Please feel free to kill me.

(bashes head against wall several times)

Simply put, CHAPTER FIVE SUCKED. Kai was being a drama queen about getting them lost, Tyson would not have been that close to dying an oh-so-theatrical death, and the whole thing was too rushed. I am truly sorry.

However, after kicking myself in the head for posting that nonsense yesterday evening, I spent the whole of last night on this, and I am really happy to say that it is a LOT better. Life lesson learned: I don't write well from Kai's PoV. I was originally going to have Kai end all this off, but after Chapter Five's fiasco, I figured it would be better to stick with Tyson, whom I have loads of fun writing.

Also, by the way, it is possible to twist your ankle after falling three metres. I twisted mine really badly a couple years ago, and that was only when my mom tried to make me wear high heels to a wedding Xx

Beyblade is not mine, and shonen-ai is ensured. Here I go.

My head was all stuffy, my eyes were sore, I had a fever, my throat felt like it was on fire, and I sneezed about every other second.

Guess what? If you spend the night out in the forest and wake up covered in frost, chances are you'll end up with a cold.

"This," I said to Slug the Rock, who was living on top of the alarm clock, "has not been a good day."

After Tala showed up and saved our butts, we got dragged back to the dojo by my grandpa, who looked like he kind of wanted to kill us. Hilary was going completely and totally nuts. She didn't even care that we had lost both the raincoat and the coffee flask. She had dumped us both in the room Daichi and I had been sharing all summer, buried us in hot water bottles and blankets, force-fed us some seriously evil medicine, and locked us in. Actually, it was kind of fun to have her practically waiting on me instead of nagging me. What was not fun was lying in bed the whole day.

Having a cold is very, very boring.

Being stuck in the same room as Kai is even worse.

Together, they can be lethal.

Staring at the ceiling was pretty interesting, if you liked that sort of thing. The cracks in the paint on the bedside table were quite fun to count. I guess, if you really wanted to, you could probably get pretty into playing 'I spy' with yourself. Then, of course, there was thinking up rude lyrics to songs, thinking up ways to torture Daichi, seeing how long you could go without breathing, biting your nails, counting imaginary woolly animals…

Who was I kidding?

"Kai, this is boring!"

Wow. No answer at all. Never saw that one coming.

"Are you awake?"

Apparently not.

"Kai?"

I sat up, sneezed, rubbed my eyes and peered over to Kai's bed through the semi-darkness. The only light fell dimly through the half-closed curtains. I could just see him, lying on his back, his hands resting on his bare stomach, his leg kicked out from underneath the blankets. It was wrapped up in bandages that were already coming a little loose. Kenny had managed to find some basic first-aid stuff online, and he and Hilary had had a lot of fun working out the best way to deal with Kai's leg. The ankle hadn't even been sprained, just badly twisted, and the cut was deep, but not too scary. That's what Kenny had said, anyway, and he's not called the Chief for nothing. Kai, naturally, hadn't said anything. I had been too busy being grossed out. If that had happened to me, I think I would have been crying like a baby.

"Kai?" I asked again, sitting up and swinging my legs out of the bed. Even in just my boxers, I was still warm, which was a really, really nice feeling. "Kai?" His eyes were definitely open, and staring up at the ceiling resolutely. "You can't ignore me! I know you're alive!"

How's this for nice? The dude just turned over and faced the wall. One day I'm really going to get mad at him.

I slipped out of bed entirely, my feet meeting the floor. Once on my legs, I wobbled slightly, but it wasn't that bad. Holding my breath, I crept quietly across the metre or so of floor between our beds. His breathing was low and steady, his bare, pale shoulders rising and falling gently. Carefully, carefully, I bent over him until my mouth was almost touching his ear, and raised my hand to hover just over his neck. I took in a deep breath, and yelled, "Giant mutant space-worms!"

He jerked away, twisting around furiously, and saw me laughing my head off. "What is your problem, Tyson?" he burst out.

"Nothing," I said, sitting down on the bed. The laughter had made my throat feel even worse, but it was worth it.

"Get off my bed!" he almost shouted.

"I don't feel like it," I said, crossing my legs and resting my chin in my hands. I eyed him mischievously. "I feel like playing 'I spy'."

