Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade
A/N: thanks to Johi for betaing this chapter...
Enjoy reading.
As deduced from the strength of noise that reached the street, Max, Tyson, Hilary and Kenny were gathered in the front garden.
Quickly Rei sneaked up behind Max and grabbed a handful of green candies out of the bag the blonde still carried in his hand.
"Hi!" he stepped out from behind Max and cheerfully greeted the group. He walked up to Tyson and lifted a candy up to the bluenette's nose. "Look, what I have here!"
Flabbergasted, Tyson stood still for a moment, before he realised what kind of item was hanging there in front of his mouth. With amazing speed his hand reached up, but Rei was even faster and gone was the bonbon before Tyson could grab it.
Suddenly Max realised what was going on. "Hey, that's my candy!" he protested, "Give it back!"
"No! Give it to me!" Tyson demanded.
Rei smirked. "Who catches me first gets the candy!"
He quickly dashed off to the back part of the garden, Max and Tyson sticking at his heels. Hilary, Kenny and Dizzi followed them to see what would happen, laughing.
When the noise had faded, Kai peered around the edge, checking if the front garden was empty. It was.
As quickly as possible with two backpacks and six shopping bags he tiptoed across the lawn and sneaked into the kitchen. Upon arrival he put his heavy load down and took the time to take a deep breath. With his blader-glove he wiped the abundantly running sweat from his brow and from his eyes, where it already had begun to sting. He straightened up and, relieved of his heavy load, relaxed his arms and shoulders. For some moments he listened to the yelling and laughing in the back yard.
Tyson… His voice was so loud that word scraps reached even Kai's ears: "Candy… made me hungry… gonna get food… kitchen…"
Shit, Kai thought, he's coming for the kitchen.
With a quick scan of his situation, he decided to leave the food where it was. He himself fled from the kitchen through the porch door, quickly hiding behind the next corner, as to not be discovered by Tyson. As he arrived in safety, he already heard footsteps and voices approaching. When Tyson had food in mind, he was as incessant as a steam-roller.
"Food!" Kai heard Tyson's joyous yell as he saw the amount of food waiting in the kitchen.
He heard Rei and Max struggling to keep Tyson away from kitchen and food, and several dumps and shouts sounded through the air. Quickly he headed for a shower.
Some time later, Kai had just been through his warming-up routine for his beyblade training as another blade, silver-grey with blue streaks on it, joined his.
Driger.
Rei stepped up beside him.
"Mind if I join?" the neko-jin asked pleasantly.
His blade, Driger followed Kai's Dranzer through the narrow slalom of empty cans.
Kai shook his head in answer to Rei's question. He completed the slalom and called his Dranzer back. Deftly he caught the blade in his hands, as did Rei, so they could start anew. But before that, Kai decided to rearrange the bottles in a more complex slalom.
Rei watched his friend building a new pattern, anticipating a greater challenge than the slalom before. When Kai was finished and returned then took their starting positions. A short glance and a nod of agreement told them they were ready.
Together, with a loud "Let it rip!" they launched their blades into the slalom.
"And," Rei asked when their blades were safely off into the slalom, "Where is my thanks for rescuing you from Tyson?" Driger zigzagged closely after Dranzer through the cans.
"You didn't 'rescue' me!" Kai emphasized.
"I did." Rei said smugly.
"No!" Kai protested.
Dranzer made an especially sharp turn that Driger was unable to perform spontaneously and sent the White Tiger crashing into one of the cans.
"Mistake." Kai said. "You merely …" he trailed off, unable to think of a suitable word.
"That was unfair," Rei said, meaning the sharp turn, "I merely what?" he asked, lauging inwardly, because Kai's denial made the truth more clear than ever. "I merely saved you from eternal shame? I merely prevented you from being laughed at by Tyson?"
Rei smirked as Driger overtook Dranzer in a sharp turn.
"Looking old, aren't we?"
"You wish!" Kai answered and effortlessly the phoenix took the lead again.
There was a short time of silence as both boys concentrated hard on overtaking the other without touching any cans.
"Thank you," Kai's voice was small and somewhat husky.
"What?" Rei was so concentrated a pearl of sweat had formed on his temple. "Ah," he smiled, "Yes."
They finished the slalom for the third time and then called their blades back. Kai went to rearrange the cans again.
Rei smiled. "It was rather fun, actually."
Kai didn't answer, but set the cans in a more intricate pattern.
"You should have seen how fast Tyson and Max could suddenly run. It was hilarious! If they had this sportsmanship in training as well…"
"Hn." The hope for that was infinitesimal.
"Actually, I was just reminded by them of this ancient trick done on mules and horses... you know, the one where the coachman holds a carrot on a fishing-rod in front of the mule's nose and the mule tries to reach it, but can't and goes forward trying so."
Kai smirked as he pictured a yoke of Max and Tyson pulling a carriage. He himself holding the fishing-rod and maybe a riding cane. A pleasant picture.
"Maybe we should try it with them…" Rei proposed, eliciting a snort from Kai.
"Carrots?" Kai's tone of voice was more than unbelieving, as he went around his training bottles, checking the distances between them. "You don't think that would work, do you?"
