Adult-FanFiction.org : Gundam, Beyblade, DBZ, FMA

Running	By : happynekojpn Category: Beyblade > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 2182 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or its characters. They are the property of their respective copyright holders. No profit is being made from this story

Chapter List
- 1-Running
- 2-Two
- 3-Three
- 4-Four
- 5-Five
- 1
- 2
- 3
A/N: The reaction to this was a lot better than I expected, having been out of the game for this long, so thanks! Wasn't sure at all if there was still a “market” for this kind of fanfiction anymore, but apparently the readers are still out there, so this story will continue! I used to write on aff.net under a different name, but time passes and you forget the login and password, so I created a new one. Totally need to find the one story I wrote on my old account, cos I enjoyed writing that back in the day. Anyway, if you read the first chapter, thank you! And to Golden_Kitsune, thank you for your review and your kind words :) They're excellent motivation! Here's the second chapter for you!

Warnings: Language, sexual content (explicit in later chapters), violence and all that.

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade. It is owned by its respective copyright holders. No profits are being made from this, or else I would totally not be a teacher right now...

Two

It had been ten minutes of this wall of silence. He just seemed to stare off into open space at my question of him discussing his relationship with his former teammates on the Bladebreakers team. I didn't know whether he was just being evasive out of some kind of youthful stubbornness to comply with the law or whether it was just part of his introverted personality, wherein opening up about anything he could feel even the tiniest amount for would be difficult. The thought of the latter had crossed my mind briefly before I asked him the question, yet I still found myself surprised by his silence. Ten minutes was long enough for me, though, to want to cut through the heavy quiet between us. I was getting nowhere with this youth.

“Kai,” I began, looking into his face but knowing he wouldn't meet my gaze. “Going through your record, your former teammates pop up a lot in the years following the Justice Five tournament, the last Beyblade tournament you or your team participated in.” I opened up his file and began to leaf through the documents contained within. “There have been a series of altercations through the years where your former team have all been witness. Once is just a coincidence; four times, not including this one, is a pattern. There's involvement on their part. With all of this evidence in hand, I could bring them in for questioning.”

“How?” Kai finally spoke, his tone was snide, still speaking through gritted teeth. “You can't prove they were there, can you? You're digging around and making conclusions that don't exist. Much like every detective before you, you're weak-minded. I never agreed to answer your stupid questions, but if it will make you stop with your make-believe detective work, I will.” I couldn't deny that the youth was opinionated, but it also confirmed, in an unorthodox manner, that he was coming from a point of defense relating to his former teammates rather than annoyed indifference. He wasn't agreeing to answer my questions out of agitation for my own detective work; he was doing it to divert my attention from his friends. Maybe a part of him would always be their captain.

“Thank you,” I responded simply, glancing through a few more items in the file in front of me before closing it again. “If I may, I'd like to go back to the first recorded incident that you were involved in. In the May of 2008, it is recorded that you were brought to this station for questioning relating to another incident of violence. You were a university sophomore at the time and the other members of the Bladebreakers gave witness statements to the incident, which was recorded as self defense.”

“What does an incident from four years ago have to do with this?” Kai snapped, his muscles tensing in annoyance, his facial expression remaining remarkably dispassionate, allowing his tone to express his feelings on the matter.

“Today marks the fifth violent incident that you have been involved in in four years, Kai,” I replied calmly. “All of these incidents are connected to your former teammates in one way or another. I need to understand the chain of events to put what happened today into some kind of context. These could be just random acts of violence committed against you, or it could be that you are seeking these incidents out as some kind of outlet now that you no longer Beyblade.” I saw him roll his eyes and I heard him grunt in displeasure. Whether it was at the notion of him actively seeking out instances to be violent or at my remark regarding his discontinuation of the sport that made him I couldn't say. I decided to continue irregardless. “The incident occurred on Sunday, May 25^th 2008. Tyson Granger, Ray Kon, Max Tate, Kenny Dion, Daichi Sumeragi and Hilary Tachibana were all present at this incident and all gave witness statements attesting to your acting in self defense. I want to hear about what happened from you, Kai. So that I can start to understand all of this...” I saw him shift uncomfortably in his seat before his heated violet-tinted gaze fell on me. It was one of the first times he had actually looked me in the eye without a kill urge racing behind his indifferent features. He moved closer and leaned on the table in front of us, gaze still trained on me.

