Over Bearing Pride and, Over Bearing Complications

Brooklyn narrowed his eyes at all the weird looks he was getting, before mentally shaking his head. No one had answered his question of why he had been disturbed in his 'me' time. Something was definitely wrong with these people; he was throwing darts, arrows and – occasionally – knives at Kai's face and they were suspecting feelings of infatuation of him. What bull shit! And everyone called him mentally ill.

Picking up a knife, he aimed it towards a dart board and launched; it landed straight on Kai's face. Mystel and Monica, who were used to this, just laughed while Max and Ray went wide eyed and Kai just blinked.

"Don't flatter yourself, Kai." Brooklyn faced the interrupters, and said in an apathetic voice. "I am so not in to you."

Max and Monica snickering entered his ears and he turned towards the younger of the two, and asked sternly, "Shouldn't you be taking a nap, Monica?"

Monica pouted.

"All the noise woke me up, and besides," she continued, grinning from ear to ear, "I'm enjoying it here."

The BEGA blader rolled his eyes, the kid really needed to stop hanging out crazy bladers.

"Brooklyn," Kai began, drawing Brooklyn's attention; he was tired of this cat and mouse game and wanted to get it over with as fast as he could.

"Kai," Brooklyn interrupted, but before any one of them could say another word, Mystel spoke up.

"You two talk, and the rest of us will be down stairs." The blonde said in an edgy voice, not wanting to endure this conversation between the age-long rivals. He knew that Brooklyn wasn't all that fond of Kai defeating him and Kai wasn't all that pleased with Brooklyn for trying to kill him so it was better to stay far away from the line of fire when these two were trying to have a civilized discussion.

"He's right," Ray agreed and grabbed Max by the collar, dragging him out and ignoring his protests.

Mystel stared at Monica – who had proceeded to sit on a stool instead of exiting – and rolled his eyes. Grabbing the little girls' shoulders, he pushed her up.

"Hey!" Monica protested indignantly.

"Come on, kiddo," Mystel said pushing her out of the room. His comment made her huff.

"I am not a kid."

"Sure, you're not,"

The door shut after Mystel's humoring voice.

Now Brooklyn and Kai were left in a room covered with mutilated Kai pictures and supplied with knives, arrows and other pointy instruments. Kai was standing near the entrance, his hands folded against his chest while Brooklyn had proceeded to sit down on the stool previously occupied by Monica, and was dangling a knife in mid air near his legs.

There was an air of discomfiture in the room.

"Hilary left, it's been a few days," Brooklyn said in a serious tone, being the first to break the silence by continuing his previously interrupted words, "She failed to mention where she was going."

Kai ran a hand through his hair. "Brooklyn," he started, trying hard to maintain a calm voice. "This is not about our old feud; Hilary's just being stubborn, you know that, I just want a chance to talk to her."

"So," Brooklyn replied in a sidetracked voice, using his knife to try and aim at different dart boards. "Are you going to be apologizing?"

"No," Kai blinked, "I'll ask her about why she left and then clear up that it wasn't my fault."

"So you're not gonna say sorry?" The orange-haired blader asked, getting up from his stool. He moved slowly towards one of the dart boards, still in an aiming position with a knife in his hands, heading to see if it would land on the right spot.

"Did I not just say that, Masefield?"

"Yes!" Brooklyn exclaimed; he had finally gotten near the dart board he was moving towards. "Would have been a bull's eye!"

Kai's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"See, Kai," Brooklyn spoke, directing his attention back at Kai, "the thing is that, that was the annoying behavior I was talking about. Little drops of water make the ocean, Kai. I doubt Hilary would have leave over a simple misunderstanding, Kai. Kai, where there's smoke there's a fire. Hilary isn't well loved by the Beyblading world, you and I know that, right Kai? And you famous celebrities have too big of an ego and too fat a head to ever appreciate her or try to make her feel wanted. Oh, this isn't just one misunderstanding; these are five year's worth of misunderstandings, Kai."

