Emotionless Tomorrows

Rim: After months of disappearing, I‘ve finally come back to this story. It‘s taken me so long to get the next chapter wrote, I was almost afraid it wouldn’t get done.

Akito: That’s normal for you. I’d be surprise if anyone is reading anymore.

Rim: Shut up…now moving on, thanks everyone for the insight into this story. Your words really mean a lot, considering that I’m painstakingly trying to keep the flow of this story from being anything less than dark and depressing. So, I thank everyone for your input and I hope you keep reading and liking the transition of things up to the end.

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Tala’s azure eyes watched Ian run from one arcade to the next, the manic, young man buying everything from crepes to yakitori and even okinomiyaki as if he was never going to get another chance to in the next few days. Spencer and Bryan were running behind the youngest Demolition Boy member, in hopes of keeping him from exhausting all of their funds Mr. Dickenson wired into their personal accounts, within the next ten minutes. Tala found it highly amusing watching the trio.

“You know…” Kenny voiced, walking up to stand next to Tala. “I never thought I would see someone else like him in my life.”

“Like who?” Tala blinked, turning his eyes on the bespectacled brunette.

“He reminds me of how Tyson use to be,” Kenny smiled, shifting his attention back to where Ian was being dragged away from a stand which served sweet dumplings. Ian was pouting whilst Bryan mumbled to Spencer in Russian about something Tala could barely make out. “He use to be just as hyper, he had a food lust also.”

“Ian’s food lust comes from eating practically the same thing day after day,” Tala responded. “I understand being able to eat different foods now is exhilarating, but he’s going to pop he eats too much at one time.”

“Isn’t it better to let him enjoy himself,” Kenny wondered.

“Not to the point of exhausting our money supply,” Tala joked, knowing that Kenny was right. It was their time to enjoy life, and Ian who was the youngest of them all was expressing just how good it felt to not be tied down and shackled from freedom. However, as mentioned, he and the others didn’t want to have a whining Ian on their hands complaining about a gigantic stomach ache from shoveling so much junk food into his system.

“Thinking on things…” Kenny paused, tilting his head to the side to stare at the side of Tala’s face showing the bandage. “Either you got into a fight last night or you are really clumsy.”

“Oh, the bandage?” Tala ran a light hand over it, thinking of what sort of story he could tell the brunette. From his point of view, it was less likely Kai was known for his violent temper and more for a reserved tone. “I suppose I had a little bit more to drink than I thought and walked into something last night. I don’t really remember it, so I can’t give you great detail about it.”

“So even you have those moments, who would have believed that from the leader of the Russian team,” Kenny teased.

“Who would have expected you were this talkative?” Tala countered. “If I remember correctly, a few years ago, you wouldn’t say a word unless spoken to.”

“People change,” Kenny shrugged. “If we stayed forever all the time, we would live drab lives, don’t you think?”

“I’m in full agreement with you,” Tala nodded.

“Kenny, come look at this!” Max called from a stand that was selling parts. “I think they might actually have some things here we could use.”

“Excuse me Tala,” Kenny said, leaving the red head’s side. Tala stared at the blonde and brunette while they discussed a heavy weight disk on display. His thoughts drifted away from them, going back to his blue haired angel.

Tyson.

Tala’s frown reappeared immediately, the thought of what happened earlier that morning with Kai surfacing. There wasn’t a reason anyone should have been that pissed off about their boyfriend being drunk, unless they had a serious alcohol problem; which he doubted was Tyson’s case. Besides, it wasn’t as if Tala poured alcohol down Tyson’s throat, told him to drink, or any other option playing within Kai’s crazed mind.

Thinking on it, Tala couldn’t recollect the bluenette having more than one drink; the cup he held most of the night sipping off of lasted him through the entire party until he left with Kai. What Kai said earlier couldn’t possibly be true, giving Tala really bad vibes from it. Something was going on that he needed to find out about before it was too late. As he pondered over it more, the feeling got worst; Tala’s instincts told him that Tyson was in danger staying with Kai.

“Are you still being a paranoid mother hen?” Bryan replied, stepping beside Tala who was staring blankly into space. Jolting the red head’s attention back to the present, Bryan found azure eyes focus in on him.

“What?”

“You looked like you’re mourning the lost of your dearest friend,” Bryan grinned. “But seeing as how I’m standing right here alive and well, I’m opt to say a certain blue haired, blue eyed dragon who sets your nerves on fire with--”

“Shut up,” Tala glared.

“Hey, don’t get hot and bothered over it. After all, I’m not the one dating him,” Bryan reminded.

“You really aren’t going to shut up about this are you?” Tala questioned.

“Does the sun not rise and set in the sky?” Bryan rifled off a question of his own.

“Yes,” Tala muttered, feeling a vein about to throb on the side of his head.

“Wrong answer.”

