Title: Gambling With Destiny
Author: Phoebe Delos
Series: Yu-Gi-Oh! DM
Story Summary: A twist of fate during the Ceremonial Duel leaves everyone saying goodbye to the Yuugi they didn't expect to lose. The pharaoh, lost and alone, must place his trust in a mysterious stranger if he wishes to have any hope in winning his partner back from an old enemy.
Story Rating: Teen for Language, Violence, & Occasional Dark Tones. Rating may rise later due to sexual tones or other warnings.
Spoilers: The end of the series, and anything prior. That includes a certain spirit's real name. Expect some mixing of anime and manga facts.
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! isn't mine.
Notes: And now for a chapter that was never in the outline.
:: Chapter Eleven ::
"Wait, what is the price of this shirt supposed to be? Is thirty-four too much? Aaaah, why did Malik and Ravin and Mitchell all leave, we need someone who knows this stuff!"
"Don't worry, Honda-kun. Just keep an eye on what you might want to buy, and wait for them to come back and ask them about the prices then. I've picked out some things to ask Malik-kun about... Like this papyrus painting! Check it out, Jounouchi-kun! It has depictions of priests on it in the middle of mummifying a king!"
"Gyaaah, Bakura, don't just spring that on me without warning me!"
"...was that not warning you?"
Atem aimlessly eyed the colorful depiction from over Jounouchi's shoulder, the painting easy enough to see when the blond was flinching back as far from the image and the seemingly oblivious Bakura as possible. The painting had to be a copy or a fake, given how it was being so casually displayed in a market stall and the fact that, despite the presence of the appropriate Anubis, the scene displayed seemed too... Grotesque, for an authentic rendering. Atem hadn't seen many wall carvings in Egypt or photos in books that looked like that.
"Is that all you want? I didn't expect you to have that much trouble buying a simple souvenir." The quartet all turned around to see Malik sliding back among them, eyeing the image for himself as Bakura shook his head and pointed out various items in the stall.
"No, not just this- I was hoping for the picture there, too, plus that pair of statues, and that shirt there. And Honda wanted a couple of shirts, too. The two hanging up on the upper right there?"
"...it's cool, I can find some clothes somewhere else, no problem. Just-" But Malik ignored Honda's wary protests, scanning the different items Bakura indicated, and Atem could only assume adding up the price, before stepping up to the seller who sat in the stall. The man had dismissed them minutes ago, when no requests or language comprehension was forthcoming, but looked up from his newspaper as Malik spoke to him in Arabic while casual point out the wanted items.
Something he said must have not pleased the seller, because he frowned and shook his head with an indicative gesture to his wares, along with a few sharp words. Malik just gave a slow smile in answer, and something about the look cut throughAtem's vague disinterest for the proceedings, his own eyes narrowing in wary question as the Ishtar leaned forward a touch and put his weight onto a hand he planted on the edge of the display table, saying something else to the man with the same easy, friendly tones. The seller didn't react overtly, but his whole body tensed with the effort to hold back some reaction, the only outward tell Atem could see being how his eyes widening just a touch before he slid his gaze across all of their confused faces, silence hanging in the air for a breath before he gave the smallest of nods. Without another word, he rose to pick up and pull down the items asked for, while Malik stepped back and turned about with an easy smile on his face, turning to Bakura in particularly as the rest of them looked tensely on. "He's agreed to half price for the lot of them, just pay up and take your things."
"-that's amazing, Malik-kun!" Bakura said with still, awed eyes, staring until movement prompted him to look over his shoulder and notice the seller holding out the purchases.
As Bakura slid to the front of the group and shuffled with foreign bills, Atem just kept his gaze pinned to Malik, not certain what to make of the vague, indecipherable, yet all too clear display. And he could hear something of the same impact in Jounouchi's voice... Plus a fair dose of disconcertion. "H-hey man, what did you say to that guy?"
"Nothing odd, just getting Bakura a fair deal."
"Half the asked for price is a fair deal?" Atem asked, eyeing the small of Malik's back as honest curiosity mixed with troubled wondering until the Ishtar turned around.
Malik wasn't hurried about it, and gave the once pharaoh a lingering, flat stare before providing a reply that, at least on the surface, was as laid back as the one he had offered Jounouchi. "Hardly. The shops here always list the cost at at least double what they expect to make off of the wares. The man just thought he could get the full price out of you because you wouldn't know better."
