Lounging in a chair at Burger World, Otogi yawned. Yawned again, this time made a little challenge of it; trying to stretch his jaw as far as he could. Checked his watch for what felt like the eighteenth time. Perhaps nineteenth. Tapped his foot, and yawned.

He'd once read that dogs yawned when they were nervous. Good thing he was more of a cat sort of person, then. He had manners, besides the yawning.

You know who didn't have manners? Whoever had called him out here. Eleven, they'd said! Today ok?

In the morning? , he'd texted straight back, all politely eager. Any investor in his little board game was an investor, regardless of whether he personally knew them or not, and shouldn't be ignored.

Well, apparently, his text could be ignored. Until four in the afternoon, by which point Otogi had travelled to and from Burger World, and had certainly not enjoyed what they called 'burgers', unless by 'burger' one meant 'levels of fear and disgust comparable to a Shadow Game'. Then, and only then, did he get the text.

No Im busy. 11 at nite?

And now he was here, alone in Burger World but for Honda, who had decided that watching Otogi was much more entertaining than serving the customers he didn't actually have.

It was half past eleven.

Otogi yawned again. Checked his watch, just to make sure. Thirty-one minutes past. Was that technically half-past, still?

"You going to actually order anything?" Honda appeared to have caught the yawns off him. Curse the fact he ever worked here, but he had to try and play it cool.

"I'm waiting for someone." He did that thing he usually reserved for cute girls. Kind of a half-smile and a wink. "They're gonna make me rich."

"They're what?"

Honda's left eyebrow appeared to be on a path to orbit. Otogi refused to acknowledge it. "Actually, they've already given me some money. Enough to start producing prototypes again."

"Sure, sure." Snort, snort. Honda was pretty good at the scathing kind of snort. "And they're what… They're in what, Nigeria? Are they a prince, by any chance?"

"That's racist." And just as Otogi waved his hand, the doors to Burger World flew open, and in marched the single worst person to be present during an important meeting with an investor. A massive, burly guy, carrying multiple blinged-out stabbing weapons, with no shirt on, and no shoes either. Had Otogi been in Honda's place, he would have thrown the spiky-haired fisherman right out of the establishment. Except he wouldn't have been able to do that due to all the stabby things Kajiki was carrying – point is, Ryota Kajiki was completely and utterly not appropriate for Burger World.

And also: his crush.

No, they'd never met. They'd never needed to. Mister third-placer-in-the regionals had enough pictures in the paper for Otogi to drool over. Both Jounouchi and Yugi had told their tales; it was all they'd needed to know. He'd 'accidentally' frequented the docks and jetties Kajiki liked to wander through, pawed through all the public duel footage he could. A crush; nothing serious. Something to stare at in his spare time.

And something to stare at right now.

For his part, Kajiki ignored Otogi, instead swaggering up to the counter. Without missing a beat, he started rattling off the names of burgers Otogi didn't even know Burger World served. Must have been in the fine print or on some secret menu Kajiki had found in a trash can. Maybe in a treasure chest at the bottom of the sea, Kajiki would totally do something like that. Adventurous, lucky bastard.

And again: his crush.

Now, Otogi had always enjoyed muscles – he did tend to end up sandwiched between Honda and Jounouchi, after all – but Kajiki took muscle to a new level. A shirtless kind of level. He couldn't keep his eyes off the tanned skin, the biceps gleaming in the light, the obviously new leather pants emphasizing the ripple and curl of Kajiki's everything… oh, and his butt. That was a very nice butt.

Wow, this investor meeting was going to go really well! Why yes, mister investor, I'm just checking out the backside of the shirtless, possible tramp over there. Yep, I'm gay! Problem? No, no, you sir – you, sir, you have a problem. I'm the normal one here. Why don't you give me that money we were discussing?

Leaving Honda to try to manage all the components of his order (whatever the hell it was, Otogi had been too 'focused' to listen), Kajiki swaggered over to Otogi's table. Never walked, he was too sex- confident for that. And also, sexy.

He smelled, actually. Otogi had never smelled Kajiki before, never been close enough, so this was an experience. Not a bad smell – just of salt, and the sea, which being outdoor things, were exotic to the pale gamer. And Kajiki's muscles were similarly outdoorsy, he noted; not bodybuilder on a shrunken frame, but actually strong. So he was really a fisherman after all!

So strong looking. He could totally pick up Otogi with one hand – no, one finger. And then he could very romantically-

"-are you okay with that?"

-he was saying things? Otogi blinked away all thoughts of spinning like a basketball on Kajiki's finger, except like, romantically. Maybe he could use some of that investor money to achieve that goal, though, and just lie about the prototypes he was supposed to be making. It'd be worth it.

Kajiki squinted. "Oi! You even listening? I said-"

Marry me? "Yes! No. I mean, what did you say?"

