Note: Here we go guys; I finally started the sequel to RescueMe. It would be a good idea to read that one first or else you might find yourselves a bit lost. For those interested, I wrote a fic (lemon) about these two on adult fan fiction, the link is on my profile.
Pairing: Tala x Mariah (Yuriy x Mao)
Rating: PG-13/T
Summary: The tag team championship is set to begin, an old evil is lurking around in the background, teams are forming, and breaking but two people find themselves drifting even closer.
Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblades, or any of the characters. I do however own the plot line.
Shameless Plugging: I have another fic called Life Goes On, based about the girls…. If you like Tala/Mariah you may want to check it out -whistles- though I am not sure that's the end pairing.
Tempting Fate (The sequel to Rescue Me)
By Kaz
Chapter 1
"Oh for goodness sake, where is he?" a pink haired girl complained, while waiting rather impatiently by the small run down hut. Staring at her watch for the umpteenth time, she sighed before banging on the door of the hut and stamping her foot on the ground.
"Yes?" A small man asked, appearing out of the hut. Like most of the residents in this small town, he had the traditional cat-like appearance. "What is it that I can I do for you… Oh, it's you Mariah, I am sorry the post man hasn't arrived yet."
"But… but, where is he? It's been," she glanced at her watch and faltered as she saw the time.
"Yes, it has been all of five minutes since you last asked; now please, as soon as the mail arrives I will tell you but for now please let me get on with my work." And with that, the small man slammed the door shut, leaving the amber-eyed girl pouting and reeling in frustration.
"What does he mean it's been all of five minutes? Five minutes is a very long time! Where the heck is that postman! Doesn't he understand that a letter from, from, someone could be in there?" The girl growled in frustration, and slammed her hand on the hut, which acted as a post office to the small village. "Arrgh, I am so annoyed, I have been waiting for an hour now, where is he!"
"Now, now little Mariah, you must not let your frustration get to you."
Mariah glanced around to see who was there. To her surprise, it was her sensei, "Tao-sensei?"
"Yes, remember, just because the ice has melted, doesn't not mean that the grasshoppers shall not flock to the southern mountain queen."
"… A-huh," she replied, sweat dropping at the man's statement. "Well, I … ARGH what time is it? Has the mailman already come? Oh no, what if he left and, and, and…"
"Mail's here!" Cried a voice from inside, looking at the girl, who stared back blankly for a few moments, before the wheels began to turn and caused the girl to react. "Ah, it's finally here!"
Without another word, she grabbed the bag containing all the letters and almost pushed the mailman aside, while diving into the bag trying to locate the valuable item.
"Where is it? I hope he has sent me one, he told me in his last letter that I should be getting another one today, where is it…."
The girl continued to mumble, not noticing the smiles on the faces of the other people currently surrounding her. Everyone in the village knew about her 'friendship' with a certain red-haired male. Though some, the elder's particular, disapproved immensely, everyone else was happy for the girl. They had seen her cry so much. For instance when Ray left the village, all that was seen on her face was sadness but now she radiated with joy and they prayed that she and her male 'friend' would be happy together. Not that she would admit to having anything more than friendship with the male. She told everyone very severely that they were friend and nothing more. Though many of the women simply thought that was so the elders would not find out and punish the girl. Even though Lee and Ray had spoken for Tala and described how he had saved Mariah from being hurt, they would have none of it and sadly, tradition lived on and things like this were not permitted in their eyes.
This did upset the girl, more than they knew. Even though she was adamant about her relationship with Tala and would always say, they were friends, in truth, she did like him, and she was falling for him. Actually, she fell for him a long time ago but she knew the elders would be against them so she tried not to let get any further and told herself that he was a friend and nothing more, though, try telling her heart that. It's why she survived for his letters, she would never be allowed to visit him, heck, the fact they were allowed to write to each other was a miracle. But every two weeks, she had the pleasure of looking forward to a five page long letter, with him describing everything in his life. Her letters were much longer but then she was more open with her feelings so naturally she had more to write about.
It was like those letters were her life, she couldn't see him but she had those letters and she would be damned if anyone tried to take them away from her.
"Ohh, I hope it isn't lost. You didn't misplace any of the mail did you Shen?" She asked, whilst continuing to browse.
"You don't mean this letter do you?"
Mariah turned her head to glance at mailman, her eyes widening when she saw him smirk and pull out a letter from his inside pocket.
"This letter? From a Mister Tala Valkov? All the way from Russia?"
"Why you little…" Mariah screamed before charging up the male, trying desperately to get her letter. "Give it to me!" She cried, as the taller man held it just out of her reach.
"Aw Shen," cried one of the village women, "Give it to her, the poor dear has been waiting ever since she got up."
"Fine, fine!" The older man laughed, handing the letter to the annoyed girl. Snatching it, she ran out of the hut, tearing it open… the first word almost had her screaming in joy.
