A.C.: People who say that human beings spend 1/3rd of their lifetime asleep obviously have never missed a single day of sleep.
Yeah I'm sorry, the update's late but I had finals and the monitor died and you know... things just piled on top of another.
And it's my birthday today but I'll be in school, taking miserable-excuses-at-filling-up-hours for classes and be stuck taking additional classes till ten... And get home at eleven...
What a lovely life I lead...
Disclaimer: No, I don't suppose I'll ever own Beyblade
-
-
Fires no longer touched him.
He stares at the broken embers impassively until the glare of the amber-red flames hurts his eyes. Still, he cannot help but see the smokeless heat beckoning. He can't help but see himself fall.
-
-
"If they are fighting over the body, chances of Kai winning?"
"None, he's going head to head with a bit beast."
"You're forgetting that this is Kai we're talking about" Surgei nodded, "our mission?"
"Simple" Boris said easily, pocketing his knife. "If he becomes a threat... we eliminate him."
-
-
Outside Kai drew open the windows, letting in the clouded orange sunshine onto the dining room floor. He could have said it was finally winter.
The steam from the cup of tea clouded around the red disk as he drank from it. He raised his cup to the sun in a mock salute before emptying it in one shot. He placed the mug down on the window sill –taking care not to alert the inhabitants of the other room- and stared lethargically into the orange tinted windows, realizing that it was taking the sun longer and longer to reach up into the sky.
His vision askew, he raised his hand and gently placed it over the place where the ribs stopped encompassing his entire body. Closing his eyes in a silent prayer, he leaned against the window and obscured the sun completely.
It looked as if it was going to rain.
-
-
Daichi growled ominously at the sea of legs as he was again 'almost' run over for the umpteenth time. Hiroshi had to literally grab the non-existent collar to hold him back before the redhead could take a bite out of a pair of curvaceous legs sashaying towards the coffee shop.
"Daichi, behave." and promptly wiped his hands down on his jeans. Takao, watching the whole exchange just laughed. Hiromi's cheeks began to inflate with an impatient air as she tapped her foot in annoyance.
"Mou... where is he?"
They, meaning Takao and the others, were waiting for Brooklyn, who was not there.
Brooklyn would be leaving to Japan to tour Europe and eventually head home, where ever that was. The disaster following the latest beyblade tournament had held the ginger-haired prodigy captive to the oriental country but now he would be set free.
'Probably to wreak havoc on whatever poor country he visits.' Hitoshi thought idly as he divided his attention over the four -children- all but jumping over the plush chairs of the airport. He palmed his face in irritation. Why did he agree to drive them over anyways?
-
-
Brooklyn finally arrived with luggage, fans sticking close behind. The prodigy greeted the members of BBA with a banal smile, exchanging a few elliptical words with Hitoshi before looking around. A bluenette and a redhead he noted in amusement, Takao and Daichi, not the ones he was looking for. He looked at his watch and saw that there is enough to time wait.
So he did.
Soon enough the crowd of people parted for them as did the red sea before Noah. Brooklyn smiled cheerfully as a familiar tattooed face graced them with his august presence. A group of people were getting their cell phones out and taking pictures. Others were attempting to get an autograph as Kai pushed forward, his slate eyebrows slightly quirked towards Brooklyn. Following the proud half-Russian was a disgruntled looking redhead accompanied by a burly blonde.
If anything the crowd grew wilder as they recognized them all as bladers.
"Oh my god that's Kai!"
"Cool, it's that guy who faced off against Kinomiya on the last round."
"OMG MARRY ME!!"
Letting Takao and the airport security deal with the fanatics, Kai spat a quiet laugh to the side and held his hand out. Brooklyn looked back at him in surprise. The dual-haired teen was more than glad to find that the prodigy's hair was their original shimmering green. He had never loved heroes after all.
"Brooklyn... thank you..."
For the first time Kai could remember Brooklyn smiled without a hint of deceit. The light was near blinding from the windows but the image of the redhead prodigy in the sun, his white clothing glowing like the wings of an angel, stayed with him for a long time.
Brooklyn took Kai's hand and they shook hands.
"Any time."
-
-
When Brooklyn had left, Hitoshi approached Kai. Yuriy tossed the man a dangerous grin. The former BEGA coach ignored it. There were some things in life scarier than physical pain. Watching Kai, taking care of Takao, and coaching Brooklyn was something that would have killed a lesser man. Hitoshi cut to the chase knowing that their conversations more often than not left bitter tastes in their mouth afterwards.
"Stay away from him."
