The Dranon Heiress

Disclaimer: * sniff * I dun own Beyblades and youse all know it. Stop pestering me.

---- Chapter Four ----

"That's enough Unicolyon."

The Beyblade launched itself into the air and sped back towards its owner's open palm. Oliver smiled, satisfied, as he concluded that his bit-beast was in excellent shape. He rotated his wrists around several times to loosen the tense muscles. When was the last time he'd had a rest from training? For about four hours, at least. Sometimes, even one of the best European Beybladers needed a rest.

"I'm glad to see you're training hard, Oliver."

"Good evening to you too, Enrique Giancarlo."

The blonde Italian grinned and moved to greet Oliver the way Italians generally did. Kissing on both cheeks, but Oliver slipped away to safety, where his gear was sitting on a stone bench. Enrique shrugged off the rejection from the delicate French boy. He was used to being turned down from Oliver because of his advances. He followed Oliver back inside the west wing of the villa.

"Have you managed to convince Johnny to go to Japan yet?"

"No, not really," Oliver replied distractedly. "Johnathan is not easily persuaded."

"You could use some of that natural charm of yours," Enrique suggested slyly, inching closer to him. Oliver gave him a reprimanding look. "I've seen Johnny. He's a sucker for that smile of yours. Try it, Oli. You'll be surprised."

"Are you implying that Johnathan MacGregor is - is homosexual?"

"Heavens, Oliver Les Demonde!" Enrique exclaimed, exasperated. "Don't you think that it's not because Johnny is homosexual that he seems to like your smile more than anyone in the world? Don't you think it's partly because of you? Your style? YOUR CHARM?!"

Oliver blushed. Enrique had done all but say that he thought the younger was wonderful. The other seemed not to realise, but he sighed. Sometimes, Oliver was a little too naïve for his own good. There was a pool just inside the west wing. Oliver shed his outer clothing until he was wearing only his swimsuit.

"Have you convinced Robert, Enrique?"

"Nuh," he replied dully. "He's too stiff."

"Hmm . . ." Oliver dived smoothly into the water. Enrique admired his form as it glided to the surface and broke it. "Why don't we just go ahead and leave them a message?"

"Sometimes, Oli, you can come up with the simplest and the best ideas."

--------

Kai looked out the window. The courtyard was empty, since it was already class time. He, however, was having a free period, since he was a senior. The top floor of the library was deserted because only people with special permission were allowed to browse through the family archives. Kai lied smoothly about doing it for an extra-curricular project on famous Beyblading families. When asked about the family, he simply filled in: Dranon.

It seemed that that name acted like a pass to anything special. He was given unlimited access to the materials inside the restricted area. It wasn't that he was REALLY lying. In fact, it was pretty close to the truth.

"I thought this part of the library was restricted," a voice said from above him.

Chika was sitting on the railing of the loft. How she managed to balance herself AND the leather bound volume at the same time was beyond him. He did, however, catch himself on time to stop gawking and turned his expression into a glare.

"I could say the same for you."

"I'm different from you," she replied lightly. "You're not in my class. You'll never be."

"No one said anything about wanting to be in your class," he retorted.

A Beyblade shattered a window above her head, knocking over a particularly heavy book, causing it to fall. She leapt backwards to avoid it, but the whole shelf came tumbling down. She lost her footing and slipped over the railing with a startled gasp, nothing more. It seemed, even when her life was in danger, that she didn't scream. Kai's first instinct, when he saw her fall, was to get as far away as possible. His eyes went to what she was about to land on. And winced. A wooden chair would definetely break her neck, or her back, depending on where she fell. He couldn't call himself a person if he didn't do something to help her. He rushed forward to move the chair away.

That was his only reason to move forward, but when he realised what would then be involved in moving into that position, it was too late. All he could do was holding out his arms and she landed, back first, into them. He was shocked. Not because he had just caught - and held - a girl. It was because, underneath the loose, oversized attire, she was so slim! An inevitable heat rose between them and she sprang away quickly.

"That never happened," she managed to force out. Her pulse was racing like crazy. "It NEVER happened . . . it didn't happen."

"Why are you so frightened?" he asked in mild curiosity. "It wasn't like we DID anything."

"Just forget that this ever happened."

--------

(A/N: I can't be bothered using the Japanese form of the names for the rest of the teams, because I don't know them so they're in the English forms).

"I'm glad you all chose to come."

The White Tigers, Majestics, All Stars and - to everyone else's disgust - the Demolition Boys were all gathered in Mr Dickenson's office. Robert and Johnny had surprised them all by appearing out of nowhere. Oliver flashed Johnny a smile and the redhead looked away quickly. The French and the Italian boy raised their eyebrows in amusement.

