Kat: And now, since this is the very final chapter of Comedy of Errors (yay, we made it!), my lovely assistant Foxfire and I are going to do the dedications.
Foxfire: To start, this is dedicated to the one and only Cola-kitty, for without her, Kat probably would have never written any Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction past "Matchmaker Millennium."
Kat: And to Mick, whom I hope will be happy enough with this chapter that he won't go and tie me to a flagpole for being so lazy with this story.
Foxfire: This is also dedicated to Kael because we love him, and Red because he plays with me. And oddly enough, to Chelsea, because Kat has an unhealthy obsession with him…
Kat: Eheheh… And to the rest of Sanctuary that reads this story! And of course, to all my non-Sanctuary readers, assuming I have any. I haven't gotten as many reviews for this story as I have with my others, so it just makes me wonder… Anyway, to everyone reading this, um… thanks for reading! Leave a review and let me know who you are!
**
Of Love and Duel Monsters
**
Of all the duels Seto Kaiba had ever played, this one was most certainly among the most important. As he'd been making the arrangements for it- for impromptu battles weren't exactly Kaiba's style- Seto had wished he still had the confidence in his dueling skills like he once had. The only thing that really gave him hope was that he was playing against only Yugi; Yami was watching from the sidelines, and was not to give help to either opponent. Just because Yugi was the reincarnation of the King of Games, didn't mean he was as good as the King of Games… right?
Seto had this feeling that that was probably exactly what it meant.
An arena had been chosen for the duel; the exact same one as Seto had duel Yugi for the first time, after he'd destroyed Yugi's grandfather's Blue Eyes White Dragon card. Seto had some hesitation about using that particular arena; it didn't exactly have happy memories attached to it. But Yami had quietly commented about things coming full circle, and so Kaiba had finally decided the place was appropriate.
Everyone had shown up to watch the duel. All of Yugi's friends, but none of them were cheering. Yugi guessed that it was because none of them knew which duelist to cheer for. Only Mokuba had no hesitation about cheering for Seto. And so the duel had begun, in that oddly subdued atmosphere. Yugi said nothing as he placed down his first monster in defense mode, his expression not giving Seto any clue as to what his opponent was thinking.
"It's going much like their first Duel," Yami commented as he watched with the others. "Those decks are almost exactly the same as the first time they faced each other."
"But Yugi won that first Duel," Joey said.
"Because he had Exodia," said Yami. "And he doesn't, this time. It may be a disadvantage… or it may not be."
Joey glowered at him. "Do you always speak in riddles?"
Yami flashed him a slight grin. "I like riddles."
"You know, sometimes I wonder how you put up with Bakura. And sometimes, I wonder how Bakura puts up with you," Joey murmured. He frowned then, and looked around. "Where is Bakura, anyway?"
Yami shrugged as he watched Seto's magic card counter one of Yugi's attacks. "Said he and Marik had something to take care of…"
**
"Joey's not gonna like it that we broke into his house," Bakura pointed out. Not that he really cared what Joey thought, but he figured he'd point it out anyway.
"He'll get over it," Marik answered. "Besides, we need two Millennium Items, and Joey still had my Millennium Rod. You don't really think Yami would have let us borrow the Puzzle, do you?"
Bakura smirked at him. "If I asked him nice enough, sure."
"Well we don't have time for you to ask him nice enough," Marik muttered. "We're late enough as it is."
It wasn't too hard for the two of them to get into the building itself, since they were both friends of the duelists. Well, friends of only one of the duelists. Actually, they weren't precisely Yugi's friends, even, but it was close enough. It was a little more difficult to be admitted into the restricted area, however. But with a little Millennium Rod persuasion, they were both allowed through the door marked "Authorized Personnel Only."
If Joey was going to get mad about them breaking into his house, he would really not approve of Marik's method of getting backstage. But as Marik had pointed out, they were in a hurry, and he figured Joey would approve of knocking the security guards out even less.
The dueling arena was set up on a platform, and Bakura and Marik were safely hidden in the shadows below. They took a quick glance up to see who was winning- Seto was, but just barely- before they moved on to their more pressing business.
Ryou caught sight of a brief, golden flash in the shadows below the dueling arena. He frowned slightly, glancing at Joey standing beside him. "Did you see that?"
"Yeah, Kaiba's about to get his butt kicked," Joey answered with a grin, his gaze focused on the duel. "Just as soon as Yugi plays-"
"The Dark Magician," Yugi announced calmly, summoning his favorite duel monster. "Destroy Seto's face-down card!"
