Third and final part of Something He Didn't Tell You.

I felt like I should have left a warning in the previous chapter, but due to the insults I wrote for Atem in this one (that seem far worse than the last), I'll just leave one here.

Warning: Atem's disgusting use of the English/Japanese language.

21! - Welcome Back

One year and four months after Yami's revival from his coma.

"Welcome back, Cerecita."

Atem just waved a middle finger at them all before strutting his way around the boardroom table. "Call me that again and I'll snap all your necks at once." He grabbed a seat, and kicked his legs up on the surface. He crossed his arms behind his head, his back mostly facing them. "You all sound like the fuckin' twins from The Shining." No one except for Superior A, Hawkins understood the reference, and just glanced at each other in confusion. He growled at their ignorance. "Look it the fuck up and watch it for yourselves. Uncultured swines..."

Superior P, Cyndia, bit her cheek with a smirk, before taking a subtle step closer with her heels. "Understand Cerecita-"

"Ah ah, watch it, lady." He cut her off with another warning.

She cleared her throat from being rudely interrupted and continued. "Cereza, you just can't barge into our private boardroom, yelling curses and threatening our agents." She advised with a kind voice as she walked just a little bit closer to Atem's seat, her shadow looming from behind him as he closed his eyes in boredom. "They're only doing their jobs. So I will ask you once and one time only," She slammed her manicured hand in front of him, swiftly grasped the arm of the chair and pulled it around to face her. Though she was a beautiful woman, Atem noticed she looked absolutely dreadful when she was annoyed. She swung her leg up and shoved her heel against his chest, all while suddenly aiming a revolver at the corner of his chin. Her cruel smile curled as her pretty wide blue eyes grew cold and narrow. "Either behave, or die right here in our office."

Just as the superiors were going to pull her away and calm her down, Atem did something she did didn't expect. He reached up, seized her hand and gripped it tightly onto the gun. He shoved his face onto hers, practically head butting her just so he could glare his glowing red eyes right into her blue. With a storming wrathful expression, his face wrinkled up while almost turning just as crimson as his irises. He edged her on with a sharp tone. "Shoot me. Do it." He whispered. "Go ahead, right in my face. Let the bullet bounce around in my skull until it turns my brains into mush. Do it." He demanded. "Out of the five of you, I despise you the most. You're another reason why I hate women, you heartless, conniving bitch." Thanks to his superhuman strength, he slowly crushed the bones in her hand, causing her to slightly wince with a snarl. "You and all the other female Head Superiors before you, you're all demons." With the help of his flexibility, he raised one of his legs up high, and kicked her away by striking her in the neck.

"..!" With a grunt, she was knocked back, but she easily regained her balance to stand her ground. That fake smile along with that fake voice was long forgotten. "..Putting your hands on a Superior? The Head no less? You miserable little shit, I could have you killed-!"

Superior A, Hawkins, just made a small cough while gently putting his hand on her shoulder. "You know the rules, Crawford. You merely pluck a hair, and the entire government won't be the only ones coming after us." He glowered at her with a blank expression, but with dark eyes. He then made sure he whispered to her, as quietly as he could so that not even Atem could hear. "Do you really want to die that badly? With a death that painful? You'd live in fear for the rest of your life, never knowing when your torture would begin. Let the dragon sleep, and you'd be wise not to wake it." He snatched his hand off of her roughly, leaving her in silence as he carefully walked around the table to sit in his usual seat on the left. He folded his hands under his chin and smiled at Atem. "Ah Cereza, nice to see you again. My sincerest apologies for our Head Superior's behavior, but I do ask that you keep the threats to a minimum."

"I'll threaten whoever I want, as much as I want." He shot him a nasty glare. "The only person allowed to call me that is Dartz, and he didn't even use that nick name. Show me respect, and I'll show you respect."

Superior A nodded with agreement. "Of course." He waved his hand over at the other superiors, gesturing for them to join them at the table. "And what is our pleasure of seeing you here today?"

Atem wanted to roll his eyes, but he just looked away and closed them. "I wanna talk about one of your rookie assassins, the new elite."

Superior T, Timaeus, who sat beside Hawkins, looked a little put off by the topic. "New elite?" He asked. "Are you referring to Sennen?"

"Yeah," The Egyptian replied. "'Heard you guys were giving him a hard time with his work schedule."

Cyndia, despite her foul attitude, gracefully sat at the very far end of the table, as the head should. She folded her hands in front of her and pursed his lips. "And why is Sennen's schedule any of your concern, Cereza?"

The former agent sucked his teeth at her. "Because he's my fucking boyfriend. That a problem?"

That's when Superior H, Hermos, made a nervous laugh and held up one hand to pause the conversation. He sat beside Superior T, keeping a fake, but kind expression. "Please, no more of that. We're all allies here, are we not?"

"I'm not affiliated with you anymore, so not really." Atem pointed out sarcastically.

