Bring the Game

Not proof-read yet.

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Chapter 8 – Personal Foul

Kakashi breathed a sigh of relief and cradled his cellphone against his chest as if in a silent prayer.

Neji was safe!

He wanted nothing more than to scold the recalcitrant Hyuuga for straying from the group on his own without first obtaining permission, but the most important thing right now was that nothing had happened to him and Hatake Kakashi did not have to suffer the wrath of Hyuuga Hiashi.

He was now counting down the hours until he returned to Japan so he could gleefully give Gai his own job back and that was something he was looking forward to even more than lecturing Neji. If someone had told him that coaching a team of boys was going to be more stressful than coaching a team of girls then he would have laughed in their face but as much as he hated to admit it, he was actually looking forward to seeing his little harpies. P.M.S. and all!

The silver-haired man shook his head wryly and tucked his phone into the pocket on the inside of the team blazer. Who knew that adolescent boys could have as much drama as adolescent girls and if he didn’t know better he could have sworn that it was his volley-ball team that he’d brought to America instead but, to be fair, not all of them were that bad it was just the few, rotten apples that spoiled the rest of the bunch.

Naruto was the easiest to work with. He fancied himself the cheerleader of the group and always believed that nothing was impossible. Lee was the same in his ‘youthful exuberance’ and with those two on the team who needed a pep squad? Kiba had to be handled a bit more delicately but Kakashi soon learned that his anarchy stemmed from his desire to be the center of attention. Shikamaru was a God-send and it was the Nara that acted as the mediator among his class-mates and he always solved their conflicts with a mature diplomacy that this world’s leaders knew nothing of. Of course, he was only useful when he wasn’t asleep and Kakashi learned from first hand experience just how miserable and bitchy he could be whenever he was forced to do something that he found too troublesome.

Then there were those two, and a disgusted shudder tore through the older man’s frame when he thought about Sasuke and Neji.

Sasuke played to win and while any coach would have found that a desirable trait in their players, the Uchiha took it much too far and would always harbor a personal vendetta against anyone who bested him. He was also a sore loser and if beating up the victor wasn’t consolation enough then he’d start to sulk.

Neji wasn’t much of a ‘team-player’ in that, while he was the one responsible for bringing them to the championships in the first place he never did socialize with the other boys or try to bond with them. He liked to be on his own and as soon as practice was over he’d leave without even saying ‘good-bye’. Neji also hated to lose but he wasn’t as vocal about it as the Uchiha but tonight he seemed a little more volatile than usual.

These boys didn’t have to be like that and he knew that they were overshadowed by their predecessors. Whenever someone said the word ‘Uchiha’ the first person that came to mind was Itachi, Sasuke’s older brother, a prodigy in his own league who graduated egregia cum laude at some university in England. That was many years ago but Itachi’s notoriety still existed to this day and it was something that the Uchiha’s liked to brag about and something Sasuke was never allowed to forget and even though he liked to pretend he didn’t care, it was obvious to see that he still harbored resentment towards his older brother.

Neji’s problems were a little more local and he was unfortunate enough to enroll at the school where his family’s name was recorded in the annals of their school’s history and Kakashi firmly believed that the boy was forced to attend there to carry on the Hyuuga legacy his father and uncle started and ‘encouraged’ to shine brighter than both men put together.

Both boy’s parents were obviously to blame but who was he, a lowly volley-ball coach and substitute teacher, to tell these prestigious families how to raise their children?

Kakashi picked up his menu and prepared to order, finally able to eat now that he didn’t have to worry about Neji anymore but even though his eyes roved over the laminated surface he hadn’t read a single word.

He should have taken the premonition more seriously when he got the first signs of trouble before they even left Osaka.

Both boy’s parents had demanded they be placed in separate, more luxurious rooms than the other players and Tsunade had to do everything short of selling her body to reserve two, Penthouse suites at the last minute, a task made even more difficult since it was the peak season. Kakashi wasn’t exactly sure what kind of deal the wily woman had made with the hotel manager but he knew she had no intentions of keeping up her end of the bargain because after hanging up with the man she sighed and had her secretary make a note that if she were to ever visit the United States that she must avoid all Holiday Inns.

