New Beginnings

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

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Beep Beep

Beep Beep

'Hnn…' Yuugi rolled over and pulled his covers over his ears, 'Fuck a duck…' He said, his voice muffled by the cotton sheets.

'What was that Yuugi?' Atemu's voice sounded from above him, Yuugi's eyes shot open and he bolted upright. 'Atemu, I didn't know you were in here!'

Atemu rolled his eyes, 'Obviously. C'mon, I've made pancakes, get dressed and get to the kitchen before you're late for your bus.' He left, rubbing his forehead and squinting slightly.

Yuugi picked up on this, 'Headache 'Temu?' He said, rolling out of bed and half falling onto the floor.

'Nothing to worry about.' Atemu's voice called from the kitchen.

'Have you taken some paracetemol?' Yuugi asked, crawling on the floor looking for his trousers.

'Yes Mother!' Atemu mocked Yuugi.

'Oh shush you!' Yuugi called as he blearily pulled himself into a standing position.

Atemu chuckled slightly, then moaned and clutched his head again, 'Oww…' He moaned.

As Yuugi practically crawled his way into the kitchen, Atemu picked up the Seattle local paper and turned to the job section. It was a while since he had done this; his last job wasn't exactly one you'd advertise in the papers.

'What are you doing?' Yuugi asked concern laced in his voice.

Atemu placed down the paper and looked, with some difficulty, into his younger brother's eyes. 'Yuugi, you know that I wasn't entirely happy with my job right?' He'd never told Yuugi what he was, but he knew that Yuugi knew it wasn't entirely honorable.

Yuugi nodded, he did know, the amount of times Atemu had been in tears over his job stuck in his memories.

'Well, I've decided I'm not working there any more..' Atemu smiled faintly at the freedom he felt when saying that.

Yuugi smiled as well and ran to give Atemu a hug, 'Finally.' He muttered into Atemu's hair, 'I've been wondering when you'd find somewhere else.' Atemu opened his mouth to reply, but got a mouthful of Yuugi's hair; he pulled back and looked Yuugi in the eyes. 'Thank you.' Was all he could say before he pulled him back into an embrace.

Atemu looked up at the building in front of him, it was a fairly new two storey building, with windows littered in the oddest places with seemingly no logical thought, and the building was decorated with purple and green fairy lights for the Christmas season that was coming up. The door was propped open by a bar stool and the sound of light hearted chatter came from inside the club. Atemu nervously entered, he stopped a woman wearing black combat trousers and a green corset with multi-coloured dreadlocked hair, 'Uh, hi, I'm looking for someone called, uh, Boo or uh, Ketegdra…?'

The woman smiled pleasantly and stuck out her hand for Atemu to shake, 'I'm Boo.' Atemu nodded, his throat suddenly very dry. Boo smiled at Atemu reassuringly, 'Don't be nervous, I don't bite, much.' She said, leading Atemu through KRASH!.

Atemu laughed, nervousness seeping away a little at this woman's relaxed air, 'I'm Atemu Namonaki.' He said as he followed Boo past the bar until they came to a door that blended into the black walls. Boo opened the door and entered, motioning for Atemu to follow her.

'Now then,' She said, 'Normally Ketegdra would be helping me but she's tied up with something else, so, I shall be your interviewer this evening,' She gave a little bow and laughed, Atemu chuckled, he liked this woman already. 'Ok, let's get to business shall we?' Boo sat down behind her desk and motioned for Atemu to sit on the chair opposite the desk. 'Right, have you had any past experiences with bartending?'

Atemu nodded, 'When I turned sixteen I got a job serving drinks at a restaurant and I've had various jobs like that since then.'

Boo nodded happily, 'Ok then,' She opened up her drawer and pulled out a couple of sheets of paper and a pen before pushing them across the desk to Atemu, 'could you fill in this please?'

Atemu smiled and took the paper before scanning through the questions;

1. What is your favourite colour?

2. What hobbies do you have?

3. What is your first childhood memory?

'Uh, are you serious?' Atemu said in confusion.

'Deadly.' The reply came.

'Alright then…' He got to work, filling in the various questions.

Boo sat back and grinned to herself, she loved seeing how people reacted to the quiz, Bakura had told her to fuck off, so naturally she had hired him, Seto had written his answers in Japanese, so naturally she had hired him and Malik had completed the quiz in invisible ink, so naturally she had hired him.

