They whispered a lot, he knew. Sometimes he even heard how weird they thought he was when he muttered to himself occasionally in the halls.
Only, he wasn't speaking to himself. And he muttered because he knew how strange it looked.
Still, sometimes after catching their whispered comments, he considered taking the medication his psychiatrist, the one his father made him see, prescribed. If only to feel normal for a while.
When one of his classmates (the term used as loosely as possible as he'd never actually had class with the boy and only recognized him by the hair that stuck out and up in every direction and the fact that he wore as many buckles and as much leather as he could get away with and still be 'in uniform') finally approached him in their second year and admitted to seeing the same things, he could have cried with relief.
But he didn't. Cry that is. Because boys don't and as feminine as Ryou looked with his narrow shoulders, stick like figure and light hair that he insisted on keeping long, untied and well groomed, he was still male.
Ryou liked his walk home. It was quiet. A respite from loud classmates, loud hallways, loud teachers. It was his chance to recharge before coming home to a loud father who talked and talked and talked and worried and wondered why his son was always so quiet. If he were lucky, he could claim homework and lock himself in his room after dinner. If he were lucky.
Before then though...
Ryou took a deep breath as he officially walked off the school property and into the residential neighborhood. His straightened from the defensive haunch, his head came up to take in his surroundings properly, his shoulders dropped and relaxed... and then quickly tightened back up again as he heard shouting voices (someone saying goodbye to friends and that they'd call later) and running footsteps behind him. His head dropped again to study the pavement, shoulders haunched, permanent scowl resumed and he hoped, hoped, hoped, hoped that if he didn't look up, wave, or appear in anyway approachable, the student who'd chosen his peaceful route (therefore disrupting it beyond repair), would stay quiet and keep to himself.
The first clue that he wasn't going to get what he wished for was footsteps coming up even with his.
"You're Ryou, right?"
Ryou's eyes flicked briefly to his right.
One disheveled goth.
He half turned and looked behind him.
Without a posse.
Forward.
No telling where the other boy was headed and, consequently, how long they would be walking together.
To the right again.
"Maybe."
Strangely enough, this seemed an acceptable answer as the boy gave a small, good natured laugh.
"Alright, and I may be Yugi."
Ryou's sideways consideration turned suspicious, more used to being laughed at than with.
"How far are you walking?" Yugi continued, seemingly unaware of the hostility directed at him.
Well, no point in lying, he'd hate to have to detour home and make his walk longer than it already was if Yugi was going further. "All the way to the end of Riker."
The other boy gaped. "That's almost two miles!" He laughed easily again. "I'm only going half that and I usually take the bus."
"Why didn't you today?" Ryou's irritation and disapproval of Yugi's choice was clear in his tone.
Still the hostilities went unrecognized. Or ignored.
"Maybe I just wanted to walk with you."
Ryou's head snapped to the side, looking at Yugi properly for the first time. Well, he wasn't exactly goth. His hair looked naturally black and not dyed and it wasn't spiked like he had first thought either, just, a sort of half tamed mess. He certainly wasn't wearing any eyeliner or other makeup popular among the goth crowd and beside the apparent love of buckles and leather (those were not uniform pants even if they were the right shade of black and he counted at least four buckles), the smile was warm, sincere and open, so much so that Ryou caught himself wanting to believe that the boy meant it, that he wasn't just teasing like everyone else.
Ryou clamped down on that though before it had a chance to betray him.
"Whatever." He swung his head back around in the other direction so that Yugi couldn't see his embarrassment at the lame comeback.
They walked nearly a block in silence until Yugi broke it.
"I really did, you know," he said quietly. "I've been trying to track you down for a week, not an easy task since you seem to leave right after class and not many people know you by your name."
"What? What do they know me as? Ugh, nevermind, I can probably guess. Instead, let me ask why you were doing something so weird as trying to track me down?"
"Because Katie told me you could see her too." The statement was so casual, so nonchalant, that Ryou nearly missed the significance behind it.
He didn't miss it though and he stopped dead, hands lifting to the straps of his backpack and gripping them so tightly his knuckles turned white. Yugi paused nervously beside him.
"This had better not be a joke."
