Disclaimer: I do not own Beyblade in any way, shape or form. Well that sucks doesn't it?
"Rei! Rei! You've got to come and see this!"
Oh great, I swear I'll be lucky if I get anything done today. After hanging around trying to relate techno-blabber to Kenny for three hours (three hours!) over the phone, eventually Kenny decided to put Daichi and I out of our misery and came round to the BBA building himself to swap much more reasonable techno-blabber with the nice lady from the R&D department. Of course, three hours of nonsensical phone calls and one hell of a migraine as a result tends to put you behind a bit on your daily schedule. So yeah, dinner is now two hours late, and now is likely to be a bit later because Daichi has latched himself onto my arm and is currently dragging me away from my culinary microwavable masterpiece, as well as possibly dragging my arm out of its socket.
"What is it Daichi? I've got to finish cooki…" Wow, and here I thought Daichi had just dragged me out of the kitchen to look at something shiny. This is waaaaay better.
It seems that Hilary got round to buying Kai that home hair-dying kit she'd promised. Not only that, but it seems that Kai has actually enlisted Hilary's help in dying it! I blame the two-tone hair color, if not for that I can practically assure you that Kai would be all DIY over the whole thing. And so now as Daichi and I crouch by the doorway we're greeted with an odd sight. Hilary seems to have dragged a chair into the bathroom, in front of the sink, with Kai placed on said chair, and showing obvious (in Kai's case almost undetectable) discomfort as Hilary roughly throws some sickeningly yellowy-green product on the –originally navy – darker shade of his pink hair.
"Ok Kai, now don't move or I'll get it wrong." Kai seems to take this as a threat and stops the minor fidgeting that he'll very likely deny ever doing. Haha, if only you knew what was coming Kai, if only you knew…wait, if only I knew actually, why the hell don't I know the end result of my own plan! I look to Daichi quizzically.
"Psst, what color this time?"
Daichi answers me with nothing but a grin and my neko curiosity is on the verge of a serious hissy fit. I want to knooow! I resist the urge to huff, I know that Daichi won't tell me so I have to find something else to keep myself occupied meanwhile.
"Kai I said don't move!" Daichi and I cringe as Hilary brutally takes Kai's head in her hands and slams it against the tap accidentally –I hope- on the way to rinsing his hair in the sink. Well I don't think she'll have to worry about him fidgeting too much any more, he looks dazed enough that I think Kai will remain oddly compliant for the rest of the process.
"Daichi….get a camera." I watch him scamper off and hope that he thinks to find the instruction manual to go with it, seeing as it just occured to me that neither of us rural dwellers are able to operate something as technologically advanced as that. Ok, I admit it. Compared to Kenny, Daichi and I are practically cavemen.
Daichi scampers back a split second later and I have…well a split second to ponder why he doesn't always run that fast when we're training. Weird kid. It's also enough time to re-ponder what Daichi is up to this time. I wish I had a color chart just so I could mix and match the possibilities.
"Teeeeeell me, what color is it going to beeeee?" I soooo do not whine as I turn to take the camera from Daichi. After being handed something a bit bigger than expected I look down...and promptly throw the object in my hand as if it was a burning hot coal. Queue slow motion effect as Dizzi flies through the air in a slow and dramatic arc only to be clumsily caught by a diving Daichi. Pheeeew! Collective sighs of relief all round.
"Daichi! What the fu…fudge are you doing with Dizzi!" Whoa politeness programme was a split second behind there. I can practically taste the soap in my mouth had the elders had heard me say the whole of that word... and weren't all half deaf...and blind. Scary thoughts, poor Kevin will never stand next to Lee during one of his not-so-polite rants ever again. Thankfully Daichi hasn't seemed to notice my slip-up, I've already tainted his possibly innocent mind enough in the past couple of days.
"What? It has a camera on it!"
