ShinyFlareon
bowtie coconut birb
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I tried putting this up in my blog, but just after I put it up, people decided they had something to blog about too, so I got nothing.
Anyway, this is a fic I started at the end of last school year, and decided to pick up again to help me get back in the swing of writing. It's unfinished at the moment -- mainly because I can't decide whether to make this a short story or chapters. Even if this is a chapter, it's unfinished. I just want to see what people think about it; where they think I should go with the story, what do they think about the characters, and general comments and critiques. So, without further ado, I give you:
Thunder
Thunder.
The skies, which had been torn between cloudy and clear all day, echoed angrily.
Ryo Bakura peeked out of his hanging blinds, then sighed. He was just glad the day was over. Wednesdays were always rough; it was the day he’d scheduled all of the discussion sections which accompanied his lectures. While he liked not having to keep track of which days he did and didn’t have a discussion, the back-to-back classes were trying. Class at ten, eleven, twelve. A break from one to two, when Ryo rushed to get some lunch. Class at two, class at three. He was glad to be back in his dorm, out of the thunder with no rain.
He turned away from the window, on his roommate’s side of the room, and walked back over to his own desk. He had an essay due the next day, one he really should have started the night before.
“Don’t tell me a little thunder scares you.”
Ryo turned awkwardly in his desk to look across the tiny room at his roommate. The two of them hadn’t exactly been the best of friends in the nearly entire year that they’d been forced to share a room; oftentimes, they would just ignore each other. Never speaking, never interacting...each of them concerned only with their own world.
And what a different world than Ryo’s he came from! Ryo had always thought that he’d been a good student -- not great, but above average. But he’d never seen his roommate do anything but study. When he wasn’t studying, he was sleeping. When he wasn’t sleeping, he was on the phone, often speaking a language Ryo couldn’t hope to comprehend. And when he wasn’t on the phone, he was watching dramas on his laptop, some foreign, some not. The dramas appeared to be his own guilty pleasure; he’d made it clear that if he ever found out that Ryo had told anyone about them, things wouldn’t be pleasant. It was one of the few times they had spoken over the course of the year. Ryo, of course, couldn’t care less if he watched dramas. It was none of his business, and anyway, he couldn’t stand the ones he could understand.
His side of the room was also impeccably neat. Not a blanket rumpled on his bed, or a stray paper on his desk. Ryo wasn’t exactly messy, but...well, his side of the room looked like a veritable pigsty compared to his roommate’s. And he had the oddest sleeping habits; Ryo would often come in after his classes to find him asleep, while it was barely dinnertime. He would get back up and study, then fall asleep again around ten-thirty. Just as Ryo was headed for bed, usually around one am, he would wake back up and continue the pattern for the remainder of the night. And he would almost never turn the main light off, even when he saw Ryo getting ready for bed. On more than one occasion, Ryo had woken up with a headache from the light, which made his sleeping problems even worse. But Ryo hadn’t confronted him. He didn’t want to irritate him, or get into a fight. He knew that his roommate would just scoff at him, or get angry if Ryo pressed him about it, and they did still have to live together. Best not to rock the boat.
Ryo was an anthropology major, specializing in archaeology. He was in...well, Ryo didn’t exactly know what his roommate’s major was. He thought it was a science of some sort. Chemistry, perhaps? He was certainly working on homework for the class often enough. But Ryo wasn’t sure. He probably never would be. After all, this was the last week of classes before final exams started. Once they got through those, then they’d never see each other again. What would be the point of attempting to get to know him now? He’d certainly never expressed any desire to get to know Ryo. In fact, he’d always acted like Ryo was beneath him, not worthy of his presence; as though living in the same room with him was an irritation, and that he could be -- and should be -- doing so much better.
“Of course not.” Ryo replied, turning back to sit properly in his chair. “I was just looking to see if it was actually raining. The thunder is quite loud, after all.”
“Baka.” his roommate retorted. “If it was raining, you’d be able to hear that too.”
“I just wanted to look.” Ryo said, pulling his legs up comfortably in his chair. “I don’t know why you have the window open, anyway. It’s getting cold.”
“These rooms have no ventilation.” his roommate grumbled. “If you’re so cold, put on a sweater.”
