Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ Calling a Truce ❯ Part Three: Guilt Springs Eternal ( Chapter 3 )

Title: Calling a Truce
Author: Kameko-chan
Part Three: Guilt Springs Eternal
Pairings: Kai/Wyatt, Kai/Ray, Kai/Tala, aaaand Ray/Wyatt (XD you'll see)

Warnings: More OOC, more swearing, implied boysex, and some sap that made me want to wretch even as I wrote it -_-;; Plus it's kinda rushed, but I wanted it to be dooooone!

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Ray and Wyatt always thought that they knew a lot about Kai. They were his fanboys, after all. However, while the boys knew everything from his birthday to favorite food, in the weeks that following the onset of their scheme they discovered that, in fact, they knew nothing about Kai at all.

Tala went home a few days after the incident, when it became clear that Kai wasn't going to be willing to patch things up any time soon. Ray and Wyatt were glad for it; watching Tala try so desperately to get a word out of him lover could break anyone's heart. They felt guilty again, but Wyatt reasoned that if Kai could so easily believe the story they concocted then Tala must have been the skanky whore they feared. That made them both feel a little better.

After Tala left, the vulnerable Kai became Ray and Wyatt's second shadow. The pair was still pretending to be together, as breaking up right after Tala's departure would have raised suspicion. In their new seemingly disinterested state (perhaps 'preoccupied' might be a better term for it) it seemed Kai found them to be ideal confidants. The trio could often be found on walks around the neighborhood, Ray and Wyatt strolling hand in hand while they listened to a wistful Kai tell stories about his homeland. It was during these meanderings that Ray and Wyatt learned of their complete ignorance. Kai told them all about the important things they'd never bothered to think about before. He told them about his parents, life in the abbey, how he'd formed the Bladesharks and how much he wanted to apologize to them for being such an ass in his youth. Indeed, it seemed that beneath the cold, broody exterior, Kai's soul was all too human. "Damned friendship softened me, I guess," he said with a wry grin when Ray mentioned how much he'd changed over the years. "Love, too," he muttered softly to himself, but while both Ray and Wyatt heard, neither commented.

Our two conniving teens worked day and night to keep the charade going, for even if they wished to stop, they both felt the plan had gone too fan to just drop it now. Ray moved permanently from his basement room to Wyatt's larger one. Wyatt protested, but Ray convinced him that it would be more realistic if they shared a room.

And if Ray got a glance at Wyatt's surprisingly nice bod every once in awhile, well, that'd just be a bonus.

It was three weeks before Kai finally told the story of how he and Tala got together.

The teens were in the living room, drinking coffee and joking around. Ray and Wyatt were snuggled on the couch-maybe a little closer than was necessary, but neither mentioned it-and Kai sat in the cozy recliner across from them. He chuckled and brushed away tears of laughter. "Oh, I haven't felt this good since he left." His voice faltered a bit when he spoke, but the smile remained on his face. Ray took this as a good sign. He tried to exchange a look with the boy at his side, but Wyatt was regarding Kai with a thoughtful expression.

"How did you two end up together?"

Wyatt felt Ray tense beside him. He hadn't meant to ask the question, he'd just been pondering it. Now that he said it, though, he was curious as to what Kai's reaction might be.

Kai's smile grew somewhat wistful, but it did remain and that was something. "We got together because Tala is a sneaky, conniving bastard."

Wyatt raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Do you remember when I went to Russia a couple of years ago? For the summer?" Wyatt nodded. "Well, I went to visit Tala. He was dating Bryan at the time, or so he told me. When I got there, he was sitting outside the abbey dorms with his clothes strewn all over the lawn." Kai chuckled at the memory. "Oh, was he ever mad! It took half a bottle of good Russian vodka to calm him down."

Wyatt leaned forward, listening eagerly. "What then?"

"Well, Tala decided that it would be a good idea to pretend that the two of us were dating, to make Bryan jealous. I didn't have anything better to do, so I said yes." Kai took a sip of coffee and grinned. "It was a month before he told me that the whole thing was a set-up. He and Bryan were never dating, he just told me that so I'd pretend to be his boyfriend and give him a chance to win me over."

