Speechless

3: China Town (Part Two)

Persephone stirred, slowly regaining consciousness as she felt something warm pressed up under her cheek. Her eyelids fluttered open and she shifted a bit to see Kai looking down at her. She flinched before realizing she has fallen asleep and somehow moved to lay her head on his shoulder. She immediately sat up right, embarrassment flooding her cheeks with a rosy hue.

"I'm so sorry!" She whimpered, immediately casting her eyes down in preparation for his inevitable harsh words.

"It's fine," he said simply, turning his head and looking out the window.

It's fine...?

Persephone was taken aback by the lack of coldness in his voice.

She cleared her throat, deciding on not dragging on the situation, "So how much longer until we get to China?"

"Only a few minutes. You actually woke up on time for once."

Ah there it is.

She only nodded, fearing arguing would just make him angry. She didn't possess Tyson's courage in that aspect.

The plane landed and the beyblading team waited in the airport for news on their connecting flight. Tyson began complaining about needing to use the bathroom, while Kenny tried giving him directions, Max was laughing, Kai was standing across the room, leaning against the wall and Persephone was sitting  on the ground by herself, tugging at her shirt sleeve absentmindedly.

"Bad news kids," Mr. Dickinson sighed, snapping his cell phone shut, "Our connecting flight has been delayed so looks like we are stuck here for the night. I've already booked a hotel for us."

"Nice!" Tyson cheered, high-fiving Max and clapping Kenny on the back, "We get to explore!"

Kai groaned a bit and muttered an annoyed "whatever" under his breath.

"Persephone?" Mr. Dickinson said, causing her to look up suddenly, "Will you look and find us a restaurant to eat at? We could all use a hot meal."

Persephone smiled and held up her phone, "Already on it. There's a little restaurant a few blocks away."

The group headed to the restaurant, sitting at a round table while round after round of food came.  The team stuffed themselves full of food graciously paid for by the BBA, and eventually were left leaning back into their chairs and holding onto their stomachs, Tyson the most worn out. Ray, who was their waiter, smiled and got changed before joining them.

After the meal, Mr. Dickinson proceeded to fill in the team on the nature of the tournaments they'd be participating in, using dumplings as a method of demonstrating.

"We will choose three beybladers to fight each round. If we win two out of the three battles in each round we progress and hopefully win each tournament! Everyone understand?" He asked, moving the dumplings around representing the three players.

Before anyone could respond, Kai jumped in.

"So wait. Let me get this straight. Even if I win all my matches, we still don't advance unless these idiots pull their weight?" He growled, leaning forward against the table.

Persephone flinched ever so slightly, she could feel Kai's frustration radiating off of him from across the table. Tyson, Max and Ray all looked at him in shock, clearly offended.