Happy Birthday, Ryou!
I feel that I should explain my choice of eye colour for Ryou. I used to use brown, like the anime, but lately I've been using green like the Shadow Games anime. I'm pretty sure that his eyes are blue in the original manga, but after much consideration and debating with my fellow YGO obsessed buddy, I've decided to mostly use green. Partially because I have a thing for green eyes, and partially because I like going from Ryou's green eyes to Yami Bakura's red eyes. (In the anime, Yami Bakura's eyes stay brown.) So, occasionally you may come across a fic of mine (like this one) where Ryou has brown eyes, and that's because that's how I pictured them in my head while writing, or I wrote it awhile ago and didn't want to change it. So, now you know.
Disclaimer: I don't think it's necessary to write these... Anywho, if I owned YGO, it wouldn't be called FAN FICTION, now would it?
"Mornin', Dad."
"Good morning, Ryou," a man with long blue hair greeted his son without looking up from his laptop.
"What day is it?" Ryou Bakura asked groggily, pushing his extremely messy snowy white hair out of his eyes.
"September second."
"Really?" the teen perked up suddenly, his brown eyes brightening, despite the fact that it was early morning.
"Yeah," the father confirmed, sliding his finger over the trackpad and clicking.
Ryou stared at his father for a few seconds then sighed, turning to the refrigerator and pulling out a milk carton.
"Ryou."
"Yeah?" the teen said hopefully, wiping some of the white liquid from his lip as he set the carton on the counter and closed the fridge door.
"You're going to be late for school."
"Huh?" Ryou glanced at the clock on the stove and gasped, "damnit!"
"Hey! Watch your mouth, young man!" the blue-haired man looked up for the first time, but only to shoot his son a quick 'evil eye.'
"Sorry," the teen responded before running back to his room to change.
"Hey, Bakura!" a short boy with spiked, wildly coloured hair called to his friend across the commons, waving enthusiastically as he did so.
"Good morning, everyone!" Ryou greeted as he aproached the group, making his way through the throng of people gathered waiting for school to begin.
Yuugi Mouto, Jounouchi Katsuya, Honda Hiroto, and Anzu Miyuzaki were all gathered around a lunch table near the large windows to the side of the commons. Honda had a Math book out before him, along with some graph paper, covered in doodles, and a calculator. Jounouchi was watching with interest as the brunette started to turn blue from his nervous habit of holding his breath while he thought, and Anzu was lecturing him about doing his homework sooner than ten minutes before class started. Ryou moved so he could look at Honda's work and couldn't help but shake his head slightly.
"What?" the brunette asked nervously, "what's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing," Ryou answered, sitting down next to Anzu.
"If something's wrong with this you have to tell me!"
The white-haired teen sighed and pointed to problem number two on the graph paper, "you wrote a division sign instead of a square root sign," Ryou informed the brunette.
"Oh..." Honda turned slightly pink and quickly fixed the obvious error.
"Oh crap!" Yuugi exclaimed, jumping up, "I've got to be in Geography in two minutes and I haven't even stopped at my locker!"
"Neither have I!" Anzu cried, following the short teen, for they both had the same first period.
"Suppose we'd better get going, too," Jounouchi sighed, slowly standing up and stretching.
"I'll see you guys in Phy Ed," Ryou said, waving goodbye as he hurried down the hall to his locker.
"Thanks, Bakura!" Honda added quickly, shutting his book and shoving it in his backpack.
"No problem," Ryou called back before disappearing in the mass of students.
"Hey, Bakura-chan!" a mocking voice called from the far end of the boy's locker room. Ryou groaned quietly, but ignored the voice, instead turning to leave.
"Hey, the man's talking to you!" another voice said from another direction. The white-haired teen moved to the door, but was intercepted by two much taller adolescents blocking the way.
"It's not polite to ignore someone when they're talking to you, Bakura-chan," one of the teens, who had the beginnings of a beard on his chin, said, leaning against the wall casually.
"Excuse me," Ryou said, not looking either of them in the eyes.
"...Nah," the other one, this one with a blonde crew cut, sneered, blocking the rest of the thin exit. The white-haired teen sighed internally and turned away, they'd have to leave at some point if they wanted to be in time for class.
