An idea I had when talking to Mourir on GaiaOnline. We discussed it, I loved the irony.
Anyway, so dedicated to Mourir of course for kicking arse.
I don't own Beyblade, or Takara-Soft. Obviously.
Dating RPGs. A huge phenomenon in Japan that millions of teenage girls and boys adored. They accumulated many an hour- and many a sweaty hand- and provided those who played with a fantasy life. Escapism for an agreeable fee- it was a fair trade.
Personally, Kai didn't get it. It seemed like a waste of time and brain cells to sit still for hours on end, pursuing a fantasy figure in a romance that wasn't even real. Kai couldn't think of anything much more pointless and pathetic.
His inner grumbles subsided as his gaze shifted down to the bag that rhythmically bounced off his hip as he walked.
Pointless. His mind reiterated. Kai nodded in agreement and picked up his pace, eager to get home.
He had, of course, seen first hand the obsessive zombies that people could become under the influence of games. Last Christmas- for example- Takao had received a copy of the game 'Soul Calibur II'. It had gone on at six in the morning and hadn't been turned off until about eight the next day. The thing had nearly over ridden Takao's need to eat; and that secretly terrified Kai. Max, of course had been right there by his side, bashing away on the controller and screaming as loudly as Takao. Kai had come close to being homicidal that day. Thankfully he had Rei to take him aside and invite him into a game of chess before he had cracked under the over excited yells.
Kai shook his head to clear those terrible memories and slipped his key out of his pocket, opening the door to Team BBA's current abode and letting himself in.
He locked the door behind him and turned around- and nearly screamed.
"Hey Kai. What's that?" Takao asked.
Kai had to take a moment to calm down. "Takao. What on Earth are you doing standing right in front of the door?" Kai muttered, pleased that he hadn't screeched.
Takao shrugged. "I thought you were Rei."
Right that made everything as clear as mud. Thank you Takao- logic.
"Idiot." Kai breathed. "All right. Why were you standing just in front of the door, waiting for Rei?" He said, louder this time.
"Rei's gone to the bakery." Takao replied.
Now Kai understood. Cakes. Why else would Takao wait less than a meter away from the front door like a puppy?
"Right." Kai responded. "Now move."
Takao grinned. "What's that?" He asked again.
"What?" Kai answered gruffly.
Takao pointed at the bag wrapped around Kai's wrist. "That."
Kai shrugged and shouldered his way past. "Nothing."
"Kai!" Takao whined, grabbing Kai's arm. "Tell me!"
"No." Kai growled, trying to twist his arm free.
"Kai!" Takao repeated in that same annoying pitch. "Tell me! Is it porn?"
Kai frowned and rolled his eyes, desperately tugging at his arm. "Don't be such a child. Now, let go!" He ordered.
"No! Tell me!" Kai stopped struggling and swung towards Takao. Takao suddenly felt the need to swallow harshly in fear when he saw the sickly sweet smile on Kai's face, suddenly aware that he was leaning in closer and closer. "K-Kai?" He questioned. Kai slowly brought his hand up… and sharply flicked Takao on the nose. "Ouch!" Takao shrieked. Kai smirked and tore his arm from the now slack grasp, swiftly walking away towards the stairs. "Kai! I dink you bwoke my dose!" Takao accused as he cradled his nose.
"Don't be such a baby." Kai threw over his shoulder. "Now unless you want me to make you a eunuch, I suggest you leave me alone."
"Wads a uunuch?" Takao asked.
Kai smirked at him. "You don't want to know." He heard Takao's mutters all the way up the stairs and he let out a low chuckle once out of hearing range, rather pleased with himself.
He followed his usual course to his and Rei's shared room and slipped inside. He moved towards his bed and scanned the room and- when he was satisfied that no one would come jumping out of the closet or out from under his bed- he sat down and reached into his bag. Slowly, with the tiniest fragment of shame pulling at his mind, Kai pulled the box out.
