Adventures at Anime Conventions
by SkyRose (aka Yuugi)
A/N: Anime Iowa Board Fanfiction challenge #3 entry. I had to do this before I even thought of maybe continuing the toast story. :) The entry deadline for this challenge fic was coming up too soon.
"Can I have the last doughnut?" Jou asked, as he and four of his friends rode in the mini-van they had rented on their way to Faux Con in Psuedoville.
"Why not?" Anzu Mazaki answered. "I don't need it, and...I think those two are pretty much liplocked right now to care about the last doughnut." She was seated in the very back, staring at one really tall and one really short male make out in the seat in front of her.
"I'm driving, so I don't want think about it." Ryou Bakura said, trying to keep the van on the correct side of the road. "Kaiba, Yuugi, knock it off. I know you're together, but, well, not all of us want to watch that." He said, trying to stay polite. Yuugi sat up straight, blushing.
"So, how much further?" Yuugi asked, trying to make conversation.
"We should be there by nine." Jou said around a mouthful of doughnut.
"Jounouchi-kun, swallow before you talk!" Anzu scolded from the back.
"Sorry...I said we'd be there around nine. Plenty of time to go off and look around."
"And prepare for the cosplay!" Yuugi said, jumping up and down.
"The cosplay is tomorrow, you know." Seto said, trying to stay out of the conversation.
"I know, but you and me are going to knock them dead." Yuugi grinned up at his boyfriend.
"WHAT! I said there was no way, no how you were going to get me up there." Seto exclaimed.
"Oh, yes there is." Yuugi gave him a knowing look.
"Not even that will get me to walk across a stage. And who knows what kind of ridicilous get up you have for me." Yuugi grinned.
"That's for me to know, and you to find out." Yuugi grinned.
Anzu laid across the backseat, resting. "Why did we fly all the way to America for an anime convention of all things?"
Yuugi turned around to face her. "Because we could."
"For a unique look at how a typical American anime fan gathering goes. I didn't know I'd be coerced into a competition though." Seto answered, still staring straight ahead.
Ryou and Jou remained quiet on this, as they were now navigating through the city, trying to find the parking lot. "It's this way, it has to be." Jou said, as he pointed.
"There's nothing there!" Ryou answered.
"Right there!" Yuugi suddenly yelled out, and he was right. A big convention hall with an even bigger parking lot was right before them.
"AH!" Ryou squeaked. "Where do you turn in?" He asked, looking for a way into the practically full lot. All of a sudden, they came upon the turn, as Ryou made a sharp left turn into the parking lot and started looking for a space.
Yuugi was practically bouncing in his seat, as his boyfriend sighed next to him. "How did I get dragged along?" Seto asked to no one in particular.
"You came along because you love me, remember?" Yuugi winked at him.
"Right." Yuugi grabbed his arm and squeezed it to reassure him. "I'm still not going to the masquerade."
"Yes, you are."
"Will you two quit fighting about it? Argue tommorow afternoon." Anzu suggested to them.
"Yeah, fight later, we have another battle to get through..." Jounouchi stated.
"The Registration line." Ryou finished for him. They had walked into the air conditioned building from the almost blistering heat, and there was a huge line up. Ryou sighed.
Yuugi and Anzu were watching the cosplayers that were already registered and wandering around, and commenting on the costumes. Jou swore he smelled food. Ryou just looked around, just in awe. And Seto, he looked like he wanted to be anywhere but there.
"Hello, welcome to Faux Con!" The guy behind the registration desk said. They got their stuff, and were on their way in.
"So, what's the plan?" Yuugi asked, looking up, only to see the only one that hadn't abandoned him was his boyfriend. "Everyone...left." Yuugi said in disbelief. Seto put his arm around Yuugi.
"All to the good, as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure Bakura just got carried away into the crowd, Jounouchi probaby went and followed his nose to the food he smelled," Seto rolled his eyes, "And who knows about the chick." Yuugi elbowed him.
"Ah...Oh, well. At least you're still here." Yuugi looked at the program guide to see what was going on. As he was doing so, someone walked up to them. The someone was wearing a replica of their school uniform, in the way that Yuugi usually wore it, with the white shirt under the jacket and the jacket open. And their hair...was a disaster. At least, that's what it looked like to Yuugi and Seto, but to the random person, it was a copy of Yuugi's hair. All black except for his bangs, which weren't quite long enough, and the dark pink spikes in the back of his head.
The random guy walked up to Yuugi. "Your costume totally sucks!" Yuugi looked confused and horrified at the same time. "Your hair is, like, totally wrong. And your bangs are too light. Also, no ever does a casual Yuugi, dude. Nice try though." The random guy walked off.