If that wasn’t bad enough then the long list of demands memoed by both families should have alerted him that this was not going to turn out to be the vacation he’d hoped for but it was too late to bail by that time and when they almost missed their flight because both families didn’t want their sons going to the air-port in the school bus (even though they’d been transported in it countless times before) and had them delivered by limousines, Kakashi knew he was doomed.

It had always been like that, at least, that’s what the rest of the faculty told him after getting a good laugh at his expense. They were always trying to out-do the other as if trying to prove who loved their sons more but to Kakashi it was nothing more than a childish game played by rich, spoiled adults who wanted to prove who had more money to burn.

“You’re not gonna find any raw fish there, you know,” a slurred voice said from next to him and Kakashi sighed before throwing a tired glance in Seifer’s direction.

They, and that other boy, Kinneas, were the only ones remaining at the table now after everyone had pretty much left the diner. Just after Sasuke stormed out, Lee said he wanted to go back to the hotel and wait just in case Neji showed up and Shikamaru accompanied him since he was tired and wanted to get some sleep. The boy on the other team that had been sitting next to the one that bore a startling resemblance to Naruto (Kakashi couldn’t remember his name right now) was sent home crying to his mother after Seifer began a smear campaign against him.

Kiba was the only other person that stayed behind but only because he kept hitting on the restaurateur’s eldest daughter; a voluptuous, dark-skinned, young lady who was much too developed for her age and the one he’d named the diner after.

The table now looked a bit too large for just three people and Kakashi wondered why he didn’t just get up and go sit in another chair as far away from these two as possible especially since Seifer was now targeting him.

It was easy to ignore most of his barbs since he wasn’t very familiar with most American culture but when he started to ridicule and caricaturize what little he did know about the Japanese way of life, the older man became slightly annoyed.

“In this country we actually cook all our foods. Betcha’ didn’t know that, huh?”

“They cook rice over there too, dumbass,” was Irvine’s defense from behind another can of beer. “You don’t think they actually eat it raw do you?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me if they did,” he laughed.

Kakashi was glad for that save because he had a particularly scathing reply to that uneducated remark but he thought about saying it anyway when he felt him brush his hand against his thigh and his knee knock against his leg for the eight time that night. Not that he was counting or anything but it was pretty hard not to notice it.

“You know, there’s a restaurant just a couple blocks from here,” Seifer went on as if he was blissfully unaware to the fact that he kept hitting the other man. “They serve all kinds of stuff that’ll make you feel right at home.”

“That’s a Chinese restaurant, Seifer,” said the brunette, knowing exactly which one he was referring to.

“And?”

“This guy’s Japanese!”

He was quiet for a moment before saying, “I still fail to see what your point is.”

Irvine made a loud, exasperated noise and threw one hand in the air rather dramatically as if to dismiss the entire conversation before returning to his drink and Kakashi thought that was going to be the end of it until he felt the boy’s hand on his thigh again.

“You know, I’ve always wondered about those ‘kimono’ thingies,” he started again after removing his hand and using it to scratch his chin rather thoughtfully. “Is it true that men wear them too?”

“It’s traditional,” was Kakashi’s guarded response.

“Oh, so you’ve worn one before?”

His white head nodded slowly and it was only when he saw those wicked features crinkle into a face did he realize that he’d fallen into some kind of trap.

“I don’t think I could wear one of those,” he said with slight disgust. “I mean a floor length dress with a bow at the back…sound pretty fucking gay if you ask me.”

Irvine didn’t even bother to stifle his laughter and a few of the other patrons turned around to look at their table. “You should be the last person to talk about ‘fucking gay’.”

“Yeah well, fuck you!”

“Let’s wait a little later for that, shall we?” and he winked before bringing the can to the smirk on his lips.

Kakashi wasn’t exactly sure what their ‘coded’ conversation was all about but at least now he had a pretty good idea as to the relationship between these two boys and when he started to chuckle, Seifer returned his ire to the man on his right.

