Two Halves of a Whole – Chapter 1
It was another typical day. Sunny. Summer. Hot. Humid. Sticky. Maybe it wasn't so usual. Or the fact that Yugi was inside his gameshop, where it was nice and cool, unaffected by the aridness of the day outside. So it seemed like any other usual day to him at least.
Yugi was sitting at the counter on a stool, cross legged, casually dressed in a black tank top, tight black shorts, sandals, and of course, his signature chains. His nails were a shade of dark purple – that of the Dark Magician. He always wondered why people looked at him funny about his nails. Well, they no longer looked at him too funny anymore. They used too. He sighed as he looked up from the Duel Monsters catalogue he was flipping through.
So much had happened in the past five years. Yugi slowly closed his eyes and leaned back on his stool, up against the wall behind him. He thought about all of the events that had occurred. Everything was a blur. It was too much. It couldn't have been possible that five years had already passed?
One of the first major shockers was Mokuba's transition. It honestly didn't surprise Yugi that much back in the day. Mokuba had always seemed to have that feminine touch to him, more caring, but not quite in that boy-ish way. Sure, Yugi was similar to Mokuba back when he was his age...but not quite like that. It was a difficult trait to describe, it had no descriptors attached to it, no nothing, it was simply an air, an aura that enveloped him.
It was one of those rare times in which Kaiba would entrust Yugi with such information. Yugi was one of the first to know the full story – once it got out it spread like wildfire. However, Kaiba described to Yugi those years ago some of the pains the brothers went through – the secrecy, intimidation, the emotions of it all. Yugi chuckled to himself. 'A rare moment of emotion for Kaiba,' Yugi thought. What a treat. But according to that tale Mokuba hid her true identity from her brother, to avoid the rejection. She was his only family, how could she do that to him? 'Hmm, pronouns,' Yugi thought again. That was another thing to get used to – a change in pronouns from 'he' to 'her' – it was too sudden, Yugi had always known Mokuba as a 'he.' It was still difficult to refer to her as a 'her.' She still wore boy clothes of course. Yugi wondered why though, he thought the siblings had gotten over their differences. 'Or have they...' Yugi questioned.
It brought him to another moment in time. Something not as significant of course, and really wasn't that surprising. Ryou Bakura decided to 'come out,' to everyone. When Ryou finally decided to tell everyone, he was so nervous, trembling to the bone, shivering with pure fear. But he got the response of, 'we already knew.' Yugi thought that perhaps Ryou felt a mix of relief and anger. Relief that nobody seemed to care, yet at the same time, anger that nobody seemed to care. And that everybody, 'already knew.'
Yugi smiled. Ryou's coming out had only brought Yugi himself to come out...to himself. After seeing how Ryou was still treated the same, how it was ok, Yugi decided to explore his own curiosities about the same sex. It was a new experience for him, but after dating Tea for a while nothing ever seemed complete. Something was missing very much. He cared for her, but he felt that perhaps he had given in to the demands of society. Long story short, he realized he was gay, came out, and never dated women again. He had been single ever since.
Yugi moved away from this pain (it had been how long – 2 or 3 years? He couldn't remember. It was all a big blur) and moved on to happier memories. He remembered Serenity went to Canada for a while to study at University on an exchange program of sorts. She came back with a girlfriend. It was quite obvious Serenity was a lesbian of course, she never took interest in Duke or Tristan. Yugi chuckled at the memory of how the two boys reacted to this new 'girlfriend.' A mix of relief, shock, and depression.
Serenity's girlfriend's name was Miriam Rosen. A sweet, Canadian girl, short in nature, slightly heavier than the rest (but not fat by any means), bouncy curly brown-gold hair, stunning hazel eyes with pale skin. She had a very bubbly personality, open arms and willing to try anything new. Except boys. Both were positively repulsed by males. Well, it was an over exaggeration, but it got the point across.
The final piece to the puzzle was the return of Marik Ishtar. He decided to come back. Yugi wasn't sure with all the explicit details about his return but it boiled down to him hooking up with Ryou, and the two of them living happily ever since.
It struck Yugi as odd as to how many of his friends turned out to be homosexual. It was weird, it was queer, and he loved it. He supposed that young people tend to congregate together based off of certain personalities and other common interests...perhaps homosexuality was a theme amongst his friends and they all sought each other out unknowingly. It was odd how that worked out. He often wondered about his other friends and their orientation – Joey in particular. Ever since he had done that drag performance back in high school he always wondered...
The door jingled. Yugi opened his eyes and returned to sitting in a "normal" position on the stool. Not leaned up against the wall but flat on the ground. He still kept his legs crossed, arms now coming to a rest on the counter so he could lean forward to greet the guests into his shop.
"Hey Yugi!" It was Miriam. Serenity was wrapped around her arm, smiling brightly. Yugi enjoyed visits from Miriam and Serenity, they were always so sweet and pleasant to be around, unlike some people. "Why hello girls," Yugi responded, grinning back. "What can I do for you two today?"
"We want to introduce you to somebody!" Miriam jumped back pulling Serenity along with her, to allow the tall figure to walk up to the counter to meet Yugi. Yugi hadn't noticed this person walk in. And he wondered why? Was he that distracted today? He had almost dozed off earlier, however the figure standing in front of him was tall.
Almost too tall, in fact.
He found himself looking at this tall, slim figure of slightly tan complexion with a brunette hair arranged in a familiar way. The outfit seemed off, but Yugi paid no attention now to that. After scouring the slim, tall body (who's hand was on his hip, and hip slightly skewed to the side), he found his gaze resting upon sapphire eyes.
Yugi chuckled. "Miriam, are you trying to pull something here? I already know Kaiba, honestly. I am impressed though that you managed to talk him into doing something like this, I mean he's not an easy fellow to deal with..."
"I'm not Kaiba!" the Kaiba look-a-like said in a voice identical to the real Kaiba's. "My name is Isaac! Isaac Rosenbloom, and it's a pleasure to meet you," he said as he extended his hand for a warm handshake with Yugi.