Mei: I haven't updated in so long. xP I'm a horrible person, I know. I won't get into my excuses. Anyway, I don't even know if people are still reading this, but here's the next chapter anyway.

And thanks to all the people who continued to review and put up with my extreme procrastination in updating. You guys are awesome. :3

Disclaimer: The day that Beyblade belongs to me, pink and green polka-dotted whales will fly. The same goes for Gravitation. (Although I can always dream…)

Warning: Shounen ai

----------------------------------------------

When the Snow Falls

Chapter Four

----------------------------------------------

"He didn't believe me."

The broken pine cone flew across sidewalk, taking a dusting of light, feathery snow with it as it went. The boy who had kicked it stuffed his hands into the pockets of his ever present bright red jacket angrily, and kicked uselessly at more of the snow, as if the frozen expanse was somehow responsible for all of his troubles.

Beside him, the brown-haired girl watched, her eyes showing a slight tinge of worry, "It's not so bad," she finally said, attempting to be reassuring. Although the subject had only just been suddenly brought up, she was fairly sure she knew what her friend was talking about. "You just have to try again," she added hopefully.

"Try again?" The teenaged boy scowled, his temper obviously rising, as it so often did when he got worked up about something. Even a very small something, "He as good as rejected me, Hil."

Hilary wasn't sure what to say. The whole day had had a rather melancholy tone. Especially with the gray clouds that had been looming of the Russian city, coupled with the dreary old buildings of this section of town, and the bright whiteness of the snow, the whole place had a very monochrome feel to itself. They had spent the better part of the day trying to find Mariah, Ray had insisted adamantly on looking for her, and Tyson had insisted with equal stubbornness on helping Ray look for her. So naturally, inspired by the ever energetic world champion, the entire group had joined in to help – with the exception of…

"Kai!"

Hilary jumped, casting Tyson a startled glance. Lost in her thoughts, she had been unaware that her best friend had been ranting about the rather elusive object of his affection for the past few minutes.

"Why does he do this to me?" Tyson demanded to no one in particular, as if the answer would suddenly present itself to him out of no where, "I don't understand him at all."

"Well, you shouldn't give up," said Hilary sternly. An idea suddenly popped into her head, and she gave a mischievous grin, "Suichi never gave up on Yuki in Gravitation!"

Tyson's eyes widened, having been very suddenly jolted out of his brooding over Kai, "Oh no!" he wailed, shutting his eyes as if that would somehow make it all go away, "Not this again! I don't want to hear about your stupid Gravitation!"

"It's not stupid!" Hilary protested angrily, and then an all too familiar dreamy look came over her face, "It's such a sweet story…"

"Man, haven't you tortured me with this enough times already? I know the whole story, and I've never even seen it," Tyson cringed, dreading what was about to come.

"But it's just so cute!" Hilary gushed, giggling crazily, "And you and Kai are so much like them!"

The navy-haired teenage beyblader groaned. This was a song he had heard from her far too many times to possibly count.

"You're always trying so hard to impress Kai, and he's always putting you down!" Hilary exclaimed gleefully. Tyson failed to see how there was anything good about that. "It's just like Suichi and Yuki!"

"No," Tyson moaned half-heartedly, knowing this was an argument he was doomed to lose, "No, it isn't! Me and Kai, and Yuki and whoever, are nothing alike."

"Kai and I, and Yuki and Suichi" Hilary corrected automatically, completely ignoring Tyson as he rolled his eyes, "And you guys are so alike! Kai makes such a great seme, with all his rebel-ness and evil death glares, and you make a perfect uke," she giggled at the sour face that Tyson made in response to this.

"Do I have pink hair? Do I?" he asked indignantly, recalling the pictures that Hilary had so gleefully shown him, "Do I look like that girl out of Cardcaptors!"

"Suichi does not look like Sakura!" screeched the brunette, balling up her fists angrily, "And I wasn't referring to appearance. You're all cheerful, and happy, and always trying to get Kai to go out, and do things! And he's all grumpy and mysterious and angsty-ish…" she continued on and on and on.

