Ryou's shirt slipped over his shoulder for the eighth time. He gave up trying pull it in place and let the fabric hang off of the white curve of shoulder. His hair tickled, so Ryou swiped it around his other shoulder, fluffing it up and playing with the long, loose strands as he talked to Marik's face on the computer screen.
"So what are you doing for your birthday?" Marik asked.
Ryou shook his head. "Talking to you, I guess. I don't really have any plans. Been kinda busy."
Marik's scowl showed through the monitor. "You can't just waste your birthday talking to me. You need to have fun."
"This is fun." Ryou smiled. "Talking to you is my favorite part of the day."
Ryou blushed, wondering if he'd said too much. Ryou and Marik used to only talk in group chats with the others. That was until Marik discovered The Elder Scrolls, which happened to be one of Ryou's favorite series of games. After that, they started having the occasional private conversation, usually consisting of Ryou telling Marik all the console commands to make the game more fun. 0000000A 100 (although the zeros weren't necessary) – and bam! One hundred lock picks because Marik did not have the patience to play and extensive RPG straight up vanilla.
But their occasional conversations spun out of control, to the point where Ryou almost ran to his computer as soon as he walked through the door just to see Marik's face. They texted each other throughout the day, but that was never as good as seeing those exotic lavender eyes – even if it was only through a screen. It was difficult, living in different countries, and Ryou often found himself missing more sleep than he should have, but it was worth having chronic raccoon eyes in order not to miss a single moment of Marik's company.
This couldn't be any less true as Marik chose that moment to stretch. His perfect washboard belly accentuated with the suggestion of a six pack. As Ryou stared for a beautiful, mind-fogging moment, he couldn't help but think Marik Ishtar is my aesthetic.
Marik gave Ryou a sleepy grin, leaning a little closer to the camera.
"Honestly? It's my favorite part of the day, too." A sterner look replaced the smile as Marik pursed his lips. "But that's no excuse to spend your birthday alone."
"Am I alone if I'm talking to you?"
"You know what I mean." Marik checked his phone. His former grin turned into a smirk. "As a matter of fact, I think I know what will fix the problem."
"Yeah?" Ryou raised a thin, white eyebrow. "What's that?"
Marik stared at Ryou through the screen, his smirk never leaving his mouth. "Why don't you answer your door and find out?"
Ryou's brows crashed together in confusion. "Answer my door?"
The doorbell rang and a crowd of knocking echoed through Ryou's apartment. He frowned at Marik. "What did you do?"
"Me? Nothing. Yugi's had this planned for awhile." Marik's eyes had the same smirk-like quality as his lips. "My job was to distract you while they picked up the beer and cake."
"Beer and cake?" Ryou muttered to himself more than Marik as he got up to answer the door.
He was overwhelmed as soon as he did.
"Happy birthday!" They shouted in chorus; Yugi, Jonouchi, Anzu, and Honda.
Anzu held a cake in her hands. Jonouchi and Honda held brown paper bags. Yugi held a long, rectangular box wrapped in bright yellow paper and red ribbon.
Ryou's brown-sugar eyes went wide when he saw them. "I thought you were going to New York to visit Anzu?"
Yugi grinned, a little sheepish. "Did I say that? What I meant was that Anzu flew from New York to visit us."
"Surprise!" Anzu cheered. "Happy birthday, Ryou."
"Thank you." Ryou stood a moment, still in shock, then he realized he was being rude. "I'm sorry, come inside!"
He stepped out of the doorway so that the others could pile into his apartment.
They took it over. Anzu reached into Honda's bag and pulled out a bag of balloons, throwing them to Jonouchi. "Here, why don't you put all your hot air to use and blow these up."
"You're so mean, Anzu," Jonouchi teased her. "Haven't seen you in a year, and this is how you treat me?"
"Now that she's a star, she thinks she's too good for us," Honda chimed in.
A blush swept up Anzu's cheekbones as she fiddled with a roll of bright blue streamer paper. "I'm not a star. I mean, I'm getting steady work now, but it's not like I live in Hollywood or anything."
"I'm still proud of you." Yugi grinned as he arranged the cake, present, and alcohol on the table. "Dancing was always your dream, and you've made it come true. Although, I do miss you."
Ryou sighed, looking thoughtful. He blinked a moment and then spun back towards his room. "I left Marik on Skype. I'll be right back."
"Take your time. I'm trying to decorate," Anzu said as Ryou ran down the hall.
