A/N: It's late and I'm posting a quick addition here tonight.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my plots and OC's.

Chapter 1: In My Pocket

Atemu dressed for work carefully. He pulled on a pair of dark blue jeans and a clean grey button down shirt. He pulled a simple jacket over it and went into the kitchen. Heating up a bowl of rice, he quickly whisked some eggs together in a pan and poured them over the rice in the bowl. Then he at it all, quickly, with a pair of chopsticks and grabbed his shoulder bag from a chair in the living room. He fed his cat, Toro, and locked the door, rushing outside to catch the 7:30 bus before it rolled away.

This was how he began every day, precisely.

Before, he had taken the bus downtown and gone to a small hotel in Tokyo and parked cars for the valet service. Now, he rode the bus to Suguroku Mutou's shop in the Domino prefecture. He did this because Yugi had asked him to.

Not that Atemu felt that he had to base his decisions around the will of a person he knew he could probably never have, nor would ever feel the same way. These were things about his life he had, begrudgingly, come to accept. Yugi had decided to go away to school. Far away, in America. Atemu knew this was the right choice. Yugi was bright and tenacious. America would swallow whole anyone else and spit them back, but she would have a hard time chewing on Yugi. Over the years, Atemu had watched Yugi grow stronger and braver. Going away to school was a logical next step.

He accepted this, though not without great apprehension.

It was a Tuesday. He got off the bus and went into the Game Shop. The small bell over the door signaled his arrival. Suguroku called from the back and came out with a large box of dice that needed to be stocked. "Atemu! You're here a little early this morning." Atemu nodded and put his shoulder bag into the back room, then prepared some tea for himself and Yugi's grandfather. The old man held up a torn-open envelope. "Did you get a letter from Yugi?"

"I did, actually. I read it this morning." He neglected to tell him that he'd read the letter fifty times, had it tucked in his back pocket, and had obsessively read it ten more times on the bus ride there. All this, he felt, was unnecessary information. "It sounds like he's going to do just fine." Suguroku made an approving noise in the back of his throat and gave a hearty laugh as Atemu handed him a cup of tea.

"Well, Yugi will do what Yugi does best: outshine them all. What do you think?" It was not a question, Atemu noted, as Suguroku made his way out of the back room and back into the front of the store whistling and singing to himself, basking in the glow that was his pride in his grandson. Atemu sipped on his own cup and eventually made his way to the front of the store and began to sweep the walk outside, noting that it was getting cooler with each passing day. His jacket felt appropriate. His mood did not.

There was something that had left him when Yugi did. A sort of light that he knew Yugi possessed the moment he met him. Something bright and warm and welcoming. Something that made everyone around Yugi shine with the same light. Atemu never felt dull around Yugi. He never felt dark or cold or lost. He was always with someone. With that light and that smile. It was, of course, hundreds of miles away now, warming the room he shared with some Japanese-yet-not-Japanese boy named Benjamin and the countless others Yugi would meet. His letter had expressed his loneliness, but it was to be expected. Yugi had never been so far away before. He'd told Atemu this the night before he left, his fear flowing out into the night air they shared as he thought about his impending flight to Honolulu, his ignorance of American culture, his inexperience when it came to living alone.

I just don't know what I'll do with out you.

Atemu felt the same way, just as a September wind blew over the walk, undoing the sweeping he'd just done. Reluctantly, he began again.

Around lunch time, Atemu checked his wallet for cash and announced he was going to get some curry from the diner up the street. "Do you want something?"

"Ah, I always want eel. But, of course, you know me. I'll have whatever it is you're having, Atemu. Surprise me!" Suguroku's heavy laugh filled the shop and brought a smile to Atemu's face. The customers shifted around the store, messing with displays and putting things back where they didn't belong. Atemu noted he'd had to re-do his entire dice setup when he returned, but left anyway, his stomach getting the better of him. The wind had gotten stronger, and he wished he had a scarf. Something to warm him. Yugi's light.

It wasn't that Atemu needed Yugi to be there all the time. At least, that was what he told himself. When he entered the shop and did not find Yugi reading some celebrity-trash magazine behind the counter, or did not find him attempting to blow the biggest bubble with his gum, or did not see him flirting with the female customers and playing dice games with the smaller children who wandered in, Atemu felt a sort of hollowness inside. Something that he was fully aware could be filled by no one else. He tried other things. There was a girl he was seeing, unofficially. But she was nothing like Yugi, and she did not fill the gap or create that warmth he needed. She was sweet and he liked her well enough, but she was not...enough.

Atemu reached the little curry diner and stepped in out of the increasingly strong winds. He spied a familiar pair of heads and greeted Jounouchi and Honda warmly. "Atemu!" Rough-housing was exchanged and Atemu punched Jounouchi in the ribs.

"For Yugi," he said jokingly. Everyone smiled.

"Did you get his letter?" Honda asked. Atemu nodded, again deciding not to tell anyone that it was beginning to wear a hole in his back pocket. "Yeah, me too. That guy. I'm telling you. He has to write like, what, four letters? To all of us? I don't have the patience. I don't even know what to write just to Yugi, let alone to three more people." Honda shook his head, running a hand through his hair and rifling through his wallet. "Hey, uh, Jounouchi, you wouldn't happen to have-"

"Don't even think about it. You owe me two meals, you got that Hiroto?" Jounouchi said, pushing an accusing finger in Honda's face.

"I'll get your lunch, Honda," Atemu said stepping up to the counter and ordering three curries to-go before anyone could argue against him.

"Thanks," Honda muttered, blushing. Money was a sore subject, as he usually had very little of it. In the past six months, he'd had seven jobs, and been fired from all of them. Tokyo was quickly running out of places for Honda Hiroto to work. Jounouchi ordered his own and they all began walking back toward the Game Shop. "Think Yugi's grampa will mind if we eat with you guys?"

"As long as you buy whatever it is you're thinking about not buying," Atemu pointed out, jabbing him with a pair of chopsticks. Jounouchi and Honda grinned sheepishly.

These were his friends. The four of them would go everywhere together, but with Yugi gone, the trio seemed...lacking. Sometimes Jounouchi's sister joined them, sometimes their old friend Miho. But otherwise, it was a guy thing. Always together. Always doing something they shouldn't be. Atemu wanted this to feel like it should. The three of them could be enough. It could be just fine without Yugi, but he knew otherwise. He knew that there was a spot somewhere between them, they were trying to fill, wordlessly. And failing miserably at it.

Inside the store, Suguroku clicked his tongue and warned Jounouchi and Honda that if they didn't act like paying customers, he'd kick them out. "Just because you're Yugi's friends doesn't mean my store is yours. Be careful," he warned, then gave a great laugh and pulled two more chairs from a closet for them. They all ate loudly, and Atemu forgot, for a moment, that he was supposed to be unhappy. He had to miss Yugi. He wanted, badly, to miss him and need him to be there, even if Yugi did not feel as strongly as he did. The heartache began to fade and, for a moment, he missed it completely. He checked himself and his heart and felt, clearly, that he was beginning to feel alright. For now.

Among his friends and good, warm food, Atemu breathed and felt alive.