“Somesing amuses you, sensei?” he asked in one of those butchered, oriental accents one would hear frequently on television.

“No,” he replied flatly and turned his attention back to the menu.

“No, weally. You awe owur honowable guest in dis foreign land, if dere is somesing you want pwease let us know.”

“Seifer, cut it out,” Irvine said sharply but his warning went ignored.

“Do you want some tea, O honowable sensei? Would that make you feel more at home, you cocksucker?” the last sentence he said in his native accent and he wasn’t even aware that he’d slipped back into it. “What if I did my eyes like this?” and he pulled the far corners of his eyes back with his fingers until they were thin slits and Irvine immediately slapped them away.

“What the hell is your problem, man?” he roared after the blonde retaliated by punching him against his arm.

“What the hell is your problem?” he snapped back. “I’m just having a little fun, where’s your sense of humor? Shit!”

“That’s always your excuse, you know,” and he smiled suddenly as if he completely forgot the events that transpired just a few minutes ago. “But one of these days you’re gonna take it too far and I won’t be there to bail you out.”

“I don’t need your help,” he sneered rather nastily and locked his hands behind his head and brought one foot to the table’s edge to use it to rock him back and fort on the two rear legs of his chair but it wasn’t long before Kiros spotted him and tossed a crumpled ball of tissue at his head and the young boy grumbled and returned his foot to the ground where it belonged. “Hey!” he turned to Kakashi again and the substitute coach felt something like acid reflux churn in his stomach. “What’s your name again?”

“Hatake Kakashi,” he grumbled and he only realized his mistake after the other boy called him by his family name.

“Hatake, huh? Pretty odd name,” he muttered under his breath. “Look,I know how your kind of people feel about respect ‘n shit-”

“ ‘Your kind of people’?” Irvine echoed in disdain at his choice of words but Seifer ignored him a second time and refused to amend his sentence.

“But I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings so don’t go all ‘Jackie Chan’ on my ass, okay?”

“Jackie Chan’s from Chi-”

“What I’m trying to say is, that I don’t have anything personal against you or the place you’re from. Shit, I mean I get all my stuff from Japan anyway,” and he began counting off all his possessions on each finger. “My television’s from Japan, my videogames are from Japan, I think some of my computer parts had to be ordered from Japan too. My dogs are Japanese Akitas, some of my clothes are from Japan, hell almost everything I own comes from Japan, but just a little bit of advice from one of your consumers…” and he leaned closer and beckoned with one finger for Kakashi to do the same. “Maybe you guys should stick to making the basketball equipment and not the ‘baskets’,” and Seifer gave the other man two reassuring pats on his shoulder and grinned malevolently when he saw the murderous glint in Kakashi’s flat glare.

Irvine tugged the other boy away, snapping him back roughly and even then he didn’t break their furious eye contact.

“Stop it!” the long-haired brunette hissed and tugged his arm again for good measure.

“What?” but his feigned innocence didn’t work on Irvine this time.

“You’re trying to start a fight.”

Seifer shrugged an uncaring shoulder. “So what if I am? It’s not like this guy’s gonna take me on anyway,” and he said that as if he was somewhat disappointed. “Besides, I got what I need.”

Irvine’s eyes grew wide and he looked up as the other boy rose from his seat and took the remainder of his beers in hand. “You don’t mean-”

“Shh!” he cut in and gestured with a sideways nod of his head that they should leave now. Irvine muttered something under his breath about him always playing his fucking games and Kakashi ignored them as they made their exit so he missed when the ill-mannered young man waved at Kiros from the door and when he got his attention he pointed to a small, rectangular object he was holding up in one hand then pointed to the lone patron at the large table.

Kiros looked from the object, to the man and to the object again before he understood what his hand gestures meant but before he could run around the bar and chase down the two boys they had already dashed out the door.

“Shiiiit,” he cursed under his breath.

