I\'m a father?

Title: I’m a father?

Subtitle: Mess not with the bad-tempered.

Author: Lady Snowblossom

Rating: PG-13

Pairings: Rei/Bryan, Kai/Tala, Spencer/Ian, Tyson/Max and various other pairings.

Note: Kai sooths Rei’s ruffled feathers. Ian proves once again that he has a death wish.

Disclaimer: Now isn’t this getting monotonous, we all know I don’t have the cash to buy even a cell from the show. So why do I have to keep rubbing salt into the wound?


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Kai rubbed the sore spot on his arm, his eyes locked on the bedroom door. From the sounds of it, Rei was really on a tear! Gone was the calm mediator of his team; in his place was a spitting hellcat! And he would never have believed it, if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes.

“Oh, Ancestors! I wish I had a picture of your face!”

Frowning, Kai turned his attention to the White Tiger captain. Lee was rolling on the floor holding his sides. “It wasn’t that funny.” Kai growled as he stalked over and toed Lee in the side. Lee heard the thread of warning in the Russian’s voice and struggled to regain control over his sense of the absurd.

With a final snicker, Lee sat up, leaned back against the wall and looked up into annoyed crimson irises. “If you could have seen your face!” Lee waved a finger at the standing boy. “You would have thought it was funny! Now, give me a hand up and I’ll go get us some lunch.” Kai reached down, grabbed Lee by the hand and hauled him to his feet. Giving Kai a quick smile, Lee headed for the kitchen.

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Once in the kitchen, Lee began to open cabinets. A short search later had the lion staring in dismay at the tiny pile of consumables on the counter. Muttering curses at Rei’s failing to stock up between market days, the lion spun on his heel and stormed out of the kitchen.

Kai raised an eyebrow at the scowl marring Lee’s features. “Something wrong?”

“Yeah,” Lee growled as he stalked past the Russian heading for the front door. “I’m gonna kick Rei’s ass, just as soon as he comes out of that bedroom! All he’s got in the house fit to eat is: a half loaf of bread, a jar of honey, six onions, a handful of carrots, about two scoops of rice and maybe half a pound of flour! What the hell was that idiot thinking! That’ll never last until the end of the week!”

Kai looked over at the closed bedroom door in confusion. “That doesn’t sound like him at all. Whenever we stayed at a place that had its’ own kitchen, he always made sure there was plenty of food on hand. And believe me, with the bottomless pit around, we needed a lot of food!” The bluenette looked back at Galeon’s companion, who stood with his back to him – listening. “So, why would he neglect himself here?”

“I don’t know, “ Lee replied as he shot a look at Rei’s room. “Maybe, while I’m at my parents, you can get him to come out of there and explain himself!”

Kai nodded, “why are you going to your parents?”

“To get food, why else?” Lee hissed in exasperation, turning to face Kai. “We’ve have got to have something to eat for lunch and I’ll have to see what else I can get out of Mom without having to explain why Rei didn’t buy enough to last until next market day.”

“And that’s at the end of the week?”

“That’s right.”

Kai sat down on the futon and shot another quick glance at the door of a certain obstinate tiger before he said, “Lee, we’ll only need enough for today and breakfast tomorrow. Rei and I will be leaving in the morning.”

Lee blinked. “In the morning? How are you going to accomplish that?”

Kai smirked.

Lee sighed, was he going to have to drag it out of him? “All right, I’ll bite.” He growled, “how are the two of you leaving?”

“My chopper has orders to be here by dawn. It’ll land in a field that’s about a quarter of a mile from here.” Kai gave Lee a bland look. “How did you think we’d be leaving? By camel or maybe mule train?”

“Smart ass.” Lee grunted and turned to yank open the door and ducked outside.

Kai smirked as the cat-boy disappeared. Neko-jins’ were so much fun to annoy.

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“Dammit, where is it!” ‘Thud!’ ‘Bang!’ “Son of a . . .”

Spencer sat on the side of the bed and watched in bemusement, as Ian shuffled clothes, tossed aside boxes, and in general made a mess in the middle of their bedroom floor. Finally, he couldn’t stand it. “Ian, what are you looking for?”

From around the closet door came a baleful eye and the majority of Ian’s most prominent feature-his nose. “My hat! I can’t find my spare hat! I can’t practice if I don’t have my hat!” And eye and nose disappeared. Ian’s frantic activity recommenced and a pair of black boots came sailing out to land on top of the pile.

Scratching his head, the blonde idly noted that the left boot had a big hole in it’s sole. “So, wear your old hat.” Spencer said as he rose from the bed to begin making it.

“I can’t!” Ian wailed, “it’s in the laundry and that hasn’t been done all week!” He turned and peered around the closet door at his lover. “Now, if Rei were here there wouldn’t be a problem, HE’D have seen that the laundry was done. Damn, Bryan! Why did he have to be such a jerk! It was just a picture!”

