Ship: Gameshipping (Yami Yugi/Atem x Duke Devlin/Otogi Ryuuji)
I am a bad person for neglecting… well, basically everything lately. But I've been having a hard time harnessing the 'spark' lately, but I thought I would just plow through this writer's block with some good ol fashioned force and be on my merry way.
LSS, here I am with the request. The requestor didn't give any specifications on plot or content, so I decided I would just try something out. (And I've tried like a million things and none of them turned out so here I am again trying another thing and hoping I can just get it fucking right for once).
Sooooo I present to you the Marching Band AU that nobody asked for.
What Happens on the Band Bus… Stays on the Band Bus
They were on the last piece. Their show was emotionally and mentally exhausting - not to mention physically, with how complicated their drills were, and the music was complex and daunting. They pushed through the autumn cold, and played their hearts out.
Duke watched from where he stood on the sidelines for his solo as Atem conducted with harsh, stoic grace. Up there, in his drum major uniform, he looked like a general, or a king, directing his army to victory. It was the last stretch, the last two minutes, but this was the most important part.
Their show was The Odyssey, a complicated tale to tell in fifteen minutes, but here, where Duke was blasting his brain out through the horn of his saxophone, Odysseus had finally returned home to slay the men harassing his wife and estate. The culmination of his harrowing journey.
The culmination of their harrowing journey. From regionals, to state, and, now, nationals.
Duke couldn't feel his fingers, but he wasn't sure if it was the chill or his nerves but he'd memorized this, played it over and over again until he heard it in his dreams and nightmares alike. And it was barely noticeable - it seemed like Atem kept his eyes forward, but Duke swore he saw those piercing maroon irises cut to him in approval.
He puffed his chest out, ripped through the thirty-second note runs like it was no one's business.
On the field, marchers and color guard members fell to their knees - or the color guard members just fell, since they didn't have fragile instruments to worry about - as Marik, their Odysseus, 'killed' the last of his usurpers.
They belted the last notes out, broad and grand, the pit thrumming and rolling, and a last simultaneous crash of the bass drum and the crash symbol signalled the end of their show. They had but a few seconds to bask in the roaring applause from the stands before they were scurrying about to clear their props and instruments from the field in time for the next band to begin.
"You did a splendid job, Duke," a deep voice, surprisingly close, said lowly.
It was Atem, his eyes forward, but Duke smirked, gloved fingers thrumming on the brass of his saxophone. "Why, thank you. You didn't do half-bad yourself, Atem."
Finally, a sideways glance, and Atem looked entirely too smug - a facial expression everyone knew he made when they totally blew the show out of the water.
There was many things Atem was prideful of, but most of all his fellow band members.
"I did half the work," Seto Kaiba rumbled (Atem's fellow trumpet player and also drum major who conducted for the first two pieces of the show).
"Oh my gosh, congrats, Kaiba. Here's the validation you ordered," Duke snapped, but he was still smiling widely. Everyone was too high on adrenaline to be genuinely nasty.
There were only a couple more bands in their flight to play, and then they would hear their scores.
But, this time, no one was nervous about a bad one.
"And, finally, the Domino City Marching Band, placing first nationally with a score of 98."
Excitement rippled through the band - it was palpable - but they all remained silent and professional. Even if they all wanted to scream until they were blue in the face.
Duke groaned in relief when he took his bucket off. His long black hair was a messy topknot, just barely tamed by innumerable bobby pins and what had to be at least five hair ties.
Tea, section member and the one who had tried to contain all of his hair, chuckled sheepishly. "Let me help you with that…"
He smiled at her. "I kinda hate you right now."
She sputtered and raised her palms defensively. "It's not my fault that your hair is basically a liquid."
"Whatever, just get these damn things out."
The hair ties tugged unpleasantly, and Duke would grunt. Tea hissed her apologies, and tried to be gentler. He idly picked bobby pins out in the meantime. Pieces of glossy black hair fell down about his shoulders and face, and a small pile of pins was developing next to his thigh.
