It was around 6:15 by the time Ryou had awoken. Hardly early in his mind, though. He never woke this late, and even though it was a weekend, he had things to accomplish. Like:

*Going to his job, in which he didn't like, but didn't hate either
*Finishing his homework so he didn't have to the night before the weekdays comeback
*Making sure to get his paycheck this time

That was it. Almost all of it. Today was Valentine's Day, and this year he had promised himself that he would finnally comeout to his bestfriend that he was in love with him. He had already cameout with the fact the he was indeed homosexual, but that didn't come as a surprise to any of his friends.

Ryou sighed, as he pulled the covers off of himself and walked into his bathroom located beside his room.

He held sorrow in his eyes as he walked into the silent hallway. He didn't want to live all by himself anymore. He longed for a companion to share it with, a certian blonde-haired Egyptian in particular. He sighed again, leaning on his bathroom door for a moment before walking in and using the bathroom.

He paused for a moment and looked at himself in the mirror, noticing that his eyes had small bags underneath them and his hair seemed to be frizzy. With another sigh, he turned to his shower and opened the curtian. He leaned down and turned on the shower so that he could take a short shower before getting dressed and heading off to his work.

To his displeasure, he was forced to take a cold shower, remembering that his landlord was having troubles with the water pipe. Soon, though, he walked out of his shower and grabbign a towel, dried himself before trying to towel dry his hair.

'Of course.' He thought. 'It can't just go simple for my for once, I have to blow-dry it.' He made a pouty face at himself in the mirror. Again with a sigh, he wrapped the towel around his waist and grabbed his blow-dryer.

His hair seemed to poof alittle, making him look like the regular Ryou. He smiled abit because he knew that it was either now or never. He turned to walk out of the bathroom and opened the door.

A smile placed his lips as he walked into his bedroom, dressing himself in a new pair of boxers, nice light-blue jeans, and a pink shirt with a small kitten playing with a yarn ball on it.

Smiling, he remembered how Malik had gotten it for him for his birthday.

Malik burst through Ryou's living room door, and jumped the poor white-haired teen. After a bone-crushing hug, Malik released the boy, and pulled something out from behind his back.

"Surprise! Happy 18th birthday Ryou!" Malik said, excitment set in his voice as he pushed the surprisingly neat wrapped box in Ryou's face. "Open it! I think you'll love it!"
Ryou smiled and opened the present slowly to irk the anticipatting Malik. He smiled as he heard Malik mumble something about how slow he was. At that, though, had opened the wrapping and opened the box that was inside of the wrapping.

"Malik!" Ryou exclaimed, his voice showing surprise and happiness. "I...I love it!" Ryou said, turning and engulfing the taller boy in a hug, but not bone-crushing. Malik smiled as he pulled away from Ryou.

"Good! I knew you would!" He smiled. "But wait! There's something else, too."

Ryou smiled and pulled out the pink shirt with a cute kitten playing with a yarn ball on it. It was light brown with black markings on it. The yarn was orange. It was so cute!
Malik walked back in with somethings up against his arms. It was small and fluffy, light brown with black markings and a small purple bow wrapped around it's neck.

"Surprise again!" He said, holding his arms out to Ryou, who had put his shirt onto the table beside him.

"Oh...my...Ra! You got me a freaking cat!" Ryou said, astonished, he picked up the small furball and heard it purr. It rubbed it's head against Ryou's as Ryou put it on his chest.

"She's been staying at my house for a few days and she seems to love me." He grinned widely. "Also, while you were at work, I used the spare key you hide in your birdhouse to have her get used to your place too." Ryou gave him a shocked face at the fact that he had come into his house without him even knowing.

"I'll tell you something, she sure does love your bed!" He grinned again as the small kitten looked up at Ryou and licked his chin with her tiny, ragged tongue. A small purr from her added to Ryou's happy mood.

"I love her, Malik." Ryou looked up to see Malik smiling while a small blush hinted his dark cheeks. He blinked at Ryou and walked up to him before leaning next to his ear.
Ryou shivered ever-slightly as he felt Malik's hot breath on his ear.