Kai raised an immaculate eyebrow as Sergei returned, having finished calling back to Ivan.
"I thought that was your job."
"You're interfering."
Kai shrugged and got up from his seat. Sergei looked in disinterest before talking to Yuriy in rapid Russian. Hitoshi narrowed his eyes at the blonde, the blonde stared blandly. Breaking the two apart in a hand motion Yuriy jerked his head towards the parking lot and left. A small blessing, they had left the two alone.
"I haven't seen him since the day at the park. You cannot blame me for every time he disappears Hitoshi."
By now the crowd had been restrained and everything else from announcements of delays to arrival of planes drowns out their voice. Hitoshi had left Takao and Daichi occupied with ten thousand yen with Hiromi and Kyoujyuu supervising. Knowing his brother and the little tagalong's appetites, he knew that he was more or less flushing his money down the toilet. But he needed to talk to Kai.
Perhaps make amends for what he had done.
"You can't..." Hitoshi started sounding strained. "You can't blame me for everything either."
Kai's eyes were cutting as he probed the man's tense face.
"But I don't," he said finally, his face blank. "You do." And he walked towards the exit, stopping only to add, "hold your head up," Hitoshi's fist clenched and unclenched as Kai seemingly phased through the crowds pushing at the entrance of customs. "Don't you dare show them your weakness..."
-
-
"Kai, Kai!!"
Kai quietly contemplated on not answering. He had agreed not to approach the younger Kinomiya after all.
'But what if he approaches me? What then?'
Takao's face burst out in a grin as Kai stopped; face half-turned to see the navy-haired boy come up to him.
"Takao," Kai greeted flatly, doing little more than lower his eyelids to acknowledge the bluenette. Undaunted, Takao grabbed Kai's shoulder –delighted that he didn't push him away- and began to follow him out of the exit. At the familiar gesture, some of the people stopped to gawk while others -again- took pictures. Having had enough with the flashes, Kai moved away from the blue-eyed boy. Seconds later Takao caught up though he did not try to make physical contact with the red-eyed teen again.
"How've you been?" Takao asked softly.
Kai gave him a brief look over and shrugged. There wasn't much that he was willing to share with his once-teammate.
"I'm sorry about Kane I mean, he didn't mean it. He's just like really mad after his teammates..."
Kai snorted.
"Of course, it wasn't as if mine weren't. It isn't as if I myself was carried off to the hospital for my endeavors."
Takao cringed visibly as they exited the airport. It was slightly misty out, not quite rain but damp, mist-rain.
"Sorry..."
The next words were caught off as Kai spun around and slammed him against the glass walls. The people on the other side up got up in surprise at the sound and the sight of a boy being pushed around by another. Kai glared through the glass and they quickly looked away. Takao let out a breathy moan as his head cleared. He turned his face to the side and saw Kai's hand there, clenched around a dagger.
Takao's face paled to the color of ashes. Kai peeled himself off of the teen, idly playing with his newfound toy. Calming himself Takao got off from the glass wall and stood sheepishly by Kai's side. He wasn't entirely sure what that had been about but it wasn't as if Kai had tried to harm him...
...had he?
The Dragoon blader had to admit that he liked the sensation of having the older teen on top of him. He blushed furiously as million and one thoughts flashed through his head all ending up in pieces as they crashed against one another.
Takao continued to steal glimpses of him when he thought Kai wasn't looking. Kai had half a mind to introduce the younger to his left fist. Takao should have known that now of all times was not the one to go around like a lovesick puppy.
"Takao."
Hitoshi had found them. He looked incensed at the sight of the duo so close together side by side. Kai thought he heard a tone of underlying fear in the elder's voice. He shrugged and stepped away from the younger blader. Takao looked torn and frustrated. As the older Kinomiya began to berate the younger, Kai threw the dagger at the man. Hitoshi caught it easily in his hand and turned it over instinctively.
The hilt was woven with strings of yellow and red, a strand of green knotted through the middle like a blade of spring grass.
"You should clean out your backyard more often," Kai suggested with a trademark smirk. Meanwhile, Takao's eyes widened.
"What's going on?" He managed to stammer out.
Hitoshi stiffened instinctively. Kai's eyes hardened in barely noticeable disgust. "What's going on?" Takao repeated, this time with more force behind his inquiry. Hitoshi pinched the bridge of his nose. The man's hand inadvertently closed around the dagger. The blade dug into the calloused palm drawing blood. Kai watched the red beads swell up from the creases of the man's hand and flow down to the wrist. Takao however, didn't seem to notice. "I'm not stupid," he instead, "I notice things. I know things. What's going on?"
