Chapter 19

Everything around them was covered with white snow. Together with the clear blue sky the place looked kind of unworldly. Untouched. Literally. The only sounds that could be heard came from the scrunching snow under their boots. Tala walked two meters ahead, leading the way, and Kai followed, admiring the beauty around and in front of him.

The redhead sensed the penetrating eyes on his back, but knew better than to turn around. An action like this would only show his discomfort and showing any kind of emotion in front of the other was nothing he was thrilled to do.

Two weeks ago, the Russian preliminary decision for the upcoming Beyblade World championships was held in Moscow. The top four of this event formed the new Russian team, Blitzkrieg Boys. Nobody had expected that Kai would participate in the tournament and of course the former member of the Bladebreakers won in block B. Bryan lost against him in the final match and occupied the second place. Tala won in block A after facing Spencer in the final round and became the Blitzkrieg Boy's captain. Together they would represent Russia in several countries all over the world this summer.

It was decided that Bryan and Spencer would be bench warmers, because due to their security jobs they hadn't so much time to train. And, everybody knew that they could never get as strong as Tala or Kai, training forwards and backwards. The only problem the new team faced now was Tala's never before seen animosity towards Kai, who simply ignored the evil eyes and snide comments coming from the redhead.

After one week, Tala was in an unbearable mood and Spencer suggested a little training trip. "Tala, I know you are the team's captain, but don't you think you should sort it out with Kai? Why don't you two train in the mountains? You know, the little wooden hut where we trained under Boris every summer. Maybe, you'll learn to get along at a place like this."

Tala turned to Spencer. His outer appearance was calm, but the blue eyes were cold and sharp like ice daggers. "You really think I'll ever get along with this bastard?"

"No. But at least you aren't here to pester us anymore." The tall blader was dead serious.

"Fine." The redhead left without further explanation, leaving behind a stunned Spencer.

Deep in thoughts Tala trudged up the small path to the wooden hut that would be their base camp during their time in the mountains. Another hour passed and it was already getting dark when they finally arrived. The hut looked shady and unwelcoming, but neither of them said it out loud. The door wasn't locked, but in this area only hiker would stop by to sleep in it for a night. And, if ever, that happened in mid-summer not at the end of April.

Tala walked in, examining the one room. At the back was a broken shelf and next to it a tarpaulin covered some gas bottles that could be used for the gas heater in the room's center. The redhead took one of this gas bottles and in no time the heater started to emit warmth and light. During all of this Kai had watched his captain silently from the entrance. When latter showed even after finishing his task no sign of will to communicate the dual-haired teen sighed. "Are you going to ignore me the whole time? Then, why are we even here?"

"I'm not ignoring you. I've just nothing to say."

"I'm your teammate, if you want it or not. You can't change it. So stop being a pussy or otherwise I'll never acknowledge you as the captain."

For one second Tala seemed ready to explode, but he calmed down immediately before facing Kai. "I'm your captain, if you want it or not. You can't change it. So do as I say." Tala's voice demanded submission.

Silence. Then Kai smirked, approaching the redhead, whose eyes followed every of his movements. Just inches away the teen dropped to his knees. To see Tala's face, he had to tilt his head back. It showed no emotions, no surprise. "If that's what you want, I'll gladly serve you as your personal slave." After looking at the kneeling Kai for several moments, he passed him and walked up to his backpack that he left at the entrance and started to unpack it. "Man, you are so boring," Kai said after a while, falling onto his back. The room finally heated up.

"What did you expect me to say? 'Fuck me. I really need your dick up my ass?'" As soon as the words left Tala's mouth, he noticed his mistake.

"So you want me to be this kind of slave. Maybe I was wrong and you aren't such a pussy at all."

Before Kai could say more, Tala quickly ordered, "I expect dinner to be ready in five minutes."

They ate in silence the meal Kai had prepared. Well, prepared was a total exaggeration since he simply had to open two of the self-heating cans they brought along.

After that, each of them crawled into their bedroll on opposite sides of the gas heater. For several minutes it was silent, then Kai asked, "Hey, Tala. Why are you so eager to win the Championships?"

