#that Yugi might look at that card and himself a little differently

[lintsins]

monster reborn

#you ever think about how Yugi is a monster reborn #the way the monsters are the souls of the damned #you ever think about after they’ve been separated #that Yugi might look at that card and himself a little differently #something like that #yugi moto #yuugi mutou #Yugioh dm #ygo #Yugioh #yugi mutou

[gx-gameon]

Yugi adopting Jaden part three

Start - previous - next

Yugi takes Joey inside. The two head upstairs where Yugi finds Jaden working in his deck. “Jaden can you come here. There’s someone I want you to meet.” Jaden looks up and his whole face lights up.

“You’re Joey Wheeler! You were runner up in Duelist Kingdom and fourth in battle city.” The little boy is so excited as he runs up to Joey.

Joey is thrilled as the little boy inflates his ego. “That’s right but you can call me Uncle Joey! Seeing as your my best friend’s kid.”

Jaden is bouncing with excitement at this point. Talking Joey’s ear off about how cool he is and Joey’s priming like a peacock from all the attention. He looks over Jaden to see the boy’s deck spread out on the ground. “Hey kiddo you want to show me your deck?” Jaden gasps and grabs his hand and drags him over to his deck. Yugi following behind with a soft smile on his face. It’s wonderful to see his best friend and his son getting along so well.

They sit down and Jaden starts telling Joey all about his cards. He talks extensively about his favorite cards the Elemental Heros. They are a new archetype. Currently only five different types of monster cards exist. Jaden had three when Yugi adopted him: Burstinatrix, Avian, and Clayman. Upon arriving at Kame Game shop Grandpa had given Jaden Bubbleman and Sparkman as a welcome home present, instantly endearing himself to the boy. The monsters were low level and besides Sparkman’s 1600 attack and Clayman’s 2000 defense all their stats were pretty low. Yugi had a feeling that Pegasus was testing them out to see if they were popular before adding more support and higher level monsters to the archetype.

But if anyone could understand using low level monsters to support one another, it was Joey. He was ooooing and aaaaing at all the right times and nodding his head along, following Jaden’s excited rambling. He asked questions about strategies and started giving Jaden tips about how to power up and defend his lower level hero’s.

Yugi wished he could let them go for hours but he can’t. He needs to go. “Joey I need to ask you a favor.” Yugi catches both of their attentions easily.

“Sure what is it Yug?” Joey remembered what Yugi had said in their phone call, ‘I need you.’ That’s not the thing you say when you just want to introduce someone to your son.

“I went to see Kaiba today.” Yugi started only to get interrupted by and over excited Jaden.

“Thee Seto Kaiba!” Jaden was so excited. All of Yugi’s friends were so cool.

Yugi smiled warmly at his son’s enthusiasm. “Yes that Kaiba, but he wasn’t there.” Yugi said directing his attention back to Joey.

“So, what did you need him for?” Joey is trying not to feel hurt that Yugi went to Kaiba with a problem before coming to him.

“I-” Yugi paused letting out a big sigh. “Jaden come here, please.” Yugi opened his arms and Jaden quickly moved to hug him and sit in his lap. It was a comfortable position, one they normally sat in after one of Jaden’s nightmares. It made Jaden feel safe, and Yugi knew that. He also just wanted his kid close, considering what he was about to do, it might be a while before he could hold him again.

“I told you about Jaden’s adoption.” Yugi said making eye contact with Joey.

“Yah, ya told me.” Joey nodded his head.

“Well that’s where things start to get weird. I tried to get access to Jaden’s medical file, to see if he was allergic to anything or needed any special care but the file was empty.” Yugi held Jaden close as he felt the little one look up at him. He directed his attention down and smiled reassuringly at the boy.

Joey however had alarm bells going off in his head. This was not right. Something was wrong here, and Yugi knew it. He wasn’t going to say it with Jaden around but both teens knew something had happened. You don’t have an empty medical record for no reason.

“So you went to Kaiba..” Joey prompted Yugi to get them to continue with the conversation. He had a lot of questions he wanted to ask but could see Jaden starting to look uncomfortable and knew now was not the time to ask questions like ‘what do you mean the records were blank?’ Or ‘what other documents were missing?’ Those were questions to ask when little ears weren’t around to hear them.

“To see if he could find the original records.” Yugi drew his attention back to Joey. His hand started to rub circles on Jaden’s back. “But he wasn’t there. Mokuba told me he’s been missing for a month.”

“A month?!” Joey exploded. “Where the f-” Yugi sent Joey a sharp glare, “heck did he go?” Joey asked.

Yugi let out a sigh. Here comes the hard part. “He… he went to duel Atem.” Yugi said closing his eyes and taking a big breath.

“But that’s… that’s crazy!” Joey couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Atem’s” he paused as he knew this was a hard spot for Yugi, “Atem’s gone. He can’t duel him anymore.”

Yugi let out a low chuckle. “Apparently he can. He built a devise that allows him to travel between dimensions just so he can go duel him.”

“But that’s not a different dimension that’s the-” Joey started to rage when he got cut off by a little voice.

“Who’s Atem?” Jaden asked looking up at Yugi with curious eyes. He could tell the name made Yugi sad, and they said he was gone, but he had to be someone special if Seto Kaiba wanted to duel him and he made Yugi this sad.

Yugi and Joey both looked at Jaden. Yugi expression was both mournful but also so full of love. “Atem was someone very dear to me. We went on many adventures together along with Joey and our other friends, but he...” Yugi pause looking up and blinking away the tears that had formed in his eyes before looking back down at the wide eyed boy in his lap. “He passed away.” How do you explain to someone that Atem was a long dead pharaoh whose spirit shared your body?

“Oh.” Jaden said looking down. “I’m sorry you lost your friend.” He tightened his arms around Yugi giving him a big hug, as Jaden wasn’t sure how else to comfort someone.

Yugi was surprised before his face softened and he returned the tight embrace. What had he done to get such a sweet kid.

“But wait!” Jaden cried pulling back startling both adults. “If he’s dead how is Mr. Kaiba going to duel him?”

Yugi winced at the phrasing but Joey was right there with Jaden. “That’s what I’m asking.”

Yugi let out a huff of breath because he was just as exasperated with Kaiba at this moment. “It’s Kaiba. He built a machine that let him travel to the afterlife to challenge Atem.”

“And he’s not dead?” Joey asked. It was a genuine question.

“No. Mokuba has been monitoring his vitals and he’s still alive. He’s just not coming back. Mokuba’s worried that something’s wrong with the return process.” Yugi explained.

“Or he just hasn’t beat Atem yet and is refusing to leave.” Joey stated. Yugi made eye contact with him as the two nodded. Yep that’s the most likely senario.

“Is.. is this normal for you? Going to different dimensions?” Jaden asked with wide eyes as he looked between the two adults.

Yugi and Joey paused passing a look and a thousand words between each other before Joey shrugged “it’s par for the course when your a world class duelist.” Yugi was about to strangle him.

“Awesome!” Jaden was so excited. Yugi and his friends were like real world super heroes!

Yugi dropped his head to rest his forehead against Jaden’s hair. Offering a silent prayer that his son didn’t get into the same amount of trouble he and his friends got into.

“Anyways. Mokuba asked me to go after him. He has a new way to bring us home, but needs someone to go get Kaiba.” Yugi explained Mokuba’s plan.

“Yug that’s insane.” Joey started to argue. This was a bad idea on so many levels. One what if Mokuba was wrong and Kaiba was dead? What if this killed Yugi? What if it didn’t? Would he see Atem again? Could Yugi handle saying goodbye to Atem again? This was so unfair! How dare Kaiba put his best friend in this position.

“You’re going to the afterlife.” Jaden asked, and they could both hear the slight wobble in his voice. “You’re going to die?”

“No, no, no” Yugi quickly reassured him. Holding his boy close again. “I’m not dying. It’s safe. I wouldn’t go if it wasn’t, I’m not going to leave you. I just need to go help a friend.”

“How do you know it’s safe?” Joey asked watching his best friend comfort his son.

“Joey” Yugi shot him a sharp look as Jaden started to get upset again. But Joey didn’t care.

“No Yug, how do you know it’s safe?” Joey pushed. He wasn’t about to lose his best friend to Kaiba’s arrogance in thinking that he could defy death to get his way. He wasn’t going to let Jaden lose his parent a second time.

“Mokuba has assured me it’s safe.” Yugi reassures both Joey and Jaden, keeping his voice even for Jaden’s sake. “I’ll come back.”

“Well if it’s so safe why don’t I go?” Joey offered. There was no way Yugi was going. Not now. Not when he had Jaden to take care of. Stupid Kaiba, getting himself into impossible scenarios and needing Yugi to bail him out. He probably won’t even say thank you! No, not this time. This time rich boy’s going to have to deal with Joey Wheeler coming to the rescue.

“You can’t.” Yugi stated, calmly taking all the wind out of Joey’s sails. “Mokuba already tried. Only someone with a connection to ancient Egypt can go. Meaning only myself or Kaiba could make the trip and Kaiba’s already there.”

Joey deflates at the news. “That’s just not fair.” He looks up at Yugi, who’s still holding Jaden close, reassuring the little boy. He can see the fear in the four year old’s eyes and he knows there has to be something he can do, or else Yugi won’t have called. He blew out a breath before straightening up and meeting Yugi’s gaze. “Alright, how can I help?” Just because he can’t go with Yugi doesn’t mean he can’t help him.

Yugi seems to relax as soon as Joey asks. “I need you to stay with Jaden. He’s been having awful nightmares and I know they’re tied to the spirit world. I just don’t know why. Jaden doesn’t remember them when he wakes up. It’s one of the many reasons I need to get a hold of his records. But if something is reaching out to him I don’t want to leave him without someone who can protect him. Can you stay with him. I know it’s short notice and I don’t know how long I’ll be gone but-”

“Yug.” Joey cut off his friend’s rambling. “I’ve got him. You don’t have to worry about a thing. There isn’t a spirit in existence that can take down Joey Wheeler! Remember I took on an Egyptian god card.” Yugi remembered, remembered watching Joey get fried by Ra’s power. “I mean it Yug. I’ve got this. I’ll keep Jaden safe while you rescue Kaiba.”

“Are you sure?” It was a big ask after all. Joey had just met Jaden and now he’s being asked to watch the kid for who knows how long. Yugi hated asking this of his friend, but there was no one he trusted more in the world with keeping his son safe than Joey.

“Are you kidding? I get to spend time with my new littlest buddy! We’re going to have a blast. You go be a hero and we’ll be here waiting for you. After all, I got to teach my littlest buddy all my dueling tricks.” Joey was all smiles. He was terrified for his best friend but he also trusted Yugi to know what he was doing. Plus there was no way he was going to put any more doubts in Jaden’s head. His dad was coming home. There were no other options. Besides, he was genuinely excited to hang out with the kid.

“Thank you Joey.” Yugi softened. Joey really was the greatest friend he could ever have.

“No sweat. Now let’s get your deck ready to go, I’ve got a feeling you’ll need it.” Joey stood up. He reach out a hand to help Yugi up. To his surprised Jaden wrapped his arms tight around Yugi forcing Yugi to pick the boy up with him as he stood, holding the boy comfortably on his hip.

Oh wow! His friend really was a dad now!

#jaden yuki #judai yuki #yugioh gx #yugi moto #yugi mutou #seto kaiba #atem #yami yugi #dad yugi #pharaoh atem #joey wheeler #jounouchi katsuya #wishshipping platonic #future rivalshipping

[cardsbizarreadventure]

☆꧁✬◦°˚°◦. ♠ ♣ ♥ ♦ .◦°˚°◦✬꧂☆

So this was basically my very first edit when I was slowly getting myself back on the YGO hype train. Thought I fixed Val's hair since I tried to match more the YGO style so it doesn't look like that now lmfao xD. This was basically my very first edit when I was slowly getting myself back on the YGO hype train and back into the story I made 11 years ago ; u ; .

I am gonna write a little story under the cut for anyone interested in reading it !!

I don't know how long it might turn out to be so I am just gonna write a little summary of the concept of this image that I made.

Basically this was their official first encounter (other than the very first one but he just saw her for like a mere moment.)

It started when Seto detected on Yugi's duel disk the use of a card that he had destroyed a long time ago , that's right it's the Blue-Eyes White Dragon (There is a different origin behind that but it's still connected to the main plot) . So he went in to see it for himself upon how Yugi will 'stoop so low' to tape up a card and use it against him , but little did he know that someone else was using it. Yugi and Kaiba get into a small argument , Val stood in the middle of the whole argument and she couldn't live with the idea that someone was taking the blame , Kaiba basically claiming Yugi of 'cheating' for using a ripped card , she steps up and speaks up. Of course Kaiba ignores her from the start , but after she shows her own 'evidence' of the card , he quickly shifts his attention to her.

Of course a lot of questions begin to form into Kaiba's head as he is trying to figure out where on earth some random girl would even have her hands on such a powerful card. His prideful and rude attitude however doesn't even flinch when he directs his words towards her. Eventually he challenges her to a duel on the spot and she has no other choice , so she accepts the challenge. Yugi lends her his own duel disk for this short lived battle.

She doesn't win , but she doesn't lose either. Before the duel can get to a certain point Kaiba had to leave urgent because his system had detected a use of a 'God Card' as much as he wanted to claim the Blue-Eyes first , he was after the God Cards prior , so he basically dropped the duel in the middle. Before he leaves however , Kaiba asks her if she is a participant in his tournament which she responds with a 'No.' He didn't waste a moment before he pulled out a duel disk out of the helicopter he had arrived in and threw one at her direction and said the following before he felt "I better see you at the finals , so I can rip that card out of your hands. " It came out more like a mock than an actual praise coming from his mouth since he doubted that she would reach them , but since she had her hands on such a powerful card in her hands he didn't lose hope just yet on the matter , because no matter what he was going to claim that card and destroy it.

Hope you enjoyed reading it.

#seto kaiba #yugioh #my art #cards draws #cards art #cards doodles #kaiba #kaiba seto #ygo dm #ygo #ygo oc #ygo ocs #yugioh oc

[rainstormcolors]

For the ask game: Kaiba, 7, 10, 12

Hello. Thank you for the ask and I hope you’re having a nice day out there.

7. What might they appreciate as a gift from someone?

I don’t feel that Seto is the sentimental type, not on the conscious level. And yet gestures do end up affecting him over time. Yugi might buy some trading card packs to open together and share and look at what they find. Mokuba finds a cool fossil and he leaves it in Seto’s office. For some reason these are what come to mind for me. The little things.

10. If this character wanted to cheer up someone they cared about, what do you think they’d do?

I think Seto’s emotional intelligence, from where he is in canon, leaves something to be desired. He’s not a people-oriented person, and emotional and sentimental communication is difficult for him. He often does grand gestures of sacrifice for the sake of the people he cares about in canon, and this is a showing of his affection. Being emotionally available for others when he can’t even be emotionally available for himself is difficult for him. All this to say that I feel Seto might have almost a form of learned helplessness when it comes to the idea of cheering people up, for where he is in canon. But he does indeed have moments of caring. I think of him being struck suddenly with the need to comfort Isis Ishtar, but he does so in an indirect way. He can grow from this place more and more.

So post-canon, I could see him starting to mirror behaviors he learns from the people he cares about and trusts and takes that lead to in turn try to comfort people. He learns leaving food for someone can be comforting. He learns just being in the room with someone can be comforting. In a different kind of grand gesture, he might design a special game world to explore suited to a person’s tastes. He may figure out what movie stars or directors or artists the person enjoys and he’ll hunt down an autograph or doodle to purchase and give this to the one he wishes to cheer up.

12. What’s a moment in canon regarding them that you feel is underappreciated?

In the manga version of Seto testing out his Obelisk card, he’s inspired by the inner strength of Atem in his battle, and there’s the sense Seto is trying to find himself now. Specifically, Seto lets himself be inspired by Atem. And it’s what he seeks going into this tournament, tangled into so many conflicts inside his heart.

Thank you again.

#seto kaiba

[riddlerlesbian]

day 1: introductions

picrew here

Hoshi Hitomi is in her first year of university, studying astronomy. She does tarot and other divination readings, mostly as a hobby, but it gets her some extra money sometimes. She maintains a healthy skepticism of magic until she sees the Battle City finals broadcast and that makes her believe more in magic. In an attempt to get better insight into the strange things that were broadcast during Battle City, she gets into Duel Monsters, discovering that she's actually pretty good at it. While she doesn't pursue a career as a pro-duelist, she does start participating in a few tournaments.

@ygoc-week

drabble under the cut

Sugoroku notices a new face entering the game shop and smiles a little to himself. She's a bit older than the usual first time visitors, one, maybe two years older than Yugi. He wonders if she might be looking for a gift for someone, a little sibling or cousin perhaps, but hopes that she really is here for herself. It’s never too late to get into a game, after all. Sugoroku knows that better than most.

“Hello, young lady,” he says, dipping his head. “What brings you in today?”

“Uh, hey old man.” She gives a quick bow before her eyes go back to drifting curiously around the shop. “Um, I wanted to buy some Duel Monsters cards. I saw some of that tournament and it seems like an interesting game.”

She’s not just interested in it because of the game, he can see it in her eyes. There’s a hint of wariness, but the curiosity has won out. And having watched the Battle City finals himself… He understands both impulses. “You’ve come to the right place,” he chuckles. “Do you have any particular type of deck in mind?”

“Well… I like tarot cards.” She catches him roll his eyes and narrows her own. “And astronomy. And math.”

Interesting. Sugoroku pulls out a few different cards, laying them out before her. “Tell me which one you like best and I’ll help you find cards that will work well with it in a deck.”

She smiles a little. “What do they call you, old man?”

“Sugoroku Muto.”

“Muto… like Yugi?”

“He’s my grandson.”

“He’s impressive.”

“He had a good teacher.” Sugoroku smiles to himself. “What’s your name?”

“Hoshi Hitomi.” Her hand lands on one of the cards. “This one is for me.”

#hnak vs ygo #ygocweek #i was gonna draw but i did not #ygo oc week

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 20: Pharaoh’s Cool New Trick

Digging my way through quite a pile of commission work (funny how these things only come all at once or not at all), nearing the light at the end of the tunnel, was looking forward to some free time to catch up on my many little side projects when I was asked to take off for a weekend to do some cat-sitting to which I would NEVER say no to a cat, so like...Rip this blog I guess, we only update like once a week nowadays, but what do you do?

That’s right, play Puzzles and Dragons! The only phone game worth paying any attention to! Where they just released Pegasus on their Yugioh Collab and he looks pretty great!

So I’m just gonna take a second for some art appreciation, because the Puzzles and Dragons art team is just A++++ honestly, and yes, I did pull 13 times to get a Pegasus in my monster box, and yes, he is a completely insane team leader that is absolutely broken when paired with Yugi (the numbers are so satisfying) but...look at him. He looks so good!

(also I finally got Joey Wheeler, and so now my gatcha cravings are settled. And, don’t worry, I play this game so much that I was there during Christmas when they offered like a bajillion stones for free so I didn’t actually use real money on this.)

Now PAD also released a Weevil and Rex, and I don’t know why, and neither does the art team because they still look pretty good but in comparison to all the mains, they sure do looks like just some shorty guys in some casuals.

though I gotta admit, I want to learn how the hell this art team does swooshy effects, because man, that would make my art so much better to just have flames violently exploding out of all my art. Why am I not doing that more often? I have the technology.

anyway, I didn’t bother trying to pull them. Maybe I’ll accidentally pull them when they eventually release a Duke Devlin. (also, RIP to the fact that Roland will probably never be in Puzzles and Dragons but like...I can only send them so many polite letters covered in stickers pretending I’m some 10 year old child and writing in my broken Hiragana “Roland in PAD?”. Thems the breaks. (They also might not remember who Roland is.))

Shoutouts to the card that Weevil is holding that is censoring this nipple on the booby spider, PS.

So because this is not actually a Puzzles and Dragons blog, and it’s been ten eons since I regularly updated so I could remember episode to episode...where the hell were we?

That’s right, we’re on an island now. This show’s wonderful obsession with evil islands (and spoiler, this is one of the few Yugioh Islands that doesn’t explode at the end. Mostly because Kaiba isn’t here to do it or this place would be cinder)

(read more island stuff under the cut)

Anyway, after announcing “hey guys! Screw islands!” Yugi immediately collapses and without any warning.

Apparently the armor is a big ol parasite, which is something that Yugi is so used to at this point that he refuses to admit that this is a problem. Just normal Muto stuff, refusing to tell anyone that he has a serious illness going on underneath that giant mass of hair.