"Ah, perhaps, but you are still our one and only elite. Our best, Cereza. Doesn't that count for something?" Hermos asked gently.

Atem just dismissed this. "Nope." He was tired of this fake shit, and he hated when people hid away from their true feelings. He stood up and pushed his chair aside. He began pacing around the perimeter of the boardroom table, placing his hands behind his back. "Look," He said while opening his eyes to glance over at some of them. "Let's stop fuckin' around, okay? Just be honest," He said while walking. "You hate me, but you value me. I fucking hate all of you, some more than others, but I unfortunately need you for one little favor." He stopped next to Hawkins, and placed his hands down on the table surface. "Yami Sennen and Yugi Muto are my lovers." He saw some of their faces twist with disgust and shock. Of course some of them didn't like that. Assholes. "I don't care how weird that sounded, and I definitely don't give a shit about your views of my love life. I'm gay, and I have more than one partner, deal with it." He continued on. "And as their boyfriend, I hate to see them return home from work either supremely early in the morning or supremely late in the afternoon the next day, completely exhausted and drained thanks to the workload you shove on them." He shrugged. "I get it, Yugi's doing some other shit on his end that requires more of his time. The additional workload he has came from his own warped ideas for whatever science experiments he's doing. That's not exactly what I'm referring to since none of you had anything to do with that."

He then glanced over at Cyndia specifically, who eyed the other Superiors. Suspicious, why was she staring at them like that?

He put his guard up just in case. You couldn't trust anyone in this damn building. "You've been giving Yami way too many missions to handle in one day. You're giving him overtime, work that not even an elite veteran would normally have to do in one week. Ishizu works almost just as many hours as Yami does now, and he's still a rookie. Even as an elite myself," He placed a hand on his chest as a gesture. "I didn't even work on as many missions as he did at once. You're not giving him compensation, and you're making him run himself ragged. He's stressed out all the time, he passes out the second he comes home and he can barely even function. Basically, I'm here to ask you all to lay the fuck off. And I understand what's going on. This is his punishment for screwing up." He then placed his hand on his hip with a shrug. "I'll be honest since I don't like playing games with people. The mission he failed a couple months ago? The requester didn't retract his decision. No, Yami let the target go. He lied to you, he betrayed your trust and made everyone look bad. He did it for personal reasons I don't feel like going into right now, but you figured that out and you're making him pay for it. Well that shit isn't cute, and you're going to stop that right now." Atem stepped around the superiors one by one around the table with a slow and steady pace. "Yami is an excellent assassin, and he's a great predecessor for my brand name. He's your fucking ace, and anyone who has a request immediately goes to him thanks to his stats. He's a hard worker, follows rules obediently and almost never gives you guys a hard time. Just because he had one small hiccup, doesn't give you the right to treat him like shit." He then glared particularly at Cyndia once more. "Did I get any of that wrong?"

Suddenly, Superior Critias cut in before she could reply. Just to try and negate any possible conversation between Atem and Cyndia. Those two together were too toxic to handle. "Cereza, if I may, one of your conclusions is indeed incorrect. We didn't give Sennen additional work load because of his intentional failure of his mission, we gave him more missions to test him. To see if he could clean up his methods." Seeing their former agent raise a brow, he elaborated. "You see, Sennen is a messy worker."

Messy? No fucking way, Yami was more than just satisfactory. Perhaps not flawless, but he wouldn't say 'messy'. "What do you mean he's messy? Yami's more than proficient in his work."

"Yes but," Critias continued in a matter of fact manner. "The way he goes about his missions is too, for lack of a better word, rough. There's no grace, there's no technique in what he does. Cuts are deep, but not clean. Bludgeons are brutal, but blood splatters everywhere. He has to spend more time in cleaning evidence depending on the request. It's as if, he only attacks to kill. There's no strategy, there's no thought, it's just senseless murder."

Atem squinted his eyes harshly. Did he miss something here? "...Are you high? Isn't that what you've been teaching us since we got in this shit hole? Only attack to kill?"

Superior C shook his head. "Yes, but with style. For assassins, gore is an art, and we are it's painters. To kill with grace, with caution." He pretended as if he was holding a weapon in his hand, physically demonstrating his point. "Cereza, when you slice someone, the cut is clean, perfect. It forces blood to pulsate faster and a lot more smoothly in order to end the life of your target quickly. One cut from you alone will do the job flawlessly in seconds, simply because your technique and skill is superb." He rested his arms on the table and made a troublesome sigh. "However, Sennen is blunt, rough and isn't too careful. Cuts are more jagged than usual, blunt force is too messy, as he ends up destroying the skull and brains of anyone he hits with that bat. Which, by the way, I think is a poor choice of weaponry. There's a huge mess he needs to clean, making him waste more time on his assignment. The only thing he's actually clean in is shooting, but his accuracy, compared to Veteran Kaiba's skill, is still off by quite a lot. Sennen needs training, and we figured these missions would be a good way to do that. However, he hasn't made much progress."

