Cheysuli-Night Plot Bunny #688. Bakura: "Whoever called Ryou innocent and naive has obviously never seen him drunk and horny."

Friday Night

Ryou breathed out a sigh of relief as he set his pencil down on his desk with tentative finality. He stood up, taking his exam booklet with him, and set it in the designated area on the teacher's desk--having finished, it marked the end of finals week at his college and started his winter holiday.

He returned to his desk, already feeling like ten pounds of unwanted stress had been magically lifted from his shoulders. Ryou picked up his pencil and shoved it into his backpack, more than ready to get out of the school and back to his apartment. On his way out the door, he met Yugi's gaze and gave him a brief smile and a thumbs up. Yugi brightly smiled back and mouthed 'See you later' before his friend vanished out the door.

Outside, Ryou could see his breathe leaking through his parted lips in little puffs as he wrapped a blue scarf around his neck and buttoned up his tan overcoat. He walked across the snowy grounds of the of college campus to the bike racks, where his mode of transportation awaited him. There were times when he'd worry about his bike being stolen, especially after Bakura had decided to "borrow" the tires without informing Ryou of this, but other than that he always found his bike no worse for wear and in the same place he left it.

It wasn't the most prestigious college in the country, nor was it the biggest, but it suit Ryou just fine. And it certainly helped that not only Yugi, but Jonouchi and Honda had decided to attend the same university; familiarity with people made the adjustment to college easier.

Ryou pedaled on the sidewalk, stopping at the intersection just outside the school, waiting until the light changed. Many a time he found himself lost in thought while trekking home, a trait which he wryly suspected would lead him to get hit by a car someday. He coasted across the crosswalk and continued his way toward his home.

He could feel his cheeks turning pink as the cold winter air slid across his face as he pedaled faster and faster, feeling free from studying and exams and schoolwork. He grinned widely, daringly dodging through the sparse crowd of people on the sidewalk.

It wasn't long before he was at the bottom his apartment complex, cold fingers fumbling to secure the lock around the frame of the bike. Ryou jogged up the stairs, wanting to get out of the cold quickly and finally relax in who knows how long. After unlocking and opening the door, a wave of warm air met him, as well as the sight of the Ring's spirit and Malik moving a folding table into the living room.

"Hi guys," he smiled cheerfully at the duo.

"Yadonushi," Bakura demanded, "get over here and pull out the legs."

Obligingly, Ryou walked over to them, set his backpack down, and kneeled underneath the elevated table. It was the official Friday night poker table, the one the whole group chipped in for. They were tired of playing on the same cheap plastic table every week, so the heavy oak, felt-lined table made all the difference in their evening ritual. And, as Honda and Jonouchi's apartment was far from sanitary, Yami and Yugi still lived at the game shop, and since the Ishtars all lived together, the table was stored in Bakura and Ryou's apartment (not to mention used there, for the aforementioned reasons).

"Phew, thanks Ryou," Malik said. "That thing's so heavy."

"Weakling," Bakura muttered, wandering into the kitchen.

"Like you could pick it up without me helping," was the nonchalant reply from the Egyptian. "So, Ryou, how'd your last exam go?"

"Okay, hopefully I'll find out the results next week." He began to unwrap the scarf from around his neck, when Malik grabbed the two ends of it and pulled them close together.

"You're so cute, you look like an Eskimo…" a tan finger poked at a red-tinged cheek, "all red from the cold."

Ryou, although becoming accustomed to Malik's flirting and no sense of personal space, still blushed as the other male rubbed their noses together in an Eskimo kiss. Malik pulled away grinning and sauntered off to the kitchen to assist Bakura, leaving a face-flushed Ryou shaking his head in the living room.

He finished taking off his winter wear and grabbed his backpack, heading towards his room. Deciding the apartment was too warm for it, he also removed his sweater, revealing a black long-sleeve shirt. It was really one he had bought for Bakura, so the sleeves were a little too long; but it was Bakura's week for laundry (which meant it really didn't get done until next week when it was Ryou's turn), so he took the liberty of pilfering one of his yami's clean shirts.

Sometimes he would join the poker-playing festivities, but the majority of the time he and Yugi would hang out in the background, watching everyone get drunk and take pictures of their crazy stunts for blackmail. Yugi was banned only to play with them every first Friday of the month, because he had a tendency to clean out the pockets of the other players. (Not that Yugi minded only playing once in a while; winning poker against the same people week after week became rather boring.)

Ryou turned on his computer and while waiting for it to boot up, he made his way back to the kitchen for a drink. After rummaging around the refrigerator and pulling out a soda, he peeked over Bakura's shoulder, inspecting what he was up to.

"Where's Marik?" Ryou asked, sneaking a finger into the chip dip Bakura was mixing.

With a disapproving glare, Bakura responded, "He's getting the booze."

"What kinds?" He licked the dip off his index finger.

Malik looked up from the snack mix he was pouring into a bowl in time to see Ryou licking his finger and nearly dropped the bowl. "You… really shouldn't do stuff like that, Ryou…"

The Millennium Ring's holder blinked, a quizzical expression on his face. "Do what?"

Bakura sighed. "Ignore him. Why? Is there something you wanted from the liquor store?"

"No… well, yeah… I was wondering if we could get eggnog, since it's winter break now…"

"Malik, see if Marik's still at the store."

"Alright," the blond paused, "no, he said he's on his way up now. I can see if he'll go back out…?"

