Honestly? I have no idea what to say about this other than "Kyouya as everyone's first gay experience" is the unfinished request handed to me by a friend that I decided to upload anyway because I put 4,000 words into this thing.

And it could have been longer if I hadn't lost my notes...

1. A Face Hunter

It started out with a question – "Kyouya, have you ever kissed someone before?" – that made them both freeze in shock. Kyouya hadn't been the leader of the Face Hunters for very long, but he already knew that when he'd taken up the position he had never expected to encounter this kind of inquiry into his personal life. As the leader of a gang whose sole purpose was seeking power through Beyblades, it hadn't even seemed relevant.

Until now, that was.

The boy he was walking with seemed to catch up with what he had just asked of Kyouya, and was quickly reduced to a downcast look and an awkward, shuffling walk. The reddening of his face was genuine. He was currently one of Kyouya's favorites out of nearly ninety other rogue Beybladers now, with a few new members trickling in every so often, but that didn't mean much when Kyouya hardly kept track of any of their names. Which made it even more surprising that he had the guts to risk being so bold in the face of a leader who considered speaking the name of his Beyblade without permission a crime.

In what Kyouya may have later considered a moment of folly, the darker-haired teenager saw no reason not to be truthful.

"No, I haven't."

There was nothing indicative in Kyouya's voice, nothing to give the poor other boy a clue about what to do next, aside from his underlying tone of confusion. The anxiety continued piling up. It almost would have been better if Kyouya had rejected him now, or at least sounded annoyed, instead of allowing him to remain hopeful and pay for it later. He was under the impression that if Kyouya couldn't bother to remember his name regardless of how much time they spent talking, Kyouya wouldn't have a problem with punching his lights out the first time he offended him either.

"Oh," was all the boy managed after the longest time.

The silence returned for several blocks, until he was just about to round the corner to his house and took a swift detour. He didn't live in the shabby part of town, but it wasn't exactly high-end either; a few more blocks and he knew exactly which alley to turn into that lead them to a deadend, where the walls faded into a dusty, concrete gray and every few steps placed them in danger of stepping on the long discarded beer bottles of an older generation. Everyone was more interested in Beyblades, these days. The deadend wasn't a normal gathering place for any members of the Face Hunters, but it would have made a good alternative had there been an abandoned warehouse for them to hole up in nearby.

Kyouya didn't think much of it regardless. He continued to follow the other boy, but it was obvious from the look on his face that he wasn't impressed, and the boy leading him couldn't help but spitefully think, "So now he decides to have an opinion?"

"You've been acting funny all day," Kyouya finally noticed, studying the way the other boy wrinkled his nose in frustration. But since it's Kyouya, he possibly can't attach a word to that emotion – frustration. Kyouya has no idea what he's been going through all day just to get them to this point.

If he's going to offer an explanation, now's as good a time as any. After all, he's running out, and suddenly it feels like he can't spend more than a few seconds considering the words to say.

"My family's moving away," he blurts, and takes a cautious step back to gauge Kyouya's reaction. Kyouya's face scrunches up for a moment as if he's about to blame him for something that can't be helped, and it's clear that he's annoyed, so the boy quickly clarifies, "My mom's job is forcing her to move! I-if I had a choice, I would stay, but..."

He doesn't expect Kyouya to soften.

"So what's up with that? You have a crush on me or somethin'?"

He didn't expect Kyouya to be so blunt either.

Adding to the list of unexpectations, it was because he hadn't suspected Kyouya had caught on in the first place. In retrospect, perhaps he hadn't been very subtle.

Either he could attempt to deny it now, and back out before it was too late, or he could come clean and hope Kyouya would accept his answer. There was still a fifty-fifty chance that he would pick the wrong response, and that was still far too risky. He didn't want to hear what Kyouya would have to say if he picked the wrong answer.

On the other hand, he reminded himself, that was the reason he was telling Kyouya this now. Because he was about to move away, there was nothing Kyouya could say to him afterwards if he got it wrong.

"I... I like you!" he declared, pushing himself to speak.

For several seconds, all he could think was, "That could have come out better," but Kyouya didn't seem to think much of it. The initial moment of slack-jawed surprise Kyouya felt soon gave way to something else, which surprisingly didn't involve any kind of critic from the normally cynical and opinionated gang leader.

