Well, I've decided to write a second part to 'Locked' which was a Ray/Mariam, so this follows that, so you might wanna read that first. If you saw the preview at the end of Locked, that sequence is in here and you'll understand it now. It could be considered a sequel or a second chapter; I don't know; that's up to you…

Recap: Ray has certain feelings for Mariam and everyone but her notices. When she and the rest of the Saint Shield members leave, he fails to mention it to her, pushing her out of his life without this vital bit of information.

In This: Kai and Tyson convince (more like force) Ray to go after her, despite Max's objections. When he arrives there, Joseph and Ozuma demand that Ray prove himself before being with Mariam. He's doing well – until some old friends come along and ruin everything.

Disclaimer: Must we go over this again? Beyblade is not mine and belongs to way richer people than me.

---------- means scene change

This is still going in the present tense; otherwise the two fics might not make sense. And guess what? I had to make a Kai/Mariam vid just to get into this one, yes and it was actually kinda affectionate so I'm happy (eyes go all sparkly). But this isn't going to be a Kai/Mariam fic… I just needed to get into Ray's jealousy part. That's how I work; I'm weird like that.

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The brunet had lifted his head from the slump it was just in. Everyone stares at him; Tyson, Kenny and Hilary stare in concern, Max stares in shock and Kai…he's staring in disgust.

"I let her go…" Ray's words crumble from his mouth in a low whisper. To Kai, he sounded a bit desperate. To the others, he sounded desolate. Kai's arms were still folded, his head dipped in though along with his closed eyes. He knew Ray was too shy to admit it and Kai accepted that. He just didn't know why Ray had to mourn about it. In all the times Kai watched Ray watching Mariam, the brunet had always seemed calm, like loving from afar, as it were. Kai also noticed that whenever any of the others, besides Hilary and Joseph, went up to her, Ray would have this flash of anger in his eyes, then he would just calm down under a few seconds.

"Ray…" Max takes a cautious step toward the Chinese blader, only to flinch at Ray's low tone of 'Don't'. Kai knew that Ray's feelings were somewhat delicate, remembering the time he was quite fond of Salima, and then when she battled him, he was devastated. And really, Ray knew that Mariam wasn't his, but he still kept a protective manner over her, as with the angry flash and occasional fist clenching.

"Ray, man, are you…?" like Max, Tyson also tries to approach Ray, but also backed off when Ray told him not to. Kai rolls his eyes and scoffs to himself. He was always the one to knock sense back into Ray when he was down, even if Kai had to raise his voice and get incredibly firm, he got Ray back on his feet.

The Russian lowers his arms back to his sides, looking at Ray at his slump, as he called it. He storms in front of Ray, despite everyone warning him not to. Kai's teeth clench together angrily, grabbing the collar of Ray's shirt with one hand, "You stupid asshole! What kind of person are you? Okay, so you didn't tell her you liked her, but moping around isn't going to solve anything, is it? So unless you don't go after her, you are going to find yourself in training hell." And at this point, Kai had clasped both hands on Ray's collar and started shaking him, as if to knock some sense into him that way.

Ray just stars down at him, golden orbs quivering in fear. Kai continues, "If these feelings are so important to you, why are you just sulking about? You have feelings for her so don't go about it so half-assed!"

The others gape at him, Tyson's back slumps over and eyes widened, jaw basically dropped. That's the most Kai's said in a week…and the loudest voice Kai's used outside the dish…wow. I'll be sure to congratulate him and get him something nice later… aw, crap, I'm out of cash. Meh, I'll just 'borrow' some from Hil later, Tyson blinks in shock, well, it's also the most he cursed…oh wait. I bet he does that all the time under his breath… or in his head… "Kai…" Tyson manages to say.

Kai glances at Tyson for a second before returning his glare to Ray. Closing his eyes in disgust, Kai throws Ray back down and starts walking away, his hands returning into his pockets. Ray clears his throat, tugging at his collar, trying to get oxygen back into his system.

Max steps up to Ray, "Whoa, what was that all about?" and the blond is met with golden orbs that want nothing but to pierce into Max enough to scare him. Ray looks over, seeing the others with that question written all over their faces.

