A/N: I'm not sure what exactly possessed me, but I may be making a comeback with regards to writing and I thought, why not give TyHil a try again? This is not exactly an AU, but more of a slice-of-life situation where the Bladebreakers are learning to grow up so I still think it fits the theme of the whole project.

The people who are coming back to read this after having following this from the time it was published, may notice that there are a few chapters missing in the middle. I've removed them to reconsider/rewrite them, and for now we're back to 03 tales as of now.

Tale 03

It wasn't often that he bothered to check his reflection in the mirror, in fact most of the time he couldn't care less about his appearance. But today was the first day of his last year of high school and for the first time in many years Bakuten had been blessed with snow and cherry blossoms on the same day, enveloping the whole town in a blanket of beauty that one would usually only see in photos but never in real life. Such occasions called for a change in the routine, so naturally Tyson decided to peek at his reflection before he headed out to school.

His hair had just started to grow again, after a prank war with Kai had gone too far and his so called best friend had chopped off his beautiful locks while he slept, Tyson was happy that it was finally touching the nape of his neck and would soon go back to its original length. He still kept his bangs unkempt, letting them jut out in whichever direction gravity decided to take them, despite multiple attempts from his grandfather's side to comb them into obedience, they stood tall. He wasn't expecting to discover anything new about his appearance, his gakuran looked as plain as always and staring at it only made his hatred for the uniform grow, only one more year, he thought. No, the reason he had looked in the mirror was to admire his birthday present from his actual best friend.

The mint green colored muffler provided for a stark contrast against the black uniform and not only was it a welcome splash of color in his overall dull attire, Tyson was in awe of how soft and comfy the muffler was. Up until now, he hadn't really bothered to ever wear one or ever thought about buying one, but Hilary had very shyly admitted that she had spent over two months in knitting it into perfection when she handed it to him so now he made sure to wear it at whatever chance he got. In fact he wouldn't admit it out loud but he was glad that snow had returned in spring time, making it easier for him to find excuses to put the muffler on. Satisfied with the result, he began his daily jog towards Hilary's house.

Until their elementary school days, Tyson had walked with Chief to school every morning, with Hilary joining them in the middle frequently. But after they started middle school, he had somehow started making his way to Hilary's house first, with Chief joining them on his bicycle just as they were about to reach. The routine just stuck with him and even after they started high school, Tyson's feet would automatically take him to the brunette's house without a second thought. She would always be waiting outside before he reached and the small smile that appeared on her lips when their eyes met every morning was something he could never get enough of.

Today especially, the smile was brighter and wider than usual as her eyes landed on the muffler now snuggly wrapped around his neck.

"It really does suit you." Hilary remarked right of the bat, skipping the usual morning greetings as she admired her own handiwork. Tyson had slowed down his pace as he neared her and she eventually fell in step with him.

"Honestly, what doesn't?" Tyson snickered in reply, he glanced at her just in time to witness the eye-roll as she scoffed at his response.

As much as Tyson hated the plain old country side look of his uniform, he was glad to have lived long enough to see Hilary in a sailor uniform. It was the staple navy blue colour with the red ribbon around her neck being the only striking feature of the uniform and on any other girl, it wouldn't even make him bat an eyelid, but on Hilary it looked like it was meant to be worn by only her. Her hair had gotten longer and wavier in the past few years and now reached just below her waist. Her bangs were just as untamable as his and since they started high school she would find new ways to pin them back every day. Today the bangs had been braided and pushed to one side, while the rest of her hair flowed freely. Sometimes she would do up her hair so intricately that even Tyson had to put aside his stubbornness to pass her a compliment.

Most of the time they would walk in comfortable silence, unless they were in the middle of a fight, then they would spend their entire time bickering until it was time for Chief to meet them mid-way and put an end to it. Until only recently Chief had been given an opportunity to conduct research as an intern with Max's mother Judy at her lab in America, and as much as it pained his parents (and Tyson) to let their resident genius shift so far from home, it was too good an opportunity to miss and thus Chief had promptly taken a transfer into the same school as Max and was currently staying with the blond in New York. Without their mediator, Tyson and Hilary tried their best to avoid petty arguments but most of their video calls with Chief just consisted of him settling the score between them.

Closest to home for Tyson among their team members was Kai. His family had somehow managed to force their team captain into completing his schooling at an elite school in Tokyo. Being two years ahead of Tyson in school, he was now enrolled into Tokyo University studying, much to everyone's surprise, architecture. It was a running joke amongst the team that despite of them running around wrecking property with their beyblades during their childhood, Kai was now studying to do the exact opposite thing. This joke however, was only carefully brought up whenever the captain himself wasn't in the vicinity. Kai, to Tyson's pleasure and dismay both, would visit the dojo often, staying for weekends and longer holiday breaks in order to avoid interacting with his own family members and was now given the same temporary resident status at the dojo as Hiro.

