Ryou Bakura was sitting alone on a bench at the local park.
If he had a more sentimental mind, he'd quote poetry.
The park was virtually empty. But then again, it always was. Nobody who had friends hung out at the old park. Not to say Ryou didn't have friends, he just wasn't all that close to them.
Ryou went to the park whenever he was bored. Or if he just needed a change of scenery, maybe even to study. This was one of the studying times. Right now Ryou was going over the vocabulary for his Spanish quiz in his head.
The problem with vocabulary is that Ryou tended to focus less on the actual words and their meanings. His attention was always captured by the accent and speech patterns. The words were like an art form. The simple little things like the rolling of R's or the places letters changed their sound to one uncommon in the English language fascinated him.
In retrospect, it would probably be better to actually know the words he was supposed to be saying, but it was just much more fun to mimic the accent. His teacher has even said that Ryou's accent could pass for native, if only he would say... well, the right words.
'Okay, so a way to greet somebody is... uh encantado, me llamo Ryou' oh yes, must be polite. ¿Y tu?' He closed his eyes in concentration and continued to think of the simple conversation with himself. Just a tad worried that he has spent a few months in that class, yet couldn't remember what encantado meant.
That was the reason for the current studying.
'Perhaps I just need to take my teacher's advice and associate it with something?' Ryou thought almost half desperately. It may not sound like that big of a deal, but when somebody starts a conversation with words you don't know, that conversation does not have much potential.
Ryou sighed in defeat. 'Doubt I'll be remembering that anytime soon.'. Ryou opened his eyes and saw a boy standing over him. Ryou startled from the shock of seeing a stranger so close to him and Ryou's forehead connected with the stranger's chin.
Needless to say, Ryou had a hard head and both him and the stranger were sent sprawling to the ground with Ryou clutching his head and the stranger his chin.
He hadn't meant to do that really. But, Ow.
Really, it's a normal reaction! Ow. When some guy is standing inches away like a creeper, normal people tend to be weirded out. Now that Ryou was actually looking at him and had a closer look at him thanks to their shared positions on the ground (the stranger had fallen backward on his butt and Ryou's jump caused him to lose his balance leaving him to go forward onto his knees) he could see that he looks... well, like Ryou.
That's strange.
Still painful too.
"What're you staring at?" The lookalike asked harshly, holding a hand on his chin while glaring at Ryou.
Ryou idly wondered if this is what I'd be like if he were a jerk.
"Uh, lo siento por eso." Ryou apologized. Or at least he thought he did. Again, vocabulary and he aren't the best of buddies. He also thought that having a really angry scary bloke right in from of him who isn't the happiest at the moment counts for something.
Ryou don't even know what he was thinking. Or wasn't thinking. He was pretty certain he meant to say something in English... but hey, maybe if the angry boy thinks they don't speak the same language he'll leave Ryou alone. It's a long shot but it might happen.
Maybe.
"Don't you speak English?" He sneered in a mocking tone. Ryou could almost hear the unsaid derogatory name at the end of that sentence.
That alone kind of annoyed Ryou. He was just trying to study then this weirdo starts being creepy and insulting! Ryou wonders if it's because the other wasn't hugged enough as a child.
Ryou mentally scolded himself. This is definitely not the time to have witty commentary in his head. He has to focus on the angry guy in front of him.
Eh, but that thought doesn't make Ryou want to talk to him.
"No hablo ingles. Como te llamas?" Ryou stuck out my hand quickly for him to shake with a small, practiced smile easily forming despite the lack of emotions causing it.
The smile was fine, he had that perfected, but the handshake looked pretty awkward, even to Ryou. He's just going to blame that one on the weird sitting positions.
The guy blinked as he looked down at Ryou's hand. He seemed almost unsure if he was being punked or not. He looked back up and apparently being satisfied by the lack of anything mischievous in Ryou's eyes, he slowly took Ryou's hand in his own.
"...You asked my name right? ...It's Bakura." Bakura seemed partially apologetic and somewhat reluctant to apologize. Ryou got the feeling that Bakura didn't apologize often. This just might be a historical moment. Ryou resist the urge to look at his watch to document the time it happened.
Meanwhile Bakura's thought process had gone much faster along the lines of 'Man that kid has a hard head!' and 'why did he freak out and smash his head into my chin?!'
