A/N:Hey there guys, here I am with the next update. Just the Bladebreakers, chilling, the day before leaving or Mr. D's two week training get together in the mountains with the other teams. You'll be happy to hear that the chapters start to get a lot more focus on the story now, as I've just been pretty much setting the scene up til now. :)
Many thanks to Ninja Lady Jae, country-grl20 and some stuff for their wonderful reviews. Hope you enjoy this one too. :D

Chapter Thirteen: Anticipation

"Are you sure Tyson'll be okay lighting the grill on his own, Rei?"

Hilary placed down the bag of disposable plates and cups she was carrying on the kitchen table and turned to Rei with her hands on her hips, a concerned expression on his face. The Chinese blader was facing the stove, cooking up a delicious stir-fry for the farewell barbeque they were holding down by the river this afternoon. There was already a pot of steamed rice standing on the table, as well as a dish of homemade (which basically meant Rei-made) duck-dumplings and spring rolls. Tyson, Max and Kenny had already gone down to the river to set up the grill, and they took the bag of bread rolls and hot-dog sausages (Max protectively clutching the mustard) with them. She didn't know where Kai was – she wasn't even sure if he was coming at all.

Rei shrugged, apparently not concerned at all. "Sure. He's a big boy now, Hil, I'm think he can handle it," he said, smirking slightly over his shoulder at her.

The petite Japanese girl folded her arms and narrowed her ruby eyes in suspicion, staring out through the kitchen window. "No, he's going to try and grill the sausages on his own, I just know it," she said, with a hint of paranoia. "He's only going to end up burning them, you know. Or worse, actually cooking them nicely and then eating them all before any of us get a chance to –"

"– Haha, relax Hilary!" Rei turned his back on the stir-fry he was making so he could look her in the eye. "You're stressing out over nothing. Besides, Max and Kenny are with him, they'll keep him in line. The hot-dogs will be just fine."

Hilary shot him a pointedly skeptical look, which Rei just laughed at dismissively as he turned around and carried on cooking. Obviously not being taken seriously today, Hilary just left the room and busied herself in hunting down a couple of picnic blankets. She walked down the hall and around the corner to the airing cupboard, which is where she supposed most blankets should live. She wasn't too hopeful though, because the resident males of the Kinomiya household were not exactly what you'd call organised. She had recently declared Tyson's bedroom a strictly no-go zone, for serious risk of actually losing your feet in what was surely a radioactive heap of underwear, comic books, overdue homework and empty soda cans on his floor.

Opening the door to the airing cupboard and kneeling down on the floor, she began to rummage around the bottom of the cupboard, shifting through the towels, bed sheets and outdated copies of Japanese fitness and sports magazines in search of the elusive picnic blankets. As she did so, her hand came across one particular sport magazine that caught her eye, dating back to two years ago. On the front cover was a picture of the Bladebreakers when they'd first joined together as a team after the Japanese regionals. Hilary carefully smoothed it out and held it up to the light to take a closer look, a smile playing around her lips. They all looked so young. Not that they were all particularly old now – Tyson was due to turn sixteen next month, while she was sure Kai was eighteen already, if not older. But they all looked so much younger here.

Tyson was front and center of the photo, making sure that all the attention was focused on him, of course. He was showing off his Dragoon blade with one hand and making a victory sign with the other. On his head was his trademark cap, and on his face was a huge grin that somehow managed to be cheesy, arrogant, and surprisingly adorable all at the same time. He was also a little chubbier here too, Hilary noticed. It wasn't until she mentally compared the Tyson in this photo to the Tyson of today that she realized he really had shed a lot of his puppy fat in the recent year and was actually firming up quite nicely. She smirked. Looks like all her training efforts were doing some good to him, after all.

Behind Tyson stood Max, poking his head adorably over his best friend's shoulder. He too was wearing a huge smile on his face and he was also making a victory sign, just like Tyson. On second thought, Hilary guessed that Max was probably mimicking Tyson for the fun of it – his facial expression was just a little too exaggerated to be genuine.

