Me: Ah crap, nearly a month since I updated this x.x

Tyson: I can forgive you for that for making me some sort of flying star

Kai: I can't.

Me: .. heh, sorry guys! Read on?

Small, delicate flower petals drifted down from the sakura tree above Tyson and Kai's heads. Sitting there, on the garden bench, taking in the view of the large, decorative garden, Tyson was contemplating to ask Kai something important.

Kai, however, had caught on to Tyson's sudden mood change a while ago. He knew the angel very well by now, seeing the bluenet was normally extremely open and let his mood and emotions be visible to everyone.

Staring at the large expensive garden before him (The workers at the house took great care in keeping it looking nice), he decided to probe Tyson for an answer as to why he was suddenly nervous. Seeing the angel in such a stiff and uncertain way caused Kai to be worried and lose self-esteem, things which he didn't particularly like.

"What's wrong?" He questioned, switching his gaze from looking at the flower to frown up at the older teen. His brow furrowed a little more as the angel shifted slightly in uncertainty before answering in a small, slightly shy voice that wasn't like him at all.

"Kai… you know I used be a competitor back up in Ai Clouds? In flight competitions and stuff…" Tyson started off slowly, fidgeting slightly. "Well, the next one's coming up and I was wondering… if you would kinda… let me compete?" He questioned quietly, cocking his head curiously at Kai in a silent plea he would say yes. His charge had to come too after all.

Kai blinked. That was it? The dual haired teen didn't need much of an excuse to go up to the beautiful angel realm, with his parents being up there and all. "Of course…" he replied, still slightly bemused at how Tyson would be nervous over something as trivial as that. "When is it?"

Tyson sighed in relief and grinned at him in his gratitude. "Two weeks." He told him, amused at Kai's slightly shocked expression, "I know it's not very long, but I only got word today."

Kai put the information aside that Tyson had been informed about something that day without him knowing by asking his angel another question, "Do you need to train?" He asked, wondering vaguely if flying athletes like Tyson needed to train before such a big competition. He knew the bluenet was a natural flier, but surely he would need some practice at least.

"Not so much for acrobatics, seeing as that's my strong point, I just need to come up with a routine." Tyson replied. "For the speed race, I probably will, seeing as that's where I lack and stuff." He grinned sheepishly at his charge and scratched behind his head, "I'm ok going fast over short distances, but a fast, steady speed over a long one I'm… not so good at."

"The distance from here to my school is pretty far." Kai told him, "and you have to carry me as well, so surely that must help slightly."

"It's not far in terms on racing… or fast for that matter. I've already told you I can't fly at full speed while carrying you, right? So it's not much practice other than in weight training." Tyson replied with a small grin.

"I see… well, I guess you had better put one week to speed, the other for your acrobatics routine." Kai said, standing up, "should we start now?" He questioned, not really being the type to just sit around and do nothing when training and practice were concerned.

Tyson shot him a brilliant smile, "you'll help me?"

"Of course."

"I guess it's kinda helpful that you're on Spring break and don't have to worry about school and stuff." Tyson commented as Kai set up a stopwatch a table for recording his times and speed. He tilted his head in confusion at the little black contraption Kai was holding, "What's that?"

"A stopwatch. You start it and it starts counting up in seconds, plus you can stop it to see how long something took do something." Kai explained, turning the device so Tyson could see.

"Wow… cool!" Tyson exclaimed. "Where should I start and finish?" He questioned, looking around. They were in the middle of empty field by Kai's home. Living on the outskirts of the city with plenty of empty land to own had it upsides at times.

"Start here and end at that oak tree over there." Kai instructed, pointing at said tree. "Then come back and we'll see how you did."

"Ok… seems easy enough." Tyson commented. Bending his knees, he unfurled his wings, easing into the racing starting position. Three large flaps and a push off from his legs and he was in the air, soaring forwards at a relatively low altitude. His arms snapped to his sides and legs pressed together tightly. Breathing harshly through his nose, he concentrated on his flight tactics and getting to that tree and back in the shortest time possible.

Kai had to cover his eyes when Tyson took off like a shot, bringing up a large gust of wind in his wake. Watching him zoom off, the dual haired teen had to admit that Tyson's speed in the air was very impressive, keeping his eyes on the stopwatch when he saw his angel turn around sharply and fly back towards him.

As soon as the bluenet dashed him, Kai clamped down his thumb on the stop button of his watch, turning to wait for the bluenet to land and walk back to him.

