Of Boys and Blades

Part Two

Chapter 22

xXx

Tyson

xXx

"Can you find these parts for me?" Kenny asked, handing me a short list. It was our last night in Spain and Kenny was hard at work building a new blade for Daichi since his had been completely pulverized by Matilda's self destruction.

Hilary, Hiro, and Daichi had gone to dinner where there was a reception going on. Me and Kenny had decided to skip.

It sucked that we lost Daichi's blade but I really thought I'd gotten through to Miguel. I hoped I did. That Barthez was a total douche bag. Guess we'll see what happens in Egypt.

I started digging through Kenny's supplies. My phone went off. I kept forgetting I needed to charge the stupid thing. I'd plugged it in so I could call Gramps. Picking it up, I saw I had thirty-two new text messages. "What the hell?"

"What's wrong, Tyson?" he asked, reading over my shoulder.

Hi baby what r u doing?

I just laid in bed for the last hour thinking of you, guess what I was doing...

I need u so bad right now

Does the thought of me with another girl turn u on?

On and on it went, from like six different numbers, all of which were foreign. "I have no idea who any of these people are."

Kenny's cheeks were turning a deeper shade of crimson the more he red. "Umm...I think I know."

"What?"

"I gave Sofia your number."

"What? Why?!"

Kenny shrugged, giggling nervously. "Well, I don't have a cell phone."

"So why'd you give her my number?"

"I don't know! I panicked. I told her she could get ahold of me through you."

"And I guess she gave my number to all her friends."

"Sorry." Kenny was staring at the ground.

"It's okay. I'm not mad. I just... umm... am I supposed to respond?"

I read through the rest of them. Some of them were pretty dirty. One had a picture attached to it. A grainy pixelated shot of a girl's boobs. I held it up to Kenny. "Is that Sofia?" I asked with a smirk.

I didn't think he could get any redder. "Umm... I don't think so... Can I... Can I see that?"

"Sure." I handed him the phone.

"Tyson, do you think this is wrong?"

I shrugged. "Probably. But it seems kind of dumb to send naked pictures of yourself to a complete stranger."

There was a quick knock at the door and Hilary popped her head in. "What're you guys up to?"

Kenny screeched and dropped my phone. "Hilary!"

Could he get any more obvious? I grabbed it before she could see it. I knew we'd get a lecture for that one. "Chief's working on building a new blade for Daichi."

"Oh, good. I was wondering what we were going to do about that. So what's going on with your phone?"

"Nothing." I shut it off.

"Is it anything from a certain someone?" she asked with a smile.

"No."

"So you are seeing someone!" Kenny exclaimed.

"No!" I glared at Hilary.

After giving me a knowing look she just smiled. "I was just coming up to check on you guys. You're missing some good food, Tyson."

"Bring me back something then."

"Fine. Have fun, boys."

xXx

Tala

xXx

I got the window seat this time. The plane to Egypt had two seats on one side and three on the other of a single aisle. Kai was beside me. Bryan had the window seat behind me with Spencer behind Kai. Bryan kept kicking my seat. I kept throwing small things I could find back at him.

Kai hit me in the arm. "Stop it."

"Are you two having a lover's quarrel?" Bryan teased behind us.

"Shut the fuck up!" I growled.

"You both shut up," Kai told us.

Spencer was blissfully asleep with his headphones snug against his ears.

Kai and I had not discussed the incident. And I had no intentions to. The end of the night after we left the restaurant was a blur but I remembered bringing up things I'd decided to forget. Fuck, I'd even cried. Kai hadn't brought it up, either. I hoped he never would. And I was getting real sick of Bryan's jokes.

I could actually see the pyramids from the plane. I was almost giddy with excitement. It had been awesome seeing so much of the world when I'd barely seen anything outside of Moscow my whole life. I tapped Kai. "Look. We're almost there. How cool is that?"

He glanced over. "I didn't know you could see them from plane."