Kenny was standing to the left of Tyson and Max. He was smiling up at the camera and waving, and under his other arm was Dizzi. As usual, the boy's eyes were completely obscured by his thick, honey brown hair, and his tie was done up neatly. Hilary snorted. He was so little he looked about eight years old, even though he couldn't have been any younger than thirteen.

To the right of the photo, standing sideways, was Rei. His long black hair was exactly the way it was now, wrapped up at the back with his messy bangs secured in place by his ever-present yin-yang headband. He had his Driger blade grasped in his hand close to his chest and the way he held himself emphasised his muscled arm. He was smiling a little mysteriously over his shoulder into the camera with smouldering golden eyes and it was clear to see why so many girls swooned over him. He was quite attractive. Not that she thought he was attractive. It's just what she saw him as. Objectively. But she wasn't attracted to him.

Moving swiftly on and shaking her head slightly to herself, she finally turned her eyes to Kai at the back of the photo. He was also standing at a slight angle away from the camera and was lazily resting a hand on his hip. He was looking straight into the camera with deep crimson eyes and a proud, arrogant smirk that said, 'I'm too good for this, so you all better count yourself lucky that I'm gracing you with my presence today.' He looked so much younger, too. His face was softer and less angular than it was now and Hilary actually thought he looked kinda cute. Not that she didn't already think he was good looking, 'cause she did. But when she looked at him today, he was more like that intimidatingly hot guy who's way out of your league, as opposed to this softer, endearing sort of casual arrogance that she saw in the photograph.

Her eyes misted over as she drifted back into memories of the past couple of months she'd spent training, joking with, and getting to know the rest of the team. When Rei arrived from China and came to stay at the dojo, she found that he was a very welcome addition (or rather, return) to the dynamic that she had become so used to. Between Max's constantly cheerful energy, Kenny's cool rationality and Tyson's hot-headedness, stubbornness and arrogance, Rei really broke things up with his level head and quiet confidence. She actually thought he was a very pleasant individual right from the start. He was kind, soft-spoken, and made an effort to get to know her. He stepped up to her defense when he thought Tyson took his teasing one step too far, and tried to regulate the pranks and tricks that were commonplace in the dojo. However, he wasn't above a bit of fun himself, often taking part in the tomfoolery himself when he thought no harm could come of it. In a nut-shell, Hilary got on really well with him and no longer just considered him a friend of Tyson's, but a friend of hers as well.

Kai was a completely different story altogether. At first, she didn't know that much about him, other than that he used to be their captain and was (in Tyson's words) a pretty good blader, but a total grouch. When they went to visit him and he declared a rematch against Tyson, she confirmed in her head that he was both of these things, and from what Max had tried (and failed) to say in his defense, that he was also a lousy friend.

But the past couple of months had really changed her mind about the tall, stoic blader. In fact, the very first morning after his return was when it all began. All it took was for them both to both cross each other's path in the hallway that first morning to wake up Tyson (she with the ice-water and Kai with the chili) for her to smirk evilly to herself and acknowledge his good taste in wake-up calls.

When she returned to the dojo after school that day, Kai had (to her surprise) called her over and immediately began asking her about how exactly she'd been training Tyson and Max over the past year. She'd told him, and it wasn't long before he suggested that she join the team and act as coach, so that she could bark the orders and he could get a decent day's training in for once.

Of course, Hilary had to agree to run everything past him in the morning first, to make sure he approved of her training schedule and that she was meeting what he thought the team's needs were. And since then, they'd had a perfectly reasonable working relationship which almost bordered on friendship. Almost.

Kai always kept such a distance that she never quite knew what he was thinking. Of course, she thought she knew him well enough to let her guard down around him – and she didn't think bad of him anymore for ditching the team before. Like Tyson said, he'd had his reasons. And if the rest of the guys, who'd actually been wronged by him, could accept those reasons, then so could she.

"There y'are, home-girl! What's up with you? Hehe, or should I say, what's down?" Hilary blinked, snapping quickly out of her reverie at the sound of Grandpa's voice. She dropped the magazine she was holding and got up off her knees.

"Oh, Grandpa! I er, I was just thinking and lost track of time, I guess."

