Hey everyone, I'll keep this short so you can get on with reading the chapter. I'm sorry it took me so long to update this but I wanted to give you all a Christmas present. So here's the next chapter and I hope that you enjoy the insanity of the Holidays.

Chapter 26: An Exhausting Holiday

With Mr. Hiwatari gone off to America the three distraught children had made the slow trek over to the Granger's Dojo. Each of them was off in their own little world it seemed as they all had some kind of connection to the young phoenix. Though he too was suffering with the death of his best friend, Ray tried to keep his spirits up for the others.

It appeared that Naoko and Kay had been hit pretty hard by what had happened so Ray attempted to cheer them up by cracking a few jokes. His efforts were in vain and by the end of the long walk a silence had manifested around the three of them. When they were finally in front of the dojo the raven haired boy plucked up his courage and knocked on the door.

It was Tyson's Grandpa who answered wearing a red and white Santa hat. "Hey Homies, what's up?"

"Hi Gramps, we were wondering if we could stay with you while Mr. Hiwatari is away for a while," Ray replied a tiny tremor in his voice as he tried to make it sound like nothing was wrong.

"Sure thing, the little dude will be glad for a few more to spend X-Mas with."

Inviting them in Grandpa Granger called Tyson into the front room and soon after the navy haired boy ran in with Max close at his heels.

With a huge earsplitting grin on his face Tyson shouted, "Hey Ray! You guys going to spend Christmas with us?"

"Yeah, sure man. I didn't expect you to be here, Max," Ray remarked as he inspected the festive home.

"Mom and Dad thought it would be better for me if I spent Christmas with my friends this year. So I came here to the Dojo and Kenny's here too. Now all we need is Kai and we'll have the whole team to celebrate the Holidays," Max happily said in his bouncy, hyper tone.

"Yeah, where is the Sourpuss hiding? Or is Mr. Scrooge too high and mighty to join the party," Tyson stated bitterly.

"He's with our Dad and if you don't mind we'd rather not talk about my brother right now," Kay growled and glared at the less intelligent members of the Bladebreakers.

"I bet he's lying and Kai's just waiting in the shadows to steal all our presents away like The Grinch," Max giggled.

"Our captain may be grouchy but he's certainly not The Grinch. The Grinch is merely a fictional character and you two have obviously been watching too many Christmas movies," Kenny observed in a matter of fact manner as he entered with his precious laptop.

It was as if they hadn't heard as Tyson argued, "No Maxie, he's more of a Scrooge than a Grinch. And we have a right to know why he won't celebrate with us!"

"Because being stuck with a damn fucking bastard most of our lives we don't celebrate your stupid holidays! So shut up," Kai's brother snapped in a way that told Ray he was beginning to lose his temper.

As Tyson and Max continued to babble on Ray thought, I guess Kai's not the only one in his family with a bad temper. He must not want to talk about him either and sis hasn't even spoken a word yet. I hope she's okay as I know we're all still hurting from what happened, even me.

Of course I'll probably end up being the one who has to tell them about it. Tyson's right and the rest of the team have a right to know about what happened to Kai… Whoa, wait a minute. Did I just think that Tyson was right? Man, this whole thing must really be starting to get to me. Oh well, I can talk to the guys about it later. Right now I need to put a stop to this.

It appeared like Kenny was about to make a comment as Ray raised a hand to break the argument. Getting the sense that this was something important the Bladebreakers attention turned to the assistant captain to listen to what he had to say.

"You guys need to stop this and just drop it already. He's a bit of a sensitive subject and we don't want to talk about what happened right now. Besides it would ruin the Holiday for you guys and you should be in a happy mood at Christmastime. So we'll talk about Kai later," Ray declared in a serious tone and then added, "Now why don't you go find some Christmas goodies like chocolate, or candy canes, or cookies-"

"COOKIES!" The hyper boys cried out in unison and Max and Tyson ran off to consumer more sugar.

"Was suggesting that to them really a good idea?" Kay pondered from where he stood against a wall with an arm around Ray's sister.

"Probably not but it'll keep their minds off of your brother for a while," Ray replied.

"Yeah, good point," the other boy agreed.

They had been conversing quietly for a while when Ray suggested, "Well we're probably going to be here for a while so we might as well settle in while my teammates are distracted."

Kay agreed and the three brought together by their friend's death went to see if they could find some spare rooms. So they could prepare for what would be an exhausting Holiday.

As the night progressed Kay was finding it very difficult not to kill his brother's old rambunctious teammates.

