"So...I called Yugi, but there seems to be no answer." Jou replied after handing Anzu her drink. He popped open a beer against the bar for himself, muttering, "I hope he's trapped under a crossbeam, otherwise I'm going to be pissed."

Anzu chewed on a cherry slowly, carefully setting her drink down.
"This was a set up, wasn't it?" She guessed.

"Well, yeah. Didn't I say that?"

"Your brother has a blank Counter, doesn't he?"

"I sure can't get anything past you, huh?"

She gave a slight chuckle, rubbing her cheek with an open palm.
"Look, thank you. Really. I'm sure your brother is great, but I'm not really looking for a...whatever."

"Oh?" He was genuinely surprised. "How come no 'whatever' for you?"

Anzu was quiet, peeling the wrapper off of a straw with great precision.

"Come on. You can tell me." He grinned.

"I was married." Anzu answered. "And my husband died, so..."

"I'm so sorry." He started quickly, no longer smiling. "I didn't mean to pry—"

"No, no." She waved her hand to stop him. "See, this is why I don't tell people. You're one of the most inappropriate people I have ever met, and now you're getting all appropriate on me."

"Ah." He nodded. "So...do you want to make out?"

She laughed, tossing the straw wrapper on the bar.

"Sorry." Jou said, regretting the joke.

"It's fine."

"No, I should be put down."

"I prefer jokes over you getting all remorseful about my past and pitying me, so really - it's okay."

"Do you mind if I ask how long ago it was?"

"About two years ago. In December."

"And what was he like?"

"Tall, bad-mouthed, and reckless. He always looked like he was waiting for something bad to happen...and I guess it finally did."

"And he was...the one?"

"Of course."

"Even without a Counter, you knew?"

"Yeah." She said, looking at him.

"Really?"

"Completely." She answered, not looking away.

"Okay." He whispered back. At that moment, a drunk man came over and leaned against Anzu. "Whoa, there." Jou said, reaching over and pushing him away. "We're fresh outta booze, man." The drunk man blinked, not understanding. "Have a nice night." Jou added, not too kindly. The drunk finally shuffled away to the jukebox.

"I love my job." Jou said as he poured himself a shot.

"It shows." Anzu commented. "Have you ever been interested in something else?"

Jou gestured to the alcohol behind the bar.
"You mean besides serving drinks? But whatever for?"

"Isn't that how it always works? Small-town wants to be big-town...your waitress is an actress, the stripper is only paying for their doctorate, and the guy who scans your groceries is actually a writer. That old routine."

"Well, here's the plain truth," Jou began, pausing only to swallow his shot, "by night I bartend to meet girls who's Counters are zeroing out, and by day I work at a nursing home for old people because they don't have Counters."

"There's more to you than that." She replied.

"Oh, yeah, I forgot to say that I also—"

"Don't say anything if you're not going to be sincere." She interjected, sipping her drink. He simply watched her for a moment, wishing he could be impressive and tell her that there was more to him... But he didn't think there really was.


When Jou came home, he did so like a typhoon.
"Get up." He yelled down the hall, slamming the front door behind him. "I know you're here!"

Yugi sat up, wild with panic, his eyes darting over to the sleeping form next to him.
"Shit." He muttered, leaping up from the sheets, scanning the room for his boxers.

"If you say you're going to be somewhere, you should be there!" Jou called, and Yugi threw on a shirt as he listened to his brother stomp down the hall.

"Jeez, Jou!" Yugi rushed out of his room before Jou could burst in. "What's the big deal?"

"The big deal? Well, other than the fact that you broke your word to me, the big deal, you twit, is that you stood up an attractive, nice - albeit emotionally stunted woman - in dire need of true love. Not too unlike your sorry ass!"

Yugi let out a long, ragged sigh.
"Look, Jou...I—"

"Did you just throw on that shirt?" Jou frowned.

"What?" Yugi's fingers fumbled, but he attempted a smile. "I've been wearing this shirt all day."