Well, I did tell him to get a camera, although I had (wrongly) assumed he had more common sense than to steal Kenny's laptop, which is a feat in itself since I really can't picture Kenny without it, personally I could see him taking a bullet for that thing….wait a second.
"Daichi…what did you do to Kenny?"
"Pff, it's what he didn't do that was the problem! He should have given him a black eye! Kenny just left me sitting there on battery power! Battery power! I have rights you…."
Daichi almost dropped Dizzi (again) as soon as she started speaking. That damn laptop terrifies me sometimes, and also made me paranoid that all machines were secretly able to communicate. I know better now, Dizzi is just weird…although I'm pretty sure the vacuum still has something against me…evil hair eating nozzle appliance…
"Dizzi! We thought you were switched off!" Although I probably should have known better, I've never seen Dizzi switched off in my life. Closed yes, turned off, no way. The equivalent would be seeing Kenny sleeping, that's right, never happens and never will.
"I had to switch to standby to conserve power. Neglect! Neglect!"
We had to shush Dizzi as her voice…volume raised. After all Hilary was still on the other side of the door smothering half of Kai's hair in puke-gunge looking dye. There was probably a mute button somewhere on Dizzi but no way was I going to look for it, for all I knew it was next to the self-destruct button which may or may not be next to the break-everything-in-the-laptop-and-face-the-wrath-of-Kenny button.
"Oh, and why shouldn't I be noisy? Something I should know about…?"
"Dammit, Kai I said stay still! I almost got dye on the wrong half!"
Well…we're screwed. Nice timing Hilary, remind me to thank you later with a spider in your shoe. No, bad evil Rei! Be nice!
"Oooooh, well what have we here..."
Don't make the connection, don't make the connection, don't make the connection...
"Sooo its you two responsible for our local grump's new fashion statement!"
Dammit!
"Now now, don't look so worried boys, I won't tell." Phew, sigh of relief, Dizzi has a heart somewhere in that plastic casing. "On the condition that you two do something for me..." A heart made of cold cold metal. I shall never trust anything more technically advanced than a wheel for a very very long time.
"Hey no way! You have no proof!" Daichi almost forgets to speak quietly what with the impending threat of blackmail and all.
"Um...hello? Camera? Video footage? Audio recording?"
"We haven't said anything incriminating!"
I blink, whoa Daichi, big word. Never thought you could process any words with more than three syllables, what with half of Tyson's brain and all. Still its true, we haven't said or done anything to give our (Daichi's) cunning little plan away, we could easily just be being nosey and invading Kai's privacy...which would also most likely lead to death via the evil-glare-of-doom. Death or death? Is there a third option that perhaps involves life? Life with all my limbs attached preferably? No? Damn.
And that's when I hear my own static voice not-whine. "Teeeeeell me, what color is it going to beeeee?"
...This...is bad.
"Ok, have it your way. Let's talk."
Re-situated in the sitting room and with sadly no photographic evidence of whatever is transpiring with Kai's hairdo in the bathroom, we set Dizzi on the coffee table and set to negotiating.
"What are your demands!"
Uh...Daichi, despite what you seem to be thinking, Dizzi isn't exactly a terrorist. She may be mean, sarcastic, and use horrible cheesy puns which are almost criminal, but I don't think its physically possible for her to do much else.
"I'm the one asking the questions here!"
Actually Dizzi, I thought you were blackmailing us...
By the time Daichi stood up and proclaimed that "You'll never take us alive!" I decided that I'd better step in or otherwise be prepared to suffer several long hours of cliché movie lines...or Daichi leaping dramatically in slow-motion through an unopened window and dragging me along with him. Whatever comes first.
"Let's cut to the chase," ...oh hell, now I've started. "What do you want from us Dizzi?"
"Hmmm..."
