Marik sighed downtrodden, He'd applied in a number of places, and each had not wanted anything to do with him. Each not wanting to have a 'liar' or 'fraud' to be representing their company. Ryou pouted softly hugging Marik's arm. "Marik...Please do not hurt...I will hunt a job too." He said smiling a bit. "You can make papers for me and I will hunt." Marik patted Ryou's head.
"Ryou, I can't forge important papers like that, it's against the laws here." Ryou frowned. "Oh...I just want to help..." Marik nodded and smiled, fanning himself with some papers. "I know. It's not your fault you don't have papers." Marik said looking at Ryou for a moment before shaking his head. Ryou looked hot, he'd forgotten that being a mer-person he wasn't used to dry heat without a water source nearby. "Ryou why didn't you tell me you were hot?" He asked calmly, tilting Ryou's chin up. Ryou smiled sweetly. "I'm alright Marik..." he said softly, though his features betrayed him.
"Your face is flushed and you're breathing harshly and we've not been doing anything but walking." Marik said softly, yet firmly. "You have to tell me what you need, I cant take care of you if you don't work with me." Marik said kissing Ryou's forehead. "Come on, I'll find a shady bench for you to sit on and something for you to drink." He said leading Ryou to a bench in the shade of a building. "Wait here. No matter what anyone says, don't move." Marik added, still worried someone may again snatch away his new dream-lover.
Ryou nodded and sighed once Marik left fanning himself. "Oh how I wish the sun would hide behind the clouds...Neptune I'm so hot!" He whispered to himself, glad Marik had tied his hair up in the ribbon. Ryou closed his eyes and breathed deeply, it was a bit cooler in the shade, but still stifling. "I never knew the land could get so hot..." he said thoughtfully. "I knew it got hot...but I always had the ocean..."
Marik sat down next to Ryou suddenly and smiled, offering a small cup. "Ryou." He said handing it to him. "Drink this, it will cool you down." Ryou blinked and sipped the drink through the straw. "Ohh! It's bitter!" He giggled sipping again. "How'd you know?" He added smiling brightly. "I love this drink. What is it called again?" Marik shook his head as Ryou happily sipped away at his lemonade. "Lemonade, Ryou. It's made with ice and lemons and sugar. Things all designed to cool you down and replace vitamins in your body." Ryou nodded. "Thank you Marik. You have...'lemonade' also?" Ryou asked, being careful to word his questions as Marik had taught him to.
Marik nodded. "Yes." He said untying the ribbon in Ryou's hair and pulling it up more, hoping to cool the mer-boy more thoroughly. "You've been paying attention. I'm proud Ryou." He said smiling at his hair-tying handy-work. Ryou sighed as a gust of wind blew past them. "Thank you." Ryou replied smiling warmly. "I am staying, so I am to learn to be human?" He said, more in a questioning tone. Marik shook his head amused. "You're too cute for words. Don't ever change."
After a few moments more of rest, Marik took Ryou's empty cup and felt the pale youth's cheeks with his wrists. "hnn...still a little warm." He mumbled, popping the lid off of the cup. "Open your mouth." He commanded, watching Ryou close his eyes and open his mouth obediently. He chuckled thumbing an ice cube into Ryou's mouth, noting the squeak. "Suck on that for a little while." He said amused as Ryou wrinkled his nose. "I want you to be good and wait for me here alright Ryou? I'm going to go right across the 'street' into that building there. See it?" Marik said pointing directly across from them.
Ryou nodded. "Good. I'm going in there. I want you to be good, and wait right here for me." Marik said softly. "Ok? I'll get you another lemonade, and you just sit here and drink it while I try to get a job in there."
Xoxoxoxoxox
Ryou sipped quietly on his lemonade, finally regaining his comfort-zone temperature. "Oh I love lemonade...it's very bitter and sweet..." he smiled sipping it again, watching the building intently. "I wonder what a 'job' looks like..." Ryou took another sip, closing his eyes and imagining Marik exiting the building with a great furry animal. "Maybe it is something much like the creatures called cats...with beautiful feathered tails and wings. Oh I want a 'job' too, if that is what they look like!" He giggled a bit. "I know Jono had one...but I never did ask what his looked like. I wish I had...He went to his 'job' a lot."
Ryou mused about jobs for a few moments, before noticing two humans nearby, walking out of a building, one giving the other a bunch of flowers, and getting on his knees suddenly. Ryou blinked and tilted his head.
"Will you marry me?" The male said.
"Oh Keichi...Yes!" The female said, beginning to weep and hugging onto him tightly, dropping the flowers and clinging to him in blissful engagement.
Ryou watched intently. "Is...That how humans show affections?" He asked himself thoughtfully, noticing the small box in the male's hand. He watched the male known as Keichi slip a small silver ring onto the female's finger, and the female thank him with a kiss.
Ryou nodded a little. "I will get one for Marik..." he said suddenly, catching sight of a building with a ring on the top, which greatly resembled the one the male had used on the female.
Xoxoxoxox
Ryou sipped his lemonade quietly, looking over each sparkling and shimmering item. "Can I help you with anything sir?" A man said casually. "Um...I want to get something for Marik." Ryou said softly, looking at the rings. "Do you know what he would want?"
The man blinked a bit. "Ohh, I see. Well, I see you're looking at rings, so let's see. Ahh here we go." The man said pulling a small stand from the case. "This is a popular ring for males." He said as Ryou eyed it. "I want one in that color." He said pointing to a gold ring. "Alright. How will you be paying?" Ryou squeaked softly, he'd forgotten about that. "Oh... I do not have...um..." he thought for a moment. What was the word for the things Marik always traded for? "The green paper." He improvised.
The man frowned. "I'm afraid I can't give you a ring, unless you have that 'green paper'." Ryou toed the floor a bit, wiping some sweat from his forehead, causing the sapphires in his wristbands to glimmer in the dim light of the jewelry store. The man smiled a bit. "What is your name?"
Ryou blinked. "Ryou." He said softly tilting his head to the side. "Why?" The jeweler smiled. "Well, I'll make you a deal Ryou. I will give you any ring you want if you give me those wristbands." He said, knowing immediately they were tempered silver and sapphires. Obviously old relics at that, possibly worth thousands of dollars. Of course they needed cleaning, and a good inspection to insure all the jewels were still in place.
Ryou looked at his wrists. The only part of the ocean he'd had left. If he gave them up he wouldn't have anything to remind him of home...but he desperately wanted to give Marik a token of love. Ryou bit his lip. It was his instinct as the feminine half of their mating to present him with something that pleased him, as he could never present him with children of any sort. Ryou looked out the window behind him at the building Marik had entered.
He had wanted to please him ever since the steamboat when they went back in time. Marik had given up...everything for him. Ryou looked back to the jeweler. "...al-alright..." he whispered, gingerly putting his lemonade down and looking mournfully at his wristbands, before carefully unlatching them and giving them to the man. "And...I can have any I want?" The man nodded calmly, barely able to hide his joy in suckering this youth out of such expensive wristbands.