Tyson sighed. This was hopeless. His best hope was just to try and tune her out. The fact that she was starting to add "ness" and "ish" to the end of everything was only further proof that she was moving on into a full-blown rant.

Suddenly, she gasped, "Tyson!"

"What?" he snapped, being more than a little annoyed.

"Max would make a brilliant uke too!"

"Oh no…" Tyson said, bracing himself for what would inevitably come.

"He's single, right?" asked Hilary excitedly, not bothering to wait for Tyson's reply she gave a delighted squeal, jumping up and down in the snowy sidewalk in her excitement, and causing people to cast her odd looks, "Tyson, we just have to set him up with someone! A really hot guy…"

"Uh…" Tyson had known that the brunette had always been oblivious to the fact that both Max and Kenny had a crush on her, and were constantly fighting over who could gain the most of her attention, but he'd never known that she was this oblivious.

"It'd be perfect!" then her dark brown eyes widened ever further, as she somehow thought of another, 'better', idea, "Kenny would make a great uke too!"

Tyson was completely dumbfounded. And then, suddenly, and image popped into his mind of what kind of reaction Max and Kenny would have, if they heard this. He couldn't help himself, he just started laughing.

"What's so funny, mister?" she asked impatiently, "Do you have an objection to my plan?"

Tyson struggled to keep himself from snickering, "Hil, Max and Kenny are kind of straight."

"Oh really?" Hilary didn't sound the least bit convinced. "And how would you know?"

Her friend sighed, and slung an arm around her shoulder, "Let's just say it's exceedingly obvious…"

There was no reply for a while, and then, "Exceedingly is a really big word, Tyson… are you feeling all right?"

"Hilary!"

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Shit…

He'd made a complete mess of his shirt. And his pillow. And pretty much the rest of his bed. What had he been thinking? Normally he was never this careless. If he didn't get this cleaned up soon he'd have a lot of explaining to do, explaining he didn't want, or need, to deal with.

After the whole scene with the White Tigers and the others, he'd trudged up to his room, feeling a desperate need to be completely alone. He didn't think he could face the others, seeing as he knew who had taken the bit-beasts, and why, and how, and where they now were.

Ray had promised his friends, the White Tigers, to help them and the others look for the missing bit-chips, and of course, Tyson, being the friendly, helpful, loyal, loveable, brave, strong, gorgeous… ahem, Tyson being Tyson had offered to help out too. So what was Kai supposed to say?

"Yeah, I know where they are. In fact, my psychopath grandfather was bailed out of jail recently, and his little lackey Boris with him, and they have a grand scheme to use the bit-beasts for world domination and all that jazz – and did I mention I know all of this because I'm helping them?"

Oh yeah, that would have gone over real well.

Then of course, there was what Tyson had said to him earlier… "What I'm trying to say, I guess is that… I… uh… I think I… I love you… you know?"

No, Kai didn't know. Tyson couldn't love him. He was Kai! He was a jerk! An asshole! Scum! He was about to betray the only real friends he had ever had, again! All because of his selfish pride about being second best in the eyes of a man who had never even cared about him!

It was all fine and dandy for Kai to love Tyson (ignoring for a moment that Kai was supposed to be emotionless, ruthless, power-hungry, inherit his grandfather's company, and help rule the world). Tyson was kind, and caring, and selfless, and funny, and trustworthy, and the kind of guy who deserved to have people fall in love with/worship/adore/stalk – okay, maybe not stalk him, but that had never stopped Kai.

The point was: why should Tyson love Kai? There was no logic in it! Kai had always been cold, and rude, and arrogant, and generally plain unlovable. There was no point in getting his hopes up. Tyson had to have done it to get out of training. What else could it be? But the world champion had sounded so sincere, and when Kai had blown him off he could have sworn Tyson had looked hurt.