Spreading his wings sharply for the added air resistance as he landed, Tyson landed neatly on the ground and couldn't stop the grin that spread over his face at the feeling of being able to fly like that again. Turning around, he bounded over to Kai happily to see what time he had achieved, "how'd I do?" He asked happily.

"Very well…" Kai murmured, staring down at the reading in slight stupefied shock. It read that Tyson had completed his four hundred metres (the length of one lap around the track) in a mere fifty-two seconds. "You did that under a minute."

Tyson grinned. "Well, I did say that I was good over short distances. Unfortunately, the race is ten times around the track, and I get tired flying at such speeds." He explained.

"You should keep to a steady pace, and then speed up." Kai informed him. "You won't get tired so easily then."

"You say that, but everyone flies at the same speed all the way through, so even I did speed up at the end, I wouldn't get anywhere after my long trailing behind." Tyson told him, sounding a little put out. "I happen to be the youngest competitor in terms of body structure, so get tired before everyone else."

Kai raised his eyebrows, impressed. "You're the youngest?" He questioned.

"Yeah…" Tyson smiled proudly, "an honour but not when the older competitors underestimate you so much."

"Well, you have the talent to know you're better so ignore them." Kai stated, missing his angel's smile at the compliment. "Why don't you fly back and forth ten times… which is the length of your race, and see how you feel?" He suggested, "we can work from there."

Just then, Tyson grew to appreciate just how much Kai was good at being a trainer. Happy and a decisively good mood, he turned to face the old oak tree again and prepared himself for the flight ahead of him. Spreading his wings once more, he took off, flying to complete his ten laps.

Taking a seat on the grass so he could watch and starting the stopwatch, Kai's red eyes followed Tyson's flying form as he zipped up and down the field, his movements precise and advanced, showing off how experienced he really was in his flying sport. By the time Tyson had entered the last leg on his last lap, he seemed to be dragging slightly, not nearly as fast as he was the beginning.

Landing clumsily and not bothering to fold his wings, Tyson dropped to his knees and panted for breath, pitching forwards to brace himself on all fours. His wings were draped across the grassy ground as he raised a shaky hand to wipe the sweat from his brow.

Concerned, Kai stood up and headed over to him, kneeling down beside him and resting a pale hand on his angel's shoulder, "you ok?" He questioned.

Exhaling and sitting backwards onto his ankles, Tyson shot Kai a weary smile but nodded, "I'm fine chibi, just a little tired is all."

Kai frowned slightly and removed his hand from Tyson's shoulder. "Maybe you should take it in pieces and build up until you can take the entire track?" He suggested.

Tyson looked thoughtful for a few moments before grinning and nodding, "perfect!"

"Ok, now acrobatics is easy." Tyson told Kai the next week after gruelling racing training. True, his wings were aching a little more than normal, but he could put up with it. "I can do all the tricks… well, most of them… all I gotta do is lump them all together to put together a routine!"

"What can you do?" Kai questioned, intrigued.

"Dives, loop-the-loops, twirls, twists, and backwards flying… you know, the usual." Tyson replied.

"And what is it you can't do?"

"The death spiral." The bluenet told him. "Yeah, I know. The name is lame… hey, I rhymed!"

Kai rolled his eyes. "What do you have to do to pull it off?"

Tyson looked thoughtful for a few moments before spreading his wings. "It's kinda hard to explain, so I'll just show you." He said, taking off. Climbing in altitude, Tyson reached a high peak before flipping his body over and plummeting back down to Earth, wings looking a little ungainly. A few meters above the ground, Tyson scrambled to pull himself into a reasonable position to land. "Something like that… only better. No-one's pulled it off though since it was invented, it puts a lot of stress on your wings."

Kai nodded slowly. "Ok… you had better work on that and a routine."

"Agreed."

As the week passed on, a routine was formed, and hours were spent trying to perfect the death spiral until Tyson complained his wings were really beginning to hurt. By the time the competition was only a day away, Tyson was feeling a little confident he was ready with the help from his charge.

He just hoped it would be enough.

"Ok, Ok… I'm calm." Tyson mumbled to himself. He was standing in the middle of Kai's room, taking deep breaths and pushing down the growing nerves welling up inside of him. He couldn't help but feel nervous before such a big competition, no matter how hard he tried not too.

