Title: Double Trick
Author: Nina/technicolornina
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh!
Pairing/Characters: Forlornshipping (Pegasus/Pandora).
Word Count: 3 732
Story Rating: R/M for sexual situations.
Story Summary: Pegasus duels Pandora. Twice. Pandora has to pay up.
Warnings: Do blowjobs take a warning?
Notes: Written for the YGO kinkmeme (requester reveal by permission): forlornshipping with light bondage and roleplay. Euro coins have a globe and denomination on one side, and the symbol of the country where they were struck on the other. That's why Pandora says "globe or country" instead of "heads or tails." People who toss euros may also say "heads or tails," but being from America, I have no idea which side would be which. Second, I know these duels are totally broken. I plead author's license (why yes, Pandora did summon a whole bunch of monsters in one turn, blame the writing staff. On second thought, don't). On a related note, Pandora's Black Magicians and Black Magician Girls are all different colours so they can be told apart and given separate orders, the oxymoron of a red or blue "Black" Magician (or a purple one, for that matter) notwithstanding.
Feedback: There may be something out there that's better than a review containing concrit, but if there is, I haven't found it yet. So if you have two minutes and you wouldn't mind? Please? Arigatou. (And concrit is cool. Flames are not.)
Special Thanks/Dedications: This story is for Sailor Twilight Assassin, my awesome aibou, who requested this over on the kinkmeme on LJ. Also, special thanks to the folk on PTDC who helped me with card names/effects for Pandora (most of Pegasus' are still pulled right out of my ass, but since he totally cheated and created his own deck anyway . . . )
TRICK: n. 1) A crafty or underhanded device, maneuver, stratagem, or the like, intended to deceive or cheat; artifice; ruse; wile. 8) a feat of magic or legerdemain. 9) a behavioral peculiarity; trait; habit; mannerism. 11) Cards. a. the group or set of cards played and won in one round. b. a point or scoring unit. c. a card that is a potential winner. 13) Slang. a. a prostitute's customer. b. a sexual act between a prostitute and a customer.
"I play a second Black Magician in attack mode!"
Pandora slid the card into his duel disk. The second Black Magician appeared on the field. The pair of Magicians nodded at each other. Pandora looked at the cards still in his hand and ended his turn. Pegasus chuckled. Pandora eyed the bastard warily, taking some small comfort from being able to eye him without having to turn his head to one side to do it.
"Two facedown and Toon Dragon in defense mode," Pegasus said, and played. "End turn."
Pandora eyed the Toon Dragon snorting and stamping in a not particularly threatening way on Pegasus' side of the field, then cast a glance at the facedown cards. They could be anything. He didn't want to risk tripping a trap - or something else. Toon Dragon, though ridiculous-looking, had an 1100 ATK that doubled to 2200 when equipped with any one of four different cards. Pandora thought about what might happen if one of those cards was already on the table. He thought he knew.
He had, after long search, located Mutou Yuugi's Black Magician Girl, but she had yet to turn up in his hand. He was loath to use her as a decoy - his duel with Yuugi had shown him just how dangerous that could be - but. He already had one Black Magician in the graveyard. If he could just draw her from his deck, even if Pegasus did find a way to take out one of his still-standing Magicians, he could get rid of the Toon Dragon and not have to worry about Pegasus' facedown cards. He considered, discarded two, and drew.
And there she was, sitting right on the edge of his hand. Sometimes Pandora wondered if the boy had been onto something with all his heart-of-the-cards talk.
"End turn."
Pegasus chuckled and laid down. "I play Hand Discard."
Pandora's eyes widened. He didn't think anybody else had seen it - Pegasus was quick - but he had. That bastard. That lying, slimy, two-faced -
"Then I switch Toon Dragon into attack mode, and next . . . " Pegasus flipped a card. Shit. He'd had Dragon Charmer on the field the whole time. Then he flipped the other card, and Pandora forgot all about losing the Black Magician Girl. Shadow of Eyes. Shit!
It was a two-turn kill. Pandora's Life Point counter spun down to zero. A cheer went up from the assembled crowd.
