Warning : Strong language, eventual yaoi, violence

Disclaimer : I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters. The characters you do not recognise are mine and are not to be stolen/used in any story other than my own.

"………" - Speech

'………' - Thought

Italics - Something written (e.g. e-mails)

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Normal POV

"Oi, art boy!" A voice called from behind him, making him turn on his heel to find himself face to face with a tall, slim and rather attractive redhead. Said teen's bright blue eyes flashed with mischief as he watched his even taller blond friend trip a first year up so that she fell on her knees and cursed loudly in pain. The ice blue eyes turned themselves back to the raven-haired boy, a smirk playing on the speaker's lips. "Hiwatari wants to get in your underwear… And I take it you feel the same way."

Rei stumbled over those words a little, it wasn't exactly the way he would have put it. So maybe he did want to "get into Kai's underwear" but not yet, they'd only just got together. He wasn't a whore or something that wanted nothing but sex… Not that he hadn't imagined such things. Although, he hadn't thought about what Kai made of all of this. What if he'd told his friends that he was going to 'bed this bitch' and then up and leave?

The neko-jin absentmindedly bit his lip and looked at the floor. What exactly did one say as an answer to Tala's exclamation? "Uh…" He stammered quietly, mentally reminding himself that this boy in front of his was said to be rather homophobic. 'Wait…' He ignored his thoughts for a moment, puzzled about the current situation. 'If Ginge is homophobic then wouldn't he have smashed my face in by now?'

Rei began to panic. What if Tala was going to beat him up as well? He shuddered at the thought, a sinking feeling settling itself in the pit of his stomach… He was going to be sick, he didn't want to get beaten up again, not so soon! Ever, in fact. Never ever again! A light chuckle brought him back from his thoughts and his head snapped quickly upward to stare at the elder teen… No way…

"That and the fact that maybe Hiwatari would have kept his trap shut." The redhead smirked as the younger teen's amber eyes widened, realising that he had in fact spoken that last thought aloud. "Dare I ask…" He spoke again, a hint of amusement clear in his tone. "Why the fuck you call me Ginge?"

Rei inwardly kicked himself. What an idiot! Still, he didn't feel like he was about to throw up anymore so at least one thing was going his way in the 'conversation', despite it being reasonably one sided due to the fact that he was too worried to actually say any coherent words apart from the dumbass sentence he'd just managed to utter to the Infamous boy's face.

"Uh… Um… I…"

"Save your breath." He said, visibly trying not to laugh – no doubt at Rei's complete incompetence. "No member of Infamous is like Bryan. He was always the outsider and he couldn't stand that fact." Tala explained with a swift nod of the head, motioning for the neko to follow him. "He was always far more malicious than the rest of us and he didn't like people that were different to him." The two teens rounded the corner of the school building, stalking the usual base of Infamous. "He was the only one who didn't know about Kai."

Tala pushed the branches of the thicket back, allowing the younger teen to enter first. Rei awkwardly lingered by the 'entrance', a little wary of being alone in an obscured area with the dangerous redhead, though his information was calming his nerves a little. The others weren't like the Falcon… It seemed they didn't even like him that much.

The elder teen sat himself down on an old wooden school chair that had obviously been dragged out there at some point, probably by Infamous themselves for a bit of comfort, and lit himself a cigarette. He gazed up at Rei with slight curiosity. "You don't smoke, do you?"

Rei quickly shook his head, disgusted at the mere thought of him, the school art geek, being a smoker. "No." He murmured, the revolt clear in his voice, which actually made the Russian teen snicker.

"And never will, by the sounds of things." Tala smirked. They seemed to be getting along quite well in both opinions… But why? Didn't Tala hate him? … "I did at one point."

"For fuck's sake!" Rei suddenly exclaimed, almost startling the elder boy. "Does my inner monologue not work at all?"

"It appears not… You didn't strike me as the type to be so foul-mouthed." The redhead observed with a click of the tongue. He was blatantly finding Kai's newest love interest rather amusing and a great person to tease.

"Behave yourself Tala." A new voice piped up, making Rei jump to the other side of the thicket… Literally. A tall blond admitted himself into the den and sat himself down on the chair next to his gang member, his friend. The teen looked over to Rei and nodded in greeting. "Name's Spencer." He told him shortly.

Rei nodded back, wishing that he wasn't going to find himself alone with these two for long, although they didn't seem too bad. Tala was alright now that Rei had gotten to know him a little bit, though he knew that it would take a while to feel fully comfortable around the blue eyed boy; and as for Spencer, Rei didn't know him at all. He just knew that he was really tall and built like a damn tank by the looks of him, he was covered in muscle as though it was water and he'd been swimming all morning… 'That was a pathetic simile' Rei groaned to himself.

