A/N: Okay, so I know that I have a gazillion typos and whatnot, but - and yes, I am crazy, thank you - I am not going to get a beta reader. Part of me wants to but the other part is like, "Meh, we got this". And if my typos bother you that much then I'm sorry. But they just don't get to me. I like them, sometimes. :P
Disclaimer: If I owned Yu-Gi-Oh it'd be prettier.
A/N: And sorry this chapter is a little late, but I have too many ideas for this story. I've been thinking about it all the time! I can't decide which path to take, but I think I'm going to go the right way. Please enjoy!
Beautiful Places Have Beautiful Faces
Ryou sighed as he swallowed another large gulp of his energy drink. It wasn't very often that he bothered drinking bat poop, but today was an emergency. Last night he'd only gotten forty-five minutes of sleep at the most.
It was pretty hard to sleep when all of his dreams were of the mondo house he was living in opening up and swallowing him whole. It took him five hours to get into the right position on his new bed, and then every time he shut his eyes the house got angry about him being inside of it.
He was the only disturbance to an otherwise silent masterpiece. That's what his house really was after all. Artwork.
Most certainly not a place where one should live. Would anyone try to live in the Mona Lisa, or David? Ryou didn't think so.
He sighed again and gulped some more of his drink. It was going to be a long day.
"Dude, you look terrible." Ryou looked up and smiled sarcastically.
"Thank you, Jou. That's exactly what I wanted to hear."
"Well, what was I supposed to say?"
"You could have lied."
"Oh," Jou smiled brightly. "You're smokin' hot today, Ryou!"
Ryou whimpered and put his head down on his desk. A very long day, indeed.
"Jou, what did we tell you about bothering people? Especially the ones who hang out with us." Yuugi and Malik walked to their seats and sat down. Malik was berating Jou while Yuugi stared at his white haired friend nervously. He was worried about the boy's appearance.
Ryou had faded gray jeans on with a whole in the right knee, a yellow tee-shirt and his black zip-up hoodie on. But that wasn't really what worried Yuugi.
He was sad that his friend was so beaten up by this new life that he couldn't get matching shoes on.
Ryou had a red converse on his right foot and a construction boot on the other. This puzzled Yuugi because Ryou seemed too young to have a construction boot. That was more of an adult shoe, the kind his dad should have been wearing.
Ryou was only sixteen. He shouldn't be so worn out that he'd be wearing his fathers shoes yet.
"Rough night, Ryou?" Yuugi asked. Ryou nodded with his head still on the desk. Yuugi put a comforting hand on the boy's back and rubbed it soothingly.
"Man, what did you do after we went out for burgers?" Jou asked, ever the man of subtlety. Malik tilted his head in a question.
Ryou lifted his head off his desk and put it in his hand.
"I didn't sleep at all. I'm not used to being here yet, I guess." Malik reached around Ryou, seemingly for a hug, but he only grabbed the boy's hood and pulled it up.
"Then you are going to want to wear this. For now, anyway. Most teachers don't have a problem with it. And the History teacher isn't here to yell at you for it today, either!" Jou nodded in agreement and Ryou didn't argue. He didn't honestly care at this point, he just wanted to go home and to bed.
Any other kid probably would have taken advantage of the fact that they didn't have parents to make them go to school and stayed home, but not Ryou. He kind of cared about how he did in school.
....Okay, not so much school. He cared more about what his new friends would think if he skipped his second day of classes.
"Ryou, why wouldn't you just stay home?" Yuugi asked.
"Oh, of course." Ryou mumbled and plunked his face back to the desk.
A very long, long day.
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"You're almost there, kid. I'm sure you can make it." Ryou nodded appreciatively at Jou.
"Yeah, and we have lunch next period, so you can sleep then!" Yuugi added.
Ryou smiled at them both in thanks. Considering the amount of time they'd known each other their patience was unexpected.
