Black Dragonfly
Chapter 4
Lydia had finally organized her room.
By organized, she meant unpacked her books and knickknacks and thrown them on the shelves, clothes shoved into drawers or piled on her bed, posters applied to the walls and music thrown on the floor by her stereo. The only thing remotely "organized" was her collection of skulls, neatly arranged from species along her desk and dresser. Her room was about as organized as any teenager— somewhat messy, cluttered, posters, voodoo dolls— dark, but average.
She lay on her belly on her bed, now fully set up with a frame and black sheets, frustratingly trying to do her homework. She grumbled to herself, pressing too hard with her pencil half the time and constantly needing to replace the graphite, until she sunk her head and flung the work off her bed. It clattered against the floor somewhere, among the other mess, pages being bent in the process.
She heard her father come in a good twenty minutes ago. Like usual, he was on the phone, dealing with work and would no doubt come talk to her any minute now.
Just as she guessed, there was a knock on the door. Her door was ajar and so he peeked in.
"Nice hair," he nodded, looking over her now solid black hair. She hadn't had it that color in years. "How was school?"
The girl groaned and buried her face in her blanket.
"That bad?"
"I fucking hate Japanese…" she grumbled.
"Watch the language," he frowned and opened the door and looked inside. The floor was covered in things she had yet to put away properly, including clothes, shoes and a few figurines.
"I see you gave up trying to set up your room."
She gave him a sneer. "This IS set up."
Mr. Guttman rolled his eyes. "How can I forget. My daughter, the neat freak."
"Yeah, yeah," Lydia rolled over. He noticed that on top of changing her hair back, she was back to wearing her dark makeup, her black lips forever standing out on her pale skin.
"Going somewhere?"
"No," she snorted rather unladylike. "Just felt like doing something. Trying to remind myself that I am an individual. Wearing that uniform was starting to make me feel like a wallflower. Plus, I don't want the holes to close."
"You don't look anything like a wallflower," her father huffed. "And I don't think a few days will make your piercings close up."
She grumbled but said nothing more about it.
Mr. Guttman sighed and went back to a previous problem.
"You are having problem with Japanese?"
Lydia shrugged, sitting up.
"Just the written part. Some kid at school says he'll help me with it, it's no big deal."
Her father looked pleased.
"So you're making friends?"
"Yeah, I said I'd listen to you, and you say I don't," she snorted.
"Well aren't you a surprise."
"Yeah," she absentmindedly began tapping her toes. "Name's Ryou. He showed me where to get the dye and wants to show me around this weekend."
"Same guy who is willing to give you lessons?" her father looked at her.
"Yep."
"You must really have him smitten," he chuckled.
Another unattractive snort came from her.
"Oh please. This guy is so proper and sweet I'm surprised his teeth haven't rotted out. Guys like that don't go for girls like me."
"Then what do you supposed he's doing?"
Lydia shrugged. "Probably doing it 'out of the goodness of his heart.'" She fluttered her lashes dramatically. Then took on a sober, bored expression. "Hell if I know. Probably feels bad cause I'm a new student or something. I'm humoring him for the time being. Willing to put up a bet how long he lasts before he runs away screaming? Either that, or I corrupt him." She took on an evil grin.
Her father raised an eyebrow.
"Be nice," he intoned, turning to walk out. Before he left, he turned to her. "You may be surprised, don't write the kid off. Hell, he can't be any worse than your last boyfriend."
Lydia groaned and sank her face into her blanket again.
"Pops… shut up…"
"I'm ordering in. I don't feel like cooking," he called from down the hall.
"You know, I bet those diamonds are worth a pretty penny."
Ryou groaned in his head as he tried to focus on school work. It was hard. Since the Spirit had finally voiced itself, he had become quite vocal about things whenever he grew the strength to do it again. It was at random intervals, sometimes about how much he hated how "wimpy" his host's body was when he dressed, or making disparaging comments about people he thought were "not fit to be alive and breeding," –he thought that one most of the time. Now it was on the girl who sat right in front of him. She had her hair pinned up in a twist, revealing her slender neck and her rather giant diamond earrings. Her family was one of wealth, and she seemed desperate to showcase that fact. Clearly, the Spirit was bored, and his only source of amusement was tormenting him.
'Oh, be quiet you!' Ryou tried to silence in his head. 'You don't even know if they're real.'
The Spirit snorted. "Fuck a mule, I've been a thief since before your ancestors were shoveling shit in the Pharaoh's stables. I know real loot when I see it.'
