A/n: Hello, hello, hello~ Dropping by with an update thanks to this year's edition of Mayblade. This is technically my submission for the prompt Sci-fi, you'll find that word in there somewhere. Though I started writing it in 2020 or early 2021, when I received a dancing prompt request which eventually resulted in Chapter 8 and this piece being shoved into the WIP folder, until today!

I read AzikaRue394's Life In Colour and it inspired me to take a shot at this again. So here I am posting at 4AM!

Thanks to all those who reviewed the Hogwarts AU, I have another chapter somewhat in works for that one, I mean I have to write the date to Hogsmeade.

Hope you enjoy this slightly crack-fic energy piece!

Tale 29

- x -

"Why are you still here?"

Tyson opened an eye and peeked at the source of the disturbance. Only one person in their school was brave enough to wake him from one of his infamous naps without fearing the consequences. The brunette was standing in their classroom's doorway with a disapproving look on her face and her hands fixed on her hips. When she saw him wake, she started to make her way towards his desk.

"Gee, Hilary why do you think?" Tyson muttered in reply, trying to stifle a yawn as he opened his eyes fully and stretched his arms over his head to rid his body of the slumber that he had been so peacefully encompassed in until a few minutes ago.

"You know we're supposed to be preparing for the school festival right now. Together. As a class." She emphasised each of the words loudly, as she came to a halt next to his desk, but even then the glare she sent his way did not seem to have any effect on him.

"I don't think I'm a group activities sort of person," Tyson said, locking eyes with her, a determined look on his face.

"Says the guy who almost cried a river when his teammates left him." Hilary scoffed at him.

"I didn't cry, and let me rephrase that, I'm not a group activities person at school," Tyson retorted, ears a little bit red from her accusation.

"Oh come on Tyson, this will be fun!" Hilary groaned defeatedly, she propped herself over the desk Tyson had been sleeping on until a few minutes ago, knowing very well that it will be a while before he is convinced. Tyson was then forced to straighten up and lean back in his chair or else his head would've collided with her hip, and any remaining feeling of drowsiness left his body as he did so, "Chief has been working really hard for this, you know," she said, tilting her head sideways to meet his eyes.

"In other words, he's driving you all crazy and you need me to rein him back in."

Hilary held his gaze for a minute before narrowing her eyes in annoyance, "He is driving us crazy, but I'm more than equipped to handle him and he has been working hard so as his friend you should be there to support him. Just like we are always there to support the team." She looked at him pointedly, stressing on certain words loudly once again and making him wince as she did so. Tyson groaned, she knew him well enough to know that the 'I'm always there for you' trick worked immediately on him.

"And what exactly are we doing this year? Another cafe? Do you really want me to be around food and other edible items?" He challenged her, trying to display a somewhat proud look on his face, even though internally he knew he'd already lost the battle by showing interest.

"No. I would not be here forcing you out of this chair that you glue yourself to every morning if I knew that our ingredients would be in danger." She scowled deeply at him before continuing, "Frankly I'm surprised you don't know what our class is putting up despite sitting through the meetings in the past week."

Tyson shrugged guiltlessly, "I'm just as good at zoning out as I am at spinning tops."

Hilary rolled her eyes and shook her head at his statement, after forcing the scowl off from her face, she looked at him with a sober expression and replied, "We're putting up a play. Chief wrote it himself, and he is directing it too."

Tyson leaned back further in his chair as a look of utter surprise settled on his face at her words, "You're letting Chief direct it?"

"Well of course," stated Hilary matter-of-factly, "he wrote it so he should be allowed to be in command."

Tyson feigned shock and disbelief as he responded in a high-pitched voice, "Hilary Tachibana is letting other people be in command? Are you okay Hils? Do we need to take you to the hospital for an examination?"

Hilary shot him a seething glare and promptly got off the desk, resting her hands on her hips once again she retorted, "I can't always be in charge of everything, obviously, even I am aware of that-" Tyson laughed out loud but quickly concealed it as a cough once his eyes met the brunette's and she continued as if she hadn't been interrupted, "Besides as the lead of the play, I have enough on my plate already. There isn't much time left to take control of everything else."

