Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade, but I love fireworks.
Ookay, stupid title, but not as much so as the one I had before. Heh, you should all be happy with it now. It's a mixture of the holiday and a small idea of the plot. Also, Rei has kept his name with the original spelling, because I favor it.
Warnings: One or Two tiny spoilers (if you haven't seen the entire series), Boy/Boy love (Shounen-Ai), and mild swearing.
o-..-..-..-..-..-..-o , indicates a scene change.
Alright, well, enjoy.
INDEPENDENT VEGETARIAN
Chapter 1: Life
I pledge allegiance to the flag
Of the United States of America,
and to the republic
for which it stands
one nation,
under God,
indivisible,
with liberty
and justice for all!
The Pledge of Allegiance was printed on countless flyers, littering the ground; All sporting a red, white, and blue theme. American flags dotted the path way, sticking into the spongy grass to show-off their patriotic colors and structured design. Hundreds of people could be seen enjoying the hot sun, and hiding from the killer temperatures under shaded tents or umbrellas. The aroma of barbeque hung in the sultry air, and smiles were all around.
It was the Forth of July. Independence Day; and Kai, Rei, Tyson, and Kenny were invited to New York City in America to stay with Max and his family over the holiday. They were all currently at the park waiting to watch the fireworks display tonight.
"Maxie, thanks for letting us come here with you." Rei was smiling excitedly as he helped Max set a light blue table cloth over their claimed park table.
Tyson set down the cooler panting, and turned to Kai, leaning exhaustedly against him. Kai bristled with annoyance and was about to shove the younger irritation away, but Rei came to the rescue before that happened.
"Hey Kai, do you think you could come help me get some ice?" Tyson hit the ground at Kai's sudden retreat, and scowled up at Kenny's giggling.
"Hey, Hiwatari, that hurt you know?"
His captain simply shrugged and Kenny stifled his laughing long enough to help Tyson to his feet again, and over to the picnic table.
"I'll get it, no problem." Kai turned away from his team with a smirk directed at Dragoon's master, and started to walk off.
Rei started emptying the cooler with Max, and then quickly called back to Kai. "You sure?" A dismissive hand wave was the only answer any of them got.
"Meh, let Mr. Sourpuss go Rei, he can do it all by himself." Tyson sneered quietly and plopped down with Kenny at the table, watching his younger friend pull out a thick novel from the backpack he'd brought. "Chief, you gonna read all day?" Kenny simply opened the cover and glanced over at Tyson.
"We have about ten hours to kill Tyson, and it's so warm. Want to read with me?" Tyson gave him a bored look and gave the burnet's hair a gentle pat.
"No thanks Kenny, I'd rather eat and tan!" Tyson exclaimed, leaning back and shoving his feet on the table in front of the shorter boy. Kenny meeped. Rei shoved the boy's feet off the table instantly.
"Use some manners Ty, Chief doesn't want to smell your feet all day." Tyson stuck his tongue out at his motherly friend and slapped his palm against the older boy's, giving him a high-five.
"Yeah fine, I'm just bored."
"You're always bored."
"What? But Tysooon, we just barely got here! You can't be bored yet…" Max sounded somewhat disappointed and stuck an umbrella through a small hole in the center of the table.
"Can you help me open this thing, Rei?" The raven haired boy nodded, and began trying to pry the stubborn umbrella open with his blonde teammate, as Tyson began singing the National Anthem in an unhealthy key.
"O say can you see, by the Daw—" Tyson yelped mid-sentence as the giant red umbrella sprang open. "Hey, watch it! You could put an eye out with that thing." Tyson's huffing only made the other's laugh, thankful for the song's much needed interruption.
"Let there be shade!" Max cried, sprawling himself over the now shaded table, thankful to be out of the blistering sun.
"And, I saw that it was good." Tyson added approvingly, poking Max's tummy with a tickling affection.
Rei's stomach let off an alarming growl at that moment, and he rubbed the back of his head self-consciously, sadly reminding Tyson of his own hunger. Max quickly sat up and hopped down.
"Perfect! Let's eat Maxie, I'm starved!" Max was already digging through their food supply at Tyson's request.
"Yummy, Food!"
"Tyson, please, could you try and keep it down, your disturbing the peaceful aura of the park." Kenny shoved his glasses a bit further up on his nose, and Tyson scoffed.
"Ya know what Chief, I'm distu--"
"Hot dog, Rei?" A long sausage of meat wrapped in a bun was shoved directly under Rei's nose, also killing Tyson's un-humorous statement.
Rei's eyes widened considerably, and he pushed away the offered food gently. "Oh, no thanks Max, I uh, can't."
"Huh?! Why not, you on a diet or somethin'?" Max took a step back, trying his best not to look offended.
"No, I just…"
"Diet's don't count on holidays Rei!"
"Do diets ever count for you, Tyson?" Brown eyes glared down at the chief, as Kenny just continued with the novel he'd been reading.