"Yeah, probably because he doesn't know you're testing him. That, and the fact that all the stress is probably dulling his skill even more." The Egyptian continued to scowl at them. "Ever think about that?"

Cyndia then cut in with an arrogant tone. "He shouldn't have to know, he should just get better. An agent is superb in every mission, stressed or not. There's no excuse for anything less than perfection. I'm sure if you were still on the force, you would have figured it out by now." She shrugged one of her shoulders. "The boy's got robotic parts in his brain that makes him work like a computer, and he still doesn't get it."

Limit break.

Venom practically spewed from Atem's tongue as he fiercely growled at her. "Insult Yami like that one more time, and you'll have to kill me in order to stop me from ripping out one of your ribs, and piercing it through your face like an oversized nasal septum." It was a good thing he was standing by Hawkins and no where near her. Thankfully the other men in the room could grab Atem at any moment before he could get to her, should things turn violent.

The woman held up a hand, signaling that she no longer deliberately intended to agitate the young man. "Please. All I'm saying, is that Sennen needs to become more proficient if he wants an easier schedule-"

Atem suddenly kicked a chair from underneath the table, causing it to shoot off into the wall, breaking upon impact. Paintings knocked down from the wall, the lights below them starting to malfunction and spark. Furiously, he punched his fist into the table, with a crack slowly forming in the surface. The actions he committed definitely got their attention, but none of them ever flinched, only watched carefully. "No, you fuckers want him to live up to my name. Yami just wants to do his fucking job. He's only working here because he feels like he has to, that he belongs here. In a fucked up way, he enjoys working here, like he was meant to." He raised his voice, yelling profusely at the people who technically used to be his bosses. "He doesn't want to be the best, he just wants to feel normal! And he feels like this job was the only way he could accomplish that. Isn't that just fucking pathetic? Isn't that fucking sad!? But guess what? I'm not gonna let you bully him into becoming a cold blooded bastard like me, all just to make you assholes look good. Let's be more frank, shall we? Me retiring set you back, and you need a replacement." He cracked a bitter smile with a condescending laugh. "Well guess what else? That ain't happening unless Yami Sennen says otherwise. Until then, you can all go fuck yourself, and leave him the fuck alone. I'll be fair and do whatever you want to make that happen, but only until I know for sure you'll cut this bullshit."

With a pregnant silence, the Superiors all began to eye each other, before setting their gazes back on Atem.

"...Would you be willing to return to us?" Superior Timaues asked.

Oh he did not just fucking ask that, did he?

Atem was so shocked by the question, he took a step back while making an awkward fake laugh. "...Aha..Ahaha...ex-fucking-cuse me?" He tilted his head while crossing his arms. "Please tell me you didn't just say that out of your mouth."

"Come back from retirement." Cyndia suddenly stood up and held out her hands in his direction, making him nearly gag in response. Was that supposed to be a gesture to embrace the decision? "Join us, Cereza. We'll give you a promotion and boost you up to elite veteran, higher than Muto or Kaiba. In return, we'll leave Sennen alone and give him more time to better himself." She even tried to smile to show that she was sincere. Like he'd believe that. Soon, that smile of hers fell as she realized how steamed their former agent was getting. Atem turned his back to them momentarily, his fists and his arms were clenched tightly. With deathly whispers, he hissed at them all with every single word he began to say as a rebuttal.

"...How fucking dare you." He snarled. "I left this piece of shit job, because I hate you. I hate this place, I hate this job, and this lifestyle caused me to hate myself!" He hollered. "I was beaten, starved, electrocuted, drowned, poisoned, gang raped," He immediately turned back around with an emotional, but rage-filled expression. "Do I even need to say more?" He rhetorically asked as he walked back towards the table. "Above everything else, I think the rape was probably the worst thing that's ever happened to me while working here. By one of your veterans no less. To which by the way, you didn't even punish! And that same cunt-flicking bitch, who you let get away scott-free, is the same cock-bashing whore who killed my master, your best friend, your next head superior, Dartz!" He pointed to their walls of now toppled pictures of previous bosses and Superiors. "That should be his face up there, damn it! Not any of yours! He deserved to sit in that fucking chair!" He pointed at Cyndia, who just closed her eyes and sat back down quietly. "If you had given that shit-eating sow her rightful punishment, Dartz would still be alive and I wouldn't even be having this conversation with you. And you?" He leaned a little closer with his finger, directing his attention towards her once again. "You wouldn't even be here, Crawford." His words left a nasty topping of even more dangerous tension in the room. The woman wouldn't look at him or reply. With a scoff, Atem slammed his hand back on the table. "I wouldn't even spit in your direction, much less kiss your ass by working here all over again just to give my boyfriend an easier time dealing with you. So in short, no, fuck you." He briefly held up a middle finger to her. "I will never work for you, ever again. Unless there's an emergency, say, another invasion on the facility, I will never lift my sword to spill blood for you ever again. I will only spill blood for my lovers, Mana Cereza, the Kaibas, Ishizu Ishtar, Doctor Kisara Ujana, or Ms. Vivian Wong. No one else. I'd happily do anything else, if it means never setting foot in this building ever again."