Her words sunk in much faster than usual for Tyson, his brows furrowing as he stood up too quickly, almost knocking back the chair he had been sitting in, "You're playing the lead?"

His voice came out louder and squeakier than he had expected but his brain was already swirling for him to take notice of his tone or even his friend's bewildered reaction.

"Y-yes." Hilary stammered, completely taken aback by Tyson's sudden reaction, she took a few steps back, eager to put some distance between them, as a confused look settled on her face.

"You're playing the lead in a play that Chief wrote," Tyson repeated, more to himself in an attempt to make sense of all the scenarios that were now popping up in his head. Hilary however, thought that he was addressing her, so she simply nodded in reply, still looking confused over the sudden change in Tyson's behaviour.

Having been friends with Chief since they were kids, Tyson was aware of the kind of stories and fantasies that his childhood friend preferred to indulge in. When it came to Beyblading, Chief was all about logic and facts, but when it came to his hobbies, he was more of an emotional sap, a trait most people didn't know about him. One look at him and you'd think that he was another typical Sci-fi or Superhero Action kind of nerd. Tyson however, frequented Chief's room more than any other of the latter's friends, which is why he knew that despite the appearances, Chief was a romantic and sentimental nerd at heart. That is why it didn't take the World Champion too long to conclude that their class was probably preparing a cavity-inducing love story for their school festival.

The real problem for Tyson was that Hilary had just told him that she wasn't directing or organizing the class into following their respective roles and duties, as he had expected her to, but was actually playing the part of the heroine in a love story.

He could feel anger course rapidly through his veins at the thought of any of his male classmates standing on the stage opposite from Hilary and professing their love to her, or even worse...

"Do you have a copy of the play?" Tyson snapped at her. He hadn't meant to get mad at her and he could tell that even though she nodded and went around the class towards Chief's desk to pull out a copy, she was upset by his angry tone and if he didn't rein his emotions in quickly, they would slowly be heading into the argument territory. His suspicions were confirmed when she came back to him and thrust the thin booklet into his hands harshly and then folded her arms across her chest, passing him a steely look as he quickly skimmed through the play.

'The Dragon and the Princess'

Tyson had to stop himself from rolling his eyes as he read the title, he wanted to go through the contents as quickly as possible so he decided to show his disgust with the work when he reached the very end of it.

...the Princess looks longingly into the eyes of the stranger…

Tyson's eyebrow twitched in annoyance as he imagined Hilary gazing 'longingly' at a faceless classmate of theirs.

He quickly turned the pages again.

...the stranger bends down and plants a kiss on the Princess' left hand…

His grip on the booklet tightened and he took a deep breath to compose himself and turn the pages a bit carefully in order to not rip through them in his anger.

...-queue music-

he grasps her hand and slowly leads her into the middle of the dancing couples, placing a hand around her waist…

Turn, turn, turn.

… stop music

they kiss…

Tyson slammed the booklet shut and next to him, Hilary jumped, putting a hand on her chest as she sent him a glare for scaring her.

"Who's playing the other lead?" He was surprised by how quiet his voice had become, in contrast to the anger building up inside him.

"Well, we haven't picked anyone yet. Chief isn't satisfied by the performances he has seen, we're actu-"

"I'll do it."

His statement was followed by a few minutes of total silence as Hilary stared at him in surprise, Tyson returning her gaze with an angry, determined one of his own.

"You'll play the lead?"

Finally, she spoke after what seemed like an eternity, her voice laced with doubt, as she continued to stare at him, now looking like she was trying to search Tyson's face or read his expression in an attempt to figure out if he had really meant what he had said.

"Yes, I'll do it."

Tyson repeated his words, his voice more firm and resolute this time around as he refused to back down from her gaze. Hilary still seemed unsure, eventually, she turned her gaze downwards and it dawned on him that she might not want to do this with him at all. The anger that had been building up inside him like a bubble suddenly burst and his heart sank. He wanted her to raise her head so he could search her face for any clue that might point towards her not hating the idea of doing this stupid play with him. Tyson couldn't help but think to himself that he might need to flee the country if Hilary flat out refused to do the play alongside him. Luckily they were alone in the classroom, not having witnesses for what was about to be the most embarrassing moment of his life was the only silver lining.

