Disclaimer: I don't own YuGiOh.

Her Sweetness: Hey, look at this. This is another of my, uh, serious works. I want to make this one really good and I knew I had to work with characters I liked to develop. So here we are. Please review, I want to make this one good.

Firefly

Prolouge

The generous and—as anyone else would have told him, had anyone else known at the time—crazy offer Ryou made on the 25th of September was made in the late evening when the discolored leaves swept their way through the gutters of Domino and the lampposts on every street corner were lit and glowing in the early autumn air. There was a feeling of wariness and despair in the September winds that blew the week before the day of the offer. The people could feel it as they walked up and down the streets and engaged in their daily activities and anyone looking from the outside in would not see the hesitation in their movements and the people of Domino themselves could not even recognize the hesitation for what it was but it was there all the same.

Ryou, being an average teenager of average intelligence and no particularly exceptional talents, did not know these feelings either and was going about his business the week before his offer as he usually would any other given week of the year. He took out the trash and tended his room (although it did end up quite dirty on some occasions), made sure the leaves were raked (which he preferred to mowing the lawn in the summer) and kept his grades up, or at least as high as he could which meant somewhere around a B- average.

He kept up appearances with his friends as well though he really didn't consider himself a part of their little clique and really didn't have much in common with the four of them. Despite all of that, they were people to sit with at lunch when he had forgotten his book and they sometimes listened to him when he had problems, not that he really every told them about the larger ones. And they were people to hang out with when Father went away on his expeditions and stayed away for weeks and weeks. Sometimes a two-story house at the end of a street with the big tree in the front yard and the old, leaf and dust-covered swing set built for two in the backyard was a painful place to live in by oneself.

The town itself, Ryou sometimes thought when Father had gone and was not around to distract his thoughts, was actually a lonely place to be with or without Father or part-time friends. Especially in the autumn and winter time when everything seemed too quiet to be left alone in. The snow, when it fell, blanketed the dead leaves and silenced the children and the teenagers from their games.

The snow brought on bad memories. The ice and the car accident. Ryou hated the coldness of that season, the way it brought those memories flooding back to him and the way Father was usually gone around Christmastime. There was only him shopping for a present to send to Father and the dull disappointment of getting the box back in the mail because Father changed his expedition site without writing to tell Ryou about it. And the dull wondering of if that letter got lost in the mail too.

So Ryou waited for the winter and the disappointment and loneliness during the autumn. He waited and raked the leaves to get everything nice for his Father's second trip that year to the south of Egypt for a dig that seemed to be promising. At least that was what he heard Father talking about with his colleagues on the phone the night before he was readying to leave. The suitcases were packed and lay closed on his Father's starch white sheets. Ryou had done the laundry.

"Do you need anything else?" he asked, looking down on the suitcases mildly. He'd stopped blaming the expeditions a long time ago. This was just life, he told himself, and life sometimes took people to faraway places.

Father was in his bathroom, trying like usual to get his tie on in the mirror. The door was open and he said thoughtfully, "No… No, I don't think so. I think I have everything. All the usual. Clothes, razors… Ryou, I—"

"I know," he laughed.

Father came out of the bathroom, his tie hanging loose around his neck. He looked at Ryou with a tired smile and Ryou came over to him and tied his knot in the dusky light coming through the open windows. He did so delicately, brown eyes fixed on his task.

"I'll never learn to tie this darn thing," Father said lightly.

"No, probably not." Ryou nodded when it was done and took a step back. His brown eyes were fixed on the perfectly tied knot. The tie was light blue with hummingbirds flying in disarray on it. He wore the same tie every time he went away. Ryou had stopped hating it a long time ago as well, just like the suitcases.

Father took in a deep sigh and went to fetch his suitcases.

Ryou felt the urge to stop him from going, as he always has but a few years ago he stopped trying. It just made things harder and he never got his way. "Have a good time," he said. "Find something worth while."

"As always." Father winked at him and Ryou smiled genuinely on accident.

They walked down the stairs together, Ryou a couple steps behind and watching him as he left, knowing he probably wouldn't see the man again until the spring melt began and the leaves grew lush and green on the trees again. The house already seemed to expand and the dust mites seen in the light of the open windows almost seemed to multiply as they went out to the front lawn.

Father put the suitcases in the trunk and Ryou stood by the passenger's seat window, watching. When the trunk was closed, Father stood up straight and looked at his son, no smile or laughter or winking, just a soft stare and Ryou returned it. The sun was setting just behind him.

"I'll see you soon." Father walked towards him. "You know the time will fly like that and then I'll be back to bug you about schoolwork and chores."

