Disclaimer: Oh boy, I don't own Yu-gi-oh (that's for sure)… Ano, right…
Summary: Ryou decides to get a job at a café and happens to witness a nasty break up between Seto Kaiba and Ryuuji Otogi. So, being the nice boy he is, he decides to help Seto out. Life wasn't complicated enough…
Couples:
Due to my short attention span and inability to hold on to one plot at a time I've made some changes.
OtogixKaiba?
KaibaxRyou?
RyouxMarik?
A/N:
TT Thank you once more, Lil Riter! I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter. Yah, as for the review thing… Appears I have over 130 hits. I know this means that not everyone read it but still. Oh well, at least it's… uh… noticed. ()
And Black Dying Rose, thanks for the review as well, I await your return!
Annnnnnnd, I'm sorry that it took so long to update!
Fair Game
Chapter Four
I mentioned that I can only live because the greater power above pities me every so once in a blue moon. Of course, this is true, but what I had ceased to mention was that for every act of pity, there are three misdeeds that need to be done in order to restore some sense of warped balance, courtesy of the greater power above. Yet, despite this, I go on. I've had many opportunities to die, courtesy of a high-speed bus or mou hitori no boku, and I haven't.
This is for three main reasons, the first being that I do not want to die. The second being that as a child I was forced so many vitamins to ensure my health I doubt anything less than a bus moving at light speed could kill me and third because I'm sure there's some celestial bet above seeing how long I'll be able to last before my hope crumbles, all happiness vanishes, my sanity is obliterated and life becomes some snail-shell only to be stepped on my some careless child.
Just some shards caught in the squashed gum on the sole of life.
Oh, what serene thoughts pass through my head during the day… I make Gandhi proud.
I can see it now; I'd be the only mortal capable of being so terribly negative and annoying to Gandhi that he'd resort to violence to shut me up once and for all. Then for this, I'd upset the balance of the world and be shunned by humanity as the economy falls further and life fades to nothingness as we know it. Usually, empires fall because of constant hits by invaders. Well, our world will be the exception. The vast modern world will have fallen because of me.
And so the sobbing continues.
We will call this grand time of darkness "Era of Elite Medieval."
The panicked people will once more blame some religion and perhaps hunt down all white-haired peoples in order to prevent such catastrophic events from happening again. Science will be forgotten and gods will once more hold the strings to the puppet-Earth.
Ah, I can see your plan, greater power above; I serve as both entertainment and a revolution starter. Am I that important?
The table my TV was settled on then collapsed, and the TV sparked angry curses at me. It singed part of the wall black. I groaned.
Nope, no, I'm not.
Greater power above: Infinity and six
Bakura Ryou: negative eleven
I think I'll go take that nap I promised myself now… I got up from the floor and wiped my face free of tears with the back of my hand. I went into my room quietly and changed into another pair of loose and comfy black pants, making sure that there was no offending stain on them. Black, how fitting.
I began to cry harder. I collapsed then on my bed and buried my face into my pillow.
I didn't really think about anything, just mostly wallowing in my own self-pity when I suddenly felt something behind me. I turned around, looking at my room frantically. Nothing. And much to my dismay, an image of the women from Ringu and Ju-On flashed into my mind. I immediately stopped my sobbing and then threw myself in a hurry under my blankets. This was a swell time to think of that… I resisted the urge to wail louder than I was—I really didn't want any extra attention drawn towards me.
A wonderful thought then occurred to me as I was trying to gather my courage to go and get a tissue from my bedside… The woman from Ringu can come through the TV, and the woman from Ju-On scared the person by flickering her TV on and off and then making that weird clicking sound…
I wasn't sure whether to be more afraid of the idea of those two together or the fact that I still forgot to get my TV. And to call the café for a job.
At that point I believe that I stopped caring and began to wail again.
Greater power above: infinity and seven
Bakura Ryou: negative twelve
/Get a hold of yourself, landlord. No one's there ./
I steadily stopped crying after his remark and just lay there, holding onto my pillow tightly. This was not one of my prouder moments.
"Well, maybe that's what I'm afraid of," I stuttered, trying to sound defiantly strong.
/Stop being so damned dramatic, get your ass out of bed and go call. /
That feeling of me being stupid swelled and I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks to blush.
But he was right of course. For one so strangely sadistic and seemingly heartless, perhaps his point of view would do me more good. I supposed that I would have to just tough it out for once, and I had bigger problems at hand. But what was bigger dilemma than a fight with my best friend?
I sat up, rubbing my eyes so that it wasn't so apparent that I'd been crying my heart out for the past, a quick glance at the digital clock besides my bed, twenty minutes.
It was now about four forty-five now.
