As Shark made his way down the road, he adjusted the bag on his shoulder. He grumbled anxiously as the light for the crosswalk turned red (right as he was about to cross- as usual). He looked down at his watch- 9:48. He was going to be late.
Imagine that, being late for something as petty as a sleepover.
But it wasn't just a sleepover. It was his first sleepover ever. And it just seemed just a tad inappropriate to be late for something like that. It wasn't in Shark's nature to be late to things, and even though a sleepover wasn't necessarily a big deal, he wasn't exactly sure how they worked, to be honest, and he could possibly miss something important.
Shark shook his head. It wasn't that big of a deal was it? He was only going to Yuma's for the day. They were probably just going to duel and maybe watch TV and duel. But mostly duel. Despite what Yuma had told him over the phone, Shark knew they were going to end up dueling. This was Yuma after all. He patted his deck reassuringly and continued down the street, his steps becoming more and more laborious. Shark rounded the corner and was standing at Yuma's door.
Was it normal to hyperventilate before entering someone's house?
Shark closed his eyes and took a deep breath before ringing the door bell.
Nothing.
Shark froze. Should I ring it again? Shark reached for the doorbell again, but the door opened instead. In the doorway a woman that appeared to be in her early twenties stood with a coffee cup in her hand. She had a long pink ponytail that hung lazily against her back and a pencil tucked behind her ear. She raised her eyebrows slightly at the sight of Shark in the doorway.
"Hey there, are you a friend of Yuma's?" She gasped and slapped her forehead with her hand. "That IDIOT, he's such an idiot!" the woman sighed and turned her head toward Shark again. "I'm sorry. Yuma's still in bed. You can come in if you want."
Shark gritted his teeth. This whole time I was worried about being late for this thing and he's not even AWAKE! Shark stepped inside and removed his shoes before following the pink haired woman into the living room.
"Uh, Ryouga-kun, right?" Shark wondered how she knew his name before she spoke again. "Yuma talks about you a lot," She explained. She gestured toward the couch. "You can sit right there if you want. I'll go and get Yuma." Shark complied, placing his hand in his lap before fidgeting nervously.
"Well, good morning to you, young man!"
Shark jumped and turned to see an old woman coming from the kitchen. He bowed politely and she laughed.
"My, are you sure you're a friend of Yuma's? You're so polite!" She patted him on the shoulder. "What's your name?"
"Ryouga Kamishiro,"
"And I guess you've met Akari?"
Shark nodded. "She let me in."
"And now you've met Obaa-chan," the old woman finished. "I'm Yuma's grandmother."
Akari came back into the living room, rolling her eyes. "He'll be down in a sec. I'm sorry my brother is such a dumbass."
Shark shook his head with a chuckle. "It's fine, I'm used to it. It's part of his appeal, I guess."
"If you say so," Akari returned to her spot on the couch cursing to herself for spilling hot coffee on her leg.
"SHAAAAAARRRRRKKKKKK!"
Yuma came bounding down the stairs, pulling his shirt over his head. He stopped next to Akari.
"Why didn't you wake me up earlier!" he whined. "you knew I had plans today!"
"So did you, stupid. Be more responsible!" she turned Yuma around and pushed him toward Shark with her foot.
Yuma chuckled, rubbing the back of his head. "S-sorry…. I kinda lost track of time," he explained. Shark pulled on his ears.
"Are you stupid? Wait, don't answer that. You're supposed to be prepared if you invite someone to your house!"
Shark left out the little bit that he was hoping that Yuma would have been there when he first arrived so that wouldn't have been so nervous about the whole ordeal.
It must have read on Shark's face, because Yuma put his hands on Shark's shoulders and looked down.
"I'm sorry, Shark," Yuma said quietly. "I….. I just…."
Shark sighed. "Yuma, it's—"
"I forgot that you were socially awkward," Yuma stated.
Shark turned three shades of red before he could function again. He glared at Yuma, seething.