Gulping, Kai opened the box and pulled out the small cartridge that lay inside. He shoved the box under his bed and reached into the bag, pulling out a second, larger box. With a faint grimace, he slid out the electronic device that lay inside and slipped the cartridge, knowing what to do from seeing Takao do it countless times.
Feeling ready, Kai settled back against the headboard and flipped the device over, turning it on…
It made a small noise, before moving on to display countless companies, until finally the screen proudly displayed; "Bakuten Shoot High School; Boys" Kai cringed at the title.
Just over a year back, they had been approached by 'Takara soft' who had produced countless Beyblade games previously. This time though, they had a different idea. Well aware of how many fans the elite beyblading boys had around the world (it helped that they were all at least semi-attractive) and aware of how fast dating games sold, they had put two and two together and made… millions. Initially, Kai was dead set against it, finding the idea of hundreds of thousands of pre-teen girls around the world pursuing him in a game using sappy romantic options horrified him.
However, with the promise of twenty percent going towards developing Beyblading facilities for children around the world and Takao's constant whining, he had eventually relented.
After that, he had been subjected to –like the rest of Team BBA, Yuriy, Boris, Olivier, Raul, Mihaeru, Zo and Brooklyn- intensive interviews. He had been asked how he would respond to countless gestures and questions. His facial expressions had been monitored. His opinion on love and on other life matters had been asked. In the end, Kai was sure that those people knew so much about him, they could build another Kai if they wanted to. It had been very intrusive. He was just pleased that nothing got too personal.
Kai sighed and returned to the present, noting that he was meant to choose a character. He wheeled through them, looking for a blue haired boy. He ended back at the first girl. He frowned and pressed all of the directions. Eventually, he understood.
"Fucking prejudice! You have to be a damned girl to go after a guy on this game." He spat, furious all ready. The only way you could be a guy was if you played the Girl version with Julia, Mao, Mathilda and Hiromi (despite the fact that she didn't blade). After a couple of seconds, he calmed slightly and sighed, choosing a girl with short blue hair. "She looks like a lesbian anyway." He muttered, feeling that his decision was a little more justified, and so now he could continue.
Next up he had to choose a name. Despite the fact that Kai was a manly name filled with manly pride, upon second thoughts, he remembered that his character was gay girl and figured it a sensible choice. Quickly he tapped in 'Kai'. Deciding to follow the same pattern, he typed in 'Hiwatari' as the characters second name.
The game started, he was given some dull story that he paid no attention to, bashing away at any buttons he could to speed up the introduction process.
Finally, he was faced with the most cliché, cherry blossom ridden scene possible… he nearly screamed again as Takao's face popped up in front of him without warning for the second time that day.
"Hi! I'm Konomya Takao! I haven't seen you around before. Are you new? I know I'd remember a cute girl like you if I'd seen her before." Game Takao winked as his text speech scrolled across the screen.
Kai wrinkled his nose in distaste. 'How very like Takao.' He thought dryly. 'Utterly without tact.'
Options suddenly came up on the screen; 'Blush and introduce yourself', 'grin and make a joke' and lastly 'Ignore'.
Snorting, Kai chose the last option.
Takao looked offended. "Hey! I was only being friendly. Damn, you're as bad as Kai." Kai felt his eyes widen. 'That cheeky little…'
Again three options popped up; Enquire, Apologise and again, ignore. Kai was sorely tempted to ignore Takao and move onto finding his original goal. However, he was curious…
Takao brightened up at not being ignored. "He's that guy, over there. He's king of the school and the best at everything- in his opinion anyway. As far as being a nice guy though, his skills are lacking. He's also the most anti-social guy in school." Kai twitched. Takao must have made a really good impression of him on the interviewers and the game developers.
…God. Was that really what he looked like when he leaned against walls? Damn, it was strange, seeing yourself- in a slightly pixely way- from another point of view.
