Girls night out. That was all they had intended when Anzu and Mai left for downtown Domino that Saturday night, ready to have a fun, wild time together. They'd dressed up to the point where they felt unbelievably sexy before hitting the streets. On their way to the club, though, Anzu saw a shockingly familiar face on the opposite street corner. He stood with his head down, his shoulders hunched, his clothes baggy—but that white hair was unmistakable.
He wasn't the only one standing on that street corner, yet he managed to stand in total isolation, as if the people around him had heard the rumors, as if they'd been warned to stay away at all costs. The shadows gathered at his feet seemed to whisper the words stay away, stay away. It was as if the people at the crosswalk knew that he was dangerous. The light changed and people crossed, but he remained standing there with his head down, swaying as he was buffeted by the air current of many bustling bodies shifting around him. Around him, but never touching him.
Anzu looked at him and saw the worst case scenario flash before her eyes: if they left him alone now, in less than a week he'd wind up dead. He'd overdose on drugs, drown himself in the harbor, jump from a skyscraper, shoot himself in the head. He looked so lonely that she didn't doubt he was depressed. If that was the case, then it was her duty to do something about it. She grabbed Mai by the hand and hauled her across the street, the busty blond protesting.
"What are you doing?" Mai called over the sound of other pedestrian's conversations.
"We're going to talk to a friend!" she answered. She went right up to Ryou and dropped Mai's hand in time to throw herself at him, tackling him with an embrace that made him stagger and almost lose his balance.
"H-Hello, Anzu," he stammered, startled by the sudden tackle. He glanced up and saw Mai behind her, noting with a bit of discomfort how the two women were dressed. "Hello, Mai."
"What are you doing out here by yourself?" Anzu asked as she released him, but she didn't wait for an answer. "If you don't have any plans, you should join us! We're going dancing at a club Mai knows downtown."
"Thank you for the offer," he answered softly. "But I'm probably under-dressed for that sort of thing."
By this point, Mai had caught on to what Anzu was doing: the teen looked depressed and she wanted to cheer him up by inviting him to join their outing. Mai couldn't help but wonder why Ryou hadn't been invited to join Yugi, Joey, and Tristan at Yugi's house that night. Wasn't he their friend too?
"I'll buy you something to wear," Mai offered, giving him her most charming smile. It was enough to make him blush.
"I don't know how to dance," he protested as Anzu linked her arm in his.
"I can teach you," she offered generously as Mai came up along his other side and linked her own arm through Ryou's, just like Anzu.
"I have a headache—"
"I have Advil." Anzu cut him off dismissively. Her mind had already been made up, and she wasn't about to let him make excuses.
"I'm tired…" Ryou made one last-ditch effort at getting away, but he could tell that neither energetic, charismatic female was about to let go of him.
"That's what caffeine is for, hon," Mai replied breezily as the two young women started leading the skittish teen away.
Ryou stood in the shadows as he tried to hide from people. He didn't feel comfortable here, and he wouldn't be here if Anzu hadn't spotted him zoning out on the street corner. He'd gone for a walk, come to a stop at a "do not walk" signal, and then just stopped. He'd slipped into something of a daze—he didn't know for how long—and then the next thing he knew, he was being glomped by the head cheerleader. Anzu was the peppiest person he knew, and one of the most assertive females he knew. The most assertive female he knew had been there too, though: Mai Kujaku. When he realized that, he knew he was screwed.
Mai had paid generously to outfit him in something… flashy, even getting him a bag to put his current clothes in. He wasn't sure he liked their plan for the evening, though: hours of hard clubbing—which involved dancing, drinking, and copious flirting—followed by an equally hard crash in the hotel room Mai had already checked into. That's where Ryou's t-shirt, hoodie, and favorite sweatpants were now.
Now, he was trying to disappear into a shadowy corner of the club, his head pounding from the loud, booming music. He hadn't had much taste for human interaction after Battle City, becoming something of a hermit. His father had returned from one of his trips, and Ryou had needed to explain the reason for the hospital bill. It was nice seeing his father again, even if they'd only spent a short amount of time together before he left for another expedition. Mr. Bakura took it for granted that his son was strongly introverted and enjoyed his peaceful solitude. What he neglected to consider was that too much time alone without proper family support at home might cause his son to develop depression.
"Are you still moping over here all by yourself?" Mai called to him as she approached him with a colorful drink in each hand.
"I'm fine," he retorted, not wanting to have this conversation with her yet again. He'd already reassured them both several times that evening that there was nothing wrong with him, but they seemed entirely unconvinced.
"No, you're not," she contradicted, holding out one drink to him as she got close enough to him. "If you were fine, you'd be either dancing or drinking, and at the moment, you're doing neither."
"I can't dance and I don't drink," Ryou said simply, looking down at the drink in her hand before looking up at her, refusing to take it.
"This doesn't have alcohol in it, I thought you might be thirsty," she insisted, and he finally accepted it, not wanting to be rude. She stood beside him and threw one arm around his shoulders. He sniffed the drink nervously as she took a gulp of her own.
"You can't fool her, you know," she said lazily as he took a tentative sip of his drink. "She can tell that you're unhappy, and she can't stand to let her friends be unhappy."