"As I was saying," The younger of the two Russians continued his story, flicking one of the front strands of red hair back out of his face. "Bryan didn't know about Kai and it was clear to us that he shouldn't be told. He was angry with the world, he had a bad reputation, he was feisty, he was a fighter. That's why he became Kai's friend. That's how Infamous really began." He flicked away the butt of his cigarette and promptly lit another, taking a few deep drags before bothering to carry on. "Kai and Ian started it all, but they were just causing minor trouble in the neighbourhood. They weren't dangerous. Then I transferred to the school and befriended Spencer and Kai, and before long we were both admitted to their team too." He smirked at the memory. "We used to scare people because we thought it was fun, but we never hurt anybody as badly as could have. There was the occasional fight, but nothing major… Then Bryan wanted in."

Rei was about to ask what happened next, but he was interrupted by the shrill ring of the lesson bell sounding. Break was over and he had a stupid IT lesson. He groaned upon realising this fact, glancing between Tala and Spencer.

"See you guys later or something." He mumbled, taking his leave through the branches, soon rendering himself back out in the open. He looked around, wondering where the hell Tyson was since there was no point him going to an IT class without his computer-friendly best buddy; it was a well known fact that the neko-jin teen couldn't handle the 'rabid machines', he couldn't even tell the difference between a virus scan program and an actual virus, this had even been proven since he had once freaked out in the middle of a lesson about contracting a virus when the computer was actually just running it's regular scan. Boy, did he feel dumb!

"Rei." A voice spoke from behind him, causing his lips to curl up into a happy smile and leave his embarrassing thoughts behind. Kai, his Kai. The neko turned round and smiled, showing off his fangs. "What class are you in next?"

Rei's smile disappeared, instantly replaced with a heartfelt grimace. "IT." He glared at nothing in particular, taken completely by surprise when Kai actually looked a tiny little bit sympathetic, even though it only lasted for a split second.

"Aww." He mocked, half smirking half pouting, his usual stance back and any trace of emotion completely gone. "I have art." He muttered flatly, not hiding his disappointment. He was thoroughly amused at the growl the younger teen emitted at his uncaring tone. He'd never admit to anybody, especially his friends since they'd only take the piss, but he really liked Rei. He didn't feel that it was like any of the random flings he'd had, he knew that this was something to hold on to; he liked the neko and wanted to keep him for his own. "I'll see you after your class then."

The tall blunette turned on his heel, flashing the other boy a quick and discrete smile before turning his back and heading at a quick but casual pace toward the art block. Rei couldn't help but laugh as first and second year students dodged out of the Infamous leader's way, he remembered that he used to hide and keep out of their way too, in first and second year, by third year though he had gotten used to the group sauntering around, causing trouble. In a way he had wanted to be like them so that nobody would annoy him or take the piss out of him for being such an art geek; but in other ways he knew that he'd never be able to fit in with a gang like them.

… Once again, he'd been proven wrong. They were his friends now, or so he liked to think, anyway. Okay, so he didn't know Spencer very well and he'd never met Ian and he hated Bryan and wished he'd die; but he kinda thought of Tala as a friend, and Kai was more than that. Kai was special to him – they'd been an official couple for two weeks now but already Rei felt that he'd hate to ever let go, he even hated the mere thought of it.

"Somebody is dreamy today."

"Wha…?" Rei jumped upon hearing the unusually sarcastic voice of his best friend behind him, blushing since he'd been caught staring at nowhere in particular with a sweet smile gracing his features. He looked over his shoulder and took in Tyson's expression, which was a very strange mix of emotion for somebody as happy go lucky as Tyson, he appeared half upset, half angry. 'Why would he be angry?' Rei wondered, worrying. ''Why's he upset?'

"Coming to lesson or what?" The navy haired boy snapped uncharacteristically, taking the elder boy aback.

"Tyson?" Obvious hurt dripped from the neko-jin's tone. Why was his closest ever friend being this way with him? Why hadn't he told him that something was bothering him? What if… What if he was mad with him? The amber eyes had widened a little at the thought of Tyson being angry with him and he bit his lip softly, staring right at his friend. "What have I done wrong?"

