The Caged Rose
Disclaimer: Judging by the fact that the most money I have right now is about 5¢, I'd say YGO ain't mine.
Pairings: Malik/Ryou, some others on the side.
Warnings/Other: Yaoi, Yuri, angst, school-fic, completely ignores story line... Some OOC.
Summary: Ryou is a depressed yet caring loner who just wants some love. Malik is a popular, 'egotistical' honours student. Malik has a secret crush on Ryou, whose trust is literally impossible to gain. The rest is up to fate when they bump into eachother in the halls. YAOI, YURI.
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"Well, first off, my name is Malik Ishtar and my favourite band is Linkin Park..." Malik trailed off, thinking about what to tell Ryou and what to keep a secret. He decided it would be safest to stick with the basic information, and save the rest until later. "I have an older sister, her name is Ishizu. We never talk anymore, though. She moved back to Egypt a few years ago. My older brother Marik goes to this school, but he's never home."
Ryou barely nodded to show that he was, in fact, listening. "Why isn't he home?" He asked before he became aware of it. Once he realized what he just did, he mentally berated himself and put his defensive walls up again. The silver-haired youth couldn't quite place it, but something about this friendly boy intimidated him.
The blonde hesitantly shrugged, "I dunno. I guess he's always out with his friends or something. No time for his little brother." When he was answered with silence, Malik shrugged again. "Oh well. Can't do much about, can I?"
"I suppose." Ryou muttered. Despite himself, he couldn't help but pose a question. "You're from Egypt?"
Malik nodded, "Yeah. I grew up in Cairo until my father died. Then I moved here with Mom and Marik, and the rest is history I guess."
"Oh." Acknowledged Ryou, closing his binder and setting it down on the tiled floor. He was starting to get somewhat nervous. He had never carried on a conversation such as this one before; it made him feel uneasy, as if he had to stop talking otherwise he would mess things up one way or another.
"What about you? Where're you from?"
"England."
"Really? What part?"
"Liverpool. Moved there from London when I was seven." Ryou's shoulders shifted as he looked to Malik for some sort of response.
Malik's heart swelled as Ryou made eye contact with him, and a blush creeped on to his face. He coughed, looking down. "I've never been to England. I've wanted to try and go with Marik during the summer, but it never really happened, you know?"
"Yeah." Ryou replied shortly, glancing at the clock proudly proclaiming the time as it hung on the wall above the chalkboard. 'Half an hour before class ends. Great.' He thought with a mental sigh. When he looked at Malik to see if he was going to continue speaking, he found Malik looking at him the same way. Resting his chin on the palm of his right hand, he decided he might as well tell the blonde Egyptian a little about himself. After all, he had a unique ability to tell people a lot about himself, yet still hold an air of inpenetrable mystery.
"I'm sure you know already, but my name is Ryou Bakura. I don't really have a favourite band. I like whatever's fitting my mood at the moment. I had a sister and a mother." A flash of sorrow crossed Ryou's dull brown eyes as he continued to speak in as much of a monotone as he could manage. "They were killed in a car crash. I was just old enough to remember them by name, but that's about it other than photos Dad still has lying around."
.
Without a concious thought, Malik frowned and reached out to touch Ryou's shoulder. The moment his fingertips touched the black fabric of his beloved's shirt, Ryou kicked his seat back, distancing himself from Malik. The movement caught the attention of the whole class, who, upon noticing that it was Ryou who had caused the commotion, turned back around in their seats and ignored it. He was already thought of as a freak in their minds.
.
Malik quickly withdrew his hand and bowed his head in apology. His cheeks were burning in shame as he risked a glance at Ryou. "I... I'm sorry."
"You sure seem to be saying that an awful lot." Ryou said tonelessly.
The Egyptian remained silent. Ryou was right, he was apologizing a lot more than he usually did. In fact, he seldom apologized to anyone. Figuring he had already missed any and all chances of having his love ever be returned, he sighed. "I guess I just wanted to be your friend, Ryou."
Ryou scoffed, "Oh yeah? Why's that? So you can turn on me like everyone else?"
"N-No..." Malik said, looking up. "But can we talk about this after class? Please?"
"Fine. But don't take too long, alright? I've got lots of homework tonight and I don't plan on wasting my time talking to someone I don't even know." The British youth said forcefully, but deep inside, he began yelling at himself again. He was acting just like people did to him. But in truth, he didn't know how else to act, other than defensively.
