Bang!

Anastasia jumped in surprise and reflexively threw the small metal disc she'd been fiddling with at the person who had startled her. The door to the lab she had been working in was ajar, and against the dim light she could just barely make out a familiar head of red hair.

"That's not funny, Tala!" she snapped. "Who opens a door like they're about to kill someone?"

"You're so dramatic," said Tala, not looking at all sorry for the way he'd burst into the room and nearly frightened Anastasia to death. He kicked the door open further with his foot and squinted into the dark lab, giving her a weird look. "Why is it so dark in here?"

"There are no windows in here, you moron," Anastasia glared. "And how did you find me?"

"I asked Kai," Tala shrugged and picked up the disc off the floor, examining it critically as he walked further into the lab. He was holding a towel in his other hand, and Anastasia saw that his hair was wet.

She raised her eyebrows. "You showered here? At the BBA?"

"Yeah. You haven't seen the training area that Kai donated to this building, have you?" asked Tala in amusement.

"He what?"

"He has a lot of money and he doesn't like the training facilities that the BBA has for rookie teams that don't have their own dojo to practice in," said Tala matter-of-factly. "He wrote Dickinson a check last year and told him to build something good. The team gets free use of the gym, so I tagged along this morning."

"Oh," Anastasia blinked. "I didn't know he'd done that."

"He didn't want anyone to know, so I tell everyone who asks," he smirked. "Anyway, why are you up here? It's pretty late, I thought you'd be home by now."

"I was working at home but then I asked Kai to bring me here so I could work on his beyblade," explained Anastasia. She gestured towards the mess of electronics and metal pieces on her desk. "It's a slow process."

"I think Kai likes how slow it is," Tala joined her at the table, sitting across from her and tossing his wet towel at her head. She dodged it and gave him a dirty look, but he ignored her. "He told me what you guys talked about, last week."

"You mean when we both realized I have to leave soon?" Anastasia rolled her eyes. "It's not that much of a secret. We both knew this would happen."

"He thinks you're going to break up with him."

Anastasia froze. "He said that?"

"Kai never says anything," Tala shrugged. "But I can tell. He thinks this has an end date. You should tell him it doesn't."

Anastasia gave Tala a wary look. "How do you know it doesn't?"

"Because I'm not an idiot, and neither are you," said Tala smugly.

"And Kai is?"

"Only when it comes to you. Just talk to him."

"Careful, Tala, your inner human is showing."

Tala rolled his eyes. "You want to come see the gym with me? You might see Kai shirtless…" he trailed off, then gave her a thoughtful look. "Unless you already have? He's been sleeping at the dojo these last few weeks but you're together all day, I don't know how you guys operate."

"What do you –" Anastasia turned red when she realized what he was trying to say. "Do you have no filter?"

"Nope."

"Well, it's not any of your business, so I'm going to use my filter and not tell you."

"Prude."

"Dick."

"You love me," he winked and stood up, heading back to the door. "Come on, you can take a break."

Anastasia rolled her eyes, but one more glance at her blank computer screen and the mess on her desk told her she needed to leave the lab anyway. Progress on Kai's beyblade was slow, but only because she knew what to do now. The more she hammered out the details, the longer it took to get perfect. And she would get it perfect, she was sure of that, which was why she'd locked herself in a windowless lab for four hours to try and get some work done.

It hadn't ended well, she mused to herself, if she was following Tala into an elevator to spy on her boyfriend during his training.

The gym was three levels underground, and when Tala warned her about claustrophobia as they got off the elevator, she snorted. "I'm a technician, I live in basement labs and go without seeing the sun for days. I'll be fine."

Tala laughed and swiped an access card on a panel in the wall, gesturing for her to go first when the automatic doors slid open. Anastasia complied and immediately narrowed her eyes against the bright, fluorescent lights on the ceiling. The room was huge, and lined with state-of-the-art equipment. Anastasia didn't know the names of half of the machines there, but she was sure it was every athlete's dream. It was also full of people, and she was slightly taken aback by just how many ridiculously good-looking teenagers were working on various machines, barely looking at each other. There was the odd person who was dressed in more clothing than the rest of them – she counted only two boys who were wearing shirts – whom she assumed to be trainers or coaches. As she stepped further inside gingerly and scanned the room for familiar faces, she felt Tala poke her in the ribs.

