A/N: I feel like I say I either have no ideas or too many ideas for the prompts in every author's note (to the point of sounding like a broken record), BUT this was one of the latter. I couldn't settle on an idea until I decided I could go for some good old fashioned team time. Had a lot of fun writing this one!

Day 22 | Bladebreakers | Rated: K

Coffee

"This is probably what having five kids at the airport is like," Hilary thought to herself as she glanced around the table she'd chosen for them in the cafe. They were all a sight for sore eyes, even if none of them had remembered napkins. She'd had to go back up for them and a stirrer for Kenny's coffee and extra mayo for Max's sandwich. It was honestly a wonder how any of them had survived so long without her.

"Thanks, Hilary," Max said with a dimpled smile. He at least had an excuse for not getting up. Seated in the corner, boxed in by Ray on one side and Daichi on the other, he'd have to climb over the half wall separating the cafe from the rest of the airport to get out without the whole table needing to move.

Kenny hummed his agreement as he took a long drink of coffee. His laptop was laying open in front of him, some kind of data readout he could apparently understand on display. Hilary was tempted to scoot her chair further away, to keep it from falling victim to her 'technological ineptitude' as Kenny called it.

"Does anyone else need anything?" she asked, looking around the table once more. "Anybody?" She sent a meaningful look to her right.

"Oh, you know what Hil!" Tyson exclaimed with a snap of his fingers. "How about you go back to my place and bring me some comics to read while we wait?"

Her eyebrow twitched.

"Hey, if you're goin' back can you bring me a jacket? It's chilly in here," Daichi added around a mouthful of sandwich. She saw a few crumbs go flying and pulled her salad back reflexively. Gross.

"I meant anything here – I'm not going the whole way back to the dojo," Hilary said with a glower. Tyson knew that and was just being stupid. As for poor Daichi, no one could be sure. And she'd told him to grab a jacket before they left. "If I do, I'll miss Kai's plane land!"

"You were here for Ray's. And Max's last week," Tyson pointed out, lips curling into a teasing grin as he waved off her concern. "Two out of three isn't bad."

"Kai's crabby anyway," Daichi piped up again. "He'll probably walk right past us and get in a cab."

Hilary let out a long-suffering sigh. Across the table, Max and Ray were watching with obvious amusement. She was glad they were back to add some sanity to her daily interactions. Between Tyson and Daichi's shenanigans and Kenny ignoring everything in favor of beyblade upgrades, she desperately needed someone normal to socialize with.

"I'm sorry this is what you two have to come back to."

Max laughed and tilted his chair back on two legs. "Would you believe I'm already used to it?" he asked.

"Yeah," Ray added, eyes twinkling fondly over the top of his to-go cup, "I actually kind of missed it."

"See Hilary?" Tyson interjected, puffing up his chest. "You'd better get with the program – we've got a whole tournament run to go! And you know you'll be the first one cheering when we take home another World Championship trophy. The Bladebreakers are back, baby!"

He leaned across the table to exchange a round of high fives with Ray and Max. Kenny even got a hearty slap on the back that made him scramble to keep from spilling his coffee all over his keyboard.

"Watch it, Tyson!"

"Gotta stay sharp, Chief!"

Hilary sighed and took a sip of her matcha to hide the smile trying to fight its way onto her face. She'd admit eventually how excited she was for them to be competing together again, just not soon enough to let Tyson get a good gloat in. Besides, he was just as happy to have the old team back together again as she was.

"Hang on…" Daichi's face screwed up in thought. Half of his sandwich was abandoned on the wrapper in front of him. "What about BBA Revolution?"

"That was, like, two teams ago, Daichi," Tyson scoffed. "We were always the Bladebreakers when we battled together – that's what's gonna draw a crowd."

"Weren't you listening at all when we had that meeting?" Hilary chimed in. Tyson, Daichi, Kenny, and herself had all been called into Mr. Dickenson's office weeks ago. The powers that be had been wracking their brains for a way to revitalize the BBA after everything that happened.

It had been slow goings getting things up and running again in the months since BEGA's downfall. BEGA was expected to pay for many of the repairs needed after Brooklyn and Tyson's last showdown. Their own building, the site of the old BBA headquarters, was a complete loss and needed rebuilt. In the end, there wasn't enough money for it all, and BEGA went bankrupt.