Then she looked up at him very suddenly and Tyson's heart almost stopped, with her eyes shining brightly and a wide smile covering her face, she replied "Oh Tyson, that is wonderful! Chief said I wouldn't be able to convince you to do anything, hah I can't wait to look at his face when he hears this."

A wave of relief washed over him and he had to stop himself from sighing out loud, he passed Hilary a nod of acknowledgement in silence and tried to maintain a straight face, hoping to not show the brunette how the thought of gazing longingly at her or kissing her hand in the near future was making him feel extremely giddy.

"Now come on, we've already wasted so much time here, Chief must be getting antsy!"

"Yeah, yeah."

Tyson begrudgingly followed Hilary out of the classroom and they made their way towards the gymnasium where their class was supposedly prepping for their showcase, in silence. Well almost in silence, as Hilary skipped happily ahead humming a chirpy tune to herself, apparently elated with herself over how she was able to convince Tyson to get off his lazy bum and actually participate in a school event. Tyson was a few steps behind her, the heat of the moment fading as he neared the gym and the idea of acting in a stupid, romantic play started to settle well in his mind. The guys would never let him live this down, he could picture the scene when they'd find out about this particular extra-curricular activity of his very clearly by the time he entered the gym, Max's howling laughter, Rei's forced attempt to be encouraging as he contained his own laughs, Kai's stupid smirk which would also be mirrored on his elder brother's face.

However, the feeling of death by embarrassment lifted completely the minute he opened the gymnasium doors and his eyes registered the scene in front of him.

By stacking up a few plastic chairs on top of one another, Chief had positioned himself at a height from where he could observe the whole length of the gymnasium. He had a red megaphone in one hand and the script of the play in the other, however the most shocking detail about the scene that made Tyson's mouth drop was that Cheif's glasses rested on his nose, where they're supposed to, and were not propped up on his head at their usual resting spot.

"He looks a bit different when he wears them correctly doesn't he?" Hilary wondered aloud next to him, having noticed the look of shock on Tyson's face.

The navy haired boy could only nod in response as his eyes continue to roam over the full scene. Two of their classmates were standing right below Chief, strictly surveying the whole room and if they noticed something odd, they would immediately report it to him. Chief would then take the megaphone to his mouth and bark orders at the person who had fallen out of line. On one side of the gym a group of classmates were building props and designing costumes and on the other, another group was huddled together with copies of the play clutched in their hands, practising their lines.

"The moon is not supposed to be oval, Sato san, how did you manage to pass elementary and middle school with no sense of geometry?"

Tyson and Hilary both winced in unison as Chief's shrilly voice echoed around the gym, and Sato san jumped in terror, bowing apologetically in the director's direction she started to rebuild the prop that she had been working on till now.

"Hils, you created a monster," Tyson whispered to the girl next to him, who just shrugged and shook her head.

"Nice of you to finally show your face around here Tyson!"

The whole gymnasium paused and turned their heads to look at Tyson, and while usually, he didn't mind being the centre of attention, right now the collective gaze of his classmates did make him feel embarrassed. But his annoyance with Chief's tone and volume seemed to win over the former, sure Chief often scolded him during training and matches but this time the superiority in his voice coupled with the effect from the megaphone seemed to irk Tyson a little too much. Instead of responding with words, Tyson just faced him with a stoic look and it seemed to do the trick because a minute later Chief was hastily climbing down his makeshift throne and making his way to where Tyson and Hilary stood near the entrance.

"What I meant was, I'm so happy to finally have you be a part of our production." Chief let out a nervous chuckle, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly in hopes that Tyson wouldn't get too mad at him for his outburst earlier.

"Can't say the same for myself," Tyson muttered under his breath but Hilary caught on to it and narrowed her eyes at him.

"Anyway, the point is he's here now," she said as she turned to face Chief, speaking in her usual bossy tone that Chief had trouble talking back against, "and he has agreed to play the other lead. So, all our problems are solved."

