Name: Smiling faces

Summary: It's not easy to keep up the act.

Rating: K+

Pairings: Rallies around HilaryTysonMax, mentions KaiRay briefly. Other pairings can or can not be seen, depends from the reader.

Warning: Complicated relationships and both het- and yaoi-material.

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade, and I don't own any songs that the Hazzards have written. Simple as that.

A/N: Uh, yes, I am aware that Halloween is long gone. I'm slow, and also apologizing. Just consider people throwing a normal costume party if you are bothered by all this. :3

I tried to write the story so that everyone will realize what is and has been going on, buut reading You'll be mine one day and/or Christmas is a state of mind might help. Might. I won't promise anything. That way, no one can accuse me.

Tyson's idea had turned out to be everyone's instant favorite. So no surprises there, Hilary added to herself, carefully trying to avoid sarcasm being too obvious. She leaned on a wall and looked around approvingly. She was happy to see all the familiar faces, of course. The party hadn't even started yet, and already there were people around, making sure everything was in order. Most of them were adults. Apparently they planned to stay for the party, possibly to supervise that everything would go smoothly. Tyson and Max didn't seem to mind.

Hilary raised her head and located the guy many people thought to be her boyfriend. Tyson was happily chatting with his grandfather and, surprisingly enough, father, who had decided to come home for a few days. So there stood now proudly three generations of Grangers, a sight which might have given some people nightmares. Hilary failed at not coughing words which sounded almost like 'Kai'.

Hiro was somewhere around the place, too. But as usual, no one seemed to know exactly where he was, and when he would be getting back to a place called 'here'. The general suspicion was that it might take a while, remembering the fact that most of the fruit punch had mysteriously gone missing.

Hilary turned her head and spotted Max. The blonde looked as happy as ever, standing there and talking with both of his parents, who were holding hands. Rumours had it that they were considering giving another change to their relationship. Hilary was happy for Max, for she knew how Max had secretly never stopped hoping for his parents to get back together.

Max...

Hilary sighed. She really did hope for the blonde to be happy. She just wasn't sure whether she should have hoped it over her own happiness.

She might have been in love with Tyson, at least she cared about him a lot. She knew Tyson liked her, to the point that he had once considered asking her officially out on a date – she had accidentally overheard him talking with Daichi. She was positive that if Max had never joined the Bladebreakers, she and Tyson would have been currently dating. It should have been simple, and once, it had been. It was just that...

Hilary lost her trail of thoughts when Kenny arrived at the scene, fashionably and un-Kenny-like half an hour later than most others had. Everyone quieted down and stared at him, or mostly at the clothes he was wearing.

Max, the resident American kid, had infected Tyson with the idea of Halloween. Tyson had come up with the idea to arrange a party for "old friends", which had turned out to be more than 40 people, excluding the adults. It had been Max's idea that the party should involve everyone wearing costumes. Tyson had, surprise surprise, thought it was the greatest idea ever. So now he and Max were both dressed in ripped-off clothes and had lots of face paint and fake blood on them. They declared to be fearsome zombies. Somehow, Kenny wearing a stereotypical macho biker guy clothes with moustache and tattoos managed to be far scarier.

Hilary shook her head, trying to gather her thoughts together. She had been thinking about Max and Tyson, she wasn't going to let that subject go.

No one ever told her the truth about life. Growing up messed up your mind, and every day was a struggle of some sort. Her mom had never told her what to do when in a weird situation like this, just said that her Prince Charming would show up one day.

Hilary snorted.

I'm sure he will. Riding on a white horse, no doubt. Carrying a rainbow-flag.

Yet, she wasn't mad. Not even if she tried. There was something very curious about the two boys. You just couldn't really hate Max and Tyson, not without hating yourself in the same process.

Max and Tyson... Tyson and Max... Tyson/Max...

Hilary suppressed a chuckle. Of course, the whole situation might have been a lot more devastating to her if she hadn't been a closeted slash-fan.

So that was her situation. She liked a guy who liked her, but also liked his best friend. In a weird way, she was starting to be fine with that. The hardest part nowadays was watching Max and Tyson trying to act like they were just normal friends, seeing them smile politely, looking at her direction to see if there was any signs of jealousness; they would quickly apart if they saw any. The hard part was to ponder whether she should do the 'right thing' and tell Tyson to start wooing Max openly already, not that he had ever been particularly good in those kinds of things.