"They're over there," he said, holding her by the shoulders and turning her around. The BladeBreakers were in the furthest corner of the gym, and the rest of the people seemed to be giving them a wide berth. It wasn't surprising. None of the other teams were even faintly recognizable, even though Anastasia made it a point to always know who was in the game. The BladeBreakers were easily the most famous people in the room. And Tala was now dragging her right towards them.

"Stop pushing me!" she snapped, but he ignored her. Kai and Tyson were engaged in a battle, in a small beydish against the furthest wall of the gym. They had their backs to the room and hadn't seen her yet, but Max and Kenny were waving from their places on the floor, and Rey was jogging up to meet them, smiling brightly.

"Hey!" he called out, and immediately a few heads turned in their direction. Anastasia wrinkled her nose in distaste and tried to step out of sight behind Tala, but he merely wrapped an arm around her shoulders casually and drew her back to his side. Rey didn't notice. "We didn't know you were here," he addressed Anastasia. "If you're waiting for Kai, we're not going to be much longer. Everyone's pretty tired."

"Don't stop on my account, I'm just here to watch," said Anastasia. "How's he doing?"

"Pretty good," Rey nodded as they began walking back to the team. "We've done a lot of practice matches today and his tag-team skills are getting better. Max thinks the core is – hey, man, can we help you?" he suddenly stopped and addressed someone to Anastasia's left, her view blocked by Tala's spiky hair. She peered over his shoulder and saw that a bulky blonde boy had approached them, beyblade in hand. He looked curious.

"I was just wondering…" he began awkwardly, and Tala groaned quietly from next to her. Anastasia watched in amusement as the boy tried to find the words to express himself in front of members of the Demolition Boys and the White Tigers, both revered teams in the BBA. Taking pity on him, she decided to interrupt.

"What's your name, kid?" she asked kindly.

He gave her a look of gratitude. "Evan," he said, almost sighing in relief.

"Okay, Evan. You have something you want to ask these two?" she encouraged, thinking he probably wanted to speak to one of his idols – or maybe both – and was severely starstruck.

His answer threw her completely. "Actually, I wanted to talk to you."

!

"Hey, Kai, you didn't tell us Anna was here."

Max's comment cut into Kai's concentration, and his eyes automatically flicked up from the beydish to meet his blonde team-mate's eyes. He raised an eyebrow. "How did you know?"

"Because she seems to be pretty popular with the rest of the guys," Max grinned and pointed to a crowd that Kai had seen gathering from the corner of his eye, but he'd been too focused to notice what they were all doing. Ignoring Tyson's protests, he immediately summoned Dranzer back into his hand and turned to see what was going on.

Anastasia was surrounded by a group of boys, in addition to Rey, Tala and two girls, but Kai didn't notice that. What he did notice was that almost every single male around her was giving her his undivided attention, but judging from the looks of a few who were out of her immediate line of sight, their concentration had nothing to do with whatever she was explaining as she effortlessly took apart someone's beyblade and proceeded to put it back together, and everything to do with every other aspect of his girlfriend's being.

Kai tried to reign in his first instinct, which was to stomp over there and lay some kind of claim on her so they would stop looking at her like that. He knew he couldn't, because not only would it annoy Anastasia even more than his fight with Johnny had, but it would probably cause some kind of scene. He especially didn't think he'd be able to stop himself from punching the blonde beyblader who seemed to find her legs more interesting than whatever she was saying. Fortunately, Tala seemed just as annoyed as Kai was slowly becoming, and was glaring ferociously at the group of boys.

Rey caught his eye just then, and said something that caused Anastasia to nod and begin to excuse herself, still smiling pleasantly. Kai watched as one of the boys, he couldn't tell which one, said something to her which caused her face to freeze, and then she scowled. He was about to go over there and demand to know what was going on, consequences be damned, but Anastasia had already hastily restored the beyblade in her hands to whatever condition it had been in before and thrust it at one of the boys, tossing her hair over her shoulder and making her way towards him.

