A/n: Will leave the actual note for the end, so this one is a New Year themed shot. It focuses a lot on some Japanese traditions so I'll explain them in brief here.
Furisode: A kind of long-sleeved kimono worn usually by young women/girls.
Obi: The belt that ties the kimono together.
Hatsumode: First shrine visit of the year, a customary new year activity for all. Usually performed with family or friends and loved ones.
Coming of age ceremony: Held on the second Monday of January to celebrate (as the name suggests) teens reaching 20 years of age and crossing the adult threshold.
Halfway through this I did realise that I should use their Japanese names for this story but then I didn't bother. As always, this is set in whichever verse you prefer!
Tale 10
- x -
The corner outside the train station wasn't particularly isolated but with each passing minute the crowd was starting to thin and the frown on her face was starting to get deeper. Hilary had not been waiting long, in fact she had arrived earlier than the decided time out of sheer excitement, but after a few long minutes spent standing alone surrounded by the Tokyo's December chill, she was regretting her actions deeply. She should have known better, she thought, considering the past record of the person she was waiting for.
Out of boredom she glanced down yet again, surveying her kimono for the umpteenth time to make sure it was just as impeccable as it had been when she had left her house. The silk furisode was a light azure blue in colour with a crane pattern on it stitched in silver around the bottom half, it's long sleeves which stopped short just a few centimetres above the ground were plain in comparison. The obi was cerulean in colour with a shimmery finish to match the silver threads from the pattern, somehow this combination had felt slightly incomplete to her mother so she had decided to tie a golden silk rope around the it. Satisfied with the results of her inspection, Hilary turned her head skywards again and exhaled loudly, watching the cold air swirl around her nose for a second before it vanished. With the fabric being heavy and the collar lined with white fur which was wrapped snugly around her neck, Hilary was comfortably warm but the excitement of the night that awaited her continued to send shivers down her spine.
She had been pleasantly surprised when her usually oblivious best friend had suggested that they perform hatsumode together. He was rarely the type to personally invite anyone out for anything, not out of arrogance but simply because he was just that aloof about his surroundings. If you were in luck and hanging around with him you would surely be taken along for whatever adventurous event that was currently overtaking his life. Which happened more often than would be considered normal by most, Hilary mused to herself, chuckling lightly as her brain immediately conjured up an image of two beyblades spinning and clashing at a speed that made them almost invisible to the naked eye.
So it was a definite first for Hilary and Tyson alike, when the day before their winter break was scheduled to start, the latter had turned to her abruptly during lunch and asked her if she had any special plans for New Years, to which she had given a confused and stuttered reply and he had gone ahead and cheerfully asked her to join him on New Year's eve to visit a shrine. Her dumbfounded and hurried reply from that time still brought colour to her cheeks and Hilary had to slightly shake her head to rid herself of the memory. Though she had wondered about whether he had been expecting any other reaction from her, because he had just as quickly turned his attention back to his lunch. On the other hand, Hilary had spent rest of the school day dreaming about all the things that could happen, when an offhand comment from Chief on their way home brought her back to reality and made her realize that the rest of the boys would probably join them too.
While the idea of being accompanied by the ruckus that was their team dampened her spirits to some extent, Hilary still managed to throw a tantrum serious enough to convince her mother to let her wear the kimono that she had originally gotten stitched for her coming of age ceremony which was still three years away. Just the fact that she would be starting her New Year along with Tyson and all her other close friends was enough to get her to want to honour tradition and dress accordingly. Despite of being with the team for a long time now, Hilary was used to ringing in the new year with her family at home, dropping in at the dojo with some of her mother's cooking later in the day. The boys however, unfailingly got together every year, mostly at the dojo, but sometimes even flying to wherever the foreign members of the team were residing.
Thinking about the team brought an automatic smile to Hilary's face but also made her wonder about how they would react to seeing her all dressed up for a change, they might poke fun at her, she thought, but quickly brushed this thought aside by deciding that she wouldn't let them get to her, and besides every member knew better than to get on her bad side. Not that that had ever stopped Daichi from being Daichi, a voice in her head reminded her.
"Hah, I knew you'd reach before me!"
Her train of thought was interrupted and Hilary turned her gaze away from the sky and came face to face with Tyson, colour rising slightly in her cheeks as she realized that she had completely zoned out her surroundings and not noticed him till he was right in front of her, grinning widely as always. He did look somewhat out of breath, like he had just jogged all the way from his home. Hilary had to fight back the urge to roll her eyes at his usual tardiness. She opened her mouth to reprimand him for not leaving early if he had figured she'd be here before time, but when she met his gaze she noticed a sudden change in his expression, one she couldn't recognize.