(the sailor moon vibes coming off this weird orb energy)

Sort of feels like a call back to S1 when Yugi was clearly possessed and everyone else was like “He acting weird to you?” except it’s S5 and everyone has learned to never trust Yugi when he says he’s fine and they are responding like he is about to die. Which is correct.

Outside of the cave falls this scroll that is...glowing, I guess. So they open it up and get a bunch of hieroglyphs that give them the “riddle of light” and like youknow...it’s riddle stuff.

They’re doing this riddle for “wings.” And it’s like...everyone’s monster here has a set of wings or an ability to fly. Every single monster except for I dunno, flaming swordsman? Hell, Yugi himself had two sets of wings when he fused with Dark Magician (which was weird, and I still don’t like to think about what technically was going on there.) But we have to go and get ourselves even more wings.

Weirdly, Joey turns to Tea and does something that in any other show would be completely normal. He was like “you want to stay here with Yugi, don’t you?” and it was the first time Joey has ever actually addressed the fact that Tea and Yugi are close. Uncharted territory. I was amazed at the amount of casual shipping that is happening here. It’s almost like a normal ass relationship.

So the boys decide to go off, and be boys and tackle this themselves. And they shouldn’t have, because Tea is smart for this group, and also has the only healing spell.

Like if you’re playing D+D you wouldn’t typically leave your only healer behind. Just saying.

Also like...Grandpa Muto went with them? I guess he’d have to since he’s the translator but also...kind of weird to leave your grandson dying in a cave, but maybe that’s just the Muto lifestyle.

Do not be fooled by my caps, no one has addressed the Bakura in the puzzle for 3 seasons. I’m starting to think this show will never address the Bakura in the puzzle. Which honestly, that would be hilarious if they made a big deal out of that plot point and then couldn’t use it in the end.

And speaking of plot points that kind of come out of nowhere and don’t make full sense with the continuity of the show--Joey has regressed back to the 4th grade.

Hey show? What?

So like if you love Joey, this is not the arc for you, because this arc he is reduced to a Himbo and nothing else. Straight up didn’t know what an echo is, but is very strong and pretty, I guess.

This inevitably happens with any TV show becuase different people make different parts, and I’ve brought up before that sometimes it feels like some teams only have loose post-it notes of what any character should be like at any given point (ESPECIALLY with Seto Kaiba’s timeline) but like...

...Personally I’m mot so fond of this interpretation of Joey, kind of ignores Joey’s best traits, and makes Tristan look way too smart in comparison (and like I always pinned Tristan to be the Himbo of the group, but maybe it’s because they give Tristan so little else to do?)

And like don’t get me wrong, Joey’s a dumbass a lot of the time and needs to get corrected by his pals...but...to the point he doesn’t know what an echo is? He’s a dumbass in a High School student sort of way, youknow?

Anyway, they get down to this big ravine, and they have to destroy this stone while the light passes over it. Kind of feels like a Breath of the Wild shrine quest, actually. In fact, I think Breath of the Wild recycled the shadow/sunlight pathing quest like 4 or 5 times. (I love Breath of the Wild to death but boy did they run out of ideas at the end there.)

They have to fight a glass monster and it’s kind of like...do you know the game Balls 3D? probably not, but it looked like a bunch of random shapes stuck together like a 90′s animation. They basically went to war with shapes.

Pure Himbo energy, has several pokemon, but punches for his pokemon instead of using them. A power move if I ever saw one.

Youknow that would make pokemon a lot more interesting if you could like throw out your pikachu, and then choose to just physically run up to your opponents Eevee and sock it in the jaw. Raise of hands--I know you all would love a version of pokemon like that. Let Ash Ketchum punch a Ratata.

Bro has informed me that Ash does do something like this in the anime. But I’m not talking about the anime, I’m talking about the video game. Give me the option to physically combat my rival. This is what I want, Pokemon.

They discover a way to break the monolith, and the show thinks we’re like actually 7 years old (because the show is Y7, although I forget because it deals with so many dark themes) so the show is going to hold on to this puzzle for a while...just to fill time. And it’s fine because we gotta switch over to Pharaoh anyway.

Yami has this dream again. He attempts to fuse with Dark magician to overcome the dream, but alas, he is still not strong enough.

Yugi wakes up in this murky cave while Tea is out washing out like...some rag? (he’s also still got a rag, so I guess multiple rags were required for how sweaty Yugi is.)

Yugi says “I feel like I’m a new man!” a lot in this episode, and every time he calls himself a man like he’s some sort of adult it’s very funny to me.

And then this plot lore dropped.

I mean I guess inevitably it had to happen...

But man, end of an era. It was freakin hilarious while it lasted: that Pharaoh refused to read ancient Egyptian because it’s like 2002 and he is a High Schooler living in Japan and he actually doesn’t WANT to resolve the mystery of the puzzle. Maybe the people who made this arc don’t know about how in S2 and S3, the fact Pharaoh couldn’t read Marik’s back tatt was like...a really big issue. He couldn’t read the God card, he couldn’t even read that massive tablet that read “HEY PHARAOH THIS IS LITERALLY YOU”. KAIBA had to tell him how to read the God card for him. Freakin Seto “Magic is a lie” Kaiba had to tell him how to use the God Card because Pharaoh couldn’t read it.

But like...Pharaoh finally gave in at some point after the world was devoured by the Leviathan, and before Kaiba finished building Kaibaland (which was already built in S1 but wtv)

The timelines on this show have always been a mishmash...but this one is just like...

...show are you trying to convince me that at any point in this show after season Zero, Pharaoh had any idea what he was doing? Did he sap that brain energy straight out of Joey Wheeler so he could do this?

Wow.

(secretly hoping he forgets how to read Egyptian after this arc is over and the show goes back to the other development team)

Pharaohs reasoning is that, if this is the riddle of the light.....

....then where is the riddle of darkness????????????

and when Tea was like “Pharaoh that is not even remotely logic. Omg it’s so bright outside, lets go back to gross cave.” and Pharaoh was like “Tea! You got it!” and she was like “What the hell are you talking about?”

Not gonna lie, I saw the Orichalcos green, and I got concerned.

Anyway, Yugi gets very frustrated and was like “ugh, lets go save em. They’re gonna die (again.)” and marches down there as if he didn’t pass out an hour ago.

And he fuses with Dark Magician again while everyone else (including his grandpa) was like “Yugi are you freakin kidding me? The suit freakin kills you omg! Tea you had one freakin job!”

And then we get the plot twist that...I mean it makes sense but it was choreographed in a confusing way.

And out of no where this guy shows up again:

So this mysterious man shows up and says “If you don’t succeed you have to live here forever” which...nice...that would probably save the world a lot of problems if Yami got locked away and took his OP puzzle with him. And then this man also says “if you do succeed you become VERY POWERFUL” and Yami was like. “...”

This whole episode had a theme to it, where Tristan and Joey were trying to prove that they could do things on their own and without Yugi’s help. And honestly...felt a little bit misplaced. Yami’s the same guy who murdered Yugi last season with the Orichalcos so like...

...I mean he is probably more reliable than Tristan who once died and turned into a robot monkey for 10ish episodes.

and then they flew into a glowing door.

Folks, this was wild to look at.

This is wild.

And at this point I closed Photoshop and thought I was done. But then I looked at my timeline on the video and was like...wait...there’s more?

and I’m really glad I kept watching because it went back to Alex, who...is apparently just still at those steps in this haunted ass Pyramid.

Now we’re watching Yugioh.

I forgot for a second when they turned Joey into a Himbo and made Pharaoh literate, but we’re back. I mean...

...look at the liner art on this adult man.

So...I posit the question...has Alex spent the last 2-3 episodes doing nothing but applying eyeliner to his face in the dark? Because he absolutely has. And honestly, the vibe of being in a spooky haunted pyramid with barely any light, just applying eyeliner down the edge of your face...that’s a Yugioh vibe, if I ever saw one.

This arc is wild. Anyway, next episode we do even more fetch quests and riddles? Just going to guess now that we probably will.

(and for those new here, this is a link so you can read them from the top. Which, since we’re in S5, means you got like...hours of Yugioh content to read through. Enjoy the rewards of my weird hobby.)

https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#Yugioh #Yu-Gi-Oh #yami yugi #S5 #Ep20 #It's actually Ep 20 now I was wrong last time #Yugi muto #Grandpa Muto #Alexander the Great #Joey Wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Tea Gardner #TeaxYugi #never thought I would ever use that tag #in this show where they are canonically dating but sometimes it happens #Puzzles and Dragons #Because yes I had to talk about it. This collab is great

[duelistkingdom]

you’d come back to me

chapter fifteen: romance

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Summary: Seto Kaiba has been presumed dead for four years after the events of Dark Side of Dimensions. His return causes both unresolved feelings of grief to be brought to the surface and the past to be dragged right back up. In hopes of helping Seto move on and reintegrate back into society at large, Mokuba asks Yugi to work on Spherium II with Seto. Never one to leave a friend hanging, Yugi agrees. Over the course of the project, Seto and Yugi both come to terms with their mutual grief and grow towards a better understanding of each other.

Rating: T

Ships: Yugi Mutou/Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba/Rebecca Hopkins, Katusya Jonouchi/Mai Kujaku

Warnings: aged up characters, grief, references to suicide

consider supporting me on kofi / battle city tiers & above get first access to chapters!

Seto had never really had time for romance before. He’d always had some sort of project and some reason to put it off. It had been easier to avoid dating when no one ever really appealed as someone to have around Mokuba. Between his duty to Kaiba Corp and Mokuba, Seto had dozens of reasons to not date. Now he had none of those reasons. He was starting to find that he actually liked going on dates with Yugi. Most of the time Yugi would take him to dinner. This time, Yugi had asked him to go to a concert with him. Seto had been tempted to turn down the offer simply because the idea of being near people in a standing only capacity gave him hives. Yugi, however, had predicted this and said they had seats.

On the day of the concert, however, Yugi had abruptly said that he needed to get his camera from his childhood bedroom. “Why didn’t you get it before?”

“Forgot about it til now,” Yugi said with a shrug as they entered the Kame Game Shop. Instead of Suguroko, a woman was there with an apron on. “Hi, mom. This is my boyfriend, Seto. Seto, my mom, Yui Mutou. Mom, I thought grandpa was supposed to be working today?”

Seto would have expected that this was a ruse to introduce him to his mother if it wasn’t for that last sentence. Regardless, Seto stiffened as Yui’s eyes went wide. “He was,” she said as she stepped out from behind the counter. It struck Seto how almost everyone in the Mutou family was short. This woman could not have been more than 5’5”. “I wish I’d known you boys were coming over! I would’ve had snacks!”

“There’s no need,” Seto said as Yugi bound up the stairs, leaving Seto behind to fumble with Yui on his own. “We are merely here to pick up a camera from Yugi’s room.”

“Oh,” Yui exclaimed, looking a little embarrassed. “You should probably go tell Yugi that his grandfather took it for repairs. I’ll find another camera for him to use. Oh, also, you two absolutely have to come over again tomorrow. I’ll make dinner and we can get to know each other! I’ll make sure Shogi is here so he can meet you as well.”

Seo was grateful for the excuse to follow Yugi up the stairs, not bothering to wonder who Shogi might be. He supposed in addition to telling Yugi about the camera, he should tell Yugi that his mother wanted the two of them over for dinner. Following Yugi up the stairs of the Kame Game shop felt strange. Partly because he’d never been this far in the shop and partly because it was so much smaller than he’d expected. His head almost grazed the top of the staircase. It was as if he was unwelcome in this home.

It was hitting Kaiba that he’d never actually been in this room. He was too tall for this room designed for someone who was under six foot. The bed looked as if it could barely contain Yugi now that he’d gotten taller than 5’5” and it was neatly made. Yugi turned to him, a raised brow and a look that Kaiba could finally read: vulnerability. “Sorry it’s not much,” Yugi said as he shrugged. “We only need to be here for a moment, anyway. I just… needed to get my camera before we go to the concert.”

Kaiba noted the photos of his friends on the pinboard. Anzu was the most prominent featured across all the photos and the second most prominent was Jonouchi. He noted that the youngest photo of Yugi featured Anzu and Yugi at some sort of playground that Kaiba was certain no longer existed. The photos where Anzu appeared to be about thirteen had Yugi starting to blush around her and Kaiba felt a stab of jealousy. He knew that Yugi had a crush on Anzu at one point but it was strange to see the proof in the photos. Jonouchi did not show up until Anzu appeared to be sixteen while Yugi still looked rather young.

In fact, the only way to date the photos was by how old Anzu was until the year the Pharaoh had left. “I didn’t realize you’d have so many photos in your room.”

Yugi shrugged as he looked around. “I guess I do have a lot of photos,” Yugi remarked, frowning as he stared at one that was clearly taken before the Pharaoh left. “It’s nice to hold memories to your chest, I guess.”

A stabbing ache entered his chest as he thought of the memories he had. Very few of them he’d considered worth preserving on a bedroom wall like this. “Interesting.” Then he remembered what he was here for. “Your mother said your grandfather took your camera for repairs. She’s getting you another camera to borrow.”

Yugi stopped looking through the draw and slammed it shut. “Wish she’d told me that before I started looking for that,” Yugi remarked. “Alright, then let’s go downstairs. Anything else I should know?”

Seto shifted awkwardly. “She also wants us to come over for dinner tomorrow.”

 Yugi had explained that Shogi was the name of his father. Seto supposed he should have known that. Yugi had scoffed when Seto showed up to his apartment in pressed slacks and a button down shirt, remarking that he looked like a dork. Seto would have been more annoyed if it hadn’t led to Yugi reaching out to unbutton his shirt. “You’re just meeting my parents, not pitching a new Duel Disk,” Yugi said and it took everything Seto had to focus on what Yugi was saying. “You don’t need to dress for a board meeting.”

The shirt came off and Yugi handed Seto one of his black turtlenecks that he’d left here. “Isn’t this dirty?”

“Don’t worry, I made sure the clothes you left here got dry cleaned,” Yugi said as he tossed Seto a pair of pants that he’d left behind. “The ones that survived, anyway.”

A blush crept across his cheeks at the mere mention of what tended to happen to his clothes whenever he came over to Yugi’s place. Rather than comment, he instead shuffled off to change as Yugi called out that Seto could’ve changed in the living room. Absolutely not. It gave Seto a chance to think over what he was going to say and do when he met Yugi’s parents. How much of their past did they know? What did they know of the Millennium Puzzle and who had occupied it? He supposed the only way to know those answers would be to ask Yugi directly about it. He exited the bedroom, feeling rather dressed down to meet his boyfriend’s parents. “What do they know about the Puzzle, anyway?”

“Not much,” Yugi said with a shrug as he grabbed his wallet and keys. “They know that you’re why grandpa doesn’t have his Blue Eyes card anymore and they know that I did tournament circuits in high school. They also know grandpa and I went to Cairo in my senior year but they never asked why. I think they think that grandpa was just sharing his love of Egypt with me.”

“They don’t know anything about the Pharaoh?”

Yugi shook his head. “Never bothered to tell them,” he admitted as he led Seto back to his car. Despite everything, Yugi still insisted on driving himself instead of letting Isono drive. “I think they suspected that something was up… after Atem left but they’re under the impression it was simply a break up.”

A break up. Seto supposed it made sense that on top of what little he knew about Yugi that of course his relationship with the Pharaoh had been different from what he thought. He’d assumed Yugi had been irrelevant in the equation, that Yugi had merely been a vessel for the Pharaoh. The more Yugi talked about the Pharaoh, the more Seto realized that Yugi had been more involved than he’d previously thought. “I see.”

“I doubt it’ll come up,” Yugi said with a shrug as the car started. “You don’t have to worry about anything with my parents, I promise.”

Regardless, Seto remained nervous as they arrived at the Kame Game Shop. Instead of going in through the game shop part of the home, Yugi led him through a backdoor that opened into a tiled entryway. The two of them took off their shoes and Seto noted that none of the house slippers would fit him. The pair that apparently were used by Jonouchi was still just a bit too small, leaving his feet still hanging off. Once again, the home’s size was rather small and felt like it was trying to reject him.

The walls were constantly too close and he found himself bumping his elbows against a lot of things. It shouldn’t have been surprising to discover that Shogi Mutou was also short. In fact, Yugi was taller than his father. Shogi, for his part, seemed surprised to see Seto standing in front of him. “I see,” Shogi remarked. “When you said Seto, Yui, I wasn’t expecting it to be Seto Kaiba.”

Yui nudged Shogi with a roll of her eyes as the group sat down at the table. Seto didn’t bother to comment that he wasn’t bothered by Shogi’s reaction. It was entirely possible that most people did not expect a formerly dead CEO to be their son’s date. “Dad, please,” Yugi said and it struck Seto how much Yugi sounded as if he was still a teenager whenever he was around his parents. Was this the impact of parents? Did they make someone act younger? “Don’t embarrass me in front of my boyfriend.”

“Fine,” Shogi said with a grin and Seto saw exactly where Yugi got his smile from. “So you’re still working for Kaiba Corp, right? I heard your brother wouldn’t give you back the CEO position when you came back.”

Seto wasn’t expecting an immediate question on his line of work. “Mokuba felt that I was not yet prepared to return to work at full capacity,” Seto responded, figuring it would be better to not lie to Yugi’s parents. “Instead, he asked me to work with Yugi on Spherium II. I suppose it was to see how I could handle any level of workload.”

“You say that as if you didn’t attempt to stay late several days to work on Spherium II,” Yugi remarked and Seto noted the food in front of them. As Yui promised, it was clearly home cooked and Seto realized that Yugi must have learned to cook from her. He took an experimental bite. It was delicious. “And before you ask, dad, it’s in the beta phase. We’re hoping it’ll be ready for general public release next year. Mokuba and I have been talking about making sure that the Kame Game Shop gets exclusive first launch rights.”

“I’m sure our franchisers will be grateful to have access to such an exclusive launch,” Shogi remarked. “Have you talked to your grandfather about the display?”

“How many times do I have to tell you and Yugi no shop talk at dinner,” Yui said, sounding rather fond instead of truly angry. “Where’s Mokuba, by the way? I was hoping to see him again.”

“He’s having a date night with Rebecca,” Yugi remarked. “I’ll invite him and Rebbeca next time.”

Next time? As in, Yugi expected Seto to come to dinner with his parents again at some point in the future? Seto didn’t understand why Yugi would just assume that this was going to end well. Seto still wasn’t sure that this dinner wouldn’t go south. “Oh, good,” Yui said, looking rather pleased. “I’m glad Rebecca and Mokuba are still together. How is Rebecca’s studies going?”

“She’s hit a wall in her dissertation and has been talking it over with her postgrad supervisor,” Seto answered before Yugi could. “I don’t know why she’s so concerned about the contents of it, however. She’s concerned that the discussion of the AI that Duel Links runs might have been a topic someone else sniped. As if anyone else could understand it the way Rebecca and I do. Aside from that, she’s doing fine.”

If this was news to Yugi, he didn’t show it. “You’ve been helping her, then,” Yui asked. “That’s nice.”

Yugi rolled his eyes in response to that. “Well, Seto did build the entire AI for Duel Links,” Yugi remarked and for a minute, Seto thought he might bring up the AI version of the Pharaoh. Instead, Yugi had a grin on his face. “Makes sense that he’d be able to help Rebecca write a paper on the subject.”

It was strange how this conversation seemed on surface level to be rather low stakes. Nothing either Shogi nor Yui asked ever felt like it was out to get him. Despite this, Seto felt like he was being tested on something he had not prepared for. If Yugi’s parents didn’t like him, would Yugi break up with him? He had to impress Yugi’s parents, if not for the sake of his relationship with Yugi. His entire future with Yugi was at stake. Everything seemed to be going well until Suguroku showed up halfway through. “Sorry about being late,” he remarked, looking rather jovial. “You know how I get caught up with the slots at the casino.”

“Dad, you know how I feel about that joke,” Yui responded, her exasperated sounding voice not pairing right with the fond expression in her wide, soft eyes. “You should know better than to go to the casino.”

“Ah, it’s not gambling if I win,” Suguroku said, eyeing Seto with a twinkle in his eyes. Seto instantly thought back to how Suguroku had wiped the floor with Seto when playing poker. If there was anyone that could win at a casino, Seto would imagine it would have to be Suguroku. “Isn’t that right, Seto?”

Yugi looked embarrassed. “Grandpa, don’t tell me you swindled Seto out of his money.”

