Beyblade Fan Fiction ❯ Of Traitors and Thieves ❯ Clocks ( Chapter 9 )

This is for everyone who's reviewed my story so far ^^ Thank you guys! Sorry I take so long to update! Hopefully this chapter will be long enough to last until I get the next up.

Of Traitors and Thieves

Chapter Nine - Clocks

"Kai, it's time to get up."

Kai vaguely wondered if he was still dreaming.

"Kai…"

He decided he wasn't.

"Kai!"

"No it's not bloody time to get up," he said, moaning and pulling the pillow up over his head. There was a silence - cue chirping crickets - and then an exasperated sigh. Rei stared down at the lump in the bed and rolled his eyes. Ever since him and Kai had got together, Kai had dropped so many of his old habits it was unreal! He no longer trained on his own, he didn't get up early…ever…and he also didn't find such a delight in teasing Tyson. The last point was probably the one that scared Rei the most, although not to be woken up by yelling and people running up the stairs every morning was probably doing a lot of good to everyone's health.

"Kai, if you don't get up…"

Kai snorted. He always found it amusing when Rei tried to make ultimatums with him; they were rarely any good.

Not only had Kai been sleeping in a lot lately, he'd been late for every date they had, and Rei was getting annoyed with it. Clenching his fists, Rei grabbed something off the table and threw it at the lump in the bed before casually walking out of the room.

Letting out a little cry of protest, Kai sat up quickly and glared at the offending object that had just struck his head. It was a Mickey Mouse clock. It stared innocently up at him, the hands - literally - rotating and making a clicking sound as they went.

Grumpily, Kai clambered out of bed and made his way into the bathroom where he washed, noticing, to his alarm, that the water was colder than usual. He then looked at himself in the mirror and ran a wet hand through his hair, figuring that that would do, and then walked back into his bedroom to get dressed.

There was a knock at the door and Kai looked up to see Max standing there.

"Rei wants you downstairs in two minutes." He said before leaving.

Kai frowned, what the hell was with Rei today? He chuckled lightly as he imagined Rei stood in front of him, pointing a finger and saying quite matter-of-factly, "Time is of the essence."

01:30 minutes…

Kai pulled on his trousers and zipped them up, noticing indifferently that he had odd socks on.

"Oh well, no one's actually going to be looking into my trainers at my socks now, are they?"

01:04 minutes…

Pulling on a T-shirt, Kai stretched and yawned, vaguely noting to himself that he shouldn't still be tired at 12 PM, but not caring either.

00:45 minutes…

Kai pulled the covers up over the pillows and straightened them, pondering on how it looked so much neater when Rei did it. Then he pulled his trainers out from under the bed and went about putting them on.

00:15 minutes…

Kai finally walked out of the bedroom and onto the landing, he was about to go into the bathroom to make his hair look a little more presentable when he noticed Rei stood at the bottom of the stairs, staring at a watch. Kai could see his lips moving, mouthing the seconds as they ticked by.

'Five. Four. Three.'

Without a second thought, Kai jumped over the banister and landed in front of his lover. He placed a soft kiss on Rei's lips and grinned.

"Morning lover."

Rei smiled despite his attempts not to, and wrapped his arms around Kai.

"Been waiting for ages," Rei whispered into Kai's shoulder, sighing peacefully as the other boy began them back and forth.

"I know. Sorry."

There was a loud crash next to them and Kai didn't have to look up to know that Tyson had just run into the vase of flowers that had been standing on a glass table in the hallway.

Alerted by the noise, Max came running out of the kitchen and banged into Tyson, sending them both crashing into the wall and causing it to vibrate a little. Something hard and sharp hit Kai's head and he cursed, swaying slightly as his eyesight blurred.

"Kai! Are you okay?" Rei asked, lowering Kai to the bottom stair and looking worriedly at his koi.

"I'm okay…" Kai said, shaking his head to clear it. "What was it?" He looked around and saw shards of glass littering the floor. Just behind Rei were the remains of the glass clock that had been on the wall at the bottom of the stairs. Kai blinked and rubbed his eyes, standing up with Rei's help.

"Well…" started Tyson. "Now that we're all here - Kenny's working on something and doesn't want to be disturbed - shall we all get going?" he asked. Kai gave him a strange look.

"Going where?" he questioned.

"Shopping," Rei answered for Tyson. Kai groaned. He didn't feel like acting parent again, which inevitably happened whenever the group went somewhere even remotely public.

"Alright, let's go."

***

He was in a living nightmare. There was no other explanation for it. After three trips in and out of the shopping complex to the ice cream parlour, Kai was ready to scream. Why couldn't those three just go into shops and buy what they wanted? But no, they insisted on looking around, trying things out, then going to get ice cream, and then going back re-nourished.

After the fourth time, Kai called the group to a halt.

"Right. I'm going off to find a coffee shop, because god knows I need some, you three carry on. Okay?"

The others nodded.

"Meet us in the park at five. And don't be late," Rei warned.

Kai smiled and kissed his cheek.

"I won't, promise."