Rei, as expected had moved back to his hometown in China. After finishing his schooling, he had enrolled in a culinary apprenticeship with a renowned chef from his town and was currently gaining extra experience by working in a restaurant in Beijing. It had become somewhat of a tradition for the whole team to visit Rei during the Lunar Year celebrations and with each passing year Tyson was always pleasantly surprised by how better his friend had gotten at cooking and it wouldn't be long before Rei would have his very own restaurant.

Luckily for Tyson, Max was still finishing high school just like him but in their recent conversations it seemed that even the blond had begun to map out his future. Max had spent a lot of time in the past three years, babysitting his little sister (and her friends) and from what Tyson could gather, the blond truly did enjoy looking after children, and according to Chief he was also the most in demand baby-sitter of their locality. Max had never directly mentioned to Tyson what he planned to do after graduating school but it was obvious enough from his off-hand comments that he'd set his aim towards teaching.

The reason they hadn't yet had the talk about their future plans was because Tyson was the only one without a plan and all his friends were aware of that. When Kai had asked him whether he'd be setting his sights on a particular college in a recent video call with just the four of them, Tyson had laughed out loud in response asking why Kai was in such a humorous mood today only to be met with awkward silence before Max changed the subject. Even through the screen, the former Champion could tell that his friends were concerned for him and that only put him down even more.

He couldn't deny even if he tried though, that he had no idea about what he was going to do with his life. After the buzz around beyblading had died down and their lives had returned to normal, everyone except Tyson had been able to pick a path for themselves which had no connection to their past profession. It wasn't that Tyson hadn't tried, he just couldn't feel as passionate about anything else. It was a requirement for the students to join clubs at their middle school so Tyson had entered the athletics club without giving it much thought. He was sure that if he didn't pick one himself, his grandpa would force him to take up Kendo and that he wanted to avoid at all costs. Tyson wasn't bad at it either, in fact he was the fastest member by a long shot. All those training regimes that Kai and Hilary had put them through were finally being put to good use.

He definitely enjoyed the feeling of being boundless when he ran and his frequent wins and medals were another welcome addition for his ego, but Tyson wasn't sure if this is what he was supposed to do. He was never particularly interested in school either, his grades maintained the average mark thanks to Hilary's continuing efforts to get him to pay attention in class. He had always only been sure about one thing and that were his friends, but yet again they were rushing ahead towards the finish line while he still hadn't taken a step past the starting one.

During it all, the only person who had stayed by his side was Hilary.

The amount of time that they spent together had drastically increased from the time that they had first decided to tolerate each other's presence. Tyson would start feeling restless if his day went by without hearing her voice. From walking back and forth from school every day to hanging out at each other's homes at the weekends to talking on the phone till late at night, the only time they seemed to spend apart was when they fell asleep. Lately even the physical distance between them had started to shrink. When they'd walk together it would be common for their shoulders to touch, if they went out to eat Hilary would sit next to him instead of opposite him, on long train rides Tyson would rest his head on her shoulder without a second thought, in crowded spaces their hands would reach out for each other and intertwine without a word from either of them.

And by now Tyson had realized what all of this meant. At least, what it meant to him. But he couldn't be sure if Hilary felt exactly the same. And that's when the fear started to set in. Knowing Hilary, he knew that there was no way that she hadn't planned her future out as soon as she had learned to think for herself. But up until now, she hadn't brought this subject up with Tyson and he was sure that she was just being considerate of his feelings, like Max was, but deep down a voice inside him kept telling him that it was because he would never be a part of her plan. Imagining a life without Hilary sent a shiver down his spine, the likes of which he had never felt before in his life. He was okay with his teammates leaving him behind but it would wreck him to the core if Hilary did too.

Tyson had been so deep in thought that he didn't notice that they had reached the bottom of the slope that led to their school. At some point Hilary had interlocked her hand with his and Tyson felt a little silly for being so engrossed in his own world that he hadn't even felt Hilary's touch. Every morning when they reached this point, Hilary liked to just sit at the corner of the road and take a few minutes before they started the uphill climb and today was no different, only as she was about to sit down, she muttered something that raised an alarm in Tyson's head.

"The beginning of the end."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Tyson fired back almost instantly, locking eyes with her. The brunette blinked back at him in confusion, she had meant to sit down but the sudden change in Tyson's attitude made her straighten up instead.

"I mean, you know, it's our last year of high school," she answered, unsure about what she was exactly supposed to explain.

"Yeah so? That doesn't mean anything is ending." Tyson knew that his voice was turning angrier by the word but he couldn't just bear to accept the truth.

"Well, our high school life will." Hilary frowned at him, she was completely taken aback by the sudden change in his behavior and was now searching his face for clues.

Tyson didn't retort immediately. He took a minute to compose the whirling emotions inside him and decided if there was any a time to have this conversation with Hilary, it was now.