"So, you didn't feel the same way for him before? No 'love at first sight'?" Wyatt's eyes grew wide.

Kai snickered. "Love at first sight? No such thing, Wyatt, you out of all people should realize that. Look at you and Ray, you used to hate each other."

The two laughed nervously.

"Anyways," Kai leaned back, "no, I didn't feel that way for him. I only kept in touch with him at all to get news of the abbey, since he was a notorious gossip and knew everything of interest. Like I said, I helped him out because I was bored. However," he smiled sadly, "at some point in our little charade, I fell in love."

The hurt in Kai's voice brought tears to Wyatt's eyes.

"Well," Kai rose from his chair and stretched, "my nightly reading time has been neglected far too often lately. I'll leave you two lovebirds alone." He winked. "Goodnight."

***

"Well," Ray said as he lay on his makeshift pallet in Wyatt's room, "I think he's ready to move on."

"I guess," Wyatt agreed softly. "That was the first time he's talked about Tala without crying."

Ray sat up. "So, tomorrow we wrap things up? Huge fight in front of everyone and our 'relationship' will be kaput, and Kai can comfort who he chooses." He smiled, though if one looked close enough they could detect a slight strain. Wyatt was not looking. "Are you up to it?"

"I suppose."

Ray looked quizzically at his unusually listless companion. "What's wrong? We got everything we wanted right? Our plan went off without a hitch. Wyatt, are you listening?"

Wyatt, in fact, was not listening. He was too busy thinking about Kai's words: "Love at first sight? No such thing." Was it true? But if it was, then... what did he feel for Kai?

What was love?

"Wyatt!"

Wyatt jumped. "What?!"

Ray's face had fallen. "We did bad, didn't we?"

Wyatt looked over at Ray crestfallen face, and three weeks of guilt festered into a ball of white-hot anger. "We did horrible!" he screamed as he flew up in a rage and lunged at the boy on the floor. "Did you hear him? He loved Tala! He loved him, and we wrecked that!" Tears were streaming down his face then.

"Don't you think I know that?!" Ray snarled, pushing Wyatt violently and pinning him with his greater weight. Wyatt's breath caught, and he wasn't sure why. "I'm doing this for you, idiot!" Ray hissed, "I don't even want him any more!"

Wyatt should have been surprised at that statement, but the rage had not been worked out of his system just yet. "Newsflash, Raymond, I don't want him either!" He didn't, he couldn't stand the thought of he and Kai together, not when Kai loved Tala that much, not when Wyatt realized he never loved Kai in the first place.

"Why the hell not?!"

"Because I don't love him," Wyatt screeched and then, before he knew what he was saying, "I love you!"

Both boys froze, complete and utter silence reigning for a full minute. Wyatt was near tears again as a string of mortified thoughts ran through his mind. Why'd he say that? He didn't love Ray, couldn't love Ray! He didn't even know what love was. And now Ray would laugh at him, and for some reason, Wyatt didn't think he could take that.

"Well, I love you too."

Surprise. "Y-you w-w-what?"

Ray grinned and pulled Wyatt into a sitting position. "At first, I thought you were an annoying little brat. I'd have liked nothing better than to hang you by your thumbs. But sometime during our little charade," Ray's grin softened into a simple smile, the sweetest thing Wyatt had ever seen, "I fell in love with you."

"And I thought you were a stupid nekoboy with the IQ of a grapefruit." Wyatt clung to Ray and the tears did fall, but this time they were of joy and relief rather than guilt and anger. "But I fell in love with you, too. At least, I think it must be love." He sniffled. "I've never felt like this before. Not for Kai, not for anyone."

"Me neither." Ray titled the younger boy's head up so that he might look into his eyes. "But I know I want to wake up tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after, forever, and see you laying beside me. I think that's love."

"Yeah," Wyatt agreed as Ray leaned down to kiss him, "must be. Even if that is the corniest thing I ever heard."

