Painted Sky
*bounces in*
Chapter takes place on Thursday! Tis short! Have fun! Bye!
*bounces out*
Many thanks to rayemars-san and the readers! (Maybe I need to think of a new way of saying this….)
Bronze Eagle ~ Oh, MST was a show? I never could figure it out… *feels stupid*. Ryou.. yeah. Clueless. Yuugi might not be as clueless now, but YnYuugi is probably too busy getting his brains screwed out to notice. ^~
Vulpes, Demon of fuzzy ears ~ It's not a cliffy! It's… it's… a… thing!
Landy Shriannan Santrea ~ oO Don't dieee. *wails* I don't want you to die! *bursts into tears and clings*
MarmaladeGirl ~ *wails* But it's not really a cliffhanger… they just… kissed! Which I'm sure they did when they had sex…. *gets hit by one of Ryuuji's shoes and falls over* And to answer your question, there's… 15 chapters in this story? I'm pretty sure it's 15 at least… I'll check the outline later and tell you if it's different later. ^~
Alana Hikari-Chan ~ This version is better, huh… although I was going to have Seto carry Ryuuji around in the original, bridal-style even~! XD Nice try, eh?
Tuulikki ~ Aww… ramble on~! I like reading it! XD And I need to review your story… gah~! *bangs head against desk* I will do it! PROMISE!
kkkkkkkkkkk ~ Ugh, I know what you mean… I can't say that I'm extraordinarily fond of Anzu, but she's a pretty cool character. One of my favorite Noah arc episodes is the second part of her duel with Big 5… although maybe it's just because there's so much Yuugi/Anzu and the drawings were very pretty. Plus the background music was gorgeous… but I have a feeling that it got killed in the dub. ;-;
Rown and Sakura ~ *giggles* We'd miss you! That's why we need you! *glomps*
Mercedes no Inuarai ~ *yelps and quickly revives* You want more because it works! *nods hyperly and keeps on brainwashing* ^.^
Anime Girl Sasami ~ No, not as long, but still as good as ever. ^~ I'm glad your opinion on Anzu has changed! She can be pretty annoying at times, but I think she's more interesting than Honda personally. ^^;; She's not as great as Mai, of course, but I don't get to deal with Mai as much and Anzu is great in the manga (it's the anime that sometimes messes her up… and the dub… *grumbles*). As for the childishness of the entire thing… ugh, I had a reply all thought out before! One that actually made sense! *bangs head against desk* I'll think of it, I will… uh… *frowns* Damn, I really don't remember. *withers up and dies* IM me sometime and I'll try to puzzle it out then! XD But yes… it's about time their relationship gets moving! Although when I wrote the scene, I spent the entire time worrying that it was too fast! X.x And I guess I like this version better too… otherwise it would have been rewritten! *laughs* Anyhow, don't worry about taking your time… you were sick! You're not obligated to review (although it's great fun to read and devour…). ;p I feel honored that you do. ^-^
Ninetails-chan ~ Neh, you're a strange person. *ducks* XD I hope you got my e-mail and the crappy large attachment. *hisses* Anyhow… the boyfriend… he might show up but I doubt it, and if you're really interested… I'll have to go find him a name! Now you know how much I planned his existence, eh? Never fear… I'm sure I'll find him some name! As for the movie… no idea what it is. The reason is because since this story technically takes place in the future, I have no idea what kind of movie they'll be watching! Life of Legolas… teehee! If it has Orlando Bloom in it, I'll watch *that*. XD
~ Ginofu (Question Mark) ~
If Otogi Ryuuji's life was a movie – and very luckily it wasn't, or there would be more than one person traumatized [1] – this would have been the point when he slapped the bejeezers out of Kaiba Seto and made a run for it. Or, if it was going to be the better case scenario, he would have attached himself more securely to the billionaire and made a show of the kiss.
But since his life wasn't a movie, and movies rarely seemed to imitate reality, what ended up happening was that Ryuuji had, once he had gotten his mind to function properly, wrenched himself away from the brunette with an almost inaudible gasp. And after a moment of staring at each other, both with the exact same expression that seemed to be waiting for a small alien to pop out of the other's stomach… Ryuuji had turned and walked out.