“Why do you like tormenting me?” Tala glowered.

“Because you’re so gullible and a very easy target,” Bryan laughed.

“Oh thanks for being such a good friend,” Tala replied as sarcastically as possible.

“You’re so very welcomed,” Bryan declared. “So, what’s on your fear, distraught mind now?”

“My mind isn’t fear, distraught,” Tala growled. “I’m just really concerned over Tyson’s well being.”

“Mind if I say you sound like a broke record. Since we got here, all I’ve heard about is Tyson’s well being. You are not that jealous over Kai being with him still, are you?” Bryan wondered in Russian.

“Shut your damn mouth,” Tala grounded out in Russian. “I have every right to be worried about him.”

“No, you have every right to be paranoid over nothing,” Bryan countered. “However…I shouldn’t be fueling the flames of your delusions, but I am curious to discover what’s in your head now.” Tala muttered more in Russian, eventually settling with telling his moonlight haired friend what was on his mind. Regardless of the teasing, Bryan would listen to his thoughts, no matter how crazy he thought they were.

“I went by Kai’s place to invite him and Tyson to come with us, but Kai all but snapped my head off and shoved it up my ass for suggesting he and Tyson might want to spend time with the rest of us,” Tala started, thinking about the way Kai reacted towards the simple request. There was a way in which he spoke that sent all the wrong warnings off in Tala.

“I’m telling you it’s nothing. You’re just overreacting,” Bryan assured.

“What are the two of you going on about over here?” Rei blinked, strolling up to the two Russians with a curious stare on his face.

Gold eyes shifted between the two Russians, before resting fully on Rei. Bryan tilted his head to the side, looking at Rei with a warm, friendly smile. Tala knew that wheedling smile anywhere; Bryan employing it whenever he wanted to find out something from Tala. It was the kind of smile that if you weren’t careful, you’d give yourself away unknowingly. Tala feared his impish fair haired friend was going to spill the subject over to the neko-jin to find out his opinion on the issue.

“Tala’s worried about Tyson. He said he saw your friend consuming a large amount of liquor last night in celebration,” Bryan started, averting a quick glance at Tala out of the corner of his eye with an expression to not worry his head off. “Tala’s not one to commend heavy drinking of any kind, so we were just fussing over it.”

“I guess Tyson was just happy for you guys, but I can understand how what you’re saying also Tala,” Rei nodded. “I’m sure Kai is pretty much the same, if not then he’s worried to death about Tyson. You know, when they first got together, it was a major shock for everyone.”

“Who started going out?” Max inquired popping up beside Rei.

“Where are Ian, Spencer, and Kenny?” Rei questioned. Max got a huge grin on his face, jerking his thumb in the other direction. Three heads followed his line of pointing, only to discover two in question trying to calm down the third aforementioned energetic young man who was dashing from place to place.

“I couldn’t take keeping up with him, so I left it to those two,” Max laughed.

“What a cruel thing to do,” Rei sighed, shaking his head.

“Oh, I’m sure they will be fine, if they don’t kill Ian first. So, what’s this talk about people getting together?” Max looked from Rei to Tala and Bryan.

“We were just talking about Kai and Tyson, and how everyone was shocked they were together,” Rei replied.

“Shocked wasn’t the word for it,” Max stated. “Nobody was expecting it, and we all nearly went into meltdown over it. I thought the world was coming to an end.”

“Max!” Rei scolded.

“Oh come on Rei, you know it’s true. I mean Tyson and Kai were the last people I ever thought were going to hook up. They were polar opposites after all. I just figured Kai was going to hurt him in the end, but honestly now, they are like perfect for each other. You would never have thought Kai was so shy though,” Max thought.

“Kai Hiwatari? Shy? Are you sure we’re talking about the same Kai Hiwatari that Tala and I grew up with?” Bryan blinked.

“The exact same one,” Max nodded. “He was so quiet about him and Tyson getting together. They spent so much time alone, we use to tease Tyson about it. I mean, even times when we knew Tyson wanted to go places, he would tell us Kai wanted him to stay home and keep him from being lonely. After a while Tyson moved out of his grandfather’s dojo and in with Kai so they could have more time to be together. I remember times we wouldn’t see them for days, then suddenly they popped up later.”

“It was pretty much the same after Kai’s grandfather passed away. Kai was more sullen than usual. He was like a zombie sometimes and other times he flew off the handle over the smallest things. Tyson was always there to calm him down though,” Rei said.

“Tyson sounds like he was a big help to Kai during his time of need,” Bryan commented, thinking about Kai and his situation with his grandfather.

The man had been a literal tyrant who had ruled Kai’s life to the very end by any means necessary. Bryan once had the chance to see Voltaire in action; for hours he hadn’t been able to shake the sheer terror that had settled into his bones afterwards. If Kai occasionally flew off the handle when he was finally freed from his cage, then maybe Tala wasn’t too far off the end with his paranoia after all, but he was definitely going to need more before he gave Tala due credit.

