My Sacrifice

YuukiSan: Ok I know that I haven\'t updated in the LONGEST time! But I have a good excuse really. First the damn computer died on DragonBlade and I then my muse decided to go on vaction for like two months!

NinjaMouse: But hey when she came back you got a hella lot of ideas.

YuukiSan: Yeah hence why this chapter is so freaking long. It took my FOREVER to type this damn thing out. Well enough of my chatter for now... enjoy!

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Chapter 8

It was every mother’s nightmare. Five teenage boys in one house while it was raining; raining just like it had been for the past three days.

“This sucks,” Tyson said from his place in the kitten pile on the floor.

“Yahtzee anyone?” Max asked, sounding bored as hell as he shifted his head to find a more comfortable place on his ‘pillow’, which happened to be Rei’s chest.

“We’ve played, that, like four times,” the Chinese answered lazily, snuggling his face further into Kai’s chest. He loved the Russian’s scent and couldn’t get enough of it, like most things about his ex-captain. Especially his love-making, and it was obvious that the feeling was mutual since they had had sex at least once, if not twice, three, and sometimes even four times, per night. Rei was just glad that he wasn’t walking a little strange.

“PS2 then?”

“Yet again Max, we’ve played every game at least twice. Not to mention the fact that you always win,” Kenny replied from in between Tyson and Kai.

As the conversation continued, the phoenix started absent-mindedly stroking the cat-boy’s hair. Rei had only braided it halfway down his back, having been lazy and bored that morning. The Russian ran his fingers through the silky midnight coloured locks at the end of the braid with one hand and massaged the other male’s nape with the other. Loving he attention he was receiving, Rei started to purr very softly at first. As the massage continued the purrs increased in volume.

“Whoa…this feels weird,” Max said, his voice and head shaking from the vibrations of the neko-jin’s chest.

“What does?” Kenny asked humouring his American friend.

“Rei’s purring and it feels cool.”

“Dude, Rei purrs?” Tyson asked, propping himself up on his elbows to get a better look. He looked to find Rei’s nose pressed slightly into Kai’s chest with a small smile on his face. He seemed to be purring for no reason, since the duel-haired blader had stopped the onslaught to his lover’s hair. The purrs slowly faded after a few seconds as did the smile, the tiger looked up at his boyfriend with questioning clearly written in his gold eyes. Feeling someone else watching him Rei looked around and noticed the dragon staring down at him. He shifted slightly so that it wasn’t as blatantly obvious that he and the phoenix were in a relationship.

“There’s nothing to DO!” The blunette exclaimed, dramatically flopping back onto the floor not noticing one bit what was clearly painted in front of him.

“What are you boys doing?” Mrs. Mizuhara asked from the doorway, a smile evident in her voice.

“Nothing,” came five voices in unison.

“Yes, we can see that. I think what she means is why are you all lying on the floor?” Responded Kiyoshi.

“Bored,” said Tyson.

“Lazy,” replied Rei.

“Comfortable,” came Max.

“Too tired to move,” quipped Kenny.

“What they said,” finished Kai.

Kiyoshi and Mrs. Mizuhara both smiled and left the bladers, walking in the direction of the kitchen. Kai followed, thinking that he might actually find some form of intelligent conversation with the two women… that, and he really needed some coffee. He contemplated cutting down on some of his nightly activities but dismissed the idea about as fast as it had arrived.

Tyson sat up and decided that he would see if anything worthwhile was playing on TV, the rest of the boys followed suit. They all scattered themselves around the living room. The blue-haired blader stopped channel surfing once he saw something that peaked his interest, mainly because he couldn’t figure out what was.

“Must be a movie,” Rei said, whose curiosity had also been perked.

The four boys settled down to watch. Slowly their eyes all started to grow wide as they learned exactly what kind of movie it was.

“Oh Gods! Turn it off Ty!” Kenny wailed covering his eyes with his hands.

“Why?” The dragon asked, leaning forward in his seat, completely enthralled with the program.

“Because it’s porn!” The Chief hissed, “what if Max’s mom hears!?”

“She’s in the kitchen so the only way she would be able to tell what we’re watching is if she hears you screaming.”

At that moment Rei heard someone walking towards the room, “hey guys someone’s coming,” he said looking up from inspecting his fingernails.

Trusting the tiger’s sensitive ears Tyson tried to turn off the appliance. However, the Gods must have decided to be cruel, since the television just wouldn’t turn off. Not wanting to get found guilty in the eyes of the elder Mizuhara, Tyson tossed the remote to Max.