"I said, let's get started! This isn't gonna take long, not like Honda."

Swearing from the kitchen, as Honda presumably contemplated foot lettuce. Or spitting in something. Possibly both. He sure didn't sound too happy about the stupidly long and convoluted order, and Burger World's food was… the sort of quality only Burger World could offer.

"Sorry, Kajiki." Otogi performed his most longing sigh here, and hoped it came across as suitably pining and classcrossed (like starcrossed, but with money). I've got a meeting with this investor, so can't you wait another time?"

Kajiki laughed, and laughed. The table shook, and without really wanting to, Otogi caught himself smiling. Not the kind of smile he showed to girls, either. Like, a… a smile smile.

He corrected quickly when Kajiki decided to use his words, however. Leaning across the table, Kajiki delivered a revelation in what he probably thought was a stage whisper, but came out as a dull roar: "I'm the investor!"

Oh.

Smile time gone, then. Even if Kajiki was telling the truth, those few hundred dollars he'd sent were likely his entire life savings. Otogi would have to give him a refund. No more prototypes. Actually… could that be what this whole thing was about? Refunds?

Couldn't be. Kajiki looked much too proud of himself. Then again, Otogi had never seen him crestfallen, and he'd seen rather a lot of the fisherman. Maybe Kajiki just didn't do expressions that fell into the 'opposite of pride' category.

Regardless of whether he was having to refund or not, quality time with Kajiki and some shitty burgers was probably okay, though he'd likely have to pay for the burgers. Otogi leaned back in his chair, folding his arms and pretending that he was studying those glorious muscles for some actual serious, business-y purpose.

"You're joking." Not that Kajiki looked like he was joking, but best to accuse him anyway.

"No! I'm serious!" When Kajiki shook his head, it sent his ponytail flying every which way. Guy could really do with a haircut; Otogi's hair was much shorter, and the locks still required an inordinate amount of care. "You're not listening again."

"I'm not?"

"No. Look, isn't this great? You helped me out, and now I get to help you out!"

Tapping two fingers on the table, Otogi directed his gaze towards the counter of Burger World. Honda hurriedly turned his back, but he was laughing. Wonderful. "I helped you out?" And back to Kajiki. He couldn't take his eyes off the guy for long, after all. "I can't say I remember anything like that."

"Right!" Kajiki laughed, banging his fist on the table. Feeling it shake under his own fingers was a bit like holding hands with the fisherman, right? Otogi chose to see it that way, at any rate. "Of course you don't remember! Jounouchi gave me money to make my own startup! But he said it was from you. I guess you just trust him that much. It's okay, I do too."

"Jounouchi-?" What had that bastard blonde done this time? Taken his credit card? Gone and bought a whole heap of useless cards? No, something about donating… oh.

Yes. Of course Otogi recalled Jounouchi's friend needing money, he didn't have the brain of a goldfish. It was sometime last year, before Jounouchi violently lost his job at Burger World over the whole szechuan sauce saga. Must have been summer, he hadn't been wearing any sleeves. Hell, he distinctly recalled sweating as he tried to outdo Yugi in the charity department for the sake of beating him at something, but…

It couldn't be Kajiki, right?

It couldn't. No, Jounouchi had said who his friend was. He'd given a username, anyway. Some kind of Youtuber or something. Something like… Fry? Was it Fry? It might have been. Otogi shook his head. "Look, I'm not in a relationship with- I mean, I'm not joined at the hip- I don't know what he's thinking. Jounouchi, anyway."

"Yeah, you're single! That's fine, lots of fish in the sea."

Groan. "No! Just… tell me whatever it was you think I did, already."

"You funded the startup, dummy. Like I said. Jounouchi said it was from you, anyway. Ten bucks was really all it took in the end. So I'm massively grateful to my first and only investor, you know?"

No. No, no, no, no. It couldn't be Kajiki. He'd never get popular on Youtube! He couldn't! There was no way he could without Otogi watching every last video, studying every last muscle-

Kajiki pulled his phone from his back pocket, a gleaming blue number. Definitely new. "See, check out my channel! I've got over seven followers." He flipped it around to show Otogi. BiggerFishToFry; not a bad name given who was presumably in charge of the PR.

Fry.

…Wait a minute.

It all clicked, a bit like a safe's lock clicks right before all the unholy contents come spilling out. "That's not seven." Suddenly, Otogi's stomach lurched, even though he hadn't consumed a Burger World Burger since four o'clock. Maybe because he'd had one at four o'clock. Yeah, blame it on that.

If he'd gone pale or twitched, Kajiki hadn't noticed, since he just withdrew the phone and squinted at the screen. "Oh, yeah! Eight million, sorry. That's more than seven, though. So I'm still right."

