Rishid had been out all night, but on returning home he'd found he couldn't sleep. There wasn't anything to clean, but he was out of knife cleaner, and the best place he'd found for that sort of thing was at the mall. After gathering some money from the various jars and hiding places throughout his house, he headed over there and, as usual, entered through the food court.

Honda slumped down at a random table in the food court. Today was definitely not going as well as the day before had. He mentally debated whether to stay a little long or just give up and leave. As he stood and turned to glance at the doors leading outside, he saw a familiar figure. Honda smiled and started walking over. "Hey, long time no see."

Rishid paused, again nearly running into Honda (would they always be meeting up with a near collision?) and smiled. "Ah, hello. I was...it's nice to see you again." Honda didn't look nearly as upbeat as he had the last time Rishid had seen him, but Rishid politely put off asking about that until he knew if Honda even wanted company.

"Yeah, nice to see you too." Honda laughed a little. "Figures the one time I plan on meeting someone else here, I find you instead. Er, I don't think that came out the way I meant. Sorry, it's been a rough couple of days. How are things with you?"

Rishid nodded. He was far to used to brusqueness to take offense where he knew it wasn't intended. "Things have been fine with me...I need to get some things so that I can take one of my brother's kittens home, but otherwise things have been very...calm." He paused, wavering between asking and not asking, not wanting to intrude. "Things, I take it, are not so well with you, however?"

"No, not really. I was supposed to meet Jou here, but I haven't found him yet. I'm about ready to give up, except I don't have anywhere else to go. And I found out after I got back from the cruise that I don't think I'll be able to get one of the kittens after all." Honda looked away, embarrassed. "That sounds like such a dumb thing to get worked up about, doesn't it?"

"I don't think so. I'm rather looking forward to my own kitten..." Rishid tried to give what he hoped was a reassuring expression. "Why won't you be able to take one of them?"

"I, um, kinda got myself kicked out of my apartment. I'm looking for a new one, but so far no luck. I haven't had much time to look for both a job and a new place." Honda shook his head. "I should let you go get whatever it is you need, instead of bothering you with stuff about why I'm in a bad mood."

Rishid frowned and "I don't mind...I wouldn't want to simply walk away and act as though I didn't notice you. If you need somewhere to stay, and if you don't find it too abrupt of me to offer, I have more than one room in my home that is currently empty."

Honda's eyes widened. He bit his lip to keep from grinning. "Wow, you'd let me stay with you? Thanks, that would be really great. I don't have much stuff, so I don't take up much space, I promise." He frowned as he thought of something. "Is this offer for as long as I want, or just til I can find somewhere else?"

Rishid didn't want to blurt out how empty the house had seemed, and how grateful he was that Honda had agreed to--had even seemed happy about--coming to live with him. "No, the welcome is as long as you wish to stay. And whatever items you wish to bring, I assure you I can make room. I only ask that you not think of yourself as a guest, and make it your home as well...if you...would like it to be."

"Wow, I don't think anyone's ever made me an offer like that. Really, thanks." Honda couldn't keep himself from grinning. "I've never even seen your house, and I'm already thrilled to get to move in. Heh, I guess between getting a kitten and letting me move in, your life isn't going to be exactly 'calm' for much longer."

"I hope not," Rishid answered, smiling more noticeably. "I need to get a knife kit, but then I'll return home to move a few things for you." He pulled a piece of paper and a small pen from the inner pocket of his jacket and, hesitating for a moment, carefully wrote out his address. He only hoped that the letters were right, and not too twisted by that strange amalgam of Egyptian and Arabic that he and the other Ishtars spoke and wrote.

Honda watched him, leaning over slightly to try to read while Rishid was still writing. "I think I can find my way." He nodded and accepted the piece of paper. He stared at it for a moment before tucking it into a pocket. "I'm supposed to meet Jou somewhere here at the mall, so I'll bring my stuff tomorrow. If I get lost, I'll call you..." Honda frowned again. "Wait, that won't work, you already told me that you didn't have a phone yet. I guess I'll just have to hope I don't get lost."

