RTC: Hello, everyone. Sorry for another long wait. Unfortunatly, the muses are on vacation, it seems, and they only managed to churn out what is probably the shortest chapter of this fic. I'm clearly a bit too tired and distracted, because last chapter I said I was celebrating my third anniversary here when it was actually my fourth. Beware uni, for it renders you incapable of counting anything besides the number of midterms and papers you have due.

Kai: Ray-Tiger-Cat does not own Beyblade.


He thinks it's highly unfair. Of course she'd have a natural advantage in this class. But the school is too small to divide the class into advanced and beginner, so they're all stuck together, and Tala is forced into the role of second best student in the class. It's not that he minds bad grades, per say, but coming in second was just so close to first, only to be thwarted away by her.

He remembers every championship match, and the inevitable second place he ended up winning each time. Though Kai was his best friend, and would understand completely, Tala didn't bring the topic up with him. It was too personal. Partly because he was supposed to be cold and stoic and emotionless, but mostly because of the way she grinned at him as she beat him on each and every test and Kai would figure it out.

"You're close, but no cigar!" she exclaimed, and stuck her tongue out childishly.

It was strange, he mused, that one could survive torture and madness and cyber implants, but a smile from a pretty girl sent his stomach aflutter with a thousand butterflies and rendered him incapable of forming a coherent sentence.

Finally, after being assigned to work together on a project, Tala manages to awkwardly spit out what he's been meaning to say all along, in the hopes of playing it down as school work if she didn't like him back.
"You... hermosa niña..." he mutters, and half hopes she doesn't hear.

"What do pretty girls have to do with it?" Julia asks, before her eyes narrow in suspiciously, as she clues in. She has had far too many guys hit on her to want to go through it again. She always thought Tala was into things more than physical beauty.

"I, erm, erm, t'aimo?" he says hopefully.

"You prat!" He winces, waiting for the accompanying blow to the head he's seen her give out before. It does not come. "I've been waiting for you to ask me out for ages! Don't you know it's rude to keep a girl waiting?"

He looks up, perplexed. "You mean it?"

"On one condition-don't try and ask me in Spanish!"


RTC: Okay, I admit to using a translator to help me with the Spanish in here, and I know those things are generally useless. However, I don't speak Spanish, so in this case, we'll blame Tala for not listening in class well enough. "Hermosa niña" is "pretty girl", and "t'aimo" is supposed to be "I love you" but that's based on my memory and not a translator, so I could be off. Anyhow, review and I'll love you forever! Any ideas for the remaining couples would be welcome. (For a list of future pairings, please see my home page.) Ta ta for now!