A/n: I failed to mention this before, but the points of view in this story will switch between anonymous third person and Tyson. It honestly just depends on what will better portray the events of a specific chapter. I want to keep it mostly to Tyson's point of view, but there are a few chapters that I've realized won't work out unless I do them in third omniscient.
And now, without further ado, chapter four.
Disclaimer: Yaoi fanfiction. Don't own Beyblade.
Beta Reader:..None (offers, anyone?)
A Rumor in St. Petersburg
Four — Kai's Little Shadow
Usually, Tyson was used to waking up at six or seven in the morning, depending on what day of the week it was. Typically, what happens is someone (Kai) wakes up the navy-blue haired teen with an ice cube down his shirt or burning a hole in his sock. Tyson would jump awake from shock and fear, get rid of the problem, and fall right back asleep. He would still be, after all, exhausted. At this point, Max will try to wake him up to save him from further torture, but the Japanese teen wouldn't listen. Then, the asshole someone (Kai), would return ten minutes later with an even worse method to wake the boy up. It'll wake Tyson up effectively, sure, but he's always either pissed, crying, or a combination of both.
Then Ray will make something amazing for breakfast and everything's all better!
Today, for a change, Tyson woke up on his own feeling more well-rested than he had in a while. He snuggled deeper into the warm red and gold covers of his bed and peered up at the bunk above his head. Outside the room, the dragon heard a voice shouting in Russian and a movie playing. Another voice—Kai's he believed—answered from upstairs, but it was drowned out by the movie music that was suddenly blasted. It sounded like a Disney movie. More yelling, laughter, and footsteps race across the floor upstairs to the stairs. The door to Tyson's guest room flew open and shut and little footsteps scampered down to the last bunk bed on the right: Tyson's bunk bed. The brown-eyed teen saw the shadow of a little boy run up the steps to the bunk above his and hide in the pillows. He sat up, confused, and the door to his room opened again.
Kai's head slowly poked behind the door, glancing inside, and he looked genuinely surprised to see his teammate awake. "Oh. You're up…early."
"Morning, Kai." Tyson greeted the phoenix with a yawning grin, taking a look at the clock. "It's only nine? Damn."
"I'll say. I expected you to sleep in until one." The phoenix teased him with a mocking glance. Childish as ever, Tyson pulled down one of his lower eyelids and blew a raspberry at Kai. Kai shrugged and waved his hand carelessly at the Japanese teen. "I'll be upstairs making waffles if you need me. I don't have anyone I need to share my chocolate chip ones with anymore." Waffles? Waffles sounded really good right now!
"Kai, wait up! I want waffles!"
Tyson hopped out of bed and messily pulled the covers to make it look like he made it. He pulled a sweater over his head, put on socks, and fixed the pillows. Then, before leaving the room, Tyson climbed up the steps to the bunk above his and searched for the person he thought he saw. For a moment he believed his eyes played a trick on him, but then the pillows slightly shifted and he heard a small giggle. Bingo!
With a cackle and victorious grin, Tyson ripped the pillow from where it was. "Gotcha!" He exclaimed. The smile on his face vanished and shock replaced it. He and the little boy stared at each other for the entirety of five seconds, neither of them whom the other expected to see, before they both did the first thing that crossed their minds.
"AAAAAAAH!"
"AAAAAAHH!"
They screamed.
Kai came running back into the ski dorm to find the reason of the commotion and found Tyson and his little cousin in a stare-down, screaming at each other. "Tyson, what the hell are you doing?" The phoenix yelled at him, pulling him down from the bunk bed and dropping him on the floor. The dual-blue haired Russian went up to assist his little cousin and pull him down; Tyson stared, stuttered, and pointed at the little boy. "What, idiot?"
"Kai! That kid looks almost exactly like you!" The dragon gasped in surprise. The little boy in question was in Kai's arms and clinging onto the stoic Russian's sleeveless shirt. He was light-skinned like Kai and had violet-crimson eyes like the Bladebreaker captain. His hair was entirely a shade of midnight blue and stood just as Kai's did. He was dressed in a winter-blue sweater with little snow-themed doodles on it, dark blue pants, and little black socks. The little boy looked like a harmless, miniature version of Kai.
Tyson hated to admit it, but he was adorable.
Kai sighed impatiently at his teammate. "Tyson, this is my little cousin, Dimitri, my aunt and uncle's son that you met last night. He'll be staying with us this week while our folks are out of town."
