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“Thank you for having us, really. It’s so good to get out of the house every now and then.”
Ryou took his coat from the hook and slid into his shoes then turned to look Yugi in the eye (he found he had to look directly at his audience for this one). He asked, “Do you have your wallet and your keys?”
There was that initial confusion he was getting used to. ‘Is he talking to me?’ ‘This is my home, I’m not the one leaving.’ ‘Of course I have my wallet and keys.’ Thankfully Yugi was smart enough to skip the obvious. “Yes?” he replied uncertainly.
“No, I need you to check, please.” Ryou replied firmly, angling his head at the other occupant of the entryway. The small child glowered up at him while struggling to tie his shoelaces.
Yugi followed his gaze and understanding lit his eyes as he tried not to laugh. “Oh!” he said and touched his rear pocket then glanced at the basket on the side table. “Yep, wallet and keys are where they’re supposed to be.”
Ryou sighed and knelt down in front of Akeifa. “Turn out your pockets.”
Akeifa glared.
Yugi grew concerned as a full on staredown commenced. Ryou didn’t seem phased by it, however, and held steady. After a very long moment, Akeifa stuck his right hand into the pocket of his red hoodie and pulled out a thin television remote. He handed it to Ryou who handed it to Yugi and Akeifa gave Yugi a nasty little grin. He’d almost gotten away with that one and it would have been a great prank. The grin fell when Ryou demanded, “Now the other one.”
He slowly and more reluctantly reached into the left pocket and pulled out a small deck of cards, an indie game they had been playing earlier that evening. He held onto it a moment more then practically threw it into Ryou's hand, finding a spot on the wall to stare at, more embarrassed at being caught stealing something he wanted.
Ryou straightened and handed it to Yugi who got a familiar, soft look in his eyes. Ryou tried to shoot him a warning glare but his friend was already kneeling down.
“I’d give it to you but I don’t think Ryou will let me,” he flashed a quick smile up at Ryou who huffed but relaxed, assured that Yugi wasn’t going to undermine certain lessons he was working so very hard on. “So I’ll hold onto this for now and we can play next time if that’s alright with you.”
The look Akeifa gave Yugi was suspicious, and then confused (as was often the case when suddenly faced with Yugi’s sincerity ), and then, just for a moment, ever so slightly vulnerable before snapping back into a tiny scrunched up scowl. He huffed, turned and marched out the door, one shoelace still undone and hoodie hanging off his shoulders.
“Akeifa wait!” Ryou gave his friend a quick squeeze, a quiet ‘Thank you, sorry, thank you,’ and ran out the door.
When he caught up with him (that boy could walk fast when his mind was set on something) Ryou stopped him. He straightened the sweater, tied the shoelace and took Akeifa’s hand so that they could walk home together . After a block or two of silence, Akeifa relaxed a bit when he realized he wasn’t going to get a lecture and Ryou took the opportunity to ask, “Would you like to go visit Yugi again next week?”
He got a noise in reply. It wasn’t a yes, but it wasn’t exactly a no. Ryou figured he could take it as a solid maybe and made a mental note to text Yugi later. They hadn’t done Thursday game nights in a very long time and like he’d said earlier, it was good to get out of the house every now and then.