A/N: I feel like I write about sunsets a lot so, naturally, once I began writing this prompt, I almost set it at nighttime instead. Oops.
Day 28 | Mariah, Lee | Rated: K
Sunset
"Where's Lee? His dinner's getting cold."
Mariah glanced back and forth between Gary and Kevin, waiting for one of them to answer her. Gary shrugged, more concerned with finishing his own meal, and Kevin scowled. He was still pouting about Bruce ratting him out for wandering off to terrorize their competition earlier. Mariah's grip on Lee's plate tightened.
"If neither of you are going to help me, I'll go find him myself," she said, slamming the plate down with a huff. "And his food better be waiting for him when we get back."
Turning on her heel, Mariah left the boys behind in their tiny hotel room to go find her brother. Unlike when Kevin went missing, she knew Lee wouldn't have gone far. She wandered down the hallway, hearing snippets of muffled conversations and radio programs from behind closed doors, and let herself into the back stairwell.
She remembered the hotel had a dingy courtyard tucked away behind it. The man who'd checked them in made sure to mention it when he found out they were en route to the World Championships, because it had a beydish in one corner. If Lee was, as Mariah expected, reeling more from their run-in with Ray than he wanted to admit to their teammates, he'd be practicing.
Her nightgown flounced around her ankles as she made her way downstairs and outside. From the second she stepped into the courtyard, she could hear the whirring of a beyblade. She'd recognize Galeon's spin anywhere. It sounded out of place in the city with walls of brick and smog and noise all around. It didn't like to be caged.
"What are you doing out here, Mariah?" Lee glanced over his shoulder. The eye she could see was gleaming through the exaggerated shadows cast by the setting sun. Galeon's spin never wavered. "You should be inside resting up for the tournament."
Mariah thought that was a little presumptuous, considering he was clearly doing the exact opposite. The entire rhythm of their evening had shifted the second they'd run into the Bladebreakers. And Ray. A pit opened up in her stomach when she thought about him and she knew Lee was the same. Neither of them were destined for rest.
She took a deep breath and crossed the courtyard. There was a sturdy-looking bench facing the beyblade dish, so she sat down on it. Lee's eyes were fixed on Galeon again, but she could tell he was keeping tabs on her movements.
"When I finished getting ready for bed, you were gone without eating your dinner," Mariah said, studying the tautness of Lee's shoulders with a frown. "Come inside, Lee. You don't want to be hungry and tired on our flight tomorrow."
"I'm not hungry," Lee growled and Galeon's bit chip glowed ominously.
Mariah could feel bright, hot anger thrumming in the air, perfectly in time with Galeon's rotation. She'd felt it in the alleyway, too, as Lee stared down Ray and his new teammates, calm and collected on the outside, but raging on the inside. And she'd felt it coursing through her own veins, forcing down a bevy of other emotions like envy and heartache and worry.
The worry was for Lee. In addition to his own hurt, she knew he took it upon himself to bear the rest of the White Tiger's grudges and the weight of their grandfather's expectations, too. The last thing she wanted was to see him crumble under it all.
"Please, Lee." Her hands were in her lap, clutching fistfuls of her nightgown. "You'll need your strength."
Lee turned to face her with his entire body, feet apart and fists clenched. Galeon accelerated in the dish behind him and a cloud of dust kicked up.
"I have more than enough strength for the likes of traitors," he said darkly, brows knit together above his stormy gaze. "Don't worry about me."
"But I have to," she thought as Lee's attention turned back to the stadium. He called upon Galeon. The lion rose from its beyblade with a fierce roar, the great, dark shape of it eclipsing the sun and painting golden hour black. "You don't bother to worry about yourself."
If Lee could be stubborn, so could she. Mariah stayed put as he ran through drill after drill. He put Galeon through its paces, practicing all of his teammates' attack patterns as nighttime fell. Soon, the only light in the courtyard came from the city lights beyond the brick walls and the flickering light beside the stairwell door.
Mariah's eyelids were beginning to droop.
Lee plucked Galeon from the center of the beydish. He was breathing heavier now, tumultuous emotions outlasting his own stamina, and he still readied himself for another launch.
Mariah wanted to tell him not to torture himself, to save some strength for the tournament, but she knew her pleas would fall upon deaf ears. There were no words that could stop Lee from mourning the loss of someone he'd once loved like a brother. Lee wouldn't rest until he'd proved to Ray that he'd been wrong for leaving.
Mariah didn't want to prove Ray wrong as much as she wanted things to go back to how they were before he left, but that was impossible. A now-familiar melancholy forced her to blink back tears. If only she'd brought Galux down with her – then she could be practicing with Lee.
With a tired sigh, she tucked her legs underneath her and scooted over so she could lay down on the bench, curled up on her side. In the moonlight, with her head pillowed on her hands, she watched Lee launch Galeon one more time. Then her eyes slid closed.
The next thing Mariah was conscious of, was the feeling of strong arms holding her and the smell of sweat. She wrinkled her nose and peeked through her eyelashes. Lee was carrying her down the dim hotel hallway. Even from this angle, she could see the exhaustion etched into his features.
She closed her eyes again. If he knew she was awake, she was afraid he'd send her back to the room by herself and go run some more drills. So she feigned sleep until he stopped, presumably outside their room. Instead of trying to wake her, he kicked the door gently. After a moment, it opened from the inside.
"Hey, Lee," Gary greeted quietly. "Is she asleep?"
Lee's only answer was an affirmative grunt as he brushed past Gary to lay Mariah on the bed. She could hear soft snoring coming from the other side of the room and was grateful that Kevin wasn't awake to start an argument while Lee was vulnerable.
"She made you a plate," Gary said. He sounded tired, as if he'd been waiting up for them. "We saved it for you."
"Thanks," Lee muttered as he tucked Mariah in. He also sounded tired. Mariah was tempted to give herself away by grabbing his arm and demanding he go straight to sleep, but then he was going to shower off and her mattress was so perfect for sinking into that she never got up the gumption.
Gary sighed and collapsed into the bed he was sharing with Kevin as the shower began to run. Mariah listened until his rhythmic breathing turned to snores and the sound of running water lulled her to sleep again.
She slept soundly, only waking up one other time before daybreak when Lee slid into bed next to her. Some nights, he tossed and turned, but tonight he was still. She could tell when he began to fall asleep, because the mattress dipped even more as he relaxed. When she was sure he wouldn't notice, she opened her eyes a crack and squinted over to the table. His dinner plate was sitting there empty. Mariah smiled to herself and drifted off until morning.
A/N: This was always going to be about Lee training past sunset and Mariah coming after him. I didn't decide on an actual timestamp for it until the time to write it got closer, and I'm happy with my decision. I don't write within season one a lot, so this was a fun one. (Also, unimportant, but I love Mariah's little nightgown from season one, so I enjoyed throwing that in there, too.)
Thanks for reading! :)