It wasn't like he was a mean person. That definetly wasn't the case. But Ryou hadn't always been required to wear a mask of coldness and put up so many walls around himself. There was once a time when he trusted people he just met, when he hadn't been so negative about everything. But then his trust had been broken, and those who he thought were his friends ended up figuratively stabbing him in the back every day. After that, he had been so afraid of being hurt again, that he simply started pushing certian people away. Over time, it grew to the point where he stopped trying to make friends, stopped trying to trust people. Friendship never got him anything except pain.
What scared Ryou even more about Malik, was that he found the dark-skinned blonde to be very attractive and capable of possibly being trusted. However, the moment the thought entered his mind, Ryou cast all hopes into the shadows. Trusting people wasn't good for him. It only ended in heartbreak, and he didn't want anymore of that.
.
It seemed to take forever, but eventually class came to an end and Ryou had to remind himself that he had agreed to talk to Malik after class. As he packed his books away and slid his backpack onto his shoulders, he kept reminding himself not to befriend the amiable Egyptian youth. Shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his black jeans, he leaned against the wall outside the classroom and waited for Malik to show up. He began absentmindedly tapping his foot as he stood, otherwise motionless.
He was about to let the whole thing go, but as he pushed himself off the wall, he grimanced to hear Malik's voice calling his name. Reluctantly turning around, he watched with a blank expression as Malik fumbled with the zipper of his backpack. Once the zipper had sucsessfully closed, Malik looked up with a smile on his face. "Thanks for waiting, Ryou."
A shrug. "I said I would."
"I still appreciate it," Malik said, holding onto his once again dampened cheer. Getting close to Ryou was harder than he thought.
"That's nice." He said as Malik began walking down the hall, beckoning for him to follow. The brown-eyed pinned the other with a somewhat suspicious glare before catching up to him.
Flicking a couple strands of pale blonde hair behind his ear, Malik turned to Ryou with a curious expression on his face. "Ryou?"
"That's my name."
"Why did you... back away from me like that, during class?"
Silence. "Because."
"Because why?" Malik ignored a wave from one of his friends as he and Ryou began descending the stairs.
Ryou rolled his eyes, "Because I fucking felt like it,"
The Egyptian held back his sigh as he walked slightly infront of Ryou. He reached the door leading to the outside lawn of the campus first, and held the door open for Ryou, who just glared and walked out the other door, leaving Malik holding the door open for no one. Letting the door slam shut with a somewhat satisfying clang, Malik jogged up to Ryou, but remained silent. "All I have to ask you... Is why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you so... defensive? It's almost like you don't want friends, because you push us all away."
That was it. Ryou spun around on his heel, his eyes alive with a burning fire of rage. His fist was shaking in suppressed fury at his side as he spoke as calmly and monotonously as he could manage. "The way I am, Ishtar, is quite frankly none of your buisness. You would never understand why I am the way I am. You have it all going for you, don't you? What, with all that gold and crap you're always wearing, I think it's quite safe to say you've got enough money to buy this whole city out of house and home." He shook his head, "The reason I hate people like you so much, is because you never know what it's like to be rejected, to be hurt, to be so tortured to the point where you become so afraid of being betrayed again that you just can't help but be mistrusting."
Malik didn't even react verbally for a long while. Instead, he stared at Ryou in a mix of compassion and something very close to fear. Once again, he found Ryou to be correct. His father probably /was/ wealthy enough to buy at least part of the city, but he, himself, was definetly not a snob like most of the other wealthy people he had come across. Ryou's words cut through Malik's own barriers, right into his heart. He felt the beginnings of tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
"Ryou... I... I'm sorry... I didn't know..."
Ryou smirked and shook his head, "Of course you didn't know, because you don't care."
"That's not true!"
"You don't even know me, why would someone such as yourself even speak to someone like me?"
Malik bowed his head in desperation. 'Damnit. Damnit all to hell. I really screwed up, now he'll probably hate me forever...' He watched in misery as Ryou 'hmph'd and pushed past him, walking as fast as his slim legs would allow him in the opposite direction.
'I wish I could be nice to you, but I can't. Not yet.'
.
Later that night found Malik with his knees drawn into his shirtless chest, an over-sized pair of grey sweatpants being the only thing covering his decency. His hair, still damp from the hour-long shower he had taken, clung to his cheeks and neck in a way that did nothing but bother him. Angrily, he pushed the blonde tresses out of his face.
