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"You just lost the game."
Now what Vector doesn't know is that Ryouga has not thought about the game in over a year. In fact, he hadn't thought about it since the WDC began.
Rikuo and Kaio had occasionally brought it up like the assholes they are, and so did IV, but IV was mostly mad about losing himself, so that was okay.
(And Ryouga? Ryouga literally used 'YOU LOST THE GAME' as his duelspace display name when he was 12— it might actually still be that way—, so he can't really complain.)
Ryouga blinks, then frowns. "You."
"I found it while browsing." Vector giggles and puts his plate in the sink. "What're you gonna do?"
"Asshole."
"Oh, is someone a n n o y e d?"
"I'm not." Ryouga scowls.
"Yeah, yeah, suuure."
~*~
For a few days, there's blissful silence. Enough silence for Ryouga to forget about the incident.
And it's another equally silent monday morning when Ryouga is skipping school and looks at the fridge to see a post-it note, written in Vector's stupid cutesy handwriting,
'Good morning, Naschie~ You just lost the game.'
"Fuck you, asshole," Ryouga hisses at the fridge, given that he's alone at home and all.
He gets out the milk— fucking Vector bought normal milk instead of soy milk again, but it'll have to do—, almost spills it, tears the post-it note in half and sighs.
~*~
Ryouga stays in his room all monday, and for the most part that's pretty effective.
Except for the part where Vector sent him a text message and he blocked Vector's number without reading it and still lost.
Until—
"Ryouga?" Rio knocks at his door.
"What?" Ryouga plugs out one of his earplugs.
(He'd been wearing them in case Vector would start shouting or something.)
She opens the door. "I got dinner for you. Don't want to hear you whining later again."
"Smells like omelette rice."
"Yeah, we made some since Gilag liked it last time he went to a maid café with Alit."
"Thanks R—"
Ryouga stares down at the ketchup writing.
'You've lost the game ♥'
Rio laughs. "Did he get you?"
"Please kill him." Ryouga clenches his fist around the plate.
"You should stop taking the game so seriously."
"You just lost, too, Rio."
"Unlike you, I don't care."
The remnants of 12-year-old Ryouga care. Ryouga doesn't actually care, right?
...Right?
~*~
Apparently Ryouga cares, because he finds a post-it note on his shower gel and trips in his anger.
~*~
The next day, Ryouga tapes the words 'YOU JUST LOST THE GAME, VECTOR' to the outside of his door, in Barian script just in case Yuuma comes to visit.
He holes himself up in his room with snacks and lets the hours pass, chats away idly with Yuuma, and actually it's pretty much like a normal day. Yuuma texts him about how boring school is, Rio tells him that he's missing nothing (as usual); it's fine.
[oi yuuma is vector in class]
[are you guys finally getting along better?? niceeee]
[not in hell]
[shark :c
uhm
yes he is
also he just told me to tell you lost the game?]
[asjfjas
sdmncsdnk
snsdfsdfn
sfnsdmfs
f
u
c
k
him. sorry i had to spam that away]
[is that a new thing between you barians]
[it's better if you don't know]
[:<]
So much for things being fine.
And as he's lost already, Ryouga gets up to get food from the fridge and oh surprise, a post-it note from Vector.
'hey nasch <3 you lost the game'
And this time Ryouga tapes a reply on top of Vector's message, 'hey vector, you lose every time you come up with new ways of making me lose. p.s. you just lost <3'
Better.
(Later that evening, Ryouga finds another note taped on top of his reply. 'Worth it.')
~*~
[durbe this is silly but can you help me]
[What is it, Nasch?]
[vector is putting up postit notes and theyre annoying, can you help me get rid of them]
[Sure. What is 'the game' anyway?]
[if you find out you'll get caught up in it too]
[That's very considerate of you to say, Nasch.]
[youre implying im usually not arent you]
[Well.]
~*~
Wednesday is. Really okay, Ryouga thinks. It's raining, Ryouga actually went to school (bad timing), Durbe managed to find every single of Vector's post-it notes and Ryouga hasn't seen Vector since he got home.
