Disclaimer: I don't own beyblade. All I do own is my plot line, OC's and any of their extensions.

Summary: The threat of higher level competition in the tournaments to come makes Mr. Dickenson assign Riley Phillips to help train the G Revolutions. Tyson knows her. She was the one who taught him to really beyblade. But how much does he know about the time between back then and now? And why is she singling Kai out?

To Turn The Tides

Chapter Five: Our Little Secret

Distant Storm

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Riley threw the bag onto the ground. "You're lucky Tyson is a bottomless pit. He totaled a twenty-four pack of this stuff in less than two hours." She pulled out one of the pop cans, and placed them in a particular order.

He grunted. "Great, now we can listen to him belch all night."

"Wrong." She held up a finger in his face, and he blinked. "He's leaving in an hour to go visit his aunt and uncle with his grandpa and Hiro. We get the place to ourselves."

Pulling out his beyblade and launcher, he muttered a whatever. "What do you want me to do, exactly?" He asked, after she finished her layout.

Riley looked at him like he was out of his mind. "Destroy them, what else?"

After another mutter about insane girls, he launched his beyblade and went after the twenty four cans before him with a vengeance. Within a minute and thirty seconds, all of them were crushed flat.

"There," he said, recalling his beyblade.

She rolled her eyes, not impressed at all. "I said destroy them, idiot." She picked up one of them. It was hot to the touch, and she grasped it in her cold hand. "These still look like they were pop cans at one point. Melt them, do something," she said, irritated.

Kai growled, and she threw the crushed can she had picked up before him. "Go."

He relaunched his blue beyblade, first rounding up all of the scattered cans, before calling upon Dranzer, who liquified the cans into a solidifying heap with a fiery blast.

"Alright," she said, though not entirely happy. "I guess I'll buy it." She turned her attention away from Kai, and scoped out the hill they had trained on the day he had decided to try her attack. "Come on."

He followed her willingly, having no idea just what the hell she was thinking. He had been dealing with these 'private sessions' for two weeks now, and despite the fact that she was working him almost twice as hard for twice as long, he didn't see any real change, or anything big that he was learning. Personally, he wasn't quite sure how a person got to be at her level. It was impossible, he thought. So far, at least.

"Come on, slowpoke."

"Yeah, yeah."

His attitude was beginning to bug her. She was playful, then extremely serious, and nothing was ever good enough for her, then she was concerned about his health. It was like she was extremely bi-polar or something. Either that or it was just the way she was, and he didn't really like it.

She waited for him on top of the hill, her beyblade launched into the snow. Almost immediately, the snow within the circle she had carved out with her beyblade disappeared, and the ground was completely dry. It was wierd, he thought. It felt warm within the circle as well.

"Ready?" She asked, recalling her beyblade and locking it back into place on her launcher. "I'll take it easy on you."

"Don't."

He looked determined, and she nodded. "Alright. Count this as your first official lesson, then."

Now we're talking. He launched his beyblade, and she launched hers as well, sending his sailing right back at him. He caught it and locked it back into the launcher. She waited. He launched again, waiting to gain speed and then charged at her, before his blade bounced right back at him.

He began swearing in Russian as his attempts continued to fail. Seventy-three, seventy-four, seventy-five... She didn't say a word about his language, she merely waited, not mocking, not anything. She called no attack, she waited for him to do it, to put a dent in her spin. About a hundred attempts later, after involving Dranzer, he dropped to one knee, panting.

She recalled Taidra, and knelt down in front of him, offering a bottle of water, which he guzzled quickly. "You okay?"

"Yeah." He got up, a bit shakily, and leaned hesitantly on her. She led him over to a picnic table, and sat down on top of it.

"What did you learn today?"

"I suck," he said, sincerely.

She rolled her eyes. "Men are babies, for once the movies are right."

He looked at her with a glare, and she took it in stride, used to his annoyance. "How so?"

"Tell me something else you learned today, oh great master of suckiness." He looked at her with a bland glare, and she smiled at him, like a little school girl.

"I can't beat you."

"Good job." She rolled her eyes and figured that he already knew that. She'd let it slide, because he wasn't going to be her friend just yet. He'd have to melt a bit first.

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Riley threw herself back onto the couch and closed her eyes. Five pm. And it was silent. Finally, she thought, holding a pillow under her head and leaning down on it. She was exhausted. With everyone- save Kai- gone, she could finally get some sleep. And that was overdue, in her oppinion.

She was in that state between sleep and being awake when Kai came into the room. He cocked his head to the side, noting that her breathing was deep and even. She murmurred incoherantly into the pillow, something about being cold.

A few minutes of watching her, he had had enough. "Can't you use your bed?" He asked, apparently annoyed.

