Author's Corner: Ug! So! Here I am. :D Again. I am so sorry for taking so long again, this past semester I had Effective Speaking and it nearly killed me. Thankfully, I got a B+ in the class, so now all I've got to do is keep up my grades! Why do I need to keep them up so high, you might ask? Well, I want to study abroad in Ireland. ^.~ So, that's what I'm goin' for. Anyway! Enough of my babbling, you want a chapter, don't you? Well hold on tight! Because you're in for a chapter alright! :3 (On a side note, did anyone else notice that I changed Kai's eyes from crimson to maroon? XD I wasn't paying attention, was I? I'll stick with maroon. :D)

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in Beyblade, nor do I own the setting that I'm working in, and the side characters belong to other people as well, so I'm sorry. I can't make Ray straight for you. Or Kai. Or Tyson. Or Max.

Let Them Dream

Kai leaned back in the leather chair, flicking his eyes to the window where the sun struggled to break through the thick, gray clouds. It was morning already. He dragged his hand through his hair and grimaced as he stood, stretching. The entire night had gone and he hadn't gotten a wink of sleep. Well, that wasn't true. He had gone to bed at a reasonable hour, planning on getting up early and practicing with Dranzer just to prove that he wasn't out of sync with her, but a dream had woken him up not even an hour later. Kai squinted his eyes and then squeezed them shut, breathing in through clenched teeth before letting the breath out and slotting open his eyes. It was just a dream, it hadn't meant anything.

He wandered over to where the kitten was curled up in the biggest and most comfortable chair and scowled at it. It was the purring. The purring had woken him up. It had been a bad enough dream without him purring. Kai turned sharply and stalked over to the door of his study, yanking open the door and striding down the hallway, letting the feeling of the cold air sink into his skin. It was just a dream anyway, why was he so bent out of shape about it? But… purring? Even if the dream had the slightest possibility of becoming a reality, there was no way that that could happen, no matter how…

Kai growled and wrenched open the door to the kitchen, startling the cooks that were in there.

"Oh, uh, Master Kai-"

"Get out."

"We were just preparing-"

"OUT."

The cooks and kitchen hands scurried out swiftly and Kai went over to the cupboards, opening them and frowning up at the many things in them. He grabbed the one thing that he knew how to make, coffee, and pulled it down to start up the bitter brew. He would need it to get through the day. He had gone without sleep before, so that thought wasn't something that bothered him, it was the thought of the battle that gnawed on the edges of his already irritated mind.

There was a creak as the door opened. A timid voice followed, "Master Kai?"

"Eh?" He turned and glared at the maid who trembled there. "What do you want?"

"Um, well. I… the kitten… where would you like his… uh… litter box and… food and…"

Kai narrowed his eyes at her, watching as her shoulders rounded and she fairly shrank a foot. When he was satisfied that she was properly frightened he answered coldly, "I will take care of that."

The maid nodded and quickly disappeared out the door, leaving the pale man alone once again. He turned back to the coffee and started it, breathing in the bitter scent of the nuts. The smell was welcome in his foggy mind of dreams and kittens and purring, bringing back the stark and cold reality of life. It was just a dream, it didn't mean anything at all.

---

Ray stretched under the warm blankets, feeling his muscles tense comfortably after a night of completely relaxed sleep. He opened his eyes slightly and gazed up at the ceiling where the dismal gray light of day was just beginning to show. Blinking a few times, the tanned young man rolled out of the bed and set his bare feet on the scruffy rug. Wiggling his toes as he yawned again, he glanced over at the clock. Ah, so he had slept in. Well, it had been a nice dream. A very nice dream. Smiling to himself, Ray stood up and stretched more, twisting his body to get the full effects of sleep out of his system.

The rest of the group was still asleep, a hodge-podge pile of limbs and appendages that stuck out at strange angles and was accompanied by strange sounds occasionally. Ray shook his head and smiled to himself as he began his ritual morning routine, remaining as quiet as he could (which was pretty quiet), and moving about on his heels and toes to ensure he didn't wake anyone up by carelessly bumping into something.

When the sun had finally peeked through the clouds, Ray had the curtains open and was leaning up against the window, gazing outward with a cup of tea in his hands. He would have had coffee, but he didn't want the shock of caffeine so early in the morning. Setting down the tea, he leaned over the table and picked up Drigger from where he was sitting. The worn sides caught and gleamed in the sunlight and Ray affectionately rubbed his fingers along the smooth sides.

"Well Drigger, looks like we'll have to prove that we're worth his time, huh?" The sunlight tweaked off of the bitbeast's picture, making the green eyes glint. Ray grinned. "Think you can beat Dranzer for me?" He rolled the blade in his hands and looked back out across the city, his eyes slotting as the sun slowly gained confidence and struck off the snow, causing the day to look brighter than it really was. Dranzer felt heavy and comfortable in his hands, and he tossed him in the air once before catching him carefully and dropping him into his pocket. "We'll have to make sure we beat him…"

There was rustling of blankets and a groan behind him, and Ray turned to see Kenny sit up and swim his way out of the two that were still sprawled about in bed. He fumbled for his glasses and put them on, squinting at Ray. "Oh… you're awake."

"I am." The black haired blader smiled and picked up his tea again, sipping it. "Are you?"

"Not really." Kenny struggled out of the sheets and stumbled onto the floor before scratching his sleep-mussed hair and tottering over to the table to sit in the glowing light.

Ray turned to look back outside.

"Who were you talking to?"

"Myself."

"About today?"

"Yep." Ray grinned down at Kenny, "I've gotta psych myself up for it, right?"

Kenny frowned at him and then nodded slowly. "Yeah, I guess."

