Love's Notebook

Chapter One

Ryo's Notebook

Ryo sat at his desk, alone and writing as usual. It was lunch hour, but Ryo just typically sat in the room of his next class, did homework, and write in his notebook.

His notebook was his dirty little secret. Did he write how he planned to slaughter everyone in school? Did he keep track of how many women he got pregnant? Did he -heaven forbid- actually balance his check books?

Well, no.

Ok, maybe he does balance his check books, but that's not the point. In his notebook, he wrote his love for Marik Ishtar.

The problem? Marik Ishtar was the most popular guy in school. Not only was he way out of Ryo's league, he also would make high school hell for him if he found out that Ryo was gay for him.

After scribbling another heart that said "ML + RB" in it, Ryo scribbled down today's thoughts of the young, tan lad.

October 4th

I'm sorry I couldn't keep my promise, Journal. I just couldn't stop staring at him in Gym class. He wore his usual tight, black tank top that seemed to be the gym uniform for males amongst his group. I just can't help that it seems to caress every muscle on his chest, I just can't.

Even though it's weeks away, many are already talking about this year's Halloween festival and dance. Maybe if I'm lucky, I can get the guts to ask him ou-

His writing was disturbed when he heard the door to the classroom creak open.

"Bakura?" he heard a somewhat high-pitched voice say.

Looking over, Bakura saw it that it was his friend, Yugi Muto. Along side the small 10th grader was... Marik Ishtar himself!

Ryo panicked, closing his notebook shut right away.

"Oh, um, hello, Yugi. Hello, Marik," he greeted, trying to look as calm as possible.

While Marik just nodded, Yugi seemed excited to see him. "Bakura, I'm so glad I found you!' he exclaimed.

"Hm? Why?" Ryo asked, turning his head in confusion.

"I can't find Joey, Tristan, or Tea anywhere!" the short tenth grader exclaimed in a whiny tone. He grabbed Ryo's hands and looked up at him with big, puppy dog eyes. "Will you please help me find them?"

Bakura, not thinking, quickly said, "Yes, I don't see why I shouldn't."

Yugi joyfully yanked Bakura from his seat and dragged him out of the classroom. Ryo, smiling, laughing, and telling Yugi and calm down, forgot that his notebook was left alone with Marik.

Marik smiled as the two left, then looked back into the classroom, noticing Ryo's light blue notebook on his desk.

"Oh my, seems he forgot this," Marik muttered to himself as he picked the notebook up. "I guess I'll go see if I can catch up to them and hand it back."

That's what Marik was going to do, but then, he accidentally dropped the notebook onto the floor.

"Gah! Dammit!" he exclaimed under his breath as he clumsily picked the notebook up. "Damn me and my butterfingers."

Then, all of a sudden, he noticed something flash by him on one of the pages. "Hm?" he mumbled. "I swore I just saw my name in his notebook."

As wrong as Marik thought it was to pry into someone else's privacy, he just had to make sure what he saw was true.

He slowly opened the notebook and scanned the pages. It was full of little hearts with his name in it, his name and Ryo's name, or just their initials. It had notes of Ryo observing him. And also documents of him balancing his check books, which Marik had to admit, he was pretty good at.

He felt his cheeks get a little hot. "Oh my," he mumbled to himself, "Does Ryo... Does Ryo love me?"

He glanced around before putting the notebook in his school jacket. Maybe it's best if I talk to him about this later, when I get the chance, he thought to himself, before walking out of the classroom, acting like nothing had happened.

Yugi and Bakura were dragged into the principal's office by an annoyed vice principal and plopped down into two chairs in front of the principal himself.

"Well well well," he spoke, glaring at the two. "I have to say I'm highly disappointed in you two.

Neither of the two boys uttered a word. Yugi was looking down at the floor in shame while Ryo tried his best to not look flustered. Neither of them were used to getting into trouble.

"You two, some of my finest students, doing something like this. School rules say you can go off school grounds during lunch hour, but have to be back before next hour. Do you two know how late you are?" he questioned in a harsh voice.

"We're sorry, Sir," Ryo suddenly said, his face turning pink. "We didn't know how long we were out."

The principal looked at his assistant, who nodded at him. The principal then propped up his arms, intertwined his fingers, and rested his chin on his fingers. "Well," he sighed, "since you two never get into trouble, I guess I can let you off lightly."

"R-Really?" exclaimed Yugi, his eyes brightening.

"Yes, you two just have to clean a couple classrooms." the principal explained, nodding.

His attention then turned to his assistant. "Joseph, go write these two boys passes." The vice principal nodded and walked off.

"All right, you two are free to go." he said happily, making a "shoo-shoo" motion with his hand. The boys stood up, bowed their heads in respect, and walked out.

After grabbing their passes, Yugi and Ryo decided to walk together down to Ryo's class, since Yugi's class was just down the hall from Ryo's.

"I'll see you later," whispers Yugi, before quickly walking off to his next class. Ryo smiled and waved goodbye, before entering his class.

As usual, nobody seemed to notice him. He walked up, handed the pass to his teacher, and went back to his seat.

As he thought, all of his stuff was still there, and someone was even nice enough to put his materials for this class on his desk.

He sighed, sat down at his desk, and started to work.

As the bell rung for the end of class, Ryo packed up his stuff.

As he left the classroom, he felt odd. It felt like something was missing.

He glanced down and noticed that his notebook, which he normally hugged close to his chest, was gone.

He started to panic. Just relax, Bakura, he thought to himself.

In his panic, he unknowingly bumped into Yugi and Tea.

"Oh?" Ryo mumbled, looking down. "Ah, Yugi! I'm sorry!" he quickly apologized, "I'm not really thinking straight at the moment."

"It's all right, Bakura, no worries," Yugi comforted.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Tea asked, her eyes full of worry.

"No," Ryo reassured her, "everything's fine, just lost something important."

Before either of the two could say any more, Ryo walked off quickly without saying another word.

As he stopped at his locker, he realized something. The last person by his notebook was...was...Marik!

"Oh no," Ryo whispered to himself, "Oh no, oh no, oh freaking' no."

He sighed and started to put in his locker's combination. All he could do now was go to his next class and hope that it wasn't Marik that had found his notebook and taken it.