Here's your next chapter, as promised! Aren't I good?

Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade or any of the characters associated with it, anyone who says otherwise is ill-informed. Any and all unrecognisable charactersbelong to me. And oh, I make no money off this.

Warning: Shounen-ai, as in boylove. Maybe some language as well.

When the Stars cease to shine

Hacking?

It's almost six in the evening when Tala saunters over to Vitali's office, which is situated on the second floor of his building, along with the other people in networking.

"Hey Vitali?" He opens a door marked 'entry restricted' and peeks inside. "Vitaaaaliiiiiiiiii? You in there? I've got a favour to ask you... hey?"

He doesn't see anyone inside the large room despite the lights glowing. Hmm. It isn't so late that Vitali would have gone home already, but he isn't sure. Where was he?

He would have gotten here earlier, but his boss had forced him into finishing an entire file at ruler point.

He supposes he should be thankful that he got off with nothing but extra work and a some really profane scoldings, but really, his boss was so mean!

"What are you doing in here?" A baritone asks, and Tala nearly jumps out of his skin, like he was caught doing something he shouldn't be doing.

"Vitali! Jeez, you scared me!" He turns around to huff at his friend, who's leaning against the doorjamb with one hand on his hip and another holding a cup of steaming coffee, a disgruntled look on his face.

"You're not supposed to be in here, Tal. If you're found out, your boss'll tell my boss and he'll have my ass. I don't want that to happen again." Vitali sighs as he runs a large hand through his short, brown, spiky hair. "What did you want anyway?"

Tala sucks in a breath and holds a hand above his heart, feigning pain. "Vitali! How could you wound your friend's heart so! Do yo think I would come to you only when I needed something done?! You hurt me with your insensitive words, you dumbass!"

Vitali smirks at him "I dont think so, I know so. Just spill it already."

Tala sighs. "I need your help to ha-"

"Hell no."

The redhead glares at the taller man. "But you didn't even let me finish!"

"You were about tho say hack. I won't do it." The tall brunette says, calmly sipping from his cup.

"You don't know that! I could have said 'to harass my neighbour' or 'to have dinner with me' or any number of things!"

Vitali raises a slender eyebrow. "So you were about to say 'I need your help to have dinner with me'?"

Tala opens his mouth to retort, before the stupidity of what he just said sinks in. He huffs. "Okay so I was about to ask you to hack into Kai Hiwatari's Facebook account!"

The other man just stares at him with the most stupefied expression he can manage before he says "Are you stupid?"

"What?"

"You want to hack into the fashion icon teen heartthrob supermodel billionaire Kai Hiwatari's facebook account."

"You missed 'most gorgeous being in the whole wide world'" Tala supplies, nodding like he's done something helpful.

Vitali is this close from banging his head on the desk. Instead, he takes a deep breath before he proceeds to calmly and rationally explain to his crazy friend just how crazy he sounds right now. He doesn't get that far. "That is the stupidest thing you've ever said, and I've heard you say plenty of stupid things before. Are you crazy, Tala?"

"Come on Vitty, it should be cake for you! Remember the last time you helped me hack into my mom's account to remove my baby pictures from her albums?" Tala leaned into the taller man, looking up into the other's chocolate eyes with the most wibbly-wobbly puppy eyes he could manage.

"Ch, Tala, What the fuck?" Vitali pushes the slender man away, turning away to hide his discomfiture. "Don't be an idiot, Tal. Your mom wasn't a world-popular celebrity. Do you know the kind of trouble we could get into for doing something like that? The media would be all over this! We could be arrested! We could be sued! We'll lose our jobs!"
"But I just need a phone number! Or an email id, or a skype id, or anything! I just need to talk to him once, just to give him my phone number. I promise it isn't for anything illegal or anything! I'm really sorry I'm bothering you like this Vitty, but I don't know who else to ask!" The redhead implores, clutching onto both of the other's hands.

Vitali dislodges Tala's hands, so now he's the one holding the other. He pulls him close and looks seriously into Tala's baby blue eyes. "Tala, I know you don't wanna do anything illegal, but do realize that hacking in itself is a serious offence, punishable by law. These high profile types don't take such invasions of privacy lightly. Most likely they'll report it to the police and then we'll have the cyber crime branch on our asses. Why do you want to talk to him anyway? He doesn't even know you. What are the odds that, even if you found his number and everything, that he'd actually talk to you instead of just writing you off as a psychotic stalker?"

Tala's face crumples even before the tall man can finish talking. Vitali hates doing that to his friend, but he hasn't any other choice. "Tala, please. You need to let go of this now. I know you really like Hiwatari and all, but don't you think this is all very far fetched?"

