Ereshkigali: Good grief.
Tyson: I LOVE THE WORLD!
Ereshkigali: Goodness, gracious grief.
Kai: What is it this time?
Ereshkigali: I wrote something serious.
Tyson: I LOVE THE SOLAR SYSTEM!
Kai: Do I want to know?
Ereshkigali: It's a TyKa fic. Kai's PoV. Set after GRev. Multi-chaptered. Fully edited. Parody-free. Fully plot-lined.
Tyson: I LOVE THE GALAXY!
Ereshkigali: Great flying cabbages, I am in such insane shock.
Kai: Excuse me? TyKa? TyKa, as you screaming fangirls call it, does not exist.
Ereshkigali: In your weird little world, maybe. However, although I unfortunately don't own Beyblade, or that weird little Teddy Bears' Picnic song that I dredged up from the depths of my childhood, I am invested with the sacred powers of a fic writer, which means that I can do whatever I want! So there!
Tyson: I LOVE THE UNIVERSE!
Kai: This cannot be good.
Ereshkigali: Let the TyKa begin!
Tyson: I think I'm in good mood today.
Kai: Where's the nearest cliff?
I floated, adrift on the waves of sleep, unable to sink beneath the surface. I had not slept, spending the night caught in a stiff, wide-eyed web between the worlds of dreams and reality. My neck ached, and my eyes were dry and drowsy. I was glad when the pale glow of dawn began to stain the sky silver. I sat up, glancing wearily at the clock beside me, which showed 6: 07 in luminous, green figures – eight minutes until the alarm was set to go off. It would be at least another, oh, say, five hours, before the others began to wake. It was, after all, a Saturday.
I padded down the halls of the dojo to the bathroom, where I took a quick, cold shower. I like quick, cold showers. This one in particular was a much-needed wake-up call. The reasons I hadn't slept were perfectly clear in my mind, but none of them were of the sort that one would readily 'share with the class', as I've heard it put. They were mostly memories, and they mostly involved a certain immature, loudmouth blader.
I dressed swiftly, shivering slightly. It had long since ceased to be summer, and for the past few weeks the days had been growing steadily colder. The air was soft and cool, the skies shimmering with swathes of opalescent cloud. The last, tattered leaves of autumn, ragged, yellow-golden pools of brightness painted onto the silver sky, had fallen more than a week ago, drifting down through the damp air.
Winter was coming, and I was not happy about it.
After my shower, I headed outside, passing as I did so through the TV room, which was a mistake. The guys had obviously spent the night watching movies. Max was asleep on a pile of cushions on the floor. At one end of the sofa was a curled-up, sleeping Daichi, covered, strangely, by a baby-blue blanket decorated with small, yellow ducks. Sprawled on his stomach, closer to the other end, his hair pulling itself loose and spilling everywhere beneath that stupid baseball cap, was Tyson.
One thick, golden-dark stream of sunlight had lanced down through the mass of white mist that shrouded the sky, and its buttery-sweet warmth flooded the room, pouring across the floor, bathing his body in crystalline glow of golden light. It welled up around him, sliding shafted fingers through his hair, rinsing his face in radiance, creeping up to his mouth and dripping between his lips like jewelled beads of syrup. Like an idiot, I allowed myself to stand still for a moment, watching him, a smile coming to my lips just from looking at him.
Then he opened his eyes.
I stiffened, a shockwave of adrenaline crashing through me. He looked up at me sleepily, and yawned, blinking a couple of times. Then he rubbed his face with a hand and sat up, still looking at me inquisitively.
"Kai? Dude? What're you doing here?" he asked, yawning again.
I didn't answer. I walked away across the sunlight floor, and went outside, sliding the door closed behind me.
I leaned against a pillar and looked out at the pale world. The mists were clearing now, leaving the sun gazing down tiredly through the rippling air, a bright smear of icy brilliance. Drops of dark dew, quivering with a mercurial clarity, clung to the bare, brown branches of the trees, and to each slender, sharp-edged blade of grass. It was a beautiful day, clear and rain-rinsed and cool, heavy with the deep, watery scents of earth and moss. I should have been in a relatively good mood.
I was not.
"Hey," Tyson said, pulling on his jacket and stumbling out into the cold morning. "Dude, aren't you cold? It's freezing out here."
I said nothing, but rolled my eyes slightly away.
"Oh, come on, man. You may not have actual human emotions, but that doesn't mean that you don't get cold."
"I'm fine, Tyson," I said, sharply.
"Alright, alright, I get the message," he said, backing away and leaning against the neighbouring pillar, stuffing his hands in his pockets and gazing out at the garden. He was silent for a little while, and I was beginning to think that he would soon get bored and leave me in peace. Unfortunately, I was wrong. He said, as though carrying on a conversation, "You guys are leaving tomorrow."
This, being obvious, didn't seem to merit an answer.
"I was just wondering what you thought of the whole thing."
I gave a small shrug and turned my face ever so slightly away.
"I mean, Rei and Maxie are cool with it – here for the summer, home in winter."
He still hadn't said anything to which I felt like replying.
"I guess it means that the Bladebreakers will always be a team, which is al that really matters."
"Did you want to say something to me?" I asked, getting bored.
He gave me a very annoyed look, which I found difficult to ignore. He is the funniest thing on earth when he's cross. I caught his eye, and tried very hard to stare him down. All it did was make him grin, though: a small, exasperated grin accompanied by a little wave of laughter, as though I said or done something funny.