The creator of the game would win the tournament, of course, Pandora thought bitterly. The hole where his enchanted Eye had been was long ago sewn up, its magic gone, but he'd still had a trick up his sleeve. Literally.
It was as the last of the spectators drifted out of the arena that Pandora grabbed Pegasus' arm. "You." Catherine had teased him, in the days when "Pandora" had been just a stage name, that even in his sleep he laughed. He wasn't laughing now.
"You cheated."
Pegasus had the nerve to look offended. "I did no such thing."
Pandora fingered the edge of his deck. He hadn't wanted to replace the Black Magician cards that Yuugi had used to teach him a very important lesson, but they were clearly no longer tournament-permissible. To compensate for the damage he'd done and make them acceptable once again, he'd invested in a set of card protectors and one of the new duel disks that would read through them. Back on the straight and narrow was Pandora, and like many reformed cheaters, the idea that others could still benefit from being unscrupulous pained him greatly.
"I saw you. You had Hand Discard under your wristwatch. Your title is forfeit, Mr. Crawford. If you hadn't cheated I would have won in the next move."
"'If' and 'would have' aren't a victory," the bastard said. "And don't call me that."
"Excuse me. Pegasus," Pandora mocked. "Great creator of Duel Monsters, the card game you can't win without palming cards into your hand. I'm tempted to inform the duelmaster."
"You wouldn't be able to prove a thing." Pandora loathed the airy tone in the man's voice.
"If you won fairly, you won't have anything against a rematch, now would you?"
Pegasus turned away. Pandora squeezed his wrist. There was a tense pause.
"I see no reason to - "
"Rematch. Or I alert the duelmaster now."
"And when you lose?"
"You'll be the one losing. Your new title, among other things."
"Ah." Pegasus raised an eyebrow. "A wager. I see." He paused. "I accept. But when you lose . . . " He trailed off.
"I expect you'll be the one losing, without your little tricks." It was a mistake on Pandora's part to not force Pegasus to finish his sentence before beginning the game, but long-term planning had never been Pandora's specialty. He passed his deck to Pegasus, received a deck in return. They cut, shuffled, passed back, loaded up. Then Pandora stopped.
"Your jacket."
"Mmm?"
"Your jacket. Take it off." Pegasus looked ready to say something indecent. Pandora cut him off. "I want to be able to see your wrists. You're dueling a magician, don't forget. I know all about palm-wells."
Pegasus sighed theatrically and unstrapped his duel disk. "You really ought to learn to trust people, Pandora."
"I trust people when I haven't just seen them cheat their way to a seminational championship."
"I didn't cheat."
"Keep telling yourself that."
Pegasus stripped off his jacket, laid it on a convenient chair, and rolled up his shirtsleeves. Then he raised his single good eyebrow in Pandora's direction. After a moment's thought, Pandora pulled off his own blazer. Right. He'd said it himself, hadn't he? Yes. He knew all about palm-wells. His personal favourite - every magician had one - had always been the spot on his belt just to the right of his back trousers pocket, but he'd done a few cuff-palms in his time. Of course, if he'd been in a cheating mood it wouldn't have mattered a bit if his wrists were exposed. That was half the fun, wasn't it? "Watch closely, ladies and gentlemen, as I show there's nothing up my sleeves!" Right. And pigs could fly. A really good magician didn't need his wrists covered to do a cuff-palm, and Pandora liked to think that was what he'd been.
They strapped their disks back in place. There were rules to determine who went first, but Pandora had other ideas.
"I'll toss you for it."
Pegasus nodded and dipped his hand to his pocket. Pandora shook his head and pulled a coin of his own. "I'll toss. If you haven't noticed yet, I don't trust you. Globe or country?"
Pegasus held his hand out for the coin. Pandora flicked it across the field - it was a perfectly normal euro, no good reason to not let him see it and satisfy himself. Pegasus passed the coin back, and Pandora laid it on his curled finger. He raised an expectant eyebrow.
"Globe."
Pandora flicked the coin. It spun and flickered in the light from the arena. He caught it and slapped it down on the back of his hand.
