Title: Love Is In The Cards
Characters: Shark, Ryuu||Ships: Shark x Durbe, Ryuu x Io
Chapters: 1-6||Words: 1,616||Total: 1,616
Genre: Drama, Romance||Rated: G
Challenges: Diversity Writing: YGO Crossovers & Magical Crossovers: H10, 6+ chapters; Zexal Mini-fic Masterclass, #6, Crossover Cosmos; Halloween Trick or Treat: Zexal: day #16, write a surprise encounter & review someone you've never reviewed before; Advent 2015-2016: day 25: roll dice for chapter amount: 6 chapters; Valentine's Day to White Day 2016, Zexal, bonus #1, randomly generate word count: 9,645; zexal10thanniversary
Notes: For the purposes of this story, BKCBL & Zexal take place in the same universe. This is about three or four years post-canon for Zexal and in the middle of season one for BKCBL. Also, the Barians still retain some of their powers.
Summary: It's almost Durbe's birthday and Shark wants to find a nice place to take him. So he heads up to Binan to check it out. He's going to find a lot more than hot springs and places to eat.

Shark stepped off of the train and looked around. The first thought on his mind was This place is quaint. Binan didn't look anything like Heartland City. Heartland was a place where he could happily ride his motorcycle anywhere, and if he couldn't, there were other ways to get around, such as the monorail.

Binan didn't have that. It wasn't a very large place, so most people seemed to get around simply by walking. He guessed there was probably a bus system, but he wasn't sure. There was at least a train, so it wasn't as if it were utterly cut off from the modern world.

All the research he'd done also said there wasn't a lot of dueling here. People here lived very quiet lives – though he'd also caught a few glimpses of reports that said it wasn't so quiet.

He gathered up his bag and headed away from the station. He'd been on the train for a couple of hours and he wanted to find a place to rest that wasn't moving. He only had a couple of days here before he needed to get back.

Finding his hotel didn't take long. He settled in, then pulled out his D-Gazer and slipped it on. He didn't need it for dueling, but it came in very handy for phone calls.

"Rio?" He asked as soon as the two devices connected. She rested her hands on her hips and glared at him.

"Took you long enough! Did you get there?"

"I'm there." Shark settled down on the hotel bed and started flipping through the town's website. "I'm going to grab something to eat and check out a few places. Durbe still doesn't guess?"

Rio shook her head. "We told him that you're checking out some potential places to dump Vector at."

He'd never do that. He didn't want to leave Vector where he'd be someone else's problem. At least they knew how to handle him. But it made for a good enough excuse while he scouted places for Durbe's birthday.

Truth to tell, most of his fellow Barians didn't know when their birthday was. He and Rio did, at least their current birthday – sometime even he got confused on that. But Vector and Durbe, Mizael and Gilag, and Alit as well, they didn't have birthdays that translated very well into the modern calendars, and they'd never bothered celebrating anything like that when they were Barians.

But now that they lived among humans – and technically were human again – Shark wanted to do that. It would help them all fit in a little better. So they'd picked dates as close to what they recalled from their human lives.

He had a week left until it would be Durbe's birthday and he wanted to make it the best trip that he could manage. So here he was, in Binan, hoping that it was what he'd read about it.

He focused back on Rio. "I'll let you know what I find out later." He wanted to sample one of the places he'd read of for dinner, then go checking for one of the famous hot springs.

"All right. You should probably call Durbe tonight too." Rio smirked at him. "You don't want your boyfriend moping around, do you?"

Shark snorted. "I'll call after dinner. See you." He cut the connection and tossed the D-Gazer to one side. His stomach rumbled again and he headed out, checking for the closest place to eat.

The Aqua Catch. Every review he'd seen on it said that it was pretty good so he headed out there. He'd always had a taste for seafood and he knew Durbe did too – somewhere in the flickers of memory from his first life as Nasch, he recalled sharing a plate of tuna. That wasn't the only time they'd shared meals, of course. It happened frequently on the march to do battle with Vector…

He shook his head to get the image out. That was long done with. Time to move on to happier events. Which meant checking The Aqua Catch out to see if it would be a good place for Durbe's birthday dinner.

The Aqua Catch wasn't somewhere that Ryuu frequented that often. The prices were reasonable and the food really good, but he'd always thought of it as a place for special occasions or special people. He sort of wanted to take Io there for the other's birthday once December rolled around.

