Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade.

A/N: So, this is the end and I want to thank everyone who stuck with me to get here. I know it's not perfect but I hope it at least gave you a good journey. I appreciate every single one of you. :) So! Without further delay!

Chapter 12: Love Doesn't Think Twice

I find Kai in his cabin, getting changed into his regular clothes.

"You left pretty quick. You didn't get to see…" He pulls off his shirt and a strange twinge twists through my gut. "…a, the victory…Tyson…" I look away from him to hide my embarrassment.

"We've shared baths, Ray," he says plainly, as he pulls on a different shirt. If I wasn't blushing before, I was now. Somebody save me.

"This was a bad idea." I turn around too hurriedly and stumble into the doorframe awkwardly. I recompose myself within seconds but as I am about to open the door to leave, I think twice about it. I came here for a reason. I keep my hand on the doorknob and inspect the doorframe in front of me as if it has all the answers written on it. "I know things are really awkward with us right now… And I think I know why."

"Is that so?" His tone is flat and it has an air of not really being interested in it. My grip on the doorknob tightens but I have resolved that I am not leaving until I say what I have to say. I stay staring at the wall and take a minute to consider how I want to continue, picking absently at the wood in front of me with my free hand.

"I also know why you sent Tyson to come save me during the game and why you have been baiting me. You think I am lost. You think that I don't know what it is that I want or what I am thinking. You may have been right about that. I know you were just trying to help me. And it wasn't really your place to do so, so you didn't have to. But..." I look down, letting the feeling of being ashamed pass through me. "I never considered how hard this might be for you too."

"Is there a point in there?" He's done dressing and he makes a move to usher me away from the door so he can leave but I turn around and block his way, covering the doorway with my whole body.

"I'm not done." I look at him evenly. For the first time since I had gotten there he actually looks at me too. The initial eye contact normally would have been enough to make me lose my head but I was determined to stay on track. "I'm not letting you leave until you give me something honest." He studies me.

"I thought you had it all figured out?" he challenges me with my own words. I press forward, ignoring the little digs he is throwing at me.

"I came here to tell you that I'm sorry," I reply forcefully. "For what I said and how I have been acting. I have been unfair. And I thought you might wanna know… I'm not afraid anymore." He doesn't react right away and for a moment I think I am getting through to him. But then he leans over, close to my face, stealing my breath and causing me to instantly tense up as I am not sure what he is about to do.

"Move," he orders. I can feel a part of me breaking. I start to move away from the door. "It's too late." His words sound so final and I just can't accept that anymore.

"You're wrong." I pull him towards me, bringing our lips together and this time I don't hesitate. If I could put all my feelings into one action, this was it, and I wanted him to know it. He grabs my arm to pull me closer, taking over with ease, and for a moment it is like we are the only two people that still exist in the world. When he pulls back I actually feel lost, like a part of me has left with him. He stays near me, his breathing slightly heavier but not as out of breath as I am, and he doesn't look at me. "Kai… I know you feel it too." I want him to give me something. A sign. A word. Anything that would tell me that I wasn't just crazy and making things up in my head. "We can't just pretend these feelings don't exist…"

"Why not? You've been doing it for months." Having successfully moved me out of the way without me even realizing it, he leaves. And it feels like my whole world has just shattered. If this was a game, neither of us were playing it fairly. If we WERE building a relationship it certainly wasn't a healthy one. What was I supposed to do now?

I had no idea what to expect when we left here. It really did seem like I had run out of time. There was only a few hours left and they were to be filled with preparing for the bon fire. It seemed as though my chances to fix this had all gone and I had wasted each one of them trying to keep space between us when I should have been trying to make less of it.

Maybe that was a good thing. Maybe he was right to be done with it. I was sure that things couldn't go back to the way they used to be but maybe that was okay. I had changed somehow. Whether it was a good change or a bad change, I wasn't sure yet. But I didn't have room for regrets. When we got home everything would be back to normal. This place must have been poison. That's all it was. Ever since the beginning it had been nothing but one big trial without a fair or just ending. It was almost over now.

I find the rest of the group in the dining hall getting lunch. Kai isn't there but that doesn't come as a surprise to me. Sarah and her group, however, do.

"I thought girls weren't allowed to eat with the guys?" I ask confused as I approach the table. "Why are they here?" I eye them critically.

"No need to be so rude, Ray!" Tyson smiles enthusiastically as I take my seat between him and Max. "They was just telling us some of their secrets."

"What?" I am so beyond confused right now. Maybe being with Kai really had transported me to some alternate dimension. If that were the case, I would have wished for a much better scenario.