"Country," he said, and displayed the coin. Pegasus nodded at it.
"Lucky coin?"
"The luckiest." He had obtained it during a show when everything had gone wrong during the final escape - and yet against all odds he'd made it out completely unscathed. The show that had destroyed his face was the first one in two years that hadn't seen the coin tucked somewhere in his clothes. It hadn't left his pocket from that day forward. Pandora palmed the coin, slid it back into his trousers pocket, and drew a hand. "Draw."
Pegasus did. Pandora looked down at his hand and had to fight a gape. Two Black Magicians, a Black Magician Girl, and the Sword of Dark Destruction - all in a single draw. It could only have been better if the other two cards had been the third Magician and another equipment card. He wondered vaguely if he'd suffered a fatal coronary, and this was just some weird death fantasy. Or maybe Pegasus was just the worst shuffler in the history of cards. It didn't matter. He summoned the three spellcasters in his hand, played the Sword as a facedown, and ended his turn. His next draw convinced him that Pegasus had somehow rigged his deck - the other two Black Magician Girls and his third Magician were among his four new cards. Maybe Pegasus was waiting for him to summon a whole field full of monsters before playing some card with added ATK per monster on the field.
"I summon Toon Dragon and Toon Cyclops in defense mode, and play one facedown card. End turn."
Pandora eyed the facedown card. It had to be a trap. Had to be. Except - wasn't that just some serious psychological warfare? He considered.
"I summon the Black Magician Girl." Pandora summoned his second and third little apprentice girls, these two green and pink instead of blue. He was sure Pegasus had to be playing at something - had to be - and he intended to hold his third Magician in reserve for as long as he could.
Four more rapid-fire turns convinced him his let's-just-keep-the-Magician-in-hand strategy wasn't going to work. Pandora had a small army of Magicians; Pegasus had one of cartoons. Neither of them had actually attacked. Pandora had used his turn to lay traps and equipment cards. Pegasus had summoned monster after monster to the field. Pandora quickly added up the defense points of Pegasus' monsters in his head. Then he decided it was time. Pegasus had only two facedown cards on the field, and Pandora had shuffled well. He equipped one of his Magicians with the Sword of Dark Destruction, and the other with Knight's Title - if all else failed he would at least have a monster that was not vulnerable to spellcaster-only traps.
"Red Black Magician! Attack Toon Cyclops."
"Oh, but wait!" Pegasus held up a theatrical hand. "You've activated my trap card."
No!
The trap was one Pandora had never seen before, and he suspected it was another of those ridiculous cards only Pegasus owned.
"And with Transmation . . . "
The attacking Black Magician was blown backward. The tiny hologram - no longer looking quite so lifelike - looked in disbelief at his sword, and then held it up, as if for Pandora's scrutiny. The blade was distinctly bent, and wavered as the Magician moved it.
Pegasus had turned the Magician into a cartoon.
"But that makes no sense!" Pandora protested. "If your monsters are all Toons - "
"Ah, but this trap has special properties," the bastard said, his infuriating smug grin firmly back in place. "All currently summoned monsters equipped with weapons will find, I'm afraid, that their weapons react exactly as they would in cartoons when Transmation is on the table." He paused just long enough for Pandora to reflect that Pegasus clearly couldn't be talking about weapons from Japanese cartoons. "Also, ATK is cut by half."
Pandora stared in disbelief. This had to be one of Pegasus' rigged cards. It was just about then that the futility of his initial furious bet came back to him. No matter. He had two Black Magicians still - ATK cut to 1250, true, but he was sure to find a way around that - and three unequipped Black Magician Girls. If he could find a way to combine their powers - but that, that would involve deliberately killing off both of his powerful spellcasters, and deliberately finding and sacrificing the third -
"And now, I think, it's my turn. I summon the Toon Mage, play Suspended Animation and a facedown card, and pay half my Life Points to turn it into a general spell."
Pandora stared in horror as the five spellcasters on his side of the field sat down and, to all appearances, fell asleep. How long did the card last? Was there any way around it? Given that the bastard had been willing to give up half his Life Points to play it, Pandora's guess was "no." He looked down at his already-summoned monsters. The green Black Magician Girl appeared to be sucking her thumb.
