Helloooo m'dears. I have come crawling back.

Thank yous and replies:

Rin-ren-ran: aw, you so kind (huggle) I am glad my writing pleases you :D Thank you for reviewing, hope you enjoy this chapter!

Lola Clarkson: Yes, too much about you indeed…I know I said I love long reviews, but you don't have to deliberately try to pad out an averagely-long review!! XD Ah, makes me laugh. Ew, Saw 2. Not my kind of film. I fail to see how you can laugh. (Yeah…anyone who can laugh at Saw would tend not to like Watership Down. I loved that book when I was a kid!! But as for the origins of the name, well, that's for me to know :P) Red hair beats blonde hair any day. And do what you wanna do I guess…you can tell me all about your life but, y'know, there's not much I can do to help you out…this is just a fanfiction after all. And yes, this is a party chapter. As for dancing…if you know of ANY way that anyone could get Kai to dance, do let me know. If you're desperate maybe I could write a silly, fluffy one-shot for ya, and he could dance in that. But here…nope, sorry. It just wouldn't have worked. Gomen. And yeah, carpe diem. Thanks for reviewing, hope you like chapter 11.

Destiny Quill: Wow…you counted the lines? XD Lol, awesome. I know what you mean, I have become confused in so many fanfictions!! (It's like 'who said that?' The mind boggles!) I'm glad to know I'm not causing the same problem:3 And yes, Tala is clearly the taller of the two…I always wonder why people change that…(but, y'know, I sort of established size back in chapter 2 XD oh well, I'm sure no one really remembers chapter 2!) Ooooh noooo, don't hyperventilate! (Puts paper bag over head) Here's a new chapter! Now, BREATHE!! Lol, thanks for lovely review, hope you like this chapter.

DaCow Takao: OMG! (uber-glomp) you so ditzy! It's adorable! (yes, I shall destroy whatever street-cred you have left) Your reviews always make me giggle…you really should take a nap before reading XD You mean amnesia? Yeah that would be like, the final insult. This entire story had no point at all. XD Yay, Scotland is very pretty. You should come visit. (But it's bloody cold. Only Scotland could have such crap weather that it's actually going to get COLDER during global warming.) Ok I hope you like this chapter. If you draw anymore brilliant conclusions, be sure to let me know! Thanks for reviewing!

Blackdranzergurl: everyone wuvs Kai :3 He's the like the wannabe-tough-guy who everyone just thinks is really sweet! Thank you for your kind words. Hope you like chapter 11!

Demon TK: relax, I'm writing this review reply while I'm supposed to be studying for my upcoming exams. Y'know, essays and studying can wait. Fanfiction comes first:D And who said they were together? They are just super-cool-buddaroos at da moment…and it seems unlikely to change…because all hell would break loose if it did…(people are weird that way…) Okies, thanks for reviewing, hope you like the chapter.

Celtic Warrior: (gasp) ooh, such conflicting emotions!!! Lol! Yay, I love making people laugh! (And if I ever really made someone cry…that would be an achievement indeed O.O) Yes…Kai is unforgiving in his beliefs…don't worry, I've wanted to be a writer since I was about 7 too ;D Kai's just a meanie. Ok, thank you for reviewing, hope you enjoy new chapter!

Ok I'd love to reply to everyone, but I'm tired now…

Thanks also to hurtinphoenix, Jashomara, brat-always-day-and-night, blackkaosrose, Winterblazewolf, Tuli-Susi, gliitch, Neglected Little Girl, Hatsue Cybanne, GabZ, Moon Comix, Nameless Little Girl, jovanni, not the usual baka, ruinsage-sorceress, vines-throughXfate, tacks, KrisSk8Gurl, hunt4me and Kai Hiwatari1. You are the people who light up my little life.

Disclaimer: Crap, I never wrote one at the start! Ok. I do not and never will own any of the legal rights to Beyblade. I also do not own the rights to Lord of the Rings or Bacardi (fear not, this is actually relevant, I have not just cracked.) There, done.

Advanced Proclamation of Self-Confessed Ignorance: Ahem. I don't know much about alcoholic beverages. Seriously. I don't drink all that much so I don't know a lot about what other people in my age group would drink at parties. I don't know how many bottles of Bacardi Breezer you'd have to drink to get pissed. So if what I have written concerning the brands and consumption of alcohol is complete and utter numptiness, please just bear with me and laugh at my child-at-heart innocence. Thank you.