"No!" Rei answered, sighing inwardly because Kai didn't really seem to get the joke. "Stupid. But I thought the trick would work with candy!"
Kai stood still for a moment, looking thoughtfully at his bottles, then he picked up some more from a heap that lay farther to the side and added them to the pattern. He pictured the special manoeuvres he wanted to perform.
"That's blasphemous," he then said very seriously in response to Rei's suggestion, "You can't mix serious things as blading and stuff like candy!"
Rei chose not to respond to Kai's last statement, thinking that he would need another way to approach Kai. Jokes didn't seem to get to him.
With a last finishing touch on the cans, Kai returned to Rei.
"Wow," he admired the pattern of cans, "It looks like a butterfly."
"What?" Kai sounded affronted, "That's a training pattern not some useless piece of art or anything! Hn!"
Rei sighed inwardly, keeping his mouth shut and inserting his blade into the launcher. Kai could be so difficult.
Almost simultaneously the blades spun into the training area, Driger staying behind Dranzer, because Rei didn't see a path through the butterfly pattern. So he chose to follow at first.
"Shouldn't you be cooking?" Kai asked after a short pause of immense concentration as both tried to get their blades through the pattern without touching any bottles. He couldn't help the tinge of distaste in his voice as he mentioned 'cooking'.
"Nah," Rei answered, purposefully ignoring Kai's distate.
He steered his blade carefully through a hairpin loop. "I'm only responsible for the desserts, so I start a little later. Got me some free time for training."
He tried to recall every meal and simultaneously keeping his blade under control.
"Hmmm… Max makes candy and helps Hilary and Kenny take care of most of the salty stuff. I'm not sure if I can remember everything, but I'm sure we have," he began to tick his fingers off. "Pasta with some creative kind of sauce, can't remember what they wanted to put in; chicken in spicy coconut cream, Thai-style I think; self-made mini-hamburgers; beef steak with roasted potatoes; lasagne…" he ran out of fingers as he still held the launcher in his left hand. He just started counting again with his right hand, "Roast pork with sauerkraut; sushi… 'le menu international…'" he said, pronouncing the last words with French accent.
Kai coughed, overwhelmed by the crazy number of dishes that were prepared for the evening. Dranzer skidded and threw two bottles out of the pattern.
"What was that?"
"Hn." Kai said, ashamed of his lapse in concentration.
Rei smiled in response. "Thinking of so much food doesn't go well with blading."
Rei used the phoenix' slight un-balance to let Driger launch an attack on him, sending down some more cans.
"Yes," Kai agreed, thankful for an excuse.
Forget excuse, he then thought, no use. Concentrate better. Do not let concentration be disturbed by talking. Must train multitasking more. Concentrate.
Dranzer quickly found his balance again.
"And you're sure you don't want to participate in the cooking?" Rei asked, out of an impulse of intense curiosity. He really would have liked to see Kai cooking. "I'll be making cheesecake, milk rice, tiramisu, vanilla pudding, banana milk shake… you could help me…" (1)
Kai's response said more than a thousand words. Dranzer kicked Driger so hard that the blade tumbled into the rest of the cans.
Consequently Driger, who elegantly caught his balance, this being one of Rei's special talents in blading, chased after Dranzer who evaded him with a deft feint that caused Driger to almost crash into a tree.
"Hm," Rei mused dryly, "I guess that means no."
"Indeed."
Dranzer elegantly spun up the tree-trunk of the biggest cherry tree of the garden, while Kai thought of a strategy to teach his friend a lesson for even proposing he could do something as 'unmanly' as cooking. Driger speedily followed Dranzer up the tree, catching up.
Rei continued speaking after a while, searching for something to talk to Kai. "Tyson and Hilary quarrelled again," he said.
"Hn."
"I know it isn't something new…" Rei answered. Driger charged and kicked Dranzer from the branch he had been spinning on. Kai didn't care very much, because his meanwhile completed plan didn't involve trees. Rei shook his head. "And I thought Hilary and Kenny had a crush on each other."
"What?" Surprise elicited a response from Kai. Dranzer, whose bird-like bitbeast powers Kai had used when sailing from the branch to the ground, landed safely on the lawn. Instantly, the blue blade spun away to the place where his plan would take place.
"You didn't notice? It was rather obvious I think." Rei explained. Driger swiftly followed Dranzer and they chased around and up the big rock beside the small pond.
Kai shook his head in response.
"I never paid attention." Kai admitted grudgingly. Just when both blades had reached the top of the rock, Kai's Dranzer hit Driger hard, sending him flying from the rock directly to the pond.
Rei suddenly had to concentrate hard on stabilizing his blade in midair. He succeeded and Driger elegantly landed on one of the stepping stones that crossed the pond from one side to the other.
"But maybe there is something more going on between Hilary and Tyson…" Rei reflected.
Kai briefly thought about it, though he wasn't particularly interested in gossip. He let Dranzer follow Driger, forcing the other blade to jump over the water to the next stone. Perfect. His plan was almost through.