The brunet breathes in a sigh, "I don't really think it matters now…" he turns away, staring out the window where he saw Mariam vanish from his life. They had only left a few minutes ago and Ray already felt desperate. So Kai was right; he was moping around.

Tyson steps up next, "Well, chyeah," he jerked a thumb over his shoulder, the other hand touching Ray's in a sort of brotherly fashion, "if it gets Kai to say more than he has in a week, of course it matters…"

Ray looks at him. If it were any other time, Ray would be laughing at that, but it wasn't any other time and Ray wasn't laughing. Ray's stomach was gaining this feeling that he shouldn't tell them and his insides churned, upset that he could no longer stare at Mariam, but at times, he almost felt guilty for spying on her. Almost

"It's…nothing you need to be concerned about," Ray's reply was simple, as he didn't give them a chance to respond. He headed back to the dojo with the others following them. They remained silent the whole walk back, Ray leading them. Unlike the walk going to the airport, Ray didn't find this totally pointless…as all he could see was an image of a certain girl. A certain jade-eyed, indigo-haired girl.

Dark violet hair, wrapped in a ponytail with a beige hair tie (which Ray had thought to be red the first time they met) which rooted the rest of her long violet hair that draped down to her waist, flowing as her head turned to her right to face him. Golden earrings swayed with the movement, dangling near the long shoulder-length bangs that framed her face elegantly with the light reflecting on the slight curls of her hair. Her crimson headband contrasting the pale ivory gentleness that was her skin. Crystalline emerald orbs sparkled with light tints of cyan against the chic lights that bathed her and the light surroundings she was in. Soft meadows surrounded her, the pale blue of the sky behind her proving no comparison to her strands. Frail clouds drift behind her and she lets off a small smile. (1)

"Ray?"

He hadn't realized it before but he was standing with her in the meadow, which would explain why she turned to face him. Ray sighs to himself; he knew that his mind had gotten the wrong ideas when Max had said 'who gets to be with him' and when he himself said 'I'll go with Mariam'…he just didn't know that this would happen.

"Um…yeah?" Ray frowns inwardly, even in his mind, he can't talk to her. He just prayed that he didn't walk into anything on his way back while being in his daydream.

Mariam squats down and Ray's eyes follows her movements, staring at where her eyes were supposed to be – if he could see past all the light sapphire hair that shrouded her face when she lowered her head. Her gentle hand scoops against the grass, drawing out something scarlet and she stands straight again, presenting the object to Ray, "You dropped your headband…"

Ray's eyes widen slightly, his cheek drawing out a shade of red and reflected in her gem eyes, he saw that he really didn't have his headband on. Upset that she spoke to him for nothing more than part of his attire, he bit back a frown and a glare, "Thanks…Mariam." Ray smiles; he hadn't said her name since she left and he missed the way it sounded from his tongue. Really, he was quite pleased and felt content saying it again.

Great…even in his daydreams, nothing more than barely-friendly actions can happen between them.

Mariam smiles lightly, handing the cloth to him, "You um…" she stalls, taking a light bite into her lower lip, a nervous smile replacing her light one. She blinks a couple of times, her radiant jade eyes being shielded every few seconds until Mariam regains herself. She flipped the left side of her bangs (2) and smiled again at him.

"What?" Ray asks, clutching the red cloth in his hand, refusing to put it on while she was talking. Though, without the headband, his dark bangs are evidently going to fall in his face. And they do while Ray brushes the right side out of his eyes to look at her and is shocked when he sees Mariam's hand brushing the left side of his bangs away from his golden orbs, drawing out his never ending blush.

"You don't look half bad…" she gives a light smile again, emerald orbs gleaming at him. Ray felt his face heat up even more, eyes widened and nonetheless, he's still smiling back at her as she withdraws her hand. After a while, Ray ties the headband back on his forehead and stares at her.

"You mean that's it? No crude comment? No insult? No 'but'?" Ray asks, knowing the last question sounded a bit weird. He lifted a dark brow, knowing that Mariam had a sharpest tongue on her team, always ready with a retort, always quick to talk back, which resulted in her being the worst person to start an argument with.

Mariam shoots him a curious look as she places her hands on her hips, "You mean you want me to insult you?" she asks in return as her attempt at being nice obviously not working.