“It’s my room too.” Ryo replied softly, in a reasonable tone.
“And I’m on the side with the window, so I get to decide whether or not to close it.” he shot back. “You got the side with the mirror, bishie. I don’t complain when you spend half an hour in front of it every morning.”
Ryo frowned, but didn’t reply. He knew it would be no use, and he really needed to start his essay. He really shouldn’t have expected anything more to come out of that exchange, and as he slipped on a pair of headphones connected to his computer, he wondered why he even bothered. ‘Just a few more days and we’ll be out of each other’s hair for good.’ he thought as a few swift clicks of the mouse started his music. He had no idea why he seemed more productive while listening to the soundtrack for the movie ‘The Corpse Bride,’ but he did, and he needed to be as productive as possible tonight. He placed the half-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi and the couple candy bars he’d bought himself at the convenience store within easy reach -- he’d need the energy rush, no matter how unhealthy it would be -- and pulled up the word processor on his laptop, opening a blank document and the page his professor had put up with the prompts. He gave a short sigh as he looked over the prompts, picked the one he thought looked to be the easiest, and began to type. He was in for a very, very long night, made even longer by the fact that he was already exhausted from a previous two weeks consisting of nothing but writing essays for his other classes. They were the reason he hadn’t been able to start this one any sooner; he’d had two due the previous day, a shorter one even for this same class, and one due the previous Friday. Combine that with the fact that his professor hadn’t even released the prompts for this essay until last Thursday, and it was a recipe for disaster. Or at least a thoroughly exhausted student. ‘I just hope I can pass this class...’ he thought, setting up his heading and title.
It wasn’t long before Ryo heard some noises behind him and turned, seeing his roommate get ready for bed. The sight made him grimace internally. ‘The one night he goes to bed at a reasonable hour...’ he fumed, turning back to see his half-paragraph-long essay struggling to get off the ground. Still, he flicked on his desk lamp, paused his music and stood, walking over and flicking the switch that controlled the main light off. Just because he’d never been asked to turn off the light didn’t mean he wouldn’t be courteous and do it anyway.
--------------------
“Hey Ryo, what’s up? You look exhausted. Did your roommate keep you up again?”
Ryo shook his head as he slipped into his seat in the last few rows large lecture hall, taking his laptop from it’s bag and placing it on his lap. “No, not this time.” he replied. “He actually went to bed at a reasonable hour.” He gave a massive yawn. “I just went to bed four hours ago, that’s all.”
Ryo’s fellow anthropology major and close friend, Yugi Mutoh, gave a long, low whistle. “Why in the world did you go to bed at five am, Ryo?” the small boy asked, his lavender eyes wide.
“I was finishing my last essay for that bloody religious studies class.” Ryo answered. “I did manage to finish it.”
“That’s good...” Yugi said slowly. “But your class isn’t until five tonight. Why didn’t you go to bed earlier and finish it this afternoon?”
“Oh, once I managed to get started, it wasn’t too bad.” Ryo said lightly, smiling. “It was just, y’know, getting it started.”
Yugi nodded and turned his gaze back to the front of the room as the professor began his lecture. Ryo too turned on his laptop and pulled up his notes.
‘This class is a load of bollocks.’ he thought, his eyes already glazing over with boredom. ‘Not only is macroeconomics boring, but we also had to get the archetypal old man professor.’ It was true, the professor couldn’t have been younger than sixty. He was a small, balding man who liked to dress in light plaid shirts and used suspenders to hold up his slacks. He sported thick glasses, and spoke in a monotonous drone, which he tried to puncture every so often with comments he thought to be funny. Ryo could swear that three quarters of the class, held in the largest lecture hall on campus, slept through his entire hour-and-a-half long lecture. As for Ryo himself, he quickly hopped on the internet and pulled up the webcomic he was currently reading. Next to him, Yugi was doing the same thing.
Ryo smiled to himself. He and Yugi had met in a poetry class during their first quarter, and they had immediately hit it off. They’d hung out nearly every day, especially since they had a lot of classes together. Ryo didn’t mind some of the jokes his old friends made about their closeness -- Yugi was cute, but Ryo hadn’t swung that way since...well, he hadn’t looked at a guy that way in a long while.
