Painted Sky
^.^ This chapter was giving me a bit of trouble, so I combined it with the next chapter. It takes place on Monday, picking up directly after the last chapter. ^-~
Also, I don't know why I'm recommending so many fics right now, but I command you to go read Neko-baka-chan-chan's "150 Miles". *tries to look imposing, fails* Pretty please?
Many thanks to rayemars-san for her lurvely beta-reading, as well as Ishizu Sango Halliwell (^____^ Hey, reviews are nice in general… *huggle*), MarmaladeGirl (I never did mention how many years after Battle City this was… mainly for the reason that I wasn't sure. But it is several years after college… so maybe six or seven years after Battle City would be a good guess… ^_^), Anime Girl Sasami (*tackle… glomp… maullllllll* Did I ever, ever, ever tell you how much I like your reviews? No? No? Well, I will do that now. I never knew so much good could come out of AP English! *runs away from James Joyce… ahhhhh* :) Thanks for all your nice reviews… they really brighten my day. ^.^), Ninetails-chan (Honda: I do put up with a lot! I should get a Nobel prize or something! Ryuuji: *throws lots of dice*), Bronze Eagle (*huggle* Daijoubu, daijoubu! And yes, he's still together with his girlfriend… who is an original character. *blush* Yesh, yesh… an OC. The terrible plague! *gets mauled by Mary-Sues* AHHHHH~!), and Alana Hikari-Chan (Ryuuji: *wailing* It's not funny!! I'm always uke! PM: *bangs head against desk*). ^_^ Arigatou, minnaaaa~!
~ Wamekitateru to Wameku (Rant and Rave) ~
There comes a time in everyone's life, or so it seems, that everything seems to go wrong at the same exact time. It's almost as if every fate ever in existence randomly decided to form a coalition in order to make one (or in this particular case, two) person's life an absolutely misery, and they usually manage to do a pretty good job. Sometimes though, it happens a lot more often than one wished or deserved… well, even if it happens only once, it's usually already once too many for the poor victim who has to suffer the many consequences….
~ * ~
I can't believe this is happening, the two of them thought to themselves at the same exact time. Which was a bit odd, really, since both of them should have fully been expecting this situation to happen sooner or later. Even if it had not come during the seminar, the two of them would have met eventually. Still, that did not make the current circumstances any easier, and now they could only stare at each other with a vague expression of shock on their faces.
"You…."
In a way, neither could be sure who was the one who had even uttered the word, but either way it caused both of them to suddenly snap back to reality. Immediately, Ryuuji's emerald-green eyes darkened and the raven-haired man looked about ready to spit fire, while Seto's crystal-blue eyes just darkened as his demeanor became icy cold.
Not to imply that it wasn't always that way.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Ryuuji snarled, his hands clenching into fists as he resisted the urge to just jump on the brunette and pummel him senseless. Probably the only thing that prevented him from doing that was the knowledge that first of all, it wouldn't look very good for him to try and beat up a billionaire who could make his life a living hell in the middle of a group of billionaires who could also make his life a living hell. And secondly, Seto was much more capable of beating him up than him beating up Seto, which basically meant that he would probably fail and just get quite a few bruises for his troubles.
"What the hell do you mean what I'm doing here?" Seto replied frigidly, looking ready to turn away. "I paid the same amount of money as you did, and perhaps even more since you're the one with the financial problems."
"What do you mean by that?!"
Seto raised an eyebrow as he elaborated on the previous comment, "If I had known you were so poor so that you weren't even capable of affording a taxi to take you home, then I would have had somebody drive you home in the first place. Which, I am sure, you are ever so grateful for."
"For god's sake, Kaiba, I forgot my wallet! Honda's the one who drove me here in the first place, so it's not like I actually needed a taxi!"
"Hm."
Ryuuji resisted the urge to scream and attempt to pull out Seto's tongue with a pair of hot tongs. He hated, absolutely hated Seto's little one-worded answers… although 'word' wasn't even the right way to describe the grunts that the brunette made. It was almost as if despite the fact that Seto didn't really have any way to respond intelligently to what was being told to him, he could just make an arrogant little sound which seemed to imply that he was in full control of the situation. Which he was, in a way, but that just made Ryuuji hate it more.
"You didn't answer my question," he finally pointed out, still not quite willing to drop the topic that they were previously on before they had suddenly gone off on a random tangent about his financial assets. Which, by the way, were plenty, thank you very much.