Riley opened one eye lazily. "No. I like it here." She curled up into the fetal position, apparently cold, as her murmurring suggested. "Hey, can you get me a blanket?"

"No."

"Then lend me your scarf. It's freezing in here." He snickered, as if enjoying her discomfort. She sat up lazily, stretching out. "Fine, I won't teach you anything."

Kai froze. She was going to play games like that? Well, he'd have to bite, for now. "Alright. Where's a blanket?"

"Over the couch."

He slapped a hand to his forehead. "You're lazy."

"If someone else was here, I'd ask them, but they aren't." She batted her eyelashes at him pettily. He rolled his eyes and pulled out the blanket from the opposite side of the couch, so it was laying over her. "Thanks, hon."

Kai looked down at her, but she was already cuddled into the blanket, half asleep again. He had to admit, the way she scrunched her nose as she settled down into the blanket again was cute. "It's just because you threatened my training."

"I know, Kai, I know," she said, groggily. He sighed. This girl was insane. She was making him use words like cute.

A few minutes later, she cracked open one eye, catching him on the floor, appearing uncomfortable. "I'll share the couch, Kai," she offered, pulling her legs off the third cusion so that it was only covered by the blanket, and not her body. "Sit your ass down."

He agreed, something she hadn't expected, but she didn't really care about it, falling back asleep.

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Kai stretched, hitting something with his legs. It felt warm, and he was in something just about the equivalent of a drunken stupor, so he shimmied down next to it. He felt whatever it was cuddle up to his body warmth from under the blanket and realized that it was a human, so he immediately sat up and brought his legs over the edge of the couch. That could've become really bad, he thought, if Riley woke up.

"I'm awake you know," Riley said, practically reading his mind. "You must have been tired from the training too, heh?" Kai said nothing, and she rolled her eyes. "Want something to eat?"

He shrugged again, passively, and she took it as a yes.

"Egg rolls, wan ton... come on Kai, work with me here, I don't know what the hell you like."

He grumbled something, incoherently, mind you, and she immediately pinned him against the arm of the couch.

"Can you be tolerable? Just this once?"

"No, sorry." He went to release her hands from his shoulders, but froze when he saw this chilling look in her crimson orbs. When her eyes seemed to get a bit out of focus, he became worried. "Are you alright?"

"Huh?"

"You faded out there."

"Oh.. uh.. sorry." She sat down next to him on the couch. "Why do you wear a facade like that?"

"What?" He looked at her, a wave of incredulousness passing over her features.

She shrugged, and dismissed the entire ordeal. "Forget it."

"I don't think I will."

She looked at him. "Alright... fine. You want the truth?" He nodded. "I want to know what makes you tick."

"Everything?" He asked, a bit surprised.

"Everything."

He looked at her, his mind conjuring up ideas of what to say to her. His voice grew dark. "From the time I was little, my grandfather abused me. You want to hear about that?"

She nodded. "Has anyone listened to your entire story?"

He shook his head.

"Well you just found someone who will. So start from square one."

He smirked. "I haven't even told Dickenson, Riley, so what makes you think I'm going to tell you? You'll run right off and tell him."

She shook her head. "I haven't even told him I'm training you, and if he finds out, he'd probably kill me for it. And I wouldn't tell him your past, it's not my business to go around and spread the word. I'm just here because A, it's my job to teach you guys, and B, I agreed to help you beat Tyson. So let's go."

"What about you? You haven't told me everything."

"You're trying to get out of this." She sighed. "I will gladly tell you my entire life story, we have all night. But riddle me this: Does the prospect of me knowing things about you really scare you that much? After all, I've told you everything."

He looked a bit shocked. "No," he grumbled.

"I think it does. Let me tell you, Kai, I've been through my own personal hell, come back again, and decided to help your ass. Just do it. It'll help."

He said nothing. She had a point. At least, he thought she did.

"I'm not going to cry, or act like an idiot, just so you know. I need to know what we have to work with."

"What?"

"Your style. What we can and can't change."

"I can tell you that."

She gave him a helpless, innocent smile. "No, you really can't."

"So you really want to know? Everything?"

She nodded. "Everything."

He thought about it for a moment. This was his history, from his parents, to his abbey days, his grandfather... part of him was afraid of retelling those memories, for fear they'd become his reality again. He then discarded that thought. There was no way he'd ever go back there, that he'd ever be that person. No way in hell. And he really did want to know why she wanted to pick apart his style based on his past. What could help her there? Still...

"Alright." And just like that, a beautiful, honest, and gentle smile graced her lips. He felt a bit more relaxed by that. Was she really that happy that he was going to tell her?

Her voice seemed more mature and gentle as well. She reached over and squeezed one of his hands, before letting go. "Take your time."

