Title: Texas Thoughts.

Disclaimer: Don't own Xiaolin Showdown. Or the entire show would be all about Rai!

Rating: K+.

Summary: Clay was reading Kim's Diary in 'Tangled Web' episode. Our favourite Cowboy discovered something and decided to think it over. RaiKim.

I found it kinda amusing, reading Kim's diary, that is. I'm not being mean.

…

Really, I'm not.

It's just the way they act, ya know? Like they hate each other's guts. How she complains about him all the time and yet she actually likes him.

Omi was right; girls are weird.

I mean, she likes him and he likes her. Why don't they just admit it and date? I'll tell ya why, because they're stubborn.

Though Kimiko's more of a hot-head than Rai is.

Then again most people are.

They're so different. Yet the same. They're both into the same kind of things; video games, movies, music, and lotsa other stuff I won't go into. But they're different; they've got different reasons for being into that stuff.

For example, Kimiko's into all her technology because she's been bored most of her life. I read that in her Diary. How bored she was since she was young. That she was just expected to look pretty and that was it. How being at the temple has given her something other to do than be buried beneath hi-tech gadgets or being showed off by her parents.

Rai, Rai buried himself in that kinda stuff to escape. I think it's his way of fleeing his reality. The world he doesn't like. I don't know what he's escaping. But from the scars across his back it's probably bad.

Kim probably knows. I bet ya, she knows how Rai got 'em. Then again she knows most things about Rai.

Rai's wild, ya know? Like the wind. Wild and unpredictable. He can be calm one second and then be fierce the next. He's different and unpredictable and he never knows where he's going, he just goes. And drags all of us along with him for a ride. That's what the wind does.

Kim's kinda wild, but in a different way. She's stabile and predictable. You set something aflame and it'll burn it in seconds and that's it. And that's how Kim works. You tell her to do something and she'll get it done. Sometimes she gets a bit hot-headed and messes it up, like fire straying from its path, but she'll right it again. But Rai doesn't right something, he'll just do it better, ya know? If the wind can't blow your hat off it'll try harder, and then blow it into a puddle. That's the way Rai works, which makes them liking each other really weird because they're both so different.

Then again opposites attract.

She needs him, ya know. She needs him to be there for her. She needs him to be there to laugh with her when she's happy, she needs him to be there to make her smile when she's upset and she needs him to be there to call her a wimp when she's sick. Because for some odd reason she always gets better real quick when he says stuff like that. Almost like her immune system wants ta prove him wrong as well. Kinda funny actually.

Rai doesn't need Kim that same way she does. He can survive without her. It's at his darkest moments that he needs her though. Ya can see him sometimes on stormy nights, sitting by the window watching the skies cry with this unreadable look on his face. A look that just terrifies you because it's the kinda look ya see on people in them soap operas right before they do somethin' stupid, like throw themselves off a bridge.

Those moments scare me. When Rai looks as if he's about to give in to his inner demons. It's why I'm glad that Kim's here because she always goes and sits by him, no matter how many times he tells her to leave him alone. And she sits there and holds his hand, this really caring smile on her face that just says that she's going to be by his side, no matter what. And Rai usually ends up smiling back at her, the dark clouds lifting to be faced again another day.

He'll have to face them in the end. We all know that. But when it comes to it, we hope he all knows we're there for him, Kim especially. She's always been protective of Rai, in her weird little way. She always screams at him in battles about keeping his guard up and he always does, just to get her to shut up. She sometimes runs in ahead of us to stop him, or me or Omi but Rai usually, from gettin' hurt. Or yelling at people to keep them away from him. I suppose ya could call it possessive; the ways she yells at people, girls especially. She don't seem to like them liking Rai. Even if it's only in a friendly way. Its kind funny watching her get a case of the green-eyed monster when some girl's just thanking Rai for saving her life or somethin'.

Either way they're both quite obvious.

Like in training, the other day. When Rai knocked Kim off her feet and she hit her arm on the way down. Rai was by her side in under a second, trailing his hands down her limb to check if it was broken. The worry in his eyes was so obvious, as was the blush on Kimiko's face.

Its things like that that makes it so fun to watch them interact.

I never thought it was something beyond a simple crush though. I mean, sure, they really liked each other and were obviously going to get together but I didn't think that their feelings ran that deep.

'I never realised how much I needed him before. If Rai wasn't there for me I don't know what I'd do. He means so much to me; if I wasn't so young I'd say I was in love with him.'

Kim doesn't seem to understand that love don't have no boundaries. That as long as you're willing to do anything for each other, love can exist. And it makes me happy to know that they've found their soul-mates.

I worry though, what if Jack or Wuya found out? They could use it against them. They could, I dunno, I'm not the crazy boy genius trying to take over the world but they would definitely think of something. But then again, knowing how stubborn Rai and Kim are, they're probably gonna keep denying their feelings for each other. Which might be a good thing, might be a bad thing. Ah well, I guess I'm gonna have ta started playing match-maker with those two. Hopefully they'll realise and stop the whole I-like-you-but-I-refuse-to-admit-that-I-like-you-more-than-a-friend thing. And if that doesn't work I can just get Rai to read her diary.

Hopefully they'll be kissing too much for Kim to kill me for it.

End.

An old one-shot I dusted off, inspired by the fact that Clay gets overlooked a lot and he's obviously a lot smarter than people give him credit for and so . . . Here's my non-overlooking-ness.