a/n: Which reminds me. Ages: Yugi & Atem are late twenties (25 to 3000, it's hard to tell), Yusei is 21, Judai is 20, and the rest of the Yu's are all 16, because child labor laws are a thing, apparently.

There are three reasons why Yusaku applied for a job at Millennium Puzzle Cafe and Restaurant.

First: He needed the income. To support himself and his activities, he needed more than he was currently in possession of. Aside from maintenance on his computer, he must account for food, rent, and utilities, and it would be much easier to work with money earned legally.

Second: To help maintain the profile of a regular high school student. He can work after school as support staff, thus ensuring he remains largely in the background but still in a place where he could be seen. The more he looks like the average, busy student trying to earn minimum wage, the less of a chance that people will link him and his activities together.

Third: It was not actually his idea and the first two reasons Yusaku made up after he found out about the whole thing.

"I didn't even submit an application," Yusaku says, listening to his voicemail again, from some tired sounding man named Yugi Mutou, asking for him to come in for an interview and either text or call him with times that worked for him. The message ends with some suspicious mumbling and then a yawn that's cut off with a click.

"Yeah, that was me," Ignis admits casually, electronic voice coming in over his computer speakers. "You need to go outside more. Meet some people. Find a girlfriend."

"Not interested. I'm busy."

"You're boring. Get a job! Or something. Besides, everyone knows that the anti-social shut ins are top ranking suspicious people." Ignis taunts, shoving aside the windows on Yusaku's screen and filling it instead with his animated eyeball avatar. "If you have a normal job and normal friends, then maybe if the Knights of Hanoi notice you, Yusaku Fujiki won't have a blatant target on the back of his head."

Friends. Right.

"I have friends," Yusaku says, and tosses Ignis into the Recycle Bin. "Be quiet and let me think."

"The hotdog guy doesn't count," Ignis' petulant voice haunts him from beyond the desktop.

The hotdog guy who absolutely did count agreed with Ignis, to Yusaku's utter betrayal.

"You're both traitors," Yusaku tells them, handing Shoichi Kusanagi money. There aren't any other people in the plaza where Shoichi has parked his truck, just a stone's throw from his school. The sun begins to dip below the the horizon, and everything is tainted in orange, so most people would be headed home by now.

"Here's your change," Shoichi says, handing him his hotdog and a couple coins. "And quit whining, it doesn't suit you."

"You work in fast food. You complain about working in the food industry constantly," Yusaku takes a bite out of his hotdog. "Not to mention, what we do is time consuming. I don't see why you also think I should take up this job."

"It doesn't hurt to have a life, Yusaku," Shoichi says.

"I have a life."

"One that's not seeped in revenge," Shoichi leans over the counter. "What we're doing is important, Yusaku. But it can't be everything."

"My memories and your brother are on the line," Yusaku reminds him. "I can't waste time splitting my priorities."

"And we won't." Shoichi watches the sunset between the skyscrapers of Domino City. Yusaku averts his eyes from the light. "But I think it'd be good for you. The little eyeball is right, you know? A job at this place could help you out more than you know. And if nothing else, it'd be good practice for socialising, something you're sorely lacking in. Just give it a shot. Besides, you have to get through the interview first, so there's no guarantee yet right?"

"...Right."

Two days later, Yusaku pushes through the doors of the restaurant and tries to maintain a look of bleak disinterest.

The decoration is all over the place. Items boasted vastly varying themes - paintings, tables, signs, and even different chairs all looked mismatched and different, and with just a cursory glance Yusaku can pick out Egyptian, Peruvian, and Japanese, as well as bizarre items that weren't a cultural themed as much they were space or circus themed.

"Good afternoon!" A voice breaks him out of his observations. "Just one for a table?"

Yusaku turns to see a boy his age with red and green hair, standing by the counter with a menu in hand. He looks very tired, shoulders tense and his hair sticking up in odd places like he had just been pulling on the strands only moments ago, with a pair of flashy goggles that did nothing but add to the confusion of his appearance. But the boy wears a wide smile like it's all he knows how to do.

"...I'm not here to eat," Yusaku says. "I'm here about a job interview."

"Oh, cool," The kid says, eye twitching and still looking like he's on the edge of exploding into a red and green stain on the multi-colored hardwood floor. "Hang on a sec, I'll go get Yugi for you."

He leaves, muttering something about have to smile can't stop smiling and Yusaku is left to stand in the doorway and obstruct traffic. Not that there seems to be an abundance of people going in and out. There are a couple people in the cafe area, sipping at drinks, and one or two in the back with plates of food, but overall it seems rather unpopulated. Still, Yusaku moves to the side, a little out of sight and mostly out of the way, just in time.

A man with black spiky hair and a really, really big hammer walks by.

Yusaku actually has to look again to be sure he saw right.

"Yo Yusei!" A loud voice greets the black haired man, and Yusaku watches from his perch behind a potted plant as a brown haired man appears and intercepts him by the counter. "Is that to fix the stove or break the lock on the freezer?"

"Fix the stove," Yusei says. "Judai, what's wrong with the freezer?"

"Nothing," Judai says brightly. "Except that Yuya's brothers got in again and I think two of them are stuck in there? And the third brother locked them in and Yuya can't get in contact with him. And that lock wasn't one of ours... So. Asking for a friend, but can you pick a lock?"

"Yeah, of course," Yusei answers without missing a beat. "Are they alright?"

"They're totally fine, arguing about fusion or something. It's Yuya who looks like he's going to burst a blood vessel. I think he's worried about them. Or maybe he's thinking about committing murder. It's probably both."

The two turn and enter what looks like the kitchen, so Yusaku doesn't hear the rest of that conversation. He's not entirely sure he wants to. He pulls out his phone and starts typing a message.