"He's the kid you're babysitting?" The navy-blue haired teen piped up, now with an apologetic smile on his face. He followed Kai and Dimitri out of the room and upstairs to the kitchen. He shielded his eyes when he first stepped out of his room, taken by surprise with how my sunlight all the windows of Kai's house let in. Dimitri looked over Kai's shoulder at Tyson with an inspecting gaze and asked his older cousin a question in Russian. Tyson didn't fail to notice how Kai's tone of voice seemed to lighten up when he spoke to the child. "Dimitri's your name, right?" Tyson asked, getting the violet-eyed boy's attention. "I'm sorry about scaring you before." He apologized. The little boy just stared at him talk with intrigue. "Kai, can he understand me?"
"Da." The phoenix answered.
"Huh?"
"Yes."
Dimitri smiled at his cousin's words and nodded at Tyson. "Yes, yes, yes!" He repeated, clapping each time. Tyson smiled again; this kid was just too cute!
"Does 'da' mean 'yes'?"
"Well, would you look at that? It looks like the idiot can learn a thing or two after all." Kai smartly retorted with a single chuckle.
Tyson pouted and glowered at the back of the phoenix's head. "Who said I was stupid? I'm very smart, thank you!"
"Oh, so now you're smart too?" Dimitri glanced between the discussion of the two teens and giggled when he saw the expression his cousin wore. Tyson wished he could see it. "I never would've imagined."
"Idiot funny, Kai!" Dimitri said, pointing at Tyson. Now in the kitchen, Kai set the little boy down on a stool at the island table and pushed him in. The butler, Vladimir, was manning the stove in Kai's absence. Tyson took a seat beside Dimitri and gave Vladimir an energetic good morning. Kai, in the meanwhile, went to the deck to let the dogs inside.
"I'm not 'idiot,' I'm Tyson!" The Japanese teen corrected. Dimitri shook his head.
"Kai-bear said idiot."
"It's Tyson."
"Idiot!"
"Tyson!"
"Idiot!"
"Ty—!" Tyson growled in frustration, turning to Kai. "Kai, fix this! He won't stop calling me idiot!"
"Well, you are an idiot, aren't you?" Tyson let his head drop on the granite of the counter top and the little blue-haired toddler beside him laughed, reaching for his hat. Kai smirked, and Vladimir sent him a reprimanding glance.
"Your parents won't be too happy with Dimitri's new word, Kai." Vladimir warned the teen. Kai rolled his eyes with a defeated sigh.
"Fine." He caved. "His name is Tyson, Dimitri. Call him Tyson." The dual-blue haired teen took a plate of waffles in front of him, chocolate chip, and gave them to his little cousin. Tyson, upon seeing the waffles, recovered from his blow to the ego.
"Spasibo, Kai-bear!" The toddler squeaked, stabbing at the cut up waffle pieces with his spork. Tyson studied the little boy with amused brown eyes. Dimitri, noticing this, thought that the boy wanted to steal his waffles so he dragged his plate away from Tyson. (1)
"Hehe, don't worry, I'm not gonna eat yours. I'm getting my own."
"Chocolate chippies are mine." Dimitri specified. His short attention span then had him asking for Tyson's hat, and the Japanese Beyblader took it off and handed it to him. "What this say?" The little boy asked, pointing to the BBA logo embroidered on the front of the hat.
"It says BBA. It stands for Beyblade Battle Association."
Dimitri gasped excitedly, putting Tyson's hat on his head. "Like Kai-bear! You battle beyblades too? I wanna see!" Tyson grinned at the little Kai look-alike, glad that they were now getting along.
"Sure thing, kiddo! Maybe if Kai wants to beybattle later I'll show you Dragoon's power, and if not I'll show you how I train with him." The brown-eyed Beyblader promised whole-heartedly. Dimitri nodded excitedly, sticking two waffle slices in his mouth.
"I can play too? With Tyson's Beyblade?" He asked, pulling the hat down over his head again and blowing his bangs out of his eyes with a playful grin.
Tyson shrugged, "Sure, I don't see why—."
"No, Dimitri." Kai spoke up, sliding Tyson's waffle plate down the table to him. He shot a glace over at his baby cousin and shook his head no, and Dimitri frowned and pouted. "You can't use Tyson's Beyblade, ok?"
