"You really hate me, do you?" Anastasia's voice was amused as she rummaged around in the shopping bag in her lap. Kai didn't bother to answer and started the car, reversing out of the driveway of the store they had just stopped at.

"Where to next?" he asked. His voice was gruffer than he had expected.

Anastasia stopped moving. "Nowhere. You can drop me off at the BBA."

"Its late."

"I have work to do. I'll get a cab home."

Kai sighed in annoyance. "I don't dislike you enough to let you catch a cab in a city you barely know."

Anastasia's voice was hard when she responded. "You don't need to babysit me if its such a chore to even be in the same room as me for long."

Kai blinked. Two weeks he had been around her, and if there was one thing he had learned, it was that it was almost impossible to rattle Anastasia. She laughed at his one word replies, rolled her eyes when Tala flirted with her, met his every sarcastic remark with one of her own and even smiled at the grim receptionist at the BBA every morning. She was bright, and happy, and stupidly beautiful. And now, she seemed upset.

"I'm not babysitting you. I need to see what you're working on anyway," he tried to make his tone lighter. No use getting on her bad side when she was fixing his beyblade. At least, that's what he would tell himself every time he thought something as ridiculous as stupidly beautiful again. "What is it again?"

"It's a prototype," her voice kept its edge, but she replied willingly. Thankfully, another thing he had learned was that, along with being an organized mess, she forgot things very easily. "I just needed the core and I'll probably build it today. Dranzer's main problem is balance, otherwise she's perfect. So I'm hoping this new core will fix the balance. You'll have to practice with it for a while before we can see if its working, though."

"I can do that," said Kai. They reached the BBA and got out. Anastasia headed straight upstairs to the room she had claimed as her workspace and Kai stayed back to sign her in. After being her designated driver, he knew she never bothered with technicalities.

When he entered her office, she was sitting on the floor with the contents of at least four shopping bags in front of her. Kai rolled his eyes. She never sat on chairs. Her shoes were neatly placed in a corner and her jacket was resting on the sofa. Kai sat down next to it and picked up her cell phone idly. Anastasia didn't even protest. She never did. The only thing personal about her phone was the little icon on the side which apparently scrambled her IP address or something like that, to aid in her favourite hobby – hacking into Kai's personal life. The screen came to life and he raised his eyebrows.

"You have seventy two missed calls," he said. He typed in her password that he had learned from her when she wouldn't stop hacking into his personal accounts – she had known his bank balance three days after meeting him – and swiped the screen, checking the name. "They're from your sister and they're all from today. Seriously, Anna?"

"What?" she looked back distractedly. "Oh, right. Tatiana was calling. I was trying to remember the name of the metal core I wanted so I didn't pick up. How many are there?"

"Seventy-two."

Anastasia snorted. "She's getting lazy. She knows one hundred is our life or death situation code."

Kai rolled his eyes. He didn't care, he told himself. He just didn't want her distracted. And, grudgingly, he admitted that he was curious. He would never say it out loud, but there was something about her that was hopelessly fascinating. She looked like an open book, but she was far from it. He could tell she didn't get along with her sister, but she had never given him a reason why, never even alluded to one. She had merely acted as if that's how all relationships worked. It worked for her, but not for her. quickly making up his mind, he pressed a button on her phone, got up and knelt down next to her, holding the phone to her ear. She was playing with the various parts like a child playing with building blocks; she didn't even notice when the phone started ringing. When her sister's voice came onto the line, she blinked.

"Tatiana? What the-" she gave Kai an incredulous look but he merely raised an eyebrow, daring her to challenge him. She scowled and took the phone from his hand. "Sorry. I was- yes, I know I'm horrible. Yeah, I know… sorry… sorry… I said sorry dammit… okay you have news… you could have hit one hundred, you- OH MY GOD!"

Kai jumped and grabbed her arm, glaring at her when her eyes widened and she covered her mouth. She waved away his concern before he had even realized it was showing on his face and merely nodded vigorously, not realizing her sister couldn't see her.

"Women," muttered Kai, going back to take a seat on the sofa. Anastasia continued talking for a while, mostly murmuring quietly. When she finally hung up the phone, she sighed and tossed it back onto the sofa before returning to her perch on the floor. Kai waited for her to speak. She didn't. He huffed in annoyance. "What happened?"

"Hmm?" she looked back, the same distracted expression on her face. It amazed him how quickly things slipped her mind.

"Your sister," she was never content with a few words. She raised an eyebrow. Kai almost growled out his question. "What did she say?"

"Oh, that," Anastasia shrugged. "She's getting married."

"Uh," Kai was caught off guard. He ran a hand through his hair. "Congratulations."

She snorted and returned to her work. "Thanks. Though the point of marrying the guy you've been living with for three years baffles me, but she's happy so it's cool. The wedding's in March," she hesitated for a split second. "So I have six months to convince her to break it off."

That wasn't what she had been about to say. Since when did she hesitate anyway? That was odd. Kai blinked. "What?"

"Nothing," her hands began working faster. "Okay, no talking. Time me."

"Time you?"

"I always time myself. Just do it."

Kai rubbed his eyes tiredly and began fiddling with his own phone. He set the timer and picked up Anastasia's phone idly. She never stopped him from invading her privacy, but he didn't often go through her phone, mostly because there had never been anything personal in it. She had no photos, a handful of text messages that were all from unsaved numbers and all seemed to be left unanswered and unread, and only about ten contacts. For someone so obsessed with technology, Kai had been surprised by her disregard for her phone. Most days, she would have simply forgotten it if he didn't remind her. Since he was bored, he scrolled through her text messages again and was surprised to find quite a few from Tala. A quick glance revealed that they were purely friendly, other than the occasional wink emoticon that made him frown. He pushed the thought from his mind and went into her contacts. She had them organized by favourites; his name was right on top. It made sense, since they spoke on the phone about twenty times in one day.