“That made Rei look like he was nude.” Spencer pointed out as he walked back around the bed and sat on the side closest to Ian and sighed. “Ian,” he said quietly, “you know as well as I do that Bryan has had damn few things in this world to feel good about and Rei was and is the best thing that ever happened to him. He was just scared of losing him.”

Ian came out of the closet and walked to Spencer, who reached out and drew him closer with an arm around the smaller boy’s waist. “If he’s so scared, why has he waited all this time without doing something about bringing Rei home?”

“Now that’s a question I can’t answer.” Spencer replied as he lifted Ian up for a kiss. Ian hummed in pleasure as he wrapped his arms around the thick neck of his lover. Both were panting when Spencer broke the kiss. Getting a good grip on Ian’s bottom, Seaborg’s master rose and laid his lover down on the bedcovers, Ian smiled up at him and ran a hand up a massive forearm.

“Ian.”

“Hmm.”

“When you clean up the mess you made, you might want to throw those boots out, they have a hole in the left sole.” Spencer smirked and pivoting-ran for it. Just as he shut the door, he heard something hit it. Grinning, he headed on downstairs to fix breakfast.

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Rei pounded on the closed door of his bedroom: trying to relieve his frustration. Why was everyone treating him like he was made of spun glass! Great sizzling stars! He was pregnant! Not dying! Pivoting away from the door, he snatched up one of his pillows and stalked to his bed. Mumbling obscenities in every language he knew; he crawled atop of the bedclothes and hugged the pillow to his chest.

‘It’s so unfair! Why does everyone have to act like I can’t take care of myself!’ He sighed and leaned back against the headboard and closed his eyes. ‘This is Lee’s fault, I just know it.’ Rei’s grip on his poor pillow tightened as he imagined he was squeezing Lee’s throat between his fingers. ‘If he can’t keep me here in the village, he probably gave Kai the idea of putting me on the reserve list!’ His eyes shot open at that thought and he growled. ‘GAVE Kai the idea, hell! I know that overbearing smug bastard! He came up with this way to torture me all by himself!’

A soft rap on the door broke into his murderous thoughts and he snarled, “go away!”

The door swung open and Kai walked into the room.

“I said, go away!”

Kai ignored the hissing cat-boy and walked around the bed. As he passed the dresser, he paused long enough to grab up Rei’s brush and comb. Wordlessly, he walked to the bed and laid the hair set down on the duvet.

“I know what you’re up to and it won’t work.” Rei growled. “There is no way, I’m letting you use that trick to try and get back in my good graces. And don’t try to put me to sleep!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it. And I am not ‘trying’ to get in your good graces.” Kai replied calmly. “I just thought you might like some help in getting that mane of yours under control.”

Rei leaned around Kai; peered in the mirror and grimaced at the picture he presented. With his hair going in every direction and dried tear tracks on his face, he did look like a fright, so it probably wouldn’t hurt to let Kai help – a little.

“All right, but don’t think this means I forgive you.” He grumbled as he scooted closer to Kai and turned.

“I’d never think that.” Kai smiled and set to work.

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Bryan growled and paced around the Beystadium for the twentieth time in five minutes. Tala leaned against the wall of the garage and sighed.

“Will you please stop that. You’re driving me crazy!” He grumbled as Bryan started yet another circuit. “He’ll be here! Spencer said, he was trying to find his hat.”

“Hat! He’s holding up practice with our new upgrades because he can’t find his stupid hat!” Bryan stopped and stared at his captain. He started to say something else, when Ian came bursting through the door with Spencer on his heels.

“Well, did you find your precious hat?” Bryan hissed, sarcasm dripping from every word.

“No,” Ian said hair flopping into his eyes. “But, I did find a substitute. So, give me a second and I’ll be ready to go.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a strip of red cloth and tied it around his head. “There! Ready to go!” He announced and whipped Wyborg out of his pocket. Bryan loaded Falborg and Spencer counted them down.

“3 . . . 2 . . .1! Let it rip!”

The two blades flew into the dish and the battle was on. As the blades circled each other looking for an opening to launch an attack, Tala kept staring at the cloth around Ian’s head. He could just see little splashes of black and white color. ‘I hope that isn’t what I think it is, because if it is; Bryan will kill him and I just might help.’

The battle raged back and forth as the bitbeast’s clashed, urged on by their companions. As the fight intensified, so did the warmth in the garage, Bryan reached up and wiped sweat from his brow as he struggled to help Falborg deal with his land bound opponent.

“Come on, Wyborg! You’ve got Falborg where you want him!” Ian yelled as he leaned over the dish: willing his bitbeast to take the falcon out. Responding to his master’s urging; Wyborg managed to knock Falborg out of the stadium. Ian started to whoop with joy, when his bandanna came undone and slipped to the surface of the dish: unfolding as it did so.

Tala groaned.

Bryan hissed.

There lying in the bowl of the dish was one of Rei’s headbands; it’s Ying and Yang symbol uncovered for all to see.

“IAN!!!”