“Don’t give it to me! If it’s Mom, she’ll kill me!” Max said, tossing the receiver to Rei.

“Why me!?” The Chinese yelped as it fell in his lap.

“You’re actually 18!”

“So!?” The tiger said, tossing the remote away.

It just happened to land in Kenny’s lap. The technician picked up the devise just as Mrs. Mizuhara walked into the room.

“WHAT ARE YOU BOYS WATCHING!?”

Kenny hurriedly turned off the television then tossed the controller back at Tyson as if it were a poisonous snake.

“We didn’t know what it was when we turned it on, honestly Mom!” Max stood and defended the group, waving his arms frantically. The rest of the bladers nodded behind him with wide eyes.

Mother Mizuhara stood for a few seconds, watching the boys, then walked into the kitchen, shock still etched on her face. The four bladers let out a collective sigh of relief, they were shortly shocked again however as Kai slid across the floor on his socked feet and collided with the doorframe, anticipation written all over his face. He looked at the TV and his face dropped and shoulders slumped when he noticed that it was turned off.

“May we help you?” Kenny asked the Russian.

“Max’s mom said that you guys were watching porn,” the phoenix said, looking a little disappointed.

I’m actually dating this guy? Rei thought to himself, staring at Kai in disbelief.

“Dude, you watch porn?” Tyson asked, sounding impressed.

“Yeah,” the ex-captain answered with the tone that might be used if he was just asked if he watched the daily news. Noticing the electronic was still off Kai walked back out to the kitchen severely disappointed.

Tyson waited a few minutes to see if anyone else was going to interrupt them. Once the coast was clear he turned the television back on.

“Tyson! What do you think –\" Kenny started to protest.

“Quiet Chief! We don’t want Mrs. Mizuhara to hear us do we?” The dragon whispered fiercely. Kenny shrank into his chair and suffered in silence, while Tyson watched. Max just looked bored and Rei was looking at anything but the screen.

After a few minutes Tyson cocked his head to the side, his face twisted in confusion, “is that actually possible?” He asked to no one in general.

“Yes,” Max answered, sounding utterly bored. Tyson, Rei, and Kenny all turned their heads slowly to look at the blond in complete shock, “what?” He asked, with a shrug.

“You’ve… you’ve… you’ve done THAT!?” The blunette almost screamed, pointing dramatically at the TV.

“Yeah and keep it down because my mother doesn’t know and she’s not going to find out,” Max said in a threatening tone that surprisingly worked.

Tyson promptly turned off the television and turned his body to face the seemingly innocent American, “so what else have you done?”

“Why you picking on me? Why not ask Rei or Kenny?” The blond asked, trying to get out of the spotlight.

“Well because Kenny… is… Kenny. I don’t think that he even had sexual organs.”

“I can hear you ya know!” the brunette stated from the recliner, defending himself.

Tyson just waved his hand to acknowledge that he heard, “and we know that Rei has only slept with one person.”

“Three,” the tiger corrected without thinking. Shit Kai’s going to kill me. They had agreed to keep things quiet until they could be sure their friends would be supportive and comfortable of their relationship.

“THREE!?” The dragon spun around with break-neck speed to look at the neko-jin.

“Um… ok… well we know about Mariah, um,” stated Max, who was still in shock from Rei’s confession.

The cat-boy sighed then decided to admit defeat about one person at least; “after I left Ty’s place I lived in Hong Kong with my uncle’s family for a year. While I was there I rebelled… a lot. That’s when I got my tattoo but I also partied a lot with my older cousin. I drank heavily at the parties; the last one I went to was the last straw though. I’ve never been that drunk in my life and I was even stupid enough to try weed for the first time that night. I don’t really remember what happened at the party but I woke up the next morning beside someone that I didn’t know. I didn’t believe that anything happened until I found the used condom on the floor. I left for home the next morning.”

“Does Mariah know?” Max asked quietly.

The midnight-haired teen shook his head, “no one did except my cousin, until now. I wanted Mariah to think that she was my first.”

Tyson finally spoke, “so let me get this straight. You went to Hong Kong, got completely plastered and stoned one night, then proceeded to fuck some chick that you didn’t even know. Once you got home, you lied about it to everyone including your mother and the girl that you were going to marry?”

“Uh, when you put it like that, yeah,” replied the Chinese.

“You the man Kon! I wish I had enough guts to do something like that,” the dragon exclaimed, looking impressed.

