A/n: Firstly, yay for me finally reaching 20 chapters in this series, only 80 more to go? (lol) And secondly, another yay for crossing the 100k word count mark, this is my first ever fic to do so T.T Thirdly, this one features dialogues by not just Tyson and Hilary but 5 other characters so who would've thought this day would come huh?

Rated Teen and Up for mildly mature content, based on the prompt "Lace" for Mayblade.

This can be considered as being set in the same universe as the proposal fics. Enjoy!

Tale 20

- x -

The beer can felt warm against his hand but Tyson was long beyond caring, he knew he should've finished it and moved on to his next one by now, but the thoughts plaguing his mind took priority. He was being punished, that much he was certain of, but for what?

He groaned, wanting to lean back on the couch and rub his forehead in order to help himself think faster and also tune out the loud music and incomprehensible chatter of the party. But as he was currently sandwiched between Max trying to sell some stupid American party tradition which involved getting naked and was blatantly a lie to Rei and Lee who were uncharacteristically convinced, and Kenny telling Rick about his rare Ming-ming photocard collection which was now worth over thousands of yen, giving him little space to move about on his tiny couch which at it's best only had room enough for two people.

His eyes twitched, out of frustration over his position and from the need to turn and look at the person punishing him, but instead Tyson took a reluctant sip of the now warm beer and grimaced, keeping his eyes straight ahead him and not losing into the temptation. This was just a puzzle that he needed to solve, just like everything else involving Hilary, all he needed to do was concentrate and recall where he could have gone wrong during the day.

One of the most important duties Hilary had tasked him was the invitations for the party, which he'd already gotten through last week, but just to be sure and keeping his line of sight extremely focused, Tyson surveyed the room to see if any of their friends, except the ones that had already declined the invite, were missing in action. There were about twenty people cramped in their apartment which was clearly not big enough to handle such a crowd, spread across the living room, dining area and the kitchen, and the balcony, Tyson was able to make out most of the familiar faces, their common childhood friends, Hilary's college friends and some of his colleagues form all his part-time jobs. All in all they'd managed a full house so this definitely was not why Hilary was punishing him, he concluded.

Next came food and drinks, which they'd divided between themselves, Tyson was in-charge of buying all the snacks and alcohol while Hilary would take care of the cooking. With some help from Kai and Max, Tyson had already stocked up their house with both, and sure he had opened up a few packet of rice crackers from the party stash in the morning, but Hilary had taken a few bites from it herself so she clearly wouldn't be mad about that. Not to add that while she hadn't managed to cook everything she wanted to, Rei had shown up with tonnes of leftover from his restaurant so even a few hours into the party, the food table was still standing it's ground.

Lastly, they had to clean and organise the house but that was completely Hilary's department, and he had followed her instructions very diligently. They'd both been skeptical of so many people rsvp'ing yes and wondered if their place would be able to hold them all, but a few tricky shifts in the furniture had allowed people to squeeze in just fine. So Tyson ruled this one out of his list of possible crimes as well. He had spent most of the day lazing around which could be a strong contender, but when he had offered to help Hilary in the kitchen she was the one who had shooed him away and told him to do whatever he wanted to. And while Hilary was always easily angered, she was not a hypocrite, so he ended up crossing this one of the list as well.

Running a frustrated hand through his hair, Tyson realised that he was back to square one.

Why was Hilary doing this to him?

He couldn't keep his eyes away from her any longer, so Tyson scrunched up his nose and downed the remaining beer in his can, it's warmness and sour taste leaving a burning trail down his throat but also finally gave him a reason to leave the couch. Crushing the can in his hand, he made his way towards the kitchen where Hilary was introducing Emily to a few of her college friends, trying his best not to look in her direction as he tossed the empty can in the bin, but from the corner of the eye their gazes locked making Tyson halt mid-way. It had appeared only for a second, but he'd seen a smirk on Hilary's face as she looked at him, and not just any smirk, a triumphant smirk.

How could he have lost already? He hadn't made a move at all, in fact, ever since she'd stepped out of their bedroom, announcing that she was ready for the party he'd barely managed to say anything out loud, and it was all because she was wearing that dress.

Red was Tyson's favourite colour, you name anything and he probably owned it in red, he loved wearing it too and his whole wardrobe was filled with this shade no matter how much people reminded him that he needed to start buying clothes in other colours. But when Hilary wore the colour red, it changed meaning for him altogether. There was something inside him that just wouldn't rest until he had his hands all over her and was taking her clothes off, obviously making it very difficult for Hilary to ever buy clothes in the colour, the few pieces she owned were reserved for his eyes only.