"I'm not on a diet. I just don't eat meat… or those." Rei pointed a wobbly finger at the roll of beef.
Tyson gave him a curious glance, he wasn't about to let this drop so easily, "Since when?"
"What?"
"I've seen you eat meat before, you love fish!"
"Well, yeah but, that's just fish…"
"Fish is meat, Rei."
"…It's not."
"Uhh, yeah, it is, I think I'd know."
Rei let out a frustrated sigh. "I eat fish, and sometimes chicken… but I just don't like pigs or cows or sheep or..." Rei motioned with his eyes to the wiener dog in front of him.
"Oh…"
"Sorry, I didn't know that, how come you've never told us that before?" Max asked, clearly feeling a little left out. Rei was one of his best friend's after all.
"I dunno, guess it's just never been a problem." Rei took a step back from the offered food uneasily, "Or you just haven't noticed, I guess."
The conversation was promptly interrupted as Kai took a seat at the table, after handing a large bag of ice to Max. "What are your problems now?"
"Kai! Did you know that Rei was a vegetable-tarium?!"
Kai blinked at him, wondering just how stupid one could be. "A vegetarian, Tyson?"
"Huh? Yeah, duh, I said that."
"mm-hmm, what of it?"
"You knew?"
"Yes." He glanced over in Rei's direction, noticing the embarrassment clearly. "He never eats red meat." Kai cocked an eye brow to the other two clueless members of the team, and kept it raised on Kenny's lowered head; glasses actually fit to his face, and wondered how on earth anyone could read a book in this kind of weather. His team was seriously odd…
"That's so weird!" Apparently his thoughts were repeated, but for different reasons entirely.
"Guy's it's not that big of deal…" Rei took a momentary seat on the wooden picnic table, across from his captain. "Let's just have lunch."
Max bounced his toe in the dirt, "All we have are hotdogs, drinks, and snow cones… Oh yeah, I think there's some chips too!" His face suddenly lit up, and he turned to dig through the cooler.
Tyson backed away sheepishly, "No there's not…" He now sat next to Rei giving Max his best innocent grin. Max turned furiously towards the world champ, giving him a disapproving scowl.
Rei rolled his eyes and gave Tyson a sigh. "I'll just have a snow cone then."
He watched the blonde brighten considerably, "Comin' right up! Is Tiger's Blood okay?"
"Yum, you bet."
"Wait… you can drink tiger's blood, but you won't eat bloody meat?!"
"It's not real tiger's blood, Ty…" Max gave his friend a look that only Kai could normally pull off, "It's just a… flavor."
Tyson burst out laughing.
Max slapped his forehead, "Hit him for me would ya, Rei?" the blonde sighed and handed Rei his promised snow-cone.
"Pah, that would be useless, might cause him even more brain damage." Rei stuck his tongue out at his hysterical friend, who obviously missed the insult anyways.
"Can I do it?"
"Heh, no Kai, he's fine." He stood up slowly, biting at the frozen ice, "I'm just gonna take a walk around the park, see you guys a little later."
Max looked after Rei as he left, watching his star-spangled wrapped ponytail sway with his walk, then turned to Kai. "Is he alright?" Kai searched Max's genuine blue eyes dully, both completely ignoring their hyper teammate.
Kai nodded to the blonde boy, and took a bite of the mustard covered dog in front of him. "He's fine, just sensitive with sharing stuff like that."
Max smiled in understanding, then frowned again. "Tyson, Shut up. You probably hurt Rei's feelings!" Tyson stifled his laughter long enough to wave a hand at Max's lecturing tone.
"Nah, he's just taking a walk. Not that unusual, besides, it is weird to not eat meat." Max gave his friend a stern look, and shook his head lightly, obviously disgusted. Kai looked at the situation amused when that immediately shut the ruthless boy up.
"Fine, fine, I'll apologize when he comes back, 'k?"
Max didn't give him an answer and instead laid a barbequed dog in front of Kenny's silent figure. "Want a drink, Ken?"
"Ah, yes please." Max turned to pour some soda for his friend and took a glance at the novel that hadn't been put down since they'd gotten there.
"Hey Chief, what'cha reading?"
Kenny simply shrugged and was about to explain the entire events of the book when a moping Tyson pawed Max's leg with his foot. Max chose to ignore it, pretending to take interest in the Chief's wise tone.
Tyson laid his head down on the table as Max moved his leg out of the other boy's range completely.
"You really are an idiot." Kai smirked in the navy haired boy's direction, nibbling his meal before standing, and walking over to the icy machine, packing in bits of the dry ice carefully.
"Maa-aaxie, I'm sorry!"
"I'm listening to Kenny, Tyson." Max turned a cold shoulder on the little attention-begger, just as Kenny had finished his rant on the most-boring-book that Max had ever been given the pleasure to hear of.
"Fascinating, isn't it?" Max gave a short nod in Kenny's direction and hurriedly stepped up to meet Kai at the snow-cone machine, leaving the two at the table with their own wild thoughts.
