Hello! This is my first time publishing a fic on here, so I hope you like it. I've had this idea of making Yami and Mana the Jay Z and Beyoncé of their worlds music industry (minus a lot of parts of their relationship), with Malik as a Nicki Minaj/Rihanna hybrid and I haven't been able to get it out of my head. That being said, it's important to note that this is a fic featuring fem!Ryou and Malik. I don't own YuGiOh or any of the music (I'll credit as they come up).
Yugi Muto stretched his arms over his head as he exited his terminal at JFK International Airport in New York City. Glancing around at the busy pick up area, he chose a bench in the shade of an overhang to wait for the crowd to clear. He could have tried to get a taxi, but the crowd on the curb was packed and he was so tiny that it was definitely safer for him to wait for a few minutes. It wasn't like he was in a rush - he was moving into the city with his best friend, Anzu, so he'd have plenty of time to take it all in.
It seemed like it was only yesterday that they'd graduated from Domino High School, but in reality it had been five long years since then. It had almost been that long since he'd seen Anzu, because two weeks after they'd graduated she'd been on a flight to New York and he'd been terrified that he would never see her again. They had weekly phone calls, and slowly, as Yugi earned a degree in business, she'd started convincing him to follow her. "It's so lonely here, Yugi!" she'd complain, "if you were here we'd be laughing and having a great time!"
He had to admit that it was true, his life had been much more lonely since his best and only friend had moved clear across the world from him. His grandpa was great company, but even he thought Yugi should go too. "You can't put your whole life on hold for an old man. Chase your dreams, Yugi!" In the end, it had been his convincing that had finally pushed Yugi to go. It's hard to stay when everyone wants you to go. He just wasn't entirely positive what New York would offer him that Tokyo would not.
He imagined not too much.
Seeing that the crowd was now dwindling, Yugi stood and dragged his suitcase behind him. He flagged down a cab and told the driver the address, before sitting back and pulling out his phone for the first time since he'd landed. He sent his grandfather a text to let him know he'd landed and would call him as soon as he was at Anzu's apartment before opening a news app. They'd been sitting in traffic for five minutes already so he figured he'd have time to catch up on what he'd missed in the past week or so - the flight had only been thirteen hours, but he'd been so busy packing and spending time with his grandpa that he had lost track of what was going on in the world.
He started scrolling through articles, skipping the sports and politics but stopping to read anything about space or medicine. He found science extremely fascinating, and while he wasn't an expert, he still liked reading about new planets and stars being discovered or a dinosaur bone found in someone's yard. He finally switched over to the music section and found an article immediately that made him smile.
It was an interview of Mana, the reigning queen of pop music and fashion. Yugi had fond memories of listening to her music with Anzu in high school. That had been her ultimate goal: "I want to dance for her, Yugi, just once. Do you know how amazing that would be? To be a part of THAT?" she'd say while gesturing at whatever choreography they were watching Mana and her dancers perform.
He tapped the article, knowing that most of it wasn't even going to be the interview but the writer describing the just off the beaten path but extremely trendy café they were meeting at. He read a sentence that caught his eye: "'When I was writing my last album, I was in a really great place mentally. That's why that album was so popular, I think. And because I recorded it with my best friend. We wrote all the songs together, produced them together, and then he directed the five videos I ended up making too. I think you can hear the love and work we both poured into it, and we really wanted people to feel joy when they heard it and want to play it over and over again. Like Yami and I had a party and instead of just inviting Ry and Mal we asked the world to party with us. Did that answer your question? I feel like I might have been rambling.' She shrugs before taking a large sip of coffee."
Under that section of the article was a picture of Mana they'd taken. She had waist long straight blonde hair, big green eyes, and soft looking brown skin. She looked sort of ethereal, like she was glowing. There had been rumors years ago that she was a witch and cast a spell to make her fans love her, but he was certain that was insane.