I don't know how he was able to put up with these idiots and I'm surprised that my brother never ended up killing them himself. But I swear if they bug us about Kai one more time I just might have to finish the job for him. Though that's not until they piss me off as first I have to do something to fix my girlfriend. Naoko has been so quiet and secluded lately, not like herself at all. I have to do something to make her feel better somehow, Kay decided as he went in search for the female of their group.

He found her in the front room with her amber eyes gazing up at a brightly decorated Christmas tree.

Wrapping his arms around the melancholy girl Kay asked, "Hey there beautiful, how are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling the same as before, terrible and guilty. I should have forgiven him sooner because now he's gone for good and we can never again be the kind of close friends that we used to be," she replied, her amber depths a window to the sadness inside of her.

"I know how you feel. We were always fighting all the time and I never had the chance to tell him how sorry I was for everything. It will probably be best to not think about him for a while so you can try to cheer up, okay?"

"How can I? Look I know Christmas is when you're supposed to be happy but I can't be, not when something painful like this has happened," she replied and Naoko wrenched herself away from the concerned boy's grasp.

Just as Kay was about to make another attempt at comforting the upset neko-jin, the hyper annoyances bounded into the room. As they ran around the old man that Ray had addressed as the stupid navy haired kid's grandfather entered a minute later. He moved stealthily- like he didn't want to be noticed- as he snuck up behind his Grandson.

The pig and his hyper friend were now at the base of the festive tree as they sucked on some candy canes. They were oblivious to the old man and Kay couldn't help but snicker as he struck the idiotic pig over the head with a wooden sword.

"Oww Grandpa! What was that for? It's Christmas," the navy haired boy whined as he rubbed his head.

"That was to teach you that just because it's Christmas Eve it doesn't mean you should let your guard down, little dude," his Grandpa replied.

"But that's not playing fair, Gramps. Now is it, Max?"

"Nope, let's double team him Tyson," the blonde suggested as the two of them tackled the old man.

Kay watched the antics of their rolling around on the ground for a while until Max had clambered free of the fray.

"I've got his hat," the blonde called to his partner in crime as he escaped the brawl.

Dashing over to where Kay and Naoko were he placed his stolen prize on the Hiwatari boy's head.

"Look Ty, it's Santa Claus," the hyper blonde cheered.

"No it's not, it's the Grinch," Tyson declared as Kay ripped off the hat and glared at them.

"But Kai's The Grinch…"

"No, he's Scrooge. Besides this guy looks way more Grinch like. I mean look how grouchy he looks," the navy haired boy argued.

"You're damn right I'm grouchy! I tell you to shut up about my brother but seeing how you can't do that, now you're dead!"

His rage taking over inside of him Kay tapped into his power with Air to unleash his wrath. Using his power Kay summoned a large gust of wind that he lashed out against the Beybladers with. Kay's gust of wind sent them flying across the room as it slammed them into a wall with brute force.

As the dark haired boy was about to use the Air to slice right through their throats a man shouted, "What the hell do you think you're doing to my son, you damned Hiwatari!"

The Hiwatari boy glared at the man, his eyes as cold as ice as he growled, "I was teaching those idiots a lesson!"

"Well I don't want any of you bastards in my home. So you better get lost-"

"Whatever, I was just leaving," Kay retorted deciding that he should go and cool off somewhere.

As much as he wanted to kill them he didn't want to have their deaths on his conscience so soon after his brother's death. So Kay stormed from the building with the door blowing shut behind him as he stomped off.

Naoko had watched the scene play out before her and now she listened as Mr. Granger began yelling again.

"Alright whose bright idea was it to allow a damn Hiwatari into this Dojo?"

"That would have been me, son. The little dudes' teammate and his Homies wanted a place to stay for the Holiday so I invited them in to celebrate with us," Tyson's Grandpa replied.

"I should have known that you and your poor judgment were the culprit, Dad. I come in here after I finish cooking Christmas Dinner to find that bastard attacking my son!"

Even though he had seemed pretty freaked from Kay's outburst Tyson seemed to perk up with the mention of food.

"Did you say dinner, Dad?"

"Yeah, it's waiting on the table," Tyson's Father replied.

"YEAH FOOD! Last one to the kitchen has to clean up!" The gluttonous pig shouted and ran off in the direction of the kitchen with the hyper blonde close behind him.

Mr. Granger went off towards the kitchen as well as Naoko thought that this would be a perfect time to escape from the happy Dojo. Just as she reached out for the door knob the girl felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You know you should leave the kid alone and give him some space for a while. I don't know what happened but it must have been pretty bad so you should let him calm down," Grandpa Granger suggested.

