Well hello folks, surprised to see me again? It's my first fanfiction in almost a year, and three years since my last Beyblade piece, it's great to be back and writing again, now I'm not promising I'll be back writing for good, but I'll be a bit more active around here now. that said I hope you enjoy what I've written. Thanks in advance!

Rei stood on the front porch of Tyson's house, his stance was one of a relaxed state, staring out into the sky. It was evening now and the sun was beginning to go down. Leaning back slightly, Rei, gently brushed his fingers against the door to leave it slightly ajar, should he need to play peace keeper to Kai and Tyson's arguments yet again.

"Not a single one for two weeks" Rei quietly chuckled to himself, keeping track of when the last argument had actually broken out between the two friendly rivals. "Almost impressed" he spoke again, leaning against a pillar. Tyson had opened the windows a few moments prior and started playing 'Stressed Out' by Twenty One Pilots on the speaker system for what was surely the twelfth time that week. Rei slowly bobbed his head along to the beat of the song, luckily for Tyson, Rei actually liked this song.

His thoughts then began to scour of the names and faces of people he'd met along the way since he first met Tyson. From the likes of the ever cheery Max to the sadistic mad mind of Brooklyn and everything and everyone in between. But his mind flashed to one name in particular.

"Salima..." He instinctively said her name, as if it were second nature to him. He suddenly felt the heat rising in his cheeks as a light blush began to stain his face, just the thought of Salima would make him blush of joy. The girl that he loved.

Now everyone would have thought that Rei and Mariah would have been the perfect match for each other, having been inseparable since childhood. But many peoples wishes didn't come to fruition as the two never actually got together, sure Rei had contemplated it at one stage, but it was only a passing thought. They mutually had agreed that they didn't want pursue a relationship with each other, stating that they were better as friends than a couple.

When Salima had walked into Rei's life, it near enough flipped his whole life upside down, but in a way that Rei liked. It was all in the midst of the Psykick debacle, but out of all the combatants, Rei and Salima never saw each other as rivals (Except only when the Cyber Bit-Beast controlled her mind) but more as friends with a common goal of fighting fairly and caring for the safety of their friends. That night on the bridge, Rei not only felt friendship towards Salima, but love. He was drawn in by her large brown eyes, and her voice, to him, sounded like it was dipped in honey it was that sweet and soft, like music to his ears. Had Kane not had stopped Salima from meeting him the next night, he would have just asked her on a date right there on the spot. To him, she was one in a million.

Briefly shaking the wondrous redhead from his mind, Rei sat down for a small moment to slip his shoes on and put his phone, which was on the porch step, into his pocket before standing back up.

"I'm just going out for a walk guys, want me to pick anything up for any of you before I get back" He called out. Hilary heard his words and stuck her head out the window to acknowledge him.

"Just pick up some batteries for us, will you Rei? The ones in the television remote have packed in and they were the last ones" Hilary replied to Rei, who lightly chuckled in response.

"Three packs or two?"

"Go for three, just to be on the safe side."

"Three it is, see you when I get back, Hilary" Rei smiled towards Hilary before stretching his arms and started to briskly walk down the street.

He proceeded his walk into the city streets, hearing the sounds of people walking, cycling and driving home from work, hoping to beat the dreaded rush hour traffic. He let his thoughts drift back to Salima, they were a couple now, but it wasn't easy being far apart. Although, to their credit, they made the long distance relationship work. Hilary and Max had taught him how to use Skype so he could communicate with Salima as she travelled from town to town, city to city and country to country. He then thought back to the day they became a couple

Just a few weeks after the second World Championships, Salima and Goki had returned to Bey City and reunited with their team mates, Jim and Kane. For Salima, more importantly, it was a chance to see Rei once more. The moment their eyes locked onto each other, they broke into a 75 yard sprint and embraced in the most emotional and warming hug they had ever experienced in their lives. Whilst Rei wasn't sure that Salima loved him at this current juncture, Salima was practically head over heels for him at this point. To her, he was her hero, saved her from the Psykick's control, helped carry her out of the collapsing building to safety, and the was the only one to listen to her, even if she was going behind the Psykick's backs to do so.

They had spent two wonderful weeks spending time with each other, practically talking each others ears off the whole time, much to the others amusement. They became even more inseparable than they already were before, moving closer and closer to each other as each day came and went. For the last two days, they had unconsciously began holding hands and entwining their fingers together without fully realising it. They would blush bright red of shyness, but didn't separate their hands, not once. Salima even fell asleep on Rei's shoulder when both teams decided to camp out under the stars that night. As Salima drifted into slumber, dreaming of the handsome man she was resting herself on no less, Rei gently laid back bringing Salima him so she could lay down properly. She awoke slightly to shift her head over to his chest and rested her head upon it, snuggling into Rei's body. She could hear his heartbeat, which had slightly increased it's pace, beating in her ears. It was like music to her as she drifted back to sleep, leaving a smiling Rei before he too succumbed to sleep.

The day eventually for Salima and her friends to leave, Kane had booked a flight for them to jet of to Estonia as their first stop on their next long and arduous adventure.

"You're off on another adventure again it seems..." Rei spoke glumly to Salima, as they stood there, hand in hand at the airport with both of their teams just up ahead.

"Yeah..." Salima spoke softly, with a tint of sadness creeping into her voice "I certainly am, Rei"

"It's just not fair!" Rei spoke, stopping in his tracks. Salima stopped also, staring into Rei's eyes, she could see the tears forming as she tried her best to hold back her own. "I wish I could come too..."

"I... I know Rei, I wish you could come too. In fact I wish I could just stay" Salima finally spoke after a moment of silence, reaching a hand up to stroke Rei's cheek. Rei leaned his head gently against her hand. "But it's like that line from your favourite Shinedown song. 'I've kept my whole life in a suitcase, never really stayed in place'" she gently sang the words to him, which sounded like an angel singing to Rei's ears.

"That's true, but I'll be lost without you Salima. I need you..." Rei paused, observing Salima's expression before saying the words he'd always wanted to say "I love you, Salima"

Salima let out a small gasp, which followed by a warm smile that could melt hearts "And I love you too, Rei... so very very much!"

This was all Rei needed to hear, the mental wall that seperated their love was torn down as they slowly moved closer, eyes closed as Rei's lips met Salima's soft ones. Salima wrapped her arms around the back of the Rei's neck as he placed his hands gently on her waist. She then gently stood on tiptoes to be at Rei's height as they deepened the kiss with the love they shared and that no one could touch.

After a few minutes, their lips finally parted as they slowly began to breathe again. Salima then heard the tannoy system call out for her flight and felt the tears rising up again.

"This is not goodbye forever..." she spoke through tears that finally began to fall.

"It's only goodbye, for now" Rei finished for her as they embraced one last time. Salima began to walk back to her team, but quickly turned back to plant one last, loving kiss to Rei's lips before walking back to her team at last. She turned her head back to Rei, gave him a loving smile and blew him a kiss as she and her team disappeared into the crowd.

It was a year and half later now, and despite the problems that long distance relationships faced, they overcame every obstacle thrown at them.

Suddenly, Rei's phone began to vibrate in his pocket. He pull out his phone and saw a text, which read.

"Hey Rei, just landed in Bey City airport, I'm back...
For good!
Love Salima xxxxxx"

Upon reading, Rei broke into smile. He then turned towards the direction of the airport and picked up his pace into a run.

The end.

And that's the end of that, thank you so much for reading guys, would love hear back from you in a review, did you like the story? Anything to improve? Let me know! Many thanks and stay awesome!