Begging gets you everywhere. This started out as a one shot, but enough people begged me to continue it that I started to wonder how I would continue it, and suddenly I have a fully fleshed plot and outline for continuing this. So yeah.
Edited a bit from the original tumblr version for story purposes. Yu-Gi-Oh is not mine… yet.
"Jonouchi, wai… Jonouchi, wait up!" Yugi called, laughing as he took step after stumbling step down the sidewalk. He didn't know if Jonouchi could hear him, or if his friend was even ahead of him at all. They had definitely been walking home together, but then someone had distracted him… a boy… or was it a girl? That didn't make any sense, did it? Anyway, they'd kissed. It had been nice.
Stopping, Yugi ran a clumsy hand over his mouth, swaying slightly. In the back of his mind was a voice telling him that he should probably get home before he did anything really dumb, but the Game Shop was a long walk away, and he was pretty sure that the cash he'd saved to pay for a cab had disappeared at some point in the night. Shots were stupid expensive, and Jonouchi could drink a lot of shots. So could Yugi, actually. What was he doing?
"Jonouchi's house," Yugi mumbled, shambling forward once more with a loopy grin and humming the notes to Happy Birthday with each step he took. Jonouchi's apartment was nearby, and that apartment had a couch. That's why he was following him before. What a funny thing to forget. Wow, it was hot. He squirmed uncomfortably, pausing in his journey to struggle with his shirt. Why was it so hot at night?
Yugi managed to make it all the way to Jonouchi's apartment without falling once, though there were a few stumbles that he didn't think counted. Draping himself against the door, Yugi jiggled the handle. It was locked.
"Jo-NOU-chiiii," he whined, sliding to the ground in a pouting heap. "Let me in. Just b'cause it's Anzu's birthday doesn't mean you can… can…" He trailed off, his eyes sliding shut. This was a pretty good place to sleep, actually. Maybe he could just…
No. No, Jonouchi had locked him out which meant… which meant that he didn't want him getting in. So it was like a game, right? Jonouchi had tried to keep him out, which meant that Yugi had to get in to win.
Heaving himself up with a groan, Yugi blinked several times, forcing himself to think. The door was obviously locked, but… but Jonouchi's apartment was on the first floor. And he had a window.
"Bingo."
With this goal in mind, Yugi rounded the corner of the apartment building, wading through the bushes growing up against the wall in search of a good entry point. There. A small window, almost too high for Yugi to reach, and it was propped open.
"Too easy," he said with a smirk, scrabbling at the edge of the window with his fingers and yanking himself up. The opening was too small for most people to fit through—probably why it had been left open—but Yugi wasn't "most people." It was a squeeze, but he fit through neatly. What wasn't so neat was his painful thud of a landing.
"Owwwww…" he moaned, staring up at the darkened room. The temptation to close his eyes and pass out there was almost overwhelming, but… but he wouldn't really win unless he made it to the sofa. Jonouchi was being a jerk and wanted him to sleep on the ground. He had to make it to the sofa.
He could see it nearby. Crawling army style across the room, he heaved himself onto the cushions, letting out a low moan of relief he sank in. He had won. Sooo much better than the floor. Blinking blearily, the last thing Yugi saw was the curious, reflective eyes of a cat sitting on the other edge of the couch.
"Jo… Jonouchi… needs to tell me the next time he decides to get a cat," Yugi managed, and with that he was utterly, blissfully out.
Several hours later, "bliss" was the furthest thing from his mind.
The first thing Yugi noticed as he begrudgingly regained consciousness was that his brain was too large for his skull, and that it insisted on pulsing in an attempt to get bigger. The second thing he noticed was that someone was running a jackhammer on his chest. Blearily Yugi blinked his eyes open, and immediately regretted the action when it became obvious that the sun had morphed into daggers overnight with a fast-pass straight to his skull. How much had he ended up drinking?
"Never again," he croaked, wondering distantly if someone had stuffed his mouth with mothballs. "Never again." Despite the uncomfortable ringing in his ears, he could hear distant footsteps somewhere in the apartment. It wasn't fair. How could Jonouchi possibly be up and walking right now while he was on the brink of death?
As he slowly puzzled his condition out in his mind, he kept coming back to the strange, heavy rumbling on his chest, like a volcano erupting. That… that didn't make sense, did it? Screwing up his courage, he squinted his eyes open once more. A black cat was contentedly curled up on his bare chest, purring loudly. Its eyes slitted open at Yugi's light noise of surprise, and the two stared at each other—something that gave him a distinct sense of déjà vu. This made even less sense than before. Where was his shirt? When did Jonouchi get a cat? Shizuka was allergic to cats.