Every now and again, he looked up at the three screens at the front of the room, checking to see if any new notes had been put up. He didn’t really know why he bothered. It seemed like the professor had a liking for trying to explain a concept by using every possible scenario in which it would apply. ‘One or two examples would be fine...still, I guess it takes up more of class time, which means we go over less stuff in each class. That’s a good thing, I suppose.’ He gave a small sigh, slumping into his seat and glancing on the clock on his computer. What he saw made him sit up a little straighter, stretching his arms over his head; class would be over in just a few minutes. The professor even sounded like he was winding down.
“Hey, Yuuu-gi,” he said, reaching over and poking the smaller boy in the shoulder, “wake up. Econ’s over.”
“Mmm...wha?” Yugi opened his eyes blearily, yawning widely and shaking the sleepiness from his head.
Ryo chuckled. “Have a nice nap, Yugi?”
“I’m surprised you didn’t take one.” Yugi replied, straightening up in his seat. “Huh -- hey, isn’t that your roommate down there?”
Ryo looked down near the front of the room. “I don’t see...oh.” Sure enough, in the third row, Ryo could spot the familiar, helmet-like brown hair of his roommate, busily packing up. He stood, towering over the remaining students, and made his way out of one of the exits on either side of the podium. “I had no idea he was in this class.”
“Me either.” Yugi said, yawning again. “Ah, well. It’s no big deal, right? We are now officially done with economics, aside from the final, and that can’t be anything but good. Anthro’s next.”
Ryo looked again at the exit his roommate had left from, then shook his head, giving a small smile. “Right. The class we actually have to pay attention in.”
“At least it’s interesting. Hey, you wanna go get lunch after this?”
Ryo’s stomach growled audibly, and he shyly put a a hand over it. “Please. I’m starved.”
“How about over at A.I.? What do they have?”
“I’ll check.” Ryo said, giving the slightest of frowns. He was known for being a fairly picky eater, and the food in the resident hall restaurants didn’t always agree with him. Still, he knew Yugi could be rather anal about using up his free meal swipes every week, and he’d agreed to go to the commons restaurants almost every day this week. “I dunno...it looks all right, I guess.”
Yugi, not seeing Ryo’s reluctance, grinned. “Great!”
Ryo smiled back, though it was a little forced. “Yeah...great.”
--------------------
‘One more day...just one more day of class, and then finals, and I’ll be a sophomore in college...’ Ryo gave a light sigh as he entered his room, finding it empty. He knew it was rude of him, but he couldn’t help but be glad when his roommate wasn’t there. He could relax, put on his music without headphones, and not somehow feel that he was some sort of inferior being to whatever specie his roommate was. He could just feel like himself. With a small grin on his lips, Ryo unpacked his bag, setting his laptop on his desk and plugging it in. He still had a few hours before his next class, and Ryo planned to spend them relaxing the only way he really could up here at school: on the internet.
It wasn’t long, however, before the distinctive sound of a key turning in the lock signaled the return of his roommate. Without any sort of greeting, Ryo automatically reached for his headphones and plugged them in, slipping them in his ears. At least he’d gotten an hour or so of relaxation.
Behind him, his roommate began to strip, changing into a simple black t-shirt instead of the dress shirts he normally wore out. A pair of silky blue pajama bottoms also replaced the formal-looking khaki slacks.
Ryo couldn’t help but watch, staring at the reflection in his laptop’s screen. His roommate was attractive, of that there was no doubt. He was tall, with legs that seemed to stretch on for miles and a torso to match. He was in near-peak physical condition, even though Ryo had never once seen or heard him talk about working out. Ryo was sure that he was the type girls were apt to throw themselves at. But instead of being statuesque, he was more like a statue of ice; cold, sharp, and chiseled. Though ‘statuesque’ appeared to be the ultimate aesthetic goal, Ryo only understood that definition aesthetically. To have the dimensions and perfection of a statue was one thing; to have the personality of one was quite another. He’d never heard of anyone other than the occasional pervert ever trying to have a satisfying relationship -- sexual or otherwise -- with the Venus de Milo or David.
‘Ah...what am I thinking about?’ Ryo thought, mentally shaking his head. ‘Come on, you haven’t swung that way since high school. Why start now for your poker-arsed roommate?'