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December passed without incident, fading into January, and a stretch of clear days, though four inches of snow still laid strewn across the yard. She followed the group silently, working out things in her head.

Over the past few weeks, she had made a complete breakthrough with Kai. It had started with his whole life story...

Personally, his life story sounded as bad as she thought it would, though she was entirely surprised that he had even said anything about his parents, Alevski and Mishika. She learned a bit of what they were like, how they died, how his grandfather took him in and immediately sent him to the abbey, that sort of thing. It was vicious, and he spared no detail. It was funny though, he had gone through it better than she had anticipated, but as with all troubled individuals, or people with secrets, once you start, you don't want to start until it's all off your chest.

He had done just that.

"...afterschool right, Riley?" Tyson had just finished talking. The rest of the group looked at her expectantly.

"Huh? Oh, yeah."

She continued on in silence with the group. Kai had already left in his all together sporty car that she had described as 'spiffy' to him about twenty minutes before. He had laughed at her. Dare she say it, after he had told her everything, and she had done the same, he seemed a lot less edgy to her, in private, almost...

Almost like a friend.

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The second final bell rung, Riley was gone, shooting out of her Honors Lit class and down the hallway. She deposited everything aside from her cell phone, ipod, and beyblade in her locker, and headed out the door. She finished up a full period before Ray, Tyson and the others, who were all still a year and a half away from completion of high school. She shrugged. It sucked for them.

She walked down the deserted halls, all seniors were either in the senior lounge, the cafeteria, or outside. Everyone else was in class. After a moment, she decided to go for some fresh air. She walked outside, noting that the large staircase outside the school was deserted, void of life. Even the birds weren't around. She shrugged and sat there, not bothering with the music of her ipod. She'd go for the silence of nature.

Within a good ten minutes, she heard the sound of a car making the sharp and occasionally deady turn from the stoplight down the street to her left, and saw it pull up in front of the school. She'd recognize that car anywhere.

It was Kai's.

He was the only one in the city with that car. She saw the window of the passenger side facing her, lower. She got up and stood there casually.

"Want a ride?"

The first day he had offered, it had caught her off guard. Now, she was used to it, sliding into the passenger's seat, and smiling at him.

She shrugged, "Sure, since you're offering."

She noted the angry stares she recieved and rolled her eyes. "I thought the school still had classes this period."

"Underclassman," she responded. "Though everyone is so obsessed with you, they call you 'The Kai Hiwatari.' Unless its your team mates, and then it's Sourpuss or Ice Cube. Occasionally they throw around the term 'The Human Glacier.'" She smirked over at him and he shrugged.

"Whatever." A moment later, he stopped at a red light. "Where are we training?"

"The park will be packed, let's go to the B.B.A. building. Dickenson's out of town, but I have a set of keys for the training halls, which are currently available."

"Yeah, that's what you get for being his 'kind-of-daughter.'"

She shrugged. "He's probably the nicest guardian I've ever had, not counting my father." Kai nodded gravely, leaving it alone. "The guys will probably wonder where we were, so if you want, I'll walk back."

"Don't bother. I'll just say that you were outside and I passed by. It'll be my charity act for the year." She laughed, a pure, ringing, crystaline sound.

Kai was hit with another round of a reoccuring sensation. It had been happening a lot lately, especially since that night last month when he had told her everything about his past. He felt like he could let himself loose in front of her. Like that mask just didn't work on her anymore. He kind of figured it didn't, but still, that was something he definitely couldn't do without just yet. Maybe he should ask her about it, his mind began to wonder. Of course, that would require letting his mask slip too. God, he was so confused.

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Max was the last of their team to appear underneath the large oak tree in front of the school. "Where is she?" Tyson asked him. "Have you seen Riley?"

"No," Max answered. "I could've sworn she got out a period before us. You wouldn't think she'd forget and go back to your house, do you?"

Ray shook his head. "We've already called. She isn't there."

"Her cell phone?" He offered.

"Tried it. No answer."

They argued back and forth, trying to think of ways to determine where Riley might be. "She said she'd meet us afterschool," Daichi said, annoyed. "Why isn't she here?"

"I don't know, kid," Tyson said, biting back his annoyance. "She's not usually flaky like this."

"Obviously," Ray said. "We train with her too."

A few minutes later, one of Riley's friends from her Spanish class came out. "Hey, Nina, have you seen Riley?" Max asked, his eyes reflecting concern and a bit of sincerity.

Nina stopped, her blonde hair in wavy little ringlets. "Actually, I thought you guys would've already known."

"Known what?"