"Then maybe... you can help me figure something out," Kyouya mumbled.

With that thoughtful expression on his face and the way Kyouya was studying the pavement, he was talking more to himself than he was to the other boy. Strangely, he found it didn't matter to him much – because his heart was catching in his throat and it became impossible to breathe, let alone object, when Kyouya grabbed him by his shoulders and pulled him forward.

As far as first kisses went, he felt it was spectacular. It could have been worst, at least – there was that awkward clumsiness where he he tensed and stood as stiffly as a board, too shocked to move even if he had known what to do. At least Kyouya seemed more experienced in such matters, even if he was being rough and bruising the other boy's lips in the process.

Kyouya stalked off before he remembered to ask what he'd needed to "figure out", and that was the last the two ever saw of each other.

But it was memorable, at least.

2. Gingka Hagane

Some time later, Kyouya was just settling into his life again.

The Face Hunters had reached its intended hundred blader count not long after the incident, as Kyouya had mentally dubbed it, so losing one member had hardly mattered. The One Hundred Beys Battle was everything Kyouya had pictured it to be; an unstoppable assault comprised of such overwhelming numbers that any lone Blader would have no choice but to crumble before him. It was unfair, but Kyouya cared little for the morality behind the technique so long as he got what he wanted, and what he wanted was to see his enemies falling before him, crying out in despair as their precious Beyblades were smashed to bits.

Everything was going exactly as he had invisioned it. Who would have guessed that such a friendly city such as their own was home to so many angry Beybladers willing to follow his commands? Perhaps, in the dark, doubtful corner of his mind, Kyouya himself hadn't expected things to turn out so well. Many of his gang members were older than he was, or larger, but he was still the strongest of them all, and that was all that mattered.

...For a time, anyway.

Until Gingka Hagane had moved to town and threw everything Kyouya knew on its head. It became apparent to Kyouya what real power was like, and he consequently disbanded the Face Hunters. He was forced to rethink his ambitions.

Apparently, his newfound rival, Gingka, had been inspired to think as well – about a different subject matter. The first time they met as non-enemies, Gingka confessed to Kyouya.

It was flattering to hear Gingka declaring, "I'm not sure whether or not I like boys, but I definitely like you, Kyouya!" in complete earnesty, but he was too innocent and well-intentioned. Even from the way he spoke, it was clear he didn't understand the gravity of his own words – and Kyouya didn't much like the idea of being tied down with someone anyway, let alone the kid who still made his skin crawl with agitation nearly every time they saw each other.

Gingka hadn't exactly disrupted his life again, but after the first ten minutes Kyouya knew it wasn't going to work. He bore with Gingka's awkwardness and cutesy crap, attempts at being a cuddly boyfriend – which was exactly the opposite of what Kyouya wanted – for nearly two hours and that was that. Someone else could help Gingka discover his romantic orientation, because Kyouya lacked the patience for it. He had recently resolved his own identity crisis, and at least he'd never been so stupid and blushy about it.

However, if there was one thing Kyouya had learned from that experience, it was that he'd always be welcomed by Gingka no matter what the situation. Once they boy made friends, he intended to keep them for life, leaving Kyouya to suspect that perhaps Gingka had known all along that "they" weren't going to work out after all.

The end of their short-lived "relationship" received a blessedly graceful end.

3. Benkei Hanawa

"I've heard some interesting things about you lately, Kyouya."

It took less than a second for Kyouya to jump to conclusions. Despite what he'd told Gingka, that idiot hadn't kept his mouth shut. Because Gingka hadn't kept his mouth shut, the whole town probably knew about their first "date", and Kyouya was hesitant to call it such. Now, what exactly was Kyouya supposed to do about that? For starters, he'd-

"Hey, Kyouya, were you even listening?"

The sound of Benkei's voice brought him back to reality. Apparently, revenge plans took more than a few minutes, and the amount of time Kyouya had spent throttling Gingka in his imagination had taken longer than he'd thought.

"Huh? Uh, what?"

Maybe if he pretended to play dumb-

"Well, I got a message from Steve last night..."