"I'm not going looking for Kay, I'm going for a walk. I need to get away from here for a while before I lose it too and do something I'll regret," she answered in a small voice and walked out into the cold world of winter.

The female neko-jin meandered around outside in the city of wonderful snow. She was lost in thought as she wandered around.

This is such a great time for Kai to have died. Why did he have to die on Christmas Eve? This is supposed to be a fun and happy time but I can't act all happy like nothing has happened, even if it is Christmas. If only Christmas wishes could come true then he could come back. We could start over and be friends again or maybe even something more… But that wish will never come true and I might as well stay out here. No one will want to be around me as my bad mood will dampen everyone's spirits anyway.

She had wandered a good distance from the Dojo it seemed when someone addressed her.

"Hey Naoko, what are you doing out here?"

It was starting to grow darker and harder for Naoko to see but she knew the voice and answered, "I came out here to get away from everyone's happiness and stupidity. I didn't mean to bother you, Kay."

"Don't worry about it," the dark haired Hiwatari boy replied, "Are you feeling better yet, now that you've had a nice walk by yourself?"

"Not really, you?"

"Same but I guess I've calmed down enough to head back."

"Do we have to? I don't want to be around anyone right now."

"Well I guess not but won't your brother be worried about you?"

"Yeah, I guess," she replied.

"Then let's head back."

The girl looked around and wondered, "Um… which way is back?"

"Here I'll help you, come on," Kay said as he took her hand in his.

He led Naoko back and in a few minutes the two of them had returned to the Dojo.

They stood in the doorway as Naoko acknowledged her older brother, "Ray, what are you doing?"

"I was just about to go look for you guys but I guess that I don't need to do that anymore. You guys do know you're standing under the Mistletoe, right?" Ray grinned as he pointed out the little detail.

Naoko's amber eyes glanced up and sure enough there were fresh leaves of Mistletoe hanging over their heads. The girl only had a second to confirm the words as Kay pulled her close to him and kissed her. As they kissed the girl envisioned the boy's blue haired brother in her mind and she pulled away from Kay.

There was concern in his crystal eyes as he wondered, "What's wrong, Naoko?"

"This just doesn't feel right," the amber eyed girl admitted.

"What do you mean by that? Do you not want to be my girlfriend anymore?"

She hung her head and looked at the ground as she stuttered, "Well I… I just don't think that I should be dating anyone right now. I need some time alone to think about things and figure out my feelings."

"Fine then, if that's the way you want it I guess we'll break up," the boy said sounding hurt and dejected.

"I'm sorry, Kay. It's not like I want to hurt you but I just don't know how I feel about all this…"

"Sure, whatever…"

There was a silence for a while until Ray- who they had forgotten about- broke it.

"Come on guys, let's go and get some dinner before Tyson gobbles it all down," Naoko's brother suggested and he led the two of them off into the kitchen.

The food in the kitchen both looked and smelled delicious but neither Kay nor Naoko appeared very hungry. Kay was in pain from what had just transpired under the Mistletoe and for whatever reason Naoko had seemed to return to her silent moodiness. On top of the pain of everything that was gradually building up inside the dark haired boy he could sense that he wasn't wanted there.

Though Kay could feel the hatred and loathing emanating from Mr. Granger someone must have made him behave as he hadn't complained yet. It was as if Ray could sense the tension in the room as well as the other boy attempted to make some small talk at the dinner table.

After a couple of failed attempts Naoko's brother complimented, "You know the dinner is awesome! It's just as good as something I could have cooked up myself."

Mr. Granger wondered, "Oh, are you a chef?"

"Not exactly but I did most of the cooking for the team, that is when Tyson wasn't wasting all our money on room service," Ray chuckled.

"What, how else was I going to get a meal at one in the morning? I need to eat, you know? And speaking of food I want more, I'm still hungry," Tyson exclaimed as he drooled over his empty plate.

"Sorry son but that was the last of it. There is no more," the annoying pig's Father stated.

"Yes there is, the Grinch and Ray's sister haven't touched theirs yet," the gluttonous idiot whined.

"And my sister and Kay should eat their dinner."

"Oh alright, just take it already," Kay growled and pushed his plate across the table as he had become fed up with the idiot's bitching.

Soon after Naoko followed suit and Tyson's eyes lit up as he happily tackled the new food in front of him. As the pig gorged everyone else had finished and they all sat there at the table in silence. The nerdy looking boy who must be the one they called Kenny was the first to speak.

