a/n: friendly reminder that this version on AO3 gets faster updates because I frequently forget about ff dot net these days. Sorry about the delay, for all two of you reading it here.

Normal job and normal friends , Ignis had said.

Yusaku looks at the duffle bag Yuya has managed to get stuck in the door frame with, overflowing with what looks like brightly colored clothes, heavily scribbled on sheets of paper, a pillow shaped like a hippo, and several bowling ball pins.

Yusaku stares until Yuya notices, and is sent a wide grin and a thumbs up.

Yuya is still stuck.

"So," Yuya says, craning his neck around. "Nice place you have here."

It's very tempting to just leave him there.

When Yuya is properly unstuck, he's treated to a grand tour of Yusaku's house.

That is, a tour of Yusaku's really empty, bare minimum, bland house.

"Do you… live by yourself?" Yuya asks, when he discovers that his voice actually has the ability to echo inside. Yusaku stands there and listens to Yuya shout 'echo' a few times, until he tires of his newfound discovery.

"My parents are in a different city," Yusaku tells him, the mixture of truth and lies perfected into a flawless routine. "I live here to attend school."

"Oh wow," Yuya says, blinking. "That sounds tough. I can barely make it through my life with the help of my mom and brothers, haha."

"How… many brothers do you exactly have?" Yusaku asks, as Yuya drops his duffel bag by the stairs. He needs to be prepared in case there are any more Yuya clones that could appear and contribute to the growing daily disasters.

"Only four!" Yuya says, like that's a normal number of nearly identical siblings to have. "Generally it's just me, Yugo, Yuto, and Yuri, but uh, Zarc is usually off at college. He's. Um. Difficult to live with."

"So I've noted," Yusaku says.

"We don't get along at all," Yuya says, pulling out several papers. "We used to be really alike as a kid, you know? Zarc was kind of a role model to all of us, we wanted to be just like him. But, well, people change. Not always for the better."

That's a topic he understands a little too well, and Yusaku looks away for a moment.

"But really, thanks again for inviting me over for the week!" Yuya chirps, turning back to Yusaku with eyes that were practically sparkling. "Seriously, all of us and Zarc? In one place, together? It's bad. Really bad. So it's great that I can avoid him for a bit here. I mean it. Thanks."

Yusaku wants to point three things: one, out he didn't invite anyone over for any reason, and two, he was more or less ignored as Judai and Yusei planned out a way for Yuya to recover his things from his home and transport him to Yusaku's house, while Yuma chipped in some rice balls for moral support.

And three, as fascinating as all this Personal Backstory Information that Yuya seems strangely fine with sharing; Yusaku doesn't want to care about it. Friends are…. a nice thought, but in a war against Hanoi, a teenage entertainer with hair styled in the image of a tomato is best left out of it. He doesn't need anymore friends or allies than the ones he has, and he doesn't want to drag anyone else down because of his revenge.

He means to say something like, "That's rough, buddy," because Yusaku at least knows how to show basic politeness, when there's a distinct thump that resounds from above. They both look up.

"What was that?"

"...I'll go check," Yusaku says, because he has a Bad Feeling about it. "You're free to help yourself to anything in the kitchen in the meantime."

Yusaku vaults up his stairs before Yuya can respond. There really isn't anything in his room that could cause any sort of noise, except —

"ACK!"

The AI.

"What are you doing?" Yusaku closes the door behind him, stalking across his room in quick steps.

There's a short burst of electricity as the AI hides behind a plethora of pop up ads on his monitor.

"NOTHING, " says the AI.

"This doesn't look like nothing." Yuya looks at what can best be described as Definitely Something. "What… did you do.. ."

"I got bored." The AI says.

Yusaku picks up something that had fallen off his desk, and stares at it with something akin to horror, though it hasn't quite sunk in yet.

"You turned my roomba into a… a drone?"

Somehow, his roomba, a device meant to stay on the floor , had been outfitted with an external motor and hoverblades, which look to be powerful enough to theoretically to support its weight in the air. It should not be in the air. Yusaku has a sudden vision of the roomba-drone banging into everything in his room and dropping dust onto his head in the middle of the night.

