Title: Obsession

Author: PandaPjays

Chapter Title: Death on Wheels

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: I am so so sorry about the delay. There's been at least a dozen different reasons- none of which I'm going to go into detail with because I'm far too lazy to. Needless to say, my page a day resolution has been laughed at, thrown to the ground, stamped on and then had concrete shoes put on it.

And to top it off it's a fairly short chapter. Well short compared to how long I thought it was going to be. But oh well.

Anyways, I hope that you like this one!

Rei was woken by at least a dozen screaming banshees trying to drill into his head with dentist drills.

Or, at least, that's what it sounded like. Rei groaned and reached out to hit the snooze button on his alarm. He couldn't actually remember turning the evil device on the night before. But somehow or another, miracles do happen. Or, in the case of the clock, anti-miracles.

A loud groan made Rei crack open his eyes and look across the room, squinting as he waited for his eyes to get used to seeing again.

He moved his head slowly so the large whatever it was masquerading as his brain wouldn't move too much inside of his skull. He blinked as he looked at the form of his best friend passed out on the opposite side of the room. "Lee?" He asked quietly.

"Mnrf." Came a groaned reply. Lee sat up and glared at Rei. "What the hell are you doing here?" He asked.

Rei blinked. "Um…" He looked around the room and realised he recognised absolutely nothing in it. "Where is here?" He asked, rubbing his head and trying to get loose hairs out of his face.

Lee frowned as if Rei had asked a stupid question. "My place." He stated flatly.

Rei blinked. "Um… how did I get here?" He asked.

Lee shrugged and lay back on what Rei presumed was his bed. It was about then that Rei realised he was sleeping on little more than a blanket and a pillow. "Lovely hospitality." He told Lee.

"I do try." The other Chinese man said flippantly.

The paused in a comfortable silence before Rei said in a normal conversational tone. "I think I'm going to throw up."

"Bathroom's down the hall to the left." Lee said helpfully.

Rei ran through Lee's house and just made it to the bathroom before he emptied his already empty stomach into the ivory bowl of Lee's toilet.

I finally get to see Lee's house and my first impression is of the place he… no I don't want to think of what he does here. In fact, quit the thinking thing. It's not good.

"Rei?" Lee asked, sticking his head into the bathroom and taking in the other's position kneeling in front of the throne.

"I feel like shit." Rei told him in a monotone.

Lee grinned and reached for the Panadol that he knew were somewhere in the vicinity of the sink. He took two himself and threw the box at Rei. "Take some. Then maybe you'll graduate to feeling like crap."

Rei took the box and looked up at Lee with a look of disbelief in his eyes. "You've just painted a very bleak picture of my day, you know that?"

Lee smirked and rubbed his eyes before searching for a brush to tame his hair. It had turned into a puffball overnight. "Did you know we need to go to work today?" He asked mildly as he played with a knot in his hair.

Rei paused from closing the box of Panadol. "You're kidding me." He stated flatly.

Lee shook his head, ignoring the pain that the action caused. "Nope."

"I hate my life." Rei said flatly.

-o-

They were met by death at the café counter,

"...Tala?" Rei asked tentatively.

The thing that looked vaguely like Tala moved it's entire body to face Rei. "Wha?" it asked, bloodshot eyes boring into the Chinese man's.

Rei blinked as he took in the redhead's appearance. His normally pale skin was bordering on grey. And he looked like he hadn't slept for weeks. "Um… are you ok?" He asked. He was feeling better from the shower he had had at Lee's place. It had been warm and oh so awakening.

It was good.

And the Panadol didn't hurt things either.

Or the coffee. Coffee helped a lot.

"Do I look ok?" Tala asked grumpily, leaning on the counter and trying to fall asleep on it. "I'm not going to survive today," he groaned.

"It doesn't look like you survived last night." Lee said cheerfully as he walked into the kitchen to begin setting up for the day.

Tala glared after the chef but didn't move. "I want to kill him." He said mournfully, slowly turning to look blearily at Rei. "How come he's so chipper?"

Rei shrugged and poured himself a cup of coffee- his third. And he hadn't been awake more than an hour and a half. He could feel the caffeine fairies closing in on him. "I don't know. He's annoying like this though isn't he?" Rei grimaced as the hot coffee scalded his tongue. "I think today I'm going to stay in my office and nurse my headache. I'm never going to forgive you for forcing us to go there." Whether Rei was too traumatised to repeat the name of the club or whether he had simply forgotten it was debatable.

Tala shrugged. "Whatever., he said noncommittally.

Rei frowned. "Where's Bryan?" He asked suddenly realising that the normally silent Russian was MIA.

"He was trying to kill the cash register so I sent him into your office where he couldn't murder people." Tala shrugged. "I thought that might be bad for business."

"Riiiiiiight." Rei said slowly. "So what you're saying is that the only person who can actually work properly today is Lee?" He asked.

"Hey!" Tala protested. "I can work perfectly fine." He rubbed his eyes and glared at Rei. "I'm just… struggling with the fact that I'm apparently alive."

"So is the rest of the world. You look like someone's going to call a coroner rather than order coffee." Rei said bluntly.

"Well who else is going to do this?" Tala asked, playing with one of the bangs of hair in front of his face "You?" He asked hopefully.

Rei let out a bark of laughter. "Not likely." He said. "Soon all the drugs I took are going to wear off. Then I'm going to need my office to be homicidal-Bryan free."

Tala smirked. "Then it's agreed. I have to stay here."

Rei sighed as he moved aside for someone to order a coffee from Tala. He couldn't help but notice the nervous look the person had on his face as a zombie served him.

Tala gave the man his coffee and managed a tired grimace. "Have a nice day."

