Disclaimer: The only thing I own is my pen. Seriously. Even my writing binder and paper was given to me. Takao Aoki makes more money than I'll ever see in my life.
So welcome to this special double chapter of Borderline. Why so long? Because the next one is going to be short and I won't be updating for a week after that. Work has finally slowed down, but I have a number of one-shots that I want to post and I'm working on a new story, plus a special fic I'm working on for Christmas. So thank-you to those of you who reviewed the last chapter: Tyka's Flower, adbhut, Little A Granger, Angel Devastation and "Me" (Me, seriously, get an account so I can message you, I think we could be great friends!)
I hope you enjoy this super long chapter!
Kai returned to his apartment, and judging from the shredded curtains and several glares, the cats were thoroughly pissed at him for not being home for 2 days.
"Whatever fuzzballs, I didn't like them anyway." he sat down on the couch and all the kittens jumped up and started nuzzling him, each purring loudly when he gave them attention. He smiled at their antics. It was good to be home.
A painful throbbing in his shoulder reminded him that he still had business to take care of. He took off his shirt and went to the washroom, several of the kittens following him. Peeling off the gauze he revealed a bullet wound that went deeper than he first thought; he was going to need stitches and he had another scar to add to his collection. Tyson had done a pretty decent patch job though.
Pulling out his cellphone, he dialled a number he had dialled countless times. "This is Kai Hiwatari, put me through to Dr. Donetov."
Surprisingly, it was seconds later when he heard the warm voice of the doctor. "So, found another stray?" he chuckled.
"Yeah, a stray bullet."
There was nothing but silence for several long seconds. "How bad?"
"Just grazed."
"Alright, you caught me just as I was getting off shift, so I'm on my way." the line went dead leaving Kai to stare at his phone incredulously.
"Well that's a first." he changed the cat's water and litter box and looked around his apartment. Tyson had left little pieces of himself everywhere. A shirt in one corner, a pair of jeans behind the couch, several of his hair ties on the coffee table and bathroom counter. If one didn't know any better, they would swear that the pair lived together...not that Kai would mind. He eyed the full sink. Well...if Tyson would do dishes once in awhile.
He picked up the stray clothes and threw them into the wash, keeping a shirt to sleep with later. By the time he was finished tidying, there was a knock at the door. He opened it and let the doctor in.
At once the newcomer was bombarded by kittens. "Oh wow, they've sure gotten big!" he laughed as one clawed up his leg and sat on his shoulder. "Well hello there little one, what's your name?" he asked as he scratched the grey tabby's ear.
"Tyson named that one Takao. He's one of the twins we saved. Oddly, their personalities match."
Dimitri laughed. "Which one is his brother?"
Kai nodded to the one who had jumped up on the coffee table, who was glaring down the medic. "His name is Kei or "Lucky One". He's a grouch. Protects Takao from his siblings and doesn't like strangers." he said recalling one time when the little bastard destroyed Ray's hair wrap all because the Chinese man decided to give him a belly rub.
"Heh. Sounds like you."
Kai glared, matching Kei's glare perfectly.
The doctor sweat dropped. "Alrighty, let's see to that wound."
The Russian sat on the sofa, his back turned to the doctor, while Dimitri inspected the wound, Takao still perched on his shoulder. "Well, you're going to have a scar but there seems to be no significant damage, you'll be back to blading in no time. I'm going to give you stitches that dissolve in case something happens and I don't see you for awhile. Also some antibiotics to prevent infection. But for 2 weeks – no blading." he said the last part sternly so Kai knew he wasn't kidding.
"Fine." Tyson had to study for exams anyway. Takao sensed his depression and jumped into his lap and nuzzled his hand.
"Now hold still." Kai forced his muscles to relax as he felt a small pain and a slight burning before the area went numb. "There, feel anything?" Kai shook his head no, and the doctor went to work. "So heard you had a run-in with Boris."
"Something like that."
"Word is that he has it in for your little World Champion."
"Tell me something I don't know." Kai said with a bored tone.
"He's suckered in 4 powerful bladers. Apparently there's a few people who aren't happy that Tyson took out BEGA and crushed everyone's dreams of going pro. The believe if they take out Tyson, then they can restart BEGA."
"Idiots." he growled, "You really need to find your brother a hobby that doesn't include warping minds."