"Tyson will play the male lead?" Chief almost shrieked in surprise, turning the heads of many of their classmates, who worried that the director's mood getting worse couldn't bode well for any of them.

"Ouch." Tyson raised his eyebrows, not that he was expecting his friend to be all gung-ho about his participation but the reaction was a little over the top even by his standards.

"No I mean, it's great that you've shown interest in our efforts." Chief retraced his words yet again, "But I'm not sure about casting you in a lead role at such short notice."

Tyson wanted to tell Chief that their only audience was supposed to be a bunch of bored teachers and even more disinterested parents and students, that his production wasn't going to be screened at Cannes or be eligible for an Oscar, but in much more colourful words, however, Hilary beat him to it.

"Oh for god's sake, it's just a school play." She rolled her eyes at the hurtful look that settled on Chief's face, "And it's not like you have a whole pool of established actors to choose from."

"Even if it's just a school play, I have certain standards I like to follow." Chief adjusted his glasses, his voice and hands both shaking out of the fear of talking back to the brunette, "And this isn't Beyblading where Tyson can just waltz to the top without any effo-"

"Hils, I'd like to speak to Chief alone for a minute." Tyson passed a steely smile in her direction as he grabbed the ambitious director by his shirt collar and dragged him out of the gymnasium with much ease, not waiting for Hilary to respond, he shut the doors and pushed his pipsqueak of a friend against them.

"Okay, now here's what going to happen," Tyson began in a low, threatening tone as Chief cowered slightly under his glare, "we're going to stay here for about ten minutes, keep an eye on your watch." Chief nodded in acknowledgement, so he continued, "Then we're going to go back inside and you'll tell Hilary how convinced you are by my acting skills and now love the idea of me being the lead."

This, Chief did not readily agree to. He attempted to hold Tyson's menacing glare for a minute as he did some calculations in his head, "Do I have to say I loved it? Because let's be honest Tyson, you suck at coming up with excuses or lies when you get caught and that is the ess-AHH!"

Tyson slammed his fist to the door, right next to Chief's head and growled under his breath, "There seems to be a misunderstanding here, Kenny. This," Tyson pulled his hand back and gestured to the space between them, "is not a negotiation. You do as I say, or it's your face my fist goes through next."

"Y-you can't threaten me like this, I'll tell Rei or-"

"And I'll gladly take them on too, so now are you going to do as I say or are you going to make this more difficult than it needs to be?"

"I don't understand." Chief folded his arms across his chest, though he still seemed peeved enough by Tyson's threats to try and make a run for it, "You probably didn't even know we were working on this play until Hilary told you, about five minutes ago? And now suddenly you have to play the lead?"

Tyson took a deep breath as he lifted his trademark baseball cap to run a hand through his hair, settling the cap back in position tightly afterwards. His friend had raised a valid point, and as he had once heard an actor on television say, there should be no communication gaps between the leads and the director or the performance suffers greatly. Tyson locked his eyes with Chief and then cracked his knuckles slowly, sending a shiver down the latter's spine.

"I'm sure you understand that you are not to repeat a single word from this conversation to Hilary?"

"Yes, that goes without saying." Chief gulped nervously as he tried to avoid Tyson's sharp gaze.

"Cool, cool," Tyson said as he let his hands drop back to his sides. Although he allowed his posture to go limp, he kept his voice low and without emotion as he spoke, "So to answer your question, if you let any other guy from our class near Hilary on that stage, I will break every single bone in that guy's body and then come straight for your head."

Neither of them moved after his declaration for a few minutes, and then Chief turned on his heels. Pushing open the door to the gymnasium frantically and heading back inside as calmly as his nerves allowed him to enact. He quickly climbed back on top of his makeshift throne and with his trusted megaphone in hand, addressed the crowd with a huge grin plastered on his face.

"I have some good news, everyone! I couldn't be happier to share that Tyson will be playing the role of the Dragon Prince, finally, all our roles have been casted!"

There was a round of subdued applause among his classmates as they rushed to return to the task that had been assigned to them, while Tyson sauntered up to Hilary with a newfound ease.

"I hope you didn't threaten to break his laptop or something like that," she said, shaking her head at him.