Tyson had always been an open book to her, easier to read than anyone else she knew, but once in a while there would be moments where she had no idea what he was thinking. Mostly it happened during beybattles, as it was something she only had a theoretical understanding of, there were many instances when she couldn't fathom what was going on in Tyson's head as he faced his opponents and had to rely on the deductions of their other teammates.
But this was different, she watched as the grin on his face faltered as he stared at her, he wasn't panting anymore but his mouth was still slightly ajar. He slowly shifted his gaze downward from her face, taking in every detail of her kimono in a painfully slow motion. The lower his head went, the redder Hilary felt her face become, she shifted her feet casually, hoping that Tyson would catch the sign and stop his blatant staring, but instead he just tilted his head and gave her another once over, this time with a frown on his face. Immediately Hilary's brain assumed there was something wrong with her kimono, even though she had looked it over countlessly while she waited, but now under Tyson's speculative gaze, she was starting to feel overtly conscious about putting it on in the first place.
"You're wearing Dragoon's colours." Tyson commented suddenly, meeting her eyes, he smiled gently at her.
"Wh-what…" Hilary stumbled in reply, completely taken aback by his statement and even more by his smile, the kind that was rarely ever directed at her. She looked at her attire again and tried to picture the bitbeast that belonged to her friend in the hopes of distracting herself from thinking about his smile.
While she had eventually been able to see all bitbeasts, to her they were more like blurry forms that she could make head or tail of but never really understand their structure. Dragoon's was a bit more recognizable than others' as it was the first one she ever encountered, but even then what she usually saw was a shape of a dragon covered in mist, she'd never been able to register what colour it was or how many heads it had. Although, Tyson had very begrudgingly told her on many occasions that Dragoon only had one head but she couldn't bring herself to believe him.
"Well it wasn't intentional," Hilary spoke again, her voice steadier this time as thinking about bitbeasts seemed to have calmed her heartbeat down enough for her to hold her own against whatever new surprise Tyson was planning to throw at her next, "You know I can't see Dragoon as clearly as you, and besides my mother was the one who picked it out."
"Oh. I see." Tyson replied flatly, the smile fading from his face, and Hilary wasn't sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her but he actually looked disappointed by her answer. However, within a minute he perked up again and scratching the back of his head sheepishly, he looked sideways to avoid her gaze as he added, "You look very pretty, the colours...they suit you."
Hilary pursed her lips tightly together to stop herself from letting out a high pitched squeal, her heart was drumming loud enough for the whole ward to hear anyway. Somehow she managed to pull her flurried emotions together, finally smiling back at him she replied, "Thank you."
"Right, uh we should get going, I want to reach there before midnight." Tyson turned on his heels, making his way towards the station's entrance, but even as he tried to get away from her view, Hilary could easily make out the redness covering his ears that were poking out from under his trademark baseball cap. He had chosen to dress like he always did, a mustard coloured puffy jacket with washed out grey jeans and his usual white trainers. Next to him, she would definitely look like she had overdone it, but having received a direct compliment from Tyson was enough to put away any second thoughts over her choice of clothes for the night.
"So the others will meet us there?" Hilary asked, as she caught up to him, just as they passed through the entry gates of the station. She was about to tell him to slow down as she had to walk slowly because of the traditional sandals she was wearing, but Tyson had already noticed this and matched his pace to hers as he led her to the platform.
"Uh, no." He answered stuttering once again, while checking the display for the arrival time of their train. That's when Hilary realized that Tyson hadn't even bothered to tell her where they were going, he'd only texted her the station's name where they were supposed to meet up, so even as Hilary followed his gaze to look at the display, she wasn't quite sure which line she was supposed to keep an eye out for.
"Shouldn't we wait for them here then?" She asked again, suddenly feeling a bit anxious about not knowing what had been planned for their night ahead. She'd imagined it of course, multiple scenarios even, but not even one of them had come close to Tyson telling her she looked pretty so she knew she couldn't trust her brain to predict anything correctly.
"It's just the two of us today, Hils." Tyson said, avoiding her eyes once again as he pretended to adjust his cap, and she noticed the tip of his ears turn red again.
"Oh." She murmured, feeling her own cheeks get warm, and possibly turn the same shade of red as Tyson's ears.
Silence settled between them for the next few minutes as Tyson fixed his gaze towards the empty tracks and Hilary studied her feet, she thought about pinching herself just to confirm that she wasn't dreaming and she was really present in this moment. That this moment was surely not a common occurrence between two people who were just friends. He had invited her, only her, to start the new year together, to share his first shrine visit of the year with her, if customary cliches were to be believed, this was definitely a date. With the only problem being, that neither of them were brave enough to refer to it as one.