Seto smiled grimly as he watched his face-down monster be blown away. It hadn't been important; getting the Dark Magician out into the open was. He eyed Yugi's three face-down cards with some suspicion, making a few guesses at to what they were. He knew enough about Yugi's deck and playing style to know which cards Yugi favored to play along with the Dark Magician, and none of them would be particularly pleasant for Seto should Yugi play them.
Kaiba didn't like how this duel was going. So far, he'd been doing fine; it was a closely tied game, and Yugi hadn't made any outstanding moves. In fact, the duel was suspiciously mundane, practically a recreation of their very first duel. And that's what worried Seto. It felt like Yugi was building up to something…
Drawing a card, Seto smiled to see the first of his three Blue Eyes White Dragons. Sure, he no longer had the grand delusion that his three Blue Eyes were invincible, but they were his favorites, and if anything won this duel for him, it would be them. The only thing that had beaten them in his first Duel with Yugi had been Exodia, and Yugi didn't have Exodia anymore…
"I play my Blue Eyes White Dragon!" Seto announced, watching his holographic duel monster materialize on the field. Gambling that Yugi didn't have some nasty trap set for him, he commanded, "Blue Eyes, destroy the Dark Magician!"
With a screeching battle cry, the Blue Eyes White Dragon opened its mouth and blasted the Dark Magician with a crackling burst of white lightning. Yugi didn't call up any of his face down cards, and Seto gave a mental sigh of relief to see no trap.
But the strange thing was, as the Blue Eyes attacked, the Dark Magician didn't vanish in the way duel monsters did when they were defeated. Instead, he was thrown backwards, and landed on his rump. He looked a little disgruntled about it, too.
Lilting feminine laughter echoed around the large room. Seto's Blue Eyes White Dragon was laughing! "Oh dear," the dragon said, in a sweetly concerned tone. "Hansha, are you alright?"
The Dark Magician got to his feet, gingerly rubbing at his abused backside. He smiled and waved to the dragon. "Just fine, thank you. Bye!" He bowed, and vanished from the field, as Yugi's life-points decreased from the loss of the monster.
Seto stared, trying very hard not to gawk, at that strange exchange between two Duel Monsters that were supposed to be holograms. He could see that Yugi was just as shocked as he was. Kaiba heard the Blue Eyes suppress another giggle, and the dragon turned her head to wink one of her blue eyes at him. "Relax, Kaiba," she murmured to him, as he recognized her voice to be that of Midori, the dragon that had taken him briefly to the Shadow Realm. "I'm here to help."
"How HoHow did they summon real duel monsters?" Yami wondered aloud, frowning at the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Summoning real monsters to a duel took a lot of strength and power from the duelist, and certainly Yami had never heard of anyone summoning a duel monster accidentally. Neither Seto nor Yugi looked strained from having summoned the Blue Eyes White Dragon and the Dark Magician, and they both seemed surprised by the monsters' appearance.
Yami's gaze scanned the area around the arena, noticing a faint golden glow down in the shadows around the podium. Bakura and Marik had their Millennium Items pressed up against the side of the arena, using the items' powers to link the real world to Shadow Realm, allowing the summoned monsters to pass through.
"How interesting…" Yami mused. Bakura caught Yami watching, grinning up at him. Yami smiled back. "Interesting indeed."
Yugi drew another card, smiling sadly at it. Seto had a sinking realization of what that smile must entail. Whatever Yugi had drawn would win him the duel.
"I play these," Yugi murmured, pulling a second card from his hand to go along with the one he'd just drawn, summoning them both to the field. "These two pieces of Exodia."
Two pieces? Yugi couldn't summon Exodia with just two cards…
"Heyy, those are the two I pulled out of the ocean," Joey said. "But what good are just two pieces?"
"There's more than one way to summon Exodia…" Yami murmured.
"And," Yugi continued, "I activate my three magic cards. 'Bone Gate,' 'Graves of the Shadows,' and 'Song of the Forbidden One.' Played together, these three cards allow me to summon the rest of Exodia, even if I don't have the cards in my deck!"
The three face-down cards flipped up, glowing white as they activated. A huge doorway looking to be built of human bones appeared, which the two summoned pieces of Exodia disappeared into. The sapphire-black light of the Shadow Realm swirled inside the doorway, leaking out like a dark mist over the playing field. Even the massive doorway was not large enough for the huge form of Exodia, the bone structure fracturing and breaking off in huge pieces as he emerged.
