Of Boys and Blades

Part One

Chapter 7

We defeated the Psykick's. In the aftermath of the building collapsing we were told that the mastermind behind the cyber bitbeasts, Dr. B., had perished in the building. I felt a little closure regarding Wyatt's death but I wish he'd been brought to justice. One thing was for sure, Wyatt was never too far from my thoughts. I visited his grave a lot.

School let out. Instead of enjoying summer vacation we started training for the battle with the St. Shields. It seemed like everyone was out to get our bitbeasts. I couldn't believe it when they actually succeeded in sealing Drigger away. I felt terrible for Rei. I couldn't imagine losing Dranzer. I didn't want to imagine it. He was the one thing that had kept me sane. But it made us focus, it made us work harder, it brought us back together as a team. And I realized again just how much these people meant to me.

The guys were at the dojo all the time and me and Tyson were almost never alone together. Things between us became almost like a game. Just how much could we get away with? How many stolen kisses and secret glances could we pull off before someone noticed? The rush, the intensity, it seemed to draw us to each other all the more.

I was completely enamored with him. Even I had to admit that to myself.

The battle with the St. Shields went down in the abandoned amusement park outside of Bay City. It was one of my favorite haunts. I knew the place well. It was touch and go for a while but in the end we triumphed and they felt we were able to protect our beasts ourselves.

It was actually the day after that battle that Lidiya finally showed up. She brought me to an apartment building near the harbor. It was on the third floor. "Technically it's two bedrooms," she was telling me as she showed the place. "I thought you could use the second bedroom for an office. There's a desk and new laptop in there waiting for you. There's also a small futon in the event you have a guest. The place is fully furnished. I think you'll find it suitable."

"You didn't have to go to this much trouble," I told her as I looked around, surprised by how nice it was. Everything was high end. The kitchen was open looking into the living room. The kitchen had granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. There was a breakfast bar dividing the two areas. The living room was furnished with leather couches and a wide-screen TV. In the bedroom I had a king-size bed and there was a smaller TV in there.

"Kai, let me do this. It's the least I can do for Nina's only child, alright."

"This is really nice. Thank you."

As I explored the apartment I found myself getting really excited at the prospect of having my own place. I really didn't mind staying with the Kinomiya's but it would be nice to stop imposing on Gramps.

"I'm sorry that it took so long. I was waiting on the furniture."

There was a balcony off the living room. Stepping on to it I fell in love with the view. It had a sightline of the harbor and I could clearly see the water.

"Thank you," was all I said.

"You're welcome." Lidiya took a seat on the couch as she ruffled through her purse. "Now you need to remember our agreement. I want you on your best behavior at school. Ryuu has agreed to be your contact person—"

"Who?"

She looked at me with annoyance. "Tyson's grandfather. The man you've been staying with for three months."

"Oh." I never knew his first name.

"Anyway, he's going to be your contact person for school. If you need to have any permission forms signed or anything he can do that for you. Here's a cell phone." She placed it on the coffee table. "It's for me to contact you. Please keep it with you." She placed an envelop on the table beside it. "In there is your phone number and a debit card with your pin number and instructions on how to use it. There's plenty of money in the account. Use it for groceries, clothing, school supplies, and just plain old spending money. But don't go crazy with it, I'll be tracking your spending. I'll be checking in on you. All of your belongings have been delivered. They are in your bedroom. I have the portrait of Nina. I'll keep it safe and you can have it when you're older. I guess I'll leave you to get settled in."

"Lidiya, really, thank you," I told her sincerely.

"We're family, right?"

"Voltaire never did anything this nice for me."

"Nor did he for anyone. Take care of yourself, Kai."

xXx

The next world championships were announced. It was kind of weird. It was announced a lot later in the year than usual. They didn't seem to be very well organized. None of the teams we competed with the year before were entered. And Tyson was really bothered by the Zeo situation. I didn't understand it myself. He had seemed to want nothing more than to be one of us then he turned against us. I figured he must have a reason, but Tyson just wouldn't let it go.

The night before the finals were going to start, after a disastrous practice, I found myself in Tyson's bedroom. The others had decided to go home for the night and Tyson had pleaded with me to stay. It was the first time the two of us had been alone in his bedroom since that first night. Neither of us knew what we were doing.