So engrossed in staring at his game doppelganger was Kai, that it took him a while to realise that options had once more come up on screen.
While he was eager to find the one who was the very reason why he'd even purchased the game, Kai chose the 'introduce yourself' option.
Two minutes later and Kai was on the verge of turning the game off. He couldn't believe how rude and conceited game- Kai had been to him just because he had tried talking to him.
'You have to admit. He acted in exactly the same way you would have, had some random person come up to you and tried to talk to you.' His mind pointed out. Kai scowled and decided to give his game version a taste of his own medicine. He chose 'ignore' and waited to see what would happen next.
'That showed him.' Kai thought smugly.
'Well done, Kai.' His mind responded dryly.
Kai's budding schizophrenia was rudely interrupted when a familiar face and the very reason he had even bought the stupid game entered his field of vision. He blinked in surprise as pixelated, shapely, yellow eyes stared back at him, above a friendly smile.
"Hello! I'm Kon Rei. It's nice to meet you! Please excuse my friend Kai, he's not very comfortable around new people, but he's nice when you get to know him."
Kai blushed, feeling stupid and yet pleased that game Rei had been the first to defend him, just like he did in real life, and chose the 'Introduce yourself' option once more.
"Ah! That's a nice name." The game Rei smiled. "How would you prefer me to address you?"
Three options sprang up; "Hiwatari", "Kai", or "Add option." Intrigued once more, Kai chose the latter, which bought up an alphabet. Gathering that this was an option to choose your own name, Kai thought long and hard before finally deciding upon 'Sexy'.
"Sexy it is then." Rei beamed. Kai didn't know whether to laugh or blush. "Come with me." The screen changed slightly and Rei popped back up. "Sexy, may I introduce you to Hiwatari Kai, Kai this is the new girl Hiwatari Kai."
Kai clicked his tongue in annoyance, having forgotten that his character was a girl. He almost jumped when his own scowling face confronted him. "Yeah, hi. Rei we have to get to lesson. Come on."
Rei popped back up on screen, looking apologetic. "Sorry about that, Sexy, but Kai's right. We have to get to lesson. Are you all right to get to lesson? Do you need help?" Kai smiled at the fact that Rei's caring nature had made it even into a game. Kai waited for his options to appear, but was interrupted by the reappearance of Takao.
"I'll help you!" He said with a cheery expression.
Kai went to protest, when once again, his own face popped up on screen. "See you around. Come on, Rei."
Rei appeared again, with his hand raised in a wave. "All right, Kai. Bye Takao, bye Sexy!"
And then Rei was gone. Whisked away by none other than… himself. Were Takao and himself in league in this game… surely not…right?
"So what do you want me to call you?" Takao asked with a grin.
And so, not ten minutes into the game, Kai was left confused, annoyed and a little scared.
Rei, by nature was a naturally attentive creature. Of course, he would have had to be both blind and deaf, or on sedatives not to notice the fact that Kai was acting strange- or at least, stranger than usual. Even Takao was beginning to notice something (which was rare, considering that it wasn't about him) most likely because Kai wasn't around to verbally spar with him, which left Takao growing more ansy by the day.
Still though, Rei was growing a bit worried. Kai hadn't left their room for three days, except to stalk downstairs to grab a drink, or to attend the calls of nature. On top of that, whenever Rei had popped in to check up on him, he was always alarmed to discover that the door was always locked and when he had knocked, while Kai would always let him in (he had to really, it was Rei's room too) whenever Rei would try to talk to him, he would always seem distracted.
It wasn't as if Kai was exactly the life of the party, but it definitely wasn't normal for the team captain to lock himself up in his room for days at a time, not speaking to anyone or even coming out to blade.
Rei sighed and placed his cup down on the table. He knew that it wasn't the greatest idea in the World to pester Kai, but he really was worried about the other. If there was something wrong that had caused Kai to withdraw from the world in such a way and Rei didn't at least try to help, he'd never forgive himself. So, steeling himself, Rei stood up and padded up the stairs, moving quietly to the door of his room. He gulped and knocked.
