Hello, sorry for the wait. This chapter is kinda boring so I had been procrastinating writing it (bleh, icky grammar). So far I was all 'uii, I can't wait until I get to the part where he is at Takao's place' and now that I got there I was all 'what's he supposed to do there, actually?'. Yea I suck!

Anyways, a big thank you to my dear reviewers :)

khooxp: I'm glad you're enjoying Kai's manners, I was worried that people wouldn't like it because he's so OOC. I just love putting poor Kai into awkward situations, it's so much fun!^^

vdalfredo: Sorry übrigens, dass ich immer deinen Namen falsch schreib, FFN ist irwie doof und denkt es sei ne Internet Seite wenn ich den Punkt hinzufüge… Auf jeden Fall, vielen Dank noch mal für deine Review. Ich wollt schon immer mal Kai mit Hormonschwankungen Schreiber, hehe… Und dein Kommentar was Takao angeht war urgeil! Schlau genug für Archeologie XD Ich hab mich so totgelacht!

annoying talking animal: You won't believe how much I was enjoying writing that nervous breakdown scene, I was being a real masochist, haha. But poor Kai, I made him suffer… Yea, yea, Kai seducing Hiro, oh he's got skills! lol You're gonna hate this chapter, total romance fail… unless you count the exchange of body fluids at the end… ui, I'm sounding suspenseful, hehe… but don't get too excited, the scene is actually extremely unsexy in every way possible! :D

xxx - xxx - xxx

'Can you tell that I've been crying?' I asked.

He shook his head. 'You weren't really crying in the first place.'

'Good.' I wouldn't be arguing that. He was off, but as long as he believed that it was fine with me.

I pushed the door open and jumped out of the truck. The cool air hit me in the face. It was quite chilly. I buttoned up my jacket. I knew it would look hideous but I didn't care. I was cold!

'Let's see if Takao is there. I told him not to go out but he never listens.' Hiro said. I felt it was more of a small talk conversation attempt, so I just nodded it off.

I followed Hiro into the kitchen, he offered me a drink, which I declined, then he started yelling his brother's name.

'WHAT?'

That was Takao's voice. It suddenly felt very strange to hear it again. Some sense of nostalgia started washing over me. I think I actually missed the kid.

'WHERE ARE YOU?' Hiro screamed.

'IN THE DOJO.' Takao replied.

Hiro gave me a content smile. 'He's in the dojo.' he informed me.

'Yes, I heard.'

I walked over to the entrance of the dojo, I hadn't seen Takao in quite a while, so I was nervous. I wondered if he had changed at all. It was possible. After all, people changes the most in their teens, that's what all those school psychiatrists claimed. I suddenly felt very silly. Here was me, the glorious Kai Hiwatari being too scared to enter the bloody dojo because of some childish fears. So I sighed, took off my shoes and pulled the door open. And there he was, Takao. He was lying stretched out on the floor, wearing head phones, holding a Discman in his left hand and a pencil in the right one.

And there was a girl there! Suddenly I had a bad feeling in my gut. Takao had a girlfriend. I felt like that was something Hiro should have given me a heads up about. I had specifically asked him if there would be anything new that I should know of. And girlfriends were annoying. Especially clingy ones that would complain when their boyfriend wouldn't spend "enough" time with them. And those that would find it inappropriate if guys would just be acting like guys.

Unlike Takao, who had been completely absorbed by whatever sound was coming from his Discman, his girlfriend actually noticed me. She screamed when she saw me. It was actually rather strange.

'What's the matter, Hiromi, why are you screaming?' Takao asked in a bored tone. He didn't appear all too bothered.

'There a creepy stranger standing at the door!'

Creepy stranger? Thanks.

Takao turned his head, probably to see what the fuzz was all about. Then suddenly a smile formed on his lips.

'KAI!'

He pulled off the headphones jumped on his feet and ran up to me to tackle me.

'Oh man, I haven't seen you in ages. Where the hell have you been?'

He was hugging me quite hard, almost cutting off my air supply. But it felt good. it was nice to see that someone cared that much about me.

'What are you doing here, Kai? You came to visit? That is awesome!'

'I'm guessing they didn't tell you.'

He looked up at with a dumbfounded glare. 'Who do you mean?'

'Your brother and grandfather.'

Takao's expression changed from ecstatic to angry. 'What? They knew you were coming and didn't tell me. Those bastards!'