Right before the bell rang, the classroom door slammed open and a boy stalked into the room, acting like he owned the place. Ryou's tired eyes roamed his body in interest.
He was wearing baggy black jeans and torn up Nike's. He was also wearing a long green tee-shirt with a black hand flipping the bird on the front. His ears were pierced and he obviously wore eyeliner.
But what interested Ryou the most was his long white hair, nearly identical to his own, but somehow exactly opposite. While Ryou made it a point to keep his hair brushed and neat, this boy had wild untamed hair.
"Oh, Bakura. So nice of you to join us." The teacher said and waved him to the open seat next to Ryou. Bakura didn't honor her with a response. "Class, please take out your notes. We'll be looking at a PowerPoint today."
She shut off the lights and Ryou groaned. Of course she'd do this do him. Tempt him with the darkness.
"What's wrong?" Ryou looked up at his new partner who was scooching to the very edge of his chair away from Ryou. He hadn't asked the question sincerely, Ryou realized. Rather in a "Are you going to throw up on me?" kind of way.
"N-nothing. I'm just tired is all." Ryou said, blushing. Bakura made an "O" face and sat normally in his chair.
If sitting on the edge closest to Ryou was normal. Bakura started to whisper to the smaller boy.
"What's your name?" He asked. Ryou sat up slightly so to answer him more accurately.
"I'm Ryou. Who are you?" Ryou tilted his head a little to show curiosity. His voice was coming out in monotone since he hadn't slept for nearly twenty-four hours.
"I'm Bakura." But the boy wasn't very interested in his own answers so much as asking Ryou questions. "When did you start?"
"Yesterday. You weren't here, though." Bakura smirked at the implied question.
"Yeah, I skipped to go downtown for the day. I just need to get away from these posers every once in a while, you know?" Ryou furrowed his brow.
"The friends I've made aren't posers." He said in defense of his new peops. They were anything but posers, honestly.
Bakura's eyebrows shot up for a second before satisfaction settled on his face.
"Good." He said.
And that was the end of their conversation.
Thankfully, the lunch bell rang not too long after that. Ryou walked to the table he'd sat at yesterday with his friends with Jou and Yuugi. Malik was already sitting there waiting for them.
"So, how's life treating you today Ryou?" Malik inquired. Ryou shrugged.
"I met the kid everyone confused me for yesterday. He's weird." And strangely attractive, he thought to himself.
"Yeah, Bakura isn't all there sometimes. He's way beyond all this high school drama." Malik spoke practically admiringly of Bakura. Ryou shook his head.
"That's not what it seemed like to me. He seemed like a complete stoner." Jou barked a laugh and shook his head.
"That's because he is, Ryou." Yuugi started an argument with Jou over that. He didn't know for sure if Bakura was a stoner and he shouldn't judge people before he got to know them.
"Exactly." The four looked up to see Yami put his hands on Yuugi's shoulders. Yuugi blushed and got suddenly silent.
"What exactly?" Jou asked. Yami shrugged.
"Whatever Yuugi was saying." Malik smiled at the obvious adoration in Yami's voice as it flew over Yuugi's head. Which really is quite amazing. You'd think it would get stuck in his hair and soak into his cranium, but no. It just flew right by.
"Oh, get a room, would you?" Yami rolled his eyes and sat down next to Yuugi on the bench when the new comer spoke.
Bakura sat down next to Ryou looking at Yami with a mixture of amusement and disdain on his face.
"Up yours, Bakura." Yami glared.
Ryou had basically given up all hope of sleeping this period and instead turned to his lab partner.
"And pray tell, what brings you here?"
Bakura motioned to the others at the table and then at the apple in front of him.
"Lunch."
The rest of the period was filled with obvious attempts at pick-up lines from Bakura to Ryou, Ryou shutting him down every time and every time getting a roar of laughter from his friends. None of whom overlooked the fact that as soon as Bakura showed up, Ryou's stamina miraculously rebooted.