He drifted into silence as he let his skin dry, occassionally drawing the towel draped across his shoulders tighter. 'I wish I could get through his barriers. Maybe then he wouldn't hate me so much... Kami, what am I supposed to do? He'll never even want to speak to me again after today.'
Malik slapped his hand to his forehead as tears sprang up in his eyes. But this time, he didn't hold them back. He let each salty drop of pain flow freely from his eyes, each tear burning his skin in misery and shame. As he fought to get himself under control, the cordless phone in his room rang, and he glared at it before picking up the receiver.
"Hello?" He sniffed to try and rid his voice of any shakiness.
The voice on the other end sounded mildly apologetic. "It's Ryou."
"Oh, hey Ryou." The Egyptian said casually, trying to sound as if he hadn't just been crying.
"I only called you to apologize. I suppose I overreacted a bit."
"It's alright. I understand where you're coming from now." Malik chose his words very carefully as he wiped at his teary amethyst orbs.
There was a moment's pause, "See you tomorrow then." The line went dead.
.
Malik stared at the phone for a long time before he even thought of turning it off. The only thing that brought him back to reality was the sudden, annoying 'dah-duh-dah-duh' of the phone telling him to press the 'off' button. He set the phone down on his nightstand and threw the towel at the lightswitch, hoping to flick it off. When he was sucsessful, he left the towel to fend for itself on the floor of his room as he lay down and burried himself in the covers.
In the final few moments before sleep claimed him for the night, a single tear ran down the side of his face.
'I wish he would take his walls down. Just once.'
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Shori: Wow, I'm so sorry this took so long to get out. I didn't think it would do so well as to get 22 reviews in just a few days o_o. Anyways, hopefully I'll be quicker to update with the third chapter, but right now I've gotta go.
Bakura: STOP MAKING MY RYOU OUT TO BE A JERK! It's bad enough he isn't mine in this fic, but you're making him be so... me-like.
Shori: Everything'll be explained in due time, 'Kura-chan.
Bakura: It'd better _
Shori: D-chan suggests I make the review counter be 20. So... in 20 more reviews, I'll post chapter three! ^_^ Ja ne minna!
Disclaimer: Judging by the fact that the most money I have right now is about 5¢, I'd say YGO ain't mine.
Pairings: Malik/Ryou, some others on the side.
Warnings/Other: Yaoi, Yuri, angst, school-fic, completely ignores story line... Some OOC.
Summary: Ryou is a depressed yet caring loner who just wants some love. Malik is a popular, 'egotistical' honours student. Malik has a secret crush on Ryou, whose trust is literally impossible to gain. The rest is up to fate when they bump into eachother in the halls. YAOI, YURI.
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-
"Well, first off, my name is Malik Ishtar and my favourite band is Linkin Park..." Malik trailed off, thinking about what to tell Ryou and what to keep a secret. He decided it would be safest to stick with the basic information, and save the rest until later. "I have an older sister, her name is Ishizu. We never talk anymore, though. She moved back to Egypt a few years ago. My older brother Marik goes to this school, but he's never home."
Ryou barely nodded to show that he was, in fact, listening. "Why isn't he home?" He asked before he became aware of it. Once he realized what he just did, he mentally berated himself and put his defensive walls up again. The silver-haired youth couldn't quite place it, but something about this friendly boy intimidated him.
The blonde hesitantly shrugged, "I dunno. I guess he's always out with his friends or something. No time for his little brother." When he was answered with silence, Malik shrugged again. "Oh well. Can't do much about, can I?"
"I suppose." Ryou muttered. Despite himself, he couldn't help but pose a question. "You're from Egypt?"
Malik nodded, "Yeah. I grew up in Cairo until my father died. Then I moved here with Mom and Marik, and the rest is history I guess."
"Oh." Acknowledged Ryou, closing his binder and setting it down on the tiled floor. He was starting to get somewhat nervous. He had never carried on a conversation such as this one before; it made him feel uneasy, as if he had to stop talking otherwise he would mess things up one way or another.
"What about you? Where're you from?"
"England."
"Really? What part?"
"Liverpool. Moved there from London when I was seven." Ryou's shoulders shifted as he looked to Malik for some sort of response.
Malik's heart swelled as Ryou made eye contact with him, and a blush creeped on to his face. He coughed, looking down. "I've never been to England. I've wanted to try and go with Marik during the summer, but it never really happened, you know?"
