Hey, everyone, it's your favorite fiend, Dark Mrowlidash, back in action. I've been really getting into my beyblade side recently, and unfortunately not for my other fic, "Flicker of Radiance". I've been wanting to write a new beyblade fic for a while, and this is it. If you haven't already noticed, I'm a Barthez fangirl () who loves unusual pairings. I think Barthez/Hiro is about as unusual as you get.. don't you?
So welcome to the new story. Enjoy.
(Note: The rating may go up. I'm not sure yet.)
-Secret Love, Hidden Truth-
Chapter One: An Invitation to Dinner
POV: Hiro
words are thoughts. ((words)) are flashback.
It had all happened so quickly, the series of events that led up to this moment... I thought, turning around in the mirror. My typical, casual clothing had been traded in, traded for something a bit more formal. For some reason I wanted to look good tonight.
You're being silly, I thought again, while taking another look at myself.
It wasn't dressy, but again, it wasn't the typical jacket and jeans that I was normally found in, either. Just a blue shirt, blue pants.. the outfit was very blue—it was my favorite color after all. And I thought it looked good on me... or maybe it was more like I hoped he thought it looked good on me.
My mind easily drifted back, I was eager to replay the scenario in my head once more...
((You're an official beyblade coach now, Hiro. You'll represent the BBA Revolution at the initial meeting.
I remembered Mr. Dickenson's words as I walked down the hall of the hotel's upper floor. This was the floor where the beyblade coaches were staying, separate from that of the beyblade teams themselves. I wanted to be familiar with this floor.
The meeting was at 7:00, and I still had about 10 minutes to kill before it was time to arrive. I constantly checked my watch. The last thing I wanted to do was be late.
"Gotta make a good impression," I said to myself.
I walked mostly looking at my feet, no one was around, and I was feeling somewhat nervous. This was my first serious coaching job, and while I was confident, the others had much more experience than I did, they knew what to expect—and the last thing I wanted them to think was that my team and I were going to be pushovers. I had to present myself well, I had to show them my potential.
And knowing that I would have only one chance to make that first impression... was a little intimidating.
I raised my head just a little, the hall was changing. Instead of solid wall, I now walked past a set of doors, with a set of elevators at the other side. I would need to be heading back here shortly, as the meeting was on the second floor.
Soon after clearing that area, however, I heard the sound of a door opening behind me. I turned around.
Emerging from the stairwell was a man, wearing what had to be the exact opposite of the nervous expression I had. He was very calm, I could tell from his eyes.
Said eyes traveled to my direction, and I immediately looked back at them, his gaze was intense at first, but it softened as he spoke.
"Hello," he said, moving away from the door, allowing it to swing shut behind him.
Suddenly, I remembered that I was staring, realized that it was my turn to respond.
"Hi," I said, curious. "Taking the stairs?"
"Yes," the man chuckled to himself. "I can't very well expect to keep others in shape if I'm not myself."
Normally, I would have questioned him, but the excitement over the upcoming meeting was controlling me. I ignored his reply, too eager to continue with new conversation.
Pausing just long enough to allow him to catch up to me, I took notice of his long strides. He was tall.. thin. He had purple hair, down to his shoulders. His eyes, which I had been so busy looking at before, were a pale color of some unidentifiable sort—but it didn't matter because in a few seconds he was standing next to me and I no longer wanted to look directly at him, instead favoring walking again.
"Forgive me if I seem rude, but if you wouldn't mind telling me, what is your name? I'm probably being too curious for my own good," he said, looking over at me while walking at my side.
"Oh no, I don't mind telling you. It's Hiro," I said, completely forgetting my own last name, looking slightly up at him.
"Ah.. Hiro. Nice name. My name is Jean Paul."
I nodded at him, liking the way his name sounded, at least, when he said it.
We walked in silence for a few paces, both observing the other. He was dressed more formally than me, a nice-looking purple jacket over a pinkish shirt with white pants. I was wearing my typical blue jacket, some random white T-shirt, and my jeans.
He was older than me, I could see it in his features, but I couldn't tell by how much. There was something ageless about him though, like an aura of elegance—if I dared get that poetic about him. He was attractive, but I was unsure of the way I was thinking that.
We were reaching the end of the hall, and I was reaching the end of my hang-around time. I decided it would be for the best if we parted here, instead of me having to quickly run off at the last minute.