Ray waves his hands in front of him to defend himself, "No, no, it's just that…"

"RAY! Duuuuuude! Wake up!" Tyson starts waving a hand in his face as Ray was coming back to his senses. He was sitting on the dojo floor. He saw the blue clad hand waving in front him then felt it slap his forehead (3). Ray rolls his eyes and rubs his forehead. Tyson turns to grin at everyone else, "See? Told ya it worked!"

Hilary puts her hands on her hips in an angry manner, "We never said it wouldn't work, Tyson, we said it was crude and moronic." She said with a look to match her dull tone.

Ray looks over, seeing Kai leaning against the wall, still in a similar position as he was when they were at the airport; the only difference was that his left leg was crossed over his right. Tyson had just finished a short spat with Hilary and was facing Ray again, "Okay, you are going to tell us what's going on!" he glares down at Ray, and then he jerks a thumb over his shoulder, pointing at Kai, "Kai told us that it was about Mariam. The rest he said was personal and he wouldn't feel right about saying it without your knowing."

The Russian shifted about nervously, giving another 'Hn' and turning away. Ray blinks, secretly thanking Kai. He looks back at Tyson who's glaring right in his face, "So…what's this about you and Mariam?"

Ray closes his eyes and turns his head away from them which Tyson reads, "Oh, you like her…don't you?" Tyson spoke the last part softly, knowing that he shouldn't play around with this as it would make Ray feel worse than he already was and Tyson didn't think that Kai could take that seeing as he got so pissed when Ray was moping just a little bit. But that didn't mean that he couldn't make fun of Kenny's crush on Emily! Tyson grinned evilly at the thought.

But Tyson saw why Kai got so mad before; Ray had messed things up with Salima before, letting her go to Kane and all that. Kai was just trying to make sure Ray didn't get hurt like that again. In a way, it was quite thoughtful, and in another…the thought of Kai shaking Ray by the collar didn't seem very good, but it was because he cared. Then again, Kai has his own ways of showing people he cared about them. Tyson supposed that shaking people by the collar, yelling in their faces and calling them assholes was one of them, although he hoped that Kai wouldn't have to do that to him.

When Ray didn't respond, Tyson knew that he was right, "Yeah, I can see why Kai got mad at you now…" Tyson replies, sitting down in front of Ray. Ray looks back at him and though he already knew it was because Kai was just trying to make sure that Ray was all right, he nodded, "But I'd think that by now, you'd have more confidence than this."

Ray shoots him a confused look and Tyson continues, "Well, I mean, you don't exactly have the best history when it comes to girls…" Ray gives him another look as if to say 'And I suppose you do?' but Tyson ignored it, "Because, buddy, that thing with Salima didn't exactly go well. Kane! I mean sure, Kane and I are friends, but you let her go with Kane?" he asks with a faint chuckle and sigh at the end.

Ray snarls at Tyson. The navy-haired boy knew he crossed a big line when he mentioned Salima going off with Kane, but it was the only way to knock some sense into Ray. Ya gotta be cruel to be kind! (4) "And you don't even wanna know about Mariah!" Tyson laughs, also letting out a sigh, bringing a hand to his forehead, the other to his hip.

The mention of the White Tiger girl's name confuses Ray, "What's Mariah got to do with this? Despite her name sounding like Mariam's? I never…" his voice trailed in his confusion as Ray stood up.

That's when Tyson started to laugh nervously, rubbing the back of his neck, "Oh? Mariah? Um…" Tyson was debating with himself whether to tell him that the pink-haired girl still had feelings for him. Very noticeable feelings… (5)

"Tyson! Mariah trusted you with that secret and you're just going to tell him?" Hilary scolds as Tyson stands up to meet her glare.

"It's about him! Ray has a right to know!" Tyson yells back, "What would you do if someone liked you and you weren't told because everyone was trying to keep it a secret from you?" Kai lifts a brow at this, smirking at Tyson and how close he was to admitting. Truthfully, Kai didn't give a damn about Tyson and Hilary's feelings because they went about it like immature children and Kai wasn't a big fan of watching over children. Kenny went about his almost like Ray; quite shy and always blushing around the girl, which seemed all right, to Kai. But Kai wasn't exactly an expert on the matter.