The former-roomba chirps at him, it's display LED flashing a smiley face.

"It was that or stick a knife on it," The AI throws up a laughing emoji onto his screen. "This way, I can do some recon while you're out being a sour patch kid. Or chase pigeons and frogs, I guess."

Amazing. Nothing in that sentence made even a molecule of sense.

"I'm going to delete you," Yusaku says, while his brain slowly reboots itself. He sets the drone down by his chair. "Or dissect your program, byte by byte. I don't know how you did this, but your drone is going into the compost bin."

"Wait, what?" The AI's avatar morphs into a question mark. "At least put it in the recycling bin?"

"I'm going to bury it." Yusaku opens his desk drawer and fishes around in it until he finds a USB big enough to hold Ignis' ego. "Along with you if you don't turn your volume down."

This catches the programs attention.

"Why, what's going on?"

"I have a… co-worker staying over for the week." Yusaku plugs the thing in. "I'm locking you into my USB, where you'll be staying until I meet up with Kusanagi tomorrow. We'll be contacting a source about a backdoor into SOL techn—"

"YOU HAVE SOMEONE OVER?" The volume dial spikes up to 100, to the misery of Yusaku's ears. "SO SOON? My dear little Playmaker , growing up so fast! Making friends! Maybe eventually, you'll find a girlfriend, or a boyfriend, or at least a friend that's not surrounded by fast food all da—"

Yusaku rips the audio plug from his speakers.

"Um, so were you on the phone with your parents or something?" Yuya asks when Yusaku returns downstairs, his stupid drone-roomba kicked underneath his bed, the stupid AI hostage dragged into a USB and then stuffed into his pocket. "I heard shouting. You're not in trouble because I'm here, right?"

"No, you're fine," Yusaku says. "That was… an unrelated conversation. Don't worry about it."

Yuya makes a quizzical face at him, but then shrugs and returns to a megawatt smile that is frankly, blinding to directly look at. Everything should be fine, though. Having someone over is a normal teenager activity. Yusaku can handle it, as long as Yuya doesn't throw him for a loop with some weird, strange request.

"So," Yuya says. "What do you want to do now?"

Abort abort abort, something that sounds an awful lot like the AI trumpets in his head.

"...What would you like to do?" Yusaku says, because his afternoon plans had centered around breaking into one of SOL Technologies databases and staring at a computer screen for several hours trying to find miniscule clues about a conspiracy only three people on earth seem to believe in.

"What do you normally do for fun?"

"Uh," Yusaku fishes around his brain for an answer that's not totally a lie. "Work on my computer."

"...All the time?"

"...Yes."

"...Yusaku," Yuya's face takes on a concerned edge to it. He takes Yusaku's hand with both of his, and says, confusingly. " You're such a nerd ."

Because it's the weekend, Yusaku doesn't have to yet worry about how to direct Yuya from his house to Yuya's school, but it does mean they both have to get up early to work due to the unfortunate luck of being scheduled for the morning shift that day. Yusaku attempts to serve a dismal meal of toast and water, Yuya finds eggs from somewhere and tries to make sunny side up eggs, and they end up with the world's most pathetic looking breakfast but nothing seems to dim Yuya's smile or early morning enthusiasm.

Yusaku's apartment isn't that far, so they set off for work around seven, Yuya bounding down the steps and Yusaku thinking about how he has very rarely seen the sun rise and how he could have continued not knowing what it looked like in person.

"Let's gooo ," Yuya says, adjusting the goggles on his head. "We don't want to be late, seriously, I got a reputation during my first week for always being late which was one hundred percent not my fault , and they never let me live it down if I'm even five minutes behind schedule. Go go go!"

"How long have you been working there?" Yusaku asks, less out of curiosity and more out of weariness.

"Oh, maybe a year or two?" Yuya says, stretching his arms out to the sky. "They hired me shortly after Yuma, though uh, I'm not entirely sure they should have considering that we definitely weren't of legal working age at the time but then again, I did put my age as 16 when I submitted the application and Atem was kind of making a special case for us so..."