Rishid nodded. "If you do get lost...well, you could ask my sister or one of my brothers and they could direct you. I hope that you find Jou alright."

"Yeah, I hope I find him too. I guess I'll just wander around for awhile and try to think of where he could be." Honda glanced down at the ground. "Um, could I walk with you while you go get whatever you need here? I'm kinda getting bored of walking around by myself."

"I was just about to offer," Rishid answered, relieved that they'd been on the same page there. "Is the cutlery shop out of your way?"

Honda opened his mouth to answer then closed it again. "Actually, I'm not sure what direction that'd be in. Hm." He shrugged. "I guess as long as it's somewhere in the mall, then nowhere's too out of the way. Do you know which direction to go?"

Rishid motioned. "Down that wing. ..." he paused and, almost under his breath, added, "I'm a bit surprised that I've come to know this mall as well as I do."

Honda looked over to the area Rishid was indicating. "Huh, wonder why I didn't know it was there." He walked a few steps, then turned to look back. "You say something?"

"Ah, I'd forgotten--you know about knives, also, don't you?" That would certainly make being roommates easier. "No, I was simply...it's nice that all of these things are so available."

"Eh, I know some about knives, but nowhere near as much as you probably do." Honda rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "Yeah, you're right, it is nice to be able to find so many things all in one place."

"What do you know about them? Have you ever considered learning throwing?" Rishid looked Honda up and down, calculating in a glance, and nodded. "I think that you would be good at it, if you haven't."

Honda shifted under the gaze. "I've never tried before. You could try to teach me, if you want." He glanced around. "So, we going to continue standing here, or are we going to head towards the store?"

"Oh, yes...forgive me." Rishid turned quickly away--he really hadn't meant to stop and stare...that had been rather rude of him. So now without pause, he continued in the direction of the store. "And I would like to teach you sometime."

"I'd like that." Honda smiled and followed after Rishid. "I guess now is the point in the conversation that I should be going through the usual new roommate questions. Hm, morning or night person?"

"Either. I'm always up at or just after 4 a.m., but I think I'm quiet enough that I won't disturb you. And you?"

"More of night person, I suppose. I wake up in the morning without too much trouble, but I'm not always happy about it. I'll try to be quiet between when you want to go to bed and when I do, but I can't make any promises about that. Your turn to think of a question."

"Do you have any...'pet peeves'? Does it bother you if someone leaves the cap off of the toothpaste, or doesn't empty the dishwasher?" Rishid had only just bought a dishwasher, so he was actually qualified to ask that.

Honda slowed down to consider this. "'Pet peeves'? Hm, nothing's really coming to mind. I don't really care about the toothpaste cap, as long as it's somewhere and there's still toothpaste in the tube. Leaving dishes in the dishwasher doesn't matter to me one way or another, so long as I know if they're clean or dirty." He shrugged. "If I think of anything I do have an opinion about, I'll let you know. What about you?"

"...I'm generally very patient, so I haven't found anything yet, either. Except, if something is covered in the fridge, don't leave it uncovered." He thought and nodded. "That is the only thing at this time."

Honda considered how to word his next question. "Hm, what about personal property? Like, do you plan on separating out food I have permission to eat from food I'm not allowed to take? I don't know how to word it better... But you know what I mean, right?"

"No, no. Whatever is in the house is yours, as well. I will, of course, not intrude on things you don't wish me to, but feel free to anything."

"Yeah, that's fine. I had a roommate once who insisted on separate everything, even stuff like paper towels and bread, so I had to ask. Hm, next question...do you watch much television? Come to think of it, do you even have one?"

Rishid chuckled lightly. "No, actually. But I wouldn't be...opposed to getting one."

