Hey hey! Another update, though this chapter is shorter than the usual ones, I think it's my 2nd favourite. Anyways, thank you for reviewing, your comments are appreciated :) I know astrology isn't a big factor in determining the character's personality of compatibility with others, but in the MFB's case, I think it does matter, since a lot of beys and themes are connected to astrology, and I've been left with the impression that the MFB author was paying a lot of attention to the star signs. So I'm also pretty certain that some of the characters are based on their bey's/zodiac's stereotype. (ex. Kyoya being a Leo - prideful, stubborn, vain; Hikaru being an Aquarius - cold, also stubborn, independent; Benkei a Taurus - a food lover and fiercely loyal to his friends) Btw, in this fic, I made Hikaru's birthday to be 12th or February and Kyoya's to be the 10th of August (International lion's day)

Chapter 5 - Into the Lion's Den

19th June

Hikaru opened her eyes and found herself in a brutally familiar scenery - in the middle of the empty stadium, surrounded by darkness that was thick enough to choke on and the ground shaking under her feet. She knew what would follow and was crushed by the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness, powerlessness, each muscle in her body pleading her to run away, yet she stayed rooted to the spot, unable to tear her eyes away from the monster that plagued her psyche to this day.

But standing before her, his head tilted and eyes sharp, was just a man. Snowy white hair, built completely on muscle, whose mouth was turning into a sneer. Whose eyes were narrowing, stance strong, the combined effect beyond sinister. His mad, high-pitched cackle heralded the emergence of three gigantic dragons with glowing crimson eyes and in a flash, the beasts were charging for her and Aquario.

Hikaru could only let out a full-throated scream before the purple light hit her and everything was reduced to excruciating, persistent pain, the sense of all her bones breaking at once. She was howling and screaming without a single sound, collapsing from bone to dust, dust, dust; stuck at that very moment of unrelenting and harrowing ache, her lungs contracting, a piercing arrow shooting through her abdomen, her body in a state of paralysis and the adrenaline rushing through her veins, driving her, urging her to flee so the agony would cease— run, run now, get away, fucking do something, Hikaru— but no matter how much she tried to wriggle away, to escape, she couldn't and the pain just wouldn't stop— No, no, stop, stop it, I can't anymore, STOP THIS—

Then the air was knocked out of her lungs and the horror was finally over.

Gasping in fear, the young woman sat up, gripping firmly at her chest, her amethyst eyes now wide with dread as she stared off into space, her body drenched in sweat. For a couple of minutes, she could not stop trembling, and no matter how hard she squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her hands over them, she could not extinguish the images whirling behind her eyelids. They haunted her, tormented her, and never really let her have a good night's sleep. This dream was nothing new to her. Ever since Battle Bladers, Hikaru had dreamt it almost every night thereafter, for all these six years. In fact, she had it so often she should've been used to it. But she wasn't. No one ever really gets used to nightmares.

For a while, the teen had tried every pill imaginable. Anything to curb the fear. L-tryptophan, Valium, Vicodin, quite a few members of the barbital family. A pretty extensive list, frequently mixed, often matched, with shots of Martini, sometimes even helped. Sometimes. It's pretty safe to assume there was no lab sophisticated enough to synthesize the kind of chemicals she needed. A Nobel Prize to whoever invents that drug.

Only after taking a few deep breaths did Hikaru realize that she was on the hard wooden floor in her room and not in the comforts of her new bed. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. She'd always trashed around when she had this nightmare, but the change of surroundings had messed with her perception, too. At least the fall had jolted her awake.

Hikaru stood up carefully with wavering legs. She rushed out of her room, still anxious and shaking, and found her partner sitting at the table in the living room, originally preoccupied with his sandwich, but now looking at her. Hikaru recalled the events from last night and for the first time felt a twinge of awkwardness. What was she supposed to say? She had no idea and just wanted to calm herself down, so she made her way to the bathroom, gaze fixed on the floor and without saying anything, as if she hadn't noticed him.

