Okay, so there are a couple of things to look out for.

First off, I don't know Tyson's Grandfather's name, so I just kind of… improvised…

Second, I made up Tala's parent's names as well. Basically, any names I didn't know, I either didn't include them or renamed them. Sorry if that bothers anyone but sometimes it's just like that. By the by, I know it puts the whole Anime world into total melt-down, but this is my fic and I'll do it my way. Kai and Tala were never at Biovault. They had nothing to do with Biovault except that their parents are scientists. They have lived relatively normal lives with their respective families, although, yes, Kai does hate his parents for dumping him on his grandfather for fourteen years.

DISCLAIMERS: I don't own BeyBlade mutters bitterly or any of the characters except my own original ones.

WARNINGS: Okay, contains bad language, one references to drug abuse, alcoholism, maybe some possible sex later on, BUT YOU JUST CAN'T TELL WITH THESE THINGS. I promise, if there is going to be sex in a scene, I will put a warning at the top of the page. If you choose to ignore it, then it's your own damn fault.

Phew, okay. On with the story.

Chapter One.

Welcome home, brother dearest.

Regan sighed as a burst of laughter carried across from the house to where she was sat. So inconsiderate. If they were going to enjoy themselves without her, they could at least have the common courtesy to do so quietly. Not that it mattered, of course. She couldn't think of anything she'd rather do less than smile sweetly as forty-something business associates leered down her shirt and her mother drank herself under the table.

There were better things she had to do with her time than trudge through Wuthering Heights, too, but it was at her mother's request that she familiarize herself with Brontë, so obviously she had to do it.

A warm breeze licked at her skin, tossing her loose blonde curls and ruffling the material of her dress. Bloody dress. Like anyone was going to see it anyway. Her mother had been so excited about Tala coming home that she had decided to take Regan shopping for this evening's party. They'd traipsed round all of Moscow before the perfect dress was finally found. Pink silk, in an antique shop. A twenties flapper style dress. Regan sighed. The shine in her mother's eyes as she had handed over the crisp notes, watching the dress gently lowered into a bag and handed over like a newborn in delicate hands. Only for her father to go berserk when he saw the price tag. Her mother's face. Oh, the pain in her face as he'd told her how stupid she was, the suspicious bulge under her cardigan as yet another bottle of whisky disappeared from the drawing room.

Another burst of laughter floated over the lawn to her. Regan sighed irritably and slipped her bookmark between the pages. Standing up, she brushed herself down and flicked her hair over her shoulders. If they thought she was sitting around all evening at a distance so that she could be watched but ignored, then they had another thing coming.

Clasping her book in both hands, she made her way slowly across the grass, watching as a peahen made her stately way across the manicured park. Such extravagance. Her father would take any opportunity to show off. The sound of the stream grew louder as she strolled down the hill toward the border between this house and the next one over. She could have carried on going, but a sudden voice behind her made her pause.

"Hello, stranger."

Regan turned slightly, her grasp around the book tightening. Framed against the back drop of the huge old manor house and the blood red sunset, her brother struck out like a knife through cloud, casting a dark shadow over the grass, his dyed red hair bright and offensive to the eye.

"Tala."

"How you been, sis?" he asked quietly, taking a step towards her. Regan moved away slightly, keeping the space between them.

"Fine," she replied, her voice steady and flat. Lifeless.

Tala sighed and shook his head.

"Look, I know you're mad-"

Regan laughed bitterly.

"Mad? Oh no, Tala, I've never been happier. I've had a wonderful time, watching our mother drink herself slowly into a coma, holding the 'family'-" she spat the word. "- together whilst you're off gallivanting around the world with your glorified pissing spinning tops."

Tala gazed at the floor, scuffed his shoes against the grass and dug his pockets into his dark suit pants, his pearly white shirt blowing in the wind. Gucci, probably cost a fortune. And he probably got away with it, too. He probably even liked it.

"I had no idea."

"Yeah well now you do. Welcome home, mummy's boy. Now you can deal with them and give me a break," Regan said coldly before brushing past him, their shoulders bumping for the merest of seconds.

"Regan, please," he reached out and took her arm.

"Don't touch me!" She snarled. Tala snatched away his hand as if she had burnt him.

"Regan-"

"Just leave me alone," she whispered, then turned and walked back up to the house.

"Darling, this is fun isn't it?"

No, it's not fun. Fun would be slitting my wrists and jumping into a pit of man eating snakes. Fun would be getting out of this nut-house. Regan sighed and looked up at her mother, saw the hope in her eyes, the flour on her cheeks and in her hair and couldn't bear to hurt her. She smiled.

