Tiger Tiger

When they arrived at the hospital to get Tyson’s injuries checked over both his grandpa and Hiro were already waiting there.

Hiro’s fists were clenched tightly as his crimson eyes darted from one to another. “I told you I would kill him if he ever came back,” Hiro snarled as he looked at his grandfather.

“Cool it H-man, you can’t do anything.”

“I can make Kai wish he was dead!” Hiro turned his head downwards as he shut his eyes. Normally he was calm and collected but this was too close to home. Kai had gone way too far this time.

Tyson clutched tightly to Rei as Max helped him into a wheelchair and the nurse filed his report, wrapping the plastic band around his wrist. She smiled sweetly as she looked down at Tyson.

“Can you leave your stuffed animal here?” She asked, her voice sugary sweet.

Tyson shook his head as Rei nuzzled against him. He was never going to let Rei go. Slowly he was pushed into a room and helped onto a bed where he stayed for quite a while before they let Hiro in to stay with him.

Hiro sat in the hard plastic chair as he ruffled Tyson’s hair. He saw the little tiger breathing as he curled up, asleep on Tyson’s chest, tucked under his chin but he said nothing. It only proved that the little white furball wasn’t the stuffed animal they had thought him to be.

“It’ll be alright Tyson,” Hiro whispered as the tears streamed down his face. He kissed his little brother’s forehead as he wiped away the tears. “You’re strong, you’ll be okay.”

“Thanks big brother,” Tyson said as he leaned into Hiro’s arms.

The nurse came in and smiled at Tyson before wheeling the bed away towards the X-ray room, carefully pulling Rei from Tyson and placing him on Hiro’s lap.

“He’ll be fine,” Hiro told Tyson in a comforting voice as he softly pet the white tiger’s head. “He’ll be waiting for you when you get back.”

Tyson nodded his head as he was wheeled off to the X-rays.

Rei was fighting Hiro \'s grip to get to Tyson. He clawed and bit at Hiro\'s arms but the man was not going to let go, \"He\'ll be okay.\" Hiro whispered into Rei’s ear.

Rei calmed down, but he was worried. Hours had passed. Rei kept looking at Hiro\'s watch. His heart would jump whenever he saw a doctor but fell when they walked past. Then the nurse came back.

\"You can see him now,\" she said. Hiro, Daichi, Grandpa, and Max got up to go see Tyson. Once in the room they saw that Tyson was sitting up, looking out the window. As soon as the walked into the room Rei jumped out of Hiro\'s arms and leapt onto the foot of the bed.

He carefully made his way to Tyson and laid down. Just then the doctor came in. \"You are very lucky young man,\" the doctor said. \"No bones are broken or anything, just some bruising.\"

\"Will he be able to come home?\" Hiro asked.

\"Hai, he will,\" with that the doctor left.

\"I wonder why Kai is back now after 3 years?\" Daichi asked out loud.

\"The Iron Beyblade bowl.\" Max said. \"That’s got to be it, Why come back if not for that?\"

\"To kill me.\" Tyson said sadly. Rei looked up at Tyson with sad eyes and Hiro looked down at his baby brother. He\'d been on the earth for seventeen years and had already seen death and hell.

\"So should we drop out?\" Daichi asked.

\"No, we’ve worked too hard for this,\" Tyson said. Yet, he didn\'t think he could stand to see Kai in the battle.

\"If that’s how you feel then, I\'ll watch after you guys when you all battle,\" Hiro offered.

\"Okay homies, let’s go,\" grandpa said.

Back at the House, Max, Daichi, and Tyson all sat in Tyson room. Max called his dad to ask if he could stay over and he had said yes. The boys were now watching a movie and Daichi was sitting between Max’s legs.

Rei had his necklace off and was lying on Tyson\'s bed with his back facing them. He was still a bit sad over the kiss.

Tyson laid there in silence as Rei rolled over and nestled against his back. Everything seemed to be going wrong in his life right at that moment. Kai was back and out to kill him but somehow he felt safe.

He knew he shouldn’t be but he did.

A light blush brushed over Tyson’s cheeks as he felt Rei nuzzling against him. That was another thing that was wrong. He was attracted to his pet. However much he denied it the feelings would not leave.

A slight smile touched his lips. Both Rei and his friends had risked themselves to protect him from Kai. They were true friends.

Daichi yawned as he stretched and fell asleep in Max’s lap. His head was nestled on Max’s leg, causing the blond to laugh as he wrapped his arms around the smaller balder.

“If I didn’t know any better I’d think you had a thing for that monkey boy,” Max tilted his head back as he looked at Tyson.

“You’re imagining things.”

Tyson laughed at Max’s expression as Max held Daichi close. He grabbed the ice pack off the ground and held it to Daichi’s swollen jaw. He felt bad for the guy. He knew Tyson hadn’t meant to drag any of them into his problems but the fact of the matter was they were his friends. They’d never let Tyson face any problem alone.

“Am I?” Tyson asked as he watched Max cradle Daichi close. Max however didn’t answer. He just smiled as he held the smaller teen.

Tyson sighed as he rolled over and Rei nestled against his chest. He wrapped his arms around the tiger, almost as if to keep him from escaping as Rei emitted a satisfied sigh and his chest rumbled with loud purrs.

Tyson pat his head softly and his fingers traced the stripes that patterned his body. No matter how many times he told himself that Rei was his pet and nothing else, yet his heart and body argued.

It wasn’t that it should be abnormal. After all Rei was rather good-looking, Tyson thought to himself, as his hands ran over the lean body, his muscles tight and sinewy like the tiger he was.

“Tyson,” he heard Rei whisper his name as he slept on, his hands placed against Tyson’s chest as he cuddled close.

Max yawned as he smiled, watching Tyson and Rei. Slowly he got to his feet and started pulling out blankets from the closet and dropping them on the floor.

He returned to make up his own bed on the floor before crawling in, Daichi cuddling close to him. Of course he knew it wouldn’t be like that in the morning.