The bluenette twisted the tap up and spent a few seconds letting the cold stream flow on her palms before bringing them up to her face. Water, as always, provided immediate relief: it helped her mind awake from its terror-ridden state and washed the sticky sweat away from her skin.

Hikaru took a deep breath in, shallow at first but easier now, and examined her reflection in the mirror. Droplets flowed down from her nose and chin in a rhythmic, unceasing stream, falling on the bathroom floor. Her hair was matted dark to the sides of her face, and she looked sickly pale with unnaturally large eyes. A terrible, irreparable mess, but she felt better. Hikaru leaned against the cool tiled wall, one hand pressed over the frenzied pounding in her chest. Forcing her eyes shut, she ordered herself to concentrate and ran a hand through her hair.

Hikaru knew just what she needed in order to take the edge off.

An hour and one iced coffee later, Hikaru was strolling back to the hotel while face-timing Madoka. Initially, the secretary had planned to make the call short but once she started ranting, she couldn't stop and ended up giving Madoka a very detailed lowdown of her troubles from the previous days. A stay cat that slunk its way over to Hikaru didn't help her case either, as she found a surprising comfort in petting the animal and stopped walking altogether.

" I get you. I've experienced first-hand the frustrations that come along with having to work with the King of Beasts. " Madoka mumbled while fixing the fusion wheel of a bey, the tip of her tongue sticking out of her mouth in concentration. " Your apartment number is quite the irony, though. "

Hikaru raised an eyebrow as she scratched her new feline friend behind the ear. " How so? "

The mechanic gave her best friend a comical look through the screen. " 143 is used as an abbreviation for 'I love you' in English. It represents the number of letters in each word. "

Hikaru rolled her eyes and scoffed. " It also works just fine for 'I hate you'. "

The younger girl giggled. " Indeed. But really, if Kyoya pisses you off that much, why don't you just beat him up? " Madoka pointed out jokingly. She was aware that Hikaru was skilled in combat, but didn't know that the King of Beasts, unsurprisingly, was quite capable in this form of fighting too, not just in beyblading.

The bluenette sighed. " I've thought about it. Problem is, he's good with his hands. " she muttered, but when her attention flipped back to the screen just to be met with her best friend's face of pure shell-shock, Hikaru clamped her mouth shut.

Shit.

Hikaru had forgotten she wasn't supposed to tell anyone about their training, including Madoka. It just dawned on her that this secrecy wasn't going to be as easy as she thought it'd be since Hikaru was so used to sharing everything without a second thought when chatting with the brunette. A slip of the tongue and negligence in her recently imposed duty of confidentiality could land her a starring role in the horror movie: " The Wrath of the Beastman: The Punishment ".

Hikaru avoided Madoka's suspicious gaze by scratching the silver cat under the chin, earning herself a satisfied purr. A quick glance back at the device told her Madoka was a second away from asking her what'd she just said, but Hikaru cut in before she could pummel out more information from her. " By the way, did you drop by the WBBA? "

The mechanic was stopped dead in her inquiry, and her shocked expression was replaced by a nervous one as she forced out a phoney chuckle. " Ah…about that. "

Hikaru's heart sank. " What? "

The younger girl wet her lips anxiously. " You might wanna sit down. "

" Just spill it out, Madoka. " Hikaru managed to groan out as she rubbed her temples, preparing for the worst of the worst. Better rip the band-aid off than be held in antici-panic as to what could be happening this time in her circus of a company that had Ryo Hagane as its ringmaster.

Madoka took a deep in-draw breath before finally dropping the bomb. " There was a birthday party the other day, Ryo is on a vacation for a week and they're adding a farm to the HQ. "

Hikaru didn't register the information immediately, but when she did, every around her faded into background noise. Only one word 'unemployed' echoed in her mind again and again, like a broken CD player stuck on repeating the same song. Unemployment equalled no salary, therefore no money. No money meant no way of paying her university tuition, and only one alternative left - cashier at Mcdonals or 7-Eleven, essentially a social death.