Of course, if that was true that he had said so to get out of training, then the only reason he would have pulled something like that was if he knew. And how would he know? Kai didn't keep diaries. At least he didn't remember keeping diaries – maybe somewhere along the way his "traumatic" (Kai didn't like to be referred to as traumatized) childhood had caused him to have multiple personalities that he didn't know about, and one of them kept a diary. A fluffy, pink diary. And since they were actually a part of Kai, they loved Tyson too! And having the diary (the fluffy, pink diary), they couldn't resist writing "I love Tyson!" all over it in bold purple letters – and suppose Tyson had found that…

Okay, now he was just being silly. Here he was, bleeding all over the hotel bed, while his friends went to search for stolen bit-beasts that were taken by his deranged grandfather – who he was yet again working for – and all he could think about was whether Tyson had read his non-existent diary.

Or maybe the blood loss was affecting his thinking… that was probably what it was. It occurred to him if he'd lost so much blood that it was starting to mess with his head, then maybe he should be at least slightly worried.

Kai chuckled darkly to himself. His life wasn't screwed up at all.

"Do you really get that much of a kick out of trying to kill yourself?"

Kai snapped to attention, looking around the room – and trying not to look too frantic about it – for the voice that had spoken. It was oddly familiar.

"Tala."

"Ooh, good guess. Shall I give you a cookie?" The red-headed Russian was perched on the window sill (the window which Kai suddenly realized was wide open), and looking incredibly bored.

Kai narrowed his eyes, and attempted to look as nonchalant as possible despite the fact that he was more than a little embarrassed to be caught bleeding all over the place out of his own doing, "What do you want?"

"Me?" asked Tala, raising an eyebrow, "I want to go home and watch my Russian soap operas." He sighed almost wistfully, "but I guess we don't get everything we want, do we?"

"Soap operas?" Kai rolled his eyes deciding that he didn't want to know, "Okay, fine. Why are you here?"

"I'm babysitting you," said Tala casually.

"You're what?" demanded Kai. He felt the sudden need to cover up the drying blood on his sheets, even though Tala had clearly already seen it.

Tala sighed, again. "I'm supposed to make sure you don't cause any "trouble". Like last time." He gave Kai a meaningful stare.

Kai knew what he meant. He'd heard no end from his grandfather on the days following the first world championship tournament with the Bladebreakers. There were many threats, even more bruises, and yet even more insults. However, Voltaire had then been sent to jail, and for the first time in his life Kai didn't have to answer to his grandfather. For a while, he had been thinking he would never have to again.

He'd been so naïve.

"Look, these are Boris' orders," said Tala, "Don't think I'm getting some sort of twisted turn on from stalking your every move. You're not even supposed to know I'm watching you."

"Oh?" asked Kai, raising an eyebrow, "Why would you tell me, then?"

"Because it would make my job a whole lot easier if you didn't do anything stupid," explained the red-head, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world.

He hopped off the window ledge, onto the bed, and placed his face inches from the shorter teenager, his voice lowering, "So now that you know I'm watching you, maybe it'll give you more incentive not to "accidentally" let anything slip to any of your little friends…" he trailed off, a slightly pained look surfacing in his eyes, "… I… do have my orders, if that should happen," he added firmly, but quietly, "I don't want to have to carry them out."

Kai nodded mutely. He was suddenly wishing that all he had to worry about was whether he had split personas that kept diaries depicting his undying love for another boy.

Seemingly satisfied, Tala stood up, and walked briskly to the door of the room, "You might want to clean yourself up, by the way. Red's not really your colour." Not waiting for a response – likely knowing there wouldn't be one anyway – he walked out of the room.

The door fell shut, and Kai vaguely noted that it was no longer locked, which left anyone free to walk in and discover his current predicament, but that wasn't very high on his list of worries anymore.

In a somewhat mechanical fashion, Kai stood up. The rather sudden movement, combined with the loss of blood caused his vision to go rather blurry for a few moments, and he stumbled in a less-than-graceful un-Kai-like way to the washroom.

He locked the door, automatically, and dragged his bag out onto the counter – exactly why had he left it in the bathroom, anyway? Careful not to make any more of a mess than he already had, he pulled out many extra clothes before finding a spare set of bandages that he had always kept around just in case. Kai may have had a few "issues" but he wasn't suicidal. Well, not right now, anyway.