"Don't look so skeptical, hon. We've decided to put our differences behind us and be friends." Sarah smiles the fakest smile I have ever seen and suddenly I feel like Tyson's naivety is going to get us all killed. She must be doing that 'if you can't beat them, join them' thing.

"Isn't it a little late for last minute scare tactics? The game is already over…hon…" I look her over judgingly to see if I can find any reason why she would really be there. The rest of her group won't even look up from the table.

"Seriously, Ray! We had a deal! If we won, she said she would be nice to us for the rest of camp," Max interjects, throwing an arm over my shoulders. "She got permission for them to sit with us. The group leaders are all out preparing for later anyway, so they probably don't even care." He laughs, Tyson laughs, Sarah begrudgingly laughs, her two friends smile. I'm however, not laughing.

"Are you sure this is okay? She tried to hurt you," I softly remind both of them.

"Water under the bridge!" Tyson nudges me. See? Forgive and forget bunch. Sometimes I wonder if it's genius or stupidity… "Oh! Tell him how you got that kid last year with the squirrel! How did you even catch a squirrel? Was it hard? This chick is great, Ray! She has some good tricks!"

"Yeah, we'll totally have to remember some of them to get Kenny with! Maybe not the squirrel though. That might give him a heart attack!" More laughing. For a second it looks like Sarah might actually be enjoying herself. Like her shell has cracked ever so slightly. My friends can have that effect on people. It can be quite scary sometimes. I imagine that they could take over the world with their easygoing charisma. Either way, it seems that she is legitimately trying to follow through on her deal, even if she may or may not be pretending to enjoy it. Something about that gives me a bit of hope.

After lunch I wander around aimlessly for a bit, deciding that I needed to get some air after trying my best to be cordial to our new 'friends'. Tyson and Max might be so easy to forget but I still cringe just thinking about anything involving the use of a ball.

When everyone starts to gather for the barbeque and the bon fire, I slip into the game room, which has been completely deserted. The barbeque/bon fire is like the highlight of the summer. Nobody ever missed it. Apparently it's the only time we get to stay up as late as we want to and they tell their ghost stories and sometimes play a few night games in the woods. It's like a celebration of freedom from the rules for the night. Which, really doesn't sound so bad right now but…

Clink, clink

I sit down on the floor and watch Driger spin around the otherwise empty dish. It had been quite a while since I had felt like spending some time with him. It made me feel guilty but after facing myself, I was finally ready to move forward and get back to what really mattered to me. It was time to get back in the real game.

Clink, clink

At least that's what I was telling myself. Truth was, I still felt lost in the crowd. Everyone had put the bad blood behind them and everything was good. Happy.

So why did I still feel empty and worn out?

I hear the door open behind me but I don't look back to see who it is. I assume it is probably Tyson, if he wasn't completely preoccupied with the girls he would normally be the first to notice my absence. Max might have if he had thought something was wrong but I hadn't indicated to either of them that there was any trouble. And it wouldn't normally be strange for me to choose to be here instead of out there. We had the whole night to have fun and this was a pretty expected place for any of us to choose to do that. Although it could have been anyone since well, it's an open gym.

"Everyone was looking for you."

Driger falters a little, but picks up again as if nothing had happened. Kai hadn't been on my list of viable suspects to come looking for me… Now that he was here, my tiredness becomes even more apparent.

"You found me," I respond, displaying no real emotion. Two can play it like this. If he was going to act like he didn't care, I could do that too.

"So it's like that now?" I can't pick up on his tone to decide if he is disappointed, angry, or something else.

Driger picks up speed and I try not to let on how annoyed he can make me. If it had been two weeks ago I may not have noticed but he seemed to have this passive aggressive way of making everything appear to be my fault. It was okay for him to do it to me but if I try to have any sort of dignity at all, he made it sound criminal. I knew it wasn't right and I didn't want to just accept it anymore. I deserved something more from him.

"Why are you here, Kai? I know it isn't just to tell me that everyone missed me. You would have just let them come on their own." I can picture him shrugging in my head as I hear him walk over.

A silence falls over us and for a few minutes the only noise is my blade spinning around the dish. I start to think that he has left again. It wouldn't be abnormal for him to slip back out without a sound. Most of the time he was invisible in all senses. Like a shadow that was strategically placed just to make you uncomfortable enough to feel that something was wrong but gone before you figured out why or what it was. Even though I painted it in a negative way, there was something about that that had always made me feel safe instead. Like somebody was always there to watch out for me. Maybe it was all something I made up on my own. Maybe he wasn't…

"I wanted it to be you."

Driger goes spinning to a disorganized stop.