They all had a feeling he'd turn down their offer but, not like that.

The room just fell silent again. For some reason, Hawkins gave the other Superiors a cold stare, before shaking his head and mumbling the word 'idiots' under his breath. Damn, even the geezer knew these assholes were complete morons for even thinking that asking that question was a good idea. However, Hawkins knew even more than that. Dartz made this boy his next of kin, and he planned for him to become a Higher Up in the future. Perhaps even the head in a couple decades from now, or even sooner than that considering how great of a soldier he was. Dartz wanted Cereza to be the new Boss after Ishizu, he wanted him to rank up to the highest point he could possibly achieve. Dartz did a lot to help the government behind the scenes, and some of the higher ups owed him their lives since he used to be a hot shot elite himself. That man loved Atem and wanted to keep him safe and supported no matter what happened. In his will that was placed in top secret files, D75 as a whole was supposed to support Atem and his family name no matter what. They had no choice but to do what he wished, they owed him that. Besides, if they didn't, they could only imagine the consequences.

They were being watched, so they had to keep Atem satisfied. They didn't want to alert them. After all, with their scarce communications with those people, they were already starting to get hot on their radar. They don't know what happened with Atem before the Gozaburo incident or even the Mai incident. They don't even know that Dartz is dead. They only know that Atem is alive and well. Hiding information was already going to lead to a dire consequence, the Superiors couldn't cross that line anymore than they already have.

They had no choice but to comply to the former agent's wishes.

With nothing else to say, Cyndia opened her eyes. "Fine, nothing in return." She simply retorted.

Atem blinked, and his rage diminished for a sec. "What?"

She just flagged Atem off, as if she didn't need or care for him anymore, which wasn't really true at all. "We'll leave Sennen alone. No catch, nothing in return. Like you said, you retired for a reason. There's no sense in trying to get you back." With a small glimpse of mercy in their hearts, that's the only reason why they let Ishtar persuade them into allowing retirement for any and all agents without violent repercussions. Well, that's what they told the public. That wasn't the only reason why they allowed it. Atem was allowed to leave the company, and he was allowed to keep it that way without them interfering with his choice.

"Jesus God damn Christ," He chuckled, causing them to stare in puzzlement. "You genuinely think I'm that slow." He smirked at her and shook his head. He wasn't that easily fooled, and she should have known better. "You're only saying that because you can't force me, and you're gonna do some sneaky shit behind my back instead. I don't know any of you that well, but I know a deceitful bitch when I see one." He turned his back to them once more and walked towards the exit. "Listen," He said while walking. "I don't care what you're planning, but whatever it is, you better leave the people I care about alone or I swear to you," He took a few seconds to stop for what he was about to say. "You will wish you never, ever, heard the name Cereza." He continued out the door as it slid open due to a body being present. The fountain smacked against it's surface to indicate someone was about to leave the room. "We're done here. Hopefully I'll never have to come here for a private audience with you assholes ever again." Even as he shoved his way passed the guards, he grumbled more insults. "Hope you assholes all die of a hang-nail..."

After their former child left their room, it automatically closed back up and hid them away once again from the outside world. Hermos slowly stood up and silently volunteered to pick up the broken chair that was swung across the room just a few moments ago. Timaeus sighed while crossing his arms. "It's a shame, we don't necessarily hate him." He glanced at Cyndia. "Well, you do, but he was a good boy. He still is, to those who he cares about. What a waste of talent."

Cyndia rolled her eyes with pursed lips. "Doesn't matter. As long as he gets what he wants, he'll leave us the hell alone. If it wasn't for Dartz, I would have had security kick him out the second he walked in the building-"

Hawkins scoffed at her and he harshly scolded her. "By God woman, you never learn do you? If you did that, the entire building would be on fire, with us burning along with it. It seems that you keep forgetting that Cereza was and still is an extremely wrathful child. Even more so now thanks to your ingenious decision to keep that traitorous Kujaku alive, to which none of us favored in, might I add. If it wasn't for your ignorant tastes in 'skill' and your miserable attempts to keep things 'traditional', we may have still had him working along side us as an ally. And we're damn lucky he isn't officially an enemy." That last part was very personal, and they all knew who and what he was talking about. His words cut into her like a murderous butcher. Just like a father chastising his children, he wasn't talking very friendly with her, despite her being the head. This forced her to hold her tongue for now, and just looked away.