Otogi wanted to cry and laugh, but he couldn't really do either. Couldn't even sit there, as Kajiki held out the phone again. Burger World seemed to simply dissolve into a pool of raw anxiety. Nothing felt real; understatement of the year. His turn to make the table shake, under his trembling fingers.

Not only had he given Kajiki money, but now… the guy was rich. Really rich. Youtubers with big numbers like that were megastars, weren't they? No wonder Kajiki hadn't been able to meet him until this late.

And then, beyond all that… This was a set up months in the making, wasn't it?

Yugi, you magnificent brat.

He wanted to cry.

"Hello? Listening?"

Otogi refocused, crosseyed, on the phone. Bit hard, given Kajiki was waving it like some sort of hyptonist's pendulum, but he sure tried.

Fish Feeding Fridays. Salmon Scarfing Saturdays. Tuna Toasting Tuesdays. The only thing worse than the playlist names was the thumbnails. Kajiki beamed into the camera just like he did whenever he laughed, his grin wide and welcoming, and in every picture he was holding… fishing gear? Toys? Stuff, really. Product 'unboxings' and 'rave reviews'. There were live fish involved; bored looking carp in an ornamental pool in one thumbnail. (Thumbnail title: CAR POOL VS CARP POOL! WHO WILL WIN?) With a… Ferrari of some description sticking out of it? Was that a photoshop-?

Kajiki must have followed his gaze, since he clucked approvingly. "That's one of my favorites! Wanna see? I got this big plastic Ferrari, so it wouldn't hurt them or anything, and then I-"

"No. No, no thank you." Who the hell would watch this, Otogi had no idea, but it intrigued him. Perhaps that was the point.

He let his gaze drift back to the important thing: the numbers. Eight million following Kajiki, and somehow he'd never heard of it. He'd never watched Kajiki open a 'lucky' box, nor catch a 'SUPER HOOGE BIGGUS FISHUS'. How much of Kajiki's life had he missed out on, how much joy and pain had eight million other people seen? His fault for trying to keep all online information regarding his crush away from his person, he supposed, but heaven forbid one of the others find out.

They'd totally found out, though. Months ago.

He could hear Honda just about losing his mind in his corner of Burger World. Was it over a burger, or this whole sorry situation? Had to be one or the other. Otogi swallowed, trying to compose himself, but he kind of stumbled in the middle of trying to calm, and snapped- "What do you want from me? It's late. And you're late."

He hadn't meant that, of course. Kajiki just shrugged it off, apparently aware that Otogi instantly felt horrible for it. "Nothing. I mean, I don't want anything." He grinned. "I just… wanted to give back, is all. I wanted to help with your startup. So, here's ten bucks. But better."

Considering he was so late, it was kind of a miracle that Kajiki had the cheque ready to hand over all, but there it was on the table. Signed and everything. That being said, he'd misspelled the name of Otogi's shop so badly that only its owner could recognize it, and Otogi was about to point that out when he realized Kajiki's other little mistake. Or very big mistake, all of Kajiki's mistakes tended to be of the same magnitude. "Kajiki! You can't do that!"

He slid the bit of paper across the table, tapping accusingly at it. Kajiki grinned. "More zeroes just means it's ten bucks, but better. Right?"

"That's." Otogi swallowed. Inhaled again. Was now aware of Honda standing over them, burgers in hand, waiting for him to get his damn arms off the table, but screw him. No way was Kajiki giving him this. "That's not how maths works." Tap, tap, tap on the cheque. "See this? This is ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS, Kajiki."

Kajiki stared, evidently not getting it. Otogi wanted to strangle him, but settled for eyeing up Kajiki's gloriously thick… neck. Yeah, that. "It's a bigger number than ten," he clarified. "Not better. Bigger."

Ah, now Kajiki seemed to get it. He was doing that head-tilty thing he did when he got things. Maybe they could move on now.

Instead, Honda coughed. "Is this about the Nigerian prince thing?"

"Oh, as if! You know already, don't you?!"

Going off the complete vacancy in Honda's eyes, he did not know already. "I don't know already," he said, very slowly, and looked from Otogi to Kajiki and back again. "What's going on?"

"He's trying to give me a thousand dollars, and I don't think he even knows what a thousand is!" Otogi wailed. "Or eight million followers! He doesn't do numbers. Look, it's all Yugi's fault. Just move on."

"Yugi?" Honda echoed. The burgers he was holding wobbled a bit. "What's he got to do with any of this?"

And finally, Kajiki reached over and took the cheque back. "Don't worry about that! It's all on me, seriously. Let me just fix that." His fingers brushed Otogi's on the way over, and it took Otogi everything he had not to just grab Kajiki's hand in both of his and start trying to figure out how much bigger it was. It was definitely bigger, though. Calloused, too. Warm.

