Since it wasn't an upcoming match that had the world of beyblading as they knew it riding on the outcome, Tyson passed out like a dead thing around ten o' clock, despite his proclamations of staying up till two when they had to leave for the docks. Tyson had pulled out some old hiking back packs his father had left behind from old expeditions and packed them each with sleeping bags, nevermind the fact that Kai and Ayah wouldn't be able to wear them due to their tightly packed wings. Well, at least not comfortably.
Ayah, touched by her adoptive brother's thoughtfulness, was still messing with the straps and repacking the thing in attempts to make it work when said brother passed out in a storm of snoring. She threw a blanket on him then went back to tugging on the crunchy old straps with a wrinkled nose.
Kai sighed. "Give it up. We'll just have the mule bring whatever gear he thinks we need."
She looked at him in confusion until she realized the 'mule' in question was Tyson, then she frowned.
"It's the end of summer, fall is here. The sleeping bags would help us keep warm."
"We're going on a ship. The ocean keeps the temperature mild, and if it gets too cold we'll be in doors. Besides, it's getting wet we'll have to worry about."
"What about the food? Or all this..." she pulled out a box of matches and shook it, eyebrows knitting. "What is this?"
He couldn't help the smile. "You don't know what matches are? Did you're Daddy breathe fire or something?" After all, he could do it.
"These make fire? No, my father was an avatar of sound, like me." She dropped the matches back into the pack and brought out a flashlight, which she flicked one experimentally, and smiled when it lit up. "My mother, though, was light. Beautiful light. All her feathers were like...mirrors or crystals, and when she flew dozens of rainbows would be born with each flap of her wings, and they'd dance..." After a moment of thought she turned off the light. "I guess we wouldn't need all this if you can breathe fire, right?"
"You don't want me to do that for light. I nearly burned down the house just trying to light the oven. Max will be picking us up at the port anyways. I don't know where Tyson gets the idea we'll be roughing it."
But she kept playing with the backpack, a little dream-like smile on her face. He watched her until she gave up and yawned with a wide stretch of her arms and wings. Even having his own didn't stop him from feeling the bit of awe at the surrealness of her feather's movements.
For some reason, it made him think of Hillary. Apparently she had dropped by to help Ayah with more durable, travel worthy clothes, as well as to ask Tyson what the hell he was thinking leaving on such short notice. Kai happened to walk into her just as she was leaving for Kenny's to rant at him as well.
What he really wish he could do was sleep, but he didn't trust his phone's alarm with something as important as his possible survival.
"Kai?"
He had his head tipped back and his eyes closed, so he just made his usual "Hn," to show he heard her.
"What...what happened with Hillary today? At the front door. I didn't mean to hear, but even Tyson...I mean, she sounded really upset and if there's anything I can do---"
"It's nothing" he said. Because, really, it wasn't. At least nothing he wanted to discuss, because what was there to say?
"She sounded really upset, though."
"Then how about you ask her? She knows more about it than me."
"Do you think she'd be awake?"
"I don't know people's sleeping schedules," he said, because, well, he didn't. And teenagers didn't really hold to society's standards of wellness, if anyone held to those.
He only realized that probably came off rude and grouchy—which concerned him because that actually concerned him when it never had before—when Ayah said, "I didn't know you hated being touched so much. Is it just...different with Hilary? Do you like her?"
Now he wasn't concerned about whether he sounded rude. This wasn't a conversation he was going to have with her of all people. He opened his eyes to give her a hard look. "Ayah."
Not even Tyson could have ignored the warning in his voice, let alone the sound sensitive Ayah.
"I'm sorry!" she squeaked. "I just—she was just—I don't...I should be quiet now."
'Yes,' he almost said, but at the same time he cringed. He didn't want to make her uncomfortable. Everyone else in the world could burn in hell for all he cared, but she...screw it, what was wrong with him?
"You should catch some sleep too," he said lowly.
"Yeah. I don't think I can do anything more with this anyways." She dropped the bag by Tyson's and got to her feet, tail feathers tight and stiff along with her wings. "You can probably take Tyson's bed."
"I'm not sleeping."
"We have alarms set up for two."
He let out a sigh. "I'm fine."
Thankfully, she didn't push it, and moved to head out of the dojo. At the door, she paused.
"Why did you push her so hard?" she asked.
He didn't need to ask how she had gleaned that much from only hearing it. He also had expected her ultra hearing to invade his privacy to this depth sooner or later. Still, what troubled him more was the knee-jerk instinct to snarl at her with a bark to stay out of business. This was why he couldn't be close to her. Because he responded so easily to his discomfort with abuse when she hadn't done anything wrong. Hillary was her friend, after all.
He wasn't a stranger to self-control either, though, and after a deep breath through his nostrils, he said evenly, "She bumped into me then caught me off guard by kissing me. Like I said, I don't deal with touching well. Maybe it has to do with being raised to be a killer, but I don't deal well with people getting so close without warning me. And no, I am not in love with her. I don't really do romance."
To his relief, she didn't demand more, nor did she look at him with disgust. Rather, she smiled, throwing him off guard.
"Why didn't you just say that before? Tyson's right, you are dramatic."
An unwanted heat rose to his cheeks. He opened his mouth to say he wasn't dramatic, but all that came out was a little croak.
She turned back and leaned her shoulder against the doorway, a visible release of tension in her feathers. "I'm sorry for all the times I—I got into your personal bubble. It must have made you very uncomfortable."
Oh God, he hadn't been looking for an apology, he could care less. Crap, his face was getting hotter. Why? And for someone supposed to be seeking forgiveness, why did she keep smiling like she was apologizing to a kitten rather than a grown man? Screw it, he was done forcing himself to be nice. "Go to bed."
"Alright, Captain."