"Aww, Tala, are you letting your boyfriend look out the window?" an annoying voice came from behind me.

Kai threw a book at him.

The plane landed and we were met with an entourage of fans. We'd gotten a few the last couple of times, but never this many. There had to be at least fifteen girls. They stopped us as we left the gate. Most of them were ogling over Kai. He gave them an annoyed stare and pushed passed them. More for me. Bryan and I turned on the charm and we ended up with a few phone numbers.

"You know," I told him in the cab. "If you just give them a little smile or something you could very easily rid yourself of that technical virginity. You're kind of handsome, in an annoying, douchey sort of way. Like an underwear model."

He gave me his patented annoyed Kai look. "I'm not interested in any of that right now."

"What are you interested in, Kai?" Bryan asked. "Because it sure as hell isn't fun."

"Winning."

Driving around Cairo was exciting. It was so unlike any place I'd ever been. Our hotel had a view of the pyramids, the cab driver told us. I couldn't wait to see it.

The hotel was gorgeous. It had a huge skylight in the lobby, marble floors, a huge pool, an amazing looking restaurant! Each hotel we went to seemed to be better than the last. Kai checked us in while I looked around in awe. I honestly had no idea how to even do it.

Bryan and I raced to the elevator once Kai was finished. Fucker tripped me on the way. "What's wrong, Tala? Trip over your own feet?"

"Bastard!" I picked up my suitcase and ran after him. Bryan beat me there.

"What floor are we on?" Bryan asked Kai when he and Spencer caught up to us.

Kai pressed the 4 button. "Can't you two just grow up a little?"

"No." I pinched Kai.

The elevator doors opened and we entered. Kai pinched me back a lot harder.

"Ow!"

"Don't touch me."

"I'll touch you anytime I want," I taunted, pushing him. This was fun.

Dropping his duffel bag, he shoved me harder. I grabbed him, trying to twist his arm, and in our scuffling we ended up on the elevator floor.

"You two are fucking idiots, you know that?" Spencer informed us.

Idiots who were having fun. At least I was. The doors opened and I took advantage of Kai's momentary distraction by tickling him. He kicked me.

Laughing, I jumped to my feet and ran, Kai right behind me.

"Spencer!" Bryan whined. "Mommy and Daddy are fighting again."

Spencer laughed as he grabbed all our luggage. "Tala deserves it this time."

Kai was smaller and quicker than me. He caught up fast. Grabbing my arm, he pushed me into the wall, his hand around my throat with just enough pressure to be uncomfortable. Kai was kind of scary when he was mad. Kind of reminded me of Boris. And definitely not in a good way. "Are you done?" he growled.

"Yeah," I choked out, and he let go of me. I let out a giggle. "Don't take everything so—"

I stopped. We had an audience. Down the other end of the hall I could see Tyson and the rest of BBA Revolution watching our exchange.

The feisty one, Hilary, was wearing a cotton Egyptian styled dress. She looked kind of hot in it. Kai followed my gaze and stopped when he saw Tyson. Their eyes locked for a brief moment before Kai turned away and made a beeline for our hotel room.

I gave them a little wave. Daichi waved back. I laughed. Spencer and Bryan acknowledged them before we continued on to our room. Interesting that they were on the same floor.

"Daddy's kind of abusive," Bryan commented to Spencer.

I stopped. "Wait, does that make me mommy?"

xXx

The room was nice. The door opened into a full sitting area with a couch, tv, and a table and chairs set. There were open sliding doors that led to a bedroom with two beds. Kai once again decided to take the couch. There was also a huge balcony that had a breathtaking view of the pyramids. This might be my favorite hotel.

We (me and Bryan) decided to check out a nearby street market. Spencer was interested. We practically dragged Kai. He was quieter than usual. The last year I had held down a part-time job at a grocery store while finishing up school. I didn't have a ton of money but I had quite a bit saved up for this trip. I bought a few bracelets from a vendor.