"Take a walk with me," she demanded, her tone showing just how annoyed she was.

Rey was shaking his head from next to her, telling the rest about how someone had recognized her as a technician for the American champions and had wanted her advice on his beyblade, which led to a crowd forming as a few other people threw questions at her. Kai barely listened to him, staring at Anastasia for a few seconds to determine what exactly she wanted him to do.

"What happened?" he said finally. Anastasia opened her mouth, looking ready to argue, but he shook his head. "I just want a name."

"Evan," she said grudgingly. "But just forget it. Can we take a walk now? I really want to get out of here."

"Just go," said Tala suddenly. Kai glanced at him, and saw that he looked thoughtful. He exchanged a look with Anastasia, and suddenly they both grinned wickedly. "Trust me," he added. "I'll record it for you."

"Thanks," Anastasia smirked and grabbed Kai's hand, tugging him towards the exit. "Let's go, hotshot. I haven't seen the sun in a while."

"What did you do?" asked Kai. They passed by the group of beybladers, and he glared at them, only slightly satisfied when they immediately began to look nervous.

"I can take care of myself," said Anastasia dismissively. "Is your car around? You know it's really unfair I still haven't driven it."

"You're not driving my car, you failed your test six times."

Anastasia frowned. "So? Do you like your car more than you like me?"

"Yes," said Kai. He swiped his access card and gestured for her to go out first, turning back to throw the room one last curious look. As the doors slid shut, he saw Tala hold up his phone, and the beginnings of a beybattle opposite him. A few seconds later, he distinctly heard a muffled explosion, loud voices, and a shriek that sounded like someone had just gotten kicked where it hurt.

"What the –" he made to reopen the door, only to find that Anastasia had swiped his card from his pocket and was dragging him towards the elevator, looking nervous but also giggling uncontrollably.

"I'll explain, I promise," she assured him, still laughing. They stepped into the elevator and Anastasia immediately took out her phone, tapping the screen impatiently. As they reached the ground floor, she finally seemed to receive whatever message she'd been waiting for and beckoned for Kai to come closer so they could see it together.

It was a recording, clearly made by Tala since the first three seconds were just him making faces at the camera. Abruptly, his face changed and the camera was flipped to show the same group of boys who had been around Anastasia before. Two of them were getting ready to battle, and Kai saw the blonde one, Evan, smirk and say something that made the rest of them laugh. It was too low for Kai to hear it, but he did hear Tala curse in response to it, so he knew it was bad. Eyes narrowed, he watched as Evan fitted his beyblade into his launcher, and then frowned as it seemed to get stuck. He pushed it into the holder aggressively, eyes narrowed in confusion.

It all happened very fast after that. As Evan twisted his beyblade to get it into the correct position, there was a screeching sound like a tyre squealing on the road, and then suddenly sparks were flying out of his beyblade as it seemed to fly at his face, the edges smoking. Evan screamed and dropped it, but not before the beyblade had jetted past his face and landed smack in the middle of the group of onlookers. It took the rest of them a few seconds to realize what was going on, but by then it was too late. With a muffled bang, the beyblade seemed to explode, causing people to dive out of the way and yell in shock. Kai distinctly heard someone yell, "I think it burned my eyebrows!" before Tala's laughter could be heard as the screen finally went black.

Kai blinked as she took the phone away. Anastasia was biting her lip as she tried not to laugh, but she was also looking at him warily. "It wasn't all my fault," she said defensively. "I only rigged his beyblade to explode, but he must have messed with the wiring when he put it into his launcher, so it caused more damage than it should have."

Kai blinked. "You did what?"

"Don't judge me, I saved you the trouble of punching him!"

"I still want to punch him. And you should let me."

"I'm not going to do that," Anastasia shook her head smilingly. "This isn't what I need you for, Kai."

Kai frowned. "What does that mean?"

Anastasia shrugged. "I don't want you to get into a fight over me, I can take care of myself. Don't get me wrong, the fact that you'd beat up whoever I asked you to is pretty useful," she added teasingly. "But I'm with you for you. Isn't it better this way?"

