A/N: Welcome, new and old, to another one of my Yu-Gi-Oh fics! I know some of you may be here because you read my revolutionshipping (YamixAnzu) fic, "Beside You", and heard of my companion fic, "Everything" which focuses on the angstshipping side of that story (RyouxMarik). If so, thank you so much and welcome back! If you're a newcomer who are just reading this because you like the shipping, you're also welcome here! No you don't have to go read "Beside You" for this to make sense, this is a companion fic, meaning it fills in some of the blanks of my first story since I loved both of the pairings too much, but could only focus on one in "Beside You". So along came this one! For anyone who hasn't/doesn't want to read "Beside You", read on, my intent in writing this was that it would still make sense to someone who hasn't read the first one (although it might be more entertaining that way). Hopefully it won't be too hard to follow! As another brief note, this story is based off of the "Season 0" anime, or the first 7 chapters of the manga. You don't have to have read/watched that either, anything I feel won't make sense without having seen/watched "Season 0" will be explained in the A/N at the begining. For example, it'll look like this:

YOU SHOULD KNOW: Nosaka Miho is a girl from "Season 0" who is particularly obnoxious in the anime, but rather shy and sweet in her (brief) appearance in the manga. I tried to mix the two and put her into this story! Marik also has no role in the "Season 0" anime/manga as he doesn't appear there, but of course he's in this story, so I based him off of the more popular anime series, and gave him his own background that will be explained throughout the story. Enjoy ~!

Disclaimer: Not Mine!

A new semester, a new set of classmates, a new sensei to impress. In this school, the dance program was heated with competitive spirit among the students, but there were strong alliances among them, usually formed at the beginning.

Those who joined late either fell behind, or had to go it alone as an outsider. This would explain why all most of the girl's in the class seemed able to talk about today was the fact that Ishtar Marik was in their class.

From what Ryou could gather, he came to the school in tenth grade and hadn't made any friends since then, despite being considered the best male dancer in the school. Such a guy was bound to gather rumours to him, but Ryou couldn't help being curious about the ones that clung like burs to Ishtar Marik.

He could see the mysterious boy now right across the room from him; already stretching hard, though they'd probably only dance a little considering it was the first day of classes. Many people had their eyes on him, but he acted like he didn't notice at all, seeming completely focused, despite the many giggling girls dressed in tight body suits all around him.

In a class like this, the girls greatly outweighed the boys, but most of the guys didn't mind. Sweeping his large brown eyes over the room, Ryou took note of at least two gaggles of girls evidently gossiping about their classmate, one looking exited, the other looking unhappy.

He recognized one girl watching him all by herself, looking very speculative, and to his surprise it was Mazaki Anzu, an old friend of his. She certainly wasn't one to be interested in gossip, especially not during dance when she was usually just as focused as this mysterious Ishtar Marik, but now he held her undivided attention.

Ryou was just about to walk over and ask her about it when he was interrupted by an approaching girl. He smiled, delighted to see Nosaka Miho, another old friend of his. Her long pale purple coloured hair was draped over her shoulder in a silken sheet, and she flashed him a sweet smile.

"Hey, Ryou!" She greeted enthusiastically, giving him a big hug. "How was your Christmas break?"

"Pretty good, my dad wasn't home, but Jounouchi was alone to, so Yuugi invited us over to spend Christmas with him, we had a pretty good time," he said benignly, mostly for Miho's sake.

She worried about him being all alone all the time. He was about to ask how her break had been when she interrupted.

"Have you thought about who you want to partner with for the final exam assignment?" She asked, blinking her eyes at him innocently, and he had a strong feeling about where this was going.

"Not really, I guess I just want to work with someone I get along with who won't slack off," he replied, grinning at her, and her face lit up hugely.

"Oh, I won't slack! I promise I won't, really!" She exclaimed, throwing her arms around him again, and he laughed, giving her an affectionate squeeze. Miho was absentminded but she definitely wasn't a slacker, and she was a total sweetheart.

Of course, she used to have a crush on him until she found out that he 'swung the other way', but since then they'd been great friends. She also happened to be very up-to-date with most of the gossip.

"Did you notice the way Anzu-chan was staring at Ishtar-kun?" He asked as Miho giggled in her notorious I-know-something-you-don't-know way.

