Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ Alarming Attachment ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
Alarming Attachment

Summary: It was suppose to be a relaxing vacation, but for Ray it’s anything but. Meeting a girl called Asia who annoys him and dealing with Kai who appears annoyed with him, what’s a neko to do? And what is it that Kai is hiding?

Disclaimer: I don’t own the Anime Beyblade or any character associated. I do own Arista “Asia” Rainstorm. She is an original character and all likeness to people living or dead is purely coincidental. This character is not on based one anyone else’s character, again if any likeness, it’s purely coincidental.

Warning: Usage of a female OC. She is not the hero of the story, and the fic will not be centered on her. Any fans of OC pairings should leave now. Do not ask me to turn this fic into a Ray/OC or any other canon character/OC as I cannot stand such pairings. I have no hesitation in bashing my own created characters.

Another warning; I have turned a male character into a female disguised behind male clothing. The character’s identity will not be revealed until later on in the story.

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Chapter Four:

“Swimming?” Ray repeated with a sense of discomfort in the pit of his stomach. He stared at the young girl before him with a sense of unease as she looked at him expectantly. He was slightly nervous about replying. He didn’t really want to go swimming right now, but if he said no, she might start crying again.

Asia’s eyes suddenly narrowed as she tapped her foot impatiently. “Well?” she asked with a frown.

“I-”

“Swimming?” Another voice suddenly interrupted and the presence of Ray’s blond teammate was most welcomed as Ray gave a small sigh of relief.

“You have a pool here?” Max asked with a cheerful smile on his lips, completely oblivious to the look of displeasure on Asia’s face.

“Yes,” Asia replied tightly, her frown grown deeper as she turned to glare at the other boy. “But I was only asking-”

But she was interrupted again. “Sounds like fun!” Tyson said as he walked over to the small group. “I’m in!”

“Me too,” Hilary giggled as she pushed her way into the group. “I love swimming.”

“You can’t!” Asia suddenly blurted out as she once again stomped her foot on the ground, her hand curled into fists and planted them on her perfectly round hips.

Tyson looked startled at the outburst before he shared a puzzled look with those around him who are equally confused and turned back to Asia. “Why not?” he asked.

“Yeah, Asia,” Ray found himself chiding in, slightly appalled at Asia’s childish behavior. “Why can’t they go swimming as well? I prefer to swim with more than one person.”

Asia looked horrified at the thought that Ray would rather swim with his teammates in one big group than spend some quality time with her! She had no idea that he could be so rude! He seriously needs to lean some manners. Isn’t he lucky that he had someone as hot and talented as she is to teach him?

But first, she needed to get Ray out of that filthy habit of spending time outside. It’s so icky and disgusting!

“But Ray!” she whined as she suddenly leaned forward to get right into Ray’s face and boldly rested her hands on his chest to glare heatedly up at him. “Don’t you want to spend time alone with me? We haven’t been able to all day!”

A look of utter discomfort appeared on Ray’s face. “Er…”

“You guys can’t go swimming.”

Startled, Ray pushed Asia away from him and spun around to face the familiar voice. Kai stood away from the group, leaning against the wall of the hotel in his usual position; arms folded across his chest and a stern look on his face.

Ray was so happy to see him, he could almost kiss him! And it took him a second to noticed that that thought wasn’t as appalling as it probably should have been and found himself frowning. Would he actually consider kissing Kai? Well…

But then he noticed that Kai was wearing a new shirt, a rather large dark black one, looked to have been made with a stronger material than his last. Ray’s memory immediately fell back to his pervious thoughts; what is Kai hiding from him? Does he have an injury that he would rather not share with him?

Tyson also turned around to face Kai and he scratched the back of his head in confusion. “Why not, Kai?”

“It’ll be dark soon,” Kai replied quickly as his nodded his head to the slowly setting sun. “You can swim all day tomorrow. In fact, everyone can,” he added as he narrowed his eyes in Asia’s direction, a smirk on his lips when he noticed the young woman had clenched her jaw in anger.

“Kai’s right,” Max said as he nodded his head. “Tomorrow would be much better, don’tcha think?”