"Dear Mariah," she began, reading it out aloud "I am happy that everything is well in…"
"Hey Mariah what you got there?"
"Is it food?"
Mariah screwed her face in frustration and screamed, "No it is not food Gary and leave me alone Kevin, go bother someone else!"
"Ohh," cried Kevin, his eye twinkling in mischief, "It's a letter from your boyfriend?" And before she could react, grabbed the letter and making a run for it.
"Kevin you little brat, get back here! I am going to pound your head into the ground." She cried, while chasing him. "And he is not my boyfriend! We are just friends!"
The villagers looked on in amusement as the pink haired feline girl chased after her letter, most of them thinking, just friends indeed.
"Ray, we must practise for the upcoming tag team championships. We need to be at our best, I know we have only just found out about this new championship but we need to train if we want to win."
"I know Lee, it's more than likely that you and I will represent the White Tigers and we need to practise as much as we can." Ray said to his teammate as they stood before a bey stadium, made from a tree trunk. 'We are going to win this tournament,' Ray thought, clutching Drigger tighter, 'And Tyson get ready because I am going to beat you!'
Lee glanced at Ray, he knew how much his friend wanted to beat the world champion, heck they all did and the only way they could do that would be to get better. "Still we should let the others know, we all need to train, plus we have been slacking lately and..."
"When I catch you I am going to turn you into MINCEMEAT KEVIN!"
Lee and Ray both watched baffled, as a green blur came charging at them, screaming something like, "Help! The psycho woman is after me!" Then a pink blur came and tackled the boy to the ground, screaming and shouting as loud as she could.
"You stupid pipsqueak give it BACK!"
"Ah Lee help! She is choking me!"
Lee sighed, his teammates were certainly a handful, and it seemed that only he could control the younger two.
"Now, now, Mariah, stop choking Kevin and just relax"
"DON'T TELL ME TO RELAX!" She screamed, almost blowing Lee and Ray away.
"Heh, heh, okay!" Lee said, happy that looks couldn't kill or else he would have been dead long ago. "So why exactly are you trying to kill Kevin?"
"He has my letter!" She cried, growling at the green haired boy again.
"Letter?" Asked Ray confused.
"Yes, my letter!"
"Which letter?" Ray and Lee asked.
"My letter!" She screamed.
"What letter," Ray asked as Lee turned to him.
"Her letter," the Galeon owner said, equally as confused.
"Yes, yes MY LETTER!" Mariah was beyond annoyed by now.
"Her letter," they both said, before it dawned on them.
"Oh that letter!" Lee said, as Ray laughed at the expression on Mariah's face.
"Yeah the letter of love from her boyfriend," Kevin laughed, only to get a punch from Mariah as she grabbed her letter and shot a dark look at the boys as she walked off.
"Be sure to let us know when the wedding is!" Kevin hollered, only to get another punch in the head this time from Lee.
"Ow…"
"Stupid boys," she mumbled as she found a nice spot by the waterfall, "They always have to tease me, well just they wait, I am going to beat them all good one day." She took the letter out from its envelope, a smile warming over her face. Carefully folding out the creases, she began to read the letter, the familiar feeling rising up inside her stomach.
Dear Mariah,
I am happy that all is well in your village; I hope that they do not bother you too much when you get this letter. I am currently still in Russia, we have all been training since we found out about a new tournament coming up.
"Tournament?" she mumbled confused, "Ray and Lee haven't said anything about it, hmm I wonder if they know about it?" Carrying on, she scanned her eyes over the letter.
If you don't know of this by the time you get my letter then I am sure you soon will. It seems that they want to make a tag team tournament, though nothing has been openly said as of yet. As of now, Bryan, Spencer and I have been training; you know we are going to win this year.
"Yeah right," she said cheekily, "The White Tigers will beat you any day!"
Ian is still effected by events of last year so he can't compete, which annoys him greatly but he also managed to go and break his leg in the process of trying to show us that he is okay.
Mariah rolled her eyes at this, 'Boys will be boys,' she thought.
But that aside, everything else is fine with me, I actually helped this small girl on the streets today. Yes, I did. Stupid girl had gone and wondered off so she had lost her parents, so I helped her to find them. Though, of course I only did it because her crying was annoying me and she looked pathetic just standing there crying her eyes out…
"Oh, of course!" Mariah snorted, before her heart jumped at the next sentence.
"But for some reason, she also reminded me of you, she had a nice smile... Anyway, there is something else you need to know, if your team does go to the world championships, there is this team known as Barthez Battalion, stay away from them and their captain. There is something weird about them and I don't want you to get hurt.
Take care Mariah and I will see you at the tournaments, Tala.
PS: Get ready, 'cos we have a few surprises up our sleeves.
"He's silly, he worries too much. Hmm a new championship, I better go and ask Lee if he knows." The pink haired girl said, as she dusted of her clothes and folded the letter back into the envelope, not knowing what a costly mistake she made by not taking what Tala said seriously.