"So how's your fancy new place?" he asked me from the bed.

I took a seat in his computer chair. "It's fine." It had taken me all of two days to realize I had no idea how to take care of myself. I had never done dishes or laundry before. I was able to figure those out but the one time I tried to cook had nearly ended in a fire. I was living off of microwave dinners, cereal, and instant ramen.

"When do I get to see it?"

I shrugged.

He laid back on the bed, in what I'm sure he thought was a sexy position. He looked ridiculous. Tyson could be oddly shy when we were alone. He almost always waited for me to make the first move. He stared up at the ceiling. "I just don't get Zeo. Why would he do this to us? I thought we were friends. I thought what he wanted to be more than anything was a Bladebreaker. What could happen to change that?"

"Will you just drop it?" Annoyance crept into the voice. I was tired of hearing about Zeo.

"What? Jealous?" He smirked at me.

"I'm not jealous." Maybe I was. I didn't like how much he was obsessing over this. I moved to the bed.

"Are you gonna kiss me yet?"

"Do you want me to?" I teased.

Grabbing me by the shirt he pulled me down on top of him. Our lips met and my arms went around him, pulling him as close to me as possible. I slipped my hands under his shirt to feel the warmth of his skin. His arms encircled my neck and his legs around my waist. He was intoxicating. And he was driving me crazy. I wanted to do more than kiss.

As I trailed my lips down his neck I could feel his fingers in my hair.

"Mmm, Kai," he murmured.

I felt something underneath him. "What's this?" I pulled out an envelop addressed to him.

"Gramps must've left it in here." He took it from me, reading it. "It's from my Dad. Guess he remembered I had a birthday." There was a bitter undertone to his voice I'd never heard before.

"Do you two not get along?" I asked, surprised. They had seemed to when I met his father last year.

Tyson sat up. The mood was clearly broken. "It's not that we don't really, it's just we don't have any kind of relationship. He pretty much abandoned me here when my mother died. He's never wanted anything to do with me."

I could understand that. It just surprised me.

"Gramps thinks my dad thought he got married too young and was stuck with kids he didn't want," Tyson went on. "He took my mother dying as an opportunity to start his life over. He went to school to become an archeologist. After he graduated he was gone all the time on digs. I can count on my hands the number of times I've seen him. And Hiro's just as bad—"

"Who's Hiro?"

"No one," he said quickly, looking down.

"Do you hate your dad?" I asked.

"No. I just kind of don't care anymore. Isn't that horrible?" He smiled sadly.

"No." I kissed his lips.

"Kai?"

"What?"

"You won't do that again, will you?" He looked up at me with huge eyes. "Quit our team? Leave me?"

"No." I kissed him again and he melted against me, falling back against the bed. At the time I didn't know it was a lie.

xXx

Author's Note, Part 2: So many updates lately! Clearly I am working on this story instead of doing my homework like I'm supposed to. Shame on me!

I've decided to divide this story into parts. Basically V-Force is Part 1, and the in between and G-Revolution will be Part 2. I thought I could do this whole thing from Kai's POV but I can't so I'll be switching to 3rd person when I get to Part 2, which will start with Chapter 9. I hate doing that in the middle of a story but it'll make more sense when I get to scenes where Kai's not the pov character. I know Tyson will have a few scenes and Hilary has one, maybe Hiro too, not sure about that one yet. Part 2 will get more fleshed out the closer I get to it. It should be around 9-10 chapters, maybe a couple more. My goal is to be done with it by the end of December and then start on the sequel in January.

Note too much went on in this chapters. Just setting things up. Next chapter will probably be on the shorter side, too. But then we will get to G-Revolution! *rubs hands together and laughs maniacally* So thank you all for the awesome reviews! I'm so glad you guys are enjoying the story and hope you will like what's to come! ^_^

AN 2022: I came across a screenshot recently I didn't know existed from V-Force. In it Tyson's and Zeo are talking and Zeo looks really excited and Kai's in the background looking totally pissed off. He doesn't like Zeo talking to his boyfriend. ;P