A Day of Discoveries

by Mainstream-Deviant

Mariku has a lot to figure out after being dumped back into the world with almost no life experiences to call his own. Eager to help, Ryou offers to take Mariku out for a day so he can start discovering the world as his own person. Sometimes in life, it's the little things that start to make you whole. (A post-cannon, pre-deathshipping, feel-good fic for the YGOME18 on A03)

A/N: This is my entry for the YGOME2018, hosted on A03, and I'm cross-posting here. Enjoy! :)

~ o ~ o ~ o ~

Ryou hummed happily to himself as he strolled down the sidewalk. Today was the day he was finally going to take Malik's dark half out into the world to explore a bit, and he couldn't wait.

When Mariku had been dumped back into the living world without so much as a 'how do you do', he had been downright feral. He seethed with rage over having been banished in the first place. He seethed with rage over being forced back in to the world. He seethed at being 'harassed' by other people, but also at being 'abandoned' to spend time on his own.

Really, those first few days had been far too full of seething. It had all been rather over the top, in Ryou's opinion.

Ryou had developed a knack for temperamental spirits while he'd been stuck with the spirit of the ring, so when Malik had called him in a panic over his new houseguest, Ryou had been more than happy to offer his help. After all, how often do you get to meet someone who had removed his own head just for the drama of it all? Ryou had been sure Mariku would be fascinating to get to know. Well, once all the tedious seething was out of the way, at any rate.

He'd waited out the fits of rage with a kind of quiet detachment. It had really just been a matter of making sure nobody ended up dead until Malik's shadow ran out of steam. Not unlike waiting out a toddler's tantrum – albeit an adult-sized, homicidal one.

Once Mariku had worked out most of the initial rage, it had become clear that Ryou had a strangely calming effect on him. Or at least, Mariku didn't seem to actively hate him, which was something. Last time Ryou had been over, he'd even dumped a blanket on Ryou's head when he complained about being cold.

Ryou smiled to himself as he rang Malik's doorbell. This would be an interesting day, if nothing else. It wasn't like Mariku could live stuck at home forever, after all, and Ryou was fairly certain he could keep them out of trouble, as long as everyone kept their heads.

Kept their heads. Ha.

Malik answered the door, looking quite a bit calmer than when Ryou had first come over to see his other half.

Ryou gave him a sunny grin. "Hello, Malik. Can your dark half come out to play?"

Malik raised an eyebrow. "That just sounds wrong, Ryou."

Ryou laughed. "Still though. Do you think he's ready?"

"As ready as he'll get, anyways."

"Grand." Ryou stepped into the entryway, and Malik snapped the door shut behind him.

Malik then turned to Ryou with a worried frown. "Are you sure you want to do this on your own?"

"Oh yes, I'm not worried. He's just misunderstood, is all. This will be good for him. And it's probably better for him to go exploring with someone he doesn't react to quite as strongly as he does with you."

Malik looked sceptical, but nodded. "If you say so."

"I do." Ryou gave Malik a reassuring grin. "Where is he, anyways?"

Malik huffed and glanced down the hall. "Sulking in his room again."

"All the more reason to drag him out of the house, then!" Ryou smiled cheerfully and set off to the guest bedroom. When he arrived, he knocked gently on the door. "Mariku? Are you there?"

Ryou heard a grunt and took that as an enthusiastic welcome. When he pushed open the door, he found Mariku carefully carving what looked like a rudimentary summoning circle into the desk with his fingernails. They were splintering under the pressure, but he didn't seem to notice. Ryou sidled up beside him and peered at the carving.

"Trying to summon a demon?"

Mariku scraped a nail along a curve, deepening it into the wood. "That would be entertaining."

"It would also wreck your bedroom ceiling. Demon summoning is an outdoor activity."

Mariku paused and glanced over his shoulder at Ryou. "How do you know that?"

"Experience." Ryou smiled brightly at the curious look on Mariku's face. "But that's a story for another day. Are you ready to go?"

"I guess. You won't leave me alone otherwise."

Ryou beamed. "Correct. But first, we're going to bandage you up, your fingers are starting to bleed."

Mariku scowled and curled his hands into fists. "I don't need fucking bandages."