"Won't your brother know, then?" Yusaku asks, adjusting the collar of his uniform beneath his jacket. "Where you work. Wouldn't he be able to find you there?"

"He might," Yuya admits, scratching his neck. "But I'm not afraid of going to work."

And when Yusaku stares at Yuya, a little more curious than he'd like to admit, Yuya just smiles.

"You haven't seen Atem when he gets mad," Yuya says. "Like, really, seriously mad."

Yusaku gets the feeling that maybe, he never really wants to. The rest of the walk is in silence, where Yusaku is cataloging this new information into his mental folder of "weird things about my workplace" and Yuya tries to do cartwheels on the sidewalk and narrowly avoids tumbling into a trashcan.

When Yusaku shoulders through the door to the cafe / restaurant / madhouse with Yuya right behind him, he's greeted by what could only be described as a prima donna showdown by the world's tallest ego in human form and Atem. Yusaku, instinctively sensing Weirdness happening, ducks behind a potted plant.

"You actually have customers?" The tall, brown haired man sneers, towering over everyone in the nearby vicinity. "I'm surprised you can even generate the revenue to afford plastic spoons."

"At least our food isn't priced so high that it'd be cheaper to buy a house than to eat at your absurd dragon shaped building ," Atem snaps. In between them, Yugi is eyeing the cup of coffee in front of him like he was wishing it was something a lot stronger.

From behind him and his potted plant hiding spot, Yuya peers over his shoulder, and makes a soft sound of recognition.

"That's Seto Kaiba," Yuya informs him, squinting. "He owns the Blue Eyes White Dragon Cafe brand and chain. There's one on the other side of town. Kaiba and Atem argue every other week."

"Just name a place and time, we will crush you, " Atem vows, voice crashing through Yuya's sentence. "Just like we have before."

"It'll be different this time," Kaiba says, the smug aura around him managing to choke the very air around them. "Domino Arcade, tonight, the usual time."

"Oh no," Yuya whispers.

Kaiba turns on his heel, his huge coat flaring out behind his as he strides past Yusaku and Yuya and out the doors without a second glance. Yusaku and Yuya stumble out of their hiding spot, and Yusaku is faced with the full brunt of Atem's intense glare.

"Yuya, Yusaku," Atem snaps. "We're going to the arcade after work today. Make sure Yusei and Judai know. Yuma too, he's got some time before he leaves on that school trip."

"What's going on?" Yusaku asks, but Atem is too busy completely ignoring him to answer, stalking into his office like a teenager with a grudge to settle and slamming the door behind him.

"Team building exercise," Yugi answers instead, wearing a thin smile. "Mandatory. Sorry. Atem and Kaiba have this really intense rivalry."

"...What does that have to do with the entire staff going to the arcade?" Yusaku asks, his blood running cold while Yuya slumps over a nearby chair with a sigh.

"You'll see," Yuya says.

What Yusaku ends up seeing is grown adults act like children when it comes to competing over kid games.

No one appears exempt from this rule — Yusaku walked in and the first thing he saw was Yugi and some dark haired boy engaged in what looked like chess, but with capsules and monster statues instead. Yugi didn't even glance at him while handing him a small bag of tokens, so engrossed in his game that Yusaku got by without much of a greeting.

"You know I'm the regional champion at Capsule Monsters, Yugi," The black hair boy says, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed, a smug grin on his face. "You're about two turns from getting curb stomped."

"Mokuba," Yugi says, in the sweetest voice possible. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to destroy you."

Yusaku next sees Yusei and some tall, extremely loud blonde haired man engaged in a racing game, something called Accel Synchro. The both of them are riding plastic motorcycles and giving it their utmost attention. Yusei is winning.

"It's okay, Jack," A small, green haired child standing next to the two says. "You're still pretty cool even though you're not the king at this game anymore."

