They were noisy and really getting on his nerves, he was busy berating himself for actually agreeing to come to this party. Although it was Kenta who had twisted his arm;

'After all what else would you do tonight?'

He had just looked at the shorter teen and replied; 'Sleeping,'

Kenta just looked at him, unsure if he was being serious or not, but he should have known that Ryuuga of all people was always serious. So he made it his own personal mission to get him to come to the party that was being held tonight, after all it was New Years and they were all friends now, it made sense for him to be included in it.

'Just come with us, you'll enjoy it!' Kenta wouldn't give up; it was his spirit that had so impressed Ryuuga that he had given the younger teen his star fragment, turning him into a Legend Blader but the older teen did find that Kenta wouldn't give up on getting him to go, so he agreed.

He found they were all rather loud as they got on board the train, but if Ryuuga was honest with himself he had liked it, for a moment he had felt like he had been part of the group and he had also found that when Kenta spoke to him so did Yu; which was rather nice since the blonde haired boy had been afraid of him ever since the incident with Reiji.

Although Ryuuga had never really been much of a talker, he was always good at listening and he could tell that the two teens were overly excited about tonight, considering it was their first time being able to go somewhere else to celebrate New Year's.

"What did you use to do for New Years?" Yu asked him, starling him for a moment as he managed to switch the conversation to what they were going to do tonight to bring it to him.

"Nothing," He told them with a shrug.

The two looked at him like he was an oddity of some kind; both thinking that surely his family must have done something for New Years?

He could see the question forming in their heads and he decided to spare them the chewing out they would get from either Madoka or Tsubasa who were close enough to make sure that nothing bad would happen within the trio, given that although Ryuuga may have proven himself worthy of their trust, certain things like his almost killing Ryo or him draining Tsubasa's, Kyouya's and Hikaru's bladers spirit doesn't just go away so easily, he could still be devious if he wanted to and it made them weary of him, even if he had been instrumental in that finale battle against Nemisis.

"I was too young to celebrate it, then Doiji raised me," He shrugged and Yu's blue eyes widened, surprised by this omission and he began to back away from him, as though the name of that man would bring back the darkness that had caused Ryuuga to be so out of control before, when they had both been part of Dark Nebula.

Kenta instantly became aware of the sudden change, as had Tsubasa who called Yu over for something. Ryuuga noticed that the long haired teen seemed protective of Yu and he was glad to see it; he might not have been overly fond of the Eagle blader, although he was sure that the other wasn't fond of him either it didn't matter though, in the end they were now on the same side and all the distrust in the past was well and truly behind them. At least Ryuuga thought so, but with Tsubasa being a spy he wasn't completely sure.

"Doiji never…" Kenta began to say, but Ryuuga didn't want to be reminded of the past, least of all the past with that man.

"Doesn't matter, I never celebrated it. No reason to, why should I care about the next new year when I had L Drago?"

"Because it's a new year," Madoka said softly, moving to join them, sitting next to Kenta and just looked at him; "It's a way to say good bye to the old year and welcome the new, hoping that it will be better than the last,"

"The year we all just had? This new year will be better," Ryuuga scoffed, he had never really been overly spiritual, and in fact he could just about remember a time when his family had been all together and happy but he couldn't remember what time of year it was. He supposed it might have been around this time of year, but he kept pushing the memory away after all he hated to be reminded of his past; of his failings.

The brown haired girl scowled at him; "I was just trying to help, you don't have to always be so serious all the time,"

"Maybe this is how I actually am," Ryuuga pointed out and she sighed in defeat.

"Yea, I guess you are," She looked over at Kenta, wondering how the two of them became friends to begin with, since they were so different;

Complete opposites…

"Oh, I forgot to say, Yuki and some of the other's will be meeting us…" Madoka trailed off when the train came to a sudden stop and the lights flickered for a moment, she looked up and then at the others; "What…"

It seemed that everyone began to panic, even just for a moment, though Ryuuga just remained where he was; he too was unsure of what was going on but he was certain that something would happen, after all where was the sense in panicking? They couldn't do anything about it and they were also in a tunnel.

As they heard the driver on the radio explaining what had happened, a power shortage and they would have to wait for some people to fix it.

"We're going to miss it," Ginga said as he looked at his watch, they had over an hour to go until midnight, but considering how long the train ride was they would miss the whole celebration.

"Calm down," Tsubasa said and looked at everyone in the carriage; "There is no point in worrying about something that is completely out of our hands, we just need to trust that the train will get moving again when those guys come to fix whatever's wrong,"

"Isn't the point of this celebration about being with friends?" Ryuuga injected and every one of their group turned to look at him, or more to the point stare at him; after all he wasn't exactly big in the whole friendship ideal.

"He does have a point," Yu said with a slight nod which surprised Ryuuga as much as everyone else.

"Well, if we can't get there we can celebrate on here," Madoka added; "I mean it might not be all of our friends, but that doesn't matter,"

"And we all brought food with us," Kenta pointed out and it was settled, they would celebrate the New Year with a party on the train.

