Forget What Did

Mogul Jake

Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade or any of the characters you recognise from it. I do, however, own Kitty Kon (and whatever else she decides to call herself) as well as Callum Somer, Imogen West and Hunter Cape.

Summary: Kitty Kon has always been moving on until the day her past, the whole past, catches up with her. Tala Ivanov and Kai Hiwatari saved her life with no thanks, and now they're pissed about it. But four years can change a lot, and no one banked on feelings changing ...

... Tala has caught up with Kit in a rather explosive (and so unsubtle) meeting of sorts, and now he wants to 'talk.' Kit assumes it's to do with her escape from the abbey - Kai and Tala helped her, but she never thanked them or even let them know she was successful. But with Tala there's always something more, and this time isn't going to be any different.


Chapter 2: A Kiss & A Promise

"I still don't want to leave you." I was stood outside Kyma's on the cobbles with Callum, trying to convince him to go home. Immie and Hunter had already left to be back in town in time for the gig at The Human Bar, but I'd managed to explain and excuse myself. What can I say, I'm good.

"C'mon Callum. Tala's an old friend, that whole power control thing was an act" I bit my lip, if only he knew how deadly important fear, power and control were. "And besides, I owe him. I would've done the same. You would've done the same." I'd managed to convince Callum that I owed Tala money, and he'd just happened to be passing when the sight of one-who-got-away drove him mental. I could tell Callum wanted to ask more; nothing from my past had ever turned up before but I wasn't going to let them go detective on me easily. He didn't ask though. One of Callum's many good points is his ability to be restrained and recognise when to keep his mouth shut. Good things come to those who wait.

So much for my facing the problem head on idea. I'd probably just made it a lot worse by shamelessly lying, but I had to get my answers from Tala first. I still had no real idea of why he was here - it seemed pretty far out to travel across continents (which I assumed he must have done) just to get an apology from me. I mean, I know Tala is proud but this is too much effort even for him. There was definitely something else, and besides, if he'd managed to locate me so easily, then why didn't Boris come after me when I left?

I shook my head, if I didn't get going soon it would be too late for Tala to 'catch up' with me. That was freaky too, what was he doing, spying on me?!

"Callum, go." I stepped away but he pulled me back towards him and ran his thumb along my jaw.

"Promise me you'll be good?"

I rolled my eyes and nodded, though the returning shivers were making it rather hard to concentrate on movement. Gently, he pressed his mouth against mine and ran his fingertips backwards along my skull, easing his tongue past my fangs and sliding it slowly along the side of mine. The shivers began firing up and down my spine violently and delicious warmth settled in the pit of my stomach. Suddenly, I wasn't so pissed about the whole jealous - possession thing; this more than made up for it. In another second he'd gone, striding away from me in the gathering dusk with a grin over his shoulder and a kiss and promise. Damn, I'd seriously let my guard down that time. I had to wait a second to regain control of my senses and then, smiling to myself, I jammed my headphones in and headed in the opposite direction. I'd need cigarettes if I was going to have to deal with Tala.

"Follow you home, you've got your headphones on and you're dancing. Got lucky, beautiful shot, you're taking everything off..."

I suddenly felt uncomfortable. Sure, I loved this song but I had no idea where Tala was. Could he be following me? I realised that I had indeed been dancing, so I stopped that immediately and shoved my hands in my jacket pockets as a blush spread over my cheeks. Damn skin, it was the only thing that could give me away when I completely shut down. As I tried in vain to bury my hands deeper I realised there was a distinct box shaped item also jammed into my pocket. Wheey, last cigarette, I needn't waste money on an entire new pack now. I leaned against one of the poplar trees along the highstreet and cupped my hands around the flame to light up. Ah, the sweet relief of nicotine.

"That's disgusting."

"You have a vice too Tala." I tossed the empty pack into the bin and blew the smoke out, watching it twist upwards in the cold air.

"No I don't."

"Uh, yes you do. No one's untouchable, don't be naive."

He growled under his breath, irritated. I could keep on like this and really rile him up if I wanted to, but I wouldn't get my answers by pissing Tala Ivanov off.

"So. Why are you here? How'd you find me? And why'd you have to make such a scene at the cafe?"

He smirked, "Afraid your boyfriend's gonna get jealous?!"

I flushed. He had been watching me then, bastard. "No. But why? We could have had the entire talk at once if you'd done it a little more subtly. Then you could piss off and leave me alone. Forever."

"Fear. Power. Control." Oh, how those words pissed me off.

