You can run from a picture...

Ray did make a good point, I did not like acting that out of character. So I decided to change my approach slightly. I just waited it out at the dojo and expected them to ask me.

Takao and Max turned up soon after and as predicted they wanted me back on the team.

'I gotta say though, you constantly dropping off the scene makes you not exactly reliable.' Takao said.

It was something surprisingly mature for him, so I nodded.

'That's true so I'll give you my cellphone number.'

'You have a cellphone now?' Takao asked in amazement.

'Yeah, Wyatt gave it to me, it's his old phone.' I pulled it out. It was one of those fancy smartphones, I had not quite figured out how to use it. I thought I unlocked it and opened the address book so I handed it to Takao. 'Stupid technology.' I muttered.

Max distracted me at that moment. 'So you're healed now, right? You can blade?'

I nodded. 'Yes. Ready for action.'

That made him quite ecstatic. 'The Bladebreakers are going to win this!' he decided.

-x-x-x-

Our team and I took the public bus to the press conference. It was rather full so Kenny and Max sat down at the front of the bus, and to my surprise Takao decided to go back to the end of it to sit with me rather than to join them.

'I wanted to talk to you about something.' he said.

Talking, that was one of my least favourite ways to pass time!

'When you handed me your phone earlier today, you opened it on a message. I guess you didn't realise because you were battling the 21st century and the sun was kinda bright but it was somewhat of a private message.' he explained.

'What?'

I pulled out my phone to look through my most recent texts, the latest two were from Wyatt. One was already opened. This was not going to be good...

I opened one, Takao must have read. I blushed as I saw what it said.

Heya lovie, I just bought some ice cream, I would love to lick that of your abs heheheheheheeh (and maybe cock later hehe)

It was awfully embarrassing, not just because Takao saw it but the content itself was just gross and seriously wtf. Wyatt didn't normally talk like that.

Then I opened the second one.

Sorry, my roommate got a hold of my phone. But ice cream does sound kinky ; )

I shuddered. Even though it did explain the disturbing text from before, the fact that Wyatt liked the whole ice cream nightmare was freaky. Wouldn't that be cold?

'Kai, are you still here?' Takao asked.

'I spaced off, sorry.' Wow I never really apologised for that kind of thing, what's wrong with me?

'Are you alright? I'm sorry for seeing that message, it was rather personal.'

'It wasn't him who wrote that anyway, his friend did, just a prank.'

Takao crossed his arms. 'I see, I do need to admit that I already had my suspicions in that direction though. About you and that kid.'

'He's older than me. He actually turns 18 soon.'

'He's 17? Wow, looks younger.'

'Yes, he does.' He has those doe eyes with thick, long lashes. Almost like a girl would have, just that it looked nicer on him, in my opinion.

'But getting back to what I was talking about earlier.'

This would be uncomfortable, I could sense it. Takao continued talking and asked the question I had feared:

'So you and Wyatt, you're not just friends, right?'

I shuddered again. He was staring straight at me, I had to do something. I figured I might as well confess. Pretty odd that he was the first to figure it out. He did deserve credit for that.

'Don't tell anyone.' That was as much of a confession as he would get.

Takao had a content smirk on his lips. 'Don't worry mate, I wasn't planning on it. He's a strange guy, probably just right for you.'

Wyatt was pretty strange. I had never thought of it like that. Us being a 'match' in that sense.

'Did Max notice?' I asked.

'Nah, Maxie is too naïve for that. I think some part of him still believes you're a trouble maker involved with the 'though' crowd.'

I giggled. 'He thinks Wyatt is tough?'

Takao shrugged. 'He talks tough I, suppose.' He then smirked. 'So are you going to have some fun with ice cream tonight?'

I shivered. 'No, that actually was a prank. And even if it wasn't, I'm not really into that. We haven't really gotten... um intimate yet.'

I was probably blushing crazy red at that moment. Meanwhile Takao was almost crying laughing.

'I was just messing with you, I didn't actually think you would do that, nor did I want to know.' he said.

I turned my back towards him and curled up my body. I decided to just look out of the window from then on, no more talking!

I didn't account for Takao leaning in and whispering something in my ear:

'I can see why Wyatt likes you so much, you're pretty cute when you get flustered.'

WHAT, WHAT, WHAT?

I looked at him over my shoulder and he smiled back at me. But this was not the normal happy-Takao-smile, this was a dirty grin more-so.

In that moment I realised I might not be the only one the team with a sweet spot for guys. I shuddered at the thought of Takao hitting on me. He was a nice friend and all, but I already had my man. And I had gone through a lot of awkwardness and embarrassment to make him mine.

Luckily for me Max had started missing his silly friend and approached Takao. They got engaged in a conversation with Max standing in the aisle but every time I looked over my back I caught Takao glancing over to me, giving me the thumbs up.

Nobody makes fun of Kai Hiwatari!

You'll feel my wrath Takao, you'll feel it soon!

-x-

The press conference was going pretty smooth. They asked a lot of dumb questions that I didn't care to answer. Ray kept it smart and quiet, but Max and Takao were chatty, as always. Max because he's a nice guy, even to reporters, and Takao because he's an attention whore.

Our 'home' game had been moved to the Olympic stadium in London, I guess that was the Producer's way of trying to make the games more interesting. They wanted last year's champions to open the World Championships. If we won this game, we would automatically advance to the Japanese National Finals. I can't really blame them, TV-stations all over the Japan wanted to broadcast last year's Champion's opening game but the Bakuten stadium was part-time rented out by an adult superstore to host a variety of cage fights with strippers. It wasn't considered classy enough for mainstream television.