"So what? Mariah would kill you if you told him!" the brunette screeches back.

"And Ray would kill you! Not that I'd care…" Tyson grins.

"You are just a…!"

Ray sighs, "Forget it!" he cuts in, already tired of the useless bickering, "…I'll go after Mariam if it'll shut you guys up."

Eyes widen at him, "Ray…"

He turns to glare at them, "What? You've never made this much a deal about Kenny's liking Emily or Tyson's liking Hilary, so you I don't know why you have to make a big deal about me. I'd rather just go after Mariam than stay here and listen to you guys rag on me when you ignore the other feelings of the people here!"

There was an awkward silence, especially on Kenny and Tyson's behalf, as Ray sneers at them. He shakes his head in shame of them and storms out of the room. For one of the only times, Kai breaks the silence, "He's right, you know…"

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Ray sighs, muttering things under his breath, staring over the side of the bridge again. Sure, he let her go, but bring up Salima was just cruel. And what the hell did Mariah have to do with anything?

"Is this where you go to think about her, Ray?" Kai asks, walking up to him. Ray turns to look at him and when he does, he lets off a small scowl and looks away again, "So, you pretend to be upset at us, and then you go here to think about her?" Kai's arms fold over his chest, looking at Ray.

Ray scoffs lightly, a soft chuckle hanging in his voice, "I don't expect you to understand…" he spoke in a low tone, the chuckle still hanging.

Kai nods; he knew Ray was right on that, "I don't…but I know moping isn't going to help. For all you know, Mariam could be with some guy back in their homeland…" the Russian blader says with a gentleness to his voice, although his face was emotionless and blank, his voice giving off what he was really trying to say. Sure, Kai knew that mentioning Salima around Ray was a bad issue to bring up, and he refrained from doing so, knowing that it'd strike another nerve in the brunet's system, so Kai tried relating to it.

"I'm pretty sure that Dunga and Ozuma won't do anything to her, but there could be way more people for her to go after in … wherever they came from." Kai hints, still knowing that what he was saying made sense, but he didn't know for sure if there really were other guys in their homeland, "And by sitting here, Ray, you're increasing your chances of losing her to some other guy…"

Ray felt his anger subsiding as Kai's words sink into his mind. His golden orbs quiver and his eyes narrow, glaring his hardest at the trees a few feet under the bridge. Kai felt his words take affect on Ray, "You say that you like her so much, why are you going to risk losing her like this, then?"

Kai was actually making sense. It's not that he didn't make sense at other times, but when Kai did, it usually related to kicking people's ass in the dish… this was different, "But why is everyone's main focus me? Why doesn't everyone spend time trying to get Kenny to talk to Emily or to get Tyson and Hilary to talk without yelling their heads off?"

"Because they make it so obvious; you know what's going on and it's no fun…" Kai chuckles a slight bit, "You don't say a word about it; no one knows what feelings are going through your systems… So finding out that you like someone is something that everyone finds as so interesting since they didn't know about it before. Their only goal after that is to talk for you since they know you won't. Either that, or they'll convince you to say something." (6)

Ray nods, looking at Kai who gives off a light smirk, "Then what's this about Mariah?" his gaze goes back to the bridge, "Besides that she's on my former team, she's my old best friend's sister, and that her name sounds like Mariam's?"

Kai's hands find their way into his pockets, "You mean you don't know yet?" he asks, his face still emotionless, but his voice has question. In his mind, Kai can't understand why Ray didn't notice an infatuation on him so great, but then again, Mariam didn't notice Ray's infatuation on her. Really, Kai felt that he was going to end up in the middle of some weird polygon. Ray shakes his head, wholly confused, blinking innocently up at Kai like an inquisitive child, "Didn't Mariah tell you that she likes you?"

Ray thought about it for a while, and then he shakes his head, "Not really…I remember her saying something like that at the last tournament but I thought it was some kind of joke…"

"You were happy…" Kai states obviously.

Ray shakes his head for the third time, "It isn't the same…" he breathes out a soft sigh, "It feels different around Mariam… I love her; you know that. With Mariah…it feels…kinda sisterly."

