Work Text:
“Ryoga, get the door.”
“Busy,” was the purple haired boy’s grunt of a response, fingers tapping on his iPod screen. Upon walking beside him, his sister Rio could see he was sprawled on the couch, jacket thrown on the armrest his head leaned on, his otherwise dark face illuminated by the screen of his electronic. The notorious cartoon drawing of a bird and green pipes, those infamously annoying sounds, the accompanied frustration of the player—Ryoga was playing none other than Flappy Bird, the game he said to have deleted from his device.
“Really?” Rio asked in mild irritation, rolling her eyes as her brother swore upon losing focus. “You said you deleted the game. Why are you still playing it?”
Ryoga threw her a dirty look, speaking as she remained unfazed by it. “I still need to beat Yuma’s score, ok? No one gets away with one-upping me.”
“Is it Yuma that has you stumped,” Rio asked with a ghost of a grin, “or Kaito?”
The boy threw his arms up and laid back. “Screw Kaito, that guy has a high score of at least a hundred by now. If I wanna catch up to him, I’m going to be stuck playing this stupid thing for a long time.”
Rio practically snorted. “And you’re not doing that now?” The doorbell rang again, and she stood up from her seat on the floor beside the couch, walking to the hallway light and turning it on. “Take a break and rest your eyes, Ryoga. Answer the door.”
“You get it,” Ryoga muttered under his breath. He started another round of the game and got as far as 18, before deciding to check the time. 21:23. He sat up and groaned. “Who could be at the door this late at night?”
“Don’t know, but they’re gonna be freezing themselves to death the longer you leave them out there.” His sister took a towel out of the closet and yawned, walking into the bathroom and turning the light on. “I’m taking a shower, the person better be gone by the time I get out.”
“How hard is it to answer the stupid door yourself?” Ryoga asked.
“You tell me, Flappy Bird.” The door closed shut as she disappeared behind it.
Ryoga growled and stood up, stretching his arms and tossing a pillow towards the bathroom. “You were closer for the longest time. Whatever.” Arguing with the stubborn girl was pointless, and the bell had become unnerving after five or so more rings. It was easier to just answer the door himself, shoo the person away, and get back to what he was doing.
Or so he thought, at least until he finally opened the door.
“… IV?”
“Hey, Ryoga,” IV lifted his hand in a greeting, flashing him one of his famous fanservice smiles and holding a pillow in his hand. Now why was he holding that? The older boy followed Ryoga’s line of sight and laughed a bit. “I bet you’re wondering why I’m here.”
“Cut to the chase, I haven’t got all night.” Ryoga frowned, eyes peeling from the pillow and meeting magenta eyes. “What do you want?”
IV lowered his hand and glanced past him. “A place to stay for the night. V and III brought people over, and things got pretty awkward really fast.”
Ryoga arched a brow. “The hell does that even mean?”
“Let me in and I’ll tell you the whole story, juicy gossip and more.”
Weak blackmail game, the purple haired boy thought. But he decided to step aside. “Fine, you can stay for the night. But you go to bed when Rio and I do, got it?”
“Not a problem, I was asleep when things went downhill anyway.”
Ryoga closed the door as IV walked in, locking it and making his way back to the couch. “Then how did you know what was going on?”
“Should I start from the beginning, or…?” IV’s smile faded as his eyes befell the game enlarged on Ryoga’s iPod, the sincerity of the smile morphing into a mocking sneer. “Ok, who got you into this game? It’s like everyone plays this game now.”
Ryoga snatched up the electronic and laid back down on the sofa, glad it was dark enough to hide how pink his face got. “Yuma did. Shut up, don’t laugh.” He tossed IV a dirty look before turning back to the game and starting over. “He had a high score of twenty-something, and the highest I got at the time was 14. I wouldn’t dare let him beat me in anything.”
“I expected better of you, though, Shark,” the older male teased, leaning in close enough to watch as the goofy bird flew in between the pipes and racked up the score. “To stoop so low as to play a trendy game as ugly and stupid as this? Then again, I’ve heard worse. I heard Kaito plays this thing too.”
Ryoga ignored his friend for the most part, concentrating on the game until Kaito was mentioned. He didn’t have much time to reply with anything other than a small “mm-hm,” before he almost lost again. The number reached 20, and he inwardly smiled to himself. “Don’t know why he plays it, but whatever.” The mocking finally setting in, Ryoga allowed for himself to lose at 23 and handed the phone to IV. “Fine, if you think you’re so much better than me, why don’t you start playing?”
