LV: Sorry, I got distracted! Honest!

Kai: What on earth could keep you so distracted from us so long?

Mighty: (steps in) Uh, Lunare-san, we need a little damage control over here… Shaut and Birdy are conspiring to throw Shirobon out the window.

LV: (sweatdrop) Er, Mighty? We're on the first floor… And Birdy's more likely to listen to you over me. (coughhesolikesyoucough)

Tyson: …He's the reason you've ignored us lately, isn't he?

LV: (spazzes) I do not fangirl! I never have, I never will!

Kasumi: (snicker) Never say never. I'll admit, though, his voice is really, really nice.

LV: …I hate you all.

Viper's Nest

Written by Lunare Valhart

Batuken Shoot Beyblade is © Aoki Takao

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

Chapter 5: Heart-Stopper

"Attention passengers: we will be arriving at Aeropuerto de la Isla Grande in the next half-hour. Thank you for flying with us, and enjoy your trip!"

Tyson jumped at the sound of the announcement, the beeping jostling him from his dozing. "Eh? What?" Hiromi's half-amused, half-irritated face greeted him, brows raised curiously at him.

"About time you woke up," she commented dryly, folding her arms over her chest. "The rest of us have been awake for the past two-and-a-half hours!"

Tyson gave a noncommittal, sleepy grunt. "Whatever." He glanced around, noting something was off. "Where's the Chief?"

"Kenny ran to the lavatory," Kai answered simply. Tyson winced.

"Yikes," he whistled, "poor Chief! Tourists were talking about landing, weren't they? Knew he got seasick easily, but this is crazy…"

Hiromi, knowing she had been forgotten for the moment again, frowned suspiciously at the two. 'So, Kai doesn't elaborate because he doesn't think he needs to, or because he knows he doesn't need to with Tyson around? Or, maybe he's just antisocial and Kenny and Tyson have just spent enough time around him to know what he's thinking. That could be it.'

A small groan wavered down the aisle, and Kenny tottered weakly back into his seat with a pitiful, "Ugh… I hate traveling…"

Tyson gave him a cheerful grin, prying himself away from the window. "Hey, chin up, Chief! At least you've got a week before we've got to go on the ferry to Arena Isle!"

Kenny stared at him in horror. "F-ferry?" At Tyson's nod, he paled several shades and crumpled into his seat with a wail. Hiromi blinked.

"Is he okay?"

"What, you haven't noticed how much he hates large bodies of water?" Tyson shrugged disinterestedly. "Relax, Hiromi. He'll be fine. Yo, Kai!" He suddenly switched focus to his captain, causing Hiromi to twitch ('What about him requires most of Tyson's attention span? He doesn't even pay half this much attention in class!' She fumed privately.) "You got Maxie and Rei's flight schedules on you?"

Kai made a heavy sigh and pulled out a folded piece of paper from his pocket and opened it blandly. "Max is arriving at three-fifteen at Gate 2. Rei should be landing about now – hopefully, he'll be at his gate like we planned."

"So…" Hiromi frowned, mentally organizing the information. "Rei is landing now, then we'll arrive, then Max?" Kai, a little irritated at having his explanation shortened, nodded somewhat sourly.

"Great!" Tyson grinned brightly, attention re-diverted back to the window at the slowly approaching landmass on the almost-endless blue expanse. 'I don't want to miss this for the world…'

…

"…Hey, miss?"

The girl swatted halfheartedly at the hand prodding her, only to drift off once more into slumberland.

"Miss? Are you awake?"

"…Whaddya want…?" She mumbled, blearily opening her eyes to peer at the irritating git trying to wake her from her nap. In her sleep-muddled sight, however, she could only make out a mop of bright blond hair.

There was a muffled chuckle, and she vaguely wondered if she was still technically allowed to get away with assault. "The plane landed. You've gotta get off."

'Plane? Plane, what about a plane…' Her eyes widened, and her senses snapped right to attention. "Whoa, we've arrived, already? And I slept through landing?"

