Disclaimer: This is getting old... I don't anything but the plot.
A/N: Hello everyone,
sorry for the delay - this bird was on a little vaca and updating this on my phone would have been such a pain so... apologies ;D
A huge thank you to Sensless, kyuubi, Little A Granger, Yueliang-Licht89 and Hvalyf for reviewing - reading your comments I was over the moon! I hope you enjoy this chapter :))
Felix Culpa
Chapter 10
Sooner than Kai would have liked he found himself back at the mall. He retrieved Tala's sunglasses from the glove compartment and put them on. Maybe he should buy a pair of his own, since he was here… Kai took a deep breath and got out of the car. Tyson was already eagerly awaiting him. For some reason he was extremely excited.
"C'mon, slowpoke, let's go!" Tyson said and grinned.
Kai rolled his eyes. How could one be so over-joyed about something as profane as a trip to mall? He followed Tyson at a safe distance. The other happily bounced from shop window to shop window, apparently not being able to decide where to go first.
"Kaaaaiiii," he then yelled. "Kai, let's go in here first."
Kai quickly scanned the surrounding area and relaxed when no one seemed to pay much attention to them. That had been a close call.
"Call a little louder next time," he snarled at Tyson. "The old man on the third floor didn't quite understand you."
"What's got your panties in a twist?" Tyson pouted. Then he smiled cheekily and said, "Oh I see, you don't wanna be recognized. That's what the sunglasses are for, am I right? You know, they kinda make you look like a movie star, so they might just draw more attention to you."
There were two things that left Kai speechless for a moment: not only had Tyson hit the nail on the head, but also… Tyson Granger was standing in front of a bookshop! Kai had never seen the boy touch anything other than the TV magazine and his comic books. Wonders never ceased.
"Hn. You keeping it down would probably do the trick. So if you don't mind…"
"Yeah, whatever! Let's go in here. Ray asked me to bring back these books for him."
Kai watched Tyson waved around a little piece of paper which he guessed to be Ray's shopping list. Okay, so Tyson didn't want to buy a book for himself. Kai's world was back in balance.
As he entered the bookshop he felt himself relax a little. He had always liked the atmosphere of these stores and the smell of freshly printed books, just waiting to be opened and read.
"Um, so let's see. Wow, err, where-…"
Kai snatched the piece of paper from Tyson's fingers and crimson eyes scanned the titles. Ray wanted about every book that had ever been printed about cooking and catering. He smirked. It seemed he'd given helpful advice earlier.
"This way," he told Tyson and went ahead.
Soon he had gathered every book on Ray's list. He dropped the pile of books into Tyson's arms and walked on to the next section. Since he was here, he might as well get some new books for his own collection.
When they left the store half an hour later, Kai thought that it was the most stupid idea to start a shopping tour at a bookshop. That way, one had to carry the heavy load the whole way… Oh well, an opportunity to finish his weight-lifting workout from earlier.
He held out his hand to Tyson, who was carrying Ray's books.
"Let me take that."
Tyson gave him a surprised look.
Then he smiled, "I don't know what to make of this Kai! Either you're being very sweet or you think I am too weak to carry them myself."
"Forget what I just said," Kai said and quickened his pace.
Insufferable brat!
"Nooo, wait, no, Kaaaaaiiiii," Tyson called after him.
And there he was, yelling across the mall again… This time people turned around to look at them. Kai saw some of them start to whisper at each other. Oh, just perfect.
Without another word he took the bag from Tyson's arms.
"Where else do you want to go Tyson? And pick something quickly; I think we've been spotted."
"You are so strange," Tyson said and shook his head. "They're just fans, you know."
"They're annoying, so let's go."
Tyson huffed. "Okay, then how about the Bey shop over there? I want to look at the new parts."
"Are you mad? They will most definitely recognize us there."
"Weird, you're so weird! Fine! I need some movies too. Max and I have watched most of our DVDs."
Kai nodded.
"Alright, lead the way."
Before they could even move, a shy voice asked, "Um, Tyson, do you think we could take a photo with you?"
Two girls had walked up to them, one of them clutching her smartphone. Tyson sheepishly grinned at Kai and scratched his head.
"Whoops, too late."
Kai rolled his eyes. Why did he agree to take this guy to the mall again? Just as Kai thought about leaving Tyson and making a beeline for it, he noticed they'd already been surrounded by a quickly growing group of people.
"God dammit, Tyson!"
"Haha, sorry Kai. Just go with it," Tyson said.
Then Kai watched Tyson turn to his fans with that big smile of his. He shook hands, took selfies with them and even gave autographs. That was just Tyson. He was ever so friendly and he loved the attention. He always had.
When he felt a tugging on his pants Kai looked down in surprise and saw a little boy, not even half his size, stare up at him.
"Are you Kai?"
Kai had to admit, the kid had guts. Most young children didn't dare go near him, let alone speak to him.
"Yes I am."
"Wooow! I saw you on TV. Mommy said I couldn't go to the game, because I'm too small, but I'm not, I'm already five and three quarters!"