"Don't be so stiff, you'll be fine." Kai told him from where he was sitting on his desk chair. They were waiting for the signal so that they could return to Ai Clouds so that Tyson could participate. He rolled his eyes when Tyson's wings puffed up to betray his sudden panic attack. Getting up, he walked behind his angel and placed his hands firmly on the bluenet's shoulders, rubbing the tension away from there.

Tyson let out a small sigh and his wings sagged slightly, his feather flattening as his worry eased away slowly. "You're very good at that chibi…" he mumbled, looking over his shoulder to smile gratefully down at his charge.

Kai returned the smile with a faint one of his own. "You're welcome." He said softly, moving his hands away slowly, as though he was unwilling to make their contact go so soon.

Tyson was about to open his mouth to say something else when a small 'pop' sounded in front of him and he turned, blinking in surprise at a golden feather that had seemingly appeared from nowhere and was now drifting to the floor slowly. "That's our signal to go." He announced, reaching behind him to hold Kai's hand.

"Why's it gold?" Kai questioned, frowning at it. While he was in Ai Clouds, all the angels he had seen had white feathers like Tyson, not gold ones. "Shouldn't it be white?"

"It's the head elder's feather." Tyson explained. "There's a head honcho somewhere in Ai Clouds that kind of runs the place with the help of the other elders. His wings are gold, unlike ours, though no-one's ever seen him apart from the elders." He paused before continuing as the golden feather become a golden light ball, "He was elected by the other elders to be the leader when Ai Clouds was recently just made, and those elders were very special people when they were alive… and old."

Kai's red eyes followed the bouncing ball of light as it made its way towards them, "when was Ai Clouds first made?" He questioned, as the light ball grew bigger like before after Tyson has crashed in that storm.

"No-one knows." Tyson admitted. "Some say it was desolate when the first angels arrived there, and that those angels built the place. Others say it began when the first human died… but not many dwell on it that much. It's basically inexplicable. I don't even know if the head elder knows." He told Kai, the light engulfing them. "It doesn't matter anyway." He turned around and wrapped his arms around his charge tightly so he wouldn't get tossed in their trip. "Time to go!"

Kai didn't reply to that, just buried his head in Tyson's shoulder in what he hoped was in an inconspicuous way as the light headed feeling returned and the area around him blurred as they were transported to their new location.

He reopened his eyes a few seconds later when his feet hit solid ground and his head stopped spinning. Pulling away from Tyson's slowly, embarrassed after finding they were in public at the entrance of a very full flight stadium, he looked around with wide eyes. Large red tapestries had been draped down the outer walls advertising the event, and thousands of angels were seated in the stands, others flying above for the best view.

"This way." Tyson murmured into his ear so didn't have to shout above all the other angel's voices. "Contestants have to go somewhere else." He tugged Kai in the direction away from the main entrance, towards a small wooden door set a few meters away from the grand archway. "Here we are!" He announced, reaching forwards and pushing open the door and ushering Kai inside.

Immediately to the side of the interior, in a little hole in the wall was a tall, burly angel. He looked at them gruffly and, recognising Tyson as a competitor and assuming that seeing as Kai had now wings, he was the bluenet's charge. He waved them inside impatiently and shut the wooden door without a word.

Kai blinked. A little further in with was a small, cosy room with a bench and clothes rack for each competitor. Above these was a small brass name plaque adorned with each player's name. Silent and somewhat excited for the coming event, he followed behind his angel in silence as they came to a stop before the older teen's space.

"Oh great, it's still ok." Tyson said in relief as he removed his flight uniform from its clothes rack.

Kai was just about to sit down on the bench as the other competing angels cast scrutinizing gazes over him when a small, familiar cry sounded from the other end of the changing room. "Yo! T-man!"

Tyson looked up in embarrassment as he grandfather strode over and poked him in the nose. "Now listen here Little Dude, you gotta concentrate, ya hear? Ya gotta get in the zone… centre your mind and all that jazz! Ya gotta win!" He declared, sticking his face in his grandson's and placing both of his wrinkly hands on the bluenet's shoulders.

Tyson waved him off, "yeah, yeah I get it. Can you and please bother someone else so I can get changed?" He pressed his palms together in a begging motion when his grandpa didn't budge, "please?"

The old angel humphed but turned around the same, heading back over to where Yoshi were standing looking vaguely amused, muttering something about not being appreciated.

"You too." Tyson told his charge, pushing him slightly in the middle of his back; "you're not watching me change, shoo!"