"Well...are you going to name her or what?" He asked seductivly and pulled away laughing at how deep red Ryou's cheeks contrasted with his normal skin color. Ryou pouted at Malik before going into deep thought.

"Hmm..." He said lightly, before sighing, his mind drawing a blank. He closed his eyes for a moment, before his eyes began shining. "I got it! I'll name her Lyubof."
Malik has the expression on his face as if Ryou had two heads now. Ryou smiled at him.

"Lyubof is the pronounciation of the Russian word 'Love'." Ryou smiled as Malik's puzzledness diperced. "Although, I'm NOT going to spell it in Russian, I'm not that good in foriegn languages." He smiled again.

Malik glanced down at Ryou who began playing with Lyubof.

"Thank you for a great birthday, Malik." Ryou said, leaning up and kissing the other boys cheek lightly.

With a flushed face, Malik mumbled something incoherrent of a 'welcome...'. Ryou just smiled sweetly and felt Lyubof lick his chin again.

Ryou's cheek flushed abit at the memory that didn't seem so long ago. He also fushed at how he completely forgot about his cat, whom was sleeping on his pillow where he had been sleeping. He walked over to her, petting her head, as she awoke and meowed at him. Her fur seemed to poof like his hair.

"I'll be back later, Lyubof." He said to her, leaning down as she pressed her nose to his. "I'll fill your bowl with some food, but then I have to go. I have something very important to do." Again, she meowed, but began purring as well.

Ryou left his room, door slightly ajar, and walked downstairs, filling Lyubof's food bowl, spilling something and cursing 'Oh Bugger'.

After cleaning up the small spill, he filled her bowl with some milk and set them on the counter for her.

He grabbed a small light purple jact and zipped it up to where the kitten was, and walked out of his apartment, locking the door.

As he took a step out of his apartment, though, he looked down to see he had almost trampeled on a single rose sitting on his doorstep. Underneath it was a small envelope. He picked both items and looked over the rose. It had no thorns, and was white, but frosted with a light blue color at the top of it. He blushed slightly at it.

Then, though, he looked down at the envelope that was in his other hand. He began to open the envelope and pulled out a letter that was inside. On a light blue paper, written:

Roses are red
Violets are blue
Birds are singing
I love you.
I hope you know
I never will leave
You can only find me
If you believe

Ryou had no idea who would write something like this to him. His heart fluttered at the thought that someone acctually felt that way about him. A small smile played his lips as he blushed lightly.

He looked up and took the note, putting it in his pocket, and began walking to his work establishment. All he had to do was serve people food, and since they didn't have uniforms, and wore aprons anyways, he didn't think the boss would mind. He never seemed to.

As Ryou hit the corner of his street, he glanced over to see Malik standing by the fence of his neighbors yard, eyes closed and relaxing. He guessed that he must've been having a bad day so far, but it was only 7:30.

While Ryou was pondering what could've happened, Malik looked up to see Ryou staring quizzically at the ground, deep in thought. He smiled and got up, walking over beside Ryou, who had not noticed his presence, and hugged him from behind.

"Surprise!" Malik yelled, scaring Ryou out of his skin. As Ryou composed himself, he looked up at Malik who had been smiling sweetly down at him. It was so much different than when he was with people he didn't like. He always glared before he'd meet Ryou, and Ryou, knowing that he makes him this happy, felt prideful.

"Hey, Malik." Ryou said, wiggling out of Malik's grasp and turning to look at him. "What's going on?"

Malik smiled alittle before grabbing Ryou's arm and leading him down the street. Ryou, completely confused by this, stopped and pulled Malik back.

"Malik, I have work." Ryou said, looking up at him. Malik shook his head and laughed abit.

"No, you don't. The Russel Grill is closed today." He said, smiling at Ryou. "It's Valentine's day, I already tried to go there. They weren't open."