***

A couple of hours later, Kai glanced down at his watch. It was quarter to five. He frowned. He'd been here for what seemed like hours, and yet only half an hour had passed according to the clocks. He looked around and frowned. Was it just his imagination or was everybody moving a little too quickly? Standing up, he looked up and down the crowed street. Everybody was rushing past, but there didn't seem to be anything to suggest the were running away from anything. Kai shrugged and glanced down at his watch again. His eyes went wide. How was it half past five?! Cursing, he rushed across the street to the park entrance, not noticing how everybody had slowed back down to normal pace.

Racing across the park as quickly as he could run, Kai's heart was racing for an entirely different reason. Rei was going to kill him. Shit Rei was going to kill him.

He spotted his team-mates stood next to a fountain and he sprinted over to them.

"Rei! I'm so sorry! Really I am, I-"

"Don't bother," Rei said coldly. Turning, he walked off, Tyson and Max following behind.

Kai stared after them, shocked. It wasn't his fault! He'd been watching the time so carefully!

Cursing his luck he started walking in the opposite direction and trying to figure out what was going on. There was no way three quarters of an hour could have passed that quickly without him noticing. What was going on?

The answer hit him, quite literally, and he stumbled backwards onto the damp grass. Another bloody clock?! Why was everybody attacking him with clocks lately? He picked up the clock and was about to throw it when he noticed something. Etched on the clock face in tiny gold letters was 'Kai Hiwatari'. Kai frowned. Why did the clock have his name on it?

He glanced up at the clock tower in front of him and raised an eyebrow when he saw that the tiny wooden door at the base was ajar. Getting up, he walked over to it and pushed the door. It swung open, revealing a flight of stone stairs. The tower was dark and dusty, and Kai had to sweep a few cobwebs out of the way as he moved towards the stairs and slowly made his way up them.

Ticking sounds could be heard as he got higher and higher. From the outside, Kai hadn't figured the tower was very big, but the stairs seemed to be endless. After what seemed liked hours, Kai found that the stairs ended and in front of him stood a door that looked as though it hadn't been opened for hundreds of years. The frame was blackened and rotten, and the actual door itself was rotting and looked as though it would break upon touch. Glancing warily down at his hand, afraid to touch the door with it, he gingerly pushed forward and jumped back as the door sprung open with a loud creak.

With a groan, Kai could have kicked himself for not predicting what he was about to see. Stood in the room that the door had been concealing were a dozen men, all dressed in long black coats with 'B.I.O.V.O.L.T.' printed on the back in red letters.

Kai cleared his throat and stepped into the room.

"What is going on?"

The men all jumped slightly and spun around, staring at him with wide eyes.

"M-m-master Kai!" one exclaimed. "How did you find…I mean, what are you doing here?"

Kai rolled his eyes.

"So what's the big plan this time?" he asked, (this is so hard to write, I'm listening to Abba >< 'Waterloo, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah, woah wa Waterloo…') making sure to glare at each one individually. The men exchanged glances and one stepped forward.

"Your grandfather wishes for you back at the Abbey," he said.

Kai gave each man a vicious snarl.

"I know that much. What's with the clocks?" he growled, grabbing one man by the collar and hissing in his face. "Why have you been messing with my time?"

"Your grandfather…he…assumed that if we messed with it…then you would eventually…you would…be rejected by your friends…" he squeaked as Kai threw him against the wall and grabbed a hammer that very conveniently lay on the floor.

"I want you to promise that you will stop messing with my time. Okay? And if you don't so god help you," he threw the hammer in the direction of one of the men, intentionally missing him by a few inches and watching as the hammer flew through the clock face. He gave a curt nod and disappeared back through the door.

***

Once outside the tower again, Kai squinted and put a hand to his forehead, shielding his eyes from the sun that attacked his eyes, which had become accustomed to the darkness of the tower. Suddenly, he felt something throw itself against him and latch onto him very tightly. Kai yelped and fell backwards, mentally praying that this wasn't a person dressed up as a clock.

Opening his eyes he found himself staring at black hair and he smiled, wrapping his arms tightly around his 'attacker'.

"Rei?" he said, stroking the hair. The hair moved and Kai found himself staring into Rei's golden eyes, moist with unshed tears.

"Oh Kai! I'm so sorry," he cried, planting a passionate kiss on Kai's lips. Kai melted at the cuteness and kissed Rei back fiercely.

"It's not your fault, love," he whispered as they pulled apart slightly for air.

Rei gave him a bright smile and reached into his pocket for something. He pulled out a gold locket and gave it to Kai. Glancing at Rei with a questioning look, Kai opened it and smiled when he saw a picture of him and Rei inside.

"Thank you," Kai said, putting the locket around his neck and taking Rei's hand.

"You're welcome," replied Rei, resting his head on Kai's shoulder as they walked along.

***

"Look mummy! Look what I found!" James cried as he picked up the object from the floor of the park and ran over to his mother.

"Jamie, you know you shouldn't pick up things you find on the floor," his mother scolded as she took the object from her son's hand. It was a clock. She squinted at the gold writing.

"Kai Hiwatari? Hmm, I've never heard of them, must be some European clock manufacturers," she said idly, glancing at her watch. "It tells the wrong time, too," she reached behind the back of the clock and began to turn the dial that controlled the minute and hour hands…