Brooklyn – who had been moving around the room, gesturing with his hands while he spoke – would have gone one with his lecture, but Kai interrupted him.

"Excuse me?" Brooklyn asked, not having heard the dual-headed teen the first time.

"Why do you keep repeating my name?" The Bladebreaker captain repeated his previous words.

"I'm trying to get used to saying your name and not spitting it out with boat load of inner cursing; it's going easier than I expected." He answered simply.

Kai opened his mouth to speak, but closed it not wanting to waste his breath.

"So, Kai, did you learn anything from my rant?" Brooklyn asked.

Kai snorted. "Hilary's location? No. And if I'm not wrong that's what I asked?"

Brooklyn raised a finger. "Tut-tut. You wanted to find her to make things better, how can you make things better when you don't realize what's wrong?"

Kai just looked at Brooklyn with a look of the same annoyance as on the day of the Justice Five battle. "What are you trying to imply?"

Brooklyn arched an eyebrow and gave a perceptive smile. "You're a smart person Kai, is it not obvious?"

Kai blinked a couple of time, reflecting over Brooklyn's words. His next few words were a statement more of a question, "You don't know where she is."

"No Kai," Brooklyn said earnestly. "Now that I know you've gotten your mistake, I would tell you."

Brooklyn then, he went back to his usual business, tugging out darts and arrows and knives from completely covered dart boards. It pleased him to know that his words had made some impression in Kai's mind that he'd helped out someone he resented. He barely noticed Kai's presence, as he made his way around the room, feeling self-satisfied.

Kai, on the other hand, was left to reflect on Brooklyn's, and the latter teen tried not to interfere his train of thoughts, though he couldn't help a smirk from plastering over his face. When Kai was done contemplating he moved from his position against the wall and made his way to Brooklyn, who gave him a calculating look.

"Thank you," Kai said dryly, though his voice sounded sincere; deprecating, but still sincere.

"Hmm," Brooklyn turned sideways to look at another dartboard. "I would thank you, but I won't. I'll do it when I see that you did something right by Hilary."

Kai didn't bother to say anything else. The main reason for coming over was to confront Brooklyn about what went on when Hilary stayed at their house., though he wasn't going to admit that in front of the Bladebreakers or the Blitzkrieg boys. But seeing Brooklyn for a while and listening to him talk, had given him assurance that Hilary was just a friend to Brooklyn; nothing more, nothing less.

When he entered the living room, he saw Max and Ray laughing and talking together with Crusher, Mystel and Garland. Monica was nowhere in sight, and Kai assumed that she had finally decided to head off to sleep now that it was pretty much near her bed time. He made his way towards the exit, nodding in acknowledgement when Ray and Mystel waved at him and being extra careful not to take any route passing Ming Ming's room; he wanted no confrontation with the pop star.

In a few minutes, he was sitting on the steps in front of the house, his iPod in his lap and music blearing in his ears, in an attempt to block his thoughts. Though, the attempts went in vain. He couldn't get Hillary out of his mind; when he would find her, he would tell her that he liked her, more than just a friend. He hadn't known when the feeling of mutual respect had changed into friendship, and he had no clue when that changed into love, but he'd wanted to tell her his feelings for a long time.

Kai knew though, that the expression of these feelings carried with them too many complications; it wasn't something you could just come out and tell. Then there was the fear of the feelings not being reciprocated on her side. Then there was the fact that Hilary was one of his few, most trusted friends, and he didn't want to ruin their friendship, cause awkwardness just because he couldn't keep his emotions in check.

The cell phone in his pocket rang, interrupting his thoughts. Of answering the phone to anyone other than Hilary, Kai had no intentions, but when he saw the caller ID – it was Tala – so he decided to pick it up anyways; in case it was important.

"Hey, Kai," Tala greeted, his voice sounding nervous.

Kai mentally prepared himself for bad news. "What's wrong?"

"Okay, before I tell you what's wrong, let's correct some past misunderstandings." Tala ranted in a calm voice. "Well, I've been wanting to call you since a day after you left, but I was waiting for you to be as far enough from Russia as possible, so you wouldn't come back to harm me."