Ok…on with the chapter!

Chapter 11

Tala walked unhurriedly down the street in the quiet and soft light of dusk. He wore a plain black shirt, rather loose on him and with the top few buttons left undone, and a pair of well-worn jeans. Contrary to popular belief, he was not the type of person who obsessed for hours over their appearance. Sure, he'd cleaned himself up, but he would have done that anyway, party or no party. He'd also put a new bandage on the injury on his leg, and it felt stiff and uncomfortable as he walked, like a new and unfamiliar shoe. He'd ran a handful of gel through his fiery red hair, but it had still been damp from the shower and he hadn't had the time nor the patience to stand and painstakingly style it, so it currently hung lazily around his face.

Across the park, he could see the bright lights of the rich side of town, where, no doubt, the Jurgens' much-anticipated dinner party was already underway. He scowled and looked away. He was angry. Yeah, he could act light-hearted and cheery around Kai – and it was true that the slate-haired boy's presence did significantly improve his mood – but he really was annoyed, and now that he had spent a few hours alone at home brooding over everything, he felt even more determined to skip the pompous dinner and instead do something stupid and insanely out of character.

Just to get to his parents.

He stuffed his hands in his pockets. He must be stupid for even contemplating that his father had been calling him to ask about the match. Since when had the old man cared about that? Why would he have started now?

Damn.

He was walking in the direction of the park gates, but really only as a formality. He didn't really expect Kai to show up. Like the little anomaly had said, twice in one day was really hoping for too much.

He glanced at his watch. Quarter past eight. He supposed he'd just have to settle for being 'fashionably late'.

He reached the gates. He cast a fleeting look around and quickly confirmed that there was no one waiting, grudgingly or otherwise. He gave a small sigh which momentarily blew his trademark twin bangs out of his face (of course, they fluttered back down almost immediately) before going to walk on.

"Well that's rude," came a seemingly bodiless voice, "You ask me to come out here and then just walk on by?"

He recognized that voice…He blinked and looked around, but still saw no one.

"Up here, genius."

He slowly tilted his head backwards and, against the dying light, saw the silhouette of afore-mentioned anomaly sitting quite contently on top of one of the stone pillars on either side of the gate.

"I didn't know fish could climb," was his comment when he finished staring.

Kai snorted and slid down from his perch, landing easily on his feet. Judging by his current attire, he obviously cared even less about getting dressed up than Tala himself. That was not to say he didn't care about his appearance, however; he most was definitely the type of person who never allowed themselves to appear scruffy or unkempt and is always well-presented (in Kai's case, probably out of sheer pride), but never feels the need to be particularly fancy-looking. Which was good, he supposed. For Kai, anyway. He was wearing a simple navy-blue t-shirt – despite the cool evening air - , pale coloured cargo trousers and his customary black Converse. But, y'know, Kai being Kai, he made it look pretty good.

"I see you're as observant as ever," the slate-haired boy commented as they started to walk.

"Well I wasn't really expecting you to be here," he admitted, "I'm still having a hard time believing it."

"Trust me, so am I."

They continued on in surprisingly companionable silence.

Suddenly, Kai stopped in his tracks, crimson eyes narrowed and trained on something.

"What's up…?" Tala questioned in perplexity, trying to see what the problem was.

"You remember your little list of 'suspects'?" Kai said in his ear in a voice so low he could barely hear it, "Suspect number one at twelve o'clock."

He frowned and looked ahead and, sure enough, there was a boy walking towards them, his white coat starkly bright in the gathering dark.

"Who?" he whispered.

"Brooklyn…" Kai replied, lip curling slightly.

Tala couldn't help but laugh quietly. It seemed like this guy was the only person who could get Kai more peeved than he himself.

The other boy drifted along with a sort of dreamy look in his eyes, as if what he saw was not entirely of this world. As he neared them, however, he blinked and gave a charming, if somewhat indolent, smile.

"My, my, Kai, fancy meeting you here," he said merrily, "I haven't seen you in school lately. I've missed you."

