Disclaimer: I don't own these characters! I'm making no money off whatever I'm writing here.

Author's Notes: For Mioko, who is my real Naomi. Because I couldn't have ever written this story, or the romance between these two characters, without have known you. When we reunited that first time, I'm pretty sure, that was the inspiration for all my love stories and more. So, thanks…

Impossible

I remember when I first knew I loved Kai.

It was years ago in Moscow, Russia before the world tournament. Or… maybe it was sooner than that. I don't know, but every time I looked at him back then I knew I… felt something. Yeah, I felt something that I was certain I wasn't supposed to be feeling for our team captain. It was when he walked into the stadium, and DJ Jazzman announced that Kai would be playing for the Demolition Boys, that my heart started to realize what it was.

I didn't understand how Kai could desert us like that; I was desperate to know why. He brushed me off, like always, though. And then we found out about Black Dranzer. Kai, if I had known about your family and past at the abbey beforehand, I would've tried so much harder to find you when we noticed that you were gone. But we were just kids back then, and you could always take care of yourself…

Kai was gone for good. And I think I cried… because I had figured out what exactly I was feeling for him. I loved him. My love for all of them made me strong. But love and emotions made him weak, didn't they? That was why he left…

Before Kai, I had never had to try to make friends. I'm not bragging, for once heh, I'm just a friendly guy and it's easy for me, but this time… This time, here was someone who didn't seem to care about other people in the least! He was selfish… arrogant… stubborn… and cruel to his supposed fellow gang members. I don't know what I expected of a gang leader, but it sure wasn't what I saw in Kai.

What did I see in him?

I always stopped to ask myself that question – whenever he snubbed me, or one of the other guys, and when he cut us down by saying he didn't need our friendship, he didn't need us. And then I paused again, when sometimes, he actually gave good advice just when things were beginning to look a little rough. When he actually wanted to know me, and when he smiled at me…

Even with the way he treated us sometimes, even being a little intense and serious - well okay a lot - he was still a good person. Somewhere behind that wall of ice he kept around himself, there was someone I had grown to care about. I never thought it would happen, but there are some things you just can't go through with a person without developing new feelings and understandings for them…

I think there was some part of me that always knew he would end up being special to me.

It was in those small glimpses when Kai would open up, that I found that I could see my heart reflected back at me in those eyes… He held my heart captive in those moments…

What would he think if he knew that I, Tyson, had started to love him? He wouldn't like it – no that's an understatement. He would avoid me, hate me even… and maybe leave because of it, because of me.

And for a long time, I thought that's what had happened. After the world championships, Ray going back to China, and Max going to America with his mom, Kai had stayed in Japan for a while, before he just… disappeared. Just like that, no goodbye or anything. He just…left. Maybe my feelings showed on my face and in my voice whenever we were together. Or when I'd put my hand on his shoulder, I'd always leave it there a little bit too long. Whatever it was, my emotions must have been as plain as day to him. I was never good at hiding what I felt…

But, it was hopeless.

I knew, with every fibre in my being, I knew that it would be impossible for him to ever return these feelings. What would it take, I asked myself, to make him love me? He could hardly stand to be around me… Still, even with knowing all of these things, I couldn't help but wish, and wonder, if there was just a little possibility, a tiny chance that Kai might actually be able to…

But, no.

So I got over him.

Well, I thought I did, at least.

He was in my system. I couldn't get rid of him even if I tried. And heh, most of the time, I didn't try…

So I stopped beyblading. I still did it from time to time, but how could I continue when all I saw was him, my eternal opponent in the beystadium – and out of it. Even when I wasn't with him I was fighting him, fighting his memory in my mind, and my feelings.

No one else could confuse me like him. With Kenny, Max and Ray I always knew where I stood with them. But Kai… Kai from all those years ago on that great beyblading adventure across the world… that Kai was so mysterious.

Would I ever be able to solve him?

Or maybe he wasn't a mystery at all… maybe he was a puzzle waiting to be put together by just the right person.

But it's not as simple as that, I guess. Every time we got so far in our friendship – every time I thought I had managed to complete the puzzle that was Kai, it felt as though a few pieces were missing. Maybe he had lost those parts of himself sometime ago, or someone had made him push them away… whatever it was, it took so long for him to find himself again… but I know that now he has found what he's been looking for. I could see it when I watched him these past few weeks.

He may be so much closer to that perfection that he always wanted back then, but I can still see that he's still searching, although not as hard as before. Or, maybe he isn't searching – maybe he's already found it…

Maybe the last piece of the puzzle is in somebody else…

Maybe I want it to be in me.

It is in me.

And maybe… that's the reason why after so long, I still love you.

Sometimes I saw you when I looked at Naomi. What was that supposed to mean? I thought I was going crazy to see someone like you instead of the sweet girl Naomi is. But I noticed, she reminded me so much of you, and we could never talk about how we were meant to get married… Subconsciously, I think I was afraid… that she'd know how I felt about you the instant that I said your name, telling her about you… afraid, because maybe she already knew…

And I guess that's why I'm doing this.

I made a promise to her, to find you.

And I always keep my promises.

I thought I had pushed all the memories out of my mind, but… I can't help but remember ten or more years before, and the promise that I had made to myself creeps up again. I had made a vow that I would always be there for you, in any way you wanted, because you needed it, and I needed it a little bit too, I think.

So there's something I have to do now. Something I haven't done in almost ten years… something I should have done a lot sooner… I'm going to go after him. I'm not going to stop this time either, because, this time, I know that he wants me to be the person to complete him, too.

End Chapter. The next will be the finale. Review please!