"Authentic bracelets from Egypt. Girls go nuts over that shit," I told Bryan. I also picked out a pretty necklace with a scarab beetle amulet. It was simple but nice.

We bought a bunch of interesting looking food items and foreign soda. I loved trying foreign brands of soda. We grabbed something for dinner from a vendor and headed back to the hotel room for the night.

We set up our spread at the table and Spencer brought out his dwindling liquor supply. "The drinking age in Australia is eighteen. We'll have to resupply there," he told us.

I looked to Kai. "What's the drinking age in Japan?"

"Twenty." He poked his food.

"Let's buy a lot in Australia," I said, turning back to Spencer.

He chuckled. "You three alone have gone through five bottles of vodka." He finished pouring the shots. "Za oospeh!" To success!

"Za oospeh!" we repeated, partaking of our shot.

"Do you guys remember that Christmas a bunch of the investors came and gave us bottles of wine?" Bryan asked after a few minutes.

"Not really. I think I drank a whole bottle." I laughed.

"I stole a couple bottles from the younger kids and Bryan and me drank all night," Spencer laughed at the memory.

"I remember that," Kai said quietly. "Vadim was bothering me. I broke the bottle and stabbed him with it."

Bryan chuckled. "He wanted you dead after that."

Kai shrugged. "I spent a week learning how to escape from solitary."

"How did you get out?" Spencer asked. "I think you were the only kid who ever did. They had those automated locks that were on the wall."

"They changed the locking mechanism after I escaped. Before then it wasn't automated."

"You know, you were kind of a legend," Bryan told him after a few minutes. We were on shot number three now. "When you were there most of us hated you, myself included."

"I remember."

Bryan laughed. "Yeah, I bet you do. But after you left you had this kind of mythic status. You were the only kid to ever escape solitary, the only kid to escape the facility—"

"Umm... I was part of that escape, too," I interjected.

"Yeah, but everyone knew Kai was the one to figure out how to do it. You were the top blader at eight, and then you survived the Black Dranzer explosion. The younger kids all looked up to you, all wanted to be you."

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because it annoyed me. The four of us, we were on a team before. The original Demolition Boys. Boris put us together and had us compete in some of the smaller tournaments, not sure if you remember that."

"Vaguely."

"Bryan, I'm not sure this is the time—" Spencer started but Bryan cut him off.

"It annoyed me because you were such a smug asshole to everyone. You didn't listen to anyone, especially not us. You did whatever you wanted, no matter what Boris would punish everyone else with. The only reason I tolerated you at all was because of Tala. You always protected him, especially from Vadim. But then—"

I kicked Bryan hard under the table. I shook my head. Kai doesn't remember any of this. Don't bring it up. If I knew anything about PTSD it was triggers. Kai never said anything but he had to have PTSD like the rest of us. He had to.

Kai looked at me.

"Do you have a point, Bryan?" I snapped.

He laughed, shaking his head. "No, I guess not. I still think you're an asshole, Kai, but so am I. I kind of like having you around. You keep things interesting."

Kai poured himself another shot.

We ended up putting a movie on the TV. We understood Arabic, more or less, having had to learn it as a language at the Abbey, but not quiet well enough to follow a movie or show. We ended up finding a channel airing movies in English so we settled on that.

Kai had headed out to the balcony, a drink in his hand. Kai being Kai, was sitting on the fucking railing. He was making me nervous. We were four floors up, after all. And he'd had a lot to drink.

Eventually I went out there with him, leaning my chest against the rail. The view of the pyramids was spectacular. They were lit up at night. I looked down. There were a few people swimming in the pool below us, including some of our competitors. The BBA Revolution were there.

"What did I do?" Kai asked me.

"Nothing I didn't deserve. Can you get down?"

He smirked. "Afraid I'm going to do something stupid?"

"I'm always afraid of that. Why do you do shit like this? Stand on railings and rooftops and overall dangerous areas that would scare the shit out of any sane person."

"Clearly I'm not sane."

