Hillary, unlike Tyson, recognised the click and clank of a beyblade after almost finishing a Special Golden Cherry Delight. On recognising the distant sound after concentrating for about two minutes, she followed it with no turning back.

*****

Tyson barely registered the passing of time. He had defeated all the five bullies simultaneously without breaking a sweat. He was quite sure that they were just amateurs, relaying more on number and brute strength than technique.

But as he called dragoon for the finishing move, turbo twister, they had discovered his identity, much to their utter shock and his dismay. He was not in a mood to deal with dumbstruck fans, and they were behaving exactly in that fashion.

At the end, he had to violate one of the beyblading rules as he directed his dragoon at the opponent physically.

Though no serious damage was done, only a shallow cut into the palm of the bully who had demanded for his watch, he still felt quite wrong.

Here he was, the Two-Time World Champion, breaking one of the most rudimentary rules of beyblading. "Never direct your beyblade to injure your opponent physically. Beyblading was only to be played among beyblades and all attacks were to be directed towards a beyblade and beyblade alone. The only exception being using attacks on the blading dish as a part of strategy." He tried to console himself by thinking of it to be a 'no rules' match.

The above thought were only momentary. Tyson now had the entire alley deserted, a silence which he felt quite welcoming. He had been itching to use his new beyblade for some time now, to feel the adrenaline rushing through his veins as he launched his beyblade.

The last few days had been highly taxing on him and he wanted out. He was done thinking of problems way beyond his age, way beyond his control. He was done being responsible, thoughtful, worried. He felt like a fox in a sheep's skin. This was not the Tyson he knew, to be honest, it wasn't Tyson at all.

Tyson was the easy going teen, way too obsessed with the game of beyblading, he was funny, oblivious and did not have a mind-mouth filter. His world's epicenter is bey-blading.

He understood that the circumstances demanded that of him, and he had bravely took up the mantle, he had lived up to its expectations, but that doesn't mean he was happy doing so. Right? And who's there to tell him he couldn't take a break?

He had stayed up quite late yesterday, just dreaming of putting his new beyblade to use. He had tasted its sweetness once as he beybladed those bullies, but it was short lived. Now, he also had a dish for himself. There was nothing stopping him from beyblading at present, and he did so.

At first, he practiced his agility, then slowly took up one attack after another, perfecting then. Once a wise man had said, "Frustrated minds leads to the most creative of inventions." It never felt truer. He created his newest move, 'The ____---___' a move unknown to him, would be used as the final move in his third-time World Championship Finale. But to his utter dismay, the beyblading dish snapped into several pieces.

This did not deter Tyson in the slightest. It might have just motivated him to work harder. Dragoon moved to and from the cemented street, plowing it's way sometimes due to the streets lack of maintenance. He had broken two holes into the compound walls, crushed numerous cans, had made a dent on five garbage cans and was working on making a third hole on a stray wall when the crumbled up poster, a poster of the new circus in town, hit his beyblade, making him lose its balance and his concentration in a go.

******

Tyson was panting heavily when Hilary reached him. To be honest, she was sure that he didn't even notice her until she hit his blade with a crumbled poster, disturbing it's balance.

"Why did you have to do that?" Tyson snapped, each word punchuated with gasps for air. His shirt was stuck to his body due to the excessive sweat, his forehead lined with beads of sweat and his hair considerably wet too. There were specks of dirt here and there, from bricks most likely, from what I observed, on is pale yellow T-shirt.

Hillary, for the life of her, could not fathom the sudden need for this rigourus training.

So she said what came to her mind first. "I told him, I told Kenny not to give you dragoon this soon, but as usual who listens to me here? Look what you have done to yourself, and all this mess!! Who will clean this? Mr Dickerson?!!"

Hillary was expecting a snarky remark, but to her utter disbelief, Tyson started to laugh. Though not ideally a joke, Tyson found this quite funny and sat down as he could not control his laughter. Hillary, who had her hands on her hips and a serious expression on her face, also broke into a smile.

It had been quite some time since Tyson had laughed, and some more time since he had laughed this openly, genuinely.

She remembered Kenny's reply as she had voices out her concern. "Bladers usually channel their bit beasts with their own energy, skills and emotions. This surprisingly works the other way round too. They help a blader channel his energy, emotions and help them release pent up frustration too. And this balance is different for each blader. Generally, bladers channel their own energy when the bitbeasts' energy is running low, only in extreme cases does a person channel his own emotions as it is considered to be highly unstable. But in Tyson's case, he channels his emotions more often than his energy. He being the emotional person he is, has a lot of emotions stored inside him, mostly happy ones, and this fuels dragoon largely. So in such times of distress, practicing beyblading will help him greatly."

She went ahead and gave her hand for Tyson to grab and get up from the ground. Tyson took it without a moment's hesitation. This itself showed how their friendship had blossomed in the last five months.

Six months ago, Tyson wouldn't have laughed off her sarcastic remarks. Six months ago, she would have scolded him for being selfish and thinking of himself alone than trying to understand him. Six months ago, he would have taken a direct insult and wouldnt have understood that it was just second nature for her to respond sarcastically to her peers, people who were close to her. Six months ago, she wouldn't have made the sarcastic remark on such a mundane thing in the first place...

In the last few months, they had returned to how they were as pre-schoolers, best friends teasing each other relentlessly but standing up for one another when someone else does the same. Hillary just hoped she could make Tyson see that she wanted it to be more. But she was finding it extremely confusing to understand Tyson romantically.

