Nemesis

Disclaimer: I do not own YU-GI-Oh.

A/N: Thank you very much for your encouraging reviews. I truly appreciate them.

Chapter Three:

Atemu impatiently tapped his fingers on the wooden bar as he waited for Joey to show up. It was very typical of his blonde friend to be late whenever he was in a hurry.

"Atemu, what are you doing here?" the professional swimmer gave the brunette waitress, Tea, a small smile as she stood next to him. She looked frustrated and a little out of breath.

"I'm waiting for Joey. Do you know where he is? What is all this noise about anyway?" Atemu asked as he watched the girl put the empty tray on the bar and run a hand through her shoulder length hair. She looked ready to cry.

"Good thing you came by. Joey's in a fight…again."

"What? Why?" Atemu gave the waitress an incredulous look.

"I don't know, Atemu! Why does he have to be such a trouble maker? I swear he'll lose his job this time." Tea put her hands on her hips and gave Atemu a deadly glare; as if it was his fault that Joey managed to get into fights wherever he went.

"Ok. Tell me where he is." Tea impatiently pointed to the middle of the crowd where people were cheering and screaming and loudly huffed. She sometimes reminded Atemu of a mother who had seven kids.

"I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you, Atemu. You're my savior."

Passing through the crowd was very difficult, and Atemu was panting and sweating as he finally spotted Joey in the centre. It was a very ugly sight; his friend and another blonde man throwing punches in the air, some of them missing and others landing on each other's faces. It wasn't helping at all that people seemed to enjoy the fight.

"What the hell are you doing, Joey?" Atemu half whispered, half shouted as he grabbed his friend's shoulders and pulled the blonde back. Joey was still punching the air.

"Let me go! Let me kill that fucker. I bet he fucks his dad every night. That faggot!" Joey's careless words seemed to anger the other man even more. He narrowed his eyes as he launched to attach, but another man grabbed him from behind, signaling to Atemu to take Joey out of the bar as fast as possible. Atemu nodded his head as he dragged the still very angry Joey away from the crowd.

Joey was still cursing as Atemu opened the door and pushed Joey out.

"What was that all about?" Atemu angrily whispered as he grabbed Joey's wrist in order to stop him from going in again.

"That fucking faggot! He hit on me! I was this close to sticking the bottle of beer in his ass! Since he likes to be fucked so badly." Atemu stared at him with wide eyes.

"I can't believe you, Joey! You were punching him because he hit on you? You could have told him you were straight. End of story."

"I can't believe you're saying this. He was a faggot." Joey vehemently replied.

"I can't believe you're being so homophobic! And stop using that word!" Atemu angrily spat back. This wasn't a conversation he liked to have with his best friend.

"They all deserve to burn in hell. They're just way too gross." Joey heatedly muttered as he turned around and walked away from the bar. Atemu stood motionless for a few seconds before shaking his head and following Joey, trying to ignore the tightness he was feeling in his chest.

"Why did you come here any way?" Joey took out a cigar from his pocket and put it between his lips before quickly lighting it with his cheap lighter.

"I came here to give you the keys, but you were…busy."

"Where are you going?"

Atemu paused for a few seconds before replying. "There's a match between Mahado and Marik. I…I want to watch it." Joey shook his head in a disappointing manner.

"Have you forgotten what Marik did last time you went?"

"I'm allowed to miss my brother, ok?" Atemu defensively responded while angrily stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"Yeah, the brother who didn't support you when your dear daddy kicked you out. Has he ever called you after that? No."

"Why are you being so bitter today?" Atemu finally screamed, losing control. He didn't want to stand in front of Joey, listening to him talk while he made him feel worthless and loveless at the same time.

Joey sighed and shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. "Sorry man, it has nothing to do with you. It's just that Mai hasn't been answering my calls lately." Atemu decided not to comment on that.

"I…I'm gonna be late. Here are the keys." The young swimmer extended his hand to give Joey the keys, but Joey shook his head.

"I'm not gonna be home tonight. I've got work to do." Joey tried to meet him in the eyes, but Atemu averted his eyes from Joey's, afraid that he might notice the look of hurt in them.

"Ok then. I'll…I'll see you tomorrow." Atemu didn't wait for a reply as he quickly walked away. He didn't want to think about what Joey was going to do tonight. He didn't want to think about what he had said a few minutes ago either. He just wanted to walk away. Funny, he seemed to walk away from everything lately. Only he didn't realize that it would never get him anywhere.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Atemu held his breath as he waited for the referee to choose the winner. People seemed to be doing the same thing; because the stadium had suddenly become deadly quiet. There were few seconds of torturous silence and the referee's right hand finally went up. Mahado was the winner.