"Yeah, fun."

Alexandra's face lit up and she turned back to her cake mixture, stirring vigorously with her wooden spoon.

"I just thought it would be nice if we did this for your father. He works so hard, and it's not every day that you're fifty, is it?"

Somehow, Regan doubted that her father wanted to be reminded of this, but she didn't say it. Instead, she continued to ice the top tier of the cake. It was the same recipe that her grandmother had used for her parents wedding cake, just twenty years ago. Tragic really.

"I don't know, fifty. Where does the time go?" Alexandra sighed and paused in her stirring, spoon poised over the bowl, reminiscing. "It seems like only yesterday that you and Tala were sitting on your daddy's knees. You were so cute." Alexandra sighed and started stirring again.

Regan was silent. Those were the days when she and her brother were close. They shared their toys, their whole lives revolved around each other. Her big brother was her best friend. They weren't exactly enemies now, they just didn't always see eye to eye. Not that Tala was ever around to see eye to eye with.

"What happened to you two?" Alexandra asked. Regan shrugged.

"Puberty."

There was a silence as Alexandra contemplated this, then suddenly she frowned.

"What is that smell?" She asked.

"Shit! Mum the cake!"

Alexandra gasped and ran to the oven, yanked open the door and choked as black smoke billowed out at her. She reached in a gloved hand and pulled out the cake. Her shoulders sagged.

"It's not too bad," Regan encouraged.

"It's ruined."

"No, it's only the edges, look. We can cut those bits off and-"

"I'm so useless," Alexandra choked and her shoulders began to shake. "I can't do anything. It's all ruined." She slammed the cake tin down onto the countertop and ran from the kitchen, wailing loudly. Regan sighed in frustration and turned back to icing her cake. A moment later, Tala came into the kitchen and leaned in the doorway, arms folded.

"What?" Regan snapped, feeling his scrutiny burning a hole in her back.

"What did you do to mum?"

"I didn't do anything to her. She did it to herself."

Tala sighed and looked over at the burned cake sitting forlorn and abandoned in its tin. He nodded in understanding. Regan growled and flung down the icing bag. A thin trail of gluey white squelched out onto the counter top.

"This is ridiculous, dad doesn't even like marzipancake! And I most certainly don't like marzipan and neither do you." She picked the whole thing up and threw it in the bin, disgusted. Then she took a cook book off the shelf and began flicking through the glossy pages.

"How does… a… chocolate layer cake with real strawberries sound?" She asked, turning to her brother.

"Tame."

"And a splash of finest Russian vodka?"

Tala grinned.

"Sounds like fun. As long as you don't feed any to mum."

Regan gave him a chastised look.

"I can't believe you'd actually suggest a thing like that. How poorly you must think of me."

Regan smiled as she lay the recipe book down on the counter top and began cracking eggs into the mixing bowl. Tala sidled over and began weighing out flour.

"So who exactly is coming tonight?" He asked, tipping the flour into the bowl with the eggs. Regan shrugged.

"People."

"Liiiiike…?"

Regan paused and began checking them off on her fingers.

"The Kholers, the Mortimers, Uncle Otto and family, some of dad's work friends. Oh, and the Hiwatari's."

Tala looked up.

"Kai too?"

Regan shrugged.

"Probably. I suppose she'll have invited him along to keep you company, seeing as I'll have darling Victoria to talk to." Regan shuddered and pretended to ring her most hated cousin's neck. Tala laughed.

"Well, if it all gets too much, I'll be on stand-by with alcohol. Lots, of alcohol."

Regan shrugged.

"Sure." There was a delicate pause as they worked. Regan smiled. It was the first time in quite a while that they had gotten along, and after last night, it was quite a surprise that he was still on speaking terms with her, never mind cake-baking terms.

The cake didn't take long, and as they were clearing up the kitchen and delicately arranging strawberry halves around the edge of the cake, Alexandra came down. She sat on one of the stools, swaying slightly and smelling of whisky, but both teenagers ignored this and treated her as if everything was normal.

At quarter to five, Alexandra disappeared upstairs to get ready. Regan went up to her own room and opened her wardrobe, flicking idly through her clothes. A suit? No, too old. Party dress? Yuck, definitely not. Finally, after much deliberation and a shower, she settled on a low cut purple cocktail dress that her grandmother had bought her for her birthday. Might as well get some use out of it. Besides, her father would hate it, and that was totally worth seeing.

