I want to give a special thank you to KawaiiKilala77 for leaving me a review this year and reminding me I still had stories to finish.

Thanks to Zutsu and Habisha for your reviews.

"You decent?" Max asked only entering after an affirmative from the distracted blunette. "You okay buddy?"

"I'm fine. Just tired." Tyson replied with a shrug before sliding into his bed. Max turned the lights out before murmuring a sleepy goodnight which the blunette returned. He settled back onto his bed and let his thoughts run wild trying sort out the events from the past couple of days.

Chapter Seven – Trouble

Ray had his attention glued to the mirror as he continued the labour intensive process of wrapping his hair, winding the white wrap carefully over his now dry mane. Today's bout against the orange-haired Japanese fighter from Tyson's team had been exceptionally hard for him. He had narrowly missed being run through a couple of times by the taller and heavier opponent and was less than impressed by this. He'd pulled something evading the last desperate attempt by Brooklyn. Ray was never one for losing his head in a fight and it had taken a lot for him to hold onto the edges of his frayed temper. Keeping that tight rein on his rage had meant he was able to disarm his opponent at the worst possible moment and resulted in a savage rap on Brooklyn's dominant arm. Brooklyn had been forced to withdraw when it was obvious he couldn't hold his sword. The fury in those blue eyes when he had to concede defeat had made Ray take notice.

Both Kai and Lee had been watching his bout and his childhood friend knew he'd been injured. Ray's teammate Lee had whisked him away after the bout to visit the team physiotherapist. The treatment had been painful but he knew it would be necessary if he wanted to continue on in the competition. He paused momentarily as he heard the door to the suite open. The sound of a bag hitting the floor let him know Kai was back from the stadium. He returned his attention to the task at hand.

"There you are. You disappeared after your fight and I wanted to have a little chat to you about it." Kai said, lounging in the door frame, arms folded across his chest.

"Lee took me to get checked out." Ray answered calmly, keeping his attention fixed on finishing off the wrap.

"Hnnnn." Kai said, eyes narrowed.

"What?" Ray asked innocently, momentarily flicking his attention to his friend before finishing off the wrap and flipping it over his shoulder. He turned in place and leaned against the bathroom sink mimicking Kai's pose.

"Brooklyn has had to completely withdraw from the competition. Apparently, he has a broken wrist." Kai revealed, crimson eyes boring into gold. A small smirk tugged at the edges of his face.

"How devastating." Ray said drily, an innocent expression on his face.

Kai chuckled once before resuming his indolent pose. "What the hell happened out there? Brooklyn is renowned for being one of the calmest fighters in the circuit and it is rare that he ever loses his cool like he did today."

"Why are you asking me? We've never exchanged pleasantries Kai, only crossed swords." Ray shrugged nonchalantly.

Kai eyed him thoughtfully. "You think this had something to do with last night?"

"Explain." Ray replied coolly. Golden eyes watch the Russian fighter carefully.

"Hnnnn. Brooklyn was not happy when you three disappeared out the door last night. He seemed to be rather fixated on Tyson for some reason. Max tried to block Brooklyn from following you three but it only worked for so long." Kai said, head cocked slightly to the side as he returned Ray's gaze.

"Why would he focus on me? Tala was the one being openly flirtatious with Tyson." Ray pointed out.

"Tyson's attention was focused on you and he mostly ignored Tala. Besides…Tala can be a vicious prick when he wants. Brooklyn witnessed that side of his temper when a former fighter went after Tala last year in a bar and got his arse handed to him. Maybe he thought you were the easier target?" Kai said lazily, trying to get a reaction from the Chinese fighter. He was rewarded for his patience when an odd look flickered across Ray's face at the mention of Tyson's name. It lasted barely a moment before a bland mask dropped over his friend's face.

"All I did was disarm him. I didn't intentionally break his wrist. Brooklyn needs to realise that I'm not soft and if he pulls a stunt like that again I will put him through a wall! Intentionally trying to run an opponent through is dishonourable and he deserves worse than what he received." Ray said sharply.

Kai's eyebrows rose in surprise at the barely contained fury in his voice. "He tried to run you through?" He asked finally.

"Yes. I thought that was obvious." Ray said fighting down his temper, eyes flashing dangerously.

"No. Not from where we were standing. He does deserve worse for pulling something like that." Kai replied, angry on his friend's behalf. He needed to have a little chat with Max and fast about this.

The harsh sounds of a phone in the bedroom broke the uneasy silence that had descended. Kai strode into the room and picked it up. Ray wandered into the room after him and slid into a seated position on the floor to begin mediation.