Then he got all happy again and hugged me.

'Anyways, it's so cool that you're here.'

That annoying girl interrupted our little reunion.

'Takao. There's still a lot of French homework to do.'

It seemed Takao was very irritated by her as well. 'Let's do it some other time, okay.'

That got her pretty angry. 'I'm not waiting for you, let's see how you manage to do it on your own.'

Then she packed up her stuff and stormed outside. To be honest, I was quite glad she was gone. I'm no good with girls, at all!

'Is she your… girlfriend?' I asked Takao, I was almost dreading the answer.

'Oh hell no!' Takao yelled out in disgust.

I couldn't help but smirk. Unfortunately, he noticed.

'You're smiling.'

Ui, this was awkward.

'You're smiling Kai, that is so weird; I think I've only seen you smile once or twice before.'

Oh man, now I was embarrassing myself again. How typical, why did that happen to me so often lately? Seriously, it never did before. I'm starting to wonder if that is another growing up thing: embarrassing oneself. I certainly felt like a moron in that moment.

'I was just thinking of something funny.' I insisted. Hopefully he'd buy it.

'What was so funny?' he asked.

Oh crap, now I had to come up with something. Insults always work, so I decided to go with that.

'Your face!'

Yes, Kai. That was badass. I felt really quite proud of my answer. I think it was my best one today, so far. Especially if you consider the fact that I had been crying and whining.

'Oh thanks Kai, you're always so friendly.' was Takao's sarcastic reply.

Unfortunately, it made me grin. Damn me. What was up with all the smiling today? At least I managed to creep him out, -but for the wrong reason.

'Ahm, Kai, you're not drunk, are you?'

'No.'

'Ah, you know, Hiro gets all smiley when he is drunk so I thought maybe you…'

'For crying out loud Takao. Do you think I would show up at your place drunk? Or rather, do you think that I am the type to get drunk in the first place?'

He scratched his butt (yes, his butt, poor me). 'Nuh, you're more the type to do hard drugs, I'd say.'

Hard drugs? What kind of skewed perception did he have of me? Wyatt on the contrary would always claim that I was too rigid on that matter.

'No Takao, I don't do drugs. None of them.'

'I was just kidding. You have absolutely no sense of humour, dude. You should loosen up, has anyone ever told you that?'

'Yes, as a matter of fact. But I've also been told that I'm laid back.'

Hehe, in your face Takao.

'Who told you that? A Nazi? Or your Grandfather maybe?'

My Grandfather is actually not that uptight, he's an alright guy once you get to know him. He always took good care of me, sure he was a bit eccentric but everyone has flaws, right? Oh no, I just realised I sound like a pushover. How freaky! Maybe I should just stop thinking or something.

'A classmate.' I announced. I was somewhat proud of it.

'You say it as if you actually want to believe it!' Takao remarked.

'It's true.' I insisted.

'I meant you being laid back.'

'Oh.' I shrugged. 'Well, I'm not homophobic, not racist, not sexist... And I've been to a nudist beach before. So, I'd say I'm pretty laid-back.'

'Nudist beach! Seriously?'

I had been 12 years old and on a holiday with my Dad in France. It had been horrifying; I don't think I've ever seen that much wiener in my life. Thinking about it still made me shiver.

'Where there many hot ladies?' Takao asked, wiggling his eyebrows in a disturbing way.

'No, just pervy old men. It was gross.'

He pulled a face. 'Oh yuck.'

There was an awkward silence for a moment.

'So, wanna go beybattle?' Ty suggested.

'No actually, I want to stay here and talk about my feelings.'

He gave me a near terrified look. I smirked.

'I was kidding.'

He sighed in relief. 'Man, you scared me dude, who would've ever expected you to make jokes these days?'

Too true, who would?

xxx - xxx - xxx

Spending time with Takao was surprisingly more fun than I had expected, even though all the other kids that were blading in the park were giving me angry stares. Oh, my dear old town with those dear people… oh how I had missed their hateful glares… oh it was bliss…

I'm being sarcastic, those evil stares were actually quite awkward.

Let's just say I have quite a 'reputation'. None of the kids could actually believe that Takao and I were friends. I don't really blame them, because occasionally, I can't believe it either.