More importantly than all these uncivilly gay thoughts about some guy he'd barely seen and never really met: no more of these bizarre shenanigans. He could go home, sleep, and forget any of this had ever transpired. Maybe eat one of the twelve zillion burgers Honda was still holding and see if it knocked him out. He made a dismissive gesture, finally allowing the non-fish-obsessed musclehead to put the burgers down. They actually looked slightly… edible. Wow. Honda should consider a career as a chef, maybe.

He was about to say just that, and hopefully derail this entire show - but then Kajiki took out a pen and started to doctor the cheque. And as usual, Otogi's attention was drawn back to the guy. He held his pen just like he held his harpoon - in his left hand. Though he did use his right for his cards, Otogi was pretty sure. Wait, did that mean he was ambidexterous? Cool. Wow, Kajiki was cool. Otogi could just watch him all day long-

"Okay, how about this? Is this better enough?" He flapped the cheque around, like a… well, like a dead fish. "I added more zeroes to make it better."

Otogi's gut flipped over, and not just because of the whole slightly-edible burger pile. "Ugh. I don't want to look."

Honda looked, because of course. "Oh, he put down a hundred thou- a-? A. Ahhhh." He took a nice, big step back. Smart guy, really. "Did you kill a bunch of pirates with your harpoon and… take the bounty, by any chance?"

"Ha! The sea's got an endless bounty!" Kajiki grabbed a burger, and stuffed it in his mouth, and then offered Otogi a handshake with the same greasy hand. What an embarrassment this was. "Whenschitcomethst'the-"

He started coughing. Otogi waited, and ducked several times.

Eventually, Kajiki seemed to choke his burger down. He was a lot more attractive when not choking on a burger, Otogi decided, but still very handsome. Good to know. "When it comes to the internet, anyway. Surfing it is like- uh, sailing a sea with endless bounty!"

Had Otogi had a burger in his mouth at that moment, he would have undoubtedly choked. Good thing he intended to steer clear. "So let me get this straight. You're the guy who funded the prototypes, and now you want to… fund me more. Because you think I gave you money. Ten whole dollars, to be exact."

"Actually, I think you gave Jounouchi money to give to me?" Kajiki reached for another burger.

"Still ten bucks!"

"Oh!" Honda, of course. "I get it now! That whole thing. Hey Otogi, how come you didn't just say that in the first place?"

Whose side are you on?! Best to ignore him, though. Or try to. Kajiki being so utterly enticing made that easy, at least, even when he was chowing down on Unknown Meat and Cheese of Questionable Otogin. "Whatever. You think I… gave money to you, through Jounouchi. So you want to give me money?"

"That's what I've been saying!" Kajiki grinned. It took Otogi's last ounce of strength not to grin right back, so warm and accepting it was. "The sea provides, so you've got to give back to it! You've gotta look after it, and get to know it, too. It's how you show love!"

Love? Wow, Otogi was totally not getting in Kajiki's wonderful leather pants any time soon - or was he? This was all sounding a bit cryptic. He looked to Honda, who just shrugged.

"Hey! Pay attention!"

Kajiki offered Otogi a hand – not the burger-grease one, but his left hand. That probably meant something to fish-obsessives. "I've never met someone who provided for me like the sea does. I definitely have to give back to you. And look after you! And-"

He seemed to remember Honda was there. It was incredibly obvious; Kajiki stopped dead for several seconds, and looked right at the himbo, who stared back impassively. But he didn't withdraw his hand, and he kept right on with whatever he was saying.

"And, er, get to know you, too. Like, today I found out that you're way better at numbers than me! I'd love you to help out with the channel. And that way you can like, justify taking the money and stuff. I get to provide for you, and you get to provide for me."

There was an omission, somewhere in there. Something missing from the little pattern of phrases. But Otogi couldn't quite place it, and instead placed his hand into Kajiki's. Totally ignored Honda's stupid cheesy grin; like he of people would get business talk! "Yes, but a hundred thousand is far too much."

Kajiki shrugged. "You're my sea. You provided when I needed it most, right? So this is my way of paying you back. There's no such thing as too much."

Pause.

"…Aaaaand a guy who looked just like you showed up in half the videos I took outside, back when I had no money. Fans really want to see you!"

He laughed, and it seemed to go on for a small eternity. And a half. Maybe two eternities, actually. Otogi could feel the heat emanating from his own face. Maybe it'd roast a few of these burgers, make them less cold and likely to have diseases in them. "I'm sure I didn't do anything like that. Ever."

"I mean, you were being pretty obvious in the background," Honda admitted. Way to admit to Yugi setting me up, buddy!

"I was not! It was some other guy."

Honda nodded sagely. "One of those Nigerians, maybe."

"Well..." Kajiki smirked. "I dunno who he was, but he sure looked like a prince to me."

The next day, Otogi discovered that either Honda was worse with numbers than previously imagined (God help Burger World!), or Kajiki had doctored the cheque even further.

One million dollars.

Shit.