Author's Note: I'm practically obsessed with this series. Been hooked on it since it first premiered. Regarding this fiction, I'm unsure as to whether I want to make it a pre-slash. However, let me tell you all that I first and foremost wholeheartedly support the Suki/Ray pairing. Forever. Ray/Ian is just an afterthought, a what-if. Unimportant, really. I will do Suki/Ray in the future.

Get It

Ray Snider was the first person Ian Archer hated at Tower Prep. The pale boy felt sort of proud that he had been the new kid's first rival. From the moment he laid eyes on the strong-looking boy, he knew he'd have a good opponent. He'd never found the other students a challenge, aside from Cal Rice, but then again, he thought, Cal Rice was too much of a challenge. He decided to stay out of the Buffer player's way.

"Dude," Don said late one night. "You're getting obsessed with the guy. I swear, you talk about him nearly twenty-four-seven."

Ray glared at him, glad that the freak, Fenton, wasn't in the room. It just wouldn't do to have an outsider learn about his thoughts. "Shut up," he sneered. "I need some competition in this school." Zack opened his mouth to speak, but Ray interrupted. "No, not Rice. He's…a little too extreme for my tastes."

All three knew that this meant that while Ray could hold his own against Rice, he wouldn't walk away from that fight without major injuries. "But Archer…he's good."

"Think he considers you in the same context?" Don mused, tossing a tennis ball at the wall and catching it on the rebound. "That he likes having you to fight? To challenge himself?"

Ray shrugged, chewing on his pencil as he stared down the horrific quadratic formula in front of him. Screw Math and his ridiculous problems. "Dunno." He cast his two friends a leering grin. "Think I should find out?"

-.-

It was that first punch he decided to throw that seemed to lead to his own undoing. Archer dodged, as expected, but didn't return fire with one of his own and instead looked at Ray in bewilderment. "What the hell is your problem?"

Ray grinned and lunged again. This time Ian fought back.

Students stopped to watch the fight occur, some cheering Ray on, others encouraging Archer to stand his ground.

"Can you feel it?"

A roundhouse kick clipped Ray's waist but he was past the point of feeling pain right now. Exhilaration flowed through him. Ian paused at the other's words. "Feel what? Your fist? Yeah, I can, and I don't like it!"

Ray chuckled as they set off in another fierce flurry of movement, forcing many of their audience to step back. "Pain isn't what I'm asking about right now, Ian. The excitement. The need to fight."

"I didn't feel any need to fight before you jumped me!" Ian snarled, clearly growing confused. "Why can't you just leave me alone?"

"Ha! You're starting to sound like a little girl, Archer," Ray leered, his heart jumping when one of his opponent's blows flew by his cheek. "Don't be a wuss."

Ian practically roared as he lunged for the taunting boy. The crowd was cheering loudly, several responsible people calling for help, all the rest eager to see the outcome of the bout. "Don't you get it?" Ray shouted over the din of the students. "Don't you like it? Challenging yourself?"

Ian didn't miss a beat. If anything, his strength seemed to intensify, and his attacks grew faster. Ray began to doubt that Archer was starting to see things his way and wondered if he should stop fighting now. But he finally noticed the subtle change. Ian's form wasn't so rigid and tense with hatred now. It seemed a bit more relaxed. His eyes didn't blaze with anger; they were calculating now, even curious. Each movement, each jab he took at Ray, seemed to be considered a split second before being executed. Ray stifled his grin as he too shifted into a more casual stance and practiced a few new moves on his rival. Each was countered, and returned lightly.

They were sparring. They were challenging themselves. They were challenging each other.

The crowd still called for blood though. Ray hissed irritably at their loud comments. They just didn't get it, did they? They didn't understand.

"C'mon, Ian!" Forrest called out. "You can take that loser! Beat him down!"

Ray snapped. Not at Ian, but at the idiot who had spoken. But his rage was channeled towards the person he fought. He spun past and slammed his arm into his throat, clotheslining him and knocking him to the ground. As soon as he heard the loud thud, he knew that his game had been taken too far. Silence followed immediately.

"What is the meaning of this?"

He whirled and practically shrank back from Headmaster's glare. The tall man's eyebrows knitted together in outrage and he stretched out a hand to grab Ray's collar.

"S-sorry, sir," a weak voice coughed. Both looked down at Ian, who was struggling to sit up. He opened his mouth to speak, then winced and gripped it. He finally managed to rasp, "We were just practicing. It wasn't a fight. Practice." He practically wheezed and there came over his eyes such a look of pure pain that Ray felt so triumphant, yet so disgusted with himself.

Ward and Sato were immediately at his side, coaxing him gently to stop talking, while Forrest stood there sputtering incoherently, trying to voice that he knew that it hadn't been a practice match, but that Ray had been lusting for Ian's blood. Ray's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits and the boy's mouth snapped shut with an audible click.

"Is this true, Miss Ward?" Headmaster asked calmly, his icy eyes observing the scene before him.

Ray saw Ian's fingers tighten around CJ's arm. The girl bit her lip and whispered, "Yes, sir." The hand released her, leaving white marks.

Headmaster made a disbelieving sound in the back of his throat, but he decided not to question her further. "Very well. Mr. Archer, Mr. Snider, I suppose I can understand the thrill of…sparring…but I ask that you pick a more convenient location to use instead of the hallways in which students must use to get to class." The onlookers took the message to heart and scattered faster than mice. The head of the school then cleared his throat and bid them a good day.

Ray was left to be stared down by three hostile pairs of eyes, while being regarded by a more curious pair. He sneered. "My win, Archer," he stated, spinning on his heel and leaving. "Put some effort into it next time."