"Hn," Kai said. "I don't think so…"
Dranzer had finally moved Driger into the position he wanted him to be in. Dranzer attacked. He jumped from his stone onto Driger's, launching into a powerful straight attack. He hit the other blade, which had had no chance to dodge on the rather small stone, very hard. Driger, who would normally have balanced such an unsophisticated, simple attack easily, got caught with his tip at a ledge on the stone. Kai had known it from his last training at the pond and counted on it. Driger tumbled over and with a loud and rather inelegant splash, the silver-grey blade of the White Tiger landed in the greenish water of the pond.
Rei blinked, digesting what had just happened. "Ouch."
Rei stared for a few moments at the place where his precious blade had just been drowned. He then smiled thinly at Kai, acknowledging his friend's victory. "Good move, my friend."
Kai's face twitched slightly at being thus addressed, but decided that what he would have minded not so long ago did actually make him happy now.
"You didn't pay attention," he rebuked Rei.
"What!" Rei answered, indignant. "I did pay attention! You lured me into a trap!"
"That too is 'not paying attention'." Kai explained coolly.
"Grr…!" Rei didn't know what to say to that. He appreciated Kai's expertise in training, but inwardly (what his team-mates probably wouldn't think of him) he found it frustrating to be instructed by someone who was more than a year younger than him in body and mind. Even if he had to take into account that Kai probably was a better blader than he was. At least in some respects. One of Kai's special advantages was his unholy motivation, which was fuelled by something more than mere determination. Hmm… Rei mused, the Russian's extremely fierce blading style was another part of Kai he was so intrigued by. He felt sure that it as well was an important clue to his character.
Enough thinking! Rei decided. His fascinating friend had fascinatingly thrown his blade into the pond and, knowing Kai, the Russian would surely not retrieve it from there. Dog dribble! the neko-jin swore. He had to get it back himself.
Kai watched Rei prepare for picking his blade out of the pond. The neko-jin looked about as happy as if he were to eat rotten fish. His Dranzer meanwhile rested safely in his own hands.
Before even proceeding to the pond, Rei took off his shoes and his blader's gloves and knotted the long parts of his tunic at his side. With an entirely graceful movement he swung his long bandana-bound hair several times around his neck. He was used to preventing clothes and hair from getting in contact with the water.
Very carefully the neko-jin tiptoed along the stones over the pond, balancing every step extremely cautiously.
Kai grew impatient only looking at the slow movements of the neko-jin. "The water is barely knee-high and lukewarm," he huffed, thinking that next time he would choose another location to displace Driger.
"The water's wet." The neko-jin commented dryly.
He finally reached his destination and bent down to quickly test the temperature of the water with his fingertips. He drew his hand back and, disgusted, shook off the drops. Then he squatted in front of the place his blade had fallen down. He closed his eyes and quickly dove his hand into the water. Even quicker his hand was back out, holding the blade.
"Brr…" he commented, while he held the dripping blade at arms length from his body. "I hate water." A little faster now, anxious to get away from the water, he walked back.
"Sorry…" Kai said, somewhere between being earnest and allowing
himself to be amused by his friends strange attitude. "Next time, I'll send you in the treetop."
"No," Rei declared self-confidently, "next time, I'll bethe one who will kick you somewhere where you don't want to go! There was a ledge in the stone! I saw it!"
"Indeed." Kai lifted an eyebrow, measuring Rei with a teacher-like gaze. "One of the most important rules of blading: know your arena! And: know your opponent!"
"I know!" Rei huffed. "Don't think I'll fall for the same trick ever again!" He glared at the water with utmost dislike.
"People learn best from unpleasant experiences…" Kai smirked.
"I know!" Rei huffed again. Just one moment too late he realised that this statement of Kai's would have been a perfect point to maybe ask the Russian a little bit about himself. What kind of unpleasant experiences he had had to overcome? How did he learn to master his weaknesses? Because as far as he knew Kai had very little weaknesses in blading and that was not only because of his talent. But, as it was, Rei's tongue had been quicker than his mind, and the chance to ask was gone before he had realised it had been there. He blamed it on his slightly irritated temper. Hence, he demanded a revenge.
Kai nodded. "If you want to lose again… I promise I won't throw Driger into the pond again."
He sounded so serious, Rei was helpless. "That will never happen! This time, I'm going to win! Go, revenge! Now." He fastened Driger on the launcher.
Suddenly a loud cry cut through the stifling afternoon heat.
"Rei! REI!"
The training boys looked at each other. Max' voice. Most probably originating from the porch door of the kitchen. Sounding positively panicked.
"REIIIII!"
Kai looked questioningly at Rei. But Rei only shrugged, indicating he didn't know what Max wanted either.
"REEEEEEIIIIII! Heeeeelp!"
"It seems our revenge will have to wait," Rei decided, putting Driger into his belt pouch.
Kai nodded and together they made their way to the kitchen.
Arriving at the open porch door, Rei suddenly stopped dead.
(1) Please note that all of the desserts Rei is preparing contain liberal and considerable amounts of milk…
A/N: I hope you liked it. I've never written anything similar to a beybattle before.
Next chapter: What Rei sees when he enters the kitchen... The Bladebreakers are trying to cook...hehe