Kai packed the ice on the paper cup to form a small dome, before grabbing a spoon, and turning to Max to be offered flavors. He ended up with a half red and half blue cone; Tiger's Blood, and Blue Raspberry Ice. "Thank you, Max. You okay alone with these two?"
Max gave Kai his best tough guy look and nodded affirmatively.
"Wait, Kai, you're leaving too?" Tyson's whining never seemed to cease.
"I'll be back, just sh-"
"You're going to look for Rei, aren't you?" Kai rolled his eyes and didn't bother answering. Walking off with a sweet sort of confidence in the same direction Rei had departed.
Tyson snorted, "Tch, why don't they just go make-out on national TV?" he sighed with a devilish smirk and everyone still sitting at their table gave an eye roll. "What? Like it's not completely obvious."
"Don't you usually miss the obvious?" Max laughed at Tyson's hurting pout.
Kenny took a moment to clear his throat. "Actually, Tyson, seeing as Kai and Rei are both ya know, guys. It is highly unlikely that they'd prefer to…"
"Woah, like, can-it Chief, it's the 21st Century. Plus they've kissed before." Tyson's voice was calm and he snatched up the rest of Kai's leftover hot dog, while Kenny's eyes bugged.
"T-they what?!" Tyson took a drink and snickered at his younger friend's surprise, grinning like an idiot. "It's true Chief, right Maxie?" Tyson looked toward his other friend and let out a relieved sigh to find the blonde was no longer ignoring him, and sat down next to him with two more snow-cones, handing one to the gossip. Tyson took it ecstatically.
"Ty, I don't know if that even counted. We were playing truth or dare…and it was Daichi's dare." Max caught a drip of colored water trickling down his cone, and turned back to Tyson, as if that explained enough. "Plus it was more like a peck, not a kiss…"
Tyson shook his head. "No no, they wanted to do it again."
"Ya think so?" Max added a hint of sarcastic desperation to his tone, trying to change Tyson's mind was pointless, and he knew it.
Tyson cocked his head, "Arg, well duh, of course they did! They sat together, and Rei wouldn't say another word for the rest of the game, and Kai was nice to him the rest of the night!" Tyson said this all so smugly that Kenny went pale.
"Arg, well duh" Max mimicked his best friend, earning him a soft glare, before continuing, "Tyson, it was Rei's first 'kiss' and all, and he was uncomfortable with it in the first place. Besides, Kai's always nice to Rei, since he doesn't really annoy him."
"Really? I didn't know that was Rei's first kiss." Tyson's expression became more thoughtful, as Max just nodded. "That must've been so embarrassing! And, he had to kiss our stony, 'I'm-better-than-the-world' captain. Gah, poor Rei… how'd you know that anyways Maxie, he never told us that."
"No, but he told me that… he was really upset afterwards Tyson. Why do you think Kai was sticking so close to him?" Max ran a hand through his hair, and started fanning himself from the sizzling heat. "Kai's a good guy. Especially when he knows something the rest of us don't, and that's usually most of the time..."
"Was it Kai's first too?" Kenny finally spoke, jarring everyone's thoughts.
"Hmm, I don't know. I wouldn't think so, but Kai doesn't usually let anything personal about himself slip." Max shrugged.
Tyson shrugged back and closed his eyes indignantly, "And he always seems to know what he's doing."
"Unlike you." Max put in, elbowing the boy in the ribs playfully.
"Ah, I'm just sayin'. Anyways, Rei's usually the only one he tells anything to anyways." Tyson finished his soda and slapped the wooded tabletop. "Which brings me back to my point."
"What is your point exactly, Tyson?"
Max gave Kenny a look that clearly asked, 'Do you really want to know?' The young genius could only gulp.
"My point is… that Kai and Rei have a thing for each other!"
"They do not. Now quiet down, Ty."
"Maxie, you're only denying it, because you know it's true. Rei told you that didn't he." Max sighed softly this time, and started gathering up the trash from their finished lunch.
"Look, just don't jump to conclusions… if they want to tell us something, then they will!"
"Ah ha, I knew it!!"
Max promptly grabbed a handful of shredded ice from the sno-machine and stuffed it down the back of Tyson's shirt as he headed for the trash cans, smirking as the other boy was left to howl in surprise.
TBC.
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The Forth of July is celebrated in the USA as National Independence Day.
o-..-..-..-..-..-..-o
Alright, Story/History Fun Facts!
-The dot that appears over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
-You're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day than in any other weather.
-There is no such thing as Mouse flavored cat food.
-If you keep a goldfish in the dark room, it will eventually turn white.
o-..-..-..-..-..-..-o
Oi, I know it's tremendously late, but the 24th is a holiday where I live too… :x
Well, Thank you so much for reading! Be kind and leave me a review, please. Let me know what you thought, at least. I'll post the next chapter when you all are ready. x)