DISCLAIMER:

Miyako: DragonFang2011 doesn't own Beyblade: Metal Fight and blah blah blah can I go now?

Me: That's not really nice.

Miyako: You created me to be like this. I'm just being the character you want me to be. I WAS BORN THIS WAY, BABY!

Ryuga: O.o That's not weird at all...

Chapter 10: New Friendships

After we turned Doji in to the police, we ran into Gingka... again. Seriously, these guys can't give me a break.

"Hey, Lucky!" Madoka chirped. The others just chuckled.

I blushed. "Don't call me Lucky!"

"Aw, but it's such a cute nickname!" she countered.

I glared at my mother. "Thanks a lot, Mom. You made me look bad!"

Miyako raised an eyebrow. "I thought you already had that covered, Dragon Fang."

"Shut up." She just stuck her tongue out at me.

"Is she your sister?" Benkei asked.

"Sadly," Miyako and I sighed simultaneously.

"Can't you see the resemblance?" Miyako asked.

I felt a vein throb on my forehead. "Miyako... No one can see a resemblance but you."

Ryo looked from me to Miyako. "Oh, I see the resemblance all right."

"Kids," Mom scoffed, fingering the handle of the frying pan, which hung loosely from its usual spot.

Ryo agreed with her, which caused Gingka, Miyako, and I to turn to both adults. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

Then, they started discussing us. Like those times when Miyako and I "looked so cute in the bathtub," or when "Gingka used to try to put his big toe into his nostrils all the time," and other embarrassing baby stories that made us cringe and blush until we had tears in our eyes. (A/N: Yeah, that happens to me when I blush).

When the three of us have had enough, we shoved out respective parents into the B-Pit and out of the public eye.

And the public eye was having a grand time laughing at us.

"Mom, you completely smashed my reputation!" Miyako and I yelled.

Gingka was pretty much sulking in the corner, cultivating mushrooms or something.

"Come on, kids," Mom ruffled our hair. "Can't we adults have fun?"

"No!"

My mother raised her frying pan and I shrank away. Trust me, being smacked anywhere with a frying pan feels terrible.

There was this one time when Mom hit me hard right... there. That area where the edge of a frying pan should never go.

I winced at the memory. It felt like I straddled the top of a fence... HEY! I WAS NINE!

Ryo was trying to get Gingka out of the corner, grinning all the while. When the flame-haired teen refused to budge (and I could totally agree with him), Ryo gave up and went upstairs.

Mom followed him, and soon, they started chattering about random subjects, and laughing.

"Now people have no respect for me!" I growled.

"You're just gonna have to strike back, tenfold," Miyako said, leaning against the counter beside Kyoya and Benkei.

"It's not that simple," Kyoya pointed out, smirking.

"Yeah," Kenta said, nodding. "Remember the burger restaurant?"

"Not that again!"

Benkei and Madoka started giggling.

Miyako got that evil glint in her eyes again. "What burger restaurant?"

So Madoka told her about Benkei and Kenta's burger fight, then how her wrapper fell, and how someone (pointed glare at Gingka, who didn't notice) knocked a glass of lemonade onto her back, and how she danced around, trying to get the ice out of her underwear.

Then Benkei butted in with the "Ryuga laughed so hard that his ice-cream shot out of his nose and messed up one of my burgers" part, along with "BU-BU-BU-BULL!"

Madoka finished with, "Everybody started laughing too, when he started hitting his head on the table, saying 'Brain freeze' over and over again, out loud."

By then, I was shoulder to shoulder with Gingka, in the corner, sulking. Was I really that loud?

"You know," Miyako said. "That sounds exactly like the old Ryuga, the one I grew up with."

"Really?"

I slowly turned my head around, glaring at Miyako. When she glared back, I turned my attention back to the wall.

The only one not joking around was Kenta and Kyoya, and of course, me and Gingka.

"Hey you guys," Kenta said loudly. "Wanna battle?"

That got their attention. "BU-BU-BU-BULL! Yes!" Benkei charged out of the shop, followed by Madoka, and more slowly, Miyako and Kyoya.

It weirded me out how Miyako was so much like the Leone-wielder.

Kenta turned back. "Come on, you guys! Hurry up!"

Gingka and I reluctantly stood up and trudged after her. We kept our heads down, walking side by side as we passed a lot of people who just stared.

Gingka eventually relaxed, had folded his arms behind his head.

"Thanks for changing the subject back there," I muttered to Kenta.

"No prob. What are friends for?" Then, he flinched, as if expecting me to say something cruel and smack him.

But I didn't say or do anything.

It's been a long time since I knew someone who watched my back and worried about me. When I was traveling with Kenta, I realized how much he cared about me, like how he didn't want me to go back to the bad side, and battled me just to prevent me from doing the wrong thing.

He was my friend.

I was starting to consider the others as my friends as well, strangely. I've grown to be more comfortable around them, and somehow, I had enjoyed it.

The feeling of friendship was nice.

Then, I did something unexpected. I said, "Yeah. Friends," and ruffled Kenta's hair. Gingka and Kenta stared at me, surprised.

And they smiled at me, friendly grins that were worth more than a thousand words.

I smiled back.

Yep, told you so. Totally OOC.

But I thought it was a sweet ending to this chapter.