"Get off," he repeated.

"OK, fine. I'll start. I spy with my little eye something that is big and mean and horrible."

He just sighed, pulled the blankets close around him, and turned back to the wall, keeping as far away from me as possible. I keep telling myself that one of these days I'm going to hit him right in the mouth just to teach him a lesson. Looking at the back of his head, I told myself that he deserved it. Also looking at the back of his head, I found myself remembering how soft his hair was. In a lot of ways, he's just so safe to be around. I mean, I'm telling you right now that I would trust Kai with my life. He's a conceited show-off, and most of the time he doesn't care the littlest bit what happens to anyone just as long as he wins, but when he does care, he's loyal. He doesn't show it, but I know it's true. He'd do anything for Tala, that's for certain, and there have been times when I believed that he'd do anything for me, as well.

Other times, though, I'm not so sure.

He said he cared, didn't he? He said that I was the only person who meant anything to him. He did say that, right? Right?

I looked away from his hair. It was making me think…strangely. Instead, my eyes fell on his leg. I decided then and there that I was never going to get over how sore it looked. Suddenly realising that I really wanted to know the answer, I said, quietly, "So how're you doing, bud?"

"Fine," he said in a monotone. I could tell he hadn't even opened his eyes.

"Are you sure you're OK?"

"Yes."

After a long silence, I said, "Thank you. You did get us out of there."

"Thank Tala. He found us."

"Yeah…so you're going tomorrow, instead of today? Maxie and Rei came in to say goodbye just now, when you were asleep. They were worried about you."

He grunted something.

"I'm worried, too."

"I'm fine," he growled.

"I know you are now," I said. "I'm just worried…look, I know you said that you're not going to forget us and all, but seriously, how long is this going to last? In a couple of years we'll have moved on to totally different teams. We might want to take time out from blading to go to college or university or whatever. Then maybe we'll retire and start coaching new bladers. What are the chances we can keep the Bladebreakers together through all that? I mean, it looks like sooner or later we'll just have to…to let it die."

"Nothing lasts forever," he said, brutally, coolly. "Let it go and move on."

"I hate you," I said. OK, it sounded like I was two years old. I didn't care. It got my point across.

"Grow up," he advised, smoothly.

I looked around the room for something to glare at, and my eyes landed on Slug, who was having a nice, cosy nap and dreaming about…whatever rocks dream about. It kind of made me want to cry, I guess, because last night had been – well, yeah, alright, it had been freezing cold and dead scary and life-threatening and all the rest, but Kai had been…nice. He had smiled at me. He had given me a pet rock. He had slept snuggled up against me. He had still been grouchy and quiet and grumpy, but he had allowed himself to care. He hadn't held himself away from me. Why?

Maybe because he had figured that he wouldn't see me again. Maybe because he had figured that afterwards he would get on an aeroplane and fly halfway across the continent. Maybe it had been like a goodbye.

Oh, great. It had been a goodbye.

I looked back at him, feeling a lump come into my throat. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to hold back the red, glutinous mass of tears that was building up behind them, and then blinked them open again. I am not the sort of person who cries about nothing. I think…yeah, the last time I had cried had been when I was watching Kai battle Brooklyn. I had been so completely freaked out then, and I was completely freaked out now. I did not want to lose him. He was too special. I looked at the strong, slender muscles of his back, and at the shallow curve of his neck, and almost burst into tears. This was just not my day.

"Kai," I said, my voice quivering slightly. "Dude, can I talk to you for one second?"

He didn't even answer.

I was so sick of it. I was so fed up of him ignoring me, of him not being able to see how much he meant to me. Was the guy jut totally out of it? My hand shot out and grabbed his shoulder, pulling him over onto his back. His eyes remained closed for a moment, his jaw tightening. In that small second, that tiny breath of time, I was torn between yelling at him and just getting up and going away. That was what he wanted, wasn't it? He wanted to be left in peace. It would make him happy, and that was more important than anything else.

Then his eyelids drew themselves back, and he looked up at me, calm, arrogant, uncaring.

