So sorry for the really long delay. I would blame school, but at some points I was just too lazy. This chapter is pretty short, and in my eyes, not so great. But, whatever. Be warned: this chapter has a few Mako/Tyson moments…or maybe its one long moment…I dunno! Just don't hate me for it, cuz I had to!

P.S. hopefully, the ending will be satisfying…oh, and by the way, this chapter takes place two days after the day the Bladebreakers arrive in China.

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Getting to Know Her

"Ouch!"

"Oh, sorry Tyson, did that hurt?"

"Yes."

"Sorry…"

"It's alright, just…be careful…OUCH!"

"Sorry!"

"Ughhh…"

Tyson sighed as Mako tried applying ointment onto his knee for the third time. He had stumbled down five steps due to a lip gloss tube, which, coincidentally, Yumi claimed to have been looking for. Yumi kept apologizing to Tyson, which only annoyed him more, because he had to keep forgiving her continuously. They were all sitting at the table now, eating their breakfasts, when Kai put down his chopsticks and fixed Tyson with an annoyed glare.

"What's with the attitude toward Mako? It's not her fault you fell down the stairs like a blind moron."

Tyson, being used to these accusations, retaliated calmly, "Look, Kai, just because you've finally found your ability to talk to girls," he nodded towards Rika, "doesn't give you the authority to talk to me like that."

That made Rika look up. "Hey, look buddy, Kai and I have nothing like that going on," she smirked. "Not like you and Mako, anyway."

Mako turned her head sharply at her elder sister. "Excuse me?"

"That's right," continued Rika, a thin smile playing at her lips. "Haven't you guys noticed? You should see how she follows Tyson; like a mouse sniffin' up cheese."

"You take that back!" cried Mako angrily. Kai was smirking.

"Wipe that smile off your face before I do it for you, Kai!" yelled Tyson.

"Yeah? I'd like to see you try," Kai retorted back.

"Um, guys, let's not fight now, okay? Guys?" said Yumi nervously, trying to break them apart, but making sure not to touch them, as if she would get infected with pointless anger as well.

"Oh, shut up, Yumi!" said Jade reproachfully. "Let them fight, its entertaining!"

Max glared at her, which he wouldn't normally do to a girl. "You find friends arguing and threatening each other entertaining?" he snapped.

"Hey, don't yell at Jade!" cried Kenny.

"And who are you to tell him not to?" said Yumi, firing up.

And so it went………..

"Die, Kai!"

"I'd rather die than live with you around!"

"Goth!"

"Shut up, Mako!"

"Come make me, wench!"

"You're so arrogant!"

"As if you're no different, blondie?"

"You may be older, but you're not as smart as me!"

"Put a sock in it, four-eyes!"

"QUIET!"

Everyone turned their heads toward Mariah, who had stood up and was now towering over them all, her left eyebrow twitching menacingly.

"As of this moment, I won't hear any more arguing. Got it?"

Of course everyone did 'get it'. The look on Mariah's face had scared the anger right out of them.

"But I was good, wasn't I?" bragged Rei, giving Mariah a big smile that made her peck his cheek and say sweetly, "Of course you were, Rei."

"Gary good, too!" cried Gary.

Mariah beamed at him. "Yes, you too, Gary," she turned her gaze toward everyone else.

"As for the rest of you…," she began. But after a pause, she sighed, and smiled. "You're all hopeless. But I still love you guys, so, who's up for the beach?"

At once, the whole table gave an uproar of approval.

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Ahhh. A nice, cool swim in the water had definitely relaxed Tyson. His knee was all better (it turned out that all he needed to do was wash it), and he was now lying down on the soft sand, drying in the sun, when he felt a sharp sting in his back.

"Aargghh!" he cried, jumping to his feet in pain. "What the heck?"

But the pain was still there. And, being who he was, he began running around in circles, as if that would help the pain go away.

"Tyson, what's wrong?" cried Mako's worried voice, from somewhere Tyson couldn't see. But before long, she was standing before him.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "Tyson, don't move, you have a crab clinging to your back…"

"A crab? Cool!" said Tyson stupidly, before realizing where it was. "I mean, AAAHHHH! A crab!"

"Hold still!" ordered Mako firmly. Tyson stopped, and she slowly brought her hand toward the creature, finally grasping it with her thumb and forefinger. Stretching her arm to keep as much distance away from herself and the crab, Mako threw it into the water.

"Ewwwwww!" she cried, washing her hand as thoroughly as she could in the salt water. "I can't believe I just touched a filthy crab! EEWWW!"