Kai nods, "All right, I guess I can understand that. But I'm still saying... you have to go after her because I'm not going to sit around here and watch you mope about her. If I see you mope again and I find that you didn't go after her, trust me, you will be in training hell."

Ray laughs lightly, "All right, but only because I'm scared of you right now…"

"Heh, damn straight, you'd better be." Kai smirks and he began to walk away. Last second, he turns back to Ray, "Remember what I said; training hell." Ray smiles a bit and nods at him.

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"Ray, you can't!" Tyson insisted against Ray's back as the brunet gathered the sleeping sheets that he used to lay on when he slept overnight at Tyson's. Ray's eyes close as he ignores the navy-haired boy's protests. Ray just didn't understand them; at first, they're all nagging on him to go after her and when he does try to go after her, they're all trying to stop him.

The Chinese blader doesn't even bother turning around, "Tyson, you're the one who was harassing me to go after her, and now that I am, you want me to stay? I just don't get you, man…" Ray shakes his head in shame, "Besides, Kai said I could leave, so don't bother bringing up the whole practice thing…" well, more like Kai threatened me to leave… he thought to himself.

"Oh, just let him go, Tyson…it's not like you've done anything like this before…" Hilary sighs, sitting on her knees beside Kenny, "Besides, he's in love; it's so cute!" Hilary clasps her hands together and her ruby eyes begin to sparkle happily.

Tyson gives her a dull look, just barely lifting a brow, "…Yuck…"

Hilary's eyes stop sparkling and she gets up, then sneaking behind Tyson, she slams a hand on the top of his head, "Baka!" she looks back at Ray while trying to shove Tyson's head into the floor with a wide grin, "Don't worry, Ray, we respect your decision!"

Kai rolls his eyes, "Don't suck up to him…"

"Oh…right…" Hilary chuckles uneasily, trying to fight against Tyson who now seems to be pushing back up until both of them end up being pushed to the floor. Kai scoffs once again. Seriously, these two either needed to admit they liked each other or just burn because this bicker and denial of feelings was getting on Kai's nerves. He was fine with Ray since he admitted it (to him, not to Mariam, but still) and Kenny… Kai was pretty sure Kenny had told the American blond who had offered to help get Emily to like Kenny.

Kai knew everything about every one of these people. Sometimes they would talk about something important while Kai was around and Kai, being so quiet, they would forget that he was there and he'd hear everything. It wasn't eavesdropping, really, since Kai had no intention of listening in the first place; they were just so damn loud. It wasn't Kai's fault if they spoke so loud that Kai could hear them. It was just overhearing. Yeah…

Ray let off a smile, turning to face them, "Well, see ya, guys." He began walking toward the door until Max runs in front of him, arms spread, blocking Ray from the door, "Whoa, Max, what's up?" Ray lifts a dark brow, confused at Max's sudden movement.

The blond glares with a firm look on his face; as if he wouldn't move for anything, "You can't go, Ray, trust me."

Ray just blinks in his confusion, then lightly tries pushing Max out of the way, "Max, I'm serious…I don't wanna lose again."

"And you don't think I'm serious? Ray, believe me; you shouldn't go."

"Why? So you can watch me mope around without her here? No thanks, but I feel too alone as it is, being without her just makes it worse." Ray shakes his head, glaring at the ground for a few seconds before looking back up at Max, "So just let me go, okay?"

Max shakes his head, firmly standing his ground, "Ray, you have no idea what you're about to go through…" Ray's overwhelmed by confusion at this point, not understanding what the blond was talking about. Ray prayed that Max didn't like Mariam too, because that would just feel all too weird to him.

"Max," Kai's voice was differently cold, "let him go." Hearing this, Max's eyes begin to quiver, losing the firmness they had only a few seconds ago. The quivering increases until Max breathes out a sigh, his arms lowering by his sides in defeat.

Ray silently thanks Kai for the second time, proceeding out the door without another word because Ray feels that he's already said everything that he wanted to say to them. Ray would just find her, tell her his feelings and see if there's a slight chance she might reciprocate them.

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"Madam, I need to know which flight a short boy with green hair, a girl with blue hair, a guy with red and black hair and a big guy with dirty blond hair took!" Ray slams his hands on the counter of the reception.