"Hello?" Kai asked curtly. He listened to the person at the other end of the phone before waving his hand in front of the Chinese fighter's face.

"It's for you." He mouthed brandishing the phone at Ray.

Ray rolled his head and heard the satisfying clicks before rising from his seated position and taking the phone from Kai.

"Hello?" He asked coolly.

"Ray Kon?" A deep masculine voice asked.

"Speaking." Ray responded curtly.

"I wanted to have a chat with you about your match today." The voice said.

"Who is this?" Ray asked sharply.

"Hiro Granger."

Ray stiffened at the name and replied evenly. "What is there to discuss?"

"Hmmmm. How about you breaking my team captain's wrist?" Tyson's older brother asked.

"I disarmed him. Nothing more or nothing less Hiro. If think you are going to lay blame on me for an accident think again." Ray said coolly, fury rising rapidly.

The phone was rudely snatched out of Ray's hand and a restraining hand placed on his chest. Kai shook his head and listened to Hiro's reply. "Nice threat Hiro but you know as well as I do if you get caught saying shit like this your whole team gets thrown out. You have three other fighters are through to the Quarter Finals…are you going to squander their chances because your team captain was an idiot?" Kai asked with a nasty smirk on his face.

He listened to the angry response and winked at Ray. "It's not a threat Hiro. It's a friendly warning. I happen to be friends with two of your team mates and do you honestly think that Tyson is going to be very forgiving if you ruin his chance to compete at these championships?"

Ray bit back a laugh at the pleased look on Kai's face as the receiver was slammed down in his ear. "Thanks Kai." He said quietly, clapping a friendly hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Anytime. I do enjoy pissing off Hiro. It may have some ramifications though. We might not be allowed to see Max and Tyson." Kai pointed out.

Ray pulled a face as he realised that the Russian was right. Hiro did seem like the vindictive type.

"Do your meditation. I'll check in with you later." Kai said heading for the door.

"Bye." Ray said distractedly as he sunk into the same seated position as before.

*ts*

Tyson buried his head in his hands as he sat on the edge of the bed, feeling defeated. Tonight's team meeting had been an absolute disaster. It was bad enough that Brooklyn was hopped up on strong painkillers and as high as a kite but Hiro had been absolutely furious about something. His first directive was to ban Max and Tyson from having any contact with Ray and Kai much to their disgust. Tyson had stood up to his brother and demanded what right he had to dictate who he was friends with and it had quickly degenerated from there. The end result of him daring to question Hiro's authority was being restricted to his room unless he was under Hiro's supervision. There would be no participating in the team building exercises on their day off and he would need to "think" about who was in charge.

Fury welled up in him at the injustice of it all. "I'm not a kid damnit." He snapped to himself. Getting to his feet, he changed into some comfortable clothes and slung Dragoon onto his back. He pulled on his sneakers and walked out of the room, closing the door firmly behind him.

Tyson stalked down the stair muttering to himself. When he reached the ground floor he took a side exit and let his feet carry him away from the hotel. He brooded as he walked. Max, Tyson and Hiro had watched Brooklyn's fight and he'd been horrified at the older man's attempts to run his opponent through. They had actually been discussing it in the meeting room before the angry Hiro had blown in with their team captain. When Brooklyn had seen him, he had tried to drape himself all over Tyson much to the younger man's embarrassment. It had taken a few sharp words from his older brother to stop the creepy behaviour and this had resulted in the orange haired fighter sulking off to one side.

He couldn't have picked a worse day to stand up to Hiro. Tyson sighed and came to his senses. He looked up and realised he was in the park where he'd shared his first kiss with Ray. His feet took him in the direction of the lake and checking to see no one was around he made his way across to the island. This was a good place to spend a little alone time he thought decisively as he fought his way to the centre again.

*ts*

A loud knock on the door interrupted the quiet conversation between Ray and Kai. Both looked at their phones and then each other – it was really late. Who on earth would be coming to see them at this time of night?

Kai rose from his seat on Ray's bead and opened the door. Hiro's angry face looked down at the Russian fighter. "Where's Tyson?" He growled.

"Hi Hiro. How are you on this fine evening?" Kai asked blandly, deliberately ignoring the older man's rude behaviour.

"Knock it off Hiwatari. Where's Tyson?" Hiro demanded, eyes flashing angrily.

"He's not here. We haven't seen him since the bout this afternoon." Ray said from his position from the bed, shooting Kai a warning look.

They both stiffened when they noticed the colour drain from Hiro's face. "You haven't seen him since then?" Tyson's older brother asked again needing confirmation.

"No. Why?" Ray asked rising from his seated position and walking to Kai's side.