“Dad,” Yui said, looking shocked. “Did you play poker with Seto?”

“He’s a fantastic poker player,” Seto said, figuring that there was no point in hiding that Suguroku had indeed pulled one over on him. “I wasn’t expecting him to be that much of a challenge.”

“If you want another challenge, you know where to find me,” Suguroku said, looking rather gleeful. Seto was surprised to find that he did, in fact, want to try to beat Sugoroku again at his own game. “Don’t worry, Yui. I won’t ruin dinner by schooling Seto in the art of poker.”

“And yet no one seems to ever learn,” Shogi remarked. “You know, Seto, when I first met Suguroku, he immediately took all the money I was planning on using for my date with Yui in a game of poker. Instead of taking her to the movies as I planned, I wound up taking her to the park for a walk.”

Suguroku laughed as if this was a funny story. “Well, at least it proves you were good at thinking on your feet,” he added on. “Besides, Yui thought it was sweet!”

“I thought it was charming and unique,” Yui said, a fond look in her eyes. “I wouldn’t trade that first date for anything. Besides, you made up for it with the next date. He took me to this wonderful restaurant that served the best crab legs you’ll ever have.”

“See,” Suguroku said with a wink at Seto. “Always a second chance to make a better impression.”

There was something buried in that and Seto couldn’t understand it. Was Suguroku still angry with him for what had happened? No, that couldn’t be it. It was very clear that Suguroku was well past everything that had happened all those years ago. “This is true,” Shogi said. “Not only that, you might find that it’s for the best that things happened the way they did.”

“Though I do have to ask,” Suguroku said, looking mischievous. “When are you planning on making an honest man out of my grandson?”

“Dad,” Yui exclaimed, looking mortified. “Sorry, he did that to Shogi too,” she said, sounding as if she was trying to smooth things over. Despite Yui and Yugi’s mortified expression, Seto couldn’t relax. The concept was overwhelming and he wasn’t sure how to feel about it. “You don’t have to answer that.”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it,” Yugi said in a rush, a bright red flush appearing across his cheeks. “Seriously, grandpa, there’s no need to pressure anyone here.”

Despite the assurances from Yugi and his parents, Seto started to wonder when that would be expected of him. Was he ready for that? Seto did want a future with Yugi. That was all he knew. He didn’t know what marriage would mean here, nor did he know what that would feel like. What he knew as of right now was that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Yugi. What was marriage if not a promise of that? Still, it was not something he wanted to discuss with Yugi’s parents as of yet. Not until he knew for sure that he was ready.

In fact, he was certain that if he wanted to be worthy of marrying Yugi, there were still a few more things he needed to do before he could reach that point. Seto could only hope that Yugi would be willing to wait for Seto to be certain that he could provide a stable future for the two of them. And as the night went on, Seto started to realize that perhaps he could settle into having a family again. It was strange to feel so welcome.

At the end of the night, Yui grabbed him by the cheeks, pulling him down so she could press a kiss to his forehead. She shoved leftovers in his hands, fretting about how he was simply too skinny. No matter how much he stammered that he was fine, she insisted on trying to take care of him. Was this what a mother was? She told him that he could come over any time if he needed more food. For some reason, he thought that he might actually take her up on the offer if only because dinner had been fantastic.

Shogi had given Seto a polite bow, telling him that he was often out of the city for work and gave Seto his cell phone number. This came with a demand that Seto use it if he needed to talk to anyone. Seto wasn’t sure what use that would be to him. Shogi had pulled Seto aside after Yui finished fretting over Seto. “I know that you don’t have a father in your life,” Shogi said, sounding concerned. Seto had no idea what this had to do with anything. He hadn’t had a father for years. It was the one thing that he knew for sure about this new world he’d come back to. “But if you’re dating my son, that makes you my son too. That means I’m going to be here for you, Seto.”

Despite the temptation to state that he had no need for a father, he couldn’t bring himself to say that. It was strange how it felt like he wanted to both shove Shogi away and start crying in gratitude for the approval. Instead of doing either of those things, he merely nodded. “I’m glad to have your approval of my relationship with your son,” Seto said softly. “Thank you for welcoming me into your home.”

#rivalshipping #rivalshipping fanfic #myfanfic #fanfic: you'd come back to me #fic: you'd come back to me

[thexgrayxlady]

Notes: This is a purely self-indulgent and very lighthearted AU and if I’m the only one who is enjoying themselves with it, that’s all that really matters. TBCH I’m not sure where I’m going with it and I know this isn’t very good or perfectly in character, but I’m having a good time and it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything, so I’m okay with it if I’m just writing a messy little crash into hello.

The Universe Won’t Wait for You

Outside the ruined temple, dark clouds gathered and howling winds carried the metallic tang of summer storms. Heady incense drifted from inside, where the flicker of braziers cast statues of forgotten gods in stark chiaroscuro. Yet, under the wind and crackle of flames, the air hung still and silent, charged with the promise of lightning.

The jungle crept up around the ancient stones. Gnarled vines threatened to drag the crumbling archway back into its depths. Fragments of cracked and chipping mosaics peered through the leaves, their tiles scattered across the floor with the trees’ detritus.

The roof had long since caved in and the once gilt friezes lining the main hall were now washed almost smooth. The faceless figures posed in the uncanny silence, leading the way to the sanctuary.

At the altar, a group of very annoyed people stood over the unconscious leader of a dragon cult and his scattered cards, having narrowly averted the end of the world for the third time in as many months. The timing was inconvenient for everybody involved and it was universally agreed upon that it would have been better if these assholes had waited until next weekend to try and destroy the world.

“So if we beat the megalomaniac of the week, why isn’t the portal going away?” Tea asked, vaguely gesturing to the swirling silvery distortion above the altar.

“I keep telling you nerds it’s not a portal.” Although against his will and his better judgement, the geek squad had grown on Seto Kaiba like E. coli on room temperature meat, he would still sooner saw off his own hands with a rusty spoon than admit it.

“We could always leave it alone,” Bakura said, disdainfully looking over one of the cultist’s discarded scrolls before rerolling it. “His Latin was terrible. It probably won’t do anything.”

“It won’t do anything because it’s a not a portal.” Their group would have it found it infinitely more worrying if he didn’t insist that the latest near apocalypse had a logical explanation. As of late, he’d settled on saying that anything he couldn’t immediately explain wasn’t magic, just science they didn’t understand yet. Everyone might have appreciated this a bit more if not for how often they had to deal with the fallout of his attempts to understand the science. “Watch.”

He picked up one of the scattered cards (rare, but only good for niche dragon decks and he would notadmit that he would have found this clown’s cards useful) and tossed it towards the floating mass. It passed through without incident and collided with the back wall.

“Wheeler could make something more convincing.” He rolled his eyes. This entire escapade had been a nuisance. He still wasn’t sure how he’d been talked into it. The others certainly hadn’t just mentioned that they needed a ride.

“Yeah, these guys tried to take our dragons cards and dragged us out here to show us some crappy holograms,” Joey replied.

“You would believe a bunch of delusional lunatics.”

Yugi paused checking on the cult leader and decided to head this off before it became serious.

“Guys, stop fighting!” he said, his voice quiet and gentle, yet brokering very little argument. When he realized that Kaiba was gearing up for an argument, he added, “You’re wasting time and the sooner we figure this thing out, the sooner we can leave.”

“Whatever,” he said, turning dramatically, letting his coat flare behind him. “I’m going to figure out what’s going on because some of us have jobs to get back to.”

“You’re self-employed!” the blond shot after him.

While he examined a pile of rubble on the far wall for a projector or an off switch, the others looked over the altar and scrolls. He was just about to shift some stones out of the way when lightning split the sky.

The portal flared and spun wildly. Roaring thunder followed close behind and a glowing thing shot from the portal before it collapsed upon itself as if it had never existed.

“Kaiba look out!” Yugi shouted. “That thing’s headed straight for…”

“It’s a hologram,” he shouted back, gesturing dismissively at the thing barreling towards him without actually looking at it. “It’s not like it can hurt…”

The next thing he knew, he was flat on his back, his ears ringing, and struggling for a full breath.

When he regained enough sense to figure out what was going on around him, he realized that his arms were wrapped around something warm and solid. The thing thrummed under his hands, like working on an ungrounded circuit. He came around to a curtain of white and a pair of horribly familiar blue eyes.

The woman shot back, her fingers splayed across his chest, her face contorting in stunned confusion. She started to speak, her voice raspy and quiet, stumbling over words in a language he didn’t understand. Yet even without knowing the words, he got the sentiment.

“What. The. Fuck.”

This couldn’t be real. She couldn’t be real. He must have cracked his head when he hit the ground. She had to be a hallucination or a hologram or…he didn’t know, he couldn’t think clearly enough to figure out what specific kind of nonsense was going on.

Somewhere off in the distance, the nerds said something, but it was like listening under water. And as much as he wanted to shout at them to shut up so he could focus, the words stuck in his throat.

He knew her. From that trip to Egypt. Her name was…

No. No.

This wasn’t happening. The world didn’t work this way. People did not just fall out of holes in the sky. He’d been dragged kicking and screaming into accepting that maybe the supernatural bullshit that followed him around possibly had some merit, but thiswas a step too far.

None of this made any sense. Kis…She was impossible. You couldn’t just fling someone through space and time with badly mangled Latin. It took energy. It took machinery. Complex math, things that went beep, big red buttons that gave the nerds heart attacks when he pushed them.

(But these idiots were trying to summon a dragon, weren’t they?)

This violated so many different laws of physics. There must be another explanation. He just had to keep calm and think of it. His heart hammered against his chest. Every time he almost had a grasp on this, he caught her eyes, and any theory beyond rote denial slipped away.

She couldn’t be real. He’d barely thought of her since that trip. Whatever, whoever, she was, it was the past. It didn’t matter. She didn’t matter. He had to focus on figuring out how the hell some loser cultists managed time travel with some incense and dead lizards, no if they managed time travel some incense and dead lizards, when, despite his disregard for the laws of men and gods, even he was still mostly beholden to thermodynamics.

They probably hadn’t. There had to be something in the incense.

Still, the logical part of his brain told him that even his best holograms didn’t feel this real and there was no logical way they knew what she looked like. Her heartbeat fluttered under his hands. She smelled like prison grime and ozone and petrichor.

So a hallucination then. But everyone else kept talking. He still couldn’t really hear them, but maybe they could see her too. Or that was just another facet of his concussed delusion. But if this was a hallucination, then why couldn’t he understand her? He’d never hallucinated in a language he didn’t understand before.

Not a hologram. Not a hallucination. Where did that leave him? Flat on his back on a cold stone floor with a dead woman straddling his waist and the growing certainty that he would never live this down.

Again, she leaned in, her head tilted to the side. Time slowed as she brought a hand to his face and his heart beat too steady to be truly calm as she studied him. She was so small. He could easily throw her off and get away, but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t even look away as the world shrank down to just the two of them.

She didn’t look quite the same as in the memory. She didn’t seem half so fragile. Her long, pale hair was tangled and her face prematurely lined. Her dress was more a collection of mismatched patches than an actual garment. Bruises and scars bloomed along her arms and collarbone amid patches of thick, almost scaly looking skin.

He wondered if the memory, vision, whatever it was, was accurate. How much of what he knew about her was true? How much had been made up by someone who’d never met her to fit her role in the game? Did it even matter? He was his own person, why should he care about her just because of a supposed connection to the Blue Eyes White Dragon?

Yet despite everything going on, she seemed alert and curious, determined to figure out what exactly just happened, whereas he had to remind himself to keep breathing.

Just before her rough, calloused fingers brushed his jaw, a jolt of static leapt between them. She reeled back, her pupils snapping into narrow slits. Thin, cracking lips curled back over sharp teeth in an inhuman hiss. Her shoulders flexed and he half expected wings to unfurl from her back.

Then she must have caught sight of the others because she shrank back, trembling. A horrible charge built under his hands. He willed himself move just enough to let go.

She scrambled away, breathing in sharp, hissing gasps. Upon reaching the far wall, she shot up a crumbling pillar and crouched as far back on the bottom ledge of a frieze as she could manage and stared down in horror as the first few drops of rain fell through the broken ceiling.

He stared back, the concussed or drugged or shocked daze lifting just enough to drag himself to a sitting position.

She was impossible. But her eyes were electric bright and she’d felt like a damn live wire in his hands. He hadn’t figured out the physics behind this yet, but he understood one thing.

Kisara was very real.

#Gray writes stuff #Kisara #Blueshipping #seto kaiba #AU: this might as well happen #I know this isn't that good but it's been so long since i've finished anything IDGAF #I'm effectively posting a warm up piece but i'm kind of alright with it #also kaiba is exactly what im looking for in a cosmic chewtoy

[x-heartofthecards-x]

@numberoneduelist

It’s… strange to see Yugi like this. Tired, downtrodden. Despite their differences, it gives them an amount of similarity that’s a little eerie. The shorter man has always been someone that exuded light - not positivity, per say, but something similar, something good. That feeling is all but gone right now, leaving a sort of hollow void in its wake.

“Wanna fight me?”

Seto thinks for a moment, a low hum escaping. He hasn’t played an arcade game in a long time; he doesn’t keep up with them the way he does board, card, and video games. Those are part of his job and thus, he has little choice if he wants to maintain an edge in the industry. The resurgence of arcades is probably something he should get in on, at some point.

“Sure.”

Usually, he might go for something dramatic like prepare yourself or get ready to taste defeat, but he’s not feeling the intensity tonight.

He pushes off and circles around to take his place on the empty second set of buttons, finding his own coins to pop through the slot on his side. He doesn’t normally carry change, but figured it might be good to have a little on hand even if he hadn’t planned on playing too many games - not every machine has an IC reader.

He takes another sip, then places his drink atop the machine, next to Yugi’s.

“Is this where you’ve been holing up? I haven’t seen you around.”

He figures he’d have at least caught a broadcast that mentioned the other’s name - some sort of game tournament or something. But it appears that Mutou has all but dropped off the face of the earth since the Pharaoh passed… Not unlike himself, really. His hands find their places on the joystick and the buttons.

“Not that I’ve been looking.”

Yugi hummed as he flicked through the character select screen on the machine with only a vague amount of actual interest in the game. He wasn't unaware of how much Seto's own demeanour mirrored his. It was not often that they vibed on an energetic level outside of a dueling arena.

He supposed that it made sense. Their trauma was a matching set of baggage in many respects.

If there was anyone that the absence of the Pharaoh had hit as hard as him, it was Kaiba.

He gave a little shrug at the question and said, "Not really. I wander in every couple of weeks when my apartment gets too quiet, I guess. It is cheaper to drink at home."

He sighed as he selected his player. The last thing that he wanted to do was to trauma dump on Seto Kaiba. Not that he thought for even a moment that the man would be receptive to hearing him wax poetic about his dead soul partner if he had wanted to dig into all of that.

He cracked his knuckles and popped his neck, then polished off the rest of his drink while waiting for the much taller man to choose his own character and added as he rose onto the tips of his toes to put the empty cup back on top of the machine, "I have been running my grandpa's shop since he retired."

Glancing over at his once rival, he asked, "What about you? It has been a while since I've heard about any new projects from you."

#numberoneduelist #seto kaiba #closed roleplay #numberoneduelist1

[the-evil-authoress]

GX Month Day 6: “Heartfelt Appeal”

You find two characters that click so well, look them up...and there’s no content! ‘Why?? Someone please make content!’ The pleas go unheard. You’ll just have to make it yourself. Show some love for your rare pairs today!

MORE FANTASYSHIPPING! 8D

Year 2’s Duel Monster Spirit Day! Friendly reminder that ‘Mana’ is the name Dark Magician Girl gave when she introduced herself to Syrus last year.

Colorful banners and streamers hang from the entrance hall once more, market tents set up in the main yard with flashy signs and flags announcing their wares or food or other activities. Syrus stares at it all with the same wonder as last year, and peers through the throng of students hopefully. His other friends have already gone off to find the activities they like best, be it duels or carnival games or the kissing booth, so Syrus is free to wander at his leisure and search.

It’s stupid, it’s silly, and Syrus still wonders if last year was a fever dream regardless of the way Christina keeps teasing him and the ghost of arms he sometimes feels around his shoulders. But still, he hopes and maybe this year he can confirm it for sure.

“Syrus!” a voice calls out that tickles his memory and Syrus swings to face-

“Mana!” Heat floods his cheeks. Dear Ra, did she get prettier or is he just hopelessly, stupidly crushing? “You...you just disappeared last time,” he squeaks out the first thing that comes to mind that isn’t a jumbled mess of pretty hug magic like, and wants to kick himself when Mana’s expression falls.

“I know, I’m sorry,” she says, looking so sad it physically hurts. “I didn’t want it to end that way. I lost track of the time and I wasted too much of it showing off.” Her voice turns a bit bitter before she shrugs it off and smiles again. “But not this time. This time you have my full attention.”

“No, no!” Syrus frantically waves his hands in front of him. “I didn’t mean- I what?”

Mana giggles and leans down. “Just for today, you have me all to yourself!” Winking, she taps his nose and Syrus wheezes as his heart makes a valiant attempt at pounding straight out of his chest. Leaning back, Mana clasps her hands behind her back. “So what do you want to do?”

“Ah, well, um, we, we could, we could check out the carnival games,” Syrus finally stammers out a full sentence. Gods he hasn’t been this bad about it since the beginning of the year!

Mana only giggles again as she takes his hand and heads off toward the game booths. “Don’t go hiding in a trashcan on me now.”

Syrus’ brain freezes for a full second. “YOU SAW THAT?”

“I see everything Chinatsu sees! Well, almost.”

Who the hell is Chinatsu?!

*

It takes a solid 30 minutes and two botched carnival games to finally work himself out of that last anxiety attack, but finally his heartrate feels normal and he doesn’t want to die of mortification. If he dies he won’t get to see Mana smile or hear her squeal over the stuffed Happy Lover she won from the last game. Her throwing arm is ridiculously good. She’s also amazingly child-like for...however old she’s supposed to be.

“Ooo! I wanna try that! I wanna try that!” she squeals, pointing animatedly at the food stall with an assortment of pastries. “The bean fishies! Chinatsu loves these! I always wanted to try one!”

Syrus orders them a taiyaki each and ends up going back for seconds when Manna practically melts where she stands. “It’s so rich and sweet~!”

The next half hour ends up devoted purely to letting Mana sample all the food at the festival and discover her favorites. They compare tastes and Syrus offers recommendations. Mana ends up leaning more towards milder flavors of the sweet and savory variety; too much flavor and she’ll gag on it even if she likes the taste. Syrus prefers saltier foods with just a tiny extra kick. Mana’s reaction to hot spices had been concerning but strangely fun.

“Hey, um, if it’s not rude to ask...” Syrus starts as they sit on a bench nibbling on dango. Mana tilts her head to show she’s listening and Syrus ploughs ahead before he can talk himself out of it. “Are you really the Dark Magician Girl?”

Manna chews slowly before swallowing. “What do you think, silly?”

He thinks she is, and he’d call it crazy if not for, well, everything else crazy about the last two years of his life. After literally sentient murder crazy light, he might be ready to believe anything. But then- “Why me?”

“Because you wanted to get to know me,” Manna says without missing a beat. “You didn’t just see a pretty face or a powerful mage; you wanted to know the real me beneath all of that.”

“Oh...” Syrus remembers that conversation. Christina asked him why he had a card crush on the Dark Magician Girl. Did she ask because...

“And because I want to get to know you too,” Mana continues and Syrus sputters as his poor heart makes itself known again. “I’ve gotten to watch you a lot but that’s not the same as interacting. I want you to show me who you are. And I want to show you who I am.”

“Me? But I’m...I’m not...” His eyes fall to the ground as he thinks of that embarrassing episode of hiding in a trash can, of his brother who he couldn’t even stand up to in the end, of the Society of Light that he did absolutely nothing to help stop and even got himself kidnapped by a digital woman and her duel monster lackeys.

“Syrus.” A hand on his cheek brings him back to face Mana’s deep green eyes. “You can do anything and be anyone you want to be. I mean, just look at you already.” She plucks at the yellow blazer and Syrus’ chest fills with pride at the reminder. That’s right. He did do that. All on his own. “You look so good in yellow!” Mana cheers and Syrus’ ducks his face away again. He doesn’t know how to handle all these compliments! “Believe in yourself, and when that’s hard to do, believe me when I say I believe you can do anything.”