But there was a real reason for the quiz, while the interviewees were concentrating; their auras were at their strongest, if she liked their auras, they were practically hired. Allowing her eyes to unfocus slightly, she was shocked, she had never seen so many colours in someone's aura, there were flashes of carmine, indicating that this man was seeking change. This was to be expected, seeing as he was applying for a new job, although it was a little stronger than usual. He also had vermillion as well, showing Atemu's creativeness. Amber floated around his heart area, showing that he had individual strength and courage. She smiled, she wanted that in an employee. But for all these good things, there were so many dark colours in his aura, as she explained to Ketegdra later, 'He had so much black…' When Ketegdra looked at her for meaning she said quickly, 'It often shows in the auras of abused children, divorcees, drug addicts and people who have experienced torture or great trauma in their lives, there wasn't just that either, there was a dark green, showing mental stress, a charcoal grey, showing depression and worst of all…' Ketegdra smiled at her reassuringly, 'Go on.'

'He had this mixture of colours that I've only ever seen once before; it means that… he's going to die.' Boo let a tear fall, Ketegdra was silent, for all her charades and acts; Boo was really still a child, slightly immature, perfect ideals and very sensitive to anything related to death. 'I hope you didn't hire him.' Ketegdra said, 'You know you wouldn't be able to deal with working with him face to face.' She looked at Boo, who had a very guilty expression on her face. 'Boo!'

'I'm sorry! But he was so damn cute and who am I to deny him happiness in his last few…' Boo began crying again while Ketegdra rolled her eyes and put her arm around her. 'Don't worry, maybe you're wrong?' Boo nodded, and wiped the tears away, 'I hope so.' She said in a small voice, 'Because he seems like too nice a guy to die.'

'And you're sure that you're ok with me working nights?' Atemu said for the umpteenth time.

'Yes!' Yuugi exclaimed as he pushed Atemu out of the door, 'Now go already!'

'Alright, but if you need me home just text me ok, I have my phone on.' Atemu said, worrying already about leaving Yuugi alone at night.

'Ok ok!' Atemu found himself in the hallway with the apartment door closed and a parting word from Yuugi wishing him good luck.

Now that it was his first night, Atemu was starting to feel nervous; it had been a while since he had had to deal with a thirsty, overbearing and often drunk crowd. Ok, so that was a lie, but he wasn't sure if working at a nightclub was a good idea, many of his former clients stalked the clubs in search of prey. 'Maybe I should have applied to work at a nice café…' Atemu muttered as he neared KRASH!'s back door.

He could hear laughter as he walked through the open door into the staffroom; he put his bag in one of the lockers that Boo had shown him when he left from the interview and looked around for the dreadlocked woman, instead he came face to face with a tanned sandy blonde man who promptly poked his face.

'Can I help you?' Atemu said, kicking back the instinct that told him to punch this guy in the face for being so close.

'You're the new guy huh?' Malik said, running his eyes over Atemu's body.

'Yes. I am.' Atemu said bluntly, wishing that this man would stop mentally undressing him, if he wanted that then he wouldn't have changed jobs.

Malik looked up into Atemu's eyes and knew immediately he had made a mistake, the man in front of him was chewing his lip in worry. 'Uh, hey I'm sorry, I'm always doing this, I'm a recovering sex addict you know.'

'As you like to keep telling everyone.' A voice drawled out from the door, Atemu turned to face his rescuer and his heart skipped a beat. The man was gorgeous. White spiky hair fell to the man's leather clad hips. He wore an open white shirt, showing off his pale torso. With a start Atemu realized that the man was walking towards him.

'The name's Bakura.' He said, holding his hand out.

Atemu took the hand and shook it slowly, in a sort of stupor, before he realized that the man was looking at him strangely. 'Ahem, I'm Atemu, the new bartender.' He blushed heavily.

Bakura smirked, 'So you'll be the one replacing Duke, hope you can try to live up to his standards.' Bakura left, leaving Malik rolling his eyes and Atemu suddenly feeling ten times worse. 'Is he always like that…?' Atemu asked weakly.

Malik laughed, 'Always! Take no notice of him.' He grabbed Atemu's arm and led him into the main stage area where there was flurry of motion as various people ran around getting the club ready for the night ahead of them. Malik pulled Atemu to Ketegdra, 'Here's your new bartender, I've gotta go do something! See ya Hunny!'