"Tala," Kai said warningly.

"Fine, here it goes," Tala took in a deep breath. "We all lied!"

Tala braced himself for an outburst, but none came. Kai rubbed his temples for a minute and then spoke up. "Just tell me what you lied about and how it complicated what happened."

He heard his Russian friend take a sharp breath before speaking again. "We lied when we said we didn't know where Hilary was."

Kai closed his eyes in annoyance as Tala continued, "She was supposed to come over to the house, a few hours after you guys left and she didn't-"

"So you're telling me," Kai cut Tala off, his voice deathly calm. "That Hilary was supposed to come to your house two days ago, and she's not there and now you don't know where she is?"

"No!" Tala yelled in protest. "Did I say that? No! I did not say that. Why are you assuming I said that? Hilary didn't come to the house, and no she's not here, and well that's because when she reached Russia she kind of got kidnapped by Voltaire."

Kai's eyes widened for a second, but before he could ask if Hilary was alright, Tala already spoke up.

"She's fine, she got out, but the problem is pretty obvious," Tala trailed off.

"He's gonna go after her;" Kai deduced, and then continued in a grudging voice "I knew I shouldn't have avoided his calls."

Tala was about to continue, but Kai cut him off.

"Wait," Kai said, realization hitting him. "What does he want with Hilary? What does he want from me that he wants Hilary?"

"Russian government is making him give up the company to you." Tala said with a snicker.

Kai blinked at his surroundings. "What?"

"Russian government has declared Voltaire unfit to run Hiwatari Enterprises!" Tala's voice bordered the edge of ecstatic hysteria.

"I'd have to run the company?" Kai's voice sounded hollow.

Tala's voice got more serious. "You don't sound happy. Why are you not happy?"

"Tala, don't you get what this means?" Kai said in an overwhelmed voice. "If that happens I'm going to have to leave Japan.

"Oh," Tala said, as realization dawned upon him.

The two boys were quiet for a few seconds before Tala spoke up.

"So," he trailed off. "What're you gonna do?"

"I-" Kai paused for a second not knowing what he was thinking. "don't really know."

"Hey, I'm sorry dude, I didn't realize," Tala said uncomfortably, trying to apologize for being so happy about something which he now realized must be terrible for Kai.

"Listen, Tala," Kai said distractedly. "I'll talk to you later, alright. Bye."

Without waiting for a response, he hung up on the call. Getting up from his place on the steps, he made his way through the gardens. A dozen thoughts were running through his head that he couldn't comprehend. There he was, just a few minutes ago, thinking about telling Hilary how he felt about her and now he finds out that he has to move back to Russia. Even if he refused to take over the company right now – which definitely would neither be a responsible, nor the right thing to do – how long would it last, anyways? Voltaire would eventually have to die or get too old to run things, and Kai would have to go to Russia to take over. This was something he had never given a mind to before

Unconsciously, he kicked at a few pebbles, which ended up hitting the hedge, before looking up at the sky and sighing. These were the complications that kept popping up, that always stopped him from conveying to Hilary how he felt. Kai didn't know what to do; the thought of moving back to Russia had never occurred to him. What would he do now when he would find Hillary? Apologize for always mistreating her and being dishonest about his feelings, only to end the conversation with telling her that he was leaving and moving to Russia?

Pacing around the garden, he ran his hand through his hair, trying to come up with a way to solve a problem. Right now, he figured, the only thing that he could do was delay the problem for the time being, and – irresponsible as it seemed – take over when the time came. Maybe he could let Voltaire run the company, and in midst of the time get some of the main offices shifted to Japan, and maybe then he wouldn't have to move to Russia when it was time for him to take over the company.

Kai groaned internally; his plan was standing on a single leg which could fall any moment, but it was the only thing he had so he decided to call up Voltaire.

"Hello Kai," Voltaire answered in a calm voice. "I had a feeling you would call."

"I'll sign whatever papers you want." Kai assured him in a flat voice.