"Boris is my step-brother, thank-you." said the medic sharply. "And I've tried. Unfortunately every time, he somehow meets people just as despicable as him. He's a magnet for assholes."
"No shit. But he's going to be disappointed, if anyone's taking down Tyson, it's me."
"You boys have an interesting friendship. He helps you save and name your kittens, helps you regain control of your company, you both escape Boris, he practically lives here and yet you want to beat him into submission."
"...Who are you? Doctor House?"
"The beyblade boxers say it all really."
Kai whipped his head around to see two of the kittens playing with a pair of Tyson's underwear. "Breathe a word and you'll become a missing person." he threatened lowly.
Dimitri chuckled. "Your secret is safe with me."
Poking a sleepy Tyson's side for what had to be the 40th time, Kenny was about to give up. After Kai had dropped off his blue-haired friend he had interrogated him on what had happened to him with absolutely no results – Tyson just changed the topic every time! At least he appeared uninjured. Even though Kenny knew about Kai's healing powers, he still wanted to know why Kai had blood on his shirt. Ever since Kai had returned, Tyson tried to spend every spare minute with him and the genius was feeling a little left out. Tyson after all was the first real friend he had ever made, and even though he had never once left the bluenette's side, unlike the other people they considered friends, he always felt overlooked.
And being left out of the loop, hurt.
But he still couldn't bring himself to blame his friend. He knew years ago that Tyson had fallen for Kai, and how they went from bitter rivals to eye-fucking each other was anybody's guess. Deep down though, he was just jealous because he wished someone would look at him the way that they looked at each other, the odds of that happening though were highly unlikely. His best friend was the number one beyblader in the world, who, from his completely straight opinion, was quite the looker. Then there were the rest of the gang, sex appeal just oozed from Kai's pores, Ray was just hypnotizingly beautiful and Max was just adorable. He...well he was just always over-looked. The only two girls to ever pay him any attention were Emily (who had just started dating Miguel, who could get into a boy-band with just his smile alone) and Hilary. But the class president was way out his league and he knew it.
So it was just going to be him and his computer.
Unbeknownst to him large brown eyes looked at him concernedly from across the room.
When the last bell rang, the Chief wasted no time snagging Tyson before he skipped out on studying and ran off to Kai's. Hilary decided to join them, eager to teach Tyson some of her "brilliant" test-taking strategies.
The bluenette went along with them without a hassle, hoping the sooner they finished studying, the sooner he could be done and check in on Kai.
Imagine everyone's surprise when their former captain was already at the dojo, in his usual battle outfit, sitting against the far wall with his arms folded and his eyes closed.
Tyson lit up like a Christmas tree. "Whatcha doing here buddy?"
"Preparing you for finals." He slid over 3 thick booklets to each of them.
"What's this Kai?" asked Hilary.
"Copy of last year's exam."
"That's brilliant! We can use these as study material!" exclaimed Kenny.
"Hn." Kai smirked. "Starting now. Pick a corner and start writing."
"WHAT?!" the students exclaimed.
"You have 1 hour."
"You gotta be joking!" Protested Tyson, looking down at the thick stack of papers warily.
"59 minutes." The Russian said evenly.
Realizing that the slave-driver was dead-serious and not wanting to face whatever consequences he had schemed they all rushed to separate corners and scrabbled to get out a pencil and started the test. Kai turned his attention to the paperwork he had picked up from his secretary.
For the next hour the room was filled with the scratches of graphite against paper and the occasional page turning as all four teens worked diligently.
Not used to such quiet, Grandpa Kinomiya peeked into the room, absolutely floored that the kids were actually studying! Not wanting to wreck the atmosphere, he banned Hiro from entering the room until further notice. The last thing anybody needed was another altercation between his eldest grandson and the short-tempered male.
An hour later Kai's phone went off. "Time's up."
All three of the students groaned, but grudgingly turned in their papers. None of them had finished. The CEO quickly graded them. "Hilary 98%. Review trigonometry."
"How is that possible? I didn't finish!"
"Test was made to be done in 2 hours. As long as you did half the questions, I didn't dock marks." All 3 of them sighed in relief. " Kenny 96%. Work on your reading comprehension and help Hilary with trig."