Kai grunted. "Agree to disagree."

Anastasia rolled her eyes. "Fine, grumpy. And where are we anyway?" she looked at the numbers ticking up on the elevator screen in confusion. "How tall is this building?"

"Pretty tall," said Kai. He hit the button for the ground floor again and ran a hand through his hair. "I can't believe you did that."

Anastasia smirked. "Yes, you can," she stepped closer, running a finger across the neckline of his shirt slowly. "By the way, this is a great look on you."

Kai snorted. "Seriously?" he grabbed her elbow and twisted her arm behind her back, gently but firmly. "Not here, Anna."

"Where's your sense of adventure?" she teased.

"You have enough for both of us."

"Looks like I need to, since I'm dating a monk."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "You're not going to antagonize me into getting what you want."

"Ooh, antagonize," Anastasia giggled. "I never realized how many big words you use. Are you a closet literature geek? Do you stay up all night reading modernist novels and writing me love poems?"

Kai rubbed his forehead tiredly. "Please, stop talking."

"Make me," still giggling, she tugged her arm out of his grip so she could wrap both around his neck. Kai continued to glare at her, arms folded stubbornly across his chest. His expression didn't crack as Anastasia watched him smilingly, until she leaned in close and brushed her lips gently against his jaw. "If you stay this grumpy, I'm going to think you don't like me anymore," she said reproachfully.

"Anna…" he groaned quietly, his hands suddenly grasping her hips and pulling her closer. Anastasia smiled against his skin, her eyes fluttering close as he dipped his head down to kiss her neck. "Trust me, I like you. But," pointedly, he nudged her chin to the side with his nose so she could see the floor numbers rapidly changing as they came closer to their destination. "This is an elevator."

"I know," Anastasia smirked. "That's what makes it fun."

Kai was about to explain the fun they could have outside the BBA offices when the elevator suddenly lurched to a stop, and a sharp beep sounded from the speakers next to the control panel. Anastasia and Kai exchanged looks of confusion and Anastasia stared at the doors expectantly, but they didn't open.

"What the hell?" Kai frowned and pressed the emergency button, while Anastasia dug her phone out of her bag.

"No service," she said, just as a scratchy sound came from the speaker and the beeping stopped.

The small light next to the speaker blinked, indicating someone had answered their call. "Maintenance," said a bored voice. "Please press the button when speaking."

"We're coming down from the fourteenth floor and the elevator's jammed," said Kai, rolling his eyes at the man's tone.

"Yeah, sorry about that. Some kids pulled the fire alarm as a prank so we stopped all elevators going down, they should be running again soon."

"Soon?" Anastasia frowned and elbowed Kai out of the way, pressing the call button herself. "What do you mean soon?"

"Standard time before the motor is back up is fifteen minutes."

Anastasia gaped. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Sorry," he didn't sound sorry at all. "Please press the emergency button twice next time you want to get in touch with maintenance. Have a nice day."

The light switched off, and Anastasia turned to look at Kai in amazement. "Did he seriously just tell us to have a nice day, after telling us we're trapped in an elevator?"

"It's fifteen minutes," Kai rolled his eyes and pulled her back from the control panel. "At least we don't have to move. The guys probably have to run up three flights of stairs from the basement if someone's pulled an alarm."

"Next time, pay to have the elevators fixed instead of renovating the gym."

Kai snorted. "Tala told you?"

"His favourite topic of conversation is you," Anastasia folded her arms across her chest and leaned back against the wall. "You have to admit, he's a great wingman."

"He's never been a good one before you."

"I don't know if that makes me feel better or not," Anastasia slid down the wall, only to have Kai grab her arm before she could sit on the floor. She scowled. "I'm tired."

"You're wearing shorts, and this is an elevator floor," said Kai pointedly. "It's fifteen minutes."

"Maintenance never takes as long as they say it will!" insisted Anastasia. "It could be an hour!"

"You're not sitting on the floor."

"It's not that dirty."

"I've seen people throw up in these things."

"Then get ready to turn into a chair because I am not just standing here until someone decides to make this elevator work again."