Hermos rested his head on his chin as he returned to his seat. "He would have been a great veteran and an even better Boss after Ishtar. Losing Cereza, but most of all losing his trust, was a great disadvantage."

Critias exhaled just as disappointingly. "Quite a shame indeed, but perhaps we can push the due date to form a new generation of children much sooner." All the other children from Atem's generation were dead, and their former ace was gone. Thanks to their new policy of allowing retirement, they were losing more soldiers. They needed more men. "We're losing our numbers, but perhaps we'll get lucky and find another set of talent."

Timaeus looked over at the others with an intrigued expression. "Yes, that should be our top priority for now." He then leaned back in his chair. "We'll never be able to tell him the real reason as to why we're so cross with Sennen's deliberate failure. Akefia Adio was definitely one of them, and thanks to him, we missed our chance."

After he said this, Hawkins made another curt laugh. "Of course not, that goes without saying. We'd have to relay several books of history for that reason. It would raise too many questions, and with Cereza's spitefulness and severe distrust, he'd spread vital information like a virus."

"Yes," Timaeus put a finger on his chin while looking down at the broken surface of the table curiously. "But something tells me that this secret won't be able to go on for much longer...I've got a bad hunch."

Hermos looked over at his fellow Superior. "Well let's hope that your hunch is wrong, because I don't want to die from the likes of them."

Yes, a death like that would be worse than burning in hell.

It was time for some agents' break during this hour in D75. Fortunately, Yami and Yugi shared the same break time, so they always wound up meeting each other in the break room to chat or whisper sweet nothings to each other away from their fellow employees. D75 had multiple break rooms on multiple floors, but Yami and Yugi's favorite was on the building's far right in the back. The room had very large windows that allowed sunlight to beam inside it. Of course for caution, the glass on any window of the property was installed with very tough material similar to plexiglass. Should an attack occur, well...let's just say a sniper would have a hard time trying to get a head shot in a hidden bush somewhere. Anyway, they sat together at one of the tables and sat by the windows everyday. Lunch was actually served here everyday like a cafeteria, and the food was pretty good. However, nothing beat anything Atem cooked up at home, so Yami and Yugi usually got their lunch from him that he would pack for them the night before. So they were now feasting on their boyfriend's amazingly delicious lunch.

For Yami, it was a tonkatsu sandwich, which was basically just a pork cutlet in between two pieces of toasted bread. His lunch was also packed with a bottle of water and some spiced shrimp to have on the side. Yugi had a fluffy omelette egg sandwich with canned coffee, and some fresh sliced strawberries. Sometimes, and only sometimes, small notes would be hidden in their lunch containers. Sometimes they would say 'I love you', sometimes they would say 'I need to talk to you two when you come home from work'. And sometimes, they'd be naughty notes that might say 'I'm waiting in the bedroom for you', or, 'I really want it tonight.' Or sometimes they'd be words of encouragement saying 'Paint the town red today', or 'Cook up some nice poison with Ishtar'. Considering their previous discussion last night, they figured Atem wouldn't leave a note. And they were right, he didn't. Again, this wasn't a daily thing that he did but, they still noticed that he may not have wanted to write anything this time.

Yami and Yugi usually arrived at work around eight or nine depending on the day, and their break was almost always at noon or eleven thirty for around thirty minutes. That talk with the Superiors took a little more than an hour, but Atem stopped on the way to see his sister and Ishizu. He talked with Mana, gently interrupting her while she was working. He told her what he did, and she was proud of him for sticking up for Yami. She was completely shocked as to how he talked with the Superiors, but that only made her admire him even more. Atem was so, fearless, she couldn't help but look up to her big brother in an even brighter light. He also told her he was going to meet up with his lovers, and he was a bit anxious. She was happy that he was honest, and encouraged him to do so. That they would forgive him regardless of anything. He gave her a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye for now, and promised to give her a call later.

He then met up with Ishizu, who he confessed to about his discreetness. She didn't know anything about Dartz and Atem's decisions during the Gozaburo incident, but she wasn't too surprised. She understood their discretion, and even praised Atem for his honesty. She however warned him that he was lucky Yami and Yugi were forgiving people, but Seto more than likely wouldn't be. Since Atem was the sole reason for Yami's violent awakening, his older brother would more than likely try to fight him. She told him that while the truth did need to come out for Atem's sake, she advised him to be careful with how he should eventually tell Seto. He agreed, but he definitely wouldn't tell him now. After their talk, she hugged him much to his surprise, and agreed that Dartz only wanted him to be happy. She was glad that it all still worked out in the end.

Atem had already walked off the elevator to their floor, traveling to the break room as the two lovers talked about nothing important. Yami took off his suit jacket so he wouldn't ruin his suit, and Yugi took off his lab coat to feel more comfortable. Yugi was nibbling at the tip of his strawberry slice as Yami continued to tell him about his last mission that ended just an hour ago. Right now he had to do some paperwork to report it, but he'd finish it after break. "It was some drunk who hit his kids on a regular basis. His ex-wife made the request to have his eyes cut out, and put in a mason jar with some water. I used my pocket knife to do it." He said as he finished swallowing some of his meal. "Considering how easy it was, the report should take me no time at all."

