Disclaimer: I don't own Beyblade.

Warnings: Yaoi. Slash. Angst. Mpreg. Enough sentimentality to make you puke.

Pairings: Takao/Kai

Author's Note: This fic is so freaking corny, I'm ashamed of myself, but I'ma post it anyway. I wrote it for the alphabet game on kaitaka last week. Anyway...enjoy.

Violins

They made their way centre stage to an auditorium full of applause and bowed deeply. The brothers shared a challenging glance with each other, identical smirks, learned from the many photographs of their father, spread across their faces. The audience waited on baited breath as, by some unspoken signal, they simultaneously lifted their bows and began playing.

Takao couldn't be any prouder of his boys.

Who would've thought that Kinomiya Takao's kids could have such a classy pastime as this? Bitter rivals in the beydish practically from birth, Gou and Makoto made the most beautiful music together when they were on stage –and he dared any lowlife critic to say any different! Each note was played to perfection, Gou's soothing bass and Makoto's crooning treble blended perfectly, captivating any audience.

Takao could still remember the awed look on Makoto's little face when he'd finally bought him the violin he had been begging for for weeks. It was the smallest little violin Takao had ever seen, but in Makoto's tiny six-year-old hands, it looked huge. ("I'll be the world champ violinist and beyblader, Daddy! Just you wait!")

Gou had scoffed, standing off to the side, a familiar scowl planted on his face and his arms crossed over his chest impatiently. Takao, having learned to be prepared to buy two of everything for the competitive twins, had asked him what instrument he would like, and, of course, not to be outdone, Gou led him over to the biggest freakin' violin Takao had ever seen. ("It's a cello, Dad!")

The house was never silent after then. If it wasn't the sweet metal grindings of beyblade against beyblade, it was the painful screeching of horsehair against strings as they practiced their scales. But here they were, twelve years down the line at the boys' first solo professional concert. He was so excited. That was their names emblazoned on the front of the program Takao was crumpling up in the struggle to keep from jumping up and down and cheering.

He only wished Kai could be here to see it.

Takao sighed, glancing sadly at the empty seat beside him. A neat, practically untouched program lay across it, saving it for a man who would never come. He'd been gone for over eighteen years now, but Takao still bought a seat for him at all of the twins' functions, so his spirit could have somewhere to sit if it was there, and even if it wasn't, Takao didn't want anyone else at his side.

It was a double edged sword, what Boris had done to Kai. That freaky experiment had left Takao with the two greatest gifts he could ever ask for, but Kai… he didn't survive the childbirth.

The audience erupted in enthusiastic applause, breaking him out of his musings in time to watch Gou bow his head in appreciation and Makoto bounce over to the microphone on the side of the stage, waving at his adoring fans with a wide grin on his face. Gou just rolled his eyes, shaking his head at his brother. Takao grinned; no formal setting could ever dampen the Kinomiya enthusiasm.

"Thank you guys for coming to see us! We hope you've had an awesome time listening to us, we sure had an awesome time playing!" The audience applauded again, with a few whistles and screams from their diehard fans crossed over from their beyblading days. Takao may or may not have contributed a few loud cheers himself. "This is our last song before intermission." Makoto sobered up suddenly, meeting his eyes across the room. "Me and Gou wrote it ourselves for our father who we never got to meet, and our Dad who's always been there for us and believed in us." Curious whispers spread through the audience, but just as quickly as the serious mood settled over Makoto's face, it disappeared again and he was back to his normal, spastic self, distracting them. "Brand new and exclusive! You guys are lucky we think you're so special!"

Makoto winked at the audience, then bounced back to Gou's side, receiving a whack on the back of the head for his efforts. Makoto stuck his tongue out at him. Gou rolled his eyes and picked up his bow, and when a hushed silence settled over the audience, he began to play. Strong, slender fingers glided skilfully along the neck of the cello, long strokes of the bow made it sing.

Takao remembered when those fingers were chubby and short, a tiny fist newly cleaned of birthing fluids being caressed by Kai's own careful fingers. The smile on Kai's face was the warmest Takao had ever seen, despite the greyish pallor of his skin and the tired shivers that wracked his body.

"This one is Gou," Kai announced, reluctantly handing his son over to his lover as the pain from another contraction coursed through him.

Takao grinned. "Then we can name the other one 'Shoot'!"

Kai snorted. "Do that, and I'm taking you with me."

Takao hadn't understood what he meant then, but now he realised that Kai knew he was going to die. Kai had always caught on to things faster than he did.

Tears sprung to his eyes as Makoto's violin joined Gou's cello in perfect harmony, each boy playing with reverence.

'I wish you could see this, Kai,' Takao thought, still gripping the program tightly in his fists. 'I hope you can hear this wherever you are. I miss you, Kai.'

Takao shivered, wrapping his arms around himself as a particularly cold burst of air blew against him. "I love you, Kai," he whispered to himself.

"I love you, too, Takao… Forever…"