The blond laughed again, but now not completely sleep-saturated, she could tell it was good-naturedly and sympathetic. "Yeah, I kinda figured that. But what'd you expect, it's just a three-hour plane ride!"

"Hey, I was in New York on stopover from San Francisco!" She argued, gathering her carry-ons. "Considering how that means I've been on planes since four AM my time, you should be more sympathetic to my plight!"

The blond mentally calculated the time difference in his head and left a large bead of sweat form. "Er, it's noon in California, you know…"

"I didn't sleep last night because I had to be at the airport at two AM, okay?" She snapped irritably, "I'm not used to pulling all-nighters!"

The blond winced. "Why didn't you ask for a direct flight, then?"

"…The airline I was on didn't have a direct flight…"

"Wow," the blond whistled. "That sucks."

"Yup." The girl grumbled, scratching her nose. The two walked off into the pass, still continuing the conversation. "Anyway, thanks for waking me up!" She held out her hand in greeting. "Dulcea."

The blond took her hand and shook it, a grin splitting his freckled face. "No problem! Max."

Dulcea raised a brow curiously. "Max, huh? Cute name." At Max's light flush, she added with a grin, "Aw, I kid! So, what's a guy like you doing in a place like this?"

"A tournament – I beyblade professionally," Max answered, fishing in his pocket for the slip of paper he had scribbled on the details while waiting for his flight back in New York. Finally locating it after a moment's search, he continued, "The South American-Caribbean Tournament, apparently."

"You're blading in the SAC?" Dulcea blinked. "Whoa, weird. That's why I'm here, too."

"Really? That is weird," Max reflected. There was a moment of silence before he laughed, "Oh well, can't be helped." Glancing over, he caught sight of a familiar cap and grinned to himself. "Anyway, see you later! I gotta go meet my team."

"Sure thing!" She waved and turned to the direction of the baggage claim, grinning back over her shoulder. "Don't feel bad if we go against each other in the dish, kid!"

"Just as long as you don't expect me to go easy on you if we do!" He answered back, offering one last wave before vanishing into the crowd of descending passengers.

Dulcea shook her head of dark curls with a thoughtful grin. 'Nice guy. Too bad I probably won't see him again until the tournament…'

…

Hiromi huffed and blew a stray lock of brown hair from her eyes.

"Tyson!" She snapped, temper thinner due to the increased heat, "I thought you said your friend's gate was right around here!"

"It is!" Tyson shot back. "Max's gate is Gate 2, and this is Gate 2!" Hiromi glowered unhelpfully at the sign her classmate was pointing at to emphasize his statement.

"Why on Earth are all the signs here in Spanish, anyway?" She grumbled to herself. "What about all the foreigners that don't know the language?"

Tyson twitched. "I don't know, Tatibana. Why don't you ask one of the employees for an explanation?"

"Well, maybe if they all weren't speaking Spanish like the damn signs…" Hiromi ground out.

"Then stop complaining," the bluenette growled before slapping himself. "Wow. Never thought I'd be saying that to you…" Hiromi rolled her eyes at him, deciding it was too hot to bicker with him any further.

She lent back against the wall, watching the tourists mingle with each other before making their way to the baggage claim and collecting their belongings. A particular young pair caught her eye, and she noted how easily they conversed, and how smiles and cheery tones came to the two. She found her mind wandering back to how easy it was for Tyson to grab Kai's hand, or for Kai to let Tyson elaborate on one of his obscure statements. True, she had only seen them interact over the course of one day, but there was no denying there was some kind of connection…

"Hey, Tyson," she began, getting her classmate's attention. "Out of curiosity, what's the deal with you and Kai?"

Tyson choked, not expecting the question and looking at her in alarm. "Eh? Why do you wanna know?" 'There's no way she could've figured it out by now! There is no way!'

Shrugging, Hiromi explained, "Well, it's just weird for me to see. I mean, the two of you look like polar opposites, and yet you get along pretty well. You trust him, that much is obvious… And it certainly looks like he trusts you just as much."

