The girl had noted his staring and where his eyes where aimed at and looked down, seeing the blood dripping from under her skirt, "Oh thank goodness, I thought you had a dirty mind." She breathed out quietly.
With some uncertainty Kai opened his mouth to speak but only managed after a moment, "Are you alright?" was the best he could bring himself to ask.
"Yeah...fine." Sakura smiled weakly, "It's not even my blood anyway..."
The Russian was in the middle of being confused, shocked and worried all at once, his eyes widening a bit, "You sure?" he asked with some disbelief.
Sakura tried to laugh it off, stumbling lightly but gripping at the dressing table in time, "Yeah, if it were mine, I'd feel it, wouldn't I?" she stood up straight and stopped in the entrance to the hallway, "I need to have a shower, mind if I use your bathroom?"
"Hey, it's your place, you don't need my permission." Kai walked up behind her; to be honest he didn't quite trust her standing up by herself.
Saku nodded, "I guess it is. Go get some sleep, Kai." She ordered him quietly, entering the bedroom she shared with Kyoshi to get some of her clothes. By the time she'd picked up her things, walked into her old bedroom, Kai was lying in bed, not too far from a sleeping Tala. She ignored the two and went into her bathroom, getting rid of her blood soaked clothes and entering the shower in a hurry. As much as she enjoyed the warm water on her body, gently cleaning away every trace of blood from her skin, she got out quickly as she'd begun to feel cold. She got dressed quickly, picked up all the blooded clothes from the ground, cleaned the bathroom of her mess and left quietly, passing through the bedroom in silence so as to not wake the two boys.
Dumping her clothes in the corner of Kyoshi's bedroom she snuck over to him quietly, resting her hands on her knees as she smiled down at his sleeping form, "Good night." She whispered, lifting the blankets higher up his body. She exhaled with nostalgia, turning and walking to the kitchen. On the table Kyoshi's batch of papers sat, a recorder on top of it and a note beside both, which read, 'Finished the lyrics for the new song, take a look, if there's something you don't like than get back to me about them and I'll sort it out. Thanks...Kyoshi.' she smiled at that, she still couldn't quite understand why he was so polite when leaving her messages.
Still, she fell down exhaustedly into her chair and checked over the lyrics on the page he'd left her, just when her first interruption began when Kai stepped into the doorway. 'I always wondered when she did her work.' He thought to himself. There the girl sat, exhausted out of her mind, sitting in the dark at the kitchen table. Her attire now consisted of a black and dark pink corset and a pair of shorts, something he could never quite imagine the girl in but was proved wrong by her gracefulness in an outfit like that.
The girl looked over at him, "Awake again? Can't sleep?"
Kai shook his head a bit, inhaling through his teeth, "It's been a bit of an off night." He just said.
Saku put down the papers and gripped the table to stand up, "Want some coffee?" she asked him, Kai raising a hand at her that made her pause her movement.
"You're working...I'll get it." In Kai's mind, to him the least he could do for her was make her coffee.
"Thanks..." she murmured, sitting back down and looking back at her work. Before she knew it a steaming mug of coffee had been placed in front of her and she smiled up at Kai in thanks before turning back to all she had to do. After just a second she put it back down again and looked back at the loner, watching him sip his coffee, "You're not going back to sleep?" she asked him. She got a shake of his head, having expected it. In her mind things went that once a loner took their morning coffee, no matter what the time, they wouldn't be falling asleep so quickly. She stood up slowly, picking up her work and her mug of coffee, "I'm going downstairs to do some work, come with me, I don't want t leave you up here alone."
"I'll be fine up here; I'm just going to lie down for a while." Kai insisted, placing his now empty mug in the sink.
Sakura nodded, back to her dictator-like ways, "And you will lie down, but downstairs where I know you're safe." She walked as far as the doorway when she made a hand gesture for her to follow him which he did without more arguments regarding the subject. Kai made himself comfortable on the wooden staircase while Saku sat at the desk, both of them going quiet for countless minutes in which whisperingly Saku voiced the lyrics Kyo had worked so hard on. She rubbed at her throat, feeling the sudden stiffness of it from the cold, putting down her work again. She turned round, looking at Kai leaning hard against the wooden banister as he'd already begun to grow tired. "Kai..." She called to him loudly, a hint of sympathy in her voice, having not realized sooner just how tired he actually was, "Go back upstairs and get some sleep." she ordered him, turning her body to be able to look at him.
Kai naturally groaned the second he'd heard her voice breaking through to him but he protested as he wiped sleep out of his eyes, "I won't be able to sleep." He told her.
"Come here..." Sakura called, looking forward at the wall in front of her, fumbling with a pen that was on the desk. It took Kai a lot longer than she expected to show up beside her, apparently he'd been contemplating for a long time or just hoping to avoid the situation. He probably knew a talk was coming along. She pulled a chair beside her, the same one Tala had been sitting on last time he was in the basement talking to Kyoshi. Kai sat down beside her, staring at everything on the table to avoid the gaze of the other girl. While he sat there, Sakura had opted to avoid conversation, he didn't want it, she didn't want it, why start it when things were okay? In an attempt to at least get half of her work done she put on the headphones to the player and hit play, listening over the instrumental that the group had all worked so hard on while she tried to piece together the lyrics with the music, at one point mumbling something louder than she thought about Kyoshi making some of his writing too difficult. Well...putting it together with the music is the difficult part but when she can be bothered to work he'd be off sleeping or something of the sort.