Bakura rolled his eyes and looked away from the girl, effectively cutting off the Spirit's scheming visuals. 'Don't even think about it.'
"What? It's not like I could try even if I wanted to. I'm too weak to control this body, if I even can, that is.'
Bakura's eyes widened. He'd been wondering the same thing himself. He assumed only time would tell if the Spirit would be capable of controlling his body. The thought of having his body taken over again caused him to shiver. He had been dropped into the black isolation before, and he had no desire to experience it again.
Shaking his head, his eyes darted to focus somewhere else, and naturally, they focused on the only other person in the room Ryou's eyes were drawn to. Lydia sat there, eyes gazing bored at the blackboard, high poofy pigtails now a solid black. He heard what sounded like a retching noise in his head.
'Ugh, not this again. Can't you look back at Miss 'I have filthy rich parents?' Or what about that nice watch your professor has on…'
'I like her hair better this color.' Bakura remarked; Indeed, she must have dyed it the night after he went out to help her pick it out. He felt the Spirit roll his eyes.
'Yes, we've already agreed on that. You won't stop thinking about this bitch and her hair. Will you just fuck her already? Gods, I'm getting sick of putting up with your teenage hormones! They're driving me insane!'
'Too late for that,' Bakura scoffed, and then tried to tune him out. The Spirit's voice began to fade and it wandered off, grumbling to himself along the way. He shook his head again and tried to focus on the lesson.
It was now Thursday, and Thursday meant he had classes with...
Ryou's heart was thumping as he quickly jumped behind the wall, pressing his back firmly against it. He heard the high pitch giggle again, the sound that was like razors to his ears, ripping him open and tearing him apart. The sound caused a wave of dread to wash over him and panic to take its place. The tittering was that of a demonic tune; an unholy bell in the church of the devil. Every mournful toll was like a summons to his demise.
"Bakura-kun! Where did you go?"
The voice made the hair raise on the back of his neck. The creatures were looking for their prey; and they wanted to find him and devour him.
"Bakura-kun! –I think he went this way!"
The steady thumping of his heartbeat accelerated. He could hear it pounding in his chest. It too was trying to escape. It was as if it wanted to pop out of his chest and run for its life, leaving his body behind.
The sounds were getting closer. The light patter of feet echoed in the shells of his ears. Closer, closer, closer…
"Bakura-kun! There you ar—!"
His eyes had been clenched shut, ready to be assaulted by the horde of demons, ready to have their claws tear at his body, rip from him any amount of sanity he had. But nothing came, their sudden silence wrung in his head. Alarmed and somewhat reluctant, Ryou blinked up and looked to be the cause of their sudden halt.
He saw them, three of them. They looked like clones of each other in their uniform. Same hair color and style, same uniform, same gob smacked, terrified expression. The only difference was their heights. To Ryou, they looked like a multi-headed beast –a hydra.
Somewhat perplexed by their horrified, gaping faces, he turned to see what they were staring at, and met with the sight of Lydia Guttman. Her face had an apathetic expression. Lips in a tight line, eyebrows slightly furrowed. She stood no taller than the other girls, but she seemed to dwarf them. Her poofy black pigtails made her appear slightly taller.
"What do you want?" she said flatly, clearly not amused.
"G-Guttman-san! We... we were just looking for Bakura-kun!" One girl was brave enough to speak up.
It seemed even though she had hardly been at the school for a week, she had a reputation. Ryou wondered if they thought she would choke them like everyone believed she did.
Lydia briefly cast her eyes on his shaking form, barely a glance, only one to let the others know she was aware that he was present, but not enough to linger.
"I don't think he wants to be seen by you," she suddenly stood up taller.
"B-But… you wouldn't understand! We adore Bakura-kun!"
Lydia blinked at them rapidly before slowly walking over to the trembling Bakura.
"That's awfully sweet girls, but you all need to calm your tits."
He heard a few of them gasp at her slur as Lydia turned to Bakura and grabbed his arm, slowly pulling him away. "Come on, Ryou…"
"Ryou!?" one of them gasped. "You- you can't call him that!"
Lydia turned to the girl and gave her an exasperated look.
"And why the fuck not?"
They inhaled sharply at her vulgar words but Lydia paid them no mind, she quickly used the time to pull the scared Bakura away from the girls. They called after them, but Lydia turned swiftly and yelled at them where they stood.
"You all are crazy as shit! Go stalk someone else!"