And no, Bakura was not being a stalker or anything. He had just decided to take an oh-so-innocent-stroll-with-absolutely-no-unethical-schemes-no-sir through the park when he see this kid who looks just like him. Maybe that's an exaggeration. He looked a lot more... a lot younger than Bakura. Less... threatening in a way. Maybe it was just that his hair was actually what some people would call decent.
(Bakura would argue that his hair wasn't a mess, it was organized chaos. It was art. Art that happened naturally some days and some days if he just rolled out of bed and brushed through once, oh well who can tell the difference?)
About the kid (kid to his subconscious until proven otherwise), of course Bakura had to investigate. Worst case scenario, he finds out his father had a little something something on the side before his parents split. Best case scenario, he has a new scapegoat.
So anyways, like his original train of thought went, he was just walking through the park and saw this kid who looks like him sitting on a bench with his eyes closed. Any normal person would be curious. Not that Bakura can be classified as normal. Please. He refused to be lumped with all the losers out there.
Bakura noticed the kid looking at him. "What are you staring at?" He had asked harshly, a bit annoyed at the pain in his chin. He's taken a few blows to the jaw before but damn this kid had a thick skull.
"Um lo siento por eso."
What?
"Don't you speak English?" Bakura swore that if this kid's playing some kind of joke on him, he would not hesitate to-
"No hable ingles. Como te llamas?" The kid asked and stuck out his hand very awkwardly for Bakura to shake. Bakura faltered for a second. Maybe it wasn't an act, the kid sounded pretty... whatever the term is. Real? Foreign? Is that a good word to describe it? Whatever. Bakura thought the kid said something about his name. If he had picked up anything from his annoying friend who could speak Spanish.
"You asked me my name right?...It's Bakura." He was still a little wary, but he guessed the kid might be the real thing. Bakura shook his hand. There's really no reason not to. Because really, who can he tell the The Bakura was actually civil? From his uniform Bakura could tell he doesn't even go to the same school. Plus it did get tiring being a jerk to losers.
Yep that's totally his reason. Not that he was actually really curious about this little enigma with a skull of steel. Or even a little guilty.
Bakura was a bit harsh to the kid when he probably gets picked on. He is slightly feminine and he just comes off as quiet and shy. Pair that with the white hair and his small build making him the kind of kid bullies dream of getting the chance to torment.
It even made Bakura want to punch him.
Just a little.
The kid, he said his name was Ryou or something right? Is that even a Mexican name? Or Spanish? How many countries are there that are even Spanish speakers?
Bakura stood and used their still connected hands to help the kid up.
Ryou dusted himself off and looked at Bakura in a nervous way, yet he seemed slightly... not nervous? Bakura wasn't sure. This was the strangest thing to happen to him and it just kept getting weirder.
Whatever.
Deciding not to bother with any stupid one sided conversation, Bakura shot him his trademark smirk, (yeah that's right, trademark), stuck a hand in his pocket and raised his other in farewell as he strolled away.
"See ya kid." Bakura just knew he looked freaking awesome right now.
Bakura walked away in that too-cool-to-care way Ryou thought he seemed to have waaay to much practice doing. A small part of Ryou hoped he might see him again, as it was the most entertaining first meeting he'd ever had. While another part, the more rational part, said Ryou was lucky to get out of that without getting beaten up.
That guy just radiated 'punches his feelings out'.
A huge smile crept onto Ryou's face when he realized Bakura actually did believe that he was Hispanic. Ryou thought about how. He's got white skin- but if he's albino then Ryou really could be any nationality. His hair would be white and his skin pale regardless of where he came from.
When Bakura was gone and the park empty, Ryou couldn't stop the laughter that bubbled as the satisfactory thought of that too-cool-to care bad boy falling for his trick reached full realization in his head. Bakura doesn't seem like a person who was very bright anyways. Plus his hair looked ridiculous.
TBC
Translations
encantado- Pleased to meet you
Me llamo- My name is...
¿Y tu?- And you?
lo siento por eso.- Sorry about that.
No hablo ingles- I don't speak English
¿Como te llamas?- What is your name?
Author's Note
Guess who's back! If you're a returning reader or experiencing this story for the first time, just know that you're in for... something. Something all right. This won't follow the original No Comprendo. In fact I plan to veer off course of that fairly soon. Updates should be pretty regular. Erm... that should be all for now methinks. Wait! One more thing! I apologize for the lack of accent marks. I'm bad with those and my ancient Word document dislikes them. I'll get around to putting them in eventually.