"So what else can this amazing card of yours do?" he asked, not entirely able to keep the bitterness out of his voice. Pegasus' monsters would still not be able to attack any monsters with a DEF higher than their own ATK, but Pandora was unable to attack. Unless . . .
"I think it's obvious what it does, don't you?"
"It's plain that the monsters on my half of the field have been rendered unconscious," Pandora agreed. "You haven't said if that's the only effect." He didn't want to come right out and ask the question he wanted an answer to. Pegasus made another of those infuriating faces.
"All currently summoned monsters are put into a state of suspended animation and unable to attack as long as both this card and my own spellcaster are on the table," Pegasus answered. Pandora fingered the edge of one of his cards. That was all right, then. Toon Mage had only 1800 DEF.
"I summon the third Black Magician and attack Toon Mage."
Pegasus held up his hand. Pandora's lips thinned.
He must be joking!
"You've triggered my trap." He flipped up a card. "I trust you're familiar with what it does."
Fantastic, Pandora thought. The deck was rigged. He'd set it up for this duel. Had to have. Pandora was now the proud possessor of three sleeping Black Magician Girls, two equally unconscious Black Magicians, and his last monster had just been chained to a crucifix. He drew anyway - had he, perhaps, slipped another card in here he'd forgotten about entirely, an eleventh-hour monster just in case all else failed?
Nothing came.
"End turn."
Pegasus considered his own hand. "I equip Toon Mage with the Book of Spells and attack the Black Magician."
Pandora restrained himself from swearing. Toon Mage on its own was fairly innocuous against a spellcaster deck, but with the Book of Spells its ATK was just enough to -
"End turn."
Pandora took his first Black Magician and the Sword of Dark Destruction and put them in the Graveyard. He drew.
Still nothing. Not even a trap he could play.
"End turn."
"Toon Mage. Attack Red Black Magician."
Pandora watched the numbers on his counter spin down to zero. The end, when it came, had been fast. Pandora stared in disbelief. Then he swept up his cards, slid his deck together, pulled off his duel disk.
"And now, I think, it's time for me to collect."
"What?" Yes. I lost. Is it really necessary for you to be a bastard about it?
Pandora stumbled. Pegasus was known for being eccentric at best, but even he rarely tried to drag people around by their wrists. Pandora wished he knew where Pegasus was taking him. He had a split-second vision of Pegasus cutting his throat with his own card protector and shook his head to clear it.
"Here."
Pandora looked around himself to confirm that yes, they were in a preduel anteroom. What they were doing there was entirely beyond him. A pair of long-fingered hands settled on his mask, and he jerked away.
"I think not."
"Ah, but I won, did I not?"
Pandora brought his hands up to cover his face as the mask was torn away. He felt less naked in his underwear than he did with his scars showing in the light.
"You needn't worry. I won't look. It's only just I fear you'll find it quite in the way."
"In the way of what?" Pandora hated the way his voice wavered, was muffled by the heels of his hands. The hands landed on his shoulders and pressed.
Absolutely not.
"Come, Pandora. You did agree to an indefinite wager, after all."
Yes. Yes, he had, that was true. And a real gentleman always paid his debts, no matter how distasteful. He went to his knees as Pegasus sat. One thing these antechambers never seemed to lack was furniture. Pegasus reached for Pandora's tie. Pandora considered swatting him away - if there was one thing he absolutely hated, it was being undressed against his consent - and didn't. Even if Pegasus decided to look down, there would be a head of hair blocking his view of Pandora's heavily scarred neck.
He continued to refrain from protest as Pegasus used the length of fabric to tie his hands behind him, but he drew the line when Pegasus reached for his shirt.
"No."
