Aya: -singing- Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Happy birthday, dear Lunie! Happy birthday to you!

LV: …Thanks. I guess.

Mana: How old are you now?

LV: To quote my brother, "old enough to be put into big-boy prison."

All: … -sweatdrop-

CL: Your brother's a dork. A really disturbed dork.

Sonbre: Lunare's birthday is today? How unsettling, my two least favorite days fall together this year…

LV: Hey! I thought Kai's birthday was your least favorite!

Sonbre: True as that is, I am pretty sure that if you weren't such a blueblood supporter of Tyson and that freak, I'd be the one paired up with him all the time!

Kai: -frowns- Pot calling the kettle black. Haven't you ever looked in the mirror?

Tyson: -gets between them- Hey you two, let LV have some peace and quiet on her birthday!

LV: Thank you, Tyson. And here's my gift to you all!

(And as an added bonus, look up the underlined word in this chapter - I found it qute amusing.)

Viper's Nest

Written by Lunare Valhart

Batuken Shoot Beyblade and all its original characters are © Aoki Takao

All unfamiliar original characters are © Lunare Valhart, and are not to be used without permission

Chapter 2: The Simple Things

Just later that afternoon, Kai found himself finally out of his private school's uniform and walking down the familiar street to his teammate's home. The newscasters seemed determined to find out something, as one or two stations had attempted to approach him earlier, but a threatening glower had quickly dispersed them. Now he was really worried about his… friend. He knew Tyson had trouble getting people to leave him alone when they wanted something.

That was why he was so surprised to see absolutely no reporters and journalists crowded around the dojo.

"Strange…" He glanced around warily, not really trusting his first impression and taken off-guard by the silence. Still nothing.

A faint rustling to the side caught his attention, and he managed a glimpse of the end of a sandy-colored ponytail darting up and down the street muttering about irritating peers and low-down sneaks. Kai stared flatly. That was… interesting.

"Hey there, kiddo!" The Kinomiya elder's crackled voice greeted warmly as the old man waved at him from the garden, decked out in (strangely enough) appropriately-patterned gloves and equipment.

Kai sighed, mentally smiling softly to himself; good old Tyson's grandfather. "Good afternoon, sir."

Mock-seriously, the elder shook his spade at him. "Enough with that crazy "sir" stuff, dawg. It ain't right for a dude your age ta be so uptight." He then grinned, making it clear where Tyson had inherited his infectious smile from. "Speakin' of dudes, T-bone's off hidin' at the noodle house. Think he was runnin' from the gal that was by earlier…"

"Girl?" Kai repeated suspiciously. Tyson's grandfather shrugged.

"Said she was with the school paper, but looked a might bit cheerful for the job. Guess the li'l dude's scared of her, the way he vamoosed when she caught him sneakin' out."

"I see." He bowed his head respectfully and turned to leave. "Thank you for your help. Have a good afternoon, sir."

But Kai still had one question in mind:

'Why on Earth would a school reporter be hounding Tyson…?'

…

"Good afternoon, Kai," Mrs. Dion greeted cheerfully as he entered the restaurant, the door chime tinkling at his arrival. "Kenny and Tyson are upstairs, in Kenny's room."

Kai nodded his thanks to her, passing the customers as he trudged up the steps to the team strategist's bedroom. He could hear the younger of the pair's higher voice, exasperated about something or other, while Tyson's cheerier tone brushed off some sort of rebuttal Kenny must've made. He made his presence known, rapping his knuckles against the hard wooden door.

"Kinomiya! Dion!" He barked gruffly, satisfied to hear them yelp and scramble for the door. He stepped back in time for Kenny to open the door, Tyson standing just over his shoulder with one of his trademark grins.

Kenny greeted, "Hello, Kai. Sorry you had to make this detour, but we'll explain it later…"

"Hey, Kai!" Tyson chirped cheerfully, "Great to see you, again!"

"We saw each other yesterday, Tyson," Kai sighed, but the amused look never left his garnet eyes. "You're worse than a dog."

"Wait," Kenny blinked. "We didn't have training yesterday…" It suddenly struck him, and he went pink. "Oh."

