A/n: I've decided to explore the realm of the Tyson/Kai shipping. Hooray for expanding my horizons!

Disclaimer: Yaoi fanfiction. Don't own Beyblade.

Beta Reader: None

A Rumor in St. Petersburg
One — Nearly Left Behind

Ever played the game Mahjong? No? Well it's confusing as hell, and a certain world champion Beyblader doesn't recommend playing it.

"Tyson, you can't move that piece." Ray says, just as the navy-haired teen was about to reach for one close to his hand.

"Why the hell not? It's on top, isn't it?" The dragon growled. "I can use this wheels of three with that wheels of three and cancel them out."

Ray rolled his golden eyes and took a deep, silent breath. "Because, Tyson, those "wheels" at the bottom, right-hand tower of the fortress are surrounded by two other pieces that you have to cancel out first." To explain his instruction in action, he cancelled out a pair of eights with a 'M' on it. The game was like second nature to the tiger. "See? Just like that."

"Gah, you make it look so easy!"

"It's not that hard of a game to learn, Tyson." Kenny mentioned, sitting on the floor and typing away at Dizzi as usual.

"Hah, easy for you to say, Mr. Genius."

"Just pay attention."

"Quit mocking me Chief, you're just too smart is all." While Tyson was distracted arguing with the brunette, Ray went on ahead and cancelled five more pairs of pieces in his favor. "What the heck?"

He raised a single black eyebrow, trying to hold back a grin. "Didn't we say our max limit was five pairs per round if we spotted them?"

"For me, because I suck! It's not fair if you do it; you're the Mahjong guru!" Ray's proud grin finally broke through, and Tyson stuck his tongue out at him and cancelled out two pairs all on his own, fast as lightning. "Hah, beat that!" Doing as told, Ray cancelled out five more pairs...again. "Screw you, man."

"What can I say, Tyson? I am the 'Mahjong guru': I can't lose to a novice like you."

"Well, at least don't demolish me like that. That's harsh." It was a well-known fact in the Kinomiya household that ever since the Bladebreakers began living there, they enjoyed pulling Tyson's string at things he lacked talent in (to put it nicely). It was their way of jokingly getting back at the Japanese bluenette for making fun of them whenever he won a beybattle or for his title as world champion.

Tyson of course knew this, and while it bugged him he didn't mind it deep down. He didn't mind being known that he was only good at beyblading, eating, and making a fool out of himself (the last one was something Hilary added to the list). According to the dragon, the girl just didn't understand that he liked a cheery atmosphere. If the mood wasn't a happy one, he'd create it himself. Even if he made a fool out of himself in the process.

"So Ray," Kenny casually changed topic. "What's this big party in Hong Kong that you have to go to?"

"It's a wedding." The Neko-jin smiled, paying close attention to what Tyson would do next... "A friend of mine back from the village. He left back when he was twelve for the city like me, and he's been living in the city ever since. He never lost touch with the village, though, and he and his fiancée decided to split the wedding ceremony into what they've, originally enough, dubbed as the city part and the country part."

"Wait, this guy's as old as us?" The Japanese teen blinked, surprised.

"No, he's about ten years older than me. He tutored me a lot and taught me how to Beyblade. The entire White Tiger team is kind of like his little siblings, really. So we're all participating in the ceremony."

"That's nice of him." Kenny grinned, closing his laptop and watching as Ray and Tyson chatted and played the "stupid game:" it was Tyson's turn, and for the life of him he couldn't spot a pair to cancel out. He promised himself that once this was over, he was never playing this game again. "You paired with Mariah?"

The blacknette shook his head. "Nope. She's with Kevin. Han let Salima be my pair, for the sake of keeping couples together and avoid any potential drama. Which, knowing Mariah and Salima as well as I do, they would start some stupid fight if they were swapped."

"Oh, Salima's going with you? Cool." Tyson commented, smiling when he found his next move and took it. "Is she flying with you tomorrow?" The tiger nodded.

"It's kinda funny how all these travel plans showed up at the same time, huh?" Kenny chuckled, biting his lip to not laugh when Ray once again schooled the dragon's ass in his next move. "I guess it's a good thing, though. Its better that we take just one week off for personal vacations than if we all took them off at different intervals. Could you imagine if your wedding invite was this week, Hilary left for her Grandparents the week after, and then Max and I went to New York the week after that? We'd lose so much training time!"