Silence was thrown over them before Ray stretched and set down his cup; the only bit of tea left was the dredges, dark and bitter at the bottom of the cup. "Well, I'm going to go practice. If they wake up, let 'em know not to start breakfast without me."

"Where are you going to practice out here? It's not like there are bey stadiums set up in random places…" Kenny was still fumbling with his hair and Ray chuckled.

"I'll go up to the roof, that's always a nice place to be." He threw on his jacket and snatched the ripcord that was laying on the tv. Glancing back at the tea, he quickly went over and downed the last bit of it, catching a cross between a grin and a grimace as it made its way down. "See ya."

"Later…"

---

Kai frowned darkly as Dranzer came back to him, her spinning coming to an abrupt stop as she came in contact with his glove. He looked down at her and checked the weight, the balance, and the smoothness of her figure. She was as perfect as she had been when he had first put her away, thinking to never pick up blading again. Tracing along the outside of the blade, Kai grimaced and set the blade up again, standing on the edge of one of the many stadiums in his mansion. He hesitated for a minute before yanking the cord out from Dranzer, watching as she flew into the curved bowl and skidded against the metal, causing sparks to fly up. He smirked slightly as the bowl began its routine again, causing random spikes to thrust up into unwary blades. Well, he wasn't unwary.

"Dranzer!" He could almost feel her movements inside himself, watching as she followed his eyes and slipped easily around the precarious points, spinning into a safe zone and then darting out again as if to prove that she could take the heat. Kai crossed his arms and watched her, silently communicating with his partner after years of silence. The only problem was near the end, when the bowl was about to give up trying to impale the blade and recede into its usual smooth surface. Kai narrowed his maroon eyes as it happened. There was a little halt, a slight pause on a spot that he knew a spike was waiting under, then the bowl would attack, and Dranzer would fly through the air and back into his hand. There was a sound of metal on metal as Dranzer allowed herself to be hit again, just when the end would have come, and Kai grabbed her out of the air and scowled at the picture of the bitbeast.

"What's wrong with you?" Only a slight shimmer was his response, a small movement of flames and feathers as it seemed the picture turned to stare at him sullenly before becoming nothing more than an image again. Kai growled quietly, turning and jumping from his spot to the ground below. His feet hit the concrete compactly and he glanced over to where the kitten was watching him curiously, its wide, curious eyes stuck on his form. "What are you looking at?"

The kitten just mewed and hopped up, trotting on the unsteady feet of a young cat over to him. Kai frowned at it as it rubbed up against him, its weight barely enough to move his pants. With a sigh, he bent down and lifted the skinny thing into his hand, holding it up so they were face to face.

"You're a nuisance." The kitten just reached forward with its tiny paws and placed them on his mouth, purring loudly. He stared at it and it stared back, completely happy as it dangled there purring. Kai sighed again, looking down at Dranzer for a moment before walking out of the basement. He was done practicing; things would happen as they happened. If Dranzer didn't want to win, she wouldn't win, and no amount of him practicing would convince her otherwise. A thin grin settled over his lips, though, as Kai walked down the hall. "I have a feeling, Dranzer, that you're not going to want to lose…"

---

"Hey Kai."

The cheerful voice only belonged to one person, and Kai turned to face Ray where he stood. "Good afternoon."

"Good afternoon? You're so formal." His former teammate grinned as he strolled into the room and looked around, as if that would change the way it had looked the night before.

"You learn to be formal when running a business."

Ray chuckled and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "I'll bet it does. That's why I could never run a business. I don't think I could learn to be so… stiff."

Kai looked over Ray, silently agreeing that he didn't think the other could manage the formalities that it took to run a business. He was much too casual. "It's not stiff. It's courtesy." Ray laughed, causing Kai to frown. "What?"

"Oh, nothing." The other waved him off with a chuckle.

"What?"

"Nothing, really."

"Nothing wouldn't cause you to laugh."

"Touché." He grinned. "I was just thinking of what Tyson would say if you said you were just showing courtesy to people."

"Well he's not here. It doesn't matter what he thinks."

"I know, but it amused me."

Kai narrowed his eyes on the still chortling Ray, wondering how that could be amusing. And wondering how he could be so relaxed still when their battle would determine whether or not he stuck around to be annoyed by the others. There was a touch of annoyance in his voice as he turned away. "I'll bring you to a fair dish."

"Fair? You still think you can beat me, Kai?"

"I beat you before, didn't I?" This time it was his turn to smirk, tossing the expression over his shoulder to see a gentle smile on Ray's face. Great, he just brought up more memories.

"Yeah, well… this time it'll be different."

"If I remember correctly, I even knocked you out." Kai turned around again, a faint trace of an arrogant smirk crossing his face. "Are you sure you can afford to be knocked out in this foreign place? With Tyson and the others to look out for?"

Ray raised an eyebrow, a glint in his golden eyes that could only be taken as a challenge. "That was years ago, Kai. If I'm correct, you haven't touched Dranzer since you stopped being part of our team, right? That means I've got an advantage over you."

"Practicing every day might make you better at controlling your blade, but you have to have a good partnership with your bitbeast in order to make it work better."

"And Dranzer isn't mad at you for pushing her aside to be a pencil-pusher?"

Kai leaned back, looking at Ray with a lazy smile. "We'll just have to see, won't we?"

Ray stared for a moment, taken by surprise for some odd reason, before he grinned back. "Indeed we will."

Author's Corner: Whee! That turned out to be much longer than I intended. Sorry for the slips of characters out of character… I know I did it this time. . I haven't watched Beyblade in a while…. and… yeah. So! Fight chapter next! Stay tuned and you'll get a sweet fight! :D … I've just gotta figure out how to write it and who's gonna win. o.o;;