"Hey! I'm not done talking to you yet!" the one with the beard said angrily as he grabbed Ryou's P.E. uniform collar, picking him up and shoving him into the wall. A few other students looked up at the commotion, one or two shaking their heads disapprovingly, but most just ignored the ev ent entirely.
Ryou flinched at the impact, he was sure his spine had shattered. Luckily he hadn't hit his head too hard, so he was very confused as his vision began to go black. The bearded teen was shouting something angrily in his face, but he couldn't understand any of it as he closed his eyes and let the darkness take his mind.
Jounouchi and Honda came running around the corner of a row of lockers as they heard a loud bang from the entrance of the locker room.
"Haven't you idiots learned by now not to mess around with my host, you pathetic mortals!?" a low angry voice shouted.
Jounouchi sighed in annoyance and barely stopped himself from banging his head against the nearest locker.
"What the hell, man!?" the teen with the beard was on the floor, rubbing the back of his head gingerly.
The blonde one looked on fearfully. All he had seen was a flash of bright light, and the next thing he knew, his companion had been thrown into the opposite wall.
"Tell me, have you jackasses ever heard of the Shad ow Realm?" Ryou stepped forward, a wild and dangerous fire lighting his narrowed eyes.
"Bakura! Calm down, I think they learned their lesson!" Jounouchi called, walking a few paces closer to the white-haired teen. The Spirit of the Millennium Ring looked up at the sound of his name and grimaced at the sight of Honda and Jounouchi, but closed his eyes none the less. A faint light emenated from the teen's chest, and when he reopened his eyes they no longer possessed the same dangerous fire, but instead held a confused expression. Ryou looked down at his attacker on the floor, and worry immediately clouded his face. When the teen looked to his two friends for reassurance they both nodded to signify nothing too terrible had happened. The white-haired teen sighed in relief and carefully stepped around the two bullies, out the door, and into the gymnasium.
-"That idiot had it coming..."- Yami Bakura grumbled angrily from his soul room.
-"It wasn't like he was going to kill me or anything, Yami,"- Ryou tried reasoning with the spirit as he wal ked with his friends to the Kame Game Shop after school.
-"I don't care! I don't want anyone harming this body!"- The white-haired teen rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to the conversation discussing the pros and cons of two of the Biology teachers at Domino High.
"Hello, everybody!" Sugoroku Mouto greeted the group as they stepped through the glass door and into the small store.
"Hiya, Grampa!" Yuugi returned, smiling happily at the old man.
"Hey, Gramps, how's it going?" Jounouchi asked, grinning mischieviously. Sugoroku sent the blonde a I-dare-you-to-challenge-me-you-newb look and returned to adjusting the display on the check-out counter.
"Oh, Bakura!"
"Hello, Mr. Mouto," Ryou bowed politely to the elderly man.
"It's been awhile since I've seen you around! Welcome back!" Sugoroku chuckled.
"Thank you," the teen answered as he hurried to follow the rest of the group.
"Aw, dangit, I forgot again... What's the date?" Jounouchi asked, hitting himself on the forehead.
"September second," Ryou answ ered quickly.
"I knew that," the blonde stated, his cheeks tinting pink.
"Sure you did," Anzu rolled her eyes disbelievingly.
Ryou sighed quietly to himself. Did no one remember?
-"You're friends are boring,"- Yami Bakura said in an annoyed tone from the back of the white-haired teen's mind.
-"No, they aren't,"- Ryou defended.
-"Yes, they are. Now if I could just get my hands on that puzzle..."- the spirit murmured greedily.
-"Yami, please not now!"- the teen pleaded, not wanting to have to rush off for fear of his friends' safeties.
-"Shut up, Yadonushi, now is the perfect time. I'll just catch him when he's walking alone and..."- the spirit's voice lowered to a quiet mumble so the hikari couldn't understand him.
"I have to go," Ryou told the group, turning to leave.
"We just got here!" Yuugi complained.
"I know, but I promised my dad I'd bee home by five," the white-haired teen lied.
"Is it that late already?" Jounouch asked, picking up Ryou's wrist and looking at the teen's watch.
"Yeah," Ryou co nfirmed, taking his arm back, "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Alright," Yuugi sighed, disappointed as he watched his friend leave.