The opponents didn't shake hands. They just slightly bowed and soon were out of sight. Atemu motionlessly sat on his chair and listened as some people cursed the referee and the others applauded him. The youngest son in the Ramses family didn't know which side to take. Surely he was upset that his eldest brother had just lost the opportunity to go to the Olympics, but he couldn't help but feel a little satisfied, too. A voice inside his head was whispering that Marik deserved the lost.

The stadium was almost empty when Atemu finally decided to leave. He stood up and looked down, spotting Mahado who was changing his clothes in a corner. The swimmer paused for a few seconds before making his mind to move down. His brain was screaming at him that this was a bad idea. After months of agony he had finally learnt to move on, and he was about to destroy all those efforts he had made, but his heart had gone crazy. He no longer cared. He needed a closure.

Mahado was busy taking off his sweaty T-shirt as Atemu walked toward him. The voice inside his head gave a final warning, but Atemu decided to ignore that. He stood a few feet away from his Ex-boyfriend and deliberately cleared his throat. He surpassed his smile as the brunette turned around and gave him a shocked look.

"Atemu! What are doing here?" Funny, everybody seemed to be asking that question from him today.

"Hey, yourself."

"I've been so worried about you. God knows how many times I called you after that…incident, but you never picked up. I thought you wanted to…move on."

"Yeah, I really couldn't talk with you." Atemu uncomfortably replied as he bit his lower lip. He had forgotten how nervous he felt whenever he talked with the tall brunette.

"But I'm really glad you came by. You watched the match, I assume?" Mahado was grinning as he asked the question.

"Of course I did, and I'm super happy you kicked his ass." Atemu grinned back and didn't object when Mahado gave him a warm embrace. He let his hands linger for a few seconds on the Brunette's naked back before pulling away.

"Yeah, He had come to kill me though. He looked like an assassin." Mahado stated Atemu gave him a sad smile in reply.

"I feel so guilty. You guys used to be best friends, and now you're enemies because of me."

"Don't be stupid, Atemu. A man who can't accept his brother because he's gay isn't worthy of my time. What your family did to you is unforgivable." Atemu sadly looked down. Mahado's words were ripping his old cuts open.

There was a few awkward seconds of silence before Mahado friendly patted Atemu's back. Atemu gave him a watery smile in response.

"I miss you sometimes." Mahado's voice turned deep as it always did when he talked about personal matters.

"Me too… sometimes." Atemu replied as he stared at the brown eyes. He felt his heart flipping with excitement and fear, but decided to ignore it. God, what was he getting himself into?

"Maybe you should give my apartment a visit…sometimes." There was a glint in those eyes that Atemu couldn't help but notice.

"Yeah, maybe I should." Atemu smirked and gave his former boyfriend a suggestive wink. Boy, how much he had missed to be this playful!

Mahado put on a clean T-shirt and picked up his black pack. He looked as fit as he always did and Atemu was beginning to remember memories he wasn't ready to handle yet. He mentally shook his head.

Mahado raised an eyebrow in a suggestive manner. "So, are you coming with me?"

"I'd love to…but I wanna say hi to Marik first." The swimmer uncertainly replied and watched as Mahado slowly nodded his head.

"Good luck then. Hopefully, I'll see you around more often."

"Don't worry. You will." Atemu answered back and waved as Mahado turned around and left. He took a deep breath as he glanced at the other side of the stadium. He could see his brother sitting in a corner, probably upset at his lost. He could feel the butterflies rising in his stomach.

'I can do this.' Atemu uncertainly assured himself as he took a deep breath and walked toward his brother. He could feel the hair on the back of his neck standing as he stood in front of the eldest son of the Ramses family. Thankfully, Marik hadn't noticed him yet.

"Hey, Marik." Atemu slowly muttered and bit his lower as he waited for a reply. 'God, please don't let him ignore me.' He silently prayed as he bit the inside of his cheeks.

Marik looked up and raised his eyebrows, but he didn't say anything.

"I'm…I'm sorry for the lost. Next time maybe." Atemu tried to give his brother a reassuring smile, but miserably failed.