“Because unlike you, I have dignity and a reputation to uphold.”
Ryoga shoved IV’s head away as the other cackled in amusement, turning over on the couch. “Say anything like that again and you’re sleeping outside.”
“Alright, alright.”
Ryoga glanced back before deciding to start another game. “Speaking of the sleepover, I hope you’ve eaten already. We have, so if you’re hungry, you’re out of luck for anything of a meal until tomorrow.”
IV waved dismissively. “I’m good, but maybe I can have something like a small snack to tie me over till then. I last ate around 18:00, so.”
“Whatever.” The bird crashed again at 13 points, and Ryoga threw the device down on the cushion below him. Screw that game. He rolled over and pointed across to the closest chair. “You can sit on the chair instead of on the floor and so close to me.”
“I’m fine here.” IV grinned. “Give up on being a loser?”
Ryoga narrowed his eyes. “I think the temperature reaches as low as 3.8°C tonight. Hope you brought some blankets.”
“Right, right, sorry.” IV laughed, setting the pillow down on the seat of the chair and moving to make himself comfortable on it. “So, you finally interested in hearing my story?”
“If it’ll tire you out to go to bed, then yes.”
IV paused, not offended in the slightest, but Ryoga had certainly thought so until he decided to speak. “If you’re ready for bed, then let’s set everything up in your room.” Receiving a dark look from the younger boy, IV blinked and tilted his head in confusion. “What, you don’t want me in your room?”
Ryoga shook his head. “I was hoping you would settle for the couch.”
The champion shrugged. “Fine by me, I won’t complain. You were nice enough to let me stay the night anyway.”
“Don’t expect me to let you in next time.” Ryoga adjusted himself on the sofa and curled up a bit, eyeing IV attentively. “This was late enough. If this happens again, I really am leaving you outside.”
The Arclight smirked. “When’s my cut-off time?”
“20:00,” he answered.
“That’s alright, I’ll just make sure to remember that.” IV leaned back in the chair and thought for a moment, most likely rewinding his story laid out in his head before telling it. “So earlier in the afternoon, V and III invited Kaito and Yuma over. And of course, when Kaito is over, his brother Haruto and that Mizael guy have to tag along. And wherever Yuma goes, Astral goes, so I’m guessing you have a good picture of how crowded the house got. Not to mention Vetrix already had Faker over.”
A small smile played Ryoga’s lips. “What, you didn’t think of inviting me?”
“Well, if my brothers weren’t hellbent on inviting all of Heartland City, I’m sure we would have made space for you.” Earning a small laugh from the other, IV took that as his cue to continue. “So anyway, while everyone was talking about random things, including everyone’s apparent obsession with Flappy Bird, I stepped out to get something to eat from the fridge, only to walk back in and hear something about a proposal of one of my brothers to one of the guests over.”
Ryoga’s jaw dropped in shock. “What!? One of your brothers proposed to someone? Who?”
“I didn’t know at the time, I walked back into the conversation too late to find out,” IV grinned. “III is too young to make any life-changing decisions, and V wouldn’t even consider something like that with his mind on everything else but settling down. It was so weird. I tried asking questions but everyone thought that the stupid game that’s so trendy was so much more important to talk about.”
His audience chuckled. “You couldn’t have waited to snack after they talked about that?”
IV tapped his chin in thought. “I think they conspired to wait for me to leave before bringing it up. Anyway, I found out Yuma’s score in the game was 31–”
“Shit.”
Ryoga’s sudden interruption earned a small jump from IV followed by a laugh. “Aw, that’s right, your high score is 23, huh? Well, look on the bright side. Yuma’s got a long way to go to catch up to III, Kaito, and Haruto. III has 46, Haruto has 77, and Kaito has 139. I think Mizael has 162.”
Ryoga sighed. “I knew I should have kept that game deleted from my iPod forever.”
“I second that. But it’s no skin of my back.” He ignored Ryoga as he glared at him, continuing his story. “So after dinner, I decided to get some sleep. I went to bed at around 17:30 or so, and woke up around 18:00 when I heard noises coming from V’s room. Not knowing what it was, I got up and was tempted to pound on the wall to get him to shut up. I am both grateful and regretful of my decision to hold back and listen, because oh my God, did I find out something so terrible!”
