Ah, yes, I'm alive it seems. :P

So here's the fourth chapter of When the stars cease to shine (or WTSCTS) for short. I'm terribly sorry about the delay and all the energy you might have wasted while fuming about me. So… want a cookie?

Disclaimer: Yes, I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters associated with it, anyone who says otherwise is ill-informed, and if you see any unrecognisable characters, they belong to me. And oh, I make no money off this. I wish I could, though.

Warning: Shounen-ai, as in boylove.

When the Stars cease to shine

A Decision is made

Tala stared listlessly at his computer screen, repeatedly reading through the same data over and over again. He was supposed to be reviewing it, but he wasn't. No, he was busy daydreaming about a certain red eyed celebrity who had spent the night at his house.

Kai had yet to call him. He kept careful watch over his cellphone, making sure that it never left his line of sight. He made sure to charge it every time the battery fell by even one bar. He even took care to only sit in places where the signal was strongest. All this effort so he wouldn't miss it when Kai called.

Two weeks had passed already. All this effort, gone to waste.

By the Thursday of the second week, Tala even began 'willing' Kai to call him, alternating between giving his phone loving gazes to stinky eyes to desperate stares. Even his colleagues started keeping their distance from him (because obviously, a person who stares at his phone like that can't possibly be mentally stable).

Now, back to Tala staring at his monitor, where by now, the screen saver had appeared. Which, unsurprisingly, was a slideshow of Kai's best shots. (Consisting of practically every photo Tala could land his hands on, since he believed that Kai's EVERY picture was his best).

Now his stares became loving gazes, and just as a dopey grin began to form on his face, his supervisor dumped a large stack of files on his desk with a very loud 'thud'.

"Ivanov, stop slacking off! I need that file on my desk by evening! And stop making disgusting faces at the monitor!"

Tala continued to blissfully zone out, his grin becoming wider and dopier as he imagined sharing a cup of hot cocoa with Kai, by the fire, in his castle in the clouds on a stormy day.

His supervisor smacked him on the head with the first few files from the stack.

They were very thick files, and his supervisor was inhumanly strong. So of course, this got Tala's attention.

"OW! That hurt!"

"No shit, Sherlock. Now get to work or I'll throw your phone out the window!"

Tala glared at the female's retreating back as she terrorized a few more of his colleagues into doing their work.

After scowling at his boss for five minutes, Tala sighed and turned off the screen saver, sneaking one last look at his phone before seriously getting back to his work, reading through pages of coding to spot any mistakes. After all, the sooner he completed this, the sooner he could resume day dreaming about Kai without any further interruptions.

When it seemed like a long time had passed (but in fact was only 10 minutes), he stood, stretched and rubbed his neck. "I'm going for a walk."

Anna gave him a pointed look from her seat at the next cubicle. "Break is still 20 minutes away, you know. Boss will kill you."

Tala wiggled his eyebrows at her, using his tried and tested 'I'm-up-to-no good-but-you'll-cover-my-ass-won't-you-darling' grin. "Only if she finds out, right?"

Anna laughed. "Good luck with that."

Tala jauntily walked to the door, and was just about to reach it when his superior's voice cut through the clacking of computer keys. "Ivanov, where the hell do you think you're going?"

Tala cursed under his breath. "Ah, just to the washroom, boss!"

"You went 10 minutes ago, Ivanov!"

"I need to go again, boss!"

"Break is 20 minutes away, you can hold it. now Go sit back down."

"But boss… I really need-"

"Get back to work, Ivanov."

"But-"

"Now!"

Tala grumbled all the way to his desk.

Five minutes later found him on all fours, crawling toward the door while hiding between peoples' legs and desks. Anna nudged Peter and pointed. Peter kicked Yuri (discreetly) and pointed. Pretty soon almost half the room was staring at him, occasionally glancing at the supervisor's office, checking for any activity there.

When Tala finally reached the door, opened it sllooowly and crawled out, there was a collective exhale as everyone released the breath they were holding, making amused comments at how there was never a lack of entertainment at the workplace.

Tala stood upright again after he closed the door, mentally cheering his successful getaway as he power walked to the entrance, ready to bolt at even the slightest disturbance from his room. Luckily, there was none.

After safely exiting the building, he walked to a small park a few streets away, the place he usually went to when he felt like communing with nature (read: throwing rocks at water).

It was a nice, cozy place, lined with evergreens and a few oak trees, with wrought iron benches and picnic tables scattered around the paved walk ways and a small pond in one corner. Sometimes you could see ducks or geese swimming in it if they weren't too busy attacking someone. They'd leave you alone if you gave them crumbled bread, though. They were really clever like that.

There were no crazy birds there today, so Tala could occupy the seat nearest to the pond without fear of being mauled. He took his phone out of his coat and stared at it for a while, feeling its weight and how it fit into the contours of his hand, taking up a nice little rectangle shape.

