Me: Oh god,I've been neglecting this, haven't I? ;.; Never fear! I've nearly finished the whole thing. Oh yes, I can't seem to write Max very well so excuse if he's OOC or something x.x Some more characters for this chapter so I hope you enjoy!

It was an exceedingly rare occurrence for Tyson to ever be awake before Kai was, and the morning of the dual haired blader's birthday was one of those occurrences.

The bluenet was lying on top of the sleeping Kai with one arm folded underneath him, counting the heartbeats inside Kai's chest. The other was fiddling with the older teen's bangs as blue eyes regarded him affectionately. Trailing one finger down the side of Kai's sleeping face, Tyson inched his head forward and placed a sweet, soft kiss on the older teen's lips.

For Kai, it was a very experience to be awoken in the morning by a kiss from his sleep rumpled lover. Though the kiss had certainly stirred him, he was still half asleep by the time the bluenet switched tactic, and managed to open his eyes fully when the sound of singing reached his ears.

Tyson had tilted his head to sing the birthday song whisper soft quietly into his lover's ear, his lips brushing against the shell. He smiled as he felt one of Kai's large hands slip up to cup the back of his head and his thumb trace the curve of his skull. As he finished his song, Tyson moved his head back to rest his forehead on top of Kai's, smiling at him. "Good morning." He murmured.

"Morning." Kai replied, his voice rough with sleep. Slowly, he returned the soft smile that the bluenet was giving him, and wrapped his arms around Tyson's shoulders, the younger teen's thing shirt moving against his bare skin. Both of them had quickly put on thin t-shirts the night before so that anyone barging in wouldn't have the displeasure of seeing them both fully naked at least.

"Happy birthday!" Tyson sang cheerfully after a few moments of silence, dropping his lips to plant small, fleeting kiss on Kai's lips.

Rather than expressing his thanks for the expression with words, Kai's slipped one hand to the nape of the bluenet's neck to draw him down firmly to kiss the younger teen hotly. Both of their lips parted as they shared the first of many passionate kisses and tongue battles for that day.

Drawing away slowly and panting quietly, Kai chuckled quietly, "we should get dressed." He murmured.

"Why…?" Tyson whined, pressing his face into the crook of the dual haired teen's neck, "we're comfy here aren't we?"

"Yes, but aren't Max and Rei arriving this morning?"

Tyson drew back in surprise, realisation present on his face as he sat up on Kai's abdomen. "You're right!" He exclaimed with a smile, "they're coming to celebrate your big milestone." Now fully awake and happy, he bounced off of Kai in order to throw some shorts and underwear on.

Sitting up slowly, Kai had to admit that the view of his lover prancing around half naked in their bedroom was a pretty good gift already.

Once Tyson and Kai had both gotten dressed and had a hasty breakfast, they grabbed Daichi and went to meet up with the others at the airport where Rei and Max would be arriving.

Hilary nodded to Kai as he and the other two came up to her and Kenny. "Happy birthday Kai." She told him, smiling, Kenny nodding in agreement beside her.

The dual haired teen inclined his head in silent thanks.

It was Daichi that spotted Rei first as he came towards them tugging a luggage bag behind him. The red head broke away from the little group to head over to Rei and attach himself to the Chinese teen's lower arm in greeting.

Rei's face was half amused and half exasperated as he peeled Daichi off and set him down. "Hey there guys." He said warmly as the others walked over. He exchanged brief hugs with them and offered Kai a smile. "An adult now, huh?" He murmured.

"I know!" Tyson commented, nudging Kai in the side with an elbow. "Scary, isn't it?" He grinned when Kai folded his arms defiantly and patted his arm in apology. He jumped in shock, however, and staggered when someone glomped him from behind.

"Tyson!" Max exclaimed cheerfully, letting his best friend go and immediately drawing him into a friendly noogie. "It's been too long!"

Tyson growled and wrestled with Max until the blond let go. "Yeah, but was that necessary?" He grumbled, taking off his cap to sort out his mused, dark blue hair.

