MS: I always figured there would be some lingering bad blood between these two; but at the same time, Lee would handle his anger so very differently from how he did in the first tournament. Here's Lee trying to make it work.
Disclaimer: The rights to these characters and Beyblade belong to Takao Aoki.
People were still very surprised with Lee, a lot of the time.
Hell sometimes the White Tiger leader still shocked himself.
Lee sighed, sat and let himself sink down into the old worn mattress. Running his palm over the old fabric, even his callouses couldn't stop him from feeling the sub-par thread count; the barrenness of the ancient blanket.
Ray had never had much, had he.
Lee looked around the room. Old plumbing system, bathroom that only fit a stand-up shower. Weak walls, panel board and the roof shingles were so old-fashioned that they were still layered with tarred hay at every second level. No television, not here. None of them really had use for it. A small kitchen, old stove and oven and a fridge that had seen better days. Yeah... Ray never had much.
Sure, his old friend had been raised with the best of them; the village never saw Ray going without anything he needed. Most nights he slept at either Lee and Mariah's, Kevin's, or Gary's house. Sometimes, after he'd scraped up the money from amateur Chinese competitions and his part-time work as a waiter, Ray was able to fly to France to see his Uncle Stan.
Ray's parents had been dead for years. When Ray was four, and Lee was five.
But that was fine, because Ray couldn't really remember them; and he had the entire village wrapped around his finger.
Ray still did...
Lee couldn't help it; his fist balled the blanket into a tight knot.
His 'best friend', Ray Kon was returning home. Returning home after becoming a two-time world beyblading champion. The call had come the night before... It was late. Ray must've forgotten himself and the time difference between Japan and there because Lee, Mariah and their parents were in bed. Nevertheless, Lee had heard his sister yawn, the spring of her mattress as she scraped herself out of bed and made her way to the main room of their home. His parents turned over in bed, momentarily awake; waiting for the possibility that this could be bad news and listening for any hint of a sound from their daughter.
Not usual to have your phone ringing at 3AM.
Lee listened too. A few minutes passed by, and he couldn't really hear what was going on because Mariah was obviously trying her best to keep the conversation to a dull roar.
"Mariah...? Who's on the phone?" His voice went unanswered.
But then it happened; the excited shriek, the giddy tone Mariah sung out with.
It was Ray.
And he was coming home.
Lee had learned the next morning, sitting with Kevin, Gary and his sister and various other excited townsfolk around the well that Ray was coming home to train and compete in the next world championships.
The BladeBreakers had broken up.
Ray and Max wanted their own shot at the big-times. Now, Lee kinda understood; but at the same time he and everyone else he knew didn't think Ray really realized that no one in the world saw Tyson as the sole champion anyways... Tyson was nothing without the rest of the BladeBreakers. But who was Lee to try and overturn his old friend's decision...?
Ray wanted back in on the White Tiger team.
The town was ecstatic, making calls to the BBA and trying to make the place look presentable for their hometown hero to make his grand reappearance. Now Lee was no total asshole; he was excited, too. After seeing Ray's point of view the year before at the Asian tournament, he sort of understood that his brother wanted to learn new things and broaden his horizons. Now with Ray coming back... Lee wanted to know everything that Ray had learned on his journey.
And if he could learn it well, together, the two would take the Championships.
Together...
Lee's fist never slackened.
Ray coming home stirred up so many memories. It took Lee back to the day when his own Grandfather, head of the village, gave the legendary White Tiger to Ray... Instead of him.
He could remember the pain of that day. It hurt. It stung. It downright fucking sucked, and Lee had to force that smile when even Mariah seemed enthused about the elder Wong's decision to gift Ray with such power.
Jealousy? Hell yes.
He couldn't help it... So many nights, days spent outdoors training to be the very best his village had to offer. Lee had had his eye on Driger since he was a child, waiting, wanting, dreaming about the day when his father or grandfather would put the gleaming white tiger bit into his hand. The day that Lee would go down in White Tiger clan history as a holder of the infamous Driger.
