I jogged out of the store. Three people called in- typical weekend nonsense- and I'd been stuck pulling a surprise double shift. Things had gotten as bad as they'd been right when everyone came back. I was having to fight tooth and nail for my days off, and even when I was there, they kept having me stay late or come in early. I was exhausted, and I missed Kek. The sky was bright, and sunny, and beautiful. It was a sky that made you smile and hum to yourself as you almost bounced rather than walked down the street, but I was short-tempered as I marched down the sidewalk with my hands crammed in the pockets of Bakura's red hoodie.
I stole it. He left it over during the last gaming night and it smelled like him so I'd been wearing it all week long. I didn't feel bad, either. Not one bit. He used to wear my body all the time. Fuck Bakura. My hoodie.
My phone beeped. I pulled it out, expecting Kek since I was just about to let him know I was on my way home, but it was Marik.
Heard you're still at work. Want us to move gaming to tomorrow night?
No, I didn't want to move the gaming night. The thought of RPG'ing until I passed out against the table was the only thing keeping me going through the hell shift I just survived.
Please don't cancel. I'm tired, but I look forward to playing each week!
I sent Kek a quick kissy face and omwh while I waited for Marik's reply.
Want us to at least bring some dinner over?
I started typing that they didn't have to, but Marik had already told me three times to stop treating him like a house guest. So, I deleted my first response and swapped it with;
It'd be great if you did. I'm exhausted!
Are you sure you want to play?
Now Marik was being the overly polite one.
Yes!
Alright, if you're sure.
Why would I turn down dinner and gaming?
I was distracted with my phone when I heard an engine roar and someone whistle. I looked up, frowning that someone would be so forward, but the my lips curved up as I saw Kek on his new motorcycle holding out my helmet that Marik had bought- the present he'd promised me as a thank you for the Halva. I swung behind Kek, fastening my helmet and resting my feet on the pegs. It only took two minutes for us to get home by bike and I waited until we were walking upstairs to thank Kek.
"That was sweet."
"Sweet nothing. I fucking missed you all day. It pisses me off when we can't walk home together."
"Yeah, I'm sorry." I set the helmet in the closet and then face planted into the couch.
Kek picked me up and sat down, letting me lay in his lap. "You don't have to apologize. It's your stupid job that I'm mad at."
"Me too," I agreed.
The doorbell rang, seven times, and I rolled my eyes and Kek went to go let Marik and Bakura in. I stretched out on the couch, too tired to move.
"Look what I found, Ryou. Stray scoundrels. Can I keep them?" Kek asked, and arm slung around each of their shoulders as he led them into the living room.
"I don't know. That one looks like he sheds." I smiled at Bakura.
"You're right, I do."
The kittens all ran into the living room. Not so much because they loved any of us, and more because they could smell my chicken tenders. Asshole was particularly fond of creating elaborate schemes to steal them and then drag them under the couch so he and the others could feast.
"I bought the kittens a four pack this time," Marik said.
"I don't think cats are suppose to eat chicken strips." I pushed myself to sitting, although I really could have stayed laying down until Monday when I had to go back to work again.
"I don't think anyone should eat them." Bakura shrugged. "They're nothing like the food I used to eat. But who cares? Can't be any less healthy than Shadow Magic."
"And it'll keep them from stealing our food." Marik dropped one of the chicken tenders onto the carpet.
Asshole snatched it and took it to The Shadow Realm. Which was the nickname we'd given to beneath the couch, where they hoarded all their toys and sometimes snacks. Once they were hidden, Marik plopped down on the couch while Bakura and Kek dropped to the floor in front of us. Marik and Bakura passed around bags until we all had our food and I tore into my fries, starving. They gave me two lunch breaks, but they'd both been early.
"Try to breathe while you eat," Bakura teased.
I flipped him off, and Bakura burst into laughter.
"Oh my goodness, Ryou! Where did you ever learn such a vulgar gesture?"
"Don't teach Bakura rude gestures, Ryou. You know how innocent and impressionable he is." Marik winked.