What kind of restaurant did you sign me up for

Ignis immediately responds.

wouldn't u like 2 kno

Typical.

Before Yusaku can threaten to delete Ignis - his favored response when Ignis is withholding information from him - someone about his height with flat, pointed hair approaches him.

"Oh, hello," The man - boy? - says, lifting his hand up to cover a yawn. He has bags under his eyes and doesn't look fit to be conscious, let alone working. "Sorry, have you been waiting long? Our host should have directed to you to a seat already, I'm so sorry."

"No," Yusaku interjects before he can get roped into a meal he doesn't want. "I'm Yusaku Fujiki, I'm here for a job interview."

The man stares at Yusaku for a long minute with very wide eyes.

"Oh my god you're real," He whispers.

A job interview he was rethinking with every minute.

"I'll take it from here, partner," A startlingly similar man appears, with darker skin and a couple more inches to his frame. His voice is a touch deeper, and Yusaku finds himself unconsciously straightening his posture. "Hi, Yusaku. I'm Atem, I'll be conducting your interview. Yugi, go sit down for a bit. Yusaku, follow me."

Yugi - the same guy who called him in the first place? - finds an empty seat and within a second faceplants into the table and remains completely still. Another boy, with black and red hair, who's cleaning a nearby table stops and stares, before shuffling a school jacket - different uniform, different school - underneath the guy's head.

Atem sends the boy a smile, and then beckons Yusaku to follow him.

They end up in a cramped office, but an impeccably neat one that has two desks opposite of each other. The desk on the right is overflowing with paper and pens, but also is well decorated with photos and what look like adorable statues of little monsters. The desk on the left is pretty much empty, with a single small obelisk tucked neatly in the corner and a couple folders lying on it. That's the desk Atem leads them to, pulling out a fold up chair for Yusaku to sit in.

"So," Atem says, fishing up Yusaku's dismal resume from a folder. "Let's begin, shall we?"

The look in Atem's eyes is unsettling, to say the least.

There's no way he got the job. There is absolutely no way he got the job and Yusaku definitely doesn't care either way, but he's not sure if he's disappointed or relieved.

The questions were weird. The room was weird. Atem was smooth, confident, commanding, and weird. If Yusaku had a reference frame for how interviews go, which he doesn't, he'd classify the entire thing as such for three reasons.

First: None of the questions had anything to do with his capability in handling customers or food. The things he was asked were things like 'if you and a friend were both chained to an anchor and only the winner could survive what would you do' and 'how long do you think you can stay balanced on the top of a blimp'.

Second: He was given several puzzles to solve and timed on how fast he could solve them while Atem watched every move like a hawk. Rubix cube, picture puzzles, and some sort of 3D pyramid puzzle? Yusaku was unable to solve the last one, running out of time with maybe only one corner put together, but Atem didn't seem very bothered by it.

Third: At the very end of it, Atem challenged him to some sort of card game. The rules appeared to be simple and the deck was just a really deck of playing cards, but Yusaku's had felt a chill run down his spine the moment Atem had said "Game start".

Yusaku lost that card game.

Yusaku steps out of the office feeling like he just ran around in perfect circles in the dark and somehow hit a wall at the very end. It did get weirdly dark towards the last half of the interview, but Yusaku looked up and the lights seemed to be doing just fine. Maybe his poor diet is catching up to him.

"WHERE IS YURI. I'M GOING TO THROTTLE HIM."

"Enough, Yugo. We'll find him at home."

Twins. Twins coated in a light layer of frost brush past him with equally murderous looks on their equally identical faces. They look strangely familiar, and Yusaku understands why when tomato head - Yuya? - follows them, and stops to see Yusaku. They all have the same face. Clones?

"Oh, hey, how'd the interview go?" Despite the still present twitch in his eye, Yuya's smile looks a little less forced now, and he doesn't look as ready to implode as he didn't when Yusaku saw him earlier.

"...Not well. I don't think I'll be working here," Yusaku says. "Sorry."

"Aw, you don't know that yet right?" Yuya laughs. "Yugi and Atem work in… mysterious ways. After all, I'm here, and I didn't think I would still be here after a few months. They surprise you."

"Yuya! Yugo is going to blindly run out in front of car if we don't catch up to him," One of the frosted twins calls out.

"On my way Yuto!" Yuya yells back, pausing to clap Yusaku on the shoulder. "I think you'd make for a good fit here, anyway."

"What makes you say that?" Yusaku asks.

"Just a feeling!" Yuya winks, and then runs off, meeting up with his purple haired brother by the front doors. Yusaku watches them go, and wonders why everyone and their dog thinks working at some crazy cafe and restaurant would be the best course of action for his life. He can't understand it.

Take a step forward and try an old voice in his head says, the one without a name. The voice that gave him courage a long, long time ago.

Yusei walks by at this moment, looking troubled. The black and red haired boy is with him.

"Yo, Yusei! Yuma! Shouldn't you both be home by now?" Judai emerges from the kitchen with an armful of leftover food.

"Judai, have you seen the hammer I came in with?" Yusei asks.

"I haven't seen it since we got Yugo and Yuto out of the freezer," Yuma says, scratching his head.

"...uh oh."

Yusaku leaves before he can get mixed up in a murder case.

The next day, Yusaku gets a call.

"Hi, Yusaku?" Yugi Mutou's cheerful and apparently rested voice greets him. "I'm calling about the job you applied for yesterday. Atem and I have discussed it and we think you'd be a good fit for here, so we'd like to offer you a position at our restaurant!"

Yusaku still definitely doesn't care either way, but he's not sure if he's disappointed or relieved.

...Maybe relieved.

But mostly terrified.