Crazy Ever After

And he's old enough – almost seventeen – and he's won the world championships thrice.

In some ways he takes exactly after his father. He looks like him, that's for sure. He's on his way to become a part of the legends in the Beyblading world.

He's as cocky and arrogant as his father, and according to most watchers, with a talent to match the old man as well.

The phoenix is faithful to the young blader as his father's was to him. He has given Black Dranzer a new reputation, not many recall it as the evil bit beast, which was used as a tool for world domination.

His parents were originally reluctant to let him blade, much less with the dark phoenix. Dranzer by no means took up with the boy, and neither did he with the original phoenix. Black Dranzer however had proved to be a companionable partner from day one.

And at the epoch of his career, the boy feels the need to prove himself, further. To his teammates, his opponents, the fans, himself, or to his father, his mother, Hiromi Tachibana, isn't all that sure, the last two she agrees probably.

In championships, he has proved himself better than the contenders his own age. When it came to Makato and Rin he was reluctantly willing to give up on the competition.

But his old man – who is inferred as one of the legends of the sport, who is believed to be an incomparable prodigy, skilled to perfection in the sport, and having given up Beyblading for good (except now when his own flesh and blood is on his case), Gou Hiwatari was willing to battle him and give his luck a try.

.

Hiromi can't help feeling a tiny amount of resentment. Through the entirety of these years she's been trying her hardest not to judge; judge Tyson, Kai, her team, the entire sport of Beyblading because she knows in some ways she doesn't understand, and that they need to do what they need to do.

But when Gou wants to do something that clearly has potential for disaster and opening complicated doors which had been long since shut, Hiromi can't help feel a miniscule bit of aggravation.

It is the first time she's tried to stop anyone since she prevented Kai from leaving the team all those years ago, at the time of the second world championships, since back when she didn't understand the fixation with Beyblading these boys had, not in the slightest. Though she's glad she did stop him back then. But she's also content she never tried it again, not a single time, during all those times when Kai decided to leave or run off after that original time.

She knew that he'd eventually find his way back home: to Japan, to Bakuten, to Tyson, to her, to his real life.

She doesn't think that she can take the bizarreness from their younger days, and Kai going old-crazy-Kai now. And she can't really imagine something happening to Gou.

So, she tries.

Please, don't do this. It's a request, different from the usual orders she lashes out at her son.

No hard feelings, her once-little boy says, it's just for kicks. And Hiromi feels wary because, in Beyblading, it's never really just for kicks. However she can't convince him to give up. He's as stubborn as his father, and if she follows her husband's countless assertions, her own self too.

Maybe it'll be like the old times, and the whole thing will turn out fine.

.

"Kai, you can't do this!" She yells at him for the nth time this week. "Tell him no."

The Hiwatari heir shrugs, undoing his tie and looking at her unblinkingly all the while. "He won't let up until I agree. Besides, it can't hurt."

She scoffs. "You can be a tad bit crazy, Kai, no offense."

Kai chuckles, sitting down on the couch next to her, "None taken." and saying that he wraps a suited arm around her petite waist as a gesture of reassurance. He wants to make her feel better; God knows that he's troubled her with enough of his problems since they've known each other. He can't deny her accusation; he'd been somewhat senile back in the day but he isn't now. However going back into the beydish, it's a big move, and he thinks that it is justified for her to be worried and, well, pissed.

"You're trying to prove something here, aren't you, mister?" She turns to her side to face him and points one accusing finger at his chest. Because she's known him almost her entire life and she knows that he always has something to prove.

"Prove something? Me? No way, Hiromi." The Russian repeats his son's words, "Besides, It's just for kicks."

"In Beyblading it's never just for kicks!" She replies begrudgingly folding her arms and struggling out of her former teammate's hold. She knows her attempts are futile; she just wants to be reassured by Kai if merely for a little while.

"…"

"Kai, ohmyGod I am going to kill you if he ends up hurt."

"Never." He says with an intensity that makes her believe him, pulls her onto his laps and plants his lips on hers to appease any further apprehensions she has. Besides, when she's upset and all riled up, she looks too pretty to ignore.

.

Word spreads faster than the speed of sound, as it always does in the blading world. And soon the entire blading circuit is reeling with anticipation.

And without warning – though not that it's unexpected – the BBA is sponsoring the whole event. And there's even more publicity and hype than before.

Hiromi wants to kick Mariam (1) in the shins for supporting blasphemy like this. But alas, she can't blame the girl for doing her job. Being chairperson for the BBA is enough pain in the ass on its own for the Saint Shield blunette.