But that day never came. He was happy to have Galeon, christ he would never look back now and say that he wasn't happy things had turned out the way they did. Galeon was his partner and the Black Lion had proved himself to be a fierce, almost violent competitor.
But it still ached, sometimes, looking back... It still hurt. Lee looked up now and saw some sunlight trickling in through the various damaged shingles of Ray's roof.
Ray getting Driger? It sucked, but Lee'd gotten over that. Bit by bit, anyway. Ray was still his best friend. Wasn't he...?
Lee thought so.
Until the day Ray left.
That was another kick in the guts. He hadn't even told anyone, the entire town had woken up one day and Ray was just gone... Disappeared with a note saying he wanted to travel the world.
Lee clenched his teeth.
He could still remember the faces that turned to him that day, as if they expected him to have known what Ray was up to, expected Lee to have stopped him and convinced their golden boy to stay and learn the ways of their people; to never leave home, to live a quiet life, to teach the younger generations how to blade and to be happy about it.
But Lee hadn't known. He was as floored as everyone else, and he was the one Mariah cried to when her childhood crush, even back then, had deserted her. Ray's traitorous departure from the White Tiger team had been enough to fuel Lee's anger for an entire year.
Strike three was the Asian tournament.
Not only did Ray lose Driger and prove (at the time) that he was unworthy of the White Tiger, but the smug bastard came back in the last round to defeat Lee and once again yank the leader's dreams out from under him.
Lee accepted defeat... But he spent weeks asking Driger why. Wondering why he would go back to someone who had lost him once, and then twice in the last year.
The answers always escaped him.
Lee kept staring up at the sunlight filtering through the hay, and sucked in a deep breath. This year, the championships were in pairs. Ray would undoubtedly choose himself and Lee as partners, or himself and Mariah. But he knew inside that Ray would pick him. His old friend would come home as if nothing had ever happened, and they would laugh, and train together, and tackle every rung on the ladder towards pushing Tyson and Kai aside and becoming the new world leaders in beyblading.
Fuck, was Lee ready for this...?
Galeon was. The stirring in his bones told him that Driger would be revved up to go as well. Mariah and Galux hadn't stopped squalling since the night before, Kevin was nervous but excited all at the same time and Gary could hardly wait.
Yes... So much joy, so much anticipation now.
Lee stood up, and he walked out of the tiny home his father, Kevin's, and Gary's had built Ray when he turned thirteen. He supposed, maybe, all of Ray's winnings would go to fixing this place up and making it a better quality home. No more roof that let the mosquitos in in the summer months, no cold air in the winter time. Hell if it snowed in China Ray would've been shit out of luck ages ago.
Lee looked around at the townspeople around him, nodded at some, got good-luck wishes from a few and stopped finally at the woodpile. He selected a few thin boards, fine wood, pulled a hammer from his father's toolkit and a bag of nails.
Lee was no master craftsman, but as he dragged the ladder over to the side of Ray's home he knew he could do this.
Hiking up one step at a time, he got access to the former BladeBreaker's leaky roof; and began to repair it.
Nail here, nail there. About four shingles fixed it up nicely.
Mariah stood across the footpath, and watched. Yeah sometimes the entire town was so surprised with her dear brother. Lee had so much ammunition to use against Ray... So much to hate him for.
Yet, Lee woke up every morning since the Asian tournament and decided to be the bigger man. Maybe that was how it had always been between Ray and her brother... Ray the calm, white-sided Yin. And Lee the brazen, dark-sided Yang.
Mariah tilted her head and smiled.
It was a new day... A new chance to start over and to help her brothers fix things. The White Tigers had the potential to be all they were when they were young... Back in the days of frog-catching, Lee helping her launch while Ray helped her aim, climbing trees, chasing the bull carts.
Dreaming, that some day they would all be great champions.
Mariah continued to watch as her brother climbed down from fixing Ray's home, replaced the nails and hammer.
After all, at the end of the day as the sun started over and rose again, she knew that Ray and Lee would be alright. They would be alright, and they would make up, because they were two parts of a whole. And one couldn't survive without the other.
At least... Not happily.