"What question? The rhetorical one you made in order to point out the obvious?" Seto returned his question with another question, and Ryuuji again had the most sudden urge to slap him. Just for kicks, of course.
"That's not what I meant, and you know it!" Ryuuji snapped. "I know what you're doing here! But I'm asking what you're doing here, as in here!" He waved his arms in exasperation, as if that would help to convey his point. Although maybe if he put a little more effort into flapping his arms like that, he might be able to defy gravity and fly away from this whole mess before any more humiliating experiences could search him out for entertainment purposes only.
"Otogi-kun," Seto stared at him, never taking his eyes off of his shorter… companion didn't really seem to be the right word, perhaps annoyance would serve better, "Despite what you may think, not everyone can understand your personally created language of winks, hip shaking, and so on."
"Why you…" Ryuuji would have lunged at Seto if the brunette hadn't suddenly grabbed his wrists, as if he had fully anticipated what had been going through Ryuuji's mind. An angry scowl made its way onto his face, and the raven-haired man looked about ready to blow a fuse.
"Don't lose your temper so easily, Otogi-kun. You might end up hurting yourself that way," Seto smirked, although he didn't release his captive.
Ryuuji turned quite red at this, and he jerked away. Unfortunately, Seto still hadn't quite let go of him, so all he ended up doing was hurting his wrists.
The smirk on Seto's face grew larger, but this time Ryuuji also plastered a smile onto his own face as he looked directly into Seto's eyes, trying to keep his expression as innocent as possible.
"My god, Seto, if I had known you wanted to be so close to me, you should have told me rather than resorting to this crude behavior," he purred. It came of no complete shock when Seto immediately let go and practically jumped back, almost as if he was afraid that Ryuuji had some type of virus that would infect the brunette if he kept hold of him any longer. Although considering the way people were staring at them now, the thought wasn't that far from the truth. The last thing he needed, really, was for rumors to start circulating tying him together with the raven-haired idiot who was smiling triumphantly at him.
"Bakayarou," Seto hissed before turning away.
"Why thank you darling," Ryuuji snapped sarcastically as he watched Seto start to walk away. He didn't flinch when Seto stopped in his tracks, his shoulders visibly stiffening as the words completely sank in. "I'll have to remind you of that the next time you come on to me."
For once, Ryuuji truly had succeeded in making Seto's cold and seemingly uncaring demeanor break, but he couldn't help but wish that Seto hadn't broken in the way he did.
"I did not come on to you!" the brunette practically roared, the single sentence causing practically every single person in the room to stare at the two.
Normally, in a different situation that didn't involve some of the most powerful business leaders in Domino City, Ryuuji would have attempted to come up with a witty and amusing answer to mess around with Seto's mind. After all, it was a pretty rare opportunity… one that he truly wished could be conveniently moved to next week when it was less potentially embarrassing for both of them. This time, however, Ryuuji just kept his tongue in cheek, shooting Seto a cocky grin before walking away himself, as calmly as he could with the knowledge that Seto might come after him to pummel him senseless.
He was pretty sure that Seto wouldn't, but he didn't want to stick around in case Seto suddenly decided to prove him wrong in the most painful way possible. So, as casually as he possibly could so as not to appear extremely suspicious, he quickened his pace in order to get out of Seto's hitting range.
He could still feel the icy blue eyes burning holes into his back.
~ * ~
Twenty minutes later, Seto decided that if he could ever find a way to sue fate, he would.
The seminar had begun as most seminars usually did… a speaker came along, lectured them about how happy he was that everybody had paid a great deal of money to hear him talk about absolutely nothing in particular, and then shooed them off to figure things out on their own. Although, since he couldn't do just that and justify taking their money, he had the brilliant idea to pair up people so that they could figure things out and learn about somebody else at the same time. Supposedly, the idea was something about bonding and hopefully getting business advice, but one of the pairs weren't very happy.
Currently, Seto was glowering at the wall, his back straight and as stiff as a board. Sitting next to him, Ryuuji was facing the other direction, all his attentions currently focused on his fingernails. Not that he was wondering if he could grow out his nails before filing them into points in order to cut short the life of a certain conceited brunette sitting next to him. Why would you ever think of a thing like that?
Every once in a while, some friendly people would visit all the different groups in order to check up on their progress. Up to this point, every single one of those friendly people had been conspicuously staying as far away as they could from the CEO and game inventor, probably finding it in their best interest to keep a distance if they wished to keep all their body parts intact.