Those words might mean more to him than any other praise or pep talk he’s gotten before, simply because they sound so genuine. He’ll hold those words close to his heart for the rest of his life, because someone as strong and powerful as the freaking Dark Magician Girl believes in him. Swallowing, he nods and clears his throat to find his voice. “So, um, what do you wanna know?”

Smiling, Mana stands and pulls him straight back to the carnival games. Oh, so they’re not talking more? Syrus has to admit to being disappointed.

“Favorite color?” Mana asks as they try to catch tiny goldfish and distracts Syrus from the extra shiny one he almost caught.

“Actually...it’s orange,” he amidst sheepishly. “But I look horrid in it.”

“Aw, I think you’d look cute in orange! Like a little pumpkin.”

“A pumpkin?!”

“Oh? I’m sorry, was that an insult?” Mana asks with such genuine concern and confusion that Syrus can’t even be mad.

Shaking his head, Sryus flips the question around on her. “What about you?”

Mana stares at the water in the plastic pool. “It used to be purple...but I think I like grey a little better now.” She looks up and smiles and Syrus can’t help but feel like he’s missed something significant in that response.

“Favorite animal?” Mana asks once they’ve moved on to a ring toss game.

“Dogs,” Syrus says immediately, then feels self conscious about it. “I mean, they’re loyal and fluffy and I’ve always wanted one, they look fun to play with-”

Mana laughs. “Dogs are man’s best friend, right?”

“Yeah…”

“Mine are birds.” Mana looks up to the sky. “Because they can fly. I always wanted that freedom.”

“But you can fly too, can’t you?”

“In spirit form. But I can’t go too far from my card. Like this I can only float a bit.” With a snap of her fingers, her feet lift a couple centimeters off the ground in demonstration.

“That’s so cool.” Syrus stares in awe as Mana sets her feet back on the ground.

“The silliest thing you’ve ever done?”

A deep breath as a laundry list of his most mortifying experiences assault him. Breath out. He digs deeper for an older memory less tarnished by years of ridicule and insecurity. “I wore a sand bucket on my head and called myself a king.”

Mana laughs, loud and sudden, and Syrus takes pride in his four year old self for managing to entertain two people. He doubts he’d share that memory with anyone else; it’s one of the few he has of Zane smiling.

“I used to hide in giant vases then jump out and scare the crap out of my best friend,” Mana says with a wide grin, and Syrus snorts because he can picture it clearly. “Master always scolded me, but his reactions were too fun.”

Her master? Dark Magician then? Syrus wonders what kind of person would get to hang out with both of them. Probably another powerful spellcaster. “What is he like? Your master? Or...is he here today too?”

“Mahad? No, his situation is different from mine so it’s harder for him to cross the border,” Mana says, scanning the festival for their next game. “He’s pretty strict, and doesn’t know how to take a joke. But he’s kind and selfless.” Her voice grows soft and wistful, then she shakes herself and scratches her cheek. “Honestly, we’re kinda opposites, but that’s what makes it fun.”

She points to a shooting game booth before eagerly charging toward it; Syrus shows her how to use the toy gun and manages to beat her at this game. He still lets her pick out the prize, giggling when she picks out a lucky cat keychain.

“Dream career?” The key chain sways as it dangles from her finger.

Syrus fidgets. “It may seem kinda obvious, but I wanna be a pro duelist. A really famous one,” he mumbles, eyes turning to the ground.

“I bet you’ll be more famous that Yugi!” Mana cheers and Syrus quickly waves his hand in front of him.

“No! No, I doubt that!”

“Do you wanna have kids?” she asks while they fish for balloons with little hooks on strings.

Syrus chokes and drops his string straight into the water. “I mean, uh, maybe?? I guess I’d like- like to settle down and- and have a family- eventually...”

Mana smiles, but it looks a bit sad. “Yeah. I definitely want that too.”

“Best childhood memory?” Nimble fingers rifle through the Senbonbiki strings before giving one a tug.

Syrus answers without hesitation. “Zane teaching me how to duel.”

The string is a dud without a prize attached; Mana turns from pouting to look at Syrus with curious eyes. “Oh?”

“Yeah... we...” Syrus looks away, tries to keep the melancholy out of his voice. “We had a good relationship back then.”

Mana hums, reaching out to take his hand and wander back through the festival. “I think...mine is meeting Atem for the first time.”

Atem. That’s Christina’s ace card. Syrus shouldn’t be surprised he’s a duel spirit too. “Are all monster cards duel spirits?”

“Not every card has a spirit attached, but I have noticed almost every design mirrors a creature or person that actually exists.”

“Weird.” Honestly, Syrus never thought about it before, but it’s really weird that a game on Earth could accurately depict creatures from another dimension. Sure, Pegasus based the original cards off carvings he found in Egypt, but those were 3000 years old! Some of the new archetypes look distinctly futuristic, and Jaden designed the Neo Spacians so explain that! Just thinking about it gives Syrus a headache.

“Have you ever lost a fight?” he ventures to ask as they nibble on chocolate bananas.

“Lots of times,” Mana laughs at herself. “Especially during training. And no matter how good you are there’s always someone stronger, so tactical retreat is necessary!”

“Yeah, that’s true.” Syrus nods. The sky’s getting darker. Will Mana still be here for the fireworks? “What’s it like being a spirit?”

She doesn’t answer immediately. “It’s...lonely sometimes,” she admits, voice soft, almost forlorn. “Not many people can see us. We entertain ourselves by watching the world and taking bets on what kind of trouble Jaden will get into next.” Mana shrugs and smiles, an obvious attempt to make light of the situation, but Syrus can see straight through it.

“Oh,” he says, wishing he could put his emotions into words that wouldn’t hollow.

Mana glances out at the darkening sky, voice soft as she asks, “One thing you really wanna do before you die?”

“Huh?” The question startles Syrus as much as the oddly wistful tone. “I guess...” He hesitates. One thing? The thing he wants to do most? That he’d regret never doing? “I wanna be happy. With someone I mean!” he quickly amends and the word babble spills out from there. “I wanna get married and buy a house and share my life with someone. I know it probably doesn’t sounds that ambitious but-”

“No, that’s a great ambition.”

Syrus can’t really name the emotion on Mana’s face. Nodding, he looks down at his feet and fiddles with his hands. “Maybe...if we get to know each other better...you could be that person?” He squeezes his eyes shut, not daring to look up.

An intake of breath. “Syrus...”

The boom rattles through his bones and Syrus screams, flinging himself towards the nearest source of comfort and shelter, straight into Mana’s arms. Oh. Oh, the fireworks! Prying his eyes open reveals bursts of color lighting up the sky as another boom shakes the air. He laughs awkwardly and rights himself, murmuring an apology.

“I don’t have much time left,” Mana says, colored light illuminating her mournful expression, and the dread seizes Syrus by the throat.

“Ki-kiss me properly this time!” Oh gods his voice cracked and got really screechy, but he said it! His hands fist against his legs, trembling as her heart goes off on another marathon, and what if she rejects him? What if he read this all wrong? What if-

“Okay.”

Her kiss lingers on his lips long after the fireworks fade and she disappears back to being a spirit. He can still feel her hand against his own, and this time he knows it’s real.

#gxmonth2021 #fantasyshipping #syrus truesdale #marufuji shou #dark magician girl #ygo gx #yugioh gx #yu gi oh gx #long post

[saijspellhart]

Could you do 8 for Radicalshipping? I think it would be sweet :)

8. Laying a gentle kiss to the back of the other’s hand. (Radicalshipping)

3. A breathy demand: “Kiss me” - and what the other person does to respond. (Radicalshipping)

16. One person pouting, only to have it removed by a kiss from the other person. (Radicalshipping)

“I knew he only liked me for my body,” Bakura spat. He flicked a duel monsters card at the TV and watched it hit the screen and deflect off of Malik’s face and join its brethren on the floor.

They were watching a tournament on the television, and the broadcast was currently wrapping up Malik’s latest duel. He’d been successful of course, and they were in the post duel interviews where Malik was answering questions about his plays. Ryou was with him, their arms thrown over the other’s shoulder in congratulations and friendship.

Malik leaned his head against Ryou’s and smiled at the camera, bright and proud.

Bakura flung another card at the TV.

“I like your body.” Yami Marik pulled off a pair of headphones, and turned away from his game at the desk.

Bakura threw a card at him too. “That’s the whole point you twit! This isn’t my body.” He gestured to himself, his thin lanky frame. There were muscles, because Bakura worked for them. But they weren’t incredibly defined because Ryou had never had that sort of stature. Upon being given a second chance at life, the gods had humbled Bakura by giving him a replica of Ryou’s body, rather than his original body. “And now Malik is shacking up with my former host.”

Marik eyed the television which was still showing the interviews with Malik. He’d been purposely ignoring this portion of the broadcast. Seeing his other half always stirred troubled emotions of resent and anger in him. Feelings he was working hard to overcome.

“They look like friends to me,” Marik remarked.

“Feh,” Bakura shuffled the stack of cards in his hand. He was lounging across the couch, one foot crossed over the other. The floor around the apartment was littered with Duel Monsters cards that he’d been throwing for the last hour.

“Well he certainly wouldn’t like you for your personality,” Marik snipped. “You’re an insufferable bastard.”

“Prick,” Bakura spat.

“Bitch.”

“Wanker.”

“Look! Yugi’s on!” Marik suddenly leaped from the chair and vaulted over the couch. He snatched the remote off the coffee table, and was already turning up the volume. Bakura didn’t bother to move his legs, which didn’t bother Marik at all. He climbed onto the couch, crouching on it like L from Death Note rather than a sane normal person.

Then again, Yami Marik was not a sane and normal person. In the years of separation from Malik—and with the gift of his own body—Marik had grown into himself. In some ways he had matured, grown, and mellowed out, but in other ways he’d developed his own idiosyncrasies, and still had a streak of impulsivity that reared from time to time.

Marik turned up the volume, and even Bakura sat up straighter. The two men watched as the small “King-of-Games” appeared on screen stepping up to a podium on a duel stadium. This tournament was using a classic stadium, rather than Kaiba’s portable duel disk system.

Yugi waved to the crowd, and smiled. Then the cameras switched to his opponent, and they watched as a different person, a taller guy with black hair and a ball cap, stepped up to the opposite podium. He too, waved at the crowd. But he followed it up with a fist pump that awarded him a round of cheers.

Bakura flicked a card at the guy on the screen. It struck the man’s ball cap before bouncing onto the floor.

“Boo!” Marik voiced both their thoughts aloud.

The two Yamis resented their absence from the tournament. They had not been allowed to sign up due to a lack of identification. Kaiba promised that he was working on creating identification for them, as well as obtaining credible backstories and citizenship. They’d only been given their fleshy new bodies less than six months ago, and it had taken a lot of convincing from Yugi to persuade Kaiba to help Marik and Bakura.

Suffice to say Kaiba wasn’t exactly in a rush.

So here they were, at home—Yugi’s home, because he had been the only one willing to take them in—behaving themselves. Sort of.

Yugi’s apartment was a mess right now. The carpet blanketed in a layer of trading cards that Bakura had spent the last hour and a half throwing about.

The desk where Marik had been faired no better. It was covered in the empty cans of energy drinks, sodas, and the occasion alcohol. Marik had a tendency to stay up all night playing MMOs, and the lack of sleep only enhanced his usual crazy unkempt appearance, rather than detract from it. Amongst the cans were the various wrappers of plant protein bars and veggie chips; there were also a few cards here and there that had managed to find their way amongst the mess.

The tournament commenced after a handful of commercials and a few more interviews with the other contestants. It was mostly speculation of who they thought would win, and what strats might be employed from each player.

Bakura muttered his own commentary about Yugi’s strategies, and Marik grunted in agreement.

And then the duel was underway. Yugi was first to go, and played a face down card before ending his turn, and letting his opponent retaliate.

Ball-cap Boy, as the Yamis labeled him, lost his first summoned monster to Yugi’s trap hole.

“Kick his ass!” Screamed Marik. He was clutching the remote between his fingers like a demented gargoyle.

“Not a bad start,” Bakura remarked. “The field is wide open for Yugi to make a counter attack, and Ball-cap Boy only played one face down card.”

The turn passed back to Yugi. He drew a card.

“Yugi has cards to sweep the field of magic and traps,” Marik nodded at the screen, stating the obvious. It wasn’t necessarily for Bakura’s benefit, as they were simply voicing their own thoughts and observations.

Right on cue, Yugi used a Mystical Space Typhoon, and sent Ball-cap’s card to the graveyard. Then he used a Pot of Greed, drew two more cards, and played a Black Magic Ritual spell card. He sent two monsters from his hand, to the graveyard as tribute, and summoned Magician of Black Chaos right to the field.

This was followed by the activation of the field spell, Yami. Which cast the whole holographic playing field into a black and purple miasma. The change in field giving Yugi’s Spellcaster and Fiend type monsters a boost.

Which included Magician of Black Chaos.

Yugi struck his opponent with a savage blow to his life points, then ended his turn. His hand was empty of cards except for one. It was a vulnerable position to be in, but he did have a very powerful monster on the field.

“YAAS!” Marik bounced on the couch and howled at the TV.

“Babysitter had a very lucky hand to start with,” Bakura remarked. “This will hardly be a fair match.”

“Don’t care as long as Yugi fucks him up.”

Bakura nodded his agreement, and they both continued to watch the game unfold.

The duel didn’t conclude as one-sided as the Yamis first predicted. Ball-cap Boy managed to make a come back, and get rid of Yugi’s Magician with a spell card. After that, he had Yugi on the defensive for a bit.

But when the match finally concluded it was with Yugi’s decisive victory.

The cameras momentarily followed the loser as he slunk offstage, as well as a shower of trading cards and popcorn from Marik and Bakura.

When attention returned to Yugi, interviews and congratulations commenced. With his latest win, Yugi would be attending the semi-finals tomorrow, where he would face off against Malik Ishtar, Mai Valentine, and Weevil Underwood. They would draw names tomorrow to decide who would face off against whom.

The Yamis continued to watch the broadcast even after Yugi had excused himself from the cameras, and mysteriously disappeared. No one appeared to be able to locate him again for further interviews, and turned instead to interview various members of the crowd about today’s matches.

Twenty minutes later the apartment door flew open, and the spikey little “King-of-Games,” entered the apartment. He tossed his bag on the floor next to the shoe shelf.

“I’m home! Did you guys catch my duel?”

Bakura quickly snapped the television off and looked over the back of the couch.

“Of course not. I don’t watch bullshit.”

Marik fixed Bakura with a dark stare. Then turned and draped his large frame over the back of the couch to watch Yugi kick his shoes off.

“Oh.” Yugi’s face drooped a bit. “What were you guys watching?”

“The news.”

“My Little Pony.”

This time it was Bakura’s turn to fix Marik with a death glare. “We do NOT watch My Little Pony.”

“Keh, speak for yourself,” Marik muttered, “Discord is my kindred spirit.”

Yugi hung up his jacket and approached the two of them with an infectious smile. A smile different from his other ones, and one he only seemed to wear when he saw them. Whether it was coming home from a long day, or upon seeing them whenever they picked him up from university.

“Did you win?” Bakura inquired, folding his arms over the back of the couch.

Marik struck him with his unsocked foot, where Yugi couldn’t see. “Of course he won. Babysitter is the King.”

“I lost. Big time,” Yugi lamented. He dropped his eyes and kicked the carpet in shame. “Sano, will go on to the semi-finals tomorrow.”

Marik held out his arms, beckoning Yugi to come close for a sympathetic hug.

When he did, the Yami scooped him up instead and dragged Yugi over the back of the couch and onto the cushions between him and Bakura.

Yugi yelped in surprise.

Both Yamis drew over him like a couple of predators. It was akin to being flanked by a lion and lynx.

“Let us console you,” Bakura purred.

“We’ll ease the sting of loss,” Marik added. “Tell us how it happened.”

“You definitely should have won.”

“Especially the play with the graceful charity, and the discarding two dark magicians from your hand to boost the power of Dark Magician Girl. That was a wicked thing to do~”

“Marik! You absolute knob-head!”

“I knew it,” Yugi giggled, and a grin spread over his face from ear to ear. He stared up at the two Yamis. “You did watch my duel.”

One Yami was baring his teeth and scowling so hard that creases formed on his brow. The other was grinning with feral delight.

“I never wanted to play this game in the first place,” Marik defended. He turned his attention to their babysitter and picked up Yugi’s hand, placing a chaste kiss to the back of it. “You sacrificed your most precious monster cards so callously for power. How unlike you. We must be rubbing off on you.” he purred almost sensually.

It sent butterflies squirming in the young man’s stomach.

“Congrats of the victory, My Precious,” he hummed the words against pale skin before dragging his long tongue over Yugi’s hand and fingers. The endearing nickname was something he’d coined for Yugi after the three of them binged a Lord of the Rings marathon. Bakura refused to use it, preferring his own terms for Yugi. So this one was uniquely Marik’s.

“It was a good duel,” Bakura grumbled. He folded his arms over Yugi’s bent knees and rested his chin upon them.

Yugi couldn’t help but beam up at him even whilst Marik slipped one of Yugi’s fingers into his mouth. “I’m sorry I didn’t catch that over the sound of my hand being molested.”

“You kicked ass,” Bakura snarled louder, his cheeks suddenly flushing a deep pink. His eyes were staring at the floor off to the side though.

“Thanks.” Yugi knew the admission didn’t come lightly. Bakura was generally sparse with his compliments, and praise did not fall from his tongue lightly.

Marik was now biting Yugi’s fingers, but this didn’t bother him at all. Marik tended to be very bitey, and on numerous occasions Yugi had to get creative covering up various bruises ranging in spots from his neck to his calves.

He leaned his head back to meet Yami Marik’s lovely lavender colored eyes.

“I won my duel. So, do I get a victory kiss?”

A sinister grin pulled over Marik’s face, Yugi’s fingers still caught between his teeth. He released the thoroughly molested hand with one final lingering caress of his tongue and leant forward to place a kiss on Yugi’s cute mouth.

A pale hand intercepted, two fingers placed against Yugi’s lips before Marik could kiss him. “But I thought you lost?” Bakura sneered.

Yugi shot him a pouty look.

“We can pretend he won,” Marik tried to pry Bakura’s hand out of the way.

Bakura pushed against Marik’s forehead with his other hand. “We don’t reward losers.”

“Oh, just kiss me.” Yugi huffed, sounding a bit breathless in his demand.

“Babysitter ordered.”

“Well in that case...” Bakura pushed Yugi’s knees apart and crawled between them. He dipped his head under Marik’s nose and his mouth closed over the Game King’s. It was soft but aggressive, wasting no time coaxing Yugi to let him in, and then letting his tongue slip into the kiss.

Marik growled above them.

Bakura paid him no mind. Relishing the taste, lips moving, molding, and coaxing delightful noises from the male below them. He stole breath and sound like the thief he was, and swallowed them both. And his hand trailed over Yugi’s thigh, fingers raking over more sensitive areas until Yugi arched against him.

They broke apart for air, and Bakura watched Yugi pant, with a playful hunger in his half-lidded eyes.

Yugi blinked, and refocused just past him.

Marik’s mouth was twisted in a pout, and he looked very left out.

Yugi reached both hands up, and dragged the Egyptian down for an upside down kiss, that was more teeth than lips, but no less intense and heated.

Marik made a noise akin to a growl, but more hungry and throaty, and slipped his own hands under Yugi’s head to grasp fistfuls of his colorful spiked hair.

Both men continued to lath the little King-of-Games in attention. Occasionally squabbling with each other over possession of Yugi’s mouth. But both of them spoiling their little keeper with touches and affection.

If someone had asked Yugi six months ago if he would ever have two boyfriends—and both of them the former Yamis of his friends, Malik and Ryou—he would have laughed and called them insane. Six months ago he had still been mourning the loss of Atem. Moping about his departure for the afterlife, even though three years had already passed since the ceremonial duel.

Six months ago he had tentatively taken in the homeless, aimless, pitiable Yamis; whom the gods had saw fit to grant a second chance to redeem their souls. He had been the only one of their friend group willing to give these two the second chance he felt they deserved.

And for awhile they resented him with the same disdain they showed the rest of the world.

But Yugi never ceased being patient and kind, freely giving them his friendship. No strings attached.

They had come to accept it begrudgingly at first. And then coveted it selfishly.

Somewhere along the way friendship had morphed into affection, and feelings became complicated.

A strange relationship of hate, friendship, lust, and loyalty, that sometimes left Yugi feeling lost and drowning. He really liked them both, maybe more than he should. And they couldn’t seem to decide if they liked him, or hated him, but they certainly wanted him.

Things were now very complicated.

