Two For Tea

Kai looked up as the door to the little Italian restraint that was playing host to the current farce opened yet again and then froze when he saw just who had entered. Only iron self control prevented the expression of boredom slipping from his face while on the inside he seethed and snarled. His rage caused not only by the girl now glancing from table to table, or by his team-mates who were loved up enough to think this was a good idea, but also by his own ignorance. They had told him that his 'date' would be wearing a purple flower in her hair, and with hindsight he really should have been able to guess just who that meant.

The problem Kai felt, as he leaned back into the shadows delaying the moment he was spotted as much as he could, was that his team-mates were blissfully in love. At least for the most part they were, Daichi still thought girls were yucky and probably contagious while Kenny had decided he was happier when he devoted himself to computers and Beyblade and stopped pining after the unattainable. But the others were a different story.

Rei and Mariah were the easiest to deal with because despite protests from both of them to the contrary they had been together in one sense or the other for years. It was so sickeningly sweet that it make Kai feel slight nauseous but the truth was the pair had probably been destined to be together since they first met as chubby toddlers in the sandbox. Disgusting. Either way the two nekos were now officially together and suddenly seemed to be joined at the hip as well as a few other places. A fact which probably went a long way to explain their almost matching smirks.

If it had just been the two purring preening kittens it would have been fine. Unfortunately almost out of nowhere Hilary and Tyson suddenly seemed to come to the conclusion that their years of animosity was actually a cover for repressed sexual tension. The downside was that it not only seemed to make Hilary even more bossy and Tyson even more cocky but there was also a high probability that any time you walked into a room you'd find the pair of them making out. Just making out, if you were lucky. The memory of the look on Hiro's face when he'd walking in on them, clothing shoved aside and hands wondering where they liked, was almost enough to make up for the hell Kai was about to endure. Almost, but not quite.

Even Max had fallen prey to the love bug that seemed to be going round like some exceptionally virulent strain of flu. Though even Kai, with all his dislike of relationships and the inevitable problems they caused, had to admit that Mariam and Max were practically perfect for one another. She was fiery and impulsive not to mention a little temperamental and was therefore the perfect complement to Max's playful and out going nature. Kai was alternately torn between being happy for them in their state of delightful bliss and wanting to throw up a little in his mouth every time he saw them snuggling.

Since his team-mates seemed to feel the need to share their new found state of happy delirium by setting him up on what had to be the worlds most idiotic blind date, it was all Kai could do to keep from staring longingly at the knife on the table. He was not the sort to interfere in the relationships of his friends under normal circumstances, but the situation he was in made him sorely tempted to end one or two of them in the most terminal fashion.

Evidently failing to have spotted him huddled in his shadowy corner the girl just inside the doorway started to turn as if preparing to leave. Perhaps a touch prematurely Kai let out a sigh of relief and the girl froze, her head tilted slightly as if she had just glimpsed something out of the corner of her eye. When she turned back to face him her eyes were blazing with fury but her photo ready smile with still in place, all that PR training was evidently hard to shake.

For all that he disliked her as a person, Kai was reluctantly forced to admit that in a purely ascetic way she was exceptional. True a lot of girls had exotic hair colouring and tanned skin was hardly uncommon either, but she worked her look in a way others didn't. Mariah was just as exotic, and probably would have beaten her in the looks department as she possessed both a better figure and a better smile, except that the neko didn't care. The jinn was happy enough to let her prowess in the dish do all the talking for her, the girl currently stalking towards him was not.

Ming-Ming, for that was who it was, wanted to dominate in all aspects of her life. It was why she was a ruthless and devastating competitor in the dish using Venus with force and skill. But it was also why she was moving through the tables with a dancers grace while projecting and aura of what could only be described as old time Hollywood glamour. Her black dress was demur in cut and reasonable in length, yet clung suggestively to both hip and bust, and the azure curls were swept back in an elegant up do in which a purple rose in full bloom nestled.

The girl, in fact looked, like the total package. Right up until she opened her mouth, when it became clear that she was arrogant, aggressive and thought far too damned much of herself. She was also vain, greedy and had the sort of pride you could bounce rocks off of. Big rocks at that, or possibly even small boulders. And while it was true she had a brilliant mind, too often she used it to come up with scathing and mocking taunts, and she wasn't afraid to unleash the sharp side of her tongue on anyone.