"O-Okay." the brunette looked up at Hilary and smiled.
"Hey how did I do, Kai?" asked Tyson eagerly.
"76%"
"Hey alright! That's my best mark on a final ever!"
"You really need to work on graphs, chemistry and history."
"No sweat. At least I know I won't fail!" he smiled triumphantly.
The rest of the weekend was spent studying with meal and movie breaks between sessions. Tyson often tried to sneak off and train with Dragoon but was thwarted by Kai every time. Normally the dual-haired blader wouldn't care but being barred from blading himself had made him more grouchy and moody than usual. After Tyson's 6th attempt, Kai took away Dragoon and placed it with Dranzer, Neither bitbeast was happy about being put on the sidelines but they found solace knowing they were both suffering equally.
During the following week the teacher decided to throw a bunch of last-minute projects at the students, to the point where even Kenny was frazzled. Kai had helped by making a list of who-does-what, but due to the break-in the CEO found himself up to his neck in paperwork and stuck in pointless meetings about upgrading security. Just when he thought it couldn't get any worse, the Prime Minister paid him another visit along with a not-so-subtle insult that perhaps he couldn't handle running a company. He wouldn't be surprised if Akira had ordered the assault himself just to make him look like a fool. If so, he clearly had no idea who he was dealing with.
Needless to say, Kai and Tyson didn't get to see each other nearly as much as they had become accustomed to. The results weren't pretty. Tyson became more obnoxious, mopey, and distracted which was really ticking off his classmates. While Kai became more grouchy, cruel and withdrawn which was scaring the shit out of his secretary.
For Kenny though, it was a good reminder of why he had asked Kai to come back in the first place. So when the week of hell was finally over with and all assignments had been turned in, he didn't even attempt to stop Tyson from bolting out the classroom. Sliding down into his chair he sighed, "Ugh. I forgot how exhausting Tyson can be."
Hilary placed a hand on her hip. "It's a wonder how Kai puts up with that loud-mouth."
"Whenever they start getting on each other's nerves they just have beybattle and forget what they were fighting about."
The class-president sweat dropped. "Is that healthy?"
"I've learned not to question it."
"Right...um, so I was wondering if you wanted to go swimming tonight?"
Kenny immediately perked up. "Sure, that sounds great! Let's go home and grab our stuff."
The woman beamed.
When Tyson blew through the office like a hurricane, scattering papers everywhere, the CEO grunted, "Do you always have to do that?"
The baseball-capped teen rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Whoops, sorry Kai." Getting down on his hands and knees he retrieved the documents, when he handed them back to Kai he took in Kai's dishevelled appearance. Rumpled clothes, red eyes were blood-shot with heavy bags underneath, his hair was greasy with grey spikes going in every which direction and he looked slightly thinner, which meant he wasn't eating, functioning solely on coffee.
"Jeez! I can't leave you alone for a single week without you working yourself to death! C'mon, let's get out of here." he grabbed Kai's arm but the businessman didn't budge.
"Can't. I have a meeting at 4:00. Just go Tyson." Kai's voice lacked it's usual sharpness, only worrying the teenager further.
"No way man. You look like shit. I've taken 18-hour flights across the world, I can wait for you."
A small smile spread across the worn man's lips. Same old Tyson, never willing to give up on anybody. "Fine. Make yourself useful by shredding those documents." he pointed to a large stack of papers on the floor. "Shredder is under my desk."
"Ok." He handed his rival a coffee and a bagel. "But you're not allowed to leave until that bagel is gone."
Kai sighed, too tired to argue, but hid a grin, he had really missed Tyson. He sat back down in his black director's chair and glanced at the clock. 3:50pm. "Projects done?"
"Yup, today was the last day of classes. Finals start next week, but I'm not worried. Thanks to you, Chief and dare I say Hilary, I'll pass with flying colours!" They shared a smile before mahogany eyes fixed on Kai's shoulder. "Are you healing up ok?"
"Yeah. Dranzer is getting restless."
"So is Dragoon." he scratched his head. "We might need to find a secluded place to practice."
"Like where? In case you haven't notice Kinomiya, there really isn't a place we can go without destroying everything."
"Do you think I don't know that?!" he shouted, "But what if we could go to a place that's already destroyed, like that creepy island Dr. What's-his-face trapped us on?"