The awkwardness between them slowly started to diminish once they were on the train, they sat next to each other looking out of the window, talking about and pointing excitedly at the decorations and festivities happening around Tokyo that the train passed by at a moderate speed. When the train entered an underground route, Tyson switched to making fun of the commercials that were running on the screens, making Hilary laugh out loud more than once, which earned them some glares from the few other passengers in their compartment. She huffed at him and crossed her arms across her chest in embarrassment, so he switched to telling her about how Grandpa, Hiro and Daichi had given him a tough time with the year-end cleaning. There was no mention of Kai or Rei or even Max and Chief from him, and Hilary didn't bother asking about them. She was allowed to have Tyson to herself for one evening, even if it meant stepping over time spent with the rest of the team. She had devoted a lot of time to listening to them talk about beyblading for hours at a stretch and managing all their different needs during tournaments in the past few years, so if in return all she wanted was one night with Tyson where the sport or it's players didn't make an appearance, she was allowed to enjoy it guiltlessly.
The name of the station they got off seemed familiar to Hilary, but it's relevance didn't strike her until they reached the shrine. The path leading up to the steps of the shrine was lined with stalls selling food and souvenirs in a typical festival fashion, but even as they reached the beginning of the path it became clear to both the teens that they'd have to push through an immense crowd to get close to the stalls or even make their way towards the shrine's steps. Hilary shifted closer to Tyson in order to avoid bumping into passer bys, she heard him sigh defeatedly as he surveyed the area in hopes of finding a less crowded alternate route up to the shrine.
"I suppose if we start making our way through here now, we'll reach the entrance by midnight." He joked.
"I'm sorry, I should've known that it will be crowded and not worn-"
"Hey, you don't need to apologize for looking pretty," Tyson smirked at her and she felt herself blush under his stare, "I should've picked a different place…" He added throwing an apologetic glance in her direction.
But before Hilary could assure him that she didn't mind the crowd at all, he suddenly took his hand into hers, locking their fingers together tightly as he pulled her closer towards him. It was as if she could no longer feel the cold air surrounding her as red, hot warmth covered every inch of her body. He looked directly into her eyes and for a moment Hilary almost forgot how to breathe. His cocoa eyes, filled with their usual confidence seemed to be shining just as brightly as the stars that blanketed the night sky and his cheeks too were tinted with red like hers as he lowered his head slightly, leaning towards her.
"Don't let go."
Was all Tyson said, after which he began to make his way through the crowd without even bothering to wait for a response from Hilary, pulling her along with him as gently as possible while still keeping her close.
Not that Hilary had any response ready for him as her mind had completely lost the ability to form any coherent sentences the minute Tyson had touched her, she was also struggling to recall the basics of inhaling and exhaling every time he turned around to make sure she was being able to walk without any trouble and passed her an excited grin. It was difficult because her mind was completely filled with thoughts about how their fingers seemed to fit so perfectly together, how his his hand was softer than it had always looked, how the warmth radiating from him was filled with an indescribable sense of comfort.
It was in a daze that Hilary made her way up the steps of the shrine, she'd somehow lost track of time and her surroundings and didn't realize that they had reached their destination until Tyson let go of her hand. Suddenly she was pulled back to the ground as the fuzzy feeling that had been surrounding her and shielding her from reality dissipated from around her like a cloud of smoke.
"It's almost ti-"
But Tyson was cut off as the sky was filled with fireworks, the sound of which coupled with the shouts from the crowd and the ringing of the bell within the shrine drowned out every other noise in existence. Realizing that she wouldn't be able to hear him, Tyson just smiled widely at her before turning his gaze upwards to admire the colour filled sky. Hilary wasn't sure what kind of expression was currently visible on her face as she was feeling a bit too much of everything.
She watched as his face lit up with awe and excitement at the fireworks display, eyes wide and bright, just some time ago that same look had been directed at her and at the time she had squirmed and fidgeted but now she longed for him to turn around and look at her again.
Feeling as if she was getting a bit too carried away with herself, Hilary looked away, and her eyes fell on the shrine's entrance board which made her heart skip several beats in response. She had to re-read the sign multiple times to make sure that she hadn't imagined it and that Tyson had really, willingly brought her to the shrine that was visited by couples to pray for luck in love among other things. Before her brain could think of some far off scenario, Hilary reminded herself that there was no way Tyson was aware of what this shrine was famous for, this was probably Max's doing, he must've suggested this place to Tyson as a joke and she'd be a fool to believe otherwise.
"Happy New Year, Hils."
With the fireworks finished the noise surrounding them had lowered quite a bit, Hilary turned her attention back towards Tyson to find him grinning at her, and out of what seemed to have become a habit now, she blushed as she replied with a smile, "To you too."
