Disclaimer: All canon-based characters, situations, and plotlines are copyright to their original owners, creators, and designers. I make no profit, nor want any.
Title: Brawl Night
Rated: PG-13
Type: One-shot
Word Count: 2,268
Characters: Edo Phoenix, Marufuji Ryou
Genre: Friendship, Humor
Notes: This takes place at some point after episode 131 and before episode 137. Also, I named the tavern for the Ancient Egyptian tavern mentioned in the Yu-Gi-Oh Millennium World arc of the manga.
Summary: Don't you just hate it when you can't even go to a tavern for a drink without getting into a bar fight?

The Winking Camel was known far and wide throughout the area as having some of the roughest patrons, the worst beer, and the most enjoyable bar fights of all the low-dive taverns around. A few humans had been known to get involved in them, but for the most part, the title of toughest, roughest, nastiest bruiser around was given to Blaine, the Battle Ox. No one had been able to beat him in any sort of fight, fair or otherwise. There were rumors that he could duel with the best of them ,too.

Other rumors also spoke of a new warlord rising to power, someone known as 'Haou', someone who had defeated Brron, the Mad King. Blaine had expressed interest in going to work for him, but he'd said things like that before when Brron had first been coming into the forefront. No one believed it, since Blaine liked being a big fish in a little pond much more than he would like having to compete for attention.

And to keep his big fish status, that meant he showed up for bar fight night. Which was, quite obviously, every night.

That night, everything started just as it usually did before Blaine showed up. Various people were in the tavern, some of them single people who didn't have someone to cook for them or who had no talent for cooking themselves, others wandering through on whatever searches called them through this backwoods area.

Two strangers appeared to be some of the latter type. They were both humans, and as humans went, fairly attractive. One was tall and slender, clad all in black, with teal hair and eyes. The other was somewhat shorter, dressed in white, with silver hair and eyes as blue as the comet.

"How can I help you, good sirs?" the tavern keeper, Sven, came over as they took seats at one of the back tables. He didn't see too many other humans around here, at least not ones he didn't know.

"Just something to drink. It's been a long day." The one in white said, following it up with a cheerful smile that actually made Sven feel better. How could there be anything wrong in a world where someone could smile like that at you?

"Of course. I'll be right back." He hurried away and came back with two mugs of beer, setting it before them. "If you need anything, just let me know." He glanced down as he turned away and twitched to see the duel disks on both of their arms.

Duelists. That usually meant trouble of some kind. Those rumors about Haou had also mentioned that he hunted those who dueled. And sometimes those who dueled hunted for him. Sven had to put up with his tavern being wrecked every night when Blaine came around anyway. He didn't need people dying in there too. They could take that outside of town if they really wanted to do it.

But he said nothing; they hadn't done anything yet. If they were duelists, then there was nothing wrong with wanting to have a quiet drink in between duels.

That didn't mean he wasn't going to keep some kind of an eye on them, though. He had more than enough customers tonight to make it not be too obvious, and he had to check on them every now and then to see if they needed anything else.

"I don't see any of them." The one in white spoke most, with the other offering an occasional nod or word. "We'll have to move on tomorrow."

That was fine by Sven. Duelists were trouble that he didn't need. Maybe he'd even offer to let them rent the upstairs room, if they had something he could want. Being out in the middle of nowhere, he had to take whatever kind of payment he could find. He wondered if they would be amenable to washing some dishes or sweeping the floor. If nothing else, they could trade him something for the beer and a place to sleep.

Time ticked by, and Sven wondered where Blaine was. It wasn't like him to be late, after all. Maybe he really did run off to join Haou. It wasn't likely, no one believed it, but…

"Sven!" The double doors slammed open, and the huge Battle Ox stepped in, hooves planted firmly on the floor for a moment before he strode over to the bar. "Gimme a double."

Sven was far too used to this. At least Blaine paid well. Twice after he'd destroyed the bar in one of his brawls, he'd helped to rebuild it. He wasn't that much of a bad person. Just a really good fighter.

"Anything new around worth messing with?" he grunted, sipping at the huge drink he was brought. Sven shrugged a little.

"Hard to say. You know how some of these people are." He hated trying to give fighting advice to someone like Sven. He never wanted to take it, but he always asked for it anyway.

The minotaur snorted, draining the tankard and shoving it back over. "Another one." He waved one hand expansively. "Everyone in here gets one, on me tonight!"

"What makes you so generous?" one of the other customers, a Sangan by the name of Trent, asked, glowering over at him. Trent was one of the few who habitually spoke to Blaine like that. It was rumored he had a small army of friends who could back him up, and no one had ever risked trying to find out. Everyone knew what a Sangan could do, after all.

"Hey, if you don't want a free drink, that's fine with me!" Blaine snorted as he swilled down his second drink. He wasn't even close to being drunk yet. Not that he needed to be in order to have a fight. He just liked to be first.

Sven brought the last of the free drinks over to the table held by the two visitors. "This is on Blaine, as if you didn't hear," he said with a bit of a grin. "He's like that."

"No, thanks." The one in white shook his head briefly. "One is all we need."