"Pfft, you look like that chick from The Ring," Bakura snickered.
"Wow, thanks. Fuck off."
"He's not wrong," Tea sang.
Someone else laughed, a deep, ringing kind of laugh, Atem's laugh, and then a slender bronzed finger was prying at his hair to get a look at his face. "Are you under this pile of hair, Duke?"
"Okay, this is bullshit. You all have equally crazy, if not crazier hair," Duke complained, but his one unhindered eye met Atem's. They were glittering and bright, and he was flashing one of his rare, toothy grins.
"You're not wrong," Tea once again sang, and she finally freed him of the last tie.
He immediately combed his fingers - it really was like liquid, slipping between his fingers like black water - through the strands. He grimaced. He took damn good care of his hair, and this was just a travesty.
"Maybe Duke's crazy hair gives us good luck," Yugi chirped from wear he was peeling off his uniform. Underneath, everyone wore plain black clothes.
In the background, one could hear Duke squawk "My crazy hair?!"
But Atem's voice cut above them all. "We didn't get first place because of luck." And his maroon irises met everyone's in turn in a steady, approving glance. "It was pure skill. I'm so very proud of all of you. Now let's go home."
It was a long bus ride back to Domino City. But, thankfully, the band boosters had rented them three commercial buses for comfort on the fourteen hour ride back.
The adrenaline of the competition and the rush of victory had yet to fade. Outside the windows, the occasional lights alongside the highway streaked by in the dark. But the backmost lights inside the bus was lit.
"This is so childish," Kaiba grumbled.
"And yet, you're still here, so you must be interested in playing," Tea said back with no small amount of snark.
It was a cluster of them propped on the backs of seats and leaning into the aisle. Tea, Kaiba, Joey, Yugi, Ryou, Marik, Bakura, Duke, and, last buy by no means least, Atem.
"I'll go first," Yugi offered eagerly. "Dare."
"Oh my god," Marik exclaimed, "I dare you to say 'cunt.'"
"That's fucking lame," Bakura said, droll.
"No, it's not," Marik insisted. "I have never heard Yugi swear before, so I picked the crudest word I could think of."
Yugi frowned, face a little red. "Cunt." He said it simply, but Marik, Bakura, Joey, and Bakura all curled over with laughter.
"All right, that was actually kind of hilarious," Bakura admitted. "And you didn't even stutter. You have newfound respect from me, Yugi."
Yugi rolled his eyes.
Atem leaned over the aisle to speak quietly into Duke's ear. "Yugi actually curses like a sailor in private. Don't let the innocent facade fool you."
"That doesn't surprise me."
Next was Tea.
"Truth."
"Aw, boring!" Joey groused.
"Not necessarily," Ryou murmured.
"What's the most embarrassing thing your parents have ever caught you doing?" Duke supplied.
"That's a good one," Atem said, smirking, eyes focussed on Tea.
She warily eyed the pack of teenaged boys surrounding her. "Okay, I got it."
Everyone collectively leaned forward.
"So, I was like, I don't know, six or seven when I learned about reproduction and everything."
Collective smirks from the guys.
"I wanted this new doll, but my mom said no. We were in a tight patch at the time. My dad got laid off for a couple months, so we were pinching pennies and stretching every dollar, just in case. Anyways, the neighbor boy that I was friends with at the time - he's like a year younger than me and they ended up moving away, but anyway - he had a bunch of action figures and stuff. Male ones. And I had all these girl barbies."
Yugi facepalmed. "I can already see where this is going."
Tea grimaced a smile and nodded slowly. "So I thought, if we can't afford to buy dolls, I could… make one…?"
Everybody laughed. Tea's face flushed darker.
"So I borrowed the neighbor boy's action figures… and… I… y'know… put them all together in some pretty compromising positions…"
She had to pause as Joey and Bakura cackled like maniacs. She pursed her lips.