Ray nodded his head readily and subconsciously took a step away from the group, away from Asia more importantly. “I agree totally.”

Asia pressed her lips into a thin line, but said nothing else. But, she did give Kai one of her hardest and venomous glares she could muster. However, it had little effect on him as Kai simply glared back at her. Asia reeled back in shock and felt tears prick at her eyes. She has never met anyone so mean to her! What is his problem, anyway?! He’s on her territory. He should treat her better than that! Maybe she can ask daddy to kick him out?

He was always interfering! That stupid bastard…

Stomping her foot on the ground once again, Asia suddenly stuck her nose into the air and spun around. She absolutely hated it when people brushed her ideas away! Especially since she was always right!

“Whatever!” she yelled before she stalked off with her hands curled into tight fists by her sides and she stormed out of sight. To the bystanders, it appeared as if she was disappearing to sulk somewhere.

“What’s her problem?” Tyson asked as he lifted his arms and rested them behind his head in a casual manner.

“I really don’t know,” Ray sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose for the umpteenth time that afternoon. Honestly, Asia was just so childish. She was really getting on his nerves.

Ray looked up just as Kai pushed himself away from the wall he was leaning on and headed inside. Ray pushed past the three members of his teammates and followed his captain inside. He hoped that Kai wasn’t still mad at him for what happened. He was only concerned for his well being.

“Kai? Wait!” Ray called out but Kai kept on walking. He was either ignoring him or just didn’t hear him. But to Ray the former seemed more plausible.

Ok, it appeared that he was still mad at him. He has to do something to get back on his good side. Ray had never liked getting on Kai’s bad side mainly because it took him one step further away from achieving his goal; gain Kai’s trust and never lose it.

Kai has somehow managed to become an important person to Ray. Even more so as of recently. In the past, he found himself trying hard to gain Kai’s respect. He looked up to him and now wished that they were more than just friends. Like best friends, or something…

“I just want to apologize,” Ray explained when he reached Kai on a flight of stairs that lead them to their bedrooms. He stepped in front of him and blocked his path.

“Why don’t you apologize to your girlfriend?” Kai hissed as he tried to push past him.

Ray gritted his teeth and tried to stop himself from grabbing Kai by his shirt again. Instead, he opted to outstretch his arm and plant the palm of his hand on the wall next to Kai, blocking his path with his arm. “She’s not my girlfriend,” he said as he stressed the word ‘not’.

Kai merely grunted and once again tried to push past him but Ray refused to drop his arm. “Move,” he ordered.

“No,” Ray replied defiantly, instead moving to stand directly in front of Kai and towered over him. Usually, it was Kai who stood taller than him by a few inches, but Ray had the height advantage this time due to being one step higher on the flight of stair than Kai was.

Kai frowned at Ray new sense of determination and unconsciously took a step back; one of his arms immediately placed itself over his chest as if to protect it. “What…?”

“I’m sorry,” Ray said, mildly aware that Kai appeared startled by his apology. “About what happened in the gardens out side. I didn’t mean to rip your shirt like that. That was wrong of me and I want to make it up to you somehow.”

Kai gave Ray a suspicious look as he tightened his arm over his chest. He stared at Ray in silence for a moment and appeared in such a way that he wasn’t sure how to take Ray’s apology.

“I’m serious, Kai,” Ray said softly when he noticed the unease in Kai’s eyes and dropped his arm to reopen Kai’s path. “No tricks.”

“Ok…” Kai said slowly, his tensed profile easing slightly. “I’ll…accept your apology, on one condition.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t…” Kai seemed to hesitate for a moment; unease once again seemed to flicker in his gaze. “Don’t let her go too far, ok?”

Ray felt genuinely confused by those words; even more so when Kai suddenly looked off to the side with what appeared to be a light shade of red on his cheeks. Was Kai blushing…?

“Kai?” Ray said as he reached out his hand to touch Kai on the shoulder but Kai turned just out of reach and walked around him. “What’s wrong?”

“I’m going to my room,” Kai said quietly and refused to look Ray in the face. “I’ll see you later.” He added before he took off up the stairs and out of sight, mildly aware that he left one flabbergasted nekojin behind on the stairs.

