September

Ok, so Racoona wanted a Tyson/Tala fic, and being the most incredibly wonderful, humane,
gorgeous and amazing person that I am (yes, you may roll your eyes) I decided to do it.
This isn’t exactly a chapter, but more of a prologue. It’ll probably suck, since I’m so
bad at kicking off something new. Hopefully though, anyone who reads this can bear with
the suckiness of this and wait for the first chapter. It might get a bit weird or confusing
because I plan on switching from Tala’s POV to just the general pov and I hate putting in
little author’s notes saying when I do that. Although, this prologue is all in Tala’s POV.
There is swearing, there will be mentions of death and murder throughout the fic, for
however long it lasts, and there might possibly be a ‘lemon’ (has anyone else realised
what a weird word that is to use??) in one of the later – much later – chapters.
So anyway, my first fic on aff.net, my first fic with a homosexual main pairing
(I did have one on ff.net with a bisexual Enrique except no one read it), and my
first fic that I actually intend on finishing…


DISCLAIMER: I do not own any familiar characters, settings, etc from any BeyBlade associated television programs, merchandise, etc. However I did create the plot and any unfamiliar/original characters and settings used in this fanfiction. If you want to use them that is fine, email me at studio_sprite@hotmail.com and tell me... I\'m a nice person but if you don\'t ask me first, or don\'t notify me that you intend to use my characters I get super nasty.

Oh. And as much as I wish it were at least possible, I don\'t own St. Petersburg either. Meep...
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September
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It was raining.

Well, more like flooding in my opinion.


Either way, it was wet. The sky was grey as slate and so thick with rain and clouds
that I couldn’t tell where it met the horizon. They seemed to stream into one another,
blending seamlessly somewhere amongst all of the bleakness. Gasping at the sudden gust
of cold wind off the rumbling ocean, I hugged my knees closer to my chest as bloody
behemoth bullets of freezing water thundered into the choppy grey water and splattered
into the gritty earth below me. In the space of about three seconds, I was absolutely
soaked, my clothes were sticking to my skin with water and my hair was heavy and dark
with its liquid burden.


Honestly, today was an absolute fucking travesty on behalf of the weatherman.
*This* was supposed to be sunshine…


I didn’t mind too much though - this type of weather was perfectly suited to how I was
feeling. Grey, cold, miserable… Perhaps it wasn’t so bad after all, except that my hair
was wet and now sticking to my pale shoulders in tiny skeins of sopping red that would
be hell to brush through tomorrow.


Despite the storm and the booming thunder that came with it, I could hear voices from
behind me carry on the dangerously cold winds, and my ears betrayed me once again by
letting my curiosity get the better of me.


“Should he even be out in the rain?” well, *that* was a voice I knew. And how wonderful,
my ‘dear friend’ was talking about me behind my back. “What if he has like a malfunction
or a meltdown in his head or something?”


“Hilary!” came the sharp reprimand, the shocked voice cutting through noise of the storm
like a knife. My blood shivered in my veins as I felt their eyes shoot straight through
me so mercilessly. I didn’t even need to see them to know they were staring at me. I could
feel it just as well as the blanketing cold of the rain. I felt a little gush of warmth and
gratitude towards Mariah though, for sticking up for me against her best friend. It was
ironic really, Mariah and Hilary being best friends. They were each other’s equal opposites,
really. Like white and black. Beyblader – non-Beyblader. Sweet and innocent, in comparison
to skanky and annoying. Or good and evil… Hilary and I had never really been that close.
“He’s not a robot,” I heard Mariah continue, and I’m sure that Hilary was rolling her eyes.
“Just half his brain’s been replaced with techno-crap and he can’t feel emotion.”


I nearly snorted aloud at that. Ha, honestly, that’s what Boris told them all?


*Half my brain?*


From what I could recall I had a single controller chip lodged somewhere up there that couldn’t
work any more because the programs and ‘techno-crap’ that controlled its influence over my
behaviour had been destroyed. All it was good for now was migraines whenever I went near
particularly strong magnets.


But to think they thought I was completely emotionless, the idea of it nearly brought
tears to my eyes. The chip had never controlled my emotions; Boris must have used it
as an excuse for my anti socialism. Emotionless. It’s such a terribly heartbreaking word;
the sound of it is like some type of verbal poison. I’m anything but emotionless.
My entire life has been full of sinister feelings, and today is only another reminder of them.


Today is August 26th. It’s the single day on my calendar that stands out the most to me.
It’s a day of black and white emotions, it tears me apart inside from the mixture of sorrow
and grief, and the happy memories I cherish so very much. August 26th is the worst and the
best day of every year for me. It’s been 12 years since this day made my world blossom, but
now it just reminds me of the other day, five years ago, the one that shattered hopes and
dreams and brought me down to my knees in one unexpected blow, like my entire soul had been
nothing but dust-spun cinders, so easily it had collapsed.


12, today, she would have been. Today marks the fifth birthday she never had. She died
when she was only very young, my little sister. Seven, she was, I thought with a flicker
of misery, letting out a shaky breath and lifting my head up from my knees to fix the ocean
with a despondent blue stare. Though it’s dark waters were angry and raging, watching the
waves crash and curl in flurries of white foam and seawater seemed to calm me, as though my
grief was being sucked away with the waves into the dark liquid vortex of the tide.


The thing I had loved most about my sister was her smile, cute and elfin, and no matter how
adorable she looked, there was always a little, innocently mischievous tug on the corners
of her lips, innocent in the way that I don’t think she even knew that little hint of
mischief was there. She always made me laugh. I used to ask her after supper if she had a
smile for me, and as cute as the little pixie-figure she was, she’d clamber up my legs
and into my arms with the little grin and a kiss on the cheek for me. All for me.