"Ming-Ming." Kai said as she reached the table, rocking slightly in her heels as her forward momentum was brought to a sharp stop. She tied to loom over him, which was funny since even with her in those ridiculously high heels he was almost as tall as her and he was slouched back in his seat.

"I don't like being set up." Somehow she managed to hiss out the words through clenched teeth, each syllable dripping venom, without letting her smile slip. Practice Kai was sure, it was only the way she managed to hold the smile through everything that had kept her Beyblade princess image intact and prevented the populace as a whole seeing her for the ruthless little bitch she could be.

"Well neither do I." He retorted, his voice soft but full of menace as he slowly sat up straight in his chair. The slight twitched of humour he had previously felt shrivelled up and died under her thinly disguised accusation.

"Please, as if I'd ever agree to go on a date with you." The way she said it left Kai in no doubt just how little she thought of him, less then something she'd scrap off the bottom of her shoe her expression said. "You drove Brooklyn insane."

"He was hardly innocent, and he caused me to lose Dranzer." True the two things had happened almost simultaneously and pushing the other blader over the edge hadn't been an act of retribution, but he wasn't the only one that Brooklyn had hurt in his quest to prove his superiority.

"You got you're freaky fire pigeon back." Ming-Ming snapped causing the Russian to recoil slightly at her words. Even he, who knew far better, sometimes got distracted by the pretty face and large liquid eyes and forgot just what a spiteful and sneaky cat she could be.

"Well you're precious Brooky got his sanity back." Kai sneered and then added, because the crack about Dranzer had really riled him. "For a given value of sanity."

She gave a gasping squeal of outrage and would probably have tried to slap him if it weren't for the fact that their altercation had drawn the interested gazes of those at the closest tables. Knowing that he had won, if not the fight then at least the first round, Kai selected a breadstick from the pot on the table, bit the end off and smirked at the fuming singer as he chewed.

"Don't look too pleased with yourself," She started then paused until Kai raised an eyebrow in enquiry, personally he felt he had every reason to look smug. "It makes that scar on your face look all funny. All weird and… icky."

If he hadn't of swallowed a moment before Kai would probably have sent half chew crumbs flying as he almost chocked and the little witch stood over him and cackled. It wasn't as if he were particularly bothered about the scares he bore, not even the one that ran across the left side of his face and had almost cost him the eye. If anything they had caused his female fan base to increases rather than lessen, something he could well have done without. But for Ming-Ming to bring it up in public in such a way had to be considered hitting below the belt.

"Well that was mature." He mocked when he got his breath back and was secretly delighted at the way her laughter died. With one exception her team was made up of pretty boys and even Crusher was not without his share of enamoured devotees she had probably been hoping to provoke him with her comment the way she would have with them if she brought up any blemish they had.

"I've been set up on a date with an ice cube possessed of the emotional maturate of a toddler." The smile she gave him was as sweet as arsenic laced sugar, and just as poisons. "I was just trying to get down on to your level."

"You spiteful little -" Kai started as he shoved himself to his feet with such force that his chair skittered backwards and almost toppled.

What he actually thought Ming-Ming to be was something that interested onlookers were never to discover as the sound of someone clearing their throat almost literally in his ear momentarily distracted him. Kai turned ready to snarl at the interloper, interrupting a good argument was something that was just not done, and stopped when he saw the girl. She was of medium height, with green eyes and long blonde hair in which, he had to blink twice to make sure his eyes weren't deserving him, was a dark purple flower.

"Uh Kai? Hi, I'm Ami I go to school with Hilary." She glanced nervously back and forth between the two bladers, the tension between them was so thick the air almost crackled with it. "I was told you were expecting me?"

Kai looked away from the questioning girl and back at the formally seething singer. Ming-Ming's expression was one of stunned and bewildered bafflement, she looked like someone who had just had the world pulled out from under her feet and Kai was sure his expression was mirroring hers to near perfection. Before either one of them could collect sufficient wits to voice a question they were interrupted a second time.

"Ms. Pellow?" The waiter looked at the frozen tubule then, like a true professional, pretended that nothing was out of place. "It would seem that your dinner companion was running late but has now arrived and wonders if you would still consent to dine with him?"

