Softshipping (Shizuka x Ryo)

Everything about her was soft. Her voice, her eyes, presumably her skin, although he would be embarrassed to try and find that out. Even her very presence was soft and unassuming, like a flower blooming in the middle of a wide field: still beautiful even though no one was around to see it.

He was rather embarrassed to be thinking like this about Jonouchi's younger sister. He wasn't really attracted to her. Not like that. Anyway, he would never allow himself to get close to anyone in that way. He knew what his dark half would do to him if he ever got such an idea in his head. But she was very pretty, so he was all right with allowing himself to at least look at her. And surprisingly, no one else really seemed to notice how pretty she was.

It was like she faded into the background, her edges blurring like an old photograph. It had to do with the way she held herself, the private way that she smile, the demureness that caused her to step back from the action. Maybe that was why Ryo thought she was so pretty. Because sometimes, he felt like he faded into the background, too. He was lost in favor of the dark being that inhabited him, unable to partake in whatever story was around him because he was crushed by the overwhelming presence that Yami no Bakura exerted over him.

Shizuka smiled across at her brother as they waited for the names to drop from the ball machine. Ryo hoped that he wouldn't go first. He didn't even know how he had gotten here – no, forget that, he knew. His dark half had taken over him again. He had no choice but to participate in whatever dark scheme his other self was planning. No choice at all.

He glanced surreptitiously across to Shizuka again. At any moment, his dark half could take his will away from him. The other one could too, that other presence that had invaded his mind some time ago. He thought it was probably the Marik that his friends kept talking about. But either way, he had no control over himself to tell anyone what was happening to him. Either spirit in his head would take over the moment he tried.

So he contented himself just with looking across at Shizuka, just barely concealing his thoughts about her.

Shizuka. Even her name was soft.

If only he could find the words to speak to her, just once, so that she knew he was there. But his name was being called. He was first to duel. And he could feel the other one shifting in his mind, starting to take control of his reactions and motions.

Shizuka would never know. And he would never know, either.

A/N: I. LOVE. THIS. PAIRING. In Yu-Gi-Oh, I feel like the het pairings don't get enough love. Everyone's all obsessed with their yaoi. Okay, next is Slipshipping (Jonouchi x Miho). Okay, well there's a het pairing that doesn't really need any love...