Title: Obsession

Author: PandaPjays

Chapter Title: The Photograph

Rating: T

Warnings: Yaoi. KaiRei TalaBryan if you don't like, don't read it. Fairly creepy themes and violence towards the end.

Disclaimer: If anyone has ever thought I owned Beyblades they were WRONG. I just like stealing the characters and using for my own amusement

Author Note: And welcome back for another funfun chapter! Are you excited? I know I am. I couldn't actually tell you why I'm so excited- something in the air maybe… All I can say is that at the moment I am seriously bouncing in my seat.

Before any of you ask, no I have had neither coffee nor sugar. I'm just bouncing. It is weird and strange and FUN!

Ok, and on with the story.

The team has decided to go to sleep while I write this so if you really try you might get a snore from Panda-chan. Brick would probably just continue being his gorgeous brick-like self

Kai stared at the photograph he had taken of Rei. He hadn't expected it to turn out so well. Not that he had imagined that Rei wasn't photogenic; it's just that he hadn't imagined that the camera would be able to be able to do justice to the Chinese man.

Kai leant on one of the walls outside of the place where he had had his photographs developed and began to look through his pile of photos.

He was suddenly very very glad that he had spent the extra money to buy a high-end camera. Each of the photographs captured a different element of Rei. Kai enjoyed going through his pile again, carefully studying each photograph before taking it off the top of the pile and put it down the bottom.

He had soon selected his favourite one. It was the first one he had taken. Rei was standing in the door of the changing room with the pants on, looking tired and glaring at Lee. And yet still he managed to look unbelievably sexy, in Kai's opinion at least.

Kai put the rest of the photos back in their packet and slipped them into his back pocket. The photo of Rei and his pants stayed in Kai's hand as he began to walk to a shop he knew was on the other side of the shopping centre.

His more rational side kept on telling him that he had done enough for today and that he should just go home. Kai ignored it and continued to walk, quickening his pace. He just had to do one last thing. Then he could go home.

It took all of Kai's willpower to not turn down the hall toward the café Rei and Lee were eating at. Kai knew that they were still there, he didn't know how he knew but he did. It was the same as he knew whether Rei was in the café before he actually stepped inside.

That had only happened to him once. That had not been a good day.

Kai couldn't believe he had had the audacity to walk past Rei, even going so far as to brush past him.

He had seen Rei look at him and felt the Chinese man's gaze on his back as he passed. It gave Kai more confidence as he stepped into a shop filled with photo frames.

He noticed me. That has to be a good sign.

-o-

Kai sighed as he opened the door of his apartment. He had never noticed just how empty it felt. He turned on his coffee maker before taking the packet of photographs and opening them on his kitchen bench.

He spread out the photos and went over each one, studying all of Rei's features in much more depth than he had ever looked at them before.

And still, Kai couldn't point out any one reason why Rei so fascinated him. Kai couldn't see why the Chinese man had such a pull on him. He couldn't see why he could barely go a day without seeing him.

And yet he couldn't.

Kai looked at the pictures he had taken of Rei and sighed. What are you doing to me? He asked mentally before getting up from where he was seated and going to have a shower.

Kai turned on the shower and sighed as he felt the hot water hit his body. What did I do today? He wondered as he turned the cold-water tap down so the water he was being bathed in was almost completely hot.

He sighed as he felt the burning sensation on his stomach. He knew that it wasn't normal to follow someone to a shopping centre and take photos of them and yet he had done it. He had done it and he didn't feel strange for doing it.

He turned around so the water hit the small of his back and leant against the wall at the back of his shower. Kai hit his head on the unyielding wall. What. Is. Wrong. With. Me? He asked himself, emphasising each word by hitting his head.

Kai pushed himself off the wall and turned around again, this time stepping underneath the steaming hot water, hissing as it touched his skin. He deepened his breathing as it became difficult to draw breath because of the steam.

When he had been fully drenched in the scalding water he turned off the taps and stepped out of the shower, enjoying the sensation of being able to breathe comfortably again. He reached out to grab a towel and began to dry himself, gritting his teeth at the pain of the rough towel on his scalded skin.

He knew that it possibly wasn't the best strategy for getting himself to think, but the pain always seemed to give some sort of clarity to Kai's thoughts. Besides, he hadn't done any permanent damage.

Kai wrapped the towel around his waist as he opened the door, smirking as the steam from his shower poured out around him into the otherwise cool room.

He stepped on to the wooden floor of his apartment and made a face at the contrasting temperatures of his skin and the floor. He made his way quickly to his bedroom and put on a pair of boxer shorts. He looked at the discarded towel and glared at it before hanging it up neatly in the bathroom.

Kai walked out of the bathroom and caught sight of the pictures of Rei on the table again. He stopped and looked down on them, his eyes flicking between them. The clarity that the hot water had given him was slowly fading and being replaced by a deep weariness.

Kai looked over the pictures again; his eyes half-lidded and felt a sudden weakness pass through his limbs. He gripped on to the chair for support as he waited for the wave to pass.