Once again, Exodia the Forbidden One stood across from Seto, that twisted leering face grinning just the same as it had the first time, and in all of Kaiba's nightmares following his first defeat. All hope was lost…
"I've lost…" Seto whispered, staring up at the huge beast and waiting for Yugi to order the final blow. Despair wrapped around his heart like a death shroud. He'd lost, and soon he would lose Yugi forever…
"Seto?" asked the soft voice of his Blue Eyes White Dragon. "Seto, look at me."
Seto managed to tear his stare away from Exodia to blink at Midori. The dragon watched him with her icy blue eyes.
"If you trust me, you will win," Midori said. "Do you?"
Kaiba stared at her, his gaze slowly sliding back to Exodia, the harbinger of his defeat. He swallowed, looking back at his dragon. There was no way three Blue Eyes White Dragons together could defeat that monstrosity, much less only one…
"Do you?" Midori asked again.
Seto closed his eyes, and nodded. "Yes."
"Then send me forth."
"Exodia," Yugi commanded from his side of the field. "Obliterate…!"
"Blue Eyes White Dragon," Seto called as Exodia moved to attack. "Go!"
Midori spread her wings and flew forward, descending in front of Exodia. As she landed, her form changed, her dragon form transforming into that of a beautiful white-haired lady dressed in a silvery white gown, the transformation complete just as her feet touched the arena floor. Exodia's eyes followed her, his massive energy glowing around him, though he held back his attack. Midori looked up at him, then slowly sank into a graceful curtsy.
The intense aura around Exodia faded as he took a step back, slowly bowing politely to her. She held a hand up to him, and he knelt on the ground, touching her palm with his fingertip.
"Exodia?" Yugi whispered, staring. Was Exodia disobeying his command to attack?
It seemed he was, as a new glow engulfed the mighty beast. Exodia stood, holding out his arms and vanishing, as he sacrificed himself rather than attack the Blue Eyes White Dragon. Yugi's life-points ran to zero. If Exodia could forsake everything else in the name of love… well, certainly mere mortals could, as well.
"I lost," Yugi whispered, tears forming in his eyes, a contrast to the smile on his face. "I lost!"
"I… won?" Seto whispered, staring at Midori. She turned back to Kaiba, winking a blue eye at him again, before she too disappeared as the duel was ended.
"Seto!" Yugi called, as he hopped off his dais and ran around over to Kaiba. Whatever Kaiba had been expecting, it wasn't Yugi's tight, happy hug. "Seto… I want to come home now."
Seto smiled, a real, happy smile, as he hugged Yugi back. "Yes… let's go home."
Up in the audience, Mokuba cheered. "Victory party at our house!" he announced.
Seto glanced at his little brother, groaning softly but giving in without an argument. As long as Yugi was there… there was plenty to celebrate. And after everyone had gone home, they could celebrate in private…
"So what was up with all the shadow realm-y special effects?" Joey asked as Bakura and Marik came up to join the group.
"Just to make things a little more interesting," Bakura said. "And it did tip the odds in Kaiba's favor."
"That was… very nice of you," Yami murmured, smirking.
Bakura glowered at him. "I didn't do it to be nice…" He spat the last word as if it left a foul taste in his mouth.
Yami just nodded, though he didn't look as if he believed it. "No, of course not. My mistake."
The party was great. Mokuba ended up playing host, since Seto was a little too busy not leaving Yugi's side to do so. Everyone agreed it was a fine victory party, though considering the huge amount of junk food Mokuba produced from wherever he'd been hiding it from Seto, it was a wonder the younger Kaiba brother wasn't sugar high all the time.
Everyone seemed to be having a very good time, except a few. Duke Devlin was in one corner, watching Yami with Bakura a little mournfully. Ryou was in another corner, his attention focused on Yugi with Seto, a little troubled expression on his face. It did dampen the mood a slight bit.
And Joey was watching Marik, wondering why the keeper of the Millennium Rod was watching Ryou and Duke with that maddening smirk on his face. Marik moved through the crowd, and without a word, grabbed Ryou's arm and dragged him out of the corner.
"Hey!" Ryou protested, interrupted from his Yugi-watching. "What are you doing?"
Marik didn't answer as he pulled Ryou across the room, over to the corner Duke was currently inhabiting. "Duke, have you met Ryou?"