I stared, stupefied momentarily at the wall in front of me. I was so sad… Pathetic as I'm sure Otogi or even Kaiba would put it. I should really apologize, I comforted myself… I did intrude on their date when I could have easily just put my sweater around my waste, and walked away. And now… I sigh heavily and blew my nose into a tissue. I threw it into the trashcan. Or near the trashcan. I missed by a foot.
The greater power above is laughing right now.
Perhaps, one day, I thought, I should paint the plain white walls, I though, trying to change the subject. Or at least put something up to decorate it. I spun around on my bed to look at the wall behind me. It was white as well, with nothing adorning its giant empty face. Why hadn't I decorated it yet? I've lived it for… well… about a year now? Maybe, maybe I'll ask Otogi if he would like to come over and help me… I'm sure he'd like that. I'll order him some Chinese food: that's his favorite food right?
/Shut up and go call. / It was silent in my head for a moment after that. I do realize that I sound remotely schizophrenic, but that's all right. I swallowed a lump in my throat and stood. I would be strong, call up the café, get a job, call up Otogi, apologize and then call Marik to take my mind of things.
A brilliant plan! I will pull through! I am strong!
I jumped from my bed to fetch my accursed jeans, taking the piece of paper out of them. To find out that I had only half of the little slip. So I did what any mature, independent young adult would do.
Screamed something incoherent and then stormed out of my apartment, ready to go beg for a job at that cafe if I had to.
Then promptly came back in to change out of my pajamas.
….
After everything had been settled, including my nerves, I made my way patiently back to the café, feeling better than I had before. I was certain at this point, that my running into Otogi or Kaiba would be highly unlikely and no further confrontation would be needed for today.
Everything was going swimmingly so far. I did not meet up with my landlady or landlord, whenever I arrived at a street corner the walk sign was always on, I did not step in any stray gum and best of all, my pants were blissfully red-stain free. I was happy, in short one might say. The thought had flashed momentarily in my mind that the people who had made fun of me earlier might still be there, but I doubted it.
Or tried to anyway. I kept turning around to make sure no one was there, and thankfully when ever there was, the odd look they were giving me was because I snapped around suddenly looking frantically at everyone and not because there was a pizza stain on my… backside.
Despite the fact that the whole situation was over, this was still becoming increasingly embarrassing. I began thinking of all the other things that I may have done to embarrass myself without my noticing. What else had Otogi noticed about me that he didn't warn me about? …Paranoia… the downfall of my sanity.
I had planned out then how exactly I would go about apologizing to Otogi. I would order the food and perhaps his favorite movie for tomorrow night, then call him up once that was all settled. Chances are that he probably wouldn't pick up, so I'd leave a message telling him to come over. When he did, I would surprise him with a good and relaxing night. We could get magazines and make funny comments about celebrity's and their strange lives (not that mine was any better). We could, uh… I don't know. Play rounds and rounds of Dungeon Dice Monsters. Anything to make him feel better and know that I was sincerely sorry.
I smiled softly to myself though. Everything was going to be okay now. I would just go on with life. I took off my sweater feeling warmed by the setting sun, and decided after a few more minutes of sun-basting and walking, that I was hungry. The smell of noodles wafted over towards my direction from a block down or so. But I did not feel like noodles. I felt like something more… exotic.
So I decided fries would be a wonderful thing. And so my journey for the golden strands began. I wondered to myself as I walked who came up with the whole idea of fries? They weren't really something you could find by accident. Now, what person decided one day, 'hey, I'll chop up these curious little brown things.' Then maybe, he then accidentally knocked the pieces into some oil or something… But how would he know when to take them out to know they were edible? They don't cook that quickly…
And speaking of something funny yellow things, I then realized there was a familiar mass of blond standing in front of me and staring.
"YOU!" I shouted (again), my hand lifting to point my finger at him like before. But then, as if to spite my happy mood, the worst happened.
WOK.
And then time went in slow motion. My hand still flying in the air past Marik's chin who in return was currently sailing backwards, head completely thrown back and hair waving like a mane behind him.
"Oh, oh, my, Marik-san, I'm sor-" and then it occurred to me. I might be able to grab him by the shoulder or something and pull him up! Yes, yes, what could possibly go wrong?
Reflecting back on that moment now, I think that the greater power above was probably shaking his head and cracking his knuckles saying "oh the possibilities…"
It was then that I realized something; that I could not reach his shoulder in time. So, being my brilliant self, I decided to instead go for the shirt. But it seemed to be genius at the time, so I executed my plan. Oh, I am one talented fool my friends… one talented fool…
I continued to lean towards him, hand stretched out to grab his shirt. Time was still traveling at a sluggish pace and I thought to myself in glee, I can make it! I can make it! I can make it! Suddenly, just as the tips my fingers grazed against the top of his shirt, I realized this. I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to make it, I'm not going to make it! Repeating over and over in my mind like the broken record player that would not settle down and just die.
Somewhere in the world, there is a little engine that couldn't. He is named Bakura Ryou.