"You're lucky," he spat. "You're are so, so damn lucky, that I changed my ways. No-I'd still kill you anyway. You're lucky your family is in here with us or I'd kill you. MURDER you. Cut your body into ten thousand pieces and then burn it." Shark let go of Yuma's ears and headed toward the door.
"aren't we supposed to be going somewhere?" he asked over his shoulder.
"What was that? I couldn't hear you because my eardrums are stretched out!" Yuma retorted. Still he followed Shark, rubbing his ears while he slipped on his shoes. "Obaa-chan, Akari, we're going out!"
"What, pray tell, are we going to do at the park today?" Shark asked, trailing behind Yuma. Yuma tapped his chin for a second before responding.
"I dunno! I just like being down here. Do you ever come down here to play?" Yuma slowed down so that he could walk next to Shark, who shook his head.
"I don't play," He answered flatly.
"Well, obviously you don't because if you did, you wouldn't ask what we were doing. You'd understand that you can just be at the park!"
Shark narrowed his eyes. "Stupid! If you knew that, then why did you ask me!" Shark could feel his ears turning red.
Yuma shrugged. "Rhetorically? Hey! Let's go bother Tetsuo!"
Shark watched Yuma run off in Tetsuo's direction, wondering if he even knew what the word rhetorical even meant. He shook his head and followed him.
"Get off of that! " Tetsuo growled. Yuma stuck out his tongue and waved Shark over.
"Hey, Shark! You wanna ride this with me!" Shark looked at what Yuma was sitting on before rubbing his temples.
"You do know that a skateboard is a single person thing, right?" Yuma shook his head. "So, you didn't know that? Well now you do."
"No, no, Shark! You sit on one end, and I sit on the other end and then we push it!" Yuma explained. Shark raised an eyebrow.
"Well, if you're pushing one end, and I'm pushing the other, then we won't go anywhere. Gosh, you're dumber than I thought." Shark sat down in the grass next to Yuma, who groaned.
"Great, now you sound like Astral!" he exclaimed. Shark rolled his eyes.
"If it means that much to you, I'll sit on the dumb thing," Shark sat awkwardly on the other end of the skateboard from Yuma so that they faced away from each other. "Now, what?"
"Hold on tight!" Yuma yelled before he began pulling their weight down the sidewalk. Shark clamped both hands to the end of the board to avoid falling over.
"Yuma is this even safe?" he asked, his voice showing more than a little fear.
"I'm pretty sure it is!" Yuma replied. He attempted to turn the corner, but he flipped the board instead, sending the two crashing into the grass. A few people passing by glanced at the boys and chuckled. Shark put his hands over his face before the entirety of the blood in his body rushed to his face.
Yuma laughed before reaching a hand out to help Shark up.
"Sorry, Shark!" he pulled Shark to his feet. "I lied."
"Obviously…." Shark mumbled, though the sound of Yuma's stomach cut off his sarcasm.
"Oh I didn't eat breakfast this morning!" Yuma gasped. "Hey, you wanna go eat lunch?"
"Sure," Shark replied. He turned towards Tetsuo and handed him the board. "You might wanna take this before Yuma destroys it."
"We're gonna go eat," Yuma dusted off his pants and stood straight. "You wanna come with us Tetsuo?"
Tetsuo shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I'll go with you. Where to?"
Yuma stood awkwardly. Shark shook his head for what seemed to be the millionth time today.
"He's obviously just making all of this stuff as he goes along."
"Booth seat! Booth seat!" Yuma was directing the party in the direction of the booth farthest from the door. Tetsuo and Shark sat down in the booth and waited for Yuma to bring back a menu. Yuma returned to the table and hesitated before sitting down.
"What?"
"Well, those girls over there were giggling when we walked in…" Yuma shrugged. "I'm wearing white pants, and, uh,I was wondering if I have a grass stain on my butt or something…."
"Well if you do it serves you right," Tetsuo said, taking the menu from his hands. "These are the kinds of things you should think about before you do dumb things."
"please look and tell me!" Yuma whined. "Please please?"
The two sighed.
"Turn around," Shark commanded. Yuma turned awkwardly in a circle before facing them again with a panicked looked on his face.