“Language, Daddy,” his daughter reprimanded sweetly with a tray of dirty dishes in one hand and a tip in the other and he immediately apologized. He hadn’t realized that she was standing so close, he also hadn’t realized that she was also just standing there, flirting with that guy again and after politely asking her to get back to work she sighed and excused herself from the conversation with a wink. Fortunately for her, her over-protective father hadn’t seen it because he was now on the foreign teacher’s left and slipped into the seat beside him.

“Sorry, I’m not ready to order yet,” Kakashi said in a much lighter voice, now that he was able to fully concentrate on the menu before him.

Kiros took a quick glance in the direction of the door and he fidgeted in his chair slightly before dragging it a little closer, the other man looked over at him and when their eyes met the darker of the two froze suddenly as if he were just caught at the scene of a crime. He opened his mouth to say something then thought better of it and Kakashi could tell that he was very hesitant to say whatever it was he had on his mind.

“You know, that Seifer’s something else,” he laughed with a shake of his head and looked down at his hands that were drumming an unknown beat against the clothed table-top.

“Hn,” the other man scoffed and returned to the piece of card in his hand to seriously consider the ‘Sloppy Joe’s’ he’d heard so much about.

Kiros sighed heavily and his demeanor became very serious and after taking another quick glance out the glass door he leaned closer to the white-haired customer and the other man bristled at his nearness.

“Look, you seem like a reasonable man,” Kiros started in a voice so low that Kakashi had trouble hearing him. “And from the way you handled those two earlier I don’t think you have a temper.”

Kakashi fought back a laugh because this man obviously didn’t know the half of it but before he could get the chance to correct his err in thinking he continued.

“Seifer’s really not a bad kid, he’s just been through a lot. His parents had a nasty divorce when he was young and even though neither wanted to be burdened with him they didn’t want to share custody either.” He watched as the other man placed the menu aside and folded his arms across the table and Kiros was relieved that he found the brief account of Seifer’s childhood somewhat touching but that was the furthest thing from the truth, because Kakashi only wanted to know where he was going with all this.

“But even after the courts ruled for joint custody the battle didn’t end there. You see, Seifer’s an only child and he’s used to getting whatever he wants so he forces his parents to prove they love him by demanding things, but it’s really not his fault,” he quickly added when he saw the other man roll his eyes. “His parents spoiled him when he was a kid so he’s used to having his own way and it’s too late to change that,” and his voice was a sad plea as if begging the stranger to understand why that boy was the way he was.

“Trust me, he used to be a lot worse,” he chuckled but Kakashi didn’t share in his amusement and when he saw that flat scowl he cleared his throat and went on. “Irvine, the other one, is more or less, the equalizer. His father’s a cop and a pretty strict disciplinarian but he’s getting along in years so he’s a little more lenient now and that’s probably the only reason he lets him hang out with Seifer, but it’s not an entirely bad thing. Irvine used to be a goody-two-shoes before the two of them met, in fact, everyone used to call him a PK…a Preacher’s Kid,” he elaborated when he saw the slight confusion on that pale face. “However, some of Seifer’s bad influence rubbed off on him but it also worked the other way around and ever since they became friends, Seifer’s been getting into a lot less fights and he’s not as disruptive as before.”

Kiros stopped so he could laugh at the wide-eyed disbelief on Kakashi’s face and he reiterated his initial point again. “Like I said, he was a lot worse.”

The lighter man nodded but he found it hard to believe that he was more disorderly than he was now and the thought made his hair stand on end. He already thought the boy was some kind of demon but any worse and he’d be the devil incarnate.

Kiros opened his mouth again to speak but there was a light tapping on his shoulder and he turned his head to see his daughter with a broad smile on her face and that same boy hooked around one arm.

“Dad, I’m done now,” she whispered, not really wanting to interrupt his conversation but needing his permission before she left.

“All the dishes?” he asked sternly and the girl nodded.

“I hope you washed them properly and didn’t do a shoddy job just because you wanted to leave earlier,” and he raked a parental eye over her date.

