!DISCONTINUED! ♡ Paper Planes. [DEATHSHIPPING]

10 | Eyes

Ryou and Bakura sat where they usually sat at the table for lunch. However, the unusual thing this time, was that

Marik wasn't there with them. Wasn't sitting next to Bakura. Or across from him. Wasn't holding his hand. Wasn't rambling about the newest gossip between celebrities, as if Ryou and Bakura really updated themselves on that kind of thing. 

Bakura was silent. His head was on the table, and while Ryou had food, he didn't. Ryou looked over to his brother in concern. "Are you feeling okay?"

Bakura didn't respond. Maybe his slow blink was supposed to mean something, but Ryou didn't think of it that way. He looked down at his tray of food and played with it a little. Suddenly, Bakura broke the silence.

"He's gone. He broke up with me this morning."

Ryou's heart sank.

"Marik?"

Usually, Bakura would respond with a sarcastic and cocky answer, but at the time being, he seemed too exhausted to even wanna speak again. He nodded. 

Ryou was confused. Marik and Bakura? Not a couple? This would be a difficult change to get used to, and one he didn't appreciate. "Why? How? What-"

"I don't know, Ryou. I don't bloody know."

Bakura's tone when speaking was never a hard one to understand. You could always tell how he felt when he was saying something. If he was upset, neutral, pissed, or even happy. At least, maybe Ryou had felt that way considering they were brothers. Close ones, at that. That all being said, the way Bakura had said the last bit of his sentence was shown to Ryou that Bakura wanted no further questions about it. About them. About why Marik had spent all of these years loving this stupid boy so desperately, and only now wanted to run away. 

Ryou spoke no more. Instead, he inhaled, and continued playing with his food.

A loud stand-up from across him broke the silence. Bakura stood up and backed away from the table, shoving his hood on while all of his pure white, messy fluffy hair poofed out of it. 

"I'm gonna go smoke. I'll check with you before lunch ends." was the last sentence he gave in his gruff, raspy British accent, before finally walking out of the clear cafeteria doors. Ryou only nodded, despite knowing Bakura couldn't have seen it since he had walked off as soon as he finished his statement. 

The younger Bakura brother now being alone looked over at his tray of messy food. He pushed it away, and put his head down, wondering where all of these shenanigans today were coming from and what they could mean. Considering Ryou was big into the occult and supernatural, this also led to him believing in statements such as everything happening for a reason. That being made into knowledge, he had a strong habit of thinking about the situations he'd be put into and what they could mean for the future. What they would predict for the fateful boy. And the more Ryou thought about all of these problems mixed into one, messy and under-cooked pie,
the more he began to worry about what was in store for all of the boys.

Including Marikuu. In fact, especially Marikuu.

If Ryou wished to be frank, Marikuu was truly the only thing pestering his poor head all day when his science exam that was just next period should've been. Though he was the kind of person who would have and was probably expected to be seen with such a huge slap mark on his face, Ryou still couldn't help but fret over it. It looked painful. He looked painful. He looked tired. Ryou squeezed his hoodie sleeve, digging his head deeper into the circle of thought and angst his arms had made for him on a small, gray and simple cafeteria table.

He just wanted Marikuu to be okay.

He wanted to see Marikuu smile. Just like how he did when he was with Ryou, except he wanted to see it all the time. He wanted to see Marikuu's abnormally pretty blush that complimented his skin-tone, just like how he did when he was with Ryou but he wanted to see it all the time too. And Ryou wanted to hear him laugh. That gruff, genuine laugh Marikuu had that maybe some were fearful of, but Ryou wasn't. It made Ryou warm. It made him wanna laugh too, even if he didn't understand what was so humorous. He couldn't stand to see Marikuu in pain anymore, physical or emotional. Couldn't bear to see that pain-filled mark on his face. 

Ryou's thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a buzz from his phone, flustering him and nearly making him fall off the stool seat. Before grabbing it from his pocket, he shook his head with all the pinkish-red plastered on his face.

