Summary:

Ryou's life was normal, well normal for him at least. He lived together with his father, his grandpa, his little brother and his little sister. But you couldn't call them a happy family. Everything was tainted with sadness and quarrel. Yes... Ryou's life wasn't easy. His friend Bakura wasn't a big help either. He had to deal with his own problems and his parents.
When one day a guy called Malik appears, Ryou's life will be turned upside down. The question is: Will it get better or worse?
-Shonen-ai

Okay, so I've decided to go on with this story because I really like the idea and I want to write it down before I forget everything again. Maybe you know the movie 'Tomorrow may or may not be'. That's where I got the idea from. But I won't stick completely to the movie, maybe only at the beginning or when I really have to. So for those of you who know the movie: I'm not sure if the end of this story will be the same end as in the movie. Maybe it will be, maybe not.

Well, enough jabbering for now, let's start. The story shall be funny in some places, sad in other places. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh! and I don't own the movie 'Tomorrow may or may not be'.

Chapter 1 Welcome to my life

Ryou's P.O.V

I sighed as a breeze made my long white hair wave. Today was one of those cloudy days where the sun very rarely broke through the thick curtain of clouds that hung in the sky. Certainly, it would rain soon.

I looked over the city from where I stood on a rooftop. It wasn't only any rooftop, no, it was the rooftop my mother had brought me to when I was younger. And when she had still been alive.

Whenever I missed her, I came here because then I felt that she was closer. I smiled sadly as I remembered the nice moments we had spent together here on the rooftop. For hours, we had watched the birds flying over the city and the people down on the streets, busy with whatever it was they did. We had watched the sunset and how the darkness slowly had covered the whole city underneath its coat. My mother and I... Back then, my life had been carefree, I'd been happy, everyone had been happy. And then suddenly...

I sighed again. A raindrop fell on my arm at the same time as a tear ran down my face. I looked up to the sky that was clothed with heavy gray clouds. I should better go home before I would get too wet. Home... If you could call it that.

I am, by the way, Ryou Bakura and this is my story.

As I came home this at noon, my father was telephoning. Quietly, I took off my shoes and listened to what he said.

"I understand, Mr. Toyoto, but try and understand my problem.... I must have the loan extension, please. I know the game shop is centrally situated. But there's competition around, Mr. Toyoto..."

After my mother had passed away, the entire responsibility of the family had fallen on him. He'd had to quit his dream job as an archeologist where he had traveled a lot and had barely been at home, and instead he now ran a game shop, so that he was nearly always at home to look for my younger siblings and to keep house. Everything was difficult for him since mom was gone, but he never allowed us to ever feel the burden of his sorrows.

"Thank you... I", he put down the receiver.

I went back to the front door and opened and closed it noisily. He shouldn't know that I'd heard everything because he always tried to keep his problems away from us.

"I'm home", I called. Then, I walked into the kitchen.

"Where have you been the whole morning?", he asked.

"Rooftop", I muttered. He knew that it was the place where I always went when I had longing for my mother, when I was sad, when I needed a time to relax, when I wanted a rest from my stressful and annoying everyday life.

I saw the mail lying on the table and took a look at it.

"Bills... bills... bills... Private and confidential?", I read.

"That's mine", he said and took the letter.

I looked at the next letter and frowned. "What's this?", I asked. "This is Joey's mail again. When does the mailman finally learn that our house number is twenty and not twenty two? I think he needs glasses. He always..."

I paused as I saw that my father's eyes were slightly red. "Were you crying?", I asked.

"No", he answered. "You were crying..."

"No dad", I said.

My father and I... We lied to each other every day, how sad that may sound.

I eyed the last latter. "Marriage bureau?", I asked and couldn't believe what I read. "Marriage bureau?! What does that mean? Huh?"

"Why don't you ask your grandfather?", my father replied. "Certainly it is a new plan to get you a wife."

"But I don't want to get married. And I don't want a wife. I don't like women! I'm gay! Why doesn't grandpa leave me alone?", I asked angrily.

"Why doesn't he just leave?", my father muttered.

"Dad. Where is he?", I asked.

He grimaced. "You have three guesses."

I rolled my eyes. Surely, he and his other old friends were playing card games, like every day at that time. I think it's annoying. Instead that he would help my father with keeping the house he wasted the time with games. And with trying to make a mess of my life.

Enraged, I ran up the stairs and walked to grandpa's room. I already heard him and his friends shouting "Go, Dark Magician!", and stuff like that. I shook my head. As if the cards could hear them. Stupid game...

My grandpa... He had three dreams.

One, that the monsters of his stupid card game 'Duel monsters' would be real and that he would be Duel Monsters champion. (Ha, as if that would ever happen.)

Two, that I would marry a woman. (It was more likely that his first dream would come true than this dream.)

And three... that my father would die.

"Jii-chan!", I shouted and opened the door, the letter with the title 'Marriage bureau' and photos of three women in my hand.

None of the old men had noticed me. They still played their game. "JII-CHAN!", I yelled.

They turned their head towards me.