"Yeah?" Kai's muffled voice replied.
Rei exhaled a heavy breath. "Kai, it's me… may I come in?" He asked, voice soft.
He thought he heard Kai curse, but couldn't be sure. "Can it wait?" Kai sounded annoyed.
"Ahh, well I just wanted to… never mind." He trailed off dejectedly and shook his head.
He went to walk away when he heard Kai speak again. "Hang on." His sensitive ears caught the sound of shuffling and then the noise of a lock sliding free. The door opened and Kai stepped back, moving to lie down on his bed. Rei followed, closing the door behind him before walking over to sit upon his own bed.
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Rei let out a nervous laugh. "I feel like I'm intruding in my own room." He attempted to joke. Kai said nothing and continued to stare moodily at the ceiling, making him feel even worse. 'Now or never.' Rei thought. "Ahh… Kai?" Rei started and stopped, surprised at both the softness of his voice and the intense ruby eyes fixed upon him. He cleared his throat, collecting his thoughts. "Kai, I… I know this isn't my place, but I was wondering if you're all right. You've been stuck in here for the past few days, and everyone's worried that something is wrong. I-"
"Everyone?" Kai drawled, the hint of a smirk upon his lips.
Rei flashed him a resigned smile. "All right. I'm really worried." He corrected. "But I can't help it, you've been locked away in here and-"
"I'm fine." Kai retorted, turning his stare back to the ceiling.
Rei nodded silently and the room went quiet. After a long moment, Rei was surprised to find himself suddenly blinking back tears. 'I can't believe how hurt I feel. Heh, how silly.' He thought as he forced his frustrated tears back and sighed.
Kai noticed the sound and immediately felt guilty. He sat up suddenly, the movement causing Rei to jump. "There's nothing wrong, Rei."
Rei nodded, though it lacked any real conviction. "All right."
"I'm fine, Rei." Kai repeated, more softly this time.
Rei smiled back. "All right. But… if ever you need to talk, or if ever something is getting you down and you feel like you need someone to talk to…"
"You will be the first I'll come to. Don't worry." Kai waved his hand.
Rei wasn't sure if Kai was being sincere, or was trying to get rid of him, but he felt happier nonetheless. "All right then. I'll see you later Kai. Is there anything you need? Are you hungry at all?" He asked.
"Rei, stop worrying about me and go and do something fun." Kai rolled his eyes, following as Rei moved towards the door.
"Okay, but if you need me, I'm just downstairs." Kai nodded and slid the lock back on after Rei had stepped through the door. Sighing heavily, he returned to his bed, reaching under it to grab the console he had placed there.
Kai flopped back onto the bed, on his front and turned the sound back up. He simply stared at the screen, feeling bad for a moment at the way that he had dismissed Rei, when in truth, he was touched at the concern the younger teen held for him. It was enough to make him hope…
He shook his head and returned his attention to the game, watching as Rei commented on the scenery that surrounded their picnic. The game was easier than life. If he made the wrong decision, he could start again from the last time he had saved. In the game he was guaranteed to win the guy, in life there wasn't. There was only the cold possibility of rejection and dissatisfaction, and Kai wasn't the kind of person who took loosing lightly.
"Are you all right? You look a bit far away." Golden eyes peered at him, saddened by worry.
Kai smiled softly. "Even in a game, you can't help but care, can you Rei?" The game remained silent, waiting for him to press a button.
Kai paused, thinking. Maybe they would work. Simply from interviews and talking about other members of the team the intricate, silent bonds between all of the bladers could be seen. Most specifically to Kai was that every time someone badmouthed him in the game, Rei would be the one who would step in and defend him. He also had a sneaking suspicion that his greatest rival in this game was himself. Nearly every time he tried to get his character closer to Rei, his game counterpart would be the one to step in and drag Rei away. He was almost selfishly guarding game Rei and was subtly protective of him. Kai couldn't help but smile at that.