“Kai?” He murmured again. Ok, now he was really worried.

That night, Ray found it hard to sleep as he kept replying Kai’s cryptic words in his head, over and over again. When Kai referred to her, he assumed that he meant Asia. But what did he mean not letting her go too far? Despite his notoriety of not being a people person, he can pick up on someone’s personality with just one meeting.

Had Kai picked up on something about Asia that made him feel threatened?

Morning quickly came, much to Ray’s relief and annoyance. Relief that he can now wander around without waking anyone else up. And annoyed because he only got a few hours sleep.

“I wonder if Kai is up yet…” Ray muttered to himself as he headed towards Kai’s appointed room. He lifted his hand to give a quick knock and tested the door handle. When he realized it was unlocked, he turned the handle and walked in.

“You up, Kai?” Ray asked as he strolled into the room. But he quickly stopped dead in his tracks and his eyes widen considerable. Kai was up alright, and in the middle of getting dressed. It appeared that he had just unbuttoning his pajama top and was in the process of taking it off. He had on a pair of loose fitting track pants, black of course, the string tied tightly in a knot around his surprisingly flat abs and stomach. To Ray, he always imagined that Kai would have rock hard and well defined abs. Don’t get him wrong, Kai has a six pack, but it looked a bit more softer in appearance.

But what drew Ray’s attention more so than his flat stomach was the fact that Kai had thick bandages around his chest. They seem to start just under his armpits and end at the bottom of his ribcage. But Ray couldn’t get a proper look to see if Kai was in fact hiding any injuries from him as Kai snapped his head up, his own eyes wide with shock and he immediately wrapped his pj top around himself tightly, hiding the bandages from sight.

Kai crossed his arms over his chest and took a step back in surprise. He, however, managed to compose himself and he glared heatedly at Ray. “Get the fuck out!” he snarled at him.

Ray blinked in surprised and quickly found himself turning on his heel as he scrambled out the door, just dodging something being thrown at him. It hit the wall outside Kai’s room with a loud thud and then he had the door slammed behind him.

Ray leaned against the wall, staring at Kai’s hotel door and he swallowed thickly. “What the hell was that about?” he muttered to himself.

“Dammit Ray!” Kai yelled through the door. “Don’t you knock!?”

“I did!” Ray yelled back in defense. “You just didn’t hear me!”

“You don’t give a light knock and then walk into someone’s room without permission!”Kai retorted angrily and Ray was slightly grateful that they had a wooden barrier between them. “I thought you knew better!”

“Well, someone got on the wrong side of the bed this morning,” Ray muttered as he folded his arms over his chest and pouted. He soon regretted those words when he heard Kai suck in a quick breath.

“Don’t start with me, Kon,” he warned, sounding stressed and…nervous?

“Look, I’m sorry,” Ray found himself saying once again, for what felt like the thousandth time since he arrived at this hotel. “I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“…How much did you see?” Kai asked after a moment of silence.

“I didn’t see anything,” Ray was quick to defend himself as his arms flailed out in front on him to prove his earnest even though his knew Kai couldn’t see him. “I swear!”

Kai seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, yet oddly enough seemed to hold a sense of disappointment as well. “…Good,” he muttered.

Ray picked up the tired tone in Kai’s voice easily and he frowned. He finally pushed himself away from the wall and walked over to the door, and his hand hovered over the door handle in concern.

“So, are you coming out?” he asked.

Kai was silent at first but soon breathed another sigh. “…When I get changed,” he replied. “I’ll meet you later.”

Ray felt disappointed and couldn’t stop the tone from reaching his voice. “Fine,” he muttered and turned to walk away. A part of him hoped that Kai would open the door just before he reached the end of the corridor, but no such luck.

Ray was getting annoyed…with himself mostly. All he seemed to do lately was get on Kai’s bad side. He was annoyed with himself because each time he angered Kai, the harder it would be to find out what was bothering him. It bothered him that something was bothering Kai.

“Dammit Kai,” Ray muttered to himself. “What are you hiding from me?”