"I wasn't scared!"

"I never said you were." The smirk was back again. I always thought this was a Hiwatari thing, maybe it had rubbed off on Tala. Speaking of which ...

"Where's Kai?" It was weird ... I'd assumed Tala wanted an explanation about what had happened after I'd left Russia at the very least, and that definitely involved Kai.

"Not here." I rolled my eyes. Yeah, state the obvious Ivanov.

"You still haven't answered my first two questions."

Tala sighed heavily and ghosted a hand across his temples. He was tired, exausted perhaps - something he didn't usually reveal. That was surprising actually, was the great Yuriy letting his guard slip? "You don't really need to know. Not yet at least. It's above you." ... Above me?! I frowned, confused. How could his discovery of my whereabouts be something I didn't need to know, or more importantly, something that was above me?!

He took a step towards me and, taking my chin in his fingers, tilted my face upwards towards him. He almost looked sorry for me. That made me angry.

"Don't try and pull the whole fear-power-control thing on me. You forget Tala, we were trained exactly the same way."

He frowned in anger and dropped his hand. "Oh hardly. You were there for what, a year? Kai and I grew up in that place, our training was far more extensive than yours."

"And you think that makes you better?! I got out, Tala. I escaped. Don't you think that makes me a damnsight better than you?!"

Tala gritted his teeth and turned his head to the side. "You wouldn't have escaped if it weren't for us."

"Wanna bet." I muttered. I knew half the issue here was the fact that he and Kai had never known if their efforts were in vain; for all they knew Boris could have found me and I'd be dead. I was willing to bet Tala only wanted a proper apology or something ... but then again, nothing was that simple coming from him. I'd have to suffer the consequences of my actions, that was the way of the abbey.

In one swift move he'd slammed my wrist against the tree. I grimaced; this new method of control was going to end up breaking my wrists at some point. Eggshell blue stones bored into my golden eyes and immediately I closed down; Mask All Emotions - that was primary rule for eliminating weakness.

"You have NO idea what we went through for you." Now he'd lost it. My walls went up and Tala's came down, there was the briefest of flickers in his eyes and that moment was enough to tell me everything; the hurt, the exhaustion, the permanent guard he now had in place, the lack of trust. My eyes widened briefly with surprise, I'd had no idea. God what had I done? I wanted to say sorry and do something to make it all better; he felt lost to me, but I had to keep the mask up.

"Why don't you tell me then? Tell me what you went through, make me understand."

He released me and leaned back on his heels. "You know exactly what." He pulled a hipflask from his jeans pocket and took a deep swig. The smell was unbelievably strong; Russian vodka. We'd used it enough times as an oral painkiller and an antiseptic at the abbey. Plus getting drunk was the only fun we ever had. But Tala's words had confused me no end ... that brief insight had shown me how difficult it would be for him to trust anyone, especially since I'd let him down so badly, yet he'd actually allowed me that insight. I should've known really, Tala was smart enough not to let his guard down by accident. But still, why had he let it down for me? Just to show me exactly how much damage I'd done and make me feel guilty? I didn't think so. Like I said before, nothing is straightforward where Tala Ivanov is involved.

I had so had enough of this. My head killed, not to mention my wrists; it had been one long afternoon of me explaining myself; firstly to Callum and the others and then to Tala and frankly, I was fed up.

"Look, can't we just -" I hesitated. Was it really a good idea to head out with him? We didn't trust eachother, heck I didn't even think we liked eachother and Callum was in town somewhere. I didn't really want to have to answer more questions if he saw us out together. And the demon drink ... Well everyone knows what that can do to a person.

"Yeah let's go get drunk." Tala's suggestion, not mine. But hey, maybe it was just what was needed.

Smiling wryly in the dark I took the flask from Tala's outstretched hand and beat a path to the park. For all my stubbornness in resolutely moving forward I had to admit it felt so good to return to the familiarity of old times. I was ready to lose myself for once - tonight would be veeery interesting.


Oh yes, the possibility of drunkenness, that's going to be fun to write! D

To sum up ... Kai isn't 'around' which is odd, Tala is being a confusing contradictive bastard; does he trust her or doesn't he? and there's some much bigger motive to his arrival in Thornacre other than to get an apology. Mmm ...?

I have so many ideas and I know where I'm going with this one! Geez, I just stayed up 'til 3am to get this chapter done, I must be hooked. Oh London was a great laugh, that gave me some ideas too. Hehe.

Thanks for review! Keep 'em coming ...