Ryou looked at him, before a flood of idiocity filled him. He felt very embarressed by forgetting his boss told him that it would be closed. Ryou let out a little 'oh...' before looking back up at Malik.

He smiled sweetly again before pulling him again. "Come on, you have to spend the day with me!" Malik said, then stopped and looked down. "Unless, you have a boyfriend now?" He looked at Ryou to confirm this. Ryou shook his head and smiled at Malik.

"Don't worry, even if i did, I'd still hang with you on this day. You're my bestfriend, I couldn't leave you even if I tried."Ryou said.

Ryou felt a pang of sadness as he said the word 'bestfriend'. He didn't want to be Malik's 'bestfriend'. He wanted to be his 'boyfriend'. To bad that wouldn't happen. His heart felt heavy with dissapointment, while filled with loneliness. He wanted to cry out that he was in love with Malik, but felt that he couldn't do it. Not yet, anyways.

Malik brought Ryou to his home after hearing Ryou's desision that he'd stay with him, either way. As Ryou followed Malik into his house, he smiled at the familiar lavender scent that infultraited his nostrils.

"Ishizu!" Malik yelled, getting a blocked out 'hello' from an upstairs room. Ryou felt another pang of loneliness of Malik's family, although he never get jealous, only happy when he was with them. "Ryou's spending the day with me okay?"

Another, more approving incoherrent noise told that she said it was okay.

Ryou smiled as he thought of just he and Malik together, spending the day together, smiling warmly at eachother, standing close together, walking along a beach(random?), holding hands, and kissing eachother in the sunset.

Quickly he shook the the thoughts from his mind. He shouldn't think about that kind of thing. He didn't know if Malik liked him like that or not, and he certianly didn't want to show it yet. What if Malik was disgusted by it?

Apporving enough, though, the day seemed to fly by very quickly, to Ryou's dissappointment. He had a great day, though, and wished he could spend everyday like this.

First they went out and played at the video arcade, shooting zombies, vampires and whatever else they could do. When they were finished playing for a awhile, it was already around 4:30. Then they had gone to a fancy resturant that Malik apperently had made reservations for incase Ryou did spend the day with him. Which of course he did. While they sat and waited for their food to arrive, a few ladies began staring at them as they were talking about nothing in particular. Soon, they each recived a drink, curtious of the table of ladies. They were very sweet though, because they came to talk to them. Soon enough, the food came and went, just as the ladies. Malik caught Ryou trying to pay for some of the bill, but batted his hand away. 'No.' Was all he said, and payed for it himself. Ryou felt kind of rude, but he just smiled at the white haired teen and said it was his treat. Ryou's heart fluttered at that. He nodded and replied a 'thank you'.

He wasn't sure how, but they had ended up at the beach, staring at the beautiful sunset over the sea. His heart fluttered with joy, and he looked over to Malik.

He was leaning back on his elbow's and was basking in the sun's rays. His eyes were closed, and the sun gleamed gorgeously against his skin, unlike Ryou, whose skin hated the sun, always making him burn.

Malik turned to see Ryou staring deeply at him, love etched his eyes as he stared onward toward him. His cheeks were light red from the sun, but it also seemed because he was staring so mesmorizing at Malik.

Before Ryou knew what he was doing, he leaned into Malik and kissed him lightly on the lips. He pulled away as quickly as it happened, and his cheeks flushed deeply, as he looked away.

"I...I'm sorry...I just wanted t-to say..." Ryou fought for the right words to come out. "For today. It was terriffic! I loved it, every second of it!" His cheeks began going red again, and he knw that if he didn't say it now, he would never be able to.

He cleared his throat, preparing himself to say what was needed, and as he turned to look back at Malik, he was met with a rather calming looking posture. He felt ready now, and opened his mouth.

"Malik-"

"I love you, Ryou." Malik said, his smile on his lips never changing. "I think I have since the beginning." He smiled at Ryou, and kissed his lips lightly before pulling back.
Ryou smiled as they sat in the sunlight together. "I love you too, Malik..." He said, leaning on Malik. "Happy Valentine's Day."