"Haha,you got that right, Chief," The brown-eyed champ chuckled. Then something his friend said dawned on him, and the pieces began to click in his head. "Hold up a second. What do you mean you and Max are going to New York?"

Ray raised a questioning "You didn't know?" eyebrow at him; Kenny sweated and dry-swallowed under Tyson's anger. "M-Max didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?" He asked and then hollered, "MAAX! Get over here!" As soon as the blonde showed up in the doorway, Tyson pointed an accusing finger at him. "You're going to New York?!"

The blue-eyed teen in a sleeveless t-shirt and running sweats nodded slowly. "Yeaah."

"And you're taking Chief?!"

"...Yeeeeah."

"Why didn't you tell me?!" Tyson demanded standing and knocking over the Mahjong game accidentally. A glint of fleeting happiness appeared in his eyes at what he'd done. Oh well, game over.

"I did...sorta." He fidgeted. "Remember three nights ago at dinner how I said my mom called?"

The dragon tried recalling exactly what his best friend was talking about. So much stuff happened in the Granger house- fights, pranks, beybattles, and other teenage nonsense- that it was hard to remember what happened when. "Yeah? Dude, I thought you meant like on the phone: calling. Not a 'Hey Max, it's Judy; come up to New York for a week and bring Kenny with you and ditch Tyson' kind of call!"

Max shrugged and smiled innocently. "Oops?"

"Why does Kenny get to go and not me?" The boy then frowned. "I mean, don't take this the wrong way Chief, but I'm your best friend, Max. Don't I get first dibs?"

The blonde boy shared Tyson's frown. "Well, what happened is that my mom's developing some new software that can be used for beyblading and she wanted me to run some trials with it for her. She said that she pictured it to be a perfect advancement for the Bladebreakers, and that if she finished it in time she'd let us be the first to use it. She also thought that Kenny would enjoy working on something big like a new program and battle system for the team, so she invited him up with me." He explained. His frown deepened when he saw that Tyson was only getting angrier.

"Thanks for telling me." The dragon growled, crossing his arms and looking away from everyone.

Max felt extremely guilty. "I'm really sorry, Tyson. I'm not lying." He apologized. "But...look on the bright side. You're not going to be completely alone. Kai and Hilary will still be around, and there's that kid that breaks in every Wednesday to fight a match with you. Di...Diachi, I think his name was?"

"Hah, Daichi's not my friend, he's just an annoying little pest that doesn't know the meaning of personal space and won't stop bugging me to fight him, even after I wiped the floor with him six times." Tyson scoffed, glaring at the window. "And maybe you haven't heard yet, because apparently we all suck at communicating things to each other on this team, but Hilary's packing to go visit her Grandparents this week too." Then the champ began laughing, sarcasm laced in his voice. "And Kai? Kai's never around! He's Kai: he only shows up when he feels like kicking our asses, training our asses, saving our asses, or for a beybattle!"

Ray was going to jut in and defend Kai's case, but Tyson brought up a pretty good point. As far as he recalled, those really were the only times Kai made his presence known to his team. Kenny didn't bother arguing with Tyson like this, because arguing with a hot-headed Tyson was as good as using ice to melt butter.

"You know what? Go ahead, I don't care! I'm perfectly fine with spending a lonely, crappy week here by myself! Go have fun at your parties and with high-tech toys!" Scrambling to his feet, Tyson stormed out of the dojo leaving three silent and guilty teammates in his wake. And for the rest of the day not a peep was heard from Tyson, and the house was silent.

In his bedroom, the dragon vented his steam by completely trashing his bed. He threw blankets, bedding, and pillows every which way. He jumped up and down on the mattress and stomped on it. He pounded and punched pillows to his heart's content. He abused it all until he was too exhausted to move anymore. After that, he spent what felt like hours staring at his ceiling and watching the sunlight as it changed colors with the day's progression. In reality, he spent a good two hours that way, with not a stable thought floating through his mind. On occasion, he found himself wondering why his entire team was ditching him to do exciting things, and why he was singled out with nothing to do. But those thoughts were only fleeting.

By late afternoon, Tyson was catching up on his latest Shonen Jump magazines and reading comics, one of his favorite pastimes. The navy-blue haired teen was making a rough sketch of a renowned blonde ninja when a familiar silhouette of a shadow passed through his bedroom wall against the sunset orange that shone in. He stopped scratching his pencil on the paper, listening closely for any sounds in the room two doors down. A faint click of an opening doorknob reached his ears and the Japanese teen smiled.