A huff and an irate eye roll was the initial answer, but after folding his arms and regaining his composure, the younger teen decided to expand on this act of annoyance. "You…" He began, then suddenly looked away and sighed. "You ditched me for Infamous." He spat, immediately marching off without looking back. Rei stood and stared, watching the form of his best friend leave, shoulders slumping in defeat. But… How could this happen? He hadn't ditched him!

Growling in frustration, Rei picked up a stone, hurling it toward the school building as if to take his anger out on the walls instead of the people. Not a very good aimer, the raven haired teen gawped, shaking his head in disbelief as the stone headed straight for the window. He flinched.

Crack.

"I'm telling the teachers!" Rei spun around to see some first year boys who obviously thought they were tough. Knowing that they would go through with their word, the neko did the first thing he could think of… He looked them directly in the eye, slitting his pupils.

"I'm best friends with Kai Hiwatari." He told them in a menacing voice, hissing slightly, loving the momentary feeling of being in charge as he watched them run away, swearing to keep their mouths shut and pleading not to let Kai get them. It was a good feeling, even if he did feel like a complete bully, but the goodness didn't last long… Rei Kon was late for his lesson!

A rocket couldn't have gone any quicker than the speed Rei flew up the stairs, his braid flying out behind him as he sped toward the study centre. Why the hell did it have to be on the third floor? After almost killing somebody on the second floor landing and tripping up the top few steps, he recomposed himself and caught his breath, before walking calmly into the room and using his student card to scan in, glancing around the room for a spare computer. Spotting one, he strode over, sighing as he fell into the chair. 'Sometimes,' he thought, 'I really hate school.'

Rei POV

Well this sucks. I can't even remember my password, let alone understand what we have to do in the lesson, and now I don't even have Tyson to help me because he's pissed off with me because he thinks I've ditched him for Infamous, which, okay, isn't far from the truth but I haven't ditched him per se, I've just made new friends!

Okay Rei. Take a deep breath. Sigh. Now, what was my password? Oh yeah, 'chocolate', I remember.

… How long does it take these things to sign you on? What are they, technology of the seventeenth century? Even my village in China had better technology than this! Well, alright, that's a lie, but these computers are slow. Aha! Here we go.

Welcome KonR672, you have two new mail messages.

Two. Wow. I'm loved. I spend loads of time off college because I got stabbed and I have all of two people that care about me. Huh? They're both from today… Great. No one cares about me then.

Right, I'm going to shut up now because that's a lie, I have lots of friends… Sigh. I may have just lost one though. One of the messages is from Tyson, maybe he can explain a few things to me since I'm still pretty unclear as to why he thinks I've ditched him. I never accused him of ditching me when he got that girlfriend (for a week) and barely spoke to me because he was too busy obsessing! The only words he did speak to me were about her anyway! Maybe I should just plague him with my Kai-dreams (definition, when I day dream about Kai). Well, let's see what he has to say for himself.

Message : KonR672

What is wrong with you Rei? Only a few weeks back you were agreeing with me about how much you hated Infamous and now you're hanging out with them! They're a bad influence on you too, I haven't failed to notice that you're not even in the lesson yet! There was a time that you'd never be late for a lesson, you always did really well too. Remember that psychology study we did and you got really ace grades? Since you've become friends with Kai you've changed, and I don't like it one bit. You're supposed to be my best friend Rei, so please, tell me what the fuck is going on.

… Wow. I feel like I've just been cyber slapped. 'Remember that psychology study we did and you got really ace grades?' Oh Tyson, if only you knew about that. Like hell am I going to tell you, but if only you knew.

Message : GrangerT331

Hey Tyson. I don't know what to say really, you've always been my best friend and I don't feel like I've ditched you at all. Yeah, I've made friends with Infamous, but they're not that bad really, and they all hate Bryan for what he did which kinda makes me feel a bit more welcome – if you know what I mean. Like you, they accepted me for who I am! Isn't that what you always said a real friend was Tyson? Trust me, nobody can ever replace you, but you have to give me the chance to make more friends! You're my friend, the best one I've ever had at that, but you don't own me, and I enjoy being around Kai… And if you want to know the reason behind that then I can tell you, because I frankly don't care what you say if you're going to be like this. Like you said, you're supposed to be my friend – And I still want you to be.

Maybe I should get rid of that 'I don't care what you say' bit… Nah, that's how I feel. Okay, send. I hope Tyson doesn't take that the wrong way and get even more angry with me, I'm not sure I could handle losing a friend like him, he's the best one I've ever had in my life! He shows me the true meaning of friendship, and that's why I don't understand how he could possibly think that I've ditched him. I mean, that's pretty childish as it is, but the fact that I don't have all that many friends inside school and he knows I've always wanted to make friends, I'd have thought that he'd be happy for me… Even just a little bit.