The woman stares at him for a long while, "I don't think you're required to know that information…"

Ray growls; this damn woman was not going to stop him from getting to Mariam, "No, you don't understand! I'm with them! I just missed the flight." Ray notices it take a small affect on her, "Our father's going to get so mad at them if he finds out that they left me here! Especially my sister!" Ray really had no choice but to cough up some phony sob story and it helped that he could think fast.

The woman lifts a brow and tilts her head to the side to look at him, "Now that I think about it…you do kinda look like that one girl." Ray grins, knowing that having a similar appearance to Mariam would come in handy, "Fine, they took the 265 one, okay? Can you stop crying?" (7)

Ray blinks happily up at her, "Okay." Ray sticks a hand into his pocket, to see if he has enough for a ticket, and he's far from it, "Is there a train that goes to the same place?"

"You're in an airport…" she states dully, "But yeah, go to the --- excuse me, no cuts!" she starts yelling a boy who's standing behind Ray, then soon comes up beside the brunet.

"Kai?" Ray asks in disbelief as Kai steps beside him. Kai doesn't even bother to look at him and keeps a hard glare on the woman.

"Here…to pay for his ticket." The slate-haired boy says curtly, sliding her a large amount of money.

"Uh…okay…" she's obviously confused at this, but goes along.

Ray smiles as Kai begins to walk away, "Kai, wait!" the Russian turns his head back to Ray, "Thanks…" the brunet says calmly. Kai smiles slightly and turns to walk away again. Kai was just way to complex for Ray to understand…

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(8) Ray gets out of the airport and looks around at where he is, "Why does this place seem so oddly familiar?" he mutters to himself and wanders around a bit until he sees that indigo hair sticking out of the crowd of red, orange and gray clad people. His feet move towards her, unable to control himself. Once there, he smiles and gives a wave, about to talk when…

"Crap! It's you! What're you doing here!" Joseph screeches, jerking an accusing finger at Ray.

Mariam looks at her brother for a few seconds before looking back at Ray, "Are you here to challenge Joseph or something?"

Ray shakes his head, trying to keep a blush from showing, "No, I wanted to… wait, where're Ozuma and Dunga?"

Mariam sighs, "Those two wanted to rest in early. Joseph here wanted to go see if we could get our blades fixed."

A look of confusion crosses Ray's face. They broke? Oh yeah… Joseph and Max slammed into Mariam's blade at the same time, I got pissed and nearly killed Joseph's blade. Oops…violent me. He smiles in realization until Joseph points a hard glare at him, "Yeah, smile while you can! I don't even know why you protected her anyways…"

Ray opens his mouth to speak, but Mariam cuts him off, "It was two on two. Obviously, Ray's not going to let you get away with hurting Sharkrash when he's an important part of our victory!"

Joseph's olive eyes roll, scoffing, "You only won because Ray went psycho after we knocked you out and he murdered us…"

Mariam takes that into her head and turns to look at Ray, "Yeah, why did you go psycho?"

Ray's eyes widen and his cheeks heat up lightly. Joseph was doing this on purpose! Tyson and the others were hard enough to deal with, but now Joseph! "Uh…" he rubs the back of his neck uneasily, "animal instinct?" he smiles, using the neko-jin in him as an excuse.

Both stare at him, "Makes sense…" Mariam shrugs. Joseph growls at his failed attempt to get Mariam to realize Ray's feelings so he could make fun of it later. Ray lets out a sigh of relief, "Okay, we're going to get our blades fixed now. It was…nice seeing you, Ray…" Mariam mutters, wondering on what to say so that she doesn't sound too rude. She really had no idea why Ray had come all this way after them. Mariam flips her hair, like what Ray saw her do in his daydream. She turns to walk away with Joseph poking his tongue out at Ray as they are about to leave him in the streets by himself.

Mariam turns around last second, "You can come if you want…since I don't think you know anyone else here…" Ray felt his heart race at her offer and nods, going over with them. Joseph folds his arms angrily and purposely lingers behind Mariam and Ray.

"So, why're you here?" Mariam asks, not even looking at Ray. Truthfully, their homeland/village thing was quite familiar, like he'd seen all of this before…somewhere. When Ray doesn't respond, Mariam continues with her interrogation, "Does it have something to do with the group that's staying with us?"