Blushing heavily at Malik's openness, although he didn't know why because he had encountered worse, Atemu said shyly, 'Uh, hi…' Ketegdra looked at him for a moment studiously before smiling and saying, 'Well you can never say Boo doesn't know what she's doing.' When Atemu looked quizzically at Ketegdra she smirked, 'You'll figure it out. Now, I'll show you where everything is in the bar, I assume you know the usual tricks of the trade?' Ketegdra didn't wait for Atemu's answer before walking over to the bar clearly expecting Atemu to follow her so she could show him where everything is.

After Ketegdra had shown Atemu the bar area she got called away and the crimson eyed man was left standing alone in the busy club. He stood still for a moment, trying to get his courage together to talk to Bakura who was currently reading his book with avid fascination on his face.

He opened his mouth to talk, but found no words to come out. He wondered where his bravado had gone, in his earlier job, he could get anyone to want him, even if they were straight… but now, he felt weak. Of course he didn't want to come on to everyone to make them like him, in fact it was the total opposite, but at the rate he was going, he wasn't going to be able to make small talk, let alone friendships.

'When you want to stop drooling over me, let me know.' Bakura said dryly as he turned a page, Atemu blushed.

'Like I would.' Atemu retorted automatically, but then regretted being so rude. He turned to the bar and brushed off an imaginary speck of dust, while trying to quell the angry, swirling feeling inside of him that told him to run. Bakura saw that the man was nervous and rolled his eyes, 'Look, you don't need to be so nervous, we're all pretty open minded around here, especially Boo and Ketegdra, they're probably the best people I've ever met, you can't disappoint them as long as you work hard and be as open minded as they are with you.' When Atemu still looked down, rubbing the bar with a cloth to clean the invisible stain, Bakura sighed and said, 'Look, it's obvious that you have some kind of past that you don't want anyone to know about,' Atemu looked up sharply, but Bakura ignored this and carried on, 'but you're not the only one, nearly everyone here has something in their past that they regret, but this is the special thing about this place, people start to see that they can open up again and let other people in. It sounds corny and when Seto gave me this talk I nearly socked him one, but…' Bakura paused and ran a hand through his hair, 'it's true, you learn to trust again in this place…' Bakura looked past Atemu and stared into space for a moment, memories playing in his mind, before he blinked and turned sharply back to his book, ignoring Atemu again.

Atemu watched Bakura for a moment, before smiling and holding out his hand, 'Thanks.'

Bakura took an eye of his book before grinning back and shaking the offered hand firmly, 'No problem. Now bugger off, I want to finish this chapter before we open.' Atemu laughed and pulled away to wander around KRASH! to see if he could be of any use to anyone.

Once Atemu had got over his initial shyness, he started to have fun, bartending was easier than he remembered and his first night of working alongside Bakura was an experience than Atemu would never forget. At the moment, Bakura was currently juggling five bottles while Atemu tried desperately not to distract him with his laughing.

'Hey, can I have a White Russian,' A disgruntled man said, pushing through the crowd who were currently gaping at Bakura. Atemu smiled, 'Certainly.' He said smoothly, grabbing the necessary ingredients. He started to mix it, smirking and winking at one of the girls who had gathered at the bar purely to flirt with him.

Bakura laughed as he continued juggling, then suddenly, quick as a whip, Bakura caught each bottle individually and placed them on the bar, to enthusiastic applause. He bowed and blew kisses to various people in the audience, before he heard the smashing of a bottle, he turned to see who had caused the accident and to his surprise saw Atemu standing there, his hand still vaguely in the shape of holding the bottle, his eyes staring into nothingness. Bakura stared incredulously at him and said roughly, 'Well clean it up then.' After a couple of seconds the crimson eyed man seemingly sprang to life again and his cheeks burned to a fierce scarlet, not unlike his eyes. He dropped to the floor to begin picking the shards of glass up, Bakura scowled, 'Use a towel you idiot.' He growled, throwing a towel to the kneeling man. Bakura didn't like anyone messing up anything, especially when there was an audience.

Atemu knelt on the floor, his hands were shaking violently. He had never experienced anything like that before, but he knew what it was. An 'Absence Seizure'. He'd read the leaflets, but they hadn't prepared him for the real thing. He'd thought that an absence seizure would be the least of his problems, he'd been worrying about a full blown tonic-clonic seizure, the ones you always relate to the word seizure, but even the littlest thing to do with his tumour messed up everything. He'd been doing so well; he had got Bakura to respect him and many people to like him. And then his stupid illness had to ruin it all. His hands shook and he cut himself on a piece of glass, it also didn't help that the glass had formerly been holding in Vodka. Atemu cried out softly and raised his finger to his mouth, sucking the blood out, to numb the pain.