“Fine,” he spoke, his tone flat. “You want an answer? Here it is.”

~~+++~~

It was two weeks before the “incident” that the reunion had occurred. I had thought about it, about running again. Social functions were never something I entered into with any relish, and the thought of being near an obvious personal pressure point, Tyson, was enough to make me want to turn my back and walk away as fast as I could. It had worked to this point.

Yet, I didn't.

I had spent the nights leading up to that Saturday staring at the paper with the address on for hour after hour. Not because I actually cared about the address or the location, but because it was something tangible that he had touched. I was memorising his handwriting, the way his letters curved on a page, and not what was actually written.

Even on Saturday morning, I looked back on my behaviour with a great deal of shame and humiliation. What a pathetic thing to do! But such was the effect that this ridiculous “thing” had on me. And it was ridiculous. Every inch of it.

And still, I walked straight into this situation willingly, and allowed myself to feel like a fool for someone I used to despise, but had grown to...

~~+++~~

He entered the apartment building with a sense of trepidation that he couldn't seem to push aside. He hadn't seen, or heard from, these people in three years, and it wasn't like he had always been on the best of terms with them. He wasn't anything like Tyson in that people would naturally gravitate to him and find him difficult to hate; Kai had always been someone that society found relatively easy to feel either indifference or loathing towards. It was how he had always made sure to present himself. He was cold, arrogant and self-assured, and those qualities were not valuable ones when one was looking for a friend.

Yet here he was anyway, in charcoal jeans, black boots and a white button-up shirt, heading up the stairs of the apartment block to meet with people he wasn't even sure would be happy to see him. Heck, he didn't even know if Tyson had told them that he had invited him to this little get-together. That would definitely make things awkward if he hadn't, and knowing Tyson, Kai feared that the younger blader had done just that. Kai wasn't fond of surprises, though he should have expected this from the bluenette.

He made it to the floor on which Ray and Max's apartment was located and found the door number, merely standing in front of it for a few moments as he tried to run through scenarios in his head. Being unprepared was something Kai couldn't stand, and he didn't know what was waiting for him beyond that closed door. It was too late to run now. He'd have to ring the doorbell and see what happened. Adjusting the leather cuffs at his wrists, he reached forward and pressed the faded doorbell below the plastic-covered plaque that bore the apartment number and the tenants' names: R. Kon and M. Tate.

After a few moments of quiet, on both sides of the door, a loud shuffling sound emerged from within the apartment, followed by equally loud footfalls and the soft click of the door being unlocked prior to opening. Standing in the doorway was a young man that Kai remembered well, though he didn't recall him having that height.

Max Tate stood at the door, his blonde hair still messy as the older blader had recalled it, but long gone were the vibrant colours he once wore so proudly, now replaced with more muted-down tones that expressed how much he had grown and matured in the past three years. He was wearing a light pair of jeans with a dark green t-shirt bearing a drawing of a hedgehog and the slogan “hedgehogs are so greedy; can't they just share the hedge?”. A small token, perhaps, of the Max he would perhaps always be. Though he was taller, and looked so much less like the hyperactive, bouncy youngster from their Beyblading days, there were some things that the years just couldn't take away. Kai studied Max's reaction to his presence carefully, watching as the large blue eyes of the younger blader seemed to bug out and almost glitter with an obvious shock and delight.

Tyson hadn't said anything to them about his coming. That asshole.

“K-Kai?!” Max finally choked out, the joy and surprise obvious in his tone. “Holy hell! It's really you! Holy hell!!” Though he only had socks on his feet, Max flew out of the door to greet Kai enthusiastically, throwing his arms around him and embracing him tightly. The older one's body tensed completely, his brain turning into a scramble as he tried to figure out how exactly to react to this. He didn't have to, though, as the younger one felt Kai's obvious tension at the physical contact and pulled away, the smile still on his features regardless. “I totally had no idea you would show up today! How in the world did you know to come here?! I mean, we're all gonna be here!”