Kyouya almost could have breathed a sigh of relief, if he were the "visibly relieved" type of person. Logically, Kyouya knew that the chances of both Gingka and Benkei knowing all of the same people were slim. This "Steve" probably wasn't someone Gingka knew, meaning the secret of their stupid not date remained a secret. In other words, it didn't sound like Gingka had run his mouth so much after all, but there was still one thing bothering Kyouya:

"Who's Steve?"

It wasn't out of casual interest that he asked, but it wasn't particularly concern either. As far as Kyouya knew – and he preferred to assume rather than hope he was right about this – "Steve" was just another of Benkei's stupid internet friends that he rambled on about occasionally. Probably no relation to Ginga, Kyouya told himself.

None at all.

"You know, from- ugh, guess you wouldn't know after all, headcounts were never really your thing."

"Get to the point already, Benkei. And I don't need you to tell me what is or isn't my 'thing'. Who the hell is Steve?"

"Face Hunters!" Benkei blurted, in that melodramatic way of his. As if Kyouya were bullying or torturing him to get an answer.

At the same time he was musing over that, Kyouya ran the information through his head.

"Face Hu- oh."

Suddenly, he was fairly certain he knew who "Steve" was. There was only one member of the Face Hunters who could claim to have interesting stories about him without an ounce of complete crap to back them up, and Benkei knew what crap was when he saw it.

"That guy," Kyouya muttered in acknowledgement.

He was neither particularly pleased nor displeased, but a small part of him was still embarrassed. Then the prideful part of Kyouya came in and insisted that anyone who had a problem with his interests or who he kissed could kiss his fist next.

"So is it true?!"

"What? That I kissed him? If we're thinking of the same guy, then-"

"So you are gay!?" Benkei blurted.

It just figured, Kyouya thought seethingly, that Benkei would pick an intimately personal moment about Kyouya's life to be even louder than he normally was. And Benkei as loud as he normally was would have woken up the entire block, if they weren't walking around town in the middle of the afternoon.

Kyouya paused, turned to face Benkei, and glared at him to get his point across.

"Tell the whole freaking town, why don't you..." he grumbled, going more or less unheard by the boy standing next to him.

"It's true?" Benkei asked.

Kyouya didn't think he was imaging the hopeful tone in Benkei's voice. Suddenly, a lot of things about Benkei – and why he still stuck around with Kyouya – made sense, assuming that what Kyouya thought he heard was true. If he felt like expanding on that idea, it meant Benkei had probably been crushing on him since the fourth grade, whether he knew or not at the time.

"Half and half," he replied, scratching nervously at the back of his head. What an awkward topic. He could honestly say he wouldn't be answering even to Benkei right now if he weren't sort of interested too. "I think... maybe I'm bi?" Quickly, in the hopes of redeeming himself from embarrassment, he added, "It's not important."

But the way Benkei's face lit up, Kyouya would have thought he'd just brought home a new puppy on Christmas morning. Benkei was into sappy, Disney-esque things like that, and he'd probably be even more overjoyed if Kyouya tied a ribbon around the dog's neck or something like that, and that was why the anology made perfect sense. Even to Kyouya, who had always hated Disney movies and was more of a cat person besides.

To Benkei, it was apparently very important. And he was the sort of person who would save his first kiss for someone he considered "important".

Kyouya didn't wait to see how long it would take before he figured out how to translate some of the weird, spluttering noises coming out of Benkei's mouth, but he took a guess on what he was trying to say and asked for him, "Feel like going out somewhere? Like a date?"

He'd already "dated" Gingka, so why not? There was no way going out with Benkei could possibly be any worse than with Gingka. At the very least, he couldn't be any worse at kissi-

In place of an actual answer, Kyouya received an early sample of just what kind of kisser Benkei was. Sloppy. Energetic. Done with about the same amount of enthusiasm and Kyouya fan-boying he did for everything else.

He was wiping spit off his mouth with the back of his hand at the end of it.

Still, better than Gingka.

