Ichigo-chan: Hi, and welcome to Ichigo-chan's newest story Fate or Something Like It. I'm your talented authoress!

Yami: And we're her hostages

Ichigo-chan: Don't think of it like that! You're the random characters I force to appear in my story!

Bakura: Right, we were wrong, that sounds SO much better.

Ichigo-chan: (smirks) Anyway, since Blue elf is being mean, she said she wouldn't update her story until at least four different people reviewed, and I don't count. Her story is really good, just don't read it at midnight…You might start hearing odd bumps in the night…So anyway, you have to read it, for me. If she updates, I might just feel like updating more!

Marik: So in other words your bribing them.

Ichigo-chan: Hush puppy. Masa-kun!

(Masa-kun holds up sign reading: Disclaimer: Will sing for cash.)

Ichigo-chan: Hold up, what kind of disclaimer is that?!

(Masa-kun simply smiles cutely and holds up sign reading: language warning, shonen ai in the near future. Ryou+Seto, also in near future. On with the story!)

Fate or Something Like It

Chapter 1: Monday the Thirteenth

Ryou was having one of those days. It was one of those days when you wished a black hole would suddenly open up and swallow you in it along with your miserable excuse for a life. One of those days when nothing, absolutely nothing could go right. Everything and absolutely everything you did was destined to fail. Yup, it was one of those such days…

            Ryou had a job interview in two hours. Unfortunately, his alarm had decided to stop working just for today, so instead of getting the nice early start he'd intended to get, he got a really late start. Cursing all God's he could think of off of the top of his head, he hurried into the shower to get another of life's little shocks. The hot water heater was on the fritz again leaving nice freezing cold water. Needless to say he didn't stay very long in there.

            It already seemed like it was on of those days. He pulled the door open on his closet, surprised when the knob still remained in his hand, but the door remained closed. Suddenly it occurred to him what had happened and he kicked the door in frustration only to stub his toe. He hopped around for a few minutes in intense pain.

            By now he had reached a point past frustration. This was the fifth time the stupid knob had come off the door. The last time he'd fixed it, it had seemed like it was staying, but then it just had to fall off at the most inopportune moment. As he opened the closet door, Ryou found himself chanting "I hate my life. I hate my life."

            And sometimes, he truly did hate his life. He was twenty-five, stuck in a seriously dead-end job. His apartment was pure crap; you could really hear the roaches scurrying around at night in an up close and personal way. And he wasn't even going to think about his love life.

But hopefully, this job would change everything. This job would give him the opportunity he'd always wanted, and then he'd finally move out of this rundown place into one of those big expensive places with pest control. He'd finally have a place where he could make use of his skills instead of spending all day lifting boxes. He knew it wasn't very smart to appear too desperate for a job, but he REALLY needed this job.

He hurried into his kitchen turning on the extremely dim lighting and pausing a second to let the roaches go back into their hiding places before hurrying in to put a couple slices of bread into the toaster. At the rate his day was going, he might end up in the desert or it wouldn't do him any good to go without food.

After putting the bread in, he then hurried back into his room, and got dressed. He checked his bag to make sure he had everything in place. After confirming this, he ran into the kitchen, grabbing his toast and making sure to turn the light off on his way out, he ran out of the house.

Kaiba Seto was late. Late late late late late. He'd been delayed at home by a slight problem with his computer, and now, he was about to be late to the interview he was supposed to be giving. Life really sucked at times. He maneuvered the car around another turn going at top speed, holding tight to the cup in his hand.

Holding the wheel with one hand, he proceeded to eat his breakfast with his other simply because, he was that damn good. He refused to be late. Late was bad, it was evil. Late was for disorganized lazy people who had nothing better to do with their time than type silly stories about people that they saw in cartoons. (Sweatdrop) He had glanced at the interviewee's resume, and he definitely could prove to be an asset to Kaiba Corp.

Ryou was also rushing as he sped his way to the building where his interview was being held. Suddenly, the car beside him cut him off, and Ryou unable to slow the car down in time hit the car in front of him. (Don't try and make sense of that last statement, just go with the flow.)

Oh great, his day had just gone from bad to worst. The person in front of him pulled over, and Ryou pulled over too, finding himself fighting tears. This day could NOT get any worse. The driver slammed out of his car angrily, and Ryou also got out of his car though more sedately. His life was already hell; there was no reason to rush.

Kaiba was pissed; no he was more than pissed. He had surpassed pissed five seconds ago. He stomped over to the rather girly looking guy…at least…he thought it was a guy, ready to give him…her…a piece of his mind, and not the good part either.

"Your insurance company's number." He stated simply.

"Excuse me?" The other driver replied confused. Kaiba noted that the voice was too deep to be a woman's.

            Kaiba sighed. "The number for your insurance company. You hit my car." Kaiba repeated slowly

            "I hit…your car?" Ryou asked his voice sounding like it was teetering between disbelief and intense anger that was highly un-Ryou-like.

            "Are you blind as well as deaf?" Kaiba asked sarcastically. "I don't have a lot of time, to hurry up."

            Ryou looked up, an unholy gleam in his brown eyes. "Well, if some…ASSHOLE hadn't cut me off, maybe I wouldn't have hit you." Oh this was rich. This…bastard was accusing him of running into his car. "You know, there's a lovely invention called the turn signal. Why don't you try using it!"

            Kaiba was taken aback. He hadn't expected the boy to put up a fight. "That's why they make a little thing called a speed limit." He stated reasonably.

            Ryou was beyond reason. "Why? So idiots like you can cut people off? I ought to sue you for damage done to MY car!"

            Kaiba gave the aforementioned hunk of metal a disdainful look. "There're so many dents all over it already, how can you tell one from the other?"

            First, he'd cut him off. Now, he was insulting his car. He was going to PAY. Suddenly, Ryou remembered his interview and glanced down at his watch. Shit, it was already fifteen minutes until his interview.

            He looked up to glare squarely into a pair of striking blue eyes. "I guess we'll settle this in court." He stomped back to his car. Both men were too angry to realize they had totally forgotten to exchange insurance information or names.

            Ryou sat thinking furiously in his car. How dare that driver accuse him of hitting his car! That idiot had cut him off and he hadn't even bothered to apologize. Butr he did have really pretty eyes.

            He cheered as he got to the building with five minutes to spare and hurried up to the thirteenth floor. He paled a bit at the number, but then again, considering how his day was going now, it couldn't get any worse. He hurried in only to learn that the boss was also running behind schedule. He cheered some more, and took the time to straighten himself up a bit.

            A couple minutes later, the phone on the secretary's desk rang. After talking on it for a few minutes, she looked up at Ryou and smiled. "He's ready for you now Bakura-san."

            Ryou nodded and took a steadying breath before he got up. He would succeed in getting this job, his life depended on it. He opened the door and walked in only to come face to face with the same blue eyes from earlier that morning.

Ichigo-chan: And that's it for now!

Yami: You realize you described yourself perfectly.

Ichigo-chan: Shut up!

Yami: But you forgot that part about the writing characters into their author's notes so they could verbally abuse them.

Ichigo-chan: Whatever. Don't forget to read Blue Elf's story Masa-kun!
(Masa-kun holds up sign reading: Review or Ichigo-chan will write more, the HORROR!!! Ciao!)

Ichigo-chan: Not funny