If it had been a movie, he might have run. If it had been a movie, Seto might have tried to catch up with him.
Instead, Ryuuji walked outside of the theater, flagged down a cab, and paid the cab driver a great deal of money to get him out of the immediate vicinity at record speeds. So it was of no particular wonder that if Seto had cooperated with the part he was supposed to play, he would have found himself walking outside just when the cab was leaving.
At this point, it would rain, and the hero would be soaked.
As usual though, Seto just stood there watching Ryuuji walk away. He watched through the glass doors as the raven-haired man flagged down a cab and got in, and didn't even blink as the squeal of tires made itself known to everyone in a two-kilometer radius.
It wasn't until then that he finally started walking towards the exit with a sure, slow pace that seemed to say very clearly, "I am Kaiba Seto and I do not care."
Which was a lie, of course, but there wasn't anybody there to tell him otherwise.
For both of them, the drive back to their respective home had been silent and a time for introspection. Most of the introspection seemed to revolve around the immediate fact that he had been kissed by his respective enemy-slash-secret-crush… as long as one ignored the fact that neither thought of the other as being at all attractive or worth thinking of as a crush. No, no. They couldn't have that happening.
Upon getting back to the mansion, Seto had made his way to his office and simply started to work on the stack of folders and papers that had mysteriously grown in the past four hours. If one had looked at him at that moment, they never would have guessed what he had just done. And if one had been suicidal enough to ask him what he was thinking about and lucky enough to get a real reply, they still never would have guessed what he had just done.
Ryuuji, on the other hand, had not been as lucky as Seto in gaining the ability to brush off everything that had just happened and move on with life. To say that Ryuuji was… upset with what had just happened was somewhat comparable with calling Yami no Malik a psychopath. He wasn't just a psychopath, you see… he was the psychopath [2]. He took psychotic tendencies to the extreme, just as Ryuuji took the PMS-y ravings to a level that could only be compared to the time that Yami no Bakura had gotten extremely and unreasonably drunk and begun referring to Yami no Yuugi as 'his bitch'. Which was something he did all the time… just not in point blank range of Yami no Yuugi's hearing. Needless to say, a certain pharaoh was less than pleased with the pet name, and a certain thief found himself sleeping at a certain host's apartment for two weeks (much to the annoyance of said host) until a sufficient apology was made.
The person who was to take the brunt of this anger was, of course, Honda Hiroto. Not only was he the closest person and thus the easiest to lash out to… but he was also the person who was most likely to have initiated this mess. The others might have thought of doing something like that, but none of them would have actually done it. Honda was the only person who would have the bravery (or audacity, depending on your point of view) to do this, and both he and Ryuuji knew it.
Honda, despite having been screamed at, threatened, and nearly killed more than once by unidentified flying objects, couldn't help but be rather pleased by the newest development. Kissing was, after all, a very nice step forward to getting the two to admit their interest in each other, no matter how adamantly each denied the attraction…
… which was perhaps why he more or less went off the deep end when he found out Ryuuji was leaving just as things were starting to get interesting.
~ * ~
To say that Honda was surprised when he walked by Ryuuji's door (which was open, a first since that Sunday evening) was to be expressing a bit of an understatement. When Ryuuji got mad, he really got mad. In fact, the last time Ryuuji had become this angry, the two had not spoken for three weeks, despite the fact that they still ate together and occupied the same living space. But Ryuuji was as stubborn as they come, and just when it was looking like the brunette was in for a rough three weeks, he found himself standing outside of Ryuuji's room with his eyeballs nearly falling out of their sockets.
As if Ryuuji had noticed the fact that there was somebody gawking at him (it might have been the small choking sounds that gave Honda away, as Ryuuji certainly hadn't seen him unless he had miraculously grown eyes in the back of his head), he paused in his packing and put his hands on his hips, "Is something the matter, Honda?"