All this, compounded on the sinful things they were doing with their mouths, was enough to fray his nerves and light his skin ablaze with sensations and confusing emotions. It left Yugi extremely overwhelmed and dizzy.

He broke from all the attention to catch some much needed breath. Marik and Bakura backed off looking mischievous and starved, their eyes dragging over their little Babysitter like he was a juicy piece of meat.

“Why are there duel monsters cards all over the floor?” Yugi asked, finally taking in his surroundings and the state of his apartment.

“Because Bakura was huffy about staying home, and decided to fling his trading cards at everything,” Marik explained, sounding equal amounts amused and annoyed.

“Actually,” Bakura corrected. “They’re all Marik’s cards.”

Lavender eyes shot up.

“What?”

~0000~

So this was interesting to write. Sorry it took me so long. I had to agonize how I wanted to write this ship for the longest time. Pondered over their dynamic, and what circumstances would even bring them together. I hope this was satisfactory. I did a have a lot of fun writing this. Mayhaps you’ll have fun reading???

#radicalshipping #yugi mutou #yami bakura #Yami marik #Yugi muto #yami malik #Yugi x Yami Bakura x Yami Marik #yugioh #yugioh duel monsters #ygo dm #ask answers #saijspellhart answers #saijspellhart writes #ask prompt #kiss prompt #kiss prompts #kiss drabble #prompt drabble #drabbles #fanfic #fanfiction #kisses #evil kisses

[readerinsertfanfiction]

Midsummer Texts

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh

Characters: Yugi Muto & Yami Yugi

Prompt: Yugi has a crush but has no idea how to talk to her. Yami offers to chat with Yugi’s crush over text. Confusion and chaos ensues as feelings go wayward.

A/N: This is so long overdue, and I’m so sorry! OTL

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3| Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 

Love was selfish, you realised. Not in the way that you wished for all of his attention to be trained upon you, but in the way that it refused to fade away as you tried to forget about one set of feelings and cultivate another. What was it that made it so impossible? What was it that made it so hard for you to prefer one twin over the other?

They had the same magenta coloured eyes, the same strangely shaped hair. Somewhere they also held similar aesthetics, kinda dark, rather broodish, on edge. Yet you found that with one the style fit better than with the other. Yet your eyes drifted over to their differences and your heart lamented that it wasn’t the other.

“[Name]?” Tea forced herself into your line of vision, concern clearly written on her face as her expression fell. You noticed that she did that a lot as of late, her clear blue eyes suddenly not as sparkling anymore, a dull pain hidden behind that caring smile she threw at you.

You realised that it had been a while since you had last asked her how she was doing. You realised that, as of late, it had all been about you, how you were doing, how you were coping. It left a wry taste in your mouth, knowing how concerned Tea whilst dealing with her own problems.

“I’m fine,” you respond, a smile gracing your features that you knew didn’t quite reach your eyes, “just a lot on my mind,” you continued, but didn’t want to fill in the thought with more. Tea just left it at that, a smile returning into your direction.

“What about you?” you reach out, genuinely concerned as you once more see her expression drop. Blinking back at you she smiles, the frown from earlier disappearing as she lets go of a smile.

“Oh, nothing, just worried about that chemistry test.” Rubbing her forehead the female faked a smile for you, though the fatigue in her expression was there, her eyes not as bright as they usually were, not as lively either. You knew better than to press on, however, and you let it go.

Love was selfish in another way. In the way that it demanded your attention and made you neglect your friends. It wasn’t only Tea who seemed forlorn and distracted, something was wrong with Yami as well.

Sigh after sigh, and then a pensive expression. It was clear to all that something was bothering the man, but none who could pull it out of him. None that he could look at without guilt washing over, at least.

“[Name]!” Yugi called out, his smile bright, his eyes even brighter, and his feet nearly floating him over to your side, “so, we’re still on for after school?” he inquires and Yami raises a brow as you throw the younger brother a lopsided grin.

“Yes! I will wait for you in the cafeteria, okay? That way we can head back together,” you beam back at the other.

Yami wasn’t sure what had changed in you, but he threw you a quiet smile when you grinned at him, almost as if you were seeking his approval. How could he not give it when you were obviously so excited? When it involved his brother?

It didn’t sit well with him, however. Your words from your shared class still sounded through his mind, that smile that you had flashed him afterwards. Nothing sat well with him, eyes flitting between you and his brother as he tried to make out the why and the how.

“We’re going to review in the library,” Yugi informs his brother, an apologetic smile crossing his lips as he rubs the back of his head. “I forgot to tell you, it was sorta sudden,” the male continues sheepishly, a bashful look throwin into the older twin’s direction.

Yami was once more unsure of how to feel about that, gulping as he forced a smile on his own face, a silent thumbs up raised towards his brother.

From the way you avoided his eyes Yami supposed that you truly were working hard in giving Yugi a chance, albeit a bit reluctantly.

Love was selfish and you hoped that it would swallow itself up.

The thought of being alone with Yugi brought a fair share of anxiety. A strange feeling and thought, for the male had never confessed to you, not directly at least. It made the knowledge that you held all the more strange. As if something had gone out of order, as if you had seen the future somehow.

It was clear that, whatever subtlety and discretion the two of them possessed, it was certainly not romantically inclined. Not in the way Yugi’s expression adorably brightened when he saw you, nor in the way he enthusiastically waved as he tried to cross the road without looking out for the traffic. He was lucky that the car managed to stop with a sounding screech of the brakes, though the curses that followed were startling enough as Yugi coloured red, embarrassed and shamed thoroughly when he finally reached you.

“Ah, that was so uncool,” he laments to himself as he lets himself fall into a seat, you just grimace back, feeling the second hand embarrassment along with the pain.

“Let’s leave quickly then, so that we can spare you any further shame,” you propose and Yugi eagerly accepts, picking up his bag as he is quick to exit the cafe in which you had waited for him. You supposed that would be one place to avoid in the future.

“You surprised me,” Yugi says once you are in the crowd, his hands clenching the handles of his bag, twitchy as he was at the prospect of being alone with you.

“How so? Wasn’t it the car that startled you more?” you retort in a tease, earning a pout from the male as he puffs out some air, clearly not liking to be reminded before he straightens himself up, suddenly a whole lot solemn than before.

“I know you like Yami, you know.”

The admission is curt, even a little hurt and you freeze as you eye your friend, an invisible hand clamouring around your heart as it clenched and quenched, leaving you breathless. “How?” you mutter out, realising that the question in itself is an admission of itself, panic coursing through you as you try to fix yourself.

“I mean, why would you say that?” you blurt out to correct yourself, though you feel that you are too dazed to really register the answer, your thoughts going a mile per hour as you try to piece together the when and what and…

From Yugi’s expression you can tell that there is no denying anymore. From his expression you can tell that the male had already figured it out.

“He was trying to hide it,” Yugi explains with a shrug, eyes turning towards you in an uncharacteristic bold declaration, “I suppose it is also my rival instinct,” he smiles, and around the corner of his lips you can read how it pains him, to have his older twin be his rival at every turn.

Subtlety and discretion might have been superficial traits that belonged to the Mutou brothers, but it definitely didn’t apply to romances, you found. The twins were too finely attuned to one another for that. Too aware of what the other thought without needing a glance. It was what made games between the two of them so interesting, as they read and read each other until it all came down to who pulled the right cards first.

“I’m sorry, Yugi,” you try, but are halted by the male, his smile back to shy again as he shakes his head, making clear that it isn’t pity that he wants, nor sympathy.

“Your feelings aren’t your fault, and I would be happy to stay as friends,” Yugi speaks, his fingers twiddling with each other as he returns to his own usual bashful state. “I just hope that you might see me as someone worth their own person?”

The request, so simple, gave you a whole new perspective, a new realisation dawning upon you as you eye the male, flabbergasted, out of words, but calm. The anxiety of earlier had left, the grip on your heart released and you felt yourself deflate, a smile forming on your lips as you can’t help but to release another sigh.

#ygo #ygo x reader #yugioh #yugioh x reader #Yu-Gi-Oh #yu gi oh #midsummer texts

[elexica]

Second Chance Christmas {{ December 22 }}

Holiday shopping, Christmas cookies, and a movie marathon... and maybe a touch of actual communication?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27832405/chapters/68577144#workskin

Full chapter under the read more. 

Joey wandered downstairs at seven in the morning.  He was surprised to see Kaiba inspecting the to-do list on his fridge in between long swigs from his KC branded mug.

“You haven’t finished holiday shopping?!” Kaiba’s panic-whisper sounded like he was really concerned about whether Christmas was ruined.  His eye contact was almost frenetic.

“I thought I’d leave the kids with Serenity while I do the shopping, she’s supposed to be working the Christmas day shift at the hospital, so she was going to have a couple nights off… I mean it’s not…” Joey looked at the ceiling, as if he could avoid conflict if he didn’t meet the burning blue flames in his ex’s eyes.  He steeled himself with a deep inhale.  “It’s not as much of a production when you’re not here.”

The KC mug hit the kitchen island with not-insubstantial force.  The fruit dish shook with the vibration, bananas swinging from the hook, and Joey tore his eyes from the ceiling to see the drops of black coffee that had hit the granite.  

“And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?” Kaiba asked, or rather hissed, without a questioning lilt in his voice.

Joey cracked his knuckles involuntarily.  Instead of letting his fingers ball into fists, he jerked open the refrigerator door and yanked out the carton of orange juice.

“You’re a smart man.  I’m sure you can guess.”  Joey didn’t look away from the task at hand.  He militantly focused on pouring orange juice into a tall clean glass.

And there was that sinister “Kaiba” gravel, every bit as menacing as it had ever been as he hissed over the kitchen counter, “Enlighten me.”  He sounded like Yugi’s troubled teen nemesis again.

Joey flipped around, gripping the orange juice to keep himself from saying too much that he would regret.  “Things are more mellow, now.  It isn’t about going overboard to prove a point.”

Kaiba blinked, clearly expecting a harsher phrasing. “Is it now?”

“Yeah.  When I was a kid I didn’t have much for Christmas and I came out just fine…”  Here it comes, Joey thought, trying not to show the hesitation in his voice as he finished, “They don’t have to be spoiled rotten.”

Joey smirked as he said it.  Commenting on their different parenting styles was a low blow, but it had been just too much fun.  Joey thought regret would drop into his stomach, but it never hit.  Instead, his heart jumped a little, the thrill of getting a rise out of Kaiba as seductive as ever.

“Spoiled?!” Kaiba’s voice lowered in volume and tone.  Joey didn’t even try to suppress his mocking grin.  Instead, he chugged the rest of his orange juice, slammed down the glass and bolted from the kitchen.

“Get back here!” Kaiba said.  Tonally, it was a shout, but volume-wise?  Neither of them wanted the kids to wake up quite yet, even though there were probably only minutes left on the clock in that regard.

Joey slid on his socks as he ran down the hallway, drifting as he took a sharp turn.  Kaiba sprang to life, suddenly in hot pursuit.

Kaiba was fast, with those long, toned legs and that Terminator-like determination.  But he hadn’t spent the last three years wrangling toddlers and chasing after Alexis, who just loved wandering off at the most inopportune times.  Plus, while Kaiba had memorized the floor plan at one time, Joey was recently and intimately familiar with it.  

The tie breaker was the stairs—with a carved bannister that had seen better days, days before Atticus had been allowed poster paint and before Alexis had taken a tap class.  Finally, Joey’s socks gambit came to bite him in the ass as the smoothness of the glossy wooden stairs and the lack of traction from the socks caused him to slip.  And that wave of tripping Joey collided into a scampering Kaiba, and the two of them tumbled down the stairs.

The resulting clatter woke the kids up.

. . .

The mall was a zoo—minus the organization.  Children were everywhere, and somehow all screaming at once.  Everyone looked stressed, perhaps the employees most of all.  And Joey realized that he didn’t really have a strategy.

Leaving the kids home with Kaiba was a luxury, and he had sort of forgotten how nice it was to have back up childcare that wasn’t molded around Serenity’s shifts as an RN.  It was sort of strange too, because it was one of the few things that was completely new.

Before they separated, Kaiba never watched the kids alone—they had a full staff for that.

Would they all have a miserable time?  Joey smirked to himself as he strolled past another festive display—a family of mannequins in matching flannel pajamas. Being outnumbered by the kids could be quite a problem, and although Alexis had lone wolf tendencies, when they combined forces the two were quite powerful.

Joey idly imagined what sort of hell they might put Kaiba through as he shopped for some small things to put in their stockings. He was knocked out of his reverie by eyes fell upon a yo-yo display at the toy store.

After picking up a few small trinkets—and decidedly no yo-yo’s, Joey approached the cash register.

He was not pleased to find an unfamiliar credit card in his wallet.  When did Kaiba even have the time to slip that in?  Joey ran his thumb over the raised letters of his own name.  Did Kaiba just have these lying around? In any case, Joey steadfastly refused to use it, tucking the heavy black card back into the recesses of his worn leather wallet.

He contemplated, momentarily, throwing it in one of the trash bins that he passed by, overflowing with spent holiday Starbucks cups and overly long receipts.  But if someone did get ahold of it, they might ring up some charges that could look like Joey was actually using the card.  It would ruin the integrity of the refutation.

But the little rectangular siren was hard to keep from his mind.  Every time he made a purchase, there it was, tempting him to draw from an unlimited account.  Snap shut the golden handcuffs again, the card whispered. Make everything easier.

But Joey Wheeler was a determined man.  Detractors might use the phrase stubborn, but it didn’t matter which one was more accurate.  When he had a plan, he stuck to it.  To the bitter end.  So even though he was pushing the admittedly fragile budget to it’s limits at the music store and on Cyber Angel card packs, it remained sealed away.

Until he passed a very sad looking fundraiser.

Joey considered, as he lingered past the charity drive seeking toys for a group home for teens in the Bronx, that he might put the card to use.  He realized he seemed a little off, staring down the charity workers, who were dressed as unconvincing elves, with the big collection boxes.

Joey had a timetable.  He had a not unimpressive list still remaining.  But that fucking card was burning a hole in his pocket.  It was practically radiating heat.

But he caved.  He lost the battle with the black card when he emptied the local game shop’s entire stock of new model-duel disks and donated them.  Joey was trembling as he signed them over, what the name of the donor would be.

He settled on anonymous and determined that he would cut the card into fifty pieces the second he got home and scatter the shards through the trash.  The damn thing was too tempting.

By the time Joey pulled into the driveway and slammed open the front door, he was ready to fight about what had happened.

But his family wasn’t immediately in view.  The lights in the kitchen were on, and Joey could hear soft classical covers of Christmas music and he thought he could make out the sound of Alexis laughing.

The wind was knocked out of him when he turned the corner to see Kaiba’s black turtleneck splattered with flour.

The whole kitchen had taken a beating.  Flour hadn’t just tarnished Kaiba’s polished look—it had dusted the cabinets and part of the fridge Kaiba must not have realized how easily dry ingredients spray from the stand mixer if dropped in first.

The kitchen counters certainly were not spared from the ingredient massacre.  The entire kitchen island was covered in flour, some spilled food dye—which Joey could already sense would never come out of the granite—and a surprising amount of raw egg.

Upon further inspection, Kaiba was actually the one least impacted by the ingredient apocalypse.  There was sugar and frosting all over Alexis’s face—how, Joey might never know—and Atticus had managed to paint some of his hair blue with blue frosting.

“Alright.  Cookies are decorated and prepared for Mr. Claus, fulfilling your contractual obligations,” Kaiba said resolutely, as if he had not turned their living space into a warzone. “What is next on the festive itinerary?”

“First rule of Christmas: you must get munk’d!” Atticus announced.

Joey knocked on the boundary wall of the kitchen to announce his arrival.  He expected Kaiba to look much more surprised than he did.  Instead, Kaiba’s affectionate attention merely pivoted between Atticus and Joey.  It was warm and familial, and it sent a pang of heat and guilt and maybe something else down Joey’s spine.

“Next is getting this cleaned up, I think,” Joey said, finding himself in uncharted territory.  It felt weird to be the responsible one out of him and Kaiba.  He still wasn’t used to being the buzzkill parent, and he didn’t like it.

Kaiba could have said something mean—made some comment about would spoil the fun, but instead he nodded politely.  “Yes,” Kaiba surveyed the room.  “I think that would be the next step.”

While the kids groaned at the thought of helping with the chores component of the activity, Joey went to inspect the output.

Apparently, Kaiba had lead the kids through the process of making gingerbread men.  Four were set aside and logically decorated to be their family: a stretched out one with blue blobs for eyes and a little black gel icing frown, a slightly more squished one with yellow on top in some sort of approximation of Joey’s hair, and two smaller ones representing each kid.

They really did look like a family.

“You can’t eat those ones,” Kaiba instructed from over Joey’s shoulder.  Joey startled at the interruption.  He hadn’t realized his ex had gotten so close, and was looming over him properly.  

“I figured they might be a little special.”

“Frankly, I don’t know that I’m comfortable with Santa eating them.  I’m a bit worried he’d just bite my head off, and leave him as an example to the others.”

Joey laughed.

“I don’t think Santa’s supposed to leave death threats to the cookies, Kaiba.  But uh…” Joey reached for another plate which had not been as lovingly decorated.  He tore the little head of a random gingerbread man with this teeth, and noted the nice flavor.  Butter and molasses and a hint of cloves.  He placed the decapitated body of the gingerbread man back down on the display plate. “This guy’ll scare the rest of ‘em straight.”

. . .

After everyone had gotten cleaned up and changed into pajamas (and Joey had discretely moved the gifts into the master bedroom closet), the family reconvened in the living room.

“Oto-san, are you ready for the greatest movies ever made?” Atticus announced.  He seemed confident that his father wasn’t ready—and he was right. “Are you ready to get… ‘munk’d?”

Kaiba poked at his reading glasses and adjusted his laptop screen.  He had been working on some spreadsheets or something, but his interest was obviously piqued.

Joey smiled.  He knew exactly what Kaiba was in for, and he was going to savor it.

“Munk’d?” Kaiba repeated back carefully, as if he was worried it was a swear or a slur.

“Yeah!” Atticus grabbed the remote and deftly navigated the SmartTV through a few different apps before finding exactly what he was looking for. “It’s a quadrilogy.”

Kaiba slowly tiled his laptop screen down.  “That’s not a word.”

“I have an inventive spirit, Oto-san!” Atticus’s smile beamed forward as he continued to queue the feature film.  Without looking away from the screen, Atticus added, “Just like you.”

The soft smile that graced Kaiba’s features stung at Joey immediately.  And it vanished at the first pitchy note of the CGI Alvin and the Chipmunks warbling through Daniel Powter’s 2005 hit, “Bad Day.”

“See, they’re kids, but they’re also rock stars!” Atticus enthused.  Before Kaiba could get out any other response, Atticus cracked up at the vintage CGI creatures jumping into a muffin basket.

“It’s okay if you don’t like this one, Oto-san,” Alexis offered, hopping up on the couch on the other side.  “They get better when they introduce the Chipettes in the Squeakquel.”

Joey wished he had photographed the resulting look of horror on Kaiba’s face.

Joey leaned back in his own arm chair, nursing a fresh mug of hot cocoa.  “Quadrilogy, Kaiba.  That means there are four of them.”

After the first movie, the kids we already starting to wear down a little.  Kaiba had sat through the entire thing, undulating between puzzled and disturbed at the dated animation, the fact that the chipmunks had managed to get into and out of a dishwasher unharmed, and that the moral of the movie appeared to be that brothers should be very careful about who adopts them.

“This entire thing could have been prevented if the Chipmunks had just retained counsel before signing the relevant contracts,” Kaiba said dismissively.

Joey couldn’t help but laugh.  “It’s about family, Kaiba.”

Any further discussion was cut off by the raucous opening music for the Squeakquel and ninety-ish minutes later, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.

It was a true Christmas miracle that the kids passed out on the couch before the start of Alvin and the Chipmunks 4: The Road Chip.

Joey met Kaiba’s slightly tired eyes.  Admittedly, the ending of Chipwrecked was somewhat jarring.  Frankly, the entire thing was more of a fever dream mixed with memes from 2011 than a sensible film.  “Alright, I’ll take Alexis, if you can take Atticus?”

Kaiba nodded solemnly, accepting the delegation.

Alexis was usually pretty easy to get to sleep, though sometimes she was anxious from the day’s events, or too busy planning the next day to focus on getting to bed.  Joey was not at all surprised that Kaiba was taking longer to get Atticus down for the night.  He peered through the cracked door to see Atticus’s room illuminated by the little nightlight—shaped like a music note.

