#ryoufest

It all came down to overconfidence in the end. A moment of carelessness, wrestling his dog, an ill-thought-out tug-of-war, a frayed cord and a snap of teeth. The ring hit the ground with a dull thump, right next to the body that did the same. A bounce, a skid of it along the carpet until it came to rest under the unmade bed.

Ryou groaned and trembled as foggy awareness was forced upon him. His fingers twitched, muscles he’d forgotten how to use properly ignored him and let him lay there to sort out his foggy waking thoughts. Had it been- where was- how long had he been out.

Something hot and wet touched his face and he jumped, a floppy movement that got him at least to his knees and forced his eyes blearily open. There was a large dog in his apartment! It barked at him, teeth shining white and fierce. Ryou was in no position to understand why, or to bother waiting to try. 

He scrambled from the bedroom and headed to the door with droopy, uncoordinated steps. Out the front door, halfway down the hall before his legs gave out and he had to stop. The dog hadn’t followed him. Oh please let this be another dream. Another twisted dream he had to fight to escape.

A wavering breath. One crystal clear thought in his soupy mind. Get. Out. 

... Yo, whats up?

Stars did not have nights off. The thought was ludicrous. It was mad. It was heresy and blasphemy that would quicker have you incinerated by your cohorts than give you time to yourself.

But that did not mean there were not Stars that knew how to bend the rules.

Ryou had worked tirelessly to gain the position of a high gatherer, to go on solo missions with no supervision. With his bag of enchanted sponges to collect water to take back to the Moon he now descended down to exactly the human city he knew his brother had taken refuge in. He was not afraid. Ryou was one of the bravest. He was one of the smartest. He was one of the most reckless. He was determined to bring his brother back, no matter what anyone else said about him. Maybe Bakura was evil, maybe he was a heretic, maybe he was a monster. But he belonged to Ryou.

His wings were a pearly, iridescent beauty, his hair a perfect dazzling sheet. He had human approximate clothing, skintight pale blue pants and a white tunic shirt, light colours that would let his light shine through.

There were humans milling about, heads of hair slowly plodding this way and that, living out their short lives in the respectable way sturdy humans did. And one of them would know the answers he sought.