He stared at the home screen on his phone, which was (unsurprisingly) a picture of Kai from an advertisement for underwear. This was a closeup, though, so only Kai's face and upper torso were visible, each plane and curve rendered in high definition. And the view was breathtaking.

Tala kept staring at the screen, but it didn't change. Meaning that he was not getting any calls from anyone, let alone the gorgeous blue haired man he was so smitten with.

"This is hopeless." He leaned back on the bench, tilting his head backward so it was hanging off the back of the bench. He shoved his phone into his pocket and covered his face with his forearms, blocking out the light. Tala chewed on his lower lip before he let out a long, tired sigh. This was hopeless, his brain understood that, but his heart didn't, still foolishly hoping that the model would call.

The logical part of his brain supplied him with some helpful pointers:

Kai didn't know his phone number.

Kai didn't know his e-mail id.

Kai didn't know his home address.

Kai didn't know where he worked.

Kai didn't know his license plate number.

Kai didn't know anything about Tala other than his name.

Kai was a supermodel and would have no interest in calling/meeting a person he knew nothing about.

Even if he did have the interest, Kai wouldn't know how to contact him because he didn't give him any of his contact details, did he?!

His heart said one thing: Kai could google him!

Tala internally headdesked, getting prepared for a mental war of Logic versus Hope.

His Logic spat out, why would he want to?

Hope replied dopily: because Kai needs a friend.

Logic sounded like he was grinding his teeth as he snarled: And where the hell did you get that impression?

From the car ride, of course!

Kai doesn't need a friend, and even if he did, why would he try to track down Tala?

Because Kai needs a person who will take care of him and treat him well and love him for himself and not for his money.

Whoa there, hold up! Logic said, incredulous. Where the hell did 'love' come from! We were talking about friendship!

But you know love is what you really want.

No! NO! Are you crazy?! We don't even know about making friends with him, and you're talking about loving him? Not the pansy ass crushes and all, but real, forever and ever with fairy dust and rose petals sort of love? ARE YOU CRAZY?!

Love is crazy in itself, Hope says serenely.

Gyaaaaargh! Stupid! STUPID! This is all just stupid and insane and stupid and brainless and crappy and shitty and stupid! So incredibly mind boggling-ly stupid!

Calm down, calm down. You said stupid six times already. You could have thrown in a couple of 'insane's and 'idiotic's and a few more swear words.

Don't make me strangle you...

Come on, I'm stating the truth here! I know this is crazy, but that doesn't mean it's impossible!

Where do you get this bullshit from anyway?

Hope sees the invisible, feels the intangible and achieves the impossible!

Uhh... Okay?

Optimism is essential to achievement and it is also the foundation of courage and of true progress!

What the hell?

For they conquer who believe they can!

Another peep out of you and you're dying a slow and painful death! And you need to stop looking at your office calendar's "quote of the day" section. Who memorises that stuff anyway?

OI! It's up there so people can read it take encouragement from it to better themselves!

Tala took this moment to sit up straight and dissolve the conversation that was beginning to devolve into something meaningless, before letting out another tired sigh.

So that was that. He was crazy in love with Kai, and things were looking terrible. It didn't seem like Kai was going to get in touch with him any time soon, and Tala was already going insane at the thought.

What could he do now?

'Take the first step!' Hope spoke up again.

'Yeah. You want it bad enough, work for it. Optimism and all that jazz.' Logic supplied from beside Hope, sounding loathe to be in agreement.

'Mission: Get Kai, Phase one: obtain contact details!' Hope cheered. Logic huffed in exasperation. Tala smiled.

Yeah. He could do that. Now to head back to office and try to dig up info on Kai. Maybe Vitali could help him hack into Kai's facebook page. Yes.

'Plan initiate!'

Now all he needed to do was get back to his office and hope his boss didn't kill him with a medieval device of torture.

**********continues…

This chapter moves a little slowly without anything much happening. Now we get to know Tala's work place and how the people are around him, and a deeper look into Tala's... Thought processes. No Kai in this episode, though. *sad face*

And those quotes were taken from the back of a notebook I have. The source of quote 1 is unknown, quote 2 is by Nicholas Murray Butler, and Quote three is by John Dryden. The name Vitali is borrowed from Madagascar 3, 'cuz I was watching it as I wrote this chapter. Vitali is that hoop jumping tiger.

So, I'm really really sorry about the delay. I've been absolutely shitty and crappy. I really want to continue this, but I don't know if I will if no one's reading it. I'm going to write up the next chapter and keep it ready, and only post it if I get a review or a favourite or even a follow. Because if no one's gonna read it, I don't see the point in continuing it...

But I hope you guys do want to read it, because I promise I'll update once a week if you do. And no, I don't plan on slacking off like I've done so far. So...

You guys know what to do!

Thank you very much for reading, all your words of advice are appreciated!