Hydrashipping (Dinosaur Ryuzaki/Kajiki Ryouta)
. . .
Fishing was not a hobby that Ryuzaki had intendedto pick up, but, well, hey, as long as he was here, right?
The boy sat at the end of the dock, staring out into the distant edges of the lake without really seeing it. His hands rested lightly on the fishing rod, balancing against his knees as he kicked one shoe back and forth against the very tips of the lake's wake.
A light breeze ruffled through his hair, and despite his vest and hat, he shivered. It was chilly today. The sky was clear and cloudless, and the trees just starting to bud, but the cool air from the lake hadn't yet lifted, and he was glad that he had dressed so warmly. Haga hadn't been so foresighted, which was why he was wrapped up in somewhere around ten blankets back at the cabin. Ryuzaki wasn't entirely sure why the insect duelist had agreed to come all the way out here with Ryuzaki, on what Haga was always happy to announce as a wild goose chase, but he supposed they had been hanging around each other so much lately that neither of them were really certain what else to do with themselves.
Ryuzaki sighed, twisting the rod between his fingers halfway back and forth. He hadn't gotten a nibble in ages. Of course, he wasn't really here for the fish...but it was a nice break, he thought, from the constant running around and harebrained schemes to get rare cards.
He heard the soft tap of a foot on the wood of the dock behind him. He almost groaned, half certain that it was Haga, here to pester him again. He turned over his shoulder; his mouth opened to prepare some retort to whatever Haga was going to say next—
"Oh!" the tall boy said, blinking once from under a mop of black hair falling in hanks over his forehead, messily half pushed up by a pair of goggles. "I thought I recognized that hat!"
Ryuzaki blinked, and then he squinted at the boy. He looked kinda familiar—tanned, muscular, and despite the chill, wearing only a pair of swim trunks and his goggles. He was even barefoot; what a freak...oh! It was that fish guy. What was his name...it had something to do with fish. He had been in Duelist Kingdom, and in Battle City, too.
The boy was squinting at him a bit too, as though trying to place him.
"You were the dinosaur duelist, correct?" he said, his voice seemingly naturally at a half shout. Did he have a volume switch...? "Forgive me but I have forgotten your name!"
"...Ryuzaki," Ryuzaki said after half a beat. Man, he really hoped this guy didn't stick around. He had been enjoying the silence.
To Ryuzaki's chagrin, however, the fish boy grinned widely and padded down the rest of the dock towards him, plopping down on the edge of the dock beside him. He had a tack box under one arm, and a fishing pole strapped to his back. He fumbled for a moment with the pole before he could get it free, and then started to unwind some of the tangled up line.
Ryuzaki shifted his knees together, feeling the silence stretch on awkwardly. Could he just get up and leave, maybe?
The fish guy got his pole figured out, and then cast his line with a practiced ease, flicking his wrist just so to send the lure out with a plop.
"Catch anything yet today?" he said, with the same loud tone.
"...no," Ryuzaki said.
"I didn't know you fished!"
"I...usually don't."
"Hah! Well it's a fine hobby! A little too relaxing out here, of course, it's ocean fishing that really gets the blood boiling! But it has its charm."
Ryuzaki wondered how many one word answers he could give before the guy went away. He didn't even remember this guy's name...ah! He got it—it was Kajiki, like kajikimaguro, the swordfish. He knew it had something to do with fish. How dumb...
Ryuzaki tugged lightly at his line. What excuse could he make to get away? He could say Haga was expecting him back or something. Might as well use him as a scapegoat if he was here.
"What brings you out this way, Ryuzaki-san?"
Ryuzaki bit the inside of his cheek, letting his eyes wander out towards the horizon. Geez, was he really going to have to keep up a conversation...
"Me, I'm here to see if the stories are true," Kajiki said. "Are you interested too?"
Ryuzaki blinked out of his attempt to make up an excuse. His eyes slid over to Kajiki.
"That's why you're here? Cause of the...sea monster shit?"
"Exactly!" Kajiki said, his eyes lighting up. "I'd love to have a go with a beast like that!"
"You...wanna wrestle it."
"Of course!"
Kajiki beamed at Ryuzaki, but Ryuzaki just grimaced incredulously back. Was this guy serious, or was he looking to follow in the footsteps of Steven Irwin?
"Have you heard of the rumors, then?"
Ryuzaki blinked, wondering how much he could say without looking stupid, or making the kid laugh at him like Haga had. But, then again, this was the guy that had just told him that he wanted to wrestle a sea monster, so...Ryuzaki couldn't look any stupider, right?
"I saw some of the sketches from the eyewitnesses," Ryuzaki said, looking back out over the water. "Got kinda interested."
"Ah! I did not see you as one to be fascinated with the sea's creatures as such!"
Geez, he talked like a weirdo. Ryuzaki shrugged defensively.
"It looks like a dinosaur," he said. "Thought it'd be cool if I could see a real one...lotta stuff we don't know about dinosaurs."
Kajiki nodded, grinning as he shook his fishing rod a little bit.
"Ah, like the monster of Loch Ness! A...pleisiosaur?"
"Nah, that's not a dinosaur. Just a big sea lizard," Ryuzaki said, shifting his fishing like. "The thing in those drawings looked kinda like a spinosaurus. Big thing with a frill down it's back. Crocodile kinda mouth."
Kajiki beamed, grinning with a flash a teeth.
"Now that would be a glorious beast to meet in person," he said. "I'd love to see it for real."
Ryuzaki glanced at the boy out of the corner of his eyes. He was actually kind of surprised that Kajiki hadn't laughed at him for saying that it might be a living dinosaur—more surprised at that than the fact that this guy apparently wanted to wrestle said dinosaur.
Well...hey. They were both looking for the same thing, then. Kinda cool.
"Got any plans for finding it?" Ryuzaki said. He felt his line tug slightly, and gripped his reel, but the tug went away.
Kajiki grinned.
"Would you like to join me in the afternoon? I have some ideas."
Ryuzaki found a grin tugged at his own lips. All right, now that was what he was talking about.
"Sounds good."
. . .
A/N: It's been so long since I've been forced to write a oneshot with some of these background characters, I kinda forgot how to write them...geez, it's been absolutely forever since I've even watched the parts of the show that had these guys...I'm losing my touch with them, I think ^^; Next is Huntshipping (Rishid Ishtar x Marik Ishtar x Ryo Bakura x Yami no Bakura). At least they're mostly mains lol.