She brushed her hair back, the soft, loose curls falling over her shoulders, and splashed on some perfume. Then she took one of the lilies from the arrangement in the hallway and snipped off most of the stalk, pinned back her hair and slipped the lily into the knot of the grips, hiding them. Already, she could hear the sounds of people chatting, her mother's high, clear voice like a bell. She sounded sloshed already. Regan sighed and took one last look in the mirror before slipping on her shoes and heading down to the party.

With any luck, she would be able to escape onto the terrace at the first chance and spend the rest of the evening just hanging around by herself, out of sight and well out of mind. This was not so.

Her mother spotted her immediately and dragged her over to where her Uncle Otto was stood talking to her father. He leered at her over his sherry as she stood and gave the obligatory update on the last two years since she'd seen him, before escaping, only to be cornered by one of her fathers colleagues, who grilled her for a full forty minutes about whether she was considering university. Finally, gasping for air and dying of boredom, she broke away from the drawing room and wandered out of the open French doors onto the terrace. The fading sunlight cast shadows over her, and she shivered slightly.

"Regan!"

Regan whirled round and spotted Tala's red head poking over some bushes. He grinned and waved her over. Regan glanced into the drawing room, then smiled and crossed the terrace and vaulted over the low wall into the shrubbery.

"You bastard, you left me for dead in there," she hissed. Tala grinned as a voice behind her spoke.

"Yeah but we just know your dear uncle Otto would have been so disappointed if we'd spirited you away without letting him see you first."

Regan whirled around and came face to face with Kai. He was sat on the cool earth, leaning back against the wall, hands behind his head, wearing dark jeans and a pale blue shirt, his sleeves rolled up to the elbows. Her stomach gave a nervous flip and for a moment, she felt ill. Regan took a deep breath and put on a lethargic face.

"Well look what the cat dragged in. Where you been, Hiwatari." Her voice was flat, bored.

"It's good to see you too," he deadpanned. "How you doing?"

"Slowly losing the will to live. I hope you smuggled something alcoholic out," she replied sitting down opposite him.

"Taa-daa," Tala said, pulling out a bottle of vodka. Regan smiled slightly.

"What a saint he is," she said sarcastically. " Right, lets get intoxicated."

Kai gave a bark of laughter, one shot sharp burst, and took the bottle, unscrewing the cap and taking a swig.

"So," Regan asked. "How was the World Championships?"

"You mean you didn't watch it?"

"No, I was too busy getting stoned. Of course I watched it."

Kai grinned.

"I can't believe you won! Tyson was really good, don't you think?" Regan mentally kicked herself for her excited outburst.

Tala shrugged.

"He was okay, I guess." Regan thumped him and he laughed. "No, seriously though, we couldn't have done it without him."

"I hate to admit it, but he's a pretty okay guy," Kai added, handing the bottle to Regan. She took a few short sips and shuddered.

"Eugh, this stuff is poison. Where the hell did it come from?"

"Mum's private stash."

"Figures. She'll drink anything."

They sat in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the party, occasionally finding a subject to chat about. All the time, Regan's stomach was churning. It had never really bothered her before, he had just been her brother's best friend. But now… It was different now. He was strong and silent, yet so easy with her, like they were friends, confidants. There was something about him. He was so detached, but he was never rude or nasty, at least not to her anyway, but she hadn't seen him since last summer, except on a television screen. He was different, he had changed.

The sun was almost completely gone now, making it about nine o'clock, at a guess. Regan sighed and shifted on the cool earth. She was beginning to see stars, whether it was from the vodka or something else. She grumbled curses under her breath and stood up, brushing herself down and removing a leaf from her hair.

"Leaving so soon?" Tala asked lightly. Regan pulled a face at him.

"That stuff is gonna kill me. I'm going up."

"Light weight," Tala muttered. Kai rolled his eyes.

"You're crazy to carry on drinking that stuff," he warned. He and Regan had abandoned the vile clear liquid hours ago, but Tala had continued to drink it.

"Ah, you're both wusses," he slurred. He turned to Kai. "This place is killing me. Lets go clubbing."

Regan rolled her eyes and hopped over the wall. Trust Tala to decide to go clubbing now. Ah well, it was his arse on the line when their father found him passed out in his own vomit in the Jaguar, which was a guarantee.

Kai looked from her to Tala then shrugged.

"Whatever."

"Come on then, before Miss Priss here sends us to bed with a mug of hot milk each."

Regan showed him the finger and turned back to the party. Behind her, she heard the bushes rustling as the two teenagers struggled through the tangle of twigs. Regan sighed and watched them skulk around the side of the house and out onto the gravel drive. Perhaps she could slip up to bed unnoticed. As usual.

Reveiws welcome, flames laughed at, friendly criticism and tips loved muchly. Thank you.