Bakura scowled at the figure on the floor but kept up with the thirsty crowd. He couldn't wait to get the idiot on his own so he could shout at him. Luckily for him, and perhaps not so luckily for Atemu, the 11'o'clock band, Abstract, came on stage, giving Bakura the chance to stoop to Atemu's level and whisper angrily in his ear, 'What the hell was that!'

Atemu trembled slightly, not liking the feeling of Bakura being so close behind him, 'I… I'm sorry…' Bakura bit his tongue to prevent him from cursing at the quivering man in front of him. Gritting his teeth, Bakura forced himself to say, 'It's alright, it was an accident.' Bakura frowned when Atemu didn't reply and stepped around him to come face-to-face with the crimson-eyed man. He started, when he saw Atemu chewing his lip, noticeably shaking, as though all confidence and bravado had flooded out of him. 'Hey…' Bakura noticed Atemu's bleeding finger and took it in his hands, 'You should get this under some water, it must sting pretty bad.' Nervous with the thought of dealing with the emotional wreck he had on his hands, Bakura helped Atemu stand up and wobble his way over to the sink. As Atemu washed his hand, his eyes staring blankly at the blood being washed into the water, Bakura picked up the remaining glass and shoved it into the bin. He pulled a beer for a customer who had been waiting for a while before turning back to Atemu, thankful for Abstract who were successfully distracting the crowd. 'Look,' He murmured, 'You shouldn't take everything I say to heart, I can be a bit of an emotionless stick sometimes, I often don't think about what I'm saying and how it will affect other people. You've handled tonight really well and I think Boo and Ketegdra did great thing hiring you.'

Atemu turned to Bakura and chuckled, trying to erase what had just happened, 'Thanks, sorry about that, I just kinda zoned out a bit.'

Bakura shook his head, 'Don't worry about it, how about we strike a deal, I'll clean up the remaining Vodka, and you never mention to anyone that I have a sensitive side!' He looked at the man before him in confusion, one minute he's shaking on the floor, the next he's laughing away.

Atemu laughed, 'Deal.' He said, before a woman came to the bar, asking for a Bloody Mary, he swept away reluctantly, putting on a charming smile and serving up the drink with a slight purr to his voice. Bakura marveled at the mask this man could put up. He rolled his eyes at the girl, who simpered and batted her eyelashes, while pulling up a barstool.

'And Ketegdra thought he didn't know any tricks…' Bakura muttered, amused as Atemu slyly offered her another drink.

As the last few customers left, Atemu yawned and stretched slightly, his t-shirt riding up. 'If you don't want me to jump you I would stop doing that.' Malik said mischievously as he walked through the bar.

Atemu jumped and quickly brought his arms down, but unfortunately cracked his elbow on the bar. 'Ow!' He exclaimed, 'That was your fault.' He pouted at Malik who just chuckled and walked away. Bakura laughed at the amusing picture of Atemu pouting while clutching onto his elbow for dear life. 'Having fun?' He asked with a smirk.

Atemu blushed, 'Oh shut up!' He said laughing, 'I can be a bit clumsy alright!' Bakura laughed, 'A bit?' He said before Atemu hit him playfully. 'Anyway, I have something to ask of you.' Atemu looked at him quizzically, 'There's a tradition here at KRASH!, on a new employees first night, we always take them out for breakfast, so would you like to join Boo, Ketegdra, Malik, Seto, Jonouchi and myself for breakfast? The rest of them couldn't make it.' He rested against the bar, while waiting for Atemu's answer.

Atemu made a face, 'Sorry, I have to get back, I promised my brother that I'd be home to see him off for school.'

Bakura scowled, 'Atemu, it's three in the morning, what time does the kid leave?!'

Atemu bit his lip, 'I know but I don't want him to worry…'

Bakura rolled his eyes, 'How old is he?'

'Sixteen.' Came the answer.

'Well then I'm sure he can take care of himself, look I think you're suffering from a severe bout of over-protectiveness, my cure is simple.' Bakura slung an arm around Atemu, noticing that the shorter man blushed a little, 'One breakfast with your new workmates.'

Atemu frowned, 'I… alright then.' He smiled weakly at the grin Bakura gave him.

'Good good.' Bakura guided Atemu towards the door where Boo and Seto stood, waiting for the others to come.

'Pass us the ketchup Hunny.' Malik said to Atemu, winking. Atemu rolled his eyes and handed the obviously reachable condiment to the hyperactive man beside him, 'There you go.' Malik smiled happily and squirted liberal amounts onto his waffle. Atemu watched on, disgusted, 'Are you really going to eat that…' He said weakly.

