So instead of doing actual college work, I'll write about doing college work. Christ, this semester sucks and I have the singular incompetent teacher just ruining it all for the rest of them.

Season Ten, Round Two: Hostshipping - Ryou Bakura x Anzu Mazaki. As said before, Ryou finally gets a woman. Good for you, Ryou!

Summary: Alone in a new and unfamiliar place, Ryou holds back, but Anzu pulls him forward.

Dicks. I had so much to do that I have to write this in two days. Balls.

xxx

The Clouds in the Sky

One-Shot

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"Come on guys!" Jonouchi ran ahead, his friends at his heels. Their laughter was breathless. They ran up the campus quad, towards the north-most residence hall. "Race you the rest of the way!"

Anzu sprinted ahead, grateful that she had worn flat shoes that day. She was laughing so hard though that it was hard to breathe, and she had a sharp stitch in her side long before they had reached the dorm, but she still beat everyone else. Doubling over with her hands on her knees, she gasped for air for a moment before looking up and grinning at her approaching friends.

"Since when are you so fast?" Yugi asked.

For a while the only sound was them wheezing, but soon Anzu had enough breath to speak again.

"I'm just really happy to see Ryou again," she said, laughing lightly. Anzu really didn't know why she was so eager to go see him; but it had been so long, and she was sure everyone else was just as excited. They were all friends, right?

Yugi smiled at that. "I hope he'll be happy too." Yugi was big on friends, as usual. It had been his idea to visit Ryou, despite the fact that his school was an hour away. That really cut them off from him, as none of them had a car and the trains had been undergoing repair on the weekends (the only time they were all free) for several months now.

The surprise was ruined though when they were stopped at the front desk.

"I'm sorry." The clerk was a student as well, and couldn't have been a year or two older than them. "I can't let you in unless someone in the building signs you in."

"Hold on." Anzu took out her pink flip-phone. It was as old as dirt, but the buttons still made nice click noises as she went to her contacts and called Ryou.

When he answered, his words were slightly slurred, as if he wasn't completely awake. "Anzu? When did you get my number?"

"A while ago. You texted me that one time about the things."

"Yeah I remember that exactly." There was a shuffling sound and a dull thud. Ryou swore softly, giving Anzu a little shock. She had never heard him curse before. "Sorry. Um…what's up?"

"We came to visit you," Anzu said quietly. "But we're a little dull and forgot that we had to be signed in. Could you come down?"

"Sure." Anzu couldn't tell how Ryou felt about all this, and she nervously shifted her weight from foot to foot.

After a few minutes Ryou came around a corner, shuffling along in ratty old slippers and pajamas. The clerk didn't even blink as he stepped up to the desk and handed her his student ID as collateral. His hair was tangled and mussed from sleep, a little flatter on one side than it was on the other. But when he turned to acknowledge them, his face was just as friendly as it had been when they said goodbye in the fall.

"It's good to see you all," he said, and then yelped as he was embraced roughly.

"We missed you, man!" Honda cried, ignoring the fact that Ryou was wriggling a little.

Ryou smiled, his lips tight in discomfort. "I appreciate this, really, but I think something just popped." He was put down promptly, and took a moment to shake his pajamas back into place before leading them to the elevators.

"My floor is the fifth, you see," he said as they waited patiently. A few other residents were waiting, backpacks suggesting they had been at class. Anzu wondered why Ryou was in his pajamas at noon, when he used to be up and dressed before nine even on the weekends during high school. Anzu attributed it to him possibly having a late night or simply feeling ill.

The higher up they went, the hotter it got. And in Ryou's room it was almost boiling. He explained that the building was steam-heated, and his room was at the corner of the floor and therefore had two vents, making it doubly as hot. His roommate (who wasn't there at the moment) and he had relieved this by placing fans in the windows, but on warm days like the one presently it wasn't as effective. Luckily the heating would be shut off as soon as spring came around.

The room itself was relatively clean, Ryou's side being almost pristine aside from an unmade bed. But even the bed still looked clean, with white sheets and a pale blue blanket, despite the fact that it was rumpled and looked as if Ryou had slept restlessly. There was one drawer open, and Ryou rushed to it and slid it closed before they were completely in the room.

With two people it was a little small, but with five it was almost impossible to find a comfortable space. Ryou sat on his bed, leaving the rest of them to find somewhere of their own. Wary of going onto the missing roommate's side, they all scrunched together, Jonouchi taking the desk seat and Yugi and Honda simply sitting on the desk. Anzu wavered for a moment and just stood.

"I really appreciate you guys coming to see me," Ryou said. His feet dangled off the edge of the bed.