Atem said nothing, but quirked his eyebrows in mute astonishment before granting the said seller a second, critical once over as he handed an uncertain Honda his bought shirts. The man hadn't struck Atem as menacing in any sense, in the way many usually rubbed him the wrong way if they harbored any ill-will. Perhaps that awareness had been something the Puzzle had granted him, and without it he was blind to such tendencies... Or, perhaps it was just such conniving was something normal, expected, and so he had not stood out to the pharaoh as unique in any way.
"Perhaps we should try another stall," Atem said, thinking that even if they might expect the same treatment elsewhere, the man might crack and call for security if subjected to any further of Malik's... haggling.
It was hard to say how necessary it was without knowing what Malik had said, but he gave no protest to Atem's suggestion, shrugging with little sign of interest. "Suit yourself. But I wouldn't go looking for food around here. The prices on the produce are steep, and definitely not worth the poor quality goods I saw. We should try the non-tourist markets."
"I'll keep that in mind," Atem answered as Malik moved passed him, following Jounouchi as he led a meandering path through the Savoy Market. Atem trailed behind the small group at a leisurely pace, seeing no need to stay glued to anyone's shadow. The long market aisle of stalls selling souvenirs and clothing and miscellaneous items was not crowded, and it was unlikely they would lose each other in the sparse crowd. It was funny, considering that when they first arrived Mana had claimed that it was usually much quieter there, and that she and her cousin usually only came out shopping in the morning... A mention that had come with a clear, if unstated bemoaning of how they had been delayed in their arrival because she and Jeu had spent that morning with the curious Kuroi-sensei.
After sharing a quick hello with the visitors, and getting the same vague explanations for their presence Jeu had given Mana, Kuroi had turned the focus back on his own priorities and insisted, in the politest terms possible, that the girls carry on with their lessons as normal. And so, aside from a few awkward introductions with Honda and Bakura and Malik as they came through, the rest of them spent the next couple of hours entertaining themselves, some in the living room just out of earshot of the studying teen girls and their tutor stationed at the dining room table.
Atem had stayed there, trying out that dueling game for the first time with Jounouchi, but he found himself continually distracted by the urge to go silent and turn his ear to the teacher at work across the room, striving to hear that familiar voice... Even as there remained no substance to his resulting déjà vu. Nothing that brought to mind specific buried memories of a friendship he knew once existed, but remembered no history of... Yet, listening to Kuroi berating his students and Mana striving and failing to defend herself, there was no denying the familiarity which struck him.
The man had said little directly to Atem, his focus remaining on his work. There were a few times where Atem could have sworn Kuroi was looking at him, but it could have been only his own imaginings as he stole furtive looks the three's way, some so long Jounouchi commented on his distraction. But whether or not Kuroi had been sneaking his own looks, nothing came of it, and after a while the lessen ended with the man it was time for him to leave. He granted the group as a whole nothing more than a sober farewell, leaving Atem to watch him go with an uncertain, unsatisfied eye... But it had been enough. If anything, he felt like he needed time to digest the reality of that lost friend there, alive before him. He had already floundered horribly with Mana, after all, barely speaking to her despite her clear intrigue in him... Or 'Mutou Yuugi' as it were.
The said girl, as it happened, came into sight along with Anzu and Jeu as the boys rounded a corner, retracing their steps back to the stall they had left the girls at. Their respective backs were to them, but Jounouchi called out as soon as they were within earshot. "Yo! We had some luck on our end! What about you three?"
The trio turned about at the call, but Atem's feet stalled as he proved himself – if only to himself – that he was not as blind to others as the seller had made him consider. For where none of the others stopped or seemed to notice, he caught the way Anzu and Jeu jolted at catching each other's eye while turning around, their gazes instantly swerving away with silent fidgeting on both parts... Anzu looking more troubled or confused than anything while Jeu seemed... Embarrassed?
It wasn't much of a surprise, though, that no one else noticed with Mana jumping into the silent gap with a wave and an answer. "Us too! We found a stall down a ways that sells girl clothes. It even had a changing room so Anzu-san could try them on before buying them... Oh! And, there was another stall for guys' stuff right by it, and they'll let you try things on, too."
"Really?" Honda asked, looking in the direction Mana indicated. "Thanks! I'll go ahead then. Any of you coming?" He asked without looking back, heading for the indicated stall with Bakura quick on his heel, and Malik following at a slower pace, distracted by scanning the stalls he passed.
Jounouchi hung back though, asking the girls "You coming, then?" before going on, prompting Mana and Jeu to fall in behind him as Anzu took up the back with a trailing Atem.