Kai's face went stolid. "Speaking of training, is there any particular reason you're hiding here instead of waiting at the dojo, you two?"

To his surprise, the two younger boys paled.

"Trust me, Kai," Tyson groaned, holding up his hands in a placating manner, "bad idea!"

Kenny shook his head in agreement. "We're not fooling. We've been pestered and harassed by our school reporter all day!"

"Your grandfather mentioned her, I believe," Kai said off-handedly. "Since when were you scared of a girl, Kinomiya?" Tyson frowned at him.

"Since she heard about this stupid tabloid, that's when!" He shot back, face burning, "And to add insult to injury, she's a yaoi otaku! Do you have any idea how disturbing it is to have some crazy girl chase you around all day with a notepad and asking all sorts of ecchi questions?" Kenny shuddered, remembering some of the cruder questions asked earlier that day.

Kai's scowl deepened. "You aren't talking about that article from the United States about our so-called "secret" relationship, are you?" The look on the bluenette's face said it all. "I see."

Kenny huffed as he started to shuffle around in search of his equipment, "Quite frankly, I've had enough reporters lately to last me a while!"

"You've had enough?" Tyson gaped. "I was the one chased to school, chased at lunch, chased on the way home, caught in my own home while getting dressed –!"

"Didn't need to hear that!" Kenny interrupted with burning cheeks. "Haven't you people traumatized me enough today?"

Kai said nothing, but a faint brush of color on his pale features gave away his thoughts on the matter.

"Let's just forget the stupid article for now, okay?" Tyson grumbled before asking, "So, we practicing at the beach instead?"

"Makes no difference to me."

"I don't care, so long as we go before she wizens up. Last thing I need is her harassing me at home…"

Satisfied, the three left the noodle shop to head off for their changed training location.

Had they looked out of Kenny's bedroom window, they would've seen a victorious-looking girl with a tape recorder in one hand and a sprig of leaves in the other.

She grinned at the recorder in her hand before cackling, "Oh ho-ho! How long do you really think you can hide from me, Kinomiya-kun? I'll have that article written if it's the last thing I do!"

…

The three of them walked down the brush-lined street, Kenny going over some of the statistics from the previous practice session and what the areas of improvement were for that day. As he babbled, the younger of the two older boys kept glancing around, concerned about being caught – again – by the media. Kai may've had a glare to match the coach's, but was it really going to be enough to scare away reporters for a usual round of practice?

"Stop worrying," Kai interrupted his train of thought, glancing at him out of the corner of a dark red eye. "It's not like you." Tyson grinned weakly at him and glanced skyward. Only a faint splattering of clouds; looked like the weatherman was right, for once.

"So," the dark-haired youth began, clicking his tongue, "life uptown still treating you well?"

Kai smiled to himself; even with the recent events, it looked like Tyson was still insistent about his well-being. "I attend a private school, Tyson; not a military camp."

"I know!" He insisted, careful not to let Kenny (who tended to get wrapped up in his own little world, when it came to research) overhear. "I just can't help but wonder, sometimes. It's kinda like being trained to be the elite of society, y'know?"

"You never let me forget."

Tyson continued, "There's nothing wrong with it, really. I just think that you'd be better off staying with people you know, instead of a lonely dorm room. Snobby rich people can't possibly be that great company."

Kai sighed, "We both know Wyatt's not like that."

Tyson smiled at the mention of the young British transfer student, the only friend Kai seemed to have at his school. He had met the boy once, when he had rushed after Kai when the upperclassman had accidentally left his dorm key at the library. It had been an entertaining episode, though Kai had made him swear never to utter a word of it again.

"Of course Wyatt's not like that, the kid worships you." Tyson continued, seeing the deserted stretch of beach open up and knowing his conversation time with Kai was drawing to a close for the next couple of hours. "It's cute. I'm half-expecting him to start asking if he can call you 'nii-san or aniki."

Kai stopped in his tracks, giving Tyson an unreadable look. Tyson's teasing smile faded as he looked at his team captain with a hint of panic.

