Kai was annoyed.

Now, it's not exactly unusual for the Bladebreakers captain to be in a bad mood, especially since becoming captain of the Bladebreakers. But at the moment, he was especially irate. Like, pencil-snapping irate. Like, yelling-at-a-toddler irate.

And it was all because of Tyson.

It was the third box of tic tacs he'd pulled out of his pocket that day. Actually, that hour. He sat there, a blank look on his face, absentmindedly dumping the mints into his hand and popping them in his mouth, then turning the plastic box over again to get more. The clutter of the pill-shaped candies rattling in their case was absolutely infuriating. And the worst part was, Tyson had no idea. His mind was somewhere else, as usual. And Kai was trying to read the newspaper. Key word: trying.

Since the team was docked in America, the newspaper was in English. Now, Kai was pretty well rounded. He spoke Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Romanian, and Greek. And English, too. But for some reason, he could not wrap his head around the written language. In the Abbey, beyblading was emphasized more than anything, so most of the boys there didn't get proper schooling until they were nine or ten. Kai was the exception, being initially taught at age eight. He was a fast learner in general, but his unique mind had difficultly comprehending the Japanese characters. Completely disregarding the Russian scrawl, he soon learned that he couldn't make heads or tails of the characters. Boris dropped that it might be because of the phonetics. Yes, Voltaire's only grandson, his pride and joy (snort), was labeled as dyslexic. Not that it had caused Kai much trouble before. He required a bit more concentration than most, especially working out all the small print. English was undoubtedly one of his better languages. Possibly because his mother was American and it somehow seeped into him, but beyond that, he hadn't a clue.

Rattle rattle rattle.

Except… that. The constant clatter was really grating his nerves. He knew that Tyson wasn't doing it on purpose, yet the combination of the distraction with the disability with it being Tyson was really testing his self-control.

Who even eats that many Tic-Tacs anyway? There's more sugar in there than people think. Two Calories per mint? Why isn't Tyson just devouring them all like usual? How is it possible that he's zoned out for this long? It's been almost an hour. Ah, forget it. There is no way I going to get through this paper. I hate English. And Japanese. And Russian. Hn, didn't Ray say he was going to teach us Chinese one day? Oh, that's not going to work. If only they knew how bad I am at this whole 'reading' thing. Maybe if I'd dedicated more time to it, yeah, then I'd actually know how to pronounce this word. What, uh-crayon-ee? Oh, this one says 'riot'. Idiot. It says Ukraine Riot. Dickinson was talking about it. We can't go to the tournament there because of me. Cause I'm Russian. And that just wouldn't work, apparently. Okay, gonna try to read again.

It was impossible. Rattle rattle rattle-

"ENOUGH! STOP THAT ALREADY! I'M TRYING TO READ AND YOU ARE BUGGING THE FRICKING LIFE OUT OF ME!" Kai exploded, startling Tyson out of his wits. And he was right in the middle of a daydream about skiing down a mountain of cookie cake, while snowing vanilla ice cream. It was heaven.

"Wha?" was his intelligent response.

Kai huffed. "You heard me," he replied, and quickly cooled down. He returned his eyes to the paper, scanning the page for easily recognized words. The younger was perplexed. What had he done to make Kai so volatile? Hm... Tic Tacs… he thought, emptying the pack into his hand. There were about six of the mints left, just enough to-

Wham! Kai slammed his hands onto the table, exasperated. "WILL YOU JUST QUIT IT!"

Tyson was dumbfounded. He couldn't possibly become so angered over… Tic Tacs, could he? No, I'm probably just breathing too loudly. "What's your problem?" he asked, defiance creeping into his voice. Man, it was fun to mess with Kai. Even without knowing why, or how you were.

"My problem is you! Those disgusting little sugar candies and your obvious lack of concern for-"

"Want one?" Tyson interrupted. Kai stopped mid-sentence, mouth still open. "Here."

He took another of the packs out of his pocket, this one orange, and popped it open. He spilled a few onto his hand and held it towards Kai's face, dumping the contents into his mouth.

PTOOEY! Kai spat the mints into his teammate's face. Of course, his least favorite flavor. The slobbery mints slid down his face and stuck to the table. His face contorted into one of revulsion.

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" he screamed, running out of the kitchen towards the bathroom. Apparently he forgot that there was a sink in the room.

Kai smirked, leaning back into his chair.

Finally.

He turned his eyes toward the page again. Now, peace and quiet for reading…

December 13

"What!" his eyes widened. The newspaper… was… five months old…

Yay! the end! Inspired by me epically failing trying to sneak tic-tads into school. They are way louder than I thought! Also, tips to my Romanian friend. I just had to add that language... also I'm completely aware that it would make no sense for English of all languages to be Kai's best, I screw it up all the time and it's my first language! Sorry if you weren't expecting the whole dyslexia thing if that messed up the whole story... I just thought it would be a better reason for it to annoy Kai so much. Please R&R!