Tyson breathed a sigh of relief, the tension that had taken over him when Hiromi brought up the subject easing away. 'Kenny's right, yet again – I am getting paranoid. I still put all blame on that crazy reporter, though.' "That's it? Yeesh, I thought it was going to be something important! We're buds, yeah. True, I was the only one brave enough to approach him, at first… but he's just a sarcastic softie, once you get to know him."

"Oh," she responded. She wasn't convinced by the light-hearted answer she was given, however. 'He's hiding something big. Tyson's normally very friendly with people, but even this is too much for him!'

A bright voice suddenly cut through her train of thought, and a freckled boy with blue eyes and blond hair pounced from the crowd onto her grinning classmate.

"Tyson!" The blond boy cheered. "Hey, man, it's great to see you again!"

"Maxie!" Tyson responded in kind as the two separated long enough to perform a vaguely ridiculous handshake. "Yo, how's it been in New York?" Max shrugged.

"Eh, same old, same old. Mom insisted on the pepper spray, though." To emphasize his point, he fished out what appeared to be a fancy black pen. Tyson gaped at the device.

"Whoa, that it?"

"Yup!" Max grinned cheekily. "Just think: if I get ambushed by some psycho fan, all I have to do is say I'll autograph something, pull this baby out, and bam – right in the eyes!" Tyson gave him a strange look.

"Are you sure you're the innocent one, Max?" He asked warily. Max pouted at him.

"Hey, you don't tell anyone about your martial arts training," the blond sniffed. "I think I've got the right to have my own self-defense secrets." Hiromi scoffed quietly at the boys' exchange.

Max looked at her curiously as Tyson smacked his forehead. "Jeez, it's real easy to forget you're here! Max, this is Hiromi. She's – "

"Your girlfriend?" Max supplied with a flat look on his face. "Tyson, I know you were upset about the tabloid and all, but actually dragging her with you to avoid the media?" Tyson and Hiromi donned equal looks of disgust at the notion.

"That is not my girlfriend, Mizuhara!" Tyson fumed, twitching wildly.

"That is not my boyfriend!" Hiromi snapped irritably at the same time. "Honestly, I have much better taste in men than that!"

Max blinked curiously. "Then, why're you here?"

"I'm the tutor Mr. Dickenson asked to accompany you boys to make sure you all do your assignments!"

"Oh, you're the tutor?" Max laughed. "Wow, talk about luck! And I was worried that we'd be stuck with an old coot that couldn't move without assistance!"

"Uh…" Hiromi stared, unsure whether or not the statement was a compliment or an insult. "Thanks. I guess?"

Tyson snorted, "Kissing up to the tutor, Maxie? You must really need a good grade in one of your classes." Hiromi whacked him with her pamphlet without missing a beat.

"Can it, Kinomiya!" She ordered sharply. "You're not one to talk!"

"Hey!" He shot back. "It's not like I'm planning on doing anything that requires me to memorize all the terms of sentence structures!"

"Ah, grammar," Max exclaimed woefully. "The most irritating of all subjects, next to math! …And even harder in English, considering you have different ways of spelling the same word and getting different meanings due to different ways of pronouncing the darn word."

"That was…" Hiromi blinked, pausing in whacking her classmate to wrap her brain around deciphering what the blond said, "…interesting."

Max grinned cheerfully. "Thank you!"

…

Rei looked up from his pamphlet to the familiar pair approaching the gate and turned a reassuring smile to the four waiting with him. "It's okay, guys. I see Kai and Kenny headed this way."

"You sure, Rei?" Mao asked, rearranging her long pink hair so the back of her neck would stay cool. The raven-haired neko-jin nodded and made a shooing motion with his free hand.

"Go ahead, I'll see you guys later!" He smiled, trying to duck out of Lee's hair-ruffling – an effort made in vain, as Gao had decided to give him a bone-crushing hug at that particular moment. "Oh, come on! We'll see each other in about a week, maybe less. I'll be fine!"

"Take care of yourself, Rei!" Kiki called out behind him as the four walked out to the exit, bags in hand and turning to wave at their old friend.