As he typed away at his laptop the brunette inquired, "So is one of you finally going to tell us what happened to Kai? I couldn't help but notice that Naoko is wearing his scarf-"

With his mouth full Tyson cut in, "Yeah, where is Mr. Scrooge the Sourpuss hiding?"

The memory of Kai giving her his scarf must still be pretty touchy for Naoko, Kay observed with concern as he saw tears trickle down from her amber depths.

The happy, hyper blonde must have noticed Naoko's tears too as he wondered, "It can't really be that bad, can it?"

Noticing that Ray was doing a poor job of having the guts to explain the situation and knowing that Naoko was too upset to say anything, Kay took it upon himself to be the bearer of bad news.

So having enough and wanting the whole ordeal to be over the dark haired boy blurted out, "My brother is dead! Are you happy now?"

"No way! As much of a loner and downer that he was the Sourpuss was always so strong. They're lying, this is all just part of their master plan to have Kai jump out any minute and try to scare us," Tyson babbled as he polished off the last of the food.

"Kay's not kidding guys. Kai's really gone and his Dad left to bury him with his Mother. That's why we came over here," Ray explained to his teammates in a serious tone.

Max's cheeriness switched to a somber mood as he mumbled, "Does this mean that Kai's really not going to come steal our presents and force us into doing more training?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry Max but it hurts us too," Ray said as he placed a comforting hand on the devastated blonde's shoulder.

Seeming as if he didn't believe any of their story the nerdy brunette inquired, "But this is Kai we're talking about. It's not like he'd let something like that happen to him?"

Kay let out a sigh as he replied, "It was Voltaire… he went after Naoko and my brother took the bullet."

There was a loud bang and everyone looked across the room to see that the navy haired blader had slammed his fist onto the table.

"To hell if that damn bastard is actually going to get away with this," Tyson declared, sounding like he actually meant business.

"No, he's not going to get away with it! He hurt my little brother and I am going to make the insane bastard pay for what he's done," Kay countered feeling his rage boil up inside him anew.

"Oh be reasonable you guys. I doubt he's stupid enough to hide out in Russia again so we don't even know where the bastard is," Naoko spoke up for the first time to bring some sense into the conversation.

"Well sis, that's not entirely true," the other neko-jin stated with a Cheshire like grin.

"What's that supposed to mean, bro?"

"I think that I might have an idea as to the whereabouts of Kay's damn grandfather. You see when I was a kid I won this tournament in China and the guy who congratulated me said that he worked for Biovolt. The guy turned out to be Kay's Uncle so I think that Biovolt could have a base in China and that Voltaire is hiding there with his son," Ray explained his hunch to the rest of the group.

The idiotic annoyance jumped up from his seat as he exclaimed, "Then what are we all sitting around here for? Let's go and put that bastard away for good this time!"

Kay's eye twitched, "We? There's no 'we' about this kid. Voltaire is my bastard of a grandfather and my problem. So I will be the one to take him down!"

"But he was our captain and though he didn't like to admit it, he was still a member of the team. So we should be a part of making this right. Besides we took Voltaire down once and as the best Beybladers in the world we can do it again," Tyson rambled on.

Before Kay could protest the raven haired boy butt in, "Maybe you should let the team help. You know you can't do this alone?"

"Yeah and you and Naoko can come, these idiots will just get in the way," Kay stated glaring at Max and Tyson.

"Well we could let them come, if nothing else we can use them as a distraction and let the idiots get themselves killed," Naoko commented snidely with an evil grin.

"Fine, whatever but if they get into trouble it's their own faults," Kay growled as he mimicked his brother's old pose.

"Now that that's all sorted out I suggest we all get a good night's sleep before we go to take action against Voltaire," Kenny advised as he shut down his laptop.

Slowly everyone had trickled from the kitchen, off to their respective beds as they agreed with the nerdy boy. Eventually Kay followed suit but it was extremely difficult for him to fall asleep. As the boy was looking forward to dealing his grandfather some well deserved payback after what an exhausting holiday that day had been.

Well I hope that you guys enjoyed your Christmas present. I really liked this chapter and decided that I should put in some humour before I get to my more serious plot points. Thanks to everyone who's been reviewing you guys all get cookies. And in light of the festive occasion anyone who's been reading this can get some too, so cookies and chocolate for everyone! That's all for now so don't forget to drop off a review and I wish you all Merry Christmas, a Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!