Marik didn't say anything. There was an awkward silence between them before Marik finally stood up. He picked his bag up from the floor and put his blue towel around his neck. He opened his mouth, but then closed it again and shook his head. He didn't give Atemu a second glance as he passed, and he was gone just like that.

Atemu felt his heartbeat stop as he stared ahead of him for a long, long time.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Atemu sighed in relief as the door of his locker finally opened. Taking his white towel out of the small locker, Atemu murmured curses under his breath as he angrily dried his hair. Today had certainly been the worst day of his life. First hearing Joey saying those offending words, then his brother ignoring him like he was a piece of trash, his ankle throbbing through the whole practice, Seto giving him that you-owe-me look all the time and finally banging on the locker door for thirty five minutes to get it open. Could things get any worse?

Atemu loudly groaned as he heard someone clear his throat behind him. Great! The last thing he needed at the moment was a company.

"What do you want?" He angrily shouted as he turned around to give the person a deadly glare, but quickly changed his mind as he saw the look of shock on Yugi's face.

"Yugi?"

"I'm…I'm sorry. This is clearly not a good time to talk. I'll see you later." The poor boy hastily turned around to leave, but Atemu grabbed his arm to stop him from doing so. He was already feeling guilty for shouting. God, what was wrong with him today?

"No, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted." The young coach miserably muttered as he sat on the white bench and stared at his naked knees. He could feel Yugi's eyes on him, but didn't look up.

"What are you doing here? You don't have classes on Mondays."

"I…I came here to see you." The younger boy nervously muttered as Atemu gave him a surprised look.

"Oh. Is there something wrong?" Atemu casually asked as he stood up and took his jeans out of the locker. He quickly put them on.

"No. I just…can I ask you a personal question?" Atemu hesitantly nodded and put on his black sneakers.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

Atemu was silent for a few seconds. He bit his lower lip as he stared at Yugi's eyes. "How did you find out I'm gay?"

"I…it doesn't matter." Yugi weakly replied and apprehensively shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

"No, I don't have any boyfriends." The coach calmly replied and turned his back on his student. His sexual orientation wasn't something he liked to discuss with his students, or anybody for that matter.

"Can we…can we go out?" Yugi quickly asked and waited for a reply. If it were any other time, he would have laughed at the look of sheer shock on Atemu's face, but he was too anxious to do that at the moment.

"Excuse me?"

"Look, you're gay. I'm gay, and I like you." Yugi stated and boldly moved forward. Atemu had to say yes. Yugi wasn't going to accept it any other way.

"You're gay?"

"Yes." Yugi honestly hoped so.

"Yugi, this is crazy, and you just chose the worst time to ask such a question." Atemu shook his head and put his green shirt on. He just didn't know what to think anymore.

"No, it's not crazy. I like you and I want to go out with you. It makes perfect sense, but if you don't like me…" Yugi pouted.

"No, Yugi. It's not that I don't like you. You're a great kid, but that's were the problem is. You're still a kid!"

"That's not true. I'll be eighteen soon and-"

"And it will be very, very unprofessional of me to go out with my own student and put your position and mine in jeopardy." Atemu paused before continuing. "And I don't want to date someone who'll soon find out that he's straight."

"What? It's not like that! I like you the way gay people like each other. I mean I like your body, too!" Yugi was too excited to think about what he was saying. Atemu smiled despite himself.

"Look, Yugi. You have a crush on me and that's fine. God knows that I. myself have had crushes on countless people, but it's just a crush. I once thought I was in love with my history teacher. I even slept with her. That was when I found out I was gay."

"Then you have to give me a chance! Going out on a date won't hurt anybody. Please, Atemu! Please!" Yugi took a deep breath as he waited for his crush to reply.

"Yugi, this isn't a good idea." Atemu finally replied and picked his bag up from the wet floor. Yugi knew that tone. It meant the conversation was over, but Yugi wasn't going to accept that for an answer.

"You can't decide on my sexuality! Let's go out just once. Please." Yugi desperately took Atemu's hand in his smaller ones. Atemu sighed as he glanced at Yugi's face, Rejection was written all over it. Maybe if he gave it a shot…

"Here's the deal. Let's go home now. Give me some time to think this through. I'll call you tomorrow and give you my answer, Ok?" this wasn't the answer Yugi had been waiting for, but it was better that a plain no. He weakly nodded his head.

"It's settled then. Let's get you home now." Yugi slowly trudged behind the taller man, all the while praying Atemu would say yes tomorrow.

To Be Continued…

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