"Jonouchi?" he said uncertainly, his trepidation increasing as he got a better look at his surroundings. The layout of the room was familiar… but reversed, as if he'd landed in some sort of bizarro version of his friend's apartment. Except Jonouchi didn't have papyri hanging on the walls, or a floor you could see beneath the ever-present layer of smashed soda cans and pizza boxes. Unless Shizuka had gone on one of her cleaning sprees? But the beanbags crowded around the small TV and Xbox in the corner were also missing, replaced with… was that a life sized replica of Tutankhamen's sarcophagus? And even if Shizuka hadn't been allergic, Jonouchi was superstitious enough that Yugi knew he would never own a black cat.
Urk. Yugi leaned back with a sigh, running a weary hand along the cat's spine. Had he gone home with someone last night? Even with his fuzzy memories, that didn't sound right. He knew he should leave… wherever this was, but his head ached, and the cat was comfortably warm, although persistently noisy.
"Lemme guess," he said to the cat, who continued to purr as he stroked it. "Your name is Bastet?"
"Correct," said a deep voice from behind him, and Yugi's eyes widened in alarm.
"Crap!" He tried to scramble up out of the couch, but succeeded only in upending the cat with a surprised yelp as he tumbled to the floor in an aching heap. Déjà vu again.
"Ah, I'm—I'm sorry! Are you okay? I didn't mean to startle you," the voice said anxiously, and Yugi nodded, unable to comprehend why the voice sounded so nervous when Yugi was the trespasser here.
"No, I'm… good," Yugi groaned, his eyes fluttering open to see the owner of the voice leaning anxiously over him. For a moment, he wondered if he was still drunk. He'd never seen that hairstyle anywhere except in a mirror. Was it narcissistic of him to find the man attractive?
The two stared at each other for a long moment, and Yugi could almost taste the awkward in the air.
"My cat," the stranger said suddenly, and Yugi blinked. "She's named Bastet. You were right."
"Oh," Yugi said, for lack of a better response.
"Granted, it was an obvious name in hindsight, but… but I was only sixteen when I got her." A reddish tinge stole over the man's tan cheeks, and he straightened abruptly. "Sorry. Would you like me to call your parents for you?"
That broke the ice.
"I'm twenty," he said stiffly, pulling himself up to a seated position and feeling irritated despite himself—years of being mistaken for a ten-year old had left it a sensitive issue. The stranger muttered something under his breath that sounded strangely like "thank god," but that didn't really make sense in context, right? "And besides, I have my own—"
A short jingle of notes coming from Yugi's pocket interrupted the statement.
"—Cell phone," he finished lamely. Fishing in his pocket for the small device while feeling all too aware of the other man's intensely curious stare, he hit the answer button.
"Hello?" he muttered, fidgeting and wishing he had something to throw on over his chest.
"Yugi?" Jonouchi's voice on the other end was hoarse, and piercing. Yugi quickly lowered the volume. "Are you okay, man? Where are you? I thought you had followed me home, but you weren't here when I woke up, so I just got off the phone with Anzu and she said—"
Anzu. The blood drained from Yugi's face as vague memories of the past night came floating back, and Jonouchi's words faded into meaningless background noise. He thought he remembered kissing somebody, but surely not… he hadn't, had he? Oh god, what if he had?
"Yugi? Hello?"
"I'll call you back," Yugi managed, cutting Jonouchi off mid-word as he dropped his head between his knees, trying to think. He'd been kissing… somebody… that was when he'd lost Jonouchi. So he'd somehow walked all the way here, and when the door was locked he'd climbed through…
"The window?" the stranger asked, and Yugi jolted in surprise with an embarrassing eep! He hadn't noticed that he was muttering aloud.
"Um, yeah," Yugi said, flushing crimson and trying to ignore the other man's thankfully quiet laughter at his expense. "I guess I thought this was Jonouchi's apartment…" Way to go, drunk Yugi. Brilliant move.
"This isn't Jonouchi's apartment," the stranger said, sounding far too amused for Yugi's taste, even if he had every justification in the world.
"No," Yugi agreed. "It's not."
Another pause. Bastet rubbed her head against Yugi's knee.
"But… there is a guy named Jonouchi who lives in the apartment across from me," the other man said, and Yugi's ears perked. "Blonde, about six feet tall? Likes to play video games at full volume at two o'clock in the morning?" he added, grimacing.