And for the first time in several years Kai Hiwatari has to make a significant effort to avoid his fans. Hiromi Tachibana Hiwatari remembers a long-forgotten feeling of uncalled-for, jealousy, which makes her husband rather amused.

The two of them – Hiromi and Kai – faded into anonymity rather nicely by the time Gou attained an age where he could comprehend such matters. He'd heard of his parents' eminence, and the perils of their past, especially his dad's, but by no means witnessed anything of the kind first hand. Heck, he only met Voltaire a handful of time before the old dinosaur passed away, to fade into only ancient documents and timeworn nightmares.

And so Gou Hiwatari realizes just how famous his parents were back in the days and is frankly disturbed by it. (2)

"My dad is a bazillion years older than you." He exclaims wide-eyed – grabbing his books and slamming the door to his school locker – and running off, fast, leaving a star-struck redhead behind him.

The nerve of the girl to ask him to set her up with his dad! His dad! She is his classmate, and of his age! And he has a mom! Gou secretly wishes for the day of the battle to come soon. This is getting out of hand.

Sure, being part of the world championship team, he's used to the publicity and the fans and the press, but, right now the attention he has been getting is more of a hand-down of the enormous love (the creepy kind) people have for his father, and that is not cool!

It astounds him how in the past almost twenty five years no new team has entered into the Beyblading sector and been able to actually match up to the Bladebreakers and earn the reputation that they had – in their retarded days and ways – built for them…

Where the hell were Rin and Makato?

.

And it's the last night prior to the most anticipated match in Beyblade history, at least since Kai's final battle with Brooklyn.

The Hiwatari family is seated at the dinner table in their kitchen, and there's a feeling of unease which is uncharacteristic for the household. The food conversely is characteristically too spicy; neither male members of the family fail to notice. They wince mentally, though they don't voice their opinions, for transparent reasons. She is lethal, easily peeved, and more so at the moment.

Usually, there is a decent amount of chatter with Hiromi blabbing about work and Gou going on about school, and Beyblading (there is certainly not an evening when Beyblading isn't discussed over meals), and tournaments and, of course, Rin and Makato. And Kai, though for the most part is as silent as ever, listens with evident intent, adding well-timed comments, and raising an eyebrow whenever Hiromi gets slightly too fervent, like borderline hysterical.

At present, however, there is an air of misgiving. Hiromi remembers a time when she was stuck on a similar table at the Dojo with Tyson and Kai countless years ago, when the latter had returned to Japan after his BEGA fiascos. Now, that was an uncomfortable dinner. This was only vaguely less awkward.

Gou looks uncomfortable and a tad bit guilty. Hiromi looks indignant and Kai looks typically stoic. However, he can notice the discomfort and given that he is not the man he was before – not for quite some time now; he'd already started changing somewhere along the time he met Hiromi – so he feels that, for a change, he can be the one to break the silence.

"So, Hiromi…" He begins in a quiet, yet penetrating voice that is distinctive for him. "How was your day?"

And it's no shock that his attempt is treated with reservation.

Hiromi narrows her eyes in a manner that she would at Daichi, once upon a time. Kai can't help it; he laughs good-naturedly, Gou winds up snickering as well, and ultimately, even Hiromi cracks a smile. Ah, screw it.

.

Hiromi hears a recognizable voice speak from the seat next to hers. "So who do you think will win, Aunt Hiromi?"

The woman turns her head to see a petite pinkette settling into the seat next to hers, beaming at her. She smiles in return. "I can't actually say, Rin…"

Despite his sudden desire for unreasonable competition. Gou was mentally in a much healthier place than Kai. And Gou had never been through what Kai had as a child. And Gou had at no time had to be second best to anybody like each time Kai had. And Gou wasn't a kid anymore!

Then again, neither was Kai.

Hiromi flushes. She is putting her son second to Kai, and for some fairly self-regarding reasons. It wasn't her fault! Kai was Kai, and gah, there wasn't any other logic necessary next to that.

She's still a sucker for the underdog.

And though she hasn't expressed it yet, she's felt scared all this time that Kai would be facing off Black Dranzer. She hadn't been there during the Russian tournament, but she knew whatever had happened was not pleasant. And she's bothered for Kai's sake.

"Would it be bad to say Kai?" Sheepishly, she asks the younger girl next to her.

"Not really," The pinkette chirps, as hyper as ever. "Whoever it was he was battling, I'd still want Gou to win."

Hiromi's caught off guard Rin's word, but she can't help internally roll her eyes. The blading world, it at no time, lacks drama.

.

In the beystadium, Gou is sitting on a bench on his side of the dish. Kai Hiwatari is still not there, but that's predictable.

His old man has a name for being fashionably late.