“Tyson,” Kai responded simply, shrugging lightly. He would make sure to take Tyson aside at some stage and chew into him for allowing him to be subjected to a barrage of unnecessary affection. The bluenette was either forgetful or he was some kind of sadistic genius. Either was possible when it came to Tyson.

“Tyson?!” the blonde looked even more shocked at this latest piece of news. “You mean you've seen Tyson and he told you to come here?!”

“I can go if it's going to cause a problem,” Kai stated firmly, seeing his chance to get away from a potentially awkward situation and deciding to take it. No such luck, though, as Max grabbed his arm and pulled him into the apartment. “Hey! Hey!” Kai remarked loudly as he nearly stumbled over entering the place, wrenching himself from Max's grip to take off his boots, setting them aside with the other pairs of shoes in the entrance hall before stepping up into the apartment's kitchen area.

“Haha, sorry!” Max apologised sheepishly, reaching over behind Kai to pull the front door closed. “Got caught up in the buzz! Come on, I know everyone is gonna go insane when they see you here! Though I gotta kick Tyson for not telling us!” Kai looked around at the small kitchen space, noting the excess of potato chips and soda cans stacked on the table in the middle of the room, before following Max to the sliding door at the opposite wall, staying behind the blonde as he pulled the aged wooden frame back in its runner to enter into the main living space. “Guys!” the young American began excitedly. “Got an extra person for tonight!” The older one suddenly felt extreme apprehension overcome him, though he had no time at all to act on it as his arm was grabbed rather roughly, once again, by the younger one and was yanked forward to bring Kai into the room and into the full view of the only other person present.

Ray.

The Chinese blader hadn't changed a modicum. His hair was exactly the same as Kai had remembered it, though he had a feeling that Ray was more than a little fond of that same style and would probably keep it that way until he was old and grey. His colour palette hadn't changed, either, and he still wore the same style of a yellow-trimmed white tunic over loose black pants. It was like falling into a time warp.

“Kai?!” Ray bugged out much in the manner that Max had at the door, lifting himself up from the cushion on which he had been seated upon on the floor, a grin breaking out across his features, exposing one of his cat-like fangs. “Damn! It's so good to see you! I hardly recognise you! I mean, no face paint!” Driger's master couldn't help but let a laugh escape at that, recalling with fondness how Kai had always been seen with the same blue triangles painted on his face in days of old, to the point where seeing him without them would have induced shock and awe. “But I can't believe it! You're here! How did you know to come?!”

“Tyson met up with Kai and told him to come!” Max answered before Kai even had a chance. “Can you believe him?! He sees Kai, after all these years, invites him to our reunion get-together, and doesn't even think to let us know he's coming?!”

“I'm sorry for whatever Max did to you at the door, Kai!” Ray spoke up, sounding apologetic, his expression rather sheepish. “He's still the same in that he'll get excited over anything! He looks a lot more mature on the outside, but past all that, he's still Maxie!”

“Says the man who still dresses the same after three years!” Max bemoaned in his defense, though the seriousness of it was worn away by the laugh that threatened to spill forth as he spoke. Kai remained silent as he watched the pair's exchange, sighing and shaking his head. This all gave him the feeling that this was going to be a long and rough night. He started to ask himself then why he had accepted Tyson's invitation instead of going to a party for a night of meaningless sex with a girl whose name he could never remember.

You know why...

“You're kinda early, Kai,” Ray finally addressed Kai to disrupt his internal musings. “I don't think Kenny or Hilary will be here for another twenty minutes, yet. Hell knows how long it will take Tyson and Daichi to get here... Those two are never on time...”

