by Taitofan
Rated PG-13 for yaoi and pedo
Disclaimer- Nope, Yugioh is still not mine, and alas, it probably never will be...
Author's note- Here's an odd idea I had when writing the third part in my "Just A Normal Day" series. This is a side story about the old lady who lives next to them in their apartment building. Kind of OOC, but nothing terrible.
Flames are only pointless and annoying. CC, however, is helpful. So it's obvious which you'll get farther with. Please read, review, and enjoy! Finished 02-17-04
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Ghost looked up from the book he was reading when he heard a persistent knocking at the door. Who in the world could it be? Keith had gone out to pick up some food at the grocery store on the corner, but he knew the door wouldn't be locked, so he wouldn't bother to knock. And he wasn't getting much, so his hands wouldn't be so full that he wouldn't be able to open the door. His only friends were Takaido and Sakate, but they never bothered to knock since they had a key. Keith didn't really have any friends, at least not ones close enough to come over to their apartment...
So who was it? It was puzzling him to no end. The knocking grew louder and faster and Ghost landed back on planet Earth, realizing that he had to answer the door if he wanted to know who it was.
"I'm coming!" he called out, putting his book on the small coffee table. He got up from the couch and scampered into the kitchen. He opened the door and came face-to-face with a very scary sight... The old lady who lived in the apartment next to his and Keith's. Ghost was very weary of this lady, as the bedroom was on the same side as the old lady's...
He really wished their bedroom was on the other side of the apartment, as an older teenage girl who often brought yaoi doujinshi home with her lived on the other side of them. She'd have no problems if she knew what he and Keith did many nights, but he was sure if the old lady ever realized what they did, she'd have a heart attack. His musings were suddenly broken as the old lady asked him a question.
"Young man, is your uncle home?" It took Ghost a few minutes to realize what she meant. He had an uncle? He didn't know that... Oh yes, they'd told anyone who'd asked that Keith was Ghost's uncle, so no one would question why a thirteen-year-old was moving in with a twenty-six-year-old. Of course now he was pretty sure that people just thought they were in an incestuous pedophilic relationship instead of just a pedophilic one.
Or he was just being paranoid. Whatever.
"I'm sorry," Ghost told her, hoping she'd leave soon, "but he went to the store. Maybe you should come back later." 'So that I can lock the doors,' he added mentally.
"That's all right," she said in her rather crackly voice. "I'll just wait here until he gets back. It's rather important." She walked past Ghost into the apartment, ignoring his protests that she should just come back later.
'Great,' he mentally pouted, 'now I'm stuck with this crazy decrepit woman until Keith gets back. Thank Kami-sama that the store is only a few minutes away...'
The lady walked through the kitchen area and into the living room, where she sat where Ghost had previously been. He sat down on the opposite end of the couch, wanting to be polite, but still wanting to be as far away as humanly possible.
The lady looked around the room, noting the pictures adorning the walls. A few of Ghost taken by Keith (without his permission), a few of Keith from back when he was playing Duel Monsters in America, and a bunch of them together courtesy of Takaido and Sakate. One particular picture caught her attention.
"Aren't you and your uncle a little close in that picture?" Ghost looked over to the one she was pointing at. That had been taken a little bit after Keith had asked Ghost to move in with him. They'd been meeting Takaido and Sakate because Ghost had wanted to tell them the good news in person. Takaido had just bought a new camera a few days before and was taking pictures constantly it seemed.
After Ghost had explained about the situation, Sakate commented that he didn't believe that they were actually going to do it. Keith had told him to believe it and leaned down to kiss Ghost. Right before the kiss, Takaido had snapped a picture, claiming it was a perfect shot. Later on he'd had the picture blown up and gave it to them as a housewarming gift. It was Ghost's favorite picture by far.
But how to explain the picture to the lady? It was extremely obvious that they were about to kiss. But he definitely couldn't tell the old lady that! He prayed again that Keith would come home soon.
And in a miracle, the front door opened and in stepped Keith. 'Thank you thank you thank you!!!'
"Hey, Ghost!" Keith yelled from the kitchen. "I got more chocolate and caramel sauce. And they had those little rainbow sprinkles on sale, so I got some of those too. Man, we're gonna have fun tonight!" Ghost blushed at the thought, hoping the old lady didn't think that Keith meant what he really *did* mean.
"Ke- Um, Uncle Keith, could you please come in here? We have a, um, visitor?"
"Uncle? What are you talk- Oh, hello!" He'd walked into the living room and noticed the old woman. He wondered why she was there and why Ghost would have let her into the apartment in the first place, but judging by the look on his lover's face, there hadn't been much of a choice in the matter.
"How can I help you Mrs. Shinwa? Is something wrong?" Old Mrs. Shinwa (Ghost had forgotten her name earlier) nodded her head solemnly.
"Yes, I have some concerns about the nature of you and your nephew's relationship. Ever since the two of you moved in, I've been hearing some... noises coming from your apartment at night. It sounds very... intimate. At first I thought that you might have a lover with you Mr. Howard, but when I realized that it was your nephew, I became a bit disturbed. Now, I don't know what the two of you do exactly and I probably don't want to judging by the pictures on your wall. But whatever is going on, I'll have you know that it's not right. I have a feeling that you're not even related, but that doesn't change anything! You-"
At this point, both Keith and Ghost had had about enough of this crazy old hag. How dare she tell them that their relationship was wrong, even if they weren't really related! Where did she get off acting like she alone decided what was right or wrong?
"Excuse me," Keith managed to get out without yelling, "but if you have nothing to say except for telling us that we're horrible people, then we have no desire to listen to you. What goes on between Ghost and I is our business, not anyone else's, and definitely not yours. So please leave our apartment and don't come back."
Ghost couldn't help but giggle at the horrified look on Mrs. Shinwa's face. Quickly, she got up from the couch and hurried towards the door.
"You'll get what's coming to you eventually!" she called to them, while exiting the apartment. That was the last thing they heard her say before they were alone again.
With a grateful smile, Ghost launched himself into his lover's arms. Keith wrapped his arms around Ghost, smiling down at the younger boy.
"Thank you so much!" Ghost cried happily. "She just walked in without asking, and then she asked about that picture of us that Takaido took, and she was driving me nuts, and-" Keith cut Ghost off with a passionate kiss, as if saying that everything was all right now.
When they parted after a while, they smiled at each other again. Who cared what a crazy lady thought anyways? They loved each other and that was what really mattered.
"Hey!" Keith exclaimed, remembering something, "I bought all that ice cream stuff at the store, right?" Ghost nodded. "So how about we see how good a Ghost Sundae tastes?"
Ghost felt his cheeks start to burn. No matter how long they stayed together, or what they did, Ghost still never failed to blush at Keith's ideas. Keith wouldn't have it any other way either.
"That sounds great," Ghost affirmed. "Really great."
Mrs. Shinwa was soon greeted with those "intimate" sounds she'd been talking about. She sighed and went to find some ear plugs. This was going to be a long night...