DISCLAIMER:

Me: I DO NOT OWN METAL FIGHT BEYBLADE OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS. But I wished I owned it; I never would've let Ryuga die. Instead, I'd let him jump across the stadium in the middle of their battle and headbutt Rago, which would hurt because of his headpiece. Then Rago would get knocked unconscious, Nemesis would stop spinning, then Ryuga would smash Nemesis under his foot. And he'd glare at Pluto, who would run away screaming like a little girl.

MWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! (Spins around in Evil Maniac chair, which is what I'm now calling the recliner.)

"Ryuga!" Kenta yelled, rounding a corner. Where is he?

It has been a good two weeks after he had discovered Ryuga unconscious in the park. So far, his mentor was not acting like an injured person. Quite the opposite, actually. He was restless and wandered around constantly; the farthest away he went from the house was to the Bey Coliseum outside of town, which was impressive.

"Hey, Kenta!" Osamu, Takashi, and Akira were heading towards him. The three bladers were always together, and Kenta admired how close they were.

"Hey, you guys," Kenta greeted them. "Have you seen Ryuga?" His friends each looked at him strangely. "Why are you looking for Ryuga?" Osamu asked him. "I thought he was dead," Takashi added. It was strange, how those three always talked in order...

"Don't tell anyone about him." When Ryo had said that the previous day, it was slightly confusing. Why shouldn't people know about Ryuga's return?

Kenta scratched the back of his neck. "Um... I was... talking about another Ryuga - my cousin's pet..." His eyes darted around, desperately scrambling for an appropriate answer, but his mind was a blank.

"Frog!" he exclaimed. "Yeah - I'm looking for my cousin's frog... named Ryuga."

Osamu exchanged glances with Takashi and Akira, obviously thinking the same thing - He's nuts.

Kenta didn't blame them. "He's a wild one, that Ryuga," he said.

They nodded slowly. Then, Akira piped up. "Wouldn't he be dead right now?" he asked.

"You don't know Ryuga." Why am I ending every sentence with "Ryuga?" He flashed them one last too-wide grin and continued down the block.

Then, he literally ran into Ryuga, who glowered at him threateningly underneath a baseball cap that the adults (coughRyoandHotarucough) had made him adopt. (A/N: I just love putting Ryuga underneath baseball caps; it's so fun!) The Band-Aid on his left jaw made him look more threatening. "I'm not a frog," he growled, clenching his still-bandaged hands into fists. "I hate frogs."

"I guess you heard that," Kenta said, laughing sheepishly. And is there anything you don't hate? he thought. "Time to go home. Mom's waiting." He stopped. "I meant - my mom, not... yours... You're mom... is... where?"

Ryuga scowled at him. "In a mental asylum."

Kenta stopped smiling. "No offense, but that's not very... funny." The dead-serious expression on Ryuga's shadowed face told him that he was not joking.

"Never mind."

The former blader snorted and shoved past him, stuffing his hands into his jeans pockets, lowering his head, and hunching his shoulders. The brief feeling of humor gone, Kenta suddenly got the feeling that Ryuga wanted to hide himself from the rest of the world.

Of course, Kenta thought dryly. I would too, if I was once an all-powerful blader who was feared and admired all over the world, who lost to some newbie blader and was knocked unconscious by one Special Move, then gave his Star Fragment to some puny kid, lost his super-awesome Beyblade, died, then somehow appeared out of the blue, only to ask for help from that same puny kid he had given his Star Fragment to.

Kenta knew that he was insulting both himself and Ryuga, but so long as Ryuga didn't hear it, he'd be fine. And Kenta, well, he was used to beating himself up.

The young blader followed the sound of Ryuga's heavy boots (he kept his old ones) thudding deliberately on the sidewalk, but he was so deep in thought that he didn't notice that Ryuga had stopped walking, and bumped into him.

The older teen whipped around to glare at Kenta once again, but this one faltered. "I... forgot how to get back to your house," he said, his voice almost a whisper. He tried to hide a microscopic flicker of embarrassment, but his voice quivered, giving him away.

Kenta resisted the urge to laugh, but he couldn't help it; a muffled guffaw escaped his lips before he burst into all-out laughter. He leaned on a mailbox to prevent himself from toppling over.

Ryuga muttered something inaudible under his breath, probably a curse. In the shadow of his cap, a rosy red tinge crept across his face, but Kenta wasn't sure - he was too close to tears.

Out of both of them, Ryuga always had the best sense of direction - in the untamed wilderness, anyway - as he could scale and jump cliffs without a moment's hesitation, and find a city in the middle of nowhere. Put him in a tiny maze of a city - full of noisy people and an assortment of smells and sounds and sights - and he's lost. Anyway, it was hilarious to think about.

"It's not funny," Ryuga muttered, as Kenta stopped laughing and bent over to catch his breath.

"Y-Yes it is!" Kenta said, trying to ignore the people staring at them in confusion.

"Now you're just getting carried away." Ryuga put a warm hand - rough with bandages - on Kenta's forehead and shoved him off the side of the mailbox. The younger boy landed on his rump onto the sidewalk, still grinning hysterically.

Ryuga huffed, turned on his heel, and stalked away, shoving past people who glared at him indignantly.

Kenta, still on the ground, pointed to the opposite direction. "House's that way." He watched in amusement as his mentor turned around once again and stormed past him. This time, the deep red blush on his cheeks, ears, and neck was unmistakable, even under the cap.

"I knew that."

I love messing with Ryuga... just as much as I love putting him in baseball caps and opened button-down shirts! He's smexy! -^.^-