After a day I had enough of those stares, so the next day Takao and I decided to go blade in a more deserted spot, down at the river. That place has some sort of significance for us one may say… in fact that was where we first met, and where I kinda acted like a total dick. Lucky for me, I'm not a very nostalgic person. Anyways, that Saturday, Takao had been giggly for the entire morning. It was pretty damn irritating. What was even more irritating was that he kept on claiming that he had a surprise for me, but refused to reveal what it was.

'Will I like the surprise?' I asked him, somewhat suspicious.

I could totally imagine him coming up with some sort of nonsense like: an ice cream cake in the shape of a unicorn, just to throw me off.

'Yes, Yes, you'll like it!'

Oh dear, I was starting to think it was the unicorn cake (just in case you were wondering, I did not come up with that specific thought randomly. At breakfast, Takao had been ecstatically telling me about this bakery in town that made cakes in all kinds of shapes… including unicorns).

'So when do I get this surprise?'

'Man Kai, you need to be patient.'

I rolled my eyes at him. Whatever.

Lunchtime came closer and closer, and I had a bad feeling when he announced that we would go into town, to eat at this place that he had picked out. I was pretty certain now that the surprise was going to be that silly cake, and I was dreading it. But strangely, he didn't drag me to a bakery, he dragged me to a noodle shop instead. I figured he wanted a normal meal before we went to get dessert.

'Ohhh, I am so excited. You're going to love the surprise!'

'I have a feeling I'm going to hate it.'

'Aww.' he pouted, which made him look like a drenched puppy or something. Well, I didn't fall for it anyways.

'I still think I'm going to hate it…'

Suddenly, a big smile appeared on his face and he jumped up from his chair. Then he started waving his arm.

'That's it,' I thought, 'Takao has officially gone mad.'

When he then went on to squeak I decided to turn around to check what had caused him to act like such an embarrassment.

And then I saw my 'surprise'. And Takao had been right, I did indeed like it. Standing at the entrance of the restaurant, looking somewhat lost, was my former team mate Max. He finally spotted us. His mouth formed a wide grin.

'Kai! I can't believe it's actually you!'

Similarly to Takao, earlier, he tackled me too. Max's hug however was way more intense and lasted way longer.

'Oh my gosh, oh my gosh I can't believe it. This is so awesome.'

He was still hugging me…

'Um, yea, nice to see you too Max.'

Still hugging me…

'Oh my gosh, I haven't seen you in ages! How have you been?'

Still holding on strong there, that little guy…

'Good…'

Dammit, when would he finally release me? Luckily Takao came to my aid.

'Maxie… I know you're all excited, but remember Kai isn't exactly the touchy-feely type. You better let him go, or else he'll murder you.'

Murder Max? Those two really think of me as some sort of Tyrant.

'Sorry 'bout that.' he gave me one last squeeze. 'I've just missed you.'

Then finally he let me free. Oh how nice it was to breathe normally again.

'This is almost like a team reunion again, we're just missing Ray.' he noted.

'Yea, it would've been awesome if Ray were here too.' Takao agreed.

Max smiled. 'And too believe that I almost didn't come, you see Kai, I have an SAT exam next week, and I was going to study for it. I haven't had too much time too blade, it's really sad. I'm trying to graduate a year early you see. So that I will be able to go Uni in a year.'

'What are you going to study?'

He grinned proudly. 'Mechanical Engineering.'

Damn. I'm surrounded by all these smart people. I started to feel like an idiot again. Well Max's Mother was very intelligent from all I could tell, I think she was an Engineer too. No wonder he was able to pull it off with such ease.

I nodded at Max. I didn't know what else to do. I could've confessed that I sucked at physics and needed tutoring…

haha, aren't I being funny again? Like hell I would ever admit that to him.

I've never been much of a talker, so it wasn't surprising that Takao and Max were the ones to keep our conversations going. Or rather, it was either one of them just blurting out random stories and laughing at their own jokes. But it was nice, I enjoyed being back with the Bladebreakers.

'So Kai, do you have any stories?' they asked me, all excited.

'Um… no.'

'Come on! You must have some story, what did you do all this time? Takao says you're not being home schooled anymore, so how's high school?'

Max was looking at me with shiny eyes, full of anticipation.

'School sucks.' I told him.

'You must have some story!'