Bakura didn't know quite how to respond at first. He was petrified at having been found by his… fan girls. But when Lydia came, he felt a stronger wave of horror. He didn't know why, but the conflict made him terribly uncomfortable. He was utterly grateful that she had saved him from their clutches though.
He safely made it to lunch. Lydia said not a word about it as she got her food and he didn't say anything until he sat down.
"Thank you, Lydia. I don't know what I would do if you hadn't come."
Lydia took a large bite of her roll and gave him a curious look.
"Most guys I know would love that sort of attention," she chewed her roll, her bad habit of talking with her mouth full going full force. "Are you gay or something? I mean, it's fine if you are, I'm only curious…"
Mortification colored his cheeks and he shook his head quickly.
"No! No, I am not like that," he mumbled. "I just don't like how they treat me like some toy…" It wasn't an unusual question, as much as it still embarrassed him. Most of the guys at school often picked on him because of it. He knew he was somewhat more… soft then what was normal for guys.
"Hm," Lydia took a drink. "If you don't like them, then why don't you tell them to piss off?"
Ryou sighed.
"I can't tell them to do… do that!"
"Why not?" Lydia snorted. "They're psycho. If you don't want someone to be around you, just tell them so. It's your personal space."
"I wish it was that easy…" Ryou sighed, picking at his own roll. "I'm not as strong as you are Lydia. I—I'm not so good at… speaking my mind."
"You mean being a bitch," Lydia corrected.
Bakura wouldn't have used that word at all, but mean-spirited or antagonistic had come to mind briefly. She so easily told people to leave her alone if she didn't like them, and here he was scared to hurt the feelings of a bunch of girls. Why was he so scared?
"You're not a—" he couldn't finish the word. "You're not a mean person, Lydia."
The dark girl almost snorted out her food.
"You're full of crap," she chomped another bite of her roll.
"You're not mean to me…" Bakura said in a small voice. "I like you." There was that blush again. Damn it.
"Well, you're a strange one, then," Lydia shrugged. "You know, most guys would be completely humiliated at being 'saved' by a girl." She smirked.
Bakura opened his mouth to speak but shut it.
"I thought we established I wasn't like most guys," he smiled. "And I don't mind the help, especially by a pretty girl."
Crap. He hadn't meant to say that. Is face burned a brighter shade of red and his shoulders sunk. He wanted to disappear under the table. What would she think now? This entire week, Bakura had tried as hard as he could to try and make her notice him as a guy, but tried to be subtle. But all his attempts died miserable deaths and resulted in either him mumbling over his words, Lydia staring at him blankly, or the Spirit in his Ring laughing his ass off—or a combination of all three.
Instead of being mortified by his slip, Lydia seemed entertained by it.
"Ryou, have you ever had a girlfriend?"
He blushed harder by her question. How was he supposed to answer that? Why had she asked him that? Was it because he seemed so inept? Was it because she was interested? It seemed more like she was amused with the fact that he was embarrassed so much by simply paying compliments, he had to be inexperienced. He was acting like a naive, innocent teenage boy. But damn it! He was! Was she getting amusement out of his mortification?
The subject was dropped when he heard Lydia chuckle lightly and sat back, taking a loud bite out of whatever was served to them today. Ryou tried his hardest to pretend what happened this afternoon never happened at all.
Classes were slowly starting to get easier for her. Since she had quickly established that she didn't like people, most people avoided her like the plague. Some out of general fear (Did you hear? Guttman murdered three students at her last school and that was why she moved here!) and some out of social fear, no one wanted to be seen with the foreign freak. She paid no mind to it. Lydia was used to being ignored and being labeled the misfit; at seventeen she had quickly grown out of the need to constantly "fit in." Having moved so much helped her breech that. She eventually went out of her way to make sure people saw her as such. It meant they left her alone. Since she had to move constantly, she really couldn't make too many lasting friendships, so in time she had taught herself that it didn't matter what kids thought.
Her father was a big supporter. He was always positive, even if he wasn't around much, and was the main reason she never crushed under the pressure of bullying. It was just immature to her. The way she saw it; if they were afraid of her or thought her creepy, for whatever reason, it meant they stayed away from her. Lydia liked being alone, and she wanted it to stay that way, even if it meant people thought she was some sort of freak.
It wasn't that she was emotionally disturbed or terribly abused as a child. Everyone liked to believe that a child has to go through some trauma in order to be what they call "anti-social." Lydia never really had any real major issues like that, other than her constant moving. She had quickly learned how to entertain herself and not need other people. Besides, if she wanted social interaction, there was the internet. The difference was you can turn your computer off when it pissed you off. Humans unfortunately didn't work that way.