All three had one big Fight and then they had reached an Agreement of some sort. Now they were all pulling an act of normality. She doubted anyone guessed the truth, not even their closest friends. Tyson and Max, especially Max, seemed much better actors than one might have expected. Hilary wondered meekly whether all the secrecy was turning her slowly into a pathological liar.

None of the adults were wearing any costumes. Mister Dickenson was now with Tyson's grandpa, they were laughing at something. Hilary realized it was Daichi: the boy was wearing the movie-type Italian mafia-suit, sunglasses and everything. He seemed to be quoting Godfather, trying at least; the reason the two older men were so amused was Daichi's fake accent and wrongly remembered lines. Hilary made a passing note to warn the boy that Enrique might not appreciate the gesture and, as she had heard, had a genuine sword with him at the party. Just something to think about for the little lovable monkey some people called Daichi.

Max. Max was the key, the cause, everything. If Max hadn't developed feelings for Tyson and let him know about it, Hilary doubted that Tyson would have ever realized his own feelings towards the blonde. Of course, she couldn't really hate Max for making her own life so complicated. Hating Max was pretty much the same as hating a puppy, and Hilary liked puppies. She also found out gradually that she really liked Max, even if the moments they shared together were constantly over-polite and rather awkward. It would have been a shame to start hating such a nice guy as Max just because he happened to love the wrong person.

Two strange-looking men walked past Hilary and waved at Dickenson. It was only after they started talking when Hilary realized who they were. Brad Best and AJ Topper, the legendary Beyblade announcers. Hilary noted they looked nothing like she would have imagined they would, based solely on their voices. First of all, AJ wasn't incredibly short and didn't have a huge nose. And Brad, on the other hand, could have easily passed as a punk rock star. This was surely the world's way of mocking her imagination.

Tyson ran to Max and made some clever remark about their similar costumes. The blonde laughed. The two of them were the hosts of the soon-beginning party, and had planned to do an opening ceremony to remember. And of course everyone would love it. Tyson and Max had sent 45 invitations to different people – Hilary, Kenny and Daichi included – and 45 people had agreed to show up. Everyone had been talking about "the Granger's Halloween-party", Hilary wasn't sure what Max thought about it. No matter what, it was obvious that Tyson was popular, even if some people would have died before admitting it. This time she didn't really even try not to make Kai an example.

Max and Tyson shared a hug, now. Most of the people would have seen it as an innocent, friendly hug, but Hilary knew better. The hug was extremely controlled, not allowed to get too intimate or elongate to raise suspicions. It still managed to silently whisper about things that might happen later on, when no one would be watching the ones engaged to the hug.

Hilary wondered should she be worried about the fact that his almost-boyfriend was doing these sorts of things, or about the fact that she didn't actually feel jealous.

Gay boyfriend, gay boyfriend, I don't really care that you are queer...

To be frank, the only thing that really made her jealous was that no one was giving her any attention.

Gay boyfriend, gay boyfriend, I never feel lonely when you are near...

Hilary smiled. Maybe one day she would be brave enough to tell the boys she was okay with it all.

Hiro had appeared seemingly from nowhere and was now hugging DJ Jazzman with slightly drunken style. Jazzman seemed a bit embarrassed about it, but nevertheless hugged Hiro back.

Hilary nodded. Yes, she was fine. She was open-minded. She had been the one always pushing Kai and Ray together, too. Those two were such a couple, always been. And Hilary sure did recognize a potential couple when she saw one.

"Hilary!"

One potential couple was now closing in on her. Tyson stopped at her left side, Max took over the right one.

"I like your dress. It suits you", Max said with a smile. Hilary couldn't help at feeling slightly proud, she had made the Cleopatra-dress all by herself and it had taken a lot of effort.

"But hey, why are you sulking here all by yourself? Showing your admiration for Kai?" Tyson asked with a grin.

"Oh... I'm just thinking about things."

"So very accurate", Max said and placed a hand on Hilary's shoulder.

"That's our Hilary for you", Tyson laughed, mimicking Max and placing a hand on her other shoulder. Hilary decided it was best just to smile.

They'd be alright. In the end, they always were.

Hilary likes yaoi, and ships Kai x Ray. Believe it.

If you didn't get the rainbow-flag -thing, never mind. -pats-

The last (thank goodness) Halloween-themed story will probably appear before next year, I hope.

Reviews, anyone? Questions? Critique? Anything?