"We both know that. You gonna answer me?"

"Want to go up to the roof?"

I sighed. "Sure."

He was going to go with or without me. He hopped back on the right side of the railing and to the floor of the balcony with the finesse of a cat.

"You really have no fear of heights, do you?"

I informed Spencer and Bryan of our plans and they decided to join us. We took the stairwell to the highest floor, then found a maintenance stairwell that was locked. Kai pulled a small lock picking tool out of one of his pockets.

"You just carry that with you?" Bryan asked.

"You never know."

"I'm surprised you remember how to do that," Spencer commented.

"It's one skill I never stopped using. That's why the Blade Sharks wanted me. I could get them into places." The door swung open.

"Blade Sharks?" I asked, following him. "Was that another team?" We went up the stairwell and out the door to the roof. Kai propped it open with a loose rock.

"They were a bey gang. Beat kids up, stole their blades, dumb shit like that."

We wandered to the side of the roof where we could see the pyramids. It was a clear night. A lot of stars were visible. Well, a lot for a city.

Bryan laughed. "Tell me more. I'm intrigued by gang member Kai."

Kai stood on the ledge. "There's not much to tell. We vandalized buildings, broke windows, slashed tires. Just stupid shit. The Blade Sharks were a relic from the 80's and 90's. Bey gangs were huge in Bay city before the BBA tournaments became such a big thing. I dissolved them when I joined the Bladebreakers."

"Why did you join?" I asked. That didn't seem like Kai.

"The Bladebreakers or Blade Sharks?"

"Blade Sharks."

"I knew it would piss off Voltaire. My father was in a bey gang. And it was fun for a while. I got bored eventually."

"Did you ever get caught doing anything? Get in trouble?" Spencer asked.

"Once. We went to BBA Headquarters to break in and steal parts. The building wasn't completely empty and the police were called. Mr. Dickenson was there. He was impressed with my skills and said he wouldn't press charges if I competed in the next tournament. So I did. And I won."

I tried standing on the ledge next to him. How did Kai do this crap all the time? I'd been pretty familiar with the rooftop of the Abbey, but one look down and I was dizzy. He grabbed my arm without a word, pulling me back off the ledge.

We stayed up there for a while, watching the sky and the pyramids and reminiscing about the past. The parts that were less than terrible.

xXx

This first day of the tournament arrived. We'd spent the last few days training (and abstaining from alcohol at Kai's insistence). We were up against Barthez Battalion. I wondered if they planned on cheating today. I would take no chances. Take them out quickly.

The match was set to begin and we took our seat at our bench. "Do any of you guys recognize that Barthez creep?" Spencer asked. "I swear I've seen him before."

"Maybe," Bryan said. "Can't be sure."

I had no idea.

The match started. I was up against Aaron.

Bryan and Spencer sent me out with words of encouragement.

"Try to win this time," Kai said with a smirk.

I flicked him off.

"We're on tv."

I put my finger away and smiled, giving the crowd a little wave. They cheered.

I was up against Aaron. I was ready. I felt confident, like I'd found myself again. I hated how much I'd floundered the last few weeks. It had been two years since I'd battled in a tournament setting. I was out of practice, and I'd underestimated the competition. Not anymore. I searched the crowd. I saw Tyson first, then Daichi, Hilary and Kenny. I had to beat that kid. No more losses.

We launched our blades. Okay, Tala. You just got to remember to be patient. Yeah. That's the ticket. Just wait him out. When I make my move, this guy won't know what hit him.

Aaron made his move and I was ready for him. "You wanna go? Well, bring it on!" I went into my attack. "Nouvae rogue!" Wolborg, my beauty, destroy him!

I won. Yes! Yes! Yes! I forced myself not to jump up and down like an idiot. I walked back to my team with my head held high.

"That was awesome, Tala," Bryan cheered.

"Great battle," Spencer added.

"Good job on not losing."

"Fuck you, Kai."