Ray just laughed. And Wyatt knew for sure that this was, indeed, love.

Love's a strange thing, able to so quickly snare such an unlikely pair and leave them hopelessly entangled. Not that either minded, as pale fingers twined through pitch-black hair, as flesh sought flesh in a dance as old as time. How I wish I could end this tale here, with two lost souls who found each other and discovered the meaning of love. Alas, there is a certain, rather important matter that must be resolved first.

"Ray?"

The neko opened his eyes and stared blearily at the boy he clutched to his chest. "What is it?"

Wyatt pulled the blanket further over their bare bodies and scooted closer to his new lover before answering. "We need to tell Kai what we did."

"Why would Kai be interested in our new nocturnal act-"

"Not that, idiot catboy," Wyatt said, though his voice lacked the venom it would have held but a few weeks prior. "About what we did to him and Tala. God, don't you ever think about anything other than sex?"

"Sometimes." Ray nuzzled his face into the other's shoulder, too tired to care about their previous dastardly deeds. "Tomorrow," he murmured, "we'll set things right tomorrow."

***

Kai was still in his PJ's when Ray and Wyatt came by his room at 8 o'clock the next morning. By PJ's, I of course mean a pair of flame-print boxers and a t-shirt he'd hastily thrown on when he heard the knock. Wyatt would have laughed at the confused morning-brain look he gave them had the situation not been so serious.

"Morning, Kai," Ray said cheerily. "Mind if we talk to you for a minute?"

"Come in, I guess," Kai mumbled sleepily. He yawned as he gestured the pair in. Then he wandered over to his bed and sat down, looking at his visitors expectantly.

"Kai," Wyatt started uneasily, "there's something we need to tell you. We've done something awful."

And so the boys proceeded to tell Kai the whole sordid affair, from reading the letter to their confessions of the previous night. Surprisingly, Kai listened to the whole thing with seeming disinterest.

"And then we figured we should tell you the whole thing," Ray finished, "so here we are."

Kai nodded and rose from his bed. Wyatt flinched, certain that the other boy was going to unleash the wrath he'd been holding in for the duration of the tale. Instead, Kai shuffled over to his closet and opened the door. "You can come out now, love."

If Ray or Wyatt's jaws could extend to the floor, they would have hit it. Out of Kai's closet came Tala, red hair matted from sleep. "About fucking time," the Russian muttered, glaring at the two boys still sitting on the floor, shocked. He stood behind Kai and wrapped his arms around him, kissing him on top of his head. "These guys finally admitted their treachery then, did they?

The two confused boys were doing fair impressions of fish. Kai laughed at them. "You didn't think it was that easy, did you? As if I'd believe that my Tala would whore himself out behind my back."

"Yeah, if I wanted to whore myself out I would have told him." That earned Tala a cuff to the head. "Ow."

Ray and Wyatt were still speechless. Kai sighed and explained. "Wyatt, I recognized your writing almost immediately. It didn't take the genious that I am to figure out what you guys were up to. So, my devilishly sneaky Tala here suggested that we teach the two of you a lesson so you might finally quit chasing after me. Although," he grinned, "you falling for each other instead was quite a surprise." He tilted his head backwards. "Tala, I believe you wanted the honors."

Tala grinned evilly and disengaged himself from his lover. "Indeed I did," he said, advancing on the still immobile boys on the floor.

***

In the basement den, the three remaining boys in the house heard a loud thump and the slamming of a door. That was soon followed by raucous laughter, which went on for nearly five straight minutes, then the thud of footsteps and another door slamming. Soon after that, there came a faint, rhythmical squeaking and creaking.

Kenny looked at the ceiling. "Should we-"

"What did I tell you?" Tyson asked, staring pointedly at the smaller boy.

Kenny sighed. "'Don't get involved'."

"Exactly. Max, turn up the volume." He winced as a throaty moan wafted down the stairs. "Loud."

END

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Don't ask. Just don't ask. KP, I'm never writing anything for you again XP