Grandpa's eyes lighted on the magazine on the floor. He picked it up and gazed at it fondly. "Yeah, I remember this. This is when Tyson first got down with the homeboys and started off on his travels. Hehe, he always did dream big, my boy – and look at him now. Not even sixteen and he's already livin' it."

Hilary smiled fondly. "Yeah…oh, hey Gramps, I just remembered – where are the picnic blankets?"

Grandpa blinked and pulled his eyes away from the magazine. "The picnic blankets? They're in the laundry room, next to the spare tyre an' the broken toaster. Come on, home-girl, I thought you knew your way around the place by now!" He said with a wink, chuckling to himself.

Hilary just smiled and rolled her eyes as she made her way to the laundry room. Of course. The airing cupboard, she thought wryly, what a silly place to look for blankets.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

"Quick, Maxi, put that one out too!"

"Huh? What one, where?"

"That one, to your left! Your other left – MY LEFT!"

"I told you it wasn't a good idea, Tyson, didn't I tell you! But did you listen –"

"Geez! Alright Kenny, I get it! Just shut up already and help us put these hot-dogs out before Hilary gets here!"

Hilary stopped beside Grandpa and Rei and blinked at the scene before her eyes, not entirely sure what to make of it. Tyson, Max and Kenny were all stood by the river with their backs to her, waving their arms in the air and stomping frantically on the ground. The portable barbeque grill was turned over on its side issuing clouds of smoke, as were the small patches of ground that the three clowns were stamping on (which Hilary assumed is where the flaming hot-dogs landed after Tyson knocked the grill down in a panic). A distinct smell of burning lingered in the air.

"Right," Tyson panted, completely oblivious that they were being watched, "all we gotta do now is get rid of these burnt ones, pick the grill back up and start the fire again. Hilary'll never find out. Haha, I told ya I could fix it!"

"Er, but Ty? Didn't you put all the hot-dogs on the grill?" Max said awkwardly.

"Oh, crap!" Tyson's hands flew up to his hat in panic, "I did! Hilary is gonna find out! We're so – wait!" His eyes lit up as his face gained the I've-just-had-a-brilliant-idea expression. "I'll just run to the store and get some more! I'll be back in like five min – oh! Heh heh... hey, Hilary," he froze in mid-step as he turned around and saw Hilary standing there with her hands on her hips and narrowed eyes.

She gritted her teeth for all of two seconds before letting loose. "I knew it! I knew you were going to do something stupid like this. You set fire to all the hot-dogs?" she yelled, stomping towards him.

"Ah! Hil, it was an accident! I was just tryn'a be helpful," he cried, dodging Hilary's outstretched arms as she made to grab for him.

"Helpful? Pah, you were just hungry more like! Like you always are – you're not even a walking stomach, you're a black hole!"

"Geez! I'm sorry, I can fix it! I was just gonna run to store and get some new ones!"

"Yeah, you'd better run, Tyson!" aiming one last swipe at his disappearing body. Within a few seconds he was already up the hill and down the road. She shot Rei a pointed told-you-so look, which he returned with a meek smile (and a roll of the eyes when she wasn't looking), before making her way over to the riverbank and helping Max with the grill.

"So?" she said to Max, a little tetchily, as they set the grill back on its feet.

"Hey, don't look at me like that, Hil, it was his idea!" Max appealed.

"Well, obviously. Why didn't you try and stop him?"

"I did," Max exclaimed, throwing his hands out before him, "but you know what he gets like. Thought we were saying he wasn't capable of just grilling a few sausages –"

"Which he isn't –"

"Come on Hil, give him a break. He really was trying to be helpful, this time, honest."

Hilary folded her arms and pursed her lips at him. But Max's 'please-go-easy-on-Tyson' face was just a little too pitiful and cute for her to stay miffed for very long, as usual. So she just sighed and walked away with a quiet, 'alright, whatever.'

Ten minutes later and they were all set up. Hilary and grandpa had laid out the picnic blankets and fold-away chairs, Kenny and Max set the rice and other dishes on top of a small wall that ran along the river bank (as they were hardy going to bring a whole table, too.) Rei rescued the grill, and before long it was smoking nicely, and ready to cook the hot dogs. So now the group was complete, save for Kai (they had absolutely no idea where he was – but they were used enough to him disappearing that they weren't too concerned), Tyson and the hotdogs.