Tala bites his lip for a moment before he brightens again. "He won't write me off as a stalker."

"What gives you that idea?"

"Because he knows me!" Tala beams.

"How the hell does he know you?" The brunette asks, bafflement clear on his face.

"Because he stayed in my house one night when he was too drunk and didn't want to go home! I found him parked by the side of the bridge and I took him in so he wouldn't have to face his gramps when he was drunk off his ass."

Vitali just stares at him before he says, "Ok, now I'm certain we need to get you to a doctor."

Tala pulls away, the hurt showing clearly on his expressive features. "You don't believe me?"

"How am I supposed to believe you when you say such ridiculous things!"

"If you don't believe me, well, suck on this!" Tala crows, pulling out his cell phone and fiddling with it before he finds what he's looking for with a triumphant "Aha!". He hands the phone over so the other can see solid proof backing the redhead's claims.

"Are these... pictures of him... sleeping on your bed?" Brown eyes widen in absolute shock, looking at the phone, then at the grinning redhead, and back at the phone again. "Do you know how creepy this is?!"

Tala snorts before pulling the little device away. "Well, he looked so goddamned cute, lying there all defenseless and vulnerable and sleeping and stuff, how was I supposed to nottake a photo or twenty? Isn't it adorable, the way his lips part just so when he exhales? Aww, hes just the sweetest thing, isn't he? I could cuddle him him to death!"

Vitali's expression could only be described as one of absolute horror. Well, shit. So Tala wasn't lying. What's he gonna do now? It's not like he can hack into the model's websites for his contacts, that's be suicide.

Hey, wait a minute! Why'd he have to hack into anything in the first place? Kai is a world-renowned model, so he should have plenty of fansites and the like. Almost every magazine would have information on him, and he would have his own pages on practically every social networking site, apart from having his own website.

Which would have contact details so people could enquire about modeling and interviews and the like.

Yes.

He grins inwardly before turning back to the redhead who is still cooing at this phone.

"I think I know how to get his number..." He says, effectively snapping Tala's attention away from the phone.

The grins growing on both their faces say clearly that they are not up to any good.

qpqpqpqpqpqpqpqp

After 3 hours of trawling through pages and pages and pages of information, articles, and pictures of the famed celebrity, and trying a variety of numbers that were proclaimed to connect to him (but in fact connected to a bunch of smarmy men of questionable intentions), the duo hit jackpot. Apparently, Grampa Hiwatari was extremely protective of his heir, so all work contracts first went to him before they were finalised and only then did Kai come into contact with them. They manage to find one number, though, that belonged to Kai's personal assistant.

Vitali dials the number and waits, but the answering machine picks up. "You have reached Kai Hiwatari's office. Please state your business, we will get back to you shortly. Thank you."

He disconnects the phone and tosses it to Tala, who looks like he's about to burst from glee. "Satisfied?" he smirks, before adding, "You know you're buying me dinner to compensate for all this shit, right?"

"Yes!" the shorter man exclaims before launching himself at the other, wrapping him in a massive bear hug. "Thank you so, SO much, Vitty! You're the best! And I'll definitely buy you anything you want, if what you want is under hundred bucks."

Vitali chuckles and hugs him back, nuzzling into his hair. "Just be careful, Tala. You don't know about these high-profile types. And Voltaire Hiwatari is not someone you'd want to antagonise."

"I'll be careful. I know you think I'm insane, but I felt a real connection with Kai, you know? And I have a feeling he felt it too. I know it. It was like inhaling pixie dust."

The other laughs, a rich belly laugh that Tala hasn't heard in a long while. "Pixie dust! Oh Tala, you're killing me." They laugh again, together, and disentangle. Vitali tucks a few locks of crimson hair behind Tala's ears before trailing his fingers down high cheekbones, slowly traveling the underside of a soft, plump lip. "Sometimes," he says softly, "I wonder why I broke up with you."

Tala looks into his eyes and smiles, a soft, serene smile that's rarely seen on him. "Sometimes," he says, just as softly, "I do too."

********continues...

Boy! we had a little twist in there at the end, didn't we! And look, just like I promised! The 5th chapter! This one moved a little slowly as well, and again, no Kai :( But don't worry, next chapter, Kai'll definitely be there! And Tala will too! I can't wait till the next few chapters, when the real shenanigans start... Hohoho!

I hope you're enjoying yourselves so far, me lovelies! I'm terribly sorry about any grammatical and spelling errors this time, because I was just too focused on getting this chapter out as a thank you to my lovely reviewers...

Thank you so much for reading!