He expected Pegasus to ignore him, and took a breath to scream with in case the eventuality came up - if the bastard wanted a blowjob, he would get a blowjob, but he wasn't going to have a laugh at Pandora's expense - but the fingers touching the topmost button first paused, and then withdrew. Pandora watched impassively, head still tilted down to hide his face from view, as the fingers worked a different series of fasteners instead. Then he inched his way forward. He had little doubt Pegasus would catch his shoulders if he fell - even if he decided to sit and do nothing Pandora could at least aim to land against a knee - but he thought he'd rather spare himself the embarrassment.
Pegasus let out a long sigh. Pandora wished his hands were free. He had nothing against being tied up, he just had something against being put in a position where his balance was chancy at best. He sucked and licked and considered, in that weird way that had become his defense against situations he hadn't wanted to get into, how different this was from making love to a woman. One of those long-fingered hands worked its way into his hair and stroked his head. Pandora closed his eyes. The movement was indulgent, langorous, the kind of thing he associated with rich women and fluffy cats, but it took some of the sting out of the spicy-salt flavour on his tongue that was nothing like any woman in the world, and the texture of skin that was most definitely not of the feminine variety.
The fingers touched his forehead. Then Pegasus' entire body jerked in surprise. Pandora offered an apologetic lick. He hadn't meant to bite - he was good for his debts. He just wasn't used to people touching that part of him anymore. It hadn't happened in years. The hand on his face paused. Pandora returned to his former ministrations, and the fingers on the hand mapped out the scars on his forehead, some of them extending back into his hair, the angry red weal that had only just spared his right eye, the melted part of his ear that hid behind a protrusion from his mask. He expected it, now, and didn't let it startle him. The scars had stopped being painful several years before, and the gentle touch induced a kind of thoughtless trance Pandora embraced. He just barely avoided biting again when Pegasus found the very bottom edge of the scars - the thin strip of skin that had burned but not scarred had become devilishly ticklish when it healed. There was another half-awkward pause, as if anything could be more awkward than sitting here with the man's cock in his mouth, and then Pegasus' fingers left the skin there and trailed down the side of Pandora's neck. Pandora kept his eyes turned away. If there was laughter in Pegasus' mostly-untouched face, he didn't want to see it.
It was in that touch-induced trance that he swallowed, and then sat. His hands were untied. He brought them up to cover his face again. Pegasus sat down behind him and pulled Pandora into his arms.
"I'm not gay."
"I know that, love."
"Don't call me that."
"All right."
There was a long silence. Then -
"If you wanted a blowjob, you could have just asked."
"That's not what I wanted." A very short pause, and when Pegasus' voice came again, there was a hint of bawdy mischief in it. "But why turn down fringe benefits when you can get them?" A longer pause, and his voice gentled again. "I knew you'd see it."
"Then what did you do it for?"
One of the long-fingered hands slipped beneath Pandora's own. He tried to pull away, but Pegasus' other arm was across his chest and he had nowhere to go.
"Because I keep telling you, and you keep not believing me. You can trust me."
"No."
"No?"
"In case you can't tell yet, I don't trust you. I think we just had this discussion."
"We did." The arm holding him against Pegasus' chest loosened. A hand caressed Pandora's shoulder. "Someday, perhaps."
"Don't count on it."
A pair of lips pressed themselves to his neck. He knew instinctively that if he looked down he would see Pegasus' single good eye carefully closed - that if he'd followed the man's progress it would have been shut before Pandora's neck ever came into his line of sight. Pegasus was nothing if not a man of his word, and he had promised more than once that he would never look, not until Pandora said yes. Pandora tried to ignore the feeling that came of knowing they'd likely not cross paths again for weeks. It meant nothing, really - they were simply both damaged products who'd gone looking for whatever they could get.
He would have said he didn't believe if Pegasus had told him he was the best still living, but the heart of any magician belonged also to a liar - for what was magic but misdirection, misdirection and pretense? - and like all liars, Pandora had a built-in bullshit detector. His heart knew what his brain was still not entirely ready to accept, and it would have recognised the truth in Pegasus' words.
And so he didn't protest when Pegasus' mouth traced up from his neck to his lips, and kissed his bare cheek; did not protest when a gentle, curious hand slid beneath the hem of his shirt to trace his skin.
And did not protest when Pegasus pulled him gently down onto the floor, to rest.