"Stop it. If you keep thinking of him that way you'll ruin what you both have! You guys are friends. Not lovers. Even if you wish we were and even fantasize about it, we aren't." Ryou held his head in his hands as he scolded himself in his head as if he were a little boy who just spilled milk on the carpet. His attention-starved phone buzzed once more, finally catching his attention enough to where Ryou pulled it out to see what it was about. 

Bakura
marikuu wants to see you on the roof
TYPING...

lmk what happens.

Reading and processing the first sentence had caused some anxiousness to stir in Ryou like a grossly warm soup, all until Bakura had sent the next statement. Ryou smiled at his brother's common protective behavior, stood up from his stool, and put his phone back into his hoodie. He began to walk off until,

Oh yeah. The food.

Ryou slowly walked back, his sneakers squeaking, and threw out the crappy excuse for meatloaf and mashed potatoes. His gaze went left to right off the table as his muddy brown eyes squinted for anything else, and then began to walk off on his journey to see what the love of his empty life required.

;;

Marikuu, with his hood over his head and causing almost all of his fluffy, blonde hair to smother his face, looked down at the high-school from above, on top of the high roof. The pale gray sidewalk, which was covered in cracks, some graffiti, faded chalk drawings, and the four orange-brown benches; two on the left-side, two on the right-side. Two girls seemed to have been occupying one of the benches on the left, possibly gossiping. At least, that's what Marikuu could assume from the evil giggling he could hear even from that high above. One of them, with pretty social butterfly-like blonde hair in tight pigtails, had a bright pink bento box next to her. The other teenage female, her hair being also a bright blonde but in a ponytail, had a very similar bento, but hers was a faded purple. The two carriers of their lunch seemed completely untouched.

Dark lavender eyes narrowing, Marikuu inhaled through his nose before lifting two of his fingers from his hand onto his lit cigarette, expecting for him to blow smoke out soon. Those same eyes drifted its vision away from the two gossip girls, and up to the very pale clementine but also pretty blue sky. 

"Where is he? Lunch ends in nearly 30 minutes."

Maybe Ryou didn't want to show up. That's what it felt as to what it was coming to. A frown slowly faded onto Marikuu's features, trying hard not to grit his sharp, canine-like teeth together in frustration considering he still had a stick of nicotine in his mouth. Or maybe Bakura, being the cunt he was, didn't even bother doing this favor for him. Why would he? Despite the conversation the two had, they still loathed the other. But, then again, Bakura seemed to tolerate what Marikuu and Ryou had. So, maybe it couldn't have been that. 

Right as Marikuu denied the villainous Bakura accusation, his denial was confirmed, as he suddenly heard small footsteps on stairs from behind him. His pupils darted toward where it was coming from, the previous hand removing the cigarette from his dry mouth and exhaling a cloud of dark gray smoke. When the figure that caused those noises finally appeared, panting with his eyes closed and hands on his knees, catching breath, Marikuu couldn't help the half-assed smile on his face. He looked back to the front of him, some gray and black buildings, along with his toxic smoke, crowding the once beautiful sky.

"There you are. Was just thinking about you."

Though Marikuu couldn't see Ryou, something in his chest told him that the last comment of his sentence sparked Ryou's pale face to rise up in a small pink fade. And he was correct. Again.

"Aww, was that too much cotton-tail? Didn't mean to ruffle your elegant fur like that."

The blush practically smeared off of his face, being replaced with squinted eyes and a toothy frown. "Don't tease me. Ra, would it kill you to just say 'Ryou'? Not some, silly name a married couple would use? You're gonna be ruffling someone else's fur if you keep that up, making them think we're dating and.. stuff.."

Would that be bad? Would you not like that?

Were the words that wanted to fall out of Marikuu's mouth like coins from a broken gumball machine, but he restrained himself, dark faded red blush appearing on his cheeks knowing he even had to. Even Ryou himself blushed again a little from what he messily stated. His dark brown eyes dilated to the side of him, awkwardly and rather fake coughing to cut through the oddly thick few minutes of silence between them like a sharp knife his older brother owned. 