His intensity caused Yugi to jump and he hurried to explain. "It's not, I swear! I met Katie when she scared the crap out of me in the library about two weeks ago! Yeah, I know, kinda lame that I've been here more than a year and hadn't been in the library yet, but anyways, I think I scared her pretty good too since I didn't see her again until a couple days later (I, um, might have thrown a book at her, but she came out of nowhere!) and she said she didn't think anyone else could see her. Well, it took two more days to get an actual name from her (she's really sweet but I couldn't get a word in edgewise!), and, um, so then I came looking for you, cause, it's kinda lonely sometimes not being able to speak to anyone else about seeing spirits."
Ryou stared and when he didn't respond, Yugi gave him a small smile, shrugged and started walking again, expecting Ryou to follow.
After a moment, he did, running up beside Yugi and then walking in silence again. Questions, accusations, sarcastic comments bubbled up and then stuck in Ryou's throat, his mind racing to catch up as such a small piece of information changed everything.
Yugi saw them too.
He wasn't the only one.
Maybe he wasn't as strange as everyone though. Well, ok, that may be going a bit far, but they were both strange. The important part was that there were two now and that was... something.
After several long blocks of quiet, something which Yugi thankfully didn't seem to mind, Ryou asked just one, small question.
"Are you for real?"
Yugi looked at him and smiled. The kind that could light an already bright day. "Yeah. I'm for real."
Ryou even started to return the smile when it dissolved as Yugi stopped in front of a small, but well kept house.
"Sorry, this is me. I'll see you tomorrow though?"
"Yeah. See you tomorrow."
"The first spirit I ever saw was my sister's."
Yugi and Ryou had walked home together the next day, and the day after, and every day after that. They even walked to school some mornings when Yugi could get up early enough, running out the door just in time to catch Ryou and share some of whatever sweet pastry he had managed to grab for himself in his mad morning dash. They had learned each other's class schedules, meeting occasionally during breaks to complain about teachers or curse assignments briefly before the next class.
Ryou even went so far as to make acquaintances with most of Yugi's other friends. There wasn't the instant connection with any of them that there was with Yugi but they were okay for teenagers and certainly better company for lunch than what he was used to. Either Katie in the library or alone on the roof of the science building.
The roof was still one of Ryou's favorite spots, but it was a rare lunch hour that he could get Yugi to himself and he wasn't willing to share his sanctuary with the entire group. Rare, but not unheard of and when they got the chance, they'd sprawl out on the gravel surface after eating and watch the sky and talk.
The implications of the statement hit Yugi immediately, his breath escaping him in an "I'm sorry."
"It's ok, it was a really long time ago."
"Still..." Yugi shrugged, looking for something else to say. It was never just okay, to lose someone you loved. "That sucks."
He was taken aback when Ryou grinned, bit his lip, then laughed.
"What?"
"Sorry, I've just never heard anyone put it that way before. It struck me as funny." Ryou wiped moisture from his eyes, he hadn't laughed that hard in a long time and wondered if he hadn't just chosen the extreme of one emotion over another. "Thanks."
Yugi nodded and waited for Ryou to continue, which, after a moment's pause to gather his thoughts again, he did.
"She tried not to let me see her, I don't know if she knew I could before she died or if she somehow figured it out after, but even though she tried to hide, I saw her anyways."
He paused again and Yugi lifted his head to peer around at him. Ryou didn't look upset or like he didn't want to talk anymore, so he decided, he hoped, it was safe to ask, "How old were you when she died?"
"Ten. She was nine. She was actually almost two years younger but we were so much alike that we used to joke that we should have been twins. I still see her sometimes, she tries to hide but I'll catch glimpses of her anyways. It shouldn't, but it kind of makes me feel better to know she's still around. In fact, she never liked to play hide and seek with me. Or rather, she never liked to hide because I always knew where she was."
Ryou was quiet for longer this time and had to clear his throat before continuing.
"It was my own fault, really, I shouldn't have told my dad about seeing her. He sent me to a grief councilor, who sent me to a therapist and when I admitted to seeing other spirits, he sent me to someone who could prescribe medication."
Yugi hummed sympathetically then a small, sly grin tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Did you take it?"
Ryou grinned to match Yugi's. "No."
Both boys settled back to watch the sky again.
"I guess I just didn't want to not see my sister."
"Yeah."
"And now I'm really glad I didn't."
"Yeah."
Yugi reached out to squeeze his hand and Ryou didn't protest when he didn't remove it right away.
A/N: Yeah, if it seemed to be cut a little short it's because it was XD Only about half of what I originally wanted to write but, oh well, time was up and works sucks, what can I say! I still love what I was able to finish though and I think it works well enough. And I probably will finish and post the rest of it after the contest. Because heartshipping is like, my favorite!