"Hng? What a stupid question. Why should I even participate when I don't want to win? Don't you want to win as well?"

"No."

"Eh! You want to beat Takao then?"

"No."

"What?"

"You got the files about Boris last year, right?" Kai sounded unusually serious talking to Tala now.

"Yes," the redhead answered, "that bastard is planning something." After some seconds he added, "You think he'll participate in the Championships?"

"I don't know. He could, but from the information I got, I think it's something different."

"What do you know?"

"He looked for strong Bladers all around the world and he found them. That much do you know already. Now he started his own franchise called 'BEGA'." Kai waited for Tala to conclude it himself.

"These Beybladers would be perfect mascots. Singer, sports ace and what not. Boris is playing the nice guy now, because the bad boy style didn't work out."

"That's what I think," Kai agreed.

"However, you still haven't answered my question. Why do you want to lose?"

"Man, you are a pain in the ass."

"Hey, you started this shit. Now tell me! Remember, I'm the captain. If I want, you'll be out."

"Okay. You remember that I look slightly different in real life?"

"The press conference when Voltaire announced you as his heir. Slightly is good," Tala snorted.

"When a champion quits his sport, then there is big ruckus. Everyone wants to know why, but when you lose against the champion…" Kai didn't need to say more.

"And you think, just because Mr. Kai Hiwatari wants an easy way out, I play along?"

"Isn't it a good opportunity for you as well?"

"I love beyblading. Why should I quit?"

The younger teen sighed. "You love it because it's the only thing you've ever done. Besides going to school, studying. You mastered the high school and I know that you are looking for a good university to study. Since you haven't yet decided what to study … well. Do you really want to play this game forever? Maybe, someday you can earn money with it, when it gets more popular, but still, aren't you curious about what life can be outside of Beyblade?"

"What do you care?! It's my life!" Tala sounded annoyed. "Shut up, I want to sleep."

Kai sighed again. "Sure." 'It's your life, but only until Boris is in prison,' he added in his mind.

The next day began like the previous had ended. Clear blue sky and around them nothing but pure white. Tala went out early to start his training. He didn't sleep much last night, thinking about what Kai had said. 'I'm not like you. I'm not in anything I want to get out of, Kai. And I want to win.' He repeated those words several times in his head during his workout and at the end of the day all his doubts vanished. But not for long.

Back at their base camp the redhead noticed that there were no new footprints of the other. He opened the door to find Kai lying lazily in front of the gas heater.

"Maybe you have forgotten it already, but we are here for training." Tala was exhausted from his training and sounded more tired than pissed off. Of course, this didn't go unnoticed by Kai.

"I'll make you dinner, master."

Tala sighed audibly, ignoring what the other just said. "Did you even bring Dranzer with you?"

"She's in my bag, don't worry." Once again Kai prepared their meals out of self-heating cans.

"Tomorrow you'll train. I'll check up on you." The redhead's voice came out even, but the determination he felt during training seemed to shrink with every minute he spent around Kai.

Again, Tala had problems to fall asleep at night, thinking about the impact the younger teen had on him. 'Why does Kai's presence makes me feel so awkward? Since the first time we met back in the abbey I felt uncomfortable around him, but this isn't it. This feeling is different. It started after the preliminary decision, when he started to hang out with us. Well, he more or less invited himself in our home. Ah, Tala, don't distract yourself. It started when he helped me to do the grocery shopping. Everything was normal until we lined up to pay. There was this guy looking at us, but this wasn't unusual. I often catch people staring at me. Kai noticed him as well and from one second to another his aura changed. The way he looked at this guy. The way his lips tugged into a smirk. Did I really notice all this? The man smirked back, approached us and said to Kai, "You shouldn't give me an eye fuck with your boyfriend standing right next to you. That's rude." "He's just a teammate," Kai responded while he gave the guy another once over. "My captain to be exact." He wasn't looking at me while saying it, but I knew that he was aware of every move I made, so I turned around to pay. Somehow, I couldn't stand there, watching Kai flirting with this stranger. This dude left his shopping basket on the spot and they left together.' Tala sighed silently. He didn't want to wake Kai up, if the other was already asleep. Usually, Tala could sense when somebody was sleeping or awake, but by Kai it was difficult to tell. 'I guess, this was the moment it began, but the next day worsened everything. I knew that Kai had slept with this guy. But the look he gave me the morning he came back. It was so … ambiguous. He was so close I could smell the shower gel on him that he must have borrowed from the man. He whispered, "Just pretending it's you isn't satisfying at all." I don't know what had happened when the postman didn't ring at that moment. Since then, … And now here. Stuck together in this hut. He could have me. No! I would never allow it! I don't want it, him! Especially not with him!'