"You're all clear. Crap, that was a really girly thing to do you know," Tetsuo remarked. "You put our masculinity at stake. So as punishment you have to pay for lunch. Go get our burgers."
Yuma began to protest, but headed towards the counter instead. He returned a moment later with three paper cups in tow.
"We can go get our drinks before our food comes," he handed Tetsuo and Shark a cup. Shark and Yuma headed towards the fountains while Tetsuo set his skateboard against the wall. Yuma hummed to himself while he filled his cup with orange soda. Shark scoffed at his choice in drinks.
"Orange soda? Come on! You can have at least some redeeming qualities about yourself Yuma." Shark pushed the button on Coke fountain and reached for a straw. Yuma rolled his eyes and jabbed his finger at Shark.
"At least I'm not Mr. Predictable! Everyone drinks coke! Step out of the box!" Yuma grabbed a straw too. He huffed and stomped away. "I'll see you at the table you fatty!"
Shark rolled his eyes and shrugged a Tetsuo who raised an eyebrow at Yuma's childish behavior.
Yuma pouted in the booth while Shark waited for Tetsuo to fill his drink. When the two returned, Yuma made a point to huff at Shark who sat down across from him. Yuma pulled out his straw and shoved it down into his drink.
"You know what would taste really good right now?" Yuma scoffed. "Some ORANGE SODA."
"Yuma," Shark started, but Yuma continued.
"It's kinda the best thirst quencher in the world and it doesn't give you cancer like coke does!"
"But Yuma—wait, that's not even true!" Shark stated. "Well, anyway, you might want to get your straw,"
Before he could finish his sentence, Yuma took a long drink from his orange soda—that tasted a lot like Coke.
"What the heck?" Yuma looked at his cup, only to see that Shark had a hold of it, and was glaring at Yuma.
"Dummy, your cup is on the other side of the table. This is my Coke. I tried to tell you," Shark grumbled. He pulled the drink back towards him and took a sip. "Good Job."
Yuma pulled his straw out. "Sorry, Shark," he sucked the Coke out of the end of the straw and put it in his own cup. "I'll stop messing around. Oh, they called our order!" Yuma got up from the table and went to fetch the order, a trail of giggles following him. Yuma glanced warily at the girls before retrieving the tray.
He joined the other boys at the table and glanced at the table of school girls again.
"Those high school girls keep giggling at me," he turned towards the other boys. "Why do they keep doing that?"
Tetsuo reached for his burger. "Maybe it's because they keep getting to look at your face,"
Yuma pouted. Shark chuckled and punched knuckles with Tetsuo. Yuma grunted. He turned to look at the table again. The four girls were huddled together, whispering. Finally they broke apart and stood up. Yuma turned away quickly.
"Good, I think they're leaving," he took a bite of his burger, mustard dripping down his chin.
Shark handed him a napkin. "You might want to clean up. They're actually making their way over here."
Yuma took the napkin and looked up. The four girls were standing next to their table. They all looked at one another before one of them finally stood tall and opened her mouth.
"Um, excuse me…" she wrapped her long black hair around her finger. "Are… are you two..?" She gestured at Shark and Yuma. The two exchanged puzzled looks. The girl started again.
"Are you two sweethearts?"
Shark spit Coke on Yuma's face. Tetsuo laughed much louder than he should have in a public place.
"EW! EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW EW!" Yuma wiped the Coke off of his face and glared at Shark. Shark sunk down in the booth, his ears turning bright red.
The girl waved her hands frantically. "I'm sorry! It's just you two walked in together, and- and you looked really lovey and I—"
Tesuo laughed harder. Yuma began to turn red now.
"I- I didn't mean to offend…" The girl started, turning red herself. Yuma shook his head.
"It's fine," Yuma sighed. "It's fine. Shark and I are just really great pals, is all! We're such good friends that we look like lovers I guess? No,wait."
