Disclaimer: I don't own these characters and I'm not making any money off of this.
Author's Notes: Hey, this is just another weird fanfic by me, Ranma. Post season one, no real continuum. This'll be a two-part story.
Credit: Glay! For giving the idea for Kai's physical state when he appears in this part…!!
For: DaiChansLady, Mugs, dna18, minted*candi, BoUnCy Bunny, Kai-Koi, KhaosOne, Chaimera, CrazyJen, Vialana, Yaenia, Yuki-mono, Titanicbabe, Chained Fire, AJ-Tehrikian, Kalico, Yami FireKali, Chibi Kai, Yoshimi Ono, Autore Kozoma, Darkspider, Kiina, SSJ4 Sailor Menz, backward, I luv Kai, SilveryKitsune, Lrigelbbub, MistyEyes, Rumi-Chan, DragonBlade, and Andlachiel
This is dedicated to everyone who either has me on their favourite authors list or authors alert! I know I don't deserve ta be on there… so thanks.
The Secret
Part One – It's...
The midnight haired teen rolled over in the comfy hotel bed and stared up at the ceiling of the room, one thought running through his mind.
'Kai.'
The name had been on his mind for a while tonight – just like it had been for the nights of the past couple of months… and the mornings… and the afternoons… and really all the time. Any time he'd seen the older teen he'd always get that feeling. His stomach would flutter with butterflies, his heart would begin to race, his palms would get sweaty, and his cheeks would turn red with a blush. He'd somehow manage to stumble over the simplest of words and make even more of a fool of himself without even trying, all because of just a glimpse of Kai.
And recently, there had been many glimpses.
The team had gone their separate ways for a while with only a few chance meetings here and there because of special beyblade events occurring in the BBA headquarters. But now the Bladebreakers had reformed for an upcoming tournament where they would have to defend their title. His strong friendships with Ray and Max (along with Kenny!) had reformed too, but with Kai it was a little different…
At first, he'd figured that Kai's returned presence around him was just making him nervous and edgy, because the team captain's attitude had toned down after the world championships in Russia.
But that hadn't been it. He wasn't just nervous or edgy – he was happy that he could talk and beyblade with Kai again.
He was happy when Kai looked at him, or when Kai stood near him, or when Kai touched him… and he was more than just happy when a couple weeks ago he had done something especially idiotic during a beybattle practise and Kai had given him a small smile – even though it had been attached with a peculiar look.
He didn't know how it had happened, or why it had happened, or even when exactly he had started to feel differently about the dual-haired teen, but Tyson knew what the whole thing was.
He had a crush.
On Kai.
And he couldn't tell anyone about it.
The pony-tailed teen blew a breath out and shoved a hand underneath the hotel room pillow. They had separate rooms, for once, in the hotel, and Tyson was glad for it because he'd often stay up late thinking about what he was going to do about his crush. On Kai.
He was in deep, that was for sure, and bottling up what he was feeling wasn't something that was in his nature to do. He'd been keeping this secret for longer than he had thought he could keep something like this… and he really had to tell someone.
Tyson usually found that if he talked about his fears about something to someone, then they'd go away and seem silly after all… and he wanted to see if it was the same way with a crush. If he told someone about it, would he figure out that he really didn't like Kai as much as he thought he did? Would the crush seem silly and even weird if he talked to someone about it…? He had to know. He had to find out if what he felt for Kai was more important than that… and he had to find out if any of the others thought that Kai could even… sort of feel the same way.
"I'm hopeless…" Tyson whispered to himself in the night of the room. The slightly chubby teen rolled over onto his side and reached out, hugging the other large pillow on the bed to his chest. It was soft and Tyson closed his eyes and pressed his face into the pliable object, imagining that it was Kai.
"Mmhmm Kai…" Tyson mumbled. Smiling widely he squeezed the pillow tighter, nuzzling the soft item. His long blue bangs messed up at the affectionate movement and he sighed dreamily, his large dark blue eyes opening.
He had to tell someone about his feelings because it was eating him up inside to keep it to himself. But who could he tell? Kenny would probably faint! Ray would probably be considerate… but the Chinese blader would also probably urge him to act on his crush and Tyson didn't think he could handle any embarrassing comments Ray could come up with! That only left Max.
'Good ol' Max.' Tyson thought to himself. 'He can keep a secret, I'm sure of it! And he probably won't make fun of me if he knows it's serious…' Nodding to himself, the midnight haired teen closed his eyes sleepily and drifted off for the next day.
