Finally an update for this story! And just in time for the new year! Well, it's only New Year's Eve but that's okay! At least I got this chapter out before the new year. So sorry that it took so long. Thank you to everyone who review and have waited for this update. But enough of me babbling......on with the fic!

Oh and I don't own BeyBlade, just my characters.

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Chapter 9: Confusion

A figure stirred slightly as the bright golden rays of the sun washed over the room through the windows. The figure shifted slightly not wanting to get out of bed just yet. Much to her dismay, she could not fall back asleep. She slowly at up in bed, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. She looked towards the night stand, checking for the time. She was surprised to find that it was nearly 9:00 in the morning. She quickly shifted her gaze towards the other bed but saw that there was no occupant. The strangest part was seeing it still unmade and looked as if he was a bit rushed to get out of bed. Then she felt the bed shift a bit coming from her left side. She turned her head and shock was written on her face. There he was resting peacefully, sitting on a stool with his arms cradling his head. Her eyes shifted to the ground and saw a basin with water in it. Near his hand was a cloth that was slightly damp. She was confused as to why there was a basin of water and a damp cloth when it came to her. Flashbacks of what happened during the night came back to her as far as she could remember. She turned back to him and smiled softly towards him, even though he was asleep.

"Thank you Kai," she said softly. Careful not to wake him, she got out of bed to take a shower. After gathering her things, she headed toward the bathroom but not before expressing her gratitude with a smile towards Kai's sleeping figure. Little did she know that after she closed the door behind her, Kai opened his eyes, no sign of sleepiness in them. He sat up and stretched, trying to rid of the numbness in his arms and legs. He stood up and quickly made both their beds, placing the basin on the table. He quickly changed into fresh clothes and proceeded to leave the room for a bit. After closing the door gently behind him, he made his way to Ray's room. Knocking on the door, he waited to hear from his teammate.

"Coming!" came the response from within the room. A second later, the door opened to reveal a freshened up Ray who looked ready to train. A somewhat surprised looked came onto Ray's face at seeing Kai at his door. Ray gave him a slightly questioned look, wondering if something was wrong.

"Ray, no training today. Tell the others to ready to train harder tomorrow," Kai said with no emotion in his voice.

"All right. Thanks Kai," Ray said somewhat unsure if what his team captain said was true. Before getting a question in, Kai left to go back to his room. After Kai went into his room, Ray just shrugged and closed his door. 'I wonder what happened? Whatever that happened, I hope it wasn't something bad,' Ray thought with a worried look on his face.

When Kai returned to the room, he took notice that Celia was still in the shower, so he just settled down onto his bed. His thoughts began to drift back to the events last night. He had to admit that he started to feel something growing over the last two weeks. Even though they didn't always get along, he just felt that he needed to watch over her ever since he saw the hint of sadness in her eyes. Things were still clouding his mind and he was still unsure of himself. Kai just sighed and began to feel annoyed of all these jumbled thoughts. He was about to close his eyes when he heard the door open. He lifted his head and saw Celia walk out with a slight smile on her face but with troubled and confused eyes. He sat up and silently watched her put away her things.

Celia was very aware that Kai was watching her, so she kept on with her business until she finished and ready to talk to him. She wasn't quite sure how to talk to him now that he had shown a caring side. She turned to face him and was quite taken aback by the slight glare that Kai gave her. She became slightly nervous as she quickly thought of a way to thank him.

"Um...Kai?" Celia asked, nervousness evident in her voice.

"Hmm?" came the response from the silent captain.

"Well, I just wanted to say thanks for taking care of me last night. I know I was troublesome for you, but I greatly appreciate it. No one has ever done that for and I thank you for it. Although you didn't really have to, if you didn't want to," Celia said, gratitude evident on her features.

"Hmph! Don't worry about it," Kai said trying to sound uncaring. He was successful but his eyes deceived him. Celia just smiled and got ready to leave the room. "Where are you going?" Kai asked, noticing she was getting her other pair of shoes from the closet.

"Just out for a walk. I figure you gave everyone the day off since you're not with them training," Celia said with a shrug. Deep inside, she was surprised and greatly warmed by his concern.

"Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Kai asked with a slight warmth in his voiced concern.

Celia smiled softly and nodded. "Don't worry. I'm fine, thanks to you."

Kai felt a tinge of heat rise to his face but he shook it off quickly, hoping she didn't notice. "Just be careful and come back early to get some more rest."

"Okay," she responded with a semi bright smile. She slipped her shoes on and gave Kai a slight wave before leaving. Kai sighed and laid down on his bed.