“But it’s after eight, Dad,” she argued with a quick glance at her watch. “My shift’s done anyway so you really don’t have an excuse to keep me any longer.”

He hated whenever she was right. What happened to the good old days when parents didn’t need an excuse to make their children do what they say or abide by their rules and if his wife wasn’t such an activist for Children’s Rights then he’d have all three of his kids under his thumb. All Katarr had to do was complain to her mother that he was ‘stifling’ her ‘independence’ and her ‘growth towards her own individuality’ and he’d be sleeping in the dog-house.

Why did his baby have to turn sixteen?

Well, he couldn’t tell her who to date but he could still reinforce her curfew and that was one thing his wife agreed with, after all, they still had their responsibilities as parents.

“Go straight to the movies and make sure you make it back here before ten-thirty or you’ll have to catch the bus,” and he said that in such a way as if it really wasn’t an option she had available to her.

She gave him a quick kiss on the top of his head and escorted Kiba towards the exit but not before Kakashi ordered him to be back by the hotel before eleven and Kiros warned him to make sure he didn’t have to go gunning for him nine months later.

“Dad!” the girl yelled over her shoulder when she caught sight of the two troublemakers blaring obscene rap in her restaurant’s parking lot. “Seifer’s loitering again!”

‘Oh right! Seifer!’ and he suddenly remembered why he was even talking to this man in the first place.

“Hey listen umm…”

“Kakashi,” he replied learning from his previous mistake.

“Kakashi, right! Now that I’ve told you all about what kind of person Seifer is, I also need to let you know that he just took off with your wallet.”

At first he wasn’t sure what that man had just said and thought he’d mistranslated his English but when he slowly brought a hand to his pants pocket and realized that it felt a lot flatter than it usually did his eyes widened and he began to frantically search the pocket on the other side and the ones inside his jacket.

“Sorry,” Kiros said sympathetically. He knew exactly what he was going through because Seifer had pulled the same stunt on both him and Laguna in the past.

“Son of a bitch!” No wonder that boy kept touching his leg!

“That kinda language isn’t gonna get you your wallet back,” he said while crinkling one side of his face but when Kakashi shot to his feet and turned towards the door he added, “and confronting him in that frame of mind won’t get your wallet back either.”

The dark stranger had a point. Seifer didn’t seem like the kind of person that would give up his wallet without a fight, but he also didn’t seem like the type that would just hand it over to him if he asked nicely either. So just how was he supposed to handle him now? He supposed he’d have to get down on his knees and grovel…

“Don’t worry about it,” Kiros said after getting up from his seat and began turning the chairs upside down on the table. “Seifer’s not going to keep it, he’ll give it back to you. He just does stuff like that for fun, like a harmless prank, you know. I think he just does it for attention,” he muttered and Kiros shook his head while freeing the loop on his apron string that had got caught on the chair leg.

So he was an attention whore, huh? That probably meant he’d have to handle that boy as if he were dealing with Kiba then. Kakashi thanked the other man for his admonishment before heading out the door Kiba and his lady friend just went through. They hadn’t gone very far and he saw her yelling over the music across the large, almost vacant lot and she was at a safe enough distance even though it appeared as if she wasn’t afraid of him.

“Why don’t you learn to behave, you juvenile delinquent,” she shot back to a nasty remark made by the blonde who was sitting on the hood of his black Toyota Solara.

“Why don’t you come over here and say that to my face?”

She didn’t take him up on his dare but instead stuck out a long tongue and Seifer retaliated by flashing her a long, middle finger. The girl felt Kiba’s, thick muscles bunch from underneath his shirt and she had to use all her strength to drag the boy away before they broke into a fight and her father sent her home.

Irvine jabbed his partner-in-crime in the ribs with an elbow then point at the man that was leisurely strolling in their direction. Seifer grinned when he saw him and he casually leaned back on one arm while holding up the leather wallet in the other.

“Did you miss this?”

Kakashi stopped just a few feet away from the two and nodded. He didn’t feel like talking over all the noise.

“Here!”