"But Kai-bear, I'm not sick!" The little boy protested, forcing a fake cough and then smiling hopefully. "See?" Kai shook his head no again, and Dimitri defeatedly went back to eating his waffles. Tyson watched the exchange between both Hiwatari's curiously, wondering what Dimitri meant by sick. However, when Dimitri started stealing his waffles—claiming that all chocolate chip waffles were his and Tyson stole it—Tyson quickly forgot.
Kai, meanwhile, went back to tag-teaming with Vladimir to make his own waffles. "Kai, there's no more badder left, you're going to have to make another batch." The butler said, pouring the mix into the waffle iron. The dual-blue haired teen wordlessly nodded and went to the refrigerator to grab more ingredients. When he saw they were missing some, he let out a low growl of frustration. "There's no more, is there?" The elder man with peppered hair chortled, familiar with the phoenix's behavior. Kai slammed the refrigerator door shut.
"Leave those things there and start the car." Kai requested, taking the list of groceries pinned onto the fridge with a magnet and setting it by the car keys. Vladimir couldn't help but chuckle again at the boy's sour mood. "Don't say anything."
"Who, me? I'm just laughing because you have to do groceries. And I know how much you love grocery shopping."
"Kai-bear, can I have this?"
"No."
"…Can I have this?"
"No."
"This?"
"Nyet, Dimitri."
"Kai-bear!" Kai drew a deep breath, keeping his patience in check. Little kids were so persistent. He turned his attention to the little boy sitting in the grocery cart instead of amusing himself with Tyson trying to read the Russian words on food items. The little midnight-blue haired toddler held up a box of macaroni and cheese pleadingly to the dual-blue haired teen, his big eyes begging. Kai bit his lip, trying to muster up another no—he knew that he had macaroni and cheese boxes back home—but telling a child no while you weren't facing them is much easier. "Please? I want rocket ships!"
…Kai be damned. He caved. "Just one, okay?" A small grin tugged at his lips when his little cousin smiled up at him, hugging the box like he would his stuffed animals or his cat.
"Yay! Kai-bear, how do you say rocket ships for Tyson?" The child asked, referring on how to say it for the Japanese teen to understand.
"Rocket ship."
"Oh…" Dimitri nodded. Wobbly standing up as Kai pushed the cart down the aisle; the violet-eyed boy leaned over the side of the cart and tugged on the back of Tyson's jacket.
Tyson hadn't been paying the slightest attention to the exchange between both Hiwataris. His mind was too busy making comparisons between the grocery stores he was used to back home and the set up of this one in St. Petersburg. It was different, and it made him realize one of the reasons he loved traveling as a Beyblader. Seeing different cultures in person was so much better than studying them in his history class. The Russian Cyrillic's, while he remained not understanding a single letter of it, were also pretty cool to see splayed on all the condiments and signs. He picked up a can of tomato sauce: томат соус. A tug came from the back of his jacket and he turned around, finding little Dimitri nearly falling out of the cart. "Careful, pal, you'll fall out."
Dimitri didn't seem to fear the warning, he just held out his box of macaroni and cheese to him "You want rocket ships?"
Tyson shook his head, "No thanks buddy, I'm—."
"Nyet, rocket ships are yummy! You want rocket ships?"
"Uhm, sure then?"
"Okay!" The violet-eyed toddler piped up, now reaching over the other side of the aisle for another box of mac and cheese. Kai caught notice of this and gently pushed the boy to sit back down in the cart. "But Kai-bear, Tyson wants rocket ships."
"No, you want Tyson to want rocket ships. I said just one box, remember?" The phoenix said, moving onto the next aisle and making sure Tyson was following. He grabbed items off the shelves he knew they'd need as they passed them. Tyson smirked at his team captain, tossing the can of tomato sauce in his hands back and forth.
"Your little cousin's one quick-thinker, Kai. He's as sneaky as you are sometimes." The tanned teen chuckled. Kai sent his teammate a raised eyebrow with a pointed glance, but he ended up just shaking his head and smirking to himself. Tyson felt like he was doing too much of nothing, so he skipped over to Kai's side and shared the cart handle with the crimson-eyed teen, leaning on it just like he was. "Hey, what's that list say? I can't read anything, but I know my foods and I can definitely find them for ya; let's split the list half in half!"
"I know you know your foods, Tyson. You're the reason I hate doing groceries even more so than usual."