Tonight was different however, since she had decided to hold a grudge against Tyson over who knows what, and had been traipsing around the party in a red dress, correction, his favourite red dress, to get back at him. He had done a good job holding himself back, by keeping a good amount of distance between them but now that he'd gotten close to her again, he felt the hunger rise deep in his abdomen. Forgetting why he had made his way to the kitchen, and the fact that their house was still full of people, Tyson allowed his eyes to roam all over Hilary.

The dress clung to her frame like a second layer of skin accentuating her finger in all the right places. It was short in length, with just enough fabric to cover and curve around her butt perfectly from the back and stick to her thighs forming a v-shaped fold in the front, painting an inviting picture but also leaving the right amount to imagination. He wasn't sure if Hilary had caught him staring but suddenly, the empty paper cup she was holding slipped from her hand and landed at her feet, and when she bent down to pick it up, it was almost as if they were the only two people in the house and every sound, every movement around him came to a screeching halt. The plunging v shaped neckline of the dress was hard to take his eyes away from but just for a moment, Hilary looked straight into his eyes and lowered her chest more than was required to pick up the fallen cup, allowing Tyson to catch a glimpse of some bright red lace hiding underneath the dress before she straightened up and rejoined the conversation with a klutzy smile, as if she hadn't just destroyed him completely.

As far as he could remember she had never worn a red, lacy bra before which meant that the thin line between punishment and torture had now been blurred and there was no escape for Tyson.

He licked his lips as an image of his hands moving up her thighs entered his mind, it would be so easy for him to lift up her dress above her her waist and check if she was wearing matching underwear beneath it, and if she was-

Someone bumped into him and Tyson staggered before he caught onto the edge of the counter and stabled himself, the image of Hilary in a red, lacy underwear disappearing from his mind along with his attention returning to his surroundings.

"Oh, sorry Tyson, didn't see you there! You okay?" Kane grinned sheepishly at him before he pulled out a beer for himself from the fridge and left the kitchen without waiting for a response.

Tyson grumbled to himself, resting both his palms on the counter next to the fridge and turning his head upwards, away from the sight of Hilary still casually chatting with her friends. He shut them tightly and took a deep breath, hoping to get a hold of himself. It was next to impossible because all he could do was think about Hilary raising her arms to fix her hair and her dress riding up just an inch, or Hilary adjusting the straps of the dress around her shoulders and the bra strap from underneath peeking out for moment.

He felt a light tap on his shoulder and he didn't need to open his eyes to tell who it was that had disturbed his fantasies for a second time.

"Are you okay, hon?" Her sweet smile bore no resemblance to her smug voice, and the innocence in her tone was washed out by the fact that she never called him hon.

"What did I even do?" He could've played along, he could've lied and told her he was absolutely fine, even if it was only for a moment, he could've finally had the upper hand tonight. But Tyson was at his limit, he was tired from trying to guess what he had done wrong, and even more so from fighting the urge to grab her by the waist and just run his hands all over her. He needed to know the reason why she was putting him through this, and for that he had no problem sacrificing his ego.

Hilary studied him carefully for a minute, unable to believe that he wasn't putting up a fight but catching onto the desperation in his voice, she finally replied indignantly,"You're the one who said I'm no fun at parties."

It was hard not to let his jaw fall to the floor, the words when did he even say that were at the tip of his tongue but he swallowed them with a loud gulp, as his memory slowly caught up to what Hilary was referring to.

"Hils, you've gotta be fucking kidding me." Tyson inhaled sharply, he couldn't deny the fact that he hadn't made that statement, because he had, but that had been weeks ago, when she'd first brought up the idea of throwing a party at their new place together. He may have blurted something along the lines of her being too uptight during parties and that most people weren't fond of it, she'd glared at him and swatted his arm, the next minute they'd already moved on to planning the party. Had Tyson known that she'd hold the grudge for this long, he would've gotten on his knees and serenaded an apologetic ballad to her then and there, saving himself the past few hours of torture.

"You shouldn't say things you don't mean, if you can't handle the consequences." She looked so proud of herself, which she always did whenever she took that preachy tone with him.

It had the opposite effect on him, instead of feeling annoyed he felt more drawn towards her than ever. It didn't matter to him how many people they were actually surrounded by, because in Tyson's mind he could only see her and everything else around him was a muted blur. He snaked his arms around her waist, the soft fabric of the dress feeling cool against his burning skin, and pulled her into himself, resting his hands at the small of her back and just barely resisting the urge to allow them to trail down any further. Hilary looked surprised but she did not resist or make a fuss about possibly being watched by any of their friends, as if she was curious to see how far he would actually go.

"You better figure out how to get everyone outta here quick, because I can only hold myself back for so much longer." He whispered quietly into her ear, breathing in the scent of her perfume as he rubbed his nose against her cheek, his lips twitching with the desire to capture hers in an impatient kiss. His hold around her strengthened on it's own and with their chests pressed tightly against, the sound of their heartbeats beating quickly in sync reached his ears, making him believe that Hilary had just been putting up a brave front so far and wanted him just as much as he wanted her. The muffled whimper that barely escaped her lips as he let his hand linger down from her back towards her butt, squeezing it softly to let her know that it was her move next.