Father never asked him about any of those things.

"I know, dad," Ryou said. He went to hug him and it felt fake but comforting. When they parted, Ryou tilted his head to the side a bit and asked, "What would you like for Christmas?"

"I'll be back before then."

Ryou didn't say anything.

"But just in case," Father resumed, "a nice hat would do. You know how hot it is over there, even in winter and my poor head has no shade."

Father had dozens of hats in his suitcase.

"Okay, dad. Have a good time," he repeated.

"Bye, Ryou."

He walked past Ryou and went to the other side of the car, got in and put the key in the ignition. The old BMW that Father had had for years started up and as always, Ryou felt the strong urge to throw himself on the gravel under the car. It amazed him how strong that urge always was. Father backed out of the driveway and honked the horn three times before he drove down the street. If Ryou used his imagination, those three honks sounded a lot like "I love you."

Ryou raised his hand and waved until the bumper sticker that said Rock n' Roll City could no longer be seen and when it couldn't, he stopped waving and bent down to pick up the rake that lay in a pile of leaves. That big tree just kept shaking its leaves off and there were always more to be raked. He began to do so and as his pale hands moved the tool, he sniffed and sobbed and let the tears run in gushes down his face. That was something that he could never stop.

XXXX

The next morning he woke up in Father's bed. He always did the day after Father left and sometimes for a few days after he left. The pillow was still a little damp from his tears and his eyes were red, he was sure, from all the crying. He got up and went into Father's bathroom to check his reflection and yes, he was red in the eyes and his nose was a bit swollen.

Luckily, he thought, he'd woken up on time for school and dressed in his uniform. Unluckily, he thought, he hadn't woken up as early as might have liked to and had no time for breakfast before he left the house. He did, however, catch sight of the calendar as he walked through the kitchen and saw that it was Tuesday the 21st. There was such a long time to wait until Father returned.

The thought clouded him on his way to school. He walked down the streets covered in leaves and a bit of rainwater left over from the weekend showers. His schoolmates he could see up ahead, walking quickly in droves to try and get to the school building before the first bell rang. Seemed they had slept in a little too.

"Wonder if their fathers left them for Egypt too," he muttered.

He did not rush the way they did. The way Ryou saw it, he either got their on time or he didn't and he didn't intend on breaking his neck just to avoid one solitary glare from the teacher. Ryou wasn't late anyway; he made it before the second bell and was in his seat by the final one. His first class he shared with eighteen other students, the sum including the four people he considered to be friends although he used the term loosely.

He turned his head a bit and noticed Yugi, who seemed to be somewhat of the group's ringleader, throwing him a friendly smile and Ryou returned it but wasn't sure it could be seen over some other kid's head. Yugi one time asked him why he sat all the way on the other side of the room and Ryou had dully answered, "I like the window view."

Yugi had once tried to sit next to him and attempted to pass notes during class. He had sent a folded piece of paper saying What's going on?

Ryou had sent it back saying Please don't bother me during class.

After class that day, Yugi had apologized to him and Ryou forgave him lightly. He played the part of the goody-goody so no one would think to get him involved with things he truly wanted no part of.

When Ryou made it into class on the 21st, he sat there without interruption and took notes from the board in his notebook and listened to the teacher talking. Listened but didn't hear a word he was saying. Ryou was too busy thinking about Father and the way he could never tie that stupid tie of his and how ridiculous he looked with hummingbirds around his neck.

There was that dumb old Rock n' Roll City bumper sticker he never took off and the way he lied about never having a hat just so Ryou would have something easy for him to get, like Ryou wouldn't spend good money on Father or couldn't. The way he was always gone in the winter because he could not stand to see the lonely swing set in the back yard and could not deal with Domino because of the ice and the memories of the accident. The way it was so cold and Egypt was so hot, and it never reminded him of home in winter.

The way he left Ryou to deal with the ice and the memories as if Father thought he had none. The way the house expanded when Father was no longer there and the way it seemed not cozy but intimate when he was there, like it pushed them together to comfort each other even though they never did. The conversations were dry and light and if they could not hold a light conversation, there was silence and there was nothing but the dust mites in the light of the open windows that Ryou coughed on at night.

The leaves that never stopped falling, that cracked under his feet as he left the empty house and came home to rake but he never seemed to get all of them. Sometimes he thought about poor Father, how it must be so hard for him but then he thought of himself all alone with all those things and he shouted at himself Poor Father? Poor Ryou…

Poor, poor Ryou.

To be continued…
Her Sweetness: If you want another chapter, review. :D This is just the prolouge, by the way. Next chappie will be longer.