.:All It Took Was You:.
A/N: I like this, it's the first even vaguely successful yaoi fic I've written. And believe me, it ya don't like yaoi, hit the Back button. Pairings: Yami/Yugi, Joey/Seto Kaiba.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh, but I... I wish... well, let's just not finish that sentence. You can't have everything in life. (Even though all I want is Yami)
Please R&R! And HAPPY NEW YEAR'S!
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When the ball drops
Are you gonna just stand there
Or are you gonna sweep me off my feet
Run your fingers through my hair
Are you gonna be my sweetheart
Tonight when the year is just beginning
Are you gonna told me tight
Tonight when the bells are ringing
Tonight, when the old is out and the new is us
Yami stood uncomfortably by the dessert table, watching people walk by and unconsciously eavesdropping on conversation. He heard his name and jerked his head around, but it was only Joey. Give the kid one glass of champagne and he's gone, Yami chuckled to himself, but give him more than that and be prepared to leap back quickly.
It had been a long time since the old friends had seen one another. What with Tea, Tristan, and Yugi going off to college, Joey working as a Kaiba Corp. Representative nationwide, and Ryou/Yami Bakura in their own business with several large computer companies. Yami himself had minded the game shop after Grandpa died, even when the others left for bigger, better things and competition set up shop right down the street.
Now, six years after the Duelist Kingdom, they were once again reunited. Seto Kaiba had succumbed to Joey's 'party fever' and had thrown a gala affair for New Year's. Anyone who was anyone was there. Yami had 'seen' Maximillian Pegasus at least twice, but blamed it on the liquor. Nobody had seen the Industrial Illusions tycoon after the incident on the island.
Yami turned his attention back to the main group of people. Yugi, who had grown since the Pharaoh saw him last, was happily chatting away with Tea and her newlywed husband. Tristan soon joined them with glasses for everyone, and they toasted to Tea's unborn child. Yami saw Tea begin a wistful glance in his direction; he made a point to look away and down his champagne in one gulp. His head buzzed slightly after he did so, but that was only because he'd swallowed too much at once. He was known for holding his liquor, so he wasn't afraid of getting intoxicated.
Joey and Kaiba had grown very close since Joey's acceptance into the company and Kaiba's merger with another big virtual systems technology-based company. The two would seem like brothers to any outsider, unless that outsider happened to walk into a room that the two had been alone in for more than a few moments. The 'big romance' between the Kaiba Corp. CEO and his Executive Assistant was old news. Yami sighed. Not so for him.
He'd been through his share of heartache, learning the hard way that to some, he just wasn't good enough. Sipping at his newly-filled champagne glass, Yami recalled his last relationship. She was pretty, to be sure, but she didn't like Duel Monsters or Egypt. And she didn't like his cooking, either.
Now, her not liking Duel Monsters he could stand. Plenty of people though it was just a waste of time, and he could prove that every time he looked at the ledger for the game shop. And he felt so distant from Egypt that he didn't mind that she didn't really care to talk about its ancient history. But the fact that she didn't like a single thing he cooked for her had stung deep. He had been the one to break off that relationship. She'd insulted his baklava for the last time. It was either too sweet, or too fluffy, or too... too. She just didn't like him.
Joey let out a burst of raucous laughter that made heads turn and cheeks flush. Well, a particular set of cheeks, belonging to one Seto Kaiba.
"So I sez to him," slurred a very drunk Joey Wheeler, "I sez—"
"Joey," interrupted Kaiba, his cheeks on the verge of bursting into flame, "I think you've had enough to drink."
"Actually," Joey said under his breath, "I've hardly touched my glass. See, it's the same one! I don't like this stuff, too fizzy. And besides, you know all I ever drink is Glenlivet."
"On the rocks, with a dash of water. A twist if you have it," intoned Kaiba, having heard the order given on numerous occasions.
Yami snickered when he heard Joey's whispered confession. How like the jokester turned exec, to try and fool everyone with an extremely old drunk act. Well, two could play at that game. Only, Yami was out to get extremely, truly drunk. He gulped another champagne, then made his way over to the bar.
"Do you have any Scotch?" He asked the bartender.
The man shook his head sadly. "Otherwise I'd be drinkin' it. Nah, Kaiba-san wanted only the light stuff, on account a' him." And the man jerked his head at Joey. Yami smiled sadly and left.
Yugi then noticed his yami and grinned. "Hey, Yami, have you met Mako Tsunami? He and Tea are expecting in March."
Yami nodded stiffly to the scruffy-looking sea duelist. "We met briefly at Duelist Kingdom."
Mako's eyes brightened. "Ah, yes, I remember that duel. Very neat strategy, that was."
Yami forced a smile, and left. He never even looked at Tea.
Yugi came after him, finally realizing something was wrong. He and his yami weren't as close as they used to be, and Yugi wasn't sure what to blame that on. He finally settled on the fact that he had moved on but Yami had stayed at the game shop, refusing to believe that Grandpa was gone and keeping the shop even after business died. His yami was holding on to crumbling memories. Hopefully, and Yugi perked up at this thought, he could talk some sense into the moody spirit before the ball dropped.
"Yami," Yugi began, but the Pharaoh cut him off.
"I don't want to talk. I want to be left alone, and get good and drunk before weaving my way back to the shop." Yami held up a hand to forestall Yugi's protest. "I don't want to hear it, Yugi. I know I'm wallowing in all sorts of undesirable things: regret, sadness, memories... But the fact of the matter is, I'm not ready to let any of it go."
Yugi's brow crinkled in concern as he took his yami's hand. "Yami, Grandpa was my grandfather. Hell, he was the only family I had left. And I was still able to move on. You only knew him for a little under two years, and after six you can't let him go? You know as well as I do he'd kick your ass for mourning this long."