'Maybe I should take a walk too,' Kai thought to himself.

It would be wise to think out all of the things that has happened. Dranzer chirped in his opinion.

'Yeah, I guess you're right,' Kai smirked and added, 'for once.'

Hey! I have been plenty right before! Dranzer huffed at his master.

'Yeah right,' Kai thought sarcastically while getting up and getting ready to leave as well.

I have!!

'Whatever you say Dranzer,' Kai finished and left the room, mentally rolling his eyes at the phoenix.

Hmph!

***

Celia was just walking around the streets when she came upon a park different to the one they usually trained in. This park seemed to be one of where you would come to enjoy the scenery and little kids were playing around. She kept walking around until she saw a large fountain with some benches around it. Along the paved walkway were flowers of many kinds, ranging from all sorts of colors. She sat down on the bench that was furthest from the fountain but still had a nice view of the environment around her. Her mind was a jumbled mess and it was time that she sorted everything out to find the big picture that all her thoughts created.

***

Kai was just walking on the streets, trying to find an appropriate place to think. He decided to go to the park that they trained in. He made his was to their training grounds and was surprised to find a figure there, hard at training even though he had given them the day off again. He approached the figure quietly so as not to disturb their concentration.

"If you're trying not to distract me, you're already too late, Kai," the figure said without facing him, rather concentrating on the spinning blade in front of her. He approached and stood next to her, looking and analyzing her beyblade and technique. He glanced at the blader and noticed the look of concentration and determination on her face, especially in her eyes. "So what's wrong?" her question snapping him out of his thoughts. She turned to look into his eyes, knowing the truth in them.

"Nothing," Kai responded curtly, returning his attention to the beyblade before him, trying to do one of the new moves they had been working on.

"Can't lie to me, Kai. I know there's something going on and don't think I'll let up easily," she simply said.

"Don't pry into my business, Julie," Kai said somewhat angrily at her.

"It's Celia, isn't it?" Julie suddenly asked staring straight at her blade. Kai stood there, a bit shocked that she figured out the center of his problems. He remained silent and saw Julie smirk in satisfaction. She raised her hand and her blade shot toward the open palm of her mistress. She then turned toward Kai and just stared at him. Kai had his head lowered, as if thinking whether or not to answer her or not.

"You care for her, don't you?"

***

"Ugh! Where do I start?" Celia exclaimed to herself. She had been sitting there for a while and could not figure out where to begin.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

Celia turned quickly behind her, finding the person who disturbed her. She was quite surprised to find Ray standing there with a smile on his face. She figured he would spend his free day doing whatever he wanted, such as seeing the sights or sleeping. She didn't think he would be practicing with his blade, especially not in the training grounds of the team.

"Hi Ray, surprised to see you here," Celia said, offering him to sit down next to her.

"Thanks, but it really shouldn't be a surprise. I couldn't go on another day without training. I guess I have you and Kai to thank for that," Ray said with a bright, laughing smile. He instantly lost it at the melancholy look in the girl's eyes. "Seriously, Celia, what's wrong?"

"I don't know," she simply said, looking straight ahead of her.

"What do you mean?" Ray asked, curiosity getting the better of him.

"That's just it, I don't know. I have so many thoughts jumbled in my head right now, I don't even know where to start to fix everything," Celia said with a sad expression. Ray looked at her with sadness in his own eyes. "What's worse is that the start of this is what happened last night," Celia said with slightly glazed eyes.

"You wanna tell me what happened? I think it would help if you tell someone else you problems so you can work them out better," Ray said calmly. Celia looked into Ray's eyes and saw that he really wanted to help.

"You really want to know what happened?" Celia asked, a bit of nervousness inching its way into her voice. At his slight nod, she sighed. "All right. Well, it started..."

***

"You care for her, don't you?"

Kai snapped his head up at the question and looked at the girl with a slightly surprised look on his face. Julie caught the slight surprise and smirked even wider. Kai angrily turned his head away from her and stared at the ground.

"Why would you care? It doesn't concern you," Kai angrily spat at her.

"I do care cause she is my captain and one of my closest friends. I don't want anything to happen to her," Julie stated calmly. '...again,' she added to herself.

"Hmph! Nothing's gonna happen to her since I don't care for her," Kai stated, crossing his arms and looking ahead.

"You're wrong," Julie said calmly.

"What?!" Kai angrily exclaimed, looking at her.

"I can see it in your eyes when you look at her," Julie said while turning to look at Kai. "You get this faraway look in your eyes. Hundreds of emotions fly across them. Sadness, curiosity, challenging, anger and something else that's hidden beneath all those and many more. I think you already found what that buried emotion is, you're just denying it, am I right?"