"Ok, but if you bleed on me, I'll be upset." Mariku just grunted a shoved his hands in his pockets.

Ryou beamed and got up to gesture out the doorway. "Grand! Let's go."

Mariku followed him down the hallway somewhat reluctantly. Malik was nowhere in sight, which Ryou was quietly pleased about. How those two reacted to each other was still touch and go. Ryou took a slow deep breath and pushed open the door. Here we go.

As they stepped outside, Mariku immediately held an arm over his eyes. "It's too bright."

"That tends to happen in the daytime, yes."

Mariku squinted against the sun. "I prefer the darkness."

Ryou paused to consider his options. "Well, the point was to get you out, not necessarily to get you outside, so let's try out the arcade first. I don't much like the sun, either, to be honest, and there are a few games I think you'd like."

"I don't like crowds."

Ryou shrugged. "It's the middle of the day, there won't be any students there. It'll be fine, come on." He marched forward, expecting Mariku to follow. He did.

They walked in silence until the arcade came into view. Ryou held the door open, and was pleased that Mariku's shoulders visibly relaxed as soon as they got into the darker space. Ryou got them some tokens, and looked around for a likely place to start.

"Do you want to play a racing game?" Ryou pointed to a machine with two fake motorcycles for the players to 'ride'.

Mariku just scoffed and crossed his arms. "That's Malik's thing. He always liked to run away."

"Fine then." Ryou didn't argue, and led the way around some of the other games. He noticed the way Mariku was looking at everything with open curiosity, eyes darting back and forth as he tried to take in the new experience all at once. It pleased him greatly to be able to share this with a new friend. Sort-of friend. Acquaintance? Whatever.

As they rounded a bend, Ryou spotted the perfect game. He marched right over and slipped in a few coins before unholstering the gaudy plastic gun.

Mariku jabbed a sharp finger into this arm. "I thought we were doing things for me."

"We are, but hush. I like this game. You can watch and learn how to play if you want."

Mariku huffed, but his annoyance was short-lived. As Ryou had guessed, as soon as the game got going, Mariku crowded right up to his side, leaning forward eagerly. Once Ryou was sure he had his attention, he ended his own game. After all, this was about Mariku having a chance to try things, not him trying to beat his high score.

Mariku cackled as the credits rolled. "You can blow their heads up!"

Ryou beamed. "Yep!"

"And people are OK with that?"

"Yep!"

"This is the best game ever. There's so much blood!" Mariku looked positively giddy.

Ryou laughed and pushed a few more coins into the machine. He was about to hand the gun over, but paused. "Let me see your hands."

"What the fuck for?"

"I don't want you bleeding on this stuff." Mariku huffed and held his hands out impatiently. The slow seep of blood had certainly stopped. They looked clean enough. Ryou shrugged. "Good enough. Here you go." He held out the bright plastic weapon.

Mariku snatched it up and practically vibrated in excitement when he managed his first kill shot. He cackled gleefully and went on a rather impressive killing spree, for a first-time player.

When he met his end, he turned to Ryou. "Again!"

Ryou laughed. "As you wish."

Ryou watched Mariku grin widely at the carnage he was unleashing. It was kind of sad to think that he'd never been able to do something as simple as play a (lets be honest, not even that great) arcade video game before. He was obviously enjoying the experience. Ryou smiled softly as Mariku cursed out the NPCs on the screen. Doing this together had definitely been a good plan. Maybe if they got Mariku some games of his own, he'd destroy fewer of the things in the apartment when he flew into a rage.

After the first couple of rounds, they switched to two-player mode and rained destruction on their enemies as a team. Nothing but death followed in their wake. It was delightful. They stayed at the game for some time as Mariku found new and exciting ways to create victims ("Ha! I blew his leg off. Now he can't walk!"; "Oooh, you can completely destroy them if you trap them over here first. Quick! Force them over!"). Ryou may or may not have helped nudge him towards some of the more satisfyingly gory ways to slaughter their enemies. The gleeful excitement on Mariku's face was just too good to resist.

Between rounds, Ryou glanced outside and saw that it was clouding over nicely, which was a good thing because he was out of money to spend on tokens. Fun as this was, he wasn't made of money. They'd have to con Kaiba somehow if they wanted infinite arcade games.