"Oh God! He interrupted us while we were dueling!", one of his friends said, appalled.

"How dare you!", the other one said.

"Don't you have any shame?", my grandpa asked.

"Don't you have any shame?", I countered and hold the letter and the photos out to him. "What is this? Huh? What's this?"

He furrowed his brow and took the photos. As he looked at them, his eyes widened and he beamed with joy.

"Wow! Pictures from the Marriage bureau! That was fast!", grandpa said.

"And all three of them are so pretty", one of his friend said. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) I didn't know the names of his friends.

"Three? They look like one and the same to me", I told him.

Suddenly, he and his friends began to chatter about how good-looking these women were and stuff.

"Jii-chan! I'm not interested in marrying anyone and much less if it is a woman. You know that!", I interrupted them.

"But, son, if you don't marry a woman, how will you have children?", grandpa asked.

"If I want, I can have children. There's no need to marry a woman", I told him.

Grandpa and his two friends looked terrified.

I left grandpa's room and walked into the room of my siblings, Amane and Yugi. Yugi was still in his pyjama and watched TV, while Amane played with her dollhouse.

"Come on, come on", Yugi said. "Yes!", he shouted as one of the basketball players scored.

He always watched basketball on TV, because that was one of the few things he could do. And when he didn't watch basketball, he played card games like grandpa. I rather saw him watching TV than playing this stupid game. In the end he would maybe end like grandpa!
Yugi was handicapped, you must know. Both his legs were crippled, so that he could only walk with crutches. His dream was to become a basketball player when he was grown up, but it was only a dream and would always only be one. Though he couldn't play basketball like other kids, he was irritating and nerving as much as a normal child.

"Yugi!", I said and covered my ears with my hands because he shouted so loud. Quickly, I went to the TV and turned it off. "Whenever I come, you sit around and watch basketball."

He made puppy dog eyes. "But bro... Just because I can't play doesn't mean I can't see..."

"Oh no, no, no, no! Not the puppy dog eyes!", I said and shook my head. "They don't work with me."

He pouted.

"Alright?", I asked. He nodded. "Then hurry up. Lunch is almost ready. Amane, help your brother."

"Bro, have you already seen my new dolls?", Amane asked me.

"Amane! Stop playing and help instead", I said again. She didn't listen to me. I crouched down next to her.

"This is father, this is you, this is Yugi, that's me and this-", she explained.

Just as she was about to tell me that the last doll was grandpa, the door to the room swung open and grandpa came in.

"Oh! So you are awake, Yugi!", he said and sat down next to him. He laid his arm around Yugi's shoulder. "How are you, son? I hope fine. You're fine, right?"

Yugi rolled his eyes. "Yes jii-chan, I'm fine."

"Thank God! Well, if you want to we can play some card games later..."

"Good morning, jii-chan!", Amane said smiling and stood up from where she was playing at the floor.

Grandpa merely waved with his hand. "Yeah, yeah..." Then he continued to talk with Yugi.

I saw the smile on the face of my little sister fade and it made me sad.

Grandpa's love for Yugi was only matched by his hatred for Amane. Amane was adopted and probably that's why grandpa didn't consider her.

And Amane... she always kept the grandpa-doll away from her perfect family in the dollhouse.

It was every day like this. Every day...

We sat down at the table in our kitchen. And as soon as we sat, the daily bickering between my father and grandpa began. It was unnerving. I didn't know how much longer I could stand it.

"And?", Yugi leaned over to me.

"Shut up", I told him. The quarreling between my father and grandpa was annoying enough. I didn't need that Yugi annoyed me now, too.

"They'll argue", Yugi continued. I ignored him.

"Bet", he said.

I rolled my eyes. "Stop bugging", I told him.

He sighed. "Oh, come on. It's just one dollar."

I shook my head. It wasn't about the one dollar why I didn't want to bet. It was about the principle. I hated it when my father and my grandpa argued. But apparently, Yugi didn't seem to notice that.

"What's for lunch?", grandpa asked as my father put the dishes on the table.

"Pizza", father answered.

"Again? So what's new? We eat that almost every day. And if it isn't frozen pizza, is some other frozen food. Poor son-in-law... of British origin... doesn't know how to make decent Japanese meals", grandpa said. "Do you know something, Ryou?", he asked me.

I looked at him, sighed mentally and shook my head. "Last night, I had a wonderful dream. I was eating 'Toriniku no tatsuta-age'. Oh... how I miss real Japanese food..."

"If you miss that food so much, why don't you go to one of those restaurants and come never back if you hate this food so much", my father said. "What do you think, Ryou?"

I sighed and gave my attention to my pizza while I tried to ignore my father and my grandfather's arguing.

"No, no, no!", grandpa said. "I'm going nowhere. If I leave, what will happen to these children?"

My father looked at grandpa. His face full of anger, full of hate for the person that unfortunately was his father-in-law.

"I'm very concerned about them", grandpa continued and ruffled Yugi's hair, much to the boy's dislike.