Kai just stood there, silently looking at the Sacred Star who was reading his eyes like an open book. He'd have to admit that he did feel all these different emotions when he saw her, emotions he didn't even know existed. Of course he would never really admit that to them.

"You're very observant," Kai said turning away again so he wouldn't let her read him anymore.

"I like to be. Helps you to read your opponent," Julie simply said. "So what are you gonna do?"

"What do you want me to do?" Kai asked back, looking at her once again.

"Up to you but you have to promise me something," Julie said seriously.

"What?" Kai inquired.

"Don't let her get hurt," Julie said simply yet very seriously.

***

"And now here I am," Celia said with a sigh.

"Wow. I never knew Kai could be so nice and caring," Ray responded after hearing of what happened.

"You're telling me," Celia replied somewhat sadly.

"So what now?" Ray asked.

"I don't know. I'm so jumbled up right now. So many emotions, so little time to sort them out," Celia said.

"Do you like him?" Ray asked suddenly.

"Huh?! I don't know what you are talking about!" Celia exclaimed, a surprised look on her face. Ray chuckled at her expression.

"Oh, I don't know. I've seen the way you look at him," Ray said with a shrug and a smile.

"What's that suppose to mean?!" Celia exclaimed with a faint hint of blush across her face.

"Deny it all you want Celia, but I know what I see. Your face may not show it but your eyes are as clear as crystal. When you look at him or even hear his name mentioned, your eyes have a misty faraway look. Emotions pop up from your eyes, I bet even some you aren't even familiar with. From anger and challenging, to caring and.....longing. Maybe something even deeper than that. I also see sadness and regret flash in your eyes. I can tell something must have happened in the past but I'm not gonna pry into your life. But I don't think you keep living in the past and give Kai a chance," Ray explained his observations over the past two weeks and what he thought from what he saw.

Celia just stared at Ray with a surprised look on her face. Everything that he just said was true. What really shocked her the most was what he said about her past. He'd never know how right he was. She really did live in the past but it was so she wouldn't have to experience what she had again. She had vowed not to trust all boys again, but slowly and surely she was falling again and it was for the two toned blue haired captain of the BladeBreakers.

"You know what Ray?" Celia asked calmly with a soft smile and expression.

"What?" Ray asked curiously, but with a twinkle in his golden eyes.

"You are too wise for your own good," Celia said with a slight smirk.

"Hmm...I don't know whether to take that as an insult or a compliment," Ray joked with a laughing smile.

"It's a compliment and thanks for talking to me. Usually I talk to Esdraloon but its nice to actually have a human's opinion," Celia said happily.

"You talk to your bit beast? Is that possible?" Ray asked unbelieving.

"Of course. It lets you become closer to them and stronger in battle. You should try it sometime. I know you and Driger would talk to each other for hours," Celia said with a knowing smile.

"How do I get to talk to him?" Ray asked anxiously.

"Just concentrate on him, and then talk to him. At first its hard cause you're just beginning but eventually you'll get used to it," Celia explained simply to him.

"Thanks Celia!" Ray exclaimed his gratitude.

"No problem and thank you for helping me figure out the big picture," Celia said, smiling softly at the BladeBreaker.

***

"Finally," a female voice said to the male next to her while looking through a watch glass.

"Yeah, about time they realized it," the male said.

"True, but both are very stubborn. Of course we should know first hand, right Dranzer?" the female asked the red phoenix.

"Right, although my master is more stubborn to admit that he has feelings for your mistress, Esdraloon," Dranzer said in a laughing tone.

"Yes, but it is hard for her to accept this feeling once again," Esdraloon said sadly.

"I'm sure she'll over come it with the help from Kai," Dranzer said comfortingly.

"I hope you're right, Dranzer. I hope you're right..." Esdraloon said with sadness evident in her voice.

*****

That night, Celia laid awake, thinking about her day. She sighed quietly and rolled over to see that Kai had his back toward her. She felt the rush of all those emotions run through her and she felt a slight flutter in her heart. She smiled softly and rolled over toward the balcony, drifting into peaceful sleep.

'Maybe I am falling in love again, but this time, it's different. I fallen for Kai...'

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Well that's it for this chapter! Hopefully I can get the next chapter out soon but I can't guarantee it will be soon. School for me starts Monday which really sucks but I'll live. Please remember to review and check out my other story which is coming along quite nicely, if I do say so myself.

later,

lonelistar05