While both world-class Beybladers talked, Dimitri was busy stacking away the foods that surrounded him into different towers and a fort. He watched his beloved older cousin talk to this new friend of his, with many questions popping up in his young mind. His Kai-bear never had friends from out of town before, and certainly none that beybladed. Well, at least none aside from his cousin Tala and the friends they both shared. He was confused. Why would Kai bring someone from…what was that place, Japan? Yes, that sounded correct. Kai had told him that Japan wasn't a place he should go to, that it was a place that made him sad. Why did Kai have a friend from somewhere that made him sad?
He now watched his older cousin bicker with Tyson over which items on the list they'd each retrieve. It completely and utterly boggled him. And although he had no idea what the feeling was called, the little boy was also feeling jealous. This Tyson was making Kai split his attention between the two of them.
"Tyson," The little boy asked, now drawing both teen's attention. "Do you Beyblade with Kai-bear?"
Tyson nodded, "Yup! Kai and I are on the same team, the Bladebreakers. You didn't know that?" Tyson was a little surprised with the boy's question and turned to Kai with the same question in his eyes. Kai chose to conveniently ignore him at that moment.
"So…Kai-bear always busy with Bay-bakers?" The little boy asked again. Tyson chuckled at his mispronunciation.
"Bladebreakers, Dimitri. And yeah, it's kind of like our job. It's me, Kai, Max, and Ra—OWW!" The brown-eyed teen was suddenly hit with a box that came very close to his face. "What the hell?"
"Dimitri!" Kai barked, sternly glaring at his little cousin. The miniature Kai look-alike glared back. "Why did you do that?"
"I don't like Tyson. Tyson makes you leave all the time and makes you stay in that place that makes you sad." The blue-haired toddler huffed. "Kai-bear, you said that you were coming back forever and ever and ever."
"Throwing the box at him was uncalled for, you know better." The phoenix scolded, picking up the box and placing it on the aisle, leaving it there. "Apologize." Dimitri shook his head so much he ruffled up his hair. "Apologize to Tyson now, Dimitri."
"Nyet."
"Dimitri…"Kai said in a warning tone, smothering the little boy with his relentless glare. Dimitri seemed like he was about to buckle after a few moments, but Vladimir met back up with the trio to add on a few of his finds to the cart. The butler asked what was going on, and Kai explained quickly to him in Russian. In agreement with the phoenix the butler also reprimanded the little boy, and took him with him to finish his half of the groceries. "C'mon, Tyson, let's finish this up so we can leave. I hate supermarkets…too crowded."
"Kai, what did he mean by—?" Tyson began, but Kai didn't let him ask.
"Hurry up, Tyson."
By the time they got back to the Hiwatari household, the tension hasn't lifted. It wasn't tension, per se: it was more…Kai giving his little cousin the silent treatment to teach him a lesson. Although Tyson had only known Dimitri and his relationship with Kai for less than a day, he could see that Kai's cold shoulder was driving the little boy nuts. Kai was pulling out his Beyblade training equipment from the storage room and bringing it out to the front yard for him and Tyson to train. Dimitri was playing shadow and, despite the phoenix's silence, was following his cousin around and attempting to help. Tyson would've offered to help, but Kai's mood had gone sour and the Japanese Beyblader knew from experience not to get in Kai's way when he was pissy.
The navy-blue haired teen sat at the front steps with Vladimir, cleaning his Beyblade. "I don't get it, Vladimir. Dimitri already apologized to me, why doesn't Kai cut him some slack?"
"Yes, but Dimitri didn't mean it when he apologized to you, Mr. Tyson. He only apologized because he knew it's what Kai wanted him to do." The older man explained, comfortably sitting in a deck chair to watch the training session that was about to take place.
"Exactly, so why—?"
"Kai wants Dimitri to apologize and mean it." The butler continued, pursing his eyes shut and smirking in amusement. "The poor little boy doesn't understand that. He's going to keep trying to please Kai until his bedtime, most likely."
"Well, yeah, I get that, but…" The tanned teen started, watching Dimitri dart back and forth across the yard grabbing items he saw that Kai needed. "But Kai should still take it easy on him. He's just a little kid. How old is Dimitri anyway?"
"Five."
"Five? That's just cruel I remember one time when I was five or six my older brother Hiro locked up my toy chest for an entire day. I was mad at him for days after that!"
"I bet you were. Yet, I'm willing to guess that whatever you did to deserve your punishment, you didn't repeat it again." Vladimir reasoned with the world champion.