I took in a very deep breath, began to say something, and couldn't. The words just gave up and ran away. I could feel his hair caught underneath my fingers, and the surprisingly quick rhythm of his heart. Suddenly feeling immensely tired, I couldn't do anything except look down at him. My heart beating in my throat, my eyes blurring with tears, I slipped down next to him and buried my face in his hair, wrapping my arm around his neck. I knew that I was practically asking to be murdered, but I didn't care. I was so cross and sad and headachy and tired that I didn't actually give a damn anymore. I just wanted to go back to sleep and never have to wake up again. I wanted lie there, pressed against his chest, my arms around him, forever and ever and ever.

I really, really didn't want him to leave.

"Tyson…" I heard him say. I knew that he was going to say something mean and belittling and stupid, and so I cut him off before he could even begin.

No longer able to stop myself from crying, I shot up off his chest and hissed furiously, my voice shaking, "Stop it, Kai! Just don't even say anything, OK? I know that you're going to say something horrible and mean, and I really, really, really don't want you to. This is the last time I'm going to see you for ages, and I'm going to miss. I know I've said it before, and I don't care! I don't care, Kai! I'm going to keep on telling you until you get the message. Just once more, I just want you to be nice, and not say anything mean. You don't even have to say you like me, because I know that you don't, but I just want you to let me go on pretending that we're friends, OK? I just want you to let me p-pretend, just this once, because I…I…" I couldn't go on. If you really want to know, I was bawling my head off. Tears were dribbling down my face and splashing everywhere, and my chin was trembling, and I could not stop crying. Naturally, it was only making my headache worse. Everything sucked.

I heard him swallow; I couldn't see his face. The world was one huge, dark blur. He said, in a strange voice, "Am I really like that?"

Still crying, I wailed, "No! No, Kai, you're not. I'm just being a stupid little brat. Just…look, just ignore me. I'm…I'll go. I'll go away right now. It's just that…I like you so much, Kai. I really do. You've always been there for me. I don't know whether it's 'cause you feel responsible for me, or 'cause…I…you never let me slack. You made me keep working. You made me push myself as hard as I could. I…I wanted to beat you. I wanted to show you that I was strong, that I was good. I wanted to show you that I was more than just some rookie who got a lucky break. I wanted to make you proud of me, Kai. You've never let me down. You've always, always been there, making sure I'm alright. You came back and fought Brooklyn. You saved me yesterday. You're the best blader I know…you're the best blader ever! I…" I broke off, and sniffed hard, and dashed my hand across my eyes, looking down at him, at his flushed, frowning, beautiful face. "You inspire me, Kai. And you're going to leave. And I'm being stupid. I'm sorry. I'm going."

"Tyson…" he said again.

"It's OK," I said, hiccoughing. "I'm your friend, Kai, your friend, and that means that I want you to be happy. I just want you to be alright. That means that if you want me to leave you alone, I will. As long as you're OK, then I'm fine. I promise." I don't think I was making much sense. I was tired, I had the headache to end all headaches, and my throat was getting worn out by doing so much shouting. Oh, this was so not fun.

I was already moving away from him when his hand caught at my arm.

"Don't go," he said, simply, quietly, commandingly. Stupid Kai. Thinks he owns the freaking universe. Stupid.

"I'll do what I want to," I snapped.

"I meant it, Tyson!" he burst out. "Have you completely forgotten everything I said? I meant all of it. You are my greatest rival, Tyson - my strongest ally – my most loyal team-mate – and my closest friend. Stop whining and listen to me for a change! If you beat me, I know that I have to work harder, and if I beat you, I know that I can't stop training, because the next time we face each other, you'll be even better than before. You keep me fighting. You mean more to me than anything else. When I was fighting Brooklyn - I won that battle for you, Tyson. You were the one who cheered me on. You were the one who trusted me enough to let me make my own decisions. You were the one who caught me when I fell. You're – you're my inspiration, Tyson."

I was practically sitting on top of the guy, crying my eyes out and listening to him say that I was his friend. I think all that was actually going through my head was, I've gone nuts. I've lost it. This is not happening. All I could say was, "Oh."

"Well, at least it got you to be quiet," he said, crossly.