Something about his tone suggested underlying sarcasm, but it wasn't obvious enough that anything could be said about it. Kai's eye visibly twitched in annoyance.

"Of course I can't really say the same about the teachers…" Brooklyn continued with a light laugh, "Although, Minagawa-sensei has been asking after you. So what are you up to this fine evening? Not studying? Tut, tut."

"…"

Tala felt that he should step in here, since Kai looked liable to take a swing at the other boy at any given moment.

"The soccer team won their match today; there's a celebration party going on tonight," he interjected, "We were just heading over. It's no invites, so you could go too if you wanted."

If the look Kai gave him at that precise moment had been present in the Shire shortly after Bilbo's eleventy-first birthday, Frodo would not have needed to travel all the way to Mount Doom to destroy the One Ring.

"Oh no, I really have no time for silly frivolity," Brooklyn said pleasantly, "I was just on my way to the park to feed the birds…I'll see you both in school on Monday."

And with that he went through the park gates and drifted off in his own little world again.

They walked on a little way in silence before Kai snapped.

"Damnit, I just can't stand talking to him!" he groaned, scuffing his feet on the pavement, "I don't know what it is about him, there's just something there that really pisses me off…"

"Relax, I get it," Tala laughed, "By the way, who's Minagawa-sensei…?"

"The one teacher who hasn't written me off as a lost cause yet," he replied irritably, "I wish she'd just give up."

"Not everyone in the world is just going to give up on you, Kai," he said teasingly, "I thought you'd have realized that by now."

"Hn…"

To say that you heard the party before you saw it would be a blatant understatement. About three streets away they could almost feel the pavement vibrating from the blast of the music, and whilst the nearby houses were settling down to watch late-evening television, the house they were heading for was very much alive and kicking, with every light in the place turned on, and apparent hired disco lights periodically shooting beams of coloured radiance out into the street.

They stood beyond the front lawn for a moment, both blinking dazedly as their senses attempted to adjust to the new brightness and shocking sound-waves. The party was evidently already in full swing, and through the windows they could see vast numbers of people dancing, chatting and…well, drinking and making out. What else would you expect from a teen rave-up?

"Maybe…we should follow the example of the garden flamingos…" Kai said slowly, "And just stay out here."

"Come along, my little anti-social compadre," Tala said, rolling his eyes and making for the front door, "Let's see how you cope amongst our fellow life-forms."

Kai gave a sigh and followed.

"Hey, it's the man of the match," Michael called, spotting them as they entered, "Tala, you're late, man."

"Sorry," he said, obligingly performing the offered high-five.

"No problem. This thing ain't gonna finish any time soon anyway," the older boy laughed, "Drinks are in the kitchen if you want some."

"Thanks."

He realized he'd (already) lost Kai. Looking around, he eventually located him, standing up against a wall, looking very much out of his comfort-zone, with a very drunk-looking girl slurring things Tala would rather not think about in his ear. His facial expression was passive as per usual, but the slight twist to his mouth gave away his distaste and, though he'd never in a billion years admit it, nervousness.

"Sorry, miss," Tala said, detaching the intoxicated girl from her target, "He's still sober, and I doubt he'll even crack a smile until he's drunk."

She looked at him blankly for a moment before giving a raucous laugh, during which time he took the opportunity to spirit his rather frightened looking companion off to the kitchen.

"I…should not…have come here," Kai said, glaring at him, "And you should not have told me to."

"Well I'm very sorry, but I thought that it would be wise to introduce you to the world of socializing before you become a complete hermit," he said, rolling his eyes.

There was a worryingly wide selection of alcoholic beverages laid out on the island in the centre of the kitchen. After a moment of browsing, Tala picked himself out a bottle of Bacardi Breezer, not even bothering to check which flavour it was. He had decided that staying sober was not high on his priority list tonight.

"What's your poison?" he enquired of Kai.

Upon receiving no reply, he turned around and saw that his cohort was staring fixedly out of the nearby window. Following his gaze, he could see some unfortunate guy who, apparently unable to hold his drink, was vomiting heavily in the back garden.

"'Poison' being the key word here," the slate-haired boy said dryly, turning away from the unpleasant spectacle, "I think I'll pass."