"I'm sorry about this, but I'm going to be leaving this floor soon. I've got some business to attend to on the second floor."
"Second floor? Isn't that funny—that's where I'm headed as well. I just came up here because I knew it would be quiet."
I smiled at him, but just a little. Inside though, I was probably much happier. I certainly wouldn't mind his company as I made my way back.
We turned around at the end of the hall, walking back toward the elevators in the same fashion as before, almost silently.
Upon reaching the elevators, I stepped up and pushed the 'Down' button, turning back around and looking at Jean Paul.
"I know you prefer the stairs, but I've got a meeting to get to, and I wouldn't want to be late."
"Meeting? As in the meeting at 7:00? For the beyblade coaches?" he said, looking directly at me, intrigued.
"Yes, actually, that exact meeting. You've heard about it?"
He laughed, smiling wide. "Forgive me again, I did not introduce myself properly, it seems. My name is Jean Paul Barthez, coach of the Barthez Battalion."
It all made sense—his presence at the meeting, even his former comment. I smiled back. "Well, I'm Hiro Granger, older brother of Tyson Granger, and the coach of the BBA Revolution."
At that moment, as if on cue, the elevator arrived and we both stepped into it, eying each other in a friendly manner. So we were both beyblade coaches, hmm?
I leaned back against the elevator wall. "I should have known, this is the floor where the coaches are staying."
"Oh, but that also means that I should have known about you, doesn't it?" he replied, a hint of laughter still in his voice, "But at least that means that we know we'll see each other again, no?"
I replied without even stopping to evaluate that. "Yeah, definitely."
The elevator made its arrival sound, we had reached the second floor. Stepping out, we both made our way quickly through the halls, reaching a door with a beyblade symbol on it.
Jean Paul was slightly ahead of me, his longer legs carrying him on faster than my own legs. He opened the door, but then held it open, allowing me to walk in. I shot him a tiny smile as he followed me in.
"Ah, there you are Hiro, Mr. Barthez. There's only one more we're waiting for, and then the meeting will begin," Mr. Dickenson's cheerful voice came from across the room. He was sitting at the head of a long table, a projection screen behind him. Others were already in the room, a woman who I identified as Max's mother Judy, coach of the PPB All-Starz, and a man with a silly look on his face who was swiveling back and forth on his chair. I had no idea who he was.
"Oh, good," I said back to him, "I was thinking I was going to be the last one to arrive!"
"Well," Jean Paul answered me calmly, "actually, it would have been me."
Smirking, I nodded at him and gestured for him to take a seat. He did so, and I sat next to him, watching the door for the arrival of the last coach, and drumming my fingers against the table.
"You know, this is my first time coaching an official beyblade team. I'm a little nervous," Jean Paul said to me, awaiting an answer.
I was shocked. "But you seem so calm! I thought you were used to this or something..."
"I guess it doesn't show. But I am nervous about this. My team, unlike yours, is completely new to this level of competition. I'm hoping they do well."
"I'm sure that you're capable enough to coach them to victories. Of course..." I said, trailing off. He knew what I meant.
"Yes, your hope is that your own team wins. I won't blame you, I feel the same."
Just then, the door opened, and everyone looked in that direction, but.. nothing?
"I'm down here!"
We all looked down to see a little old man, smiling and holding several shopping bags from what seemed to be a women's clothing store.
"Had to get my shopping done..." he said, hopping into a chair.
"Tao.. yes, great to see you.." Mr. Dickenson said, lacking the earlier cheerful tone.
Tao—he had to be the coach from the White Tiger X. Strange guy..
But it didn't matter, I turned my attention away from him almost instantly, focusing back on Mr. Dickenson, who stood in front of the projection screen.
"Now that you're all here, we can proceed. On this screen is just basic information, rules and regulations, beyblade statistics, all things you should be familiar with already, but we're going to be going over them again." he said, glancing around the room, making sure he had everyone's attention.
I leaned back in my chair, relaxing. So we would start with the basics. Alright. I knew I could handle that.
Around 30 minutes later, after every little detail of the beyblade tag team tournament was explained, it was finally time for us to introduce ourselves to the other coaches. I watched with semi-interest as Jean Paul, Judy, Tao, and Romero, that man who was swiveling on the chair—the coach of F-Dynasty, spoke their pieces and sat back down. It was now my turn to speak, and I rose from my chair, trying to hide my unease.
Approaching the front of the room, I stepped in front of the projection screen.
