Sometimes you just have to work some nonsense into a story.

Is this a filler episode? I haven't the faintest idea.

All I know is, I'm with Ryo on this one.


.


Ryo liked to eat ice cream when the weather was cold. This was one of his stranger habits, at least according to Noa, who found himself confounded on remarkably little about the human condition; this, however, was too much. Ryo would explain by saying: "If you have ice cream, or a milkshake, or a sno-cone, or anything frozen, really . . . and it's hot out? It's just going to start melting as soon as you get it! I don't want to be stressed about my dessert. If I wanted a time limit on food, I'd be a competitive eater."

"Okay, I guess that . . . might make sense," Noa allowed, "but I still don't understand the other part. Why would you want to eat cold food when you're already cold? Like, I understand wanting to preserve the integrity of the food, or whatever, but what about the experience of consuming it? Fall and winter are when it's time to have, like, cocoa and coffee and pie. Cold-weather desserts are hot, and rich, and decadent, and hot."

"You would say that, rich boy."

Ryo liked to pin this nickname on Noa whenever he thought his boyfriend was being too narrow-minded about something. All the same, it wasn't quite like when Joey Wheeler called Seto the same thing. There wasn't the same kind of snide attitude when Ryo used the title as when Joey did. It wasn't just that Ryo was being playful; Noa thought, in his own way, that Joey was also being playful.

It was a concentrated, purposeful lack of disdain.

Whenever Ryo called Noa rich boy, he wasn't saying that Noa was being arrogant, or short-sighted. Not really. He was saying that Noa could benefit from a wider perspective. At least, that was how Noa thought of it; he wasn't sure if he was right about this particular idea, and he'd yet to broach the subject directly with Ryo, but he still felt reasonably confident about it.

"I do say that, rich boy," Noa shot back. "This isn't just some matter of opinion. It's temperature. Are you about to tell me that you like soup in the summer? Do you eat melty oven-fresh cookies when it's 100 degrees out?"

Ryo stared blankly. "I do," he said.

"Oh, for the love of—so it's not about integrity at all! You're just ridiculous, and you're trying to convince me there's logic in your madness just to see how much I'll buy from you. Is that what's going on? Am I being recorded? When do I find out we've been making some kind of reality show? Tune in Wednesdays at 8PM PST to see what nonsense Noa Kaiba will believe next! Like, comment, subscribe, smash that bell!"

"Don't tempt me," Ryo said. "I think that could be very popular."

Noa's eyes sparkled. "You think?" he asked brightly.

Ryo rolled his eyes. "But I'm the ridiculous one."

"Hey." Noa held up a finger. "I have never once claimed to make sense. I was a machine for eleven years. I know precisely how fucked up I am now. What else am I supposed to do, I ask you, other than compare myself now to the myself I used to be? But I will say, when I was a machine, I would eat ice cream quite often. During the summer."

"Are you not the one who keeps bringing up the fact that you would constantly lose track of time?"

". . . Ahem."