Palpable

The thick, stifling tension had become so palpable that it pulled Ray out of his meditative state. His eyelids fluttered open and he focused on his surroundings as a soft hum rumbled in his chest. He relaxed his once tightly crossed arms and drummed his long fingers against them. How odd it was to feel such unbearable weight at his back on such a beautiful day. The gentle breeze caressed his skin and momentarily displaced the hanging ends of the hair that framed his face; cotton candy-shaped clouds rode the wind across the striking blue sky as birds sung their sweet songs overhead. The contrast was striking.

His eyes lifted upwards as he thought about the potential causes of the discomfort seeping throughout the dojo he temporarily called home. Perhaps…. His eyes widened slightly and then closed in acceptance. Of course. Now he understood. This was a hard time of year for her, he imagined. He blinked open his eyes as a slow smile appeared on his face. But it didn't have to be…

Ray walked around the empty dojo, gathering his supplies while simultaneously thanking his lucky stars that the others had plans for the day. The quieter the day, the better. His bare feet padded against the shiny wooden floors as he made his way around and the cool surface seeped into his feet.

After he finished he went to the kitchen only to pause in the doorway and watch as Crystal stalked around, opening and slamming drawers as she went. Her face remained blank but a fire burned in her eyes. She yanked on another drawer, removed a pair of gold and black chopsticks, and stabbed them into the manjū sitting on wax paper with such ferocity that he heard the tips slam into the tabletop.

"Are you okay?" he ventured to ask.

She cut her eyes at him. "Yeah, I'm fine. Can't a girl eat without being interrogated?" She lifted the piece of manjū to her mouth and shoved the whole thing in. Her cheeks bulged as she chewed and he had to bite the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing. Something told him that would only result in him getting manjū to the face.

"Yes, you can," he replied, his words calm. His eyes slowly surveyed her as she ate; he noticed the rise to her shoulders, the clench in her jaw, and the flare of her nostrils. He stepped forward, resting his palms on the table opposite her. "Hey." He waited for her to look up at him as she deftly controlled her chopsticks to pick up another piece of food. "You seem a little tense."

"I'm not tense," she all but growled.

He lifted his eyebrows. "Agitated, then."

She rolled her eyes and huffed. "Yeah, 'cause you're bothering me."

He merely hummed, expecting that sort of reaction from her. On a day as important as this one, he could let her attitude slide. He knew having the utmost patience with her would be the only way the day could end on a good note. And he wanted it to end well for her sake; something told her she didn't have many good days to look back on fondly. So he changed tactics.

"What are you doing today?" he asked.

She paused mid-chew, the food in her mouth bulging in her cheek reminiscent of Tyson. "Nuffing," she replied, her words garbled.

"Want to spend some time with me?" At her raised eyebrows he continued, "I'd like your company, if I'm not keeping you from anything important." He chuckled at the stunned expression on her face that then melted into confusion. Without a word he reached across the table, swiped a piece of manjū, and popped it into his mouth. He watched as the fire that burned in her eyes slowly died and her shoulders lowered from her ears. "Lái." Come. He held out his hand.

Switching to Chinese, as she frequently did when speaking alone with him, she uttered, "This better be worth it," and, after a moment's pause, took his hand.

He waited for her to round the table and led her back through the dojo to where he previously sat meditating. Now accompanying his yoga mat were a few slim sticks of bamboo, curved at the end, and a few with puffs attached to the top.

"It's been a while, right?" He knelt down on the cushy yoga mat, assuming the proper position for the traditional task. The question was moot, they both knew the answer.

"Yeah, I tend not to let people hold my eardrum hostage," she commented. He didn't miss the twitch of her lips as she spoke.

"Which means you're overdue." He patted his knees and looked up at her. He could almost see the internal battle raging in her head as she studied him but he calmly waited. Trust had nothing to do with her uncertainty; the wall she'd built around herself over the years had become as tall as it was thick. And despite being in a better place with her now than they had been before, he knew he still had to be careful when it came to pushing her. His good intentions could only make the chasm bigger if he weren't careful. Right now it was the size of a crack in dry dirt, one false move and he'd be staring at the Grand Canyon.

"Okay," she sighed.

"Don't sound so enthused."

"It's not you, it's…" her words trailed off.

He nodded. "I know. Just tell me when to stop if you want me to. I won't hurt you, I promise."

Crystal tucked her hair behind her ears and knelt on the hardwood floor next to him. Slowly she unfurled her legs, leaned over, and rested her head on his lap. She pressed her lips together and kept her hands pulled up close to her chest. What if she touched…something? Even if it was an accident, what if he thought it wasn't? The thought alone resulted in heat steadily rising in her cheeks until she was sure she could be seen from space.