Kakashi hadn’t expected that he would relinquish the item so readily and he almost dropped it when he tossed it to him. He eyed Seifer rather suspiciously but his surprise only increased when he opened the small purse and realized that it wasn’t empty.

“Yeah, count it. It’s all there,” he encouraged with a wave of his hand. “I don’t want your money. The only thing it’s probably good for is wiping my ass.”

He ignored the insult but counted it anyway and surprisingly enough, the boy was telling the truth.

“You’re a lot younger than Laguna,” he said as a side-note. “You don’t look your age.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment,” Kakashi murmured as he checked off his credit cards and various I.D.’s.

“You shouldn’t,” the boy grinned after successfully pulling him into another trap. God! This guy was easy. “You look much older for someone who’s supposed to be in his early thirties,” and he shook his head and chuckled. “Must be all that grey hair.”

Kakashi sighed heavily and counted to ten then stuffed his wallet in his rear pants pocket for good measure. “You’re a pretty good pick-pocket,” he said but it wasn’t meant as a compliment. He had regained what was taken from him and he had no further business with this annoying brat, so then why didn’t he just turn and leave right now? Why did he stay to provoke this loose cannon? Why did he want to have the last word?

Seifer didn’t even batt an eye at his retort but his grin did spread to his cheeks. “Thanks, and you make a pretty good target.”

‘So much for having the last word,’ he grumbled inwardly. Did this kid have a reply to everything? People like that he really didn’t need to be around because he was starting to get pissed of just looking at that arrogant smirk and he had come too far now to fall into a relapse.

“Are you sure you’ve got everything?” Seifer asked, his voice dripping with honey. Kakashi knew he was going to regret turning back but he did anyway and it was a good thing too because, in his hand was a tiny photograph that had been cut into a heart shape and when he saw that round, tanned face smiling over at him the colour red flashed before his eyes.

“Give that to me,” he growled, but the voice wasn’t his anymore, but it did sound hauntingly familiar.”

“What, this?” the prankster asked innocently and pointed an unnecessary finger at it. Kakashi took two long strides towards them but the boys were fast and they jumped off the hood of the car and split-up into two separate directions but his target was Seifer and his glinting, black eyes never left him.

“Hmm, I know this definitely isn’t a picture of you when you were younger,” and he dodged to the left when the older man dashed at him. “Maybe it’s a family member…a brother perhaps?” A long, pale arm swiped in his direction but Seifer jumped backwards in time. “No…there’s no resemblance…this guy’s too cute to be related to you,” and he laughed as if to taunt him. “Maybe he’s a friend?”

Kakashi growled.

“A good friend.”

He made another grab at him and Seifer avoided it.

“Heh! I’m close aren’t I?”

“Shut up!”

“No…not a friend?” and he appeared to be stumped for a correct answer then brazenly glanced at the picture again as if daring him to make another grab while his guard was down. “Then if he’s not your friend then he must be your gay lover, am I right?”

His dark eyes drew into thin slits and that scowl should have been enough to put the young man into cardiac arrest…if looks could kill.

“But what I wanna know is, how the hell did an old fogey like you, end up with a nice piece of ass like this?”

Ghastly tendrils wrapped around his pale neck and caused his voice to come out much louder and deeper than before. “Don’t you dare talk about Iruka like that.”

“Iruka, huh. That’s a pretty, sexy name, it suits him.”

Damn, why was he letting this kid push all his buttons? No! Why was he getting all worked up over a photographic representation of a man he thought he no longer had anymore feelings for. He thought he was over him by now and this was the last reaction he’d ever expect to have over that picture. He knew he should have destroyed it a long time ago and he’d started to but when the scissors reached his face it was almost as if his hands were moving of their own accord. He should have put that heart in the trash with the rest of the mutilated photo but instead, he’d kept it, like a drug and whenever he was feeling lonely he’d take it out for a quick fix.

It was pretty pathetic, he knew and it was just too embarrassing to admit to his shrink and he kept promising himself that tomorrow…tomorrow he’d throw it away, but tomorrow never came.