"Okay, I'm done. Time?" her voice interrupted his snooping, and he put her phone aside before checking the timer lying next to him.

"Fifteen minutes, thirty seconds."

She sighed. "Dang it, I'm getting slow. Okay, come on down here, superstar. Let's see what you think."

Kai rolled his eyes. "You could sit at the table like a normal human being, Anna."

"But this is Japan!" she looked back at him in shock. "Don't you guys always sit on the floor? I thought I'd finally be at home here!"

Kai sighed and sat down next to her. He would never confess that he couldn't help but do what she said every time she asked for something, but he did admit that she amused him immensely. Now, she handed him a beyblade, a dark blue coloured basic model with a stainless steel core that glinted as he held it up to examine it in the light.

"You can't tell me anything I haven't already thought of before," said Anastasia, her tone going from playful to business-like in a second. "I understand that its more light-weight than what you're used to ever since you started using the V-Force models, but the dynamics are pretty much the same. You'll have to practice, as with any prototype, but this should give us a pretty good idea of what you need. I'm not changing the core," she added when she saw him run his thumb over the edge that jutted out considerably. "I know you probably don't approve but it'll be a good fit when you get used to it."

Kai sighed. "I needed a new blade, Anna, not an amped one."

"Amped or not, you needed a new blade and you're getting the best I can do," Anastasia shrugged. "It's not that hard, Kai. The core is just something you're not used to."

"You're going to make me get used to a new core?"

"I'm not making you do anything. You want your old blade? Fine. I can put together one like that in seventy five seconds, but in seventy five days you'll have trashed it. This one, with this core, when used properly, will last way longer."

"What kind of training am I supposed to do?"

"What do you usually do?" Kai listed his average day, and Anastasia frowned. "That's all solo work. You can do that too, I guess, but I was hoping for something else," she tugged on a lock of her hair absently. "Why don't you battle Tala?"

"Tala?" Kai gave her a look. "Why?"

"I'm not as good as you," she shrugged. "I'd say battle Tyson, but I don't think your competitive streak would do well against him. You need someone you can mess up in front of a bit, but also someone with enough edge to make you want to win. So, is Tala okay?"

She had described in two sentences his entire relationship with both Tyson and Tala, and that unnerved him more than he would ever admit. Even his own friends had always taken his constant side-changing as a sign of weak loyalty, instead of a representation of his desire to find a worthy opponent. Anastasia understood that. Hell, she acted as if his thought process was the most natural thing in the world. It was weird. She was weird. And perceptive. But she didn't need to know that, so Kai merely shrugged and pocketed the beyblade. Anastasia rolled her eyes and got off the floor. She picked up the shopping bags and began crushing them, dumping them into the trash bin next to the desk that she never used but always managed to keep messy. She picked up her bag in one hand and a folder in the other. Kai took that as a hint that she was ready to go and followed her out the door, switching off the lights on their way out. She never remembered to do that either.

The ride in the elevator was quiet. Anastasia kept rummaging through her bag, frowning, checking her pockets and going through her bag again. When they were halfway out the door of the main building, she stopped.

"I can't find my phone," she declared, crossing her arms over her chest.

Kai wanted to laugh. She looked like an overgrown three year old as she set her mouth in a line and refused to move from her position in the middle of the revolving door. He rolled his eyes, lips twitching, and grabbed her arm, tugging her outside. She hadn't been expecting him to pull her, and lost her balance, practically stumbling into his arms. It was a very cliché moment. Normally, Kai didn't appreciate such moments, but the second he grabbed her waist to steady her, she turned red, something she had successfully avoided doing in front of him despite Tala's best efforts to embarrass her when she had admitted she was an easy blusher.

"Umm," her voice was quiet, but confused. Her grip on his forearms didn't slacken. "Sorry?"

Kai chuckled. Her eyes widened. Oh, right. He didn't laugh in front of her. She often accused him of having no sense of humour. He took advantage of her confused state to take out her phone from his own pocket and hold it in front of her face, which was dangerously close to his own. Immediately, her eyes narrowed.

"You're too careless," he told her by way of an explanation. "Someone had to teach you a lesson."

"You mean you wanted to teach me a lesson."

"It almost worked."

"Almost."

Kai hummed in response. She still hadn't moved away, even though his grip wasn't tight at all. Her eyes were lighter than he had thought; he hadn't really seen them up close. She had freckles, probably from the sun. Also, her waist was tiny. He could hold it in both of his hands with ease.

"You're staring at me," her voice interrupted him. He blinked. She teased him about staring all the time, but it felt different this time. She wasn't mocking him. It was just a fact. He was spending too much time looking at her.

"You're blushing," he responded without thinking. She turned even redder. He felt his smile become slightly wider.

Her eyes widened. "You're smiling," she sounded awed.

He rolled his eyes. "You're not letting me go."

Immediately, she dropped her hands from his arms and took a step back. She held the folder up, hugging it against her chest and gazed at him hesitantly from beneath her eyelashes. Kai tried to ignore the tingling in his hands where they had touched her and opened the passenger door for her. His car was always parked near the door. She got in wordlessly.

They reached her building fairly quickly. He had driven fast deliberately, to spare her the awkwardness which had almost stifled him in the car. He shut off the engine and made to get out, but Anastasia stopped him.

"Its fine," her voice was quiet. "I can make it back on my own. It's not even that late."

"You're sure?" asked Kai.

"Yeah," she gave him a small, quick smile. "Thanks anyway."

He nodded in response and she got out of the car, ascending the few steps. He watched her go inside and waited until the door closed. When he was sure she was gone, he started the car again, but didn't move. He had a bad feeling he had just fallen for his technician.