Ryou's heart tittered in his ribs. He thought maybe Marik left already while he was talking to the others, and something about the thought made Ryou feel sad and a little panicked, but when he got back to his laptop, he saw Marik's face with a soft grin making the Egyptian look heart-stopping gorgeous.
Ryou lost his breath as he looked at Marik's face through the computer screen. He returned the smile. "Well . . . looks like I have plans after all."
"Yeah, I know."
Ryou felt warmth wash over his cheeks and hoped it didn't show on the screen. "Thanks, Marik."
"Have fun. Kol sana enta tayeb."
Ryou waved goodbye before their conversation ended. He sighed again. He was really happy to have his friends waiting for him in the living-room, but part of him wished he could waste the evening lying in bed and talking to Marik all night long. Ryou shook his thoughts away, refusing to let his friends see him melancholy when they worked so hard to surprise him on his birthday, and walked back to the living-room.
"What should we do first, Ryou? Cake?" Yugi asked.
"Drink!" Jonouchi raise a fist into the air.
Anzu put a hand on her hip. "Drinking is last Jounouchi."
Anzu wouldn't allow anyone to slice into the cake until they sang, which made Ryou turn into a beet as he had to sit there and be the center of attention during the entire song, but at least they didn't put any candles on the cake. He forgot most his embarrassment once he had sugar to occupy his mind. The cake was two layers of chocolate held together by a thick wall of butter cream.
"This is delicious." Ryou spoke between mouthfuls, sweets always having been his favorite.
"Anzu made it."
Anzu stared at her slice of cake, looking bashful. "No big deal. I'm sure Ryou could have made a better one."
"No way." Ryou shook his head. "This is the best."
They had two slices each, reducing the cake to a delicious memory and a plate of crumbs. Jonouchi shoved the package into Ryou's arms. "Hurry up and open this so we can play it and get smashed."
Honda smacked Jonouchi in the back of the head. "Good going, now he knows it's a sort of game."
Jonouchi rubbed the back of his head. "Of course it is. What else would we get him?"
Ryou had to laugh at that because it was very true. He untied the bow, trying to open the package at the seams instead of carelessly ripping through it. It looked so beautiful, the package in its bright paper and ribbon, and Ryou felt bad for undoing the work someone - probably Yugi - put into wrapping it. Once he finally unfolded the last of the yellow wrapping paper, Ryou saw an old, wooden case with brass fittings and runes instead of readable letters.
"Wow," Ryou said. "I don't recognize this game at all."
Yugi nodded, his face glowing with excitement. "An old woman brought it into the Game Shop trying to sell it." He frowned. "I think she really needed money. Grandpa tried to tell her that we only sold new games, but she got kind of upset when he turned her down, and I felt bad. When I asked her what kind of game it was, she said it was a story-telling game, and then she showed me the dice."
Ryou opened the top of the wooden case to look inside. He saw parchment, and hand-carved figurines, and dice that looked like they were carved from ivory, bone, onyx, and jade. For a second, Ryou stared at the beauty of the craftsmanship, jealous of the skill and detail involved for each piece. Then something dawned on him. "It looks like an old, hand-made Monster World set."
"That's what I thought." Yugi nodded. "I figured by story-telling game she meant that it's an RPG. It looks old and kinda creepy, so I figured you would like to own something like this, and me buying it made that woman really happy."
As Ryou listened to Yugi, he also looked at all the pieces. The parchment was blank, but a leather-bound book inside had handwritten notes for building characters and fighting battles, a sort of player's guide. "Oh my god, Yugi, this is so cool. Thanks!" He set the box down in order to dole out a round of hugs to everyone to show his appreciation. "So are we going to play?"
"Of course." Honda grinned.
Jonouchi wrinkled his face. "Just don't make the story-line too freaky."
"You're such a chicken." Honda reached for a bottle of beer and pressed it into Jonouchi's chest. "Here, liquid courage."
"About time." Jonouchi laughed, opening the beer and chugging half it down before he stopped for breath.
Ryou ignored them, lost in the game. He carried it over to his gaming table and started unpacking everything from the box. "What kind of campaign do we want?"
Yugi grinned. "It's your birthday, Ryou. Pick anything you want."
"I better not, Jonouchi would get scared."
"Whatever, I don't care," Jonouchi said, loudly, his cheeks tinted a healthy pink. "The scarier the better. Yugi's right, it's your birthday."
