Legal Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of Yu-Gi-Oh GX. They will be returned at the end of the fanfic in their original condition.
Title: Easier To Beg
Romance: Subtle Manjoume x Juudai
Notes: This takes place in early season two of Yu-Gi-Oh GX, between episodes 56 and 57. This was written for the 15pairings challenge on Livejournal and I will be writing nine more fanfics for that challenge.
Manjoume Jun had discovered one major problem that came with having one favored suit to wear, day in and day out. That problem was that when he finally gave in and let it be washed, he had almost nothing else to wear. Since he did this perhaps once every three months, it usually wasn't a problem he had to worry about. He just put his gym clothes on and waited for the laundry to be delivered.
Then he would usually remember that he wasn't in Obelisk anymore and he had to actually go pick it up for himself.
Tonight, as far as he was concerned, was starting off to be wonderful. He'd already finished all of his assignments, and so had decided to relax in the spa he'd had built for himself. Granted, Asuka lived in that room now, but she was busy doing homework in the library with Momoe and Junko, which meant she'd be out until close to curfew. There were few people who took their studies quite as seriously as she did, after all.
He fantasized about her a little as he soaked in the hot water. Of course, Manjoume tended to fantasize about her a lot of the time anyway. He considered himself lucky that the Ojama Trio didn't suddenly pop up and want to know what he was thinking of. That would've killed all the romance of the evening, even if it was just in his own mind to start with.
And the more he thought, the more his mind began to drift over towards the more annoying of his two roommates. Kenzan was minorly tolerable, though in Manjoume's opinion the use of a bit more deodorant couldn't hurt. But Juudai…Juudai…Yuuki Juudai. Manjoume had fantasies about Juudai too. But unlike the ones with Asuka, these tended to be of the type where he had Juudai by the throat and shook him until his head popped off.
What irked him the most was that Juudai was so damned likeable. Everyone else thought he was just the most cheerful and happy person in the entire world and flocked to him. Even Kenzan did, and he hadn't been at the Academy for a good two months yet! It made Manjoume want to kill him if he could. Unfortunately, that wouldn't look too good on his school record, and if he could avoid killing his brothers, who he hated ever so much more than he hated Juudai, he could handle this.
He glanced at the clock on the wall and sighed. He was going to have to get out of the water and head back to the dorm. Curfew was a little closer than he liked, and he was going to have to hurry a bit to make sure he was out of there before Asuka came back.
All he had to put on at the moment was his housecoat, but that didn't bother him. It was a warm evening, and he wouldn't be the only person who strolled around in one of these after it got dark. Though this housecoat was as tattered in its own way as his black uniform was. He hadn't bothered getting a new one recently, since shopping wasn't his forte, and the hem was falling down, one sleeve was ripped slightly, and he suspected that Juudai had dripped some sauce on it from his ever-present fried shrimp at some point, and had fruitlessly attempted to get all of it off.
At any rate, it would still cover him until he got back to the dorm and could put his gym suit on. That wasn't the best outfit he had either. It was almost amusing. Someone who could buy and sell most of the people on this island, and he had three items of clothing to his name, other than some socks and underwear.
Of course he could have bought anything that he wanted, any time that he wanted. His brothers had no control over his money, despite his young age. Their parents had set it up that way, and he was grateful to them for it. It wasn't that he couldn't. He just never got around to it. There were always duels to be had, lessons to be studied, tests to take, fantasies about strangling Juudai to enjoy. It was someone else's job to get him clothes, not his. And if they did try to send him something, it wouldn't be what he wanted to wear, so he wouldn't bother in the first place.
It was very difficult to be Manjoume Jun, after all. That was why he didn't let anyone else but himself be him.
Putting on the housecoat, he looked for his slippers next, and groaned when he saw one of them a few feet away, being merrily chewed on by a squirrel. A squirrel. A squirrel. Manjoume was suddenly and completely convinced that the pleasant evening was about to take a nightmare turn into something he didn't want to think about.
"We can really stay?" That was Junko's voice! Manjoume stiffened suddenly when Asuka replied, confirming that they could. He wanted to hit himself, then snatched up his other slipper and ran out of the back door as quickly as he could get his feet to move. He was too far away to hear if Asuka and her friends had noticed him, and that was all to the good as far as he was concerned.
He almost cursed the fact that he'd put his personal room and spa on the opposite side of Osiris Red from Juudai's dorm. His dorm now too. He'd done it on purpose, to avoid having to be around the far too perky brunet. But now it was a pain to have to work his way back there. At least going the back way lessened most chances for him to be seen with one slipper. That would get people asking him questions that he did not feel like answering. How could you explain that you'd lost your other one to a rodent? How could he, Manjoume Thunder, explain that?
So, it would be better for all concerned if he didn't have to explain it at all. If Juudai even asked, he would find something that would shut him up. Any nonsense would do. He might even tell him the truth. It wasn't as if Juudai were bright enough to realize it had actually happened.
On the other hand, he wasn't entirely unsure that Juudai wouldn't tell everyone else.