"What?" I snapped.
"You," he said, still grinning. "Ah, Kai. I'm really going to miss you."
"Well, don't consider the sentiment returned."
"I'm only trying to be nice," he said, leaning back and folding his arms behind his head. "For that, I am so taking you down next Championships."
I just snorted derisively and crossed my arms.
"Translation from Kai-speak?"
I smiled in spite of myself. "Don't bet on it."
He laughed, that same little rippling puff of breath, and repeated, softly, "Ah, Kai."
"Ah, Kai, what?" I asked, irritably.
"Ah, Kai, what would we do without you?"
"Probably walk into the back of a bus," I said, sourly. "Don't you have something better to do than ask stupid questions?"
"No," he said, cheerfully. "Everyone else is asleep."
"That's what you think!" Daichi yelled, jumping up onto his back and pulling at his hair. "Heh, you snooze, you lose!"
"Daichi, cut it out!"
"Hey! Group hug!" Max yelled, laughing, appearing in the doorway just as Daichi fled past.
"I thought we had decided to ban caffeine," I heard Rei's amused voice say from somewhere inside.
"I don't need caffeine when there's revenge to be had!" Tyson shouted, dashing after Daichi. "Get back here, you little runt!"
I brushed past Max and Rei and went back to my room.
At eight o' clock, I went back downstairs, hoping that the madness had subsided. I should have known better. This was, after all the Kinomiya dojo. The madness never subsided.
"Picnic time for teddy bears!" Daichi could be heard bawling.
"The little teddy bears are having a wonderful time today!" Tyson added equally loudly, leaping excitedly into the kitchen, followed closely by the others.
"Oh, please, what now?" I muttered.
"We're going on a picnic!" Hilary said, brightly. "It's to celebrate our last day together."
"So, you're celebrating us leaving tomorrow?" Max asked. "Thanks, Hilary."
She ignored him. "You," she said to me, "can carry this basket. It's very heavy, so don't drop it on anyone."
"Has anyone noticed the fact that the temperature is due to fall below freezing tonight?" Kenny asked, nervously.
"Oh, relax," she said, waving her hand in the air. "We've got lots of nice, snuggly blankets and hot chocolate, and we'll be home way before tonight, anyway. You worry too much."
"At six o'clock their mommies and daddies will take them home to bed…" Tyson and Daichi chorused.
"I don't think he worries enough about these two," Rei chuckled. "Hey, Kai, don't look so cross! We're going to have fun!"
"Because they're tired little teddy bears!" Tyson finished, triumphantly. "So, Kai, what do you say? You coming?"
"Fine," I said. "Whatever. Let's go."
As we filed out of the house to the bus stop, Tyson fell back a little to walk next to me. "Dude," he said.
"What?"
"When you go – you're not just going to ignore us like last time, right? I mean, we'll still see each other, won't we? You'll still talk to us, won't you?"
"I believe I barely talk to you now," I said, taken aback a little.
"I'm serious, Kai. It kind of sucked, last year – I mean, everyone just left. I don't - I don't blame them, or anything! It's just that it was pretty lonely for a while."
"Being alone isn't that bad," I said, stiffly. Inwardly, I was raging powerlessly at my own cowardice. Where was the harm in saying, 'I'll miss you, too'? Where was the harm in saying, 'I'll look after you'?
There was none.
But still I couldn't do it.
"There's a difference between being alone and being lonely," he pointed out. "I mean, you could be in a huge crowd and not have a single friend. Or, like, you could spend most of your time all by yourself, and hardly ever talk to anyone, but you'll still have friends somewhere, and they'll be thinking of you."
"If you say so," I said, and tried to move away. Tyson turning into a philosopher is not an easy thing to deal with. He put his hand on my arm; I moved my arm away, but looked at him, waiting for him to speak.
He said, "Don't let me be alone, OK, dude? I told you – I'm going to miss you."
"I don't think I'm going to get the chance to leave you alone, seeing as you seem to be stalking me."
He smiled, softly, sadly. "Kai…" he began.
"Tyson," I cut in, quietly, fiercely, "just because I don't say that I care – just because I don't remind you of it every single day – doesn't mean that I don't. I do care about all of you – very, very much. I've said it, and I'm not going to again. Happy?"
"Yeah," he said, softly, holding my gaze. "Yeah, Kai, I am."
I said, neither wanting nor daring to look away from his eyes, "Are you going to leave me alone now?"
"My wish is your command," he said, and grinned, and skipped away to pick on Daichi.
I allowed myself a small smile, and kept on walking.
Ereshkigali: That's not all, folks! This will continue! Everyone who reviews gets a free Boris plushie to abuse!
Tyson: Mary had a little lamb…
Kai: I wonder…shoot myself in the head, or slit my wrists?
Ereshkigali: Hey, don't blame me! You're the one who's hitting on Tyson.
Kai: I blame you. I BLAME YOU. So, there's more of this thing?
Tyson: Little lamb, little lamb…
Ereshkigali: If I survive writing the two reports I have due for next week, then yes, there will be more. I'm planning a total of four chapters, perhaps five.
Kai: Great. Just what I wanted to hear.
Tyson: Mary had a little lamb whose FLEECE…WAS…WHITE…AS…SNOW!
Kai: I'm going back to the Abbey.