All right, I'm back! This is going to kick off the Tyson/Hilary/Max triangle! Yay! My first triangle!
A huge, huge thanks to Kenzie Jadenwie, Extreme-Carebear-Lover (your review was confusing, but appreciated), Sweet Ayaka, and Thiendrah. (thank you Thiendrah, for kicking me into writing mood again!) All you people are brilliant, and you've got me back into this fic again! (hugs)
Thanks for the reviews a billion times over, and here's your chapter!
Max rolled over, groaning softy as he surfaced from sleep. Opening his eyes slowly, he blinked a few times to bring the room into focus. Ray was sitting in a chair a few metres away, his eyes closed.
"Ray?" Max whispered, his voice croaky from his long sleep, "Are you awake?" Ray nodded without opening his eyes.
"Yeah, I'm awake. How are you?" he asked. Max shrugged.
"Tired. And I feel a bit sick, too..." Ray nodded. He rubbed his face with both hands and his eyes slowly slid open, gazing at Max groggily.
"Everyone's been feeling sick, Kai says it's an after-effect of the amount of power we all used up." His mouth twisted in what Max supposed could be called some kind of annoyed smile. "Of course, that was only after Kenny pointed out to him that if all three of us were complaining about it, it was unlikely to be just Tyson's
hypochondria." Max rolled his eyes at the typically Kai-like comment.
"You know what he's like," he offered. "Anyway, why do you look so awful?" Ray smiled thinly.
"Thanks for the compliment." he commented dryly. Max blushed.
"Sorry," he apologised quickly. "It wasn't supposed to sound like that."
"No problem," Ray waved the apology off with a limp movement of one hand. "I underestimated just how much this would bleed." He shifted positions and showed Max his bandaged arm, the rough cloth completely saturated with blood. Max's eyes widened and he gaped silently. "And this is the third bandage." Ray muttered, almost to himself. He yawned and closed his eyes again. "Sorry pal, I'm not the best conversationalist at the moment..." He trailed off.
"Why don't you lie down?" Max asked curiously. It seemed like common sense to him. Ray blinked sleepily at him.
"Good idea." he murmured. Standing up, he wobbled his unsteady way over to his bed and collapsed onto it. "G'night Max..." Max smiled as Ray's eyes closed. A few minutes later, the sound of his even breathing sounded in the room. Max snuggled back down under the covers, stuck in the nice patch of sleep where you've woken up, but you're so warm that you just can't be bothered to move... Fuzzily, he wondered if Hilary was all right.
Hilary sat in the lounge, staring blurrily at Dyler. For the first time, she felt as if there actually something there, as opposed to just a horrible thing that hurt her friends. A warm, comforting presence that wrapped itself around her and smoothed away at her raw nerves. Two black eyes seemed to hover in the air above the beyblade and she felt a pressure in her head, like a sound that was too high to hear. Reaching out, she tentatively picked up the blade and held it tightly.
"What is it, Dyler?" she whispered. Suddenly, her peace was broken by the sound of the lounge door shutting.
"You okay, Hil?" Tyson's normally jovial, impish attitude had disappeared, leaving a serious, concerned sixteen year-old in its place. The Tyson that no one had seen since the third World Championships had ended. She blinked, momentarily confused, before her sense came back to her.
"I'm okay, thanks, Ty." She smiled as the boy sat down next to her and flashed her one of his easy grins. "How's everyone doing?" Tyson shrugged.
"Kai's still wound up, so I'm keeping out of his way, and Kenny's going over the battle data and fixing Draciel for Max."
"What about Max and Ray?"
"I had a look, and I think they're both asleep." Hilary nodded slowly, her mind flying back to the battle a few hours ago, replaying in her head the moments when both Max and Ray had crossed the bit-beast's - her bit-beast's - path and come off worse. She shivered despite her best efforts, the tentative feeling of friendliness that had been building up towards the spirit vanishing as she heard her friends cry out in pain again. A hand rested lightly on her leg and gave her a little shake, snapping her out of her momentary daze. Dark brown eyes stared at her, filled with worry. "Don't blame yourself, Hil, okay?" Tyson asked awkwardly, clearly uncomfortable with the messy business known as emotions.