Honda glanced over. "My last roommate was the one with the television, but I think I watched it more than he did, so I think I'd want to get one pretty soon if you don't mind. I even have some money to help pay for it, although it's when you get sucked into buying stuff like a VCR and a television stand and so on that it starts getting more expensive. That reminds me, I didn't even think to ask how much you expect me to put towards helping to pay for utilities and such."

"Ah...I hadn't thought of utilities, honestly. They're not too expensive. The house is mostly payed off already. I suppose we can work out what is fair when I get the next bills. And I would be more than happy to help purchase the TV...I've been missing a few shows, actually."

"Oh, okay. What shows?"

"I like Scrubs." Rishid hesitated. "And morning talk shows."

"Never heard of Scrubs, but I'm sure it's good. Morning talk shows are usually interesting. I like evening news shows as well, even though they sometimes talk about really trivial stuff. I also watch cartoons and CSI, which is an odd combination."

"Ah, CSI...I actually used to go to a bar just to watch it."

"Really? Maybe I should have tried doing that whenever my roommate gave me strange looks for wanting to watch it."

"It got difficult to listen to it over the brawling...we most certainly need our own TV." Rishid paused at the first display in the cutlery store and examined the contents.

Honda nodded. "When do you want us to do that?" He looked over to the store display. "What are you looking for here?"

"Tomorrow, if possible." Rishid pointed to a small section. "I need knife cleaners."

"Okay." Honda looked to where Rishid was pointing. He motioned to the back corner of the display. "That or no?"

Rishid followed Honda's gesture and, after a moment, nodded. "Those should work wonderfully. ...Is there a store clerk around here?"

Honda glance around, trying to tell who in the store were customers and who weren't. "Hm, over there I think. That guy doesn't look like a customer."

Rishid walked over and, after a few awkward stares at the marks on his face, finally convinced the clerk to give him a look at the knife cleaners.

Honda glanced over at Rishid and the clerk, then continued looking at the displays. "You need anything else here?"

Rishid glanced at the shopkeeper and then shook his head. "No, this should be all."

Honda looked down at the nearest case rather than up at Rishid. "Any other stores you need to go to, or you going to head home now?" he asked, unsure which answer he wanted.

"I...I can stay, until you find your friend," he said, a bit hesitantly.

"I've taken up enough of your time without expecting you to stay while I look for a guy who might not even be here. You don't have to stay unless you want to." Honda glanced up nervously. "I'd appreciate the company, though."

"I'd like to stay. Where do you want to go first?"

Honda rubbed the back of his neck. "Hm, I guess we should quickly look at the stores in this part of the mall and make our way back to the food court. From there we can figure out a new direction."

Rishid finished examining his purchase and nodded. "I am going to 'audition' for Mokuba Kaiba, and something tells me that what I have to wear won't make a very...favorable impression. If you don't mind, I'd like to wander down one of the wings with most of the clothing stores."

"Oh, okay, that sounds like a good idea. I'd probably have the best luck finding Jou in a clothing store anyways." Honda glanced briefly at Rishid's clothing before looking away. "Besides, I think you'll be fine. He complains about my clothes all the time, but he was still willing to hire me."

"Yes," Rishid answered, still sounding uneasy. "But the two of you are friends--at least, better friends than I am with him."

"Me and Mokuba, friends? Not likely. I have no idea why he keeps talking to me, but I'm pretty sure it's not friendship." Honda shook his head, trying not to examine that situation too closely. "Anyways, if you think you should get something from one of the clothing stores, then we can head over there. I just wanted to say that I think your audition thing will go fine."

"I...thank you." Rishid was grateful for a vote of confidence (he needed more confidence), but...well, his clothes were getting rather care-worn. And if it would be convenient for Honda to find his friend, so much the better. He politely set aside the issue of Honda and Mokuba, since his companion seemed uncomfortable with the topic, and said, "I ought to get some new clothing, in any event. I don't think that I'll be able to patch up my shirt any more than I already have."

