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Jounouchi really hates haunted houses. They’re dank, smelly, annoying and with the kind of luck he knows he has, probably actually full of actual ghosts.
Jounouchi is only in one because he has to be. Because Honda had cheated on a bet. Because seriously, that video game match had been bogus - the guy had spammed the super-shot to tomorrow and back. Jounouchi had almost weaseled his way out of going too, until Ryou had excitedly offered to go with him if he was scared. Which, one - someone as slight and sweet as Ryou was had no business being anywhere near as interested as he sounded in a haunted freaking house at all, let alone with the weird stuff he had gone through with the Millennium Ring - and, two - if Jounouchi had continued to try and chicken out, after a pretty-boy like Ryou had said he’d do it, Honda would have never let him live it down. Plus, he wasn't scared. Not at all. Not even though it was, again, a haunted freaking house.
So here he was, in the cold, dark, weird house down the block from Honda’s apartment, at night. And… it actually wasn’t so bad? It had been at the start, what with all the dust and creaky floorboards, and creepy sheets thrown over furniture – but ten minutes in and well, Jounouchi was actually getting kind of bored. But he was sure it was time to go. After all, saying longer wasn't making him more on edge or anything.
Nothing had tried to jump out at them yet, which Ryou seemed oddly put out and pouty about. He kept waving his flashlight about as they moved from room to room, as if he might catch a fleeting glimpse of something scurrying back into the dark. Which was all kinds of disturbing and made Jounouchi’s skin feel inexplicably itchy. Not that he was still scared or anything. Not even a little.
“Hey, look, I don’t think there’s anything here. When did Honda say we could leave, huh?” Jounouchi’s voice sounded petulant and just shy of whiny in his own ears.
Ryou stopped abruptly, almost causing Jounouchi to stubble into his back. “I think we still have about thirty minutes.” He sighed in a bereaved manner, as if not finding at least a large fanged bat had made his night a bust, before brightening and turning to smile. “Are you hungry? I have snacks in my backpack!”
Ryou’s grin was sweet and so bright that it shined in the dim lighting. His smiles always had been the type to leave Jounouchi just a tad star-struck – they were like the sun coming out from behind a cloud, or in this case the moon. The darkness made him look almost ethereal, now that Jounouchi thought to look – his skin appeared slightly luminescent and the air around him tenuous, like if he wanted to melt back into the darkness, nothing but gemstone bright eyes and flashing teeth would last – like the Cheshire Cat. Or like a ghost. Jounouchi shrived slightly, his skin breaking out into gooseflesh. He had never felt so strangely trepidatious and attracted at the same time. Then his stomach rumbled.
Ryuo laughed out loud, a warm sound that fled away the sudden chill in the air, before pulling his pack off and rummaging through it, pulling out some chocolate and then some soda cans.
When he held out Jounouchi’s share, he took it and the both settled down right where they had been standing, cross-legged on the floor. They tucked in with companionable silence, Jounouchi shooting glances when he thought Ryou wasn’t noticing.
Because he really couldn’t stop looking. Because he had just realized how absolutely gorgeous Ryou was. Which was absolutely insane. Even more insane than eating chocolate bars, while sitting on the floor of a house likely full of bump-in-the-night style monsters. Because his freaking life was weird. But he really wasn’t sure what to do with this weirdness.
And just when he thinks he’ll tuck it away into his big box of ‘Don’t Think About It’ (which has gotten obscenely large over the years of running around with his friends and the wacky stuff they’ve seen), suddenly he’s being kissed.
His brain faintly notes that Ryou’s lips taste like sugar and sweetness from the candy – or maybe, that’s just how he always tastes – before Ryou is pulling back, face flushed and looking coyly up through his lashes.
Jounouchi doesn't really know what to say. Or do. Apparently Ryou takes that the wrong way, because the pink on his cheeks begins to spreed to the rest of his face and she starts subtly scooting away and mumbling apologies and platitudes under his breath. So Jounouchi pulls him in for another kiss, rougher, more forceful. The startled yelp Ryou makes to begin with slowly turns into a quiet, tentative sound of appreciation.
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When they come out of the house almost ten minutes later than agreed Honda is pacing and looking more than a little distraught. "I was just about to go in and start looking for you guys! Geez, give me a heart attack, why don't you?"
As Honda starts leading the way home, berating them about making him wait outside in the cold, Jounouchi cautiously slides his hand into Ryou's. He is rewarded with another of those brilliant smiles that made his skin tingle and he can't help but think that he might not hate haunted houses so much, after all.