Like Mariah and Hilary, and probably many other women too probably, Dizzi seems to be one of those eh... (one of these days I'm going to find out exactly what is the proper etiquette in talking with things such as Dizzi) women/laptops who/that know what they/it want, but decide to pretend to be thinking about it for the sole purpose of watching you squirm. Or fidget at high speeds in Daichi's case. My only guess is that he's not been around enough of the female population to know of their cunning suspense building ways, but that can be forgiven, seeing as he's supposedly only twelve according to Hiro. I can vouch for that, being a grand - probably incorrect - total of four years older and still only able to handle Mariah in small doses. Loud girl, too pink - my poor eyes and ears.
"Hmm...ok. But you have to promise not to tell Kenny!"
Struggling...must not look too intent at prospect of secrets... Haha, yeah, that lasted all of three seconds, if I wasn't sitting on the floor, I'd be on the edge of my seat. Damn neko curiosity. I'm swearing to keep whatever it is quiet (I don't know why, doesn't she/it have blackmail material anyways?) before I even know I'm speaking.
"Right, well...its about Kenny actually. He doesn't seem interested in me anymore. It's all about the programs and the processors now. It seem's like forever since we last stayed up late into the night playing solitaire..."
Hold up, Kenny is neglecting Dizzi! And...how do two people, eh...two players play solitaire? I turn my head and exchange a confused glance with Daichi. Hey! He followed the exchange-glances rule! They grow up so fast...
"...not the same anymore. I know his hobby is computing but he doesn't seem to remember that I'm not just some other program anymore. And now! Now he's off to see about some new software, and if I can't meet the demands and run it, I'm going to lose him to some 128-bit processor slut! And leaving me on standby, hoping I wouldn't notice! I just don't understand it..."
I don't think I understand it either Dizzi...but for entirely different reasons.
"Have you spoken to him about, eh...your relationship problems?"
"I've been trying but it's always," me and Daichi jump as Kenny's voice is replayed back from some recording or another, freaky laptops. "No not now Dizzi, I'm busy. Can't it wait?"
"Ouch" Daichi comments randomly. Thank you so much for your helpful input. Gold star.
"Basically, I want the old Kenny back. I've come up with a plan but incase you haven't noticed, I'm a bit short-handed." Remember those criminally cheesy puns? Just when I thought we could manage a conversation without having to endure them. Tough luck.
So Daichi and I listen to her prattle on, and after a long boring conversation which was infinitely less interesting than what was going on in the bathroom at the moment if Kai's screams of "WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED!" followed by him using up today's quota of words which sadly all had to be censored was anything to go by, we finally got the gist of the plan. If Kenny gets a new hobby, he'll stop using Dizzi for mainly computer-ish tasks and they can once again return to the happy days of incomprehensible two-player solitaire.
So now there's a new entry for my BBASUB notebook.
Dizzi - suggestion: New hobby for Kenny
I can't say I planned to ask Dizzi her opinion on the scheme, but at least this way no one can argue with me, and I look very thoughtful in the process, and not at all like someone that just got black-mailed by a jealous piece of machinery...
I can hear the cursing of Kai is getting closer and Hilary's distant shriek of "KAI THAT'S BREAKABLE!" followed by a smash is all we need to hear for Daichi and I to grab Dizzi and make a break for the door. Looks like dinner is going to have to wait another few hours until things cool down...
FINALLY! Right, excuses time, I could go into great detail but for now I think I'll just keep it short and blame it on life. If anyone wants the full explanation as to why this update is um...a few years late *cringes* feel free to PM me for the long explanation/list of excuses.
Just thought I'd let you know that I'm not happy with this chapter. I'd already struggled through 3/4 of it when I was asked to update AQAFAB (lol!), so thought I'd stop whining about it and get it finished and posted. Hope this was fast enough XD
Can't promise when the next update will be, hopefully my inspiration will hold for a while but I can only promise that I'll update within the next couple of months. If earlier then yay!
Well, all I can say is sorry for the super-late update and I hope you won't all be too harsh on me. I'm hoping my writing style hasn't changed too much so the fic will still read smoothly. Let me know your thoughts.
Sorry once again! T.T