Still though, if all he had to do was fight off his game counterpart, Kai would gladly choose this fantasy over reality. At least with a game he could start again if he fucked it all up.
Later that night, Rei had to go through the same ritual of knocking on his own door. This time however, Kai sauntered past him as he walked in.
"I'm taking a shower." He stated before trotting off down the hall. Rei watched him go, pleased that he was even out of his room let alone that he had spoken to him. He moved over towards his bed and slumped down onto it, waiting for Kai to return so that he could take a shower of his own.
Idly, he reached into his pocket, pulling out his Driger blade and began to fiddle with the attack disk to occupy himself for a few minutes.
He frowned and grumbled as he found that the weight disk was jammed in place, and slipped his thumb nails under the wedged piece of metal and wiggled it slowly free. He was almost there when the disk suddenly decided that it was free without telling him first, which resulted in it flying off across the room and rolling under the bed opposite. Rolling his eyes at his silliness, Rei huffed in frustration as he slid off of his mattress and dropped to his knees. He leaned forwards and slipped his hand under the valance of Kai's bed, groping around blindly for his attack ring.
His fingers hit something plastic and he frowned, stopping suddenly to run his fingers over it. His eyes widened and he pulled it out from under the bed, confirming his suspicions that it was a handheld games console.
'Kai must have taken it from Takao.' He thought to himself, flipping it over and slipping the game cartridge out to see what it was. His eyebrows shot up when he discovered that it was the dating game that he and his friends were apparently in.
Curious, Rei shrugged and turned the game on. He watched the introduction and waited for the title screen to come up where he was faced with the option of starting a new game or continuing. Not wanting to possibly delete Takao's game file, he chose 'continue'.
Rei's eyes widened. "Hiwatari…Kai?" If someone had told Rei that Kai would have a games console stuffed under his bed with his own game in it, Rei would have called him or her crazy. And yet, there before his eyes was a girl (Girl-? Ah, of course. This was the girl's version of the game, in which you pursued one of the Bey boys. Wait- why on earth did Kai have the girls version? Unless…maybe- Rei shook his head and stopped that train of thought,) with short blue hair called 'Hiwatari Kai.'
Unable to resist temptation, Rei continued and chose the option to "Look at diary" so see what Kai had been up to and to get a better idea of what the game was about.
He gasped as his eyes scanned the text: "Today I started out my new school and met…", "…I worked with Kon Rei in class for…", "…I went to the park for a walk with Rei…", "…I went to a picnic with Rei…", "…I went to the cinema tonight with Rei…" The first thing he saw when he moved on from the diary, and started the game was Takao smiling at him, saying; "Hey, Great One! Is it true that Rei is taking you to the dance?" Rei, Rei, Rei. It was all about him.
Call him a maniac… but was Kai pursuing him? Why? For a laugh? Because he was just there? Because… maybe because he possibly wanted to go after Rei from the start?
Rei was oblivious to it all. So he just carried on playing with a bemused smile on his face.
By the time Kai stepped back into their room, Rei was sitting up in bed with a small smirk upon his face. Kai watched him cautiously as he towelled his hair dry, not trusting Rei's amused stare and the glinting fang that rested upon his soft lower lip as he smirked.
Kai moved slowly towards his bed and sat down, feeling increasingly uncomfortable when Rei's eyes followed him. He tried to ignore the open stare and cleared his throat, but when he felt the need to fidget become nearly overwhelming, he finally snapped.
"What?" He said indignantly.
Rei tried to force his smile back and failed horribly, resulting in a bigger grin. "Nothing."
Kai's eyes narrowed. "Tell me. Now." He unsurprisingly was not amused with himself so obviously being the source of some joke or other.
