Happy Birthday?

Found

Takao walked home with his hands stuffed lazily in his pockets, with full plans on cleaning up his dry tears that managed to escape as soon as he got back to the dojo. The rest of the trek back home was uneventful, with the occasional leaf or two escaping from its humble abode from a tree and landing on the teen's midnight locks.

A sigh resonated through the dojo and the sound of the rice paper door closing was dully heard. Takao ran a hand idly through his hair as he looked in the mirror of the bathroom. He grabbed a couple of tissues and went to work. After cleaning and washing up, Takao found that he felt way more relived and relaxed then he was only a few minutes ago. He quietly padded to his room and expertly closed his door without any noise. Takao peered at the clock on his wall and was slightly shocked that his walk wasn't very short at all. It was already 6! The dragon then put on his trademark yellow T-shirt and red vest along with the baseball cap and made his way downstairs.

When he stepped into the kitchen, he saw the two older members of the BladeBreakers about in their business. Well in this case, Rei was bustling about making breakfast, something with a sweet smelling batter, and Kai was reading the newspaper, occasionally sipping his coffee. 'Heh,' Takao thought. 'They look like a proper married couple.' He sighed, of course they would make a great couple, and they were almost meant for each other. 'And that's why I won't stand a chance.'

At the sound of a sigh, both older teen instantly had their attention on Takao.

"Hn, so you finally decided to wake up accordingly?" Kai said, all while turning back to skimming through the news articles.

"There's a first time for everything ya know." Takao replied back haughtily.

The younger sat down in his seat and laid his head down on the table. Both the other boys looked questioningly at this action. Kai thought that he would be a lot talkative then he was and Rei expected the dragon to be demanding his breakfast.

"Hey, you alright?" Rei asked tentatively, concern laced his words.

Takao was debating in his mind if he should share his problems with his teammates, but in the end of the silent brawl, the dragon decided that his friends already had enough to worry about in their own personal lives and he better not burden them with any of his own.

"No, nothing's wrong, don't worry Rei."

"...Okay then, but don't hesitate to tell me if anything is wrong Takao, K?"

"...K." The midnight haired teen replied, with a slight but noticeable pause.

The teens all sat in a comfortable silence with the only sounds being Kai occasionally flipping a page of the newspaper he was still reading, Rei still working on breakfast, which was starting to look a lot like pancakes (Takao's favorite), and said teen blowing a strand or two of hair out of his face as he had laid his head down again.

The peaceful atmosphere was shattered when a bouncy and bubbly Max came rushing through the front door of the dojo, with Hilary close behind, who had Kenny in tow, with said boy still typing on his laptop.

"Guys we're here!" Max shouted happily.

The hyperactive blond looked around the room just to make sure that everyone else was already there. As usual, he saw Kai's neutral and somewhat stoic expression, Rei's back turned to him as the nekojin was making breakfast (though Max was able to catch a small smile on his face when Rei turned), Kenny still typing on his laptop with his face only inches away from the screen, Hilary's disgruntled expression because she had dragged the bushy haired genius the whole way to the dojo and then his eyes finally landed on Takao. His best friend. There was something wrong. The bright smile once on Max's face quickly morphed into concern. The look on Takao's face could only be described as...far away. It was like he had zoned out. The bluenett looked solemn and his head was resting in his arms on the table.

"Hey buddy, your killin' the mood!" Max attempted to lift the heavy tension in the air, thick enough to rest on his shoulders, but most importantly, to bring a smile to his best friends face.

But for once, it didn't reach Takao.