"Hey, guys, I'm back!"

Speak of the devil. Hilary rolled her eyes and glanced over her shoulder at Tyson who was jogging down the hill, his arms wrapped around a brown grocery bag. "Told you I'd fix it," he said cheekily. She didn't reply, but instead turned her head to the side with a huff. She might have let Max off the hook, but she still wanted Tyson to know that she was not impressed.

Tyson handed the hot-dogs to Rei and stayed over there to chat, since he clearly wasn't wanted on the blanket. After a few minutes of covert glares from Hilary, Tyson grabbed one of the freshly cook hot-dogs and when over to sit down by her.

"Come on, Hil, Kai's supposed to be the wet-blanket around here, not you!" He wiggled a hot-dog in her face. It had a smily face on it, drawn messily with tomato ketchup. "First one off the grill, just for you," he said, cheesily.

Hilary rolled her eyes and accepted the happy hot-dog, smirking. "I'll have one of those cans of soda too, thanks," she said, pointing to the stack of cans by the food.

"Pfft, don't push your luck, miss," he said, but he got up anyway and grabbed a couple of cans. "Hey Hil, think fast!" he called, chucking a can over to her.

"Argh, Ty-son!" she growled. She only barely caught it, and narrowed her eyes at him for his efforts. He just chucked at her dismissively and went to join Max in grabbing some food. Although, he did not join Max in slathering his hot-dog with inhumane amounts of mustard. He had nothing against the condiment, of course, but he had his limits for everything. Well, most things.

The afternoon past pleasantly enough, with Tyson making jokes and Grandpa doing some funny (and embarrassing) things every now and then. Kai popped out from some small shrubs at some point and came to join them. Hilary wondered vaguely how much of his time he actually spent sleeping in the greenery, but thought she'd better not ask.

They played some old-school truth and dare, which very quickly had to be stopped because the dares were getting too silly (and Kai was not going to walk naked into the local supermarket singing the Russian national anthem at the top of his lungs any time soon).

When the day began to glow warm with sunset, Kenny tried to rile everyone together for a pre-travel pep talk, courtesy of his good self and Dizzi. Of course, no one was really paying any attention until Hilary belted out at the top of her lungs for everybody to be quiet. "Thank-you," she said sweetly to the stunned faces of the group, before twirling down on the ground neatly next to Tyson.

"Thanks, Hilary," he said gratefully, before adjusting his glasses and beginning his talk. "Now, I thought that since we're leaving early tomorrow morning, and probably won't get much of a chance to go over our game plans on the plane, I'd discuss what Dizzi and I have come up with for you guys. But first, I think we should all give ourselves a pat on the back for all the hard work and training you guys have put in over the past couple of months,"

"Here, here!" Tyson called, raising his soda can in a mock toast. Max chuckled, while Kai just smirk with a self-satisfied 'hn.'

'Hey, and lets not forget Hilary! She's put in blood, sweat and tears to rip you guys into shape – you wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for her!" Dizzi said.

"Oh, don't be silly," Hilary said, a rosy blush covering her cheeks.

'Oh, shush. We girls have to look out for each other!'

"She's right, home-girl," Grandpa said with a twinkle in his eye, "you've done us all proud."

"N'awww," Tyson jibed, patting her on the head and throwing an arm around her shoulders. "Yeah, good work, Hil. Takes a lot to get Kai's lazy bones up and working, but you seemed to manage it somehow," he said jokingly.

"Oh, ha ha, Tyson," she said, with a hand in his face, still blushing and pushing him away. "I think you've got mixed up in that head of yours somewhere. You see, the one with the lazy bones is you."

"Anyway, moving on," Kenny said, trying to regain focus in the group. "I thought we'd just go over some possible line-ups so we can get the most out of this team. Seeing as Max is the steel wall of this team, I thought our best bet would be to place him against and purely offensive opponents, or against an opponent that bases their tactics on speed. He'll be able to wait out all their efforts like nothing, and then bring the game home to us."