“He was,” Max smiled. “He could always make Kai smile. He was the goofy, clumsy Tyson he always was, but Kai needed that I think.”

“Clumsy?” Bryan voiced.

“Oh yeah, you don’t know about how clumsy Tyson is. He was a little bit accident prone growing up because he was careless about where he was going. We thought he would grow out of that, but he still has a habit of walking into things. You know, like once he walked into a door and had a black eye for two weeks. When Kai was telling us what happened, he was shaking his head with this embarrassed smile on his face, Ty laughed it off sheepishly.”

“Did that sort of thing always happen?” Tala questioned, feeling he knew the truth behind it.

If Kai flew off the handle as they said, then it would be no big deal for Kai to have punched Tyson, then telling him to lie to the others about it. Kai could be control to the damn near point of insanity, Tala wasn’t going to put it pass the dual haired team captain of the Bladebreakers. Things were beginning to come into focus for Tala, that he understood why Tyson’s eyes were so dead and empty. It caused Tala’s heart to ache thinking about how many lies the bluenette must have told his friends over the course of his relationship with Kai.

“Huh?” Max blinked.

“The accident thing with Tyson being clumsy,” Bryan added in, giving Tala a quick look to let him do the investigation before turning his attention back to the two Bladebreakers. “Tala means Tyson seems like the type who is never paying attention and colliding into hundreds of things.”

Bryan knew Tala didn’t want to play oblivious, and the only thing possibly on the red head’s mind was to get Tyson away from Kai and shelter him, however rushing into things without a plan was a terrible idea, especially if they turned out to be wrong about it. Kai wasn’t so easily forgiving over a mistake like that.

“Well yeah, all the time in fact,” Max nodded. “That’s just Tyson though. Once he was running through Kai’s place playing around like he tends to do, and accidentally fell down the stairs and broke his arm. Another time he broke his nose that way when he ran straight into a door being opened by a maid. Another time he fractured his leg when he tumbled down the stairs and hit the floor all because he was racing Kai. Tyson’s known to do crazy little things like that and worry Kai. Tyson we realized never learns from his mistakes, so we tend to have periods we don’t see him much.”

“Sounds like a handful for Kai,” Bryan replied, a frown underlying his thoughts.

“Maybe, but Kai never complains about it. He smiles and says he won’t leave Tyson no matter how clumsy he is. We know he only joking about the last part, you can tell he loves Tyson a lot,” Rei insisted.

“I can imagine,” Tala said, sarcasm underlying his words. There was no way that someone like Kai in whatever state of mind he was in could love anyone. Eying Bryan, Tala watched the light in those lavender eyes change. Tala knew that Bryan was reconsidering all he said about him being paranoid. They both knew the truth. It wasn’t just coincidence that all of Tyson’s accidents happened at Kai’s place after the death of Kai’s controlling grandfather.

“So…how many accidents has the klutz had?” Bryan grinned.

“Well, I’d say maybe a little more than a dozen. Some were minor things, but then about five of them were serious where Tyson’s had an arm or something broken,” Rei thought.

“Have you guys ever thought about investing a plastic bubble for him?” Bryan raised a brow, chilled that the other Bladebreakers couldn’t see that these so called ‘accidents’ were connected to Kai. Then again, they couldn’t possibly know what kind of man Voltaire had been in life. Much like Boris, Voltaire wasn’t someone meant to be challenged, unless you had a death wish. Both men knew how to break a strong, resisting spirit into the most docile slave.

“We never thought much about it, but it sounds like a good idea,” Max laughed. “Maybe we should tell Kai about getting Tyson a bubble. It might keep him out of trouble.”

“Or he could find some way to end up suffocating himself with it,” Rei teased.

“Knowing Tyson, he would,” Max agreed. “So, where should we get going to now, or should we tranquilize Ian now before he runs us all gray?”

“The latter sounds like a better option,” Bryan suggested. It looked like he and Tala were going to have to calculate a plan of action soon. If they were planning to keep Tyson out of a body bag soon, they would have to make careful steps in getting the job done. At this point, Kai was more dangerous than what anyone knew.

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Rim: I know it’s kind of short, but bare with me. The way I have the chapters sectioned off are by the events that should happen, and the transition between last chapter and the next chapter was not as long as I expected. But hopefully, the next chapter will be much better, and I will give you all more to read.

Akito: Hopefully, the next chapter won’t take half a year to write.

Rim: Shut up Akito…I swear I’m going to get a new muse if you keep adding in your two cents to everything. Well gang, I’ll try to get to work writing the next chapter as soon as humanly possible. Maybe by mid July I’ll actually be done with this story.