"Are you okay?" Ray asked.

"Fine," she squeaked, forcing the all-too-real but unwanted thoughts out of her mind before they made the situation worse. She sucked in a breath through her nose and let it out slowly in an effort to control her sudden rapid heartbeat.

Clicking his tongue, Ray accepted her answer. He brushed his fingers against her exposed ear to move the rest of her hair out of his way, causing her to stiffen beneath his touch. He chose to ignore it and reached for one of the ear picks.

He carefully held it between his fingers and began rubbing the back of the scoop against the crease in her upper ear, applying gentle pressure. She let out an audible breath through her nose but otherwise remained still. He rubbed against her ear in small circles; gauging her reaction to be sure he applied the right amount of pressure.

"Where are the others?" She spoke so suddenly that it nearly made him jump.

"Out, I suppose," Ray replied. "Well, Kai hasn't come back around since yesterday and who knows what he gets up to. I think Max took the others to Ueno Park today."

"You didn't want to go?"

"Well, it's not every day you get some quiet time away from Tyson. Have to take every chance you can get," Ray explained. His shoulders shook with suppressed mirth. "I can't meditate when he's whining about nobody being around to battle. Despite there being a park full of kids waiting to take him on."

"I hear you."

"Is that why you didn't go?"

"No, I just didn't feel like it."

She fell silent and he didn't press on. A faraway look settled in her eye and slowly the picturesque image of the lush greens and the koi pond in the backyard became taken over by a haze. She closed her eyes as Ray brushed the scoop against the curve of the back of her ear. She could almost hear the sounds of swift moving water rushing over rocks and a gaggle of giggling kids as they ran through the underbrush…

Ray paused when she let out a shuddering breath. He lifted the ear pick from behind her ear and peered down at her face. "Did I hurt you?"

"No. You're okay." She swallowed and blinked rapidly, her long thick eyelashes fluttering to rid them of…something. Something he hadn't seen in her eyes in a long while, having shut herself off from any sort of lingering sentimental notion much like a certain captain of theirs.

Though a little deterred, he picked up the ear pick once more and resumed his previous ministrations to the back of her ear. Her breathing evened out and she relaxed against his leg. The blush on her face faded and her skin-tone resumed its normal tan coloring. She was never one to allow vulnerable emotions to stick.

Not even when they were young and things were "simple" back then, if you could call it that. It was no secret that she, while apart of their little group, always felt on the outskirts of it. Everyone else had a familial connection that couldn't be ignored; Lee and Mariah as siblings, Gary and Kevin as cousins and while Ray himself wasn't related to them they all knew Ray felt like a brother of sorts to Lee, which only left Crystal as the odd man out. A mere fact that could be glossed over as they all rose to take on the new day, whether by tackling their chores together or going for an adventure in the surrounding forest or even beybladed together but at the end of the day, when they went their separate ways, the gloss would be peeled off and the raw fact-of-the-matter would look them dead in the eyes. The rough passage of time and all that they had been through couldn't have helped matters; while they had each other she was alone and only had herself to rely on for survival; vulnerabilities had no place in her life.

And yet, Ray couldn't help but notice, here she was allowing him to reach a part of her so vulnerable even after her previous protest. Here she was allowing him to touch a part of her so intimate that he'd never even done with Mariah yet, a woman whom he held special feelings for. If the day weren't so special he suspected she would have turned him down ages ago but she complied and allowed him to enter the premises of her carefully crafted wall. And in the center of it all, in the darkness within, he saw a little girl, curled up in fetal position, with eyes so large they held the sea and with the ebb and flow of the tide, tears dripped down her face. If only he could get closer…

With his left hand, Ray simultaneously used his fingers to pull back on her ear and open up her ear canal. He brushed the puff end along the opening of her ear, removing excess dirt and debris from the outer area. He flipped it around so the scoop part faced downwards and held it by the opening of her ear. "Zhǔnbèi?" Ready? Crystal nodded and Ray carefully inserted the scoop into her ear. Her body swelled as she sucked in a breath and held it.

He expertly pushed the scoop further into her canal, angling it upwards to carefully scrape against the sensitive walls of her ear. As he pressed upwards and pulled the ear pick back out she let her breath out all in one loud woosh. He repeated the action and watched as she seemed to melt beneath his hand; she became so relaxed that her breathing evened out and her eyelids drooped as if sleep slowly took her over. She let out a long sigh when he removed the ear pick entirely to brush the earwax off onto a scrap of cloth.