Yugi made a sound of delight a he chewed his yummy omelette. "Mnn," He took a second to swallow as well. "That's good. An oddly specific way to kill him, though. That poor lady must have suffered at the hands of his drunken rage too. I wonder what she'll do with his eyeballs though. Oooh!" He grinned creepily, in an innocent fashion. "Maybe she wanted them as a trophy!" He took a sip of his canned coffee to wash down his food. "Thanks to Atemu, you might be able to take it easy from now on." He wiped his thumb on the corner of lips to brush off any crumbs that may have lingered from his previous bites. "As for me, I finally caught up in my own work pile. I won't be able to stay after this break since I don't officially return until tomorrow, but I still got a few things done. Mana-chan already gave me a heads up about what you managed to finish for me while I was gone." He made a smile at Yami. "Thank you, by the way. I really appreciate it."

"Yeah, no problem," Yami said slowly as he blinked. He just realized Yugi never stammered as they talked. "You're not stuttering."

Yugi set aside his can and held up the sandwich to his mouth. Now that he was really paying attention, he saw that Yugi's hands weren't shaking as he lifted it. Sometimes he'd have to help Yugi with eating since he couldn't hold utensils like chopsticks. Thankfully, he usually didn't have too much trouble on his own when eating, as he gradually learned to try and settle down when holding objects. This time however, he was completely still. "I used one of my concoctions again to numb my nerves. Same recipe, worked like a charm. Shame it's not permanent, though."

"Yeah but, you can't feel anything, right?" Yami noted as he placed a shrimp in his mouth.

The elder shrugged. "Maybe, but it helps me work easier. It always wears off after some hours."

"Well," The other replied as he finished the last corner of his sandwich. "Just be careful with that stuff. I mean, I know I don't need to tell that to you of all people, but still." He closed his eyes as he grasped his water bottle. He felt that same hand get grasped, and pulled forward. Yami opened his eyes back, just to see Yugi place the tip of his index finger in his mouth. "Yugi," He trailed off as he felt him lightly suck against it.

"Nmm~ Quit worrying about me." He grinned. He let it go and rubbed his own digits on Yami's palm affectionately. "You had some spicy sauce on your fingers from the shrimp."

"Apparently so." Yami deadpanned. "You know you can't do that stuff at work." He whispered in a low voice.

Yugi pouted. "Oh please, you know we've already done it here plenty of times already. Not to mention you're the one always pulling me in your office or in the bathroom."

"I need to relieve stress somehow."

"Then wait until we get home like you're supposed to!"

"Look, I can't help that you look hot when you're handling poisons and computer software."

The hacker instantly blushed. "R...Really?" He asked bashfully. "But you don't even see me most of the day."

"True, but whenever I need some poison of a specific type, I always have to come to you or Ishizu." He caressed the side of Yugi's face, with the very hand that the other was holding. "You always look so determined, so focused in your own little world. And being a veteran means you can bark orders at people all you want. I love the way you scold people for mixing or typing the wrong things, the way you command rookies and tell them what to do. How smart and intelligent you sound when you break down cryptic codes like the genius hacker that you are..." He started to smirk a little. "It's a huge turn on."

Yugi gushed, covering his face with both hands as he smiled shyly. "O-Oh gosh, you're gonna make my stutter come back."

Some heavy footsteps along with a stoic voice interrupted their conversation. "So this is what you two do while I'm at home," Their third lover finally arrived, walking towards them while pulling up a chair and sitting down beside Yugi. "Fuck and kiss each other's asses, both literally and figuratively." He leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs. They were happy to see Atem enter the break room and join them, but he didn't look happy himself. His expression was more agitated than usual, and there was even a vein still on his forehead. Worriedly, Yugi asked if everything was alright.

"Well hello to you too. Are you alright?" He asked.

"I'm fine-" He stopped while raising a brow at Yugi. "Why aren't you..?"

"I numbed my nerves with some chemicals."

"Oh. Right. Anyway," Atem closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "I'm fine." He grumbled.

Yami switched his eye color to blue. "You definitely don't look fine." He saw that his blood pressure was high, he was not fine at all. "How did the meeting go? That's probably why you look so pissed, more so than usual."

The Egyptian shrugged while placing his arms behind his head. "It went fine, like just like I said it would. They did what I fucking told them to without a consequence."

Yugi laughed nervously at his rough tone, giving him small pats on his shoulder blade. "Yeah but you didn't, you know, curse at them. You were probably very respectful and polite." After he said this with unsure confidence, he saw Atem open an eye at him without any words. His lack of a response only concluded one thing, he did the exact opposite of what they told him not to do. This caused both Yugi and Yami to drop their jaws. "Y-You cursed them out!?" Yugi tried his best not to be too loud, since there were others in this break room.