In the dim light, it was clear that Kaiba was sitting on the edge of Atticus’s bed.  Atticus was all tucked in, holding his Red Eyes Black Dragon plushie, and gazing up at his father.

“And every night when you go to sleep…” Seto prompted, sounding almost like a strict teacher.

“I am loved,” Atticus replied.

“And every morning when you wake up?” Seto started the second part of the call and response.

“I am loved,” Atticus answered, “Oto-san, you don’t have to say it every night when you’re around!  I know you love me.”

“It is important to me that you never doubt it, and never forget it.  Even when I’m not around.”  Joey’s heart could have melted in that second.

Atticus laughed.  “You’re so sappy, Oto-san.  I don’t know why Uncle Honda calls you a frozen bastard!”  

Joey could barely muffle his reaction.

Kaiba’s face whipped around to the cracked open door.  “Jounouchi?”  He whispered harshly.  But it was to no real effect.  Joey was already lost to laughter, and dashed through the hallway.  By the time Joey dared to retrace his steps back to Atticus’s door frame, Kaiba had vanished.  

. . .

It was not hard to guess where Kaiba had retreated to.  Joey pushed open the door of the study and was met with the increasingly familiar sight of his ex-husband in his oxblood leather chair, swirling a glass of expensive, aged, imported whiskey in his long fingers and staring at it like it held the secrets of the universe.

“I saw you with Atticus,” Joey offered, wandering into the study.  He looked more at the full shelves of books than at his ex.  Most of the volumes were in Japanese, but a select few were in English.  Warren Buffet’s autobiography was open on his lap, but Joey was fairly sure he wasn’t actually reading it.

“Yes,” Kaiba answered, flipping the page.   No, Joey was sure he hadn’t actually read it, his eyes never really left the swirling amber.

“And he musta overheard a call with Honda.  It wasn’t on purpose or anything.”

Kaiba nodded wordlessly.

“You really do miss them, huh?” Joey asked, trying not to sound as nostalgic as he felt.

Kaiba’s face remained stoic, but he took a sip of the whiskey instead of answering.  Only that asshole could make something so mundane utterly captivating.  Joey hated that he would wait for a response as long as he needed to.  Joey’s eyes searched the hand clasping the glass, and noted with a brutal sinking feeling, that the ring was off again.

“Why are you here, Jounouchi?” Kaiba asked finally.

“It’s my house, now.  I can go anywhere I want,” Joey announced.  Kaiba ignored this answer, and turned his head down to the book on his lap.  He flipped another page.

Joey considered whether he should just leave, skip out on the argument, avoid it all and properly give up.  Let his ex-husband drink his gross fancy liquor and read his boring book and luxuriate in the solitude as only Seto Kaiba could.

But it had been three years.  Three years of not demanding answers.  Three years with no clarity.  So Joey broke the silence.

“Why didn’t you fight for me?  For our family?  Even for a second?” Joey felt the heat in his own voice, burning the back of his throat.  That was how it was, fighting with Kaiba.  A never ending battle of fire and ice.

Kaiba was silent, and took a long sip of the Japanese whiskey.  He closed the book, which was more respect than Joey had anticipated.

“That’s what broke my heart, really.”  Tears threatened to fall out of Joeys eyes as he said it. “That I told you that it was over, and you couldn’t spare one shred of anger, or sadness, or anything.”  Joey hated the pleading tone in his own voice.  “It felt like you had already dumped me.”

Kaiba raised his glance from the book cover, the amber glass, and instead looked him dead in the eye.  Joey wondered if those blue eyes had always been so lifeless and hollow.  “So, you wanted me to argue with you?”

“I don’t know,” Joey answered, running a hand through his messy blond hair.  He hadn’t planned the whole argument out.  Frankly, he hadf didn’t expect any response.

“Our children didn’t need to watch that,” Kaiba said.

“Watch what?  A conversation?  An argument?  You think it would have been worse for them to hear their parents argue or yell once than… going through a whole fucking divorce?” Joey’s volume crept up and he was done controlling it.

Kaiba didn’t answer.  He looked into the glass again, but didn’t lift it.

“Or what?  What couldn’t they see?  You actually respect my time?  Respect me?” Joey wasn’t used to having the rhetorical upper hand, and he wasn’t going to waste it, gesticulating wildly.  “I got no respect my whole life, I wasn’t gonna let my kids see me treated like that too.”

For all the theatrics, Kaiba scarcely responded.

“Watch it happen again,” Kaiba almost whispered.  There was a ghostly quality to the statement, as if Kaiba neither meant to say it nor for Joey to hear it.  Kaiba cleared his throat and started again.  He brought his eyes back up to meet Joey’s.

“I learned that lesson a long time ago,” Kaiba’s jaw was clenched so tightly the words almost didn’t escape.  “I’m not trying to be loved by someone who doesn’t love me.” Kaiba’s fingers twitched, as if he wanted to fiddle with something.  But his control and focus wouldn’t let him give in.

For Joey’s part, he stood and tried to absorb these complete non-sequiturs.

“I can’t, and I won’t, try to force or trick you or anyone else into caring about me.  I have paid dearly for that miscalculation before.  I will not make the same mistake again.”  

For all of the “slow” comments he had been subjected to over the years, Joey caught up quickly enough to what Kaiba was referring to.  And he wasn’t going to let him play that card, get out of all responsibility because he had emotional constipation.

“You realize there’s a difference between someone asking you to be a better partner and… and not loving you anymore.  Asking you to adjust some things instead of… never wanting to see you again.  Things aren’t just black and white!” Joey answered.

“Divorce papers are black and white, Jounouchi.”  Kaiba finally downed the rest of the glass, the lilt of his voice the same as a “check mate.”

Joey hated to be the first to raise his voice but that door had already been opened.  He wasn’t going to be able to get the toothpaste back in the tube.

“Have you met you?! You wouldn’t listen to anything less!  And I tried!” Joey shouted, hands raised defensively.

“I wasn’t going to stay where I wasn’t wanted, and you made it very clear that you didn’t want to be with me.”  Kaiba didn’t answer with the same volume, but the intensity was raised and the harshness of his voice was jarring.  His eyes narrowed like a hawk eying prey.  “I didn’t change, for the record.  I did not degrade or fail or alter in any way.  No, I stayed exactly the same.  You simply decided you did not want that anymore.”

“You’re damn right, I was sick of being disrespected.  I spent a lot of time not wanting to feel that way anymore.  And you really wouldn’t take my feelings into consideration.  Was I supposed to tolerate that forever?” Joey’s volume increased with every clipped sentence.

Kaiba’s voice became more languid—as if he was more comfortable responding to the anger.  He sounded somewhat like he was pondering his answer as he said it.  Drunk on whiskey and a philosophical sense.  “Isn’t that what you promised you would do?  What unconditional love is supposed to be?  Unconditional: without conditions.  And yet, after years, suddenly you have conditions—"

“Excuse me?” Joey interrupted.

“You promised.  That your love for me, for our family, was unconditional.  And then, years later, you have a set of demands.  That is the very essence of a condition.”  Kaiba finished the glass with his scholarly speech, placing it next to the decanter.  He shoved the book onto the side table as well.

“There’s a difference between not loving someone and wanting to be treated like your damn husband.”  Kaiba’s tone rubbed off on him somewhat, as if it was a scholarly discussion about the terms of their marriage.  Like if he could just explain it clearly enough, he could talk his husband back into their marriage.

Kaiba kept his hands busy pouring another glass.  “Well you were right.  You’re doing better now, aren’t you?  Enjoying your work, the kids are fine.  You proved it—you don’t need me at all.  And you don’t want me.  In three days, I’ll be gone, and you can go back to your better way of life.”

“It’s not—I’m not better now!  I’m fine, things are fine, just different and—” Joey stuttered, hands defensively raised.  “And, and having you here has been... It hasn’t made anything worse.  It’s like you changed for the better.”

“I don’t change, Jounouchi.  I am who I am.” Kaiba said, the cruel air of finality sounding as much like a business decision as anything else.  

Joey’s eyes widened and he gestured wildly.  “Fuck, Kaiba… Then what’s this?!  You’ve made it for three days actually being… just, present.  For once.  Three years too late.  Why?  Why now and not then?”

Kaiba shrugged and looked away.

Joey closed the distance, looming over his ex-husband, perched in the chair.  “I know why,” Joey said, menace in his voice.  “It’s because you only respond to threats.  Consequences.  And now you know the consequences, so you’re getting your act together.”

Kaiba met his eyes, but looked brutally tired.  “I am trying to give you what you want for a few days, Jounouchi.  Call it a Christmas present to the father of my children.”

“You’re saying this is an act?”

He titled his head all the way back, eyes glued to the ceiling and thumb and forefinger pinching his nose bridge, just above the wire of his glasses.  “I don’t know what this is, Jounouchi.  Just be happy, or whatever, and leave me in peace.”

Joey really thought about leaving.  He wanted to.  But he wasn’t quite done, not really, and he’d been avoiding this fight for years.  Joey never used to back down from a fight, and neither did Kaiba.  It brought them to blows for years, and the avoidance of conflict had been more sickening than any gut-punch Joey had ever taken.

“I’m not gonna.”  Joey said, simply.  Hands on his hips, standing his ground.

Kaiba leaned up again, head snapping to attention, hand already on the crystal decanter.  “What?”

“Leave.  I’m not gonna do it.  You can try to make me.  I’m not done, alright?!  You’re obviously not done,” Joey pushed forward, grabbing Kaiba’s wrist and pulling his hand off of the decanter.  “Make it easy.  Say you’ll be better, Kaiba.”

“I won’t do that.  I don’t change, Jounouchi, because I can’t change.”  Kaiba did nothing with his wrist, except allow it to go limp in Joey’s grasp.  It was as if he was that confident in the strength of his words that he didn’t so much as care to tense a muscle.  “I will ask you once more, nicely.  Get out of my office.”

“No.” Joey dropped his wrist, and Kaiba retracted it into his lap.  “You can change.  You did.  You just didn’t notice.”  It felt good, Joey thought, being honest for once with this man that he used to love.

“I have work.”

“You don’t.  They can’t fire you.” Joey got up in his face, so close he could smell Kaiba’s shampoo.  Other than the soft sandalwood scent, it felt a bit like when he was riling up a rival high school bully back in Domino.  “Fight me!  Make me leave!  You want me to go so bad?  Then make me!”

Kaiba smirked, knowingly.  Then he leaned his head back against the chair.  His bangs fully eclipsed his eyes. “I won’t.  I’ll just sleep here.” There it was again.  The checkmate tenor.

“Fine!” Joey plopped down in the seat next to him, the velvet of his matching seat just soft enough.  “Then I’ll sleep here too.”

If Kaiba shifted his eyes to check, Joey couldn’t tell under the thick brown bangs.   In any case, the stubborn ass didn’t get up.  He didn’t storm off or leave.  He just stayed there, like a determined rock under Joey’s constant observation.

After about half an hour, Joey heard the even breathing pick up into a light snore.

In the morning, Kaiba awoke alone in the guest room, with no memory of how he got there.

#Violetshipping #puppyshipping #seto kaiba #Kaiba Seto #Jounouchi Katsuya #Joey Wheeler #fanfic #my fanfic #yugioh #ahhhhhhhhhhhh #i hope you like it this chapter is a lot #i was vibing though

[lazella]

Infinity Stones AU: In Which They Met Spiderman...And Venom

I finally finished this one, just in time to relieve your Coronavirus blues. I really hope you enjoy. :)

Yuya and Yuma were having duel, no holograms as they were still working on making the Duel Disks compatible, trying to iron out the difference in rules and card types so that they could do a battle royal later. Yusaku was rather helpful in figuring out how the make the game fair between all the different playstyles. Though no one defeated Yugi, he won every time. But for now he was just watching enjoying the show. Yuma was pretty good but sometimes he would try to ask Astral for help who rather sarcastically reminded Yuma he needed to play on his own. Who knew spirits could be sassy? Yusei was in the lab with Tony working on something, they had been rather secretive about it. Judai was also spectating the match.

“Wait…how do Pendulum Monsters work again?” Yuma asked for the fifth time.

Yuya sighed and prepared to explain again only to be interrupted by a loud thump on the window followed by a voice.

“Oh hey there…loving the hair dye.”

Judai blinked few times, then yelled out back towards the labs, “Tony! There’s a guy in red spandex on the window! Not sure how he got there!”

There was some loud crash noise before Tony and Yusei entered the main room, Tony gave a look at the spandex person, and sighed, “How many times have I told you to call ahead and use the door?”

“But it’s a lot more fun to go swinging around the New York skyline!” The red figure argued back.

“Just go use the door!” Tony sighed, “Boys…meet Spiderman. And yes…he does what a spider does.”

“I’m am also very friendly!” Spiderman insisted as he enter the ‘proper’ way, “And also Mr. Stark why do they have their hair dyed! You wouldn’t let me dye my hair!”

“Believe it or not that is their natural color and no this is not permission to dye your hair.” Tony responded

“But I wear a full face mask! No one would know it was me!”

“You wanted to dye your hair RAINBOW!!!”

“It was going to be for a good cause!”

Yusei whispered to Yugi, “Do they sound like father and son?”

“They do but I don’t think Tony-san has any children.” Yugi said.

“His father tendencies are strong…” Judai added.

“He does a poor job of hiding it…” Yusaku said.

“You think he has other kids he may have ‘adopted’?” Yuya asked.

“I think it’s likely….” Astral said, “I believe he has adopted all of you.”

“Wha?” Yuma was perplexed, “But I still have parents!”

“WHY IS THERE A GHOST?!?!?!”

“Oh…he has noticed me.” The sass was back with Astral.

“Kid calm down….” Tony sighed, “That’s not a ghost…the short one can tell you the full details later.”

“I’m not short!” Yuma protested.

“But why are they here? They don’t look like heroes…” Spiderman asked.

“They have the Infinity Stones.”

“Ooooooooohhhhh…..that makes sense.” Spiderman said, “Think they can help me out?”

Tony arched an eyebrow, “What sort of problem do you have that might need the power of the Infinity Stones for?”

“I think I spotted Venom running amok earlier.”

“What?” Tony froze, “What you mean that you think you saw Venom today?! He’s in lock up!”

“That why I came here! To be sure!”

“Okay fine….” Tony sighed, “JARVIS…can you contact…”

Actually sir….I just received a message stating that Venom has escaped confinement.

“WHEN!?”

Four hours ago.

“AND THEY DIDN’T THINK IT WAS IMPORTANT TO CALL ME?!” Tony stormed over to a wall, pushed a button, and a compartment containing six gauntlets popped out. He tossed on to each of the boys, “Put these on, they are designed to help channel the power of the Infinity Stones, they are prototypes so be careful, now let’s hunt an alien symbiote.” He then stormed off to get suited up.

Judai turned to Spiderman, “So…what’s going on?”

“I’ll explain as we head out…” Spiderman let out a sigh.

………………………

“So we’re are dealing with an alien…”

“Yep…”

“That’s also a parasite.”

“Yep…”

“And it has favorite people it likes to attach to…including yourself.”

“Pretty much.”

“Cool!”

“It’s not cool!” Spiderman rubbed his temples, “It can corrupt and or kill the host!”

“So we still get to fight it right?” Nothing seemed to be fazing Judai at the moment. Spiderman wondered why he was left alone with this kid while Mr. Stark had the others spread out around town with scanners trying to find Venom.

“I rather just bottle it up and not touch it…” Spiderman sighed, “Just thinking about it touching me gives me shivers.”

Judai’s face turned serious, “How so?”

“It gets in your head…tells you things that sound appealing…” Spiderman explained, “But it makes you do stuff you normally don’t do…not to mention it kills most people it tries to attach too.”

“Oooohhhhh…I see…” Judai’s face turned to what Spiderman thought was understanding, “I can see why you didn’t want to deal with it by yourself.”

“It usually doesn’t end well facing Venom alone.” Spiderman said, “Mr. Stark always insists that I now call him up anytime I need to deal with him.”

Judai, can you hear me? Yugi’s voice came over the commlink.

“What is it Yugi-san?”

We spotted Venom. Three blocks east of your location and he’s heading your way fast.

“Got it!” Spiderman was on alert.

We’ll rendezvous as soon as we can. Please don’t do anything stupid please…Tony’s pleading voice came over the commlink.

“No promises…” Judai replied looking over to the direction that Venom was reported to be coming from. In the distance he could see a black figure coming towards them fast. He could see that the silhouette looked like a bulkier version of Spiderman but seemed to be having trouble keeping form.

That thing looks disgusting…. Yubel muttered.

“Looks like a sentient blob trying to copy you Spiderman.” Judai said.

“I guess he doesn’t have a host yet…which is why he’s gunning for me…” Spiderman gulped as Venom leaped for them.

“I’ve got your back!” Judai activated his duel disk and summoned Neos who punched the symbiote disrupting its form making it rain alien goop.

“It’s not going to be that easy…” Spiderman looked around wearingly as the blobs worked back towards each other.

“Neos! Keep the parts separated!” Judai ordered while he ran with Spiderman trying to keep distance between them and Venom jumping down the fire escape two steps at a time.

“Judai!” The brown-haired duelist looked up to see Yusei being dropped off by Tony carrying some equipment. “Mr. Stark has a plan to recapture Venom! Lure him to the nearby park so we can trap him!”

Spiderman seemed to recognize the equipment that Yusei is carrying, “Are those the high frequency disruptors?”

“Part of the plan,” Yusei explained, “Mr. Stark explain Venom’s weakness to me…” He handed Judai and Spiderman what looked like hand held cannons, “I can see you have Neos fighting Venom right now Judai but this is in case he tries attaching to anyone. Now get Neos to bring it to the park.”

“You heard him Neos!” Judai yelled out to his warrior. Neos gave a nod and began taunting the pieces of Venom into following him. The blobs let out a garbled shriek but took the bait. Spiderman grabbed Judai under the shoulders and began web slinging towards the park.

Yuma, Yuya, don’t take this wrong way but I need you two to stay back. Tony’s voice crackled over the commlink.

WHAT?! WHY?! Yuma screech nearly made everyone deaf.

Because dad said so!

“He admitted it finally!” Judai laughed.

W-What I meant was……that I don’t want Venom to be eating you two as a snack….Tony unconvincingly corrected himself.

You know they are going to get involved anyway. Yusei chimed in.

I think this is a proven point by now. Yugi chimed in next.

“Is this normal for you guys?” Spiderman asked Judai.

“Pretty much…” Judai shrugged, “I don’t think Tony is used to the fact that us kids saved our worlds a few times over, so we have little fear of anything.”

“I want to hear that story later.” Spiderman said as they touched down in the park with the Venom blobs hot on their tails.

“Can’t wait to test this out…” Judai grinned as he placed the Power Stone in the prototype gauntlet, the metal gaining a purple hue as it charged up with power. He ran towards the nearest blob and gave it a good punch turning the blob into something that had the consistency of black tar, but it did stop moving.

“Just do that again!” Spiderman cried out as tried to web down the incoming blobs. He spied Yusei setting up a perimeter with the equipment Mr. Stark had given him so he knew that he had to keep Venom’s attention away from him. Ironman himself had made an appearance himself blasting chunks of Venom with hypersonic frequencies. Overall, it was looking like they were having a handle on the situation. That is until Spiderman felt something shove him hard sending him flying across the park. When the world stopped spinning, he sat up and saw Judai trying to pull something black off his arm.

Black…on his arm….

Oh crap….

“MR. STARK! VENOM’S ON JUDAI!!!!!!” Spiderman yelled as loud as he could.

Within an instant, Ironman was on the scene trying to blast Venom off Judai. A task that was proving to be difficult as the other Venom blobs were darting for Judai and the glob that was on him was spreading fast.

“Get away Tony! I’M STARTING TO LOSE CONTROL!!!” Judai’s voice had already started distorting.

“Venom or Haou?” Ironman asked.

“BOTH!!!”

Spiderman had no idea what was going on but judging by the fact Mr. Stark immediately jumped back from Judai was a sign that it was not good. Wind started kicking up around Judai as he let out an inhumane growl and Spiderman could of sworn his eyes changed to a gold color.

“What’s going on!!!!” Yugi had arrived with the rest of the boys all looking shocked.

“Venom’s got Judai and it seems to be in an argument with that dark side of him you guys told me about.” Ironman explained, “Yusei’s almost done setting up the destabilizers and containment but we need to keep Vemon here and not hijack Judai’s body.”

“The Mind Stone trick is not going to work this time is it…” Yusaku glumly stated.