The customer nodded slowly and walked out of the café to sit at the table furthest from the living dead.

Rei sighed explosively. "Great. Just great." He shook his head and walked away from Tala, toward the kitchen doors, an idea forming in his head. "I'll be back." He muttered before disappearing into the kitchen.

Lee looked up from preparing a sandwich and smiled. "Good morning, Sunshine." He said.

Rei frowned. "Where's the eternally pissed off with his lot in life Lee that we've all come to know and detest?" He asked, it occurring to him that Lee had been a lot friendlier than he normally was. Rei was actually beginning to want Lee to say something sarcastic and entirely undermine his self-esteem. At least then things would be normal-ish.

Lee shrugged as he finished making the sandwich and cut it into two before packing it in a plastic case, ready to go on display when it came around to lunch time. "It's just something about having a skull splitting headache that makes me kinder to my fellow man."

Rei grinned. "Lee. You're never kind to your fellow man."

"So? I don't see you complaining." Lee said easily as he began to put together another sandwich, his hands moving without really thinking about it.

"Nyeh." Rei said articulately. "It's unnerving." He said. "Oh!" Rei exclaimed, remembering why he had come back there in the first place. "Can you ring your sister for me?"

"Eh?" Lee asked, the knife he was using to cut a tomato slipping and nicking his finger. "Ouch!" He stuck his finger in his mouth to suck off the blood.

Rei rolled his eyes. "That's sanitary."

"I'll wash my hands right after I finish bleeding to death, Mother." Lee promised, taking his finger out of his mouth to inspect the damage. He barely had any time to look at it before blood began to seep out of the wound again, obscuring his view. "Why do you want me to call Mariah?" He asked, glaring at the knife in his other hand.

"Remember how she wanted a job?" Rei asked. "Call her and tell her if she wants it she has to come in now." Rei took the knife away from Lee and went to wash it. "Tala's scaring the people out there." He told Lee as he finished washing the offending object.

"He always scares people." Lee reasoned as he began to look in all of the cupboards fro a first aid kit. "What's new?"

"I saw at least two people look in at him and walk away quickly. Not to mention that customer service isn't exactly in his vocabulary at the moment." Rei explained. Ok, so he was embellishing his story a little bit, he hadn't actually seen those two people but if it made Lee hurry up and call his sister he didn't care.

"Fine. I'll call her as soon as I-" Lee trailed off. "Is the only colour band aid in this thing is pink?" He asked, taking the fluro pink band aid out of the packet and applying it to his finger.

Rei grinned. "But it suits your complexion so well!"

Lee grunted and inspected his handiwork. "Ok. I'll call her." He said. "Just get better colour band aids." He told Rei before leaving the kitchen to find the phone.

Rei smirked. "Bratz it is then." He said to himself before sighing and going to find the coffee machine.

-o-

Mariah walked into the café, looking around for her brother. She noticed Tala almost lying on the counter and smiled. She had heard many of Lee's long rants about the redhead. Mostly the rants went along the lines of 'total dickhead who needs to get his head out of his arse so he can see the real world' and the like. She couldn't help but like him.

"Is Lee here?" Mariah asked, walking over to the counter.

Tala looked up at her and blinked, getting used to the pink vision. "Uh... yeah." He said. "Are you Mariah?" He asked, pushing himself off the counter and standing properly.

Mariah nodded the affirmative. "Why?" She asked.

"Because Rei's been pacing through here for like half an hour waiting for you." Tala said cheerfully. "He's so funny when he frets."

"Um… ok." Mariah said slowly. "Can I talk to him then?" Tala nodded and pointed to the kitchen doors. "He'll be coming through them in-" Tala looked up at the clock on the wall. "Three…. Two… One…"

There was no Rei.

"One." Tala said encouragingly.

Still no Rei.

Tala's eyes narrowed and he took a breath. "One One One One One One One One O- HA!"

Rei had walked through the door. He noticed Mariah and smiled, it was more of a grimace. The drugs had worn off and Bryan had stolen all of the Panadol in the first aid kit. Rei wasn't game enough to kick Bryan out of his office, let alone steal the Russian's drugs.

He liked his limbs intact.

Mariah blinked and subtly moved away from Tala. "Are you Rei?" She asked the Chinese man.

Rei nodded. "Yeah, I'm taking it that you're Mariah?" He asked.

"In the flesh."

"…Uh… right…" Rei said, getting distracted by the desperate 'save me from the wrath of customers' movements Tala was making as the constant flow of customers began to get heavier. It was getting around to lunchtime.

Mariah looked at Rei expectantly. "So? What do you want me to do?" She asked.

"Go say hi to your brother first so he doesn't think you've managed to have an accident on your way over here and then get Tala to show you how to work all of the machines and to serve people." Rei instructed. "Then just keep on doing that while Tala returns to the grave he came from." He said, eyeing the Redheads still very grey complexion. Throughout the morning his bloodshot eyes had all but disappeared but he still looked like he was about to collapse from exhaustion. "Everyone else will be in the kitchen so just tell us if you have a problem."

Mariah nodded. "Ok then." She said slowly.

Rei nodded. "Good. Ok. Go tell your brother you're alive and come back."

"Ok." Mariah began to move but was stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"If you survive today you're hired." Rei told her. "Consider this your job interview, resume and long anxious wait in one big ugly hit."

Mariah smirked. "So glad that you go easy on your staff." She told Rei.

"I do try." Rei told her with a grin before moving to help Tala with the people who were coming in. Half an hour, tops. He promised himself as he began to serve a cranky looking woman in a business suit. Then I'm going back inside.

Please tell me what you think!