That appears to have been the exactly wrong thing to say, as Jack stops concentrating on the game to turn and yell at the small child, who seems unperturbed about it. Jack loses spectacularly shortly after this, and Yusei gets off the fake motorcycle, turning away from his screen and sees Yusaku. He waves, and reluctantly, Yusaku accepts his fate and approaches.

"Welcome to Domino Arcade," Yusei says, faintly smiling as the noise besides him escalates. "Thanks for coming, I know it probably wasn't how you wanted to spend your evening. Where's Yuya?"

"Still picking up all the tokens he spilled by the machine while trying to do some complicated coin tricks," Yusaku says, slightly mollified by Yusei's calm demeanor, a slightly less weird oasis in a desert of odd people. "What am I supposed to do here?"

"Play games," Yusei answers, shrugging. "Atem and Yugi make nights like this a team-building thing, but it's mostly so they can duel Kaiba. We're along for the ride in case it rolls teams, but it also happens that half of Kaiba's main customers have an interest in these nights as well. So it's kind of fun."

Yusaku looks at Jack and the green haired child, who are still squabbling, and back to Yusei, who just shrugs, wearing a small amused smile.

"Want to try racing me?" Yusei asks.

"No," Yusaku says, but does anyway. He climbs into the plastic bike once Jack gets off, feeling distinctly out of place. Jack makes a bunch of criticisms about his posture, and Yusaku gets the feeling his spine will never quite mold into the perfectly straight back pose that Jack seems to suggest.

"Don't listen to Jack," says the green haired boy. "He hasn't won at this game in months."

"No one asked you, Rua," Jack says. "Be quiet."

Yusaku isn't a fan of most games, partly because he doesn't have the time to indulge in them, but he especially isn't fond of video games. Hasn't been fond of them for a long time now. The saving grace of a racing game is that there's no declaration of failure, no nightmares flashing before his eyes, just numbers between first and last place. It's close, but not the same, so Yusaku can keep his eyes on the screen — as long as he finishes, as long as he gets to the end, it's fine.

Yusaku comes close, but Yusei still takes first place, his initials lining up next to the #1 spot. The game asks if he wants to try again, and Yusaku politely informs Yusei he'd like to waste his tokens somewhere else. Maybe something like a gambling game; the faster he burns through the tokens Yugi gave him, the more likely he could make an excuse and leave early.

"Yusei is like the king at this game," Yuya says, who must've shown up sometime after Yusaku got roped into this. "You did pretty well to keep up with him until that last lap."

"How long do I have to be here?" Yusaku asks as Yuya begins walking towards the back of the arcade, leaving Yusaku to follow. "I don't mean to be impolite I just — I have somewhere to be, later."

"Eh, you could probably leave in like thirty minutes if you really want to," Yuya shrugs. "Kaiba and Atem are already in the middle of their strategy game thing, so it looks like they aren't even going to bother pretending to need a team tonight. I think."

They find Yuma next, playing some sort of dungeon crawling game, furiously hitting the buttons and wiggling the joystick. Atem and Kaiba are nearby, and the sheer focus they have on some Magician VS Dragon fighting game was more scary than anything else.

Yuma is proving to be surprisingly adept at whatever it is he's playing — Barian Invaders , or something — and it actually appears as though he's managed to make it to the final boss of the game. He dodges and counter attacks with practiced ease, and almost has a perfect run, just a few points shy of a new high score. The monster dies, dramatically, and Yuma throws his arms up, also dramatically. After the game happily informs him that he's won, he inputs his name to add to the high score list.

Yuma's name makes it to 2nd place, slotted in right below a player who called themself ASTRAL.

Yuma abruptly stands up, and it's at this point he notices the two behind him. Yuya enthusiastically waves, Yusaku tries to mimic it but can barely muster a vague shaking motion with his arm.

"Hey Yuya, and new guy!" Yuma gets up and walks over to them. "What's up? Yuya, have you tried the new Performapal game yet?"

"There's a new Performapal game?" Yuya asks.

"Yeah, I heard they made a new one 'cause they pulled the plug on the old one, Performapal Skull Bat Something?"

