This is a companion piece to the story I put up yesterday. If Blueshipping is my standard OTP for this franchise, then this ship is my crack OTP. To my recollection, these characters never even MEET in canon. Not to mention, well, I'll admit it doesn't seem to work on the surface. I beg patience. I've been hammering out this relationship for years now, and this is the first time I've ever tried to write it.
I'm using the same 100 Prompts that I picked for "Lights," but I'm writing them in reverse order for this.
A note: Noa's character in this story is informed by his role in "Cult of the Dragon King." He isn't quite the same person we see in the anime. He's spent over a year, at this point in his development, feeling out who he is and what he wants.
As a result of that, his personality has shifted more than a little from what we might remember.
Again, I beg that you trust me. He's still the same person. He's just . . . grown up a touch.
Sort of.
.
"You have a heartbeat."
Noa Kaiba stared up at the ceiling of his bedroom, trying to remember the last time he'd bothered to look at it. There wasn't much of a point to being horizontal when you didn't need to sleep.
"Most people do," Noa said slowly. "Typically it's a social cue. Hey, this one has a heartbeat. He must be alive."
He felt a gentle slap against his chest. "You know what I meant. I mean . . . you aren't technically alive. Are you?" The figure lying against him flinched. "I-I'm sorry. Never mind. Forget I said anything."
"What have I told you about saying offensive things to me?" Noa muttered.
"I'm sorry."
"No. What . . . have I told you . . . about saying offensive things to me?"
There was a beat of silence.
Ryou Bakura groaned as he finally sat up. "You told me . . . before I apologize, I had better make sure I've said something that's actually offensive." He said this with the air of a student repeating an old lesson from a tutor. One he didn't like repeating anymore.
"Good boy." Noa slid up to sit beside his companion. "Now, I'm trying to remember if you've said something I should be offended by, but my memory must be faulty." He stuck out his tongue.
"How old are you again?" Ryou asked.
Noa blinked. Looked down at himself. "Uh . . . nineteen? Ish?"
"Is that your . . . real age? Or is it just . . . how old your body is?"
"My body's, like, ten months old. Aniki made it for me. It's supposed to look nineteen. Because that's how old I . . . would have been." Noa looked conflicted and a little sad for a moment, then smirked and punched his chest. "Good old Kaiba-shachou didn't want people figuring out that I'm synthetic. So he worked in a slew of . . . superfluous systems. Like a heart. And lungs. And emotions."
Ryou raised an eyebrow.
Noa blinked. "What?"
"Nothing."
"Oh, come on." Noa pulled Ryou to him and kissed his forehead. "Just 'cuz I'm a sociopath doesn't mean I don't wuv you. I mean, it doesn't mean I do, but . . . anyway. C'mon, Clarice. Up you get. We've got food to make up for the big family vacation."
"Do you know how to cook?" Ryou asked, grabbing his shirt from the floor and pulling it on.
"Are you kidding me?" Noa looked offended. "Of course not."
He threw himself out of the room and went barreling down the hallway toward the kitchen. Ryou had just managed to force himself to stand up when he heard the first explosion. This wasn't the person Ryou had been told about. The psychotic silicone prince with a grudge against pretenders to his immortal throne.
Although . . . he did seem to take pleasure in causing mischief for his adopted family, all the same. So maybe it made sense, after all. He'd simply stepped down from the throne and picked up pies of various flavors to throw at the new king's face when he wasn't looking.
Ryou sighed, ran a hand through his hair, and tried not to laugh.
"I may or may not love you, too," he murmured under his breath.