"I'm sorry. I'll try to show more consideration for Bakura's innocence from now on."
The banter carried on throughout dinner. When we saw Asshole trying to creep around the couch from the side for a sneak attack, Marik left another chicken strip offering. It was immediately accepted and sent to the Shadow Realm.
"Okay, you're fed. Hurry up to the table so we can game." Bakura tugged at my sleeve.
I mussed up his ashy-white hair, but it only made him headbutt my shoulder. Kek finally lifted me up and carried me bridal style to the kitchen table where he had everything set up. I was screaming with laughter by the time he set me down into the chair. Our eyes caught, and I felt my cheeks heat up as he knelt in front of me and brushed our lips together.
"I haven't been able to do that since we left the house this morning."
"It has been too long." I smiled at him, sneaking in a second kiss.
Bakura snorted and I stuck my tongue out at him. As if I was about to be sympathetic that I wasn't giving him any kisses. Okay, maybe I was a little sympathetic, but I wasn't going to encourage him. We'd spent weeks building up a good and proper friendship with Marik, and I was too tired for drama and completely, utterly, wholly, fully, and any other fancy adverb I could think of ly cried out. No more tears, we have conversations and play RPGs like men.
Or androgynous fairies, in Kek's case.
"Our adventure last ended with the tragic-"
"And gruesome," Kek interrupted.
"And gruesome death of your teammate. After the mermaids tore him limb from limb, stripping the flesh off of his bones and dyeing their tank red with his blood, the guards came and threw you both into prison after stripping you of all your gear- yes Bakura even your hidden knife in your boot."
"But what about my-"
"That one, too. And the other one, and the one on your inner thigh that you thought I didn't know about, but I saw you drawing a crude doodle of it on your character sheet."
"Well godsdammit."
"I'm going to search-"
"You don't see anything. It's stones, and hay, and a iron bar door in front of you."
"Well let me roll first." Marik frowned.
"Doesn't matter," I told him. "You won't see anything. There's nothing to see."
"I take a nap." Bakura leaned back in his chair with his hands behind his head. He propped his feet in Marik's lap.
"Why would you sleep? We need to escape." Marik slapped at Bakura's feet, but not enough to really knock them down.
"Nah, Ryou wants us to wait, and I can tell he's in a mood from working over time, so we better just wait."
"I am not in a mood," I snapped, and then realized that I was in a mood.
My cheeks burned, but I couldn't take back my tone. Everyone else thought it was funny though and chuckled. That made me feel better. I always worried around Yugi and the gang. They tended to look nervous when I got even the lightest off-tempered. But then again, I should know that my present company would be more resilient to clipped words.
"Anyway, someone runs by your cell. They're small, a little shorter than a halfling, and garbed in in a pink suite." Ryou set down a pixie with short, pale pink hair and wings that matched their suit and tie.
"I call out and ask her for help."
"You're just going to call out to a random stranger-"
"You're asleep so you can't lecture me," Marik interrupted.
"I don't have a key, if that's what you're asking for." Kek said to derailed the soon-to-be argument between Marik and Bakura.
"Oh, this is your new character?" Marik asked. "It doesn't look anything like you."
"Marik, you're supposed to be in character. Talk to the fairy, not Kek." I tapped the tile set where their figures stood to bring Marik's attention back to the game.
"Sorry, what's your name?"
"Rory."
"I know the guards have the keys, but if you could do anything. Maybe find our stuff? We have lock picks and-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll see what I can do." Kek pulled out his phone and texted me. Tell them I run off.
"Rory runs out of sight of your cell, leaving you both alone again."
"To get help?" Marik asked.
"I don't know yet. You'll have to wait and see," I answered honestly while getting another text from Kek.
I want to listen at the door at the end of the dungeon.
I rolled. You hear faint shuffling.
Fuck it, I'll go inside.
There's a guard. He pulls out his sword and shouts for you to freeze.
I want to seduce him and steal the keys.
"Already?" I shouted it louder than I had intended.