Bakura laughed from the other side of Atemu, 'It's best not to look!' as Malik began shoveling the waffle into his mouth at an inhuman rate. 'I fancied Malik for a bit when I first joined KRASH!, that is, until I found out that he ate like a pig!'

Malik gave Bakura the finger before saying with his mouth full, 'Whatever!'

Jonouchi, who was sitting opposite Malik said in a horrified tone, 'Dude, say it, don't spray it!'

To which Malik replied, 'Oh that's the oldest saying in the book!'

Atemu turned to the other side of him to talk quietly to Bakura, 'Thanks for putting up with me today, it couldn't have been fun' He took a sip of the cranberry juice that Boo had ordered for him, insisting that he would like it, before pulling a face and putting the juice down.

Bakura laughed at Atemu's expression before saying seriously, 'To be honest, I quite enjoyed it, apart from the whole glass incident,' He looked slightly guilty when he met Atemu's eyes but continued on regardless, 'But don't have such low self esteem, I like you...' He looked away from Atemu to survey Malik and Jonouchi who were now pelting food at each other, while a slight red tinge came to his face.

Atemu tried to make himself say something but failed miserably and instead blushed heavily and pushed his scrambled eggs around his plate, he was about to try and make himself eat. Suddenly a thought occurred to him, 'Hey Malik, what's the time?' He interrupted the food fight.

Malik checked his watch, 'It's a little bit past six Hunny.' He smiled, before throwing a maple syrup covered chip at Jonouchi, 'Eww it's sticky!' He exclaimed, inspecting his nails, horrified at the mess he'd made on them.

Atemu pulled a face, 'I'd better go…' He said reluctantly, 'Can you let me out?' He said shyly to Bakura who shuffled out of the booth. 'Thanks for the meal guys,' Atemu opened up his wallet to pay when Jonouchi said, 'Don't bother Dude, Boo's got it.' The whole table nodded and snickered, while Boo looked on helplessly.

'Somebody could chip in y'know…' She said looking at Seto in particular. He rolled his eyes and shoved his wallet towards Boo.

Atemu shook his head, 'But I should pay for it…'

Boo laughed, 'Don't worry! Seto and I have it, we'd never drag someone out for breakfast and then make them pay for it, well maybe Malik, but you're too nice.' She gave the peace sign to Malik when he looked up from his pile of waffles.

'…Well if you're sure…' Atemu said in uncertainty. She nodded happily.

'I'll walk you out,' Bakura muttered. Atemu blushed again and thanked everyone at the table for a great time before following Bakura out the door.

Once outside, Bakura took Atemu's hand and shook it, 'You did well today, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.' He started to walk inside before Atemu called out, 'Wait.'

Bakura turned round.

'I like you too…' Atemu said smiling, his face as red as a tomato, before turning and walking away quickly, mortified.

Bakura's face broke out in an uncontrollable grin, he stared after the fast retreating back of his new co-worker until he had turned the corner before Bakura went back inside, humming tunelessly.

As Bakura sat down at the table again, everyone turned to him. 'What!' He said defensively.

'Oh dear, is that a smile we see on our grumpy Bakura's face!' Malik laughed.

'Can't be! Must be gas.' Jonouchi replied wickedly.

'Watch it.' Bakura said grabbing his coffee and taking a glug.

'I think somebody likes our new employee.' Ketegdra said with a smirk.

Boo laughed, 'He must do, he actually forgave him when he dropped a glass!'

The whole table gasped mockingly, Malik grabbed a fork and held it to Bakura's throat, 'All right, who are you and what have you done with Bakura?!'

Bakura chuckled, 'All right, so I like him, big deal.'

'Great!' Malik said before turning to Jonouchi, 'I bet you ten dollars they get together before Christmas!'

'You're on!' Jonouchi said excitedly, throwing his money on the table.

'You guys think far too much of my seducing skills, that only gives me three weeks!' Bakura said laughing.

'Au contraire, my little pumpkin,' Malik said, 'I am the master of all things to do with love and I predict you'll be together in the next three weeks!'

Jonouchi scoffed, 'I think not! I'm with Bakura on this one; I reckon they'll hook up some time around New Years Eve.'

Bakura shook his head, 'I can't believe you're betting on this…' He muttered.

Boo shrugged, 'We did it with Duke and his boyfriend.' She laid five dollars on the table, 'I'm with Malik.' She declared.

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