Anyway, this is a fic I started at the end of last school year, and decided to pick up again to help me get back in the swing of writing. It's unfinished at the moment -- mainly because I can't decide whether to make this a short story or chapters. Even if this is a chapter, it's unfinished. I just want to see what people think about it; where they think I should go with the story, what do they think about the characters, and general comments and critiques. So, without further ado, I give you:
Thunder
Thunder.
The skies, which had been torn between cloudy and clear all day, echoed angrily.
Ryo Bakura peeked out of his hanging blinds, then sighed. He was just glad the day was over. Wednesdays were always rough; it was the day he’d scheduled all of the discussion sections which accompanied his lectures. While he liked not having to keep track of which days he did and didn’t have a discussion, the back-to-back classes were trying. Class at ten, eleven, twelve. A break from one to two, when Ryo rushed to get some lunch. Class at two, class at three. He was glad to be back in his dorm, out of the thunder with no rain.
He turned away from the window, on his roommate’s side of the room, and walked back over to his own desk. He had an essay due the next day, one he really should have started the night before.
“Don’t tell me a little thunder scares you.”
Ryo turned awkwardly in his desk to look across the tiny room at his roommate. The two of them hadn’t exactly been the best of friends in the nearly entire year that they’d been forced to share a room; oftentimes, they would just ignore each other. Never speaking, never interacting...each of them concerned only with their own world.
And what a different world than Ryo’s he came from! Ryo had always thought that he’d been a good student -- not great, but above average. But he’d never seen his roommate do anything but study. When he wasn’t studying, he was sleeping. When he wasn’t sleeping, he was on the phone, often speaking a language Ryo couldn’t hope to comprehend. And when he wasn’t on the phone, he was watching dramas on his laptop, some foreign, some not. The dramas appeared to be his own guilty pleasure; he’d made it clear that if he ever found out that Ryo had told anyone about them, things wouldn’t be pleasant. It was one of the few times they had spoken over the course of the year. Ryo, of course, couldn’t care less if he watched dramas. It was none of his business, and anyway, he couldn’t stand the ones he could understand.
His side of the room was also impeccably neat. Not a blanket rumpled on his bed, or a stray paper on his desk. Ryo wasn’t exactly messy, but...well, his side of the room looked like a veritable pigsty compared to his roommate’s. And he had the oddest sleeping habits; Ryo would often come in after his classes to find him asleep, while it was barely dinnertime. He would get back up and study, then fall asleep again around ten-thirty. Just as Ryo was headed for bed, usually around one am, he would wake back up and continue the pattern for the remainder of the night. And he would almost never turn the main light off, even when he saw Ryo getting ready for bed. On more than one occasion, Ryo had woken up with a headache from the light, which made his sleeping problems even worse. But Ryo hadn’t confronted him. He didn’t want to irritate him, or get into a fight. He knew that his roommate would just scoff at him, or get angry if Ryo pressed him about it, and they did still have to live together. Best not to rock the boat.
Ryo was an anthropology major, specializing in archaeology. He was in...well, Ryo didn’t exactly know what his roommate’s major was. He thought it was a science of some sort. Chemistry, perhaps? He was certainly working on homework for the class often enough. But Ryo wasn’t sure. He probably never would be. After all, this was the last week of classes before final exams started. Once they got through those, then they’d never see each other again. What would be the point of attempting to get to know him now? He’d certainly never expressed any desire to get to know Ryo. In fact, he’d always acted like Ryo was beneath him, not worthy of his presence; as though living in the same room with him was an irritation, and that he could be -- and should be -- doing so much better.
“Of course not.” Ryo replied, turning back to sit properly in his chair. “I was just looking to see if it was actually raining. The thunder is quite loud, after all.”
“Baka.” his roommate retorted. “If it was raining, you’d be able to hear that too.”
“I just wanted to look.” Ryo said, pulling his legs up comfortably in his chair. “I don’t know why you have the window open, anyway. It’s getting cold.”
“These rooms have no ventilation.” his roommate grumbled. “If you’re so cold, put on a sweater.”
“It’s my room too.” Ryo replied softly, in a reasonable tone.