"Yeah." Ryou replied shortly, glancing at the clock proudly proclaiming the time as it hung on the wall above the chalkboard. 'Half an hour before class ends. Great.' He thought with a mental sigh. When he looked at Malik to see if he was going to continue speaking, he found Malik looking at him the same way. Resting his chin on the palm of his right hand, he decided he might as well tell the blonde Egyptian a little about himself. After all, he had a unique ability to tell people a lot about himself, yet still hold an air of inpenetrable mystery.
"I'm sure you know already, but my name is Ryou Bakura. I don't really have a favourite band. I like whatever's fitting my mood at the moment. I had a sister and a mother." A flash of sorrow crossed Ryou's dull brown eyes as he continued to speak in as much of a monotone as he could manage. "They were killed in a car crash. I was just old enough to remember them by name, but that's about it other than photos Dad still has lying around."
.
Without a concious thought, Malik frowned and reached out to touch Ryou's shoulder. The moment his fingertips touched the black fabric of his beloved's shirt, Ryou kicked his seat back, distancing himself from Malik. The movement caught the attention of the whole class, who, upon noticing that it was Ryou who had caused the commotion, turned back around in their seats and ignored it. He was already thought of as a freak in their minds.
.
Malik quickly withdrew his hand and bowed his head in apology. His cheeks were burning in shame as he risked a glance at Ryou. "I... I'm sorry."
"You sure seem to be saying that an awful lot." Ryou said tonelessly.
The Egyptian remained silent. Ryou was right, he was apologizing a lot more than he usually did. In fact, he seldom apologized to anyone. Figuring he had already missed any and all chances of having his love ever be returned, he sighed. "I guess I just wanted to be your friend, Ryou."
Ryou scoffed, "Oh yeah? Why's that? So you can turn on me like everyone else?"
"N-No..." Malik said, looking up. "But can we talk about this after class? Please?"
"Fine. But don't take too long, alright? I've got lots of homework tonight and I don't plan on wasting my time talking to someone I don't even know." The British youth said forcefully, but deep inside, he began yelling at himself again. He was acting just like people did to him. But in truth, he didn't know how else to act, other than defensively.
It wasn't like he was a mean person. That definetly wasn't the case. But Ryou hadn't always been required to wear a mask of coldness and put up so many walls around himself. There was once a time when he trusted people he just met, when he hadn't been so negative about everything. But then his trust had been broken, and those who he thought were his friends ended up figuratively stabbing him in the back every day. After that, he had been so afraid of being hurt again, that he simply started pushing certian people away. Over time, it grew to the point where he stopped trying to make friends, stopped trying to trust people. Friendship never got him anything except pain.
What scared Ryou even more about Malik, was that he found the dark-skinned blonde to be very attractive and capable of possibly being trusted. However, the moment the thought entered his mind, Ryou cast all hopes into the shadows. Trusting people wasn't good for him. It only ended in heartbreak, and he didn't want anymore of that.
.
It seemed to take forever, but eventually class came to an end and Ryou had to remind himself that he had agreed to talk to Malik after class. As he packed his books away and slid his backpack onto his shoulders, he kept reminding himself not to befriend the amiable Egyptian youth. Shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his black jeans, he leaned against the wall outside the classroom and waited for Malik to show up. He began absentmindedly tapping his foot as he stood, otherwise motionless.
He was about to let the whole thing go, but as he pushed himself off the wall, he grimanced to hear Malik's voice calling his name. Reluctantly turning around, he watched with a blank expression as Malik fumbled with the zipper of his backpack. Once the zipper had sucsessfully closed, Malik looked up with a smile on his face. "Thanks for waiting, Ryou."
A shrug. "I said I would."
"I still appreciate it," Malik said, holding onto his once again dampened cheer. Getting close to Ryou was harder than he thought.
"That's nice." He said as Malik began walking down the hall, beckoning for him to follow. The brown-eyed pinned the other with a somewhat suspicious glare before catching up to him.
Flicking a couple strands of pale blonde hair behind his ear, Malik turned to Ryou with a curious expression on his face. "Ryou?"
"That's my name."
"Why did you... back away from me like that, during class?"
Silence. "Because."
"Because why?" Malik ignored a wave from one of his friends as he and Ryou began descending the stairs.
