Author's Notes:  This is my first fanfiction so please review. 

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade or any of its characters.

******************************************************************************

I Dare You

Emily sighed.  It had been a long day.  She had had to completely reformat Michael's beyblade, because of the "cool new style" of beyblading he'd picked up from the White Tigers.  Speaking of the White Tigers, lucky her, she'd had to collect and organize any and all data that had been collected on them.  Mariah had found out about this, and being the annoying creep she was, would not leave her alone.  Something about it being dishonorable to have a copy of your opponents data without them knowing.  To top if off, she was being forced to share a hotel/mansion/boarding house/whatever with every single top blader in the world, who naturally thought they were better than her.  None of them even bothered to hide it and most were just plain rude about it.  Some were rude and cute like Kai- No!  She did not think that!  Kai was not under any circumstances cute at all.  Although he was a great beyblader and easy to tick off, if you knew which buttons to push, which she did.  Mariah had accused her several times of flirting with him, but even the dumbest of all idiots could see there wasn't any love there.  Not like Ray and Mariah, however.  They flirted practically 24-7.  Holding hands, walking everywhere together, it was sooo disgusting!  It made Emily sick just thinking about it.  She glared at the beyblade she was modifying.  She didn't need or want the pressure she got from being the second highest beyblade scientist around.  Nor did she want or need the people responsible for it. 

In a sudden moment of inspiration, she got from the lab table on which she'd been working and walked out of the lab signaling to the assistant on duty that she was taking a break as she went out.  She headed down to the community beyblade arena.  Down there she could give her brain a break by beating the wanna-bes that were lucky enough to make it this far.  She grinned.  Now that would be fun!!!

She turned a corner and almost ran smack dab into Mariah who was walking towards her, head down, oblivious to everything and anything around her.

"Hey!  Mariah!  Watch where you're going!" snapped Emily.

"Stupid Ray…evil bastard…what made him think…gonna kill him…huh?"  Mariah looked from her mutterings and at Emily.  "What'd you say?"

"I said watch where you're going." Responded Emily, "Didn't you notice you nearly ran into me?"

"Well…I…um…you see…" Mariah began.

"And what was with Ray being stupid and evil all about?  Surely, your precious Ray wouldn't ever anything to offend you, now would he?" taunted Emily.

With that Mariah's cheeks turned pinker than her hair.  "That's…that's none of your business.  And Ray would never do or be anything less than perfect.  He's an angel!"

"Uh-huh, sure, whatever, Mariah."  Emily rolled her eyes.  How stupid did she think she was?  Without thinking, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a stick of gum.  "So, was it a dare?"

Mariah just glared at her.

Emily grinned, "Oh, come on tell me.  I'm headed down to the arena to practice and I wanna know what I'm supposed to taunt Ray with."  She finished unwrapping her gum and popped it in her mouth.

Mariah's expression changed almost immediately from a look of hatred to a look of I've-got-an-idea.  "I'll tell you what I know for a stick of gum."

Emily blinked in astonishment.  "Um…why?"

It was Mariah's turn to roll her eyes.  "Trust me if you'd been through what I'd been through, you'd want a stick of gum too."  She shrugged slightly and added as an afterthought under her breath, "Unless it was good of course, and you liked him that way."

Emily pulled out another piece of gum and held it in the air.  "It's Cinnamon."

Mariah reached for it, "Yeah, so…"

Emily held it higher above her head;  "It's my favorite and my last piece, so this info better be worth it."

Mariah sighed, "It's worth it now hand it over!"

Reluctantly, Emily handed the gum over, "Now talk!"

Mariah popped the gum in her mouth and explained, "The Bladebreakers are playing this weird game, where they dare each other to do stupid stuff; basically truth or dare minus the truth part.  They're in the arena, you were right about that.  And you were right about it being a dare, but I refuse to tell you specifics.  Only, that when I left, I could've sworn I heard them daring Kai to do the same thing.  If I were you though, I wouldn't go down there.  You might get hurt!"

Emily looked at Mariah and her voice dripping with boredom said, "Yeah, sure, whatever.  You were a waste of gum.  I've gotta go hang with normal people before I get seen with you and my reputation gets shot.  Later."

Mariah watched her go and smirking followed her.  Not surprisingly, Emily headed to the arena.  Mariah's smirk grew into a grin.  As she had figured, Emily curiosity had gotten the better of her.  She was going get what she deserved.  This should be good, Mariah thought to herself, very good indeed.