Just because he'd occasionally thought about it, didn't mean he would ever really do it. It was the coward's way out, he told himself, and Kai Hiwatari was not a coward. Well, if so why had he caved in to the demands of his grandfather so many times…? Ignoring this thought, he wrapped the bandage around his throbbing wrist. The pain which he had somehow forgotten coming back and slicing evenly through his thoughts until all he noticed was the pain, and the mechanical movements of his arm as he neatly folded his clothes up once again and replaced them inside his bag.

He didn't notice the sound of the door opening in the room just outside until it was too late.

"Kai? Are you here? We found Mariah and… What the-!" It was Tyson's voice. Kai paled, the world champion was back already. He'd have to think up an excuse, and quick. But what was he supposed to say?

The doorknob to the bathroom turned, but it was obviously locked. Kai stared at it blankly as it made futile attempts to turn itself. Finally, it seemed to give up on itself. There was a loud bang, and the bathroom door shook. This was followed by another bang, and another, creating a rather repetitive, and extremely loud and annoying, pattern. Tyson must have noticed the light seeping from under the bathroom door and figured out that Kai was inside.

"Kai! Are you in there? Answer me! There's blood all over your bed! What's going on? Are you okay? Kai!"

Don't worry Tyson, it's only the blood from Kai slitting his wrists like the messed up, depressed grandson of a psychopath that he is. It was nothing major, don't have a cow. And if the art of being criminally psychotic was hereditary, all the more fun! He again wondered vaguely if he should be worried.

Of course he should be worried, what the hell was he going to say to Tyson? That he'd accidentally cut his wrist on his pocket knife? Tyson may not have been the brightest bulb around, but he wasn't stupid, he'd catch on. And then what would he do? Would he tell the others what a freak Kai was? Would tell some "trusted adult" and get Kai sent to some sort of therapy, where he'd be locked away in an institution until they'd brainwashed him into being "normal" again?

Maybe he could pretend that he wasn't here, that the bathroom had magically locked itself. No. He couldn't do that. If he didn't answer, Tyson would be worried – heck, he was already worried – and then he would go try and get help, and that wouldn't do very well, especially when they found out Kai had been hiding in the bathroom all along.

Tyson was obviously kicking the door now, and with each steady "thump" the plaster in roof surrounding the door frame rained down on the tile floor in tiny shards of dust. Just how cheap was this hotel if the plaster could fall from the roof like that anyway?

"Kai! Kai? C'mon, man, you're freaking me out! If you don't answer, I'm breaking the door down! I mean it. What's wrong?" Tyson's voice softened, became less demanding and more sympathetic, "Are you hurt? Do you need me to call the hospital? Kai?"

Kai opened his mouth to answer, but his voice was hoarse, and barely audible, so he was forced to repeat himself twice before Tyson actually heard him, "I'm fine."

The kicking of the door stopped, and with it the falling crumbs of off-white plaster. Kai blinked, wondering if it had all been some twisted daydream, and Tyson would go away now as if he had never been there. The bandage around his wrist was starting to develop a small pink splotch. The blood was already leaking through. The surprise Kai felt was detached, as if it were happening to someone else, and not to him; a character in a story perhaps. He hadn't thought he'd cut so deep.

"Kai?" asked Tyson hesitantly, trying the doorknob again, but of course it was still locked, "Can you open the door? What's happening? Why is their blood all over the sheets?"

He had no excuse. Maybe if he'd played his cards right he could get Tyson to believe some excuse. There was one he had in mind… it might work. Some of his clothes were still strewn across the countertop, and he remembered for the first time that he'd left the knife on his bed, somewhere in the mess of stained sheets. And his shirt, he ought to change that while he was at it, it was still covered in blood.

Now that the excruciating loudness of Tyson banging on the door had stopped, the entire situation seemed surreal, almost dreamlike. It left Kai eerily calm, given the panic that had surfaced when he had first realized Tyson was back. This brought out the more logical half of his mind. He was starting to rationalize that the longer he kept silent, the more worried Tyson would become.

There was nothing else to do but open the door and face the other boy.

He wasn't expecting the concern in Tyson's eyes to be quite so intense. He had, obviously, expected it to be there, the tone of the younger boy's voice had told him that much, but he hadn't expected to see it shown so strongly. It caught him off guard, and suddenly he didn't feel so detached anymore.