"Are you fucking insane?" Yami hissed at him while slapping his hand on the table.

Atem opened both eyes at them. "You both obviously don't know me as well as you should if you honestly thought I'd change my attitude in front of those bastards." He sat up straight and jammed his thumb towards his own chest. "I don't give a fuck who's running this damn place, don't piss me off. I don't owe anyone a damn thing, and certainly not my respect for anyone in this entire facility." He clenched his teeth and looked away while crossing his arms. "No, they owe me. And damn it, for everything they've done, I'll talk to them however the fuck I want. I didn't care if the fucking Prime Minister was in that boardroom, I got what I wanted. Simple as that."

"Okay, can we cut the 'I'm so badass' shtick for just a minute here?" Yami retorted. "You could have been killed for how you talked to them. Knowing your big mouth, you probably insulted them to no end."

The other just kept shrugging. "Yeah and so what? I threw a chair, broke it, made their ugly Superior paintings fall down, and punched a crack in their stupid ass table too. You gonna scold me that?"

Yugi's eyes widened. "You what...?!"

Yami threw his hand to his face to make a face-palm, clenching his eyes shut while whispering, "Holy shit..."

Atem growled at their shocked reactions. They should have known how he would have acted in front of them. Why was he getting chastised for being rightfully angry at the assholes who ruined all of their lives? He didn't care if they were powerful people, they could all burn in the deepest pit in hell. "And why the fuck not?" He asked loudly, even startling others who sat close enough to overhear the conversation. "They fucked with the wrong one this time. I could kill all five of them in their fucking sleep if I wanted to. It's not about being a 'badass', it's about doing what's right. I couldn't stand there and let them keep treating you like shit!" He exclaimed while looking directly at Yami.

That's not what he was concerned about though. "Atem, you could have gotten killed-!"

"Then so be it." He firmly stated, immediately making Yami fall into immediate silence. "I'd fight to the death if it means making life easier for you two. I'd never let anyone I care about get screwed over, while I have the power to stop it." As he said this, his voice lowered to normal levels of casual conversation, his tone becoming more serious rather quickly. "I love you. Both of you. I'd never, ever, ever, sit by and let you suffer. For any reason. Not if I can help it." Soon, he watched the alarm in their expression soften. They didn't expect him to just, come out and say that. He was always so aggressively shy whenever he expressed how he felt for them. He would become tight-lipped and stubbornly bashful. But, he just talked so freely and confidently about how he felt for once. He looked down at the table, his normally angry face loosening into a more calm and collected expression. "Listen," He said quietly. "Everything was my fault in the first place anyway. I'm," He sighed. "I'm angry at myself." He admitted. "I'm angry at myself all the time for being the way I am, for doing the things that I've done, for becoming some...weak, short-tempered piece of shit who can't even take compliments without cringing." They thought that was the end of his self-loathing, until he continued on with more personal traumas revealing one by one. "...Who can't even piss or take a shit in the toilet without puking, who can't even bathe without having these stupid fucking flashbacks..." When he said this, this concerned the other two males. This meant that Atem was still having a problem with his memories from his assault all those years ago.

He, he had a problem with using the bathroom? Even now? He never said a word. He hid that from them too? His own pain? And he was obviously still suffering from PTSD, he was having flashbacks of those horrible men and Mai still. Probably why he had a hard time using the bathroom. Again, he never said a thing about this. He never, came to them for help. Never came forward and just talked with them about it. He probably didn't even tell Kisara. Atem was always the strong one in the group when it came to emotions. He held everyone together, he was the only one who rarely crumbled. He had control of his emotions and mental state most of the time, and he was sadly the sanest one out of the three of them. But here he was, crumbling right before them and they couldn't even understand why. He wasn't that badass lone soldier who was praised by all who ever heard of him, he was that little orphan kid who got teased for looking like a monster with inhuman red eyes.

He was, alone.

And no one even knew.

And he just continued to put himself down, he just kept mumbling his own self inflicted insults to himself. "Who fucking sucks at showing his emotions to the people who he's supposed to care about. For hiding all of this stupid-ass conspiracy garbage that shouldn't have never fucking happened in the first God damn place." He shook his head, furrowing his brows sorrowfully. "Everything, every single thing that's ever happened, it was all me." He stiffened. "I'm selfish, I'm fucking stupid and I'm so impulsive. I get so angry, that I don't even know what to do with myself sometimes. I fucking destroy everything I look at without even realizing why I'm so pissed." He leaned forward and covered the majority of his face with both hands. "I'm no soldier, I'm not the best. I don't even deserve to be called his son," He shuddered against his seat as his body stiffened. "I," He murmured. "I'm just," He placed his head down on the table. "Nothing."