"Yes, but you know Anzu-chan, dance is so important to her. She doesn't care about any of the other rumours, only that he's the best dancer, she said she's going to ask him to be her partner for the final examination," she told him in a whisper, dark blue eyes wide as she relayed the information.

Ryou nodded curiosity still unsatisfied. "So what are the rumours about him anyways?"

"You mean you haven't heard?" Miho squealed, looking as though it were a sin not to be up-to-date with such hot gossip.

"Not specifically..." Ryou admitted, scratching the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well some of the girls think he's drop dead gorgeous of course, though I've heard he's not really 'picky' if you know what I mean. Some people say he's murdered people before, and that he's really mean if you talk to him," she told him all this rather flippantly then simply shrugged.

"Miho-chan is not sure she believes any of it though," she said doubtfully in third person, "He doesn't seem rude or mean to me." Ryou turned his attention back to Marik, watching him carefully out of the corner of his eye, curiosity still alive inside him.

"I guess we'll find out when Anzu talks to him."

...

Ryou sighed, changing quickly, and stuffing his clothes back in his bag. He always ended up being the last one in the change room, and it got him down a little that he had to spend so much of his time devoted purely to just convincing other people that he was a nice guy so that they'd be comfortable around him.

It wasn't even like he liked these guys, romantically or otherwise; he just liked being judged even less. It was a strategy he had employed since day one in ninth grade. He had figured out two years earlier when a pretty girl kissed him that he wasn't exactly 'normal' according to most people.

Everyone congratulated him and acted like it was a big deal, but it just confused him more because he felt...nothing. It panicked him, and he wondered what was wrong with him that he didn't like kissing a girl when all the other guys seemed to.

After that incident it didn't take him long to figure out what he did like.

Unlike a lot of people who spent their time hating themselves for being gay, he moved on, not keeping it a secret, but not waving his status around proudly like other people did. Naturally he did get bullied, especially from his father when he found out and pretty much stopped coming home altogether, but it wasn't so bad in retrospect, compared to what others went through.

But it did no good dwelling on these thoughts; he didn't like to be miserable and didn't let himself fall into that trap. He thought instead about the growing curiosity inside him for the sixth male in the class who never changed while the others were in there.

He certainly seemed to enjoy being illusive, but ever since Anzu announced that he had agreed to be her partner, Ryou hadn't been able to help worrying a little. Miho was right on one count, though he seemed serious which was definitely what Anzu wanted, he didn't seem mean, just quiet.

Still, rumours didn't come from nowhere, even those born simply of jealousy. The rumours surrounded him were serious accusations, like murderer and man-whore, and he knew Anzu wasn't being completely objective to the big picture in this case.

She probably had heard the rumours, but that wouldn't stop her, despite the fact that the two clearly didn't know each other. Ryou felt shivers of fear run up and down his spine as he imagined all the things that could go wrong in that situation.

Maybe he should be keeping a closer eye on Ishtar Marik...

...

Ryou walked out and felt like he got cold water dumped on him. He'd just finished up changing, trying to be considerate and hurry so that Marik could have his turn in there, seeing as he always waited for everyone else to leave, but now he couldn't move an inch even though he was planted right in front of the doorway.

For a moment he was stunned stupid, he was pretty sure his jaw even dropped a little as he stared at the tan glistening body twisting through the air gracefully before landing, poised like some sort of gorgeous unearthly animal.

The person turned to look at him, pushing heavily layered white blond hair off of a sweaty face and abruptly broke the spell.

"I'm trying to practice," a voice cut harshly through the numb haze over his mind. Ryou blinked once and the spell was broken. The gleaming figure was just smooth tan skin stretched over tight muscles covered with sweat, and graceful midair flight was just beautiful dancing.

Just beautiful dancing? God, he didn't think he'd ever seen anything quite so attractive before, but years of practice kept his tongue in check, and he didn't start dry heaving on the floor like he wanted to.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he vaguely registered that he was supposed to be saying something. His tongue felt like it was covered by hot sweltering lead that made speaking without drooling extremely difficult.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt," he managed in his most polite tone, averting his eyes respectfully as he bowed slightly. It also happened to make talking a lot easier.

