Satsuki had strange dreams for days after her meeting with Yugi — dreams about journeys through ancient Egyptian cities, about worlds where Duel Monsters cards came to life — and one particularly vivid scene where she shrank to the size of a Monster World game piece and was being directed across a life-sized board by a two-story-tall Yugi.

The day she'd spent with him and his friends was taking up so much space in her brain, she was beginning to find it hard to focus on work. Even neck-deep in her first assignment on Project Aura, she found herself taking a break almost every hour to check her phone and see if Yugi had texted her. So far, they'd only had a few brief exchanges — pleasantries about the weather or the fake Monster World campaign she was supposed to be building. Every once in a while, he would drop a text that would verge dangerously close to 'flirty' territory, but Satsuki always forced herself to interpret them in the most chaste manner possible.

She was tempted to take him up on the offer to drop by his office again, but the logical side of her struggled to find a real reason for it. After all, she'd already seen his prototype tech in action; beyond that, the president had given her very little guidance on what other dirt she was supposed to be digging up.

Four days had passed since her afternoon spent at the Kame Game Shop, and she hadn't so much as seen a flicker of the president's long coat through the halls of the KC HQ in that time. She was beginning to think he'd forgotten all about her — a thought which was somehow both unsettling and comforting at the same time.

On day five, however, she finally learned the reason for the radio silence. While at the office coffee machine, she overheard that the president had been overseas for the first part of the week — negotiating with investors, apparently. The news helped to settle her nerves a bit, until she returned to her desk to find a new email at the top of her inbox:

Drop by my office when you get a minute.
- S. Kaiba

A chill ricocheted down her spine as she read the words, causing her to sit up board-straight. She fought the urge to dart up out of her chair right away, instead taking a deep breath to give herself a moment to think. The timestamp on the email was only two minutes gone, and while she wanted to be punctual, the tone of his message hadn't been particularly urgent. After some thought, she decided to finish her coffee first (it would have looked strange to leave a fresh cup on her desk while she disappeared for an indeterminate amount of time) and occupied herself in the meantime by scrolling through code — even though her brain seemed unable to internalize a single command.

When she was done sucking down the much-too-hot coffee, she locked her PC and skittered over toward the east wing, stealing away to the ladies' room for a moment to cover her tracks. Standing before the marble sinks, she furiously tidied herself up; straightening the blunt line of her bangs and smoothing out the creases on her blouse as best she could. After a moment of staring at her reflection, a sudden, mortifying shame gripped her. Here she was, letting herself devolve into little more than a giddy, doe-eyed admirer — and in the middle of the workday no less. But with each passing moment, it was getting harder and harder to convince herself that her trysts with Seto Kaiba had only been a side effect of their professional relationship, and not the other way around.

With a huff, she purged the thoughts from her mind and slipped out of the restroom, making her way down the hallway to the east wing. Kaya, the president's assistant, greeted Satsuki with a warm smile as she approached.

"Good afternoon, Miss Hidaka," Kaya said. "He's expecting you. Please go right in."

Satsuki felt another jolt in her spine; she gave a respectful nod to Kaya, then hurried through the frosted doors without pause.

Midmorning light painted the president's office in a completely new palette, outlining the dark tiles and glass accents with tinges of gold. Backlit by warm sunbeams, it was hard for Satsuki to make out his expression as she drew nearer to him. When she came to a stop before his desk, however, she was unsurprised to see that he wore a tight smirk.

"Have a seat," he said, barely glancing up from his monitors.

Satsuki obliged, lowering herself onto the edge of a plush chair catty-corner to the desk; her heart skipped a beat at that familiar sound of the leather squeaking beneath her. She fidgeted while he finished his work, her eyes rapt by the precision with which his fingers danced across the keyboard. A moment later, he locked his PC and cleared his throat, angling his chair so that they were facing one another fully.

"How are you?" he asked.

Satsuki raised her eyebrows, her fingers burning from the friction of running them across the edge of her skirt. "Fine." The short syllable left behind a turgid pause. "And you?"

He smiled. "Jet-lagged."

A thin puff of air slipped out of her mouth, halfway between a laugh and a sigh. She glanced down at her lap and forced herself to release her skirt.

"How did it go this weekend?" he said.

Thankfully, the sudden shift in topic helped to narrow Satsuki's focus. "Good. I spent half the day at his office. It's smaller than I expected." She knew she shouldn't have been surprised when her tepid attempt at a joke went unremarked; to his credit, he at least kept the smile on his face. She cleared her throat and continued. "It's just four of them. They're using mostly second-hand tech, but they've got it working pretty well. Stable, for the most part. I'm not sure how they'll bring it to market, though, since at least half of it is our hardware."

Seto made a low noise, his eyes flitting up to the ceiling a moment. "What about the IP?" he probed.

Satsuki felt her fingers reaching for the edge of her skirt again at the thought of the hologram Yugi's tech had produced. "It's … really strong. I only got a glimpse of one encounter, but it's incredibly responsive."