The seconds stretched into minutes, but still the two refused to look at each other. Seto continued to study the wall with extreme fascination, although one would have suspected that he had simply fallen asleep. It was a wonder that Seto could do as much as he usually did in a normal day, and it would have come of no surprise to anyone if the blue-eyed billionaire had conveniently learned to sleep with his eyes open.
After all, one did have to get something out of school.
Ryuuji growled as he tapped his foot on the ground, drumming his fingers on the desktop as he thought about how much money he had wasted in order to be stuck with an idiotic rival. Although… to be technically correct, Ryuuji and Seto weren't really rivals. They occupied completely separate spheres when it came to business, and besides, Ryuuji had always figured that Seto got enough competition simply from trying to defeat the spirit of the Sennen Puzzle.
Of course, Yami no Yuugi had been a bit busy lately in his relationship with Yami no Bakura, a romance that boggled the minds of every single person who knew the two spirits. When the pharaoh had started going missing every night for a month, Yuugi had been absolutely convinced that Yami was doing anything from crime fighting to working as a prostitute [1]. And it wasn't until Ryou had come home from a month-long study in Europe only to find the two spirits getting it on in his kitchen that the truth finally came out.
That, of course, had led to a huge screaming fit in which Ryou had suddenly managed to lock the door to his bedroom before Yami no Bakura could charge in there to steal the phone he was going to use to call Yuugi.
Even Anzu, who had been watching a movie with Yuugi, could hear the screams.
It had taken a while for Ryou to calm down long enough for Yuugi to figure out what had happened, and they had a brief distraction when Ryou had literally thrown himself out the window in order to avoid the wrath of two angry spirits when they finally managed to break down the door. But eventually, Yami and Yami no Bakura had been forced to come to grips with the fact that their hosts knew exactly what was going on with the two of them, and Yuugi-tachi had come to grips with the idea that the two people who seriously hated each other the most could somehow end up in the bedroom together without tearing out each other's throats (witnesses were a different story).
It was a strange situation that had resulted from the coupling, but perhaps it wasn't that strange. The two spirits didn't exactly know of anybody except the people in the group and other duelists… and in both their minds, all other duelists were prey to be beaten down. And although they had been able to gain their own bodies, the two of them were essentially the only ones of their kind, and perhaps the only ones that were truly capable of understanding each other.
And they weren't the only ones who had found relationships inside the close knit group. Yuugi had, of course, gotten together with Anzu, while Jyounouchi had been found out having an affair with Mai that had led to something much more intimate. Any romantic notions, however, that had been gained from the relationship did not extend far enough include being very open to the idea that his sister was in an equally intimate relationship as he was. And even that might have been a little kind, especially considering how Yuugi and Ryuuji practically had to chain him to the wall when Shizuka had given him the news.
Ryou, on the other hand, had found a nice guy who somehow managed not to be scared off by a psychotic spirit and a person's tendency to die multiple times [2]. Ryuuji personally suspected that Yami had a hand in keeping Yami no Bakura from sending a shadow monster after Ryou's boyfriend… for someone who ragged on Ryou so much, Yami no Bakura sure could be protective….
"Is something the matter here?"
Two sets of eyes blinked as they both turned to look at the speaker, at the same time carefully making sure they didn't look at each other.
"Yes, Kuroyama-san?" Seto asked icily, the honorific attached to the name sounding more than slightly strained. Ryuuji was also frowning, annoyed at being interrupted from his little disjointed thought process. Since, of course, his thoughts prior to the interruption had just been so fascinating.
"Is there a problem?" Kuroyama asked again, albeit a bit more impatiently this time. Not that he really had any reason to be impatient or annoyed, really, since either way he was still going to get paid the same amount of money regardless of if people chose to participate in the activities or not. But he supposed that since he was being paid, he might as well carry out his duty and try to attempt to feign interest in the well-being of the participants.
"Of course not," Ryuuji muttered, every word from his lips dripping with sarcasm. This prompted the speaker to give him a very odd look, and Ryuuji could have sworn that he backed away a couple of steps. Not that he actually cared… his personal space was not something to be invaded, and Kuroyama had been getting a bit too close for comfort.
"You don't need to take out your anger on unsuspecting innocents just because you're feeling so insecure about yourself, Otogi."
"I am not feeling insecure, you stupid bas…."