“And I’m on the side with the window, so I get to decide whether or not to close it.” he shot back. “You got the side with the mirror, bishie. I don’t complain when you spend half an hour in front of it every morning.”
Ryo frowned, but didn’t reply. He knew it would be no use, and he really needed to start his essay. He really shouldn’t have expected anything more to come out of that exchange, and as he slipped on a pair of headphones connected to his computer, he wondered why he even bothered. ‘Just a few more days and we’ll be out of each other’s hair for good.’ he thought as a few swift clicks of the mouse started his music. He had no idea why he seemed more productive while listening to the soundtrack for the movie ‘The Corpse Bride,’ but he did, and he needed to be as productive as possible tonight. He placed the half-liter bottle of Diet Pepsi and the couple candy bars he’d bought himself at the convenience store within easy reach -- he’d need the energy rush, no matter how unhealthy it would be -- and pulled up the word processor on his laptop, opening a blank document and the page his professor had put up with the prompts. He gave a short sigh as he looked over the prompts, picked the one he thought looked to be the easiest, and began to type. He was in for a very, very long night, made even longer by the fact that he was already exhausted from a previous two weeks consisting of nothing but writing essays for his other classes. They were the reason he hadn’t been able to start this one any sooner; he’d had two due the previous day, a shorter one even for this same class, and one due the previous Friday. Combine that with the fact that his professor hadn’t even released the prompts for this essay until last Thursday, and it was a recipe for disaster. Or at least a thoroughly exhausted student. ‘I just hope I can pass this class...’ he thought, setting up his heading and title.
It wasn’t long before Ryo heard some noises behind him and turned, seeing his roommate get ready for bed. The sight made him grimace internally. ‘The one night he goes to bed at a reasonable hour...’ he fumed, turning back to see his half-paragraph-long essay struggling to get off the ground. Still, he flicked on his desk lamp, paused his music and stood, walking over and flicking the switch that controlled the main light off. Just because he’d never been asked to turn off the light didn’t mean he wouldn’t be courteous and do it anyway.
--------------------
“Hey Ryo, what’s up? You look exhausted. Did your roommate keep you up again?”
Ryo shook his head as he slipped into his seat in the last few rows large lecture hall, taking his laptop from it’s bag and placing it on his lap. “No, not this time.” he replied. “He actually went to bed at a reasonable hour.” He gave a massive yawn. “I just went to bed four hours ago, that’s all.”
Ryo’s fellow anthropology major and close friend, Yugi Mutoh, gave a long, low whistle. “Why in the world did you go to bed at five am, Ryo?” the small boy asked, his lavender eyes wide.
“I was finishing my last essay for that bloody religious studies class.” Ryo answered. “I did manage to finish it.”
“That’s good...” Yugi said slowly. “But your class isn’t until five tonight. Why didn’t you go to bed earlier and finish it this afternoon?”
“Oh, once I managed to get started, it wasn’t too bad.” Ryo said lightly, smiling. “It was just, y’know, getting it started.”
Yugi nodded and turned his gaze back to the front of the room as the professor began his lecture. Ryo too turned on his laptop and pulled up his notes.
‘This class is a load of bollocks.’ he thought, his eyes already glazing over with boredom. ‘Not only is macroeconomics boring, but we also had to get the archetypal old man professor.’ It was true, the professor couldn’t have been younger than sixty. He was a small, balding man who liked to dress in light plaid shirts and used suspenders to hold up his slacks. He sported thick glasses, and spoke in a monotonous drone, which he tried to puncture every so often with comments he thought to be funny. Ryo could swear that three quarters of the class, held in the largest lecture hall on campus, slept through his entire hour-and-a-half long lecture. As for Ryo himself, he quickly hopped on the internet and pulled up the webcomic he was currently reading. Next to him, Yugi was doing the same thing.
Ryo smiled to himself. He and Yugi had met in a poetry class during their first quarter, and they had immediately hit it off. They’d hung out nearly every day, especially since they had a lot of classes together. Ryo didn’t mind some of the jokes his old friends made about their closeness -- Yugi was cute, but Ryo hadn’t swung that way since...well, he hadn’t looked at a guy that way in a long while.