As Rei waved back, he heard Kai say behind him, "Paying your dues, I see."

"Hello, Kai," he greeted without turning to face the stoic youth. "I see you're without your lover-boy." As he turned around to fully greet the two, he took note of the brunette boy's paled features and the irritated twitch the older boy had taken.

Kenny gave him a pained look. "Please don't mention the article around either of them, Rei! We've gone through enough torment these past two months!"

"Torment?" Rei repeated curiously, raising a brow.

"Trust me," Kenny groaned woefully. "You do not want to know."

Rei cocked a brow curiously, but didn't press further.

…

Max waved excitedly with his free hand when he caught sight of Kai's tell-tale scarf swaying through the crowd, Rei's equally recognizable long wrapped hair trailing behind him and Kenny not far behind. "Long time no see, guys!"

"Nice to see you again, too," Rei greeted in return, smiling. "New York still overcrowded and noisy?"

Max blew a raspberry in his direction. "Is the valley still isolated and uncivilized?"

Hiromi watched the exchange in surprise, noting the humor in both of their faces. Kenny explained, "Max's from New York City and Rei's from a mountain village, remember? They tease each other fairly often about how different their backgrounds are, but they know neither of them are actually serious about it."

"Who's she?" Rei asked, gesturing towards Hiromi. He flicked his golden eyes in Kenny's direction and, seeing how close the two were standing, made a cattish grin. "Oh! Gee, Chief, I didn't know you had a girlfriend!"

Abruptly, the two flushed a dark red.

"I'm not his girlfriend!" Hiromi snapped, willing away her fierce blush. "I am not Kenny's girlfriend, I am not Tyson's girlfriend, I don't even know Hiwatari-san – I. Am. The. Tutor!"

"Hiromi, please calm down!" Kenny begged, noticing the way some of the other tourists were looking at them. Kai gave Rei a stern look. Rei merely shrugged in response.

Tyson rolled his eyes and readjusted his grip on his bags. "If we can ignore the spaz for a moment, can we get going?" The others looked at him in surprise.

"Whoa," Max whistled. "What's the rush? We just got here, Tyson! Can't we relax and enjoy each other's company before Kai drags us to practice?"

Kai, unaffected by the jibe, made a neutral shrug. "If one of you wants to start early, it makes no difference to me." Rei groaned.

"Gee, Tyson, thanks," he said flatly. "Now we're gonna be stuck practicing before any of us get used to this humidity!"

Tyson grinned sheepishly.

Kenny sighed and reached into his pocket. "Well, it doesn't matter, anyway. We've still got to go to the resort to check in, so we can claim our rooms and organize our things." He blinked, feeling no paper in his pocket. "What on earth…?"

"What's wrong, Kenny?" Hiromi asked warily. The bespectacled boy groaned.

"The resort name and number Mr. Dickenson gave us! It's gone!" He cried. "I must've lost it when I was cleaning out my pockets earlier!" The others stared at him in shock.

"You sure you can't find it?" Max insisted worriedly.

"It's not on me anywhere!" Kenny wailed, patting himself down frantically. "How could I lose it? I've never lost something important like that so easily!"

Kai frowned. "Do you at least remember the name of the place?" Kenny racked his brain, fumbling through his memories to remember.

"Or-something, that much I remember!" He answered miserably. "It was in Spanish; I don't completely recall it!"

Rei chewed on his lower lip. "Maybe we should try a phone book?"

"Can you read Spanish?" Max interjected, flipping through one to prove his point. "Besides, we don't even know the word for hotel in Spanish. How would we find it?"

Hiromi sighed, feeling helpless about the odd situation. 'Great, this trip just keeps getting better and better…' She suddenly noticed that her other classmate was absent from the group. Scowling, she scanned the crowd to find where he had disappeared. She caught sight of him near the payphones, and she had the mortifying mental image of him dialing up every number in the book in an effort to locate the resort.

Quickly, she shook Kenny's shoulder and gestured towards Tyson. "Uh, Kenny? Please don't tell me he's doing what I think he's doing…" Kenny paled, as well.

