Beyblade Burst Adventures

Whoops

In which Norman and Red Eye have to room together during the International Blader's Cup, and when Norman happens upon Red Eye's secret by accident, things get more than a little tense...

-----

"Red Eye, are you almost done in there?" I call, groaning softly and leaning by the door. "I am sweatier than hell. I need a shower."

"I just need a few more minutes!" He shouts back, but luckily I hear the shower shut off after a moment. I decide to wait, staying put and tapping my foot a bit.

Under normal circumstances, I would not be sticking myself with my worst enemy as my roommate, but... These circumstances aren't normal. Ashtem told us we would have to attend to International Blader's Cup alone or his secret identity may be revealed.

I had to pick the lesser of two evils- risk losing the Snake Pit, my only home, or spend a few weeks rooming with Red Eye.

Luckily for me, it turned out that the lesser evil wasn't really evil. Or even bad. He came up with a schedule almost right off the bat that made our lives even easier.
Since I can't motivate myself to get up earlier than 7:00 and he gets up every day at 5:45 (how he does I'll never know), we stop training at different times.

He decided that he could come back to the hotel room we're sharing, get his shower first, and then start dinner for us by the time I come back. The fact that he knows how to cook so well is absolutely astonishing to me, because he's only a little kid.

And it's super damn lucky, because Ashtem put us on a very limited budget so we don't have any 'repeats' of what happened the last time he sent me out. (You max out a card once on room service and you're suddenly 'so irresponsible'.) That's also why we have to share a hotel room, and a bed...

Anyway, the point is, he got back a little later than usual. Or maybe he took a little longer than he was supposed to. Either way, I'm stuck waiting on him to get out while stewing in my own stink. Fun.

"Red Eye, you have thirty more seconds." I groan, beginning to unbutton my coat.

"I just need one more moment, I promise!"

I roll my eyes, counting thirty seconds in my head then turning the knob and pulling the bathroom door open. I'm pulling off my coat as I do this, then I finally look up.

Red Eye covers his chest with a towel, but not before I see he's wearing a training bra. Even if I didn't see that, there's no hiding that his hair is much longer than it used to be- I thought it was just cut short at his shoulders... But now it's so long it reaches his thighs. He's wearing briefs, but that's the only thing that looks masculine right now...

I meet his gaze again, almost jumping in surprise and an eensy bit of fear when I see the nasty glare he's giving me, despite how his face has paled.

"Norman." He growls, but despite that his voice cracks and sounds like a girl's. "I asked you to give me a moment."

I freeze for just a second, then I realize I need to stop looking slap one hand over my eyes. "Shit, sorry! I didn't see anything!"

I back out of the room, pulling the door shut behind me. I stay put for a moment, hearing him muttering about me in Japanese, and what is definitely a girl's voice.

Someone help, I'm so confused...

After a moment or two the door opens and I jump back, meeting Red Eye's gaze again. He still looks pissed, and he's not trying to hide it.
He also looks how I'm used to him looking again, with his hair cut short at his shoulders- no, wait, it's tucked under the t-shirt he put on... And now that I've actually seen him in a bra, it's obvious that his chest is more rounded than it should be.

"You can go get a damn shower now." He suddenly huffs, then he brushes past me and adds. "I saved you hot water. Not that you deserve it, you impatient asshole..."

"Oh... Uh, t-thanks." I stammer, then I quickly go into the bathroom before things get any more tense.

---

When I get out I feel a lot better, and I feel like my head's cleared some. I still don't know what's going on with Red Eye, but it's probably best that I don't ask him.

"Dinner is ready." I hear him call, then I glance over to find him already sitting at the table with both our plates ready and filled with pasta, like always.

"Cool." I comment, sitting down and starting to eat. He starts eating, too, and over the course of the meal... A tense, dead silence hangs heavy over us. I mean, we're not the gossip girls while we eat, but it's usually not so quiet. We make passing comments or something.

Eh, wait, maybe gossip girls isn't the best reference...

I pause in between bites of the pasta car-whatchamacallit, glancing at Red Eye nervously. I can't tell if he's cooling off or not, but just in case, I decide to offer a comment. "The pasta's really kickass tonight, Red."

"... Thank you." He mutters, not even looking at me.

I don't say anything else.

A little after dinner, we're both sitting at opposite ends of the bedroom, biding our time until it's late enough to go to bed. Though, I think Red Eye is planning on kicking me out of the bed somehow.

Hmm... Maybe I should apologize to him before that. That might be what's bugging him...

I guess I should feel silly for feeling the need to apologize to my rival, but I have to live way closer to him here than I did in the Snake Pit. And who knows how long the International Blader's Cup will last, and we'll be free to leave... I don't have any choice, really.

Besides, Ashtem would have a cow if he knew I walked in on someone else while they were trying to get dressed. He might start giving my mission partners pepper spray or something.

I take a deep breath, squirming a bit in the chair I'm sitting in before I turn to Red Eye. "Uh... Hey."

He looks up from the hotel-provided book he's reading (some shitty romance called Never Alone Again), staring at me expectantly.

Well... Expectantly is the nice way to put it. Really, he's staring at me like, 'what the hell do you want?'

I swallow a little, then I gesture to the bathroom door across the room. (The hotel room is medium-sized-ish, with the bed on one end and the bathroom on the other.) "Er, a-about that whole ordeal earlier... I'm sorry. I, uh, should have been more patient..."

Much to my surprise and relief, his expression finally softens and he looks away. "Apology accepted... Just don't do it again."

"I won't, I swear." I say quickly, then he nods. I glance away awkwardly, my mind still buzzing a bit, and then before I know it my mouth is running again. "So, uh, what is the, um... I mean, why do you..."

I trail off when I look back and he's giving me that look, though it's not as bad as before. Luckily.

"That's... That's not anything you need to know." He crosses his arms over his chest a bit self-consciously, and I quickly nod.

"Right. Sorry."

At the very least, things are a lot less tense from there on, and by bedtime I have the fortune of not being kicked out of my half of the bed.

(Sorry it's so short. I had this on my tablet for a little while, and I thought I should post something.)