Kuroyama would have sweatdropped but that wouldn't have been very professional, so he settled on giving both of them a long, stern gaze.
"Now, let's try to keep a civil tone when we're…."
"Civil? Him?!" Ryuuji's voice had reached that high pitch which always made Seto cringe. "Do you even know what that means anymore, Kaiba?!"
"Enough not to go around flaunting my good looks, unlike a certain other unnamed person."
"Well you can just take that civility and shove it up your…."
"Language, Otogi."
"Gentlemen!" (To be completely truthful, the speaker wasn't completely sure if that's what he should call them, especially when one considered their current behavior. It was hard to believe that the two arguing with each other could be adults, rather than just two extremely immature and belligerent teenagers.
"Look who's talking."
"It never occurred to me that you could long beyond your nose."
"What a coincidence; I always did feel the same way about you, Kaiba."
"Since when did you turn into a walking cliché machine?"
"Well, considering how you seem to be under the misconception that every single original saying can be attributed back to you, it's no wonder that everything seems to sound secondhand."
"Excuse me!" Kuroyama was practically screaming by this point, but his effort did no good. Neither of the people he was yelling out were bothering to listen to him; in fact, it practically seemed that neither of them even knew that he was there trying to speak to them in the first place.
"Don't you have somebody to go flirt with?"
"Don't you have somebody to go dump?"
"Slut."
"You're not exactly a model of virtue yourself. After all, it's not like I dragged you to your own mansion while you were kicking and screaming."
"I'm sure you took care of the screaming part."
"What?!"
"That's the rumor that's going around at least."
"Listen…." Kuroyama tried again, but once again his feeble attempts to get a word in edgewise were completely drowned out by Ryuuji's shriek.
"What the hell are you talking about?!"
"I think you know perfectly well what I'm talking about. I mean, they do say that every rumor has a grain of truth in it… although this might be much more than just…."
"All right!" Kuroyama finally roared, causing both of them to jump as they glanced over at him with just a hint of shock in their eyes. "I've had enough of you two and your argument. This is supposed to be an orderly, intelligent matter, not a circus. If you have any problems, keep them outside instead of wasting both your time and ours. Now, either you two be civil to one another or both of you are free to leave."
There was a long silence as the two of them glared at him before they suddenly managed to catch each other's eyes. Immediately, their expressions darkened before Ryuuji got up and walked away without saying a single word.
Unsurprised that Ryuuji had been the first to leave, Seto sat there for a moment longer. And once he was sure that Ryuuji was gone, he too took his leave.
Sometimes, later on, he would wonder about why he had left after Ryuuji was already gone. Kuroyama had said that as long as he could be civil, he would be allowed to stay… and with Ryuuji gone, there was no doubt in his mind that he wouldn't manage to succeed in that.
Perhaps it was guilt… or something similar enough of that to strike something in Seto's conscience. Either way, it was something that he couldn't name at the moment, but he knew enough to be certain that it wouldn't let him stay there after what had just happened.
~ * ~
"Tadaima [3]," Ryuuji mumbled, barely audible, as he wandered back into the house. He wasn't sure why he bothered to announce his arrival… it was probably habit more than anything else. After all, it wasn't like Honda would be at home when he was supposed to be out working… not unless he randomly took sick or something.
"You're back earlier than I expected," was the smooth reply. Ryuuji blinked as the fact that there was a person there started to sink into his brain… and from the sound of the voice, it wasn't just any normal person.
Especially since normal people did not break into people's homes. Well, most of them anyway. Anyhow, it was pretty doubtful that Malik Ishtal would want to be called normal, especially since most normal people didn't use to run a worldwide crime organization, spend most of their life trying to kill a technically already dead pharaoh, and have a psychotic split personality try to cover the entire world in darkness.
Even in a group as odd as Yuugi-tachi, Malik still managed to stand out quite nicely.
"Malik?" Ryuuji's voice carried quite a bit more than a little disbelief as he stared at the slightly taller Egyptian. "Malik, what on earth are you doing here?"
"Aren't I allowed to stop by and say hello to my boyfriend?" Malik replied from where he was sitting at the kitchen, drinking from a glass of water. "You do realize that there is not a shred of edible food in your refrigerator? Either it's meat, expired, rotting, or all three at the same time. [4]"
"Blame Honda; it's his turn to the grocery shopping no matter what he says. And it's ex-boyfriend, or did you already forget?" Ryuuji shot back as he continued to stand in the doorway, glaring at Malik as if he was some type of parasite. "After all, you are the one that broke it off."