"Am I awake yet? Because I want to know what's going on." Bakura sat up in his chair.
"Just a moment. Rory isn't in your party, so their actions are hidden to you right now. I'll get back to your part of the game in a moment."
"Then my character is pacing and cursing under his breath." Marik scowled.
"Roll for persuasion, Kek."
He rolled a 20, and since we were playing Monster World (slightly modified) and not D&D, a 20 was good enough to convince the guard, but not the same as a supercritical roll.
Well, that's a success. How much should I describe of this?
Depends on how mad you want Marik to get for having to wait.
"Are you two sexting in the middle of a game?" Bakura narrowed his eyes.
"Well, it would be in character." Kek snickered.
"Why? What are you?" Marik snatched Kek's character sheet. "Bard? That wasn't on the list."
"Nice." Bakura started laughing, leaning back in his chair again. "Don't worry, Marik. We'll be free in a few minutes."
"Why?"
Bakura gestured for Marik to wait a moment. I took the time to continue with the game.
"Okay, now roll for endurance."
That time Kek rolled a 7, which was much better. I texted the response to him.
Suffice to say that by the time you're done with him he's asleep, dreaming of proposing, and missing his keys.
Great, I'm going to go back and dangle the keys in front of Marik.
"The pixie, Rory returns holding up the keys to your cell- just out of your reach."
"We can pay you, but not until you let us out and we find our stuff."
"I don't want money."
"I want to seduce the bard!" Bakura smacked his palms on the table.
"Bakura, no." I frowned.
"Bakura yes!"
"You don't even like women." Marik wrinkled his face.
"We're role playing. I could be bi." Bakura stuck out his tongue.
"Not even in a fantasy game would I believe that." Marik stuck his tongue out to mirror Bakura.
"Who said I'm female?" Kek smirked. "I'm a magical construct. A wizard made me out of magic to be his alchemy assistant."
"I get what you're implying, but then how did you seduce the guard to get the dungeon key?" Bakura asked.
"Who said I seduced him? I could have slit his throat."
Bakura gave Kek "a look" and Kek laughed. "Okay, I seduced him, but you're just going to have to use your imagination because I don't kiss and tell."
"Ryou-"
"Fine, Bakura, fine. Roll for persuasion."
"Okay." Bakura licked his lips, a very specific smile lit up his face.
"I swear to the gods, Bakura. Throw that die properly or I'll do something worse than death to you before we finish playing tonight."
"I think it'll be worth it."
"Then try me." I crossed my arms across my chest, watching his wrist to see if he cheated the roll or not.
"Fine. Fine. Fine. You're not fun, Ryou." Bakura rolled a 63. "Fucking dammit. This is crap!"
"Ha! You suck!" Kek stuck out his long tongue at Bakura.
"Rory thought you were joking, but it was at least a funny joke." I sighed, glad that things didn't get crazy on our very first playthrough.
"That's exactly what I thought." Kek laughed.
"Now that Bakura's done being a idiot as usual. I would like to use persuasion to reasonably talk Rory into giving us the key." Marik rolled a 17.
"You can have the key if you let me go with you once you escape," Kek answered on his own.
We didn't exactly have this scripted, but we did talk about how Rory was going to integrate into the party. Kek actually had an extensive back story to go with his new character. Reading it all week long was fun to read, and I have a feeling Kek was having too much fun writing it as well. He was already writing a side story separate from the campaign about Rory seducing both a stable boy and a merchant's oldest son while convincing them to abscond with the pixie to adventure.
"Fair enough. Now hurry up and let us out." Marik sighed when Rory's demands were easy enough to fulfill.
They found their stuff back in the warden's office. He was still sleeping. Bakua fumbled a sneak attempt, and I had to roll to see if the warden woke up, but he was gone to the world (I rolled an 84), so they didn't get caught. Being a bard, a healer, and a thief, there was a lot of sneaking around. They had a few battles, but those were won with sneak attacks and strategic use of spells more than with anyone's strength. And yes, of course, Kek managed to seduce the guards- both of them at once- and kept them distracted enough for Bakura and Marik to escape.