"Thanks for getting it off me," said Tyson, trying to massage his back where the crab had clung to.

Mako looked at him and grinned. "No problem," she said, trying hard not to laugh.

"Hey, it's not funny!" said Tyson. Then he looked at Mako as if he had just noticed her. "Uhh, aren't you gonna go swim or something?" he asked. For Mako was still wearing a t-shirt and skirt, having not changed into a bathing suit.

Blushing out of embarrassment, she said in a quiet voice, "Um, no…see…I…can't swim."

"Oh," said Tyson. Then, rather reluctantly, he said, "it's really easy, you know. I could…teach…you…"

Tyson remembered when he had taught Hilary how to swim. They had had so much fun, and he remembered how happy she was when she had finally gotten the hang of it, and the big smile she had given him.

"Oh, no, it's okay," said Mako quickly. "I don't really want to anyway."

"Oh, okay."

Awkward silence.

Tyson looked around for someone to miraculously appear and take him away from this uncomfortable moment, but no avail: Max and Kenny where in the water, while Yumi and Jade watched them; Rika was reading a book under the shade of an umbrella; Kai lay in the sand with a blade of grass in his mouth; and Rei and Mariah were off getting ice cream together.

Tyson sat there, thinking of what to say. Then an idea sprung him. "Mako, you don't happen to have your beyblade with you, do you?"

Mako grinned at him, catching on. "I never leave home without it!"

Tyson grinned back. "Wanna beybattle?"

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"Wow, you were awesome!" Tyson exclaimed, flopping down onto the sand. He and Mako had just finished their beybattle, which Tyson had won.

Mako kneeled down to pick up her fallen blade. Turning to him, she said, "But I'm not as good as you…I don't think I'll ever be…"

"Don't say that! There are lots of people out there you can beat. And to beat me, all you need is a little more practice," he assured her.

"You think so?" she asked, looking hopeful.

"Uhh…yeah…"

"Hey Tyson, Mako, we're going for lunch!" called Rei's voice. Tyson stood up, and turned to Mako, who was looking at her blade intensely.

"Uhh…you coming?" he asked.

"Yeah…" she said softly.

He turned to leave, when Mako said, "Tyson, um, can I ask you something?"

"Yeah?"

"Mariah keeps talking about someone named Hilary…um… who is she?"

Tyson was a bit taken aback by the abrupt change of topic. Nonetheless, he answered, "She's a friend of ours. She was supposed to come with us, but…her parents…wouldn't allow it." The thought just made his heart sink, so he pushed it to the back of his mind.

"Oh…"

He turned to leave again, when Mako stopped him yet again. "Tyson, do you think I'm…weird?"

Why was she asking such awkward questions? "Uhh…no…why would you think that?" he asked.

"Well, because, every time I'm around you, you seem to be avoiding me. I'm sorry if I keep looking at you in a weird way. It's just that, I've always wanted to meet the World Champ, and now that its happened…," she paused, and looked up at him, "I can't quite believe it…"

Tyson looked down at his hands. For the last two days, he had hated Mako for always following him, staring at him, and annoying him, when really, she was just admiring his title as World Champ. It seemed that she wasn't so bad after all…he felt bad and stupid at the same time.

"Tyson, Mako, if you two don't get here, Kai says he'll go and fetch you with a belt in hand!" Rei called to them again.

"He can't hit me, I'm a girl!" Mako cried.

Tyson sweat-dropped. "One thing you gotta know about Kai, it's that genders don't matter to him…"

Mako stared, shocked. "You have got to be kidding me…"

"Unfortunately, no," he turned to her. "We'd better go, you know…just in case…"

Mako giggled. "Yeah, I guess."

Tyson looked at her for a moment, and then smiled. And that was the first sincere smile he had ever given her. As they walked towards the rest of the gang, he felt bad about how he had felt about Mako. Now that he had the chance to get to know her more, it turned out that she was pretty friendly. And seriously, she was a great beyblader. What he had told her about practicing a bit more to beat him, wasn't just to make her feel better, it was true. And to think that only a portion of Liona's power was that strong…to imagine it all put together… that would be really powerful…

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"Ahhhh….I'm exhausted…" Max yawned drowsily as he sat up on his bed. He, Tyson, Kenny, Rei, and Kai, were all in Max's room in the guest house, recalling what had happened throughout that day. They had gone to some big, fancy French restaurant for lunch instead of a fast food one, Mariah having misled them with wrong directions. But they had no other choice, so they had reluctantly sat down for some escargot (A/N: escargot is…well…snail. French people eat it.). This really didn't taste bad (according to Tyson, who was dared by Kai to take the first bite). So they were all able to have a…ahem…filling meal. After that they went to watch a movie, but Tyson had filled himself with too much popcorn and ended up with a stomach ache, which resulted in them having to come home, without finishing the movie.

