Kai: They're always bad.
RTC: (Rolls eyes.) Don't feel like talking much and wasting your time, so disclaimer please!
Max: Ray-Tiger-Cat does not own Beyblade and she never will.
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Arrival
"Now what do we do with the kid, anyway?" Tyson pondered the next day. She had been tired and slept most of the day away, allowing him Hilary, Kenny and Kari to make some phone calls and plans in peace, but now she was quite awake and just staring at them confusedly.
"I don't know. Don't you have any toys for her to play with or anything?" Hilary replied.
"No... And what do you mean you don't know? You're the one who's always babysitting."
Kari watched them duke it out and sighed. 'I know they're only playing, so I might as well let then get it out of their systems. I wish... I wish I still had somebody to count on... Don't dwell in the past!' Her mind always snapped her back to reality when things got too bad. It was a defence mechanism. She looked up to find Hilary carrying Amie to the kitchen to feed her, presumably.
"Earth to Kari. Come in Kari," Dizzi called.
"Aren't you going to eat?" Kenny wondered.
"Yeah, I'm coming."
"So, Max will be here tomorrow morning then? I'm surprised he got a ticket that quickly!" Tyson was saying.
"Well, he has wanted the team back together for a while, and his mom mentioned that he seems to need his friends more since..." Hilary cut off as she spotted Kari come into the room. "Anyway, Ray will be here that afternoon, Daichi won't be making it for three days and Tala said he may or may not show up and that he could get here by himself, so we don't need to meet him airport or anything." Hilary hoped that Kari had not spotted her switch in tactics.
"Kari, do you want to come with us, or would you rather watch Amie? I figure it's not a good idea to take such a little child to such a crowded airport," Kenny commented. 'I wish they'd stop treating me like I'm going to break. I've moved on!' Kari thought to herself and as usual, bit her tongue to prevent a fight.
"Okay, we're leaving! Have fun!" Hilary called as she left the next day, with Tyson holding her arm and Kenny tagging along behind them, looking a little out of place. 'Can't blame him; he's feeling like the third wheel.'
"Bye!" Kari replied and locked the front door. "So Amie, what do you want to do today?" she asked the child half hoping that she'd get an answer. Of course she didn't, so she scooped the child up for the first time and place at the kitchen table and handed the kid some crayons and paper. Tyson's house didn't have any children's games for the obvious reason that there weren't any children living there, but they had managed to snag some random art supplies such as the crayons as well as markers, popsicle sticks (Tyson had not minded one bit when he'd been asked to eat all of the popsicles in the freezer.), and pipe cleaners from around the house to amuse Amie.
Kari leaned over to see what the child was drawing, and was surprised to see an actual picture, not very neat, but also not the scribbles Kari was expecting. From what she could make of it, Kari spotted a young girl, maybe a little younger than herself and what could only be Amie herself. 'Now who can that be? Her mother? Poor thing, so lonely.' Kari didn't realize it, but that was the first connection she'd made with someone in the past two years.
Meanwhile, Max and Ray had been picked up from the airport and were on their way home. The team was less self-centred than the last time they'd seen each other, but things were far from comfortable. Max couldn't help but wonder how things in the world had barely been affected by Kai's death, even though he was an international blader who had many fans in pretty much every country. 'How come we're the only ones who feel that things are so radically different?' Before he knew it, they were already back at Tyson's dojo; he had been musing the whole ride there.
"Hi Kari," he mumbled.
"Hi guys. Hey is that little Lynn?" she replied, indicating the form in Ray's arms, sound asleep.
"Yeah. Mom and Dad were a little upset with each other and a lot of stuff actually, so I brought her with me to get her out of the house," he said, even though she hadn't asked for an explanation.
"I see."
"Where's Amie?" Hilary asked.
"She fell asleep a little while ago, so I put her down in Tyson's room. Is that okay?"
"Sounds good. Ray you can probably put Lynn down with her, and the rest of us can share the training room," Tyson said, not even fazed that he was giving up his room to two little girls. The fact that this would have been something that happened on a regular basis a few years ago felt so awkward now. All they really needed were some insane, bitbeast stealing scientists after them and life would be like it was.
The next morning, the guys woke up to find that both Lynn and Amie had been awake a while and had gotten a hold of the crayons again. And as we all know, children like drawing on walls with them. Now most people know to keep such things away from children when there wouldn't be adult supervision to prevent the mess, but they had all been much to distracted by their own problems to clean up the crayons scattered around.
"Look at the pretty picture we drew!" Lynn exclaimed and even Amie nodded vigorously. They had coated much of a large hallway with a 'mural' consisting of random pictures, such as an ice cream cone, a rainbow and a puppy.
"It's very... lovely," Kari finally choked out.
"Yes, beautiful," Hilary felt inclined to agree.
"You didn't even see the bestest part yet! Come on!" Lynn shouted gleefully; being quite happy that they were not in trouble. She grabbed her brother's hand and dragged him around the corner, with his friends tagging right behind. "It's a picture of you guys!"
And so it was, but the sad part was that Lynn had included a boy with a mop of blue hair and a small girl with black frizzes in the picture. Kai and Lizzie. You could tell she had drawn those herself (along with a few other members' portraits), because firstly, Amie didn't know them, and secondly, they were in a different style than Amie's drawings.
"Maybe we should clean this up?" Max suggested.
"I'd say yes, but crayon is next to impossible to remove," Ray pointed out.
"Well then, I guess we're going to be scrubbing for a while," Tyson replied.
They got halfway through scrubbing, and they were completely drenched, when the doorbell rang. Kari, being the most presentable one, ran to grab it.
"Tala? I thought..."
"Hey Kari," he said with a smile and he noticed something else. Her top wasn't very thick and the water was making it cling tightly to her frame and he blushed madly. And of course, she noticed this at the exact same time and ran off. It seemed like one way or another, something would keep the tem from talking.
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RTC: So, how was it? Good, bad? I don't know how many of you see the subplot, but some people have caught on, so I'm happy about that at least. Please review and I'll see you all later!