"Well…" Max drew out, sending Hilary a wink, "why can't I have a little fun?"

The bluenet muttered various things under his breath but didn't give the blond a direct answer. He blinked, though, when a pair of hands plucked at his fingers.

"Leave your hair alone." Kai scolded, letting his lover's hand go and making sure they stayed by his sides, "it looks fine as it is."

"Kai!" Max exclaimed, as though he had only just spotted the dual haired teen. "Happy birthday!"

"Thanks." Kai grunted.

A few minutes of greetings and short conversations ensued as the group headed towards the entrance of the airport, where a taxi Kenny had booked should be waiting for them.

Noticing that Kai was lagging behind as usual, Tyson went behind him and slipped his arms around the older teen's waist, resting his chin on his shoulder. "What's wrong?" He questioned, "You're quieter than usual, and shouldn't you be happy everyone's here to celebrate your special day?"

Kai paused before answering, watching the others tell the taxi driver where the dojo was. "I… am." He murmured, "just a little…"

"Overwhelmed?" Tyson supplied, letting his lover go and taking his hand to lead to their ride where their friends were waiting for them.

The dual haired teen just bobbed his head once as he climbed into the taxi with the others.

After dumping Max and Rei's bags in the dojo where they would be sleeping later, the group were sitting in Tyson's living room with three fans switched on to help cool down.

While the guys were talking, Hilary looked thoughtful until she got a brainwave and snapped her fingers. "I have it!" She exclaimed, looking pleased with herself.

Everyone blinked at her, and Tyson was the first to pipe up the question. "Have what?"

"What we can do today for Kai's birthday." Hilary explained, "We all like picnics, don't we?"

A simultaneous nodding spread around the room.

"So you're suggesting we go on one?" Max questioned, beaming.

Hilary nodded enthusiastically.

"It is a nice day." Rei commented, looking at the blue sky outside the window. "I'll go and prepare the food." He stood up.

"I'll come with you; I have some recipes I want to try." Hilary told him, standing up as well and making to follow him out of the room.

"Oh no." Tyson said dramatically, "we're all going to die if you're cooking."

Hilary twitched and stomped back over the bluenet and raised a fist, "what was that?" She growled threateningly.

Tyson cowered. "Nothing." He squeaked.

As Hilary eyed him suspiciously before leaving, Kenny was eyeing his laptop with a mournful expression. He has work he wanted to do and was unsure where to take his computer with him, wondering whether it would get broken or not.

Max spotted him and tugged the laptop out of his hands, frowning at him, "no way Chief! We're going on a picnic to have fun, not to do work."

Kenny looked like he wanted to protest, but sighed and hung his head in defeat. "Ok then…"

Daichi, however, had been looking very bewildered and curious by the whole trip proposal before he announced, "I've never been on a picnic before, what is it?"

Tyson goggled at him. "Seriously? You've never been on one before?" He questioned, eyes wide. At the red haired boy's shake of the head, he let out a low whistle. "Man…" he breathed, you're missing out!"

Daichi huffed in irritation, "it's not my fault." He grumped. "So what is it anyway?"

"It's when you pack a basket full of food and drinks and you sit on a big blanket in a nice place!" Max informed him happily, "They're really fun!"

The short boy's bright green eyes went wide with awe, "really?" He murmured, "Awesome!"

Max nodded enthusiastically, "yep! I'll also be able to try out new combinations with my mayonnaise!" His blue eyes went shiny at the though.

Going green and pulling a face, Daichi shouted at him, "There's no way you're putting any of your yucky mayonnaise on my food!"

"What's wrong with mayonnaise?" Max demanded, looking offended.

"It's disgusting!"

"No it's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"Guys, please don't fight!" Kenny said, trying to keep the peace and sighing in relief when the squabbling two ceased their fighting and stuck their tongues out at each other instead.

Tyson laughed in amusement while Kai rolled his eyes in exasperation.