Our rescheduled opening match would be against last year's European champions, the Majestics. Everyone's favourite stuck-up rich kids. I wasn't too worried. The Majestic's had a weakness for not giving a shit about each other.

After the press conference we decided to get some typical Japanese food. We would fly out to England the next week. Suddenly it felt as if everything was moving very fast.

'Cheers to the Bladebreakers, we'll bring the title back again this year!' Takao yelled. Of course he had to make a spectacle of himself.

'Calm yourself down.' I told him.

He just giggled and him and Max broke out into something they called our 'fight song' for the season.

I sent Ray a look of desperation. He laughed but I managed to convince him to "babysit" the two.

'Okay guys, we don't want bad press, right?' he said.

Somehow the thought of being in the paper's negative light intimidated them more than me, and they shut up. Little did I know then that Ray had foreshadowed what was yet to come.

-x-x-x-

The last week before the tournament passed very fast but I was amped up and excited for it. I was thrilled to skip the preliminary rounds and couldn't wait to blade against some hard opposition. It had been eating me up on the inside for months now.

Needless to say, Wyatt was less excited for me to leave, even though the schools spring break would start only a week later and he was set to fly out early that Wednesday to come visit me. It happened to be his birthday. I guess it was our first time being separated for a longer amount of time, but it was only four days!

No need to pout!

I spent Saturday afternoon with him before sleeping over at Takao's for the night. We went to the mall to go to the arcade and then he wanted a kebab. His onion breath would be totally impossible to deal with if I didn't have one myself so I decided to order one too.

'I'm sad that you have to leave.' he said.

'Oh really? I didn't notice that at all.' I replied sarcastically. I finished up about half my kebab and threw the rest in the trash.

Wyatt was eating very slowly. I had to go over to Takao's afterwards so I guess he was dragging it out as much as he could.

I let out a sight and laid my hand down on his back. 'I'll miss you too.' I told him. I guess that's what he wanted to hear.

He smiled. 'Look at you getting all romantic...'

'Romantic? I just said that I would miss you, that's all.'

He kept on giggling while he finished his food.

'Ready to go?' I asked.

He nodded. We stood up and walked down the corridor towards the exit. There was a photo booth along our way, one of those that prints passport pictures, not the kind that does those cheesy stickers with glitter and blue screen, luckily.

Wyatt grabbed my hand and dragged me towards it. 'Let's take a picture, I don't have any of the two of us.'

'Come on, seriously? All couples do that. It is so damn tacky!' I protested. But Wyatt could have a strong grip if he wanted. He pulled me over, sat me down on the chair in the booth and closed the curtain. Then he selected the option on the computer screen. Four different photos, in black and white. At least it wasn't anything including gimmicks.

'You cannot tell me it's not a little kinky in here.' He said with a dirty grin on his face.

Under the curtain I could see people's feet move around but they couldn't see me holding my boyfriend's hand. We could show as much affection as we wanted in here. So yes, he was right, it was kinda kinky. And I blushed again.

'Oh-oh seems like you're liking this.' Wyatt whispered in what appeared to be his attempt at a seductive voice.

He sat down on my lap, held his left hand to my cheek and kissed me straight on the lips. At that moment the camera started taking shots. I pulled back.

'Relax Kiki, those photos are only for you and me to see.'

I nodded and tried to relax, he was right, it's not like I was planning on sharing these, and he really appeared to want to have a photo of us making out, so I did him that favour. I put my arm around his waist, pulled him in closer and kissed him. He parted his lips to go straight to tongue.

So he wanted a dirty pic, eh?

I let my hands slide down to his lower behind and gave it a tight squeeze. He jerked up in surprise. I laughed.

'Pervert, I didn't know you liked my butt that much.'

'Aw, is it sore?' I asked, still laughing. 'Want me to rub it?'

He put on a fake pout. 'Hands off my arse, bitch!'

'But I love your ass.'

A smile formed on his lips and he got shy.

'Do you really?'

'Are you seriously asking me that?'

'Never mind.' now it was him blushing.

I caressed his butt. It was a nice firm butt. Wyatt had an awesome butt. Then I put my arms around his neck, pulled him closer and whispered:

'I love it, sometimes I stare at it when you're not looking.'

Gah! What are you saying, Kai you crazy pubescent idiot? Who talks like that?

Lucky for me Wyatt seemed to be fond of my dirty talk. He rubbed his hands through my hair and called me a pervert, before placing a last peck on my cheek, in time for the camera to shoot the last picture.

Wyatt got up fast, excited to see how the photos turned out. He grabbed the strip and came back inside.

'I like them. Here look.' he handed them to me.

We were kissing each other on the mouth in the first 2 of the 4 pictures. And giggling like some dumb couple in the 3rd. It was awkward as fuck to see myself smooching Wyatt. For a second I felt like a stranger staring at this weird kid making out with another dude. Like it wasn't even me in the picture. So this is what we looked like to the world. Like a pair of weirdos.

Wyatt sliced the strip in half with his Swiss army knife and asked me which one I wanted. I asked for the half that included the non-kissing picture and put it in my wallet, behind my credit cards and such.

'I like these pics a lot.' Wyatt smiled. 'They prove once and for all that Kai Hiwatari is my man!'

Him saying that made me feel a bit flustered. 'If anything they prove that youare my man!' I teased him and forced a smile.

It wasn't his fault. Doing couple stuff was just a little overwhelming. I hadn't quite gotten used to being in a relationship just yet. If this was what dating felt like, I didn't think I could ever get married.

-x-x-x-