"And my grandmother found them. I had never heard her scream so much. And then my mom came home and I explained to her what happened, and she just laughed and laughed. And then later my dad and uncle found out, and there was even more laughing and I was crying and confused." She looked into the distance. "Thinking about it now makes me die a little inside." She lifted her shoulders. "They ended up getting me the doll I wanted."
"Okay, nobody can top that truth," Tristan said.
Next was Joey. Seto dared him to lick the floor - and of course he made some dog comments, but Joey, despite all his anger was not one to back down from a dare.
Everyone grimaced watching him.
"It tastes like dirt," Joey slurred, his tongue still hanging out and his nose scrunched up.
"Gross!"
"It's better than tasting like the dog shit somebody stepped in," Bakura chortled.
Then came Duke.
"Dare."
"It's time for my revenge, Duke!" Tea exclaimed. "Let me draw on that pretty face of yours!"
"Oh god," he groaned, but sat still as she inched forward with a pen she procured from somewhere.
Above his lips, down his chin, around his eyes - she was very gentle the whole time, which he appreciated.
Joey catcalled.
Tea, smirking all the while, capped her pen and huddled close to take a selfie with him.
A drawn-on handlebar mustache and goatee, with thick round glasses around his green eyes. He looked ridiculous.
He batted her away when she went to take a second photo. "Enough. A photo shoot wasn't part of the deal."
"Holy shit, now you kinda look like the guy from V For Vendetta," Bakura crowed.
"I don't think he wore glasses," Yugi murmured.
"It's only vaguely reminiscent," Kaiba commented.
They turned to the next person in their rotation.
Atem, their affable but imperturbable drum major.
The tilt of his lips hinted to a smirk. "Dare."
Everyone exchanged a glance.
Yugi leaned forward, grinning eerily into his twin's face. "I dare you to kiss the person you find the most attractive on this bus."
There was not a person the vicinity, even those who were not playing but just observing or listening, who did not freeze in their seat.
Even Atem seemed stunned, his maroon eyes blinking wide.
Yugi sank into his seat, arms crossed and far too pleased with himself.
Atem's eyes narrowed dangerously with a look that anyone could read as you'll pay for this later, brat.
He shifted forward, his eyes darting to the front where all the band parents were gathered. Everyone watched with bated breath as he leaned forward, into the aisle… and right into Duke's personal space. His hot, slender fingers clasped Duke's chin, and then Duke was meeting those sparkling maroon eyes.
Which came closer and closer until Duke's eyes fell shut, and then smooth, warm lips were pressing into his own and he could feel the puff of Atem's breath on his face.
Either everyone was watching in stunned silence, or Duke's ears were no longer functioning properly, because all he could hear was the blood pounding in his ears as he languidly kissed back. Atem softly mouthed for a few seconds before pulling back, his fingertips skimming under Duke's jaw.
"Holy shit," someone muttered, but Duke's eyes were focussed on Atem's darkened ones.
And then Atem winked. "What can I say? I enjoy a man with facial hair."
Duke frowned and swatted Atem's hand away, though he still chortled a bit. "What? So once it's all washed off I'm just chopped liver?"
"I didn't say that," Atem replied lowly, and everyone had to pick their jaws off the floor before they could continue the game.
"It should be noted that Atem wasn't told where he had to kiss but went for the lips anyway," Ryou astutely mentioned later on.
THE END
Wow! Not only did this turn out, this turned out just like I wanted it to. There are definitely some things about marching band and marching band competitions that I left out, but hey, this is just a oneshot (also, why the fuck isn't there a marching band anime yet? Like, c'mon that would be so cool).
So, someone requested a sequel to the Principleshipping oneshot I wrote (the one with Djinn!Otogi and Mahad, in case any of you forgot), so that will be our last chapter before I start Hatshipping Vol. II. *party poppers*
Next Up: Principeshipping (Duke Devlin/Ryuuji x Mahad)