Needless to say, Daichi had decided picnics were a very good thing despite Max's desire to try out his mayonnaise on various foods.

They had chosen a sunny spot by the river, and had laid out a large, red, chequered blanket to sit on. At least, Daichi, Max, Rei, Hilary and Kenny were sitting on it. Tyson had grabbed some food on and a bottle of water earlier and gone off to lie down with Kai a little way a way.

Sipping her drink as Rei put away the dirty paper plates so they had room to spread out, Hilary watched the couple below them on the grassy slope. "They are sweet, aren't they?" She commented wistfully.

"Yeah…" Max agreed with a grin, "Kai always needed someone to melt his big icy heart and Tyson's perfect. He's like a big teddy bear!"

Kenny gave the blond an odd look at the comparison.

"I don't think they're sweet." Daichi said, wrinkling his nose, "the sickly sweet stuff makes me feel ill."

"You'll understand when you're older, Daichi." Max told him soothingly, patting him on the back with a laugh.

"Anyway." Hilary said, turning to Max and Rei, "what have you two been doing while in China and America?"

"Mom's been showing me around the new Beyblade Building Area at the PPB!" Max announced with a grin. "They're designing all sorts of different blades for different people on different levels. They're even taking requests for custom made blades!"

Little sparkles around Kenny's head as he thought about all the new data and knowledge he could collect, "please tell me more!" He cried, tugging at Max's t-shirt sleeve.

The blond sweatdropped and pealed Kenny's hands away. "Sorry Chief! I can't say too much until it's ready for the public." He apologised. "And you can't ask Emily either, because she's more strict about it than I am!"

"No…!" The short teen whined, plopping back on the blanket and looking like someone had crushed his laptop.

Max patted him on the shoulder.

Daichi gave him an odd look, before turning to the Chinese member of their group, "what about you, Rei?" He asked.

A small, light pink blush spread over Rei's cheeks, to the surprise of his friends. "I… uh…" he paused and scratched behind his neck, "I asked Mariah to marry me."

Hilary squealed, "And did she say yes?" A nod from Rei was all it took for her to throw her arms around his neck in a congratulation hug. "Oh, wow! Well done Rei!"

"Congratulations, buddy." Max nodded, managing to fit his arm around the Chinese in a one armed hug.

Kenny, who had perked up at the good news, smiled in happiness for his friend while Daichi made another face.

Pulling herself away Rei, Hilary questioned, "Do you when the wedding is?"

"We haven't picked a date for the occasion yet." The raven haired teen admitted.

"Speaking of occasions…" Kenny piped up, "shouldn't we get Kai's gift now? I mean, he's pretty distracted with Tyson right now so he might not notice."

"That, or he won't care we've gone." Hilary muttered dryly, taking the hand Max offered her to help her stand and brushing off dirt and crumbs from her skirt. "It's at my place, which is about a ten minute walk from here, let's go!"

Even though he was perfectly content and sleepy curled into Kai's side with the hot overhead sun beating down them, Tyson did notice the sudden silence from behind them and looked up curiously, wondering why his friends had suddenly stopped talking. He blinked in surprise when he saw an empty blanket. "Hey, Kai… did you know the others left?" He questioned.

The dual haired teen, who had his eyes closed, shook his head. "Does it matter? They'll be back." He replied quietly, opening one eye a sliver when he felt a pair of lips trail over his face slowly, "you might want to stop there." He murmured.

"Why?" Tyson whispered, finding Kai's jaw and tracing it with his tongue and lips, "this is fun and no-one's here to watch us…"

"Because they might come back at anytime, and I don't particularly want to be caught half naked with you." Kai told him simply.

The bluenet drew his head back and grinned cheekily at him, "you didn't seem to mind on the beach." He commented.

"That's because they weren't coming back." Kai pointed, before rolling over and covering the bluenet's smaller body with his own, "besides… having you dominate with someone looking is something I can't afford."

