So although this isn't my favourite chapter I've written, this one is to set up the events of the next two chapters. I didn't really have a song that matched the exact events of this chapter, so I decided to pick one that I thought fit Kyra's personality of this one - 'Just Like Fire' by Pink. Plus fire, Dranzer? Get it? Hopefully everyone likes this chapter and some of the new characters added in and look forward to the events of the next two chapters! Mostly the party!

Just Like Fire

After the whole incident at the BBA, we thought that it might have been a good idea for Kyra to go and take a breather at the hotel but she refused. Lost Intent had a bunch of press events set up for the next few days and she didn't want to miss any of them. That evening there was a spot on a talk show, the next day was a radio interview and acoustic performance, and the Wednesday evening was a red carpet before a press conference about the tournament with the rest of the BBA. Along with other forms of promotion, wardrobe fittings for their performance, and dodging paparazzi, I was worried our daughter was pushing herself harder than she could handle.

Thankfully it seemed that her boyfriend understood that when he approached us, along with Jason, just before we left for the press conference red carpet.

"So we have a secret to let you guys in on." Jason whispered, looking around as if to see if anyone was listening in.

"Dude Kyra isn't even here. You don't have to whisper." Tristan sighed. "Basically, since Kyra's birthday is on Friday we wanted to throw her a party since we did last year and she didn't kill us for it, which means she liked it."

"She also started dating Tristan after that so she really liked it." Jason grinned.

Ray and I gave each other an equally confused look.

"So what does this have to do with us?" Ray asked.

"Well we got the okay from Mr. Dickenson to kind of make the party that he was throwing just for fun tomorrow into a party for her, but we need a distraction. We have a tech run tomorrow morning that goes into the afternoon and there's a small block of time between four PM and 9PM, when the party will start, that we need her to be distracted so we can set up and get ready." Tristan explained.

"So you want us to lie to our daughter on why we're spending time with her?" I asked.

"Exactly!" Jason exclaimed.

Tristan shook his head, sighing once again. "Yes that's kind of what we mean but we also thought it would just be nice for the three of you to have quality time. I mean, we've been so busy this week that you guys haven't really seen much of us."

Ray nodded with a smile. "We can do that. But hopefully this party is something she'll actually like?"

"Trust me, she's going to like it." Jason smirked mischievously.

Justin walked up behind the two, dressed up in an all black suit and his hair slicked back. "If it's anything like last year's party she's not going to like the end result. Tristan puking all over her shoes and Jason almost dying in our pool."

"Wait, what?" Ray exclaimed, eyes wide and looking between Justin and myself.

Justin laughed. "Last year I gave them the okay to have a party at the house, thinking it was just going to be a small thing for Kyra's birthday. I then came home to a huge house party where everyone but Kyra was drunk out of their mind. I came in right when Tristan had thrown up on Kyra's shoes and Jason thought that ten shots of whisky and a couple of beers made him invincible and tried to swim while drunk. If it weren't for me getting home just in time to fish him out of the pool, he probably would have died."

Jason frowned, crossing his arms. "I probably could've made it out on my own."

"I puked cause I was nervous from asking her out!" Tristan whined.

"No, you puked cause you bet Alexander that you could take more vodka shots than him. The fact you even thought you could out drink him was delusional." Justin shook his head.

The fact that Justin was openly talking about the kids drinking alcohol underage made me a bit irritated. I mean, we had done it as teenagers, but weren't we supposed to be a better example for our kids?

It was almost like Justin could read my mind, or probably just saw the expression on my face, cause he then commented "Don't worry, I don't condone this. That's why there's going to be no drinking at the party. At least that I can prevent."

Kyra came into the room, her long black hair hanging naturally to frame her face and wearing a pant suit and blazer that, much to mine and Ray's dismay, pulled a focus to her cleavage. She wore a deep red lipstick and her dark eye make up made her crimson eyes stand out.

She came up to Tristan, her heels making her almost close to his six foot height, putting her arms around his neck before kissing his cheek. "What are we discussing?"

"The epic night that was your sixteenth birthday." Jason bragged.

"Oh, that travesty. I didn't even get drunk for that. That was a party for everyone else but me." She scrunched up her nose. "Plus you puked on my brand new Doc Martens that Justin was nice enough to buy me."

"Hey, that party wasn't a complete fail. You said yes to being my girlfriend, didn't you?"

"No offence Tris, but I think she did that out of pity. Along with the fact that you wouldn't stop asking her for almost six months." Zane commented as he walked up, just as dressed up as everyone else.

