Didn't See It Coming
Ryuzaki's P.O.V:
RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!
Ugh…damn alarm clocks-wait. I don't own an alarm clock. DAMNIT, IT'S THE PHONE!
CRASH! THUMP!
"Hel...lo?" I said, out of breath. Hey, you try running from your bedroom (on the second floor!) all the way to your living room (first floor!) when you just woke up, and NOT be out of breath!
"Hey, Ryuzaki!" …Haga?! Why was he calling me in the freakin' MORNING!
"What do you want, you little pest?"
"Pest…? Is that any way to talk to your boyfriend?" Damn, he's got a point. We've been dating for four years, six months, and eleven days (but who's counting?), and I frankly don't want to stop dating him just because I'm tired and slightly annoyed.
"Sorry…you know how I am when I just get up."
"You just got up?"
"Yeah, it's, what? 9:00, right?"
"No, it's noon. I know you sleep in on weekends but how-" He sighed. "You forgot, didn't you."
"Forgot what exactly?"
"That today's the day that Malik will propose to Coeura, BAKA!"
SHOOT. Coeura has been our best friend for around five years now (in fact, she's the one who managed to get us together after an incident during Valentine's day) and Malik (her boyfriend) told Haga (who told me) that he would propose soon, and we should be there to make sure she doesn't faint or anything. At least, he THINKS Malik said that, it could've been his Yami, Marik.
See, apparently, Marik's had a thing for Malik, but when Coeura came in, things got really chaotic. There was crying, hospital trips, attempts at world domination…it ended up with a happy ending for Coeura, that's all that matters.
Gah, I can't BELIEVE that slipped my mind!
"I'm guessing that your silence means you forgot the plan too," he said.
"Nope, that I remembered! It's so simple! We just go on a double date with her and Malik, we split after sunset, and hide behind the bushes while he proposes!" Hey, I'm not a total idiot.
"Whilst you're not a total idiot, you can be a forgetful one. Just hurry up and get over here. She'll be arriving soon, and you know she hates it when you're late. I don't want you to get hurt by her," he said, and then hung up.
Note to self; Check to see if my boyfriend's a mind reader.
Normal P.O.V:
Today was a pleasant day. The sun shone throughout Domino City, and the air was fresh and clean. An equally pleasant Coeura Hari happily skipped towards the fountain where her best friend and boyfriend awaited for her. She liked the fact that even though they weren't on the best of terms, they could still wait together a bit for her.
"Hello, anyone in there?" she said playfully when she noticed that the two were off in their own world.
Malik caught the first glance from Coeura, whose light brown hair was bouncing off her shoulders as she ran towards them, and smiled. "Hey, beautiful." he said, as he was greeted with a glomp and a peck on the cheek by his girlfriend.
Coeura glanced down at Haga, still looking off into space. He'd changed over the five years she'd known him. His hair had grown out and nicely touched his shoulders, and he wore contacts, which made his eyes seem rounder. She didn't care, he still had his stubborn personality in her view. His hesitant blue eyes scanned the park they were standing in, obviously looking for someone.
She knew who it was without a doubt: Ryuzaki. She knew how much Ryuzaki meant to him, and how much happier he was when Ryuzaki was around. To be honest, she loved their smiles. Not just Malik, Haga or Ryuzaki's, everyone she'd ever met had beautiful smiles when they were around a loved one.
Ryou with Bakura, Otogi with Honda, everyone. What always gave her a pleasant vibe inside though, was that Malik saved his best smile for her.
"So, seeing as Ryu-kun's not here, I'm guessing he slept in again, huh?" she said.
"I thought you said you'd stop calling him that," Haga replied, ignoring the question.
"Well, nicknames are hard to stop saying with me. It's kinda like how I call Malik, Mali, and how I call you-"
"Don't say it."
She chuckled at Haga's interruption. "And how I call you," she continued, "Haga-chan." She knew victory was in her hands.
"GRAH! That's practically a GIRL's nickname, Coeura!" he said in frustration, flailing his arms. Normally she would just start a war with her slightly smaller friend, but another person standing behind him caught her eye.
"Oh, hey, Ryuzaki."
"Like I'd fall for that trick-!" His rant was cut off by his boyfriend's lips being pressed against his. He sighed and almost instantly returned the kiss.
As Coeura watched this, she felt her cheeks turn a faint pink. She'd figured she'd be used to it, but it still caused her to blush. Malik, noticing how utterly adorable she looked, placed his hand on her blazing cheek, and began to kiss her as well.
After around a minute, the two couples parted, and sighed pleasantly.
"So," Malik asked, "what's the plan today?"