The only one who didn't seem to get the memo was Ryou. He was a strange one, and Lydia didn't know what to expect from him. He kept approaching her and talking to her, but he always sounded like he was a frightened animal and always seemed like he was scared to death of her .Not to mention he was so damn polite she wanted to break his teeth in sometimes.
Since she had started at Domino City, Ryou had sat with her at lunch and talked with her, and she had humored him, purely out of amusement and to appease her father. She had never known someone to be so sincere and courteous. He piled it on so thick that it almost felt like an act. How could someone be that good-natured and sensitive? He looked like the kind of guy that would cry while watching Bambi for god's sake. It blew her mind that such a person could exists—and be so honest about it. She knew he wasn't faking it, and she honestly felt generally stumped by that.
Nice people irritated the shit out of her. She couldn't stand them. Goody-two-shoes namby-pamby boys and girls were so sickeningly sweet it made her want to vomit. They were always so perky and happy and never seemed to understand that there was a darker side of life, or maybe they just had a candy cane shoved so far up their ass they never experienced the real world themselves. Lydia didn't know.
Most people faked sincerity or kindness in order to get their own ends—Ryou seemed to go out of his way to help people even at the cost of himself. It was cruel, but she had tested this theory by claiming one afternoon that she forgot her lunch money to see his response. He not only bought her lunch, but refused to accept anything she offered. She was clearly baffled. She didn't know what stumped her more, the fact that his behavior annoyed the hell out of her, or that it fascinated her at the same time. The boy was so poor and weak and easy to manipulate and so eager to please… she reminded him of a puppy, and instantly smacked herself for thinking of it. Great, now she was comparing people to cute things.
They made an odd pair, the two of them. She was the intimidating, scary, unapproachable goth and he was the pleasant soft spoken well-mannered boy. They were opposites in every possible way. It made no sense as to why they even hung out. Even kowing this, or maybe because of it, it amused her the image they made walking down the hallways.
She grumbled as she went her way to the library. It was Friday. For the whole week, Ryou had stuck by his word and taught her Kanji. He proved to be a patient teacher, but even she had to admit, her progress was slow in coming. He never showed any outward signs of annoyance at her whining or inability to grasp certain symbols, and it began to irritate her. Didn't the boy have any mean bone in his body? Anything? Didn't he get angry? Or grouchy? Did he ever lose his temper? Hell, even a twitch in annoyance would make her happy. It would let her know he was human. The only thing the boys seemed capable of was sweetness and courteousness. The boy was practically an angel.
Or at least, he appeared to be. There was something always almost unhidden behind his smiles. He had all the signs of a boy who was abused in some way; how submissive he was, how quick to please, how he shirked at the slightest raise of a voice or conflict, even when he wasn't involved. Lydia wasn't blind, but she also wasn't invasive. It was his own business. She didn't know him well enough to meddle with things that didn't concern her. Hell, maybe she was just making all this up and Ryou was just the little Cherub he acted like his entire life since he fell off of a cloud in heaven. She rolled her eyes. The part of her that wanted to humanize him liked to think differently, however.
Either way, he was a nice kid. Sickeningly so, but nice. He never did a thing to her that made her think he was dishonest with her, and watching the boy tremble and fold into himself when she became the tiniest bit frustrated was somewhat amusing to her. She wouldn't say she was annoyed with his company. It was strangely… nice. Yes. It was nice.
Snort.
"Is something wrong?"
Lydia snapped out of her thoughts and turned back to the pale haired boy next to her.
"Oh, uh, no, sorry," she shook herself of the thoughts and tried to focus on the book in front of her. "Continue."
Bakura stared at her for a bit, but complied, only to stop again a minute later noticing her drifting attention.
"Maybe we should quit for the weekend," Ryou offered simply, closing the book in front of the two. Lydia wasn't about to argue the point, and sat up as he gathered his material.
"What time should I pick you up tomorrow, Lydia?" he asked as they finished packing their belongings.
Lydia stuffed her papers carelessly in her bag and looked at the boy. That's right; he said he'd show her around this weekend.
"Let's meet up at lunch; twelve work for you?" she threw her bag over her shoulder.
"Yes, that will be fine," he smiled at her. "I guess I'll see you then." Another tinge of red touched his cheeks as he looked away.
"Yeah." Lydia offered a small smile before turning and walking away. "See you."
Here is Chapter four, hope you all have a good weekend. l Please review!