"Well yeah. All I did was stick my hands in a kid's birthday cake at a birthday party. It was a little kid thing." Tyson rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest. "And besides, the reason Dimitri threw his mac and cheese box at me was because of something that made Kai sad and he blamed me. What was that all about?"
"That is a question you'll have to take up with Kai later, Mr. Tyson." The ever-formal butler replied smoothly. "It's not my place to talk about it. I think you'll also realize that while Kai is giving Dimitri a tough love treatment, it's out of the good of his heart." Tyson scoffed and laughed at Vladimir's choice of words.
"Hahahaha, oh Vladdy! You make me laugh!" Vladimir was utterly perplexed at why the house guest was laughing. "'Good of his heart,' ha! What a joke! Kai may cut a little more slack to Dimitri because he's little and he's related to him, but that's probably it! Kai's as good at heart and Max is a grouch, hahaha!"
"I'm…sorry you feel that way, Tyson." The man slowly said, understanding the teen's joke with a slight frown. Their attention was drawn away to Dimitri. The little toddler was having a hissy fit with his look-alike relative that continued ignoring him. Not getting the attention he desired, Dimitri dramatically fell to a sit on the cold grass, calling Kai's name. Whatever Kai finally replied he didn't like. He started crying to himself where he sat, hugging his legs to his chest.
"Tyson, everything's set; get off your lazy butt and start doing some reps around the cones." The phoenix ordered, launching his indigo Beyblade to a different obstacle setup.
"But…Kai…" Tyson glanced between older and younger Hiwatari, his heart torn for the little boy. Kai may have been trying to teach his cousin a lesson, but in the world champion's taste he was being way too mean about it. "Sure thing, Kai." He nodded, walking over the toddler and kneeling down beside him. "What's the matter, Dimitri?"
The little boy looked up at Tyson with big, watery violet-crimson eyes, sniffling and wiping away tears. "K-Kai-bear doesn't like me anymore. He w-won't listen to me." He cried, his voice shaky. Tyson found himself wanting to frown and grin at the same time, sad for the little boy's turmoil yet finding it cute.
"Now why would you say that? I don't think Kai hates you."
Dimitri shook his head, "Da, Kai-bear doesn't like me because I was mean to you. I said sorry but Kai-bear didn't like my sorry, he said my heart was lying." Tyson was genuinely intrigued; did Kai really tell him that? "But my heart didn't say sorry, my mouth did! I don't know how to make my heart talk!"
This kid…He was just so innocent and adorable!
Tyson chuckled at Dimitri's innocence, "I think what Kai meant was if you were really sorry for throwing that box at me. He just wants to know if you were being honest." He tried to explain, offering the child a grin. "So are you sorry?"
Another sniffle, "Mmhm."
"Great! In that case, why don't you wipe those tears off your face and help me launch Dragoon?" Tyson beamed. Dimitri looked up in surprise. "Well, come one! I promised you at breakfast that I'd let you use Dragoon for a little, right? Let's launch Dragoon! And let's do it fast before your grumpy Kai comes here and makes up both cry." He joked. A smile started to appear on Dimitri's face, and he unexpectedly tackled Tyson in a hug.
"Spasibo, Tyson! Prastee, prastee meeynya for throwing the rocket ships at you! Kai-bear was right, you are tolly-ball!" The little boy piped up, tears now a thing of the past. (2)
"Pras-tree what? Tolly-ball? What's tolly-ball?" Tyson blinked, looking over to Kai. "Care to translate, Mr. Sourpuss?"
"Tolerable, Tyson." Kai said, observing the two from the corner of his eye.
"Oh, ok. HEY! Tolerable?" Tyson demanded, making the little kid laugh. A moment's slip-up of attention allowed for Dimitri to snatch Dragoon from Tyson's hands and run off with him making sound effects and pretending the Beyblade was spinning. "Dimitri, give that back! I have to train! KA-AI, do something!"
For the first time Tyson could remember since…since he met him, Tyson had never seen the phoenix truly laugh before without being sarcastic or snarky. He never imagined it, but it actually suited Kai. He still, however, had a bigger problem at hand.
"DIMITRI! Give me back my Dragoon!"
"Dragoon! Roar, roooar!
(1) "spasibo": Russian for thank you.
(2) "Prastee meeynya": Russian for I'm sorry (literally, "forgive me").
A/n: I've noticed that the length of my chapters have steadily started to increase. I'm making a conscious effort to try and keep them under seven to eight pages. Ten is my maximum limit. Review, review, review please! They keep the chapters coming!