"I would never!" Tyson feigned innocence dramatically enough to elicit a soft chuckle from her.

"Let's get to work, you have a whole week's worth of rehearsal to catch up on." She pointed towards the only spot not crowded by a group of students working on some prop or costume, at the far end of the gymnasium. The two crossed the length of it, with Hilary walking in the front and Tyson following, trying their best to avoid bumping into one of their classmates or a discarded prop.

"I know you flipped through the story earlier, but let me just tell you about it in brief so you actually understand the plot," Hilary stated as soon as they arrived in the much quieter and sort of secluded corner. She pulled out a copy of the play that she had stuffed in her blazer's pocket and handed it to him, settling down on the wooden floor with her back leaning against the wall and her legs crossed sideways.

He opened his mouth to protest against the subtle jab at his intelligence, but then shut it grumpily, having had enough of going back and forth with his friends for the day. Now he just wanted to get done with this rehearsal, so he could go home and bury his head in his pillow and try not to think about how he hadn't made the best move by letting Kenny, the only one incapable of keeping a secret in their group, know about his feelings towards Hilary.

"The story is quite simple," Hilary said, once he'd settled down next to her, "there is a Dragon that is terrorising a small kingdom. The Princess of the kingdom travels into the forest in hopes of defeating the Dragon-"

Tyson tried his best to not let his opinion about the plot show on his face, but it was hard for him to fight off the eye-rolls since he'd already used up all his energy in threatening Chief.

"Do you have a problem with the fact that the Princess thinks she can defeat the Dragon by herself?" Hilary stared at him, pouting angrily at his reaction, which made her look kind of cute. The way her nostrils flared, made Tyson wonder whether she was acting so sensitive about this because she'd made her own adjustments to the original plot. So much for letting Chief be in control.

"No, I have a problem with the Dragon being villainized." Tyson frowned as his eyes found the group of kids working on constructing the Dragon. They'd used the similar mechanics used by the Dragon Dance performers in Chinese festivals, but the design and the colours were a bit too familiar for him.

"Dragons are mythical monsters, Tyson, of course, they would be villainised."

"Are you calling my Dragoon a monster?"

"We aren't talking about Dragoon!"

"Oh yeah? Then why does that prop they're working on look exactly like him?" He pointed towards their classmates and Hilary's eyes followed his gaze.

"Does it? I can't really tell…" She replied, taken aback by how much this annoyed him.

"What do you mean? You've seen him too."

"You know bit-beasts always looked a little hazy to me. I could never make out the colours or the exact form too well."

"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I forgot." Tyson mumbled to himself as he noticed the hint of disappointment in her voice over him bringing up what had always been a sensitive topic with her.

"I suppose Chief must've taken some inspiration from Dragoon while coming up with the design." Hilary turned her gaze back at Tyson, "You could be a little happy, out of all the dragon designs in the world, he decided to choose Dragoon as his muse."

"That's one way to look at it, I guess." He grumbled under his breath, having no argument against the nice, positive spin Hilary had put on the situation.

"Uh-huh. Going back to the play, where was I?"

"The Princess goes to the forest to kick the Dragon's ass."

"Right, thank you for putting it so crassly." She looked at him pointedly, before pushing a strand of loose hair behind her ear and starting with her explanation again, "When the Princess gets to the forest, she can't find the Dragon but comes across a mysterious stranger instead."

"And just like every other horror movie, she doesn't run in the opposite direction when she should." Tyson snickered earning a smack on his arm from Hilary.

"No, she becomes friends with the stranger and they have a few more fateful encounters until she falls in love with him."

Assuming that this is the part in the story he'd come across earlier, Tyson picked up the copy of the play lying in his lap and decided to skip quickly through the pages to get to the part Hilary was talking about.

"Eventually, the Princess discovers that the stranger is actually the Dragon in his human form and she is torn between following her heart or saving her kingdom, well that's the gist of it."

"Wait, what does she do in the end?" Tyson asked, looking up at her. He was still reading the part where the two characters were slowly getting to know each other, and was internally rejoicing every time his eyes came across the sentence 'they held hands'.

"You should read that yourself." Hilary smiled smugly as she puffed out her chest lightly, "After a lot of nagging, I was able to get Chief to change his original ending."