Rei just sighed, knowing nothing he said would convey to his friend the shame he felt when thinking about his year with his cousin. Although, he was not ashamed of everything that happened while he was in Hong Kong. He loved his tattoo, since the white tiger was so much a part of him [1]. The neko-jin smiled softly to himself as he played with his left earlobe and felt what remained of his piercing, since he had let it grow in after he had returned to the village.

He had also been introduced to Western clothes and had become very fond of the punk-goth style, though not that any of his friends had seen his new wardrobe yet. He was waiting for the perfect opportunity to shock his friends with the changes.

Rei chuckled softly as he remembered his mother’s reaction to his new appearance.

-FLASHBACK-

“Hey Mama, I’m home!” Rei called as he walked through the front door, looking around to see where his mother had moved the furniture to this time.

“Rei I’m so glad that your home!” Kiyoshi cried as she threw her arms around her kitten. That was when she caught the sight of something silver hanging from his left ear. “Kitten what…” she trailed off brushing the silver hoop with her fingers. She had seen his new clothes in pictures that he had sent her and loved the new look, thinking that it suited him, but metal hanging from her son’s body was a different story!

“Oh, I got my ear pierced. I also got a tattoo,” he said the last sentence quietly, afraid of his mother’s wrath.

“You WHAT?!”

“It’s a white tiger, see Mama,” the cat-boy added quickly, then moved the collar of his shirt so that she could see the leaping tiger on his right shoulder blade.

“Well it suits you, mind you, the elders aren’t going to like it. I guess I’ll get use to it. So anything else that I should know about?” the female neko-jin asked in her mother tone.

“Yes Mama I got my tongue, nipple, belly-button, and down there pierced as well,” the youth said dryly, getting a little frustrated.

“WHAT?!” Kiyoshi screamed her pupils dilating in shock.

To show that he was joking, Rei stuck out his tongue and lifted his shirt.

Kiyoshi sighed in relief. The elder Kon stepped back to look at her son better. She took in the thick clunky black boots, the black torn jeans and the black tee. He had three different silver chains around his neck all with a different bobble on the end. On his hands were a few silver rings and his wrists had black leather bracelets on with either silver spikes or studs on them. Rei had also decided to forgo the hair bindings and had tied back the midnight locks in a low ponytail.

“You know what, I like it. You needed to go out there and explore other cultures. And no matter what you look like you’ll away be my Kitten.”

“Thanks Mama.”

-END FLASHBACK-

His year away was also when he was introduced to, in his opinion, the greatest music of all times. He was now a huge fan of the Classic Rockers; Aerosmith and Bon Jovi being his ultimate favourite. The song “Pink” was by far the tiger’s favourite, even though he couldn’t stand the actual colour. Rei knew it was because the song use to remind him of Mariah, and part of him knew that it always would. It reminded him of his first love, however he knew now there was a difference between first love and true love.

The midnight-haired teen was brought back to reality by the sound of Tyson screaming his name. “Huh?” the neko-jin asked, his head snapped up from the back of the couch.

“Did you hear a word I said?” The dragon wailed, looking over exasperated.

“Uh… no.”

The blue-haired blader sighed heavily, “okay, so-,”

“Here’s the Earth, it’s chillin’. Damn that is a sweet Earth you might say…” Max interrupted.

“Wrong!” The blond and blunette said in unison.

“So nukes are flying everywhere, Mars is laughing at us and a meteorite is like, ‘fuck that’,” Tyson continued

“So now we have nuclear winter and everyone is dead… except Australia. But they’ll be dead soon,” Max concluded then muttered softly, “fucking kangaroos.” The American fell over onto his side in a giggle fit [2].

“Wait what was I saying?” the blue-haired blader said in between laughing. “Right I remember, okay…so,” he paused looking at Max with a smile. “We know who the first two are but you still haven’t spilled on the third. What you sleep with Kai or something?” Tyson asked, the last part as an after thought.

Max laughed at the suggestion and Rei suddenly found his finger nails very interesting, again. The laughter soon died down and three pairs of eyes grew wide with shock at Rei’s silence.

“OH MY GOD! You’ve slept with-,” Tyson started to scream but the cat-boy clasped his hand over the younger male’s mouth before he could say the name.

“Keep it down or I will kill you,” the neko-jin said slowly, making sure that the blunette caught the sight of his fangs and pressed his claw like finger nails into the other World Champion’s cheek. Tyson nodded his compliance, eyes still wide as saucers.

“You’ve slept with Kai!?” He whispered once Rei was seated on his side of the couch again.

“Yeah,” the tiger chuckled softly, “a few times actually.” His golden eyes were downcast afraid to look his friends in the eyes.

