Night Training

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or any of its characters.

The captain of the famous team 'Bladebreakers' had too much on his mind. His team was not really putting any sincere effort into training and this really annoyed Kai Hiwatari. He was especially furious with a certain hyperactive blond boy. The lad always had an excuse for being late to training, asking for more breaks. These traits were what Kai associated with Tyson so he was rather surprised when Max copied them. Kai never had the heart to yell at the boy but now the tournament was not far and they really had to pick up pace or they were going to be doomed.

The captain called the blond to his room. He narrowed his eyes when he saw that Max was on a sugar high or maybe it was caffeine, but the blond had that crazy look in his eyes. "Hello Kai," he said, "Isn't the weather very nice? Why did you call me?"

Kai looked outside the window. The sky was dark, as dark as it could possibly get, with thunder roaring in the distance. Not exactly his definition of a nice weather but he did not say so.

"You are lagging behind in your training. You are always late, you don't work hard enough. If you continue like this you will ruin all our chances," he said, his voice completely devoid of all emotions but anger. And Max, Max did not even have the grace to look ashamed. He simply grinned at Kai and said, "Yeah, sorry about that. I should work harder, right?" And at that the blond threw a dazzling smile at the captain. Kai was taken aback for a second but he composed himself.

He stood up and looked down at the boy for a few seconds before speaking, "Come with me. We need to train."

"I can't."

Kai glared at him, his eyes seemed as if they were on fire. He resisted the urge to break every single bone in the boy's body.

"Why?"

"Because-" the blond leaned against the captain till his lips were near his ears and whispered, "I train during the night."

With that the boy stepped back and grinned. "And it is a secret."

"What is?"

The two boys looked at the doorway, startled. Kai clenched his fists when he saw Tyson standing there, panting, with his hands stuffed with packets of crisps. He barged into the room and dumped everything on Kai's bed.

"I don't remember inviting you," Kai said, "Get out."

Tyson and Max exchanged a look and laughed. "Good try," Tyson said as he seated himself on the bed and leaned back. "Now, what's the secret?"

Max looked at Kai with a please don't tell him look.

"The secret is that Ozuma is training during his every waking moment to win the tournament. He's got new moves, and an invisibility trick," Max said in a hushed voice.

Tyson nodded and then said, "How dare he even think that he could beat me? I'll show him!" With that the teenager ran outside, calling for Ray and Kenny.

"Kai, can you lend me some money?" Max asked, looking at him with his large eyes.

"Why?"

"I want to go to cinema."

"You have to go and train."

"At night. Promise."

"No."

"Fine," Max said, "I'll go on a hunger strike then, Daichi style."

Even Kai could not hide the terror he felt when Max uttered those words. He visibly shivered as he remembered. Daichi had indeed gone on a hunger strike which hadn't went very well. The whole town complained of food shortage with Tyson actually crying around while Daichi had developed such a huge potbelly that it was less of a belly and more of a pot. And then the hospital bills had followed this unfortunate tragedy. Daichi had become so thin that he could literally fly away if someone blew at him. And, of course, Kai had paid for his medication as the team had decided that it was their captain's fault that this had happened, which was true to some extent, as Kai had denied to give him a day off.

"So what do you say?" Max asked.

Kai produced his wallet, all the while glaring at the blond, who returned the look with a wide grin. He brought his hand forward and Kai stuffed the money in it.

"Thank you Kai!" the blond chirped like a bird, "You are such a sweetums!"

"Don't you dare –"

However, before he could complete his sentence, the younger boy ran out of the room, chuckling.

Kai let his face fall in his hands. Why did this have to happen? He raised his head and saw the packets of crisps thrown on his bed. But Kai felt too tired to even yell at Tyson. And then Kai thought that mortals often think. It was the question that had never been answered and could never be answered. Just two words: 'WHY ME?!'

At night Kai decided that he would check whether Max really trained during the night or not, and if he did, to find out the plans that the blond had adopted.

There was a beydish in the hotel. Kai went there but when he reached there, he saw that the place was completely deserted. The captain roamed the corridors, looking for the blond. He searched the garden, the pool, the nearby streets and all the other places he could think of.

Ultimately, his tired limbs demanded rest and his aching body begged for it. He went back to the hotel. He was about to go to his room but he passed Max's door. He came to a halt. He thought about checking the room and so he gently opened the door.

The scene before him was so unexpected that he did not know what to do. Max was on his computer, playing Tomb Raider: Underworld. The protagonist was in a burning house and Max was trying to make her escape. Then he saved the game and exited it, grabbing the Nintendo that was lying next to him.

"I'll choose Piplup as my Pokemon," he muttered, "Bring it on Barry! I'll beat you."

Kai stepped into the room and looked over Max's shoulder at the Nintendo's screen. The boy was playing Pokemon, having a battle against another Pokemon.

"Yeah I won!" the blond exclaimed.

"Congratulations."

A chill settled over the blond as he warily looked behind and saw his team captain. Kai was actually smiling at him.

"K-Kai?" Max whimpered.

"Good luck for your training."

The stormy weather of the previous day had retreated the next morning. It was quite sunny. The Bladebreakers assembled for breakfast, all except Max.

"Where's Maxie?" Tyson asked.

A blond boy limped towards them, his nose bandage, his head bandaged, his hands bandaged, and his, well, whole body, bandaged.

"What happened to you Max?" Tyson asked anxiously.

"Nothing," Kai said, "He was… training last night. Got a little carried away."

It was Max's turn to give his captain a death glare, who was in such a good mood that he winked in reply.

"Never," Max thought, "Never will I mess with him again."