Max blinked. "Wow. He's got guts, calling up random places."

"Well, it's Tyson," Rei commented. "What did you expect?"

"That moron's going to be the death of me…" Kai grumbled under his breath as the five of them approached the boy, catching snippets from the other end of the line.

"...el taxi llegará pronto. Gracias por decirme tan rápidamente."

"Hey, no problem!" Tyson laughed into the receiver, idly lifting his ponytail from his skin. "Just don't get anyone fired, okay?"

"No puedo prometer eso." And with that, the other end of the line clicked off, leaving a droning dial tone.

"Yeesh, talk about rude," Tyson grumbled to himself as he hung up, as well. He blinked owlishly at the stunned faces that greeted him when he turned from the payphone. "What?"

Solemnly, Max broke the silence with a quiet, "You understood the person jabbering on the other end of the line."

"Yeah…" Tyson affirmed warily, wondering what was bothering them so much.

Kenny made a small spasm. "Let me get this straight: you understood someone – virtually fluently, at that – speaking a completely different language on the other end of the line?"

"Hey! What's that supposed to mean?" Tyson demanded heatedly.

"What is going on here?" Max thought aloud. "I've never seen you so excited for a tournament before – not even the Worlds!"

Rei added, "Not to mention all the strange happenings that's been going on since we've arrived…"

"Guys," Tyson griped. "There's nothing wrong!"

"Well, something's not right, either!" Kenny cried, looking extremely close to tearing at his hair. "First, Tyson somehow knows more about this tournament than I do and then refuses to say as to how he knows! Second, he arrives before me to the airport probably not even half-an-hour after Kai arrives, and we all know he arrives at least two hours before boarding! Third, Tyson's weird statement on the plane when we were landing: "I don't want to miss this for the world!" What the heck was that supposed to mean?"

Tyson sputtered, "You actually heard that?"

Ignoring him, Kenny continued, "And fourth, the entire experience here in the airport! He said he didn't need any help getting to Max's gate, and Hiromi justified that! He even pointed out to Kai and me the right direction to Rei's gate, and he was right! And the person on the other end of that phone call just now was most certainly speaking Spanish, and Tyson understood as if he were fluent!"

"I really don't see the big deal about this," Tyson grumbled, glowering at the frantic brunette. "So I'm not as single-minded as you thought – big deal!"

Max sighed and placed a hand on Tyson's shoulder. "That's not the point, Tyson. The point is, this is making us realize we know next-to-nothing about you – heck, we know more about Kai than you, and you're the talkative one."

"Honestly, Tyson," Rei frowned in reflection, "until we arrived in London during our impromptu European tour, we didn't even know you had family outside of your grandfather."

Hiromi shook her head. "Actually, I do know about his mother – I sort of remember her myself. Not by much, though." Max blinked at her curiously before turning to his suddenly uncomfortable-looking friend.

"Are your parents separated or something?" He asked, brow furrowed. Tyson glanced away.

"Not by choice," he answered evasively. Realization dawned in Kai's eyes and he frowned worriedly at him.

"Your father's a widower." The others started – whether at the conclusion or the soft tone the normally stoic youth's voice had taken, not even they were sure.

Rei sighed, "Wow. Talk about coincidence – your father's a widower, and my mother's a widow…" Everyone stared oddly at him. "Hey, I'm not fishing for sympathy here! Crazy woman's half the reason I left the village in the first place!"

"Why?" Tyson asked in confusion. Rei shuddered.

"She got clingy after my father died. Real clingy. I always ended up spending longer telling her where I was going and why than actually – quit getting off the subject!" Rei shook himself out of his explanation and turned a stern eye to his teammate. "We asked you about your family."

"And that's an order," Kai added, claret eyes boring into Tyson's startled dusky blue. "Starting with how on earth you knew the resort number without the aid of a phone book." The others looked at Kai in surprise before shifting to Tyson in disbelief.

Tyson flushed. "Gee, you caught that? Guess I got ahead of myself. I… actually call that resort fairly often – my aunt's the manager." He was met by a stunned silence. "What now?"