Kai didn't really know what to say. He wasn't good at small talking in general, let alone small talking to a kid. Luckily, the boy wasn't waiting for him to reply.
"Kai, when I grow up I wanna be a Blader just like you."
"Well, I'm sure you will be if you work hard," he said.
Suddenly the happiness seemed to fade from the boy's face. Oh good lord, he'd made a kid cry. In front of all those people, too!
"I'm trying, but my Beyblade doesn't wanna spin," the boy mumbled.
Kai, resigning himself to his fate, stretched out his hand and said, "Let me see."
In between taking photos and shaking hands, Tyson glanced over at Kai to see how he was holding up. He was beyond surprised when he saw Kai kneeling beside a little boy, apparently checking the kid's Beyblade. What happened next he wouldn't have guessed in a million years! Kai pulled Dranzer from his pocket, took off its new attack ring and put it into the little boy's Beyblade. The kid's smile could have lit up a small town. Tyson watch him throw his arms around Kai's neck and then run off to his mother, waving his Beyblade around.
If Tyson hadn't been in love with Kai already, he would have been now. That had been adorable, yet a classic Kai: not losing many words, but getting the job done. In this case making the little boy's day… or year. Just when he was about to melt, a couple boys approached him asking for his autograph. Tyson smiled at them and after exchanging a couple words he signed his name on their shirts.
Then he glimpsed over to Kai again, only to see him completely surrounded by a group of fans. It seemed like they'd lost the fear of approaching Kai after watching him with the kid. Tyson grinned. Kai's cold bad-boy-image had been seriously damaged right there. He snickered when an elderly lady asked him to sign something for her grandson. Kai shot him a glare that made Tyson stop laughing immediately. Boy, Kai's ears must almost be as sharp as Ray's.
After what seemed like eternity to Kai they finally managed to escape the masses. After a quick stop at the media store, where Tyson bought some new movies, they inevitably ended up in the food court. Tyson was hungry and according to him, they had great hot dogs there – maybe the best in town. Just as Tyson ran off to grab a hotdog, Kai's phone started to ring. Taking one look at the caller ID he rolled his eyes, but decided to pick up anyways. It was either this or twenty brainless messages on his phone. Taking the call seemed to be the lesser of two evils.
"Boy, do those sunglasses look good on you. You should keep them."
"Are you stalking me, Tala?"
"Not in the traditional way, no! It's just you and little Tyson made the front page of, um, every tabloid magazine."
"Of course you would know that."
"I have a smartphone, okay? I get push notifications. So, how's your date going?"
"I'm hanging up now."
"Is it your first date? Are you nervous? Did you kiss?"
And Kai hung up.
"Who was that?" Tyson asked as came back with a hotdog in his hand.
"The red plague. You sure are quick."
Tyson shrugged.
"Tala? What did he want?"
Kai's eyebrow twitched.
"Never mind that," he growled. "Come on let's go home."
They had barely sat one foot into the house when Max and Ray came running.
"Heeey Kaaii," they said and grinned.
"Did you smoke something funny?" Kai asked dryly.
They exchanged looks and burst out laughing. Then Max held out his smartphone to Kai.
"Kai, you'll have to work hard to keep up your sourpuss-image after this hit the news!" Ray grinned.
Tyson peeked over Kai's shoulder. On the screen was a photo of the little boy hugging Kai.
"Aw, that's so cute," he said before he could stop himself.
Whoops. He didn't need to lift his head to know Kai was glaring at him.
"Err, I'm sure it'll be forgotten in the blink of an eye," Tyson tried to make it better. "And who's reading tabloids anyways? Most likely nobody's going to see it."
"Yeah, right," Kai snorted.
He pushed past Max and Ray and disappeared upstairs.
Tyson sighed. And there he was again, the sourpuss. Well, it was his own fault for yelling across the mall at the top of his lungs and drawing all the attention on them. If he'd kept quiet like Kai had asked him to, none of this would have happened and they would have spent a lovely afternoon shopping. So there, well done, Tyson! Hopefully he'd get another chance to go there with Kai. Probably in the very, very distant future though, as Kai would put it.
"Oh," he said, remembering something. "Ray! We got your books. Are you starting a library?"
Ray grinned.
"Nah, just trying to figure out what I wanna do with my life. Kai gave me the idea to consider making cooking a career earlier."
Oh, so that's why Ray had been in Kai's room.
"Oh that would be really great Ray," Max said and clapped his hands. "I love your cooking. If you had a restaurant I'd be a regular there."
As if by command Tyson's stomach started to rumble loudly. A hotdog just wasn't very filling…
Ray chuckled.
"How about dinner, you guys?"
Tyson nodded enthusiastically.
"Heck yeah! Should I get Kai?"
"Nah, he's a big boy; he can get some food on his own later, when he's calmed down."
A/N: So that's it for today. Did you like it? :)
Next chapter will be sleepwalking at its finest and lots and lots of TyKa moments. I'm so excited to that already!
Well take care guys,
NoEarlyBird :)