As funny as the gameplay became with Rory flirting with everyone while Bakura robbed them blind (and Marik healing them when they failed), my favorite part of the evening was at the end when they made it to the next village and found an inn. Rory was going to find a companion for the night, but Marik insisted Rory stay with them. It wasn't so much what Marik said, but how. Like he wanted to make sure Rory was safe for the night and therefore couldn't go off without them. I don't know why, but something in Marik's tone plucked at my heart strings during that scene.
At the end we were yawning into our hands.
"What time is it?" Marik asked as he looked at his phone. "Shit. It's 4am. No wonder I feel like a zombie."
"You can stay the night." Kek yawned. "The couch is yours."
I looked at Kek as he said it. I could see on his face that he said it intentionally. I slipped my hand under the table and held his, hoping Marik and Bakura were too tired to noticed the sad look we exchanged at that moment.
"Your call, Marik," Bakura said.
"Let's stay. I miss Ducati and Diabound snuggling by our feet."
"Yeah, great, they can snuggle someone else's feet for a night." Kek snorted.
"I'll go find sleep clothes you guys can borrow."
I went into the bedroom. The clothes would be a little too big for them, but since they were just sleeping in them I wasn't concerned. I had an outfit for each of them folded on the bed when Malik walked into the room.
"Seeing the clothes on the bed like this reminds me of a dream I once had."
"About laundry?"
"We were all packing to go on a trip together."
"That sounds like a nice dream." I handed Malik a set of Kek's clothes. "I can't remember the last time I went on a real- oh, nevermind."
I winced at myself. Of course I remember my last trip. It was Egypt. It was the Ceremonial Duel.
"Yeah." Marik sighed, understanding. "So why did you let Kek pick such an odd character?"
"Well, Kek hasn't been alive for very long." I sat on the bed, holding Bakura's clothes. Malik sat down beside me, watching me as I spoke. "He wanted to play with a few different concepts by acting them out with RP character, and I thought it was cool. I know bards aren't in Monster World, and I had to fudge some things for a pixie construct to be a playable race, but I remember the first day Kek came back. When he didn't even have a name, and he kept staring at his hands like he wasn't even sure what to do with them. I told him it was his chance to reroll a new character that day, and that's what he did. But some things he just settled into a default and now he's thinking more about them, so anything I can do to help him find out who he wants to be as Kek, I'll do."
Marik grabbed my hand. I'd say he was squeezing it, but he was crushing it and his eyes were glassy. My mouth dropped a little. I didn't think I had said anything that'd make Marik emotional.
"Please don't cry. Everyone's cried so much already."
"I'm not." Marik had to clear his throat when he spoke because his voice cracked. "I'm just really glad you were here for them when I wasn't."
"I'm glad they were here for me. I was very lonely when they came back." I smiled, and it was tired, yes, and still a little haunted with unrequited love, but it was a real smile all the same. "But now I'm very happy."
"Um…" Marik's fingers toyed with my knuckles for a moment, but he seemed to realize what he was doing and pulled away, fidgeting with the gold at his wrists instead. "I'm not sure if Bakura has talked to Kek yet or not, but he wanted them to go and watch the next fight?"
"Oh yeah, they usually do. I always went and gamed with Yugi and the others on those nights."
"Yeah, well, instead of that. I was thinking..." Marik shrugged. "Maybe I could come over here instead? I'm not… I don't want to see Atem. He's back. It's fine. I don't care." Marik shook his head, his expression stressed.
"You coming over would be great. I'll make all sorts of snacks for us to eat, and we can watch Willow." I grabbed his hand again, lacing our fingers together. I noticed that Marik liked physical comfort, so I held his hand with both of mine to reassure him. "And we won't tell Bakura until after you've already seen it."
"Oh, the movie he stole my love note from. I'd forgotten." Marik's smile returned. "That's the perfect plan, Ryou."
"Yeah, well, you know, I can conspire just like the rest of you." I giggled.