"I wonder what Hilary would have said to escargot," Tyson wondered aloud.

"Well, if you got her angry enough, she would've probably used it against you," joked Rei. The others laughed.

"Yeah, real funny, Rei," said Tyson, dripping sarcasm.

"Hey, you brought up the question, I simply answered," said Rei defensively.

"Which brings us to the question as to why you brought up the topic of Hilary in the first place?" said Max, sitting up a little straighter.

"Quit being extra!" Tyson snapped.

"Why?" Rei smirked. "Are you afraid we're gonna invade your privacy or something? Scared that we're gonna get a little secret out of you?"

Kai, who had kept quiet the whole time, took this sudden swing of conversation as a cue for him to leave. Standing up, he left the room, looking utterly annoyed.

The others kept rambling on about Tyson's 'deep and unbreakable love for Hilary', which began to really get on Tyson's nerves. He decided to do something about it.

"Okay, guys, you win," he said, giving them a sheepish smile. "Looks like I'm gonna have to open up to you. But first, I need a glass of water…don't want my voice to dry out from all that confessing I'm about to do! So…I'll just, er, go and…get that glass of water…hehe…"

The guys gave him suspicious looks, before whispering amongst themselves. After a few seconds it seemed they had come to an agreement, for they faced Tyson once more.

"Fine," said Kenny. "But be quick!"

Tyson thanked them, and quickly departed from the room, ran down the flight of stairs, and was out the door in a blink.

Panting slightly, he took this moment to cackle triumphantly, but quietly, so no one would know he was gone. Looking to his left, he saw that the White Tiger house was dark. But beside it, the Tatsuyas' had their lights on. There was only one other alternative for this situation: he ran past the White Tiger house, then fell to his knees, and crawled as fast as he could past the Tatsuyas'. Standing up and dusting his pants, Tyson wondered which path he should take. He wasn't familiar at all with the village, so he didn't know where any path would take him.

Being who he was, Tyson decided to take the chance, and followed the path to his right, which was surrounded by a small forest of trees. As he walked on, he decided that if the path led him too far, he would turn back.

After what felt like at least fifteen minutes, sleepiness wandered into him and he began to feel drowsy. A gentle summer breeze swept by and he felt as if he could've been lifted up by it. Looking up at the sky, he pondered, thinking if he should go back to the guest house. The whole point to come out here had just been to get away from the guys a little while, and he was sure that by now they had given up looking for him and had gone to sleep. He thought of his bed…all nice and soft and…

He shook his head vigorously, deciding to turn back before he fell asleep in the dirt. But as he turned to leave, the sound of splashing water caught his ear. Nothing big, just a small, flowing sound…

Curious, Tyson decided to follow it, ignoring how tired he was. Due to where the sound was coming from, he had to cut the path, dodging a few trees. The splashing was getting louder, which meant he was getting closer.

At last, he found the place, a clearing, and what he saw didn't upset him in the least: it was a waterfall. A small one, but it was glowing under the moonlight and looked…magical. Tyson wasn't much of a nature person, but even he could clearly see its beauty. Around the water, clean grass grew; a strong, vivid green. Hilary would have loved it all.

Tyson yawned, drowsiness returning to him like a pleasant breeze. Glancing back, he figured it was too late to turn back now, and he was so tired. Laying himself in the soft grass, sleep immediately conquered him, and the last thing he saw as he closed his eyes was the star strewn sky, shining like nothing he had seen before.

Xxx

"Tyson,"

Who was saying that? And why did his eyelids feel so warm?

"Tyson, wake up,"

The voice sounded very familiar…

"Tyson! Wake up!" the voice yelled.

Reluctantly, Tyson opened his eyes; ready to give whoever it was waking him a piece of his mind. But that thought vanished as soon as he saw bright, ruby eyes, brown hair spilling into his face, and a big, wide, smile.

It was Hilary.

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Yaay! Hilary's here! Wow, typing up that part about Tyson all sleepy made me feel a bit drowsy myself…its only 9 pm here and I'm already tired! But I'm glad I could finish this up. I'll try to update a little faster next time. And please don't hate me for the Tyson/Mako moments!

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