Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh.
Title: Endearment and Enmity
Rating: T-M depending on chapter, M overall
Summary: When you're literally married to the person you despise.
Warnings: Homosexual relationships, vulgar words and adult situations.
Author's Note: I don't know why I wrote this.
Chapter 26: Prelude Unknown
"You don't have to escort us all the way to the terminal, you know." Yugi teased, hand-in-hand with Anzu as they trailed behind Jonouchi who had also insisted on carrying their bags. Thankfully, since it was less than a week, there wasn't much. Still a bit excessive, though.
"Of course I did!" Jonouchi huffed, he had one backpack over his back and another over his chest, and was carrying a suitcase in each hand. "Who knows when I'm gonna see you guys again!"
Yugi chuckled "You know when we return to Japan we'll be living in Domino right?"
"What if you decide to stay in the States permanently, though?"
Anzu smiled softly "The United States is fine, Jonouchi… but Japan, Domino, is our home." She explained.
Jonouchi nodded, although it was a sentiment he did not share. Honestly, if Seto had never talked him into this contract marriage… He never even considered once in all of his time in the United States to return to Domino, or Japan in general. Without his friends, with no family, Domino had never before felt like home to him…
Now, however, now that he'd forged new relationships and stabilized his career again… it was getting there. Maybe he was more of an in-the-moment person, or it was his lack of a stable upbringing, because he was sure if he were to return to the United States now, he'd feel just as isolated as he did when he returned to Japan.
"Hmmm, we just might return for this." Yugi suddenly said, and stopped in his tracks. He was pointing to one of the Airport walls to their left; more specifically, a very large, and shiny poster, indicating it was very new. Under it, there was a pinned stack of informational flyers with the same company logo.
Jonouchi could see Yugi's attention had been caught by the very familiar image of Duel Monster cards on the poster, and generic monsters. However, there also appeared to be Magic the Gathering cards and planeswalkers displayed on the poster "A tournament?" Jonouchi read aloud, then walked closer so he could scan the poster for more information "It's in Domino City… It'll be in six months. Being hosted by..." He strained at the unfamiliar company logo in the corner. It at first appeared to a purple snake curled in a spiral circle, but the shape of the head and eyes heavily suggested it must have been a wyrm. "Yōjiuo LLC."
"Have you heard of that company before?" Anzu asked her husband, who simply shook his spikey head.
"They must be new to the Duel Monsters scene, it's easy to miss the smaller companies when Industrial Illusions and Kaiba Corp have a new monopoly on Duel Monsters related events." Yugi shrugged.
"It's not just a Duel Monsters tournament. It's a two-event tournaments. It says it's open invite to all registered Duelists with a Duel Disk, and Magic the Gathering Players registered with Wizards of the Coast." Jonouchi explained, as he read on the flyers under it.
"Magic the Gathering?" Yugi repeated, looking confused "I've heard of that… a lot of the people I play live with play that. That's a card game too, isn't it?" He looked to his blond friend, who nodded, before continuing "Why would they hold two events in one tournament."
"I think it's supposed to attract a wider crowd - why just attract the Duel Monsters crowd, or just the MtG crowd when you can attract both?" Jonouchi deduced, even though he was just as confused "It says here that a Duelist and MtG player will be randomly paired up, and act as a pair for the tournament, playing against another Duel-MtG team."
"How can that work?" Yugi asked, tilting his head "What if the Duelist wins, and the MtG player loses?"
"The game isn't played like a regular tournament - it's still played in brackets, however, the overall top three teams are decided by combined win and lose score." Jonouchi explained.
"That seems really convoluted..." Anzu muttered, crossing her arms, then she looked back at Yugi "Are you going to enter, babe?"
Yugi cupped his chin "I might..." He said contemplatively, seeming genuinely intrigued "I don't think I've been in a Competition with two very different events running side-to-side and together." He then looked to Jonouchi, who was still reading the flier "What about you?"
"I'd have to clear my work schedule - but hell yeah I would. I'd have to choose between Magic and Duel Monsters though..."
"Why even consider magic? You're the number three duelist in the world, and the United States champion, and you only placed top five in State for MtG." The tri-haired man reminded him, almost snarky.
Jonouchi rolled his eyes "That's because I'm the only one who doesn't use a blue deck. I'll talk to Seto about this, maybe we can both enter."
"I don't know… you know he almost never enters tournaments he himself doesn't host." Anzu pointed out.
"He'd also never skip out on any dueling event Yugi is a part of - remember when he flew all the way to New York during the Duel Monsters State championship? There was a thunderstorm in Japan, and a blizzard in New York, and he had an important meeting that day." Jonouchi pointed out, making the couple chuckle at the event from about two years back. At the time, the idea that not long afterwards he would be married to the man was outside of the realm of probabilities…
Two years ago
From his bedside nightstand, his phone pinged. It didn't just ping once, it pinged several times, one after another, at least a dozen times. Joey cracked his tired eyes open grumpily to glare at the device. Still connected to the charger, the phone had one green light on, indicating it was at one hundred percent battery, but there was a flashing blue light, meaning unread messages.
Barely shifting, he reached over and unplugged his phone, knocking his shoulders back to undrape the arm that had been sleepily, but securely wrapped over his waist. His boyfriend hummed disapprovingly, but stayed asleep.
Blearily eyed with grogginess, he could see it was only five in the morning, but it took him a few tries to get his password right, but once his phone was open Joey could see that he'd gotten a Facebook messenger message, and the profile icon in the unread bubble was Yugi's. Quirking a brow, Joey clicked on the bubble to read the chain of messages.