Rei stood up and flopped down besides Kai, beaming at him "Well Kai, you said that you'd come to me if you had a problem, but you haven't, and I'm hurt." Rei said, sounding anything but hurt.
Kai regarded him suspiciously. "What are you talking about?"
"Well Kai, if you were pursuing the affections of another, I would have wished that you'd come to me for help." Rei said as he shifted so that he faced Kai.
Kai's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?" He repeated more slowly.
"Well, we both know that I know your object of amour best, so I'm just disappointed that you didn't ask me for aid." Rei stood up and went to move back to his own bed, throwing Kai a backwards glance. "I'm going to bed. I hope you can't sleep tonight knowing how much you've hurt my feelings, Sexy." Rei finished with a cheeky grin.
If Kai had been drinking anything at that moment, he would have choked on it. If he had been standing, he would have fallen over. As it was his reflex was to snap his hand out and grab Rei's wrist.
Kai's mind went meltdown leaving him with two thought patterns.
'Oh my God! Oh my God! Rei just called me sexy! Oh my God! Rei just called me sexy! Rei just called me sexy! Oh my God!'
And;
'Rei just called me Sexy. He's found my game. He must have found my game. Rei just called me Sexy.'
At the last second, Kai diverted from dancing and instead looked angry. "You went through my stuff!" He accused, angered embarrassment glinting in his eyes.
Rei, looked surprised for a moment, before smiling lightly. "No, Sexy. I dropped my attack ring under your bed and I found the console and pulled it out thinking that it was Takao's. When I saw that it was our game, I guess my curiosity got the better of me." Kai let go of Rei's wrist, growling as he reached down and snatched the game console away from its 'hiding place', before haughtily turning away from Rei.
"Don't call me "Sexy" and don't mock me, Rei. You can think what you like of me, but don't you dare mock me." Kai snapped, colouring heavily. All the while his heart clenched within his chest. That was it. Rei knew what he had been trying to hide these past three years, and it was all because of his stupid addiction to that stupid game. What hurt most though was that Rei now knew, and now he was mocking him. He really didn't have a chance after all. The game Rei really was his one shot at attaining the object of his affections.
"Kai." Rei's voice was soft and drew him from his dejected thoughts.
When Kai caught sight of his smile, he coloured even more. "And don't pity me. I don't want your pity."
Rei shook his head. "Kai…" this time he raised his hands and took a hold of Kai's heated cheeks and turned his face towards him. Kai refused to look at him, keeping his eyes stubbornly fixed towards the headboard. "Kai," he tried again, smiling fully this time. "I got you to give Rei a white lily, because I know that he likes those, and I also got you to tell him straight that you liked him as more than a friend, because I know that Rei doesn't like too much subtlety, and likes people to be straightforward with him. However, you've certainly built up a great relationship with him, because he seems to be really smitten with you. In fact, if I know Rei, I think you'll find that he may take the plunge and kiss you soon. I saved the game. I hope that you don't mind"
Kai- who was now staring directly at Rei with obvious surprise- gave Rei a tiny nod.
"Good," Rei smiled… Shortly before he leaned down and placed a short, but firm kiss upon Kai's lips.
When he pulled back and gave Kai a dazzling grin, Kai did little more than continue staring, frozen in shock with only the tingling warmth and slight dampness upon his lips as proof that that had just happened. In real life.
Rei sat down on his bed and gave Kai an innocent expression. "I don't know if game making out is any better than real life making out, but I'm thinking that, if you put the game aside and give the real me a shot, I'll try not to disappoint."
This time, the decisiveness that Kai was a legend for hit said bewildered blader like a ten-ton bus, and he promptly marched over towards Rei's bed to test that theory.
And the game lay forgotten upon the covers of Kai's bed. Some time later it was knocked off down the back of the bed, and some time after that, a maid found it, covered with a thin layer of dust.
She shrugged and pocketed it, deciding that it would be a nice gift for her teenage daughter.
My, was she ever in for a nice surprise.