"I was?" Malik honestly looked bewildered before it suddenly clicked in, causing him to nod readily. "Oh… yeah. I was, wasn't I?"
Ryuuji rolled his eyes as he sat down, "With a memory and attention span like that, I doubt we would have lasted much longer anyway."
"Shame. I really did like you too."
"Did you? I heard that you told Yami no Bakura the same thing…."
"I never said you were the only one," Malik replied agreeably before the two of them fell into a somewhat awkward silence as they both searched for something to say.
It really hadn't been that bad of a parting; it had never been that good of a relationship anyway. The two had gotten together shortly after college had started. Malik had been back in Domino on a transfer program, and the two had somehow ended up being stuck together as roommates. And then… well, things had happened. Ryuuji wasn't sure how it had happened, but plenty of things had happened as a result of it.
In a way, both of them had known that it wouldn't have lasted; it was fun, but not really real. Malik was there only for a year, and then he would be returning to Egypt. Ryuuji had absolutely no intention of leaving Japan, and Malik had absolutely no intention of staying. So, about a month before he had left, Malik broke the news to Ryuuji and that was basically that. It had been a little uneasy for a couple of weeks, but by the time Malik left there were no hard feelings left.
Still, despite that, there wasn't really any justification for Malik to suddenly just pop up in his apartment drinking a glass of water as if that was the most normal thing in the universe.
A silence followed Ryuuji's rebuff before Malik decided to volunteer some information, "I… ah… this is a stopover flight. I'm on my way to… err… somewhere."
"Somewhere?" Ryuuji echoed, raising an eyebrow as he finally allowed a small smile to slip onto his face. "That's just a tad bit vague, don't you think?"
"So?" Malik replied as innocently as he could with a huge grin on his face.
"Starting up your GHOUL operations again, are you?"
"Would I do a thing like that?" Malik smirked as he continued to watch Ryuuji carefully. "I'm clean now, Ryuuji. I would never do anything illegal…."
"Did you pick the locks again?"
"I didn't have time to get a key from Honda, and I didn't want to bother you," Malik replied defensively. "Besides, he gave me his permission, as long as I didn't break the windows. Although if I had, I would have paid for them anyway."
"You… you talked to Honda?" Ryuuji couldn't help but suddenly feel very nervous; he knew Honda well enough to know that the brunette had a hard time keeping his mouth shut about the most important things. And judging from the tone of Malik's voice when he had spoken about Honda, it was more than likely that certain recent events had been the subject of the before-mentioned chat.
"Yes… we had quite a conversation," Malik was really starting to grin as he could practically see the sweat starting to run down Ryuuji's face. "He told me a few things… and I just had to come over here to find out if any of it was…."
Malik's hand quickly shot out to grab the die that was being thrown at his face and without skipping a beat, finished his sentence, "… true."
Ryuuji glared as Malik laughed and deftly threw the die from one hand to the other, "Honestly Ryuuji… we were only together for about ten months but that was more than enough time for me to learn how to catch everything that you throw at me. No matter what that is."
"It never stopped me from trying though," Ryuuji replied sweetly before throwing another die. Since Malik was still a little too busy playing with the die that had previously been thrown at him, he was only able to deflect the die with the back of his hand to keep it from hitting his face and making an ugly mark.
"Well, at least it wasn't dishes," Malik grinned, ignoring the fact that Ryuuji was now shooting him a very murderous look. "Does Kaiba-kun also tell you that you're cute when you're this angry?"
"Urusai! [5]" Ryuuji shrieked as he quickly made a mental note to kill Honda when he came home… perhaps feed him some of that moldy crap in the fridge. He also made a vow not to suddenly jump up and try to stuff the rotting meat down Malik's throat, continuously telling himself that it was simply in Malik's personality to be as annoying and horrible as he possibly could be. Still, even with that mantra running through his head, it took him a great deal of self-restraint not to do the things that he so wanted to do at the moment.
"I always did think that the two of you would make an adorable couple."
"You must have been drunk when you thought of that one."
"Drunk! Exactly," Malik was really grinning now. "I also told you that you shouldn't drink, Ryuuji… you never did have the stamina for it. Remember that Valentine's Day where one of your fans gave you a box of chocolates, and it turned out that they had…."