Yuugi blinked a couple of times. "Seto, what was that?" Seto was trying not to laugh. Yuugi looked a bit dissapointed. Seto finally gave up and laughed. "It's not funny!" Yuugi whined.
"I'm not laughing at you, I"m laughing at him. His costume is obviously the inferior one. He just doesn't have your style...Plus, he was too tall." Seto winked at Yuugi.
"Yeeah...So, what shall we do? We have a couple of hours before some of the panels start."
"We can either find your friends, hit the dealer's room, or do absolutely nothing. I vote for nothing." Yuugi gave him a pleading look. "Dealer's room it is." Seto sighed. Yuugi grinned, grabbed Seto's hand, and pulled him along.
Meanwhile, Jou had found the food. "Amazing, Jounouchi-kun." Anzu said, rolling her eyes.
"Amazing, Anzu, you look like Kaiba's twin sister." Jou smart mouthed back, before taking a handful of Chex Mix. "Besides, I'm just going to chill out here for a bit. Since we lost Ryou and all. Everyone comes by the consuite sooner or later."
"Fine. I'm going to see if they have some DDR set up. See you later." And with that, she headed off towards the gaming.
Jou sat back, just people watching. "
"Jounouchi-kun!" Ryou hollered. "Am I glad I found you! I was ran over by a pack of fangirls that tried to molest me!" Ryou was now wearing almost nothing but his boxer shorts. All that was left of his shirt were a few tattered edges, and his jeans were no more.
"Bakura...No, no, I do NOT want to know how that happened." Jou said, feeling sorry for him. Ryou fell into the chair next to Jou's. "How'd you lose the fangirls though?" He wanted to know.
"First, I thought I'd get away by going into the auditorium area, were they were doing some ceremony or something, ran across the stage, and they finally tackled me after I got the dealer's room. Good thing there was some open space there. There had to be twenty of them, I swear."
"How come they don't want to molest me? Am I not sexy enough?" Jou asked. Ryou's eyes almost popped out of his head.
"Trust me! You do NOT WANT THAT! No matter how fun you think it is, it is not fun!" Ryou said. "I'm going to the hotel. Hopefully not all my clothes end up like this. If they do, UPS will have to ship some to me real quick like." Ryou grinned, and tried to sneak out without attracting much attention. However, half naked men usually draw quite a bit of attention, but Ryou held on to the last shred of dignity that he had left and kept his chin up as he walked through the throng of convention attendees back to their rented van.
It was the next day, and already, there was a small lover's spat.
"For the last time! We are NOT going to Hentai Fest!" Seto Kaiba yelled at the top of his lungs, attracting the attention of nearly everyone around him and Yuugi.
"But Seto-chan!" Yuugi whined, knowing that his boyfriend hated being called that. "I wanna go to Hentai Fest!" Seto walked over to the nearest wall and started banging his head against it.
"Yuugi!" Jou spotted him and noticed Kaiba hitting his head against the wall. "I don't know want to know. I'm heading to Hentai Fest, want to come along?"
"Yes!" Yuugi practically jumped on Jou, but was stopped in mid-air by Kaiba.
"What did I tell you, we're not going." Seto said. He leaned down and whispered in Yuugi's ear "I promise you a personal one if you'll come to the art workshop with me instead." Yuugi cringed. He wanted to go watch hentai with other people, than all of a sudden common sense kicked in. Fifty or more people, probably most of them males, most of them will have erections twenty minutes in.
"The art workshop sounds wonderful, Seto." Yuugi said and joined him, hoping Jou would figure out the same thing he did.
Bakura had come back, wearing a black wig so he wouldn't get mobbed by the fangirls again, or so he hoped. He had spent the last evening moping around after the "incident." He went to find Anzu in the gaming room, where she was dancing up a storm. He applauded politely as she finished up the last routine. She hopped off, finally tired. "Oh, Bakura-kun!" She waved at him, and joined him.
"That was very good." He said. "How did you know it was me?" He asked warily.
"Well, actually, your hair is falling out from under your wig." She said as she straightened it up a bit. "There you go." She said.
"Thanks, Anzu." He said. "Care to join me for something to drink?" She nodded, and he led the way back to where he and Jou had sat and talked the day before. The two sat there and talked, and decided on heading to a video room to watch a few new shows and some old favorites.
"I'll give you fifty bucks and this can of deviled ham I happen to have on me for a piece of your jacket!" A fangirl was begging Seto. He stared at her like she was crazy, mostly because, well, she was.
"No." He said flatly, wondering why it was the crazy ones who seem to want a piece of him...or his clothes. Yuugi grabbed on to his arm.