Shark wanted to die. Having someone accusing him of being in love with Yuma-Yuma of all people- was bad enough, but Yuma's rationale was even worse. 'Such good friends that they look like lovers?' Shark felt like vomiting out all of his entrails. That might be less painful than the rest of this experience.
The girl apologized once again and she and her friends left. Tetsuo laughed again. Shark looked down at his drink, suddenly intrigued by the logo on the side.
"Lovers? You guys are lovers? Kotori would love to hear this one!" Tetsuo wiped tears from the corners of his eyes. Shark glared at him.
"Don't. Tell. Anyone. About. This." Shark, still red faced, turned toward Yuma and spoke quietly, but pleadingly. "Can we please go?"
Yuma nodded quickly. "That sounds like a beautiful idea right now."
Testuo threw away the wrapper and sighed. "Alright. I'm done anyway."
The three left the restaurant hastily.
When they got to the end of the road, Tetsuo mounted his skateboard.
"Well, I guess I'll see you guys at school," Tetsuo stretched. "Today was fun. I hope the rest of your day is enjoyable….. lovebirds!"
Shark threw his shoe and a few odd expletives at Tetsuo's retreating figure along with the threat of death.
"Well, I guess you don't just suck at Duel Monsters," Shark mused. "You suck at every game known to man!"
The floor of Yuma's room was covered in board game pieces and instruction manuals. The two had played their way through Sorry and Trouble, and Battleship (the pair both decided that Monopoly was probably not the best idea given their personalities.), and Shark had won them all. Yuma groaned and lay back on the floor.
"That's because I let you win since you're the guest. Don't get a big head, Shark!" Yuma tossed a plastic tanker at Shark who swatted it away.
"Well, then play with your full potential," Shark put the boards back in the box and replaced the lid. Yuma reached around the older boy and grabbed two Wiimotes.
"How about a video game then?" Yuma tossed Shark on the controllers. "These kinds of games require actual brawn, so there's no way that I can lose! I mean, look at these guns!"
Yuma flexed his scrawny arms, only to elicit an eye roll from Shark.
"Just put in the game."
Thirteen arm-flailing, tennis-grunt-filled minutes later, Shark once again came out victorious. Yuma threw his remote at his treasure chest and pouted. Shark thumped him on the head.
"You're such a sore loser," he teased. "But let's stick to Duel Monsters okay?"
"Fine," Yuma stood up, rubbing his stomach. "Hey, do you want dinner?"
Shark nodded his head.
The two boys emerged from upstairs and bumped into Akari.
"Hey, I was just about to call you guys down, fancy that. We're having donburi for dinner," Akari pointed a thumb at her chest. "And I made it tonight!" she turned towards Shark with a wink. "I'm kind of the best cook in the house, so this is a real treat for you!"
Yuma furrowed his brow. "Shut up, Akari. You can't cook." He turned towards Shark with a frown. "She's kind of the worst cook in the house, so I'm sorry if you die."
Akari kicked Yuma's ankle. 'I'll have you know that I worked very hard on dinner, and yes it is edible and yes it does taste really yummy so there."
The trio sat down at the table and dug in after a chorus of 'itadakimasu!'
"Holy, crap," Yuma exclaimed. "Ten points for Akari today. I take back what I said."
"Yep, I told you! ~" Akari sang. She took a bite out her food too. "Ryouga?"
Shark nodded his approval. Yuma slammed his fists down on the table.
"Why do you suddenly gain cooking skills since I have guests over! Do you have the hots for my pal here?" Yuma turned "Hey Shark, I think my sister has a crush on you, so you should just come over everyday so she'll cook good food everyday and then I won't die of food poisoning okay?"
Shark eyed Yuma carefully. "How do you what anything you eat tastes like? You eat way too fast." Shark took another bite of his meal. "You're dumb."
Akari laughed at Yuma. "Even your friends know you're dumb!"
Yuma flicked a piece of rice at her. Akari flicked a piece of rice back before getting up to wash her bowl.
'Hurry up and finish, you two. I made mochi ice cream for desert."
Yuma looked pointedly at Shark. "See? This would never happen if you weren't here!"
Shark ignored him.