"Shoot. Did I say something wrong?" He stepped closer to Kai, a hand on his shoulder. "Kai? C'mon, man, speak to me!" Kai seemed to snap out of whatever daze he had fallen into, causing Tyson to sigh loudly in relief. "Yeesh, don't scare me like that!"

"…And that should just about cover our schedule for today." Kenny finished as he snapped his laptop shut, not entirely surprised to see that Tyson and Kai were a few paces behind him. He rolled his eyes; if they really wanted to keep their relationship a secret, they should learn not to make it so obvious.

They did just fine when alone and separated, but any and all chemistry was more than apparent when the two were in the other's vicinity. It made tabloid writers very happy, to see two people – two males, on top of it – who seemed to have so little in common with even a perceived romance between them. It filled their paychecks, and made their lives that much easier.

"They're blatant, aren't they?" Someone in front of him tutted. Kenny nodded, then froze.

Kai and Tyson were knocked from their little world when they heard Kenny screech, and were even more surprised to find him scrambling behind the pair. Looking at him darkly, Kai demanded, "What the Hell –!"

A flash of a camera from where the youngest boy was originally standing interrupted him and answered his question.

Tyson groaned. "Oh, crap."

"Ah-ha!" A sandy-blonde girl grinned manically as Tyson made to scoot behind his captain, as well. "Trying to escape me, eh? Not gonna happen, Kinomiya-kun!" Kai sized her up. This was the reporter hassling Tyson and the Chief all day?

"Who are you?" He shot back, glowering at her. To his surprise, the same look that caused most adults to give him a wide berth did little to affect the confidence of this one girl.

She merely grinned and cooed, "Aw, you're protecting him! So cute!" She cleared her throat. "Tanaka Naoko, School Reporter Extraordinaire, proud member of KOCS, and current bane of your boyfriend over there's existence!"

Kenny peered out with a disturbed face. "…You're a proud member of what?"

She puffed out her chest, big grin still in place. "Kicked Out of the Closet Support group! What'd you think it was, some kinda hentai thing?" Kenny spluttered and continued to hide behind his intimidating team captain. She cackled at his evident embarrassment.

"What are you doing here!" Tyson snapped irritably. "Get lost, freak!"

"Your words wound me!" She cried melodramatically, though her grin never faltered, "If you and your lover-boy over there wanted some alone time, then why didn't you say so? I've got my camera in my bag – just hold off screwing each other boneless for a sec, and I'll grab it!"

The three boys went red, and Tyson and Kenny gave Kai a meaningfully weary look. 'See what we've been trying to tell you?'

Now he had an idea just why the two had bolted for cover when she appeared. "Listen… whoever you are. We're behind schedule for training, and you're blocking the way. Move it." Perhaps all she needed was a nice push in the right direction, preferably away from them.

"Mind a tagalong, then? This article won't write itself, and just think of the poor children that'll benefit from this!"

Apparently, Kenny's previous statement about their all-day harassment wasn't an exaggeration.

Tyson gave her a flat glower. "You don't write for charity, you're a school news reporter!"

"Same difference!" She waved off the fuming boy and shoved her recorder under Kai's nose. "How far have you gotten in your relationship? Do you have any intentions to go farther, like moving to the Netherlands so you can get hitched? Anything you'd like to say to all the broken-hearted fangirls and/or fanboys mourning their non-existent relationships with the two of you?"

Kai roughly shoved the tape recorder away from him and glared darkly at her, a nerve twitching irritably under his eye. "No one gave any permission for you to join us. And to be frank, your endless jabbering will ensure we don't train. Scram."

He started to walk off, but a movement from her made him stop in his tracks. 'Did she just waggle her eyebrows at us?' "Oh… "training." Gotcha. Then just answer one little question for me, and I'll leave you two lovebirds to your own devices." Kai had a sudden sense of foreboding, at that. Tyson groaned, burying his face in his hands while Kenny went red and tried to hide behind his laptop.

She grinned widely, eyes glinting. "Top or bottom?" Kai went, and saw, red.

