Chapter 4 (I do not own Yugioh)
Yugi was tired and his shoulder ached, his head pounded and made the ancient hieroglyphic text on the pages he studied swim off the pages. All he wanted to do was go home take a hot shower, or maybe a bath he thought, curled up in his nice comfy arm chair with a cup of half hot chocolate and half coffee and let his mind go blank. But he couldn't, that wasn't an option because his apartment wasn't a secure location and instead he would haft to go back to the mansion that Atem owned. He sighed heavily as he set the old parchment paper down and checked the time, twenty minutes, just twenty minutes more and he could go home. He began to pack up his things, sorting through the files and notes taking his own more in-depth files home, he always took them home, if he didn't they were likely to get stolen by one of his colleges and passed off as his own work.
"Are you done for the day?" Atem asked as he was roused from playing a game on his phone, next time he would remember to bring a book with him.
"Just about, another ten minutes before I officially clock off." Yugi paused a moment before he decided to ask his question. "Do you think we could stop by my apartment before we head to your house, there are something's I need to pick up from there."
"That's fine, as long as-" Atem's words were cut off by the loud bang of the door thrown open. In an instance Atem was up his weapon raised and ready, and to Yugi's surprise so was Joey even though he had been sound asleep in one of the chairs a second ago. "Hands in the air!" Atem said calmly in a deep voice that sent shivers down Yugi's spin as it bordered on dangerous. The fat man with his double chins froze at the site of the guns, then looked at Yugi before he turned an unnatural shade of red.
"Stop, that's my boss!" Yugi said quickly, a little worried about whether his job was on the line now. Atem glanced back at Yugi then to the fat man again before he slowly lowered his weapon, joey doing the same.
"Sorry about that, you startled us." Atem said trying to defuse the situation, after hearing what Yugi had said about this guy and the fact his face had quickly turned red in anger at the sight of them the tension in the room went from shaky to catastrophic in a heartbeat.
"You're sorry, you're sorry," the fat man paused a second and looked pointedly at Yugi. "My office. Now." Yugi sighed there was no getting around this, and he was surprised that it didn't happen earlier. Yugi flowed his boss Mr. Johnson out of the room and to his office, where he listened to his boss rant at him. "What do you think you're doing bringing these two with you to work? This is a peaceful place not someplace where you can just go pulling out your weapons on everybody that walks through here. This is unacceptable!" Yugi was tired and he still had a pounding headache which caused his tongue to become rather sharp with barely hidden insults. And by the time they were done Yugi was sure he had insulted his boss at least three times without being caught, he gave some random excuse about the two before handing over a card with Atem's and Joey's Captains contact info on it and told him to call him before he left.
Yugi was silent on their way home only speaking when he needed to give directions to his apartment. When they got there he felt Atem and Joey exchange a surprised glance with each other, the place they stopped was an old run down red brick building that looked to be barely up to code. But they didn't say anything as they followed Yugi up to the fourth floor, by way of stairs as the elevator didn't work. The floors were covered in old faded carpet and every few steps the boards underneath squeaked, some of the hallway lights were out or flickering and the industrial green wallpaper was missing or pealing in some spots. They finally came to a door with 4D in painted black letters, Yugi unlocked the door then using the old time tradition of ramming your shoulder into it opened the door.
Compared to the outside of the building Yugi's apartment was a breath of fresh air. He wasn't in any way living the high life, but at least the rooms were clean and painted an appealing purple grey. There was a single old brown couch and a red arm chair in the living room surrounding a small sanded wooden table surrounded by a sea of books some new and others so old they were still in old fashioned hand sewn leather binders. There was a door that leads to the bedroom with a small space set off for the bathroom.
The bedroom was just as sparse as the living room with only a bed and small table and by Atem's judgment a sturdy handmade wooden book shelf that was like the rest of the room coverd in books. Yugi immediately went into the small curtained off closet and pulled out a suitcase and two duffel bags. The smaller bag he filled with clothes, and the other two he filled with books and other things Atem had no name for.
"There tools for working with artifacts, and there expensive, along with the books that I'm taking with me. If I leave them here there's a good chance that they'll get stolen while I'm gone." Yugi said as he pulled books from the shelf and then began searching through the stacks on the ground.
"No, I understand. This isn't the safest of neighborhoods, and some of these look really rare." Atem said as he looked at an old bound book he couldn't even understand the first sentence in it, even though it was written in English. Yugi smirked at the polite comment about where he lived, he knew this place was a complete dump but he didn't complain, it was what he could afford. He continued to fill the two bags with books and last but not least a dark stained cherry wood box that held some of the most important things in his life. He placed it in before zipping up the bags.
"Here I'll get this one." Joey said helpfully as he went to pick up the duffel bag full of books, Yugi watched amused as he almost toppled over by its weight. "What the hell, this thing ways a ton!" Yugi suppressed a chuckle as he took the bag from the taller blond, and slipped the strap over his shoulder like it weighed nothing. "What the hell, how is that thing not toppling you over?"
"I'm used to moving heavy things like this, and I'm stronger than I look." But it wasn't that easy Yugi was only just barely managing to stay upright. "You move heavy stone artifacts for a living you figure out how to move heavy things." Yugi was barely able to stop the laugh that was threatening to bubble out at the annoyed look and the blonds face.
"I don't think it's that." Atem said as hefted the much heavier suitcase off the floor. "He's just not as strong as he would like to thin he is. Why don't you grad the last duffle bag that should be light enough for you." Atem teased his miffed partner. "Is there anything else you need to grab?" Atem turned to the door as he saw Yugi shake of the head.
Yugi had barely heard the question from Atem, he was too busy admiring the strong and sexy ripple of muscle as Atem lifted and carried the suitcase of books. They bunched and coiled under his skin tight shirt, his biceps bulging attractively under that dusty tanned bronze skin of his. Yugi had been mortified when he realized they intense admiring he had been doing and the slight perverse thoughts that had started to flash in his mind. Afraid that his voice might have given him away he just shook his head before following him out of his apartment. Which wasn't such a good idea, as he was behind the detective the whole way down the stairs. Meaning he had a good view of those muscles in his arms and shoulders and an even better view of the ones in his back.
Yugi mentally shook himself, hard, it had just been awhile since he had had sex with anyone. It was just some built up sexual frustration, that's all it was. Yep all it was. And besides he highly doubted Atem went for guys, he was to good looking for that. And it's not like Yugi only went for guys, he just found one night stands easier with guys, less feeling involved than with a girl. Yugi shook himself again and forcefully turned his mind to other things, why should he even care if Atem was straight or gay, it's not like anything was going to happen with them.
A painful twinge ran through Yugi's heart at the thought, and a sad and dark feeling settled over his heart. 'I'm just tired is all.' You thought to himself and turned his mind to his grandpa, he should have gone to see him, but he was just too tired, he was sure his grandpa would understand.
"Hey, Yug? You all right?" Joey asked as they lifted the bags into the trunk of the car. He had been watching the him for a while and seen several mixed emotions cross his face.
"Ya I'm fine. My shoulder aches a little is all. I'll be fine." Yugi said and effectively cut off any further questions by getting into the back of the car. Joey watched him from the rear view mirror, and worried. He found he was really worried for him, and he found it more from the feelings of being friends than purely out of duty.
In an attempt to cheer up the atmosphere he purposely did something stupid, by hitting his head on the ceiling of the car as he excitedly yelled out they should get pizza and ice cream for dinner. It had the desired effect and had both Atem and Yugi laughed loudly, which lifted the mood in the car as they began to debate the type of ice cream and toppings on the pizza. Considering his job done Joey settled down and joined the debate as he rubbed his sore head.