"What… what are you doing?!" Honda yelled with such high pitch that he might have been mistaken for Ryuuji if the game inventor hadn't been the one standing there with him. "Where… where… what…?"
"Yes?"
As he had spoken the short, rather spiteful question, Ryuuji finally turned around to glare at Honda. It was the first time Honda had seen him since the screaming bout when Ryuuji had gotten home from the movies, and the raven-haired man did not look like he was in very good shape. His usual meticulously kept hair was now let down, and his emerald green eyes looked tired, annoyed, and murderous all at the same time.
"Are… are you going somewhere?"
"What does it look like, hmm?"
"… but…."
"But what?" his voice was dry and completely emotionless. Honda knew instinctively that he was going to have to tread very lightly or risk having dice shoved down is throat.
"Isn't this a little sudden though?" Honda finally managed to squeak out.
"No."
"You're just… you're just going to run away now? Of all times?!"
Honda immediately winced as the words slipped out of his mouth before he could stop himself, and quickly braced himself for something being thrown at his face.
Several seconds passed with nothing happening, and finally Honda dared to crack open one of his eyes to peer at Ryuuji tentatively. The shorter man was standing there, not moving, head slightly tilted upwards as he stared in some type of abject fascination at something that simply wasn't there.
"Is there some reason why I need to be here?"
"Yes!"
"And that would be…?"
Honda's mouth opened and closed without anything ever coming out, and the silence stretched on as Ryuuji stared at him coolly. It was times like these that really made Honda wish that Ryuuji could just lose control again… the cold, silent glare was much more disturbing than an over-the-top hissy fit. No, this was really something that he did not want to deal with… something that he did not want to face.
Upon satisfying himself that the brunette wouldn't be saying anything for the present moment, Ryuuji returned to folding the shirt that he had been holding ever since Honda had come in and interrupted him. And although his face remained neutral, his thoughts were a completely different story. Honda's questions had been expected, of course, and he had convinced himself reasonably well that he was capable of answering them. Now though, he seemed to be having different thoughts.
When one of his employees working in California had called asking him if he was able to come over to help figure out some of the problems that the America-based portion of his company were having, he had immediately jumped for the opportunity. Both he and Honda knew that he got these types of calls frequently, and usually the problems were greatly exaggerated and not worth the effort.
But this time… well, this time the circumstances were a little different. Not for them, as he had a feeling that the problems were going to be petty again. Hell, he had a good memory when it came to these types of things, and he more than remembered what had happened the last time he had gotten that phone call and gone tearing off to America in a panic.
Only to discover that the problem was something a six year old could solve.
Ryuuji never could figure out why intelligence seemed to just stop once one reached a high level in a company. He just… couldn't.
So, even with the knowledge that if he did go, the only thing he would probably be doing was learning again exactly how inadequate his English was in a large fancy hotel where people would stare at him not because of the way he dressed and acted but because they were probably trying to figure out the best way to rip off the foreigner… he accepted. And now he was packing as his secretary arranged the plane tickets for a flight out the next day.
A part of him whined that if he really was that desperate to escape Domino right now, he should have gone some place that didn't require a fourteen hour plane trip to hell and back. He could… go to Tokyo or Hokkaido or something. Or if he wanted to get out of the country, perhaps China – mmm, Chinese food [3] – or even Australia.
But instead… America?
This had to be a sign that he was losing it. If not for the tiny, minuscule detail that he had lost his mind a long time ago and that it was too late to be losing something which had dropped out of sight already.
"So this is it, huh?"
He raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything, although he did have the courtesy to stop his packing to look at Honda with an almost skeptical look.
"You're… you're just leaving… and everything was going so great too… but… now… you're just running off to… where are you going again?"
"L.A."
"L.A. You're running off to Los Angeles without a warning, and… are you going to even…." Honda's voice drifted off as his mind finally kicked back in. He knew instinctively that what he was about to say… well, he really didn't want to say it. Not if he wanted to keep his internal organs intact, at least.
"Yep."
"Glad you're so cheery about it," Honda grumbled as he walked into the room and sank into the chair at the desk, giving Ryuuji a critical look. "But… you know, it is kind of sudden."
