Kaito has a job.
He's had it for two years now, he basically only has it because his father's connections (the only good thing he has from his father); it's surprisingly well—paid and Kaito works overtime on top of that.
It's enough to pay Haruto's hospital bills, it's enough to pay for Kaito's Duel Monsters cards, it's enough to pay for sufficient amounts of food and that's all Kaito needs anyway.
Kaito works at a card shop.
In fact, it's the same card shop he's played (and still plays) at for weeks, years and months; the same place he used to meet up at with Chris, until one year ago Chris and his family moved away for stupid reasons and it was just Kaito and Haruto again.
Then Haruto's condition worsened, and ever since it's been just Kaito—
(Kaito and Galaxy-Eyes and the lack of good opponents.)
—until now.
"Oi."
The boy with the ridiculous tentacle-like hair stands on the doorstep, somewhat looking like a delinquent, yet much more unfocused; less driven by aggression and more by something Kaito recognizes immediately yet can't quite describe. The bags under his eyes look like Kaito's own, and Kaito sighs.
"And you are?"
"New employee. Starting today. Didn't your boss tell you," The boy pulls out a crumpled piece of paper. "Kaito?"
Kaito thinks for a bit and, yeah, some days ago Mr. Heartland did mention that. About time, too, since lately Mr. Heartland has been sending Droite and Gauche to help out pretty much anywhere that isn't this shop.
(And while Yuuma— despite being a customer— tries to help sometimes, he's, well, Yuuma.)
'You can handle it alone, right, Kaito? Since your brother needs the money for his treatment,' is what Mr. Heartland says every time. Kaito hates his guts.
It's 7:30 and they open at 9.
"Your name?"
"Kamishiro Ryouga. People call me Shark."
And I thought my nickname was ridiculous.
The players have taken to calling Kaito the 'Number Hunter' because of all the Number cards he's collected in duels with the ante rule.
(And he would like it a lot more if he wasn't doing it to keep his money balance positive.)
"Ryouga, then." Kaito starts pulling out boxes and putting them on the table, and from the corner of his eye he sees that Ryouga is scowling.
Do I have to tell him how to do everything?
Kaito has never had to tell anyone what to do before, and incompetence is something he definitely can't take this early in the morning.
"Put your bag somewhere and help me separate these cards by rarity."
Instructions seem to help, since Ryouga immediately does as told, in fact, does it with ease.
He probably plays a lot.
Most people who work at card shops do, no one else would stand an environment like that. Ryouga seems like he plays on a regular basis, though, probably even at tournaments, with the way he critically eyes the cards, much like Kaito himself does.
"Do employees get a discount on cards?" Ryouga is eyeing the copy of Number C103: Ragnafinity that's in the glass case at the entrance— an expensive one; one of the few Secret Rares that were printed, apparently due to a bug in the system.
Kaito thinks he sees a bit of sadness in Ryouga's eyes.
"No." Kaito stands up and gets more boxes. "But you can duel the people here with the ante rule. We can switch between working and dueling."
"Interesting." Ryouga smirks now.
Kaito makes a mental note to duel him sometime.
Ryouga is good.
Legitimately good, not the trash talking with nothing to show for it that Kaito is used to, but an actual good player.
Ryouga still does trash talk, though. A lot. Kaito figures it's okay as long as Ryouga doesn't embarrass himself by losing.
Kaito yawns and gets two cans from the fridge (at least the energy drinks are for free)— it's only 3 PM but he's already dead tired and he can tell the same goes for Ryouga.
While Ryouga is quickly winning cards with the ante rule, he has yet to win a copy of Ragnafinity. But from the looks of it, he wants it as a Secret Rare anyway, and the chance of finding a rare misprint like that among a bunch of broke teenagers like himself is pretty low.
Sucks to be him.
Kaito can't help to wonder why Ryouga is so fixated on that card though. Most people usually take Commons and Rares when they can, and they definitely don't look for the rarest available version of a card.
"Catch." Kaito throws a can in Ryouga's general direction.
"Asshole," Ryouga hisses when he doesn't react fast enough and drops the can, quickly picking it up again and finishing the duel he's in. "Is it time to switch already?"
"Almost."
On Mondays, time seems to pass so much more slowly.
Then something clicks within Kaito.
It's Monday. Earlier when he helped Ryouga make a Heartland Inc. employee ID (because Mr. Heartland insists they have one for reasons that Kaito doesn't think he wants to know), he saw that Ryouga recently turned 17 and also still in high school.