"Why not?" she snapped back. "If I hadn't been so stupid, none of this would have happened!" Tyson shrugged again.
"We've all done really stupid things." He smiled ruefully. "Me more than most."
"Yeah, you said it." They grinned at each other. Hilary's grin was forced, and she turned her head away quickly. Tyson grabbed her shoulder again and turned her to face him.
"Come on, Hil," he pleaded. "Cheer up. I don't like it when you're all sad like this." He coloured furiously and looked away as his brain registered what had just come out of his infamously large mouth. A true grin curled the corners of Hilary's mouth upwards.
"Come here, you dumb idiot." She pulled him into a tight hug. Looking up at him, she was about to make a sarcastic comment comparing him Kai in the emotion department, when a pair of lips on hers silenced her abruptly.
The kiss was nothing, a mere brush of lips against lips. Instantly, Hilary pulled back, confusion swirling around in her head and making her feel faint. She must have looked shocked as she gazed dazedly up at Tyson, because his gaze darkened and he looked away from her as though he was ashamed.
"I-I'm sorry, Hil." he mumbled, standing up so quickly she tumbled off him and landed with a bump on the hard wooden floor. "I…I wasn't thinking straight, sorry…it won't happen ag-"
"Shut up, Ty," she snapped, her tone unnecessarily sharp as her thoughts spun. "I just…need some time to think, okay?" Tyson nodded and walked away, his shoulders hunched in shame and unhappiness.
"You're not mad at me, are you Hil?" he asked nervously as he reached the doorway. Hilary laughed, a high-pitched, brittle sound that made them both wince.
"Now you sound like Daichi." she said sardonically.
"Oh, not him again…" They smiled at each other tentatively, then Tyson turned and left. Hilary stretched out on the floor and stared blankly at the planks of wood.
Since when did my life get this complicated? she thought miserably. She was sunk so deep in thought that she didn't hear the door shut quietly, long after Tyson had gone.
"Mmph? Oh, hi Kai." Max wriggled out of the cocoon of blankets that he had wrapped around himself and grinned at Kai, who nodded curtly and continued changing the bandage on the sleeping Ray's arm. "Wanna hand?" Kai shrugged one shoulder.
"Whatever." Max rolled his eyes mentally and scrambled out of bed. He wobbled over to where Kai was standing and obligingly held the other end of the bandage. "You feeling okay?" Kai asked suddenly. Max blinked, taken aback by the unexpected concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine now, thanks." They worked in silence until Kai stepped back and ran both hands up his arms, a sure sign that something was irritating/annoying/concerning him.
"What's up, bud?" Max inquired curiously. Kai pressed his lips tightly together, then sighed heavily.
"Your little…distraction, Max, you know what I'm talking about…just watch it okay? I don't want anything to mess up this team's friendship." Looking as though he already regretted saying the little that he had, he turned around and left without a word.
Max bit his lip, puzzling Kai's cryptic little speech out in his head. Little distraction… He blushed; that was Hilary. Watch it? Watch what? Watch how he handled his crush, because Kai thought it was mucking up his blading? Nope, that wasn't it…
The pin suddenly dropped. Watching Hilary, because someone else on the team had a crush on her as well! A thought hit him and his heart sank.
"God, I hope it's not Kai," he whispered. Another thought hit him, and his heart sunk even further. "Or Tyson."
He might as well just give up hope here and now.
How on earth could I ever compete with either of them? he asked himself sadly.
Well? I tried not to make Tyson tooOOC, tell me whether I failed or not! Hope you enjoyed this, and I'll see you all soon with another update, I hope! Please, please review!