“It's fine, I'll wait out there for a little while,” Kai gestured to the sliding balcony doors that overlooked the bustling city landscape, naturally planning to see if he could get away with one or two cigarettes before he was found out. It wasn't that he was afraid of being reprimanded for the bad habit he had acquired; he just didn't feel he could handle the tidal wave of complaints from his younger friends without possibly causing them all brain damage. He excused himself to the balcony while Ray and Max continued to ready themselves and their apartment for their other guests. Taking out a cigarette from the pack in his jacket pocket, he couldn't but take enjoyment from the twinkling lights of the city scenery around him. Traffic remained still as people tried to make their way home, creating chains of bright red lights all the way down the block. On the sidewalk, people rushed to and from the local train station, ducking into convenience stores and restaurants dotted up and down the street. Sometimes, Kai liked this kind of scene. Where he lived, in his grandfather's old home, it was so quiet that you could hear a twig drop from a tree in the dead of night. Out here, the urban world superseded the quiet calm of the suburban, though never entirely. This place seemed to balance both so well, which was part of why Kai liked it.

Only part. The other part had to do with who else resided in this particular area.

From inside the apartment, Ray found himself watching Kai with some interest as he helped Max to unravel some controllers for their Playstation 3.

“Kai smokes now, I see,” he remarked as he set the two controllers he had been working on aside and proceeded to start going through the selection of video games that they had, putting the ones that were multiplayer and the ones that Tyson liked the best near the top of the pile.

“Yeah, I noticed that, too,” Max replied softly, arranging a couple of bean bags around the large coffee table in the middle of the room. “Think it's the stress of having to deal with the real world that drove him to that? I'd never have imagined Kai to have an addictive personality...”

“That's where you're wrong,” Ray responded, his voice barely audible as he vocalised his thoughts. “I'm pretty sure that Kai, just like any of us, has his weaknesses...” Their train of thought was interrupted by the shrill sound of the door. Ray looking up at the wall clock with some surprise. “Oh! It's 8:30 already! I guess that's Kenny and Hilary...”

“Ever thought of how scary life would be if Kenny and Hilary dated?” Max grinned as he made his way to the door, laughing as we went at catching the sickened expression on Ray's face prior to his departure. He opened the door widely, unsurprised to see the shorter, bespectacled youth standing there with the brunette young woman behind him, though her demeanour suggested that something unpleasant had happened on the commute. “Uh... is everything okay?”

“No!” Hilary snapped, not even trying to pretend that things were as normal as she pulled the redhead younger man into Max's line of sight, her grip on his arm vice-like, the expression on his face one of devious remorse, if those two things could have ever been seen together. “This little bug said I've gotten fat! He has the cheek to call me fat after all this time!” She was nearly shrieking at this point, so an embarrassed Kenny and a nervous Max quickly ushered Hilary and Daichi into the apartment to finish the argument there, before the neighbours complained.

“Well, you have gotten a bit bigger!” the much-taller Daichi remarked, gesturing to Hilary's form and only causing the young woman to become even more irate, her hand balling into a fist and connecting hard with the top of his head. The younger male howled in pain, his own short temper starting to flare. “What the freakin' hell?! You're still so damn violent!”

“You bring out the worst in me!” Hilary fumed. Soon, Ray came out into the kitchen and couldn't help but laugh at the sight that greeted him.

“Some things really don't change, do they?” the Chinese young man laughed. “Good to see you found the place okay, Daichi, but I guess you found Hilary and Kenny first!”

“We're not late, are we?” Kenny queried, the young man still the shortest of the original pack, adjusting his glasses slightly as he looked around.

“No, you guys are right on time!” Max smiled brightly, waiting as everyone removed their shoes in the entrance, awaiting any remark about the third pair of shoes that were there beside Ray's and Max's own shoes.

“Huh, there's a pair of snazzy boots here,” Daichi was the one who caught on first. “Doesn't look like anything either of you two would wear... For one thing, they look too expensive!” Max could feel Ray prickling at the barb, which just caused the blonde to laugh softly.

“Well, they're Kai's boots,” Max responded, attempting to make light of the fact that their elusive former leader had reappeared after all these years. The newcomers to their home had been taken in by his words and nonchalance, though and were shocked by them.

“K-Kai?!” Hilary nearly screamed, which earned her some looks from the young men in her company. “He's here?! Right now?!” she lowered the tone of her voice and tried to detract from her shock and surprise.