"Yeah, you care sacrificially for them.", father countered sarcastically and laid his arm around Amane. "I am only concerned about them", father said and emphasized the 'them', meaning Yugi, me AND Amane, who was always forgotten (accidentally or not) by grandpa.

Grandpa scoffed. "Yes, of course... Why would you be concerned about me? Who am I to you? If only my daughter was alive today..."

"Only if she was alive...", my father said.

I clenched my fist. "Stop it! Just stop it!", I shouted and breathed heavily. Angry, I looked at them and stood up. I got my purse out of my jeans and thrust a one dollar bill into Yugi's hand.

"Here's your dollar", I said to Yugi. "As usual. Are you happy now?"

Then I addressed my father and my grandfather. "And both of you... just forget it."

I walked out of the kitchen, put my shoes and my coat on and stormed out of the house. I had to go away. Just away from them and their constant bickering.

In former times, I had been very calm and shy and I'd rarely worked up over something. But this had been long ago. Since my mother's death, thus the beginning of the quarreling between my father and my grandpa, I'd lost my patience more and more and got upset very easily. I tried to be not at home as often as I could, so that I wouldn't hear them arguing, but I couldn't avoid it always.

And like this it was every day. Sad, huh? Well, for me it was daily routine. First father and grandpa's fight, that was followed by my angry walkout...

... and then listening to my stupid neighbor Joey's stupid chatter.

Like every other day, I walked to the coffee shop, where Joey normally was at this time. He stood at the counter and ordered something.

I tapped his shoulder. He turned round.

"Oh, hi, Ryou! One minute", he said and turned to the vender again. "Okay, make dat two glazed doughnuts, two blueberry muffins, two chocolate frappe chinos. And what do ya want?", he now turned to me again.

Yes, that's Joey. My next door neighbor and unfortunately my best friend. He could eat all the time, what he actually did. He was always hungry. That was his first problem. His second was, that he was the male definition for what you could call a 'dumb blonde' and that he could babble you your ears off. But he was funny and honest and his heart was in the right place, that's probably the reason why I liked him. We knew each other since our first day at High School and I was happy that I was his friend, although if he could be quite annoying at times.

"Ryou? Hoo-hoo? Earth to Ryou?"

A hand waved in front of my face and brought me out of my thoughts. I shook my head.

"What?", I asked.

"Tell what ya want", Joey said.

"Uh, one double espresso-to-go, please", I said.

After we got what we'd ordered, we left the coffee shop and walked around in the city.

"Oh, I just forgot", I said and pulled Joey's mail out of my pocket. "Here's your letter. It came to our house again. I don't know if the mailman can't read or something. I mean, if he can't distinguish our house numbers, then he could at least read the name that is written on the letter."

Joey took the letter and packed it away.

"So, what are we going to do now?", he asked me.

I shrugged. "Let's go into the park or something", I said.

"Yeah, dat sounds like a good idea. The last time I've been in the park seems like months ago, but do ya know what's funny? Actually I was there yesterday. Ha. And yet it seems like I haven't been there for months", he babbled.

I only nodded and smiled. Yeah. Very funny... Yeah, yeah, Joey is such a wisecracker. That's sarcasm, by the way.

Anyway... So we went to the park.

While I listened to Joey's random jabbering, I was suddenly pushed what caused me to pour my whole espresso over me.

Joey stopped. "Oh my god, oh my god", he said and pulled a tissue out of his pocket and tried to rub the espresso off while I just stood there gaping.

"Just look at me! Just look at me!", I said, upset.

"Oh my god!", Joey shouted. "Just look at him!" He pointed to a guy who stood under a tree nearby. Had I mentioned that Joey was gay, too?

"Look at me. I'm out of control", the boy sang with his headphones on and nodding to the rhythm of his music.

"He's so cute!", Joey said.

"Joey! Look at me!", I said angry. My whole coat was covered with espresso.

"But I see ya every day", Joey said. "He's so cute! And hot. Wow."

"Argh, shut up!", I said. "Just shut up!"

He looked at me with wide eyes.

"Boys, boys, boys", I said. "That's all your interested in. What will happen? You will get the boy you want, you will marry him, have children and then... He will leave you and go away. What will you do then? Huh?"

"I will marry again. What else?", Joey answered. I slapped my forehead.

"Forget it... just. Argh", I turned and walked off.

It will end like I'd said. Like it happened every day thousands times and worldwide. You fall in love and then, you'll get left alone. True love? There was no such thing.

Well, that was chapter 1. I hope you liked it.

Some words I think I should explain:
'Toriniku no tatsuta-age' = fried marinaded chicken meat
'Jii-chan' = Japanese for 'grandpa'

I tried as often as I could that I don't stick to the movie when I don't have to, because I want to bring a personal touch into the story.

Oh, btw, Ryou is about twenty-three in this story.

Bakura will appear in the next chapter. I don't know when exactly Malik will appear. Maybe already in the next chapter, maybe not until chapter three.

That is if you like this story. Because if nobody likes it, then I won't continue to write it.

Please review, okay? But no flames, please! And if you have any questions, then you can ask, of course.

~Crystal of Moonlight~