Yugi Motou;
You're not going to believe this.
I'm at the State Championship for New York.
It's taken the whole weekend to get to the semi finals.
And guess who shows up at the last minute?
The next message is a photo image of a very irate looking Kaiba in a navy business suit, his arms crossed. He was surrounded by several guards, and in front of him was a very exasperated-looking Caucasian man in business casual. The background was a mix of bright and dark lights, but appeared to be some form of indoor stadium.
Joey rolled his eyes and continued to scroll down the message chain.
Kaiba shows up! And he demands to be entered into the tournament so he can face me. Manager tries to tell him that it can't be done.
It's too late, the registration for the tournament is over, it wasn't even an open invite tournament; you had to qualify in the top three in one of the New York county tournaments to enter.
Not to mention; the tournament was almost over, the top four were just about to go into the semi-finals.
Kaiba won't listen, he tries insisting that accommodations should be made because he's the top two duelist in the world.
The manager says that even if that were a valid reason to enter him in, the only person who could authorize such a thing is the creator of Duel monsters.
So Kaiba calls Pegasus and demands he authorize his entry.
Pegasus isn't having it, telling him he is being unfair to the Duelists of New York who worked that hard.
But then Kaiba name drops me and Pegasus changes his mind.
He says that the only way he would authorize Kaiba entering is if he could beat last years New York state champion, if they happened to be here.
And, sadly, last year's champion did happen to be here. So Kaiba spends the better part of a half hour trying to find, and then harassing her.
She tries to politely decline, saying that while it would be an honor to duel him, she earned her place in the tournament and wasn't giving it up for anyone.
Kaiba doesn't let up, and then the girl's MOTHER walks up, and she's pissed. She and Kaiba get into an argument, and then a screaming match, and then…
There's a mid-quality video clip that's about 13 seconds as the next message, Joey contemplates for a moment before he clicks on it.
The video is a little shaky in Yugi's grip, and the tri-haired mans laughter could he heard behind the phone, the short clip shows Kaiba on his knees with his arms over his head and face as a form of protection as a tiny, 4'10, clearly enraged Filipino woman continually beat him over the head with her sandal in her hand. Several guards are trying to talk the woman down, and in the background a girl no older than sixteen was hiding her face in her hands, clearly embarrassed. She was most likely the prior New York State champion and definitely the woman's daughter.
Joey almost dropped his phone as he started laughing. The noise and motion woke up the other person in bed with him.
"Damn it Joey, what's gotten into you?" Stoney demanded as he groaned tiredly, sitting up from the bed.
"Nothing, nothing. Go back to bed." Joey tells him between chuckles, wiping away the moisture that built up the corner of his eyes.
"Doesn't sound like 'nothing'." The soldier grumbled, kissing the side of the blonds head.
"You don't like Duel Monsters anyways, I don't think you'd understand." Joey reminded him, also sitting up so he could lean on him. The brunet looked over at the phone in the others hand, seeing the video clip play again.
"I think I can understand what an Asian woman beating the fuck out of some guy is." Stoney retorted, making Joey chuckle again. "Who is that anyways? Friend of yours?"
"I wouldn't call us friends..." Joey replied, scrolling down the rest of the messaged from Yugi that amount to Kaiba being kicked out of the stadium and then apparently banned from Flushing, NY. "Nah, my pal Yugi sent me this."
"He's the biggest big-shot in Duel Monsters right?"
"Mhmm. King of Games." Joey confirmed.
"But… if he was the King of Games, wouldn't he be the Champion of all games? Not just Duel Monsters?"
"I mean, he was possessed by an ancient game Spirit whose magical item boosted his luck and probably of winning. He could win any game you put in front of him."
Stoney rolled his eyes with a soft smile "Pft. I'll never know why you keep making stuff like that up."
"Hey Jonouchi? Earth to Jonouchi?" A hand waved in front of his face, making said blond blink his amber eyes "Hey, are you in there?"
"Sorry about that." Jonouchi chuckled awkwardly, as he rolled up the flyer and stuff it into his pocket; he could see Yugi also took one for the road. The trio continued the rest of the way to the terminal, where Jonouchi promptly handed them their bags back.
"Hey, guys..." Jonouchi swallowed heavily to keep himself from getting to emotional "I want you to know just… thank you, for coming out here, for coming for this anniversary. I know I've been hiding from my life in Japan for so long, but I..."
"We get it, you big lug." Anzu assured, taking both of Jonouchi's hands into her own as she looked up at him with gentle eyes "We knew you never forgot about us. We understand."
Yugi nodded in agreement, putting his arm over his wife "We live so far apart now, our lives in different directions… but we're friends, and nothing will ever change that."
Jonouchi had so many things he wanted to say. He wanted to tell them he was sorry; for leaving so abruptly, for almost never speaking to them when he lived in the United States, for acting like he could bury his past, for almost never talking to his friends even though it was easier than ever with modern technology… For lying, about his relationships, about his marriage…
He found, however, as he looked to two of his oldest friends whose faces read nothing less than love and understanding, that they never had to forgive him, because they were never upset at him for being so distant. They understood, maybe not everything, but they understood that he had his reasons.
Jonouchi nodded at them, swallowing down his tears as they entered the terminal and exited from his sight.
To be continued…
Authors note: Not much to be said, just a quick flashback and goodbye, just a quick breather from everything that's been going on.
Also, Kaiba is banned from Flushing, New York because he was beaten up by an angry Filipino mother in the Arthur Ashe Stadium after harassing a sixteen year old to duel him.