Anzu smiled in greeting before her expression clouded with confusion, her gaze focusing on his empty hands. "You haven't bought anything?"
"No," Atem answered without compulsion, shrugging off the concern. "They don't sell many things here in my size. I'll figure out something... You're taken care of, though?"
"I think so! I should be able to get by for a few weeks with this... That shop was a lucky find," Anzu acknowledged, holding up a heavy bag indicatively before dropping it to her side again, skirting a glance checkingly towards Jeu's back before apparently working herself up to a simple smile as she called forward to her. "Thanks for handling the haggling for me; I wouldn't have known what to do."
"Oh! Uh, no problem..." Jeu said as she glanced back, looking surprised and then oddly relieved by the gratitude, smiling back at Anzu until Mana cut in with a sigh and drew their collective attention.
"Aaaahh, Jeu probably could have gotten you a good deal on even more stuff, Anzu-san, if there hadn't been a line waiting to try things on after you. Man... We should have just gone ahead and come this morning. There's never this big a crowd when it's early! Kuroi-sensei just had to insist on testing us on those readings today- And then grading and making us go over the mistakes right then and there, to boot!"
"The delay gave Malik-san and Honda-san time to recover enough to come along. Plus, we were supposed to have those readings done last week," Jeu countered, but with little evident ridicule. If anything she sounded introspective, a tone that fit well with Atem's recollection of the Ravin girl getting her own fair share of a lecture from the born again priest.
Mana though, it seemed, missed the self-inclusion in Jeu's words and saw only censure, given how she shot her cousin a soundly betrayed look. "That doesn't mean he had to make us do it right then! He even said he was in a hurry!" she countered, but the outrage Atem saw on her face ebbed quickly away, an idea flashing openly over Mana's profile before she burst into a sudden grin, facing forward once more. "And don't act like it was just me. You better not get distracted from your own homework. Kuroi-sensei didn't accept that I was out of town as a good reason, so he won't like hearing you've fallen behind because we have visitors, or for this weird 'research project' of yours... Or that you were too busy noticing how Anzu-san looked in that orange top."
Atem's mind stalled with his step. He might have dismissed the words as misheard or mistaken, but Anzu went stiff beside him, Jounouchi – apparently within hearing range – skid to a stop to gawk bug-eyed at the girls, and Jeu tripped over her own feet. And he had a perfect view of the Ravin girl, aghast and red-faced, as she recovered her balance, took one lightning quick look at Anzu, then at him, and flailed at her snorting cousin. "Would you drop that already?!"
Mana only laughed at her embarrassed cry, saying something that Atem missed as he slowly slid a questioning look towards Anzu. She was wearing an odd sort of expression, something like, embarrassment or disconcertion or shaky wonder or, it was hard to say... But it nosedived instantly into an undeniable blush when she noticed him looking, her blue eyes going wide a moment before she looked the opposite way, towards a random stall.
So it, was what it sounded like?
"Geez, calm down, it was just a joke. I don't know why you're reacting like this- You shouldn't be. Anzu-san did look good in that top." Mana grinned back at Anzu, the compliment clearly carrying none of the connotations that came with her cousin's implied, interest. And Atem could do nothing but blink dumbly at Anzu, and Jeu herself.
Jeu didn't look back at them, flattening a hand against her face with a quiet, creaky groan, leaving Anzu to answer alone. But her blushes magically dissipated when she focused on Mana alone, and she pinned a stern glower on the younger teen. "Thank you, Mana-san, but don't use me to tease your cousin."
"Ah, okay, okay... I was just joking. I didn't mean anything by it, I swear," Mana said, her gaiety sliding into checking insistence as she swerved her smile from Anzu to Jeu, her attention lingering on her as she reached out to squeeze Jeu's arm, earning a sigh and surrendering "Yeah, yeah, I know..." from the short girl as they started walking again.
Anzu hesitated and slowly side-glanced at Atem, as if she anticipated, or dreaded him saying something. But even when given an opening, no words came to Atem's tongue. His mind had blanked out, emptied by the significanceof what he had just heard... But, he could not say what the emotion was, filling up the emptied space in his head. All he knew was he felt suddenly... Uncertain, like he had just realized the ground beneath his feet was unstable. But he did not know how to give voice to that, or what good it would do... Or what Anzu was expecting of him. So he just stared with that vague, troubled question in his eye. But she was apparently not keen to volunteer an explanation where he didn't venture for one, and after a few seconds and a, disappointed sort of look, Anzu jogged to catch up with the other girls, leaving him standing in the midst of the flowing crowd.