Springing to his feet, Tyson all but dashed to Kai's bedroom door, finding it ajar, and slowed to a stop just outside it. He regained his breath, toned it down back to normal, and acted as if he didn't just run down the hall to the Russian's room.

"Kai?" Tyson inquired, giving only a single knock on the door before intruding. "I saw you coming in just now. Where've you-?" He stopped when he realized that Kai was on the phone with someone, speaking in his native tongue. Since he wasn't in a hurry, Tyson stepped in and leaned on the door frame, fixing the hat on his head and crossing his arms loosely over his chest. He watched with a mix of amazement and confusion as Kai talked. Amazement because he'd never seen Kai talk so much at a single period of time. Confused because he didn't understand a lick of Russian. Tyson was more likely to understand Latin before he understood Russian.

Kai glanced over his shoulder from the closet and made no reaction to Tyson's entrance. The phoenix continued talking on the phone, rummaging through his belongings and carelessly tossing his articles of clothing over his shoulder and on the bed. The clothes, with surprisingly accurate aim, all landed in or near the vicinity of a suitcase. It was then that Tyson took notice of the suitcase, and next to it an airline ticket, passports, and other documents needed of air travel. Knowing he probably shouldn't, the navy-haired teen reached over and took the ticket to read. It was s flight for St. Petersburg, with a connection in Dubai...for tomorrow.

"How thrilling," He sarcastically sighed to himself. Tyson's previous anger bubbled at in the pit of his stomach, but it wasn't as terrible as before. Since he'd vented, most of that previous rage was replaced with sadness. Everyone was going away for the week. Even Kai.

The dragon failed to realize that Kai was off the phone and standing over him, not too happy with his snooping, but the boy didn't care. Looking up at his captain, Tyson gave Kai his ticket without a hassle. "You're going away for the week too?"

"That would be the case, if the ticket isn't enough of a hint already." Kai smoothly replied.

"Awesome. And what cool thing are you gonna do? Wedding party? Science lab tour for beyblading? Beach getaway with grandparents in the countryside?" Tyson wondered, frowning and pulling his hat off his head. He played idly with the lid, not making eye contact with the Russian. "Nah, yours is probably much cooler than that. A Russian space-station party for the queen. Or, or- here's a good one- meeting the president and racing in turbo-rocket cars that somehow relate to beyblading! Aw, who am I kidding...?"

Kai was intrigued, and his facial expression ended up betraying this to Tyson. While the champion wasn't paying attention, one of the phoenix's handsome eyebrows arched in question, and his head fell ever so slightly to the side. "You're not pestering me to find out where I'm going. You're not making up stupid excuses and death threats to prevent me from leaving. You're not asking me to come." He stated, ruling out items on Tyson's usual list of whining and complaining with him.

"It's just that Ray's going to Hong Kong for some big, fancy wedding of a friend of his and he gets to take his girlfriend with him. Obviously he's going to show off about it, but whatever. Once I get a girlfriend, she'll be five HUNDRED times hotter than Salima and then I'll show her off to him.

"Then Hilary shows up beginning of the week saying that she's gotta go visit her grandparents for some wedding anniversary of their own!" Tyson said, now ranting. "Because apparently living together for sixty years is a big landmark in a relationship." Kai mentally rolled his eyes at Tyson's carelessness. "But I honestly didn't care too much about that. It's just Hilary, right? Half the time she's bugging the crap out of us. But now Max and Kenny just told me they're going to New York! They didn't even invite me! And now you're going to Moscow!"

"St. Petersburg," Kai corrected with a hint of an accent.

"What the heck am I supposed to do all week with everyone gone? Train by myself all day? Hang out with Daichi? Bingo nights with Gramps?" The teen asked, frantically flailing his arms. "Homework? I don't do homework! I don't even remember the last time I went to school!"

Kai caught both of Tyson's wrists and the Japanese beyblading champ dropped his hat on the floor. Crimson eyes locked with chocolate brown, and the phoenix's cool demeanor got the dragon to relax. "I get it. No need for theatrics."

Staring back at crimson, Tyson's shoulders slumped and he let out a sigh of defeat. "Sorry Kai, it's not your fault. I shouldn't be yelling at you about it anyway." Pulling away from his team captain, Tyson quietly slipped out of the room. "Have fun in Russia. I'll see you at dinner."