“How long ago did this start?” Max asked softly, aware of how this conversation was affecting the neko-jin.

“About three nights ago. We\'ve been dating for about a week.” Silence filled the room. Next came a reaction that Rei was really not expecting.

“Well it’s about fucking time!”

The cat-boy’s head snapped up and he looked at Tyson in disbelief, “what did you say?”

“I said it’s about time. You two have been sending goo-goo eyes at each other for the past five freakin’ years now. We all knew this was going to happen, we just didn’t think it would take this goddamn long!”

“You guys KNEW!?” The tiger snapped in shock, looking at his three friends that he thought of as brothers.

All three nodded.

With that, Rei leapt off the couch and went in search of Kai, who he found in the kitchen talking to the women. He stopped dead in the doorway almost making the other three bladers collide with him, since they followed him in his search.

“They knew!” Rei screamed at Kai throwing his hands in the air.

The Russian slowly placed his coffee mug on the island top that he was standing behind, “they knew what?”

“They knew about…” the neko-jin then proceeded to wave his arms frantically between Kai and himself, “US!”

“Honey, we all knew,” Mrs. Mizuhara said trying to calm the cat-boy down. It didn’t quite work.

Rei looked at her, his pupils dilating so that no gold could be seen. “You knew to?” he asked just about a whisper.

“That you and Kai liked each other? Yes Kitten, we knew,” Kiyoshi answered with a gentle smile.

“My own MOTHER!? My own mother knew and didn’t even tell me!” Rei yelled to no one in particular.

“Kitten, you wouldn’t have believed us even if we told you,” Kiyoshi answered giggling.

The tiger stood in silence for a few seconds.
“Gah!” he exclaimed throwing his hands in the air and turned to storm out of the kitchen, when he was struck with an idea. The neko-jin turned to face the duel-haired blader again a wicked grin on his face.
“Hey Kai, guess what we just found out -,” he started.

The blond’s eyes grew wide in fear since he knew exactly what his ex-teammate was about the say. Without thinking he reacted upon the first thought of shutting the cat-boy up. It worked very effectively… and not just on Rei. The entire kitchen was silent with shock as Max pulled away from the midnight-haired teen. Only then did he realize that he had just kissed Rei… in front of Kai.

Oh shit I’m dead! He thought to himself as he turned his head to look at the phoenix, shock written all over the blonds face.

Kai, on the other hand, was trying very hard not to laugh… well when Max wasn’t looking that is. The American was frantically looking back and forth between Kai and Rei, to see who was going to react first. If the blond was looking at him, the ex-captain had his famous death glare plastered on his face, but once the younger male’s head was turned he was trying to contain himself. Finally the phoenix just gave up after looking at Rei’s equally shocked face and burst out laughing with an inelegant snort. He had to lean his arms and head on top of the island to stop himself from falling over. Eventually his knees gave out and the duel-haired blader found himself sitting on the floor, still laughing hysterically.

Rei was now looking at his lover, concerned for his state of mental health. Kai was laughing, and not his scary maniacal laughter, actual real laughter. The neko-jin felt someone shove him forward.

“See if he’s cracked,” the blunette whispered.

“Why me?!” The cat-boy whispered back.

“He’s your boyfriend!” Max answered

“You provoked him!” The tiger countered, but he turned to face the Russian anyways. He walked forward and crouched down in front of the slumped shaking form. “Kai, baby, are you mentally stable?”

The phoenix suddenly grabbed the Chinese around the neck and pulled him against his chest, making the smaller male yelp. Rei turned back to his old team and whispered loudly, “I think he’s gone loopy.”

“You guys crack me up, ya know that?” the former captain said, wiping the tears from his eyes.

“We… we do?” Tyson asked cautiously.

“Yeah ya do. I haven’t laughed like that… I don’t think I’ve ever laughed that hard,” he replied, looking down at the teen in his arms with a smile. \"Thanks, I needed that,\" he said quietly.

Rei smiled, realizing that Kai’s many walls were slowly coming down and that he was the cause of it “that’s what I’m here for.”

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[1] I added this little detail into Chapter Four as an edit for those of you who didn\'t know. Go back and read the chapter... I highly doubt you\'ll mind
[2] DragonBlade and I have this really annoying habit of reciting this. It\'s from the site Albino Black Sheep and it\'s called \"The End of the World\" or somthing like that. Go watch it... it\'s worth it!

YuukiSan: Again I\'m so sorry for the long wait. I have the next Chapter planed so the next update shouldn\'t take as long. Don\'t forgot to review! Ja!