“Yeah, he's here,” Max spoke again. “He's out on the balcony. He's been here for about 20 minutes or so. Tyson invited him. Seems they met up before this and Tyson told them about our little party and told him to come along. I didn't know anything about it, so I was just as surprised as you were when he arrived at the door!” It was no secret to anyone that Hilary had had a crush on Kai when they were younger, and it appeared that the feelings hadn't diminished with time. It seemed, though, that Hilary was under the impression that her friends had no idea of this.

“No waaaaay!” Daichi exclaimed in shock, peering round Max and Ray to see if he could spot Kai in the room beyond. “He's seriously here?! So we're all here together, then...”

“Looks that way for sure,” Kenny responded, the shock of Kai's appearance obvious on his face, but he managed to hide it in his speech, if only a little. “But I'm surprised Kai showed up, especially at Tyson's invitation...!”

“Yeah, I think we all are...” Ray finally spoke, leading everyone into the living room, gesturing to the balcony doors through which Kai could be seen, if only the back of him as he looked out over the city at night. The young men in the room noted Hilary's half-longing expression as she watched Kai through the glass; she wanted to go out there and reach out, like she had when they were younger, but perhaps it was the fact that Kai was different now, and time had passed since those times, that held her back from doing so.

“So, are we just waiting on the usual suspect?” Kenny asked, despite the fact that everyone's attention was still on the unexpected guest who was out on the balcony.

“Yeah, he'll probably be here in an hour,” Max joked, opening up a bag of tortilla chips and dipping his hand inside, pulling out a few and snacking on them. “Tyson has never had a good grasp of--” He was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell and everyone in the room looked at one another with a mixture of shock and intrigue.

It couldn't be Tyson already, could it...?

“Guuuuuys!” the loud voice of the master of Dragoon could be heard calling from the other side of the door. “Let me in! I made the effort to get here on time, so let me in!”

“This is too weird...” Daichi commented, vocalising what was on everyone's minds. “Kai is here, Tyson decides to show up on time... Did we fall into some alternate universe or something...?” The others couldn't help but echo Daichi's sentiments, though they did so inwardly. Max was the one who stirred to answer the door, letting the loudest member of their group into the apartment. When he came in behind the blonde, what shocked the gathering the most was that he had foregone the usual yellow shirt and had opted instead for a red and white baseball t-shirt with the words “You Go Glenn Coco” emblazoned across the front. Hilary sniggered when she saw the shirt, but the rest of the group seemed moderately confused by it. He still wore the same baseball cap and charcoal jeans, though. There would be no losing the hat. He would have to have it surgically removed at some stage, Max was sure of it.

“So! We all here?” Tyson asked as he smiled at everyone gathered, mentally noting the absence of their former captain.

“Yeah, we're all here,” Ray responded, gesturing out to the balcony. “Our surprise guest is out there. Why in the world didn't you say anything about meeting Kai?!”

“Yeah! I think I mentally scarred him when I jumped on him in the entryway...” Max added. All eyes were on the bluenette, who had a look of smug victory painted across his tanned features.

“Well, he was a surprise!” Tyson grinned. “And now you're all happy to have him here, right? I mean, it's been three years since we were all in the same place together! Tonight is gonna be a great night!” He started towards the balcony doors. “I'll go and bring our surprise guest inside so we can get this started! Five minutes, guys!” And with that, Tyson disappeared out onto the balcony to join Kai.

The older youth was in a world of his own, smoking cigarette number three. He hadn't even heard the doors behind him open, or Tyson step out onto the small balcony to join him. He was deep in thought, wondering about what he was doing and where he was going. Not physically, of course, but metaphorically, with his life. He slowly exhaled a cloud of smoke as his mind started to trace back over some of the critical changes in his life. Meeting Tyson. Losing to Tyson. Joining teams with Tyson. Being Tyson's teammate. Betraying Tyson. Being brought back by Tyson. Sharing in Tyson's victory... The more he tracked back, the more he started to realise that the master of Dragoon featured far too prominently in his memory. Every memory of note, that didn't involve some manner of mental torment in a compound in Moscow, involved him in some way, shape or form and it was a fact that worried and disturbed the older blader. How had he managed to allow anyone, let alone Tyson, to become the centre of his attention in this way? It was a feeling, a thought process, that he had been trying to avoid, but now it seemed like it was going to be difficult. Especially here, of all places. Here with him.