But before Kai could get arrested for aggravated assault, another voice cut into their standoff with only a vague hint of interest and plenty of exasperation.

"Oh, brother…" Kenny and Tyson looked up at the familiarity of the voice, surprised to see their class president with a bag filled with groceries in hand. "Naoko, you're going to get yourself killed one of these days for being so nosy."

"Hey, Hiromi, what can I say?" She answered with a chirp, seemingly not realizing how close she was to getting mauled, "The more danger involved, the greater the story!"

Hiromi glanced at the three boys with a mix of amusement and pity before winking at her surprised classmates and smiling at Naoko. "Hey, I was by the bookstore just a while ago, and I think I saw a new shipment of – oh, what was it called again? Catamount? Cat and Mouse?"

To the three teenage males' shock, the reporter had disappeared from invading Kai's personal space to butting into Hiromi's with a wide grin and an excited spark in her dark eyes. "Catamite, volume three's out! Dude, it's about time! King and Leo haven't let me down yet!"

The four watched blankly as she dashed away towards the bookstore, spurting her goodbyes and crying out gleefully, "Forget the prudes, I'm gettin' me some shouta yaoi!"

"…It's like watching a car crash," Kenny said after a moment of silence. "You don't want to see it, you know it's bad, but you just can't turn away."

"I know," Hiromi agreed with a shake of her head. "Scary."

Tyson sighed as she removed his cap and smoothed back his hair. "Well, this is certainly something I never thought I'd say, but man!" He gave his normally bossy class president a thankful grin. "Thanks for saving our hides there."

"You have great timing, Tatibana-san," Kenny added, also relaxing from losing their current source of grief. "We owe you one!"

Kai, slightly embarrassed with himself for letting the reporter get under his skin, nodded in agreement. "They're right, you know. We do owe you."

Abruptly, Tyson's elation crashed down. "Aw, crap. I owe Hiromi for this!"

The sweet smile the brunette had been sporting through all the praise turned smug. "I wouldn't worry too much, Kinomiya-kun – it's not like I'd use this opportunity to force more after-school cleaning duties on you. I've got bigger things in mind."

Tyson made an exasperated wail.

Kai sighed and grabbed the nape of his despondent teammate's jacket collar, dragging him along as Kenny trotted after them. "Come on, you two. We might as well squeeze some training in before nightfall."

As the three boys left for the beach, soon followed by the clinks and clanks of metal against metal, she noticed the forgotten tape recorder on the ground where they had been standing before. She grinned and pocketed the device, whistling as she made her way home with her mother's groceries.

'Hah! Now Tyson and Kenny owe me twice'

…

The sun was dappling the last of its golden light onto the earth below as it sunk into the horizon when Kai and Tyson – sweating, tuckered out, pleased with the afternoon's efforts – finally called it quits for the day. Kenny tapped a persistent rhythm on his keyboard, filling in the last of the practice's stats into his database.

"Well, Tyson's speed's definitely improved from last month's average," he summarized as the two went to pick up their beyblades half-buried in the sand. "And Kai's endurance seems to be steadily increasing, which will certainly be to our advantage against any power-bladers who wear themselves out right at the beginning. I'd say today was quite productive, excusing the interruption at the beginning of practice…"

The other two cringed, remembering how the reporter had eventually dashed right back, demanding her tape recorder. Five minutes later, having convinced her that no, they didn't steal it and why on Earth would they want to, she had stormed off in a fit, brand-new manga tightly in hand.

Kenny snapped his laptop closed and gathered his own things, dusting the sand from his behind. "That should wrap things up for today. Anyway, I think we should head back; you two need to clean up."

They passed the sights they had earlier that day, the bushes now with a faint golden gleam as the sun nestled itself in its ocean bed. As before, Tyson and Kai had slowed their pace to be several steps behind their bespectacled friend, enjoying each other's company as they walked the sidewalks back home.

"…Tyson?" Unlike earlier that day, it was Kai that had broken the silence – a strange occurrence in it of itself. Tyson turned to look at his captain and dear… friend.