Honda nodded. "Okay, we'll head over to the clothes then." He stared at his feet while he walked, then looked at Rishid from the corner of his eye. "Do you think he's right, that I need new clothes? Usually I'd just brush it off as another complaint, but I'm really starting to wonder if he's right, that other people just don't say anything about it out of politeness."

"No...I think that your style is different from his, as is mine. But...I rather like your style, for what it's worth. Mokuba's is interesting, and in vogue to be sure, but it's...distracting, also. The only reason I considered new clothing today was because I was worried it would lower my chances of being hired."

"Oh, good, then I'm not the only person who doesn't understand Mokuba's sense of style." Honda smiled. "I think I understand, though, why you'd think you need new clothing. Mokuba is just strange enough to hold something irrelevant like that against you. Still, I think it'll go fine."

Rishid smiled at that and nodded. "Thank you--honestly, I do mean that. It helps to go into new situations knowing that you have someone's belief in you." He paused to study a shirt. "How have you found working for Mokuba so far?"

"It's been pretty good, considering I haven't had to see him during this first week of working there. Though, once he and I have to see each other, or even worse try to have a face-to-face conversation, I'm not sure what'll happen."

Rishid almost chuckled--well, almost loudly enough that someone other than Honda could hear it. "So long as you don't hit him or talk back to him, it should be fine."

"Not hitting him, I think I can do. Not talking back? That'll only work til he talks to me." Honda looked over at a nearby stack of shirts. "Anyways, new topic please." He looked around. "Um, back to the random questions. What furniture do you have at the house?"

Rishid thought for a moment, running through his items. "...Not much, actually. I have an old sofa in the front room, and a few chairs I salvaged from the tombkeepers' home. I also have a table, for dining, and a desk."

"I'm guessing the chairs go to the table and desk then. You're right, that isn't much. Wait," Honda turned to look at Rishid, "you didn't mention anything like a bed."

Rishid finally selected a shirt. "Ah...well, I do have two of those. But if you have one, it will probably be more comfortable--both of my beds were also salvaged."

Honda shook his head. "Nope, thanks to my previous roommate, I don't even have a bed of my own. ...Er, this sounds rude, but bad are these beds? Just so I know what I'm getting myself into."

"They...well, they're traditional. Which means that they have a wooden frame, and the support is leather straps woven together. Then a feather mattress is placed over it, as well as any blankets you like."

"Oh, okay. You had me a little worried for a moment. Anything else I should know?"

"Do you like alcohol?"

"Yes, why?" Honda watched Rishid, wondering what direction the conversation would go.

"I...ah, keep quite a lot of it. And of course you're welcome to whatever you like, I only ask that if you have anyone else over to drink that you let me know first."

"Yeah, that's fine, I can do that. I doubt that I'd have anyone over for drinking, but I'll let you know if I ever do. What kind of alcohol are we talking about anyways?"

"...Ah, quite a bit. It depends on what you are looking for I suppose, how 'hard' you want it." He looked a bit rueful. "I'm afraid that since I moved here, I've 'collected' more alcohol than I could possibly drink."

Honda blinked a few times at this statement. "That's something I don't think I've ever heard before. How do you go about 'collecting' alcohol?"

Rishid coughed quietly. "Ah, you stay up all night, and the next morning you go to the liquor store and buy what catches your eye."

Honda considered this. "Hm, actually, that makes complete sense. If you get the idea to do that again, am I supposed to try to talk you out of it? Since you said that you have more than enough."

"No, I wouldn't want to put that sort of burden on you; either way, I suppose I could always sell the bottles I don't open." Rishid looked back at him. "Out of curiosity...how does it make sense?" It was rather hard to make sense of a lot of things, lately.

"I dunno, it just does." Honda shrugged. "I've done that a few times, just gone and bought stuff 'cause I felt like it." Honda looked at the ground and rubbed the back of his neck. "Heh, that probably explains why I rarely have much money."