"So, what is it?"

"Hm?" Marikuu mused, still caught up in the awkward moment the two boys had just endured. 

Ryou gave a soft and genuine smile, his small fangs showing just a small bit, before answering dreary Marikuu's question. "You brought me up here, Marikuu. What do you need?" he stood up beside the entry to the rooftop of the school.

Once Marikuu was snapped out of the past, he realized how he didn't like how that was phrased. Ryou said it as if Marikuu's only desire for him ever was just for favors and requests. What if he just wanted to talk to him? Have friendly chatter, as "friends" like themselves do? His nose scrunching up in offense and discomfort, he breathed in more of the intoxicated smoke and nicotine. Marikuu let his raspy, dark voice run free, voicing his previous emotions in the way Marikuu would. Cocky and sarcastic.

"What do you mean, 'need'? Geez Fluffy, you're really breaking me over here." The male he was referring to in particular couldn't help but give out laughter. "I swear, you forget the easiest things, Stud."

Marikuu suddenly choked on his drug, coughing all of the smoke out in gruff laughter. His dark amethyst eyes watering with tears of humor and joy, he nearly dropped his cigarette off the entire building while throwing his arms onto the railings of the roof. Ryou dashed over to his friend as quick as the scrawny British boy could, patting him on his clothed back aggressively. "Oh my Ra, are you alright!?" he practically yelped in pure concern.

Marikuu couldn't help the blush continuing to grow on his usual bitch face, as he only let out more laughter with Ryou's fear for him. The same harsh, loud laughter Ryou cherished dearly, but at this moment, he couldn't focus on that detail. Though, he'd be a liar if he said he didn't think about it a little. Marikuu gave no answer to the boy's previous question, only cackling more and more as it seemed. As Ryou kept his motion and position of patting the delirious male's back, he slowly began to smile like the lovesick fool he was again.

He could tell Marikuu hadn't laughed this hard in a long time.

"S-Stud? That's the.. best you could.. c-come up with?" Marikuu finally spoke from his howling of laughter session, still softly smoky coughing in between his words of humor. Ryou began to chuckle a bit himself. "I suppose it's a pretty silly nickname, hm? Compared to all the creative nicknames you've given me."

For a few moments, the two young teenage boys just stood beside each other, laughing at their ridiculous behavior. And if you were to question them if they wanted to be anywhere else,

Their reply would be no. For them, this was the happiest the two could be, and they wanted to stay in this moment forever. Just laughing. And being beside the other.

But, all things end. Even if we wish they didn't, and couldn't.

Marikuu's practically evil laughter slowly began to finally quiet down, whilst Ryou was still chortling like he would pass off to the afterlife if he didn't. Marikuu's unusually goofy smile only somehow grew farther and brighter, along with his blush filled with heat-of-the-moment ecstasy and true love, as he looked over to the snorting male Marikuu wanted to be his own. He spoke once more, this time with malicious but silly intent. "Oh yeah? You wanna feel how hard I was laughing my ass off??"

Ryou shook his head rapidly, his porcelain pale face being stained in a pinkish-red from laughing so much. He knew Marikuu's villainous plan; tickling. He tried to protest and fight this battle before he could be defeated and sent to absolute Laughter-Ville, but he was too late. Marikuu won this fight before it could even begin. His wholesome smile suddenly turned into a rather evil one, tickling Ryou any place he could fathom. The more he giggled and snorted, the more Marikuu would discover his stronger and weaker places.

The infamous tickling only got stronger and harder to resist, to where it got Ryou to finally open his hazel eyes full of tears of someone who had just been told the funniest joke in the world. He stared at the tickle criminal. "M-Marikuu...! H-Hehe haha," he snorted, "c-cut it out!" As Marikuu's eyes full of evil intent looked into his victims eyes, he began to realize something, his usually dead and frozen heart beginning to get just as warm as an oven full of your favorite cookies or sweet pastry.