Now he was like a junkie for the stupid thing but he couldn’t allow that to destroy what years of therapy and determination had built. He couldn’t let this picture destroy the cage he’d built around that inner demon.

“Give…it…back,” he warned between even spaced breaths. For some reason, it was getting a little difficult to breathe.

Seifer moaned lustily and brought the picture to his lips to run the tip of his tongue along the glossy surface while pinching one nipple underneath his shirt.

He should have snapped, or rather, he did, but his reaction was the last thing either of the three expected and when he straightened, apparently composed, and casually strolled over to the black car Irvine and Seifer exchanged a confused glance from their distance . Kakashi popped the hood by tugging the switch beneath the dash board and lifted the cover. He tinkered with something for a moment then the vehicle shut down completely and the parking space seemed much more deserted now that the music was off.

He turned to face the dumbfounded young boys and jiggled the spark plugs he held in one hand and he grinned just as haughtily as Seifer had earlier when he said, “just in case you forgot, we make the cars too.”

“You fucking son of a bitch,” Seifer screamed and it was he who was now on the offensive.

Kakashi figured something like that would rile him up. Guys like him usually valued their cars more than they did human life and his hypothesis was proven to be so when Seifer kept threatening to lob his head off if he ever laid another hand on his car again.

“Give me back that picture and I’ll give you back your plugs,” was the older man’s reasonable trade offer but Seifer didn’t want to be reasonable.

“Fuck you,” he roared and swung a fist at the other man’s jaw. Kakashi was able to block it and countered with a fist of his own but he hadn’t meant to hit him so hard…he just…did. Seifer was knocked to the ground and he rubbed the side of his mouth with the back of his hand. Kakashi wanted to apologize, he shouldn’t have retaliated out of anger like that but Seifer wasn’t the kind of bully that started crying whenever someone had the guts to stand up to him, on the contrary, he was the type that provoked people to stand up to him just so he could beat them back into their proper place.

He shot back up to his feet and in one, swift motion, stripped himself of his shirt and tossed it to Irvine, then he stood, boldly before the other man and stretched his arms far out in front of him and with his fingers, tore the image into smaller shreds and tossed it into the wind like confetti.

Kakashi wasn’t as vindictive as he was and removed his jacket to use as a bedding to rest the car parts. The young brawler beckoned him forward and the older man obliged.

Irvine rolled his eyes and tossed Seifer’s shirt over one shoulder and walked around the two fighters, making sure not to get into their way or be caught up in the fray himself. It was too late to talk any sense into him now and he figured the teacher (who was supposed to be some sort of responsible adult) was beyond reasoning as well so it was up to him to end this before Kiros called the cops…and he really didn’t want his father to find out about this.

He gathered the spark plugs and the other man’s jacket and took a peek over his shoulder to make sure their battle wasn’t advancing in his direction and he returned the instruments to their proper place and dropped the clothing in the back seat.

There was a loud thud and Irvine snapped around just in time to see the larger man fall to the hard cement and he winced painfully when his wild friend dropped his foot in the middle of his stomach. Seifer picked him up by his hair but he recovered surprisingly quick and punched him in his chest, knocking the wind from him and making him double over.

The long-haired brunette popped the trunk and removed the metal, baseball bat he usually kept there for these types of ‘emergencies’ and he fished out a pair of handcuffs he’d liberated from his father without the old man’s knowledge.

He approached them very slowly and very carefully, not wanting to alert them to his presence or his intentions and when he found an opening, he struck!

Kakashi grunted against the force of the bludgeon across his back and he collapsed to his knees. Irvine then shoved him against the ground with the tip of the bat between his shoulder blades before straddling his hips.

“You have the right to remain silent,” he quoted that infamous phrase as he dragged the man’s arms behind his back and secured them a little too tightly with the cuffs. “Because anything you say will probably go ignored. Man, I’ve always wanted to say that!”

“What the hell did you do that for?” Seifer demanded, regarding his interruption of their brawl.

