"You slept together?

"Hilary!" Anastasia glared as she looked around the store, pausing to glare at a curious looking sales-girl before dragging her friend into the empty dressing-room.

"Sorry!" Hilary grimaced. And then she grinned. "So you did?"

Anastasia rolled her eyes. They were in the mall together, Hilary having texted Anastasia and demanded to meet her so they could go dress shopping for Tala's party. Kai had dropped her off willingly enough, but Hilary had insisted she could drive Anastasia home, so he had left. Anastasia hadn't had much of a say in the matter. She had still been asleep – in Kai's arms – when her phone rang, so she hadn't had time to make up an excuse when she picked up and Hilary yelled at her for napping in the middle of the day.

Kai had already been awake when her eyes had opened, and she had seen him looking at her phone screen just before her phone rang, but he hadn't seemed annoyed at having to take her to the mall. He hadn't even seemed awkward at the way they had fallen asleep. He had merely grunted something unintelligible and turned over, waving a hand at her to get up. Anastasia had understood he wanted to sleep some more, and had ruffled his hair playfully on her way to the bathroom. And that was it.

"We slept in the same bed, nothing happened," Anastasia hissed. "And I didn't tell you so you could announce it to the whole store!"

"No, you told me because you like him," said Hilary smugly. "What are you going to do about it?"

"I don't know," Anastasia ran a hand through her hair in frustration. "He's Kai. I can't just tell him, and I can't do anything. Half the time I think he likes me back and the other half I think he wants to punch me."

"It's probably both," Hilary shrugged. "You're right. He's Kai. Who knows what he's thinking?"

"You're not helping."

"You should try and get him to come clean to you. At Tala's party," she added, when Anastasia looked confused. "Make sure alcohol is involved too."

"You want me to get him drunk and then tell him I have a crush on him?" asked Anastasia. She was both confused and amused.

Hilary shook her head, her tone deadly serious. "No, get him drunk so he tells you he has a crush on you."

"And what if he doesn't have a crush on me?"

"He totally does."

"But what if he doesn't tell me that?"

"There are no what ifs," Hilary rolled her eyes and practically dragged Anastasia to the changing-rooms, at least ten hangers of clothes in her hands. "I have a sixth sense, even if you don't, okay? He likes you."

"Sixth sense?" Anastasia snorted. "So you're totally aware that Tyson has the hots for you, then?"

Hilary turned red. "He does not!"

"Not so easy when it's you, is it?" taunted Anastasia. She took two of the hangers and went into the stall, peeking over the top to smirk at Hilary's expression. "Don't worry, I can keep a secret. Though I suppose I should warn you, everyone knows except you. And maybe him."

"It's different for us," said Hilary, collecting herself quickly. She went into the stall next to Anastasia's, and they continued their conversation easily. "We've known each other for years, and we still have time. You're only here until Dranzer is fixed, and since everyone keeps going on and on about how good you are, you don't have a lot of time."

"Yeah, but is that fair?" Anastasia sighed and looked in the mirror dolefully. The dress was pretty, but it was too big for her – she proceeded to take it off and tried on the other one. "I don't think Kai is into long-distance. Honestly, Hilary, I don't even think he's into having a relationship."

"Is that what you want?"

"Well, yeah," Anastasia shrugged to herself. "I mean, I don't know if I want to marry the guy or if I'm in love with him, but I'd like to see if we can get to that stage. Someday. Maybe," she grimaced. "He'd freak out so badly if I said these things to him, wouldn't he?"

"That's why you need alcohol," said Hilary in a sing-song voice. "Also, try this one on!" she threw a dress over the top of the stall, and Anastasia caught him with the tips of her fingers. She raised an eyebrow at it, and heard Hilary laugh. "I picked it up for you anyway. Kai's going to lose his mind."

"Alcohol, a nice dress, and a bunch of unwanted emotions," said Anastasia as she held the dress against herself musingly. "Are you trying to make me kill him, Hilary?"

"Nah, we'd miss him too much if you did," without invitation, Hilary strolled out of her own stall and into Anastasia's, dressed in a bright red dress. Anastasia's eyebrows shot up. The dress had a lace bodice, with a halter neck and organza tulle making up a full skirt that ended just above her knees. Hilary was still wearing her white trainers, but Anastasia had no doubt the brunette would have a pair of killer heels to go with the dress. Smiling, she gave her a thumbs up. Hilary smirked, and then frowned. "You haven't tried yours on yet!"

"I don't need to," Anastasia smirked back. "How'd you know green was my color?"