And it wasn't Madoka's worried 'Hikaru, are you okay?' that snapped her back to reality, but the sudden sensation of little teeth and claws sinking into her hand, causing Hikaru to hiss and pull back. The cat had inexplicably started to nibble at her hand like it was made out of Meow mix. Even the animal had started treating her like a lesser being the moment it realized she would be left jobless.

With a half-hearted sigh and face drained of all blood, Hikaru only made out a: " I think I need to give the HR department a call… "

Even after the lengthy positive, reassuring lecture given to her by Madoka, Hikaru's spirit seemed to be resolute on staying high in the clouds, away from this inferno that her body was stuck in. As a result, Hikaru had been running on autopilot ever since they'd hung up, totally detached from the awful real world she was forced to face - the uneasiness that hung in the air now when she was in Kyoya's presence, the likelihood that she might lose her job, and the fact Hikaru was compelled to lie to her best friend and keep a secret from her.

What's worse, was that Hikaru had to focus now, whether she liked it or not, because she was bound to have a sparring session with her partner. And even though the pair hadn't exchanged a word beyond the necessary 'let's go training' and a quick nod, Hikaru knew she ought to give it her all, otherwise, Kyoya was going to perceive her lack of energy and lifelessness as the ultimate insult - going easy on him. So by the time the two had arrived at the designated area and finished up with the stretching, Hikaru had psyched herself up enough to confront the King of Beasts.

In no time flat, they'd begun sparring, with Kyoya chain punching for Hikaru just like the first time they'd fought. Hikaru had dodged each hit easily but wanted to turn the tables, so she started to rain blows wherever she spotted an opening. That proved to be harder than before since Kyoya had obviously worked hard to improve his skills, as he was now better at predicting her attacks.

During the following long, all-out onslaught, the teens went back and forth in edging each other back, neither succeeding in landing a critical hit since the other one was quick enough to evade, or had already predicted it and was coming back with a counterattack.

They weren't getting anywhere and Hikaru was starting to run out of stamina, so she decided to take her chance and finish this. The next time Kyoya took a swing at Hikaru, she put up one arm to protect her face from the punch, while the other clenched the back of his neck to pull him down and knee him in the stomach.

Either Kyoya had all along anticipated this, or his reactions were sharper than ever because his hand moved fast to grab hold of Hikaru's knee mid-hit. Because of this compromising position, Hikaru's centre of gravity had shifted, causing her to lose her balance and hold onto her partner for dear life. This resulted in both of them falling to the ground.

The sudden collapse didn't put a stop to their battle, since Kyoya, ever the opportunist, used the chance to pin Hikaru's hands. The bluenette was ready to deliver a kick on the place no man wants to be kicked in, but Kyoya cut in before she was able to by using his legs to lock hers down. He'd clearly learnt his lesson from last time.

Hikaru refused to back down this easily, so she attempted to wrench her hands and legs off his iron-tight grasp, but to no avail. Kyoya was way stronger than her, Hikaru bitterly reminded herself. There was no point in dragging this on, when it was clear who was the winner to this round.

" You win." she acknowledged, panting from exhaustion. But when Kyoya's rough hands stayed put around the delicate knob of Hikaru's wrists, she shot him a half-puzzled, half-impatient glance. " You can let me go now. "

Kyoya was looking down on her with heavy-lidded eyes and an expression that spiked her adrenaline levels. " No. "

" What do you mean, no? " Hikaru's temper flared. Her day had already proven to be rife with unpleasant surprises, so she didn't have the patience to figure out what could've possibly been his problem this time. Not to mention, she felt quite vulnerable with him hovering over her and her back pressed against the ground. " Unhand me now. "

There was a murderous glint in the blader's eyes hinting at Hikaru that she was deep in trouble. " You seriously thought you'd get away with cursing me out like that last night? " Kyoya framed it as an accusation rather than a question.