This was the one disadvantage to having a steaming hot shower. Kai sighed and glanced over the pictures one last time before stumbling to his room. He knew that it was probably wrong to follow Rei like he did. But he didn't care.

Kai's last thought before unconsciousness invaded his mind was of Rei.

-o-

Kai groaned as he began to wake up. He didn't want to wake up. He could tell that today was going to be a bad bad day. He hadn't even opened his eyes yet so he really didn't know why he felt that… except…

It's Thursday. I hate Thursday. Kai remembered as he cracked open on eyelid and pushed himself up off the bed until he was sitting on it with his feet on the ground. Thursdays were the days where you could almost smell the freedom of the weekend but knew that you had a whole two days left until you could safely tell the world to screw itself.

Kai didn't like that.

He stood up and staggered to the kitchen to turn on his coffee maker and make himself a cup.

As he began to drink it, relishing in the familiar buzzing sensation the caffeine caused in his limbs Kai strode over to the table and looked down on the pictures of Rei there. He sighed and ran his finger lightly over one of the images.

On a whim, Kai picked up the picture he had been paying attention to and held it up against his wall. Kai tilted his head as he looked at it, admiring the way that the light caught the photo just that much better when it was vertical and not horizontal.

Kai considered his options for a moment before reaching for the nearest glob of Blue Tac to stick the picture to his wall.

This wall needed something on it anyway He rationalised to himself as he finished tacking all of the pictures of Rei he had taken the day before, bar one, to his wall in a Rei collage.

It was about then that Kai realised exactly how late he was. He cursed and ran back into the kitchen, taking one last gulp of his coffee and picking up the bag he was taking to work. Despite his hurry he made sure that he handled the bag gently, it contained something precious to him.

-o-

Kai composed himself as he walked out of the elevator and into his office. He tried to look like he hadn't been running full pelt from his apartment to the office. He was succeeding well.

"Kai! Where've you been?" Enrique asked him as he noticed the Russian walk in.

Kai gestured back towards the elevator. "I was just there." He told the blonde.

Enrique sighed and rolled his eyes. "You're irritating sometimes, you know that?" He asked. "Half of my problems are probably caused by you."

Kai rolled his eyes. "You have enough problems of your own without factoring me in." He said curtly before stepping around Enrique to walk to his desk.

Enrique sighed theatrically before deciding that he should probably do some work.

Kai smirked as he heard no comeback. Gotcha there. He thought smugly.

"You're late."

"Thanks for pointing that out, Brooklyn, how ever did I get along without you?" Kai asked sarcastically while he sat down and opened up the bag he had carried so lovingly from his apartment.

Brooklyn frowned before shrugging off the insult. He had taken Enrique's word that Kai was always like this and it was nothing against him. "What do you have there?" He asked, trying desperately to find some way to get Kai to talk to him nonetheless.

Kai grunted and carefully took out the picture of Rei he had taken the day before.

It had taken him a long time to select the perfect frame for the picture but eventually Kai had decided on a simple thin silver one. Across the top of the frame was a banner with the slogan 'Love is…' emblazoned on it.

Kai thought that it suited the picture of Rei well, it's simplicity only emphasising the focus of the picture even more. He placed the frame on his desk, making it the first personal object decorating the top of it.

"Who's that?" Kai's pest asked, looking at the person in the picture.

"Rei." Kai answered without thinking about the question or who was asking it.

"Rei?" Brooklyn asked, looking at the picture again.

Kai frowned, wishing that he could swat Brooklyn with an oversized fly swat or similar. Especially if it was a novelty one, just to make the orange haired-man's demise just that much more amusing for him.

"Yes. Rei. Don't you have some sort of work that you need to do?" Kai asked, irritated with himself for telling Brooklyn anything, let alone Rei's name.

"Uh… yeah…" Brooklyn said slowly as he turned around to his computer after looking one last time a Rei's picture.

Brooklyn began to type up a new client's account by looking off a hard copy of the information someone else had collected, his mind going off on a completely different tangent.

Rei? I never knew that Kai was capable of even liking anyone else let alone loving someone. And the person in that picture looked like a guy… Brooklyn looked back at the picture on the pretence of searching for another piece of paper. He blinked when the sheer tightness of the pants gave no doubt as to what sex Rei was. Shit. Rei is a guy. Does that mean that Kai is gay? Brooklyn frowned slightly, feeling a slight queasiness in his stomach at the sheer strangeness of that thought. So… Kai's gay. New. Different… Brooklyn's thought patterns trailed off as he tried to decipher someone's illegible handwriting.

He squinted at the numbers and words until they made some sort of sense and began to type them into his computer again. I wonder why he's never talked about Rei before? He wondered absently before-

"HEY! Kai! Is that a GUY in that picture?"

Kai cringed. It figured that Enrique wouldn't follow the pull of work for too long.

Enrique studied the picture before noticing the inscription on the frame. "Is that your boyfriend?" He asked, smirking at Kai.

He had known Kai had been hiding something lately. He'd never have guessed it would be something like a new boyfriend. OR that it would be something like the fact that Kai was gay.