Hilary laughed.

!

"I'm going to kill him."

Alice looked up from her coffee mug warily. "Anna, don't say that."

"Don't say that?" Anastasia turned to her, her face aghast. "Do you realize what he's done?"

"I do, but he probably doesn't. You can't kill him."

Anastasia dropped her shopping bags on the floor and kicked off her shoes – she had barely walked into the door when Alice had given her the news. "Watch me!" she declared.

Alice sighed. "Anna, it's okay."

"Why are you taking his side?"demanded Anastasia. "We're not in kindergarten, this isn't funny!"

"Honestly, because he's right. And I don't think he meant it to be funny," Alice winced and picked up the magazine she had been reading, which Anastasia had snatched out of her hands when she had off-handedly mentioned the article to her. "I think he was pretty serious."

"Then he better have a good reason for it," snarled Anastasia, reading for her phone. Alice tried to soothe her, but it was no use. Anastasia was already searching for a name in her contacts, her face pulled into a scowl. She held the phone against her ear and then put it down a few seconds later, eyes narrowed suspiciously. "He didn't pick up."

"He's probably training, Anna. Maybe you should –" but Anastasia was already dialing another number.

"Hilary," she hissed. Alice watched in morbid fascination as the person on the other line said something, but Anastasia's expression didn't clear. "I know you didn't know anything about it. Where is he?" another pause. "Does he know I'm looking for him?" Alice heard a loud voice from the other end, and gulped at Anastasia's expression. "He knows I'm going to kill him, right?"

Alice jumped a foot in the air when her cellphone suddenly began ringing, and she glanced at the screen warily. The name that flashed across it made her try to get Anastasia's attention, but her room-mate was too busy detailing the ways she would castrate the person who had decided to include an entire section on Kai and Anastasia's non-existent relationship in an exclusive interview with a local sports magazine.

"Hello?" asked Alice, holding the phone to her ear. She nudged Anastasia again, but was still ignored.

"Alice," Kai breathed a sigh of relief. "Where is she?"

"She's right in front of me," assured Alice quickly. "She's talking to Hilary about how she's going to chop up Tala into tiny little pieces."

Kai swore. "She's already seen it? Will she talk to me?"

"Probably. If she shuts up," Alice rolled her eyes and pinched Anastasia's arm. Her friend yelped, and she held out the phone pointedly. "It's Kai," she said. Anastasia's face paled. "Talk to him," insisted Alice. She shoved the phone at her and got up, leaving the room with her magazine to finish her coffee in peace.

Anastasia hung up her own phone and took a deep breath before reaching for Alice's. "Hey," she said quietly.

"I'm sorry," said Kai immediately. "I didn't know he'd do that. I just called Mr. Dickinson, and our publicist said she'd get a statement out by tonight."

Anastasia sighed. "It's not your fault, Kai, you don't have to apologize."

"He's my friend, Anna."

"And unfortunately, he's mine too," Anastasia ran a hand through her hair. She was calmer now – whether that was the effect that Kai's voice had on her or perhaps just the vivid way she had detailed to Hilary how she would murder Tala, she wasn't sure. "Look, he did it because he knew we'd let him get away with it. It's fine."

"I can punch him."

Anastasia snorted. "No, I'll punch him. Is he with you right now?"

"He went out."

"He didn't pick up my calls."

"He left his phone here, apparently he said he knew you could use it to track him if you wanted to."

Anastasia huffed. "I'm a technician, not the CIA."

Kai grunted out a laugh. Anastasia sat back down on the sofa and stared at her shoes. She heard Kai walking – the slight echo of his footsteps told her he was inside somewhere, and she was suddenly transported back to a few weeks ago while she had been in America, when this was exactly how her mornings would go. She would sit at home, in her room, and listen to the outside world through her phone as Kai carried on with his day, usually not even speaking to her, but he didn't need to. Something about knowing he was on the other line and listening was oddly comforting.

"Did you finish watching the battle?" she asked suddenly.

"What?" he sounded confused, and slightly distracted. She heard a door slam.

"The video you were watching this morning," reminded Anastasia. "Did you finish it? You were asleep when I woke up."

"Yeah, I finished it," said Kai.

Anastasia frowned at the strange edge to his voice. "Well, what did you think? It's good, right? The beyblade?"

"It's great, Anna."

"You don't sound like it's great."

"I'm tired. You talk in your sleep."

Anastasia's eyes widened. "What did you just say?"

"I fell asleep next to you, I heard you talking," said Kai dryly. "What the hell do you dream about?"