The purple haired boy yawned and covered his mouth with a hand. “What’d you find out?”
“That V and Kaito were having sex.”
Halfway through his yawn, Ryoga fought to say or scream something, resulting in coughing and making incoherent noises instead of forming legitimate words. “W-what the–! What the hell!? V a-and Kaito… were having-!”
IV began laughing loudly at this point, clearly entertained at the other’s reaction. “They sure were! Oh man, don’t die on me now! It was then that I realized that the proposal was between V and Kaito, though it shouldn’t have been that difficult for me to figure out.”
“Obviously!” Ryoga regained his composure, but his face did seem flushed at the thought of Kaito in a situation of intimacy. “It took overhearing them doing… that, for you to put two and two together. I need to stop forgetting just how smart you really are.”
IV frowned. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
“Just as it sounds like,” the younger boy smirked, rolling onto his stomach. “You never think. Ever.”
“Screw you too.” The older boy sat back, averting his gaze from Ryoga’s amused expression. “I guess I was the only one who knew it was happening, because no one else knew by the time I got downstairs. They carried on like nothing, and began asking me questions when I talked about it. Like, ‘oh, what does Kaito sound like?’ or ‘did they just start or were they finishing up?’ And then from Mizael and Haruto I got ‘what is sex?’ Do you know just how embarrassing that can get, especially with Vetrix and Faker laughing awkwardly at you?”
“I can only imagine,” Ryoga hummed, able to piece the questions to the possible people that asked. He sat up as the bathroom door opened, and his sister walked out with nothing but a towel wrapped around her body. “Oh, hey Rio.”
“Ryoga, who are you talking to – eep!” She ducked behind the hallway as she laid her eyes on the unexpected guest, hiding her rather exposed body from him. “IV! Why is IV here!?”
The uncomfortable boy covered his eyes with a hand and frowned. “Sorry for barging in like that, I needed a place to stay. My house got so weird that I couldn’t even sleep there. It seems like I just can’t get away from naked people or awkward situations today though.”
The last sentence was spoken under his breath, but Ryoga heard him, and chuckled upon doing so. He stood up and waved Rio to her room. “Yeah, sorry I forgot to tell you. He’s spending the night here, and he’s gonna be staying in my room.” He answered IV’s curious gaze with an acknowledging look of his own, leaning against the couch as to avoid looking at his nude sister. “I’ll make sure he won’t run into you like that again. Now get dressed and get some sleep. We’re going to bed soon anyway.”
“We are?”
“Yeah,” he replied as he shut his iPod off.
Rio seemed to be convinced enough that it was ok to calm down, a small sigh escaping her as she slinked her way into her room. “Alright then, I’ll leave taking care of him to you. I’m going to bed. Good night you guys.”
“Night,” they both called back as the female closed the door.
With exchanging looks, IV lifted himself from his seat in the living room and approached Ryoga. “Alright, lead the way to your room. Am I sleeping on the floor?”
Ryoga let out a hum, pondering for a moment before pointing to the couch. “Bring some of the cushions to lay out underneath you so you won’t be completely on the floor. I am keeping you in my room, but you’re not getting on my bed.”
“Don’t worry,” IV laughed dryly, retrieving the cushions before following Ryoga to his bedroom, “I think my brother and his partner ruined that enough for me.”
“Come on, IV, it’s not like you walked in on them doing it,” Ryoga muttered as he took apart his bed to split the blankets evenly. It was going to be a cold night, so he made sure to give some of the thicker blankets to his guest while keeping at least one for himself. “I’ll give you a sheet to lay out on the cushions. Are these blankets enough?”
IV nodded, putting the pillows together before setting his own down on the rest. “That’s perfect, thanks.” He took the sheet and laid it down before removing his jacket and crawling underneath the other blankets. “Hey Ryoga, do you have a crush on anyone? I feel like I know the answer, but I’m gonna ask anyway.”
Ryoga stared at his guest as he processed the question, a frown settling on his face as an answer surfaced. “Of course not. I don’t care about getting together with anyone. Too busy to think about that sort of thing anyway.”
