Outkasts

Smoothish? Smooth? I don't know.

"Do you ever think they will warm up to us?" Yami asked the albino as they walked.

Bakura's brows furrowed in annoyance.

"What does it matter?" he grumbled as he shoved his fists into the pocket of his coat, "If you ask me, it should be the other way around. When will we get used to them? They're so weird!"

Yami raised a brow at the other, before smirking.

"So, when you said "smoothish", I'm assuming that it didn't go smooth at all," Yami snickered. 

A vein popped on the other's forehead as dark brown eyes turned to glare at the tri-color haired male. As much as Bakura wanted to deny the truth, that would only cause the other to make more fun, which would just cause greater damage to his pride. And Bakura's pride was already low enough as it is. To have the 'pharaoh' destroy it even more would be asking for a severe ass whooping.

Don't get him wrong. He wasn't afraid of the other. But he knew when to back down from a fight if the winning pole wasn't in his favor. So he settled on turning away from Yami and glaring at the sidewalk.

"You're really annoying," Bakura growled, "It wasn't even my fault."

And he was right. From the start of the day, he wasn't at fault for anything.

He inwardly frowned as he remembered what had happened in his last class of the day, which just so happened to be a Music/Arts class.

~Earlier~

Bakura was sitting in his normal spot in the back of the class, waiting for the clock to signal the time to leave. However, it seemed time worked against him and dragged the class on. It wasn't even long, before he found himself starting to stare aimlessly out the window at down at the school's yard.

"Um, excuse me," a soft voice said as he felt a poke to his arm.

Bakura was annoyed at this as he turned to glower at the person who disturbed his peace. But he was stopped when he was met by his innocent mirror image. He frowned as he looked at the other.

"Can I help you, shorty?" he asked, before biting his cheek at the nickname.

He watched in awe as the smaller gave a little pout and huff.

"Excuse me, but I do not think that is an appropriate name," Ryou said flushed.

"Right, sorry..." Bakura trailed off, caught off guard by the other's comment, "So what do you want?"

Ryou's eyes widened.

"Were you not paying attention to the lecture?" he asked, a little aggravated.

Ryou pointed toward the board, where there were names listed. Each name had a pair and were assigned a certain project. 

Bakura noticed his own name with Ryou's name, and next to the names was written in bold: MAKING A DUET/BACKGROUND CANVAS

"What the hell?" Bakura whispered under his breath in shock, "When did that get there?.."

"As I see it, we need to make a song and paint the canvas that will be presented when we sing," Ryou explained, "I have no problem in doing these, but I need to know when you'll be available after school this week."

Bakura paled at the idea of singing. 

"Wait, wait, wait! Who said I was going to sing?" he barked, "Like hell this voice is going to be spent on song lyrics!"

Ryou flinched as the other raised his voice.

"You didn't disagree when the teacher asked you..." Ryou said quietly, "And can you please keep your voice down..."

Bakura glared at Ryou, which only caused the soft minded albino to feel stressed.

"Or you can keep yelling, too..." he said as he stepped back a bit.

Bakura felt his heart stop as he watched the other move nervously. It wasn't his intention to scare the smaller, but he always seemed to do just that. He was about to open his mouth to apologize, when another student came up towards them.

"Hey, outkast!" the student growled, "Could you keep your partner shut for a moment? You two aren't the only students who need to work."

Bakura's burning gaze turned towards the student, which caused them to shy away.

"Nevermind," the student responded quickly, scurrying away.

Ryou sweat-dropped and sighed.

"If it makes you feel that uncomfortable, I can talk to the teacher for you," Ryou said slowly, not wanting to enrage the other any further.

Although Ryou loved the idea of singing a duet, he knew the prince's reputation for being stubborn and hard-headed. Actually, despite the prince, he also knew that their teacher was dead set on this duet. Now that was going to be a tricky situation to dance around.

Bakura watched as Ryou's eyes closed, and the other seemed to be in thought. He seemed to have been struck with inspiration, before opening up and looking up at Bakura with a shining gaze.

The taller albino gulped nervously as he watched Ryou go from shy to excited in mere seconds. Something about that smile spelled trouble, but he wasn't about to chicken out just yet.

"I'll be right back," Ryou said as he bounced away and to the teacher's desk.

~Present~

"Now that I think about it, the conversation did go smoothish... smooth? I don't know. It went alright," Bakura said out loud, "Except for me yelling..."

Bakura's head hung as he ran a hand through his messy white hair. He heard Yami chuckling from the sighed, but ignored it.

"At least it wasn't as bad as Marik or Seto," Bakura muttered, feeling a little accomplished.

"What happened with Seto?" Yami asked with slight interest.

Bakura hummed.

"He called his crush a mutt this morning," Bakura answered.

Yami had to do a spit-take as he started to burst out laughing.

"A+ for effort, but an F- for skills of flirting," Yami chuckled, "Does he know how to do anything else, besides insulting people?"

"Doubt it," Bakura snickered, "Besides, all he ever seems to do is give his crush a hard time. I overheard some girls talking about how Seto stood and took a slap from the other. Dude's got guts, but damn. I'd never let anyone hit me like that."

Yami's lips pursed as he thought of the time Yugi had punched him in the jaw. His hand lifted to gently caress the area with a faint bruise.

"It seems that violent tendencies run between them..." Yami mumbled, "Is your look-alike violent?"

Bakura shrugged.

"How would I know?" he asked rhetorically, "We barely talked."

"How much you wanna bet that your look-alike is pretty feisty, too?" Yami asked.

"No need," Bakura said, "I feel like he would be feisty in his own rights."

"Yeah. You're probably right," Yami said.

~Somewhere Else~

Ryou huffed as he tried to stop a sneeze, but it was let loose anyway.

"Awe dang... I hope this isn't a cold..." he grumbled.

To be continued...

Gabby: Hey guys! So I'm on break right now! Thank you all for being patient! I love you all, and thank you for your support! I own nothing except the plot! 

Also, I want to thank everyone who has read and followed and asked if I was okay. You guys are amazing, and I wish for the best for you! Again! Thank you for the support and have a blessed day! I love you all so much!