Yugi looked out the taxi window, noting that they'd moved maybe six blocks, before talking in all the people and lights and signs. He spotted a large ad featuring Ryou Bakura, modeling a trench coat and looking like she could crush armies under her Louboutins. Yugi's stomach did a flip - Ryou was by far his favorite of the female pop stars. Mana may have been the queen, but her friend Ryou was the one Yugi really got excited for. She had an amazing voice, a fabulous personality, and catchy music. She was easily one of the most popular pop stars in the world, but she'd had a huge cult following in Japan. Yugi hadn't fully understood everyone's fascination until he'd seen her live with Anzu their senior year, but when he had he'd become a huge fan immediately. Not only did she look and sound better in person, but she'd performed her entire set in Japanese, and by the end of it he was certain she'd performed an exorcism on the audience. "I feel cleansed! Renewed! Like a new person! It's amazing, Anzu, don't you feel that?" He remembered shouting at her the next day. Yugi wondered if Anzu had met her yet, but assumed that if she had she would have told him.
Yugi noticed his cab had finally gone a significant distance. It wouldn't be long now until he was home. His eyes caught on a sign standing on the sidewalk outside of the building they were currently stopped in traffic by. "SATURDAY NIGHT," it read, with a picture of a blonde haired, purple eyed girl smirking at the camera. He glanced around for a hint as to what the event was - it was Saturday evening so he assumed there was something about to happen, but the taxi started moving again before he could.
"You said 5th and East 64th?" The driver asked, startling Yugi.
"Yes...sorry."
The driver pulled over and slowed to a stop. "Here it is."
Yugi froze, staring at the building. "Are you sure? This seems…"
"It's the right address. Why? Didn't you know you were asking to go to Kaiba Corp.?"
Yugi gaped up at the building. Anzu lived here? How? Wasn't it a business? Yugi was very confused, but paid the driver anyway. It wasn't his fault if Yugi got the address wrong. As his cab drove away, Yugi stared at the imposing building for a moment before steeling his nerves and entering the building. He looked around the huge, open lobby before approaching the desk.
"Hi...I'm looking for Anzu Masaki? Is she here?" Yugi asked nervously, hoping he wasn't about to embarrass himself entirely.
The girl at the desk just started typing at her computer before asking, "Is she expecting you?"
"Ahhh…yes." Yugi hadn't called her when he'd landed, but he knew he'd told her when he thought he'd land and he'd been right.
"She's in rehearsal, but you can go into the dance studio if you want. 58th floor, down the hall on the left." The girl said after typing something else. Yugi thanked her and headed toward the elevator.
When he stepped into the dance studio, he'd been expecting to see the sort of room he'd grown up watching Anzu rehearse in. Instead, there was an actual seating area, three rows of black movie theatre style seats, and a large stage, currently piled with about twenty dancers. He easily spotted Anzu in the mix - she was wearing a baby blue tank top and black shorts. Her hair that he remembered being a short bob cut was now long enough for her to ponytail it, which surprised him. She'd refused to wear her hair up the entire time he'd known her. He remembered laughing as she'd listed to her mother the many different reasons she didn't need to: "I LIKE it blowing around in my face, it makes me feel like a mythical siren!"
Yugi grabbed a seat in the back before he caught Anzu's eye. She had a huge smile stretched across her face and was bouncing on her toes, so he knew she was excited to see him too. Hopefully she'd be done soon.
"Okay ladies! Let's figure this out before Mana gets here! She's going to want to run this maybe twice and be done. Let's get in places!" A tiny red head shouted before the girls hit their marks to begin. Yugi felt his stomach drop. Mana? Here? Was this Anzu's big moment? He glanced at her and could tell from the determination on her face that it was. He crossed his fingers, praying to anyone who was listening that it went well.
Yugi watched as they rehearsed with no music, just the shouts and clapping to the beat provided by the red head. Anzu seemed to have the steps down - he could see a couple of the others watching her to make sure they were doing it correctly. They held their final pose, before the redhead said, "Okay, that was much better. Everyone grab drinks while I go get her, okay?" The dancers agreed before she took off backstage.