"No, don't worry about it; I wouldn't want to trouble him. I can probably go out later and get some." Right on cue, Marik bustled through the front door carrying two bags.

"I didn't think you drank, Ryou," Malik stated while his yami set his loot on the kitchen counter.

"Ha, Ryou drinking…" Bakura said, smirking to himself.

With a side-ways glare at his other half, he responded, "I do on occasion." At that, Bakura laughed loudly before peering into the brown paper bags Marik had toted in.

Ignoring the near-identical spirit, Ryou shrugged and retreated back to his room. With his computer fully booted up, he clicked on the file that opened up his programming application and picked up where he last left off on the game he was working on.

It was sort of a long running mini-project for him, outside his normal computer programming classes. Over summer Ryou had made sketches of the characters and their world, as well as outlining the plot. His character designs could only be roughly pixilated right now, but he figured once he went into more advanced programming and graphics courses, he could incorporate that into the game.

Setting to work, he hardly noticed the hours fly by until he heard a soft knock at his door. Slightly startled, he quickly swerved in his chair to see who was there, eyes blinking in readjustment from the bright computer screen to reality.

"Oh, hey Yugi," Ryou greeted, a bit confused.

With a knowing grin, Yugi stepped into his friend's room and went to sit on his bed cross-legged. "Hey Ryou. Been working on your game?"

Caught at getting absorbed into the computer, the white-haired college student laughed and nodded. "I'm almost done with another level."

Eagerly, Yugi asked, "Almost done? Why don't you finish it and I can test-run it?"

"That'd be great… let me just finish the last couple lines of code." While he typed, Yugi picked up Ryou's rubix cube from his bedside table and began fiddling with it.

After Ryou told the Millennium Puzzle's holder of his game idea, Yugi insisted on playing it, giving its creator advice on certain aspects from the player's point of view. Not to mention he loved seeing what new puzzles and side quests Ryou could come up with.

Several minutes later Yugi was at the console, barreling through the level, with Ryou looking over his shoulder to spot any coding errors or elements he wanted to change. "For a mini-boss, I wouldn't have his hp at 15,000… I mean, it's possible to beat him, but I think a lot of people would get frustrated at it and give up, considering it isn't necessary to defeat him. Other than that I think it looks good. I really liked that part--"

"Hey Yugi and Ryou!" Jonouchi's voice sounded from the living room. "We're decidin' what to eat, so c'mere!"

"Best we get out there," Ryou smiled, saving his progress and shutting off the program.

The level of noise increased as the two entered the living room, where their friends milled around; some snacking on munchies laid out on the Poker Table, some still finding places to drape their winter wear over, and some relaxing on the couches (namely a certain former Pharaoh and a particular retired Tomb Robber, who were sitting a little to close for comfort to be labeled as "friendly"—much less as "hated rivals").

"So, what are we ordering tonight?" Ryou asked, most of the crowd paying attention as the shortest two joined them.

"We were thinking pizza," Marik supplied.

Ootogi huffed haughtily, "You were thinking pizza. We were thinking Chinese, especially since we've been getting pizza the last couple weeks."

"Yeah, Marik," Bakura agreed, "I don't know how much more of that… greasy slop I can digest before I'll revert to cannibalism."

Jonouchi piped up, "Greasy slop! At least we know what goes INTO pizza, not like that sketchy Chinese take-out."

Glancing at Yugi, Ryou rolled his eyes, while the other male shook his head and sighed. "Um, guys? Why don't we just order both?" Yugi suggested.

"It'd be a waste of gas to go to both places," Malik put in. The group learned their lesson about getting a delivery sent to the apartment after they received a phone call from a very enraged boss in concerns to his now delirious delivery boy; which, of course, Marik and Bakura had nothing to do with at all.

"Well, I don't mind picking it up, I'd like to get some eggnog, besides."

Bakura flicked a nut from a nearby bowl of snack mix at his light's head. "Your car still needs repair, dummy. It'll give out before you reach the end of the street."

"Oh, right…"

"Why don't we just order both and figure it out later?" Honda suggested. "We're not getting anywhere with this…"

"I'll call it in!" Yugi took down orders on a pad of paper from the kitchen and disappeared from the noisy room to make the call.

Ryou, meanwhile, slunk over to the Table and picked at a few chips. He had considered asking Malik for a ride, but only did the thought make him embarrassed, Malik already said he wouldn't waste the gas.

"Hey, uh, Ryou…" The pale-skinned student turned around to see a sheepish-looking Malik not looking directly at him. "I'll take you. If you want, I mean. To get eggnog… and pick up the food."

Embarrassed and elated, a combination that Malik always seemed to bring around in Ryou, he nodded. "I'd like that," he murmured, just loud enough for the Egyptian to hear over the talking of the rambunctious crowd.

Upon Yugi's return, the pair started towards the coat closet to don their winter layers. "Oi, Marik, toss me the keys to the Beater, would ya?" Malik shouted across the room to his other half.

"What do you need them for?" Marik responded, not quite having to shout with the other's attention on the two blond Egyptians. He chunked the keys across the room without waiting for a response. "Thought going to two different places was a 'waste of gas?'"

The blond ushered Ryou out the door quickly while turning around and grinning. "Get with the times, yami! Gas prices are under two dollars!" They almost made it out the door before the group began the catcalls.

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Thanks for reading! Any comments/criticism/etc. are much appreciated. Originally, I had planned to write this as a one-shot, but as I went on with it, it seemed better to break it up a little bit. Happy holidays!