"So it is decided then, Lee and Ray will be the front men of the White Tiger X team," the elder said, as the teenagers bowed in respect as they gained permission to leave.
"Yes," said Ray, "We all fought and in the end Lee and I were the ones who were decided."
"Very good then, go but remember, you hold the honour for our tribe and village, make us proud and don't do anything stupid." The last part was particular aimed at Mariah, as the Elder, her grandfather, glared at her making his point know. She almost shivered.
"Right the guys lets go!" Kevin said, as they made their way towards the boat.
"Look out world championships here we come!" They all cried as they entered the boat.
'And look out Tala 'cos here I come,' She thought, as she sat down in the boat. 'I am going to see you again.
Back in the cold country of Russia, Tala growled as he shoved his possession into duffel throw bag. He had to hurry; it seemed someone didn't want him to make the championships. Ever since he found out some information about a certain person and his plans for the future, he had to watch him back. He didn't care though, no matter what he would not allow that person to hurt anyone, every again, he would make sure of it.
"Tala hurry up," Spencer shouted, while knocking on the door, "We need to leave soon, Bryan has gone to re check the details of out flight but still we need to get out of here."
"Yeah, I'm almost done," he told the blonde boy, grabbing his flight ticket as he made his way to the door only for a bundle of letter's bound together by a pink ribbon, courtesy of the letter sender, to fall on the floor just by his feet.
"Mariah," he whispered softly, dropping his bag and sitting on the bed studying the letters. It still didn't feel real to him, back then he was a different person, he was evil, he wanted power and now… all he wanted to do was put things right and beyblade. And to think, it was all thanks to one girl. This one girl who has come out from nowhere, from a time when he wouldn't even have looked twice at someone like her …
"But I did look at her, and now look at me." He chuckled as certain memories swept across his mind, from the first night he met her, to the kiss, to that night when Boris came and tried to take her away from him.
"Boris," he growled, clutching the letters tighter, there was no way he would let Boris hurt her again, he would kill before that happened.
"Tala you ready?"
Shoving the letters into his bag, he swung the bag over his shoulder before going outside to meet his teammates. 'You'll pay Boris, you and Barthez.'
"Welcome all fans, the tag team championships are just moments away from starting! Don't forget to sign up though, make your way to the registration desk found in block A!" DJ Jazzman screamed into his microphone, the fans all running around him, some trying to find their favourite teams, while others were going to sign up. The entire atmosphere was happy, everyone was so excited, and that included all the teams.
"I can't believe we are here again," Mariah said, stretching her arms as they got off the bus. "Who would have thought that we would be at another tournament again?"
"Hm that is true, I can't wait to start battling," Lee replied, ignoring Kevin as he hopped around on one foot trying to get rid of the stiffness in his leg.
"But this time we are going to battle to win," Ray said, as his other teammates agreed with him.
"Yes, but the only way we are going to do that is by practising as much as we can that means no distractions."
"Right," hollered all the boys, causing them to look at their female teammate who seemed a millions miles away.
"Mariah?" Lee inquired.
"Hmm? Oh yes, of course," she said hastily, She had been scanning the crowds to try and see if she could see if a certain somebody had arrived. "No distractions," she whispered, as she walked behind her teammates, yeah right.
"So remember guys, I want nothing but two hundred percent from you," Tala told his team, his natural authoritative role coming into play. "Now that a certain somebody has joined the team, we are in an even stronger position to win, which means we need to traning at out best and not let anything distract us, right?"
"Right," Spencer and Bryan replied, following their team leader to the registration desk.
"Rightttt…" Tala found himself trailing off as a flash of pink caught his eyes. There straight ahead, it was her. He was sure his heart stopped for a brief moment, as annoying as it was he couldn't stop staring at her, she was beautiful. She had changed a lot in the years, he noted, her figure had filled out a little more, making her curves seem deadly, her hair was still in it's traditional ponytail but there was something different about her, her whole expression, aura, it was just so happy, she seemed to be glowing.
"Tala?"
He couldn't even answer Bryan as his pink angel suddenly, turned her head and their eyes locked.
'Yep,' he thought, as her eyes widened slightly, 'This was going to be a distraction alright.'
TBC
And there we have it the first chapter is done, yeah I know not a real start to the plot line but it was just a brief introduction as to what they had been doing and also I wanted them to meet as soon as possible. Yeah, Tala has a soft spot for Mariah; trust me though, he is his lovely cold, arrogant self with everyone else. For those who have seen when Tala fights Garland you'll know why he was warning Mariah about Barthez Battalion. Just so, you know, this is not going to be following the G revolution episodes, okay. The basic plot line is but I don't want to write about the matches, so don't go hey it doesn't happen like that, I know it doesn't I have seen all of g-rev. Anyway, comments and reviews are loved so please leave them.