"That's him!" Yugi exclaimed. Then, finally, all of the pieces came together. "So… Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. This is…" Embarrassing didn't seem to cover it. Maybe mortifying times ten. And of course he had to make an idiot of himself in front of someone who was cute and nice, of course he did.
"Don't worry about it," the stranger said, and Yugi noticed distractedly that the other man had the perfect voice for a hangover—low and soothing. "Come on, let's get you up."
Still flushing, Yugi took the man's hand and allowed himself to be pulled up. He was surprised to find that they were almost exactly the same height, give or take an inch or two. The other man's face was somehow sharper, though, his cheekbones chiseled in a way that meant he would never be mistaken for a child despite his height. Some people had all the luck.
Wavering on his feet, he took a staggering step forward as his stomach wobbled unpleasantly, and the stranger's hands were instantly at his shoulders, warm and steadying.
"Thank you," Yugi managed to gasp, gritting his teeth against the sudden nausea. "I really appreciate you… you know, not chasing me out with a broom and a bullhorn or something."
"Bastet seemed to like you," he said, shrugging. "Besides, I'm not in the habit of chasing beautiful men out of my apartment."
The world suddenly stopped spinning, which was somehow no less disorienting than before. One moment passed, and then another. What?
"Cold?" The man asked, eyes glinting, and Yugi feebly tried to remind himself that of course he was being made fun of. What else could this be? "I can let you borrow a shirt, if you'd like."
"Oh no, don't worry about it," Yugi reassured him, finding his voice again. "I'm fi…"
The stranger tugged his own black t-shirt up and over his head, presenting it to Yugi, and words failed him once more.
"Still warm," he said with a bit of a smirk.
Yugi thought his brain might have crashed.
"Just promise me that you'll return it," the man insisted, putting the shirt in Yugi's limp hands. "In fact, I'd rather you return it in person, if you don't mind. We could try letting you in through the front door, just for a change of pace."
It was too early in the morning for this. He found himself trying to remember how awkwardly anxious this same person had seemed when he'd first woken up, and they'd startled the cat. That memory no longer seemed to fit, at all. Had he somehow imagined it?
"Th-thanks," he managed, slipping the shirt on if only because he didn't think he'd make it out alive if they stood shirtless togetherfor any longer, and appreciating the few moments it allowed him to hide his burning face. It was still warm, and smelled like fresh cologne. "Uh… w-what was your name again?"
"Hmm…" The stranger considered him. "How about this—you return my shirt, and I'll tell you what my name is. Seems fair enough, right? I mean, you are sort of breaking and entering at this moment."
Something about this didn't seem fair, though Yugi couldn't quite articulate why. He only knew that the stranger's words sounded like a challenge, and that something here was going over his head. He had to get out of there, preferably right away, before he lost every shred of dignity he had left after climbing drunk and shirtless through a stranger's window in the middle of the night.
"…Thank you," he said finally, turning for the exit and fending off the other man's efforts to help when he stumbled once more. It seemed essential that he make it out of here on his own two feet. "I guess I will be… seeing you around."
He opened the door, wincing as the sun hit his eyes. At least the daggers had somewhat faded in severity. Across from him, he could clearly see Jonouchi's door, #103. What a stupid, beautiful mistake.
Yugi rang the doorbell, if only because he didn't personally want to hear the sound of his own knocking. Turning back, he frowned to see the stranger (he really needed something to call him) still watching him from the doorway.
"Um… good-bye?"
"I just wanted to make sure you made it inside safely," he said smoothly. Yugi's brow furrowed, but before he could respond, the door to Jonouchi's apartment opened.
"Yugi," he said hoarsely, "did you have to ring the bell?"
The stranger's smirk was infuriating.
"Have a good day… Yugi," he said with a wink, closing the door. Yugi stared after him, an incomprehensible mix of attraction and indignation warring in his mind. No fair.
"Uh… Yugi?" Jonouchi asked hesitantly. "You okay?"
"Mmm," Yugi said, distracted. "Hey Jonouchi, what's the name of the guy who lives in the apartment across from you?"
"Huh?" Jonouchi squinted painfully at the door across from them. "No idea. Never talked to him, actually. I think he's new. What were you doing over there, anyway? What happened last night?"
"Long story," Yugi sighed, allowing himself to be dragged into the refreshingly dark chaos that was Jonouchi's apartment. Despite the mess of last night still waiting to be detangled, all he could think was one thing:
Stranger: 1. Yugi: 0.