The surface of the lake shivered as the wind blew across it, the grass rustling and the leaves shaking and the clouds chasing each other across a bright blue sky. On the side of a slight slope, two young men sat together as they watched the idyllic pastoral scene.

"It's lovely," Ryou commented politely, pleased with the place, but curious as to why Duke had made a point of bringing him here. Ninety minutes earlier as they got into Duke's car, the green-eyed teen had said that he wanted to take Ryou somewhere special. This was it, and it was nice, but Ryou didn't see what made it so special.

With a contented sigh, Duke lay back in the grass and tucked his hands behind his head as he gazed skyward. "Most kids think about running away from home at least once, don't you think?" he mused, changing the subject.

Ryou, with a curious look, turned to Duke and nodded his affirmation.

"I did once, when I was fifteen." Duke closed his eyes as the wind pushed away the clouds blocking the sun. Ryou lay beside Duke in the grass, on his side and looking down at him with interest. "My parents had just had an awful fight, something about how much money my dad had lost in some badly placed bets. He stormed out, and Mom took a six-pack from the fridge to her room. I was so frustrated with both of them that I took the keys to the car, got on the highway, and drove. I didn't know where I was going, and I didn't care, I just wanted to leave, you know?"

Ryou hummed in agreement as the sun was hidden by clouds yet again.

"Once I got on the highway, I just kept going straight as fast as I could, not caring about the speed limit or paying much attention to how fast I was going." He paused and opened his eyes, his expression quite serious as he asked, "Do you remember that sharp curve in the road not long before this exit?"

Ryou shook his head.

"I'll point it out on the way back, then. Anyways, by the time I got that far, I was pushing one-ten, going way too fast. I lost control of the car and almost drifted off-road, and I swear I honestly thought I was going to die. That the car was gonna flip and I'd die in the crash. I managed to keep it on the road, though, and I was so shaken up that I took the next exit and pulled over so I could calm down. That's how I found this place."

Ryou was touched by the story, flattered by the amount of trust Duke had placed in him by telling his story.

"I've never told anybody about that before."

"I'm glad you told me." Ryou leaned down and kissed Duke's forehead, his hair falling down to brush against Duke's cheek.

"Want to go for a swim?" Duke asked as Ryou pulled back. "It's too hot out here not to."

"I'm just fine without it, but you can if you want to."

"Come on, it'll be fine!"

"I'm sure that water's full of nasty critters anyways."

"Don't be so cynical."

"My cynicism keeps me alive, thank you very much," Ryou retorted, turning his nose up at the other.

"Fine then, suit yourself."

Ryou lay down in the same manner Duke had been just as Duke sprang up from the grass and took his shirt off.

"Are you sure you want to wait here?" Duke started to toe off his shoes, then take off his socks and deposit them all next to his shirt on the picnic blanket spread out beneath them.

"I'm quite certain." Ryou smiled demurely. "I'll just watch you have fun from here, and I'll be fine."

A half hour later, Duke was out of the water, letting the sun dry the droplets from his body as Ryou straddled his thigh, facing his foot.

"You need to stop squirming," the college student instructed sternly. "Or this is just going to hurt more."

"Just get it over with, and hurry!" Duke couldn't help but be freaked by the presence of a blood-sucking parasite on his lower leg after his swim. Ryou was trying to remove it for him, but he hadn't yet started because Duke wouldn't lie still. Ryou'd asked for a first aid kit and a cigarette lighter, both of which he'd obtained from Duke's car, but the latter made him nervous.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Duke fretted. Ryou was sitting on his leg to keep it still, but also to keep Duke from seeing what he was doing.

"If you ask me that one more time," Ryou huffed. "I'll stop trying to help you altogether."

"Okay, fine."

"Just lie back and relax." Ryou glanced over his shoulder to check that Duke had obeyed. "Good. Now tell me a story."

"A story? About what?"

"Anything, anything at all. It could be the plot synopsis for an old movie, or a personal experience, or anything you like. Just start talking." Ryou stuck the cigarette between his teeth and bent over Duke's leg as he clicked the lighter, trying to light it. Duke had quit smoking when Ryou moved in, using nicotene gum to wean himself off the substance since the smoke had agitated his roommate's lungs. He'd forgotten to throw out the extra pack in his car, though, and Ryou was glad that he had.

"Have you ever seen the movie Strange Brew? It's from the nineties, I think, and it's awful in the best way. It's about these two Canadian guys who love hockey and drink beer all the time. That's literally all they ever do. They even give some beer to their dog…"

As Duke obediently explained the plot of a ridiculous movie—Ryou wasn't paying too much attention, but he knew that there was something about a ghost possessing a pinball machine and the dog drinking so much beer that he could fly—his lover finally managed to light the cigarette and do so without inhaling any of the smoke. Holding the the little paper roll steady between his fingers, he pressed the burning end into the fat black leech on the other's shin. The creature immediately writhed, and after a couple moments of sustained contact, it detached, dropping off the leg with a gush of scarlet and a nasty squishing sound.

"…But as soon as I found it was a retelling of Hamlet, the whole thing started to make so much more sense and—"

"Die, abomination!" Ryou cried out, interrupting Duke as he stabbed the leech repeatedly with a new let cigarette, scorching the thing to death in an awfully bloody way. When it had stopped moving and seemed, for all intents and purposes, dead, he dropped the dead cigarettes onto the little trash pile he'd started next to the first aid kit.

"Everything okay down there?" Duke asked, fighting the smirk of amusement that wanted to overtake his features.

With a toss of his hair, Ryou coolly replied, "I'm all for the sanctity of life and whatnot, but parasites can just go straight to hell as far as I'm concerned. I'm not a pacifist like Yugi."

"Good to know." Duke stopped fighting the smirk.

"Oh crap."

"What? What's wrong?"

"I killed a level fifteen leech and all I got was five gold and a rusty dagger. This loot system sucks."

It took Duke a moment to process what he'd said, but once he had, he threw back his head and laughed heartily.

"You're such a geek."

"I know." Ryou looked over his shoulder and beamed at Duke momentarily before he set about disinfecting Duke's wound.