"Suit yourself," he said with a shrug, opening his own bottle and taking a gulp. He smiled slightly at the sensation of it in his throat and the warm feeling that almost immediately started to spread through his body.

"I don't see the great attraction of alcohol…" Kai said as a rowdy group of (yes, probably drunken) seniors half-swaggered, half-staggered by.

"Sometimes people like to lose control a little, I think," Tala replied, continuing to down his bottle, "It gets stressful after a while, following your own little routine and having to be rational every moment of every day."

"I don't know about other people, but following a routine and being rational make up a rather large chunk of my existence," the other boy said irritably, "I don't feel the need, or the desire, to do otherwise. I especially don't feel the need to consume a substance that will make me totally disorientated, confused and not entirely in my right mind."

"Yeah, but that's cos the thought of not being completely in control scares you," he pointed out, earning himself a scathing glare.

"I would not be scared by something so trivial," Kai snapped, "I'm just responsible enough to-"

"Quieten down, lovie," Tala chuckled, having to resist the urge to pat him on the head (since he would probably lose his hand in the process), "Nobody's judging you."

Kai gave him a seething look for a long moment but did fall silent, albeit grumpily so, folding his arms and closing his eyes and leaning backwards against the kitchen island. Tala just laughed at him again and, having made short work of his first drink, quickly reached for another.

"So what do you think of Brooklyn?" he asked nonchalantly, cracking the bottle open.

"I thought I made my feelings on that subject quite clear…" Kai said, one eye opening a slit to peer at him with that all-too-familiar 'are you stupid?' expression.

"No, I meant about the diary, not in general," he explained, "Do you think he wrote it?"

"It's possible…" the dual-haired boy shrugged, "Out of the list of possible candidates I'd say he was one of the most likely. As you may have noticed, he is not entirely normal."

Tala almost choked on his drink.

"Look who's talking," he gasped between splutters, "You aren't exactly the epitome of regularity."

"Well neither are you."

"Eh? How am I strange?"

"You found a random diary lying on the floor of your school about half a week ago. Ever since then you have thought of nothing else."

"Ok, granted…hey, wait, I've thought about you as well!"

"Well if you don't mention that fact to a single living soul, neither will I."

Tala suddenly realized what his last comment may have implied and so started laughing again. Kai rolled his eyes.

"Hey, Red," Bryan said, suddenly appearing holding a bottle that looked like it contained something dangerously potent, "Good game today, huh?"

"Oh yeah," he agreed, "No doubt the coach'll be pleased."

"How's the leg?" his lilac-haired friend asked, indicating in the general direction of his injury.

"It's fine."

Spencer also appeared, looking – like Kai – as if he wasn't planning on consuming anything tonight that would fill his brain-cells with toxins.

"How did the trial go?" he asked, indicating to Kai. Tala laughed headily, downing another draught from his bottle.

"Tragically, it had to be postponed," he said, "Due to unforeseen circumstances."

"I'm not even going to ask…" the blonde said, shaking his head. He then turned to Kai and continued, "Hey, if he gets too drunk tonight…" he pointed to Tala, "Please do me a favour and drag him somewhere in the vicinity of his own home."

"Pft, cos you have your hands full with Bryan, right?" Tala laughed. Spencer nodded.

"Yes, and I'm reasonably sure that Ian's around here somewhere too…" he said, looking from side to side as if wondering where his (much shorter) friend could be.

"Must suck being the responsible one," Tala said.

"Not really, I'm the only one without a splitting hangover in the morning…" Spencer said with a shrug, "Now I should probably go and look for Ian. People are getting drunk enough to be stepping on him without noticing…"

He went off in search. Bryan had wandered off a few moments previously to watch a fight that had broken out in the hallway, so they were left alone again. Tala drained the last of his drink and immediately reached for another, suddenly realizing that all he wanted to do tonight was get so drunk that he could just forget all the stupid pressures and parents and all that shit and maybe just enjoy himself for once.

To his surprise, Kai slapped his hand away from the bottles.

"Idiot, what are you doing?" he hissed, "If you end up barfing in the garden, don't think I'll be there holding your hair out of the way."

"Holy shit, live a little, Hiwatari," he growled in annoyance, pulling his hand away, "You should probably be the one drinking, it might loosen you up a little."