"Yeah, alright, go team Draciel!" Max cheered, holding his blade up high. "I'm liking the sound of this strategy, Chief, sound great."

"Yeah, I know," Kenny said, a little too smugly. Dizzi called him up on that, but he ignored her and carried on. "Next, there's you, Rei. You've got more of a balanced approach to battle, so you'd be quite well prepared for anything. Although I thought maybe we could put you up against defensive and speed battlers as well, because you've got the cool smarts to wait out their tactics and think of a counter strategy."

"Sure, sounds good to me Kenny. Man, I can't wait to get back in the stadium!" He said, with much enthusiasm.

"Kai, since you're captain, you're obviously gonna pick and choose your battles as you please, so I don't see what much I can say here…" Kenny trailed off a little awkwardly. During their last round of tournaments, Kai mostly sat on the bench and only really chipped in if he felt like it, or if he had to, like that one time in China when Rei and Tyson were late. "But since your style is more offensive anyway, I'd like to think we could use you in battles against offensive opponents, too. Fight fire with fire, so to speak."

"Hn. Whatever you say, Kenny."

"Hey, what about me!" Tyson whined, wondering why on earth he hadn't got a mention yet.

"Oh, well –"

'We just thought we'd throw you in against anyone, Tyson. You know, to give our ears a break when you've been whining for a little too long.'

"Pah, I'll give my ears a break from your cheeky little speakers in a second, Dizzi," Tyson said, waving his fist at her in jest.

"Tyson, you will not!" Kenny said, getting defensive.

"I'm just kidding, Chief, geez!" Tyson said, holding his hands up before him.

"You'd better be," Kenny said huffily. "Anyway, I thought we could use you and Kai interchangeably, since your styles are more or less based on offense."

"You bet they're based on offense," Tyson said, throwing himself down onto his back on the blanket and resting his head on his hands. "Offense is the best offense, after all," he said, looking cheekily over to Max.

"Hey, no its not, defense is!" he called, lobbing a half-finished hot dog at him.

"Ugh, hey man! You got mustard on my shirt!" Tyson's eyes narrowed in mischief as he reached for the ketchup bottle.

"Oh boy," Hilary said vacating the picnic blanket, anticipating the messy food fight to come, and walking down to join Kai by the river. She hadn't noticed he'd gotten up until just now.

"So," she started, looking sideways at him, "are you excited?" Kai just stood there with his arms folded, staring out over the river. "Oh, come on," she teased, prodding him in the side with her elbow, "you've gotta be at least a little excited."

"Hn. If I say yes, will you be quiet?"

"Errm, no," she said with a smile. Even though he'd turned up late, Kai was surprisingly placid today. He'd joined in with conversations every now and then and even endured their silly game (for a while), so she knew no harm would come from provoking him. The sound of Tyson and Max yelling in their food fight reached her ears. Sounded like he'd just been hit in the eye.

"Then yes," Kai said, stooping down to pick up a pebble and then throwing it across the river. It skipped one, two, three times before disappearing below the water. "I guess I am a little excited."

Hilary smiled a small, triumphant smile. "I knew it," she said, simply.

Kai just rolled his eyes and threw another pebble. After a few moments of silence and pebble throwing, Kai said, "Shouldn't you be packing, or something?"

"Hmm, nah," Hilary said, picking up a pebble and trying to make it skip the water too. She frowned a little when it just sunk miserably to the bottom. "I'll do it later, before I go to bed."

Kai smirked. "Hn. Whatever. Just don't make us late."

Hilary rolled her eyes, but smiled. "Right, as if that would happen. I'll have you know I'm perfectly organized, thank you."

"Right."

"Hey, Hilary, heads up!"

Hilary turned around just in time for a hot-dog bun to hit her right in the forehead. Oh, that boy.

"TY-SON!"

A/N: Gotta ask, is anyone else excited for this tournament to get underway, 'cause I am. :D Haha, especially after posting my teaser chapter earlier this week. If you haven't checked it out yet, you totally should, 'cause things are gonna get pretty intense down the line. O:
Next chapter: Saturday :)

~Indie