"It doesn't concern you." The older blunette snapped back, starting to turn away.

Kai reached out and grabbed Hiro's arm in a hard grip. "What's going on? If you don't tell me I will report you for your threatening behaviour earlier today." he asked bluntly.

Hiro's face went white at the threat. "Bastard." He said in a low voice.

"Only on day's ending in y." Kai quipped. "Spill Hiro."

Ray's arms were folded across his chest as he looked down his nose at the older man.

"Tyson and I had a blow up today and I banned him from partaking in any team building exercises tomorrow." Hiro said through gritted teeth.

A message tone cut through the silence and Ray looked at his phone. "You want to add anything on to that last statement Hiro?" He asked coolly.

Hiro looked him up and down once. "I banned Max and Tyson from interacting with both of you." He growled. "I don't want your bad attitudes rubbing off on them."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "You banned your adult brother from seeing either of us because you were angry about earlier?" He asked incredulously. "Knowing Tyson, he would have told you that you couldn't dictate who he was friends with and you overreacted as per usual. So, Tyson had done a runner and you can't find him. Let me guess he didn't take his phone with him so you can't track him this time."

Hiro blanched but admitted that that was exactly what had happened.

"Tyson's grown up Hiro. If you had asked him he probably would have left us alone until after the fights. But give him an ultimatum and he is going to fight back. You'll need to apologise and lift the restrictions if we find him. Because we are not going to help unless you do." Kai said crossing his arms across his chest. Ray followed suit.

Hiro looked between them and finally agreed that he would. "Do you have any ideas where he could have gone?" Tyson's older brother asked plaintively.

Ray though suddenly of the little peace of heaven he had shown Tyson…maybe he had gone there to think? "Why don't we split up and have a look. Did you check the dining area or with any of his other friends?" He asked, keeping his sudden interest to himself.

"No." Hiro responded shortly.

"Why don't we split up and look for him?" Ray suggested, heart skipping a beat.

"Good idea." Kai said firmly. He went back into the room and pulled on his shoes and grabbed his key. Ray followed suit and they shut the door behind him.

"I'll go see my team mates and your team and see if they have seen Tyson." Kai said coolly. "Why don't you check some of the places like the gym, pool or other facilities Hiro?"

"I have a couple of ideas outside the hotel. I'll go and have a look there." Ray volunteered.

Hiro reluctantly agreed before they split and went their separate ways.

*ts*

Ray carefully wound his way through the trail into the centre of the island. Tyson slept peacefully in the centre of the tiny clearing curled up in a ball around his sword Dragoon. He watched the younger man breathe in and out for a little bit, content that his hunch had been correct. After a few moments he quietly returned the way he had come being careful not to disturb the blunette.

Pulling out his phone he rang Kai. After three rings the fiery Russian picked up. "Have you found him?"

"I have. It's going to take me a little while to convince him to come back." Ray said, keeping his voice low.

"Alright. I'll let Hiro know and tell him you are doing your best to convince Tyson to return. Take as long as you like. Don't do anything I wouldn't." Kai ended mischievously in a sing song voice before laughing and hanging up.

Ray shook his head and laughed quietly to himself before going back to where he had left Tyson. The blunette hadn't moved from his position. The night air was cool and he appeared to be shivering a little bit Ray noticed. He walked over to the younger fighter and knelt, gently placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Tyson." He said in a low voice, shaking the blunette. Ray frowned when this didn't elicit any reaction from the younger man.

"Tyson." He said in a firmer voice and shook him harder.

"Go way Hiro!" Tyson grumbled pulling away from the hand.

Ray snorted holding in a laugh. This clearly wasn't work. What could he do…? A mischievous idea came to mind. With a smirk he leaned over the younger man and blue seductively in his ear.

"Tyson." He said with a throaty growl. Ray traced a finger from a soft cheek, down the exposed arm and across the blunette's back. The younger fighter shivered at the seductive touch and a panting moan caught his interest. He blew in his ear again and then gently nipped it. The breathy squeak this provoked caused Ray's smirk to widen and encouraged the Chinese fighter to nip his way down exposed throat to the salty skin on Tyson's collarbone.

"Ray?" A sleepy voice brought his attention away from that enticing patch of skin. He looked up to see dazed chocolate brown eyes watching him. He smiled down at the younger man and reluctantly let him up.

"What are you doing here?" Tyson asked rubbing his eyes. He shivered slightly and was enfolded in Ray's muscular arms. The Chinese fighter radiated warmth and he slowly relaxed against him.

"We've been looking for you. Hiro came banging on our door looking for you and demanded to know if we had seen you. I understand you two had a little altercation about being able to see Kai and I?" Ray said calmly.

