Ryuga x King

Overworked

(Author's note: You can all see the title, so I'll explain: I don't know what possessed me to write a shipfic of Ryuga and King. Well, I sort of do. For those of you who read Bey-Mong Us, you know King's crush on Ryuga originated there as a sort of running joke. Well, it slowly started to be less of a joke and more of a dynamic I genuinely enjoyed so I decided to write about them meeting in real life. It was always going to be set after the first two Ryuga stories but then I realized I had a lot of things from L-Drago's Return I wanted to follow up on or go into more depth with. So I decided to put that stuff here and the story ended up being over two hundred pages long (on Google Docs at least). So yeah, I hope you enjoy it!)

(PS: If you're homophobic, gladly leave or get blocked. Thank you :)

Ryuga's POV

"Special move! King lion crushing fang!"

L-Drago and Leone were in the middle of a fierce clash when the wind suddenly picked up, swirling into a tornado and flinging L-Drago into the air.

Ryuga gasped in alarm. "L-DRAGO!"

Leone threw itself at L-Drago. There was a burst of wind, nearly knocking Ryuga off his feet. A bey was thrown into the air. Ryuga looked around wildly. Behind him, a motionless bey slammed into the sand. At first, Ryuga didn't believe it, but the bey before him was L-Drago. He bit back a gasp, his eyes wide. Behind him, Gingka, Kenta, and Madoka gasped, staring at Ryuga with their jaws agape.

"I... I did it..." Kyoya's voice trembled with happiness as he retrieved Leone.

"You did it, Kyoya pal!" Benkei threw his arms around his friend, who seemed too stunned to push him away.

Then Kyoya looked up at Ryuga, smirking. Ryuga's eyes narrowed. He was bristling with rage, too wretched to speak.

"Ryuga...?" Kenta took the first step toward Ryuga, reaching a tentative hand toward him.

Ryuga grabbed his bey. "This isn't over," he growled, moving Kenta out of the way as he walked away.

"Ryuga?" Kenta trailed after him. Madoka and Gingka joined him, all of them staring at Ryuga in worry.

"Are you okay?" Madoka asked.

"Ryuga?" Gingka rested his hand on Ryuga's shoulder. Ryuga pushed Gingka's hand away and sped up, his head bent low in shame as he clutched L-Drago. *How... How could I lose?! I never lose! I'm not supposed to lose!* Ryuga gazed at his bey. *I am weaker now...*

"Ryuga, please talk to us," Kenta insisted, reaching toward him.

"Shut up."

Kenta flinched back.

"Don't talk to Kenta like that!" Madoka gasped, stiffening with anger.

"Madoka..." Kenta's voice slipped into a sob. "Just... just leave him alone." All three of them fell silent after that.

Ryuga's fist clenched around L-Drago. He bit his trembling lip as his heart blazed with rage. *How could you lose to him?! You've beaten him before, what went wrong this time?!* Ryuga bit his lip, glaring at L-Drago Guardian. *So it's true... I am weaker now.*

He glared at Kenta, who was staring down at the ground. Whatever anger Ryuga felt toward him faded. *My weakness isn't his fault, it's only mine...* Ryuga's eyes narrowed. *I'm not weak! I just have to train harder! I won't let myself lose again!*

-----------------------

After a sleepless night, Ryuga went upstairs the moment he spotted the slightest hint of daylight. Kenta's mother was already upstairs as well. She was sitting at the kitchen table in front of her laptop, meaning she had either stayed up all night writing or woke up early to write. *I'm not sure which is worse.*