Dungeonshipping (Ryuuji OtogixPegasus Crawford) for Round 4 of contest.

AU, hints of shounen-ai, total pointlessness... ^^

Anyway, I hope you like it; I certainly had fun writing depressed-Pegasus!

It was eleven thirty, and, as usual, Pegasus was hunched over his drink, sitting alone at the bar. He never had to place his order; the barman knew him by sight. After all, he was in there every night. He had nowhere else to go.

The bar wasn't exactly the best place for socialising. Nearly everyone that came there was alone, and looking for some peace so they were free to drown their sorrows with cheap drink, and try to forget in the haze of cigarette smoke and the background buzz of music. Pegasus was one of the few regulars; most people didn't come here more than once. You had to be really depressed to come here often. Pegasus had learned to ignore the grubby glasses, the filth that coated the floor, the smell (that you could never quite place, but always clung to your clothes long after you'd left) and the sullen barman, slouching against the bar, pretending to clean glasses, who, when you tried to order, glared at you as though you had no right to be disturbing him.

But Pegasus liked it. It was cheap, for one thing, which was good, because he couldn't remember a time when he hadn't been in financial difficulty. It was also quiet- no one tried to talk with anyone else. The occasional couple or group that came in would only stay for a while, and even then their conversations would be nervous murmurs, as though they were in a library rather than a seedy bar. Pegasus relished the quiet, it allowed him to wallow in his misery and grief-filled memories, and to ponder the future, gloomily. It was all he could do. He couldn't move on. He wouldn't move on.

Pegasus had been going to the bar for three years (virtually every night) having the same drink, sitting on the same stool at the end of the bar, when something new happened. A teenage boy, dressed in an outfit that most teenage boys wouldn't be seen dead in, a dice earring, long black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and with green eyes that pierced the gloom with a cool gaze, was what happened. He sauntered in, that night (as Pegasus was busy sitting and drinking and cursing the world in general just like he did every night) and ordered a drink.

The barman hesitated for a split second (the boy was clearly underage; he couldn't have been more than sixteen) but then shrugged, figuring that 'any business was good business' and served him.

The boy sat nearer to Pegasus than anyone usually did, which annoyed the older man, but he decided the boy would probably leave soon anyway so there was no point in worrying; he was already eyeing the room with an air of distaste.

Sure enough, a few minutes later: "What a dump," the boy muttered, just loud enough for Pegasus to hear.

Pegasus (irritated at being jolted out of his pleasant alcohol-induced reverie) gave the boy a scathing look. "If you hate it so much, then leave."

The boy smiled, cockily. "Well, I suppose I can bear it for now. I'm meeting a date soon; I'll leave then."

Everything about him oozed arrogance, and Pegasus didn't like the way he was looking at him; it was the way a predator eyes its prey.

Pegasus chose not to respond, and returned to staring into the depths of his glass, hoping that, if luck was on his side, the strange, arrogant boy with the green eyes would leave him alone.

Luck was not on his side.

"I'm Ryuuji Otogi," the boy said, in a way that suggested it was a great honour for Pegasus to be introduced to the boy.

" 'm Pegasus Crawford," he mumbled in reply.

"You are a boy, aren't you?" asked Otogi, as if this was a perfectly normal question to ask someone you'd just met.

Pegasus was completely floored by this, and stared incredulously at the boy. Indifferent green eyes gazed calmly back, completely unaware of the rudeness of his statement.

When Pegasus didn't reply, Otogi continued: "It's just you have such long hair, and it's hard to tell in this light."

Pegasus answered with as much contempt as he could muster in his half drunk state.

"Yes. I'm male."

Otogi sipped his own drink delicately, and said in an amused voice, "You don't need to be offended, Mr… Crawford, was it? People mistake me for a girl all the time. Can't imagine why."

"Yes, your long hair, earring and eyeliner all scream masculinity," Pegasus answered, before he could stop himself.

Otogi laughed, and a spark leaped in those green eyes.

"Touchy, aren't you?" he continued, still with that slightly mocking note in his voice. "Tell me, Pegasus- Can I call you Pegasus?" Before he could answer, Otogi had stormed ahead. "Good. Tell me, Pegasus, do you come to this place often?"

Pegasus sighed, and replied reluctantly, "Yes, I'm a regular."

Ryuuji (as apparently they were on first name terms now) frowned. "Why?" he asked, in the blunt way that Pegasus had already become accustomed to in the five minutes they'd been talking.

"Got nowhere else to go."

Ryuuji looked at him as though he was stupid. "There are other bars in Domino, you know."

"Too expensive. I've no money."

"Why? Doesn't your job pay well?"

Pegasus restrained an eye-roll. Didn't this boy realise that he was invading his privacy?

"I'm an artist. Hardly a steady income."

Ryuuji (who was clearly having difficulty grasping the concept of not having a lot of money) looked confused. "Why don't you get a better job then? What about your wife, or girlfriend? Doesn't she get annoyed with you when there's no money?"

This question was one too many, and Pegasus was suddenly jolted back into the real world. Anger (or was it grief?) boiled at the pit of his stomach. How dare this brat make him remember Cyn- … his wife? What gave him the right to intrude?

Some of his sadness and fury must have shown on his face, because Ryuuji looked suddenly sombre.

"You… had a wife or girlfriend," he murmured.

Pegasus' grip on his glass tightened.

"She died. Three years ago," he croaked, trying to control the tears that still threatened to spill over even now.

Ryuuji finally seemed to sense that he'd gone too far, and fell silent.

After a considerable pause, in which they both continued to drain their glasses, Ryuuji blurted out, "I know what it's like, you know. My mother died. Five years ago."

Pegasus looked at the boy in surprise. Colour flamed on his cheekbones, and his green eyes flashed as he looked at the older man, as if daring Pegasus to pity him.

Anger surged in his stomach again. He was just a kid! And he had to deal with this pain, this pain that ripped you up from the inside, yet numbed you to everything around you at the same time. It wasn't fair. Suddenly Pegasus could forgive the boy for being so aggravating, and he could even forgive him for bringing up his dead wife.

If that was how the kid dealt with grief, then it wasn't his place to question it.

It was no wonder those eyes were so… lifeless.

There was nothing he could say to comfort the boy, he knew only too well how little words can help with grief.

He raised his glass. "To your mother. And to my wife," he said, quietly, bitterly, sadly.

Ryuuji gave a tired smile, and clinked his glass against Pegasus's.

After that they didn't speak again.

A few minutes later his date arrived, and Ryuuji got up to leave. But before he departed (with the giggling girl hanging on his arm), he reached over and touched Pegasus's arm.

"Thanks. For talking to me. I guess I was a bit annoying," he smiled, without a trace of his earlier arrogance (although he was clearly embarassed at actually saying something nice for once.)

Pegasus smiled back (he hadn't done that in a long, long time) and replied, "Well, you know where to find me, if you ever want to annoy someone. I'll be here."

Ryuuji grinned, and for the second time that evening a spark leapt in those cold, dead, oh-so-green eyes.

As Ryuuji left, Pegasus felt something that he hadn't felt in years. Happiness.

Well, it wasn't quite happiness, but it was a damn sight closer to it than he'd been half an hour ago.

Somehow, he thought, as he stood up to leave, somehow everything would be alright, just as long as he could see that spark of life in those beautiful green eyes.

And he walked out of the bar.

*Shakes head in disgust* Oh, how horribly sappy....

Thanks for reading! ^^