"Huh, I thought you guys would've come up with something during the time it took for me to get here!"
"Well, I got here a little before you did, Ryuzaki." Coeura nibbled on her bottom lip. "Uh…let's see…we could, no…GAH!" Her sudden outburst caused the others to step back. "I always get stuck with this job! Can't a guy figure out what to do for once!"
"Calm down, Coeura," Malik said trying to comfort her. "Why don't we just walk around the park a bit? Maybe get some ice cream."
Her blue eyes sparkled at the mention of the frozen dessert. "Thank you, Mali!"
She was evil, they just knew it.
-----
As the four duelists walked the pathway of the emerald green park, the sun continued to shine very brightly as a faint cool breeze passed by, making it not too hot, not too cold, in other words, a perfect day.
"So, you guys hear about Jounouchi?" Malik asked.
"What, the imbecile finally got a date with Mai or something?" Ryuzaki and Haga began to laugh. Even eight years after Duelist Kingdom and Battle City, they'd never quite gotten OR given an apology to him, especially after he founded his own company, "Shizuka Industries", the ultimate rival to "Kaiba Corporations".
Coeura smirked at her laughing friends. "No, actually, I think he's having that HUGE party next week where he invited all his closest friends. The one celebrating the engagement between him and Seto Kaiba?" The laughter seized and they froze up instantly.
"Huh? Coeura did you get invited, too? I got my invite yesterday."
"Well of course I did, I've gotten quite personal with the Jounouchi's and the Kaiba's, after Mokuba and Shizuka's dating dilemma that I helped solve. But no, I was reminded by Kajiki of the celebration on his way to his date with Roba-kun. Glad to know that Jounouchi still remembers them enough to give them invites."
She glanced at her friends, to see them kicking a tree. Each time she heard curses, she kept reminding them of the children at the park, until eventually she ran over to keep them from bringing the whole tree down. Malik watched them do this from a safe distance; he wasn't an idiot when it came to Coeura, and she could get pretty vicious.
The Egyptian looked up at the blue sky, wondering how he'd gotten into this mess. All he could think of was when one of Kaiba's tournaments five years back was set in Canada, and how then he met the stubborn brunette. Not only was she a participant, she was also the owner of the hotel that a group of duelists such as himself stayed at. He'd thought she was very pretty, you could say it was love at first sight, but when he had the guts to talk to her, he knew she was the one.
She had a very angelic personality, which matched her, since she was an Angel duelist, but if someone got on her bad side, they soon discovered that she was quite capable of standing her ground. Eventually, the two had to part, but made a promise to meet again, which was fulfilled a year later when they met again in Japan, and became a couple.
Malik smiled as he saw her dragging back Ryuzaki and Haga, now with very sore feet.
"Geez, you two really need to work out your anger issues, I was only teasing you a bit!"
Haga glared at her. "A bit? You know we hate him to the bone, and that he's the reason why we couldn't get a break for two years of our life, and yet you had to rub it in that he forgets us too?"
Ryuzaki hugged him from behind. "It's all right, who needs that idiot? I'm happy that things turned out this way, aren't you?"
Haga smiled and rubbed his cheek on his boyfriend's. "Immensely."
Coeura felt her cheeks glow red again. "Uh…ice cream! M-Malik, I'm taking up your offer on ice cream!" She dragged them along. "C'MON THE HEAT'S GETTING TO ME!"
Eventually, she spotted an ice cream vendor and rushed to him, snapping out her wallet to see if she had enough money. Malik did the same. They fished out enough for a single scoop each.
"One single scoop of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough please!" Coeura asked very sweetly.
"Oh," the ice cream vendor said, "we don't stock that flavor, sorry."
Something told everyone that no wouldn't be an answer for her, as she kept repeating her demand.
"Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough."
"What? I just said-"
"Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough."
"Um, missy, I just said-"
She brought him down to her eye level. "How can you not have that delicious flavor! What's wrong with this place! I demand you-" Malik came up from behind and covered her mouth with his hand.
"Coeura, you got to learn to calm down, not everyone sells that flavor! It's not like they don't have my favorite flavor, Neapolitan-"
"Um, well actually, we don't sell that either…don't kill me, I want to live another day…"
Malik had a sweet tooth, but unlike Coeura, he could keep his temper.
"F-fine." he said, obviously holding back his outbursts. "We don't need this, we'll find another place that sells it. Come along dear…" He dragged her off as she continued making funny faces at the vendor.
"You think this is over? HAH! You'll get your just desserts, man, NO ONE MESSES WITH COEURA HARI!!!" Her scream echoed through the park.