So that's what this was about, the bluenette thought peevedly. Like she needed any more reminding of the rare occasion when she'd let her emotions overrule both sides of her brain. Hikaru scoffed incredulously before launching into a semi-sarcastic reply. " And what, you want me to apologize? "

" That, or I'll get even with you in another way, " Kyoya replied in a casual manner, but there was still a threatening edge to his tone. A reminder of what he was capable of. Oddly enough, Hikaru had a hunch that even though Kyoya overpowered her in strength, he wouldn't lay a hand on her. That being said, she didn't want to underestimate his cunning wit and vengeful mindset - a decent guarantee he'd think of another horrible method to settle the score.

And since she was partially feeling ashamed of her outburst yesterday anyway, Hikaru swallowed her pride and conceded. " Fine, I'm sorry I overreacted." she held her breath, each word stabbing through her lungs and eyes fixated on his, no matter how intimidating they were. " But, you should know that I had every reason to be angry. It's okay if you think of me as someone weak, it's not like I care, but you can keep your opinion to yourself. "

Kyoya could scowl at an international level. But, after several days of continuous exposure, Hikaru had sorted out some of the nuances. Kyoya's standard glare could be applied to anything from the sound of a kid's laughter to having to repair Leone, but the one he was levelling at her right now was unusual. Not irritated, just… frustrated? " Are you dumb? When did I say you're weak? "

The question hit Hikaru like a proverbial smack upside the head, leaving her notably incoherent for a short while. " Well, you didn't say it directly, but you implied it. "

" No, " the blader bit out with utter and complete confidence. " I didn't. "

In return, Hikaru's resolve only hardened. " Then what did you mean by saying 'I never made up excuses'? " If she had indeed misunderstood, what else had he been suggesting?

Annoyance was written all over the lad's face, but in a shocking turn of events, he actually complied to give her an explanation. " I meant I never took the easy way out. "

Hikaru had a whole other issue with this, but making someone like Kyoya grasp the concept of not judging a person before you've walked a mile in their shoes seemed like an impossible task, so without much thinking, she resorted to the new too-good-to-be-true revelation, " So…you don't think I'm weak? "

Kyoya scoffed, his signature 'tch' sound capable of piercing steel if scathing were bullets, and the bluenette wished her mouth had a rewind button for the second time today. " Like I'd bother with someone who's weak, " Kyoya grumbled as he released her, and Hikaru understood what it meant in non-Yoyo language: You are strong.

The whole notion of the renowned King of Beasts recognizing her strength seemed to baffle Hikaru way more than it should've, but once she stomached it, she felt warm. Happy, really. And somewhere in between, even hopeful and encouraged. Because Kyoya had just demonstrated he could show kindness, in his own aloof way, but it was still something. He could've just ignored her worries and let her think whatever, yet he didn't.

" C'mon, " the greenhead shouted impatiently, jarring her from her internal thoughts. " Let's get back to ass-kicking. "

Hikaru exhaled deeply and gave a firm nod, feeling some of the stress lifting from her shoulders. Following fashion, she returned to their original spot, praying that the hopefulness wasn't too obvious on her face.

Maybe he is redeemable…

The sun was starting to set by the time they were finished, and words failed to describe the muscle-aching, bone-cracking, ready-to-drop tiredness Hikaru felt. Unfortunately, the leisure she was looking forward to was twelve hours away, because they were going straight to a night shift now. After a quick shower, of course.

Currently, they were waiting at the pedestrian crossing for the light to turn green. While on their way there, Hikaru had given the topic some thought of whether there was a way of making the short-tempered teen open up. Surely he wasn't that bad. There was hope for everyone. At this moment Hikaru remembered she hadn't shared some vital news with her partner. " I got a response from HQ. The gadgets will probably arrive in two or three days, and we've gotta get them from Osaka since there's no postal office here."

Her partner was originally listening to her when something caught his eye in the distance. With his quick reflexes, Kyoya suddenly moved behind Hikaru, shielding himself from the splashing puddle that a car had just zoomed through.

Hikaru's mouth hung half-open out of pure shock after the spatter and she ran a hand over her face to remove some of the water off her face. Rage followed quickly after the dismay and Hikaru's nails had to dig painfully into her palm, just so she doesn't end up exploding on the street and embarrassing herself.

And the jerk had the nerve to say: " That was close. "

Nope, he's a lost cause…