"Hey, Dad! I'm home!" Ryou called into the apartment he and his father shared. "Dad?"
"Huh? Oh, hi, Ryou," the blue-haired man looked up from his laptop as his son stepped into the room, It didn't even seem as if the man had moved since that morning.
"What do you want for dinner?" the teen asked, setting his bag on the table and moving into the adjacent kitchen.
"Whatever we have. I have to go to the museum around six though."
"Alright," Ryou nodded, though he knew his father wasn't watching, as he opened the fridge hoping to find something to make for dinner. "How's steak sound?" the teen asked, pulling a sirloin out of the freezer.
"Steak? Any special reason?" the blue-haired man glanced up at his son. Ryou shrugged. How could his own father forget?
"Can you make it before I have to go?" the father returned his eyes to his computer.
Ryou hesitated, "probably not, but I can put it in the fridge for when you get home."
"Sure."
Ryou set two of the meat packages on the counter then picked up his school bag and walked to his room while the steaks thawed.
-"I bet I could send that man to the Shadow Realm and he wouldn't even notice,"- Yami Bakura huffed from the back of Ryou's mind.
-"Yami, don't talk like that!"- the teen begged, the very idea of his father just up and disappearing terrified the hikari.
-"You know it's true,"- the spirit stated, returning to his soul room. Ryou sighed. The sad thing was, his yami was probably right.
"How can it possibly be almost ten o'clock?" Ryou wondered aloud as he set down his book and headed to the dresser to find some pyjamas.
-"By being possibly ten o'clock,"- Yami Bakura answered sardonically. Ryou chose not to answer as he pulled on a pair of light cotton pajama pants over his boxers and a plain white t-shirt that seemed to blend with his hair. Moving into the connected bathroom, the teen pulled out his tooth brush an d began his nightly routine of preparing for bed.
Ryou had just put the tooth paste back in its drawer when the phone in the kitchen rang.
Who would be calling at this hour? the teen thought to himself as he made his way to the room, picking up the reciever and putting it to his ear, "hello?"
"Ryou! Glad you're still up!"
"Hi, Dad," the teen knew better than to get his hopes up, but he couldn't help it.
"Just wanted to let you know not to be surprised if I'm not there in the morning when you wake up," that father said, sounding a tad bit distant.
"Oh, alright. Thanks for letting me know," Ryou's heart sank, his facial expression falling aswell.
"And, Ryou?"
"Yeah?" a ray of hope.
"Make sure you lock the door, son."
"Oh, sure. G'night."
"Night," the phone went to the dial tone, and Ryou set down the reciever slowly. All day, no one had said a thing. Not even his own father.
I wonder if most dad's forget... he thought bitterly, probably not.
The teen made his way back to his bedroom and lay down in the cool sheets, staring at the dark cieling above him. He tried smiling, a habit he had become good at no matter the circumstances. He couldn't though. It was if lead was weighing down the corners of his mouth. Growling annoyedly at himself, he rolled onto his side, closing his eyes and tried to sleep. Eventually, the teen drifted off into the land of dreams, no longer aware of his exterior surroundings.
The Millennium Ring sat on the end table, glinting in the thin light the moon had managed to force through the slightly ope π window shades. Yami Bakura exited the Ring in a semi-transparent form, phasing out next to his sleeping hikari's bed. The ancient thief looked down at the quietly slumbering boy and smiled. No, it wasn't the typical smile that adorned his face, the one that sent chills down people's spines, rather, it was a kind smile. A smile he would rather die then let someone see. He couldn't help himself though. He sat down on the edge of the bed, though no extra physical weight was added to distrub the sleeping teen. Running his non-existant fingers over his hikari's hair he whispered. It was so quiet not even someone standing right next to him could hear, but the words were still there.
"I didn't forget," he smiled again, still playing with the teen's long white hair, "Happy birthday, Yadonushi."
Gah, it's so fluffy! I'm all happy now! I actually wrote this on Ryou's birthday last year, I just decided to post it this year. Happy birthday, Ryou! It's a proven, scientific fact that authors write more and better stories when they are left encouraging reviews. *hint hint wink wink* Constructive criticism is awesome, so let me know how I can improve my writing!