Ryuzaki and Haga just stood there, holding the chocolate and vanilla ice cream cones they'd bought from the stunned vendor, watching her get dragged away.
"Well," Ryuzaki finally said, "at least she hasn't changed."
Haga nodded in agreement. "Ah! Ryuzaki! If she goes off, what about the plan?"
He smiled. "That's all right, I'm sure that with or without Coeura nearby, the question will no doubt be popped soon." He stared into his lover's bright blue eyes. "C'mon, there's something I want to show you."
Before he knew it, his hand was grabbed by Ryuzaki, and Haga was running along to his destination. As the sun began to set, the two arrived at an oddly familiar building.
"The old Dueling arena?" Haga asked, trying to catch his breath.
"Yep, no one comes here anymore, but to me, it's very special." They walked inside the abandoned building, ignoring the dust that time had brought upon it, and found the large stadium that once had an equally large crowd that would cheer for the duelists playing.
Within moments, his eyes began shining. "Ryuzaki?"
"Yes?"
"Is…is this the same place…" His voice began to shake. "The same place that we first dueled together…and first met?"
Ryuzaki nodded and brought Haga into his embrace. "Sure is. Exactly seven years, four months and thirteen days ago, we dueled here for the very first time."
"Hm, never thought you'd keep track."
"Well, it was the day I fell in love for the first and only time." Haga's cheeks began to turn red. "I never thought of what the feeling was back then, but every time I saw you after that day, my heart raced, my head was dizzy, and all I wanted to do was to be beside you. I eventually figured out that I had fallen in love with you."
The smaller boy pulled away slightly to look into his lover's bright, violet eyes, his own beginning to form tears of happiness. "Ever since that day, I felt the same way. I enjoy every minute I have with you, you let me feel happiness I thought I could never feel, and the day you confessed to me…that Valentine's day a few years back…that was the happiest day of my life. I-I love you, Ryuzaki, very much."
"I love you too, which is why…I have something to ask you." He reached into his pocket to pull out a small box and went down on one knee. "Haga…" He opened the box to reveal a small ring with an emerald on it. "Will you please marry me? I want to spend my entire life with you."
Haga felt like he couldn't breathe. It wasn't Coeura being asked to be married, it was him. They planned it all out perfectly so he could never see it coming!
Ryuzaki stood and he jumped into Ryuzaki's arms. "Yes, yes, YES! I want to marry you!" They gazed into each other's eyes for a brief second, and went into a deep kiss.
What they didn't know though, was that at the top row of seats, a hidden Coeura was watching them.
"Dang, he didn't faint! I was totally aiming for that to happen! Grr…now I have to pay ten bucks to Yami and Yuugi…" she whispered.
"Well, you could lie. I'm pretty sure they wouldn't tell."
She froze up, and snapped her head around. That wasn't Malik's voice…
"M-Marik…" Her blue eye twitched in annoyance. "Can you please go away? What did you do with Malik?"
"Relax," the darker half of Malik replied. "Malik-chan went back home, I sent him back there while you weren't looking and changed my hair style to look like him. Just wanted to tell you something that might interest you…"
"I do NOT want to talk to you. I hate you, I loathe you, I-"
"Love me?" he cut off.
"NO." She thought to herself "Not anymore anyway…"
"Well, your denial is cute, but not nearly as cute as Malik. Anyway, I was wondering, when do you plan on telling those two," he pointed to the couple, who were now laughing with joy, "that you've been engaged to Malik for a good week now?"
"Oh, they'll be sure to figure it out when I give them the invitations to the wedding. You know, AFTER they give me the invites to theirs." Coeura turned around to meet her old crush's, and now worst enemy's, gaze. "Now, anything else before I properly kick you out of here?"
"One last thing. You know…now that you're going to become an Ishtar…we'll be relatives."
Coeura snapped. She sank down to the ground, and within seconds, her scream echoed through the stadium.
------
The once bright sun had been replaced by a pale moon, and Coeura was relaxing on her bed in her apartment. She was typing and placing video clips in a certain order on her laptop, to create a special video for her wedding. The song playing in the background was "Innocence" by Avril Lavigne and she put her pictures she had of all her friends on it, all with their special, smiling faces. Before she could put the final touch on it, the doorbell rang, and she opened her door.
"AH! Coeura Hari, I'm so glad I found you!" She blinked. The ice cream vendor? "Listen, I'm SO sorry about your ice cream, but now we stock it, and your friend's flavor too!" He gave her a tub of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream. "So please don't kill me!"
Coeura watched him run off, and glanced at her reward. "Told you." she said, followed by a maniacal laugh, and then went to search for a spoon.