"Shut up Malik!"
"… and you didn't know at the time that you had such low tolerance for alcohol. You know, I've never seen anyone go so crazy from just a box of chocolates… you were practically draping yourself on me and wouldn't let off until you finally fell asleep from exhaustion. Is that what happened this time? I'm surprised you would be stupid enough to go and start drinking after the last fiasco…."
Ryuuji shot him the dirtiest look possible, "Malik, some people manage to block out memories like this until certain other people bring them back up."
"And you're one of them?"
Silence.
"That's what I thought," Malik replied simply before pausing to examine Ryuuji closely, as if he was no longer the person he had known before he had returned to Egypt. But in a way, he was right… this was, after all, the first time they had seen each other in several years, and both of tem had changed and matured (well, sort of) as humans are wont to do.
"So what are you doing here?" Ryuuji finally asked after a long pause, choosing to return to a more comfortable subject rather than an embarrassing one.
Comfortable for him, at least.
Malik shrugged; apparently, the topic was perfectly comfortable for him too, causing Ryuuji to scowl ever so slightly. Like Seto, Malik had this annoying tendency to stay one step ahead of everyone, causing Ryuuji quite a bit of grief in order to catch up, let alone get past him. "Rishid, neesan, and I are doing a little trip around the world… we're just going to go see the sights and stuff. It seemed like a good idea, so we stopped by to say hello…."
"How'd you afford that?"
"Well, remember when I told you that I returned everything I stole when I was running GHOUL?" the Egyptian was grinning slightly, and Ryuuji rolled his eyes.
"Yes…."
"I lied."
Ryuuji tried not to grin, instead choosing to give his ex-boyfriend a stern look. Ryuuji was quite good at giving stern looks, although nobody could top Ryou's disapproving expression… maybe it had something to do with the fact that Ryou was usually so friendly and open that a critical look from the 'innocent angel' (that's what Ryou's boyfriend called him, at least) was really quite scary. "That's not very nice."
"So?"
Ryuuji certainly didn't have an answer that, especially considering the many things he had done too. "So is that it? That's why you're here? You're not asking for money or hungry and desperate for food or begging me to take you back or anything similar to that?"
"Basically."
"I see."
"Anything else?"
"Not right now."
"Good. Then it's my turn to start asking you some things," Malik rested his chin on his hands, propped up on his elbows, "Why, Ryuuji?"
"Why what? I'm not psychic, Malik, although I wouldn't mind if I had that skill," Ryuuji snapped peevishly.
"Why haven't you found somebody else by now… I figured that you of all people would have been able to find someone new by this point," Malik elaborated.
"Why do all of you people think that I'm some type of…"
Before he could finish that indignant remark, Malik carefully pressed a finger on the emerald-eyed man's lips, causing him to growl softly, "Now, I never said anything like that. It's a perfectly legitimate question, especially when one considers how very attractive you are…."
"Now I know you want something…."
"If I didn't know you better, I would think that you were trying to dodge the question."
"Since you do know me better, you're not just thinking it are you?"
"Exactly."
~ * ~
Takashi Yuriko was a rather short woman with light brown hair and blue eyes dark enough to look black. She had gone to Tokyo University, same as Seto, and the two of them had one or two classes together every year. It wasn't something very surprising, as they were both going for the same major, but after graduation the two had not seen each other until she had called him up, asking for advice about where to get an apartment. He had given her the address, and she had given him her phone number, and after that the two of them had started meeting up with each other more often. Things had started to get official about a year ago, when the two had actually bothered to call each other rather than just accidentally meeting up with each other at the library or movies or other small things like that.
It was a comfortable relationship that Seto was able to fit into easily, perhaps one of the most appealing things about the entire situation. Neither asked for much, and they rarely argued about anything.
The car ride to the restaurant was one of those times when the two of them didn't really have anything to say to the other. Seto focused on the road and Yuriko focused on the scenery until she finally asked, somewhat hesitantly, "Is there something wrong?"
"Why would you say that?" was the emotionless reply, still staring straight ahead into the road.
"Do you really need an answer to that?" Yuriko asked without bothering to look over at him. "Did something go wrong during the seminar today?"
"Saw somebody rather unpleasant there."
"Oh? Who?"
"It's nothing, Yuriko."
"It was enough to make you this angry," she pointed out, finally turning to look at him. She twisted a lock of hair on her finger, a habit she had when she was somewhat nervous.