“Drifting away, huh?” Tyson's voice broke Kai's train of thought, and he couldn't help but jolt a little, which annoyed him all the more as he shouldn't have allowed himself to be so carried away in his own head to not be aware of his surroundings. Lilac-coloured eyes met fiery brown ones and they held each other for only a few seconds, though the time felt like so much longer to Kai. “Still got your own little bubble, huh?” Kai simply shrugged, turning away from Tyson to look back over the night landscape, unwittingly trying to hide the slowly smoldering cigarette in his left hand. “I'm not blind, Kai,” Tyson spoke up after a relatively short silence. “And I do have a sense of smell. I know you've been smoking out here. I mean, even if you hadn't, the smell lingers on your clothes. You need to carry Febreze or something around with you!”

“Do you think I care about something as petty as that?” Kai snapped back, sounding obviously affronted by the remark. “No one said you had to be around me if you don't like it, Tyson.”

“Don't get like that!” Tyson groaned, leaning against the balcony railing in an effort to get Kai to look at him. “Jeez, you're still as moody as always...! It's obvious you don't want people knowing you're a smoker, right?” No response. He continued. “So, just chew some gum, or eat a mint, and hit your clothes with Febreze! No one will know!” Kai merely rolled his eyes, despite the fact that a tiny part of himself did feel that Tyson might be onto something with that particular idea. “Or,” the younger continued on. “Better still, you could just quit smoking altogether. Wouldn't that be better for you than dousing yourself in Febreze and overkilling on Life Savers?”

“Get to the point, Tyson,” Kai sighed exasperatedly, putting out his cigarette and starting to turn to face the bluenette when he was met with Tyson's face mere inches from his own, the younger looking into his face critically. The sudden closeness caused Kai's heart to leap and quicken, mentally fighting against the soft blush that threatened to bloom across his cheeks. He could feel Tyson's breath soft on his face and it made his stomach tighten.

“I wonder...” Tyson mused, his face seeming to inch closer to the older one's, Kai's pulse quickening further. He felt a jolt of what he could only describe as surprise when one of Tyson's fingers extended to poke him in the nose. The surprise in his eyes was quickly followed by confusion, and then by mild annoyance. “Still such a sourpuss, Kai!” the bluenette grinned as he stepped back and went towards the balcony doors, calling back over his shoulder. “Come on, Kai! Let's not keep everyone waiting!”

As his pulse slowed and his heart calmed, Kai found himself looking after Tyson as he went back into the apartment. This was getting to be difficult to control. This strange reaction, these strange feelings, were swirling around him whenever Tyson was around, so it was starting to become clear to the dual-haired Beyblader that this had gone past being a problem some time ago. This was obviously no longer something that he could manage effectively and it was about to start affecting him adversely.

Everything he had been running from, the feelings he had fought so hard not to face, were now standing right before him. And all he could think about was running again. Now wasn't the time. He wasn't ready yet. The world wasn't ready yet. He had to fight it, if only for a little longer.

Nothing could be done now, though. He had no choice but to follow his old friend into the apartment and pray to whatever god may exist, or at least to the Bit Beast that eternally remained on his person, that nothing else would go wrong tonight.

~~+++~~

Several hours had been spent in familiar company, and it was now late into the night. The trains had stopped for the evening, meaning that unless they were all within walking distance, no one was getting home tonight. As luck would have it, Kai had come here in his car, so he could easily escape and go home for the night, but trying to explain that to his over-excited companions was easier said than done.

“We could totally pull out extra futons and blankets for you guys,” Max quipped as he got up and started towards his own room, going in and appearing to rifle through a wardrobe within. “We've got extra stuff here for when company comes, cos we're close to campus so people crash here a lot...”