Every now and again, he looked up at the three screens at the front of the room, checking to see if any new notes had been put up. He didn’t really know why he bothered. It seemed like the professor had a liking for trying to explain a concept by using every possible scenario in which it would apply. ‘One or two examples would be fine...still, I guess it takes up more of class time, which means we go over less stuff in each class. That’s a good thing, I suppose.’ He gave a small sigh, slumping into his seat and glancing on the clock on his computer. What he saw made him sit up a little straighter, stretching his arms over his head; class would be over in just a few minutes. The professor even sounded like he was winding down.
“Hey, Yuuu-gi,” he said, reaching over and poking the smaller boy in the shoulder, “wake up. Econ’s over.”
“Mmm...wha?” Yugi opened his eyes blearily, yawning widely and shaking the sleepiness from his head.
Ryo chuckled. “Have a nice nap, Yugi?”
“I’m surprised you didn’t take one.” Yugi replied, straightening up in his seat. “Huh -- hey, isn’t that your roommate down there?”
Ryo looked down near the front of the room. “I don’t see...oh.” Sure enough, in the third row, Ryo could spot the familiar, helmet-like brown hair of his roommate, busily packing up. He stood, towering over the remaining students, and made his way out of one of the exits on either side of the podium. “I had no idea he was in this class.”
“Me either.” Yugi said, yawning again. “Ah, well. It’s no big deal, right? We are now officially done with economics, aside from the final, and that can’t be anything but good. Anthro’s next.”
Ryo looked again at the exit his roommate had left from, then shook his head, giving a small smile. “Right. The class we actually have to pay attention in.”
“At least it’s interesting. Hey, you wanna go get lunch after this?”
Ryo’s stomach growled audibly, and he shyly put a a hand over it. “Please. I’m starved.”
“How about over at A.I.? What do they have?”
“I’ll check.” Ryo said, giving the slightest of frowns. He was known for being a fairly picky eater, and the food in the resident hall restaurants didn’t always agree with him. Still, he knew Yugi could be rather anal about using up his free meal swipes every week, and he’d agreed to go to the commons restaurants almost every day this week. “I dunno...it looks all right, I guess.”
Yugi, not seeing Ryo’s reluctance, grinned. “Great!”
Ryo smiled back, though it was a little forced. “Yeah...great.”
--------------------
‘One more day...just one more day of class, and then finals, and I’ll be a sophomore in college...’ Ryo gave a light sigh as he entered his room, finding it empty. He knew it was rude of him, but he couldn’t help but be glad when his roommate wasn’t there. He could relax, put on his music without headphones, and not somehow feel that he was some sort of inferior being to whatever specie his roommate was. He could just feel like himself. With a small grin on his lips, Ryo unpacked his bag, setting his laptop on his desk and plugging it in. He still had a few hours before his next class, and Ryo planned to spend them relaxing the only way he really could up here at school: on the internet.
It wasn’t long, however, before the distinctive sound of a key turning in the lock signaled the return of his roommate. Without any sort of greeting, Ryo automatically reached for his headphones and plugged them in, slipping them in his ears. At least he’d gotten an hour or so of relaxation.
Behind him, his roommate began to strip, changing into a simple black t-shirt instead of the dress shirts he normally wore out. A pair of silky blue pajama bottoms also replaced the formal-looking khaki slacks.
Ryo couldn’t help but watch, staring at the reflection in his laptop’s screen. His roommate was attractive, of that there was no doubt. He was tall, with legs that seemed to stretch on for miles and a torso to match. He was in near-peak physical condition, even though Ryo had never once seen or heard him talk about working out. Ryo was sure that he was the type girls were apt to throw themselves at. But instead of being statuesque, he was more like a statue of ice; cold, sharp, and chiseled. Though ‘statuesque’ appeared to be the ultimate aesthetic goal, Ryo only understood that definition aesthetically. To have the dimensions and perfection of a statue was one thing; to have the personality of one was quite another. He’d never heard of anyone other than the occasional pervert ever trying to have a satisfying relationship -- sexual or otherwise -- with the Venus de Milo or David.
‘Ah...what am I thinking about?’ Ryo thought, mentally shaking his head. ‘Come on, you haven’t swung that way since high school. Why start now for your poker-arsed roommate?'