That means—
"Ryouga, don't you have to go soon? Afternoon class?"
"I don't go to school. I work full-time."
Oh.
It's 9:40 PM when they finally manage to chase the last customers out.
"Is it always like this?" Ryouga stretches himself and goes to sweep up the abandoned packaging of booster packs.
"What? The trash? Yeah."
"No, I mean the time it takes to get these idiots out of the shop."
"Yeah, it's always like that." Kaito locks all the closets and shrugs. " pays really well because of that, though."
Ryouga nods, takes his bag and walks towards the door. "Well then. See you."
Ryouga makes a shivering motion when he takes a step outside.
It's winter and the joke of a jacket Ryouga wears definitely isn't enough, but it's not Kaito's business, so he leaves as well and locks the door behind him—
—just to find that he and Ryouga are headed in the same direction.
"Why are you following me?" Ryouga scowls and buries his hands deeper in his pockets. It doesn't seem to help.
"I'm on my way home."
To be precise, Kaito is on his way to the grocery store and then home.
"Tsk."
They walk in silence until they reach a junction and Kaito turns right, waving lightly. "See you."
It's 10:17 PM and it's raining when Kaito is around 5 minutes away from his apartment. It's dark where he lives, the housing is cheap but that's about it, and so it's not surprising that he bumps into someone and hears the clattering sound of a phone and bags hitting the ground.
Hope I didn't break that.
He's not up for trouble tonight.
"Watch out, you—" Ryouga stops in his sentence and looks at Kaito. "You?"
Kaito picks up Ryouga's phone. "Google maps?"
A glance at the map tells him where Ryouga lives.
Oh. Neighbours.
Ryouga scowls. The rain drenches his clothes, he stares at Kaito. Kaito stares back.
Kaito sighs. "Follow me." He picks his bag up and gets up, and he doesn't fail to notice that Ryouga has more bags than before.
New in town, huh?
Ryouga sneezes when they stand in the stairwell, both having their doors open.
Kaito carelessly throws his bag of groceries in his hallway, then turns back to Ryouga. "Go take a hot shower."
"Don't tell me what to do." Ryouga is about to turn around, but—
"Otherwise you'll get sick. Mr. Heartland checks up on us at random, I wouldn't risk it if you need the job."
(And Kaito would get sick too, and he definitely needs the job.)
Ryouga's eyes widen and he bites his lip, looks down at the ground. Then. "Can't shower though. No water yet. They gotta fix something, but that's not gonna be done until the day after tomorrow."
Oh. So that's how it is.
Things that need fixing take forever here, that kind of comes with the cheap housing.
Kaito remembers his first nights and how utterly bullshit they were. "You're pathetic."
"What did you say, bastard?!"
"Just stating facts."
"What do you even know about me, you—"
"More than enough. Now get your ass in here and shut up."
"So you're saying you just saved enough money so you can pay for housing, food and beverages for the first month, and not more? How much do you even want that Ragnafinity?" Kaito shakes his head in disbelief before sitting down on his couch next to Ryouga.
Ryouga pulls the blanket closer and takes a sip from his instant ramen. "It's not because of Ragnafinity," he hisses, but his voice lacks its bite. "Do you always eat this... stuff?" He fixes his hair a little; it looks even more ridiculous after its meeting with Kaito's hair dryer.
"You don't have to eat it if you don't like it." Kaito quickly downs his cup of instant ramen, and he's surprised to see that despite the complaints, Ryouga is done as well.
There's a sound of a rumbling stomach.
Kaito sighs. He remembers his own situation and realizes he wasn't much different for the first few days, except he had at least some of Dr. Faker's support since he's doing it for Haruto. "When did you last eat? By the way, you're sleeping over."
"Probably— wait, what?!"
"You're wearing my clothes already, isn't it too late to complain now? You came in here knowing this would happen."
With that, Ryouga has run out of arguments. "You know nothing."
"Because you aren't talking."
"Tsk."
Kaito throws a box of pocky—
(Kaito hates that he still has Chris' favourite snack at home, but it's a habit)
—at Ryouga. "If you want real food, the ingredients are in the kitchen. I'm not gonna make it."
Ryouga scowls, throws the box back at Kaito and actually goes to the kitchen without another word.
Oh, well.
Kaito quickly gets out his phone and googles for 'Kamishiro Ryouga' and he's not surprised when he reads of the Kamishiro twins— originally from Barian City— who both had to leave the pro league. Rio because she's hospitalized in Heartland Medical Center ever since she had a car crash; Ryouga because apparently he's cheated in the finals against—
Chris, your brother is a mess as always.