Although Tala repeated those thoughts over and over again until he finally fell asleep, he couldn't deny the arousal he felt when thinking back about the words Kai whispered to him that day.

The next day started nicely, but both Bladers looked intently in the sky. "It's going to snow later," Kai said still watching the air.

"Yeah. But not before noon, so you'll better get your ass out there and train. I'll check up on you."

"Ai, ai, captain," Kai responded with faked enthusiasm before Tala walked away to begin with his own training session.

When the redhead was gone, Kai decided to go back inside the hut. Tala didn't say that he should start immediately. Eventually he started to look for a good place. He found a place with a big rock that could be used as a 'training partner'. During the next thirty minutes the weather changed dramatically. Dark clouds appeared from west and it started to snow lightly. Soon snowfall increased and also the wind blew fiercer.

Sometime after noon Kai delivered the final blow to the rock and divided it into two halves. "Is this enough training for today, captain?" he asked loudly to overpower the wind.

"How did you know I was watching?" Tala asked back, seemingly appearing out of nowhere in front of Kai.

"We should hurry back," the teen said instead of an answer. "It's getting worse."

Tala agreed. A storm in the mountains was nothing to take lightly. Back at their base camp the redhead tried to activate the gas heater, but the gas bottle seemed to be empty. He changed it, but also the new bottle appeared to be empty. "Fuck! Don't tell me they are all empty!"

Wordlessly Kai handed him another gas bottle and another one and another one, until they had tried all of the remaining ones.

"Shit! What shall we do now?" Tala turned to face Kai, who was calm as always. "We can't go out. It's getting dark soon and overall a blizzard is rampaging out there."

"Do you want to eat something?"

"Didn't you hear me, Kai?"

The dual-haired teen sighed. "You are right. We are stuck here, at least for the night. So calm down, it's not the end of the world."

"It will be like minus 20 degrees Celsius outside tonight and …"

"I won't let you freeze to death," Kai interrupted him. "Since when are you so anxious about the cold?" When Tala didn't respond, he continued, "Are you probably scared about the way … we keep warm tonight?"

Silence.

"Jeez. Do you really think I would exploit this situation? Believe me, if I were so desperate to fuck you, I would have done it already."

"Then …" Tala began, but stopped abruptly.

"Then, what?"

"Then … prepare the meals!"

After they finished their cold meal, it was technically still too early to go to bed, but there was nothing else they could do and the temperature in the wooden hut was decreasing rapidly. So they slipped into one of the bedrolls and used the other as an extra blanket. Now that the gas heater didn't provide any light, they could barely see each other's faces. Soon the room would be entirely dark.

"And now?" Tala asked lying on top of Kai.

"Try to sleep," the teenaged boy breathed against the redhead's neck. "I'll make sure you don't become hypothermic."

"The hell I do!"

"Your choice." Kai put his arms around Tala's body, pressing him closer. Then he began to sing

"Morning in Paris, the city awakes
To the bells of Notre Dame"

"I didn't know you can sing."

"Schhh…

The fisherman fishes, the bakerman bakes
To the bells of Notre Dame…

By the time the song ended Tala was fast asleep. "I know I said I won't exploit this situation," Kai whispered into the redhead's ear, "but you know that you can't trust me." One hand glided down Tala's waist, slipped under the hem of his trousers and boxer shorts, gently caressing the pulsing hot flesh there.

"Kai," Tala moaned, not waking up from his dream.