Still looking stunned the azure haired girl turned to look in the direction that was being indicated. Curiosity getting the better of him Kai leaned slightly to the side so he could see the male in question. Dark hair and tan complexion he stood by an empty table his expression one of nervous hopefulness. And around his neck he wore a white scarf. If he'd been alone Kai would have buried his face in his hands and groaned and when she turned back to face him he could see Ming-Ming was fighting the desire to do the same thing. If either of them had been any more sheepish the next word spoken would have had to have been baa.

"Well, good evening Kai," She said after a moment, the picture perfect smile looking so brittle one wrong move and it would probably shatter. "It was a pleasure catching up with you."

"A pleasure," Kai agreed trying to force the corners of his lips to turn upwards, he wasn't sure he managed. "We mustn't leave it so long next time."

She gave a small nod of agreement before she turned and followed the waiter as he led her away. Mustering his scattered senses Kai tuned his attention to his intended blind date who was regarding him the way that a rabbit might a particularly aggressive fox. It didn't bode well, but all he could really do was try and put the past ten minuets behind him and make the best of what remained of the evening.

A little over an hour later Kai had just handed his date into a taxi, and breathed a sigh of relief to see her go, when Ming-Ming and her date exited the restaurant. The singer's smile how defiantly had a strand quality as she babbled, almost frantically, something about already having a ride and him not needing to wait. It took a few more moments of frenzied chatter, the girl looked like she was actually about to try shooing him down the road, before he gave her a sad wistful look and reluctantly turned away.

"Do you have a ride?" Kai asked, not bothering to hide his smile because the girl didn't relax until her date had turned the corner and was out of sight. He stopped to look back, twice.

"God no." She almost sagged with relief when he was lost to view, her smile vanishing and being replaced by an almost pained look. "But there was no way I was going to share a taxi with him. Rude, moody, brooding those I can deal with. Even self centred egomaniacs like you I can handle, but he was soooo dull."

"I know what you mean." Kai muttered, his normal caution when speaking with any former BEGA blader momentarily forgotten. That was the last time that he allowed Hilary, or any member of either of his teams for that matter, to set him up on a date. Blind or otherwise.

"Oh really? So how was little miss sunshine?" Ming-Ming cooed her smile turning evil, the fact that she had suffered through a boring meal suddenly mitigated by knowing Kai had been suffering just as much.

For a moment he considered simply not answering, but decided that there was no point in holding his tongue after all his relief at seeing the girl gone was obvious. Plus he'd watched Ming-Ming and her date enough to note she had needed several glasses of wine to get through her meal and she had probably been paying him equal attention.

"She was a mouse," He said at last, which caused the singer's slightly toxic smile to transform into a full blown smirk any shark would be proud of. "A boring mouse."

"Oh you poor baby." There was sympathy in her words though it was barely detectible under the delighted sarcasm. "Come on, there's a little coffee shop just down the way and you're buying."

"And how the hell did you work that out." Kai growled, but figured it wasn't worth the effort to try and push her away when she linked her arm through his like they were long time friends as apposed to recent bitter enemies. The alcohol she had consumed had clearly mellowed her temper if not her sense of self importance.

"Well Kai," Ming-Ming said, flashing him smile so fake it was almost made of plastic, as she started walking tugging him along with her. "The thing is that while you may not like me, and of coarse it goes without say that I do not like you, I can promise you this one thing. No matter what I will never bore you."

"And that translates to me paying, how?" He questioned as he allowed the pint sized pop star to tow him down the street. True they were already bickering with every step and by the time they disappeared round the corner they were once again full on arguing. And when the evening finally came to a close both bladers were feeling angry, frustrated and terribly out of sorts.

Later when Kai lay in bed unable to sleep as he came up with all sorts of deliciously biting come backs and put downs that he wished he had come up with earlier he reflected that for all her negative points Ming-Ming had been right about one thing. She may have irritated, belittled and just generally driven him to the point where, once again, homicide seemed like a reasonable response, but true to her word she hadn't bored him. Horrific evening though it had been for the most part, a part of Kai found himself hoping he wouldn't have to wait too long for a repeat so he could work on irritating the girl properly.

(A/N) What can I say? Actually not a damn thing apart from happy birthday Iluvbeyblade and I have no idea where these mad ideas come from.

Lamanth xx