Tyson stiffened in his arms and tried to pull away. Ray refused and held him tighter. "I don't want to talk about it." The younger man responded.

"That's fine." Ray replied with a yawn.

Tyson turned his face to look at Ray confused. "You are fine with me not telling you."

"Yes. I've got things I'd rather do with the limited time we have left for the night." Ray replied with a saucy wink causing Tyson to blush.

It didn't stop the blunette from surprising the Chinese fighter with a firm kiss. He smiled and allowed the younger man to be the aggressor this time, enjoying the experience. It didn't take long for his hands to slide up the back of Tyson's tee and with a growl he pulled the blunette down and rolled him over so Ray was on top.

"Damn it." He snapped, pulling away. Ray sat on the younger fighter's hips breathing hard and fighting for control. He was seriously close to losing it. The wild look on Tyson's face was not helping him regain his composure.

"Ray." Tyson whined, looking at him with puppy dog eyes. Ray's breath caught in his throat before he could something he regretted he leapt to his feet and walked a few paces away, taking in deep breaths.

Tyson staggered to his feet determinedly. Slinging Dragoon across his back he stalked over to Ray and grabbed his white tunic. Glaring up into gold eyes he pulled Ray into a searing kiss.

"Tyson stop!" Ray said gasped out tearing his mouth away. Tyson ignored the plea moulding himself around the older man.

"Why?" The blunette said with a pout.

It took all of Ray's self-control and then some not to jump the younger fighter. "I came here to see you were okay, not put you in a position you might later regret." He said softly, looking into the younger mans eyes. "I told you I like you a lot."

Tyson gave him a shy smile in return. "I like you too Ray. You do realise I am an adult and able to make any decision I want to, don't you?"

Ray tilted his head slightly. "I know you are an adult but I don't want to rush into anything. I want you to be sure before you commit to something a little more serious." He gave the blunette a slow dazzling smile.

Tyson ducked his head in embarrassment before giving Ray a quick peck on the lips. "If you want to take it slow I'll let you."

"It's late. I'll give you two options – we can go back to the hotel or we can camp out here tonight and go back in the morning. What do you want to do?" Ray said calmly.

Tyson weighed up the option. "Camp here tonight. I don't want to deal with Hiro." He said finally.

"I'll flick Kai a message and he can let Hiro know. Is there anything you want him to pass on to your brother?" Ray asked pulling away to grab his phone out of his pocket.

Ray: Tyson and I won't be back tonight. He's still upset about whatever happened.

Kai: Yeah. Sure! Want to try again? I think there might be another reason you two want to stay out all night. ;)

Ray rolled his eyes at his friend's response. Tyson was oblivious as he chafed his arms. Seeing he was cold he pulled the other fighter against him and texted the Russian back.

Ray: Don't be a perv. He needs a friend right now.

"You sure you want to stay out here when you are feeling cold?" Ray said into Tyson's hair, he felt the younger man's head nod against his tunic. He inhaled gently and was slightly aroused at the scent of coconuts that wafted up to him. He wrapped an arm around the blunette happy to just stand there.

His phone vibrated in the other hand. Grumbling slightly to himself, he unlocked the phone and read the message.

Kai: Boo. You're no fun! Hiro isn't happy but I told him to get over it.

Ray tapped Tyson on the back, the blunette looked up at him sleepily. "Kai's told your brother and he isn't happy but Kai told him to deal with it."

"Sounds about right. Those two do not get along." Tyson said with a small sigh. "Hiro will get over it."

Ray: Thanks. We'll see you in the morning. Think it might be ugly between those two.

Kai: We'll both make sure Hiro isn't a complete dick. We can always kidnap Max and Tyson to make sure they aren't being bullied. As I said…don't do anything I wouldn't do. ;)

Ray: Why don't you save your lecherous ways for Max and stop projecting on us? ;p

He sniggered to himself at the finger sign he got in reply. Ray tucked his phone in to his pants and pulled the blunette to the ground. "Let's get some rest. Morning won't be that far away."

"Alright." Tyson said with a large yawn.

He allowed Ray to pull him against that muscular chest. The blunette blinked slowly as a feeling of peace came over him. He relaxed in the Chinese fighter's arms and was soon asleep. Ray snuggled closer to Tyson. He felt settled and at home for the first time in years. It didn't take long for sleep to claim him after that thought crystallised.

*ts*

Hi Everyone,

Thank you very much for your patience! I know it has been a loooooong time between updates. I promise it won't be so such a long wait for the next chapter and I this one lives up to your expectations.

Please review.

Love

Storm xox