They were lucky that the train wasn't busy, in fact they were the only people in that carriage so they could celebrate in peace and not worry about annoying others, though over the course of time some people wandered in, wondering what was going on and found that the group of friends were all having a party to themselves, although Yu made sure everyone came in and joined them

It wasn't that bad, Ryuuga found that, although there was more people than he was used to socialising with he could still do what he always did, listen.

He found himself learning a lot more about people than he had first thought he would, in fact a woman just started to pour her heart out to him which was unusual and strange; however Kenta had pointed out that now that he no longer wore his dragon crown and the large dragon shaped holder he was more approachable or in Kenta's own words;

'You're more human now.'

Ryuuga hadn't been sure what to make of that comment at the time, but right now as a strange woman just talked to him, expecting nothing more than an ear to listen to her woes of the last year he found himself understanding what he meant.

I guess this is what he means. Normally Ryuuga would have snapped and told her to pull herself together and been rather harsh, but he didn't. Maybe it wasn't just to others that were affected by him no longer wearing the symbols that made him the Dragon Emperor, but if also affected him too.

The woman thanked him and then walked away, wiping her tears from her face and to his surprise Madoka sat next to him, passing him a can of fizzy pop.

"That was a nice thing you did," She told him with a soft smile on her face, pleased to see that Ryuuga could be normal around other's and not the intimidating blader than he normally was; although now that she thought about it, Ryuuga didn't have such an aura around him anymore.

"I didn't do anything, just listened to what was being said," He shrugged, trying not to make a big deal out of it, after all he was just listening to what the woman had to say nothing more to it.

"But you listened to her, and she needed it," Madoka said simply; "Regardless of what you think it's still a nice thing,"

Ryuuga just sipped his drink, but said nothing more about it and Madoka got the hint standing up to go and talk to Ginga when he finally spoke to her;

"I'm not who I used to be," He said it softly and she struggled to hear what he said, but once she figured it out she returned to sit next to him.

"Well yea, but it's all right, it means you are changing…" She paused and reconsidered what she had said; "You are growing as a person,"

He frowned and thought over this for a moment, wondering if it was a good thing for him to change, to grow into something else.

Is it possible for me to grow as a person? Hasn't my time with Doiji stunted that? Everything I have learned from that man was beyblades and being ruthless… although L Drago also aided me in that. Can a person change…

He flinched when he felt a soft hand touch his arm and looked into blue eyes that were full of concern.

"Don't think so much about it," She advised him.

"How can't I? This isn't me…" He looked at his hands; "None of this is me…"

"No, this is you," She insisted; "The Ryuuga of old, the uncaring and unfeeling blader that almost killed Ginga's dad is gone, and he was slowly going when he took Kenta under his wing,"

Ryuuga stubbornly stopped looking at her, refusing to believe that he could really change that much all due to…

"That near death experience," Madoka paused a moment, glancing around herself to make sure no one else was listening, no one liked to talk about that day, but right now she felt it had to be said; "I think it's made you realise that life as it was before just wasn't worth it,"

He nodded; "Yea… You know that whole cliché saying? My whole life flashed before my eyes?"

"Yea,"

"All I saw before my eyes was regret," He leaned back and sighed; "Only regret… For leaving home, being found and trained by Doiji…"

Madoka listened to him, realising that Ryuuga had never truly spoken to anyone about his past before, what he had said to Yu and Kenta was just the tip of the iceburg, his entire past had never been spoke about and here he was opening up to her; opening up. However he stopped himself from saying anything else, not wanting her sympathy, or pity.

"Ryuuga, we're friends," She began to say.

"Yea, yea, friends helps…" He rolled his eyes; "The amount of times I battled Ginga, I know this friendship speech, you don't have to go on about it,"

"No, I mean that… If you want to talk to someone I will listen," She smiled at him, trying to reassure him that she wasn't lying; "If you want to talk to me that is,"

He just looked at her for a moment, when Ginga, along with Kenta and Yu began the count-down to midnight.

It's time to change Ryuuga… L Drago whispered into his mind and he smirked, remembering something that he had seen in one of those sitcoms that Doiji used to watch.

"I accept your offer," He whispered into Madoka's ear and she jumped, not expecting him to reply and then she got another fright, when he gently placed his lips on top of hers as soon as the countdown was done and the New Year was now ringing out.

As everyone cheered the train began to move forward, causing everyone to cheer even louder, as Madoka slowly broke the kiss and just looked at him in wonder;

"R… Ryuuga…" She blushed, not knowing where to look and not knowing what to think after all Ryuuga had just taken her first kiss.

A kiss that she had thought that would belong to Ginga, but right now she wasn't so sure that the first kiss should have been Ginga's.

"Happy New Year," He told her with a grin, standing up and moving to join Kenta, who was turned to give him a hug, much to everyone's surprise Ryuuga hugged him back and then allowed a hyper Yu to hug him as well, ruffling his hair.

I think he will be all right. Madoka thought with a smile, glad to see that Ryuuga was going to try and change into someone better than he was before; This might just be his year to shine.