"Who said I was angry?" was the cold reply.
She scowled, although he couldn't see it since he was too busy watching the road. She didn't much like it when Seto became this moody, but she couldn't exactly think of any solution to miraculously change his personality without asking a potion maker to create a character changer, "You, more or less. It's pretty obvious."
"Since when did you get a psychiatric degree?"
"I've known you for over five years, Seto. That's long enough to start to understand a person, even without a psychiatric degree."
"Hm," Seto replied, using that little sound that he made when he didn't really have anything to say. He had noticed that most people never bothered to question him after he said 'hm'… half of the time he wasn't sure why that was but he didn't care as long as it got him out of having to say anything.
~ * ~
"Tadaima," Honda called out as he walked into the apartment. He was vaguely surprised to see that the building was still standing and that their home wasn't in shambles, but since Honda was an optimist and didn't like to question miracles, he just took it all in stride.
"Okaeri [6]," Ryuuji replied, although he sounded obviously unhappy. "Oy, Honda. Why didn't you tell me that Malik was going to be showing up?"
The brunette blinked, "I didn't know until after I dropped you off, and your cell phone was off."
The raven-haired man frowned before saying simply, "Oh."
He let out a sigh before he suddenly remembered what else might have passed between Honda and Malik, causing him to glare at his friend, "Why the hell did you tell Malik about what happened between me and Kaiba?! What on earth could have possessed you to tell him?!"
"It just kind of slipped out," Honda replied defensively as he looked Ryuuji in the eye. "Why? Is that the reason why he wanted to talk to you?"
"Jeez, what do you think?" Ryuuji looked mad enough to kill (or at least throw dishes…), basically letting Honda know that he had to tread lightly or risk extreme physical harm. "Unless this is the point where you tell me that you accidentally let it slip out to all the presses too?!"
Honda couldn't help but twitch ever so slightly, which immediately caused Ryuuji to interpret it wrong and start screeching, "Oh Kami-sama… you didn't!!"
"No! I didn't!" Honda held his hands up defensively, in case Ryuuji truly did decide to start throwing larger object that were more capable of damage. "Honestly, I wouldn't do something like that!"
Ryuuji snarled but didn't say anything, and after a moment Honda decided to venture a wild guess, "So… I guess he asked you about it."
"Noooooo. He called so that he could propose love and offer to marry me. What the hell do you think he was asking about?! After I had to listen to him jeer and tease me, then he started asking me about my personal life as if that's any of his business! I mean, what's the problem if I decide that I don't want any relationships right now, huh?! Is there some law saying that I can't be single or something?!"
"Well, most of us did figure that you would have found somebody else by now…" Honda frowned. "Didn't you?"
"No,"
"Well, sorry… I didn't mean anything by that."
"You have an explanation for everything, don't you?"
"Well… no," Honda admitted.
The easy confession couldn't help but make Ryuuji raise an eyebrow as he asked, "Oh? And what is that thing you don't have an explanation for, oh mighty one?"
"The dice."
"What?"
"Where do you get them, Otogi? I just don't get it… you're always throwing them at me but I never see you actually taking them out. And your clothes seem much too tight to have fistfuls of dice in them… well, maybe that blue vest [7] of yours but I checked and that thing doesn't have any pockets. So unless you're pulling them out of your…."
Before Honda could finish, Ryuuji had thrown two dice at his head and walked out of the kitchen to his room, slamming the door behind him as he went in.
Commentary:
[1] *squeaks and ducks rotten vegetables being thrown at her head* I'm sorry~! I'm sorry!
[2] Referring to how Ryou has already died twice in the series (does PM suspect he might be biting the dust again? Possiblyyyy.), once in Monster World and the second time after the Yami vs. Yami duel (although I guess that one depends on your point of view).
[3] I'm home!
[4] Apparently, Malik and Isis don't like foods with meat. No wonder Yami no Malik went all psycho…. XD
[5] Shut up!
[6] Welcome home.
[7] It's red in the anime but blue in the manga. I can't help but think that red makes him look sexier though…. ^.^
--;; I don't really think I'm very comfortable writing Malik, but that might just be me… it's pretty weird though. In all the stories I've written, I never deal with Malik very much. I don't really know why that is, but it's probably because I'm always booting him back to Egypt by the point most of my stories take place.
Is that an excuse? Well, a pathetic attempt at one….
Pikachumaniac