This is a shorter story I wrote while having a really problematic creative block. It has quite a few imperfections, but it's still something, and I'll learn from the experience. As always, thank you to Milliekou for the feedback, and equal credit because this is her au, too. She can be found at .com and .com. I also have another fic I can post sooner or later that's better than this, I think, but needs some things added first that I have to wait for. I'll try to be more active.
If Mariku could only have one superpower, he often thought he would choose the ability to stop time. There were many reasons for this. Sometimes, it was because he was having a bad day, and wanted some time to breathe and calm down instead of putting the source of his anger's face through a wall. Other times, such as lazy mornings – or any morning, really – it was because he didn't want to get up and go to work. But during the good times, and this morning was one of them, it was because he wanted to make some moments last forever.
Mariku slowly drifted back into consciousness after a particularly good night's sleep. He'd dreamt he was back in Domino City with Ryou, not long after they met. Back then, when they were friends, they'd spent a lot of time going to places and learning about each other's personalities and interests, and the dream was a jumble of different, sometimes mixed memories, seamlessly blending somehow from one into the other. The visited a museum, and played a special single player Monster World adventure that Ryou prepared. Then it was summer, and they indulgently ate ice cream in Ryou's apartment as they sat under the air conditioner and laughed about Bakura getting sunburnt and turning red, forgetting he no longer had skin that would tan well. After that, it suddenly became winter, and they were sat under the kotatsu, excitedly discussing collector's editions of the year's horror films that were coming out on VHS and VCD before then, before turning their attention towards the year after and the films they were looking forward to. Powerful waves of nostalgia washed over him as he slipped through the different times and places, so he woke up in a good mood, refreshed by his dreams and ready to face the present.
That said, he couldn't quite bring himself to move right away. He was very warm and comfortable in bed, and Ryou lay next to him, breathing deeply and steadily as she continue sleeping. She lay on her side, facing him, and curled up a little bit. He contemplated sitting up and checking the alarm clock, but decided after a moment that he was far too comfortable where he was. The light coming through the curtains told him enough. He closed his eyes and settled back in, returning slowly to a half-asleep state. Ryou woke a little while later, yawning and sitting up. She propped herself up with one arm, which a bra strap slipped down onto, rubbing her bleary eyes with the other hand. The sound woke Mariku, who turned to face her, keeping still and comfortable otherwise.
"Hmm...You should stay in bed longer." He remarked, staring up at her with one open eye.
She smiled back at him sympathetically. "Ah, but I'm awake now. If I stay in bed, I'd be wasting the day. You're just trying to get me to lie back down with you because you don't want to get up yet, aren't you?"
"Guilty as charged." Mariku admitted, smirking. Ryou sighed and got out of bed, stretching her stiff muscles. His eyes followed her as she did, tracing the curves of her body and lingering in one or two places Ryou might have jokingly admonished him for staring at so obviously.
"You know," she said, walking over to Mariku's side of the bed and standing over him, holding out a hand, "If you get out of bed now we can shower together." Mariku considered the remark for a moment, eyeing her up, then sighed and sluggishly rolled out of bed. "When you put it like that, getting up doesn't sound bad..."
Ryou had to admit she felt a little bit pleased. Mariku would often rather stay in bed on a weekend than get up, even if she told him he should get up and take advantage of the free time. However, she always found appealing to his libido was reliable option, and was happy to know she still had it. The pair stripped and went into the shower, Mariku perking up considerably, but he left first to go and make breakfast while she conditioned her hair, losing track of time as she washed and listened to the calming white noise of the water. She wondered how Mariku was able to have such soft hair despite its shape, especially when he never seemed to worry too much about taking care of it.
After Ryou finished and dried off, she went into the kitchen to see how the food was going. Mariku heard her come in and quickly finished up, presenting two trays of complete breakfast, with miso soup, rice, cooked salmon and vegetables. She noted with some pride how far Mariku had come with Japanese cuisine, remembering his early attempts as cooking ending with messes and burnt food – and burnt Mariku, once or twice.
"That smells good..." Ryou commented, licking her lips.
Mariku smiled. "I hope so. We're out of rice..."
They sat down to eat and slowly made their way through breakfast. On the TV, which Mariku switched on as they ate, a woman spoke about the coming week's weather. From the windows, the soft pitter-patter of rain could be heard as drops fell against the windows. The forecast declared the rain was expected to last most of the day and continue the day after, though the week was expected to be blazing hot. Typical.
Mariku, sat cross-legged, slumped a little and frowning. He'd been hoping for clear skies. The weather forecast had previously been uncertain, but today had switched to certain rain. A glance out the window confirmed it, too. He'd planned with Ryou to take advantage of the weekend and have a picnic, if the weather had only held up. He was going to prepare their meals and everything.
Ryou spoke up. She had a habit of seeming to read his mind. Often, before he even said what he was thinking, she seemed to understand what he was feeling. "It's alright." She said. "We can have that picnic another time."
Mariku looked over at her, a little sullen. "I wanted to do it today. I was...Looking forward to it."
Ryou smiled sympathetically and shuffled closed to him, leaning in to him as if to remind him to stay with her in the present rather than lingering on what might have been. "Me too. But maybe we can something else instead? You can make the picnic food, and we'll find some things to do here."
Mariku perked up a little. "What did you have in mind?"
"How about board games and films? Ooh, we can dig out a few we haven't played in a long time."