"Now," Mr Dickenson continued. "I have organised a special outing for our guests and the top two Beyblading teams in this school: the Bladebreakers and the (no name at this point). I hope you will all benefit from this little excursion."

By now, hostile glances were shot directly at the Demolition Boys from everywhere around the room. They were vastly outnumbered, more so, since they had a member absent. Tala looked ignorantly away, focusing on Mr Dickenson. The BBA chairman and principal of the BBA college smiled benignly.

"I understand there may be some certain misunderstandings between you all, but I hope to resolve it during this little trip."

A knock sounded from the doorway. A moment later, Takao barged in with a broad grin on his face. He wasn't the one who knocked, obviously. As the Bladebreakers filed in, four girls came in also. There were many sharp intakes of breath from the male members of the company. The girls, Mao and Emily, glared.

"These four ladies are our newest and one of our best Beyblading teams," Mr Dickenson announced. "Dranon Chika, Ketsueki Rika, Ten'ou Naoko and Kamiya Miyuki."

--------

Rika noticed that her best friend was looking slightly on edge. She spent more time shifting her weight from one foot to the other than paying attention to what the principal had to say. More than once, she saw Chika's eyes darting in the direction of the Bladebreaker's leader, Hitawari Kai. They were handed sheets of paper outlining their groups for the outing and the meeting place and destination.

"Don't whinge," Mr Dickenson said sternly, which was unlike him. "These are the set groups. You will go, tomorrow morning at precisely eight o'clock, to your designated areas and meet with the rest of your group. From there, we will transport you all to different areas of the destination."

"Yes sir."

Chika scanned the sheet of paper in her hand. Her stomach clenched and a faint fluttering feeling filled her chest. Underneath her own name was Kai's. There were also the names of an individual member of every other team, but she was only interested in Kai's name. He caught her eye, raised his eyebrows and smirked. She didn't say anything, but looked away.

"Who's Tala?" she whispered to Naoko, the social bug.

"The red-head dude with the space-suit thing," Naoko whispered back. "Leader of the Demolition Boys. Who else have you got?"

"Michael, Oliver, Robert and - and Kai."

"Lucky!" the other whinged. "I'd kill for your group!"

"You already do, so shut up."

Mr Dickenson was speaking again. By then, everyone had identified the members of their group and was discussing it with their team. All besides Kai and Chika's team. They were standing silently, listening for instructions and committing them to memory. Chika gradually put the names of her group members to faces in the room. Oliver was the delicate French guy, with emerald green hair and amethyst eyes. Michael was the egotistic, magenta-haired guy with a baseball cap and cocky expression. Robert was the 'I-have-an-obsession-with-the-word-uncouth' guy with bright, purple hair and a horribly large nose.

"This activity is not my style, Mr Dickenson," Robert now announced. "I do not want to participate. I am withdrawing from it.'

"I'm afraid not, Robert," Mr Dickenson replied. "You and Johnathan did not want to come here of free will, so I had to employ you to do so. You have accepted the initial fee, so you must comply with my wishes."

"You never told us that," Enrique accused. "All this for money?"

"My treasury was running low," Robert replied, shrugging casually. Oliver folded his arms.

"The day your treasury runs low, Robert Jurgen, is the day Enrique Giancarlo will stop picking random girls from the streets to satisfy his sick desires."

//A playboy, hmm?// Miyuki mused, watching Enrique with interest. //My type of guy//

"Don't be so uncouth, Oliver," Robert retorted. "You are of the Les Demonde family. You should keep that in mind once in a while. Maybe it will stop you from prying."

The other people were watching with interest. Already three powerful European families had been mentioned. The Jurgen family, which descended from an ancient British house of nobility; the Giancarlo clan who owned almost all of Italy and already all of Rome; and the Les Demonde line, which spread out through the whole of France and owned practically all of Paris. They turned to the last member of the Majestics, who was watching sullenly.

"I wonder what family he's from?" Naoko murmured.

"The MacGregor family," Rika replied almost instantly. "A Scottish one. The treasury and influential power they hold can rival the other three."

"At precisely 8 o'clock tomorrow morning," Mr Dickenson was saying, "you will all be required at these different places mentioned on your sheet. Have fun!"

---- End of Chapter Four ----

A/N: I finished another chapter!!!!!!!!!!

Personally, I didn't think the scene with Kai and Chika was very good. A bit cliché, if you know what I mean. Do you like that pairing?????

I'm kinda hazy about whether or not I should make it an Oliver/Enrique slash or make it an Oliver/Johnny slash. Tell me........but I think that Oliver/Enrique sounds better, but I kinda made it so that Johnny kinda likes Oliver anyway. What do you all think?

REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, I don't know if you all think so, but there's sort of sarcastic humour in the next chapter.

Until later!

Ja ne!