****
"Hey um, Max, can I talk to you for a sec, buddy?"
"Huh?" Max looked up from his Beyblader's United magazine and turned to face Tyson. "Sure Tyson, what do you wanna talk about?" The blonde asked as he set the magazine down.
Tyson came over and sat down in the chair across from Max. The two of them were at the small table located in the spacious living room that connected the Bladebreaker's suites. Kai, Ray and Kenny were off doing their own things at the moment while they waited for the news from Mr. Dickinson on the latest Beyblade Tournament.
The midnight haired blader fidgeted in his seat for a bit. "Well…" Tyson said uneasily. 'Alright here goes…' He thought. "I've kinda had something on my mind for the past little while…" The world champion said aloud.
'For the past little while?' Max thought. 'Yeah right! More like a couple of months…'
For the past couple of months when the Bladebreakers had been training and working together for the BBA and training for the upcoming tournament, Tyson had been acting very distracted. They had all been a little worried by it – sometimes Tyson would get all flushed and wide-eyed, and start to act funny like he was ill or something… but then Tyson would snap back into his usual self and grin and laugh and tell them all he never felt better. But it was pretty obvious something had been troubling the world champion.
Maybe his friend was finally going to let him know what had been plaguing him.
"What's the matter?" Max asked.
"Uh well…" Tyson hemmed and hawed, like he was… embarrassed? But that couldn't be right, what did Tyson have to be embarrassed about? "It's um…well… It's a secret…"
"A secret?" Max asked confused – He hadn't expected something like that.
"Yeah… I've been keeping it a while now and it's been really bugging me… I just have to tell somebody, y'know?" Tyson explained.
"Whoa…" Max gaped and leaned forward eagerly. "What is it?"
Tyson laughed nervously and his face reddened a bit. "O-Oh…Nothing big… just…you have to promise not to tell anyone…ok?"
"Hey, no problem Tyson. You know you can tell me anything. I swear I won't spill your secret." Max replied in confidence.
Tyson let out a breath of relief and sat back in his chair. 'Yeah Maxy was the best choice to tell.' "Thanks Max."
The two sat there for a while before Max started to get impatient. "So?" The blond prompted.
"So…?" Tyson asked, starting to get second thoughts about this.
"So what's the secret!" Max exclaimed.
"Oh… right." Tyson steeled his features and seemed to find his resolve. "Okay, the thing is… I dunno if you've noticed but…" The midnight haired teen swallowed and opened his mouth to say the rest, but then Tyson seemed to look past the blond at something and his face got very red, plus he started to fidget.
"Huh?" Max blinked and turned around in his seat to look at whatever it was Tyson was staring at.
"Oh, hey Kai." Max said to the team captain as he entered the room. Somehow Kai had managed to do it silently, once again, and from the looks of it his sudden appearance had made Tyson almost have a heart attack.
"Hmphf." Kai acknowledged the blond, and then Tyson, by sending the tanned teen an odd look.
Tyson had both his hands covering his face, his long bangs ruffled in sudden disarray. The world champion's ears were tinged red with a hot blush, and Max was sure that Tyson's cheeks were probably the matching colour. For some reason his friend was the perfect picture of embarrassment!
"Hey Tyson are you OK??" Max asked, his eyes widening.
"Y-yeah, of course!!" Tyson hastily let go of his face and leaned forward on the small table, his eyes cast away from the tall standing form of the Bladebreaker's team captain. He started to draw little circles in the wood with his finger, still not looking at Kai.
Tyson had actually done that a few times these past weeks, although Max had never thought it important before. Actually, pretty recently Tyson had stopped greeting Kai whenever he would enter a room – that was sort of odd since the world champion had always been the first person to do that!
Max blinked and gave the duel-haired teen a second glance. Kai had probably been training in the hotel's gym because the team captain was sweating from an obviously heavy workout. His black muscle shirt was clinging to his chest from the perspiration. He had forgone his scarf and armguards, probably having left them downstairs.
Shrugging to himself, the blond continued to scan the beyblading magazine he had been reading before Tyson had come to tell him his secret.
A small frown creased Kai's forehead at Tyson's higher interest in the tabletop than him. The midnight haired teen didn't lift his eyes to look at him, however, even as he continued to stand there. It made him feel…
"If you're feeling sick, Tyson, it's because you've been cooped up in the hotel too much." Kai stated walking closer to the younger teen's chair.