"You and your dumb reputation." Tyson said with a smile, "well? Are you going to kiss me or what?"

Kai didn't reply, just lowered his head enough to kiss his lover hotly enough to swept both of their breath away. Hands wandered as the kiss lasted for a good two minutes before their lungs screamed at them to pull away. Resting his forehead on Tyson's, panting hard, Kai asked, "How was that?"

"Pretty good." The bluenet replied, breathless as well. As Kai begun to lift himself off of him, he blinked in confusion. "Kai?"

"My legs were cramping up." The dual haired teen explained, standing and stretching. He turned to watch the river flowing beside them, the surface glittering in the light of the sun. Stooping down, he picked up and a smooth, flat stone and tossed towards the river, watching as it skipped twice before sinking.

"You suck at skipping stones." Tyson told him, fighting back a laugh at his lover's disgruntled expression. Bending down to pick up a stone of his own, he threw it at the water like Kai had done, watching as it skipped seven times before sinking. "That's how you skip a stone."

"Unlike you, I haven't been around large bodies of water long enough to learn to skip stones properly." Kai informed him haughtily, placing his hands in his pockets.

"You lived in Russia for a bit, didn't you? Don't they have big lakes?"

"Yes, but they were frozen."

Tyson rolled his eyes in an affectionate manner before tugging a hand out of Kai's pocket so he could hold it and thread his fingers with the older teen's larger ones. He was just about to lean in for kiss when a loud 'plop' of something splashing in the river caught his attention.

Daichi was standing a couple of meters beside them, with the others shortly behind, and he was glaring at the spot where his stone had fallen. He had attempted to skip stones like the older teens, and had failed miserably. "This is a stupid game."

"All in the wrist Daichi." Tyson told him before turning to the others, "Hey guys."

Hilary came forward. In her hands was a neatly wrapped, thin, rectangular package with a name tag fluttering in the wind. The characters of Kai's name could be seen on the white card. She handed it out for the dual haired teen to take. "Here you are birthday boy," she told him, "this is from all of us."

Kai let go of his lover's hand so he could take the gift from the brunette with both hands, his expression gentle, but a mix of emotions. He removed the wrapping carefully, and his expression was slightly shocked at the picture in the photo frame.

It was a photo of parents on their wedding day. He had seen various of them as a child, but never one as nice and beautiful as this. He stood there for a few minutes, just staring at the image of his parents looking so happy on their special.

Hilary, however, took his silence as a bad reaction, "don't you like it?" She asked.

Kai jerked before shaking his head slowly, "no… I do." He murmured, his voice barely over a soft whisper, "thanks…"

Tyson peered over his shoulder to look at what he had gotten and smiled, "that's nice." He commented, before giving his female friend a curious look, "how did you get it?"

"We all chipped in." Hilary replied. "Chief found the photo after days of searching, and I got it restored at a special shop."

"Then she sent it to me." Max continued, "Where me and Mom added some effects to make it look even better."

"I supplied the frame." Rei said, "We have good carpenters in our village."

"I found the glass!" Daichi announced, recovered from his stone skipping tragedy.

"You were lucky it was the right size." Kenny commented.

Touched by the amount of effort that had gone into his gift, Kai could only offer his friends a tiny, tender smile.

After noticing the sun beginning its decent for sunset, the group had walked back to the dojo. Even though it wasn't as hot as it was earlier, it was still humid and sticky, and Max had come up with a perfect way of getting everyone cool when he spotted the garden hose.

Checking his friends were busy enough in the garden by the large sakura tree, the blond picked up the hose pipe and chose Tyson as his target, before switching the hose on and letting the jet of water spray forth and soak the bluenet.

Tyson shrieked in shock as he suddenly became drenched, and flailed a bit before escaping the stream of water. Dripping wet, he sent a look that was half annoyed, half amused at the innocent looking blond. "Max…."

"What?" Max replied, his innocent expression failing with a growing grin.