"Okay, but it's inside out...and backward." Jou inspected Yugi's appearance with a shrewd expression. "You would never leave the house like that."

"It was an accident."

"No, you didn't wear that shirt today. You were wearing something white earlier. And since the one you have on is all messed up, I'm guessing you put it on in the dark. And you don't ever sleep naked, so..." His eyes shifted to Yugi's bedroom door suspiciously. "Who else is here?"

"Nobody." Yugi said too quickly. He gave a nervous laugh, realizing his mistake, and tried again. "Nobody else is here. Why would there be?" Jou stepped back as if Yugi had hit him.

"Since when do you lie to me?" Jou asked, looking hurt beyond words.

Yugi's heart plummeted to the ground. "Never" was the answer. Yugi had never lied to Jou before in his life - not until Atem. But there was nothing he could say to save the situation, or make Jou feel better, because at that moment the very source of Yugi's new-found dishonesty opened the bedroom door.

"Hey - hi. My name is Atem." He said, pressing his hand against Yugi's back - possibly trying to project some kind of reassurance to the shorter, but all Yugi could do was groan and hide his face in his hands. "You must be Yugi's brother. Jou."

"Don't wear it out." Jou said, eyebrows creasing. "...You're the four month guy, aren't you?"

Yugi started to laugh, something he did when he was in stressful situations.
"Well, a bit less than two and a half months now...but, yes. This is him."

"Yugi." Jou's face was oddly serene. "What are you doing?"

"I...well, um..." Another fit of giggles. "I just—"

"Just lost your goddamn mind." Jou finished for him. Yugi winced, unable to argue with that. "Have you been seeing him this whole time?"

"Yeah, I have." Yugi said, suddenly defiant. "And it's fine. I have it under control!"

"Under control? Under control?" Jou snorted. "You are seriously deluded, my brother."

"You guys, wait—" Atem tried to interject.

"Why, Jou?" Yugi asked loudly over Atem. "Because I'm enjoying myself? I'm actually enjoying spending time with somebody? Because I'm not a total slave to the Counter anymore?!"

"No, because he's going to break your heart into a million tiny pieces as soon as his Counter goes off!" Jou snapped. "I know self-destructive when I see it - this is it!"

"Actually—" Atem said, stepping from behind Yugi. "About my Counter..."

"What about it?" Jou asked, not politely, eyes flicking to Yugi's lover. Without explanation, Atem reached over to his wrist and ripped his Counter off. Yugi screamed and Jou leapt backward, both of them ready to call for help.

"No, no! Guys - it's not real!" Atem cried, stopping them in their tracks. "It's fake! It just sticks on." He held out the Counter for them to see. Yugi edged closer, and - as Atem had said - it was smooth on the backside; no prongs sticking out to be embedded into skin. He stared at the fake, then at Atem's now bare, markless wrist. As he stared, his hands slowly lowered down until they were hanging limply at his sides. He just couldn't seem to fit it all together, though the truth was staring him in the face.

How? How had he not known? How had Yugi been with Atem all this time and not for a moment suspect? There had to be a time when Atem took it off; a time where Atem was wary around Yugi... but there wasn't. Yugi raked his brain, but nothing stood out. Atem was always with him - with the Counter. There was never a time he seemed jumpy. Though he was always so vocal about his prejudices against the Counter. In fact, Atem never had told Yugi the complete truth of why he had gotten a Counter...because he hadn't gotten one at all. There was no reason to explain something that didn't exist. It was strange to Yugi how you could lose something that is still there. How a barrier can go up in just a moment, trapping you on one side. How the things that hurt the most are the things we once had.

"It's fake." Yugi said numbly. Atem nodded. "You're not zeroing out?" Atem shook his head. Yugi opened his mouth, then shut it.

What more could he possibly say? Atem didn't have a Counter. He pretended to. You think you know a person...but really you only know what you want to know. And Yugi never wanted to know this. That Atem had been lying to him since the day they met. Lying. Yugi could feel his face growing hot, his hands clenching into fists. By Atem's expression, he could sense Yugi's anger; could see the forthcoming rage.