As their last game wound down, Ryou put a gentle hand on Mariku's forearm. "We're out of coins for today. But do you want to come back sometime?"

Mariku scowled when he heard there were no more coins, but perked right up again when Ryou suggested coming back. "You'd come back here with me? To kill these guys?" The hopeful expression on his face looked out of place, and Ryou felt another pang of sympathy.

"I would love to." Ryou smiled softly and gently patted Mariku's arm. "But for now, let's try something else. I'm hungry. Have you ever had ice cream?" Mariku shook his head. "I didn't think so. But Malik likes cold things, so maybe you will too. Let's go find a cart."

"I don't want to go out in the bright again." The scowl was back.

Ryou gestured out the window. "It's clouded over now, you'll survive. If it's dull enough for me, it's fine for you too. Let's go." He grabbed Mariku's wrist and gently let him from the arcade.

It didn't take them long to find a cart selling ice cream bars. Ryou supposed they should probably have been looking for "real food", but really, if he was the one tasked with showing Mariku the outside world, he was going to skip straight to the good parts, thanks so much. There would be more than enough time for broccoli or whatever other nonsense later.

Ryou leaned forward to look at the choices, and was rambling off suggestions for the best of the ice cream flavours when he felt a hand clamp down on his shoulder.

"No. I want a bomb pop. That sounds fun."

Ryou turned his head to look at Mariku. "It's not an actual bomb, you know. They're not even that good."

"I don't fucking care. Get me one."

Ryou glared at him. "You need to say please when you want people to do stuff for you."

Mariku glared right back. "Get me a fucking bomb pop, please."

Ryou smiled. "Absolutely. One bomb pop, coming up." Ryou paid for the popsicle and a cone for himself.

Treats in hand, Ryou looked around before jerking his chin towards a small park. "C'mon, let's go sit for a bit. We can have an ice cream picnic." He marched toward a tree, confident that Mariku would follow again for the sake of his treat if nothing else, and sure enough Mariku fell into step beside him.

"What's a picnic? Is that how you're supposed to eat ice cream?"

Ryou glanced over his shoulder. "I guess you've never had a picnic before either, have you?" He paused while Mariku solemnly shook his head. Idly, Ryou wondered if it bothered him to have so few of the experiences he took for granted. "Well, you'll get try it to now. Sort of. A picnic is when you eat outside at a park or something. A proper picnic would mean eating a whole lunch though, not just dessert." Ryou gave Mariku a sunny grin. "But dessert is the best part, so this will be an even better picnic than usual."

Ryou settled himself on the ground at the base of the tree and held the popsicle's package out for Mariku to take. "Here, come sit."

He watched as Mariku gave the ground a sceptical look before flopping down and snatching the treat from Ryou's hands. He shifted around uncomfortably for several moments, before reaching down to lay a hand on the grass. He snatched his fingers back as soon as he made contact and narrowed his eyes.

"It's prickly."

Ryou paused mid-lick and raised an eyebrow. "I guess so. I mean, it's grass."

"I always thought it would be soft. Like hair. Green hair! It looks like it should be." Mariku dropped the unopened popsicle to run both hands back and forth in the grass. "This feels weird."

Ryou felt his heart constrict. He didn't even know what grass felt like? It's not exactly like Ryou was an outdoorsy type, either, but that was just so basic. But then again… Malik had grown up underground. And then Mariku had come out again on Kaiba's ridiculous blimp. So maybe…? But surely Malik would have touched grass at some point while they were joined. How could he possibly not have? Wouldn't that have transferred over or something?

"Have you really never felt grass?"

"No." Mariku had moved from running his hands along the grass to ripping a few blades off at the root. He appeared to be listening intently at the tearing sound they made.

"Not even through Malik?"

Mariku grunted. "No. Not really. I couldn't really feel what he was feeling until I got control again. And I don't think I felt things right anyways. I'm shit at feeling things." He rammed his fingers right into the hard soil, and curled them around some roots until they snapped under his fingers. He scowled. "They won't die."

Ryou smiled gently as he watched Mariku discover grass with the same fascination he'd expect from a toddler. "Not right away. Grass has lots of roots to help it stay alive, so it won't mind you snapping a few here and there. You may as well stop torturing it. Killing grass isn't nearly as fun as blowing up heads, anyways." Ryou glanced at the abandoned popsicle. "Plus, your popsicle is probably melting while you play in the dirt, and I'll be pissed if you waste a good dessert."