"Come on, Seto, we need to get ready." He said, dragging the taller boy with him.
Seto blinked, realizing what Yuugi meant. "No, no, NO!" Seto said.
"Yes, we are." Yuugi winked at him. "This is going to be fun." Yuugi said as he dragged Seto to their hotel room.
Anzu, Ryou, and Jou were looking for seats for the cosplay. "It's so crowded!" Anzu complained.
"It's a small price to pay to see Kaiba humiliate himself." Jou answered, smirking. Anzu punched him in the shoulder. Ryou only rolled his eyes.
"There's three seats!" Ryou said suddenly, diving to claim the three chairs. The other two hurredly joined him.
"Alright! Way to go, Bakura-kun!" Jou said, amazed at the speed the smaller boy used to claim the chairs.
"Quiet, guys, it's starting!" Anzu said, as the emcee was starting to speak.
"Welcome to the tenth annual Faux Con Cosplay!" Cheers erupted from the crowd. "We'll be starting shortly, just a few formalities to get out of the way first." He continued on, and explained the rules for the new people in the crowd.
It was getting to go on into it's second hour, and Yuugi and Seto still hadn't been on stage yet.
"Kaiba chickened out, didn't he?" Jou whispered to Anzu. Anzu shrugged.
"I wouldn't count them out yet." She answered quietly, laughing at the two Full Metal Alchemist cosplayers on stage, who were costumed as Ed Elric and Roy Mustang, the Ed cosplayer beating on the Roy cosplayer.
"GO ED!" Was heard shouted from behind the three. Anzu and Ryou turned around to stare, and realized it was the real Ed Elric hollering at the one on stage. They looked at each other, and let it go.
"Our next contestants are Yuugi Mutou and Seto Kaiba! They are costumed as...wait, can they actually do this?" The judges nodded. The emcee shrugged and continued on "They are costumed as Pharaoh Atemu and the High Priest Set!" Yuugi paraded on to the stage in an almost exact replica of Atemu's pharoah's outfit. He had the gold winged crown, the short wraparound, cloth shoes, and blue cape that clasped with a gold piece. He looked back at the "Priest," then looked to the audience.
"Apparently my High Priest is shy." Yuugi said, smirking a bit. He walked back to pull Seto on to the stage. He had on khaki pants, with a blue cloth hanging over the front, a blue muscle type shirt that clung to him, gold arm bands on each arm, a blue cape, shoes similar to Yuugi's, and who could forget the priest's hat?
"I am not shy." Seto said huffily, getting a laugh from the audience.
"No, but I think it safe to say that you're definitely sexy!" Yuugi grinned, teasing his boyfriend in front of hundreds of people. Seto gave his cape a haughty flip around his shoulders and walked off the stage. Yuugi winked at the audience. "I think it's time to make my exit too." He flipped his cape also and followed Seto.
"That was...interesting." Ryou said. His two companions looked at him, and gave up. Jou was still laughing at the whole situation.
"That was priceless!" Jou said between laughing. "Did you get any pictures?"
"My camera's full" Ryou said, already having taken pictures of others.
"I got some." Anzu said. "And I'm not giving any of them to you so you can blackmail Kaiba." Jou pouted.
"Have a heart, Anzu." He told her. She just smacked him in the arm again.
"No."
The results of the cosplay were announced. Seto and Yuugi didn't win, but that didn't matter to them. Yuugi just wanted to have fun. People thought their costumes were good though. Backstage, Yuugi was sitting in Seto's lap, with his head upon the tall one's shoulder.
"Seto-chan...I'm hungry." Yuugi said softly. Seto nodded. He was hungry too, not to mention he was so hot from the costume.
"I think we should go and change, and get some dinner." He suggested softly. Yuugi nodded and stood up. Seto smirked. "After you, my pharaoh." He gestured for Yuugi to go ahead of him. Yuugi giggled.
"Thank you, my priest." Yuugi smiled, and started walking. "So, what shall we have for dinner?" Yuugi asked, as they walked along the halls.
"I'm not too hungry, so something simple. How about tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwhiches?"
"That's very simple, Priest." Yuugi smiled. "It sounds good though." They paused and posed for some pictures when they were asked nicely.
"Hey, lovebirds!" Jounouchi called from a slight distance. Seto rolled his eyes, while Yuugi waved at the group. "Nice show, you two." Jou said, smirking. Seto smacked him over the head with his cardboard Millenium Rod.
"I am NEVER doing that again." Seto declared.