Tristan pouted, looking away from everyone. "You guys suck."

Kyra smirked, hugging the nineteen year old boy close to her. "You know I love you anyways. But why the discussion of my party?"

The three boys and Justin looked at each other, obviously panicking.

"We were just asking what you guys had done for your birthday in the past." Ray stated, smiling at the boys to show he'd covered well.

"Oh. Well yeah we did that. Otherwise I haven't really ever done anything. I never really told any of my foster families when it was my birthday and I was always alone before that. Last year was my first time really celebrating it." She shrugged.

I could see Ray's eyes starting to well up as she spoke. I couldn't help but feel a hurt inside as well. To know that before last year, our daughter had never had anyone celebrate her birthday just made me want to celebrate her more.

The press conference ended up being a lot more relaxed than I would have thought. The main attraction was the red carpet of course, but once entering it seemed more like a cocktail party. The carpet was relatively calm, each blader and their family walking by and posing for photos as the photographers thanked them for their time, that was until Kyra stepped out of our limo. Yells erupted, every photographer yelling for her to turn a certain way for them to get the best shot. At first I was afraid she would get overwhelmed, but her confident smirk proved me wrong as she strutted out on the carpet, making a show out of holding Tristan's hand.

"Isn't she a natural?" Justin asked.

Ray nodded. "I've never seen someone so comfortable infront of a camera."

"It's more a game than it is confidence. She knows what they're looking for so she teases them. She lets them get a couple of good shots then denies them of the one they want the most. Like tonight for example." He explained, motioning over to our daughter and her boyfriend. "They actually found out that the photographer who gets a photo of those two kissing tonight is going to get big bucks. So she's playing with that."

I looked over to see Kyra posing, sometimes with a smile, sometimes with an angsty look. That was until she started to bring her face closer to Tristan, looking as if she was going in for a kiss. The photographers all started screaming like mad, trying to push in front of each other to get the best shot. She then quickly backed away smirking while letting out a laugh as she took Tristan's hand to walk into the conference hall.

I smirked, following the two of them in as the photographers tried to get photos of the three of us together. I knew that a family photo was also going for a really high amount tonight, that of which I also did not want to give them.

The minute we walked in Tristan decided to depart from us in order to follow Jason and Alexander to the table of appetizers and champagne. The three claimed it was due to the finger sandwiches but Kyra informed us after that it was most likely due to the champagne. Justin had gone to prepare for the press conference, mostly being involved due to the events on Saturday, which left Kyra, Ray and I on our own in the middle of the conference hall.

Not surprising to me, but the first people we were approached by were Ray's old team, The White Tigers. As much as they used to get on my nerves when Ray and I had first started dating, I had grown to appreciate their friendship with Ray over the years, especially when he was going through his extreme period of depression after Kyra's kidnapping. The four had made many trips to Japan in order to be there for him when I couldn't be and without them, I don't really want to know what would've happened to Ray in his large period of grief.

The four still lived in their small village, Lee serving as the chief while Mariah ended up becoming a teacher for the smaller children in the village. Much to our surprise, her and Kevin had actually ended up getting married when the two of them turned twenty five and had ended up giving birth to a daughter, Rin, four years ago. She was the spitting image of Mariah with Kevin's adventurous personality. Kevin and Gary on the other hand had been trying in recent years to get the White Tiger team back to what they were when Ray was on it. They hadn't been ready for the upcoming tournament but were still attending the festivities since they were alumni of the BBA and wanted to see their old friends.

"Hey guys! So I have someone very special for you to meet. Everyone, this is Kai and I's daughter Kyra. Kyra, this Lee, Mariah, Gary and Kevin. I grew up with them in China and competed in the last tournament we were in as the White Tiger X team." Ray explained, pointing to each one at he said their name.

Kyra smiled politely, looking at all of them before saying, "Hello, pleased to meet all of you."

Mariah came close, taking Kyra's hands and giving her a once over. "Ray, she is beautiful! I mean, it would've been nice if she got more of your lovely features, but she got your hair and that's what counts!"

I scowled, giving her a look. "What's wrong with her looking like me?"

"Oh nothing, I'm just saying it would've been nice if more of Ray's features got passed along." Mariah answered, sticking her tougne out at me. She then turned her attention back to Kyra. "You are such a beautiful young woman though!"
Kyra blushed, showing obvious discomfort to Mariah's openness and close proximity to her. "T-thank you."