"I have always believed that, if one does not have children to provide for, it's best to die with experiences behind you rather than money. What sort of things do you find yourself buying?"

"Eh, mostly just really stupid stuff. I don't have any of it now. Well, except for the time I thought it'd be a great idea to buy a bunch of batteries, I still have some of those. Like I said, I don't do it very often, and usually I can talk myself out of the really dumb ideas." Honda glanced over nervously. "Sorry, maybe we should talk about something else now."

Rishid blinked. "That is rather...random. Though at least you seem to be drawn to useful items. If you don't mind my asking, what happened between you and your roommate?"

"Which one? Oh, you mean the last one, right? Well, to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what happened there. We met through a mutual friend, and he seemed pretty cool at the time. Then, after we moved in together, he seemed to think it was okay to just give me orders. Nothing big, usually just telling me to get stuff from the store. Then he decided it was okay to mess with my stuff. Little things at first, like something being out of place. After I got back from the cruise though, he'd moved all my stuff around and gotten rid of some of it. To top it off, when some of his stuff went missing, he went to the landlord with some crazy story about how I was doing all these weird things. The landlord believed him and kicked me out."

"What sort of things did he say you had done?" Rishid asked, frowning slightly. "Though at least you won't have to live there anymore."

"The landlord wouldn't even tell me, so I don't know all of it. Based on the stuff he was yelling, I assume at least some of it involved property damage and such. It's not important now. So, um, why don't you have a roommate or anything? I mean, until you offered to me, that is."

"I lived with my siblings, but I felt it was necessary for us to branch out, now that we are no longer tombkeepers." That wasn't strictly true, but it was close enough. "And I am...not quite outgoing enough to attract any room mates, I'm afraid."

"Oh, okay. Guess it's not that important anyways, since you have me to live with now. Now what would you like to talk about? I can't think of any other roommate questions."

"What sort of music do you like?" Music was something Rishid knew passively about, but he did like to have something playing while he worked around the house, and he assumed most other people did as well.

"Um, actually..." Honda rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously, "some friends of mine through the internet got me into American music, so that's a lot of what I listen to now." He stared at his feet, hoping he didn't sound like a complete idiot now.

"Really?" Rishid asked, intrigued by the idea of American music--or Western music of any kind, really. The furthest West his music had gone was France. "What sort of songs do they have?"

"Er, you mean like music genres? I don't really know what any of them are here, much less there. Sorry, I never thought to pay much attention to what to call different types of music."

"You shall have to show me some of these songs sometime, then," Rishid said, trying to imagine English words in a song. That was hard. "What is your favorite song?"

"Right now?" Honda thought about this for a few moments before answering. "I guess right now it'd be this song called Helena. This one guy tape recorded the video for it and sent it to me, it's pretty cool. I'm still trying to learn the words to it though."

Rishid nodded curiously. "What is it about?"

"I'm not sure, actually. I just like listening to it and watching the people in the video dance around. I guess that's a dumb reason to like a song."

"Truthfully, I don't think there is a dumb reason to like music...at least I should hope not, for my own reasons for choosing favorites are a little...odd." He hesitated. "For instance, my current favorite is a song I only like because it reminds me of the first time I ever saw a duck."

Honda glanced over. "The song you talked about in your journal earlier?"

Rishid laughed uneasily. "That one, yes."

"I thought it was a pretty good song." Honda smiled. "How long ago was the first time you saw a duck?"

"I was almost twenty one, actually." He shook his head faintly. "So it really wasn't all that long ago...not compared to how long it was before I saw the sunlight."

"Huh? Whadya mean?" Honda stopped in confusion, before realizing what Rishid was talking about. "Oh, um, right. I guess I forgot about that. New topic then." He stood very still, staring at a scuff on the mall floor near his shoe as though it was possibly the most interesting thing ever.

"It--ah, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable," Rishid said, wondering now how that must have sounded.