"Yeah, one might 'loosen me up'," he said angrily, "Then two, three, four, five will get me pissed out of my head and leave me with a killer hangover the next day."

"Have you ever even had a drink?" he found himself asking, astonished by his own mocking tone.

"Of course I have, but I've never gone to a party with the sole intention of getting completely wasted so I can stop feeling sorry for myself," he snapped.

Tala blinked, unaware that his objective had been so clear. He then felt a small pang of guilt as he realized Kai was right – he really shouldn't be doing this – and was only trying to help in his own little way.

And maybe…maybe it wasn't really fair to Kai if he got totally smashed. He had been the one who had made him come to this thing - he probably didn't know anyone else here - and if he was lying unconscious somewhere or staggering about like an idiot, what kind of company would he be?

He picked up two bottles of light beer from the table and opened them. Kai folded his arms again and looked away, making his disapproval clear. He blinked when one of the bottles was shoved under his nose. He looked back to Tala quizzically.

"One, to 'loosen you up'," he said cheerily, "And since I'm a hardened drinker, I need three. But that's all. No more after this, k?"

Kai eyed him suspiciously. He gave a melodramatic sigh.

"Ok, to prove it to you, we shall leave the kitchen," he said, making for the door, "To lift me from temptation."

They somehow managed to squeeze their way through the crowd in the hallway (the audience for the afore-mentioned brawl) and eventually found themselves in the living room. By some uncanny miracle the sofa was not currently infested with love-sick couples, so they sat themselves down there.

"…Just drink up, huh?" Tala said when he noticed Kai was just looking at the bottle in his hands as if it were liable to explode, "It's only, like, five percent. You're not gonna puke or pass out from one bottle. Besides, I want to see what you're like when you're not wound up so damn tight."

Kai frowned but obeyed and took a long gulp.

Time went by and, astonishingly, the slate-haired boy did seem to 'loosen up' a little, although whether or not it was due to the alcohol was debatable, since he didn't appear to have drank very much of it. Tala could feel the substance starting to fuzz his brain, but only a little, and in a good way. He felt relaxed, which was rare, and he wasn't thinking about anything besides the 'now', wasn't worrying about tomorrow, and that was rarer still.

Conversation became easy between them. The drink, whilst it may not have fazed his mind in any way, seemed to have lowered Kai's guard to some extent, and he seemed more inclined to talk, and somehow less serious, though he never smiled or laughed.

The topic of discussion, of course, quickly found its way quickly back round to the diary.

"So, any concrete ideas who our mystery man – or woman – is?" Tala asked. Kai gazed reflectively at the ceiling for a moment.

"Whoever they are…" he said slowly, "I think they're an arty sort of person."

"What led you to that conclusion?" he enquired in amusement, awaiting a spout of Kai-logic that promised to make him laugh.

"It's their handwriting," he said, nodding, "It's neat, but it's all sort of…loopy, I dunno. They have loops on their 'y's' and 'g's' and stuff, y'know? Kind of fancy. Arty."

"Ooook…" he said, smile alighting his face, "So what kind of person does that make you, then?"

"Hm?"

"If an arty person has loopy handwriting, what kind of person are you?"

"Oh…logical, I guess. Mathematical."

"So what kind of handwriting does that call for?"

"Pretty standard, really. No loops, no twirls. Um…"

He fumbled in his pocket for something, eventually extracting a pen. He took it in his right hand and wrote something on the back of his left hand.

"Like that, see?" he said, holding out the handwriting sample. Upon examining it, Tala could see it was indeed very plain and simple, no adornments, quite small, painfully neat. And all he'd written was 'Kai Hiwatari'. It wasn't dissimilar to his own handwriting, but that made sense, he'd already known that he was a 'man of science', with little or no talent for art.

"The writer did mention art in one entry," he said, remembering, "Said it was one of the few subjects they found bearable."

"There you go, then," Kai said, "We have an angsty, very likely Emo, artist on our hands."

"Like you're one to talk about being Emo," he laughed.

"Shut up…" Kai muttered, but his normally cold eyes danced with something akin to humour, and the heat of the room had given his pale face a delicate flush, and he looked a lot less severe, a lot more…what, laid-back? It crossed Tala's mind that he might actually be enjoying himself too.