He couldn't wait for her to either drag him into their bedroom without caring about everyone else, or shoo the whole party out of their house so they could go at it on the couch, watching her take charge of the situation and order everyone around in that dress would work in Tyson's favour as well.

But he should've known that ever since he had met Hilary, not a single day had gone by without her taking him by surprise.

"Tsk, tsk. You're an adult now, Tyson." Hilary said, putting both her palms on his chest and pushing him back to put some distance between their faces, carefully she disentangled herself from his grasp and moved towards the fridge to pull out a can of beer.

Then she came close to him again and pressed the chilled can against his cheek. Tyson was amazed that steam didn't come hissing off his face considering how hot his skin felt all over, she chuckled at the dumbfounded expression on his face, lifting up his hand with her own and wrapping it around the can of beer so she could let go of it. Seeing that her words seemed to have no effect on his stupor, she added with an air of superiority "You have to realise that you can't always get what you want, when you want it."

With that she turned on her heel and made her way to the living room, joining the centre of the party flawlessly as if she had been sitting and chatting with them the whole time, and not spinning Tyson's composure like an uncontrollable beyblade. He sunk dejectedly to the floor, leaning his back against the counter as he put his head in his hands, massaging his forehead with the hope that he'd be able to get a hold of all his scattered thoughts and not explode before Hilary finally decided to end this little game.

A quiet cough made Tyson pull his head out of his hands and look up to find Kai looming above him with a questioning look on his usually blank face. He had to admit that to anyone else it might seem like he was not feeling well, so in a way Kai's concern was a bit touching, but since Tyson was hanging on by the last thread of his patience, he blurted out the first thought that came to his mind.

"You're still here?"

"Do you have a problem with that?" Kai shot back, his trademark scowl replacing the concern from his eyes in a matter of seconds.

"No, of course not." Tyson replied, he wished he could get red of the exhaustion in his voice that didn't make his denial sound so convincing, "It's just that you always leave an hour into every party." Getting Kai to stay anywhere past nine in the evening was almost considered a miraculous feat in their friend circle, he just liked to do things at his own pace and was most comfortable in his own house so it was difficult to get him to bend his ways, which Tyson always kind of admired because he hadn't built that level of resistance yet and would easily give in if persuaded strongly enough. So to see Kai still hovering around his house when it was almost midnight was as surprising as Hilary being able to resist him.

"I'm actually having fun." Kai shrugged, picking up a plate full of cold cuts from the counter Tyson was flopped down against, he gave his navy haired friend another skeptical look before deciding that he didn't really care and left, with the full plate of food still in his hands.

This was just great, Tyson thought, even Kai was having fun. Meanwhile he was sitting on the kitchen floor deliberating how Hilary had managed to pull herself away from him and walk away without a second glance in his direction, knowing how much his body was aching for her. He watched her for a while, sitting on the armrest of the couch in the living room. Even with her back facing him, Tyson could tell she was laughing from the way her shoulders shook lightly, making his fists curl into a ball out of frustration. In fact when he surveyed the scene, he realised that everyone in the party seemed to be better off than him, heck Kenny was actually hitting it off with not one but two of Hilary's college friends.

That was it, he hadn't been able to win over Hilary all evening but he was going to prove her wrong about one thing if that's the only thing he did tonight.

He was not an adult, not yet at least. And that meant that if he wasn't going to get to have fun, then no one else was allowed to either.

Opening the can of beer that Hilary had handed him, Tyson gulped it down all at once, grateful for the light buzz it provided because he was about to make a lot of people unhappy for which he needed that kick. Crushing the can in his hands and tossing it flawlessly into the bin, he stood up and made his way towards the living room, only one goal on his mind. He took his place behind Hilary, putting one hand on her shoulder to let his presence be known, she turned half-way to acknowledge him and then rejoined the conversation without a pause. But he kept his cool, despite of not knowing what the group was talking about, he laughed along with them, waiting for the right time to strike. And soon enough, a lull settled over the living room as everyone either turned their attention towards the drinks or food, or took a break to check their phones, giving Tyson the perfect opportunity to spill the beans.

"Just so you know, it was Max who said that you're not fun to be around at parties." Tyson loudly announced to the room, he didn't need to address Hilary directly for her or everyone else to figure out that the statement was meant for her. And as he had expected the comfortable silence that had settled over the group immediately turned into thick tension that a knife could slice right through, with Hilary first turning to look up at him and then direct her shock towards Max.