"You have an aunt that lives here?" Max choked, blue eyes wide. "And she's the manager of a four-star resort hotel?"

"That's Aunt Cheres," Tyson shrugged nonchalantly. "I wouldn't be fooled by her job, though. She's pretty… well, bitchy, most of the time."

"Tyson!" Hiromi gaped. "That's no way to talk about your aunt!"

"Fine, she's as bad as Koshio-sensei and is embarrassed to admit she was ever interested in anything cool when she was young, happy?" Tyson restated flatly with little remorse for his previous answer.

"How is she related to you?" Rei asked.

"She's my dad's sister, but she's not Japanese," Tyson explained further. "The reason she and my dad have the same surname is because my dad was adopted by her family."

"I was wondering why you and your dad didn't share a surname…" Kenny commented. "This explains it."

"Yeah," Max admitted sheepishly. "For a while, I thought you were mixed like me…"

"Sorry, Maxie," Tyson grinned. "You're still one of a kind!"

Kai stared at him sternly before saying flatly, "Just how large is your family, anyway?"

Tyson paled slightly. "You really want me to say everything?" Kai nodded sharply. Tyson winced in response. "Okay… just because we've still got about fifteen minutes for the taxi to arrive…"

Idly, the others wondered if they should have just left things at that.

…

"…and yeah, that should be it."

The others gaped wordlessly at Tyson. Surprisingly, Kenny regained composure first.

"You mean to say that you've managed to keep that entire family tree of yours under wraps for all this time?" Tyson made a half-hearted shrug.

"No wonder you never said anything," Max groaned. "With so many people, it's gotta be hard to keep track of all of them…"

Rei sighed, "You could've, at least, told us about your immediate family, though."

"But questions about the immediate family would have led to questions about the extended," a woman's voice cut in, urbane and dour. The six teenagers looked over to where the voice had come from and found themselves surprised by the sight. The woman was dressed cleanly in a dark green business suit, her dark brown hair pulled back into a sophisticated-looking chignon. Tyson smiled and waved.

"Hi, Aunt Cheres!" He greeted warmly. She glanced in his direction and inclined her head, but made no other acknowledgement.

She turned to the others, dark eyes sharp. "You must be the Bladebreakers. It is a pleasure to meet you."

"The pleasure's all ours, Ms. Granger," Kenny replied, bowling slightly. Tyson snorted at the show of deference, plucking the shorter boy's collar and pulling him into a standing position. Cheres shot the pair a steely glower, but quickly schooled her features.

"Please enter the taxi," she stated crisply. "We will be leaving for the resort shortly. Your bags will be placed in the trunk by the driver."

As she walked back toward the taxi to ensure the driver placed all the luggage into the trunk, Max turned to give Tyson an incredulous look. "That's your aunt? Jeez! When you said she was bitchy, I thought she'd be loud and grumpy, not all creepy and proper!"

"Not to mention the way she just brushed Tyson's hello off," Hiromi frowned. "He's her nephew, shouldn't she treat him with a bit more respect?"

"I just don't like the way she glared at me," Kenny frowned. "I just said it was nice to meet her! How could that offend her?"

Tyson made a small cough. "That may actually be my fault, Chief. Aunt Cheres… doesn't like it when she sees me interacting with guys."

Rei gave him a look. "You mean she glared at Kenny because you made him stand up? What's the logic behind that?"

"She's homophobic, isn't she," Kai asked, even though he felt he already knew the answer. Tyson nodded.

"The way she sees it, a guy should not be as friendly as I am with other guys," he explained. "So she gets pissy if she sees me helping up a guy friend that trips or giving them a shoulder to cry on or even just ruffling their hair."

Hiromi twitched. "Wait a second. You mean to say that, since you're nice, she assumes you're gay?"

"…Yeah." Hiromi twitched again.

"For the last time," Cheres' voice cut in, "please enter the taxi so we may leave."

The six jumped, but quickly scuttled into the taxi, wondering vaguely if she would actually strand them at the airport.