Neither answered, Kai turned away as if remembering something. Takao held a hand out, not wanting to let the slate-haired young man leave. Hitoshi held him back and near wrestled him to the ground.
"If you know..." Hitoshi said angrily as a punch to his jaw pushed him off of the squirming body. "If you know... then you should know not to get involved."
-
-
Sergei sighed as he looked over the diagnostics the doctors had given him. Beneath those of his teammates, he had also taken the liberty of printing out reports of team Psykicks. A bit of data never hurt, he figured Ivan could have a field day scouring the servers checking over what he had and what he didn't.
The Psykicks, or at least three-fourths of them, were currently in a coma. No one knew who their attacker had been and the remaining one-forth was beside himself with worry, lashing out at the world in fury. Kai had kindly placed a restraining order on him after the assault in the park. A grin of irony tugged at the blonde's mouth. He stared back blandly when he saw a group of students goggling with fascination they regularly bestowed on foreigners. The girls giggled amongst themselves, the boys dropped their curious gazes to the ground muttering and kicked cans.
Just a couple of kids...
The mist turned to rain.
Someone opened up an umbrella.
-
-
"Sorry coming through." Ivan ran between the servants –though not before giving the new maids an appreciative leer- and nearly barreled into Kai. Actually they ended up bouncing off of another and on there backs on the one area where there was no rich carpeting to cushion their fall.
Ivan sat up immediately hissing and rubbing the back of his head furiously. Kai however, seemed to have no intention of getting up at all. He blinked for a few moments as if to clear his star-struck vision before fumbling for a wall.
"Haven't we talked about running in the hallway?"
"Ehh we have..." replied Ivan sounding contrite. Standing up, he looked down at Kai's face. "Need help?"
"No." Kai sat up and got to his feet.
"Ehh... you ok?"
"I'm not sure..." said Kai somewhat dreamily. Ivan stared in shock. Shaking his head Kai rasped, "Now why were you running when I told you specifically..."
"Yeah no running in the hallway..." and he added beneath his breath, "Until I can be seen without bending over, stupid, stupid Boris." Faced with Kai's somewhat amused expression Ivan began to explain.
"Sergei's not back yet."
"It's raining right now; it's likely the traffic slowed him down."
"Sergei loves rain. He would have more than likely tried to run home once he saw it starting to get really wet out there."
"Hnn..." Kai stared listlessly out the window. "Are you going to go after him?"
"Not through that, I mean if it was an emergency yes but..." Ivan elaborated with gestures involving footwork. "I'm worried." He finished lamely. "I have a bad feeling."
"Wait, you have a bad feeling? I'm the one who had to go make rounds today!" Yuriy stumbled in, covered head to toe with dripping towel. He scowled discontentedly at the duo and rubbed his hair down. "So what's going on?" and whispered only for Kai to hear –though Ivan heard it anyways- "what are you seeing out there..."
Strange, Ivan thought, watching the two interact, but he wasn't quite sure why it was odd.
"Ivan go after Sergei with Yuriy..."
"!... I just got back..."
"I'm going to go and find Boris. Even if this is a false alarm, it'd be nice for all of us to patrol the city one last time." Here Yuriy sputtered 'in that?!' "And Ivan," perhaps he and Kai had more than hit his head hard on the wooden flooring. "Take your phone."
Because he had been touched by Kuro Suzaku once upon a time and knew, he or she no longer existed where he was standing..
-
-
"You won't get away with this,"
"What?" the blunette's voice was friendly but her green eyes were toxic with contempt. "Will the gods strike us dead where we stand? Don't make me laugh tough guy, There is no one that can stop us right now." Sergei jerked as Miriam gave him a kick in the head.
"You are afraid, that's why you have me here isn't it?" Miriam pulled his head up by the bristly blonde locks, her green eyes spitting poison. "You're afraid of Kai." Miriam slapped him. Joseph protested but it was too late. With that swift action she had possibly confirmed all of her team's doubts and fears. She slapped him again for a good measure, but she couldn't stop how his eyes probed knowingly and how his deep laughter seemed to drown out everything else.
-
-
Ayatsuji: -winces- sorry for the long wait, ;.;
Ahh I'll never fit through the door at this rate. My head's getting all bloated again... why must you do that to me-? x3
You're probably celebrating summer break right now (lucky!!) wonder if I can wrap this up before September... probably not heh
(TOEFL was fine thank you, the only problem was that they had no working bathrooms at the test center... ugh)
-(hearts) A.C.
Nameless Little Girl: Glad you did :D