"What?" I turn to face him, taken back by his words and finding him closer than I thought he was.

He indicates with a motion that he wants permission to sit down and I nod, letting him take a position next to me on the floor. I wait for him to continue, studying him closely for any answers I might be able to find myself.

"At the game this morning. I may have sent Tyson to help you but it wasn't because I thought that you wouldn't make it. When Max showed up and not you, I was actually angry…because I wanted it to be you." I am not quite sure what he is trying to say but it might be the first genuine thing he has said to me during this trip. Hell, our whole friendship even. I can see in his eyes that he is trying to show me a piece of himself. Something that he wouldn't want anyone else to see.

"I'm sorry it wasn't me…" I can't help but have the need to apologize. Even if it hadn't been completely my fault, his honestly made me believe that I could have done better somehow.

"I don't want to have these feelings. Towards anyone." He's looking at me, but for some reason it seems as if he is really just looking right through me to something farther away. Something that only he can see. "I don't want to think that there is somebody else out there that I can believe in. That I DO believe in." And then he is back, and he is letting me know that it is me that he is referring to. It kind of made sense now. I had thought he had been angry about what I had said but he had been angry because he had anticipated something and had been let down. I knew all too well how that felt. I am sure that Kai had safeguarded himself enough that he thought he never would. Having his say that he was seemed to make me feel a lot better about myself.

"What about Tyson?" I know it seemed out of place to ask such a strange question but Tyson had effected a lot of people. It was hard for anyone to admit that the erratic teen was someone who was pretty reliable and would always have your back, but it was true for just about everyone who he called a friend. I know I believed in him. And I saw the way they bladed together. They had this…connection.

"Tyson…is…not the same." I actually laugh at the sour look that comes to his face and I look down at my hands in my lap. He was right about that too. All the connection in the world wasn't enough to ignore the rest of what it was that made Tyson, Tyson. My admiration for both of them was completely different.

I let the air thin out between us as it seems we might be getting closer to a common ground to meet on. And despite my want to ignore the questions that could potentially end in me being hurt by the answers, I know I have to ask them.

"So, if you feel that way, why did you push me so hard?"

"I didn't think you would push back. I thought I could scare you away. You already seemed really unsure about yourself…" he smirks but not in a mean way. It was like he was teasing me. It was true, I had been pretty unsure. If it had been anyone else, I probably would have been scared away. Or at least retreated enough that I wouldn't have kept thinking about it. "I should have known you were too smart for that. You were always different than the others."

"I would hope so. Those two are hopeless!" I laugh again, hoping it will take some of the pressure of how serious this conversation had gotten away but not so much that he would stop confiding in me. It goes quiet as the mood settles down a bit, my resentment from earlier is gone, and the awkwardness of having him display his feelings seems to dissipate with it. My uneasiness about what he is saying, however, doesn't. "So what happens now? If you don't want to feel…" I cut myself off as his hand wraps around my arm. My chest tightens and my concentration seems to refocus on everything that my body is doing rather than anything that I might desire to say.

"I think you were right." He leans over and his nose brushes across the side of my face slowly, taunting me to turn towards him. "We can't pretend they don't exist." I know I should be happy, that I should just go with it and give him what he wants, my compliance. Nevertheless, I am suddenly super aware that we are still in a building that anyone could walk into at any moment and I go move back a bit to get a glimpse of the room around us and any potential witnesses. But, he must have already expected that because his other hand takes my chin and turns my face towards his, brushing his lips close to mine. "Not when I have already tasted what it feels like to have you." My mind can no longer object as my body takes control and I push our lips together, everything else becoming obsolete. I can feel him smile as he presses forward and deepens the kiss, taking it to a totally different level of intensity. If we both died in that second, I would be happy. As far as I know, I am already dead and this is heaven. Or some other afterlife that only existed in my perfect world.

I grip his shirt with one hand and put my other down behind me as he pushes himself over me, almost causing me to fall to the floor. His lips don't leave mine, taking me in hungrily and skillfully as his hands both drop down to either side of me, boxing me in and keeping me locked inside with his authority over me.

"Kai…" I gush when he separates from me to breathe. He keeps his face close to mine, letting our bangs brush together as he gives me a nudge with his nose and one last quick kiss before detangling himself from my grasp. My face is flushed and my eyes are still half-closed as I grab his arm to stop him from moving away further. "Wait."

"Hn," he smirks with satisfaction.

"Why do you always have to do everything better than me?" I breathe out heavily and open my eyes, letting my surroundings reappear gradually.

"How else will you learn?" he replies, taking on a half serious attitude. I push him, faking annoyance.