Once, when Ryou was looking at Bakura to tell him again, "No, he was not a parking ticket and he did not have fine written all over him" it was high noon. The sun was directly overhead, eliminating nearly every shadow that had been on Bakura's face and drowning it in light. Such a complete contrast to the image to boy usually portrayed that Ryou wanted to capture it forever.
However, before Ryou could reach for his camera he came to his senses and verbally bitch slapped Bakura for not leaving him alone.
-
English was the same as ever, only worse. Their essay on the Great Gatsby was due and Ryou had never even read the book, let alone written a paper on it. So he was practically failing one of the only necessary classes of the year on his second day of school. Wonderful.
French was terrible. Bakura sat next to him and attempted to pick him up in a foreign language. The really bad part was Ryou could feel himself beginning to weaken. And he knew it was only a game to Bakura. Such a rebel could never honestly tie himself down to Ryou, especially when he was obviously messing with him.
How terrible, Ryou thought. Not even two hours and Bakura already had him weak in the knees.
This was really Ryou's first crush, though. He'd never spent this much time with other people before. Usually he was only looking at them from behind his camera lens. From the place where they couldn't touch him, or hurt him, or love him. The only place he was really safe from the rest of the world.
Bakura, on the other hand, was ready to try anything. Ready to take the world head on. Ryou envied him of that.
The final bell rang in the middle of Bakura's hundredth pick up line.
"Voulez-vous- ah damn." He stood up and pulled Ryou into an awkward, rough hug. "I guess we'll continue this tomorrow."
Ryou blushed at the warmth that surrounded him. It radiated off of Bakura as if the light that had captured him at lunch never left, but rather was absorbed into him. Almost like Bakura sucked in all the light he could to counteract an inner darkness that no one could ever explain.
"Uh, Ryou? Bakura let go about a century ago. We should probably head out." Jou said. Malik smirked behind him and Yuugi looked worriedly again at his friend.
"Oh, right. Sorry."
The four boys walked outside together, into the crisp November air.
"Are you going to go out with us again, Ryou?" Yuugi asked with a hopeful smile. Ryou smiled back, only apologetically.
"I think I need to head home. I haven't been spending too much time there and I think that's why I couldn't sleep. I've just got to get used to it, I guess." Yuugi nodded understandingly, but took out his cell phone.
"Here's my number in case you need to talk. I know how stressful moving can be, so call anytime." Ryou smiled and plugged the number into his phone.
"Thank you so much Yuugi. You're exactly the friend I need to get me through." Yuugi's smile grew ten times and he said goodbye one final time before running off to join Jou and Malik. Ryou waved to them and then walked home himself.
-
In the front yard of a mansion stood a lone boy with flowing white hair and a camera to his face. He was facing the front of the house. Just standing. Passerby would think he was waiting for the house to throw on a coconut bra and do the hula. But he wasn't.
He was trying to see something good. Ryou moved his camera all around and couldn't see anything but beauty. The house was gorgeous, nearly perfect. But Ryou wasn't looking for scenery.
He was looking for a sign of humanity. Something raw that might give him comfort. Anything showing this house had at one time been more than that. That maybe it had been an actual home. A crack, or a brick out of place. Maybe some bird poop on the window, anything would be fine.
But as hard as he tried, Ryou couldn't find anything. All he saw was beauty. No sign of life or happiness.
Then Ryou turned to the street. He could see the top of his school peaking over the pine trees and smiled. He focused the camera on the tower building of the Main Office and clicked twice. The way the light reflected on the pine trees gave them the impression of bowing down to the school building. The only place Ryou can find life and happiness in this hell hole.
The first truly beautiful place he'd been to in a long time.
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Sorry it isn't too long, but it's pretty much a transitional chapter. Necessary, but a tad bit dry. But isn't Bakura a fruit cup? He's completely nuts, which is exactly what he needs to be. :P
Please review if you love it or hate it or just want to say hi! Thanks!
Yobster