Kai gave Anastasia a withering look. "I hate you," he said flatly. Anastasia opened her mouth to retort, but before she could he had already sat down on the elevator floor himself, stretching his fully-covered legs out and pointedly hitting her shin with his sneaker. "Sit."

Anastasia smirked. "You are way too easy."

"Just try to behave yourself," said Kai. His arms snaked around her waist as she settled onto his lap.

"You're so cute when you're being chivalrous."

Kai groaned. "If you're quiet for the whole fifteen minutes we're here, I'll let you drive my car all day tomorrow. Deal?"

Anastasia's eyes lit up. And then she frowned. "But I like talking."

"And I like it when you're quiet."

Her eyes twinkled. "You could always just shut me up."

Kai merely raised an eyebrow, and she finally huffed in defeat. "Fine. Can I at least play a game on your phone?"

"I don't have any games on my phone."

"Yes, you do. I downloaded them for you last week."

Kai blinked. "Why –"

"I don't keep anything personal on my phone, I told you," Anastasia plucked his cell-phone out of his grasp and unlocked it, opening an app that Kai realized he'd never even noticed before. He shook his head wonderingly but let her be, trying to ignore how close she was to him and how easy it would be to take advantage of their current situation. He was only resisting because he knew there was a camera in the elevator, and the last thing he wanted was for another photo to show up in some magazine, in case whoever was watching the feed realized who they were. He couldn't tell Anastasia, of course, because then she'd freak out and all the progress they'd made in the last few weeks would go out the window.

Oblivious to his thoughts, Anastasia readjusted her position against his chest so her head was nestled into the crook of his neck. Her hair was in smooth ringlets down her back, and she flipped it over her shoulder carelessly as her thumbs continued tapping the screen of the small device that she was devoting all of her concentration to. A stray curl brushed against Kai's free hand, which was resting on her back, and he caught it reflexively. He wound the strand of hair around his finger and then twisted it the other way around so it straightened, only to have it bounce back into its original shape as soon as he let go. Kai had seen Anastasia enough times, and at all times of the day by now, to know that her hair just looked like this all the time. It still didn't explain why he was so fascinated by it, though.

"You're doing it again," Anastasia's voice broke into his thoughts, and he automatically let go of her hair. She paused her game and glanced up at him, smiling. "You were playing with my hair."

Kai rolled his eyes. "No, I wasn't."

"You so were. This is like, the third time I've caught you," giggling, she switched off her game and tucked his phone into his jacket pocket. Ignoring his obvious annoyance, she switched her position and straddled his lap, pointedly flicking at his bangs. "I like your hair too, just by the way."

"I don't care."

"So you don't like my hair?" challenged Anastasia.

Kai faltered, and Anastasia smirked triumphantly. "You have nice hair," he said finally. "That doesn't mean I was playing with it."

"You're only arguing now because you hate that I caught on," said Anastasia. "You only do it when you think I'm distracted."

"If you say so."

"I know so. Do you like my curls?" she twisted a strand around her fingers and brought it close to her eyes. "You probably do. It's because you don't see them often in Japan, you know. At least, not natural ones."

Kai grunted. "Are we still talking about this?"

"Yes we are. You don't want to talk about it?"

"No."

"You don't care?"

"No."

"Fine. Maybe I should just get a haircut. Hilary's style is so cute."

"No," snapped Kai again, and then glared at her when he saw her smirk. "You did that on purpose."

"I'm not getting a haircut, if that's what you mean," giggling, Anastasia rested her forehead against his. "Calm down, hotshot," she bumped their noses affectionately, but Kai merely turned his head away. She rolled her eyes. "If I promise to stop teasing you, will I be allowed to give you a kiss?"

"Only if you stop talking."

"You know, if I was anyone else, I'd think you don't really like me," she pouted.

Kai snorted. "Unfortunately, you're not anyone else."

Anastasia's eyes twinkled. "Want to try and prove that?"

Kai gave her an even look, before returning her smirk and tangling his fingers back into her hair. Keeping quiet for fifteen minutes wasn't too hard after that.