"Huh?" Voltaire said, honestly shocked; he hadn't expected Kai to cave in so quickly.

"You should not have brought Hilary in midst of this."

"Ah – but it was the only way to get you to agree."

"Well, that didn't work out all that great for you, and I would really prefer if you did not include any of the Bladebreakers in your plans; deal with me directly."

Voltaire confirmed. "So, you've agreed to let me keep running the country?"

"Yes." Kai responded, kicking another pebble which ended up hitting the wall instead of the hedge.

Voltaire was silent for a while. "Oh," he said finally, a malicious hint present in his tone. "You don't want to move back to Russia."

Kai did not answer.

"Silences just confirm doubts, Kai." The older Hiwatari told Kai with a light laugh. "Oh well, whatever your reasons be, you're doing what I want you to so I'm fine."

"I will, as long as you don't involve Hilary or the others in problems that you have with me." Kai pressed on the previous issue; he did not want any of the Bladebreakers to get more involved with Voltaire's crazy schemes than necessary.

Voltaire trailed off. "Well, if you don't comply, I will have to involve them-"

"Fine, I won't, not answer your phone calls from now," Kai spat out in defeat.

Voltaire laughed in satisfaction. "Thank you, Kai; it's been a pleasure talking to you."

He hung up the call before Kai could say another word, and the young blader resisted the urge to throw the phone, instead he kicked another pebble.

As he opened the door and made his way inside the house, Voltaire's words played and echoed in his head. They had brought a new plan in his mind, but the complications in the plan were honestly making his head hurt, much more than before. The guys were going to be hard to convince to leave, when he couldn't even tell them the complete reason why they had to.

"Ray, Max," he called out, as he entered the living room. "Call Tyson and the others, all of you guys are heading back to Japan."

Max looked up in surprise. "What?" he asked.

"But why?" Ray asked looking at the visibly disgruntled new comer.

"All of us moving from place to place, it's getting stupid," Kai's voice sounded cold. "It's better if I do this alone. Besides, this is taking too long and is getting too messed up. No one is telling us where she is."

All the guys in the room were visibly taken aback. The BEGA bladers decided not to speak up, since it was not really a matter that concerned their team, but they looked equally as curious as the next person.

Ray was the first one to speak. "Kai, I don't get what problem you're having."

Kai was getting more and more annoyed; he just wanted to sleep off on his new idea. Why would Ray and Max not just listen to him? When he was asking them to do something, he must have some God-forsaken reason for it.

"Ray, don't you get it?" Kai tried again, exasperated, "This is turning into a stupid cat and mouse chase!"

"So what difference, will our leaving make?" Max asked.

"Voltaire wants some signatures from me, and he also kidnapped Hilary to get me to come. This is getting way too complicated, and I would rather have you guys back in Japan while I try to handle the Voltaire issue, find Hilary and get her to come back."

"And, how in hell will you find her?" Max asked feeling pretty annoyed at Kai's sudden decisions, more so at how vague he was being.

The addressed blader shook his head in aggravation. "I am going to see Voltaire, I'm pretty sure he can help me get to her. If you guys are with me, it'll be a problem; he would not agree to do it. But if I'm alone he might do it in exchange for me signing his documents. And when I do find Hilary, I'm the one who has to the apologizing here; if all of us crowd her, she will not listen. I need to talk to her in private and make amends."

Kai's voice was getting more and more frustrated by the second. His patience was running more and more thin, he was tired of talking to people, and he had been talking all evening. He just wanted for Ray and Max to agree with him so he could head off to sleep.

Max and Ray were in thought, not knowing what to say. Garland decided to break the awkward silence.

"You guys will be staying the night here, right?" Garland inquired, but immediately regretted saying it, since he got weird looks from everyone in the room.

Ray blinked at him, and then nodded."Fine," he then said."I'm not sure what you're planning or what you're up to, but if that's what you want then sure."

Max was going to protest, but Kai cut him off.