"Ah... Tough luck."
He blinked out of his daze as he turned and found Jounouchi there, his brown eyes following the girls' retreat. Atem wasn't certain when exactly Jounouchi had fallen back from the front of the group, or come up beside him, but the bigger issue was definitely Jounouchi's comment, and the oddly sympathetic tone he was using. But when they actually met eyes and Jounouchi saw the look on his face, he just grinned, shrugged, and said, "It doesn't look like you have much of a chance there, man. Not if she's into her."
"...what?" tripped out of him gracelessly, Jounouchi's expansion only piling onto his confusion. For what... What could he mean by that? Was he talking about Anzu? He couldn't see how. Atem wasn't blind, of course. He knew the girl felt something for him... As she did for his partner... But if anything, her reaction to his presence during that exchange with the other girls had only further cemented that certainty. So what was Jounouchi talking about? Did he seriously think Anzu liked, Jeu? It was obvious that Jeu felt some sort of... Interest, in Anzu... But, that didn't mean it was mutual.
"Well, you know, if she's into a girl, then she isn't likely to like... Though now that I say it, do you think she might maybe... Both?" Jounouchi trailed off into his own thoughts, eyes widening as his attention slid back to their friends disappearing into the crowd.
Atem, more lost than ever, pulled himself out of his stupor to drag Jounouchi's attention back to him with a sharp word. "You're jumping to conclusions. Anzu seemed embarrassed, but that doesn't mean she likes-"
"Wait... Anzu? Who said anything about Anzu? We're talking about Jeu."
Atem froze as all of the tension in his body converged in his throat, his defenses going limp and leaving him no means to hide the reaction smashed open across his face. Jounouchi meant... He thought that he... "...what are you talking about? I'm not-" Something was wrong with his voice. "Why would I care who Jeu likes?"
Jounouchi just kept staring right at him, the incredulity settling permanently over his face as Atem left it at that. "...seriously? You don't care?"
"Of course not, why would I?" he half-repeated, his insistence near demanding in its ferocity. But try as he might, it did nothing to stop Jounouchi from snorting and grinning at him, as if to say to relax. To lighten up.
"Oh, come on. Even you can have a thing for somebody. Nothing weird about that," he assured, but the would-be comfort fell on an ungrateful, unnoticing mind. Atem tripped over the undeniable confirmation of Jounouchi's meaning, and worse still were his actual words, the claim that he could like… somebody-
Atem's heart somersaulted against his ribs and he choked down an uneasy breath as he strove to wipe the image of a certain face from his mind. Someone missed more than enough already without going down that line of thought. "I don't know what you're talking about, Jounouchi. I wasn't thinking about... I just… We- I just met her yesterday!" he finally spit out, floundering under his confusing struggle to state the obvious fact that should throw a lethal wrench into the teen's odd claims.
Instead, Jounouchi hooked enthusiastically into the protest, pointing a sudden finger in Atem's face and making him jerk back before he actually poked him. "That's just it! Just met her yesterday, and on top of that, you looked like you wanted to wring her neck half the time for a while there. But by the end of the day? Psahhh!" He shook his head in amused wonder while Atem could only stand there, thrown incomprehension the only thing shining through his empty stare. But when Jounouchi went on, mused "I don't think I've ever seen you like that before" out loud, Atem couldn't quite help but prod further, however reluctantly.
"…like what?"
"Like... Yourself?" The uncertain, searching glance they shared that time was properly mutual, no understanding bursting to life on the once pharaoh's face. Once Jounouchi realized that wasn't about to change, he scoffed with a frustrated shrug and rubbed at his neck, looking more and more sorry by the second that he had ever said anything at all. "I dunno man, it's hard to explain." It was as good an escape from the conversation as Atem could have hoped for… And yet his feet did not move, and he just kept staring expectantly at his friend, trying to ignore the strange skip-a-beat pulse resounding in his neck. "Just, watching you with her? How she talked you down from uh... You know, it's like you get each other or something. The way you talk to her and listen to her and stuff? Like you don't have steel rods for bones?"
Atem met Jounouchi's searching look with a flat stare, offense a pleasant distraction from his point… If only for a moment. But there was no hiding from the light Jounouchi attempted to shine, and it was all Atem could do to counter it with an earnest "...I assure you, I don't 'get' her" that sung with remnants of resentment and frustration that still clung to his mind when he considered the mystery of Jeu Ravin.