"So you've decided what you want to do after we finish school? Did you pick a college without telling me too?" He hadn't meant for his words to come out as accusations, but he couldn't control himself either.

Hilary's eyes widened at his words and her face was taken over by an emotion Tyson couldn't place. She lowered her gaze and stood in silence, unwilling to answer his questions.

"I guess you don't care about leaving me behind either." Tyson cursed himself mentally as soon as these words left his mouth. He knew that was the last straw, there was no saving this conversation from turning into a full-fledged argument now. To his surprise, the brunette didn't start shouting angrily at him, in fact she continued to avoid his gaze in silence. This wasn't a good sign, he thought, handling a raging Hilary was something he was an expert in, but this was new and beyond his repertoire. When she finally faced him after a few minutes (that felt like years to him) passed, her ruby eyes were brimming with tears threatening to fall any second.

"How dense can you be?" She whispered quietly, her voice breaking, but Tyson could hear every word clearly and before he could respond, she continued a bit more loudly, "You think you're the only one who needs me? Did you ever stop to consider that I need you just as much too?"

Out of all the things that he had expected Hilary to say, that was nowhere near his list. His mouth fell ajar slightly, as her words registered in his head.

"I can't believe you would say that to me, I have never left your side since the day we became friends." A tear slipped down her cheek and Tyson wanted put his hand forward and wipe it off but he was pretty sure that the brunette would not appreciate the gesture given the circumstances so he held himself back.

"I…didn't…" He couldn't even bring himself to form a proper sentence as the guilt of his actions took over every inch of his body and numbed his brain. Once again, he had acted like a jerk towards Hilary because of his own insecurities.

"Just because you're lost and you can't figure out what you want with your life, doesn't mean that you can stand and accuse me of things that aren't anywhere close to the truth. Tyson, that's just not fair!" She had really started to cry now, and was trying to glare at him at the same time but couldn't hold his stare for long.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what got into me. Hils please don't cry." He pleaded and took a step forward in her direction and when she didn't move away from him, he heaved a sigh of relief and quickly used his hands to wipe her tears.

"But since you asked, no I haven't decided on any colleges. In fact I have no clue what I am going to do either," she started angrily, even as he took both of her hands in his own and pulled her closer into him, she continued her attempts to glower at him. Tyson's whole body relaxed as his brain registered her answer, and despite Hilary's efforts in maintaining her anger towards him, he managed to envelope her in a hug. She waited a while before giving in and returning the gesture by putting her arms around him and resting her face on his chest.

"I'm not done by the way," she mumbled into his chest and Tyson was sure he would get kicked if he let out a laugh right now so he held himself back and allowed her to speak.

"We have our whole lives ahead of us to figure out what we're going to do, more than that we have each other. And I don't know about you, but the one thing that I am certain about is the fact that I am completely in love with you."

Tyson wasn't sure if it was a good or bad thing that they couldn't see each other's faces right now. As much as he wanted to see what kind of expression Hilary was making, he was sure that his whole body had turned red upon hearing her words. He hoped that she couldn't hear his increasing heart beat as he tried to come up with the perfect response. After a long minute of consideration, Tyson decided there was only one way to relay his feelings to her. He broke the hug and before Hilary could even question him, he kissed her.

As soon as their lips met, Tyson felt complete. Hilary's lips felt soft as silk against his and tasted like peaches, sweetly intoxicating him with every passing second. He tightened his grip around her waist and pulled her closer into him. She let out a soft moan and he felt a shiver go down her body. Her hands made their way up into his hair and she caressed it gently, which sent Tyson's brain into overdrive and he slipped his tongue into her mouth.

Immediately, Hilary broke their embrace and pushed him away as hard as she could. Out of breath and a little dazed, Tyson finally got a good look at her face since she had told him she loved him. Every inch of her skin visible to him was flushed in pink, from her cheeks to her neck, and this only made him want to pull her back in for another round.

"Enough, someone will see us!" She exclaimed in between catching her breath, motioning towards their surroundings, with embarrassment for being caught by a school teacher or fellow students heading to school already settling on her face.

"So," Tyson smirked as he easily closed the distance between them in one long stride and engulfed her into a tight grip, "let them." He whispered in her ear and kissed her again, to his amusement there was no resistance from her side as she settled comfortably into his embrace.

Remembering that he still had one task left to do, Tyson pulled back for a second and grinned whole-heartedly at the brunette, "Oh and Hilary, I love you too."

Before he could overpower her again, she wiggled out of his grasp and grabbed him by the arm to drag him up the slope adding haughtily, "I won't if you make me late on the first day of school!"

He laughed, letting her lead the way without any resistance.

She was right, they had their whole lives ahead of them.

But more than that, they had each other.

-x-

A/N: Reviews and prompts are always welcome. Thank you for reading, stay safe!