4. Chao Xin

Beaches were not normally Kyouya's hang out of choice. The beach in his hometown was nice enough, with a good view across the miles of blue water to a peaceful looking mountainside, but he didn't visit the place as often as most people. It probably had something to do with the summer heat, which he preferred to spend sulking over indoors, or the unbearable amount of idiots running around, and under normal circumstances he'd probably be able to think of at least five specific reasons why he didn't want to be here.

Right now, he couldn't remember.

And he was even staring directly at one of those idiots.

To be fair, not exactly an idiot, just subtly misguided and completely going about this whole "flirting with girls at the beach" thing the wrong way, if the number of rejections they'd already received in just one half of an hour was any indication. Chao Xin, the not-really-an-idiot in question, claimed he was just a bit down on his luck for the day. Kyouya really only knew him as the suave, ladies' man Beyblader who sometimes hung out with Gingka's crew and occasionally talked more than his mouth was worth. Considering they were barely acquainted, and definitely not pals or buddies or even rivals, Kyouya still wondered how he'd been talked into this.

He knew how to talk well enough, that Kyouya actually believed Chao Xin when he talked about how he normally had fangirls crowding him on all sides.

Normally.

The last two girls Chao Xin had approached and attempted to speak with were currently walking away, uninterested, while Chao Xin was grumbling to himself and tried to figure out what he'd done wrong this time.

"At least you didn't get slapped," Kyouya made an offhand comment.

Of course he didn't. The Chinese Beyblader was full of himself, but never rude. He didn't do anything to deserve being hit; he just didn't do anything that kept the girls around him interested either, currently.

Chao Xin stopped muttering suddenly and faced Kyouya. He didn't appear particularly annoyed, or any different than his usual easy-going self, really, but he was looking directly at the other boy when he spoke, and Kyouya guessed that he had finally reached a conclusion as to what they were doing wrong here.

"You are the worst wingman ever," Chao Xin stated simply.

"I didn't do anything."

"And that's the problem! You're intimidating everyone when you just stand there glaring, man. It's hurting our cause."

"Is it really?"

Kyouya barely knew Chao Xin. They rarely spoke, clashing personalities and being on teams from different countries being only two of the reasons why. A normal person might be more cautious with what he was about to suggest, but it wasn't in Kyouya's nature.

"Maybe you're going about it wrong," he finished.

Like he'd expected, Chao Xin's full attention was suddenly on him.

"Like you know better?" he questioned.

After Kyouya's lacking performance as a wingman, it was easy to see where his skepticism came from. Kyouya ignored it and moved closer.

"Well, you could use some appeal."

The girls on the beach no longer held interest for Kyouya, even though he couldn't say he'd cared much earlier either. He was, however, able to direct his attention to the attractive boy standing in front of him – Chao Xin was well-built from a life of training in martial arts, shaggy hair just the right length to be cute, and he knew how to dress, even half-naked in a pair of swim trunks.

"Appeal?"

He'd be getting plenty of female attention soon enough too, but Kyouya was okay with that. It was really easy to see why Chao Xin had so many fans when he examined the physical aspects a little closer. Kyouya wasn't particularly possessive of the people he kissed anyway, even if it was mostly on account of not being interested in a real relationship.

"What would you know about appeal?" Chao Xin asked. He didn't understand what Kyouya was getting at yet, but he was starting to puzzle it out. "I don't think you've washed your hair in a week, and you dress like you've just escaped from a cheese grater all the time. Do you own anything that isn't shredded or frayed?"

"Yeah," Kyouya replied. He gestured to the swimsuit he was wearing to answer Chao Xin's question with sarcasm. "I'm wearing it."

The way Kyouya inched closer slowly was to build up his own anticipation, but realization was slowly dawning on Chao Xin's face too.

"Wha-"

"Come on. The girls here will dig this."

Realization looked good on him too, Kyouya thought. To give credit to Chao Xin, he still didn't back down, even nose-to-nose with Kyouya. He'd heard once that the people most comfortable with being hit on by the same gender were straight as an arrow but secure with their sexuality, and Chao Xin was definitely both of those, if what Kyouya had already seen was any indication. He'd never get another chance after this, and the opportunity was too good to pass up.