I gave this weird little snort that was like a mix between a sob and a laugh. He smiled up at me through his tears, this sad, strong, fierce smile – and the next second I had flung my arms around his neck again and was crying into his chest. I pressed my face into the soft, tender skin of his neck and wept, my body jerking against his as I sobbed, my fingers clutching at his hair, feeling our heartbeats thud together. He was so talented, and so powerful, and so amazing, and so full of himself, and so annoying. He was Kai, and that was the best thing in the world.

He was stroking my back, clutching me to him, trying, I guessed, to shut me up. I bit back my tears, and lay there, steadying my breathing, trying hard to calm myself down. At last, I gulped one last time, wiped my face with my hands and pushed myself up a little until I could look into his eyes. "You're a jerk," I told him. "You made me cry."

"You made me cry," he said, resentfully.

It was only then that I realised that he was actually crying. With a shaking hand, I reached out and ran a gentle thumb along each eye, wiping away the tears. I had never been so careful in my life. I cupped his face in my palm, so happy and so proud just to be touching him – just to be near him. His skin was gently dampened with sweat, and very warm from the slight fever he'd picked up. That same, small, fierce smile was twisting his mouth up the littlest bit. I knew he wouldn't forget me. I knew now that he valued me too much. What was more, I knew that he understood that I would never forget him. In the end, I guess there are some things you just know. Our faces were centimetres apart. His skin was hot and smooth and supple under my fingers, and his eyes were wild and dark, staring up into mine with a furious, proud, almost triumphant intensity. My entire body was tingling, shivering with a fierce, sensual fire. His breaths were hard and short. My hands had somehow slipped down, away from his face, to stroke his chest and neck, playing with a hard nipple, tickling the skin. He opened his mouth, about to say something, but instead, I leaned down and covered his lips with my own.

I had expected him to flinch, but he didn't. He kissed me back, his mouth moving against my own, his touch yearning and powerful, his hands threading themselves through my hair The world was spinning, and adrenaline and love and amazement were spreading through my body, so that I was dizzy and frightened and exhilarated all at once. I was shaking, my mind completely saturated with pleasure and desire and this insane, intense joy. I was still trembling when we pulled away, and when, in silence, I let my head fall down to his shoulder, and snuggled up against him like a kid. I still had a headache. I was still dead tired. Stupidly, I asked, "What about tomorrow?"

"I'll leave," he said.

"I don't want you to," I said.

"Stop whining."

"I'm not whining!" I protested, hurt. Damn, he was annoying. "I just don't want you to go."

"You'll be fine," he said, awkwardly. Hah. I think he was blushing.

"We'll see each other again soon, though, right?"

"Yes."

"Promise?"

"Go to sleep. You need some rest."

"Promise?"

"Yes. Go to sleep."

"You're mean."

"You're a pest."

"You know I think I love you, right?"

There was a startled, nervous silence, and then he gave this little cough that could just possibly have been a yes.

"I mean," I continued, breathlessly, "It's like, I didn't even realise, but it was always there. The whole time I knew you, you were…you were the most special person ever, and I never understood till now. You know?"

"Yes," he said, after a while. "I do know."

We lay there together in the warm, warm bed, waiting for tomorrow.

Well, that's it. It's over. Dead. Gone. Finished. The fluff hath ended.

I'm embarrassed to say that I was blushing when I wrote that making-out scene. OK, I always blush when I read lemons, but that was just a stupid little kiss! Tyson on top…delightful, yet completely spontaneous. This is what comes of writing at 3 AM. Your brain goes weird.

In closing, thank you to everyone who stuck by me for this fic. I love each and every single one of the following people to bits, and you all have permission to feel very, very adored: FeelinGlayish, Destruction Devil, Mikin Ishida, takuya, luvyagal, skimmie, FireieGurl, spirtfox, still-trying-to-get-a-life, vanukavixen, frostt, Sakura Blossom-Cilla-85, edhel-tarien, PhantomNight, NekoAnime, Raichil and, of course, TechnoRanma (You are the greatest, Ranma-sweetie. I will wuv you from now till eternity, oh awe-inspiring one! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR EVERYTHING!).

I am stuck for inspiration for a new fic. Please review with suggestions, requests, ideas…ANYTHING!

Y'all have fun now.

Peace out.