There's not a second in which Kaito believes that Ryouga actually cheated— he's seen Ryouga duel and Kaito knows how Thomas is and that he would definitely frame his opponent if one of their stupid Arclight family matters was involved.
Only the disappearing sound of the frying pan makes Kaito close the browser and put his phone away.
Kamishiro Ryouga is in the exact same situation as he is.
I'll leave him the dignity of the thought that I don't know about it.
Ryouga's cooking is good. Not the kind of 'something Chris would eat at an important family dinner but actually no one likes it' "good" that Kaito couldn't care less about, but good as in leaving him with a warm, comfortable feeling.
Kaito wonders if he missed it. "I didn't expect you to be able to cook."
"Is that supposed to be a compliment?" Ryouga smirks now.
Kaito smirks as well, but he doesn't answer.
They finish their food in silence, then Ryouga clears his throat and speaks again.
"I didn't expect you to be the kind of guy who has beer at home."
"I am not, actually."
After Chris treated him like shit over a dumb family matter, Kaito bought pretty much everything Chris' family hated whenever he felt pissed at Chris over the last year. Beer included, since Chris drinks wine at family dinners.
Kaito doesn't even dislike beer, it's just that he rarely ever gets an opportunity to drink it.
Somehow, Kaito realizes, having someone else look into your fridge is kind of intimate.
"If you say so." Ryouga yawns. "When does the shop open tomorrow?"
"9 AM, but we have a break from 1 PM to 4 PM. Unless you wanna work, of course."
"No, that break is convenient for me."
No wonder, it's the hospital's main visiting hours.
Kaito figures that tomorrow he should drop a hint that he's going to the hospital so Ryouga won't get lost again.
"Why do they avoid dueling you?" Ryouga suddenly asks, looking at Kaito with a curiosity that could only come from a duelist.
"Beat them too often. Ante rule. Even without it, they don't wanna lose."
"So you're the best duelist in the shop?"
"Yeah."
Ryouga smirks. "I wouldn't be so sure about that anymore. Up for a duel?"
"Bring it."
It turns out that they are evenly matched.
No one has one won twice in a row yet, they had a bunch of ties and three hours have passed already.
Finally, a good opponent.
The last time Kaito lost a duel was ages ago, when Chris was still around, before Kaito became the duelist he is now; before he was known as the Number Hunter.
It's another tie when Kaito— although reluctantly— suggests that they stop. "It's almost 2 AM and I'm dead tired."
"Scared of losing?"
This moron.
"Last duel, you summoned Ragnazero on your first turn despite knowing I have no ATK modifiers. Don't pretend you aren't tired."
At having his misplay pointed out like that, Ryouga scowls. "Fine."
"Then come."
"How old are you, 12?"
"I'm not sharing a bed with you."
Kaito is sitting on his bed and points to the empty space on his right— there's enough space for Ryouga, more than enough, but Ryouga is crossing his arms and making it hard. Kaito sighs, "Wanna sleep on the couch or in your own apartment then?"
Ryouga scowls. "It's too cold to sleep there."
"No shit." Kaito rolls his eyes. "It's winter, none of us sleeps naked; so stop acting like a baby and get in here. Unless you get proper heating, you're not gonna sleep at your own place so soon anyway."
"...Is your partner okay with that?"
Kaito chokes on his own spit. He coughs twice, then. "What?"
"Why else would you have a twin bed?"
Kaito scowls, because he didn't want to be asked that question,
(—didn't want to be reminded of long silver hair on that very bed he's sitting on right now, of Chris and Chris' smell and Chris' everything—)
didn't expect to be asked that question, either.
Too late now.
"Why do people need to be in a relationship to have a twin bed?"
Even in the barely illuminated room, Kaito can see Ryouga's cheeks being tinged red. "Well, you—"
"You're really simple." Kaito smirks. "Stop embarrassing yourself and get to bed, we're gonna need our rest for tomorrow."
This time, Ryouga obliges, but he keeps as much distance from Kaito as possible. "You weren't—"
"I wasn't hitting on you, no. Disappointed?"
Ryouga scowls. "You—" He stops mid-sentence. "Wait, does something bad happen tomorrow?"
"Yuuma happens. You'll understand once you meet him." Kaito yawns and turns off the nightstand lamp. "Night."
"Night."