Kai was up. There had been a change in the roster and Miguel was playing instead of Claude. He was a better player, it would make for a more interesting battle. Kai played with him for a couple minutes, letting Miguel think he had the upper hand. Then he made his move and knocked him out. Kai made it look so easy. It was annoying.

The Egypt branch of the tournament was split into three days, one battle a day. We went and got some dinner and I started texting one of the girls whose number I'd gotten. Her name was Aya. She agreed to meet me that night.

She was a pretty dark-haired Egyptian girl. We took a walk and ended up back in her hotel room. Good thing I had condoms on me. After she fell asleep I let myself out. The hotel was down the street from the one I was staying at. It was getting late, after nine. My system was so screwed up from traveling everywhere, I was wide awake. I hit the four button on the elevator just as I heard voices behind me.

Tyson and the rest of his entourage were coming back from the pool. Hilary filled out a bikini nicely. I hoped I didn't reek of sex.

"Hi, Tala," Tyson said politely. The others murmured greetings. "That was a great battle today."

"Thanks." It was nice to get praise. "How was the pool?"

"It's nice," Hilary told me. "The water's so warm, it's like bathwater."

We entered the elevator. "Where's Kai?" Tyson asked.

I shrugged. "Probably on the roof."

That made Tyson chuckle. "Did you two know each other at the Abbey?"

"Yeah. I've known Kai since I was five. He never mentioned that?"

"No, he didn't ever talk about any of that stuff."

The door opened. "Not surprised. Night night," I sang. "Don't let the bedbugs bite."

I lingered at the door before going into my room, keeping half an eye on BBA Revolution. I was pretty sure I knew what room they were in, but I wanted to be positive.

Afterwards I went inside. I thought I was by myself at first, but then I noticed Kai on the balcony again. He was standing on the railing, leaning against the wall dividing us from the next suite. He was barefoot, in a t-shirt and sweatpants. He was going to drive me to an early grave.

He'd left the sliding glass door open. I entered the balcony silently. "Please don't jump."

Kai glanced down at me. "Wasn't planning on it."

"Can you stop doing that?"

He took a seat on the railing. I guess that was better? He had taken a shower. His hair was wet and his face free of makeup.

"Where are Bryan and Spencer?"

"They went to the hot tub."

I was quiet for a moment, shifting my weight back and forth. He was waiting for me to say something. "You alright?"

"I'm fine."

I chewed my lip. "Look, I know I've brought up a lot of heavy shit—"

"You don't need to bring it up now."

I leaned against the railing with a sigh, snapping my smile back on my face. I poked him. "I just had sex."

"I don't care."

"Her name's Aya. She's Egyptian. She's in town for the tournament. She wants to meet after tomorrows match at the market near here. She's going to bring a couple friends."

"Not interested."

"You don't have to do or say anything. Just be a physical body." I pushed myself up, heading back into the room. Kai hopped down and followed me in. I poured myself a quick shot. It was there. Why not? Kai set another glass beside mine. I poured him one, too.

We took our shots. "I'm going to try to get some sleep," Kai told me.

"I'm wide awake. I think I'm going to stay up and watch some tv. Why don't you take the bed tonight."

"If that's what you want." He disappeared into the bedroom.

I thought of Hilary in her bikini. Yeah, why not? I grabbed the bag of souvenirs I'd bought off the dining table, pulling out the necklace. I found a piece of paper and a pen. I had no idea how to write her name in Japanese (I could speak it, but writing it, uh!) so I just wrote the note in English.

I snuck into the hall, hoping no one would see me. I crept towards their room, heading into the hallway on the other side of the elevator. The box was wrapped with a ribbon and I hung one of the loops around the door handle, trying not to jiggle it in the slightest. Once I was confident it wasn't going to fall off, I bolted back to my room.

xXx

AN: Kai learned how to pick locks at the Abbey and carries a small lock picking toolset with him in one of his pockets. That's how he gets into all the weird high places he always shows up in.