But for now, he took Io there because just the day before, Io had saved his life. Which, these days, wasn't such an unusual event. He still hadn't fully wrapped his head around the thought of superheroing and monsters being a regular part of their lives, even though they were. But the day before, one of those monsters the Caerula Adamas created almost took his head clean off.

Io – Battle Lover Sulfur – cracked open the earth itself underneath the monster, burying it in the ground before sending a powerful blast from his staff into its face. The other three helped him back to his feet, then they'd gone on to take care of the monster. Just a normal afternoon for them, but Ryuu wanted to do something for Io now.

"This is all on me," he promised. Io looked up from the menu, a tiny smile on his lips.

"You don't really have to do this."

Ryuu crossed his arms over his chest and glowered. "You saved my life." He wasn't going to say anything else about it. Io knew what he meant and they didn't need to get anyone else's attention.

They both perused the menu, and Ryuu almost didn't notice when another diner was settled down at one of the nearby tables. He glanced over casually, then did a double take. He'd never seen anyone like this guy before and he prided himself on noticing the interesting people around town.

This guy was definitely interesting. Probably about Io's height, with deep purple hair and sea-blue eyes. His hair sort of – well, it looked kinda like tentacles if Ryuu tilted his head a little, and right over his forehead the hair was a paler blue that resembled a crown.

Is that natural or did he have it done? Ryuu wasn't sure and itched to know.

So he leaned over. "Excuse me?" He waited until the other looked at him. "I was wondering – where did you get your hair done?" He wasn't sure if he wanted to try it for himself or not, but it looked nice on this guy. It might be worth a try.

The stranger blinked back at him. "It's not 'done'. It's natural."

Ryuu couldn't quite believe that. "I didn't know anyone had hair that shade." He didn't keep the admiration out of his voice. Though he'd seen a few odd colors – such as whenever he looked in the mirror. But deep purple wasn't one he'd run across before.

"Well, I do." The stranger picked up his menu, very obviously done with the conversation. Ryuu shrugged; he'd asked, at least.

That wasn't the only person who'd ever questioned him about his hair. This one did seem more appreciate than anything else, so Shark didn't think much of the exchange until after he'd finished his meal, paid, and headed out, stopping a little way down the street to check out his map of the area.

Let's see. A good hot springs. Maybe one of the local baths?

"Hey, did you need some help?" That voice. He'd heard something unusual about it the first time he'd heard it, but he had too much to think about then. Now here it was again. He glanced over to see that same pink-haired person standing there, their friend beside them.

If the stranger hadn't looked so genuinely as if he wanted to help, Shark would have just dismissed him. But perhaps he could use a bit of help, especially from a local.

"I'm trying to find a bathhouse. Not any one in particular, though."

Both of them brightened up at that, and the one with pale green and gold hair chuckled faintly. "Yumuto would never forgive us if we let this chance slip away."

"No kidding!" The first one grinned broadly before he looked back to Shark. "We know a pretty awesome place. Ever her of the Kurotama?"

Shark frowned; he remembered reading it when he'd done his research, but it had been only one of a long list of hot springs and bathhouses. "Vaguely," he admitted.

"Come with us, then," the pink-haired one offered. "We can show you the way." He gestured to himself. "I'm Zaou Ryuu."

"Naruko Io," the other introduced himself.

Shark considered, then mentally shrugged. "Kamishiro Ryouga." He wasn't going to tell them his real name, nor would they get to call him Shark. If they didn't recognize his face, then they probably didn't follow any sort of professional dueling. All the better. He wanted to be here as a tourist, not as a celebrity.

"This way then, Kamishiro-san," Zaou said, and Shark followed him and Naruko.

Zundar pointed his nose out, following the odd scent that he'd been tracing for almost an hour now. It wasn't easy following people in this city but he'd finally locked it down. Now he regarded the person it emanated from.

Never seen anything like that before. He wondered exactly what secrets this strange purple-haired person had hidden in their heart. He couldn't be sure of what it was with just a quick glance but perhaps if he followed, he would figure out more.

Assuming he could keep up with them. But he had that scent now, so he'd find his target anywhere in Binan.

To Be Continued

Notes: Shark and Ryuu share a voice actor. I wasn't aware of that until I started researching.