Kai gave him an exasperated look, and was slightly startled at the fact he was slightly disappointed at being shooed away. Sighing, he wandered over to where Tyson's mother and grandfather were standing, hovering awkwardly about.

Or at least, he was until he felt a slender hand rest down on his shoulder and he looked up in surprise and slight annoyance at the gentle face of Yoshi Kinomiya. She was smiling at him, in a very similar way to how his angel smiled at him but it didn't have the same effect as Tyson's did.

"So you're my son's charge…" she murmured, her deep blue eyes flittering over to her son briefly, despite his lack of decency (she had seem him without clothes before, it wasn't such a big deal), "you're lucky to have him you know… he's a good, caring person."

Kai's eyes drifted away from the face of his angel's mother to floor. "I know…" he whispered softly.

"Ok! I'm all ready!" Tyson announced, heading back over to his family and charge and grinning at them in a confident manner that betrayed the nervous feelings inside of him.

Kai's eyebrows rose slightly at the flight uniform that his angel was wearing. The bluenet was wearing a long sleeved white shirt made out of odd material, like the sails of ships, with a brown leather face laced up on top. On his forearms and stretching down to his hands was a pair of leather brown gloves with the ends of the fingers cut off. His trousers were made of not too tight, but not too loose white leather with laced up brown leather boots to finish the image.

"Don't you look handsome?" Yohsi praised, heading over to her son to place a kiss on his cheek and hug him slightly, "good luck honey."

Grandpa Kinomiya nodded with a proud smile on his old face.

Outside, in the main stadium, a claxon sounded for the first competitor to go out and for the last remaining angles to take their seats. On the wall was a schedule for angels competing.

Tyson went over to bend down and murmur into his charge's ear, "Your parents will be in the stadium, chibi." He pulled away and winked at him. "You better go and get your seat before you're kicked out of the stadium.

Kai nodded slightly. "Good luck." He told him quietly.

The bluenet winked and gave him a thumbs up.

"Here we are!" Yoshi announced, gesturing to a row of three empty seats. "These are for us." Ushering Kai and her father forwards to take the first two seats, she took the third one and got comfortable.

Kai had just sat down and was looking at the small, almost unseen archway where the first flier was to come out when for the second time, a hand clapped down on his shoulder. Slightly startled, he whirled around but relaxed when he saw his father.

Susumu smiled at him, ruffling his son's hair (much to the dual haired teen's distaste) while his wife smiled in amusement beside him. "Hey there kiddo. You can tell me all about what's been happening back down there, after…" he gestured to the where the first flier, a sandy haired male, was entering, "the competition's ended."

Nodding slightly in bemusement, Kai settled down, all sorts of different emotions like happiness, relaxation and excitement at the day's current events. So many different and wonderful things were happening it was difficult to concentrate properly and say anything at all. Whether he wanted to or not.

After the first five fliers had been out to perform their routines, including one crash and one spectacular performance by a red haired female using long, multi-coloured ribbons that flowed gracefully in the wind she flew, the claxon sounded again for the sixth competitor to enter the ring.

Kai couldn't stop the small, proud smile that etched its way up onto his face as he saw he angel fly into view, the sun catching on his wings and making the shine brightly, any stray feathers that had fallen out from the fast take off glittering as they fell back to the ground.

"Tyson does have unusually shiny wings…" Susumu commented from Kai's right. "I haven't one angel that has wings that shine in the light like his do."

"It is odd, but very beautiful." His wife agreed. "I wonder what he does to them."

Kai found himself not having an answer to that musing, deciding to just place it on the fact Tyson could be quite vain about his wings when he wanted to be, and just enjoying the performance his angel was going to give.

Feeling fuelled by his charge's emotions that were encouraging him silently to do well and the feeling of the wind rushing against him mingled with the cheers and shouts of the crowd all around him, Tyson soared up, higher and higher until he was in danger of flying out of the stadium.

Reaching the peak of his ascent, he flipped his body over backwards and angled his wings so that he was dropping down; head first, into what many angels had failed to do… the death spiral. Twisting around in many three hundred and sixty degree motions while plummeting to the ground at high speeds, Tyson shut his eyes and drowned the noise of the crowd to concentrate.

In the stands, ignoring the gasps of the crowd at Tyson's brave move, Kai crossed his fingers silently, hoping that his angel would be able to pull off such a hard move without hurting himself… and being the first to do so as well.