Finally, Gabe let loose a flow of words and profanities that he couldn't say when Headmaster was around, but Ray turned a deaf ear to him. He had done his job. He had gotten his answer.

-.-

He couldn't help but feel glad as he settled on his bed, ready for sleep. He told Don so, which shut the boy up before he could even ask. Zack inquired, "Archer gets it then?"

"Yeah," the raven-haired boy murmured, catching the tennis ball Don threw at him. "He gets it, but I don't think he'll accept it."

"Then all is lost for you," Don chuckled poetically. He yelped when his companion whipped the ball at him. "Geez, chill! You're not the only one who can fight in this school. If it doesn't work out, just pick someone from the Buffer team."

Ray snorted. "Fat chance."

A knock on the door had them all on alert. "Who is it?" Zack called.

"Hey, is Ray there?"

Ian.

Smirking at his friends, Ray strutted to the door and opened it. His smile dropped. "Sato," he said coolly, carefully appraising the short Asian girl. "What do you want?"

"What're you playing at?" Suki hissed venomously, shoving his broad chest. He stumbled back a pace. "You have some sick fantasy of putting him through the worst days of his life? As if being here isn't enough of a nightmare!"

Ray snarled at the female. "You think I don't feel the same way? You don't think we all did at some point? I'm here too." He quieted when a hall monitor passed by with a glare. "I…I'm here too. I just needed something to distract me." He avoided her piercing eyes. "He helped me challenge myself. If I have a challenge, then I can distract myself from something I don't want to think about. Just…just tell him that."

Suki regarded him with eyes he thought were colder than the North Pole. He shifted awkwardly and glanced back at his roommates, who appeared to be containing their laughter at him being yelled at by a girl. He glared at them and they simply turned their faces away.

"'I understand, Ray.'"

He whirled at the sound of Ian's voice, but didn't see him anywhere. He then realized that it was Suki who had spoken. At first he thought she was just using Ian's voice to comfort him (in which case, he thought, would be quite odd), but then the girl said in Archer's voice, "'I'm using Suki as my messenger, seeing as that last blow you gave me did a number on my throat. I'm in no condition to talk.'" Suki scowled at him as she said this.

He noticed that his friends had grown solemnly silent behind him, and when he glanced back to see if they were laughing in their pillows, he saw that they were regarding him with the utmost sincerity of sympathy.

Suki continued the message. "'I have to say thanks, though, because you've given me something to think about. Of course, I can't say I'm too thrilled about how you tried to tell me. Couldn't you have just given it to me straight? I'm getting tired of trying to figure out cryptic messages. We've been getting a lot of those recently.'"

"What does he mean by that?" Ray inquired.

Suki glared at him quickly. "None of your business," she snapped. Ray saw something flash in her brown eyes; fear? Of what? Being discovered? She…no, Ian and his friends were all hiding something. Ray decided not to press the matter. He'd find out later. He motioned for her to continue.

"'That being said, I guess that with all the stress of school going on, I could use a little activity here and there to relax. So…'"

Ray leaned forward when the girl trailed off. "So what? What? Don't tell me that's it! What did he say?"

Sato looked ever so reluctant to finish the message. "'So how about we meet in the gym on Friday. Eight o' clock. We can…spar a bit. To relax or distract ourselves. Whatever makes you feel…better. And we'll talk, if that's what you want.'" Suki sounded a bit awkward at the end, but Ray was pretty sure that she was repeating exactly what Ian had said; that included his embarrassed tone.

Ray smiled slightly. "So Friday, eight o' clock?" Suki nodded, her eyes having lost some of their fight. "Sounds good to me."

Suki sighed and turned to leave.

"Wait, Suki."

She glanced back. "What?"

Ray struggled to force the words out of his mouth. "Tell…tell him I'm sorry. I'll…make it up to him somehow?" His sentence came out as a question, as though he were asking Suki if that sounded about right.

Sato's expression softened and she nodded. "Yeah. I'll do that."

Ray closed the door and turned to his to friends. "Well?"

Zack now grinned slyly. "Dunno, man. Sounds to me like you've got yourself a date."

Ray jumped on him and they wrestled for a few minutes while Don sat on his bed, laughing. The outcome was obvious: Ray had Zack pinned beneath him, grinning. "Alright, get off!" Zack shoved the raven-haired boy away and sat up. "But seriously, if you end up dating him, you'd better not come to us ranting about how dreamy his eyes are, or how perfect his hair is."

Don snorted. "I'll tell you, he'll probably go crazy."

Ray chuckled. "I'll forgive everything you just said. First off, we're doing this so that we can distract ourselves. You're welcome to join us. I'm sure we can take on you two."

"Pass. I'd prefer not to die."

Ray shrugged and glanced out the window. His eyes narrowed sharply at what he saw. Four figures were crossing the lawn, dodging the security system's lasers. Once they had all crossed safely, one of them turned to see if they had been spotted. Ray caught the person's eyes.

Ian.

The boy's eyes widened somewhat pleadingly as though begging Ray to keep quiet. Ray, almost too stunned to realize what he was seeing, nodded slightly. Ian breathed out and the smallest of smiles flitted across his face. He tilted his head and Ray could read the message written in his eyes.

One day, I'll tell you.

Then the boy and his three companions – Ray didn't have to guess who they were – disappeared into the night's shadows.

"What's out there?" Zack asked, coming to look. All he saw was the forest and darkness.

"I don't know," Ray murmured. "But one day, he'll tell me."

"Huh?"

Ray laughed a bit. "Nothing. I'm just glad he gets it. But…" He stole another glance at the darkness. "One day, maybe I'll get it too."