"Yugi—" He began.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" Yugi hissed, tone low and dead even - somehow sounding more fierce than he would have if he'd just yelled.

"Hold on, I can explain—"

"Oh, yes! Please." Yugi's current stare could freeze the sun. "Explain."

"Okay, so..." Atem took a deep breath; He had never been quite so scared in his life as he was now, face to face with Yugi's silent wrath. "It started when Bakura found these stick-on Counters online. He thought it would just be funny to get us them. You can set whatever time on it that you want. Everyone was so obsessed with the Counter, I just figured that it wouldn't hurt to have it. Pretend that I'm part of the trend - that way it would take the pressure off. That way people would stop bothering me about getting a Counter even though I kept saying I didn't want one."

"You use it to pick up people, like a fake wedding ring." Jou stated, crossing his arms.

"Well, yeah, I think that what it was originally for - but that's not why I used it!" Atem quickly added. "I just...I was so tired of everyone being all up in arms about the Counter. I hated that everyone just expected me to be all okay with it - to instantly go out and get one." Making a deep noise in his throat, Atem shoved the fake deep into his pocket. "I like being able to see if I like the person first and that they like me back - not just because a stupid device told us to, but because we want to." Atem looked imploring. "Didn't you say something like that yourself? I mean, don't you feel like you got to know me better when you weren't so worried about the Counter?"

"Except you were lying to me the whole time!"

"No! No - just about the counter. Everything else I've said is true."

"But how can I believe that? We did the thing where we pretended the Counter didn't matter - and yeah, it was fun! But now that I know you have a virgin wrist, the Counter is back to mattering again. I'm back right where I started; not having any answers! Waiting!"

"Virgin wrist?" Atem's mouth twisted in disgust, as if he ate something rotten. "This is exactly why the Counter is stupid. This is why I don't want a Counter. It's completely fucked up."

"It's too late for me to not want a Counter, it's already attached to my body."

"Okay, okay." Atem pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. "Say I got a Counter, and it beeps - or whatever the fuck it does - and it says that you and I are supposed to be together forever and ever. Will that satisfy you?"

"Most likely. Yes."

"You're going to trust a little plastic thing over what I can tell you right now?"

"Right now?" Yugi was irritated. "You're not telling me anything!"

"I'm telling you that I love you!"

Yugi was a terrible believer in things, but he was also a terrible nonbeliever. He was as searching as he was skeptical - every thing was both possible and impossible, all at once. So when he heard the words fly from Atem's mouth, he did not let them fully impact. There is a certain feeling of disbelief that comes over you and takes over, and all you can do is just go through the motions... Yugi wasn't sure how to respond.

So, subdued and defeated, he simply whispered, "I don't think I know what love really is."

Atem pressed his lips together in a thin line.
"What more do you want from me?" He asked.

"A guarantee?" Yugi guessed. "I don't know. Something palpable for me to hold on to?"

"No." Atem shook his head, looking exhausted. "Your problem isn't that I can't give you a guarantee, it's that you can't give me one." His words slashed through the space like some kind of knife, and Yugi shivered.

"I think you should go." He said quietly.

"Is this the part where you pull away?" Atem scoffed.

"No, this is the part where I kick you out of my house."

"Okay. Fine." Atem pushed past the two, biting his lip. "When you realize that me not having a Counter is a good thing, call me." He opened the door and paused, turning back to Yugi. "I don't regret lying about the Counter. I mean, sure, I hate that I pretended and I hate that you found out like this...but how could I ever regret one of the best thing in my life? Pretending I had a Counter led me to you." He shook his head. "I never will regret that, Yugi. I remember every word and look you gave me. Even like this, when it hurts so much that I can barely breathe... I will remember."

He gave Yugi one last, long look and then he was gone.

Jou heaved a heavy breath.
"Look, man. I—"

"Don't." Yugi said, already turning away.

"Don't what?"

"Anything."