"I just noticed that you live up to your reputation of best dancer. I'll go now and let you continue practicing, Ishtar-kun," he said politely, tempted to tug nervously on his white locks but kept his hands folded together in front of him properly as he exited the room, stomach fluttering with butterflies.

He'd never been one to jump into things, but who couldn't have a crush on someone after seeing them move so...so...perfectly. It was a good thing he had so much practice hiding his 'gay' tendencies or Ishtar-kun would have been out the door faster than he could wipe the drool off the floor.

Really, it was no surprise there were so many jealous rumours circulating around him, though they only made him more curious now.

One: Ishtar Marik is a man-whore who sleeps with girls then leaves them to pick up the pieces.

Two: Ishtar Marik is a bisexual sleaze who will take anyone regardless of gender.

Three: Ishtar Marik is, or has been in the past, a cold blooded murderer.

Four: Ishtar Marik is the best male dancer in the senior year.

Five: Ishtar Marik is extremely cruel with no regard for other's feelings.

Probably, the only one who spent any extended amount of time with him, or had any plans to, was Anzu, but Ryou wasn't about to go asking her. It wasn't that they weren't friends, they were, but as far as he knew she didn't know he was gay, and he was a bit shy to bring it up in case she found it awkward or disgusting.

Not that Anzu was that sort of person. It was probably just paranoia brought on from years of careful self-control and triple checking. For now, only what he'd observed of Ishtar-kun could answer these questions.

As for the first rumour, he'd neither seen nor heard any evidence of him actually being a man-whore, and that sort of thing travelled around the sweaty close bodied dance room faster than any other kind of gossip.

You had to really not care about your image to do something so low, knowing that by the next week everyone in the department would hate you.

The second rumour held a tiny bit more grit to it since the guys often talked about 'the antisocial bi guy' around the change room, like it was fact, and Ishtar-kun did wait for everyone to leave before he entered.

That in itself smacked of truth to Ryou, who on more than one occasion had been driven away by other boys after having his 'secret' revealed. Whether the boys in his class this semester knew he was gay didn't matter to him so long as they didn't throw him out and lock the door whenever he entered the change room, like gay was some sort of deadly plague.

Still, maybe he was a little bias from the feelings that flirted with his stomach, making it roil painfully, but Ishtar-kun had shown no signs of being a sleaze around the boys either. If anything, he was extremely generous to wait outside, making no one uncomfortable.

The third rumour was a little creepier, the idea of having an ex-murderer in the class seemed like something out of a horror story, but Ryou knew one thing for fact: when someone asked Ishtar-kun about his past he did nothing to deny having a shady background, but he didn't detail anything either.

Still, an eighteen year old murderer who also happens to be a regular student and an amazing yet serious dancer? Something about that story didn't sit right with him.

The fourth rumour barely needed to pop into his mind before he could visualize the beautiful sight of Ishtar-kun in motion. There was no denying the perfection of his dance, not even the most jealous of rumours tried to provoke the onslaught of evidence that would pile on top of them if they accused him of cheating or not being as good as people said he was.

The last one was, strangely, the most interesting in Ryou's opinion. Most people agreed that, yes, Ishtar-kun was very serious, there was certainly no denying he was antisocial, and he wasn't particularly friendly when you went out of your way to talk to him as far as Ryou had observed, but he didn't seem...cruel.

If anything, Ryou wondered if he might just be shy and that mixed with his seriousness for dance made him seem cruel. He'd been a bit brusque in dismissing him when he got caught staring, but that didn't bother him, after all he clearly had been trying to practice and he had been distracting him.

Was that why people called him cruel?

Or was it because of the viscous rumours circling him?

Either way Ryou was pretty sure his interest in Ishtar-kun was like taking a deep breath and stepping down into shark infested waters.

A/N: So...if anyone is still reading this...what did you think? Despite the fact that I've posted other yaoi fics before this one, this was actually the one I wrote first, so I'd like some feedback before posting more. I generally try to update once a week so please review and I'll hopefully be able to make some edits before my next post! (And I know my grammar is awful, so feel free to call me out on it!)

Here's a preview for the next chapter:

"You've been kind of strange lately to, Ryou...I think you have a new crush you haven't told me about!" She accused, and he knew too late that his expression would give him away.

Hope to see some of you again next chapter :)