IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!! - This is the Yu-Gi-Oh! Yaoi portion of the Shipping List in order. Be forewarned. Some "pairings" will not be fluffy and cute. But they will all, hopefully, be believable. Rating's will vary.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the intellectual property of Kazuki Takahashi
Author's Notes: This one's just cute. Not much to say. Oh! But if you follow Inu's art on D.A., you should check out her blip comic. There's a link on her DA page. His Greatness is about an alien who crashes on Earth. Very funny.
Rating: G
Yu-Gi-Oh! Shipping List #25 - "Prediction"
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Behalfshipping (Roba x Ryou)
On the way to the grocery store one day, Ryou was nearly knocked over by a little boy, racing around the corner ahead of him. Ryou stumbled back a step, and the boy fell back onto the sidewalk. Ryou was about to remark that the boy should look more carefully where he was going, when the child burst into tears, crying pitifully from his seat in front of Ryou.
With a sigh, Ryou knelt down in front of the boy; he couldn't have been more than five or six, and offered him a warm smile.
"Hey, you'll be ok. It wasn't that bad." Ryou assured positively but it only made the boy cry harder.
"I lost my brother!" he cried, sobbing into his fists. His hair was pale green and his two front teeth were missing. Ryou's heart melted and he stood, offering the boy a hand.
"Well we can't have that, can we?" he asked, his words catching the child's attention slightly as hope flared in his eyes at the sight of Ryou's hand. "We'll just have to find this missing brother immediately."
The boy's eyes lit up and he took the hand eagerly, his sobs fading instantly.
Hand in hand, Ryou walked with the child in the direction the boy had come from, asking "Do you know where you lost your brother at?"
The boy looked down, embarrassed. "Well actually, I think I'm the one that got lost." he admitted and Ryou smiled knowingly.
"What does your brother look like?" Ryou asked, trying again to get some kind of information to go on.
"Like me, kinda." the boy answered.
Then suddenly, from across the street, Ryou heard a shout. "Ototo!"
Looking that way, he was surprised to see the teen waiting there impatiently for the traffic to ease so he could cross, too desperate to find a cross-walk. 'Like you exactly.' Ryou thought. The only real difference between them that Ryou could see was their height and the number of teeth they had.
"Nii-san!" the boy beside him yelled and Ryou held firmly to his hand when he surged forward.
"Wait for traffic." he reminded the boy in the way a very patient mother might. The boy danced in place while his brother waited and finally crossed the street.
"Ototo!" the teen exclaimed, embracing the younger boy in a tight hug. "Where were you? I looked everywhere!" The boy pointed down the sidewalk in answer and the other heaved a sigh, looking up at Ryou. "Thank you. I'm really grateful. I hope he didn't cause you any trouble."
Ryou smiled reassuringly and shook his head. "Of course not."
The teen stood and extended his hand. "We're Roba. We have three more brothers in the park there." he said pointing across the street with the hand Ryou wasn't currently holding in greeting. "If you duel you might have heard the name I used in Battle City…Espa…" he added hesitantly.
"I'm sorry…" Ryou answered. "I was there, but I don't recall the name."
"That's ok." Roba said, his hand falling back to his side. "I didn't get very far."
"Neither did I…" Ryou replied quietly.
"…We'd better go…" Roba said to his brother, picking up on the feeling that he had made the other recall things he would rather not have.
"Can you come too, mister?" the boy asked, turning to look back at Ryou over his shoulder as his brother took his hand.
The two teens met each other's gaze uncertainly.
"I…don't mind…" Roba answered leaving it open for Ryou.
Ryou hesitated but finally grinned back. "Sure. I'd love to."
Ryou gave Roba his first name instead of his last, because he didn't know if the other would recognize the name and he really didn't want to be put in a spot where he'd be forced to take responsibility for his other's accomplishments in making it to the Battle City finals. He himself, Ryou mused, watching the four youngest Roba brothers play on the playground equipment, had not really accomplished anything on his own.
"You seem distant." Roba looked away quickly as Ryou looked back to him. "Not that it's really any of my business, but…you can always talk to a fellow duelist…right? If you want to I mean."
Ryou looked back to the playground. "It must be nice," he mused "to have so many people to go home to at the end of the day."
Roba followed his gaze toward his brothers and a faint smile found its way to his lips. "They're the only thing I have."
"…I don't have anything." Ryou answered distantly and Roba's smile faded.
The time passed slowly between them, the shouts of children in the distance the only thing grounding them. "I'm psychic, you know." Roba said after several minutes, looking out at his brothers. "I can see the future. You know what I see when I look at you?"
Ryou shook his head slowly, curious as to what the other would say.
Roba smiled happily back at him. "A whole house, full of people who love you."
At the time, when Ryou had heard those words spoken two short years ago, he had wanted nothing but to believe in them, he had clung to them even, but he had never really had faith in them.
Now as he swerved past two laughing children, holding hands with a third and carrying a bowl of popcorn in the other hand toward the very same teen who had once predicted such a happy future, he realized that he not only had faith to spare but he was happier than he had ever been.
Roba reached out for the popcorn as Ryou sat next to him on the couch and a three year old scrambled into his lap. Ryou wrapped his arms around the child, snuggling down for a movie and opened his mouth with a smile as Roba offered him a kernel of the popcorn.
Ryou had not known it at the time, but Roba's words on that fateful day had given him life and as he leaned over, kissing the other lightly on the cheek, he felt that he too could see his future. And it finally was a thing he could look forward to.
Post whatevers: Next up is Malik x Jounouchi x Seto. As always, if you like, please review. Ja!