This is not the thoughts I should have at the moment, Hilary reminded herself. For now, I'm perfectly happy to be just friends. And on the other hand, you can't have a relationship with a person you whose life you want no part of. Hillary's confused thoughts were confusing her every passing day, minute. And she did what she always did. Push it to the back of her mind for the moment, and analyze each and everything sitting on her table, sketching.

As they were walking back to the main road, Hillary asked, "How long were you there?"

Tyson shrugged. He he hadn't exactly kept track of time during his abrupt training, and looked for his watch. Eleven forty-five.

"Shit!!" He cursed.

"What's wrong?" Hillary asked, a bit surprised by the sudden exclamation.

"I was supposed to be at the hospital by nine!!"

"You didn't inform them?" Hillary asked alarmed.

Tyson didn't choose to answer her, or from what she knew wasn't even hearing her. As though Hilary had never spoken, he continued, "-it was just supposed to be a detour. I met this old man, and saw the news and decided to investigate, I was just supposed to be a few minutes late, maybe half an hour or so, but then I didn't get to speak to that officer and I called you, then I met these bullies and battled them, and I honestly didn't think it would be this late!! I couldn't have been practicing for three hours straight!! Even Kai gives us a break of fifteen minutes after every two hours and I call that brutal!!" he was effectively rambling by then. Hillary held her finger to his mouth, effectively silencing him.

"Breath." She instructed, and he did follow. After a few attempts at this, she asked, "What's next?"

"My funeral. They have been with Kai all night and I had to relieve them for the day. They should have been home relaxing at present. Oh man, Ray's gonna personally murder me, no one interrupts him and his shower!!!"

Hillary muffles her giggles, "So nothing serious?" she asks.

"Isn't my funeral serious enough for you? He asks, a slight pout forming on his face. Hillary acts as though she was mulling over the answer. "hmm.... Of course it is." Tyson grins openly and was ready with a jab too, but she continued. "It's the best day of my life!!" Tyson's smile considerably reduces, Hillary sticks out her tongue teasing him.

In an attempt to re-track to the actual topic, he takes hold of her hand and starts guiding her to the bus stop. "We must hurry if I want some mercy, you see..." he says, winking at her, before focusing ahead. Hilary was glad he did, for he never saw the blush creeping on to her cheeks.

******

Ray must have never seen a clock as many times he had seen in the last few hours. He was willing to bet White Tiger that he must have never seen the clock as many times as he had seen in his entire life. Sure, he had spent his entire childhood at a place where you analysed the time based on the position of the sun, but that's besides the point.

He was willing to bet all of his friends bit beasts that even Kai had been sneaking glances at the clock six times by then. He don't know whether Max felt the increase in nerves in the room, for he was once again busy with that video game of his.

They had completed their breakfast by ten-ten. He had raised the issue again, once again dismissed by Kai, and to his surprise, Max. This made him question whether he was the only one who was taking small matters this seriously. But his doubts were reestablished when he had caught Kai checking the clock multiple times.

He checked his watch. Eleven seven. He decided, he was going to wait until eleven fifteen, after that, there was no one stopping him from going in search of Tyson himself.

'Tyson, come here safe and sound now and I'm going to murder you personally.' He caught himself praying. This line changed sometimes. 'Come here this instant, grinning like a maniac you are, and I will forgive you for interrupting my shower. '

******

Even Kai was getting worried by then. The idiot was supposed to be here by nine. Where is he now? Kai was sure things were under control, but he was questioning this notion now. Ray was beyond worried at present. He had attempted to argue with me just after their breakfast, but to both of their utter surprise, Max had taken Kai's side. And to his own disbelief, Kai trusted Max's sixth sense. Though Kai barely believed in such things as he was a logic driven guy, he had to admit that it has always been as close to reality as possible.

But everything has a first time, his mind thought and in reference to recent events, a lot of mistakes, miscalculations were happening together, for their first time. His observational skills missed Hillary's anxiety and absence, and he had gotten to know of the situation really late. He had miscalculated that the situation was under control just after informing Grace. Even after Mr Dickenson informed him of the security breach, he had let the show commence. Grace had lost control for the first time in his career when Kai was attacked the second time. And once again he was just assuming that the matter was under control, without checking with anyone else.

He checked the time, eleven fourteen. Keeping it a secret was not possible anymore. He had to make the call. He knew Ray was not going to wait any longer. To be honest, he was astonished that he had waited so long.

******

It happened simultaneously. Max had just completed level ninety-two, that too after eighteen attempts.

"I'm done waiti-"

"Don't leav-"

His game fell to the ground in his surprise. That was the only source of sound in the room.

Ray's expression was intense, slightly rimmed with sweat, though the day wasn't hot. Kai's face was emotionless, but one could see determination behind those eyes.

"Calm down Ray-"

"Tyson was supposed to be here two and a half hours ago Kai, don't tell me to calm down."

"Nothing could have happened -"

"You don't know that! You haven't left this room since two weeks. "

"I have my ways Ray, "

"Am not going to accept that answer anymor-"

"Will you stop interrupting and at least listen to me completely." Kai snapped.

Ray stopped interrupting. Kai continued on, reigning his monotone voice. "I want to check out with them, I need to make a call, a call from one of those high tech video telephones, where is the nearest one?"

"There's one near the reception below, where we called Hilary's father a few days ago... " Max found himself speaking tentatively for the first time then, gaining attention of both his team mates. There gazes were so intense, he felt like cowering in fear, but didn't do so.

Ray looked at bit confused, but after they talked to each other through their eyes, (which looked like a stare-down to Max), Ray obliges.

"Come-on then Kai, I'll give you a hand to get to the ground floor."

******

Words: 2400

******

A/N: Sorry I forgot to write the name for the chapter....