The blond rolled her eyes, sighing in annoyance. "Kai pulled up right after her last class and got her. Made quite a scene, she'll probably get stoned by the freshmen, but it's all good." She paused. "I thought you knew that, he's been doing it for just about the last month."

Everyone's jaws dropped. "Uhh guys..." Tyson began, entirely confused. His emotions then did a three-sixty. "Since when did they get along, and since when does anyone other than Kai ride in Kai's car?"

They all said the same thing. "Never."

"What the hell is going on here?"

Nina backed away from the group. She drew out her cell phone and texted the girl a warning.

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Across town, in a duffel bag abandoned on the floor, a cell phone vibrated. Its owner, however, was completely oblivious. She stood in one of four underground training rooms, facing an annoyed opponent. "Come on, think, Kai."

"Shut it, would you?" Sweat was pouring off him. This was about the twentieth time he had launched his beyblade in retalliation to her. It was getting more and more exhausting, though he did at least feel accomplished.

"Don't let me piss you off!" Her beyblade quickly zipped out of the way, and came up behind his.

"Evade, Dranzer!"

Dranzer lingered for a fraction of a second too long, but it narrowly evaded Taidra and Riley's attack.

She nodded, impressed. "You've gotten faster. But there's more than speed to this."

"Yeah yeah. Dranzer, Spiral Inversion!"

Dranzer proceeded to circle Taidra a few times, and with each one, the phoenix gained speed, until all she saw was a bright red light. After a few moments, the circle minimized itself, and came crashing inward, causing a huge explosive crash.

But that wasn't what they were watching. She had caught it, and so had he.

It was only for a second, but it still held a lot of importance. This was beyond a breakthrough. "Looks like you just threw me off." She raised her eyebrows in surprise and recalled Taidra, stepping across to his side of the arena, throwing a water bottle his way. He looked up at her. She had never expected him to smile, and that was something he liked about her. Though, he decided, for the hell of it, he would. She smirked in his direction. "Don't get cocky, I haven't started attacking you yet."

He nodded. "Again?"

She looked at him, with an amused smile. "No." He was surprised. Since when had she turned him down for another bout? "You've made enough progress for today. Tomorrow we start your real training."

"What do you mean?" She grabbed her bad and held open the door for him, since she was the one who was locking it on the way out.

"You've got to start learning the attack, don't you?" Her head tilted to the side. "Though, I think I'm in the mood for ice cream now."

"I have a question to ask you."

"Yeah?"

"Are you bi-polar?"

She whacked him. "If you have to ask..." She shook her head and gave him an amused grin, which he returned with a smirk of his own. "No! You idiot!"

He shrugged, his smirk still there. "My treat," He said suddenly.

"What?" Apparently she thought the same way.

"You said you wanted ice cream," He responded.

She looked up at him. "Hey, I thought you already did your charity event for the year."

He shrugged. "Fine, buy your own ice cream."

They had left the B.B.A. building by now and were heading to his car. When they got in, she leaned over to his side of the car and kissed his cheek. "I'm sorry," she said, sincerely.

He pressed a hand to his cheek. This was unusual, he realized. Wasn't that a sign of affection or something? It was something Ray did to Hilary on her birthday. Now he was definitely confused. And she had apologized. No one apologized to him. What the hell was going on here?

"It's fine."

"So are we getting ice cream?"

"You're hopeless."

"Shut up and hit the gas."

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Kai slid the door shut behind her. "Where the hell were you?" Hiro asked, his face flustered and concerned. "Tyson and the others were wondering where you were!"

"Sorry," she said, her eyes widening. "Oh shit, I was supposed to meet them, wasn't I?"

"Yeah, yeah you were," Hiro responded hotly. "What the hell was so important that you forgot that?"

"I was training! God!"

Tyson, Ray, and Max came into the room. "Where were you?"

She noticed Kai edging through the back of the room and said nothing to awknowledge his prescence.

"Training," she repeated. "What did I do that you need to question me like a criminal?"

Tyson stalked over to her, pointing a finger directly to her face. "We know you got picked up by Kai," He said. "Why didn't you tell us?"

"It was a spur of the moment thing."

"Why'd it take so long?" Ray asked, quizzically.

Riley looked up at Kai, who decided to offer some help, surprisingly. "You know how brilliance here can't keep her yap shut. We ended up in an argument, and a beybattle."

"Who won?" Max asked. Tyson's eyes narrowed. Nina had said that they were hitting it off good. What the deal? Someone had to be lying.

"Me." Riley said. Everyone looked back to Kai, Hiro included. Kai shrugged, muttering something in Russian under his breath. From behind them, Riley smirked.

She knew what he had just said. She drew out her cell phone, checking her messages and sending a text to the captain, telling him he was welcome.

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Woot, another chapter done!

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x3 Distant Storm