"Wait, I think I have the start of a campaign that will work. It has a bit of everything."
"But if it's only the beginning how will we beat it?"
"Improvising," Honda lifted up his beer bottle and Jonouchi clinked his own against it in a toast.
"Pretty much," Ryou agreed. He ran to his room once more, stealing his laptop from the bed and bringing it to the table so he could read his campaign notes.
"This is going to be awesome." Yugi handed out blank parchment for character sheets.
"Here." Ryou handed Yugi the leather-bound hand book. "The job classes are listed on page twelve. I notice that they're different than Monster World."
Yugi flipped through the pages. Anzu leaned over his shoulder, her chestnut hair pressing against Yugi's cheek. He smiled, letting her press close as they read together. "Look Anzu, they have a dancer class that specializes in assassinations."
"That would be fun!" She bit her lower lip, grinning. "And after I level up a bit I can dual class as a enchantress so I can boost our weapons. What are you going to be, Yugi?"
"A druid looks interesting. They seem similar to beast tamers, but have a better range of spells." Yugi passed the booklet to Jonouchi.
He only looked at it for a moment. "I'll just be a knight. I like being tank characters."
Honda took a little longer, going through the classes twice before saying, "archer," and passing the book to Ryou.
Ryou smiled as his eyes rested on the last job class option. "Necromancer."
"What?" Jonouchi scrunched up his face. "Those creeps that have sex with dead people?"
"Uh . . ." Ryou felt his cheeks flare with heat. "No."
"You idiot." Honda gave Jonouchi a playful smack to the back of his head. "That's Necrophilia."
"Well, it freaking sounds the same to me."
"A necromancer in this game can communicate and summon the dead, Jonouchi," Ryou explained.
Anzu tapped Yugi's shoulder and he nodded. They both took three large drinks each. Ryou wondered at the action. It seemed strangely scripted, but they didn't explain so Ryou shrugged and went back to building his character.
"Oh." Yugi set his beer down next to his papers. "I have a good idea. Since it's your birthday, Ryou. You should be able to cast a special spell once at any time you want during the game. Not anything in your character list. It has to be something special, something you normally wouldn't allow in a game because it would be unfair. That way if we get in a tight spot, you can save us."
"That's a good idea." Anzu smiled. "What do you want your special skill to be, Ryou?"
Ryou pursed his lips, thinking about it. "Something related to my character class, so something with the dead, maybe a special summon?"
"Like a badass demon," Honda suggested.
"Or a great hero," Jonouchi said.
"That might work." Ryou nodded. "I'll have to think about it more. I guess it depends on the circumstances."
"Let's get started." Anzu set her character sheet on the table.
"Let me make characters for us real quick." Ryou dug through his extra Monster World supplies, finding old figurines from one of their older campaigns and repainting them for their current characters. They didn't have a diorama to use, but the box itself had plenty of grid maps with different settings. "We'll start at the pub, drinking and trying to hear rumors for adventures or to see if anyone needs a fetch quest done."
"This is the easiest role play ever." Jonouchi took a swig. "We should just sit in the pub and drink all night. Forget the adventure."
"You might not want to deal with the owner when it comes time to settle the tab. We better have money by the end of the night."
"Honda, you should have good sight, right?" Yugi asked. "Look around and see if there's anything interesting."
"Okay."
Ryou rolled his dice. "You notice some interesting people talking in the corner, but they look kind of dangerous. You also see a job board near the front door. It has three pieces of paper attached."
"And I'm sure they're all boring." Jonouchi rested his chin in his hand, as if he knew what would come next.
Yugi glanced at everyone. "Probably, but we should check it out anyway. Some fetch quests will be good to get us enough money to buy better equipment before we start anything serious."
Ryou nodded. "The first note is to rescue a lost kitten. The second is to find a lost pocket watch somewhere around town. And the third only gives a location and a time."
"Okay." Anzu sighed. "I know it's stupid, but can we please rescue the kitten?"
Yugi chuckled. "I'm going to drink to that, you know."
"Fine, as long as we do that quest first."
"Why are you drinking?" Ryou asked. "Does it have something to do with why you were drinking earlier?"
Yugi and Anzu exchanged a sheepish glance at each other. "Well . . ." He looked at Anzu again, as if questioning her.
She sighed. "Go ahead and tell them."
"It's a sort of drinking game we play when all of us hang out together."
"Sweet," Jonouchi said. "Tell us the rules so we can play, too."
