Disclaimer: I do not own anything but this story!
His name is Kai Hiwatari, and while I am in love with him, he is not a perfect person. Yes, you, with your jaw dropped to the floor; you heard me, he IS NOT PERFECT. HE HAS FLAWS.
Shall I name them all off now at the risk of being killed by his fan girls? Yeah, it's a risk I'm willing to take.
Well, first flaw: he's incredibly selfish. I understand that being an only child, like me, he hasn't really had to look after or care for someone and of course, with his past; I figure he hasn't had someone to care for him. He's always had to look out for himself and only take care of himself; he's been alone all his life so it's somewhat understandable.
But the point is this. Kai, no matter how much he cares for us, will always put himself first. It's an instinct he's developed and he's always going to be looking out for number one. He will do what he thinks is right to better himself, and it's usually not the bettering of his personality, which brings us to flaw number two.
Flaw number two: he's a perfectionist. Now many people may be wondering, what's wrong with being a perfectionist? Well, besides the fact that it can be seen as a compulsion, it can take over your life. And that's what it's done to him. Ever since he was younger, it was instilled in his mind that he had to be number one, that that was his ultimate goal in life, and eventually it was so ingrained in his mind that he started to believe it and try to achieve it.
Of course, there will always be someone who's better, at anything, and that's something he can't stand. After having been given the impression that he has "perfect" genes, he's always strived for perfection, whether it was in beyblading, or schooling, he only would pride himself on being the best. Ah yes, pride, another fault.
Flaw number three: pride. Yes, it's one of the seven deadly sins and in my opinion, for good reason. Do you know how much trouble pride can cause you? It will single-handedly destroy relationships, it will get you beaten up, it will make you so stubborn and cold to the point where people can't stand you; it just destroys everything. Yet, he won't let go of it, even though he knows it's what's holding him back. Don't get me wrong; he can still feel, speak, love, everything. It's just that pride makes bad situations worse, and he won't accept that.
He doesn't want to believe that anyone is right but him, because if he did, flaw two and three would be of a lesser degree. When we fight, I always have to apologize, because I'm the one that's "wrong", even though he knows he is too, he's unwilling to apologize and it drives me wild! But you know what, it's ok, because for me, I love him enough to not care about who was right and who was wrong. The bad thing is that his pride tends to always clash with my stubbornness, forming something like that of a category 5 storm, making the fights, when they happen, nearly unbearable. Shall we move on to number 4?
Flaw number four: arrogance. Yes, you know it and I know it, he's arrogant and there's nothing we can do about it. Kai's tried so hard and worked so hard at beyblading throughout his life, so naturally he's good at it. It makes him proud, but it also makes him think he's better than everyone, just because he can beat ALMOST everyone. Now, he completely hates the ALMOST part but he knows just as well as everyone else that it exists. Now, combine the fact that he's good at what he does with the facts that he's extremely intelligent and good looking and you have a glimpse at the basis for his arrogance. He doesn't think that everyone loves him, but if he sees that someone cares about him, he'll go on to believe that they'll probably never leave him or whatever. Of course, he's been surprised a few times when people have shouted at him but he's just walked away and told himself to never trust people again. That brings us to our 5th and final major flaw: his inability to open up and trust.
Flaw number five: his inability to open up and trust. It is true that when you've been betrayed and used by members of your family that you loved, it is hard to trust anyone else around you. You regard their kindness with suspicion and constantly wonder whether they actually care about you or are just using you to fulfill a personal agenda. It is only natural that after our trust has been betrayed, we feel reluctant to trust again. However, to move on in life, we need to take a certain amount of caution from what we experienced and use it to guard ourselves from those whom we come across that may time to harm us. Also, relationships, especially intimate and romantic ones, require mutual trust as a foundation. If trust between the two involved in the relationship cannot be established, then said relationship is doomed to fail. I shouldn't be focusing so much on this one because while it is an important one, I must say that he's gotten better at learning to trust people and forming bonds with them.
Thus, my semi-rant is concluded. I hope that by outlining these flaws (we all have flaws, don't worry) it's made you think and not in a 'I want to hurt Hilary/the author who wrote this fanfic' but in a way that says 'by loving someone, we do not believe that they are perfect but rather, love all their imperfections'.
For those who are screaming 'BLUE MURDER!' right now, he does have many good aspects about him as well. But those will be focused on another time.