Duke blinked at Marik, then looked over at Ryou, starting to smile a little slowly. "Well… not formally, no." He held out his hand. "Pleased to meet you, Ryou."
Ryou blushed a little, shaking Duke's hand. "Pleased to meet you, too."
There was a silence, as both boys studied one another. But it wasn't an altogether awkward moment, as both of them were pleased to discover the other was quite nice to look at.
"Say," Duke said, interrupting the quiet. "This party's kind of boring, what with the guests of honor ignoring everybody else to hang all over each other. How about you and I go to a movie, maybe get some dinner… you know, have an all-out night on the town?"
Ryou smiled at him, a little shyly, a little pleased. "Sure… I'd like that."
Marik smiled in satisfaction as he watched the two of them leave together. Joey smirked, moving over to Marik's side.
"Ryou and Duke?" Joey asked. "Together?"
"Well, they looked a little lonely," Marik said, casting a sideways glance over at Joey. "Besides, stranger couples have happened."
Joey smirked. "Like us?"
"Yeah… like us." Marik frowned a little. "Are you still mad at me?"
"Mm, nah…" Joey said. "Yugi's back with Seto, Ryou and Duke aren't moping anymore… everything in general seems to be working out pretty well."
"So I can come home?" Marik asked.
"Yeah, sure." Joey grinned at him. "But you're sleeping on the couch for the week."
"Hey!"
Joey laughed. "Heh, but don't worry. If you get 'really' lonely, I'll come out to comfort ya. There's enough room for two on that couch…"
"Come on, guys, we're getting out of here," Bakura announced, walking over with Yami. "Kaiba and Yugi are too busy mooning over each other to pay attention to anything, and the sappiness is making me nauseous."
"Yeah, lets get out of here," Joey agreed. "Hey, Yugi! We're outta here. See you at school Monday?"
Kaiba glanced over at Joey, wrapping an arm possessively around Yugi and smirking a bit. "I wouldn't count on him being there, puppy… I may just be keeping him right here for a few days."
Joey laughed, ignoring the 'puppy' comment. "Yeah, alright. You be nice to him, Kaiba, or you'll be real sorry."
"Yeah," Seto murmured, smiling softly at Yugi. "I know I would be."
**
Now this was a happy ending, Yugi decided. It was late, and Yugi was too exhausted to move. Thankfully, he didn't have to. He burrowed under the covers a little more, resting his head on Seto's bare chest and listening to his boyfriend's heartbeat slowly calm. As soon as everyone had gone home, Seto had carried him upstairs and proceeded to apologize in a deeply pleasurable way. Now, he was very content to just blissfully slip into sleep, curled in Seto's warm embrace.
However, it was apparently not meant to be.
"My goodness," a soft, female voice murmured. "Are you two through now?"
Seto groaned, reaching under his head for a pillow to throw at Midori. "Go away."
Midori laughed, dodging the pillow. "Come now, I just wanted to come by and say how deeply pleased I am for the both of you."
"Then go away, and come back to say it in the morning. When we're dressed," Seto muttered irritably. Yugi squeaked, realizing how naked the two of them were, pulling the blanket up to his nose.
"Right, right…" Midori said, laughing still. "Oh, and Exodia sends his regards as well. He does hope you're not too mad at him for earlier, Yugi."
"No…" Yugi whispered, blushing a little. "It, um… all worked out for the best, really."
"Oh good. Exodia's been chosen to be your new Guardian, by the way, Yugi," Midori chatted calmly. "Yami doesn't really need eight, after all." She giggled at the death-glare Seto had leveled on her; he was in no mood for her gossip. "Alright, I can see you two are busy. I'll just be going now. Ta-ta!" She vanished, her laughter still ringing faintly in the room for a moment more.
Seto grumbled, reaching for another pillow to put under his head to replace the one he'd thrown at the Blue Eyes. "Damned dragon…"
"You should be nice to her," Yugi murmured, smiling a little as he snuggled down to sleep. "You wouldn't have beaten Exodia without her."
"I would have found some way," Seto murmured sleepily.
"Hey, Seto? If you had lost, would you have really left me alone?" Yugi asked.
Kaiba thought about it for a moment. "Probably not. Would you have wanted me to leave you alone?"
"No…" Yugi murmured, smiling. "I'm glad you won. All through the duel… I was kinda hoping you would. But I couldn't go easy on you."
Seto smiled. "Mm, and I wouldn't have had it any other way."
**
THE END.