"You're ridiculous…" I shake my head incredulously. "When we get back home you better not disappear. If you do or I find out that this is just some very elaborate dream, I'll…" He cuts me off with another kiss, this one not as forceful and almost as if it was meant to be reassuring in a way. I relax.

"I'm not going anywhere," he whispers and then meets my eyes as if to prove it. "I'm not done with you yet." He winks, then he stands up and retrieves Driger from the dish where I had left him abandoned. I'm not sure what Kai meant by that remark but I could guess and anything I was guessing was not something I should have been thinking about right there. Cue distraction so that my mind can return to a safe place!

"We s…should probably f…find the others before they really DO come looking for us," I stutter my way out of my own thoughts.

My other friends were always awesome for a distraction. Nothing about them made me all fluttery inside the way these sort of things did. Although suddenly, having friends seemed like a terrible thing when all I really wanted to do was stay here with Kai. I watch him as he walks back over.

He pulls me to my feet and hands me back my blade.

"With all that commotion I am surprised they can keep track of anyone..." He pauses as thoughts of Sarah cross my mind and as if knowing what they are he rolls his eyes.

"Tyson." A sense of urgency comes over me and I rush out the door to go find them, with him following me reluctantly. And even though I am fearful for my friend's lives in this instance, I am also really happy. Things actually seem as if they will work out now. I had gotten something honest from him. Something I could actually hold on to and that wasn't another mystery or puzzle to figure out. No matter how many walls he wanted to build to keep me out, I was still making my way in. Knowing that, I could live without knowing everything else right away.

When we reach the bon fire, Tyson is wrapped up in telling some really intense ghost story and Max is teaching some of the others how to get the most out of a stick to roast hotdogs and marshmallows. And Sarah, well Sarah and her friends alike all seemed to have loosened up a bit. The girl whose name I hadn't learned is actually sharing a marshmallow with one of the other boys and Nicole is laughing at something that Max is saying while trying to cover her mouth to hide it. Sarah is completely engrossed in Tyson's story and even jumps when he gets to the end. After Tyson's ghost story finale, dares of entering the woods and touching the 'haunted' car start up and Tyson is the first to volunteer.

I smile.

"Hn." Kai retakes my attention from the party. "I told you. They don't even know we're gone."

"Hey…" An idea pops into my head. "Since we're having a 'no rules' kinda night… Wanna go for a swim?"

"I think I have a better idea." He leads me away from the group again. "I won't even ask you to hit me this time to get there."

"Oh yeah…what WAS that about anyway?" I go over the possibilities in my head, nothing quite making sense, but when I realize that the only thing in the direction that he is taking me is the isolation cabin, I get it.

"Oooh." I really should have figured THAT one out sooner. It would have saved me a lot of trouble earlier. It was only by chance that we had ended up there before and we certainly hadn't been alone. I think under the circumstances it hadn't been all that bad though. Even if it had taken me longer to get to the end than it would have if I had discovered it sooner, it was still where the ball had started rolling. "Wait." I stop abruptly and he turns back in inquiry. "This isn't just some one-time thing is it?"

"You know, for a guy, you sure do think an awful lot." I scowl at his insinuation.

"I just…want to be sure."

"Don't make me say it." He says this as a warning, and halfway bored, but also in a way that shows that my persistence will win him over.

"Say what?" It's my turn to smirk. He takes a deep breath.

"Ray…I." I hold up my hands and stop him, as if knowing would be too much to handle for me.

"Nevermind. You can tell me later…" I rush onward, walking up to the cabin and unlocking the door. He comes up behind me and grabs my hand.

"You know you're going to have to stop that, right?" I turn back to him, averting my eyes from looking directly at him.

"Stop what?" I ask innocently. He waits until I make eye contact to continue.

"Being embarrassed. It only gets worse from here. And…" He opens the door and leads me inside. "I LIKE you too much to keep letting you slip back." He pulls me to him, letting the door close behind us.

He said it. He actually said it.

Yeah, so what if it was in a derisive tone. And so what if he's now pushing me against the door and taking control over me like I am some sort of puppet with no will of my own. As long as he's with me, everything feels completely right and I don't want that feeling to ever go away. Everything in this moment is real and it's mine. And I could not wish for anything better.

Maybe it wasn't the concrete relationship I would have liked to have establish, but it was something that we were creating together now. Something that both of us wanted, together. It was an understanding, and maybe on some level, a promise. Sometimes we didn't need words to express ourselves to each other. That was one thing we had always shared, even before there was more than friendship lingering in the air between us. And something told me that that was a sure way of knowing, we would be in this together for a very long time.