Last night she had dreamt Kai had confessed he was in love with her and begged her to stay with him in Japan. Anastasia was willing to attribute it solely to the fact that falling asleep in his arms had been a horrible idea and she was allowed to have a weird dream because of it, and it would never happen again. She cringed. "I don't remember what I dreamed about. Why? What did I say?"

"If you don't remember then it won't make sense," Kai sounded smug.

Anastasia turned red, even though he wasn't here to see it. "What did I say, Kai?"

"It doesn't matter," he said dismissively. "Do you still want to kill Tala? He's right in front of me."

Anastasia felt a twinge of annoyance. "Can I talk to him?"

There was a rustle, a loud voice protesting, and then something that sounded like a yelp. And then Tala spoke. "Hello, gorgeous."

"Save it," Anastasia snapped. "Is he gone?"

"Yes, I'm alone, if that's what you're wondering," Tala didn't sound nearly as afraid as Anastasia wanted him to be. "How was your morning? Sleep okay?"

Anastasia ignored him. "What the hell, Tala? You don't get to make decisions like that for me!"

"Okay, I know this won't help but I totally have a defense for this," said Tala quickly. "I did that interview right after we came to see you in America, okay? It wasn't supposed to come out yet, and I thought you guys would already be together by now. I was giving you a head start on the press!"

"You were being an attention-seeker," corrected Anastasia, but she was smiling a little despite herself. The excuse was so classic Tala that she couldn't bring herself to be angry. "And you know this could have worked out horribly. I don't want him to hate me."

Tala snorted. "Yeah, no chance of that, sweetheart. You want to know what he said to me when he found out? He said he didn't give a crap about what I said about him, but if he went over and you were crying again, he'd punch my teeth in. Now, Kai's a violent person by nature, but I'm pretty sure he'd have punched me anyway if Ray hadn't held him down."

Anastasia rolled her eyes. "That doesn't mean anything. I've cried in front of him way too many times already."

"Hey, I won't judge if you guys are into that kind of stuff."

"Tala!"

"Sorry," he didn't sound sorry. "Look, it was a mistake, and anyway it's not that bad. I know you don't want to become known as his girl or whatever, but this is all good publicity. Read the article from that point of view and just relax, okay?"

Anastasia sighed. "You owe me for not killing you."

"You don't have to get me a birthday present and you can bring your cute room-mate to my party next week, how's that?"

She smiled. "Deal. Now go away."

"Love you too!"

Anastasia hung up and glanced down at her blank screen. Biting her lip, she opened up a browser and pulled up the magazine's website. She didn't have to scroll for too long to find the article; it was trending.

She skimmed the first few paragraphs where Tala talked about himself and preened under the interviewers questions, and quickly zeroed in on the part of the article that had annoyed her so much in the first place.

Interviewer: So, we know you're friends with Kai Hiwatari, and we know you've opted out of participating in the next World Championship Tournament coming up, but he hasn't. What brought about that decision?

Tala: Look, I've done my time, I've been in a few battles, and I'm ready to step back and let some other kid take the title. My team and I were the Russian Champions for years, and I know my way around a beydish pretty well. Kai's different: he's more ambitious, he's had a few tough years with BEGA and the mess with his grandfather, so he's looking forward to a year where he can solely focus on the sport. He's been spending the last few weeks amping up Dranzer and I've been training with him, so I know he's more than ready for a challenge.

Interviewer: Speaking of which, what do you know about his elusive technician, Anastasia Nikol? We've heard some rumors going round, but neither of them are addressing them yet.

Tala: I don't know what to tell you about the rumors. Anna's great, Kai's hard to get along with and she's pretty out there, but we're all good friends now. She's amazing at what she does, I have to say. The BladeBreakers have a great technician themselves, but she just knows beyblades, you know? And it helps that she has a really strong connection with Kai, they clicked almost instantly. I don't think he'd be willing to put Dranzer into anyone's hands except hers.

Interviewer: So you're saying they're just friends?

Tala: Oh, I'm not saying anything like that. Kai's my buddy, and Anna's grown on me, y'know? I'm just saying I'd be more than happy if something were to happen between them. You only have to be in their company for a few minutes to know there's definitely something there. I don't know if that's just because they work well together or if it's more than that, I can't comment on that.

The rest of the interview was more nonsense; Tala really did love talking about himself. Anastasia shook her head, even as her eyes lingered on a particular sentence.

it helps that she has a really strong connection with Kai, they clicked almost instantly. I don't think he'd be willing to put Dranzer into anyone's hands except hers.