Honda kicked at the scuff on the floor, making it worse. "Nah, it's okay. I thought maybe I had said something stupid to make you uncomfortable or something." He looked up with a small smile. "I do that a lot, saying stupid stuff without thinking. I don't usually mean to come off like that."

Rishid smiled in what he hoped was a reassuring manner. "Don't worry about it...I can promise before you ever say a word that I have been in much worse company. And I would rather you say what is on your mind than worry about what I will think about it."

"Ah, okay. I'll keep that in mind." Honda looked up. "So, um, now what would you like to talk about?"

"Do you have any particular religious beliefs?"

Honda shook his head. "No, religion is one of those things that just confuses me. I guess I don't have enough of an attention span to sit down and make any sense out of it. Sorry, I'm not very interesting to talk about."

"Ah, I wouldn't ask if I wasn't interested," Rishid answered simply. "Did your family raise you with any beliefs that you grew away from?"

"I don't think so. If they tried to give me any sort of belief system, I didn't realize it then or now. They, uh, didn't exactly spend much time with me as a kid."

Rishid nodded thoughtfully, though he glanced at Honda. "...What sort of things do you like to do? I don't remember seeing you duel at Battle City; do you play games?"

"Games like Duel Monsters? No, I'm not really any good at that kinda stuff." Honda looked away again. "I've tried playing regular card games against people too, but I usually only win if they're having pretty bad luck. I'm okay at sports and stuff. I guess I'm better at watching other people than actually doing much of anything."

Rishid blinked. In a way, he supposed that was also true of himself...at least he'd thought so before; that he was better on the sidelines, better off waiting for someone else to make the decisions. "What sports do you know?"

"Most of the major ones, I guess. Baseball doesn't make much sense to me, but I know the rules and all. I like football, even though I haven't really played in awhile. Some of the people I know on the internet think that's kinda funny, and try to get me to call it soccer like they do." Honda grinned. "Oh, and hockey. I like hearing about that too, even if most people here think it's just another violent American thing. What about you?"

Rishid shook his head. "Heh, I don't know any sports...aside from throwing a ball back and forth, but I haven't done that in many years. Would you mind teaching me some of these sports, when we both have time?"

"I guess I could try, but most sports don't work very well outside of a big group." Honda looked around. "What kinds of things do you like to do?"

"Mostly everything," Rishid answered. "Now that I have the time, I want to enjoy as many new experiences as I can."

"I guess that makes sense. Maybe a better question is if you've found anything you don't like doing?"

"Not so far," Rishid answered, laughing slightly. "How soon will you be able to move in?

"Hopefully tomorrow or the day after that. If that's okay with you, that is."

"Yes, that's fine." Mentally he went over the things he could move aside or put into storage, and decided it wouldn't take very long at all. He frowned slightly. "I don't think I asked, but...what do your friends look like? I probably would be better help in looking for them if I knew who I was looking for...."

In all the fun of talking to Rishid, Honda had almost forgotten that he was supposed to be looking for Jou. "Oh, I only planned on meeting up with Jou here at the mall at some point. I'm starting to wonder if there was some sort of miscommunication, though. I don't think he's here, or I'd have found him by now."

"Is there a number you could call them at?" Rishid was surprised at the time, when he caught sight of a clock hanging inside one of the stores. "I was supposed to go see my brother before dinner, but I can stay a while longer if you like."

"Nah, that's fine. We didn't have anything specific planned out or anything. I think I'll head over to his house and see if he's there. Maybe he got sick or something, I hear there's been a cold going around lately." Honda gave his surrounding another glance before turning back to Rishid. "I'll see you whenever I get around to moving in."

"Alright. Feel free to come over whenever, the house will be ready for you." He smiled.

Honda nodded. "Okay, don't think you have to rush or anything on my account. Thanks again." He turned and headed towards the food court.

Rishid nodded and offered an "Until tomorrow, then" and headed back to the entrance.