"So? The business in Japan is running smoothly, and it's not like there's anything urgent happening here that makes it necessary for me to stay right now."
Honda supposed he could have tried to be sappy at that moment and give some long soliloquy about how much Ryuuji was needed here… but then he realized that nobody's patience could last that long and he would be having something thrown at his face should he dare to make such remarks.
So he settled for something that was half grudging, half sympathetic, and completely, one hundred percent demented.
"Yeah… well, everyone's going to miss you, you know…."
"Honda…."
"I mean, even though you're really annoying and everything… but I guess we'll miss you eventually and-…"
"Honda…."
"You know, I can see you coming back from America two months from now and then you'll realize it was all a mistake and I'm just going to tell you 'I told you so'. You just watch…."
"Honda…." Ryuuji practically yelled, although there was a smile on his face as he resisted the urge to just start laughing at what the brunette was saying.
"But I can guarantee you right now that you're not going to be happy in America and that sooner or later, you'll be crawling right back here and everything's going to be different because it's not like I'm going to be able to keep this apartment if you're gone unless you plan on paying for rent from America which I doubt because you'll probably find some big house next to where that actor – what's his name? The one who became governor? Well, you'll probably end up living next to him and learning about politics and maybe you'll become the next governor and…."
"Honda."
"What?!" By this point, the brunette was starting to get a little red and his face darkened slightly when he saw the look of extreme amusement on Ryuuji's face.
"I'm only going for a week."
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
"Oh?"
Ryuuji quietly snickered as he threw a sketch pad and a couple of books on top of his stuff before shutting the suitcase and turning to face Honda with an extremely insincere smile on his face, "But if you really want me to, I'm sure I can buy you some souvenirs from America… maybe a 'Gover-nator' t-shirt, since you're obviously so fascinated with it [4]."
"Oh shut up."
~ * ~
He had just typed the same line twelve times.
Twelve times.
He frowned as he looked at the screen with an almost curious expression that never was meant for Kaiba Seto's face, and started typing the same line for the thirteenth time because he didn't know what else to do. What else to do that was legal, at least, since sending out assassins to murder a certain green-eyed pain in the ass didn't exactly constitute as being on the right side of the law.
Sighing as he pressed the erase button for the thirteenth time, he erased the line before writing it again. It just wasn't right, but every time he tried to vary it the sentence just ended up coming out even worse.
Somebody really did have to go out and kill that… that… idiot. Never mind that he was the one who had initiated the kiss in the first place… nobody cared about that! But – his icy blue eyes narrowed as he rested his chin on his hand – had Ryuuji even responded to the kiss?
The thought lingered before he suddenly shook his head, as if hoping to miraculously fling it out of his mind by way of a surreal reality. What on earth was a thought like that doing in his brain in the first place?! That wasn't something he wanted to be thinking about… that really wasn't something he wanted to be thinking about. He wanted to move on, to get a life, to be able to concentrate on his work without being distracted by somebody he didn't care for.
But… if he didn't care for him, why did he…?
It was an accident. Just like that night. It was all an accident. A terrible, demented accident that he wished had never happened, but now that it had he could only brush it off and say that it wasn't supposed to have happened. Which it wasn't, of course, so why was he bothering to dwell on it?
It was an accident.
It was an accident.
That morning… when he had woken up to find himself staring at Ryuuji's face… had he always been attracted to those long locks of raven hair and thin, overly done face? Had he always found himself lingering a little too long, or was it all something that had come out of an accident that never should have happened?
How could so much spawn from a single, seemingly insignificant event?
Just… how?
Scowling as he shook his head and tried to dispel that thought, he grudgingly realized that the latest development in the roller coaster relationship between him and Ryuuji (a wince – was relationship really the only one that could be used to describe the two? It seemed a bit too… well… intimate) was forcing him to confront something that he really did not want to.
It was starting to become more than one seemingly insignificant event – mainly due to the way he kept adding more insignificant events, which now built on top of each other to form something that was spinning out of his control. In fact, if he was to be completely truthful with himself, he would know by now that he had never had control… no, he had lost all semblance of that trait since the day he had opened his eyes and found himself looking at the thin, lithe face.