It then took him five seconds too long after Ayah left to realize that Tyson had stopped snoring. Kai groaned and put a hand to his face.
"What?" he asked.
Tyson had his back to him, but he still tried to keep up the appearance of unconsciousness.
"I know you're awake."
"What of it?" Tyson mumbled.
"I've seen you pretend to sleep before, you aren't even trying, which means you have something to say you think deserves an impression of coolness, which snoring would ruin."
"Shit, Kai, can you take me seriously once in a while?"
"I'm taking you seriously now, aren't I? I'm just not in the mood for you theatrics, so cough it out and go back to sleep."
"Rawr, you're on one." But he rolled over, twisted into a seating position, and cracked his neck. "I'm not the one to give you a guilt trip about how you treated Hillary, because she of all girls should have known not to jump you like that. But what happened to make you so mushy and nice to Ayah? I was sure you were going to do the whole bark and gnashing of teeth."
Kai scowled at him. "Who's not taking who seriously now?"
Tyson gave a drowsy smirk, then yawned. As he gathered the futon comforter around him, he said, "Look, buddy, if anyone deserves Ayah it's you, but you've got to do something about how tense you get whenever someone asks you a question. She's been through enough without you jumping on her when all she wants to be is your friend. You know, like you do with everyone who tries to be your friend?"
Kai stood up, hotter than ever. "I don't need to hear this from you."
"Oh? Because you think I'm dumb?"
"Because..." Because he already knew that, and he also wasn't going to talk about any of this with Ayah under the same roof with her damn super hearing. "Nothing is happening. I don't like what you're implying with 'deserving Ayah.' I don't do that lovey-dovey crap, or did you not hear?"
"Everyone does the lovey-dovey crap, smart-ass. It's one of our basic human needs."
"Well, last time I checked I wasn't human anymore."
Tyson actually had the gall to laugh at that, which irked Kai to no end. He wasn't going to put up with this anymore.
"Wait—ha ha ha—Kai! Magic flying Kai, come on, I'm just trying to talk to you!"
"No, you're trying to preach to me. Get off my leg!"
"Nuuuuu! Don't leave me like this, Captain! I'll be so forlorn!"
"You don't even know what forlorn means—"
"—Ow! Seriously?"
"I told you to get off."
"There's no way I'm going to let you just walk away after doing that, you asshole!"
Kai almost managed to escape from the dojo door with some semblance of dignity, having shaken Tyson off, but the dragon thought it apt revenge for being kicked in the chest by body tackling Kai around the middle, sending them both crashing into the hall wall.
A short, furious wrestling match ensued where Kai's still weakened muscles and lighter weight gave Tyson just enough edge to counter Kai's superior training in combat.
Tyson managed to wedge his red face out from under Kai's arm, dark eyes alight with their all too familiar challenge. "What was that about not liking touching, robot!"
"This isn't touching," Kai snarled, ducking Tyson's fist and taking out Tyson's attempts to stand with a swipe of his leg. "This is mauling."
"Whatever happened to letting your blade do the talking? Or have you really—ompf!"
Kai smirked at his well aimed elbow to the gut. "You talk too much."
"Bastard--!"
"OY!"
Tyson and Kai froze, fists raised, with Tyson looking ready to launch up from his lower position on the floor like a rocket to Kai's face.
Grandpa Granger had emerged from his bedroom dressed in only a nightshirt and boxers, his mustache askew and fire in his eyes.
"Homies trying to sleep, ya'all! Take it outside if you got to get down, but don't go scabbling in home's crib!"
Kai flushed and gave the old man his back, humiliated that he was caught having a petty fight with Tyson after he had just sworn to the old man to watch out for him. Tyson, however, moaned.
"We're not fighting, grandpa. We're discussing things like men."
"You're discuss'n like drunks, that's what you are! Now GIT!"
Which was how Kai found himself in the backyard with Tyson at nearly midnight with his new silver blade loaded in with a tournament grade attack ring and Tyson facing him at the other end of his bey stadium.
"Sumo style," said Tyson, every line of his figure in serious duel mode.
"When our fighting spirits rise," replied Kai with a nod, though he had forgotten his aggravation with Tyson the moment Grandpa Granger had come downstairs.
It had been so long since he had launched his blade. So long since he'd felt Dranzer's fire.
Tyson exploded in movement, and Kai responded. Rather than the dark blue, his silver blade flashed bright in the moonlight as it crashed into the white-gray of Dragoon. The blade's flew back from the collision and back into the bey stadium.
"Since this is the only way you feel comfortable talking," said Tyson as Dragoon whizzed around Kai's blade, vanishing every so often due to the speed of its rotation. "Let's talk."
"There's nothing to talk about," said Kai, dodging an attack. Despite the obvious lack of strength in his own blade's rotation, along with the obvious missing spirit which made Dragoon hum and spark with power, Kai's eyes were just as sharp as ever. He could see Tyson coming. He knew him.
"You're probably right. We just haven't battled in ages." Tyson grinned. "What, you think because you pop out wings I'm going to let you sneak out of getting your butt whooped in Beyblade? You wish."
"You sure you're not dreaming, Tyson? Like hell I'd just walk away."
To Kai's satisfaction, he held his own against Tyson for much longer than he had expected for losing half his muscle mass and not touching a blade for a month. Perhaps he had managed to build back enough strength through his training after all.
When his blade toppled to a stop, Tyson was the one who threw it back at him.
"Again," he said.
And Kai just smiled so broadly it made the back of his head hurt. This was why Tyson was his rival. This was why he was his friend. He hadn't realized just how wound up and anxious he had been until now. He had needed this. It was almost as though Tyson had known all along.
"A count down this time," he said.
"Alright," said Tyson, mirroring Kai's grin. "Three, two, one..."
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