But I guess not. Maybe he'll be nicer when he realises why I'm hanging out with them all the time, or maybe he'll totally hate me for it, even if he did say that he'd always be my friend and that he didn't care who I liked. We made a promise on that, perhaps I should remind him.

Anyway, who is this other e-mail from? … ValkovT? Never heard that name before, have I? I kinda recognise it…

"Tala Valkov! You put that cigarette out now!"

… Oh yeah. It's Ginge.

Message : KonR672

Where did I get to?

What the crap is he on about? Oh yeah, his story about how much of a dick Falcon is. Good question actually, where did he get to?

Message : ValkovT218

Um… You said something about everyone was ok and there were a few fights and that, then Falcon wanted in or something…

That will do. It seems a pretty scary story really, the thought of this utter psycho wanting to be your friend and join in because he's an outsider and nobody likes him. Perhaps somebody should have told him that fighting and trying to kill certain groups of people is not going to get him anywhere on the social stance point of view. Then again, he's probably better off where he is now. Behind nice, good, strong metal bars… It's a comforting thought.

Now, what exactly am I meant to do for this class? I'd normally just ask Tyson but I don't think he'd appreciate it this time. He'd tell me it was my own fault that I didn't know what to do because I was late and missed the teacher's speech. Well whatever, I don't care. I'm not really bothered about failing IT, and I hate the fact that it's one of those annoying subjects that you can't drop at the end of third year. You have to do IT, you have to do math, you have to take a language and you have to do some kind of art, since it's an art school. If it weren't for the IT, I think I'd do really well in my exams.

KonR672, you have one new mail.

Oh. Cool. E-mail!

Message : KonR672

You like Kai, don't you? I knew it, I could tell you didn't agree with me when I called him an idiot. Whatever Rei, it's cool with me… Just try to remember I exist every now and then, okay? Sorry for getting mad at you – misdirected anger; that outburst was meant for my Grandpa. You're the best friend I have ever had, and I ain't letting go! Luv Ty xxxx

Ever got one of those e-mails that made you just want to leap out of your seat and go hug the sender? Yeah, you get the picture. That was really sweet, if not a little cheesy, but whatever. Tyson rocks.

Message : GrangerT331

Easy on the kisses, lover boy! Yeah I like Kai… A lot. Thanks for being cool with it, you're the best. Rei xx

PS – You didn't call him an idiot, you called "The World's Biggest Prick". -Pout-.

Well that didn't take long to clear up! Then again, I didn't really think it would, me and Tyson are too close a friends to argue like that. Who am I kidding? I was really upset when he walked away from me earlier! He didn't even give me time to ask anything or explain or… I'm so happy now. I have my best friend back.

I have Tyson, and I have Kai. What more could a guy want?

"An inner monologue?"

"Wha?" How stupid of me. "H-Hey Ginge." He scared the shit out of me, creeping up on me like that! … He's getting a chair. Ah, Kami Ginge, don't get me into trouble! … Earth to Rei : You will be in trouble anyway, since you have done nothing work related this lesson.

"I was going to e-mail you the rest of the 'story', but I got kicked off the computer downstairs half way through writing it."

"Why?" Threatening small first year children with a pickaxe?

"Looking at sites that were deemed as 'inappropriate'."

I really don't like that grin on his face. I'll bet he was looking at either weapons or porn… Probably porn by the looks of that expression. He's got a really devious smirk spread across his lips and a mischievous shimmer to his eyes and, to be honest, he looks more cute than anything else, but I'm not allowed to say that because he's my practically-boyfriend's best friend (even if it was Ginge that I had a crush on first and not Kai.)

"Oh." I laugh a very nervous sounding laugh which made me sound less than intelligent.

"Nothing like that." He assures me, his blue eyes twinkling a little. Sure, I believe you – Not. This guy just oozes dishonesty, not that I mind, I don't mind! Not at all, he's really nice when you get to know him; I guess it will take more than my word to convince Tyson the same thing though.

Speaking of Tyson, I can see him looking over here, watching me talk to Ginge as if just waiting for a reason to hate the redhead. I'll have to introduce them sometime, and I literally mean "I'll have to", because once I'm dating Kai for real, nothing is going to keep me away from him, but I still want to hang around with Tyson (of course), and Kai will still want to hang around with Ginge. So there you go, I literally have to introduce them. Hmm… Ha. Possibly…

By force.

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