Noticing Kyra's discomfort start to grow as the Chinese team started to crowd around her, Ray decided to intervene. "Hey guys, how about we let Kyra and Kai take a walk around the conference centre to meet some of the other teams and we can all catch up? I heard Rin is becoming a real wild child."

Bringing up the topic of her daughter caused Mariah to go on a rant, the team turning their attention away from Kyra long enough for me to grab her by the arm and pull her in the opposite direction.

"A little much, aren't they?" I smirked.

She sighed, fixing her hair that Mariah had been attempting to fuss with. "I'm not used to people being so in my face that aren't just fans or paparazzi. Are all of your friends like this?"

"Maybe Ray's but you can trust me when I say mine are not. My old team, the Blitzkreig Boys, had a similar upbringing to you where Boris pretty much had full control of them. They were raised in the Abbey, only really making it out when they were fifteen ranging to seventeen. It's made it so they aren't the biggest fans of PDA." I explained.

She nodded. "Sounds like my kind of people."

I looked up to spot a familiar redhead hanging around the desert table, his arm hooked around Bryan's arm. Oh Tala and Bryan, where to begin with them? The two of them had been working with me in Hiwatari Enterprises since I became of age to take it over, Tala being the head of Human Relations and Bryan being head of distribution. Due to Tala being two years older than me and Bryan being three, the two had actually decided to have a child shortly after Ray had found out he was pregnant with Kyra. Well, Tala had decided he wanted a child. Bryan was so in love with the red head that he just went along with every whim his lover wanted. The two ended up hiring a surrogate and having their son in October of the same year Kyra was born, making our children the same age. They had also ended up having both of their genes put into their son, making him the perfect combination of the two of them.

Thus how Dimitri Ivanov-Kuznetsov was born. Dimitri stood beside Tala and Bryan, along with Spencer's son, Sven, who was eighteen. The two, along with two other bladers I had not met yet, formed the Blitzkreig Boys, Dimitri taking Tala's place as team captain. He had also ended up inheriting Wolborg from Tala, making him the number one person to beat in the upcoming tournament. Dimitri mostly resembled Tala in looks, red hair that went down to his shoulders, same facial structure and figure, while he had obtained Bryan's height, standing at 6'2, along with Bryan's lavender eyes.

We approached them, Tala turning his attention to us and smiling as he spotted Kyra standing beside me.

"So we finally get to meet the famous Kyra Hiwatari. You've been in every news outlet I've seen in the past few days, even back in Russia." Tala stated.

"Kyra, this is Tala and Bryan. We work together at Hiwatari Enterprises, as well as used to blade together." I introduced.

That was when Sven and Dimitri turned around. Sven's attention went straight to Kyra, looking her up and down before beginning to speak Russian to Dimitri. "Ona smotritel' - priyatnoye litso, otlichnyye sis'ki, plotnaya zadnitsa."

I gritted my teeth, shooting a glare at Sven. I think he forgot that I was fluent in Russian since he had openly sexualized my daughter infront of me, saying "She's a looker – nice face, excellent tits, tight ass." I was about to rip the kid a new one before I heard Kyra start to speak.

"Ey, mudak, ya mogu ponyat' tebya." She scoffed. ("Hey asshole, I can understand you." In Russian)

As much as I wanted to laugh, I was shocked to hear Kyra speak Russian. I hadn't seen her speak anything but English so far.

"Oh wow. So you're not only fluent in English?" Dimitri spoke up after swatting Sven on the side of the head.

"Nyet." Kyra smirked. "Learned Russian and English when living with Voltaire. Mostly spoke Russian up until moving to the States."

"Cool. I'm Dimitri, Tala and Bryan's son. Sorry for the behaviour of my team mate, Sven. He's a bit of a douche when it comes to girls." Dimitri smiled, taking Kyra's hand and shaking it. "It's a pleasure to make the acquaintance of a beautiful young woman, along with the fact you're a Hiwatari."

She shook his hand, removing it as she noticed Dimitri starting to get flirty. "Nice to meet you as well, but I should inform you that I-"

"She has a boyfriend." Tristan chimed in, coming behind Kyra and snaking his arms around her waist. It was obvious he had been focusing in on the conversation and was starting to get protective over my daughter.

I rolled my eyes at the two boys exchanging glares. I couldn't believe they were openly trying to one up each other over my daughter in front of me. Not that Kyra wasn't capable of handling herself in this situation, I could just feel my over protective father instincts beginning to come out. I had to admit though, I still wanted to punch Sven in the face.

My daughter's introduction to our world was getting more and more interesting by the day.