Personally, Enrique didn't give a damn about Kai's preferences. He himself had, of late, been feeling a few urges to pull the newest secretary, Oliver, into a nearby janitor's closet. What he did care about was that evidently Kai had been hiding this new and interesting information from him. "Well?" He prompted. Wanting an answer.

Kai stayed silent but his mind was racing a million miles a second. He could tell Enrique that Rei was his boyfriend and be safe in the knowledge that Enrique would have no idea who Rei was and wouldn't be able to disprove him. Or he could tell the truth- or a modified version of it, at least and have to face some interesting questions about why Rei was sitting proudly on his desk.

Why had he bought Rei to work, anyway? Had it just been a whim? Or did it have some other significance? Kai knew that every time he so much as glanced at the picture of Rei he felt a calmness and contentedness wash over him. It felt right to have Rei on the desk at work with him. Kai didn't want to have to go into a complicated reason for Rei's presence. At least he didn't want to go into it with his workmates.

"Kai? Did you hear me?" Enrique asked leaning over the Russian and reaching out a hand to pick up the photo. "Is this your boyfriend? The one you've forsaken me for?"

Kai's eyes narrowed and he swatted Enrique's hand away from the photo. "Yes. Alright? Leave me be."

Enrique grinned and withdrew from Kai's personal space. "As you wish." He told Kai, smirking. He waved offhandedly as he left. "Maybe getting some will sweeten that temper of yours, Kai." He called sweetly over his shoulder, turning around and walking backwards.

Kai glared at the blonde and growled before turning back to his computer and thumping a few keys.

"Apparently not." Enrique said easily, turning around and walking towards Oliver's desk. He couldn't let Kai have all the fun.

Kai sighed and shut his eyes before opening them to refocus on the screen. So now everyone at his work would think that Kai was going out with Rei. It was only a matter of time before Enrique 'accidentally' unleashed the new gossip on the building.

Thankfully Kai was confident that no one in the building except for him knew who Rei was. Although the café was popular, often it was too much of a hassle for anyone to actually walk anywhere to get lunch. As far as Kai knew, he was the only one who faithfully walked out of the building every lunchtime to walk the few blocks to get to Rei's café. Most other people went to the places that were closer or of higher prestige and could be reached by car.

It was an interesting feeling, knowing that most of the people Kai knew would soon think that he was with Rei. Interesting. But not unpleasant.

No, most definitely not unpleasant.

Kai opened his draw and fingered a small business card he had taken from the café when it had just opened. It announced about a delivery service that the café offered, taking sandwiches to nearby businesses.

Most importantly, it had the café's number on it.

Kai could easily dial up the café and listen to Rei's voice, if only for a few seconds before he had to hang up. He couldn't let Rei know who he was. Kai didn't know why but he knew that he couldn't. Not yet.

"What's that?" Brooklyn asked, turning around to Kai.

Kai looked up at Brooklyn and narrowed his eyes before stuffing the card back in the draw and shutting it with a slam. "Don't you have your own life to annoy people with?" Kai asked him.

Brooklyn sighed and turned back to his computer. "Apparently not." He murmured, tapping a few keys. He inwardly sighed. Kai never would want to talk to him, would he? Brooklyn didn't particularly care either way for Kai but he found it rather uncomfortable to be openly despised by the Russian.

I wonder why? Brooklyn thought, his hands tapping on the keyboard, completely independent of his thoughts.

That was one of the things that he loved about the work that he had chosen to do. He could float between the two extremes of being able to think about anything and everything while he worked and being able to drown himself in the mindless tasks he was required to do, numbers and sums taking over any sort of thoughts that were annoying or unsettling him.

The sound of Kai not typing made Brooklyn break out of his reverie.

"Stop daydreaming over your new boyfriend and actually try to get some work done for once, Kai." Johnny told him, looking at the photo of Rei and smirking. "What the hell he sees in you is beyond me."

Kai glared up at Johnny. "Why would you want to know anyway? Jealous?"

Johnny snorted. "Hardly. I just wanted to know if he actually knew anything about you. I'm guessing not or he'd be running screaming by now. I know I wouldn't want to spend an extended amount of time with you."

"No one's asking you to." Kai told him, digging a nail into his palm to stop him from hurting Johnny in some way. Arsehole. I'm going to kill him one day Kai vowed.

Johnny grinned, taking that as a win by him. He looked over at Brooklyn. "Keep up the good work. It's good to know there's some good people in here."

As Johnny walked away Brooklyn heard Kai mutter "I can see you're not one of them, are you?"

Brooklyn sighed and continued working, understanding now why Kai really didn't like him. It had nothing to do with him and everything to do with Johnny.

That still didn't mean that Kai didn't interest him on some level.

That didn't mean that at all.

Before people jump me this is -not- a BrooklynKai fic (Though that pairing is the awesomest of awesomes) Brooklyn's only interested in Kai because he doesn't understand him - yes? Not going to kill the Panda? Goodo then!

Why Panda decided to write in third person is beyond her

Please tell me what you think