Irvine rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath but it was drowned out beneath Kakashi’s strangled gasps for air. “Because if I didn’t stop this neither of you would.”

He didn’t think that was a good enough excuse but he didn’t argue. He was faster than the other man but he had more weight behind his punches and Seifer wasn’t sure he’d be able to walk properly tomorrow if Irvine hadn’t intervened.

“So, what do you want to do with him?” the cowboy lover asked and fisted his hands in those white locks to lift his head just a few inches off the ground to inspect the damage done to his face.

“I say…we chop him up into tiny, little pieces,” he managed between heavy pants. “Then…stuff his carcass into empty, mayonnaise jars…and ship his ass back to Hong Kong!”

“Hong Kong’s in China, you dumbass,” Irvine spat and he unconsciously released the grip he had in the man’s hair and his head collided with the asphalt.

“What’s the big fucking deal?” he shrieked. “That’s like asking: ‘What’s the difference between someone from Ireland and someone from Scotland?’ Who the fuck cares?”

Seifer certainly didn’t and Irvine knew that it was a waste of time trying to correct him anymore on his cultural mix-ups. “Whatever, just help me lift him,” and he climbed off so he could turn him onto his back.

Seifer sucked his teeth and used his foot to turn the older man then grabbed his legs while Irvine hoisted him by his shoulders. “This bastard’s heavy.”

“No shit,” the other boy wheezed and after the plopped him into the back seat of the convertible he took deep breaths to clear his light-headedness.

Seifer didn’t bother to put his shirt back on, because they’d much sooner be stopped for having an adult hand-cuffed in the back seat than for driving bare-backed.

“We should probably take him back to his hotel,” Irvine suggested from his perch atop Kakashi’s stomach. He didn’t want to sit in the front just in case he tried anything funny but the man was so large that he took up the entire space.

“Nah,” the other boy replied with a shake of his head after gunning the engine and turning the volume on the radio to a decent level. “Let’s have some fun with him first.”

“I don’t like the sound of that,” he replied in an ominous tone and Kakashi didn’t like the sound of it either.

“Relax, will you,” he reassured him with a grin. “You said you’ve always wanted to try something like this so now’s your chance.”

“You can’t be serious,” but when he said nothing and drove silently out of the lot, Irvine leaned forward to the driver’s seat. “Seifer, we don’t know anything about this guy. What if he isn’t clean?”

“Hey you, Hatake,” he called over his shoulder and adjusted the rear-view mirror until their eyes met. “You don’t have any STDs do you?”

“What kind of question is that?” he asked, slightly annoyed.

“What, you guys don’t have stuff like AIDS in Japan?” he scoffed and he reiterated his question with short breaks between each word. “Do.You.Have.Any.Sexually.Transmitted.Diseases?”

Kakashi’s only reply was an angry glare and Seifer sucked his teeth again. “Just put a rubber on him.”

“Oh yeah, that’s a risk you can afford to take since you’re not the one that’s gonna be on the receiving end,” his friend argued.

“Are you two going to do what I think you’re going to do?” their captive interrupted after picking up on the not-so-subtle clues of their conversation.

“Yep,” and Seifer grinned malevolently at his reflection in the mirror. “We’re going to rape you.”

-----

Hmm…I could have gone on a little more with this chapter but the other set-ups (as yaoi-is-my-antidrug calls them) weren’t very long either so I didn’t want to break the flow, besides…I think this is a good place to end it…you know…cliff-hanger. (Oh and Kakashi doesn’t get raped so don’t get scared. Seifer intended to rape him but things seldom ever go according to plan, now do they.) Hope I didn’t spoil anything >.<

Also, we all already know that these characters do not have STDs but realistically, since this is an AU fic based in ‘our world’, so to speak, the awareness should be there so sorry if that little conversation turned anyone off. I’m also sorry Seifer’s such a jerk about foreign cultures but he was only trying to piss Kakashi off, that and he’s a very bad boy.

So much apologizing going on.

By the way, I hear different pronunciations of Seifer’s name but is it really S(eye)fer or S(ee)fer?