None of the lyrics on the page where in English, spare two lines close to the bottom so that's why Kai couldn't understand much when he'd looked over at Saku's work. Luckily the lyrics where all in romaji, rather than kanji since it naturally made it easier for a lyricist to write songs in romaji rather than kanji. His romaji was still a little rough but to him, the little bit he understood of the work, he could already tell that it was an important song that it was something that Kyo had really worked on with his heart rather than just writing random things.
A moment later a thin arm snaked over both his shoulders, tugging at him gently for him to rest his head on the girl's shoulder. Her hand moved up and down along his arm, adding a gentle warmth to his cold skin. Upon looking at her she'd turned to look at him too, "You alright?" she whispered, having paused her music apparently. Still thinking she was going to start an intervention, he pulled together his energy and moved himself off her shoulder, only for her to grip his shoulder with surprising strength, "No wonder you can't sleep, the second you relax you tense up again." She told him in a scolding tone.
Though he couldn't help it, something in that scolding tone brought him to relax. He wasn't sure what but whatever it was she said, or however the way she said it, it worked because for a moment he thought about himself enough to relax. Even though it didn't last very long. The moment he looked up at her again was when he'd heard the music being blasted in her ears again and watching her continue her work like she'd never said a word and as though his weight on her side wasn't bothering her. He sighed quietly, more to himself since he knew for certain that the girl couldn't hear him and after just another moment, hosted himself up off the chair. He turned to leave, having not noticed that the girl took out the headphones at his action, "Kai?"
"What?" Was all Kai could bite back, more bitterness in his voice than he'd actually intended.
"Going to get some sleep?" She asked, obviously avoiding the question she was dieing to ask (but trying so hard to avoid).
"Yeah." Kai replied simply. Having made it up the stairs he felt he should say something else and turned to look down at her, "Maybe you should too." He added.
Sakura smiled, she could tell he could be kind when he wanted to, "Yeah, I will soon." She gave him a brisk nod and turned back to her work, having seen how badly Kai actually wanted to leave. She shook her head of overwhelming thoughts that all included the younger boy, thoughts which she tried to bury with work. Knowing well-enough that if Kyoshi caught her pulling an all-nighter she'd be scolded for it, she agreed in her mind that she'd just get an hour's worth of work done. Then proceed to getting some well-needed and well-deserved sleep.
For that whole one hour Sakura fought off the exhaustion as best she could, the pounding music in her ears being as helpful as could be. By the end, with a great relieved exhale she heavily slammed down the pages she'd kept in her hands for so long. Taking a look at her watch, it read 4:20am and she groaned at the sight of it. With a tired heave she brought herself to stand up, shaking her head a bit as she walked up the flight of stairs. Subconsciously she ended up standing outside the bedroom door of the two male teens and without another thought she quietly opened the door and peeked inside. She walked in slowly, almost tip-toeing so she wouldn't wake either of the boys. She stood by Tala's side, looking down at him as he lay sleeping soundly on his stomach, resting his head on both his arms. While he didn't look like he was most comfortable, he looked fine to her. That brought her to walk to the other side of the bed, watching Kai finally sleeping safe and sound.
To her Kai was just a lot like Kyoshi, acting one way when he was awake but when he was asleep he looked what she had described as adorable. Though of course she'd never dare say that to either of them. At that moment Kai shifted his bdoy on the bed, turning onto his side and the movement made Saku fear he'd caught her. A quiet moment of the male not moving nor indicating that he was stirring, made Sakura think otherwise. She lowered one hand gently, lifting one of the covers and pulling it higher up the boy's body as she'd seen him shudder, possibly from cold. That was the craziness of Japan, one moment you've got a heat wave and just when you've got every air conditioning in the house working thunder storms start up outside. Though that was the last bit of movement Kai needed to wake up, grabbing hold tightly onto the girl's gentle cut up hand that had been just above his shoulder.
His eyes surprised eyes shot open and just in front of him stood Sakura who looked a little upset that she'd been caught. "Just me." She assured him quietly though.
"What the hell are you doing in here?" Kai asked through gritted teeth.
"Came to check on Tala before I went to bed." The girl replied innocently, pulling her hand carefully out of his tense one. Really, she didn't want to tell him that he was her main concern when she'd stepped inside. Actually, neither of them where her concern when she walked in. She'd done it without knowing it but when she'd got in she was curious to see how he was. She'd always been a little curious about him, in fact. She watched him sigh, turning onto his back and falling back against the pillows. With that she comfortingly placed a hand on his shoulder, "Sorry I startled you. Go back to sleep." Was about all she could bring herself to say to him without revealing any of her true intentions. Before he could reply, nor could he react she turned and made a quiet break for the bedroom door, stepping out and closing the door behind her.
A/N: A long chapter as always. Sorry for the delay, school's started again and naturally that's a pain so forgive me. I've got 117 more days of school(not including weekends and holidays) after that writing's got me all to itself till I find the school I want to go to. Take care everyone and please leave a review!