Title: Love Is In The Cards
Characters: Shark, Ryuu||Ships: Shark x Durbe, Ryuu x Io
Chapters: 2-6||Words: 1,612||Total: 3,228
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; Zexal Week 2021, day #1, "A Parallel Self"
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.

The Kurotama Bathhouse wasn't the most elegant or beautiful that Shark had ever seen in his life. In point of fact, it was somewhat plain. But the building was clearly well taken care of and the owner, a tall and strong red-haired man who vaguely reminded Shark of Gauche, greeted his companions in a way that said they were well-known to one another.

"Yumoto's off with Wombat somewhere," the older man told Naruko and Zaou as they entered with Shark. "Don't know how long he'll be gone." His eyes flicked over to Shark, and Shark found himself being very clearly weighed and measured by some unknowable scale. "Any trouble?"

"Nope! Just introducing our new friend here to the Kurotama," Zaou declared, handing over the payment. Shark nodded slightly.

"Kamishiro Ryouga," he introduced himself. "I'm looking for places to bring a friend of mine when it's his birthday." He had few intentions of telling these folk he'd just met that Durbe was far more than a friend. They didn't necessarily need to know. Friend would do for now.

"Well the Kurotama Baths are a great place to bring people!" The owner declared, brightening up. He dug into a drawer and pulled out a handful of coupons, offering them. "We have special discounts for birthdays."

Ryouga accepted the coupons and tucked them in with his clothes as he got started on getting ready. Quiet voices came from the area of the baths, and Zaou poked his head in there for a second before he looked back. "It's the guys," he reported. "I'll let them know we're going to have a guest."

He popped on in there as soon as he was done, while Ryouga and Naruko finished up preparing. Ryouga liked the place so far. Kind of homey and the company wasn't bad either. He strolled into the bath area to see Zaou and two others there, one with dark blue hair and the other a blond. The dark haired one waved a bit as the newcomers slid into the hot water.

"You just missed Yumoto," he said to Naruko and Zaou. "He's taking -" there was a breath of a pause, hardly more than a second, but Ryouga noticed it - "Wom-san out to see a new sweet store that opened up."

Zaou nodded, getting himself comfortable. He flicked one hand, along with a few drops of water, towards Ryouga. "This is Kamishiro Ryouga," he introduced. The dark-haired one introduced himself as Atsushi, the other as En. "You said something about a friend's birthday?"

"I want to do something special for him," Ryouga said, relaxing. This did feel good, especially after the long trip up here. He could see why people enjoyed it so much. "Things have been rough for the last couple of years and now that we're in a better place, I want to do something for him."

True enough, as far as it went. No one needed to know the full details of how things had been 'rough', since world-ending events like that didn't happen all that often. The fact he wanted to bring Durbe here was what remained important for the moment.

The blond's attention, a lazy sort of thing that brushed over Ryouga and Zaou, fastened back on Ryouga. He blinked sleepily before he glanced over at his friend. "Do you hear it?"

Atsushi frowned ever so slightly and En looked back towards Zaou. "Hey, say something. I want to be sure."

"What are you talking about?" Zaou didn't seem that much bothered. If anything, Ryouga would have said that he were amused. But En then nodded.

"You two sound alike," En told them. He tilted his head back. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you two were voiced by the same voice actor."

Ryouga blinked. He didn't think he'd ever heard anything like that before. "What makes you say that?"

"Because it's true?" En shrugged. "Things like that happen sometimes."

Ryouga decided that he didn't want to think about that a great deal. En very clearly was unusual. Not like Vector was - but Vector would forever be in a class by himself. Thank goodness.

He leaned back in the water and relaxed, letting his mind roam free. It was rather pleasant not to have to worry about anything. There hadn't been any truly annoying problems since the end of the war. They'd managed to settle things fairly quickly in the Astral World as well, and that led to a lot of downtime. Which was what led to him being here and planning on how to surprise Durbe soon.

The soft murmur of voices didn't quite disturb him, but he knew the others in the bath were having some sort of conversation amongst themselves. He cracked his eyes open a little without seeming to and regarded them. Something seemed vaguely familiar, though it wasn't something he could place off the top of his head. Something about the way that they reacted to each other - an the way they watched out for each other. All of them seemed oddly aware of what was going on around them. He wasn't sure if they even were aware of it themselves.