Ray's hand was gentle as he manipulated the curette deep in her ear and the two soon found themselves wrapped up in a blanket of peace and relaxation. The gentle breeze of the beautiful afternoon caressed their skin and tugged at their clothes. Crystal shivered, he wasn't sure if it was from the air or due to being scratched in her ear. He pulled the curette along her ear and she shivered again.

He frowned. Wait… That wasn't right. Rather than her entire body shaking the trembles seemed to be restricted in her upper half. His golden eyes shifted upwards from her ear, following the curve of her cheek bone, and to her cerulean eyes. His breath briefly halted when he saw the tears gathered along the lower rim of her eyelids, threatening to spill over. She hadn't been shivering; she'd been trying to stifle her sobs.

Immediately, he removed the ear pick from her ear canal and set it aside. She sniffed and he rested his hands atop of her head, gently pulling his fingers through her hair. He hummed an old tune that was passed around the village. Fuck, it hurt seeing her like this. Back at the village, especially after obtaining the sacred White Tiger, if the Elder was going through one of his spells people would look towards him to make decisions. To find a way to fix everything. He couldn't fix this, no matter how much he wished he could. He couldn't fix the lingering pain in her heart and the sorrow in her eyes and the stiffness added to her upper-lip day in and day out. And today, especially today.

"I'm sorry," she uttered.

"No. No. Don't apologize to me, Crys. There's nothing to apologize for. Especially this." He removed a hand from her hair and brushed away a loose tear that began a trek down her cheek.

"I just miss them so much."

"I know."

Her body shook as she released a shuddering breath. "No, you don't," she insisted. "You don't get it. Ray…" She pushed herself off his lap and looked at him; her eyes, now puffy and red, allowed the tears to fall freely down her cheeks. "I'm forgetting about them, Ray. When I used to think about my mom and dad I could see their faces clearly and I could hear their voices and I could even remember what they smelled like as if they were standing right next to me. But now…I can barely remember what my mom sounds like. I don't remember what my dad's laugh is like. Whenever I picture them…it's like someone rubbed away their faces and I'm picturing strangers. I don't want to forget them, Ray. I want them back. I want them back!"

Ray drew her into his arms and held her tight. If he could he would have squeezed all the tears and sadness out of her but instead he just held on as her body shook and quivered with each unrestrained sob that wracked her body. He held on as he felt her fingers digging into the fabric of his shirt in an effort to keep something tangible in her grasp. He rubbed her back until her cries slowed and her breathing returned to normal.

He loosened his grip when Crystal pulled away, feeling a sense of loss when she backed away from him. She brushed at her eyes with the heels of her palms and said, "Um…can you please not say anything about this to the others?"

Ray made a zipping motion across his lips. "It'll stay between us, I promise."

She regarded him; her careful stare stirred something in him but he held her gaze. "You knew." Her statement made him lift his eyebrows. "That's why you did this." She nodded to the forgotten ear picks on the floor by them. "That's why you stayed behind."

"Ah." Ray nodded and rubbed the back of his neck. "Yes, well, I couldn't have you be alone. I just wanted to be sure you were okay. I thought, perhaps, this would help bring up some good memories rather than bad ones. I didn't mean to—"

She held up her hand, stopping his words. She swallowed and briefly twisted her mouth to the side. Her eyebrows scrunched up, her nose wrinkled briefly, she took a breath, looked him in the eye and said, "Xièxiè. This…means a lot."

"Yīng gāi de," Ray replied. Of course. Unable to stop himself he reached out and placed his hand atop of her head to muss her hair, for old time's sake.

And, just like old times, she slapped his hand away with a roll of her eyes that was accompanied with a sharp, "Watch it, Kon." Then a moment later she poked him in the arm and asked sheepishly, "So…can you…maybe…?"

He chuckled. "Sure. If that's what you'd like." He picked up the abandoned instrument and waited for her to lay her head on his lap once more. Whatever she wanted that day he'd do his best to fulfill because, if she could have one day out of her life be a pleasant turning point, he'd be honored to be able to help her achieve it.

A/N: Well here's the first one-shot in the collection. Writing Ray's and Crystal's friendship is one of my favorite parts of her character; having their past tie them together in an intimate way that the others may not understand is a very interesting aspect. I've also always wanted to write a scene with the ear cleaning aspect of Asian culture and this came out. The title, Sign of Wish, is inspired by the Beyblade G Revolution ending theme. I read the English lyrics and felt that they resonated with Crystal and thus this one-shot collection was born! Please read and review and tell me what you think!

Next up: Max!

~Manning

P.S. For those that read my Crouching Tiger series, I am working on the next chapter for Crouching Tiger II as well so that will be updated soon! If you'd like to follow me on twitter for updates, the link is in my profile. Thanks!