“Probably not…” Yugi frowned, “Yuma, can you do that fusion thing? You may need the extra protection.”

“Astral says if Yuya get set up the field we’ll be all set.” Yuma explained.

“I’ll add a barrier as well just in case…” Yuya focused on his gauntlet with the Reality Stone as a golden field surrounded the park.

Now Spiderman really had no idea what was going on. Even more so when it seemed that Yuma started glowing all sorts of colors and transformed into a really cool looking warrior with plated wings wielding two swords. He was so totally asking for details about that later.

“Yuma, you and I are on close combat!” Ironman started barking orders, “Yugi, Yuya, and Spiderman are on ranged attacks. Yusaku, you fall back with Yusei to make sure the equipment is ready to go on my signal!”

The team immediately acted on the orders. Spiderman watched as Yugi and Yuya used those cards they had to summon more things, a magician in purple armor and a red dragon attacking Judai/Venom when they could. Yuma and Ironman were keeping close slicing any stray bits of Venom that tried to attack or try to attach to a tree in hopes of escape. Spiderman himself was focusing on trapping any limbs that look close to striking anyone.

“Judai! Fight it off!” Yugi cried out.

“I’M TrYINg!!!! IT FeELS LIkE NaiLS IN MY heAD!!” Judai was switching between his own voice, an eerie echo of his own, and Venom’s voice.

“Hang on for one more minute!” Yusei yelled out, “We’re just about ready!”

Judai let out a growl that sounded like an okay and managed to get his uncover side of his body closer to the ground holding the Venom covered arm up.

“Everyone fall back!” Ironman yelled out as everyone got to a safe distance.

When everyone was clear, Yusei activated the sonic disruptors. The effect was instantaneous Venom shrieking, trying in vain to stay attached to Judai. The brown hair boy has having none of it. Judai’s golden eyes met Venom’s.

“If you do not wish to be disintegrated into sand…release me at once!”

With that, Venom finally released Judai. Yusaku immediately activated the containment field trapping the black blob.

Spiderman collapsed in relief; it was finally over.

Ironman helped Judai up and steadied him on his feet, “How did Venom even latch on to you?”

“It was gunning for Spiderman and I just shoved him out of the way.”

Spiderman was shocked, “You…you didn’t have to do that…I could have handled Venom.”

“You told me about your experience and trust me…I have personal experience and I’m sure you didn’t want to go through that again.” Judai just gave him a grin.

“B-But why?”

“It’s what we do for friends.” Was the reply.

“But we just met!”

“Get used to it,” Yugi said, “If Judai has named you a friend then you are a friend.”

“No point in fighting it.” Yusei added.

Spiderman decided to just roll with it. These guys seemed fun to hang out with anyway. It was tough being the youngest member of the Avengers. Finally, he had someone he can nerd with.

“Alright…I’m going to get Venom all bagged up and back into containment. You all head back to the tower and make Judai get looked over by medical. I am not in the mood for surprise side effects.” Tony said between a sigh and a groan.

“I’m sure I’ll be fine….” Judai said in a joking manner.

Tony just gave him a look, “You’ve got a superpowered, dark, alter ego in your head. I am not taking a chance that he picked up a thing or two from Venom”

Judai sighed in defeat, no point in arguing with Tony now.

“Don’t worry Mr. Stark, I’ll get him back to the tower and to medical,” Spiderman offered, “I’ll even web him to the bed if I need to!”

Tony grinned, “I knew I can count on you kid, we’ll catch up as soon as we’re done here.”

Spiderman gave a salute, scooped up Judai before he could make any sort of protest, and immediately began web slinging back to the tower.

“Do we really have to travel this way!?” Judai yelled over the wind.

“But it’s the route with the best views!”

“If you’re right side up! You’ve got me over your shoulders like a sack of potatoes!”

“It will just be a few minutes and I’ll keep you company while you get checked out by the doctor. Maybe you can show me that card game you were playing.”

That immediately brightened Judai’s mood, “You bet!”

#infinity stones au #yugioh #avengers #gx #5ds #zexal #arcv #arc v #vrains #yugi mouto #judai yuki #yusei fudo #yuma tsukumo #yuya sakaki #yusaku fujiki #tony stark #ironm #peter parker #spiderman #venom

[deejadabbles]

Crime and Consequence (Atem x Reader) Chapter Three

Three: The Namesake

One //// Two //// Three //// Four //// [Five coming soon]

Summary: Years have passed since Atem's crimes came to light. Years have passed, but in some cases the wounds of that time were still fresh. Despite that, however, you've done your best to rebuild your life for you...and for your son. So, when Atem's crimes come back to hurt you and your boy, how will you survive and protect what little you have left?

Years have passed since Atem last saw you. Years have passed, and he had never been able to meet his son. Despite that, Atem carried on with his life, as limited and meaningless as it was, locked away for his crimes. So, when a threat is made against the only ones he still holds dear, how will he defend the love of his life and his boy?

(Modern, season 0 inspired AU. Contains some disturbing themes, depictions of violence, cursing/vulgar language, and sexual content.)

A.N. At first I intended for this chapter to cover something completely different, for it to just jump into the action, but then I got caught up in some of the emotions I imagined for this series and...yeah. So, it'll be another chapter until things start heating up, I'm sorry lol. I guess it also doesn't help that I keep thinking of more stuff I want to add to this series, even though I intended it to be kinda short at first *shrug emoji* Anyway, hopefully you guys still like this chapter!

A fit of coughing brought you out of your stupor, eyes snapping open and darting to the man walking beside you. Yes, walking, you had been half asleep but still managed to walk down the street with your son and surrogate grandfather.

Sugoroku’s face turned pink before his coughing died down, and he took a sharp intake of breath as you rubbed his back in comfort.

“Have you been taking your medicine?” you asked gently, and the old man offered you a small smile.

“Every morning and evening. Don’t worry about me, my dear.”

That was impossible. Even without your innate compassion, one of the things that made you a good nurse, this man had been invaluable to you in the past years, a life preserver that had kept you and your son afloat; how could you not worry about someone you cared so much for?

“I’m going to send you some instructions on breathing exercises that might help, since your doctor didn’t seem to bother giving them to you.”

Again with that reassuring smile, Sugoroku patted your hand with affection, “It pays to have a nurse in the family when you’re this old,” he laughed at his own joke and looked ahead again, though the sidewalk was hardly crowded.

The tiny fingers around your other hand tightened and you looked down at Yugi, who was giving his great-grandfather a concerned look with his soft lavender eyes. When you gave him a gentle nudge, he looked up at you and seemed to ease with the assuring smile you gave him.

“Don’t worry, grandpa!” Yugi said, that bright expression on his face, the one that could warm even the most dour of moods. “We’ll be there soon and then you can sit down and take a nap!”

You and Sugoroku chuckled at that, “Hey now, I may be old but I don’t need a nap after every walk!” After a moment his eyes darted up to you, likely taking in the dark circles that seemed to be a constant accessory of your face. “Besides, I’m thinking that you’re needing a nap more than me.”

You only answered with a shrug. Sure, visiting friends after a ten-hour shift might take its toll, but you’d be damned if you gave up this time with the people you considered family.

Barely a minute later the three of you finally reached your destination and rang the doorbell to Mai and Jonouchi’s apartment. A loud call to ‘come on in’ answered from inside and your trio were greeted by half a dozen people a moment later.

As you had expected, Honda elbowed Duke out of the and crouched low, extending his arms to Yugi, “Come give your favorite uncle a hug!” he said, though was immediately toppled over by Jonouchi, donning an apron.

“As if! If anyone’s getting a hug first, it’s me!”

This was a typical routine at these get-togethers, everyone doting on little Yugi and making a friendly game of claiming they were the little one’s favorite. You had to stifle an outright guffaw as both men’s hopes came crashing when Anzu, always one to take matters into her own hands, simply stepped up and scooped a happily squealing Yugi into her arms.

“I’m the one who’s been on tour for three months, so I get the first hug!” she declared before planting a kiss on Yugi’s cheek and earning tiny arms flung around her neck in an embrace.

As Yugi went on about how much he missed his Auntie Anzu, both Honda and Jonouchi muttered their annoyance. Anzu also took the time to give you and Sugoroku hugs, though never let the little guy go. Only when everyone wandered back to their seats and Jonouchi was dragged back into the kitchen by his sister did Anzu finally set Yugi down, promising him that if he was patient, she would give him a present she had bought him while on tour.

The look she cast your way after the words silently told you that she was wanting to talk to you about something too. So, after Yugi proudly stated that he would be good and patient as long as it took to get his present, you gently told him to go sit on the couch with Ryou and Mai so you could have a more private word with your old friend.

“How’ve you been?” she asked, eyes darkening just a bit with worry.

Much like you had with Sugoroku, you shrugged, “About the same as usual, I guess.”

Anzu nodded, “Jonouchi told me what happened with that yuppy school, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay, we’ll figure something out, we always do.” When you smiled to reassure her, she smiled back before waving you over to the chair set you two usually sat in.

“I cleaned out an old storage unit before I left on tour, and I found something that I wanted to give out to everyone, just didn’t have a chance to before I left.” From her purse, she withdrew a framed picture. She gave it a look over, something warm and affectionate, but still somber crossing her eyes before she handed it to you. “I found it in an old school binder, it's better than most of the pictures from then.”

Your eyes went wide the moment they fell on the photo, and your chest gave a small ache that was bittersweet. You, Jonouchi, Honda, Anzu, and the first Yugi, the man you had considered a brother, all smiled back from the picture. All of you were young and awkward-looking, preteens about to enter high school, pulling silly faces at the camera and hanging on to each other with youthful giddiness. It wasn’t a surprise when your eyes focused mostly on the friend who had been taken from you just three short years after the photo was captured. Yugi was blushing slightly, squished between you and Anzu with Jonouchi leaning on his back, but his smile was so bright and happy- elated that he got to share this moment with good and dear friends.

“Thank you, Anzu,” you said, and looked up at her with genuine gratitude, “I have a few pictures like this, but, not enough.”

The woman nodded, a look of understanding answering you, “Yeah, none of us have enough.”

A moment later, Anzu was distracted by Mai, who was telling her to back her up with a light argument that had started between her and Honda. When she got up to assist, it left you to look down at the picture a few moments longer, letting yourself get lost in old memories. The background was Yugi’s old room, a setting all of you remembered well, trading cards and stacks of video games littering the floor behind you.

However, the longer you looked, the more you realized that the photo may have been taken just days- perhaps even the same day, that you had met Atem.

“No way!” Jonouchi scoffed, eyes narrowing at Anzu.

The brunette simply crossed her arms in defiance, “Yes way, pay up, jerk face!”

You laughed, loving the nearly scandalized look on said ‘jerk face’s’ face. “She beat you fair and square, you better pay up.”

“Come on, dude, be a man and just admit defeat,” Honda yawned, obviously eager to get his turn on the Nintendo console next.

Jou turned to face Yugi, who was trying and failing to hide his amusement at the situation. “Yug, back me up here, she cheated!”

“Excuse me!?” Anzu yelled, making the blonde jump and wince.

Yugi didn’t hide his laughter that time and, in the moment of Jou’s distraction, he threw you a knowing wink. “She didn’t cheat, Jonouchi, she just played the game,” he assured.

“And ripped your head off in the process,” you laughed, admiring the words ‘fatality’ flashing across the screen.

Finally, Jou conceded and handed over the crumpled dollar bills Anzu had won in her Mortal Kombat victory. You might have felt sympathy for your male friend, considering you and Anzu had both improved your skills by battling Yugi, the practical master of the game, over the weekend. But, considering Jounouchi had said something about girls never being able to beat his skills, you didn’t feel bad at all.

In fact, you challenged him next and said that if you beat him in the first round, he’d have to bow before you and Anzu and acknowledge you as video game queens. Always a prideful young man, he had of course accepted.

Halfway through the battle, Yugi excused himself, promising to come back with snacks, much to everyone’s delight. Not two minutes later the bet was settled. You won, of course, also decapitating Jonouchi’s character with the final move you had practiced over and over again with Yugi.

After you and an equally smirking Anzu took a moment to tease the bowing Jounouchi, you noticed that Yugi hadn’t come back yet and instantly hopped up to go help him.

After padding into the kitchen you saw that Yugi was rummaging through the fridge, back turned and unsuspecting to your presence. A smirk crossed your face as a childish idea came to mind. With careful steps, you crept closer to the unwitting Yugi and the moment you were close enough, you threw your arms around his back in a bear hug.

“You wouldn't believe the look on his face when I beat him, it was priceless!” you cheered as you tried to lift him up.

It was then that you took notice to Yugi being...quite a bit taller than you remembered. A confused noise left him, followed by a stuttered something that might have been ‘excuse me?’ and it caused you to pull back and look up (up!) at his face.

Heat flooded your cheeks when you were met by a pair of eyes that were similar to, but very different from your cute, shy friend. His whole face looked a bit more mature, again he was taller, and he was looking back at you with complete shock.

“Oh!” You instantly released him and jumped back as if burned. “I’m so sorry! I thought you were Yugi!”

The red-faced boy blinked at you as you tried to smooth over the scene with an awkward laugh, and thankfully, a moment later, he gave his own shy smile. “It’s okay, people confuse us a lot.”

“You must be Atem,” you hurried on, desperate to dissipate the lingering awkwardness, “Yugi talks about you all the time.”

Indeed he did. Yugi’s brother was two years his senior, and Yugi had been hoping to introduce you and the others to him for some time. Yugi always said that his brother was typically busy studying, usually at the library when any of you came over and the book bag slung on the counter supported that. With the way Yugi went on about his big brother, you honestly had started to envision him as some sort of dashing hero straight out of an anime.

Of course, when Atem’s shy smile turned to more of a knowing smirk, that vision didn’t exactly prove false. Oh dang, he was really cute!

“Yes, I’m Atem, and you must be one of the friends my brother raves about, he’s been hoping for us to meet. So, are you Anzu or-”

You interrupted him with your name, practically yelling it, and the moment the introduction left your lips you cringed, almost wanting to curl up in a ball of shame for the awkward terribleness of your action. The heck was wrong with you?!

Clearing your throat you repeated your name, much more calmly and evenly that time, and willfully ignored the burning sensation across your cheeks.

Thankfully, Atem seemed to be every bit the gentleman Yugi painted him to be, because he only gave a lighthearted chuckle at your awkwardness, then nodded his head, that smirk turning more warm as he said, “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you.”

He stared at you a moment, then opened his mouth to say something more, only to be interrupted by a cheerful voice. “Atem, you’re home!” When you both turned, you saw Yugi coming down the hallway, practically beaming at you both. “And you’ve already met one of the gang!”

“I have. I’m glad I’ve finally come home early enough to meet your friends,” Atem said, eyes shifting back to you and lingering, “I hope we can become friends too.”

You smiled back at him, “Don’t worry, if you’re half as cool as Yugi, I’m sure me and the others are going to love you!” you made sure to flash Yugi a wink, wanting to giggle at how he instantly turned red at the compliment.

Electing to ignore your words, Yugi stepped into the kitchen and started pulling chips from the cupboard. “Come on, help me pick out some snacks and you can come play video games with us, Atem.”

The older brother, who was smirking again, obliged by nodding his head and turning back to the fridge. A few moments later he drew back with some dip and canned drinks, to which you instantly jumped in to help carry.

“So, you’re in Yugi’s class, right?” Atem asked as the three of you turned towards the hallway and started back to Yugi’s room. “That means you’ll be starting at Domino High in just a few months?”

You nodded, “Yup! First year of high school, pretty exciting! I’m glad all of us are going to the same school, it’d suck to find awesome friends just to go to separate schools later.”

Something in Atem’s gaze seemed to soften a bit, and a brief question passed your mind, wondering (maybe even hoping?) if he was already becoming fond of you.

“Well, if you- or if any of Yugi’s friends need help getting used to the school when you start, please, don’t hesitate to ask me.”

Again some warmth crept onto your face. Maybe it was just the allure of a ‘mature high school boy’ being so nice to you (ridiculous, considering he was barely two years older than you) but this Atem boy was already seeming to have an..interesting affect on you.

“I- yeah, sure thing!”

A sudden voice made you jump in your seat and your head snapped around up, gaze tearing away from the photo to meet a pair of green eyes. Duke was leaning against the back of your chair, looking down at you with that trademark almost soft, almost flirty look on his face.

“Sorry- uh, what’d you say?” you asked, trying to recollect yourself.

“The picture, I said I was hoping to find out that Honda used to wear braces of something,” he flicked a finger to the photo still clutched tightly in your hand, but the joke fell flat on your now melancholy mood.

Still, you managed to smile at him and joke as well, “Nope, just the general awkwardness of the teenage years.”

He snerked at that, but his eyes narrowed, possibly sensing the cover-up. Though Duke (like Ryou and Mai) had joined your close-knit friend group later, in high school, he too knew what it had been like to lose Yugi; to go through that tragedy. But he also knew that it had hit you particularly hard.

“You okay?” he asked, voice lowering so only you could hear, “You look exhausted. Beautiful, as always, but exhausted.”

Another concerned friend. Another who wanted to help, but, though you were endlessly thankful for the support, truth be told there wasn’t really much they could do. So again, you shrugged.

“Just long hours at work, as usual. I’ll be okay when tomorrow comes round.”

“You still go to the park with the little guy on your days off?” Duke asked and you nodded in answer.

Only when the weather turned bad did you not go, and even on those days you made sure to make time to spend with Yugi. It was hard to keep up with him some days, even given your own young age, but he needed to know that you were there for him. That he would never be ignored or pushed aside, despite how tirelessly you had to work.

“Speaking of our favorite kiddo,” Duke began in your silence, taking the chair beside you with a graceful plop, “there was something I wanted to ask you.” He looked you in the eyes, as if asking permission, and when you nodded he went on. “So, there’s this gaming convention going on in New York in a couple months, I’m going so I can promote my new game and...I wanted to ask if you wanted to come.”

Despite your eyes going a bit wide at the suggestion, Duke hurried on, though always keeping that cool and calm air of his.

“I just thought it’d be good, for you and Yugi. You haven’t been able to take a proper vacation in years, and you deserve- need a break. I can book the hotel for a few extra days after the con, and we can do all sorts of stuff in the city. And don’t worry, I can cover all the expenses, all you and Yugi have to do is come.”

You were speechless, struck dumb by the bold proposal. You weren’t oblivious, you had always suspected that Duke’s high school crush on you never completely faded. He was always offering his help, always showing that he was good with Yugi, maybe even subtly hinting that he didn’t mind the role of stepfather. Still, he never crossed too many lines and had never done something quite this...forward. Though you guessed he wasn’t actually implying any romantic motives.

Instead of becoming nervous over your silence, Duke’s smile just softened a bit, perhaps slightly disappointed, but not outright annoyed or even discouraged. “No pressure, I just wanted to make the offer. You and Yugi deserve some fun and I saw a good opportunity for it. You can think about it as long as you need, just, promise me you will think about it?”

For a moment, you only answered him with more stunned silence, but after a second to recover, you closed your eyes and nodded. “Thank you, Duke, I promise I’ll think about it.”

Some hope returned to that smile, and he nodded in turn. He might have said more on the matter, but a call of “Mommy!” drew your attention. A second later Yugi was climbing into your lap with the grace of a newborn fawn, waving an odd-looking box around.

“Mom, lookie what Antie Anzu gave me! Isn’t it awesome?”

“Really, you had to give it to him right before dinner?” Jonouchi griped as he stepped out of the kitchen, casting a vexed look at a proud Anzu while drying his hands off on his apron.

The blonde acting like an annoyed grandma actually made you laugh. “Don’t worry, Jonouchi, he can play with it while I make his plate, then he can put it away until he’s done eating.”

At the compromise, one that Yugi didn’t seem to object too (he had always loved his Uncle Jou’s cooking, after all), the man sighed and waved everyone into the kitchen. “Alrighty then, come on, all, dinner’s served!”

Atem worked with swift and methodical hands. The very little that he had in his cell, all of it was being implemented in the plan that his mind had laid out in minutes, and refined over these past two days. The lighter he had stolen from Ushio was tucked in his sleeve, and all the numerous fan letters he had received in his imprisonment were laid out before him.

Fan letters, Atem didn’t particularly care for the term, but that’s what they were.

Letters from people who had their loved ones taken from them by the vermin Atem wiped from the world. From survivors who still struggled from what was done to them, but slept at least a fraction more soundly knowing Atem had rid the streets of their abusers. Then still others from people who simply thought he was a hero, a dark avenging angel, like Batman or the Punisher.