"Aw, but Seto, I wanted to do a Sailor Moon cosplay next year!" Yuugi said. Seto's eyes went wide, and he fainted on the spot. Yuugi snickered. "What did he think, I was going to make him be one of the Sailor Senshi?" Yuugi poked his boyfriend, who happened to wake up and pulled Yuugi down for a kiss. A crowd had gathered around them, whistling and cheering them on. The two boys blushed.
"Alright, guys, show's over!" Jou and Bakura tried to push the crowd away, as Anzu pulled the other two boys up.
"We're off for some dinner, want to join us?" Yuugi asked his friends politely.
"Nah, I'm off to Hentai Fest, round two." Jounouchi winked and ran off. Yuugi and Seto stared at him in disbelief.
"How..." Yuugi trailed off.
"I don't think we want to know, Yuugi." Seto said.
"Oooh! The Escaflowne movie is showing in one of the video rooms!" Anzu announced. "It's one of my favorites!" And she ran off to the video room.
"And I'm just wore out. Even the wig didn't fool the fangirls, and I'm scared for my life. Good night." Bakura bowed as he ran out of the building.
Yuugi shrugged. "Ah, well. Shall we?" Seto nodded.
The two went and found their dinner.
The next morning, Yuugi found himself sitting on the step to the cargo area of their rented van, helping to load the van up again. He was waiting for the next person to bring their luggage back. The next person just happened to be Seto.
"Hey." Yuugi said. "YOu're not mad at me?" He asked.
"Never." Seto said, setting the luggage down, and bent down to kiss Yuugi's forehead. "But you're paying for that when we get home." He smirked.
"I figured as much." Yuugi smiled.
"Are you going to sit out here all day?" Seto asked. "There's still things to do."
"I'll be in later." Yuugi said. "I need the fresh air." Seto nodded, and sat down next to Yuugi, just barely missing the open cargo hatch with his head.
"Did you enjoy the convention?" Seto asked. Yuugi smiled. That told him all he needed to know.
"Are we coming back next year?" Yuugi asked.
"Only if we can leave the hentai at home. Oh, speak of the devil." Jounouchi was walking up with his bags.
"That was loads of fun!" Jou exclaimed. "We coming back next year?" Seto looked at him, and snickered.
"Hentai fest get out of control?" He pointed at Jou's shirt, which had some stains on the front of it.
"Huh?" Jou looked down, and then glared. "I dribbled the milk off my cereal this morning. You pervert." Seto was still smirking. He KNEW he was a pervert, he didn't need Jou to tell him that.
Yuugi giggled. Anzu and Ryou were just coming up to them, and the lovers had to move to fit the last of the bags in.
"Well, are we ready to head to the airport, or shall we do one last thing as a group?" They agreed on one last thing, and went to one final panel. They came out talking about it, and they all agreed to go on one last look around the dealer's room.
"Sorry, love, but there's something I have to get, and it's a surprise, so meet me by the door in a little bit." Yuugi grinned, and ran off, away from Seto. He raised his eyebrow, but shrugged it off. What was the worst thing he could do?
They were all met near the door, satified with what they had bought. Yuugi was still missing though. He ran up, just as they were going to go back and find him. "I'm here!" He yelled, carrying a rather large sack. Seto was weary of it, but didn't really care.
"Are we ready to go?" Seto asked everyone. There were murmers of agreement, and they headed back to their rental van. They piled into the same places as before, and Ryou was left to drive, and Jounouchi was left to navigate, with Anzu in the first backseat, and Seto and Yuugi cuddling in the far backseat. The drive was silent for a while.
"Do I dare ask you what you bought?" Seto asked Yuugi quietly. Anzu turned around, for she knew what Yuugi had bought. She had seen him argue over the price of it, but he paid for it anyway. She wanted to see Kaiba's reaction when Yuugi showed it to him.
"Weeeell," Yuugi started. "Not really, it's for your birthday." Yuugi said. Seto pouted like a little kid.
"That's not too far away, you know." SEto said, pulling Yuugi into his lap. He leaned his mouth near Yuugi's ear. "And you're all the present I need." Yuugi blushed as his boyfriend licked his ear.
"That's gross." Anzu said, watching. "Just show him what you got, Yuugi. I think he'll like it."
"It's kind of big." Yuugi said, pulling it slowly out of the bag. Slowly, fake white fur took form into the shape of a rather large Blue Eyes White Dragon plushie. Seto just stared at it. It was gaudy, it was a travesty, and yet, it was cute. Yes, cute. Yuugi sat the plushie beside them.
"It's so cute!" Anzu said. "And yet, it looks mean, like it's going to bite you or something." That made SEto feel better about it. Ryou pulled the van into the place where it belonged, and they headed into the airport to catch the flight back to Japan.