"I am not playing in the dirt."

"If you say so."

Mariku huffed and rubbed his hands harshly against his pants to clean off the worst of the soil. "I'm done with the grass anyways. It's stupid and it won't die." Despite his complaint, Mariku shifted a leg around until his pant leg pulled up enough to feel the prickly grass along his ankle before settling again. Ryou hid his grin and let the action go unchallenged.

Mariku reached over to snatch up his bomb pop. "I can kill the ice cream, though."

Ryou chuckled. "I bet."

He watched Mariku rip into the packaging with his teeth and curse when some of the melted treat dribbled out onto his fingers. He dropped the package with a snarl and licked his fingers. Then his eyes went wide.

"This is good."

Ryou beamed at him. "I thought you'd like it! Th-…" Ryou trailed off awkwardly. Mariku had moved from absentmindedly licking one finger to trailing his tongue languidly all over his palm and wrist to catch the syrup that had dripped on him. It was… Ryou cleared his throat and hid his flushing face behind what was left of his ice cream cone, as Mariku let out a pleased little moan and curled his tongue all the way around a finger to catch any remaining drops. It was distracting, is what it was. And indecent. There were children nearby.

He cleared his throat again. "Um, Mariku, you might want to actually eat the ice cream now, before it melts completely?" He added a silent please as Mariku paused with the tip of his tongue curled between two fingers.

"Yeah!" Apparently Mariku was oblivious to how his licking had looked, because he snatched up the popsicle and ripped it out of the package without a second thought. He shoved the treat in his mouth and let out a pleased hum. "… 's good."

Ryou let out a little sigh of relief. "I'm glad." He smiled as Mariku tore a chunk off the end with his teeth. It looked like Yugi and the others could have just given him a popsicle in Battle City. He certainly looked calm and happy enough as he gobbled it down.

That is, until Mariku suddenly snarled and slapped a hand to his forehead, where a vein was already starting to show. "What the fuck, did you just poison me? Did it not want to be killed? It shouldn't be food then!" He snarled again and rubbed his fist in his eye. "It fucking hurts!"

Ryou grimaced and gently patted his knee. "And that would be called brain freeze. That's why most people eat ice creams slowly. It'll pass, you'll be fine."

"Of course I'll be fine. Ice cream is nothing compared to the shadows!"

Ryou couldn't help but burst out laughing. Had Mariku been this melodramatic in Battle City? He was sorry he missed it, that must have been great. "I should hope not!" He was just calming down when a stray thought had him cracking up again. "But are you sure there weren't any ice cream shaped monsters in the shadow realm? Maybe then those bomb pops would really explode!"

Mariku stopped rubbing at his forehead and looked at the last bite of popsicle with wide eyes. "You think?" He looked excited at the idea and ran a hand over his hip, and then his face fell. Ryou could almost call the expression that crossed his face a pout. It was kind of cute, not that he'd ever say that out loud. Mariku might be a tad unpredictable, but he was still willing to bet being called "cute" would go over like a tonne of bricks. Even if it was true.

Mariku turned his pout to Ryou. "I don't have the rod anymore though."

Ryou smiled and patted Mariku's arm. "Don't worry about it. Popsicles are better for eating, anyways."

"But I wanted to blow something up."

"Save it for the next video game."

Mariku pouted and chomped down the last melty piece of popsicle. "Fine."

Ryou had just opened his mouth to continue when his phone chirped. He pulled it out and saw a text from Malik. He read it, and glanced up at the sky. "Huh." He quickly tapped out a reply.

"What?"

"Apparently it's starting to rain back at your place. I hadn't even noticed it was getting that cloudy." Really, how was he expected to pay attention to clouds when Mariku was so much more interesting? Ryou tucked his phone back in his pocket. "Malik was just checking on us."

"I wouldn't mind seeing rain."

Ryou blinked in surprise again. He really needed to stop being surprised by these things. "Oh. Yeah, I guess you've never really seen a proper rain either, have you?"