"There's…a group staying with you?" Ray gulps slightly, his blush refusing to leave his face. Mariam nods silently, her gaze still staring far ahead. Ray looks over at her, "Do you know them?"

Mariam had lead them over to a stand and pushed her and Joseph's blades toward the owner and leaning her left elbow on the counter, she looks at Ray, "I don't think so…Ozuma said they were already at the village, but I didn't get to see them; Joseph rushed me out too fast…" her emerald eyes glare angrily at her brother who just rolls his eyes again. Ray smiles a bit at this as Mariam looks over at the stand owner, getting a receipt for the blades that they'd have to come back later for.

Mariam turns her head to look back at Ray. This action looked similar to how Ray saw Mariam turning her head in his dream and unknowingly, he stares, "Ray?" she leans over to look at him, obviously lost in Lala Land. It takes Ray a few seconds before gaining his senses back and he looks at her, "We're going now…" she holds up the receipt, and starts walking back, Joseph right behind her and Ray is forced to follow.

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Ray had another confused look cross his face when Mariam stopped them at a small grassy cliff with water beneath, "What're we doing here?" the brunet asks, looking over at Mariam who took a spot sitting on the edge of the cliff, letting her legs dangle over.

"I get bored easily…I just come here to feel better…" Mariam shrugs, lying in the grass. Joseph seems to have no problem and sits down a few inches from her. Ray just stands above them, looking around. If Joseph weren't here, Ray could've used this a good moment to tell her, or at least break the ice. Ray knew from experience that short people with green hair couldn't be trusted. At least not right away…

"I…see… and how long do you stay here?" Ray felt proud of himself. He was starting to form full sentences in her presence, to her. As long as he didn't mess this one up like he did with Salima, Ray would be fine.

Mariam looks up at him, "If you're bored, Ray, you could just say so… you don't have to stay here with me. Joseph can lead you back to where Ozuma is."

Joseph folded his arms, "Like hell I will…" Ray noticed that Joseph still had a grudge on him, which was quite typical. With every girl Ray shows the slightest interest in, there's always someone there to hate him for it. Well, Kane never really showed hate towards Ray, but at first, Ray did get a bad feeling around Kane. Maybe Ray was just doomed…

"Fine," Mariam got up, "then I'll take Ray back to Ozuma and you can stay here, Joseph." She was easily ticked off, apparently. Ray never actually got close enough to know her…not like Max did… Ray scowls at the thought. Why did Max try to stop him from coming?

"Fine, whatever…" the younger boy rolls his eyes. Mariam mumbles things under her breath, with Ray catching little bits like 'I swear if Joseph keeps rolling his eyes, they'll roll right off…' and something about an infestation of little green-haired people.

Ray began to follow Mariam, although she was walking rather quickly, obviously disturbed by something. Ray couldn't bring himself to ask why, knowing that there was a possibility that it was personal and she wouldn't want to talk about it. Especially not to someone she barely even trusted. In the past, the most Ray and Mariam did was have that two on two battle. But there was a moment there that intrigued Ray. And at that time, he was relieved when Mariam didn't lash out at him for knocking Sharkrash while she was finishing her attack on Max.

"Mariam…?" Ray's voice flooded concern, concern that she didn't notice was there. She simply disregarded it and kept walking. After a few more attempts, Ray got her to talk…at least he got words out of her.

"Please, Kon, not now…" Mariam's tone was rather cold. Ray hadn't seen or heard such a tone used from anyone but Kai on his bad days. And it hurt Ray that Mariam had reduced to calling him by his surname, and his never ending blush had finally died, replaced with a pale tone. This proved it for Ray; she couldn't reciprocate his feelings…at least not like this. Though, Ray wasn't stopped from trying to gain her trust, since he felt that just being near her or being able to stare at her again could content him.

They were barely friends, almost strangers, and they barely had contact, yet he still fell for her. He knew it was selfish, but part of him wanted…more than that.

He needed it… more than anything. The only question was could Ray get what he wanted, despite everything in the way?

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Okay, so how's that for a start? I'm sorry for all the little notes I stuck everywhere! And I'll say it now; in this Max doesn't have very strong feelings for Mariam (although I like the pairing) but the reason why Max was stopping Ray will be revealed, so don't get mad.