The BBA that was born from its ashes was a much more humble version. It was with pure luck and the generosity of a few key benefactors that Mr. Dickenson even had a building with an office to invite them into.

"Mr. Dickenson thinks a little nostalgia will boost ticket sales and help this year's World Championship Tournament be the success it needs to be to return the BBA to its rightful glory," Kenny explained, fingers moving lightning fast over his laptop keys. "They want to remind people how exciting it can be to see a good, clean competition with the beyblading spirit at its core."

"That's the speech I got, too," Ray confirmed. "The White Tigers were invited back to compete and they're all stoked."

Max nodded in agreement and said, "The All Starz, too. It's been a long time since we've gotten a Championship."

Hilary nodded, too. The BBA had hosted smaller tournaments here and there, especially in the countries where BEGA hadn't managed to completely take over yet, but this would be the first time since getting back on their feet that they'd hold a competition on a worldwide scale.

"Word on the street is most of the beybladers we've faced in our careers are making a comeback, even if it's just for an exhibition match," Kenny said. He finally stopped typing and spun his laptop around so they could all to see the series of graphs on the display. "As you can see, the feedback so far has been overwhelmingly positive!"

There was a chorus of chairs scraping against the floor as they all leaned in for a closer look. Hilary jumped when Tyson's hand came to rest on her shoulder; he was so close she could feel his huff of laughter against the back of her head.

"Told ya we'd draw a crowd." He was gloating, but she could feel the genuine excitement buzzing in their sole point of contact and the air around them. "This is gonna be sweet!"

"Does it say anywhere who all is competing yet?" Max asked. Hilary stared at him suspiciously, until she was caught. He looked at Tyson's hand on her shoulder with a knowing glimmer in his eye and winked. "It's hard to picture every team we've ever faced in one competition."

"Who cares?!" Daichi cried, leaping to his feet so quickly that his chair tipped over backwards with a clatter. There was a wide grin on his face and a fire in his eyes as he punched the air in front of him a few times. He nearly knocked several drinks over in the process. "Strata Dragoon and I can take any of 'em on and still have energy left to beyblade circles around the rest of ya! I dare ya to name one blader I couldn't beat!"

"Kai!"

"I dunno, Max – I've been practicing."

Hilary rolled her eyes at the same time Tyson snorted. Rather than make whatever comment was surely on the tip of his tongue, he looked at her and nodded toward Daichi as if to ask if she could believe what he was saying. She shook her head with a bemused smile. They were clearly on the same page about how Daichi would fare in that battle.

"No," Ray said, pointing out into the airport, "he means Kai's finally here. Look!" Before he even had the last word out, the rest of them were whipping around to see for themselves.

And there Kai was, cutting a straight path through a crowd of new arrivals with his bag tossed over one shoulder and a familiar white scarf nipping at his ankles. Unlike the group at their table, he wasn't trying to draw attention to himself, but people were whispering to one another as he passed anyway.

"Hey, Kai, over here!" Tyson called, waving both arms above his head like a loon. "Dude, we thought your plane was never gonna get here!"

Hilary was too happy to see the final member of their team slotting into place to be embarrassed by Tyson's antics. Kai wasn't so unaffected. The moment he saw them was obvious in the way he briefly faltered and let a level of exasperation into the set of his brows. Hilary smiled – she'd even missed that part of their team dynamic.

"C'mon Kai!" Tyson shouted again when Kai wasn't moving fast enough for his liking. "We even got you a coffee as dark and bleak as your personality!" He brandished a previously untouched cup in the air for proof and Hilary smacked him.

"Tyson, you're gonna make him turn right back around!"

"Oh please, Hilary – if anything it's your screeching that'll do that!"

"I do not screech!"

Somewhere in the back of her mind as she and Tyson continued to bicker, she heard Max, Ray, and Kenny begin to laugh. Whether it was at the two of them, or at Daichi immediately challenging Kai to a battle when he made it to their table at long last, she had a feeling the BBA's nostalgia strategy was going to work just fine.

A/N: Current location: Somewhere between wanting a fourth season where every team comes back to party and being happy they capped it at three so I can fill in the gaps with whatever headcanons I want lol

Thanks for reading! :)