Ryou had arguably gorgeous eyes. For brown eyes, the color that was probably the most bullied of all irises, Ryou's eyes were a color you could stare into for hours. Maybe even days, if Marikuu wished to tell the truth. It didn't occur to him before how much you could tell about a person and their eyes. The more he gazed, the more Marikuu could understand how Ryou felt about anything and everything. What he appreciated. What he disliked. His backstory, maybe. He could practically bathe in the pretty Hershey-chocolate brown eyes Ryou Bakura enabled.

Neither of them had seemed to notice, or care even, that the subsequent tickling got slower. Marikuu was too busy being entranced with the eyes staring into his, and Ryou was too. They're now blushing, but for different purposes, faces got only closer to the others, as the tickling hands slowed down. The tickling had finally subsided. And their noses were nearly tickling each other. One of the hands that were once causing a boy's uncontrollable laughter, had made a shaky pathway to cup one of his bright pink cheeks.

Their entrancing eyes nearly came to a close, as their mouths began to be inches away from the others, soft and shaky breathing being their only border. As their lips almost came to be one,

Marikuu quietly gasped in sudden horror. He felt sick. He felt as if he was an air-balloon, that was filled with too much air in his sweaty stomach. 

No. No, no this couldn't have been happening. He promised himself. He can't. He couldn't.

Before Ryou could break everything Marikuu swore on, in the heat of the moment,

Ryou was suddenly, and weakly pushed away from him. At that moment, their faces once upon a time full of romance and pure adoration had been drained, pure fear and horror becoming its ugly replacement. For those next few minutes that had felt like hours, the two could barely breathe. Their breathing was shakier than they could've ever wished, realizing what they almost pursued.

At least, that was what Marikuu had thought.

Ryou felt sick for other reasons.

The traumatic moment the two males endured was cut into by an echoed bell ringing, signalling that their break was over. Ryou looked up at Marikuu, before gathering the last broken pieces of his confidence to speak.

"M-Marikuu-" he shakily called.

But it was too late. The boy he was desiring for was already running for the entrance back into the high school building. No word coming out of his oddly still mouth. No noise being made but the rapid running, and squeaking of his torn and worn-out sneakers. Once Marikuu had disappeared, Ryou was alone. On the roof in which he could've experienced one of the biggest moments of his life.

A lump quickly came in contact with his throat, as all he could do was stare at the space Marikuu once resided. He dared to swallow it, but to no avail. He began to practically choke on the tears. Tears that stung his eyes like needles, and made him feel sick to his empty stomach from not eating that afternoon, and spending it in the foolish way he had instead. The way he walked to that previous space made him feel as if his legs would give out, his weak arms protecting him as he suddenly felt as cold as Bakura always did, despite the hoodie he was fashioning. He set his arms on the railings of the roof as Marikuu did not that long ago. The difference was that, it wasn't in a humorous manner, and it was very far from such an idea. 

Ryou set his tear smothered face into those crossed arms, and let out the strongest form of sobbing the poor boy could, tears staining his once clean and beautiful blue hooded sweatshirt. 

He would not be letting Bakura be notified as to what happened this afternoon.

----------------------------

A/N
HOLY MOLY! That was a pretty extensive hiatus, huh? So sorry for the long wait, life getting in the way of me being able to sit down at my desk and typing for an hour or two about gay men is becoming a too common thing for me. Luckily, my last day of school before the break of summer is only 2 days from now-can you believe it? Feels like just yesterday was my first day..
This also just became really hard to write all of a sudden, so I kinda stepped away for a while, noting that that was a sign that my brain was gonna become burnt-out. Sorry! However, I hope this unusually descriptive writing style makes up for it. I've been reading more fanfiction as of late, and heavily desire to be as descriptive as they are. I hope it worked! Oh, and sorry for the depressing angst as a coming back kind of thing... whoops.
I hope you enjoyed!

(3185 words - WOAH!! THATS A RECORD BREAKER!)