Two Thousand, Two Hundred and Fifty Four Miles Away

And it's in a tiny article in the newspaper which he wouldn't have ever seen it if Tala hadn't barged into his office and hadn't thrown it on his desk.

Bastard. And the Blitzkrieg captain is gone without another word.

Kai glances at the paper lying on his desk. It's been many years that they've had an argument on this topic.

On her.

She isn't in the papers a great deal anymore. She stepped out of the spotlight a long time ago. Just like him. However, he does have publicity for other things now. He's stepped into his long awaited role of heir to Voltaire, as was foreseeable. But it has been years since that as well. Old news.

She's been virtually invisible. Not that he's kept a lookout. He really hasn't. And that's the sadder part.

The article is insignificant, and occupies a small portion of the sports page. And he wonders what it would've been like if –

Coach of the old world championship team Hiromi Tachibana gets married.

He sees a tiny black and white picture of Hiromi in what would be a white dress, an uncharacteristically shy smile on her lips. And damn, she looks good. Just like she used to before, the likes of which made him fall for her, each time. Her arm is in the arm of a man who Kai has never seen. And, for the first time, he wishes that it was Tyson, who was where he, Kai, wanted to be. Though who is he kidding? It'd feel just as dreadful, if not worse.

His hands seem to lose all strength. He digs his fingers into his palm, closes his eyes and, for a few seconds, he has no thoughts except those of a time-worn, reminiscing ache that had turned unfamiliar a long time ago.

It's a long while and there's no sound other than shallow breathing until the door opens without a knock and a tall woman in a grey dress enters. Her stature is imposing and she strides across the room with confidence. He looks up, annoyed, but on seeing her, his eyes go weary. He gives her a reluctant, ghost of a smile. The woman comes over to the side of his chair and bends down to kiss him.

He responds back to her advance with a little hesitation and seizes the newspaper from the table into his hand, crumpling it so that it's all crushed from the exact spot where the picture is. Then, with one final attempt of struggle, he throws the newspaper into the trashcan behind his desk, and pulls the woman into his lap.

.

The office of the chairman of Hiwatari Enterprises has a light glowing very late that evening. Tala sees the room still not vacant when he leaves with Julia that night at nine.

At eleven the former Blade Breaker lights a lighter and watches the flames flicker, not nearly as bright as Dranzer. And finally, the Russian man gets up from his seat and walks towards the door, stepping into the doorway and turns to look back. He can see the smoke curling from inside the trashcan.

And without another glimpse he paces out and locks the door.


Drabble. But for some reason I didn't want to post this in KXH-Drabbles.

A part of me died writing this. Actually, I died entirely. I'm not alive anymore. RIP. It's a lonely road for the tired man… You'll be home in spring, I can wait till then… I was two thousand miles away… And I let you go, oh. I let you go.

The title is the distance between Russia and Japan.

Thank you to Dead-by-n0w for beta reading.

Disclaimer: I own not, the characters of Beyblade.

05:40 pm. 7th July, 2014.