"No." Mariku looked down and started to dig a small hole through the grass with his popsicle stick. "I haven't seen much that I'm still allowed to like." He stabbed the stick into the ground and looked back up at Ryou. "Except arcades and ice cream. Those are OK."

Ryou smiled gently. "I'm glad."

Whatever Ryou had been about to suggest next was interrupted by a distant roll of thunder.

Ryou stared off in the direction of the noise. The clouds really were quite dark. Bother. "It looks like Malik was right. We should hurry back before that storm arrives."

Mariku crossed his arms with a scowl. "I want to see it."

"You'll get wet."

"I don't care."

Ryou rolled his eyes. "Don't complain when you're cold and miserable."

"It won't be worse than the brain freeze. Popsicles are kind of evil. I like them."

Ryou chuckled a little. Apparently anything could be evil if you tried hard enough. He felt the first drops on his arms and looked up. "Well, here it comes. Looks like you're getting your wish. I don't even have an umbrella with me." Ryou looked back down with every intention of trying to force Mariku to at least start walking home with him, but paused when he saw what he was doing.

Mariku had his head tilted right back to stare up at the dark grey clouds overhead. His eyes were wide, and his face was perfectly calm as he took deep breaths of the ozone in the air. He didn't even flinch when the drops started to hit his face. Instead, he closed his eyes with a quiet hum.

"I can feel this. It's cold."

Ryou's heart panged again. There had been a lot of that today. "Yes, it is." Ryou hunched his shoulders to try to shield himself from the rain as it started coming down harder. "And it's going to be a lot colder soon." He stood up and wrapped his arms around himself. Mariku may be perfectly content with cold misery, but there was a limit to what he could handle. "Let's at least walk toward where there's shelter, OK? I don't want to get too soaked."

Mariku still looked like he'd be perfectly content to sit there forever and soak up the rain as it fell, but after a moment more he opened his eyes and stood up. "Ok, fine. Because you were nice to me."

Ryou felt his lips quirk in a lopsided little grin as they started to walk back towards home. "How kind of you."

They hadn't gotten far when there was a loud crack of thunder and the rain suddenly started pouring down in buckets. Ryou yelped as they were instantly soaked through, but beside him there was a loud bark of laughter.

Mariku didn't seemed bothered in the least by the sudden deluge. In fact, he was cackling loudly at the sky, leaning back with his arms outstretched to welcome the rain on his upturned face. Water was running down his face and off the tips of his hair in little rivulets. When there was a bright flash and another booming crack of thunder, he whooped.

"Ryou! This is amazing!" Mariku spun in a circle, spraying water as he went. "I love storms!"

Ryou couldn't help but grin at the joy in Mariku's voice, even as cold water ran down the back of his neck. They were soaked anyways. Screw it, they may as well try to enjoy it. He stopped in his tracks, watching Mariku revel in the rain.

Mariku shook out his hair as it started to droop under the weight of the water. Then he looked down at the ground where it fell, tracking the path of the water as it rushed towards the drains. He sloshed through the water, watching in fascination as it changed course or frothed up at his command. A couple of leaves drifted by in the current, and he followed their progress down into the gutter where the water was deeper. Ryou smiled as he imagined a child-sized version of Mariku playing with toy boats in the water. It was a wistful thought of what might have been, in another time or another world.

Suddenly, Mariku swung his foot through the gutter and pushed up a great wall of water towards Ryou, which would have thoroughly soaked his pant legs if the rain hadn't already managed it.

Ryou yelped. "Hey!"

Mariku just looked at Ryou with a wide toothy grin stretched across his face. Cheeky little bugger. After a stunned moment or two, Ryou matched it with one of his own.

"You realize, of course, that this means war." Mariku cocked his head to the side in confusion, but Ryou didn't give him a chance to figure it out before he darted forward and sloshed the biggest wave of water he could manage right back. It took only seconds for them to fall into an all-out water war, full of shrieks of laughter and occasional curses when cold water found its way to new body parts.

The people driving by must have thought they were insane, to be out in a storm like this without even jackets on, playing like schoolchildren in the streets. Ryou found he didn't much care.

Soon enough, the rain started to let up and so did their little war. It was utterly impossible to say who won; they were both soaked right to the bone. Ryou started to tremble a bit as the adrenaline wore off and the cold seeped in.