However, the humour and light-hearted banter vanished abruptly a moment later. Kai suddenly fell stonily silent and cast his eyes downwards, hands fidgeting slightly in his lap. Wondering what the problem was, Tala glanced up and realized there was a girl standing next to the sofa, looking at the two of them shyly. Her short, wavy hair was a turquoise colour, and her heart-shaped face framed two large, childish tawny eyes. He vaguely recognized her from school. What was her name? Mimi, Ming-Ming, something like that?

"Something up?" he asked, since it was obvious Kai wasn't going to speak up.

"Oh, um…" she said, fiddling with the hem of her mini-dress, "I was just wondering if…um…Kai, could I talk to you for a second…maybe?"

Kai opened his mouth, looking ready to give an outright 'No' but then changed his mind and shut it again. At length he shrugged.

"Alright," he said, looking at her expectantly.

There was a deafening silence. Tala rolled his eyes.

"I think she meant in private?" he suggested.

"Yes," she piped up, "Um, outside, if that's ok."

Kai gave a silent sigh. Tala leaned over and hissed in his ear.

"Look, if you don't like her, no one's telling you to start dating her," he said, "But at least pretend to be a gentleman and turn her down politely, huh?"

Kai turned and looked at him, and for a fleeting second he was surprised by the emotion that flitted across his face; a look something like despair, as if he was being forced down an unpleasant path to an equally unpleasant destination. Then he quickly composed himself, and took a deep gulp from his bottle, as if in preparation for something.

"Fine," he said, getting to his feet. The girl smiled sweetly and led him out the front door. There was no door between living room and hallway – the wall had been knocked through to create an open plan – so Tala could see them all the way until they were outside. He snorted to himself once they'd gone. Pretty much any other guy here would have been ecstatic if a girl like Ming-Ming had approached them, and yet Kai made talking to her look like such a chore.

At first he sat quite patiently, expecting them only to take a few minutes or so, but after a full twenty minutes had passed he started to wonder where on earth they had got to. Judging by Kai's behaviour, he obviously had no interest in the girl, so why was he taking so long to just 'let her down gently' (or not so gently, as it probably was)? He fidgeted in boredom but resigned himself to waiting.

Another ten minutes went by, and he found himself starting to feel almost worried.

Just then, the front door opened. He looked up, but it was just Johnny McGregor and his surrounding group of thugs, apparently just arriving. Better late than never, he supposed.

Then he noticed a head of cyan hair bobbing along next to Johnny.

He frowned and looked closer.

Yes…it was definitely Ming-Ming.

She looked different, though. The innocence and cuteness were gone, and for a brief moment he struggled to remember whether Ming-Ming had a sister, because she looked almost like a completely different person. She was laughing along with Johnny and the others, and they were all laughing in a way that somehow seemed horribly cruel.

H started to get a very bad feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Shit…" he murmured, the warm and fuzzy feeling from the alcohol rapidly dissipating.

Johnny turned his head in his direction, and he blinked as he saw that he looked like he'd been in a bad car wreck. He had a bandage over one eye and several plasters over the rest of his face, and most of the skin left exposed was purple with bruises.

Tala suddenly felt rather sick as a memory came crashing into his mind.

"You didn't do a very good job of defending yourself. You look a little worse for wear."

"If you think I look a mess…wait until you see the one who took it upon himself to start it."

"Who was it?"

"…I'll let you guess."

His breath caught in his throat. Johnny's injuries looked a few days old…just like Kai's…so that meant…but Kai was out there now…

"Oh, shiiiiiiiit!" he blurted out before making a run for the front door.


Ok…I'm pretty annoyed…this chapter and what will now be chapter 12 were supposed to be one chapter. But it was dragging on for so long (15 pages on Microsoft Word, and nowhere near finished!) that I realized I would have to split it. So there's a possibility that there's going to be sixteen chapters now (Sob) Curses, I did not anticipate such a long party! Ah well. Cest la vie. I'll get over it.

The good news is that chapter 12 is about a quarter done already, since it was originally part of this chapter.

Ok, m'dears, tell me what you think!

Until next time…

Fiver x