Seeing her proud expression, Tyson became curious about the ending of the play. He wanted to continue reading through it in order to find out but Hilary snapped her fingers to get his attention and interrupted him.

"We also reduced the lines of the Dragon quite a bit, since the boys who tried out before you couldn't please Chief. So you don't have to worry too much about learning a lot of lines."

"That's reassuring," Tyson said, feeling grateful for the handful of classmates who faced Chief's strict standards before him, making his job much easier now.

"In a way, you could say that this time I get to take the lead," Hilary said, tilting her head as she smirked at him.

He knew that she was waiting for him to come up with some angry retort, but Tyson found it quite hard to think of anything when she looked so pleased with herself, making his own heart flutter with excitement.

"But since it's your first day, I'll let you pick the scene we practice."

"The kiss. I think we should practice the kiss."

Tyson didn't even need to look at the play to know what he wanted to focus on first, but Hilary was quick to shut his suggestion down.

"Absolutely not!" She hissed, gesturing towards the rest of the gymnasium she added, "Especially not in front of everyone else."

"Okay if you want to go back to the classroom-"

"No, I don't! We are not practising the kiss!" She punched his arm strongly when he opened his mouth to whine, completely killing his motivation to be a part of the play with her next words, "Besides, I'm already trying to convince Chief to remove that scene, it's too inappropriate for a school play."

Tyson's jaw almost dropped to the floor as he processed this information. The only reason he had put his reputation on the line to be more proactive with school activities was because he'd banked on kissing Hilary being his reward. So he found it hard to make peace with the fact that he'd let himself get up on the stage and give his friends a reason to laugh at him for the next few months, without getting anything worthwhile in return. Although, seeing Hilary's face turn as red as a tomato at the mention of the kiss, did make this moment a little more memorable.

"I think we need to work on the dance scene," she said after clearing her throat loudly. "I don't even know if you can dance."

"What is it? Pick on Tyson Day? Of course, I know how to dance!" Tyson scowled at her, tired of having to justify his abilities and skills to his supposedly close friends for the umpteenth time that day. Allowing his disappointment and annoyance with Hilary's rigid behaviour to take over, he turned up his nose and added with a scoff, "You should worry more about whether you can keep up with me or not."

"That doesn't sound like a challenge at all."

"Okay then, let's do it."

"Fine by me."

Both of them sprung angrily to their feet, almost glaring daggers at each other as they stepped closer. Tyson promptly curved an arm around Hilary's waist as she rested one hand on his shoulder. He grabbed onto her remaining free hand and the two intertwined their fingers, with the intensity to take the whole gymnasium by the storm with their dancing skills. It was when their skin came in contact, however, that the situation fully dawned on them.

In the next moment, the gymnasium seemed to slip away from beneath his feet as all Tyson could see and feel around him was Hilary. How soft her fingers felt pressed against his own, the berry like fragrance of her shampoo that reminded him of his favourite dessert, the way his favourite colour, red, slowly spread all across her face and then her neck. It was a miracle that he remembered how to breathe, with the way his mouth dried and his throat choked up, telling him that there was only one thing that would quench this thirst. And he knew Hilary was feeling something similar from the way her pulse quickened against his palm.

Discovering a newfound courage within himself, Tyson smirked as he remembered the words she'd said a few minutes ago, teasingly whispering them to her, "What's wrong? I thought you were going to take the lead this time around?"

The coy look that Hilary sent towards him from under her lashes was hard enough to resist, but when her lip quivered as her own gaze dropped to his chest, Tyson came to a quick conclusion about what he was supposed to do next. Whatever Hilary was threatening Chief with, he had to pull off something ten times worse to ensure that their playwright friend didn't agree to change the contents of the play any further.

He was going to get that kiss from Hilary if that was the last thing he ever did on a stage.

- x -

A/n: So Hilary's version of the play ends with the Princess slaying the Dragon, Tyson is extremely butt-hurt when he finds out xD

I originally had no plans for posting any fics during Mayblade this year, but who knows maybe inspiration will strike again.

Thank you for reading, read a review if you enjoyed this!