Ryou made a sound of bitterness before taking another sip and saying, "That's funny, because she never seemed to notice me before."
"She has a lot of friends," Mai said as softly as she could while still being heard. "Sometimes… people fall through the cracks."
"I tend to do that a lot," Ryou muttered, still sounding bitter. He took another gulp of his drink, which now he knew had just a hint of alcohol in it, but he didn't really care at the moment.
"I always liked you," she said suddenly, making him turn to look at her in surprise. "You always seemed like a sweet guy."
"I thought you liked Joey," he replied bluntly, too shocked to be tactful.
"Joey's a knucklehead." She shrugged. "He has his moments, but he has a lot of growing up to do." She came closer to him, and Ryou could smell the fruity cocktail on her breath. "You've got your act together, though."
Ryou felt her nose press into his cheek, and in a moment of weakness, he turned his head to brush their lips together. It didn't feel like a proper kiss, though. Wasn't your first kiss supposed to be fireworks and magic? Then again, Ryou'd had enough magic to last a lifetime.
A sudden pain in his chest made him pull back suddenly, closing his eyes as he grit his teeth. He heard Mai ask if he was alright, but she sounded distant, as if he were underwater and she were calling to him from the surface. Anzu's voice joined Mai's, both speaking in concerned tones that he couldn't make sense of.
You didn't plan on having fun without me, did you, Yadonushi?
The Spirit's voice was the only one that sounded clear to him as he hunched forward, his back pressed firmly against the wall.
Please, not now, not here, he begged in his mind, two pairs of hands gently guiding him to a sitting position on the floor as he clutched at his head in pain. The static in his ears finally disappeared and he could hear again, breathe again.
"Ryou, talk to me!" Anzu cried, and Ryou felt a pair of hot palms caress his cheeks. He opened his eyes, dazed, and glanced from one worried face to another.
"Do you need to lie down or something?" Mai asked, pushing his bangs back as she peered into his face, trying to judge what was wrong with him.
"I'm fine," he muttered, pulling his knees up to his chest as he looked down to avoid their gazes.
"No you're not." Mai kissed his forehead in a motherly way. She took hold of one hand while Anzu took hold of the other, both of them helping him to stand even though he didn't want to.
"Come on, let's get you out of here," Anzu said gently, stepping close and putting an arm around him as if he needed the support.
"No, stay here," he protested, trying to pull himself away from them, but they held on. Why wouldn't they just let him leave? "You came out to have fun. I don't want to ruin that. I'll find my own way home."
"You're not ruining it." Anzu smiled at him, her expression bright and sunny. Too sunny. Ryou didn't like sunlight; he found it to be a harsh thing. He preferred moon- and starlight. He always had. "If you're up for it, how about you dance with me just once before we go. Come on, it'll be fun!"
Ryou wanted to refuse, he really did, but he was tired, and she was too persistent for him to withstand. He let her drag him into the crush of gyrating bodies and put her arms around his neck as she guided them in a gentle rocking movement. She noticed his stiffness and discomfort, and guided his arms around her waist. She leaned into him and he held her close. What else could he do?
"You need to relax," she said in his ear so that he could hear her. "Just enjoy yourself for a few minutes. Is that really so hard?"
He wanted to tell her that it was, but instead, he kept his mouth shut and tried to follow her advice.
"Ryou, why were you standing on the street corner?" Anzu asked suddenly. Ryou looked over at her in surprise, brown eyes meeting blue as he tried to think of how to answer her.
"I went for a walk."
"But why were you just standing there?" she persisted.
"I don't get very much time in my own body these days," he admitted as quietly as he could. "Every time I wake up, days or weeks have passed, and I know that I don't have long before I go under again. Since I don't have long, I don't try to do much with my time."
Anzu looked saddened by this news, and pulled him into an even closer embrace. "You can always come and see me when that happens," she said in his ear. "I promise I'll always make time for you. That's what friends are for, right?"
He nodded a little, knowing that she wouldn't be satisfied without an answer. When the song ended, she guided him back to where Mai was finishing off another cocktail.
"I called us a cab," the busty blond said over the music as the two teens came up to her. "It should be here any minute."
They wormed their way out of the club and slipped inside the cab, first Anzu, then Ryou, then Mai. When they arrived at the hotel, their order stayed the same. Ryou made a token attempt to insist that he wanted to go home, but Anzu refused to let him return to an empty house. Ryou changed back into his sweats and tee and curled up on the edge of the bed, eyes fluttering closed as he dozed a little. The next thing he knew, Mai had put an arm around his waist and dragged him to the middle of the bed. Anzu was helping him to slide under the covers, and he was too tired to notice that both women wore minimal sleepwear.
"Don't be sad anymore, Ryou," Anzu whispered sweetly, kissing his cheek.
"I thought you liked Yugi?" he asked blearily, eliciting a laugh from both females.
"Yugi's clueless," she replied with a smile. "Besides, he's more proud than he'd like to admit. You're much more… humble."
She let her lips hover over his, kissing him with a feather-light touch. Then she settled herself down beside him, both women with an arm around the depressed teen they'd rescued from his own mind that night. Ryou couldn't remember the last time he'd fallen asleep feeling so warm, so loved. He couldn't remember the last time he fell asleep wearing a smile.
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