Disclaimer: I do not own Bakuten Shoot Beyblade.

Warnings: OOCness, incorrect verb tenses, and a hackneyed writing style and plot

Notes: Still trying to defeat that writer’s block xD Surprise to a certain Jess who knew I was writing this but didn't know I finished.

xxx

Rei remembers vaguely the times when Rai’s grandfather placed a wrinkled, warm hand on his head and told him in that soft, aging voice, ‘Why, Rei, you look like just your mother. You should grow your hair out just like she did.’ The memory always flashes momentarily in his mind before disappearing just as quickly only to be replaced by another thought.

He heard that comment so frequently back then, but not so much now when he returns to the village in between competitions. He supposes that he either became mature or ugly, and Kai assures him every night with his body and voice that it’s not the latter.

Regardless, Rei likes to be compared to his mother because he has never seen her and likes to imagine her face when he looks in the mirror (and, sometimes, he likes to style his hair in different ways in hopes of finding the right one). If he’s really desperate or really bored, he puts on Mao’s makeup and clothing and takes pictures of himself, hoping that they resemble her appearance.

It never occurs to him to simply ask the older people in his village about his mother, for they seem to have known her quite well. Deep in his subconscious, Rei believes that not knowing anything about his mother is better than knowing everything about her.

Because, for some reason, he is sure that the truth is painful.

xxx

“Hey, Rei,” Kai says off-handedly one day as they lean together for warmth on the settee, shifting a little as he turns to face his lover, “I want to meet your parents.”

Rei only smiles and continues to watch the television.

Frowning at being so obviously ignored, Kai nudges Rei, even going as far as groping the other boy to gain his attention. Although receiving an irritated glare, he takes the opportunity to repeat his statement more firmly. He is expecting a positive answer, and already he is planning what to say when he first meets the two figures who created his Rei.

“Well,” Rei finally answers only after a long, uneasy pause, his eyes staring with wavering nonchalance into Kai’s, “then you’re just going to have to find them yourself, because I have no idea where they are.”

Kai raises an eyebrow, obviously not quite understanding. “Do they travel around the world?”

“No.”

“Then are they-”

“Kai,” Rei barks, quickly interrupting the developing list of explanations in Kai’s mind. He clears his throat and wonders what to say. Finally, he shrugs, returning his gaze to the television which is now showing a commercial for an organization aimed to help starving children around the world (Rei absentmindedly asks himself somewhat cynically, ‘Well, what about the other starving people?’). To prevent further discussion, he mutters, “I’ve never met my parents.”

At this, Kai immediately understands the gist of it. More out of curiosity than sympathy, he continues to inquire Rei about a past he never mentions. “Did they die after you were born?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“That’s what I said.”

“You don’t know anything about your parents.”

“That’s right.”

Blinking, the older boy takes a moment to process the information. He is slightly concerned at the way Rei answers without a hint of regret or sorrow. “Don’t you care to know?”

“Not really,” Rei sighs. He is starting to become uncomfortable and annoyed at the constant string of questions.

“Damn, I didn’t know that you were such a fool.”

xxx

“My father left me when I was younger to pursue beyblading as a career. He left me behind, and from then I started to hate beyblades and wanted to destroy them all,” Kai starts, staring at the night sky as he and Rei sit outside on the dojo porch. For a moment, he doesn’t say another word. He then brings his gaze to Rei’s face and smiles softly. “But then I met Takao.”

Rei laughs a little. “So Takao changed your entire outlook on life, did he?”

“Of course not. He just gave me a reason to beyblade other than revenge.”

“And where do I play in this?”

Kai wraps his arm around Rei’s waist and feels his heart skip at the warmth of the other boy’s body. Closing his eyes, Kai searches the folds of his memory for everything Rei. “You exist so that I don’t feel lonely.”

Rolling his eyes, Rei sarcastically replies, “Oh, I’m so glad.”

Kai, oblivious to the comment, rests his head on top of Rei’s. His hand on Rei’s waist searches for the other’s and intertwines their fingers. “Since I can’t meet your parents you should meet mine.”

For the first time in his life, Rei frowns in jealousy.

xxx

Standing in front of the bathroom mirror, Rei inspects the unusual sharpness of his canines, the point of his ear, and the ovals of his pupils (he takes note of the various bruises along his neck and waist from the previous night). He wonders if his mother and father also shared those qualities and if they had the same luster in their hair and if they had the same golden hue in their eyes.

Does he have his mother’s eyes? Does he have his father’s smile? Did his mother ever hold him in her arms, poke his nose, and exclaim, ‘he looks just like me!’? Was his father there to witness his birth?

And why can’t he remember anything past a dusty old shack just outside the village?

Sighing, Rei steps out of the bathroom and discontinues that trail of thoughts. He glances outside and frowns.

It is cloudy.

Rei hopes it doesn’t rain because he hates the rain and is, admittedly, a bit afraid of thunderstorms (of course he has no concrete answer as to why, just that he doesn’t like either). He immediately seeks Kai.

xxx

Rei doesn’t remember being the product of a broken condom or being barely three years old and holding his prostitute mother’s cold hand and being dragged through the rain and being told to stay at an abandoned shack until she returned and falling asleep on the cold, wooden floor and catching pneumonia and being found by a boy named Rai and a girl named Mao and waking up to unfamiliar surroundings and unfamiliar people that he will later believe are his home and family.

Rei doesn’t remember, but the villagers do, and they always look at him with such sympathy and pity when he turns his back to receive yet another, ‘Rei, you look like just your mother’ from another lying face.

xxx