"What's the matter with you?" Tyson demanded, grabbing the front of Kai's shirt upon seeing that he was apparently unhurt (Kai had made sure to keep his bandaged wrist out of sight). "I was worried about you, Kai! Why didn't you answer right away? Don't you know how much I care about you?"

There is was again… those words. Not the same words, but the same meaning. I love you. I care about you. Kai couldn't bring himself to look directly at the world champion, so he stared off behind Tyson's shoulder, his eyes fixing on an old lamp by Tyson's bed. It was true. It must be. Tyson did love him. He should be happy… it was what he had wanted, wasn't it?

So why wasn't he happy? Why did he feel so horrible? Was it because Tyson was angry with him? No, Tyson wasn't angry. Just annoyed… and worried. He was worried about Kai.

Tyson dropped shirt, the material falling more loosely on the older boy's chest after having been stretched out of shape. He sighed, taking off his ever present red and blue hat and running a hand through his messy blue hair, "Will you at least tell me what happened to your bed?"

He was so forgiving. Kai wrung his uninjured hand guiltily through his scarf, still feeling too ashamed to look the other teenager in the eye. So he continued to stare at his lamp, desperately wishing he could go back into that almost dreamy state when he had simply been watching things happen to himself, as if he wasn't there, as if it wasn't happening to him, as if he were someone else… someone worthy of Tyson, maybe.

"It was a stray cat."

He could remember his humiliation when Tyson had discovered a few months ago that he had an apparent "soft spot" for cats. Almost every morning without fail he would meet a stray one outside the abandoned warehouse he'd used to use as a base with the Blade Sharks way back when. It was empty now, and he suspected the cat liked it there, or maybe it only kept coming back because he was feeding it.

Regardless, Tyson had just so happened to walk by one morning, promptly scaring the cat away, and giving Kai no end in teasing about his "cat fetish" – despite Kai's futile attempts to explain otherwise.

"A cat?" Tyson asked now, prompting him for more information.

For once, Kai decided to oblige, although he made sure his voice sounded as reluctant and annoyed as possible, "Yeah. I brought it in to feed it, and it didn't like that very much," he said carefully. If he hesitated at all during his story then Tyson would surely know he was lying. "You didn't have to make a scene."

Tyson seemed unsure, "What did it do to you?"

"It clawed at my arm," Kai answered easily, relieved that Tyson seemed to believe him, but not showing it. He gestured to the bed, "It's not really as bad as it looks."

"Where's the cat now?" asked Tyson.

"I took it back outside," said Kai quietly. He could tell by Tyson's frown that he hadn't completely swallowed the story, but younger boy wasn't pushing the subject. "Don't worry about the bed," he added softly, "I'll get it cleaned."

"Okay," replied Tyson, "Well, I just wanted you to know, we found Mariah, and Rei calmed her down."

Kai nodded silently.

"I was wondering," said Tyson thoughtfully, almost to himself, "Do you had any idea who might have taken the bit-beasts? I mean, you don't really think it was the Demolition Boys was it?"

Kai stiffened, "No." It was another lie. Why was he always lying to Tyson lately?

"Yeah, I guess they wouldn't do something like that. Boris and Voltaire are in jail right?"

Kai nodded slowly. More lies.

"It's just Mariah seemed so convinced it was them. It was kind of creepy," he smiled at Kai. Tyson had such a nice smile, and right now, it was directed at him, Kai. Somehow, it didn't make him as good as he thought it should have. He felt like scum.

"The others said we were going to have dinner soon, you coming?" Tyson had already reverted back to being all cheerful, despite the morning's events and the whole scene with the bed. That was Tyson, always making the best of everything…

"I should probably clean up my bed…"

Tyson's face fell, "Oh, yeah. You'll make it in time for dinner, though?" He looked hopeful.

No… I won't. But Kai only nodded.

----------------------------------------------

Mei: It's not really very long, is it:sigh: Anywho… if anyone's still reading this, um, could you drop a review, please? n.n I appreciate it.