Sk8 the Infinity: 𝐁𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐓𝐢𝐝𝐞

chapter thirteen.

Kaia came beside Shadow and Miya who were scanning for their names on the tournament bracket. The two looked at him curiously since he didn't sign up for the tournament. 

"Why didn't you enter. I was planning on beating you with your own move."

Kaia ruffled Miya's head and laughed. "I was a bit reckless so I can't compete. But, I'm excited to see you try and pull off my move."

Miya went to slap his hand away and huffed annoyed by him. "Watch, I'm going to win this whole tournament."

"Don't be so sure kid!" Shadow came over and slung his arm over Kaia while leaning on him. Kaia winced from the sudden weight on him and Shadow noticed but tried to make it seem like he wasn't considered as he carefully removed his arm. He glanced over to Kaia wore a wild grin. "You scared to go against Adam too?"

"Too?"

"Langa just told me that Reki isn't coming."

Kaia saw Langa appear rather down over the absence of the redhead. His face turned down in concern. 

'Reki definitely didn't listen to what I said.'

"I've got some brand new tricks up my sleeve this time! You won't know what you, Miya!" Kaia was brought out of his thoughts during the middle of their conversation and Shadow was leaning down in front of him. He was looking down on Miya and taunting him per usual. 

Suddenly, the sound of sirens alerted them that the first group of qualifiers was about to begin. Miya perked up and tightened his grip on his board. "I'm up first in Adam's group."

"Good luck," Kaia encouraged.

"Don't lose!" Shadow taunted.

"I don't need luck cause I only have to be in the top two. Most of these people are slimes, anyway." Miya directly eyed Shadow when saying "these people" as he walked away. Of course, he noticed immediately and shouted profanities that he probably shouldn't towards someone Miya's age. 

** 

As expected Miya and Adam qualified easily in the first group. In the middle of the race Joe and Kaoru showed up. They stood beside Kaia and Joe almost instinctively put him into a headlock as a greeting. Kaoru had given him an embarrassed wave from the events of the night before. 

Joe and Langa were in the next group and it didn't go as smoothly as the first. Langa had been targeted by a group of suspicious figures but fortunately he was able to fend them off easily. Joe was even able to one out with a single punch. 

Then, there was Kaoru. The people in his group didn't even seem like competition. He was focused on one person who he wanted to compete against. Adam. 

But why?

That was something that Kaia couldn't piece together. He was aware that they had been close when they were younger along with Joe. But Kaia knew Kaoru well enough that everything he did correlated with a specific reason. Always carefully calculated. So what was the variable he was missing?

"You can move onto the finals as long as you're in the top two. Isn't Cherry being a bit too serious?" Miya asked. 

"He's going against Adam. He's planning on beating his time," Joe explained as he intently watched the race. 

Kaia looked up at Adam over on the balcony of the abandoned building in front of the finish line. What was this feeling that came when he saw him?

Joe saw him staring at Adam and placed a hand on his shoulder making him tear his eyes away quickly. He knew that Kaia must be curious about their past but he also knew that it wasn't his story to tell. So he kept quiet and tried to change his attention to somewhere else. 

"You want to bet on the next group?"

He was aware that Joe was trying to draw his attention somewhere else and honestly appreciated it. He reluctantly smiled and nodded his head. "Yeah."

"If I win you are mine for 24 hours on a day of my choosing."

"What if I win?"

Joe placed his hand on his chin for a moment to think. "How about a full course meal on the house."

Kaia's eyes lit up a the suggestion. "Really!"

"Only if you win." Joe teasingly corrected.

The next group was with Shadow. Joe had bet that Shadow would win by a landslide to everyone else while I said that something unexpected would happen. The race had started and Shadow was immediately far ahead of everyone else partly because some of them were scared of him. 

"My hunch is never wrong."

"I don't know. The race isn't over yet." Kaia persuaded but Joe was already flaunting his success with a shiteating grin. 

All of a sudden, someone sped past Shadow and everyone seemed to gasp in surprise besides Kaia. He looked over to Joe from the side. "My hunch is never wrong."

"Who the hell is that guy?" Joe shouted. 

When Kaia actually took a better look at his skating and the way he deflected Shadow's fireworks. "He's amazing.."

"He's registered as..Snake?" Miya said as he scrolled through the list of participants. 

**

"Right now, Adam's skating all by himself."

"Don't be so ridiculous. Everyone is alone when they skate."

That's not what I mean," Joe clarified as he placed a few plates of food in front of Kaia who's eyes seemed to sparkled at the sight. "Everyone other than himself is an enemy I guess. I feel like he's completely isolated."

"Has he always been someone who preferred being alone," Kaia asked.

"Not really."

"Then, why do you think that?" Kaoru added. 

"A hunch."

Kaoru covered his face with his hand and shook his head, "I was a fool to ask." On the other hand, Kaia tried to stifle a laugh as he turned his head to side to prevent Joe from seeing him. 

"When you lost your wallet during our social studies trip I found it using my hunch!" Joe banged his fists on the table in attempt to defend his intuition. 

"Though the restaurant in L.A. that we entered on your hunch was totally off!"

As they were bickering with one another about what had happened when they were younger, the sound of laughter brought their attention away from one another. Kaia tried to prevent his laughter from escaping his mouth but he couldn't help himself. He began to laugh than he had for a while and he felt so light as if the weight holding him down had finally lifted. 

The sound was so genuine that even Joe erupted into laughter along with him. Kaoru couldn't help the smile that appeared which soon changed to a grin. He noticed that this was the first time that he'd actually, whole-heartedly laughed in front of him. Kaia rested his head on the table to catch his breath and was desperately gasping for air. 

The feeling of all of them together was almost nostalgic. When he looked down at Kaia the image of someone else flashed before him. That young boy who always wore his hood and had bright red eyes that bore into him. As Kaia smiled, the boy would smile as well from his memories. He then realized that Kaia hadn't reminded him of himself but instead someone else from his past.