************************************************************************

"I double dare you, Kai"

"No."

"Why scared?  Com'on it only has to last ten seconds."

"Yeah, I double dog dare you."

"No."

A wave of noise hit Emily as she entered the arena.  What was this she heard?  Kai had refused a dare?  Before she could stop herself she called out, "I triple dog dare you, Kai."

All five Bladebreaker heads turned towards her in surprise.  Emily grinned; it was sooo much fun surprising people.

Tyson finally broke the silence, "Well, there you have it, Kai.  You got triple dog dared BY A GIRL!"

Kai ignored Tyson and looked at Emily, "Do you even know what we're talking about?"

Emily smirked, "Do I have to?  It's obvious it's something you're afraid to do and that's ALL that matters to me."

Kai faced the others, "She doesn't know what she's getting me into."  His voice gave no hint whatsoever, that he'd heard Emily.

She scowled.  How dare he ignore her?!!!!  How dare he?!!!!  "I can't believe you're too chicken to do this stupid little dare!  It can't be that bad.  Mariah told me Ray did it and Ray's too sweet to do anything bad."

Max's eyebrows rose in surprise.  "You two are talking?"

Ray was just as surprised, "Wow.  I guess that's an improvement."

Emily ignored them.  "Well, are you gonna do it or not?" she demanded.

Kai looked long and hard at her, then got up and started walking towards her.  "You don't know what you're asking me to do."  Kai's long legs were rapidly eating up the space between them.  "You could be asking me to vandalize someone's quarters or to break someone's beyblade."  Emily backed away from Kai.  He was getting too close for comfort.  "Or," Kai continued, "you could be asking me to maim someone or maybe even kill a person."

Now Emily was getting scared.  She backed up until she felt the wall at her back, "But Mariah said-"

Kai cut her off, "You don't know if it's the same dare Mariah told you about or not.  Besides, Ray's a lot tougher than he looks.  He stopped about an inch away from her and extended a hand to caress her cheek.  The touch sent shivers down her spine.  Kai leaned in and in almost a whisper said, "But I'm not.  At least not all the time."  The next thing Emily knew, his lips were up against hers and she was in a whole new world.  Instinct closed her eyes and sent her hands up and down his back; tracing his smooth, firm muscles.  One of his hands, in turn, had found the small of her back and pushed her closer to him, closer, always closer.  The hand that had been on her cheek was now firmly entangled in her hair.  His essence devoured her whole.  She was no longer in control; this was his arena…and she didn't care.  If anyone had told her a single, simple kiss was like this, she would never have believed.

All too soon it ended though.  Time had slowed for them, making seconds into minutes and minutes into hours, but even as Kai pulled away, she felt it speed back up again.  What had seemed like hours had only been minutes.  They stood there, arms around each other's waist, and looked into one another's eyes.  Emily felt Kai's deep, fiery, red, eyes melt her own clear, icy, blue ones.  Kai smiled softly, leaned forward and with a kiss to her forehead released her and walked out of the room.

The silence he left behind was deafening.  Kenny finally broke it.  "Well, Ray, Kai's lasted a full two minutes more than yours did and it was smoother and he didn't get slapped or rejected."

Emily shook herself to wake up from her reverie, "That…was the dare?"

Ray blushed in embarrassment and said sheepishly, "Uh…yeah."

************************************************************************

Kai left the arena, his spirits higher then they'd been for a while.  Almost instantly he spotted Mariah waiting for him.  She saw him as well and motioned for him to follow her.  Surprisingly, he did.  When they were what Mariah judged to be far enough away, they stopped.  Mariah stared at Kai.  He tolerated it for as long as he could.  Which wasn't very long.  "What are you looking at, Mariah?"

She shook herself to as if to wake up and glared at him.  "I'm looking for slap-marks.  I didn't hear a slap, but there's no way she would've let you kiss her.  I didn't let Ray kiss me and we're much better friends than, you two will ever be!!!"

Kai smirked.  In answer he cracked his newly acquired gum.

Mariah scowled.  "Cinnamon?"

Kai's smirk grew.  "Yep."

Her scowl deepened.  " I hate you."

Kai laughed and walked off, leaving Mariah to glare daggers at his back.

************************************************************************

Author's Note: Yeah, I know I over did the kissing scene, but aside from that what did you think?  Again I repeat, please review.