Yuma shook his iPod and frowned. "Crap, me again huh? Okay, I pick dare this time." He waited for the device to pick his challenge. "Smell your partner's sock. Ew." He turned towards Shark who shrugged and took off his sock. Yuma held it up to his face and inhaled. "Hey, your feet don't stink!"
"Only stupid people have smelly feet," Shark rationalized.
Yuma shook the iPod again and returned the sock to Shark. "Okay, Shark, truth or dare?"
"Truth," Shark grimaced at the thought of having to smell Yuma's socks.
"Okay," Yuma read the screen. "Who do you admire most?"
Shark froze. He put his head against his knee and closed his eyes before he exhaled heavily and sat up.
"That would have to be….. You."
Yuma's widened. "Me? Like, Yuma Tsukumo?" Shark nodded his head bashfully. "But, why?"
Shark sighed before rattling off the list in his head. "You're just… you. Like, you just do what you feel is right, and when push comes to shove, you think of other people. You're braver than most people, and you have an immense sense of justice. And everyone likes you—shut up, don't even try to protest. You have a 'power comparable to the sun'," Shark made air quotes at his last statement.
He exhaled again, this time lowering his voice. "You never cheat, or make petty desperate mistakes… like I do."
Yuma sat quietly for a few minutes before plastering a stupid grin on his face. He nudged Shark on the arm with his fist.
"Hey, what happened to your 'Yuma is an idiot' mentality?" Yuma crossed his legs and set his iPod on his knee. "You're putting a lot of pressure on a guy like me!" he turned toward Shark again. "But you know what? You made a mistake."
Shark sat up and glared at Yuma. "Hey, I'm—"
"You said do," Yuma interrupted. "You said 'like I do', when you should say 'like I did.' You're not the same Shark from before. You're Ryouga Kamishiro. You're a great person, and you know it. Don't like live in the past, okay! Hakuna Matata!"
Shark raised an eyebrow. "What happened to 'kattobingu'?"
Yuma waved his hand. "This is a totally different situation. Kattobingu is what you do when… eh…. Well, anyway, Hakuna Matata is like 'no worries!'" Yuma pumped his fist in the air. "So, 'no worries!'"
Shark laughed and grabbed the iPod off of Yuma's leg. "You really are an idiot. I changed my mind."
He shook the iPod. "Truth or dare?"
"Truth! I'm sick of dares," Yuma put his hands in his lap.
"What is something that you have always wanted to tell your partner but you never have?" Shark frowned at the question. Yuma didn't really have tact in areas like these.
Yuma stared at shark for a long time before bluntly stating, "You have a really cute face. Like a little kid."
Shark hit Yuma in the face with his pillow. "Well, that settles it. I guess it's time for bed."
Yuma whined like he so often did. "But we're supposed to stay up until past midnight!"
"It's already 2:15," Shark gestured at the clock. "So, I guess that means bedtime. I've got to go put on my pajamas anyway."
Yuma climbed up into his hammock. "Hey, Shark! You want to come up here?"
Shark shook his head. "I'm cool where I am, thanks." Shark snuggled into his sleeping bag. "Besides, I'm pretty sure that hammocks are a one person thing , and we just had a whole misunderstanding about our relationship at lunch today, so let's not push it, okay?"
"Okay…." Yuma deflated like a kid who wasn't allowed one more turn at a carnival game. He leaned over the hammock and giggled. "Is that a stuffed shark?"
Shark blushed and hugged it tighter. "Shut up, my little sister gave it to me."
Yuma sat up, intrigued. "Eh? You have a little sister?"
"Yes," Shark answered. "But this is a story can wait until tomorrow, so goodnight."
"uh, yeah, goodnight," Yuma turned toward the wall and mumbled. "That means you too, Astral."
The room was quiet for a while. Assuming that Yuma had finally conked out, Shark spoke again.
"I had fun today…."
"Me too," Yuma responded. With a yawn, Yuma added, "Let's do this again, okay?"
"Sure."
With everything finally off of their chests, the two fell happily asleep.