“Hmm, that’s what I thought was V’s thought process before tonight, but well. Looks like the Tenjos will be in-laws soon enough.” IV curled up under the blankets and yawned, movements slowing to a stop as he finally became comfortable.
“What about you, IV?” Ryoga asked with curiosity. The question came out sooner than the boy was able to think about it, a moment of regret washing over him before he decided to hell with it and maintained his stand. Earning a blank gaze from the older boy, he kept on going. “You claim to be all about giving your fans the ultimate fanservice, and you love being in the spotlight and all the attention you get. I bet you do have someone you have your eyes on.”
IV’s lips curled into a smile. “True, I do have someone in mind. But they won’t take the place of my number one fan, so don’t worry about being replaced.”
Ryoga’s neck snapped in his direction as the explanation practically slapped him in the face, sputtering a response as best as he could. “Wha–!?”
He expected IV to laugh and say ‘joking, joking,’ in the best sing-song voice he could muster, but he did no such thing… aside from laughing, which was sort of his thing. “Aww, could it be that the big bad master of Flappy Bird by the name of Ryoga Kamishiro has a thing for me?”
“Not gonna happen,” Ryoga growled with a kick or two to IV’s side. “Not now, not ever. You’re not my type, and you’re a stupid asshole. I’d sooner look to Yuma than you.”
“Ouch! That was just plain cruel, Ryoga,” IV held onto his side, exclaiming in pain and howling with laughter. “Yuma over me? You have no taste. Uncute as always.”
“Zero fucks.”
Such a bitter attitude with intense cynicism, but it was what IV liked most in his best friend. “Whatever you say, Ryoga.”
A loud knock came on the other side of the door before it swung open, an angry but clad Rio glaring at the two boys. “You two are way too loud. I’m trying to sleep. Shut up before I lock you both out.”
“Take him first, he’s the reason why,” her brother pointed to the boy on the floor before leaping onto his bed.
“So rude, is this how you treat your friends, Ryoga?” IV pretended to be hurt, giving Rio a winsome smile. “Sorry about the noise. We’ll be sleeping soon.”
“I sure hope so, or there will be consequences.” Rio darted her eyes between the boys before stepping out again and shutting the light off. “Good night.”
“Night.”
The door closed again, and Ryoga turned in the blankets, yawning. IV released the breath he’d been holding. “You sister scared the crap out of me just now.”
“Same. But she’s gone now, so let’s do our best to keep it that way.” Ryoga closed his eyes.
“Agreed.” IV laid on his back and gazed up at the ceiling, waiting for sleep to take him over. Upon waiting about a minute or two, he shifted to his side and held up his head with his hand. “So Ryoga, are you a virgin?”
“Why the hell are you asking?” Ryoga snapped at him, sure he was red in the face with anger. “You’re being as awkward as your family was, leave that over there.”
IV shrugged. “I’m just curious. But it would surprise me if your answer is no. I mean, you’re so distant with people, you’d even avoid getting involved with trouble–”
Ryoga practically tuned out IV’s rambling, cutting him off before he finished speaking. “What’s your point?”
“I don’t have one. Just thought I’d ask.”
The younger boy rolled his eyes. “Again, being weird. Now shut up and sleep.”
A moment of silence. IV paused for a moment and gazed out the window as he grew lost in thought. “… Hey, Ryoga.”
“What?” he asked testily, eyes still closed.
“… Do you really forgive me for all the things I did to you and your sister?
The question threw him off. Ryoga opened his eyes and sat up a bit, looking to see glistening eyes in the dim moonlight from the window. IV had his attention on him, so he had to come up with something. “Well, yeah. No use dwelling on the past when it’s over and done with.” When he got no response, he laid back down with a sigh. “Hating you now and hurting you won’t fix the damage that was done back then, and it’s irrelevant to do anything about it now when Rio is already over it.”
“And what about you?” he asked. “Are you over it?”
Ryoga shrugged absently. “For the most part. You listened to your father blindly, and yeah, it was that behavior I hated you for, but we have reasons to do something. You did it for validation, and I won’t pretend I never did worse than you ever could.”
“… You’re referring to your life as a Barian, huh?”
