A/N: The earworm mentioned is an old song called Desperado. I don't own anything about it, and the name of the band (Eagles) is just a coincidence, really!

In the train Kiti noticed the sidelong glances the boys were throwing at her.

"Well? Say it aloud, something's wrong with my mug?" she asked Tsubasa with an oblique smile.

"Um..." the Eagle squirmed in embarrassment. "Maybe it's just the light but... weren't your eyes green the last time we met?"

"The last time we met, yes. Originally, no."

She lifted her cap and let the last beams of setting sun shine on her face. Her right eye still had its former emerald gleam, but the left one was unmistakable toffee-colored.

"Got so many nasty comments at school on these I decided it best to make them look similar," she said, but there was a poisonous edge in her voice. Kyoya looked sharply at her.

"Is that the reason why she hides under that cap, too?" he wondered in his mind. She adjusted the cap smoothly on her braids again.

"But on this trip I didn't want to take anything extra to carry. Not even the contact lenses." She stretched her shoulders and turned to Tsubasa. "Show me the map again, please."

The Eagle spread the map and pointed their route.

"We'll change the train at midnight. It arrives to the nearest station of the village early next morning. From there we have to walk, unless we can get a lift. This isn't the quickest way to get there but as a group of common hikers we draw less attention." Kiti nodded.

"How soon you think we'll reach the village?"

"It depends on the lifts. Two or three days at most."

"The last of which by mountain path." she muttered. "Ab-so-lu-te-ly wonderful!"

Tsubasa smiled and folded the map again.

"You seem to consider this kind of trip as a Sunday picnic?"

"That's what it is to me. I thought I'd have to sit all the winter on my butt by the harp until I'll become mossy. This trip is really a stroke of luck."

She sat humming and tapping the armrest some minutes and jumped then suddenly on her feet.

"Hey guys, let's go and get something to eat! The restaurant car is still open."

Finally in the narrow bed of the sleeping car Kyoya was turning himself restlessly. He got an obstinate song humming in his head, a worst class earworm he couldn't get rid of.

"Desperado, why don't you come to your senses
You've been out ridin' fences
for so long now
Oh you're a hard one
I know that you've got your reasons
These things that are pleasin' you
Can hurt you somehow."

Where the heck did it come? And why did it make him to think of a rainy evening couple of weeks ago? It was true that on that very evening he had got a new idea which also was one reason he had volunteered to this trip, but that he would never had admitted to anybody.

He had been in a movie with Benkei, and then met Kiti on their way home. She had walked along with them, talking – more than Kyoya thoght necessary – about some band, or "trio", as she called it, she was training with. The way she had compared their co-operation to a tag team had been quite reasonable, even Benkei had seemed to understand the similarity.

"You can't concentrate solely on your own show to be a star, but you have to listen and follow your partners to make things work", she had said, and as much as he, Kyoya, preferred to act alone, he had to admit there was something in her words. He let his thoughts return on the rainy street.

"Why are you doing it? Are you going to participate a competition?" Kyoya asked abruptly. Kiti looked at him astonished.

"Why, no, just for the fun of it."

"You have no other reason?"

"No, why should we have? Of course, we'll learn many things when making music together, but no, we are not going to contest. We have none of us any need to be "number one players" or "better than some certain persons", if you meant something like that."

She threw a sly glance towards the greenhaired blader, well knowing she was poking a beehive. During the last weeks she had learned a lot about her new friends, also on things they hadn't said aloud.

Kyoya walked onwards without looking at her. He had understood the hint but didn't want to show it.

"So you don't want to improve?"

"Of course we want! You think we'd have come this far if we didn't? It's just..." She waved her hands frustrated.

"Don't you draw the queen of diamonds boy
She'll beat you if she's able
You know the queen of hearts is always your best bet
Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones
That you can't get."

"What's your true reason for training and being the best, then? It's obvious you are not doing it for money or fame, so you must have something better in view?", she asked.

Kyoya didn't answer at once. He knew there were bladers who had sold their skills for money, like mercenaries. Once he had thought Tsubasa was one of them, but luckily that proved to be a mistake.

There were also people who enjoyed being famous, but he was definitely not one of them either. Gingka had once related some weird story of a team member of China, who had managed to conciliate even furious Madoka, after practicing with thousands of fangirls, but that was probably just one of his silly tales.

No, he had his own reasons, and there was more than the one Kiti and the others knew.

"Why do you want to know?" he finally asked. She shrugged.

"Just asking. In fact, I'm much more interested in what will you do when you reach your goal?"

The question totally silenced the Lion. For the first, he had hardly ever thought that far. For the second, had anybody ever referred to his rivalry with Gingka in such words? What will you do when.

When. Not if.

"Will you have another match just to prove it wasn't a mistake?", she continued. The green eyes were watching him curiously.

Suddenly he felt irritated. Why was this newcomer asking him questions even his oldest comrades hadn't the nerves to ask? The girl had managed to catch him off-guard, and he didn't like the situation at all.

"That's my own business!" he snarled.

"Desperado,
Why don't you come to your senses?
come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody love you
before it's too late."

"What will you do when you reach your goal in playing?" he asked haphazardly, to led her thoughts away. Kiti snorted.

"That day isn't too near yet. And when it comes, there'll be plenty of important things for me to choose."