(Which may or may not be because he literally stole his key.)
Clank.
Ryouga ignores the sound, blames the rain for it.
Clank. Clank.
Nope, definitely not the rain.
Ryouga looks up to see tiny rocks being thrown at his window.
He goes to the window to yell at whoever is doing it but—
Fucking. Vector.
Vector's there, grinning, holding an umbrella—read: Ryouga's umbrella— in his left hand and a sign in his right—
'YOU JUST LOST THE GAME <3'
Ryouga rips out a page out of his notepad and writes on it, 'YOU TOO, BUCKO'
~*~
A week later, Ryouga actually locks his phone in a drawer since Vector keeps finding ways to send him messages.
And then his PC becomes taboo, too, because Vector coded a tool that reminds Ryouga of the game every three hours and Ryouga has no idea how it got onto his PC or how to remove it.
What the fuck, Vector.
Ryouga wants to counterattack, he really wants to, but he's too busy defending himself.
He takes out his earplugs and goes to take a nap, but—
Knocks.
Knocks in a specific sequence from the wall between his and Vector's rooms.
Usually Ryouga would think, 'oh, Vector's just screwing with me', but back when they were princes, they—
"Vector, I know this is fucking morse code and I lost the game, let me sleep."
From the other side of the wall, "You're no fun."
Ryouga goes to sleep with earplugs that night.
~*~
The counterattack begins another week of frustration later when Vector is taking a break from pranking by playing video games and Ryouga can't get his thoughts off the game anymore.
So he gets out his guitar the way he usually does around this time of the night, and he starts singing.
"It's things like hate that make us /
the people that we are. /
It can only be called disgust /
I won't even call you bizarre."
From the other side, Ryouga hears Vector cursing at his video game less than before, hears him turn off the TV.
Good, Ryouga thinks, and keeps going.
"And after all this time there's still not much to say /
Whatever you do, whatever you say, things remain the same. /
And the one thing I need you to know, it is /
That you have lost the game."
Ryouga hears Vector hiss his name, and he continues, "Yeah, you have lost the game."
He's interrupted by the door opening.
"Nasch." Durbe looks slightly bewildered. "I'm surprised you and Vector get along better now, but—" He looks at Ryouga's clock.
4AM.
Oh.
"Sorry," says Ryouga, and Durbe nods. "Good night."
~*~
Ryouga can't think of Yuuma without thinking of the game, because Vector keeps reminding him of the phone incident.
(What's Vector gaining if they both keep losing, anyway?)
And on an unfortunate sunday, the doorbell rings.
Yuuma. Of course.
"Hey Shark, you've been away for days and I was worried, are you sick—"
"I lost," says Ryouga, and behind him he hears Vector giggle. "Fuck off."
Yuuma tilts his head. "Me?"
"No, not you." Ryouga sighs. "Forget it. Come in."
~*~
And perhaps it's that resignation, that inevitability of losing the game that makes Ryouga relax and maybe just enjoy having his best friend over, and so he's smiling after a few duels with Yuuma, much like Vector is, too.
"See you, Yuuma."
"See 'ya, Shark! See 'ya, Vector! By the way, Shark, you have something on your back." And with that, Yuuma heads out.
"Fuck," Vector hisses. "I lost the game."
Ryouga stars laughing, pulling Vector's post it note off his own back awkwardly. "You played yourself."
"Fuck you, whose fault do you think this is?"
"Yours?"
"No, it's yours, you started this."
...What.
Ryouga blinks and sits down on the couch. "Okay, how did I start this, at all?"
Vector sits down on the other end of the couch. "Because of your shitty duelspace profile."
"Are you telling me you did all of this because you found my duelspace?"
"Yep. To get back at you for it."
"What the fuck. Why the hell do you google me anyways?"
"Blackmail material?"
~*~
Three years later, Ryouga finds a post-it note between his old and unused cards.
'You just lost the game.'