"Performapal Skullcrobat Joker ," Yuya says, and then melts into a puddle on the floor. "Nooo, I loved Skullcrobat Joker. How could they do this?"

"Really?" Yuma tilts his head to the side. "I've never even seen you play that while it was here."

"That doesn't matter," Yuya says, voice muffled by the floor's carpet. "I love all the Performapal series. All of them."

"...Okay then," Yuma says, and then smiles at Yusaku. "Wanna join me for a co-op game? Gagaga Cowboy can do two-player."

He points to a game over his shoulder, down a few from the game he was just playing — a large game set up with plastic gun controllers and brightly colored art of a cowboy wearing a large red cape. Yuma is almost about to pull him over with just the strength of his pure unadulterated enthusiasm when Yusaku's eyes land on a key aspect of the game.

"I don't play VR games," Yusaku says, backing up and nearly tripping over Yuya.

"Oh, are you one of those people who get dizzy playing them or something?" Yuma grabs Yusaku's arm, keeping him from toppling over. "Trust me, it's more like an overlayover reality than a real VR game, like a pair of goggles that let you see stuff on top of everything. It's really fun—"

"I don't want to play, " Yusaku snaps, and Yuma lets go of his arm.

The arcade feels suffocating now, like the walls have been bleached a sterile white and have narrowed in on him when he wasn't looking. The music of twenty different games all playing at once, the dizzying colors of the floor and walls, all of it is for a minute muted and lost, and Yusaku has to dig his nails into the palm of his hand to keep himself grounded.

"...Okay," Yuma says. "Um. Sorry."

"It's fine," Yusaku says, but doesn't mean it. "I need to go."

"Right now?" Yuya asks, standing up with the help of an arcade console. "Uhh quick question, should I come with you or meet up with you later? Because I don't remember the way back to your apartment."

Their living situation is the last thing on Yusaku's mind, but he takes a moment to pull himself out of a fight or flight mode. Yuma meant no harm. Yuya means no harm. They're just… kids. Regular teenagers. They don't deserve the brunt of his anger.

They aren't Hanoi.

Yusaku softens, or at least, he tries to.

That has to count for something.

"I'll meet up with you later. I won't be out long," Yusaku says, and Yuya perks up. "...We can grab dinner then, I'll pay. I'll text you when I'm on my way back."

"Really?" Yuya's eyes get all round and shiny, like a polished nickel. Even if Yusaku had wanted to go back on that promise, he is now faced with the expression of a child who has been promised far too much to let him down now. Yusaku takes note of this danger for the future.

"Yeah."

"Aw yeah!" Yuya starts cheering, and being a generally enthusiastic guy, high fives Yuma, who looks just as happy even though he has not been promised free food.

Yusaku leaves the arcade, passing his coworkers all engaged in typically weird things — Yugi seems to have gotten involved in the Atem VS Kaiba battle, and is doing well if Kaiba's growling is any sort of indicator. Judai is playing some sort of virtual tennis game, and keeps flinching like he's actually getting hit in the face with a tennis ball, so that's probably not a positive sign. And Yusei is helping the short green haired boy — Rua, play a skateboarding simulator; the kid is very enthusiastic, and very bad at the game.

It's a cold night when Yusaku finally gets outside, a lot more quiet and the street much less painfully colorful. It's helpful, taking a breath of chill air, and not being assaulted by so many sounds and flashing lights all at once. It wasn't a bad experience per say, but one Yusaku wouldn't really want to deal with too often.

When was the last time Yusaku went to an arcade?

Probably… when he was a kid. Before things changed. Before time stopped.

It felt weirdly normal in a sort of detached way, like something he'd be doing if his life was on a simpler path. Like something he would have wanted, maybe, like Yuma and Yuya did, if he was only able to forget.

Yusaku shakes his head, clearing his thoughts. No use in thinking about it, not when he's committed to what he's doing now. Not when the whole reason he's doing what he is now, is because he can't forget. And he can't forgive.

Tonight, he will hack into SOL Technologies archives.