And it was such a pretty face too.
Oh. Okay. He did not just say that.
A frown made its way onto his face. No matter what he thought, no matter how much he tried to contradict himself… well, he had said those words. Or at least he had thought them, and wasn't that the same thing? What was it called again – a Freudian slip?
He snorted and brushed off the thought. Freud was an idiot [5] and that was that. It wasn't a slip or anything of the sort. It was just… an observation.
… an observation.
Who he was trying to kid?
Leaning back, posture slightly slumped as he glared at the computer screen, he couldn't help but wonder about how any of this could have happened. How so much could have come out of him getting… drunk. He knew that he had to be punished, but wasn't this a bit to the extreme?
But did he even want to call it punishment?
The little voice that whispered such thoughts was immediately tied up and stuck in a closet to await execution. No, no, there was no doubt in his mind. This was punishment. This was a hell recreated on earth. This was everything he had always tried to avoid in his life yet was now seemingly pursuing on his own accord.
A pause before he decided to blame that on the little voice in his head as well.
Everything… everything he had taken for granted seemed to be put into question now. His relationship with Yuriko, his relationship with people, his relationship with himself… why did all of these things change just because he was starting to get to know somebody else? It shouldn't have this much of an effect on him, should it? He shouldn't be changed to this extreme degree.
It was just… there was something about Ryuuji. Something about the other man that made him act differently yet the same. It was as if the two parts of him – the one that he retained in everyday life and the one that he kept hidden away to avoid public humiliation – would become intertwined when he was around the raven-haired man. Everything about the game inventor made him want to scream in frustration and laugh at the same time, and the two contradicting emotions were starting to mix into something completely undesirable.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
Ever.
That was not a question. That did not warrant further thought. That did not….
And yet all his convictions seemed to die away as soon as he thought about those emerald-green eyes staring at him. It didn't matter what was in those eyes; in the end, they always had the same devastating effect on his defenses.
Ryuuji… he doubted Ryuuji knew what was happening. Which just made it so much worse. Why should he feel these emotions when the person doing this to him didn't even seem to notice? Ryuuji seemed to be too busy worrying about himself than to worry about what he was doing to a certain blue-eyed billionaire, and…
… and none of this made sense.
Breathing out, he glared at the sentence which he had typed fourteen times, and he decided that it was time to figure out what the hell was going on. It was past time to end all the questions that were constantly threatening to destroy life as he knew it.
He had to make the question marks go away.
Nodding to himself almost absent-mindedly as his convictions settled in his mind, he straightened and began to type the same line for the fifteenth time that night.
Commentary:
[1] No arguing that Ryuuji is already in a movie because of his similarities to Jack Sparrow.
[2] I suppose you could argue that Yami no Bakura would give him a fair run for his money (which I totally agree with), but as PAS explained, Yami no Malik just has the look of a psychopath – especially with his little tongue tricks and tendency to grow all veiny. Besides, he wants to destroy the world. Yami no Bakura just wants to take it over and have a little bondage pharaoh pet (did I just say that out loud?). There is a difference (don't ask me how, just pretend you believe me).
[3] According to the character guide, Ryuuji's favorite food is Chinese. =(^.^)=
[4] Whaa? I'm not quite sure exactly how many years into the future this is, but I know that I'm gonna be scarred for life by the recall. And I remember reading in the newspaper that a lot of people around the world, including Japan, were interested in the recall because Arnold was in it. *sweatdrop* Circus… I swear, this is just not California's year.
[5] Yes. That's my belief. Freud's an idiot. What kind of six year old is going to want to kill his father to sleep with his mother? No, don't answer that. I don't want to know.
No (and especially you, Ninetails-chan!!). I do not have an inherent need to make Seto such an ass that all his boyfriends run away from him to America. And the reason why they run off to Los Angeles, California has nothing to do with the fact that I live there and will stalk them.
Oh hushy. *sticks tongue out*