I didn't really, and those that I had were boring or inappropriate. I could've told them about my classmates' pathetic attempts to buy alcohol on a Saturday, but I doubted that they would find it funny. Not even I found it funny. Or I could tell them about the nightclub room party and the salami. But that was just embarrassing. Hmm, what else was there… my classmates hitting on our biology teacher… Nope, that was inappropriate. Me receiving a bunch of used porn mags for my birthday… Nope, that was highly inappropriate.

I shook my head. 'No stories.'

'Well, how are the people? Are there many that are into blading?'

'Just one guy.'

Their faces lit up. 'Oh that's cool, what's he like, is he a good blader?'

Perverted, embarrassing and smokes like a can.

That would've been a pretty fitting description of what 'he was like'. Not to mention his creepy stalking… but instead I told them the following:

'He's alright. I'm not too sure about his blading ability, though. '

'Oh come on, you have to tell us more. What's his name, where is he from?'

'His name is Wyatt and he's from Liechtenstein.'

Max got all excited. 'Oh I've been to Liechtenstein before! Back when I lived in Switzerland, Mom was working there, for CERN. They had her doing calculations for the Large Hydron Collider.'

'Did you watch ski jumping?' I asked. 'Apparently it's like sex.'

'Wait... WHAT?'

Oh dammit, it had just slipped out. Stupid Wyatt with his stupid comparisons! Takao and Max were looking at me all shocked and with their jaws dropped. Oh wow, this was embarrassing.

'Just something he told me.' I explained.

They were still glaring at me in a 'did he really say sex' -way. Yes I did say sex! Man, I wish they would get over it already.

'Okay… what else did he tell you?' Takao asked, probably trying to change the topic to end this awkwardness.

'He told me I'm laid-back.'

I know I keep on insisting on that. But as a matter of fact, it did make me quite proud.

'Oh, so he's the Nazi!' Takao yelled.

Max gave me a somewhat disturbed look.

'For crying out loud! He's NOT a Nazi. People can tell me I'm laid-back without being Nazis.' I insisted.

Takao rolled his eyes. 'That's what you want to believe!' he then broke out in laughter.

Did he just make fun of me? He did! Oh that bitch!

'Hey!' I protested.

He continued laughing and now Max joined in too. Oh I hate them!

xxx - xxx - xxx

After lunch we decided to blade a bit more. I noticed that Max had improved a lot since the last World Championship. His blade had improved too. I'm guessing his mother and the other engineers from the American team were responsible for that. Takao on the contrary seemed to have slacked a bit. Which actually was a good thing because I had slacked too and thanks to him, it wasn't that noticeable. We continued training until it started getting dark Takao invited Max for dinner, so we all walked back to his place. By the time we reached the dojo, the sky was completely black (must've been a rapist's paradise!). Takao, being fond of food as always, dragged us straight to the kitchen. And there I got my second surprise of the day:

Sitting at the dining table were Hiro and Wyatt, both with a cigarette in one hand and a cup of some sort of drink in the other.

'Hi!' Wyatt yelled out. He gave everyone a wide smile.

Takao just stared at him. 'Hiro, who is that?'

'He's one of Kai's friends.' Hiro explained in an as-a-matter-of-factly tone.

Takao looked at me somewhat disturbed. 'You have friends?'

Thanks Takao, thanks a lot. I really appreciate you having such confidence in me! I would have retorted with a snappy comment but at that moment I was more concerned about Wyatt. Why was he here, and why was he just sitting there, ginning like an idiot.

'Weren't you supposed to be in Liechtenstein, or Switzerland, or whatever?'

His face turned angry. 'Yea, I was, for about four fucking hours!' he started giggling. 'But then I took the next available plane back to Japan.'

'Why?' I asked.

He turned sour again. 'Because my fucking family was being completely fucking annoying and I just couldn't fucking stand it anymore. That's why!'

'Are you drunk?' I asked.

'Fuckyea I am!' he took another drag from his cigarette. 'And guess what. I don't fucking care. You wanna know why? Because the alcohol distracts me from my stupid, fucking problems at home. So actually, I'm not that opposed to becoming an alcoholic. I want to be a fucking alcoholic!'

I noticed how Max flinched every time he said the F-word. I'm guessing naïve, innocent Max is just not used to that kind of language.

'You're being obnoxious.' I grabbed Wyatt's arm and pulled him up. 'Let's get you sobered up somehow.'