Ryou rolled his eyes, "Because I fucking felt like it,"
The Egyptian held back his sigh as he walked slightly infront of Ryou. He reached the door leading to the outside lawn of the campus first, and held the door open for Ryou, who just glared and walked out the other door, leaving Malik holding the door open for no one. Letting the door slam shut with a somewhat satisfying clang, Malik jogged up to Ryou, but remained silent. "All I have to ask you... Is why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you so... defensive? It's almost like you don't want friends, because you push us all away."
That was it. Ryou spun around on his heel, his eyes alive with a burning fire of rage. His fist was shaking in suppressed fury at his side as he spoke as calmly and monotonously as he could manage. "The way I am, Ishtar, is quite frankly none of your buisness. You would never understand why I am the way I am. You have it all going for you, don't you? What, with all that gold and crap you're always wearing, I think it's quite safe to say you've got enough money to buy this whole city out of house and home." He shook his head, "The reason I hate people like you so much, is because you never know what it's like to be rejected, to be hurt, to be so tortured to the point where you become so afraid of being betrayed again that you just can't help but be mistrusting."
Malik didn't even react verbally for a long while. Instead, he stared at Ryou in a mix of compassion and something very close to fear. Once again, he found Ryou to be correct. His father probably /was/ wealthy enough to buy at least part of the city, but he, himself, was definetly not a snob like most of the other wealthy people he had come across. Ryou's words cut through Malik's own barriers, right into his heart. He felt the beginnings of tears forming in the corners of his eyes.
"Ryou... I... I'm sorry... I didn't know..."
Ryou smirked and shook his head, "Of course you didn't know, because you don't care."
"That's not true!"
"You don't even know me, why would someone such as yourself even speak to someone like me?"
Malik bowed his head in desperation. 'Damnit. Damnit all to hell. I really screwed up, now he'll probably hate me forever...' He watched in misery as Ryou 'hmph'd and pushed past him, walking as fast as his slim legs would allow him in the opposite direction.
'I wish I could be nice to you, but I can't. Not yet.'
.
Later that night found Malik with his knees drawn into his shirtless chest, an over-sized pair of grey sweatpants being the only thing covering his decency. His hair, still damp from the hour-long shower he had taken, clung to his cheeks and neck in a way that did nothing but bother him. Angrily, he pushed the blonde tresses out of his face.
He drifted into silence as he let his skin dry, occassionally drawing the towel draped across his shoulders tighter. 'I wish I could get through his barriers. Maybe then he wouldn't hate me so much... Kami, what am I supposed to do? He'll never even want to speak to me again after today.'
Malik slapped his hand to his forehead as tears sprang up in his eyes. But this time, he didn't hold them back. He let each salty drop of pain flow freely from his eyes, each tear burning his skin in misery and shame. As he fought to get himself under control, the cordless phone in his room rang, and he glared at it before picking up the receiver.
"Hello?" He sniffed to try and rid his voice of any shakiness.
The voice on the other end sounded mildly apologetic. "It's Ryou."
"Oh, hey Ryou." The Egyptian said casually, trying to sound as if he hadn't just been crying.
"I only called you to apologize. I suppose I overreacted a bit."
"It's alright. I understand where you're coming from now." Malik chose his words very carefully as he wiped at his teary amethyst orbs.
There was a moment's pause, "See you tomorrow then." The line went dead.
.
Malik stared at the phone for a long time before he even thought of turning it off. The only thing that brought him back to reality was the sudden, annoying 'dah-duh-dah-duh' of the phone telling him to press the 'off' button. He set the phone down on his nightstand and threw the towel at the lightswitch, hoping to flick it off. When he was sucsessful, he left the towel to fend for itself on the floor of his room as he lay down and burried himself in the covers.
In the final few moments before sleep claimed him for the night, a single tear ran down the side of his face.
'I wish he would take his walls down. Just once.'
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Shori: Wow, I'm so sorry this took so long to get out. I didn't think it would do so well as to get 22 reviews in just a few days o_o. Anyways, hopefully I'll be quicker to update with the third chapter, but right now I've gotta go.
Bakura: STOP MAKING MY RYOU OUT TO BE A JERK! It's bad enough he isn't mine in this fic, but you're making him be so... me-like.
Shori: Everything'll be explained in due time, 'Kura-chan.
Bakura: It'd better _
Shori: D-chan suggests I make the review counter be 20. So... in 20 more reviews, I'll post chapter three! ^_^ Ja ne minna!