"Like what?" the Lion demanded. He was ready to talk about almost anything to escape to answer more awkward questions.

They had walked through a park and climbed up the hill in the middle of it. The rain had stopped and clouds were swiftly moving, revealing almost full moon rising above the tree-tops. Kiti stopped on the top of the hill and folded her umbrella.

"The woods, for instance. The wilderness. I'd fly into pieces if I couldn't go to the wilds for now and then. Just alone, only the most necessary items with me."

She lifted her face and sniffed the night air. The moonshine made her eyes flash restlessly.

"In the nights like this I feel like howling if I'm stuck indoors." she said quietly.

Kyoya glanced a sharp look on her.

"She's a wild one, too", he thought. "And her first attempts of blading were not bat at all. She'll made a good blader some day, if she'll be trained in proper way." A new idea started to grow in his mind. The blue eyes followed the gaze of the green ones whose intensive stare had made him feel kind of... well, not nervous but very uncomfortable more than once. He was glad she wasn't looking at him right now.

"Who knows", he thought. "It may be worth thinking of."

Kyoya turned on his back and stretched. He had been quite bored at that time, that was true. His eternal rivalry to Gingka hadn't made any progress since he had started to think the battle couldn't be won only by force. If that had been the case, he would have been the winner ages ago. Besides, there was no use to challenge him until Madoka had finished up fixing the damages Pegasos had got in Hades City. The bey still wasn't as strong as it had used to be, and Madoka had strictly forbidden all the "serious" battles. As a result of these thoughts he had started to watch the redhead's training, trying to learn more about his ways and weaknesses. To his surprise, he had found this observing quite interesting. But still there were days when time hung heavily on his hands. This new bey couldn't have appeared on better time. Maybe he could find some good oppoturnities for good training too, when they got out of the inhabited area.

He felt his muscles finally began to relax while the annoying song in his head faded into train's humming noise. Yawning he gave his flat pillow one final thud and went to sleep.

The morning was crispy and cool when the trio jumped off the train and headed towards the road to the mountains. Kyoya shadowed his eyes with his hand and looked the bright sky.

"You didn't take your eagle with you?" he asked. The big bird couldn't have flied this far so soon, and he was sure it hadn't been in the train either. Transporting an enormous cage with a rare animal in it wouldn't have gone unnoticed by anybody. Tsubasa shook his head.

"No. It's not a typical specimen hereabouts. We've better avoid anything to draw attention."

It felt empty to be on the road without his flying friend. He had had to discuss with it quite a while to make it understand its mere presence here could have been a threat to them. Ryo had talked seriously with him yesterday while the others were busy with the equipments.

"Just act like any normal hitchhikers", the director had said. "You and Kyoya are too famous to travel totally incognito, but try to look like you're on a holiday."

He had said it with a smile but Tsubasa could sense there was something that worried him.

"Up in the village there isn't any kind of networks so you'll be on your own. But you are all old hand hikers and nobody knows about the bey but us, so there shouldn't be any problems. If only the weather holds fine..." He had shrugged like wanting to shake a disturbing thought off his mind and looked smiling the silverhaired blader in front of him. There really was no need to worry as long as he had the young Eagle in charge of the team. By defeating his darker side in the World Championships Tsubasa had proved to be even more strong and reliable than Ryo Hagane had given him the credit for. With those skills and personality this young man could some day be an excellent choice for...

Ryo returned to the present with a sigh.

"Maybe it's because of Kiti I'm worrying like this." He continued. "But in any case: be careful!"

Tsubasa stopped for a moment to adjust his pack. When he lifted it again on his back to walk after his companions he suddenly stopped to stare. Those two... Did his eyes deceive him? He blinked and shrugged his head but the image didn't chance.

"She really didn't think about femininity when choosing her outfit", he thought, looking at the smaller of the two figures marching side by side along the dusty road. The line of her shoulders, the way she walked, the whole appearance...

"Those two could be brothers", he chuckled.

In the late afternoon they got a lift in an old and rattling pickup truck. It was nice to sit for a while, but bouncing on a hard cargo bed between sacks of concrete wasn't too comfortable. It was impossible to hear anything through the noise of the engine, but as they had walked in silence most of the time, the lack of conversation didn't matter. Anyhow, everyone was relieved when they finally climbed down in a crossroad up the hill.

Tsubasa was thinking about their next move. He knew they were near the place where the path should begin, but the sun was already setting. I would be better to find a place to sleep and look for the path in the morning. He looked the clouds gathering in the western sky. If he had been alone – i.e. with his eagle – there wouldn't have been any questions what to do. But in this case...

"Let's ask if we can stay the night over there." he said and pointed a lonely house some distance of the road.

Kyoya looked at him sharply. Tsubasa nodded towards Kiti who was totally absorbed in admiring the view.

"It's going to rain before morning. Maybe even snow." he said.

Kyoya's eyes narrowed. So the Eagle was pampering that chick who had been the first to volunteer to this trip, full aware of the conditions. Of course, he knew Tsubasa had his own weird ideas of chivalry, but was this a right place to show them?

With a snort Kyoya turned towards the house. On the other hand, one more night in a warm and dry place wouldn't do any harm to him either. During the next days there would probably be more than enough of sleeping on the bare ground and MRE type food anyway. "Let's see if the girl is such a tough guy she pretends to be", he thought with a grin.