Kai blinked. "That's actually not a bad idea." He glance back at the clock, 3:58pm. "I gotta go!" he ate the last bite of his bagel and took his coffee. "Remember Kinomiya!"
"Yeah, yeah. Go to your meeting Mr. Big-shot!" When Kai left, Tyson went over to the other side of the back desk and started shredding papers. Before long, curiosity got to the better of him and he began rummaging around Kai's drawers. First drawer was full of boring stuff; staples, paper clips, a bunch of pens, sticky notes. He opened the next drawer and was surprised to find it full of mint chocolate bars, breath mints, gum and various candies. "Wow, how does his face not break out? He has a bigger stash than I do!" Hoping his friend wouldn't notice, he stole a package of Jolly Ranchers. Going over to the bottom drawer he sweat dropped. There had to be at least 3 sets of clothes! "Wow, I guess he really does live here." Going over to the other side of the desk he opened the top drawer only to discover it was filled with different files. Deciding it was better if he didn't go through it, he shut it and opened the drawer underneath. "Pictures?" But these weren't just any pictures, they were pictures of the Bladebreakers. Their first championship. Their second. Right after they won the Justice 5 Tournament. A few random ones they took at the dojo together. Various news clippings of them during the periods where nobody heard from him. Elated, he wiped away the tears that were falling down his cheeks. "Awe, he really does miss us." The last drawer was locked, but the teenager didn't worry about it, he had just learned more about Kai than he'd ever hope to imagine.
When Kai returned from his meeting, Tyson was just shredding the last document. "How's it go?"
He sighed and rubbed his neck." Toddlers. They all want the cookie and none of them want to share. I gave 3 of them the equivalent of a time out. I'm an over-paid babysitter." Tyson burst out laughing. "Glad you find this amusing."
"Sorry! Picturing you in a room full of toddlers in stuffy business suits fighting over cookies is just too funny!"
"It's hell."
"Oh c'mon it can't be that bad. I babysit for the neighbour's kids sometimes. Daichi is way worse."
"That's because you can't tame wild animals."
Tyson laughed in agreement, but stopped, on his face an expression of curiosity. "Have you ever thought about having kids Kai?" the CEO froze and thought about Meko and the kittens and his heart clenched painfully.
"Why do you want to know?" he said defensively.
"Hey, its fine if you don't want to tell me. It was just a question." he huffed, but then smiled softly. "I love kids. Even if I never find love, I can see myself at least adopting one or two – y'know, when I'm 30-something."
Kai's heart raced. Really?! Tyson would be open to adoption? "Yeah, I was thinking the adoption route myself. I need a heir one way or another."
"Oh right, I guess you would. Can't have the company fall into the hands of toddlers, huh?"
"Hn. Smartass." Tyson stuck out his green tongue at him. Green tongue. Green. He glared.
"Um...that's not your happy face."
"You can't keep your paws out of anything can you?"
Tyson could've smacked himself for his stupidity. At least that was Kai's annoyed tone. He didn't have to run for it...yet. "It called my name bro." he shrugged.
"And that somehow made it right?"
"Erm...I'm sorry? I swear I didn't touch your files or tried to open your locked drawer."
Kai sighed. He doubted Tyson could break into that drawer anyway. "Whatever, you coming or not?"
When they arrived, Tyson was instantly attacked by an adorable fluffy creature. "Awe, Takao! I missed you too buddy!" The grey tabby purred in his arms.
Smiling at the pair fondly, Kai picked up his own cat and began scratching him behind his ear. The rest of the kittens nuzzled around their legs.
Both collapsed onto the couch, the kittens jumping up and cuddling up to them. They threw on the TV, but were both asleep minutes later.
"KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK"
What the hell? Kai slowly got up, the kittens on his lap waking up and following him to the door. Dimitri's warm smile greeted him.
"Hey, sorry I was in the neighbourhood and I figured I'd check on that shoulder." Giving his signature grunt, Kai turned around and the doctor followed him in. "I see your roommate is here." Kai looked and saw that Tyson had shifted so he was properly laying face-down on the sofa. Takao was in his arms and Kei on his back. Tora and Kawa snuggling his legs.
"Hardly." Removing his shirt he took a seat at the kitchen table and allowed Dimitri to inspect the wound.