With the surge of hope and emotions that screamed his charge believed in him, Tyson snapped open his eyes and rolled over, beating his wings to come back up, off the ground with a twist, his wings never once brushing against the ground.

The roar of excitement from the spectators was deafening, everyone screaming in excitement at the youngest competitor pulling off a perfect death spiral, the first angel to do so since the move was invented.

Barely hearing Yoshi's cries of "he did it!" Kai relaxed slightly in his seat, pride shooting through him at Tyson's achievement.

Grinning from ear to ear, Tyson flipped and looped his way around the arena, twisting his body and flipping it over, positioning his wings in what he hoped would be appealing to the judges, flying backwards and pulling all manner of tricks that he practiced with the help of charge.

His wings were aching slightly from the death spiral and the sudden pull up that had come with it, but Tyson angled his body so he could fly close to the ground in order to go into his finale. Manoeuvring his wings so that he could glide along and so he could reach up and grab a couple of handfuls of loose feathers, Tyson took a deep breath and soared upwards, looping over backwards while letting his feather fall from his fingers, the light catching on them and making them sparkle as they drifted.

Somersaulting down into a crouched position, Tyson straitened and grinned at the cheering crowd, bowing and folding his wings, his chest heaving as he regained his breath.

Kai joined in the applause at what nearly everyone in the stadium considered to be the best performance so far. He watched his angel leave the arena with proud red eyes, the smile on his face growing slightly.

"He's good." Susumu commented. "Very good… a very talented flier indeed."

Tyson sat himself down on his bench in the changing room, wiping the back of his hand across his brow and regaining his breath slowly as the last few angels went out to compete. Unfortunately, due to Tyson's performance, the remaining few had seemingly lost their confidence.

The bluenet winced at what sounded like a crash outside. Hopefully that angel would be fine enough to compete in the race that was coming up.

Sighing and resting back against the stone wall behind him, Tyson couldn't stop the adrenaline and rushing emotions that were shooting through him at his achievement. Surely the move he had just pulled off would be enough to at least get him somewhere high up in the rankings so that he would be in a good place to be on the podium.

In small corner of his mind he was aware of his charge's pride of him, and the hope that he would do well. Amusingly, the dual haired teen also seemed a little bewildered by the whole thing.

Smiling, Tyson opened his eyes and glanced to his right where, more often than not, Kai would be sitting. A small crossed over his brow as he felt sort of… lonely. He had grown very used to always being beside the younger teen's side and now it felt odd not to be with him.

Sitting there, lost in thoughts, he was unaware of the last of the competitors heading out to perform their routines. As the claxon sounded to signal the end of the competition, he snapped back to reality as the other angels began stretching for the last event on the track. Outside, helping angels were making sure that the track lines were equal and good for racing.

Tyson drew in a deep breath. This was it.

Across from him, Kai could see the judges, old and strict looking. They had their heads bent towards each other and seemed to be in a heated conversation with one another. After some muttering and some nodding of heads, they drew alert and gestured that the racing could begin.

The dual haired teen's gaze dropped the ground of the arena, now decorated with long white lines in the same formation those used in big competitions down on Earth were. He could just about see the positions where the angels were to start and finish and he dragged his gaze up to the archway where the competitors were flying out to their starting positions. Unknowingly, he crossed his fingers again.

Crouching down into his starting position, Tyson tried to block out distractions and remember his one week training with Kai as the claxon sounded once, twice and a third time, the long, loud blast signalling the start.

Pushing off with his legs and beating his wings as fast as he could, Tyson angled his body to be as streamline as possible, managing to get an early lead in front of the other burlier angels. He was aware of a particularly angry looking one just behind him, but paid no attention, focusing on getting all the way around without being distracted.

Unfortunately, he missed the determined frown of the angel behind him, and the sudden push to go faster as the large competitor swooped dangerously close to Tyson. A glint in his dark eyes and he bumped, purposefully into the bluenet, sending him tumbling into the sides of the arena, propelled by his flight speed.

Crying out in surprise, Tyson was aware of his back smacking against the rocky walls of the arena sides. He groaned as his body slumped down to the ground, wings sagging.

It was probably something akin to fear that made Kai stand up so abruptly and call out, but he did it.

"Tyson!"

Tyson: That was mean.

Me: I know ;.;

Kai: Now what?

Me: What now what?

Kai: What happens to him? (getures in Tyson's crumpled, general direction)

Me: Oh, that. Well I can't possibly say xD Reivew?