I didn't exactly have much experience with drunk people, so I wasn't sure what to do with him. On those anti-alcohol PSA's said something about putting the person in recovery position. But Wyatt wasn't passed out or anything. Even I knew that the recovery position was a bit too extreme for his current state. While I was thinking over my option he started leaning on me.

'I don't feel so good.' I heard him say. And as if he'd need to prove his point the threw up on me. In an instant, my shirt was soaked in Wyatt's puke. Oh lovely!

'I'm sorry.' he whispered. He looked miserable now. 'I'm so sorry Kai.'

I glanced down at the sour smelling vomit that I was now covered in and sighed.

'Don't worry about it.'

'That is gross, man.' I heard Takao say, which caused Wyatt to look even more miserable.

'I'm really sorry.' he repeated.

I shot an angry glare in Takao's direction, then focused my attention on his brother.

'How much did he have to drink?'

Hiro shrugged. 'I don't know. He showed up like this, asking for you. I gave him some herbal tea, hoping that would calm him down.'

Wyatt started stumbling and now put both his arms around my waist to keep his balance.

'Oopsie.' he said, and giggled.

That guy sure had mood swings when he was intoxicated!

He then went on to lean his head against my chest.

'Hey, careful the vomit.'

Too late, he now had puke in his hair.

'Kai, I'm feeling sleepy...' he muttered.

'What do I do?' I asked the others. I was getting worried about him and I guess it was showing.

'At school in America, they told us to drink water and eat something greasy.' Max suggested. He was covering his mouth with his hand and looked completely terrified.

'He probably won't be able to keep down any food, or water for that matter, he'll just puke it out. But that's a good thing, at least he clears his system of all the alcohol.' Hiro said.

Just hearing the word 'puke' caused Wyatt to vomit, -all over me, once again. But I wasn't that disgusted this time.

I repeated my question. 'So what do I do?'

'Bring him to the toilet and get him to throw up as much as he can and make him drink water so he doesn't get dehydrated.'

I nodded. 'Okay.'

Wyatt was able to walk by himself but I put my arm around him just in case. He apologised about a billion times. I think he was really embarrassed about the whole ordeal. Once we reached the bathroom, I sat him down on the floor and he almost immediately leaned over the toilet to empty his stomach again. I sat down on the floor next to him, leaning my back against the bathtub.

'Feeling better?'

He nodded.

I looked around the sink for some sort of cup. I found a toothbrush holder, washed it out, and poured him a glass of water.

He stuck out his tongue in disgust. 'It will make me sick again.'

'Drink it!'

He didn't protest this time and chugged it all down. Then he leaned his head back and sighed.

'This is embarrassing.'

'How much did you drink?' I asked.

'Half a bottle of Absinthe.'

I wasn't exactly sure what Absinthe was, but I guessed it was some sort of spirit. He wouldn't have gotten this drunk from half a bottle of some beer equivalent. He sighed again. He still looked so miserable.

'You have vomit in your hair.' I told him.

I leaned over to brush those strands out of his face. He just smiled at me.

'Well you have it all over yourself.' he countered. Now he was laughing. That was an improvement of his condition… I hope.

We stayed in the bathroom for about half an hour, not really talking much. After about 10 minutes Max dropped by and handed him a Coke to calm his stomach. I could tell Max was really uncomfortable with this whole situation, and he probably thought that I had bad judgement in people, but he was a caring person. I guess it was against his nature to not do anything. Wyatt started feeling better after a while, and after a brief council with Hiro I allowed him to go to sleep. Apparently alcohol had made him tired. Hell, dealing with it all had made me tired. I was pretty exhausted! That idiot had gotten me all worried! And then there still was that mysterious family argument that had occurred in Switzerland. I couldn't help but wonder what was up with that.

By then I had come to accept my hormones' strange behaviour. I figured it was a puberty thing. Every guy went through this… right? I had realised that I was strangely attached to, and fond of Wyatt. Even more than of Takao even though Takao was an excellent blader and I hadn't even seen Wyatt blade before. So far blading-skill had been my decisive factor in how much I liked people. With Wyatt it was different. Maybe our personalities were compatible somehow. Or maybe it was because he had pretty much stalked me into making him my friend. I wasn't really sure what it was and how it all came together. All I knew was that I cared for him.

xxx - xxx - xxx

Wyatt's situation is somewhat personal. I once ended up puking on one of my friend's friends when she first introduced me. It was embarrassing as hell! Let's just say that Chinese food and roller coasters don't mix… :(