Well, it wasn't as if people hadn't turned down Blaine's drinks before. Just usually…they weren't newcomers. Who tended to make Blaine want to fight a lot quicker than usual, just by the fact they existed. "I have to give them something to talk about when they go home, right? Everyone would be proud to talk about how I beat them!" And since it usually happened that way, Sven supposed he was right.

As he came back over to the bar with the two drinks, Blaine grabbed one of them off of the tray. "So, who didn't want their drinks?" He looked around until he spied the two strangers. "Ohh. Sven, you should've told me." He drained the tankard, put it down, and cracked his knuckles hard. "Fresh meat."

"No ax this time. It's getting harder to get replacement tables," Sven asked. Trade was more difficult to come by these days, so he wanted to at least try to keep what damage he could restrained. If he could. This was Blaine he was talking about, after all.

"Fine, fine." He left his ax by the bar as he got up and stretched. This was going to be fun. New people he could play with. They didn't look all that tough, either. Sure, appearances could be deceiving, but if they had any kind of smarts, they would show it.

He had only taken two steps over before one of the burlier humans in town lurched into him, having already had a little more than was good for him. Blaine grabbed him by the arm and shoved him around into the nearest table, knocking table and two other people over at the same time. "If you want a piece of me, wait your turn, Bucko!" Blaine growled. This guy always seemed to want to fight, and normally Blaine had no problems with that. But with new fish in the pond, there was fun to take care of first.

Bucko growled, pushing himself back onto his feet, and took a swing at Blaine before he could move too much farther. The hit connected, and Blaine took a couple of steps back, then punched him harder in the stomach. "I said to wait your turn! I want to see what those guys are like before I play around with you, Bucko!"

"I love the atmosphere around here." The stranger in white observed to his friend. "It reminds me of a few places back home. Like the alleys."

"I was thinking the same thing." The one in black said, pushing his tankard off to the side. "Are we done here?"

The first shrugged a little, finishing up his drink as well. "I don't see any reason to stay around. I'd rather not sleep here."

"I saw a couple of places outside of town on the way in that looked like they might do." His black-clad companion offered. They were both about to get up when Blaine loomed over them.

"Going somewhere, gentlemen?" He had a couple of teeth missing, and that didn't make his smile that much more pleasant. Neither of them seemed to notice or care.

Bucko lurched towards him again, and Blaine backhanded him without even looking. Everywhere one looked, the brawl was spreading, with beer and anything else liquid and several things that were solid flying everywhere, including a few stools and tables. Sven sighed and stepped into his private room. It was just another night at the Winking Camel. He would be able to watch everything from there, but not actually get involved in it. He was a tavern keeper. He didn't get involved. He listened and he cleaned up the mess. That was it.

"We've had enough to drink and we're leaving." The one in white looked up at Blaine, the same kind of warm smile that he'd given Sven visible on his face. "I don't think that's going to be a problem, is it?"

Oh, Blaine looked forward to this. This was one of those cute humans, who thought that charm and wit could get them out of anything. Blaine was always annoyed by them. He liked to get into and out of things by the power of his muscles. Little shrimps like this annoyed him. He leaned closer to him. "Not a problem at all. As long as you can get by me first." He reached out to poke at the tie the other one had around his neck. Humans wore such strange things, but he'd never seen something like this, unless it was on an Illusory Gentleman or Witty Phantom. "Think you can? Think you're up for a fight?"

"The question is, if you will let me and my associate leave before we get annoyed." The white-dressed human said, one hand coming to rest lightly on Blaine's wrist. "You really don't want us to get annoyed."

Blaine started to grab for the hand himself. "If you want to get by me, then we're going to fight!" This was what he lived for!

"As you wish, then." That grip suddenly began to tighten, and Blaine's eyes widened. "Don't say that we didn't warn you."

Blaine had suffered pain before. Not too often, as he was fairly big and brutish and such a good fighter. But now those slender fingers dug into his wrist, and a strong leg kicked at his own, sending him down on one knee. Then the white demon in front of him pushed harder and harder, and Blaine's eyes widened when he heard an unexpected crack and white hot pain surged through him from his wrist. A noise he'd never heard coming from himself dribbled out of his lips and he tried to pull his injured wrist back towards him. "What…what did you do that for?" He'd only been trying to have fun!

"I told you. We're leaving and you're in the way." That smile suddenly didn't look so cheerful to anyone who could see it. "You're not going to stay in our way, are you?"

Blaine fell back a little, not certain now if he were moving because he wanted or because he wanted to get away from this madman. "You broke my wrist!"

"Cheer up." The stranger in white told him as they both moved closer. He bent down a little, though his voice was clearly audible to them all. "It could have been your neck."

"And if you try to get in our way again, it still can be." The one in black spoke now, his arms folded across his chest as he looked over the brawl, which was fading in intensity now as everyone realized what had happened and stopped to stare at them.

Blaine pushed himself back even more; he'd never scuttled away from someone in his life: until now. He'd never imagined that someone who looked so harmless could inflict such pain! He would have expected it from someone like…the one he was with! But this little nothing! It was humiliating! Horrifying! Shameful!

The two of them left in almost near silence. But their voices did drift back a little before they got too far. "You enjoyed that too much."

"I told him to get out of the way."

"You still enjoyed it too much."

"You're just grumpy because you didn't get to do it this time."

And all that they heard from that was something that might have been a laugh. Then, they were gone.

The End