"Did you interact with it?"

Satsuki pursed her lips and shook her head.

Seto hummed again. "Did he say anything else?"

She gave an ambivalent shrug. "Nothing really out of the ordinary. Sounds like everything is in-house. Apparently he came into some money after his grandfather died." She gave a short pause, surprised to see a flicker of something like sorrow behind Seto's icy eyes. "Pretty impressive for only four people, though."

"Indeed." He inhaled sharply, then crossed one leg over the other and leaned back, folding his hands neatly over his thigh. "I need you to try and get closer."

Satsuki cocked her head. "…Closer?" she repeated, mentally kicking herself as soon as she did. It was easy enough to feel the viscid implication dripping from the word, but she couldn't for the life of her figure out why the context demanded it.

He clenched his teeth; Satsuki could see the sinew working in his throat and jaw. "There's more to Yugi Muto than meets the eye," he said, his tone somehow both sharp and flat. "But he's not going to show his hand to just anybody."

Another breath forced itself from Satsuki's lungs, causing tiny particles to stir and scintillate in the sunlight. She couldn't imagine where they'd come from, as there didn't seem to be a speck of dust on any surface in the office. "I hope you don't think this is … out of line for me to say," she began, choosing her words very carefully. "But if you're so worried about the competition, why not just offer to buy his IP? It's not like we can't afford it."

His laugh turned Satsuki's stomach. It was the type of laugh you'd only hear if you were about to be scolded; dripping with chiding reprimand. But a moment later, he said, "It's not out of line."

She looked at him expectantly, wondering when it was she'd lost the thread of his meaning.

His eyes made a subtle upward arc again. "He'd never sell." The reply was so matter-of-fact, it might as well have been the definition in the dictionary next to 'Yugi Muto.'

Satsuki opened her mouth to ask more witless clarifying questions but was, perhaps mercifully, cut off by a soft ping coming from his breast pocket. Seto slid his hand behind his lapel and retrieved his phone, looking somehow both perturbed and relieved. "I have to take this," he said, glancing up with a dismissive dullness in his eyes. "I'm traveling again for a few days, but I'll check in with you next week."

Satsuki stared for a moment, until another ping echoed thinly between them. When his eyes fell away, she never found them again. She stood and smoothed her skirt over her hips, turning in a wide circle before drifting slowly back across the floor, her thick heels sounding as loud as cymbal crashes against the tiles.

But it was nothing compared to the absonant echo of his words — so cold, so clinical. As if she were just another appointment in his calendar.

Even after nearly six years, Yugi still felt surreal moving through the world in his metaphysical form sometimes.

It had its perks, sure. Some might even call it a superpower to be able to walk through walls, hover in thin air, or catch up on sleep while another personality was doing chores for you in the real world. This ability to juggle consciousness had come in very handy in college, when Yugi and Atem would take shifts cramming for exams while the other rested their mind. Their body sometimes suffered exhausting consequences as a result, but it had been worth it for the grades. Jou often joked that Yugi and Atem should take it a step further and head to a casino to really up the ante — in a manner of speaking.

But these powers had their limits, too. Spending too much time projecting your soul outside of your body was taxing on the psyche, and there was only so much you could do as a spirit walking around the physical world. Even something as simple as turning a page in a book, flipping the TV channel, or talking to a friend was impossible without help from his corporeal form. Thankfully, after so much time together, Atem and Yugi had become experts in predicting each other's needs. They could trade places in a snap of a finger, and they always made sure there was something nearby to keep a metaphysical form occupied if needed.

But these days, it seemed Atem was spending less and less time inhabiting their shared body. He only ever came out when he wanted to bang out some contributions to the RPG — writing scripts for the narrative arcs or helping Jou and the others tweak character models. On this rainy Friday evening, he was doing the former, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he outlined a scenario between the player and a potential ally.

Keen to give his other self some space, Yugi had spent most of the day resting in his subconscious. But once the evening hours rolled around, he overheard the crew setting rules for that night's session of Beerio Kart. Not wanting to miss the madness, he projected himself out into the physical world, materializing quietly over Atem's shoulder.

Predictably, his other self sensed the presence and paused his work, turning to look up at Yugi. They said nothing — simply smiled knowingly at one another.

"Hold on a minute guys, Yugi's coming to watch," Atem announced, looking to the lounge area on the other side of the office where Jounouchi, Otogi, and Honda were arguing about which beers they'd use for their game.

Jou glanced up, eyes bright. "Hey, why don't you let him take over so he can join us?"

Atem's smile fell a bit. "Next round. Promise."

But Jou's attention was quickly pulled away when Otogi snatched a beer out of his hand. Yugi looked back at his other self, feeling a guilty twinge in his soul. 'You know, you can play with them if you want,' he spoke into Atem's mind.

"I know," Atem replied — verbally instead of internally. "Maybe I will later — it'll be much easier to beat Jou once he has a few drinks in him."