And yet… Looking into Jounouchi's watching gaze? He couldn't dredge up any more than that, settling for masking his expression and looking away before his friend might see the thoughts in his head, the doubt he had set to seed in Atem's mind for his own behavior. For... Had he been acting differently with the Ravin girl? Yes, but... Wasn't it just the circumstances to blame? The role she was playing? Wasn't that all there was to it? "..it's not like that."
"Hey, if you say so." And indeed, Jounouchi sounded honestly apologetic for a second there, putting his hands up in a placating gesture as he grinned at the dreary-faced king. "You'd know better than me. I just wanted to say it's fine if it was like that, you know? No shame in it. But if not, guess there's no problem then."
"No," Atem answered, voice dull with distraction as he focused on nothing, waiting for the dust to settle within his own mind. Belatedly he realized he couldn't just stand there, blinking back into awareness of Jounouchi frowning at him. He couldn't bring himself to force a smile, but he bolstered his expression with forced ease. "It's fine, just a mistake. We should hurry before we lose the others."
"Sure," Jounouchi answered, eyeing him in clear dissatisfaction, but moving all the same, leading the way as they moved to catch up with the lost group. But Atem dragged behind, his mind running too fast to lend his feet any speed.
Perhaps, technically, he shouldn't get hung up on the whole thing, because Jounouchi was wrong. Atem had never thought anything along those lines with the girl. He wouldn't ever even consider it… Whatever Jounouchi said about it being 'okay' to have feelings like that, Atem didn't agree. Friendships were one thing, after all… Friendships were everything, but to indulge in any attachment like Jounouchi implied... Atem had known for a long time that was off limits to him, no matter who it was. He would not, could not consider such things. He had spent his time as a spirit too grateful to have his partner and friends at his side to dwell on or resent the fact, but he knew he could not have anything like that. Not when he knew, near from the start, that he was bound to leave.
He was not blind to how Anzu felt about him, and the fact that he was going to cross over to the afterlife. How much worse might it have been, or might it yet be, if he had allowed himself the luxury of pulling the blinds off of his own eyes, searched his own heart to see if those feelings were at all mutual? Yes, he might well harbor feelings for Anzu, there might be something there with Jeu as Jounouchi claimed, and… He, did not need anyone to point out who already claimed an unspecified portion of his heart… But, if he let those possibilities become anything, he would be constructing a bond too excruciating to break.
That would break.
Why would he look for that?
"-there you two are. I hate to say it, but if Atem does need clothes, there is a stall for kids' things here I can sometimes find... What's wrong?"
Atem ceased his thoughtless steps as Jeu spotted him in Jounouchi's shadow. Looking up, he found the two of them staring at him, outright alarm on their faces. The expressions made him suddenly hyper-aware of himself, of how he must have been displaying something of his thoughts even with his eyes down turned, of how his fingers had been clenching into the front of his shirt, wrinkling the spot where the Puzzle should have rested against his stomach.
"-nothing," he said as he slowly loosened his fingers, letting his hand drop as he schooled any feeling from his face. "You know a place where I can find some clothes?"
"...yeah," Jeu finally answered, clearly more focused on whatever she sought within her own mind, or in his face, than her actual words. "It's just ahead; I asked the others to wait there for you."
"Thank you."
"Y-yeah," Jounouchi echoed his flat thanks, looking between them with an uncertain frown before shaking his head and moving passed them both, mumbling something about splitting the price of a pack of socks with Honda. Jeu, though, remained where she was, waiting until Jounouchi had fully passed before striving to catch Atem's eye again, even as he kept looking over her shoulder towards the distant group.
"...there's no reason to rush, you know. The clothes will keep, and we can always come back if we need to. If something is on your mind-"
"I'd rather get it over with," Atem interrupted sharply, skimming his attention back to the girl only a moment before looking away again. He managed to smash down the oddly desperate need to pull away long enough to give a properly calm "Thank you" before moving forward, but there was no escaping the feeling in his gut that he had done something not just regretful, but wrong. And the confused hurt he saw flash shoot across Jeu's face, just out of the corner of his vision as he passed her, was all the proof he needed to see that it wasn't just him who felt the impact.
But it had to be done... If Jounouchi was wrong, and there was nothing there, he needed to keep it that way.
He knew all too well that even friendly, relaxed contact could prove more than enough, to prompt feelings that shouldn't be...