"Well, whenever we do something that's . . ." Yugi thought for a moment, "typical for us? We take a drink."
"So everytime Jounouchi says something ridiculous or Ryou tries to talk about a horror movie?"
"Yup." Anzu giggled. "And I'm trying to rescue a helpless animal, so we should all take a drink."
Ryou smiled, taking a gulp from his beer. "We're not going to be able to walk by the end of the night."
"We'll just all sleep on the floor in a circle." Yugi laughed.
"I'll make pancakes in the morning." Ryou grinned at the thought of food, especially food involving maple syrup.
Everyone took a drink and Ryou blushed when he realized that food, like horror, was something he tended to get excited about.
By luck, they found the pocket watch while searching for the kitten. The kitten herself was in a cellar full of dire rats, Ryou remembered putting that in as a first quest for shits and giggles and laughed while they fought, which made everyone take another drink - because RPG jokes were another one of his tics. Fortunately, he wasn't the only one causing them to drink. Yugi kept trying to befriend every person he spoke to, when seeing the rich mayor, Jounouchi made a joke about Seto Kaiba, and Honda wouldn't stop flirting with the barmaid when they went to cash in their two completed quests.
Their beer supply ran low rather quickly, and they were all giggling at every joke that floated into their minds.
"Anything but another board quest!" Jounouchi shook his head. "Let's talk to those people hiding in the corner, I need a break from noob missions."
"Fair enough." Yugi nodded.
Ryou smiled at his luck. The third note initiated the main quest, and he wasn't in any hurry. They were having more fun interacting with their personas than serious gaming. "Okay," Ryou said. "Who approaches first?"
"Who has the highest charisma?" Honda asked.
"Uh . . ." Anzu squinted at her sheet. "I think I do. I'll go talk to them."
"If they give you a hard time, let me know and I'll kick their ass." Jonouchi said and everyone took a drink except him.
Anzu tried being friendly, Yugi even joined her, but the group in the corner was a bait to a battle so, in the end, Jounouchi got his wish, clobbering their characters and leveling everyone up to level two. They had to pause a moment to pick new traits.
Ryou sighed. He was having fun, more fun than he'd had in a long time, but he couldn't help but think how much better the night would be if Marik were with them.
Honda nudged Ryou's shoulder. "What are you thinking about?"
"Um, nothing." Ryou smiled. "I just thought that Marik would probably like to play this with us. He's gotten into Elder Scrolls a lot, well, Skyrim."
"That game's the best." Yugi sighed.
"Let's drunk call him!" Anzu shouted, a little louder than she normally spoke.
"Yeah," Yugi agreed. "That's a great idea."
"Wait, no." Ryou shook his head, cheeks burning. "We shouldn't bother him."
"We should, too." Jonouchi smacked his beer bottle on the table.
They all started thudding their bottles on the table, chanting call him, call him, call him.
Ryou hid his face in his hands, preparing to die so he didn't have to deal with the peer pressure, or the look on Marik's face when Ryou inevitably caved and called. It didn't take long for Ryou to forfeit, pulling up Marik's account and calling him on his laptop. When Marik's face appeared on the screen Ryou physically rolled his dice for a will save in order to prevent himself from leaning forward and kissing the screen (it was funny). That's when Ryou realized that they were three quests into their new RPG, but already drunk out of their fucking minds.
"Hey. What's up?" Marik asked.
"We're drunk calling you." Anzu laughed.
"And drafting you into our RPG." Yugi laughed with her. They leaned against each other, both of their faces flushed from booze and laughter.
"The one you got Ryou for his birthday? Is it fun?"
Jounouchi snorted. "If you like random battles, we haven't done much yet."
"See," Yugi smacked his hand on the table. "Perfect time for Marik to join in, we haven't really gotten into the game yet."
"Sounds fun." Marik smiled, amused by their drunk expressions. "But I'm a little far away."
"So what?" Yugi shook his head. "We'll move your character for you and you can just tell us what to do."
"But you need to get drunk with us!" Jounouchi raised his beer.
Marik glanced at Ryou. Ryou gave Marik an apologetic shrug, the material of his shirt slipping over his shoulder again.
Marik grinned, and the expression made Ryou's belly flutter. "Hold on." He disappeared from view and returned with a bottle of wine a minute later. "This is Ishizu's, but I'm sure I can get her to forgive me." He winked. "It's Ryou's birthday afterall."
The others cheered.