She jumped to her feet and walked over to the closet, opening it and digging through its contents. She made sure to bend over more than was strictly necessary to give Mariku a nice view to take his mind off their spoiled plans, and, she had to admit, because she did enjoy showing off to him a little bit too. She carefully rearranged things in the closet as she searched through it, and pulled out a set of colourful boxes, and several VHS tapes in their cases. She returned to the table, where Mariku sat kneeling, his tray in his lap, and set the tapes and boxes down. The boxes contained several board games, from simple ones like snakes and ladders to more elaborate ones like a mystery game she'd bought and never had the chance to play. "Do you remember these? I don't think we've played these since...It must have been not long after we met." She asked.
"Why do the snakes make you go down, anyway?" Mariku asked, sliding his figure down the board.
Ryou shrugged. "I don't know...Maybe they just thought the name was catchy. It could be anything."
"But you don't go down a snake as if it's a slide. Is it...Getting eaten and sliding down its body as you're digested? But then, wouldn't you just burst out the other end and remove it from play?"
Ryou chuckled. "You're reading too much into it. You asked that the first time we played this back then, now that I think about it."
She rolled her die, landing on a five.
"Oh, I remember that." Mariku said, chuckling. "And I couldn't see the point of this game because whether or not you win is mostly luck. But it might be better that way."
"Why is that?" Ryou asked, advancing her figure. It was a little big for it, but she'd used miniatures of her white wizard and Mariku's diabolist that she'd made as their pieces.
"Don't you remember that time we had Malik and Bakura over for...What was that game? You go around somewhere in England and buy property." Mariku frowned and scratched his head, trying to remember the name.
"Oh, that's right! She hated that game!" Ryou replied with a grin. "We spent the whole game trying to sabotage each other's short term efforts.."
"I wanted all the stations." Mariku smirked, though it quickly turned into a slight frown. "And I'd have gotten them, too, if it wasn't for you and Malik."
Ryou nodded. "But there's only four of them. Getting as many of the other locations as possible is better. If you can get all of a group, you can make a deadly zone for all your enemies."
"Tch, I know that too well. Bakura...He spent the whole game letting us pick at each other while he quietly collected properties and built on them. Haha, he bankrupted Malik. Do you remember her rage?" Mariku laughed. "She got so frustrated, I almost thought she was going to spawn another me. She really hates this game, too."
"There's no strategy!" They quoted in unison, laughing.
Mariku wiped a tear from his eye, picturing Malik's face that time, redder than he ever thought she could get, fuming at her defeat. She'd turned out to be an incredibly sore loser outside of Duel Monsters.
"I used to get angry with that too. Do you remember the first time you introduced me to Monster World? I tripped down an old well, hit every outcrop along the way, landed in a slime at the bottom, got infected by rats, and then stumbled across a bandit den on my way out, all before I got remotely close to the town the story was meant to start. I only wanted a drink!"
They played board games for a while longer, talking and laughing about old times. Ryou related previous gaming disasters, much to Mariku's amusement, and they joked about previous games with Malik and Bakura, and Ryou's early attempts to get Mariku interested in non-violent hobbies. Mariku was greatly amused at the thought of Bakura keeling over because a figure on the table beat a boss in his shadow game. Afterwards, they made their way through the other games. Ryou thoroughly enjoyed getting into characters as a variety of NPCs in a mystery game, while Mariku grew frustrated but also intrigued as he tried to solve the murder, eventually giving up and tampering with the evidence to kill off an NPC he didn't like, deciding that the murder victim seemed to deserve it so it was fine. The rain continued throughout the day, becoming heavier or lighter at times, but Mariku stop noticing it, becoming completely engrossed in the fun he was having with Ryou. It reminded him of back when they first met, being introduced to lots of different games, Ryou excited to share her hobby with someone open to new things rather than just tolerating her until they went back to their card games.
After they finished their games, they wheeled the TV stand in front of the sofa and put on some of the tapes Ryou had found in the back of the closet. They were a mix of horror and anime; apparently Ryou had a few tapes of Akil's favourite anime from babysitting for Malik and Bakura one time and forgot to give them back, and they somehow ended up in the closet. They started with a very poor vampire film, full of cheap effects and fan service shot and costumes. Mariku joked, on seeing a pale girl in a skimpy outfit and high heels that he wished Ryou would wear something like that. "Maybe if you're well behaved." She retorted.
"Well be...Have we met?" He replied, grinning.
By the afternoon, they got to the last of the tapes. The rain continued, grey skies outside making for a dull atmosphere. But the pair didn't notice, eyes fixed on the TV as they cuddled up together on the sofa. They'd put on the last VHS tape, containing several episodes of Akil's favourite anime – at least, if you believed Bakura, and Mariku half thought the thief was just saying that as an excuse for his own interest – and a trailer for the next volume. It reminded Mariku of a manga Ryou had got him into that she'd been following for a long time. A lot of the characters were of similar types, and possessed of the same tendency towards dramatic phrasing and grandstanding. He knew others might have called it childish, but he couldn't help but get into it and become invested, finding himself thinking it couldn't be the end yet when the episodes ran out and it cut to promotional videos for the next volume.
He had so much fun playing games and watching things with Ryou, he only realised they'd completely forgotten about lunch when his stomach rumbled audibly. He laughed softly. When he did, he felt a weight against his shoulders move with them, and, looking to his side, noticed Ryou had fallen asleep leaning against him. Perhaps she should have stayed in bed with him earlier, after all, he thought. He closed his eyes and listened to the soft sound or her breathing, the drops of rain from the outside, and the background noise of the advert on the tape. It made him drowsy, too, but he smiled. It hadn't been a waste of a day, after all. If this was the result of their picnic being rained off...Well, he could live with that. It wasn't bad at all. In fact, he wouldn't mind more like it...As long as they got to have that picnic sometime.
He drifted off into a nap next to Ryou, sleeping easily, and dreamt of picnics under grey skies, and Ryou using him as cover, then playing dramatic card games before it finally trailed off into a nice, restful sleep.