I know this beginning is a bit unorganized, but I'm just feeling a bit nervous about this one. So if you have like suggestions or comments or something, just tell me so I can feel better about this fic.

(1) – This description is actually based on a fan art of Mariam that I found, but really, words cannot describe the prettiness of this pic! (glomps pic) Only thing is that Mariam's hair is a faded blue in the pic, so I just edited that little part, but it's still a pretty picture!

(2) – If you guys have seen that Pokémon thing where Shuu flips his hair (or runs his hand through his hair) that I can't really describe, that's kind of what Mariam does. Haha, don't we all love Shuu? You don't? Well, I do! Yeah, he rocks…

(3) – My dad does this to me all the time, even when I'm just staring at the ceiling; he comes over, waves his hand in my face, then slaps my forehead. It gets very annoying…

(4) – Aw, don't we love this song? I do! From the album '10 Things I Hate About You' or something like that… meh, I still like that song!

(5) – Mariah admits she likes Ray during season one when they battle, right? 'Cause I haven't seen that since I was babysitting this eight-year-old who loves Beyblade and I had to watch the episodes with him and I remember Mariah kind of teary and she says something to Ray…then I heard the phone ring and I didn't see what happened after that…oops :P. But that kid broke my Beyblade! He also broke my ripcord thing! He wouldn't stop smashing it against the wall! (starts crying hysterically)

(6) - My friends are like this to me. They're so interested in who I like and they don't care about everyone else when they're doing the same thing; because I don't say a word about it. I'm the shy one, which is why I'm doing this more from Ray's view.

(7) - I really don't know where the Saint Shields homeland is. The number is just the last three numbers on the Mariam fan art that I like so much. (see 1st note)

(8) - Please don't make me write the whole getting ready for the flight, the flight itself and then the landing! It's very pointless!

Okay, how many references did you see? There were three so go see if you can find them! They're references to other animes and animated movies.

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Preview of Next Chapter:

She shifts around a bit, feeling something in her shadow, but she chooses not to make a reaction to it, pretending to innocently put on her headband, "What're you doing up so early?" Ray's voice comes up from behind her, startling her and her fingers slip on the band.

Mariam gives up, holding the red cloth in her hand, "I could ask you the same thing…" she replies simply, closing her eyes gently. Ray walks up beside her, smiling. Mariam looks at him, noticing how he looks; it's as if he just woke up and tied his hair together now, the end of his headband sticking out of his pocket.

Ray laughs slightly, "I guess I'm just so used to Kai waking me up this early…what about you?" he looks over at her, catching her staring at him. In that case, Mariam shakes her head and looks away again. Ray smiles as he could've sworn he saw a light blush with her widened eyes. Maybe he was getting somewhere. Mariam's only reply was her shifting around nervously, "Anything you wanna talk about?" he peered over, trying to look into her eyes.

Mariam started blinking frantically, trying to think of something. She couldn't. She couldn't trust him…he didn't know her. And by this point, Mariam's head had started aching, causing her to bring a hand to it. Why was Ray even talking to her? She had been part of the reason why he lost Drigger. He should have some kind of hate toward her, and by not getting upset, she figured that something must've been wrong with him.

Ray saw her bright jade orbs quivering, getting an idea of what was going on in her head. She doesn't…trust people… people like me. He was so close to her, but he couldn't tell her anything. A weird feeling shattered itself right through Ray's self, and it took him so much to keep from breaking down in front of her, "I see…" his head bows low and Mariam notices how broken apart his tone sounds and she can't help but feel partially responsible for it.

Like Ozuma said, she can't do anything right… She watches as Ray begins to walk away, but she notices that the headband had fallen out of his pocket. She stares at it through narrowed eyes for a while, "Ray?" she asks, turning around to face him.

Ray looks at her again, "Um…yeah?"

Mariam squats down, running her fingers through the grass until the headband fell into her hand. Clasping it, she picks it up, staring at it with a light smile, "You dropped your headband…" she offers it to him with her open hand, forgetting that her own headband is still clutched in her other hand.

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That's all for now! Review please so I can continue (faster).