Over the years he had been thankful for the letters because they helped him keep his mind, stuck in this isolating hole, and now they would help him save his family. Anything could become a weapon in the hands of someone who was determined or desperate enough.

And Atem had both in spades.

For instance, fold enough pieces of paper in the right shape a certain number of times, and they became as sturdy and reliable as a metal ice pick. Well, sort of. He could get one, maybe two if he was quick, fatal injuries out of it before the blood soaked through and made it a limp, useless mess. But he didn’t intend to need it for anything more than that, so this would do just fine.

He mused as he worked, wondering if his admirers who thought he was some righteous knight would think it fitting or honorable to have their letters used against criminals. Used so he could have a chance at stopping drug peddling filth from laying hands on his loved ones.

The only things that were left untouched in his cell, were the four pictures he treasured, your letters, and the few letters his grandfather had sent him.

His grandfather, yet another person he had betrayed, another person burdened by Atem’s sins. Atem had been surprised when his grandpa contacted him, and even more surprised by what that letter said. In essence, he had said that as a man, he wished Atem had never started his bloody mission, but, as a brokenhearted grandfather who had to bury his too gentle and too young grandson, he understood and forgave Atem’s actions. “I won’t pretend I didn’t feel a sick sense of justice when that beast was found dead,” Sugoroku had written, “Not after what he did to my, to our Yugi.”

He had also promised to take care of you and the child you were carrying as much as he could, and Atem felt at least the sparks of happiness knowing he hadn’t left you completely alone. Not that the solace lasted long in this pit that swallowed hope and humanity like a ravenous dog, but still, it helped. “She had to move out of the apartment, too many people leaving death threats on her door and throwing rocks through the windows, but she’s okay. She’ll live with me for now, and hopefully this old man can still take care of a baby while she’s at work and such. Don’t worry, Atem, we’ll be okay.”

Unfortunately, in order to maintain a distance from Atem that was important to his, yours, and Yugi’s future, his grandfather’s correspondence were even more infrequent than yours. But, at least the man who had been more a father to him than his birth father kept him informed on your well being; something you had always omitted from your own letter, always only talking about Yugi. “She works too hard,” grandpa’s last letter from over two years ago had said, “I tried to get her to stay here, with me, but she has this idea that her and Yugi are a burden on me, and wants to be more independent now that Yugi’s a little older. At least she still lets me watch him several times a week, but I still worry. You can tell she wants to give that boy the whole world, always making him laugh and smile, spoiling him as much as she can. You picked a good one, Atem.”

The updates were always bittersweet, simultaneously leaving Atem with a sour taste in his mouth but an elated lightness in his chest. The words connected him to you, made him able to feel like he was still a part of your life, at least by proxy, much like your letters about Yugi did. But, at the same time, they made regret and anger and even some palpable self-loathing coarse through him like poison.

At least with this, this daring plan and mission to protect you, at least with this he might prevent any more harm from being done.

Atem examined his weapons; three simple picks, methodically made and more than enough for his plan. He tucked them up his sleeve with the lighter, folding the cuffs just right to hide them. He still had some time before the guards came to escort him outside, for his minimal privilege of sunlight.

With that time Atem pulled out the things he treasured even above yours and grandpa’s letters; his pictures. The first, the one of his newborn son wrapped in the softest purple blanket. The second, a picture of his boy on his second birthday, icing all over his face, smile wide, and bright with youthful glee as he presented his still wrapped present to the camera. The third, also of his son, excited eyes wide and held in the arms of his great-grandpa as the old man presented him with a deck of trading cards; it was the one you had sent with your last letter, almost a year ago.

The final one was the only picture Sugoroku had sent Atem. It wasn’t one of his son, but rather, of himself and the boy his son was named after. A younger, happier, perhaps more stable, version of Atem smiled a small smile at the camera, holding his diploma in one hand, while the other was wrapped around his little brother’s shoulder, said brother side hugging him back and beamed with pride. Sugoroku had said he made a copy, knowing Atem would treasure having a picture of the first Yugi, and the old man was all too right.

Atem stared at the picture now, eyes locked on the large round ones of his little brother, the boy he had wanted to protect and champion for- the boy he had failed. He had failed to do what big brothers should always do. When Yugi needed him most, Atem hadn’t been there to save him.

It hurt. Gods damn him, did it still hurt. But at least in this picture, in this captured moment before the beginning to his end, he could remember a happier time. A happier him.

“My boy’s growing up too fast!” Sugoroku cried after snapping the picture of his grandsons, wiping a fake tear away with a dramatic sigh.

The two boys exchanged a look that bordered eye-rolls as they parted from the hug, but Yugi’s beaming grin was back in an instant. “Come on, time to let everyone else embarrass you with congratulations!” he said, taking the diploma from Atem’s hands and setting it safely on the kitchen counter.

Yugi practically dragged Atem into the living room, where all those gathered cheered and clapped the moment they entered. Atem scanned the room, noting that everyone in ‘the gang’ was there, which made him smile. Unfortunately, the only other ones in the room were a couple of neighbors who had always liked the Mutou family. One key player was missing, not that Atem had expected any better.

“He said that he couldn't make it back from Tokyo in time,” Yugi whispered to him, noticing the way Atem’s eye’s searched. Yes, couldn’t, so wouldn't bother coming home at all, most likely. Honestly, their father could be the poster boy for ‘absent parent of the year’.

Still, Atem made himself push the tendrils of disappointment aside and patted Yugi on the back. At least everyone else important to him was there, and Atem would make sure that was enough.

Yugi was determined to do the same, apparently, because he quickly began ushering Atem into the room while the rest of the gang stood up to greet him more intimately. It was only after Jonouchi gave his arm a light punch, and Anzu gave him a hug, that Atem took notice of something else his little brother might be scheming. Especially when Yugi practically shoved him in your direction, saying that the seat beside you was reserved just for him.

Atem felt his mind go blank when he locked eyes with you, especially with that sweet, beaming, and very (very) cute smile on your face. “I’m so happy for you!” you said and put your arms around him in a loose hug.

Still faltering, something he had never really experienced until you, Atem could only answer with a short thank you and an awkward pat on your back. When you sat back down and urged him to take the seat next to you, Atem didn’t waste the chance to shoot a narrowed look at his little brother.

Yugi only grinned back at him knowingly and passed out drinks to the other guests as if he hadn’t done anything. Always one to be in-tune with the emotions of others (especially his big brother), Yugi had noticed when Atem’s feelings for you started to shift passed friendship, likely before even Atem himself had known. It was true that Atem was fond of you...more fond than he had been of anyone before; you made his chest warm, and his heart accelerate. You drew him in without even trying, with your voice or smile alone. You made him unsure of himself, made him flounder in a way he had never experienced before. He was certain that he was falling quite deeply in love with you.

But, there was little he could do, and nothing he would do about those feelings. You were still in high school, and now that he was of age, a legal man entering adulthood, it felt wrong to have those feelings for you, and he refused to do anything that even had the possibility of taking advantage of you. And of course, not only did it feel wrong, but it was also now technically illegal to do much of anything about his feelings. Besides wallow in them and silently suffer, of course.

Despite telling Yugi all of that, the boy was still determined to “test the boundaries” and “lay the groundworks” for the day that Atem was able and willing to do something about his feelings. To Atem, the acts were equal parts annoying, and endearing. Part of him hated that he was forced to confront his feelings for you when Yugi meddled, feelings that made his mind muddled and his chest ache. But still, another part of him appreciated Yugi’s attempts, appreciated that he had this...excuse to get closer to you, to revel in the way you made him feel, even if it was only for a moment before he made himself pull away.

Like now, for instance. You were sitting close to him, completely unaware that the warmth of your body spilling onto him and the subtle scent of your perfume was practically making him dizzy- yet still, he delighted in it. He delighted in the way you made him feel, barely resisting the urge to reach out and touch your hand or arm, to test the waters and see if you might reciprocate. But he did resist the urge. For now at least. Maybe in a couple of years, when it didn’t feel wrong, he would see if you had similar feelings for him. Until then he would wait patiently, focus on his next steps in life and let you enjoy your last teenage years unbridled by his strong affection for you.

He just hoped, selfishly, very selfishly, that you didn’t get a boyfriend in that time.

“I’m sorry your dad didn’t show up.”

The sudden words of comfort were accompanied by a friendly shoulder bump from you and Atem nearly jumped, having been so lost in his own mind. Still, he caught the words, and they made the speed of his heart pick up again.

When he didn’t answer at first, you furrowed your brow, “Sorry, I just noticed you seemed a bit distracted, I thought that was why.”

“Oh- y-yes,” he started suddenly and awkwardly. God he prayed that if he ever was able to do something about his feelings, he wasn’t so cringe-worthy. Hopefully if that day ever came, he would be able to sweep you off your feet and properly charm you. At least for now he was able to clear his throat and regain his composure. “Thank you. It’s disappointing, I guess, but,” he looked around him, at his friends, his family, and smiled, “at least everyone else important to me is here.”

His gaze had returned to you at the last second, lingered on you, hoping to silently convey that you meant so much to him. Perhaps not exactly, how much you meant to him, but hopefully enough to know that regardless of his romantic feelings, he was still thankful for your friendship.

You must have received at least some of what he was trying to convey, because the soft, precious, touched expression that crossed your face and reached your eyes was profound.

You reached out and gave his hand a brief, but too welcomed squeeze, “We’ll always be here for you, Atem.”

There he went again, drawn in and practically mesmerized by you. All he could do was stare back, lost in your eyes and likely looking like a dumbfounded fool. Thankfully he was snapped out of his reverie by a flash, though realizing said flash was just made him want to blush.

Both of you turned to see Yugi with their grandfather’s camera, and he was peering over the top of it with a very pleased smile on his face. “Just taking pictures for the family albums!”

Anzu, who was standing behind Yugi, giggled at the comment and when Atem looked away upon feeling a certain heat creeping onto his cheeks, Yugi snapped yet another picture.

“Yugi,” you tried to scold, though it was marred by your own chuckle.

“Okay okay, I’m done,” the boy replied and indeed turned away to spare his beloved big brother further embarrassment.

Of course, said embarrassment became rather worthwhile, since he got to hear you laugh, and when you turned back to Atem with that humored smile on your face, he knew he didn’t care at all about the pictures.

In that moment, with your eyes on him, surrounded by his loved ones, he dared say that he was one of the luckiest men in Domino.

Atem, sitting alone in his pathetic, isolating cell, felt something sour crawling up his throat at the memory. Yugi was always there, always encouraging and supporting him, making him stronger and kinder. And, in a way, his little brother had given him the love of his life, too. Yugi had been the reason he met you, why he befriended you, and even the reason why he hadn’t pushed his stronger affection for you aside completely. His brother had given him so much and yet…

“I’m sorry, Yugi,” he whispered to the smiling picture.

Drawing in a calming breath, Atem let himself wallow in the sorrow for a moment, just a moment, before pushing it back to the recesses of his mind.

Atem then tucked the pictures into his jumpsuit, securing them within the orange fabric so there was no risk of losing them in the chaos he was about to unleash. Not a moment too soon either, because he heard the guards approaching his cell a second later. Atem stood, lighter and picks ready to use at a second’s notice, pictures tucked away safely on his person as the door to his cell opened. He was ready.

He may not have been able to save his brother, but he would be damned if these bars prevented him from saving you and his son.

#atem x reader #yami x reader #Atem #yami yugi #yugioh x reader #yu-gi-oh reader insert #ygo #series: crime and consequence

[yamithediaperdork]

Joey and the baby shop (Yu-Gi-Oh)

Tristen sighed a little as he went into back 2 the crib, his favorite new shop in town. it catered to daddies and mommies and big babies and while Tristen wasn't a mommy or baby, he was the very proud baby of a game shop owner who was spending this weekend flying out and explaining to his board of directors why he'd been seen in public in a tiger themed onsie with the crotch snaps staining from a clearly used diaper. (Ironically Tristen had told duke that the little waddle outside during the day was a bad idea but the little guy had been SO fucking cute pleading he wanted to show off..) However this meant that Tristen had no one to baby this weekend, a thought that left him gloomy. Still he could always browse around the shop and use Duke's credit card to get the little brat a few things. He was heading for the back wall where the uber thick diapers were held. unlike most of the noticeably thick adult diapers, these ones practically bragged they were like wearing a pillow. Super pricey but if you wanted to feel totally helpless it was the best. since Normally Tristen preferred that duke have a little bit of mobility he didn't get these often but he figured they might help the little guy decide to stay inside for awhile when he got back. The last thing he expected to see though as he got there was a familiar blond biting his lip and looking over the different designs. and holding a large adult pacifier in his one hand that was blue and had 'mute button' on the mouth guard. Though many would of expected it to be Yugi that Tristen was seeing, it was in fact his best buddy JOEY! "ah man..I dunno if I want the dog bone ones or the dragons one!" he was whining softly, not realizing that Tristen was of course behind him now. "If you want MY advice..I'd go with the dog bones. more fitting." Tristen said, grinning ear to ear as Joey twirled around and looked at him, going bright red in the face. "T-TRISTEN!"

Joey had been saving up for months for this. truthfully he'd been the first to laugh at and make fun of duke when Tristen had shown the little diaper baby off, but truthfully he'd just been so jealous he could almost barley see! he'd rushed into the shop to see what they had and had fallen in love with the sight and idea of the waddlers..but their price meant that even after saving up this long, he'd be on a ramen noodle diet for the next two weeks. He figured with Duke heading out of town his daddy would of gone with him and that THIS was the time to come in and get his diapies and a paci.. and now. "I..I..I thought you were with Duke!" Joey said, almost worried his hair was going to catch fire with how hot his blush was. "well I was going to, but he said it might be better if I stayed behind. I think the real question is..I thought you said this big baby stuff was, and i quote 'For little losers who can't get it up so they have to shit themselves.' " Tristen asked, folding his arms across his chest. "Well uh..see..the thing about that.." Joey fumbled for a excuse and then out of the corner of his eye spotted a container of baby powder and dropping his paci he grabbed it and squeezed with both hands. His intent was to blind Tristen, grab the diapers and paci, and then pay at the front and run home. However despite how hard he pressed, nothing happened and Tristen just reached over and tugged it from his hands. "It's sealed so that big babies like YOU don't make a mess in the store." Tristen explained with a smirk. "Now how about you pick up your paci, come with unca Tristen so we get a shopping cart." "I Uh..I.." Joey whined and then poked to fingers together, feeling his bladder getting fuller and weaker by the second. "I..I don't have enough money to really go all out soo-" "Did I say we'd be spending YOUR money? it's clear this is your first full on dive into second babyhood and -I- for one am not going to let my best friend half ass it. now be a good boy and pick up your paci, then hold my hand." Tristen said. getting lightheaded, Joey nodded numbly and bent down, picking up the dropped paci and then standing up..and holding out his hand. "Good boy~"

Tristen chuckled at how fast Joey slipped into little guy mode in his head. he didn't wanna give the little guy a reason to dart out by laughing too much as they got one of the large shopping carts and without asking Joey if he wanted to, picked up the blond and stuck him in the baby seat on the front of it. (Naturally the shops baby seats were meant for well, bigger babies and Joey fit with ease even as he looked around wildly, sure that everyone they knew would be there suddenly.) As Joey started to squirm in a fashion that Tristen knew very well he laughed a little out loud. "I think before we do too much shopping maybe we should get Lil Joey to the little boys room." Tristen said. "I uh..Yes unca." Joey said, his voice going softer then normal even as he fidgeted around. 'heh..I'm starting to wonder if it's all tough guys wanna be babied or if it's just a aura I give off.' Tristen thought, trying to take the shortest route to the customer bathrooms as Joey rocked back and forth now, a clerk giving them a knowing smile and speaking into a walkie talkie. "get prepped for wetting accident, by the waddlers." the clerk said low enough that Tristen heard it as he was expecting it, but Joey missed it. as they got close to the bathroom's there there was a maintenance sign up, they were closed to be cleaned. "uh..think you can hold it buddy?" Tristen asked. a second later as Joey let out a sob and a smelly mini waterfall happened he had his answer. "Guess not."

Joey tried to stop his sobbing as he totally pissed his pants. the last time he'd wet himself like this when he'd gotten home his dad had beat his ass, and now he half expected Tristen to do the same. at the very least he knew the employees in the store HAD to be mad at him but as Tristen lifted him out but grabbing him under the arm pits..the clerk just chuckled and smiled. one of them opened up the paci that had been in the cart in popped it in Joey's mouth, and despite himself he found himself nursing away on it even as the tears still flowed down his cheeks. "So, got anther cutie huh.. you wanna grab a pack of diapers and go and change him?" one of the clerks asked. Joey was standing on his feet now, rubbing a eye and sniffling and holding onto Tristen hand as he spoke. "Yeah, grab me a pack of the dragon waddlers. you know I'm good for it, and er.. while I'm in there can you get me a different cart for wittle joey here?" he asked. "heh, of course." Joey blinked and the tears slowed, Tristen wasn't REALLY gonna put him in one of those MASSIVE diapies right here in the store was he? how would he hide it!? he tried to voice his concerns but since no one spoke pacifier his pleas fell on deaf ears as they were led to the employee bathroom with unca Tristen carrying his..HIS diapers in one hand by the strap and holding Joey's hand with the other.

Tristen felt bad for the little guy, the first public accident was always the worst and he KNEW what a bastard Joey's dad was. that just meant that he'd have to be extra sweet and nice to Joey though as he got him into the employee bathroom that Tristen was amused to note had a adult baby changing station in it. 'Knew some of these guys were wearing!' he thought. tugging Joey's wet jeans off, Tristen just tossed them in the trash even as Joey whined behind his paci. "I'll buy you more big boy clothes to make up for it, they're soaked, smelly, and were coming apart anyways." Tristen said. Joey huffed but diaper argue anymore as his undies were removed too, along with his socks and sneakers. "Before you huff, i can get you sneakers here. they'll be a little childish but no one will think twice if you say you just got them on sale." Tristen said. he'd of tossed out Joey's shirt if he thought he could of gotten away with it, but Joey seemed to of read his mind and got a death grip on it, trying to glare at him even as he nursed loudly on his paci. 'I wonder if he knows just how silly a death glare looks like this.' Tristen wondered then just got him up on the changing station. it was supplied with wipes and powder and Tristen made sure to get Joey nice and clean, pausing though to hold up a very brown stained wipe when he'd been wiping Joey's cheeks. "I think some silly little man needs to learn to wipe better." he teased and tickled Joey's tummy, making the rapidly going full on little boy giggle and coo behind his paci as he squirmed around. Joey wasn't shaved but Tristen didn't have the means to handle that at the moment, though made a note he'd have to shave him when he got him home, and finally took out one of the diapers from the pack. it was about the thickness of two pillows and was white with cartoon versions of duel monster dragons all over it, acting goofy and Tristen noted that Joey's whining and squirming had stopped as he looked eyes on the diaper, listening to the crinkles as Tristen unfolded it. it was then that something very very cute happened. even as Joey was having the stiffie reaction most big babies had, he reached out with his hand, opening and closing them in the universal baby/toddler sign of 'me want!' "hehehe lift your bum up for Unca little guy." Tristen said. not even DUKE had been this fucking cute during his first diapering (and if memory served he'd given Tristen a black eye flailing about) and Joey was just a good widdle boy and lifted his hips up as high as he could, looking at Tristen and wordlessly asking if that was high enough. Tristen responded by getting the thick diaper under Joey's butt and then counting him with a fair amount of baby powder, rubbing some of it in and making Joey drool and moan around his paci, his feet curling. "You're a good boy Joey. a super good little boy. Unca Tristen doesn't care about your accidents, he just wants you to be happy." Tristen coo'ed. it was apparently more then Joey could take and with a muffled moan the silly little baby started to make a mess, though Tristen tugged the diaper up and caught it. "Good boy Joey. such a good..little boy." Tristen coo'ed. Joey grinned behind his paci, though his eye lids were drooping. Tristen decided it might be better to just pay for some of the stuff here and now, and he'd bring Joey back tomorrow. Tugging the sleepy guy up into his arms, and a arm under Joey's massively thick butt, he planted a kiss on Joey's forehead. "so, are the diapers just as awesome as you pictured?" Tristen asked. Joey gave a sleep nod when wrapped his legs and arms around Tristen as best he could and rested his head on the bigger boys shoulder, quickly falling asleep. '...Ok fuck being his Unca..when duke gets back he has a new little brother.' was all Tristen could think as he headed out of the bathroom. the end