Yami looked at Yugi in astonishment. "Aibou, where has your innocence gone? I don't remember a single time when you've spoken to me this way."
Yugi gazed into his yami's amethyst eyes sadly. "I've grown up, Yami. While you were holed away in the shop, dying a little each day, I was out in the world without you, living."
Yami turned away at those words, for they hurt more than Yugi could know. For his little hikari was right. He had been dying a little more every day that the shop remained empty. Oh, sure, Joey had come by every day and even dragged Kaiba in with him. But after awhile, those visits had dwindled to every once in awhile, and then just awkward conversations over the phone. Soon, they'd stopped even bothering to call.
Yami had sequestered himself in the shadows of the dying game shop, he himself dying while he lived in the past. And Yugi knew it.
"But you know what, aibou?" Yugi asked softly, interrupting Yami's painful reverie. Yami turned around sharply, not caring anymore if Yugi saw the tears brimming in his eyes.
"What?" He asked, choking on his own voice and then cursing inwardly at the sound of it. You are not this weak, he told himself sharply.
Yugi entwined his fingers with Yami's. Yami started at the intimate contact. Yugi spoke. "You know what? I died a little each day that I wasn't with you."
The tears that had threatened to fall earlier now splashed freely from Yami's amethyst eyes. They fell on Yugi's upturned face, and Yami saw that while the young man had grown he was still an inch or two shorter than his protector.
A tear fell on Yugi's lips and he dreamily tasted it, his eyes never leaving those of his yami. They were both suddenly aware of each other's close proximity, of their heat and faint aromas, of their hands clasped together.
"Aibou..." Yami murmured, trying in vain to fish himself out of this emotional mess.
"Yes, Yami?" Yugi answered, his wine colored eyes shining.
Yami was losing himself and fast. He felt the blood go rushing to his head, but he saw in the glass tabletop that his cheeks still remained slightly gaunt and pale. He'd lost his Egyptian tan, and begun to look more and more like a shrunken corpse of his former self. His reunion with Yugi, however, was beginning to see more color into the dead regions he'd once called cheeks.
"I..." And his voice trailed off. His eyes widened slightly. Yugi was so close, and the pain was so great. If just one touch could induce this pain, perhaps one more could end it...
"Let me heal you," Yugi said. Yami's eyes were having trouble focusing. Yugi's hands went from Yami's hands to Yami's leather-clad shoulders, massaging them gently. Yami drew his aibou still closer in a slightly passionate embrace. He felt Yugi's sharp intake of breath, but he didn't really notice. He was too involved with trying to get a pointed lock of hair out of his nose.
No one had noticed this exchange; the two were too far away from the main clump of people. The T.V. came on and Dick Clark announced the Final Minute.
59.
58.
57.
56.
55.
54.
Joey, glancing around to see where the champagne bottle had gotten to, noticed the two men by the dessert table. He whistled low and caught the attention of Kaiba, who then placed a warm hand on Joey's back. The two knelt on the couch, watching the two over the back of the overstuffed sofa.
Yami couldn't see anything but Yugi, and even then he wasn't so sure. Everything blurred and spun; he staggered in Yugi's arms.
"Whoah!" Yugi laughed, a bit nervously, Yami thought. "Not so much champagne next time, tiger."
"It's..." Yami tried in vain to regain his footing and ended up plopping into an overstuffed armchair. "It's not the champagne. I just couldn't believe... well, for a second there..."
Yugi stood in front of his yami for a moment, then, heaving a sigh, slid into the other man's lap. He gently lifted Yami's face in his hands, so that they were gazing into each other's eyes.
"Yami, don't be afraid of this. I know I'm not. It was six long years coming to me that I wasn't searching for a great job, or even a wife. I was searching for something I'd had in the first place. And coming back here, I thought I'd lost it."
"Lost your mind? Yugi, that's a given." Yami laughed feebly.
Yugi gave him a condescending look and kept talking. "I thought I'd lost you. I was afraid that maybe I'd waited too long, and that you'd be gone before I could tell you how I felt."
Yami felt renewed courage flowing through him. His strong arms encircled his hikari and drew the young man closer.
"I, too, was searching," Yami said, admittedly. "I thought that in all of those girlfriends, there was a flaw which prevented them from liking me. But I see now that the flaw was in me. And that flaw, my dear, sweet light, was that I didn't realize that what I wanted had been within my grasp the whole time."
20.
19.
18.
17.
16.
15.
"Geez," Yugi chuckled weakly, "To think it took a bottle and a half of champagne to get that out of you."
Yami smiled a bit at this, but shook his head. "No, my light, my life. All it took was you."
5.
Tears welled up in both sets of amethyst eyes at the final realization that they were reunited once again in mind, soul and spirit.
4.
Joey poked Kaiba. Kaiba shot a dirty look at Joey. Joey grinned.
3.
Joey pointed up, to where his other hand held mistletoe. Kaiba guffawed at that. "You dolt, Christmas is over," he said amidst his laughter.
2.
Yami had only eyes for his beloved light, and Yugi could hardly believe that his love was being returned.
1.
Yami tasted Yugi's lips for a moment. Time seemed to hang, frozen. In one exhaled breath, Yami whispered, "All it took was you."
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Yami captured his light's lips almost hungrily, finally tasting the strong sweetness he'd been searching for.
Kaiba stroked Joey's cheek slightly, his heart almost bursting with love for this bumbling, blonde Brooklyn youth. Their lips met with the same fire they'd had six years ago, in memory of a vow renewed.
Afterwards, inside the Moto Game Shop, light and darkness melded after far too long. At last, Yami sighed, at last I am complete.
And all it took was you.