"Yeah?" He asked warmly, smiling at him with an affectionate gleam to his navy eyes. This comforted Kai mostly, but a nagging thought had crossed his mind, and darn it for casting any gloom over this private public time with Tyson.

"Did you…" He sighed heavily, "Did you really have to put up… with that?"

Tyson's face went from peaceful to pungent. "Please, Kai, haven't we suffered enough without conjuring the trauma?"

"I'm sorry." Tyson blinked, a worried furrow digging itself into his brow. What?

"Hey, what're you sorry for?" He pried as gently as he could, seeing Kai look away in shame. "If it's because of what I just said, I didn't mean to hurt you…"

Kai rolled his eyes in amusement; he just couldn't keep upset around Tyson for long, when he was like this. "No, it's not that… It's that crazy reporter…" Tyson's face went sour again, but he refrained from commenting. "I know it isn't my fault she's more stubborn than a mule, but I still feel guilty knowing you had to put up with that all day today. You had enough trouble with the actual press this morning."

'Yikes.' "You knew?" Tyson asked worriedly, a fleeting glimpse of panic crossing his features. Kai nodded.

"My Social Sciences teacher, who I have first thing in the morning, is a bit of a news freak. He makes us watch the morning news with him."

Tyson made a whimpering noise and wished he could hide in himself until his embarrassment subsided. "Ugh. That is so degrading…"

"Ty, look at me." Tyson felt Kai place a hand under his chin and tilt back his head until they were eye-to-eye and dark blue met claret. "What we have… we both know that this bond is special, maybe even one of a kind. I don't think either of us wants to lose it because some idiotic tabloid writer thought it'd be funny to exploit it."

"…I know, Kai – believe me, I do," he sighed as Kai looked at him worriedly. "It's just that… I really hate having to lie to Gramps, to Max and Rei, to everyone! I know Gramps would be okay with us, and Max and Rei were hinting too boldly at the two of us during the World tour to care whether or not we were gay. And this would seem like the perfect excuse to tell them, but… it'll feel like a cop-out. Like we only told the truth to get the papers off our backs."

"It wouldn't seem genuine, even though we both know it is," Kai reiterated, understanding where this train of thought was coming from.

Tyson sighed to himself, wondering how they could ever accomplish this task without having a fallout, like most celebrity couples this situation happened to. Kai was silent for a lapse of time, also morbidly curious about how this chain of events could end without disaster.

Kenny's earlier words came to Tyson's mind suddenly, and he couldn't help but smile in memory of them. Kai looked at him questioningly.

"Just recalling something somebody said to me once," he answered cryptically, a playful grin on his face once more. "As long as we play it safe while they're looking for an opening, we'll be just fine. Then, when we're ready, we can go in for the kill. Or, just tell them we're together. Whatever rocks your boat."

Kai shook his head, eyes flickering in amusement. "Your grandfather?"

"The Chief, strangely enough." The mention of his nickname startled Kenny out of his own reverie, turning back to look at the pair behind him suspiciously.

"What are you two talking about?" He asked warily. Tyson grinned at him impishly.

"Nothing much, just how many ways we can trick you into giving us a free dinner at the noodle shop."

"Hey! My parents may own the place, but it doesn't mean you get free meals!"

Kai laughed quietly to himself as the two friends bickered playfully, watching them with a sense of belonging and protectiveness. A small part of him, tainted from his past actions and beliefs, taunted him coldly, 'You're getting soft, Hiwatari. You're becoming as much of a weakling as they are…'

His only response was, 'I don't care. Not anymore.'

…

Omake (Extra):

Naoko groaned weakly as she bent down to retrieve the dropped rag.

"This is your own fault, Tanaka-chan," Hiromi commented sternly as she held the reporter's tape recorder in one hand and her camera in the other. "You should know harassment is against the school code of conduct. Honestly, sneaking into Kinomiya's house and taking photographs of his journal? You're lucky I'm just giving you after-school cleaning for the next two weeks instead of reporting you to the principal!"

'This,' Naoko thought grimly, gritting her teeth together as she wrung out the rag she was using to clean the chalkboard, 'is war, Kinomiya!'