I tried to pull myself back up. It was then that my science teacher's voice said mundanely to me, "Objects usually tend to stay in whatever state of motion they are in. Newton's First Law of Motion in a nutshell."
That meant bodies in motion, stay in motion.
I thought but one thing after that moment. That this…this was going to hurt very, very much.
On cue, time sped up to its normal run.
Wow, a lot happens in roughly three seconds, huh?
THUD.
"Ow! Wha…? Oh, no…"
THUD.
"OOF!"
Both sounds of pain were from Marik. I basically just curled into myself and hoped to land on something not quite as hard as concrete. And I did. It was Marik.
Why me? I cracked open an eye and looked at him.
Marik watched me. It made me uncomfortable. I turned red and he laughed. So much for making a good impression… I thought at least with a second encounter, I could have saved face. Nope, never. I decided then and there that I should not attempt to think on my feet ever again.
"Hey, there, Bakura-san, if you wanted to see me so bad, you could have called!" He said, patting my back. He laughed heartily to himself and people were beginning to stare. All I wanted to do at that moment was get up and run back home as fast as I possibly could go. This is a strange world we live in, a voice in the back of my mind said. Thankfully, it did not belong to my former self. It continued solemnly indeed a strange world where the greater power above hates us with a passion and gravity loves us with the same amount of power.
"I, uh, was going to go get a bite to eat, but then, well. Wait, no, okay-"
"Bakura-san, relax, I was joking," he reassured me with a large grin. He was such a carefree person it seemed. And I admit it felt nice to be in his company. His smile made me feel better and I then got up clumsily, offering him a hand. He took it and then shook it as soon as he stood. "So, I haven't seen you in what, three hours or so?"
I made sure to smile at his attempt to joke. I cleared my throat and began.
"Well, actually, I was going to go see you." He gave me such a funny look that I couldn't help but smile some more. Or decipher, but that didn't seem important at the time. "I needed the phone number of the café again, and I was sure that you hadn't been home yet, so I decided to come back." He nodded slowly for a second. "But I got hungry on the way, so now I'm going to go grab something to eat." His expression changed, and it didn't look quite as happy as the earlier one.
"Uh, okay then," he murmured and he began to walk away, waving a hand. "I'll see you later then, have a nice meal."
Put bluntly, I was taken back by his abrupt good bye. So I blinked rapidly and cocked my head to the side.
I'm sure that I must have looked like a confused Samoyed. With a severe case of dust in my contacts.
I watched him strut along, head down and hands in pockets. He seemed happy to see me; I didn't get why he would want to leave so quickly. My immediate response was too think that maybe I had gotten him angry with me for some reason. I thought for a moment. Well, creampuffs make me happy, Otogi has his Chinese food so maybe…
"Please, Marik, wait!" I said, running after him. I caught up with him and said as innocently and sweetly as I possibly could muster,
"Do you want to come with me? It would be nice to have someone around for dinner and I haven't seen you for a long time…." I looked down after that. I didn't want to appear as though I was intruding on him or anything, or that I bothering him, it just seemed like the right and polite thing to do. Of course, there was a short silence after I asked that made me panic quite a bit.
"I…" No, please, just answer and let my misery be done and over with! I knew this was a stupid idea, I should have just left him alone or something, maybe I delayed his going somewhere and he's late? No, no, please, don't be angry!
"I'd love to!"
I nearly melted into a puddle at that moment. I was so relieved I felt I could curl up on a sofa and purr in my content for the rest of the evening. I sighed heavily and resisted the urge to hug him. Food was definitely the way to a man's stomach. I realized then the context usually surrounding that line and took a deep breath, trying with all my might not to blush. Nothing was going to ruin my evening. Hopefully. Please no…
"Well, then, let's go!" I said, lacing my arm through his and bringing him along. He looked down at them and then it occurred to me the situation. I quickly drew back, tripping over my own feet.
"I, um, hurry?" I tried. Just quiet…. Don't say a thing. His mouth rose into a smile and then fell to a deep frown. His hands felt my cheeks then my forehead. He then poked my ribs.
"Thin, pale, slightly cold… No! He's dying of starvation, hurry, hurry, to food, before Bakura-san dies of lack of food!" I really had no idea how to respond to this, but thankfully Marik came in to save me, his tanned face breaking its feigned worry into a large grin. His happiness was contagious, so recollecting myself, I fell back a bit, hand to my forehead.
"We must leave now! We don't know how much longer I have!" I replied weakly. We quickly burst into laughter, collapsing onto each other for support before the sidewalk do could that for us.
Greater power above: Infinity and six.
Bakura Ryou: back to negative eleven
TBC…
A/N: Okay, there we go… Yeah, it was shorter, but I figured no update is worse than a short one! 3, 000 words isn't really that bad though. Well, review please! 'Till next time, later!