"What the hell Tyson!" Max who had been half-lying on the couch next to her, immediately straightened up, eyeing his best friend with disbelief over the outright betrayal. When Tyson met his gaze and just shrugged disinterestedly in response, the blond turned his attention towards Hilary instead, his big blue eyes shining as he pleaded his case, "While that may be true, I was only repeating what Mariam said to me."

"You little-" Mariam who had been sitting on the floor next to the couch threw the empty cup in her hands at Max that sadly landed in his lap instead of hitting him, before quickly looking at her friend to do some damage control, "No, Hilary, you have to believe me. I might've said it out loud, but Mariah was the one who put the idea in my head."

"Now you're just being ridiculous." Mariah stood up from her spot on the chair across the couch, with her hands on her hips she shot a menacing glare in Mariam's direction before she too began to justify herself, "Hilary, I had nothing-"

"Oh god, just shut up all of you."

Tyson could barely keep the grin off his face as Hilary stood up angrily and the whole room collectively cowered in fear. Having known her since childhood, everyone present knew how dangerous it was to get on her bad side and even the toughest people from their circle were afraid to face her when she was mad. He was used to getting the worst of her wrath obviously, but over the years he had started enjoying the moments when her anger wasn't directed at him, the very reason why he had decided to ruin everyone's night.

The whole room awaited the verdict on their lives with bated breath and Tyson began counting down the minutes to when Hilary would lose it and kick everyone out of their house and he would be free to do whatever he wanted with her.

But once again, his plans for the night took a hit, as it seemed that he wasn't the only one tipsy from one too many drinks, giving them the courage to disrupt the tense atmosphere.

"But you've done such a good job today, I haven't had this much fun in a long time." Mariah spoke up, a huge smile on her face as she beamed sincerely at Hilary, hoping to save everyone involved in the fiasco.

"R-really?" Hilary stuttered, astonished by the compliment she completely lost the momentum of anger that had been building up since the past few minutes, much to Tyson's disappointment.

"Yeah, look, Kai's still here too." Max chirped up, pointing towards their friend who was standing and chatting with one of Tyson's colleagues in the balcony.

A murmur of approval went around the living room and suddenly everyone was thanking Hilary for throwing such a great party, the exasperation over being singled out as not being fun by her friends disappeared under the sudden barrage of praises. As much as Tyson wanted to be happy over his girlfriend getting the appreciation she deserved at last, he couldn't help but let out a tired sigh, tonight was just not his night.

"Thank you guys, I'm glad you had fun…" She said, placing a hand over Tyson's that had been resting on her shoulder, looking up at him for a moment with a soft expression on her face she added, "But I'm just absolutely beat now, so how about we call it a night?"

A wave of agreement passed through the room, Tyson felt so happy that he could almost break into a dance, Hilary did love him after all.

It took the two of them over an hour to completely empty their house of people, with discussions over who was sober enough to be the designated driver and who would crash at whose place and drunken attempts to clean up after themselves, by the time the last person was out of the door Tyson had already sworn that they would never host a party again. With both his palms still resting on the door, he placed his ear against the wooden surface to make sure that the last of the crowd had indeed gotten in the elevator and there were no more leftovers outside their apartment right now. When his ears met with silence, Tyson rejoiced, finally, finally it was time for him to-

He turned and came across Hilary with her hands covered in rubber gloves, going around their house with a black poly bag and picking up all the trash that had scattered around.

"Oh, come on, Hils!" He groaned loudly as he slammed his hand across his face, making her jump out of surprise, his girlfriend was just predictably unpredictable.

"You know I cannot sleep knowing our house is a mess."

"I don't care."

Tyson was at his limit, and now that there were no spectators there was no reason for him to hold himself back. He closed the distance between them in no time, grabbing the bag of trash from her hand and throwing it away despite the loud protests from Hilary. Putting his hands across her waist he lifted her off the floor with ease, putting an end to all objections from her, taking a few steps forward he placed her on their dining table and before she could interrupt him with anything else, Tyson crashed his lips against her.

His tongue met with the taste of the red wine she had slowly been sipping through the night and he savoured it with passion. Her arms were now wrapped across his neck as she pulled him closer into herself, smiling against his lips as he let out a satisfied moan when her fingers raked through his hair.

"You've driven me crazy all night," Tyson said in between the sloppy kisses he planted across her neck, amazed by how he could still manage to be coherent, "so don't you dare think you're getting any sleep before I get to see what kind of underwear you have on beneath this dress."

Her hands moved from his hair and towards his face, cupping his cheeks in them she pulled his face upwards so they were eye to eye again, he watched wide-eyed as a coy smile settled on her lips and slowly reached her eyes, "But Tyson, I wasn't wearing one to begin with."

- x -

A/n: Hilary will always be a tease and Tyson will always be whipped nevertheless, and you can't convince me otherwise. Leave a review and let me know what you thought!