And, then, late as ever, but still right on time Kai Hiwatari enters the beystadium for the first time in almost two decades and the crowd goes wilder than it did when the former Bladebreaker- Bladeshark-Demolition-Blitzkrieg Boy won against Brooklyn.

Clad in a purple dress shirt and casual black pants the world champion from oh-so-long-ago takes his position in front of the dish and the roaring is as loud as before.

Gou Hiwatari rolls his eyes, an amiable smirk playing on his lips. His father sure is something. And this is his chance to prove he is better than him.

But hey, no hard feelings, he still stands by that.

And he's heard scores of stories, allegedly true, that would scare him about the upcoming battle. But even though he's no freakishly obsessed, homicidal maniac, he's no amateur himself either. He wouldn't have waged such a challenge if he was.

Besides its Kai he's facing off in the dish… it's his dad. The man wouldn't hurt him, the half-Russian is confident in that conviction. Moreover, his mother would get a whole lot violent if he got harmed; the thought makes him sweat drop.

The worse that can happen is that he will lose, and he has no plans of that. Grinning, he walks over to the dish.

His father is smirking and has a look of confidence on his face, border lining on arrogant superiority that Gou knows he can't ever possess, and good on that. He just wasn't brought up that way. He can see how his opponent must have been pretty intimidating back when he was an actual beyblader. He gives him a civil nod and gets a smile, similar to the type he gets at home.

"3, 2, 1…" DJ Jazzman counts, his grin wilder than any seen previously. Even he's psyched to be refereeing for a past favorite. "Let it rip!"

The blades launch and clang against each other in midair with a deafening sound before hitting the dish.

There is a chorus of "Go Dranzer!" from both the two-toned haired competitors in the stadium.

.

Hiromi sighs as she looks around at the surrounding bleachers and sees friends who have become family scattered throughout the stadium.

Tyson gives her a toothy grin and a double thumbs up. He's wearing one of those drink-helmets and drinking from both straws. She spots Brooklyn sitting in the shadows in a seat at the perimeter of the stadium, and he gives her a curt – and was that reassuring? She isn't truly certain – smile. Mariah gives her an acknowledging nod and Ray arches his eyebrows at his daughter who merely shrugs.

The stupid game of spinning tops, the brunette thinks with a smile, it never really ends. And as she notices each of the familiar faces around surrounding her, she realizes that she wouldn't have it any other way.

The crowd is roaring loudly and it seems that the spectators assent with Hiromi's thoughts. They can't fathom the phenomenon that Kai Hiwatari – a legend like not many others, who left a sizable mark in the history of Beyblading, who said sayonara to the sport for good – is back in the beydish battling his son. And he has a son! Would wonders not ever cease?

The grownups are thrilled to see him and are confident in their old favorite (his former crimes at long last forgotten, buried somewhere in the tapestry of the past, at last), and the younger generation is reeling with eager anticipation and thrill for praise-worthy competition.

Kai almost knocks Gou's beyblade out of the dish and the crowd is overwhelmed. Huh. Seems like the old man still has it.

Throughout this time one of the myriad of worries plaguing were who she should be supporting in the match. But as she sees Kai in the stadium after two whole decades, battling with everything he has in a fashion he did when he was still a kid, she has no doubt in her mind; she realizes that she'll always be cheering on Kai Hiwatari no matter who his opponent was, like Rin had stated a few minutes ago. And she resists the urge to go down near the stadium, pump her fists in the air and scream, "Go Kai!"

Well, at least she can do it from her seat and lose not too much of her adult dignity.

"Go Kai!"

Her husband turns his head slightly to smirk at her. And her son looks at her with an expression of what she hopes is mock-outrage, traitor!

And she's as shrill as ever. "Don't let that knock-off phoenix beat you!"

(1) In my old Page of Time, Mariam had become the chairperson of the BBA after Mr. D retired. So, I added it here too. :P

(2) KXH-Drabbles ^.^ Does anyone remember Gou googling his mum and dad? :3

(3) I laaaaave Gou.

(4) I can't write long stuff anymore. Stuff with too much details, and too long and rambling a monologues. I can't read stuff like that either anymore. It makes my head hurt. Partially the reason for my long hiatus. Short and to-the-point: that's the motto of the day.

(5) Before my head was a broken record. Actually it still is. Just not my writing. :P It's only massively contradictory within itself now. Though this oneshot was long and rambly.

(6) I am back. Ahem. :3 See my profile for more details.

(7)Disclaimer: I own not the characters of Beyblade.

(8) Thank-you to Dead-bY-n0w beta-ing. She is love.

05:47 pm. 7th July, 2014.