"Hmmm. Lucky for you seems like it's healing properly and it didn't get infec-"
"When can I start blading?"
"Give it another week. Just remember if something hurts, stop. Or else you risk never pulling a ripcord again."
"I'll keep that in mind."
The medic sighed. "At least I know you're not stupid. Crazy. But not stupid." He rummaged through his large brown bag. "Oh, here's everything you requested. Small doses of morphine, bandages, inhalers for nasty colds and since summer is here...4 epi pens."
Kai smiled. "Thanks Dimitri."
"Anytime." the man picked up his bag and left.
"So that's how you get it all."
Startled, Kai looked up to see Tyson peering over the couch. "Mind your own business, Kinomiya." he said tiredly.
"So, when I told you to get your shoulder checked, I meant by a real doctor."
"Why don't you take a moment to think?" Kai snapped.
"Wha?"
"I have enemies. All it takes is an overdose to kill me. Doctors get all your confidential information."
"So why do you trust Donetov? He could easily do the same to you! Even more so, since he's not properly trained!"
"He has more training than most surgeons!"
"And how would you know?!"
Silence fell between them.
"Mind your own business."
"Oh c'mon Kai! I'm only asking because I care! I mean you would think you'd at least tell your best friend that you were allergic to bees!"
Kai's heart pounded. This was the first time Tyson had ever called him his best friend. "Do you really want to know?"
"Of course!"
"Fine." he got up and sat next to Tyson on the couch. "Dimitri was one of the doctors at the abbey."
"No way! And you haven't killed him yet?"
"He did a lot of stuff behind Boris' back. Sneaking us morphine and candy. Treating injuries. Knock out drugs. Lying about injuries so kids would have longer recovery times. Improving results so people wouldn't get booted out the abbey.
He's had several opportunities to betray me and spill his guts to Boris, yet never has. That's why I trust him."
"Oh." Tyson looked down. "Yet...does that mean he's still in contact with Boris?"
"He's Boris' older step-brother."
"WHAT?!"
"He keeps an eye on Boris' for me so I'm not blindsided."
"...So did you know about BEGA?"
"No."
Silence descended once again.
"Thanks for telling me Kai."
"Wasn't like you were going to leave me alone if I didn't."
He grinned. "Got that right...So you can't blade for another week."
"Don't rub it in."
"And I don't have to study." he flopped down on the couch. "So what do we do?"
With Tyson's face scrunched up cutely in thought, his shirt rided up slightly. Oh Kai knew exactly what he wanted to do, the problem was once he gave into his inner desires, he wasn't sure he could stop. While he knew Tyson had years of kendo training behind him it paled in comparison to the years he spent in the Abbey and the training he did in Russia's frozen Tundra. Even with his injury, he knew there was a pretty good chance he would over-power the teen and become worse than Boris.
Like hell that was happening.
Prying his eyes away, his gaze landed on some old board games and he gave a challenging smirk.
Several hours and 7 board games later, the duo realized their rivalry extended beyond beybattles. In every game they played it came to either a tie or one of them would win by a very small margin. While it may not be beyblading, their games were still fun and exhilarating. Kai would be as calculating as ever and Tyson's brash, unpredictably placed them both on edge.
The following day Kai decided to continue with Tyson's physical training. For Tyson this meant hell. Despite being in a pleasant mood the night before, his ex-captain (well maybe current captain) had apparently woken up on the wrong side of the bed and decided to put him through the most rigorous training exercises he could think of. And that bastard got to sit pretty on the sidelines so he wouldn't damage his shoulder.
Why the bluenette didn't just walk away was the real question, at this point he was really wondering if he was a masochist...well when it came to Kai at least. Didn't matter what the Russian would do, he would always come back for more.
That's what being a good friend was...right?
Except Kai was his best friend, even more so than Max. No matter what he was feeling, all he had to do was look at the stoic rebel and he felt better. Having him on his side made him feel like he was invincible and facing him in a battle...there was no holding back. He could unleash everything he had.
The real question was as he looked over to him standing there, arms crossed, scarf fluttering in the breeze gracefully, watching his every move: What was Kai to him really?
Holy crap, I finally finished it. My eyes burn. Please reward me by leaving a review telling me what you thought. Next chapter will be in about a week!