Taking in a deep breath, the bluenet thought for a moment. Despite the fact he was completely soaked, Tyson felt that the hose was a good way to cool off and disappeared into the dojo, much to the confusion of his friends. After rummaging around inside the junk closet, he stepped outside again with a handful of balloons.

"What are those for?" Kenny asked warily.

"Water bombs!" Tyson announced cheerfully, padding over to Max and holding them out, "fill 'em up, Maxie!"

The blond laughed and proceeded to do just that.

However, even though the rest of the group weren't too keen on getting wet and tried to run away, they still found themselves getting pelted with water bombs and getting soaked.

As Tyson and Max shared a high five, it sparked the competitive nature of Rei, Daichi and Hilary. The three immediately ambushed the pranksters and stole their water bombs, promptly starting a full fledged water fight. However, both Rei and Hilary started to get unhappy when their hair began wet and chose to dodge a little than actually throw.

Kenny, on the other hand, had mostly escaped a good soaking by hiding behind one of the large wooden pillars of the dojo. He wasn't going to stick around to possibly get wet, though, and darted inside to seek refuge. The last thing he wanted was to be soaked to the bone and he left the shouts and laughter of his friends behind him as he sought out a towel for protection.

The oldest of their group, Kai, was twitching. Not only were his clothes and hair sticking to him uncomfortably, but he could feel his face paint running. Grumbling furiously under his breath, he peeled off his soaked t-shirt in an attempt to wipe away the dripping paint. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Tyson staring at him and shot a glare at the bluenet for getting him wet.

Tyson sweatdropped and ducked a water bomb from Hilary. "I better see to Kai." He said. "He's grouchy, and you can't be grumpy on your birthday, can you?"

The others dismissed him, but Daichi raised wasn't so willing. He picked up the garden hose and shot one last jet of water into Tyson's back, cackling.

The bluenet jumped and shook a fist at the short boy before turning to his lover to apologise for getting him wet. But the words died on his tongue as his eyes fell on Kai.

The older teen's hair was slicked down and falling his red eyes. His face was bare where his triangles had been washed away, and with the droplets of water trailing down Kai's chest and stomach, Tyson was finding it difficult to not just the dual haired teen then and there.

Lai just gave him a look said, 'what?'

Tyson frowned a little, giving Kai a sad expression. "I didn't get you know." He pointed out, sounding a little sulky. "That was Max."

Kai's face lost some of its irritation, but he was still scowling as he wrung out his shirt.

The bluenet reached for his hand with a sigh, "let's just go and dry off, ok?"

Towelling dry his hair vigorously, Tyson peeped at his lover through the folds of the white, fluffy material. "So you're not mad at me anymore?" He questioned quietly.

Kai, who was applying his blue triangles with up most precision, shook his head. "No."

Relieved, Tyson placed the towel he had been using on the rack and pulled on his clear, dry clothes. Padding over to the older teen, he wound his arms around his waist and snuggled into his shoulder blades. "That's good." He murmured.

Finishing painting on his blue triangles and screwing the cap on his face paint tub, Kai rested one hand over one of his lover's, threading their fingers together absently.

"In case you're wondering…" Tyson said after a moment, his voice muffled by the material of Kai's t-shirt, "I'll give you your gift later."

The dual haired teen's eyebrows rose in curiosity, "should I be worried?" He questioned mildly, wondering whether the bluenet would give him some wacky gift.

Tyson unburied his face his lover's shoulder blades and gave the older teen an offended look. "No." He replied stubbornly, "You're supposed to be excited."

"Do I get a clue?" Kai asked him, humouring the younger teen.

"Somewhere special."

"Pardon?"

"That's your clue." Tyson told him, giving Kai a brief squeeze before letting go of him. He could hear their coming in and his stomach was telling that it was time for dinner. "Somewhere special." He repeated, "Now let's go, I think Rei's cooking and I haven't one of his meals in ages."

Me: Cookie for anyone who can guess Kai's gift from Tyson! Review please!