Ryoga remained silent. Being told he was a king in his past life and being involved in a war with Vector came as a total shock to the boy who thought his life just consisted of being a schoolboy with grudges to the man who put his sister in the hospital. “Yeah. I killed people on the opposite side of me for being the enemy, and I killed people on the same side as me just to try and fend Vector off. So many people died, and there was nothing I could do about it, because even after losing all of them, I still lost who was important to me… Merag, Durbe, Iris. They suffered because I couldn’t rule right. I couldn’t keep the enemy at bay, and everyone paid the price for it.”
“But did you make it a sport?” IV disturbed Ryoga’s thoughts when he delved too far in his, Nasch’s, past. “Was it a game for you to play, putting lives on the lines and going through with it for personal gain?”
“No!” Ryoga sat up and exclaimed, teeth gritted and hands tightly clenched around bedsheets. Realizing he was too tense, he lowered his head and tried to ease his own death grip on his blankets. “No, of course not. It never was.”
“Then you haven’t sinned nearly as badly as I did,” the older boy commented, voice calm and rather quiet in comparison to his usual and Ryoga’s current one. “It was a source of fun for me, I called the pain I dealt others my ‘fanservice.’ If that’s not something of malicious intent, then I don’t know what is.”
Ryoga gave a sarcastic smirk. “Vector’s existence was malicious intent.”
“But you know the truth, right?” IV smiled a bit. “The entire world isn’t black and white. If that’s all you see, you’ll never see the necessary good and bad in people. The darkness in Yuma’s heart and the light in… well, my old life, for example, would never be seen by you if you just saw things in two colors.”
Ryoga released his grip on his sheets and smoothed them out. “You know, you’re pretty philosophical for someone who rarely thinks with his head.”
“I dwell on this a lot more than you think.”
The purple haired boy avoided looking at IV. “I sometimes wondered if you did. I guess I can say I feel satisfied knowing the answer.” He gave a small glance to the other before looking away again. Why couldn’t he keep eye contact with him? “Do you force yourself to be my friend just because it would give you a sense of atonement?”
IV waited before answering, his own gaze falling to the point where not even the moonlight could illuminate his eyes. “If that’s how you want to look at it, then sure. It’s not a complete lie, I feel like I can make up for what I did by doing what I can to erase old impressions of me left in those I hurt. But I wouldn’t say it’s forced. You are my only friend, Ryoga.”
“You need to sleep, I think your coolness is slipping,” Ryoga teased as he laid back down on the bed, getting comfortable once more. Silence pursued the seemingly end of the conversation, and Ryoga watched as IV stretched out his sore wrist and rested on the cushions. “But hey… thanks for sticking around. You made an attempt to understand me when I was going through those issues as a Barian, and if that doesn’t prove you’re a friend, I don’t know what does.”
“Hm, what? This sleepover doesn’t count?” IV joked, but read the seriousness of the atmosphere and adjusted his mood again. “But I don’t deserve a thanks. Not yet, anyway.”
“And when would that be?” The younger boy asked with genuine curiosity.
“Not sure, but I’ll let you know.”
It sounded about right to him, though Ryoga didn’t mind thanking him prematurely. He didn’t think waiting was necessary, but if it was to wait for IV, no, Thomas, to come to terms with where he stood in the world and with his only friend, then he wouldn’t argue against it. The conversation came to a close, a more comfortable one at that, and Ryoga let the silence permeate the dark room again. The sleepover was a first for him, and probably the first moment he spent with IV as a friend. He wouldn’t admit to enjoying it to IV, but he did find himself smiling at the thought of being able to connect with the other on a calm level, compared to the times they would try to during a hectic duel with them always at odds with each other. With a final dismiss to the thought, he turned to glance at IV again. “Hey, was there anything else you wanted to talk about?”
No response.
“… IV? Hey, you awake?”
Again, nothing. Ryoga waited for a moment before hearing a soft snore from the other, before letting out a small laugh. IV had gone to sleep. Finally. With a turn to his side, Ryoga closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep like his friend did.
… But the temptation was too great. He leaped out of his bed and sped to his desk to retrieve his marker pen, uncapping it and rushing back to IV to begin writing on his face. It was too dark to see, so most of his drawing turned into scribbles. But Ryoga’s bigger concern was avoiding waking the other up, worried either the marker or his own stifled snickers would do the trick. Finally satisfied with how much content was on his face, the younger boy capped the marker and set it back before jumping back into bed and laughing into his pillow.
“Good night, IV.”