He stalked into the dorm, and the first thought that crossed his mind was gratitude that Kenzan didn't appear to have come back yet. The second was annoyance that Juudai was there, his cards spread out on the floor before him. There was a fuzzy winged thing near Juudai, but Manjoume refused to look at it too closely, for fear that Hane Kuriboh's presence would stir up his own three monstrosities. He had other things to do anyway.
"Hey, Manjoume," Juudai waved a bit, and Manjoume noticed at once that he was wearing a gym outfit as well. Good, that meant that finally Juudai had sent his own imposing load of dirty clothes off to the laundry to be taken care of. Manjoume had been concerned that the pile was going to acquire sentience the next time a lightning storm passed over the island and possibly go on some kind of mad clothing rampage.
That might've sounded strange to anyone who hadn't lived through their first year, so Manjoume didn't bother to question his sanity. He'd long since accepted that he didn't have any left.
He said nothing at all to Juudai as he headed towards the small dresser that held his only other set of decent clothes. At least Juudai would be too interested in whatever he was doing to or with his deck to notice him changing.
However, when he yanked open his drawer and looked inside to seen nothing but emptiness and a candy bar wrapper looking back at him, he growled furiously. "Juudai. Where's my gym suit?" He had no intentions of wearing his birthday suit to bed, much less this housecoat.
Juudai grinned over at him, that far too cheesy and painful grin. "Oh, I'm wearing it." He patted at it a little, and Manjoume wanted to swear even more for not having noticed it. They were close to the same size, but just different enough in body shape so Manjoume's was tight here and loose there on Juudai. "All of mine are at the laundry, and I didn't think that you'd mind."
Manjoume couldn't comprehend what he had just heard. He was no dunce by a long shot, but he just could not have heard that correctly. This evening had started out all but perfectly with a hot bath and some wonderful fantasies, even with the slipper stealing squirrel and the girls coming near enough for him to have heard them. Those were, or had been, just minor annoyances that he could've lived with.
But…Juudai had stolen his gym clothes. The only thing he had to wear except this ragged coat that he kind of wanted to get replaced as soon as he could. Maybe he could shop online. But that would be something he could work on after he got his stolen property back from Juudai.
"Give them back." Manjoume took three steps and stood in front of Juudai, glaring down at him. He was good at glaring. Juudai didn't appear to have noticed, since he was looking back at his cards. "Juudai, you idiot, give me my clothes back!"
Juudai looked up then. "If I did that, I'd be naked! All of my other clothes are in the laundry!"
"Not my problem. Those are mine, you didn't ask me, and I want them back!" Manjoume grabbed for the shirt and managed to get a good grip on it, shaking Juudai a little. "So hand it over before I have to rip it off of you!" How could this little idiot have gotten into his drawer and he hadn't noticed it? So what if he'd been on the other side of the building? That was his drawer and he should've known! Curse those Ojamas. They weren't good for anything. They couldn't even tell him when someone was taking his possessions! Useless little scrubs!
Juudai's hands closed over Manjoume's and he tried to get him to loosen his grip. "Come on! You've got that coat! I don't have anything!"
"Like I said, not my problem!" Manjoume growled. That wasn't even the point! The point was that Juudai had taken something of his and hadn't asked about it, and he wanted it back!
Juudai thrashed even more as Manjoume started to yank harder, determined to at least get the shirt off, if nothing else. His feet kicked out, flailing, and one of them connected with Manjoume's knee, sending it buckling to the side. Manjoume slipped, jerking on the shirt even as he did, and found that Juudai was falling forward even as he was falling to the side. He crashed to the floor, hearing the ripping of fabric as he did, and groaned to himself. That was his gym shirt. He was absolutely positive of it.
He was even more positive of something else a second or two later: Juudai's eyes were very big and very wide and very strange to stare at up close. And they were up close right now. They'd ended up on the floor, Manjoume on his back, Juudai on top of him, his knees pressing against Manjoume's knees.
The shirt was ripped, too. Manjoume, however, barely noticed it as his hands fell away from Juudai to scramble fruitlessly at the floor. He couldn't get any kind of a grip on it and Juudai appeared to be too frozen in shock to move himself off at the moment. Manjoume wasn't really having that much luck, either. He wanted to smack himself. Or Juudai. Or someone. He didn't know.
"Whoa!" That was Kenzan. Manjoume managed to drag his attention away from those oddly fascinating eyes to stare over at the door. The burly first year stared as if he'd never seen anything this interesting since the days of the dinosaurs. "Are you two doing the…"
Before he could finish that, Manjoume shoved Juudai off of himself and jumped to his feet. "No. We aren't doing anything and I don't want to hear the rest of that sentence, ever."
He marched out of the door, wincing as he heard Kenzan asking Juudai which one of them might possibly lay the eggs. He is joking. I refuse to believe otherwise. He pushed all the rest of it out of his head as he stalked to the Obelisk Blue dorm. He should've done this to start with, really. There was only one person there who would give him a hand, let alone just let him inside.
Of course, when he heard Fubuki's jokes about how Manjoume had wanted Juudai out of his clothes, he almost wished he hadn't bothered.
The End