“That would be totally amazing! Like the old days!” the baseball cap-wearing former Beyblader grinned happily, stretching out over the back of the couch as he watched Max fetch a different assortment of futon mattresses, pillows and blankets. “All of us, camped out on the floor... You still get up at the crack of dawn, Kai? Even when you don't go to sleep until past 2am?”

“ ... Force of habit,” the oldest of the group shrugged nonchalantly after a long pause. “I'm going...” Kai decided to take this chance to leave, getting to his feet, but as he had expected, he was met with the usual heavy protest.

“You can't go!” Tyson began. “There are no trains! You'll never get back!”

“It's called a driver's license, Tyson,” Kai groaned, going into his pocket and holding out his car keys before pocketing them again just as swiftly.

“It would be great if you could stay, Kai,” Max threw out, his tone laced with a little hope that their former captain wouldn't do his usual trick of escaping at the first opportunity. He wanted to make Kai more of a fixture in their group now they had reunited with him, though he suspected that this was just a part of the Phoenix that was just never going to change.

“I have things to do when I wake up, so it's better I just go,” Kai responded flatly. He knew what was socially required of him now, though part of him still struggled with the standard social pleasantries that accompanied these kinds of functions. “... Thanks for tonight,” he spoke finally after a moderately awkward silence, and he wasn't certain if the others could tell the difficulty he had met with in just getting those words out.

“It was good to see you, Kai,” Ray half-sighed as he replied, surrendering to the fact that their former leader was going to leave irregardless of whatever level of pleading was laid at his feet. “Try not to leave it so long before meeting up with us again, okay?” Kai merely shrugged at this, not wanting to agree to anything if he wasn't willing to apply any effort to it. The truth of it all was that a part of him had enjoyed being around his former teammates tonight, but the tight knot of tension in his gut at the presence of a certain member of their group was encouraging him to make himself scarce.

“I'll walk you out, then!” Tyson leapt to his feet, stretching his arms up above his head, yawning. “Fresh air might keep me awake for another hour or two! Back in a bit, guys! Try not to have too much fun without me!” With this, he lead his older companion out of the apartment and down into the building's lobby, walking with him in a comfortable silence until they made it to the parking lot assigned to the apartment block. “Wish you didn't have to run off, Kai...” Tyson was the one to break the silence, and Kai couldn't help but wonder why his friend's voice sounded almost... sad, or even longing. “But hey, take my cell phone number, okay?” He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, pre-scrawled with his cell phone number, and handed it over to the older Beyblader. “Call if you ever want to Beybattle or something!

“I can't imagine you've been practicing,” Kai pointed out, looking Tyson up and down obviously, though he made an effort to insure that the younger couldn't tell that it was as much a look of pleasurable admiration as scrutiny. The bluenette couldn't help but laugh.

“Perhaps not!” Tyson chuckled softly. “But I'm willing to bet you have! Even out of the game, I bet you're still in it in some way!” Kai didn't respond to that; it was another instance in which he didn't want to admit that Tyson was right. “Take care getting home,” Tyson spoke again after another brief silence, this time his tone soft and almost unreadable, causing the older to give his friend a curious look. Tyson merely smiled, looking as if he wanted to say more but biting his tongue, before going back into the apartment block to rejoin their friends.

Kai was more than a little perplexed by what had just played out, but he chose to ignore it, looking down instead at the recognisable, yet still barely legible, scrawl that was Tyson's handwriting, a faint smile tugging at the corners of his lips, though it was quickly replaced by a frown as he took in the battered and crumpled state of the piece of paper he had been given. It looked as if it had been crumpled up many times and into a tighter ball each time. He was about to crumple it himself when he noticed something on the back of the scrap of paper that captured his attention. It was handwriting, that much he was certain of, but it wasn't Tyson's at all. Flipping the paper over, Kai slowly read over what was written there, his eyes widening at each word, looking back over to the building as he tried to process what he had just read.

It couldn't be... It was impossible...

Hastily, Kai pocketed the scrap of paper and got into his car, hoping to distract himself on the drive home enough to not turn around and go back to demand an explanation from the baseball-capped youth. The paper had read:

You sicken me. Everything about you makes me nauseous. People like you shouldn't be allowed to live. You're going to die.
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