"Honestly, guys," he assured them in a resigned voice. "I am not doing this for the heck of it, I have an idea of what I intend on doing. Besides Hilary is not with Salima and the Psychics, the Blitzkrieg Boys, Julia and Raul had lied."

"How do you know?" Max asked; his head was beginning to hurt too, maybe it was the constant travel, but he was getting more and more tired of this Tom and Jerry game; maybe the Russian had a point.

"I just talked to Tala," Kai answered, his voice was now completely monotonous, tiredness had ceased the reactions from being displayed in his voice.

"Fine," Max said in acceptance. "Are you sure whatever your planning or thinking of doing is going to work, or are you just intending or are you just gonna improvise?"

Kai looked at his two team mates helplessly. "I'm certain I can get Hilary to come back, I am going to have to improvise."

Ray could see that Kai was not making any good sense, but he knew by now to trust the Russian even when his actions seemed unjust and meaningless. He would pull through, like he always did, he trusted him enough to be sure of that.

"We'll leave for Japan tomorrow," Ray said in a dreary voice. "I'll call up Kenny."

Max nodded in agreement, he too had decided that he should trust his captain in what he was saying, and then spoke up in a cheery voice. "Yeah, Kai, we got your back! And if having your back means going back, then so be it!" he grinned with enthusiasm, "Be sure to force Hils to call us as soon as you find her."

Kai smiled for the first time in quite a while. "Thanks guys."

Max and Ray just nodded, the former of them still grinning.

"I'm heading off to sleep," Kai mentioned, getting up from his seat.

Mystel pointed to the corridor on the right. "Second door to the left, if you need anything, ask."

Kai nodded in acknowledgement and headed off without another word hoping that there was some Tylenol in the medicine cabinet.

The remaining group was silent for a while.

"How much do you think he's not telling you?" Crusher wondered in a musing voice.

"Probably half the story, half the plan, half his reasons, half his intention," Ray replied, tiredness evident in his tone.

Garland raised an eyebrow. "And you're all fine with it?"

Ray shrugged. "We've gotten used to this Kai behavior; in the end he gets things to work out. Its pointless worrying; more pointless is trying to interfere, he's not gonna agree with us, anyways."

Max added with a playful grin."And when it comes to Hilary, I'm sure Kai's not going to mess up."

Garland nodded, not sure if he'd have been satisfied with Kai's half answers if he was in the Bladebreaker's shoes, but he thought of Kai's history and his convictions, couldn't help thinking that he probably would.

"One thing he was right about," Max yawned stretching his arms. "We really need to hit the sack."

"Amen to that," Ray agreed with a yawn. "But first we need to call up Tyson. Anyone know the code for Antarctica?"

The BEGA boys and Max sweat dropped and Ray sighed.

~Fin~


Finally after ten months, an update! *dances* I literally died, died, died, died, O.o, trying to write this, writing this was almost as bad as writing Chapter 2 of my A Stitch in Time and trust me, this was written just as bad as that; thank you to Dead-by-n0w for beta-ing it, and fixing the issue with the repeated nouns. :) I listened to Atlas by Fanfarlo about 60 times while writing this. O_o Did I mention I had a terrible, terrible head ache! X And I wrote it after coming back from my college admission interview- which went awesome by the way, so I was even more tired. -

Well, I hope people liked this chapter, I worked my ass off on it, and so did authoress, Dead-by-n0w! Please review, and for the love of God, do not flame. - Might, I mention, this is the 7th publish of the day! xD And the day started one and a half hour ago. :P

Thank you to Tyhiltwilover, Dead-by-n0w, Kawaii-Chibi-Kai, Natasha 13, Animwolfgurl, CrazyPARAMORElover, Lia 101, 09sasha, cOOlzanimeaDDict, Moonlight Serenity and Cindy Medeiros for reviewing the last chapter. Thank to everyone who read, faved and alerted this fic as well. You guys all rock! xD

Those of you who've been waiting for the final chapter of my two shot, The Little Things Give You Away, I'll be putting it up later tonight. Finally! ^_^

29th May, 2012. 01:40 a.m.