"Oh, I feel fine!" Tyson said cheerfully, abruptly stopping his tracing on the table, and managing a glance up at Kai.
The team captain's auburn eyes stared straight into Tyson's blue ones pinning the younger teen's gaze within his own. "Make sure you don't get sick." Kai told the other teen, more at ease to finally have Tyson paying attention to him. "The new tournament isn't in very long."
The pony-tailed teen nodded. "Yeah I kn-oh…" Tyson's reply trailed off when his brain registered what the team captain was doing.
Kai had slid a hand underneath his damp shirt and brought the stretchy fabric up to wipe away some of the sweat rolling down his forehead and temple, giving Tyson a clear view of his washboard stomach as the article of clothing lifted up.
A fierce blush took over Tyson's whole face and neck and he gaped, a few choked noises escaping his mouth, until his hands flew to his face again and he turned in his chair trembling slightly, looking completely away from his crush.
Max looked up from his magazine. "Huh??" The blond perked up from Tyson's sudden movement and glanced to the still standing teen. "Did you come for something Kai??"
Kai stood there, stunned for a moment, before he frowned and briskly made his way to his room. The team captain grabbed a towel from his bag and then came back into the suite's living area. "Don't spend the whole day lazing around." Kai said roughly before he turned and walked off.
Tyson's eyes were glued to the wall nervously as Kai left the suite, heading for someplace unknown.
"Are you sure you're OK, Tyson?" Max questioned then leaned forward and placed a hand on Tyson's forehead. "Well you don't SEEM to have a fever."
The tanned teen quickly shoved the blond's hand away. "I-I'm fine!!" Tyson croaked out finally tearing his gaze from the wall.
The holder of Draciel blinked at Tyson's continued perplexing behaviour. If he wasn't sick then why would Tyson act that way? What was going on with his friend that would make him get all red and look all lovesick- 'That's it!'
Max smiled widely at his friend. "Wait, I know what's wrong! Lemme guess – you're crushing on somebody, right?"
"W-what!?" Tyson stuttered, then looked away seemingly put off by that suggestion. "I am not…"
"Oh c'mon Tyson!! You can't hide it!!" Max wheedled his glowering friend. "That's the secret you were going to tell me!! You're crushing on someone!"
Tyson rubbed his nose trying to get his resolve back. 'I'm so obvious…!' Tyson thought to himself wildly while trying to will his blush away. Deciding it was easier to just say it and get it all over with, Tyson replied to the blond's accusation as nonchalantly as possible. "…So?"
Max's eyes widened and he yelled. "You ARE?? Wow Tyson I was just kidding I didn't think it was true!!"
Tyson clamped a hand over the blond's mouth and glared. "SHH!! NOT SO LOUD!" Tyson shouted…and then realized someone could have heard that. The world champion released Max and sat back in his chair again.
"So who is it??" Max whispered loudly.
'Guess there's no point in hiding it…' Tyson thought and the blush from before returned with a vengeance as he tried to say it casually. Say that name. That name of the one that he was totally gone on… "Nobody really… just……… Kai…"
Max's eyes bugged out and he goggled, his voice heaped with amazement. "When did this happen!?"
"Does anybody really know a thing like that?" Tyson rolled his eyes, still blushing and trying to control his embarrassment.
"I guess not…but…wow." Max said, completely shocked.
"Yeah… heh… he is." Tyson replied, a small grin appearing on his face as he thought of their team captain – the very idea of Kai gave him a thrill of attraction. A blush once again worked its way onto Tyson's cheeks like a permanent fixture. 'I guess this means that this isn't some little thing…' The midnight haired teen thought hazily. Telling his secret had actually made his crush on Kai even worse, and he was sure when he next saw Kai he'd probably give it away…"Thanks for listening to me Max, I feel a lot better now that I got that kinda out in the open." Tyson said, looking grateful.
"Sure… no problem." The blond nodded, but he was still pretty floored.
"I dunno what I'll do if I see him right now though, Max…" Tyson stated and looked down, fiddling with his fingerless gloves.
"Why don't you go see a movie or something? That'd be fun and Kai wouldn't find you there!" Max suggested.
"That's a great idea!! I'll go get Chief maybe he'll wanna come too." Tyson grinned and got up from his chair, adjusting his red baseball cap. "Hey, Max, remember…don't tell anyone else about this… okay?"
"Gotcha." Max replied in affirmative. He wouldn't say a word.
****End Part One of Two
Like it? Don't like it? Review please!