They talked for a while, but – like always – Ryou was mostly quiet. He had always preferred listening to them interact with each other, rather than actively participate in the conversation. Anzu watched him curl his feet up underneath him and smile tiredly at his friends talking animatedly about something that even she couldn't keep track of, the topic was changing so fast. But he didn't seem to mind. She watched him slowly nod off, his chin dipping down.

No one else noticed Ryou had fallen asleep until Honda tried to get his opinion on something that they were arguing about. By that time he had fallen onto his side, and his hair obscured his features. It fluttered in front of his mouth, disturbed by his breathing.

"He must be really tired," Yugi said softly, almost in a stage whisper. Even so, Ryou shifted, making them all freeze and hold their breath until he had settled again. Yugi's expression grew guilty. "Maybe we should have called before coming."

"It's not like we can leave now," Anzu said, sitting on the floor. It was impossibly hard and made of cement. "I wonder what's making him so tired…"

"He must have had a long night…" Jonouchi wondered.

xxx

Anzu nervously watched the landscape hurtle passed. The train was fast, but to her it felt like it was crawling. She normally liked to watch the sky while traveling, especially on days like this, when it was blue enough to hurt your eyes and had clouds as white as snow. But the clouds floated as such a leisurely as to be aggravating when she was this antsy, and had settled for watching the trees blur into a thick line of brown.

This time she had called Ryou beforehand, forfeiting the aspect of surprise in the hopes that just casually dropping in on him wouldn't feel so rude this time. He had answered with the same mushy voice as last time, but this time it was at least a little plausible, as she had called at eight.

"It's just you?" He had sounded so surprised. Maybe a little nervous.

"Yeah. Everyone else was busy today. I know we visited all together really recently, but the train is finally open again on the weekends and I really wanted to see you." She almost wanted to bite those last words back into her mouth.

"Oh…" She heard the sound of Ryou's almost breathless laugh. "That's really nice. Thank you, Anzu."

He was waiting to sign her in this time, dressed in a light blue polo shirt and khakis. Blue seemed to be his preferred color, maybe even his favorite one. He looked good in it. Anzu was suddenly reminded of the blue sky and stark clouds; the contrast between his hair and the blue of his shirt. When Ryou turned his back to her to give his ID to the clerk, Anzu saw that he had tied his hair loosely away from his face with an elastic. The green band marked a place a little lower than the nape of his neck.

Though pulling it back had made it look a little better, Anzu could see that his hair was tangled.

"Why don't you show me around?" Anzu asked when Ryou made a move for the elevators.

Ryou stopped short, looking at her cautiously. "I haven't really been out a lot. I don't really know the town…" He looked ashamed. His face turned a little pink, from hairline to neck.

"Then we can go together," she said, reaching out and taking his hand. She marched him out the lobby doors and out into the sunlight. He seemed to flinch.

"But… - but I'm wearing sandals!"

"It's warm out." Anzu smiled as the wind ruffled her hair, as if in agreement. "Come on – it can be an adventure."

Ryou sank into silence, following her easily. When they had walked as a group before, Ryou had always hung back. But now she could see how swift his steps were, how long his legs were; he actually overtook her several times without realizing it, forcing her to jog to keep up. He was lost in his own thoughts, and seemed incredibly nervous, but he answered her immediately when she spoke.

"How have your classes been?"

"Good. Yours?"

"Good."

Most of the walk was silent. Without Yugi or Jonouchi or Honda to start a conversation and veer it off track when it started to dwindle, their words were stilted and awkward.

They finally came upon a small coffee shop, and because they had been walking for a while and Anzu hadn't had anything since breakfast six hours ago, she suggested they go in. At least in there they'd have something to do other than walk at an uncomfortably comfortable distance from each other.

They ordered their drinks (Anzu an iced coffee and Ryou a sweet tea) and sat down at a small circular table that couldn't have been more than two feet across. But it offered a glorious view of the center of town and its cobblestone streets, which was expansive enough to offer a view of the sky above the buildings as well.

"This town is really beautiful," Anzu said, sipping her coffee. It tasted like almonds and coconut.

Ryou held his cup to his lips, letting the steam warm his face. "I haven't really noticed." His eyes were alert, though, scanning the center of town rapidly, eager to soak in as much as he could. He didn't look as tired as before; Anzu wondered if it was the tea or just being out in the open air. When he turned back, he met her eyes.

Ryou was thinking that it might have been because of her.

xxx

Whoa. I wrote an almost completely fluff-oriented story for the first time. I was originally planning to have this fic be a lot darker, with Ryou being slowly taunted by the spirit of the Ring and be killing people but of course I'd have it be ambiguous and there might be a chance Ryou was just insane and oh it would have been delightful.

Instead I didn't have time for that, so I just went with fluff. I don't know how to feel about this…