The dual-blue haired Russian blinked away his shock, watching Tyson trudge his way back to his bedroom and shut the door behind him. His behavior really surprised him, to say the least. Tyson was typically crass, and held up an argument until he got exactly what he wanted- that argument would use any methods possible: crying, yelling, anything. Yet here was Kai, with no pounding headache from screaming, no urge to punch something from crocodile tears, and not pissed from arguing. Simply shocked.

He picked up the red and blue hat Tyson forgot from his floor and fixed it. He gave it a good look-over, then briefly glanced back at Tyson's bedroom door from the corner of his eye. Shutting his door, the phoenix set the hat on his bed beside his luggage and continued to pack his belongings.

At dinner, things were...quiet, to say the least.

Grandpa was oblivious to the tension, so he noisily ate away at Mandarin-style curry to his heart's content. Tyson was sitting beside his Grandfather and noiselessly poking around his food, not shoveling it all in one heap into his mouth. Hilary had dropped by around the middle of the afternoon to spend the rest of the day with the Bladebreakers and was sitting beside Tyson, absolutely stunned with the dragon's lack of appetite. Beside the girl was Kenny, drinking a tall glass of water, then Max, who was dousing his curry in a hot-mustard sauce Ray made to go along with the dish just for Max. He knew the blonde absolutely loved the condiment, so the least he could do was make it match the food he was eating. Lastly, the Neko-jin himself sat between Max and an empty seat eating his own cooking. Kai hadn't shown up yet, so they began without him.

"Ray my man, this has got to be your best work yet!" Gramps complemented, taking another hearty serving of curry and rice. "I could eat this hot stuff everyday!"

Ray chuckled as a grin danced on his lips. "Thanks, Grandpa. I don't make spicy food that often because not everyone's as fanatic about it as I am. But I'm glad to know that."

"Dude, you could make this everyday and my tongue could burn off, but I'd still eat it!" The elder man nodded, digging into his bowl once again.

"Now I know where Tyson gets it from." Max lightly joked, getting a few chuckles from the group and boisterous laughter from Grandpa. Tyson continued pushing his food around without a peep.

"Ugh, that's it!" Hilary snapped, setting her tableware down and pointedly glaring at Tyson. "What is with you today? Are you sick or something?" Kenny tugged at the girl's baby-pink sleeve, hoping to clue her in and stop her from talking too much. Obviously, it wasn't going to happen.

Eating half a spoonful of curry, Tyson blinked up in curiosity, pointing the spoon at himself. "Are you talking to me?"

Hilary's jaw dropped, "Yes you! What's wrong with you? You haven't said or done anything stupid since I got here, you're barely eating, and you're not wearing your baseball hat!"

"Pfft, Hil, that's ridiculous. Of course I'm wearing my hat..." The Japanese teen rolled his eyes, patting the crown of his head with confidence only to find it bare of a hat. "Huh, well whaddya know? Where'd my hat go...?"

"Tyson, for real, I know you're bummed, but this is borderline insanity for you." The brunette with pixie-short hair said.

"Sure, you can say that, because you're not the one that's being left behind for a week." The navy-haired bluenette sulked, messily mixing the hot contents of his bowl together into a mess of curry. "You're special."

Just as Hilary was about to retort with a not-so-merciful comment of her own, Kai came into the dinner room and walked straight up to Tyson. The red and blue hat in his hand, he sat it down on the champ's head and slid it down over his eyes. "Hey Kai, what gives?" Fixing his hat just as he liked it, Tyson was surprised to see a thick blue-and-white paper envelope in front of him, larger than usual mail envelopes.

"Pack your things," The Russian told him, prompting the teen to take the envelope. The ever-curious boy did. He opened it and found his passport and an airline ticket inside. "The plane leaves at seven tomorrow morning."

A bright smile appeared on Tyson's face as he read over the information on the ticket. "Is this for me?" Kai didn't answer the question; Kai never answered stupid questions. Hilary, Kenny, Max, and Ray leaned in to see what the ticket read. "What are we doing?"

"You'll know when you get there." The bluenette replied. He took the dish set out at his dinner place, served his meal, and returned to his bedroom. "Check-in says to be an hour and a half early at the least: don't make me regret this by sleeping in late right off the bat."

The giddy smile Tyson wore didn't leave, it only grew larger. "Aye, Aye, Captain Kai!" He could swear he heard the phoenix groan at the silly names he teased him with, but somehow he knew he'd slide from that one.

A/n: Kai being generous? IT'S A CLONE! Haha, I kid. Kai can be generous when he wants to. Remember that adorable, ungrateful cat from season three? I rest my case.

Review please! It's greatly appreciated!