"Shall we?" He motioned towards the main hall, where some people had already begun queuing up for their first prayer of the year. Hilary nodded and followed him into the queue, trying very hard to not notice that everyone ahead of them and everyone joining behind them definitely seemed like couples. It was easier to do so once they reached the front and followed procedure. After throwing their offerings into the box, they bowed twice, straightened up to clap their hands twice before pressing them together and closing their eyes to finally pray.
Her mother had always told Hilary that rather than asking for things for the coming year, she should first offer her thanks for the year that had passed as it was the more humble thing to do. And that was how Hilary usually prayed on her first shrine visits of the year, with only a tiny declaration about wanting to do better in the coming year at the end, she opened her eyes and gave her final bow, raising her head in satisfaction, she turned to find Tyson still deep in prayer with his eyes shut tightly and a look of deep concentration on his face. Hilary shook her head as she tried not to giggle at the scene in front of her which was so typically Tyson, serious bouts of concentration and determination in times you least expected it in.
At last he opened his eyes and gave his final bow, turning to her with a triumphant look on his face but Hilary beat him to it.
"I'm not going to tell you what I wished for, and neither should you. Saying it out loud stops it from coming true." She said, rolling her eyes as his face fell at her statement, she started to move away from the shrine so that the couple behind them could continue with their prayers. Tyson followed her with a pout on his face and his hands stuffed into his pockets.
"I know that, I wasn't going to ask you that." She heard him murmur from behind her and let out a soft chuckle.
As they made their way out of the shrine Hilary carefully took a look around at the crowd that was now beginning to surround the courtyard of the shrine and tried her best to not let the giddiness show on her face once she noticed that it still mostly consisted of couples. It didn't come as a surprise to her however, when she turned around to focus her attention back on Tyson and saw him longingly eyeing the food stalls that decked each side of the route that led to the train station. She had been too occupied in trying to breathe when they had made their way from here earlier and hadn't payed any heed to her surroundings, but now she wondered just how Tyson had managed to hold himself back at that time. Tugging on his arm to catch his attention, she gestured towards the nearest stall and his eyes immediately lit up, making her laugh. Keeping an eye on the time so as to not miss the last train home, with Tyson's hunger guiding them around they managed to go through almost all the food stalls before rushing to the station in the nick of time, bickering and laughing along the way.
Inside the train however, they sat mostly in silence and Hilary rather preferred it. She watched the scenery rush past the window, the sky still dark with a few hours to go until sunrise, and was finally able to register every single thing that had happened since Tyson had arrived outside the station and had called her pretty. She let out a wistful sigh, tonight had come very close to resembling the many fantasies she had been daydreaming about since she realised her feelings for the Beyblade champion went beyond a sense of overbearing friendship, and despite the unspoken words and the somewhat awkward tension hanging in the air between them, Hilary concluded to herself that she was quite satisfied with the way things had progressed.
Noticing that their station would be coming up soon, Hilary thought of waking Tyson, at least she had assumed he had fallen asleep because there hadn't been any noise from his direction since they got on the train, but when she turned to face him, she saw that he was completely awake and had his eyes fixed on her. For a brief second their eyes met before Tyson looked away quickly, patches of red appearing all over his face as he played with his baseball cap in an attempt to hide his face. Hilary on the other hand, tried her best to recall the purpose with which she had faced him in the first place, as her head was now spinning in an attempt to figure out just how long had he been watching her, followed by the question why had he been watching her, the answer to which could only be given by the culprit, if only she'd muster up the courage to ask.
It wasn't just this one question that needed answering though, Hilary wanted to know why every single time that she had managed to feel content with something tonight Tyson had to go ahead and raise the bar, and her expectations, in the very next moment. She wanted to grab Tyson by the collar and demand him to stop being so unpredictable and just tell her whatever was going on in that big head of his because she could no longer figure it out herself. As she silently followed him off the train when their stop arrived and out of the station, she wondered if it will ever be possible for her to get these answers by just staring at his back, instead of facing him head on with words.
It didn't take them long to reach her house either, they bid goodbye a bit quietly and awkwardly, both feelings unusual to her when it came to Tyson. She watched from her window as his figure retreated into the street as the early signs of dawn filled the sky, her mind buzzing with all the things that she had wanted to say, all the things that she had wanted to do. When he finally disappeared from her line of sight, Hilary let out a tired sigh, remembering what her mother had taught her. Rather than pining for things that were yet to come, she should show appreciation for the things that had already passed. Maybe there might come a day when it would be more than just red faces and stolen glances between them, but for now she was grateful for just the few hours that she had gotten to spend with him.
After all, the year had just begun.
- x -
A/n: Sorry for the 2 month absence. I was trying my best to write, but I just couldn't. Plus I haven't been working from home for some time so I rarely have the time or energy to do stuff like write anymore, so updates from now on will be extremely random. Thank you for reading, reviews are always appreciated!