Brushing my fingers against my forehead, I wiped the water from my brow, pushing the sodden
wisps of my hair that were falling in my eyes aside. The strangest and most unique thing about
her was her name – September. Strange, because she had been born in August. Unique, because that
was my little sister all over. Every tiny little thing about her screamed September, like she
had an aura that felt of browns, reds and golds. She was sweet and gentle, always very softly
spoken but full of laughter and fire all at once. September, the month when the leaves turn
gold and sun goes pale, when everything becomes crisp and clean. She even smelt of September,
if there could ever be a scent for it. She had a sort of fragrance of ancient spices mixed with
delicate flowers, addictive and cleansing, full of affection and youth and secrecy. I
wondered how my mother knew, how she knew that September was the perfect name for my little
baby sister. She was the only one in the family without a Russian name. My father had been
called Alexei, and my older brother Dimitri – I hadn’t seen him in three years. Mother’s
name had been Velika, and for some forsaken reason she named me Yuriy. In my opinion it’s
the most putrid name in the whole bloody history of Russia. So, instead, I go by Tala.


Or, as Tyson (he doesn’t like being called Takao) calls me –


“Ta-koi,” a much welcome voice of molten happiness and youth whispered from behind me,
the tone a little amused and rolling with warmth.


I turned to look up at them, blinking the rain from its clutches on my lashes, and I felt
my misery drip off me like water the instant my eyes met his…


“It’s time to go,” said Tyson softly, reaching down to me with one lean, browned hand,
twirling a yellow umbrella above us with the other, “Kai’s going to be pissed when he sees
you,” he added after giving me a swift once-over.


I smirked at that. “Let him be, otherwise we’ll know that Sarah or Bryan’s finally come to
their senses and poisoned him.”


The corners of his pale lips kicked upwards at that, “Too true,” was all he said as he
helped me up and caught me around the waist when I stumbled.


Immediately we sprung apart, in case someone had seen us. We had no problem with showing
affection for one another, and Tyson had no problem with being in a relationship with me.
Other people did though. Apparently my ‘emotionless cyborg/robot’ thing has people thinking
that I’m only capable of breaking hearts or something. They didn’t think I could love.


Fixing Tyson with a level glance, my eyes traced the youthful lines of his body, watching as
he tossed his long ponytail of twilight-blue over his shoulder. Through the corner of his
eye he must have seen me staring because his face flushed a sudden crimson and he looked away,
twirling the umbrella again. He was too adorable for words. And to think - he was all mine.


Praying that no one saw me, I reached out with a pale hand to catch the corner of his sweater
and pulled him in towards me. I noticed he was perfectly dry, the bastard. I’d just have to
give him a hug, I decided, and wrapped my bare arms around him, kissing his cheek in a
lightning quick action.


Tyson laughed a soft, surprised chuckle as I let him go. “I’m all wet now,” he announced,
though he didn’t seem to care, his voice full of laughter as he looked down at his now
saturated sweater, and he blew me a kiss in return.


Pretending to catch it, I made a motion of putting his ‘kiss’ in the pocket of my pants.
In a sudden gust of cold wind, the rain began to pelt down heavier, and the breezes didn’t die
down. I scowled darkly at the weather then, not only because I was cold and Tyson was too, but
because I had wanted there to be a decent sunset for September’s birthday. They were the most
important people to me, September and Tyson, though September only lived on in mine and Dimitri’s
memory, and they were both my entire world, like there wouldn’t be any fire in the sun unless
they existed.


Hmph, and people thought I couldn’t love, I thought with a laugh that cut short before it escaped
my lips...


Ooh... Maybe two more people in my life, Kai and Sarah, I thought, feeling a little guilty that I
had forgotten about them. They were the like my brother and sister really. Though I’m sure
Dimitri is still alive, I don’t know where he is because he eloped with his lover when my father
didn’t approve of their marriage. Father was murdered within the following year.


Kai and I lived together, and Tyson stayed with us during the week because it was close to his
school. Our school, I should say. His father was away working somewhere, and his grandfather
was away at BBA conferences organising the tournament dates for the upcoming season. He
stayed with his brother most weekends, but that was two hours away. It was a Friday, but Tyson
was staying with us this weekend because his brother was skiing with friends or something.
Not that I minded, really. It meant that I got Tyson all to myself for an extra two days.


My clothes felt like melted ice on my skin. Flicking Tyson a cerulean slash of concern, I could
see that his lips were now of a colourless pallor, if not for the faintest trace of blue.
Shivering, we made our way up to the esplanade in cold, heavy trudges, icy beads of water dripping
from our clothes and hair to fall with the gushing rain.


Seven streets later and the lounge room fireplace had never been so welcome.


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I hope you enjoyed this first little bit. And please review – or flame if you want to – so that
I know what people actually think of this, and if it’s worth continuing. Anyway, if you made it
this far, I hope you enjoyed it and thanks for reading. BTW, I mentioned a ‘Sarah’; she’s just
an OC, Kai’s girlfriend. I don’t want to have all homosexual couples because then it just
wouldn’t be realistic. Oooh… about homosexuals, if you’re supportive of gay rights and stuff you
might want to check out www.cherrybloss.org which is a site protesting these Christian camps in
the USA that are trying to ‘degay’ homosexual kids by influencing them with Christian beliefs
and stuff. Anyway, thanks for reading..

~Studio~