"Hello everyone."
They replied with their own greetings, and I began again.
"My name is Hiro Granger, the coach of the BBA Revolution. I'm really looking forward to this tag team tournament, as I know you all are. My brother and the rest of the team are really stoked for this year's matches. We're going to really look forward to beybattling your teams."
Alright, that's a good start, I thought, noting the positive looks on the other coaches' faces. They seem to be interested.
"My goal as a coach is to guide my team to victory, as I'm sure it is with you. And I think that the best way to do this is to return to the purest and most rewarding type of beyblading, blading for fun and always improving your skills. Those are the lessons that I'm going to be teaching my bladers. I feel that, together, we can achieve anything, and regardless of how we place in the tournament, we're going to be proud of ourselves."
Silence. Had I done a good job?
But then, clapping, first originating from Jean Paul, who sat in his seat, watching me. The others joined in soon after.
"Wonderful, Hiro! I think you really understand the true spirit of beyblading," Mr. Dickenson said, smiling and ushering me back to my seat.
The other coaches smiled at me as I walked past to my chair, Jean Paul especially. When I sat down, he spoke to me quietly.
"You know, I really admire your views on beyblade—you really seem to know about the... right way to play this game."
"Thank you," I said, turning my attention back to Mr. Dickenson, who was about to wrap up the meeting.
After the meeting had ended, most of the coaches went off to whatever business they had to attend to, be it looking after their teams or eating something or even going to bed.
I knew that my team would need little supervision, while Tyson and Daichi were both insane, Hilary and Kenny were very stable. Everything would balance out, and the group was used to being together anyway.
As for bed, I never went to bed early, I was always up late, whether it was good for me or not. I was mostly hungry at this point, wanting little more than to get some food and return to my room.
Walking out of the meeting room, I looked around. There was a restaurant on the first floor, I knew, and the coaches, and players of the beyblade tag team tournament got to eat for free, so I wasn't about to pass that up.
But before I could begin walking away, I heard a soft voice call me from the other direction.
"Hiro.. as I said before, your views on beyblade are simply fascinating. Perhaps we could discuss them further? I was thinking about going to dinner after the meeting. I wouldn't mind in the least if you accompanied me."
I didn't know what to say. He was being so friendly, he seemed so interested in me.. that was basically something I'd never felt before. I wanted to agree, I wanted to go, I wanted to spend more time with him.
"Sure. I'd be glad to.." I said, trailing off as I realized that I didn't exactly like what I was wearing, the outfit had stains on it from earlier and I'd been wearing it all day. ".. but I need to go up to my room first. I think I'll change into something else."
"Oh, alright. Then I'll wait for you there?"
"Fine. I'll be there shortly."
We walked off, he toward the staircase to the first floor, and me toward the elevator...))
I snapped out of it, realizing that flashing back to the earlier evening was nice, but would only result in me being late to dinner.
Making the final adjustments to my outfit, I did a final twirl to observe myself and then headed for the door, checking to make sure I had my key before letting it shut behind me.
The hall was even more quiet than before, if that could be said. I made my way quickly back to the elevator and pushed the 'Down' button. It came instantly, and I stepped into it, pressing the '1'.
As the elevator made its way down, I stood in thought.
You're excited.. about going to discuss beyblade coaching with some guy you don't even know? What on earth are you hoping to gain from this, Hiro? And is this even really about beyblade? If it wasn't, would it matter?
The questions would remain unanswered for now, the elevator reached its destination and I left it for the first floor, glancing around while walking, hoping to see Jean Paul somewhere...
"Hiro—good to see you again. I was beginning to worry you'd found someone else to have dinner with!" he said, 'appearing' in front of me. I hadn't seen him, but he had clearly spotted me.
"No, I was just being slow, that's all. Sorry."
"You were putting thought into what you were going to wear, that's all. I think it's attractive—the blue is very nice on you."
I paused, fighting the blush I knew was coming on. That was a nice compliment...
He saw my struggle against my emotions, and responded to it. "Oh, now it's my turn to be sorry, it seems. I didn't mean to make you uneasy, I was simply stating that I liked the outfit."
I didn't want him to be sorry, for some reason. "Don't be sorry. I appreciate your comment."
"Alright then."
We walked together, toward the restaurant, neither one of us saying much to the other, but I felt that both of us were stealing glances at each other out of the corners of our eyes.
At least, I knew I was.
End Chapter One