Yugi couldn't help but let his smile return when he heard Jou hissing "I heard that" from the other side of the room. After a minute, he let his eyes roam over Atem's shoulder, settling on a large block of text displayed on the middle monitor. He spied Metjen's name among the script, plus a new character he hadn't heard of called Jahar.

'What are you working on?' Yugi asked.

Atem pivoted in his seat. "Testing out a branching scenario," he explained, quieter now. "This one will offer an interesting alignment choice for the player. Choose to be ruthless and they'll instantly get a great reward, but choose to be merciful and they'll gain valuable ally later."

'That's awesome,' Yugi said; then, cautiously, he added, 'Is this character based on someone from your memory?'

Atem glanced up and nodded. "Another wise man I didn't listen to when I should have. It's becoming a bit of a pattern, isn't it?"

He laughed, and Yugi felt the sound resonate in his soul. He loved that laugh, rueful as it was. It came from deep inside, from that part of him that was truly, irrevocably Atem. There were so few things Atem had of his own — but his voice was one of them. And his eyes. Even now, Yugi could see all his memories twirling around inside them like butterflies, searching for flowers to drink from — for nectar to sustain themselves. Suddenly, he wished he could wall himself off from the ruckus happening on the other side of the room and steal away somewhere private to let those butterflies free.

But it wasn't long before Jou's voice cut harshly into that fantasy. "Yugi, did you see that? Honda is cheating!"

Atem's smile grew, but it felt false compared to the subtle one he'd been wearing a moment before. "He's coming over now."

Yugi took his cue, sauntering over to the lounge. He floated down onto an open spot on the couch, just in time to see Honda surging triumphantly up out of his chair after winning the first race of the set. The three of them exchanged some trash talk, then picked up fresh beers to start the next map.

Yugi watched a few races in muted amusement, his attention drifting every now and then back toward Atem. He was still typing furiously, his face awash in harsh white light from the monitors. Yugi decided he'd try to convince Atem to play with the guys once he was done with his work. As healthy as it was to see him working through his memories so earnestly, Yugi knew some social interaction was just as important to keeping his other self in good spirits.

A moment later, he was pulled from his thoughts by the sound of his phone trilling with a notification. The tone had been set to a low volume; he likely wouldn't have even heard it if not for a sudden lull in the pattering of the rain on the roof. He glanced over to his workstation, seeing Atem reaching for the phone.

'Who is it?' Yugi asked, projecting his words directly into Atem's mind. When he didn't reply, Yugi stood up and drifted back over to the desk, peering over Atem's shoulder at the phone screen:

Satsu:
What are you guys up to tonight?

Yugi jolted — almost reached for the phone without thinking. But when he looked back at his other self, he found a strange emptiness drawn into Atem's eyes.

'What do you think?' Yugi proposed.

Atem gave a quick, shallow shrug.

Yugi looked around in thought for a moment, avoiding Atem's dull gaze. 'Mind if I …?'

Atem blinked, then nodded and abruptly retreated back inside his heart. The transition was clumsy — so much so that Yugi almost dropped the phone when he took control of his body again. Fumbling, he gripped the device, then lifted it up to read the message again — and again, and again.

He leaned back in the desk chair, rocking back and forth for a while as he considered how to respond. Finally, he lifted his thumbs and typed out a reply:

Nothing much. Playing video games and drinking.

His finger hovered over 'send' for a long time before he finally tapped the button. A moment later, the tell-tale ellipsis appeared at the bottom of the chat box — his heart hammered wildly, and it felt like an eternity before the reply came through:

You winning?

He grinned. Before he even knew it, his fingers were tapping across the screen again.

Just watching now. Letting them get warmed up first.

Another brief pause.

Lol
How generous of you.

He thought his smile might try to jump off his face at any minute. Eager to keep the conversation going, he asked:

What about you?

She took a little longer to reply this time, her ellipsis flickering on and off the screen.

Trying to get a friend to go to Bazaarcade with me. She's being lame lol.

He raised his eyebrows — Bazaarcade was an over-20 arcade and bar that had opened up downtown a few months ago. It had games from every era going back to the 80s, making it easily one of the most popular hangout spots for young adults from all sorts of demographics.

Yugi stopped rocking and began swiveling instead. He knew what he wanted to say, but he didn't want to send a reply too quickly and risk freaking her out. Finally, after a respectable pause, he typed:

Would it help convince her if you knew some other people there?

He bounced his leg as he waited for a reply, but to his dismay, no ellipsis came. Grudgingly, he locked his phone and placed it face-down on the desk, occupying himself doing a few three-sixty swivels in the chair, until his vision started to blur and his stomach tied itself into a knot.

Finally, what seemed like an hour later, the phone pinged again. He picked it up at lightning speed and read the message:

Definitely.

Heart ablaze, he swung around to look across the room again. "Hey guys," he called, "anyone want to go to Bazaarcade?"