Yugi waved to Anzu, who waved back happily while mouthing "sorry." Yugi gave her a thumbs up to let her know it was okay, before she finally had a drink from her water bottle and stretched her legs. He watched as one of the girls asked her a question and she showed them a step. Yugi couldn't believe he was about to be in the same room as Mana. They'd never seen her live because the tickets had been expensive. Yugi was excited to see her in her element.
"Okay, PLACES, everyone!" Yugi quickly looked at the new voice that had spoken and felt his heart fly into his throat. There, walking to center stage, was Mana. The Mana. Charging in behind her was a boy who looked like Yugi with Mana's skin. Yugi recognized him as Yami - Mana's producer and best friend. Yugi watched as Yami trudged past Mana, jumped down into the seating area, before dropping into one of the first row seats, all without looking up from his phone. The dancers, who had rushed to their places the second they'd heard her voice, were waiting anxiously behind Mana, who was staring down at Yami with her arms crossed. Yugi didn't think he'd ever seen her look so stern. After a minute, Yami finally looked up. "I'm sorry, what's happening?"
Mana sighed, loudly, "I'm about to rehearse this number in front of you with dancers for the first time, but apparently whoever you are talking to is very, very interesting because you haven't paid attention to anything that's been happening all day." Yugi could sense that it felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room. Everyone's eyes were darting between Mana and Yami, looking nervous.
Yugi watched Yami's shoulders rise has he took a deep breath. "I'm sorry. I didn't realize the fact that one of our best friends - who you apparently don't bother to speak to unless they're in front of your face - is literally having a huge crisis and is, as far as I can tell, indefinitely screwed by the fact that she has exactly four and a half hours to undo a mistake made three years ago. So I'm sorry I haven't been listening to you babble on about costumes and choreography." Yami said, bitingly. Yugi could see how tense the man appeared.
"I'm sorry, what are you talking about?" Mana asked, seeming to deflate.
"I can tell by the look on your face that you haven't heard about Malik." Yami said, Mana's eyes narrowing.
"She's going to be on SNL tonight to promote her album. That's not a crisis unless they lose the cue cards."
Yami laughed, coldly. "Oh, yes, that's the worst thing that could happen! EXCEPT her useless LOSER OF AN EX BOYFRIEND AND PRODUCER IF HE CAN STILL CALL HIMSELF THAT is suing her and claiming that he wrote and produced all of her music himself, and that label, run by that arrogant stupid SELFISH ASSHOLE DECIDED TO JUST DROP HER INSTEAD OF TAKING IT TO COURT!" Yami screamed, clearly needing to release all of his pent up anger about the situation.
The entire room was dead silent after his rant. Everyone in the room felt so awkward and no one knew what to do. It was a long moment until:
"WHAT?!" Mana shrieked before jumping down off the stage, grabbing Yami's hand, and running out of the studio with a quick, "I'm so sorry! We'll pick this up in the morning. I love you ladies!"
Yugi blinked. What just happened? It was a lot to process, but he was pretty sure he'd just breathed the same air as Mana and Yami while getting some of the juiciest news. He sort of knew who Malik was - she was a rapper from Egypt who happened to be great friends with Mana, Yami, and Ryou. It was the only reason Yugi knew who she was. He looked up as he heard someone running, just in time to see Anzu launching herself into his arms in a tight embrace. He hugged her back, breathing in her mango shampoo and feeling so at peace for the first time in so long. When they pulled apart for a moment, Yugi was giggling with happiness. "Anzu...are you crying?"
"Yes. I'm sorry I just missed you." She embraced him again and he laughed, holding her tight. He'd missed her too. He then noticed that they were the only two people to have moved since Mana and Yami had left. It was at that moment that one of the dancers finally spoke up:
"I'm sorry, what the fuck just happened? And why is there a fun sized Yami here?"
I'll post more soon. The next chapters going to have more backstory and Malik, Ryou, and their Yami's should be making appearance.