He closed the distance between their mouths, and blissfully enjoyed the several seconds of lip contact and teeth Chao Xin allowed him before ruffling his hair and shoving Kyouya off to the side. Kyouya turned out to be right about one thing; the attention was definitely back on them. Once the initial shock passed, there were several red-faced girls screaming out for Chao Xin, who laughed good-naturedly.

"Don't be fooled, ladies, because I am free and available exclusively to you!"

The only question remaining was whether or not it would turn out to be the kind of attention Chao Xin had wanted. The Chinese Blader himself must have been aware of this, because Kyouya could have sworn he heard him muttering, "I really hope they're not going to expect this from me every time now," as he walked past.

At the very least, maybe it would teach him to bring someone else along next time he wanted to flirt.

5. Masamune Kadoya

It was just like Madoka to celebrate her birthday party with a game of spin the bottle, and then drag everyone who hadn't wanted to attend in the first place over to play anyway. She was certainly still immature enough to do that kind of thing. Not as much as Gingka though, who reacted to the idea as if he'd never even thought about kissing before, then cast a slow, tentative glance in Kyouya's direction. Kyouya had already decided that wasn't something he wanted to get into again, and the time it took to drag him into the circle with everyone else was time he spent wishing he could at least spin a bottle that landed on Benkei. It would be the least awkward out of all his options, and Benkei was the most likely to "get over it" once Kyouya told him to.

Madoka bossed Benkei around somewhat frequently these days, which was why Benkei was here. Kyouya had no idea how he had gotten caught up in it though, and no amount of excuses and insisting that he needed to be out training would convince the Birthday girl to free him.

For what it was worth, he found small condolences in the fact that at least the really little kids – Kenta and Yu, to be precise – hadn't been invited at all. They could sulk over it until tomorrow, when Madoka brought them their slices of the cake, but they'd never be any wiser about this stupid game either. Which was good, because Kyouya personally found the idea of kissing an eight year old a little disgusting, and he was sure everyone in the room could agree with him.

During the first several rounds, these were all the thoughts that had been running through Kyouya's mind. He'd even stopped to consider that maybe it wouldn't be so bad to end up with one of Madoka's non-Beyblader friends, a group of five people that were mostly girls. If they didn't even know him, they wouldn't expect too much out of him... right?

With the non-Bladers, the ratio of girls to boys was nearly even. However, it was Madoka's birthday party so she made the rules – no boys would be allowed to sit out while another boy was spinning the bottle, and vice versa with the girls to make it fair.

What Kyouya was thinking currently was that he had the worst luck ever, and they'd hardly gone through four rounds of this stupid party game yet. Masamune was the only one still complaining about having to play, and complaining loudly at that. Yet the bottle landed decisively on Kyouya when it was his turn to spin.

As anyone could have guessed, the result of his spin only renewed Masamune's outrage – "Ew, no way! I have to kiss another guy!?" – and Kyouya was eager to shut him up.

Madoka reacted before Kyouya did. The birthday girl was becoming just as annoyed as Masamune was, but more for the sake of her game than because she actually cared about his predicament. She crossed her arms and frowned, the way she usually did when one of the boys was annoying her, and began her scolding. "You're sitting in the circle, you have to play. You spin the bottle like everybody else, you kiss who it lands on, and then you grow up and get over it!"

Kyouya vaguely wondered who it was Madoka wanted to kiss so badly to get this upset over it. He wondered why Masamune had joined in the first place, if he didn't want to kiss anyone – unlike Kyouya, he hadn't needed to be dragged into the circle.

He hated that he was stuck playing party games for a girl he only knew through Gingka, and Kyouya was running out of patience for Masamune and his big shot, loud-mouthed attitude on top of that. He could have hissed a warning at the other boy to shut up, but he was in a bad enough mood already that fisting his hand's in Masamune's jacket, pulling him forward without warning and slamming their mouths together, was much more satisfying. Faster and more effective.

If not a little painful.

Kyouya crawled away from that one rubbing his mouth and listening to Masamune make gagging noises, wondering if it would have been less hassle to argue with Madoka instead after all. If Masamune was going to give him crap for this later, and he knew very well how good the rambunctious and loud-mouthed Masamune was at spouting crap…

Surprisingly, that never happened.

Editing this three years later, I'm kind of surprised no one yelled at me for the last segment or two...