He wasn't sure if he'd ever figure out what was going on there and he wasn't sure if it even mattered. He just wanted to relax for now and so far, this hot water and the pleasant company made that so very easy.

Zundar didn't often come to this part of town. He preferred staying in the better areas. Kinshiro had many flaws - most of which Zundar enjoyed turning to his own benefit - but he also offered the sort of comfortable lifestyle to which Zundar truly wished to become accustomed to. But down here also offered an interesting array of folks to choose from, and Zundar made sure to note them all. He far preferred people from Binan High School itself, but one should never turn down a chance for a proper monster.

There was the one who was the youngest in their family and thought they could never do anything worthwhile without being shown up, deliberately or not, by their elder siblings. Then the one who kept losing significant others to their own friends. What caught most of his attention, however, was the young man who did attend Binan High as a third year, and whose family owned a small hot springs that wasn't doing very well. Zundar wanted to keep a very strong eye on this one.

Other than those, the one that he wanted to know the most about was that young stranger. Zundar had followed them as far as the Kurotama but wouldn't go inside. Who knew what sort of traps might be hiding? There shouldn't have been any, but with the odd aura the newcomer put out, he couldn't ensure what might or might not happen. Best to stay outside and watch for the new one to come back out.

Eventually he did, smelling fresh from the bath and of the oddness Zundar had noticed before. Being a little closer now, Zundar could get a better whiff, and he breathed in to do so.

The sea and stone - a lot of stone. This isn't Earth stone, either. He didn't recognize it as being from any planet that he knew of, and he'd been to several of those. Carefully he scampered along, making sure to stick to where it was unlikely that he would be seen, and tracked the stranger until he was back in his hotel room. So far Zundar hadn't been able to figure out anything that he might be able to use to get his hooks into this one, but he had far more resources than he'd used just yet.

Once he memorized which hotel this young man stayed in, Zundar made his way back to Kinshiro. That wasn't difficult at all; a quick teleport was all that he needed. He arrived in Kinshiro's bedroom, to find the other putting away the last of his schoolbooks. That was quite pleasing for Zundar; he wanted to talk to him anyway.

"Zundar-sama!" Kinshiro visibly perked up the moment he saw the emerald-green hedgehog. "I'd wondered where you were." His lips thinned ever so lightly. "I haven't decided yet who will be our next target."

"Don't worry about. I have someone that I have my eye on." Zundar got himself settled, regarding his young protege. "He's a visitor to the town, but there is a definite sense of something that could be useful about him."

Kinshiro raised one elegant silver eyebrow. "Oh? What sort of something?"

Zundar drummed his feet against the table. He did wish he'd been able to learn more. "I can't be certain exactly. He doesn't entirely smell human, but he's not from any world that I know about."

Kinshiro looked worried right away. "If he's not human, would we even be able to use him?"

That was a good question. Zundar considered it very carefully. "I have done this before," he said thoughtfully. "But I always knew what I was dealing with. I'd rather not jump into this without being sure. If this person is an alien, I want to know where he's from. I haven't yet heard what name he's using. I'll gain that information first."

Kinshiro nodded without argument. That was one of his better qualities, in Zundar's opinion. Of course, he probably shouldn't have, but it wasn't as if Zundar intended to tell him that any time soon. For now, he just started to describe the stranger, so that if Kinshiro saw him before Zundar could acquire his name, he would not be unaware.

To Be Continued

Notes: I decided since this fic fit the first day's prompt, I should update it. I had something else in mind for the first day, but that hasn't properly panned out yet. Maybe later in the week. But: Ryuu and Shark share a VA and fourth wall breaking is known to happen with the magical boys!

When I first saw the prompt of shared Vas, I did a little research, and found out that Kaito's Japanese VA also does Roxas and Ventus from Kingdom Hearts. I did so love the idea of Kaito gaining a Keyblade and the Keyhole for Heartland would absolutely be at the top of Heartland Tower. Maybe another time?