It wasn't coming here that gave him a sour mood. It wasn't the people of his past who he bumped into that made his blood boil. It wasn't even the Superiors who were to blame for all of their torment here at D75 as children.

It was him.

It was him, because he couldn't let go of his rage. He couldn't let go of his sadness, and he couldn't let go of the fear and disgust he felt for himself after the tragedy he suffered here in this very building.

He was the reason for his anger. He always was, every single time, all his life.

With a sharp inhale, he slowly lifted his head up with a blank expression. It was as if all of his sorrow just, flushed away to hide his true feelings once more. "I'm sorry, for lying to you both. I'll never hold a secret like that ever again, I'll never go behind your backs. I swear that on my life."

Breathlessly from that sudden break down, Yugi just had to ask one thing. "Again, why hide this from either of us? Your flashbacks, your pain, everything." He pulled his chair a little closer to his boyfriend, placing his pale hand on his knee. "Why?" He whispered. "You know you could have came to us, or Mana-chan. And if not us, maybe Kisara-chan could have helped you." He rubbed his shin gently. "Why did you choose to suffer alone?"

"Because you two are weak enough as it is," He quickly retorted. "If it wasn't for me, you two would have killed yourselves by now or something. And I'm not even exaggerating." His tone was harsh and held a grudge, referencing Yami's coma and Yugi's self harm. "The fuck could I do?" He spat, more to himself than to anyone. "You two are already fucked up, why would I make it worse by telling you that I'm not as strong as you think I am? And I couldn't go to her or Mana, I didn't want to confess this to anyone. It's fucking embarrassing. Shameful. That I'm still so screwed up and sensitive, that I can't even relieve myself like some child. That I can't even look in the mirror without seeing one of those shit-stains behind me as if they're still there with me. Smiling at me...I'm a fucking coward." Atem wasn't looking anywhere near them, he didn't want to show them his face. He didn't want to look them in the eyes. "So I kept it to myself. I wouldn't go to them and I definitely couldn't come to you. I need to stay strong to keep you both from falling apart."

Yami instantly decided to speak up with red eyes. "So instead, you decided to shoulder all of our pain along with your own, like a fucking moron."

Yugi scowled at Yami for his aggressive tone. "Yami. Don't say that!"

"No," Atem said softly. "He's right. I am a moron. Once again, I was acting selfish and impulsive. Only thinking of what I thought was best, just like back then." He almost chuckled to himself. He supposed he never learned his lesson.

"What is wrong with you?" Yami growled. "Why didn't you say something? Stop trying to be some fucking martyr, and just-!" He stopped himself to take a breath, to calm himself down before he started screaming in the break room. Thankfully, people were starting to leave, so at least no one would be listening in on them anymore. "Just, be honest. Isn't that what we've all been complaining about? Yugi lies, you hide your emotions, and I can't even comprehend what the word 'emotion' means." He ran his hand through his hair. "We're all so dysfunctional, it's pitiful. Laughable, even. But," He lowered his gaze. "We're to blame too, after all, we put you in the middle once again."

Yugi turned to Atem and leaned against him with a loving expression. "We're sorry too, we forgive you." He gently ran his fingers through his blonde locks, before settling his hand on the side of his face to pull him closer and nuzzle him. "You're always doing so much for us," He smiled sadly as he felt moisture slide down his cheek. That wasn't his own tears, that was Atem's. "Cooking for us, doing all the cleaning, making sure we get up for work," He wrapped his arms around his neck to pull him towards his body, so he could hide his face in the nook of his neck. He knew he didn't want them to see him so weak, he knew he hated to cry in front of anyone. Or to cry at all. "You even take care of Mana-chan. You worry about everyone else before you worry about yourself. You act just like a mom." He pet his head in a sweet motion, closing his eyes as he let Atem cry on his shoulder. Neither him or Yami could hear him, as he was good for hiding his audible sobs as well. "When's the last time either of us has seen him cry?" He asked Yami without even looking at him.

Yami watched the scene while leaning his elbow on the table. "Several months ago. A lot longer than we can say for ourselves."

"Right?" Yugi said as he used his other hand to rub his boyfriend's back, consoling him as best as he could. "It's nice to be the strong one for a change."

"Yeah."

Atem held his childhood friend as tight as he could, refusing to reveal his tear stained face to either of them.

It was time that he was taken care of for once in his life.

END - 21!

There were A LOT of bold and italicized words in this chapter. I implore you all to read between the lines very carefully. This chapter is also very important, if it wasn't obvious already.

Like I said before, there is a much bigger story behind D75 than you initially thought.

Anyway, as for Atem, this was a very hard thing for him to do. This is why he broke down, because the D75 secret wasn't the only thing he was hiding. Now that he finally confronted one of his problems he held in for so long, everything else just kind of slipped out on an intense emotional ride.

Don't worry, he'll be fine. He's a big boy.

A strong boi.