"O-okay, time to get home and dry off now." He wrapped his arms around himself with a sheepish grin. Cold or not, it had been worth it.

Mariku frowned. "You're cold."

"Yes. That happens if you get soaked in the rain. Aren't you?"

"No." Mariku paused for a moment. "Not really. Should I be?"

Ryou shrugged. "You're lucky if you're not, I guess."

Mariku hummed, and then abruptly threw his arm over Ryou's shoulders and tucked him into his side. Ryou startled at the sudden contact.

"What are you doing?"

Mariku grunted. "Making you warm. Someone needs to take care of you, I guess, and I'm here, so I guess I have to do it."

Ryou felt his cheeks warm at the gruff words. "Thank you, then. This helps." They set off in the direction of Malik's apartment in companionable silence. Ryou kept glancing over at Mariku, who was watching the leftover rainwater drip down to the ground and trickle away with obvious fascination.

They made it back to Malik's apartment in good time, still soaked to the bone and covered in mud, but wearing wide grins all the same. Mariku slammed his fist against the door. "Let us in, asshole! I'm wet!" He shook out his hair again and Ryou yelped at the spray of water, which earned him a throaty chuckle.

Ryou jabbed a finger into Mariku's side and grinned. "You're like a dog. Brat." They shared a grin for a moment. "This was a fun day. I hope you had a good time."

"Yeah. I guess the world isn't complete shit. You can take me out again if you want. I guess." Ryou beamed up at him.

They stood in silence for several long minutes as they waited for the door to open. When it did, Mariku shoved his way in to the apartment, while Ryou followed at a more polite distance.

Malik eyed them curiously as they dripped on the entryway floor. "Have fun?"

Mariku just grunted while Ryou gave Malik a thumbs-up behind his back, and then went to get changed into dry clothes.

As soon as he was out of sight, Ryou turned to Malik with a bright grin. "Yes, we had a lovely time. A bit wet at the end there, but even that was fun. Did you know he loves to play in water, of all things?"

Malik looked a little stunned. "Um… no. News to me."

Ryou nodded. "I figured. There's a lot more to him than he shows you. I figured there would be, but it really didn't take much to get to see it. I was pleasantly surprised."

Marik smiled a little. "I'm glad. You know I was worried about you taking him out on your own. I guess I didn't have to be." Malik glanced towards the guest bedroom. "Maybe we'll be able to manage after all."

Ryou beamed. "I'm sure that you will. He's lovely, in his own way. Really. He is." He held up a dripping sleeve. "But, nice as it is to chat, do you have some clothes I could borrow?"

"Oh!" Malik laughed a little. "Sure. C'mon, we'll find something." He led the way to his room, and laid out some clothes for Ryou to wear home.

Once he was in fresh clothes and his hair was dry…well, dry-ish…Ryou found himself standing in the entryway with Mariku again to say goodbye, as Malik looked on.

Mariku had slipped back into a gruff, quiet exterior now that he was back inside, so their goodbyes were brief and somewhat awkward. Ryou was a little disappointed, after the day they'd had, but not terribly surprised. Mariku might be lovely company in the right circumstances, but he still had a long way to go to feel comfortable around his other half. Ryou gave a quick wave to Malik and opened the door to head home. He was already looking forward to the next time they could spend some time getting to know one another properly.

Just as Ryou was about to walk away, he made a snap decision and spun around to reach up and peck a kiss to Mariku's cheek. "See you next time." He could feel a bright blush rising on his cheeks as Mariku blinked in confusion, and turned to hurry down the sidewalk before he could embarrass himself even more. As he bolted, he heard Mariku's awe-filled voice behind him.

"Malik, what was that? I want another one!"

~ o ~ o ~ o ~

A/N: I hope you enjoyed! I love to get any and all types of feedback, from one (1) anonymous emoji to ten paragraphs of constructive criticism, no matter how old this is when you find it. I like to chat with readers and reply to all signed in reviews (unless you say you'd rather I didn't), but FFnet sadly doesn't allow me to reply to guests. I still love every single review though!

I can also be found on A03 and Tumblr under the same username, if you'd like to say hi or leave an anonymous review I can actually reply to on either of those sites. :D (I am more active on those, and cross-posting here.)