When It's No Longer Cliche

Yuugi exhaled slowly, blinking his eyes a little as he stared up at the ceiling. The body on top of his was more than warm, helping to fend off the cold from the sweat that had dried on his skin. He twiddled the ends of his fingers at the hairline on the back of Yami's neck, relishing in the feel of his lover's skin. I love you… Yami's mind voice was still echoing, even as he slept.

They were still on the floor. They hadn't even made it back to the bed. The sheet that Yuugi had carried with him earlier was now haphazardly strewn around the both of them, creating the impression of a wadded pillow beneath Yuugi's head and upper shoulders. There was still a knee wedged between his legs, and Yami's arms were wrapped possessively around the one beneath him. His brow creased a little in contemplation, a dull throb that promised ache when he finally decided to get up resounding in his lower back.

Yuugi saw that peaceful face out of the corner of his eye, still visible tearstains marring the dusky cheeks. He didn't feel guilty, though. He shouldn't, either. He knew he shouldn't, for he hadn't hurt Yami. Nay, he had far from hurt him.

No, what he did was scare him.

But every story has two sides to look upon. He scared me, too. I couldn't bear to lose him, and that memory had the potential to turn my current reality into the fantasy that I feared it was and crush it.

The morning sun was just beginning to creep up over the horizon, spilling young golden rays across the edge of Yuugi's windowsill. Yuugi was still tired, but couldn't find the ability to fall back asleep. It couldn't be anymore than seven o'clock. They were just leaving the season of winter, so the snow was gone but the days were still a bit chilly and short. Normally, Yuugi woke up with the crack of dawn, but he didn't like to move right away. In fact, he usually snoozed for a couple of hours, and sometimes went back to sleep. At the moment, though, he was wide awake, and simply didn't want to move because of the fact that he felt so much more comfortable nestled in Yami's arms.

He supposed he was awake right now to have some reflection time, undisturbed and in a sea of peaceful silence. After all, it was the first time he had ever made love…and he knew that he was a little young for such activities. Were it to have been with another person, any other person, he'd have said no. He would have insisted that, even if asked, he wouldn't make love to another until he was well out of high school. Best laid plans gone to waste…yet again. At least it wasn't a terrible waste this time. Not with him. Never with him.

: Beautiful, precious love…don't leave…don't leave me alone…: Yami's arms tightened fractionally around Yuugi, and his breathing just left the relaxed stage as he slept on. : So dark…: Fears surfacing in dreams. Yuugi soothed those frightened thoughts, sending gentle waves of emotion through their bond, washing those fears away. No words, no pictures; just emotion, pure and untainted.

Yami's breathing relaxed, and a tiny smile ghosted across his full, kiss-bruised lips. And who was to say that demons couldn't be angels, especially while they slept?

A bird chirped outside the window. He should be sleeping in right now. A part of him wanted to, but…a part of him was giddy with excitement at the prospect of spending an entire day with Yami. If Ojii-chan accepts him, it will be the first whole day we will spend together with physical contact…and be consciously awake for it.

Ojii-chan. He and Yami were going to meet today. How would it go? Would his elder be suspicious? Would he not trust Yami? Common and completely justified worry, but the teen tried not to dwell on it at the moment. It wouldn't do much good right now, anyway. He would ease his thoughts and allow his beloved to sleep.

Yuugi closed his eyes, hoping to doze just a bit longer before life started to emerge in the house. The pounding of his Ojii-chan down the stairs would ensue shortly, and the sound of sizzling bacon and sausage would drift upstairs as he started to cook breakfast. Yuugi gave a half-grin. What did he want for breakfast? A hot, home-cooked breakfast? He hadn't had one of those since…since…he couldn't remember. When his Ojii-chan took him out shopping last, they had gone out to eat.

The thought of a tasty meal sat loftily on his mind as a subtle drowsiness settled back over him, allowing him to sleep until the others woke up.

He would have slept longer, too, had Yami not stirred. Just as he blinked his eyes back open, not even realizing that he had dozed so long the sun was now well up and into the sky, sleepy crimson eyes looked at him lazily, pushing haziness from their depths. : …Aibou?: Yami yawned.

Yuugi smiled, unable to bring himself to disturb the happy silence of the room by use of his voice. : Good morning, love.:

Yami smiled warmly. : I was afraid last night had been just a dream.: He kissed Yuugi's temple softly.

: It was no dream, lover. But I was terrified that your love for me had been just an illusion.:

Yami did his best to comfort Yuugi all that he could. : I have never been good at living in a fantasy world. There is nothing about you that is not real in my eyes. I will always love you, no matter what happens to me or the puzzle.:

Yuugi was about to reply when suddenly there was a rumble against his abdomen. Both Yami and Yuugi looked down, and the spirit looked puzzled.

"Yami," Yuugi started. "Your stomach just growled."

Yami sat up a little bit, holding his hand at his stomach. "I'm…hungry? What a strange sensation. I haven't had anything to eat in…"

"Five thousand years," Yuugi supplied, smirking. "I'm sure there's some breakfast downstairs. You've probably been out of the puzzle long enough to need nourishment."

"Or had enough activity to need nourishment," Yami corrected, gazing at the door to downstairs.

Yuugi chuckled, got up, and got some clothes. "I don't know about you, but I need a shower before I do anything else."

Yami gave Yuugi a playful look. Yuugi scoffed. "You dirty old man!"

Yami laughed.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Sugoroku Motou turned around from the counter as he heard the sound of feet padding down the hall and into the kitchen. Just as he suspected, Yuugi walked in looking a little sleepy, but with a refreshed smile, his hair still damp from the shower. "Ohayo, Yuugi. Sleep well?"

Yuugi chuckled lightly. "Like a rock." He yawned, causing the puzzle against his chest to move slightly, glinting in the sunlight coming in from the kitchen window. "What's for breakfast?"

"Omelets. What would you like in yours? Cheese? Ham? Bacon? Onions?"

Yuugi dropped his arms, giving his elder a look that was not contemplation food options. Something was coming.

"Ojii-chan, there is someone that I want you to meet. He's very important to me, and I hope that you give him a chance, and get to know him."

Mr. Motou turned down the fire on the stove. This could be a while. "Well…all right Yuugi. Where is this person? Would you like me to meet him after breakfast?"

"No," Yuugi stated, shaking his head. "No, I think now would be good." Yuugi turned his head to his right, and for a moment nothing happened.

But only a moment.

It was the same way vision was distorted by waves of heat bouncing off of a summer road. Slowly, like weightless liquid, color began to take shape in that mass of swirling nothingness, and then…

Another Yuugi was standing there.

Sugoroku had to take another look. No, this wasn't another Yuugi. This other person had hair like Yuugi, but he had many more blonde streaks. And he was a little taller; two, maybe two and a half inches. And his eyes…those deep, hard crimson eyes.

And his skin was darker, too. His facial structure looked familiar. Sugoroku should know. He'd seen it time and time again. High cheekbones, hard placed eyes, deep, sun-tanned skin…he was Egyptian. "Yuugi, where did he come from? I swear, just a moment ago-"

"He wasn't here," Yuugi asked. His grandson nodded. "He came from the puzzle, Ojii-chan." Yuugi hadn't wanted Yami to go back into the puzzle, thereby ending his need for any nourishment that morning. Instead, Yami walked down cloaking himself, and removed the invisibility shield when Yuugi gave him the cue. After all, he was looking forward to breakfast. "His name is Yami. Yami, I want you to meet my Ojii-chan."

Yami stepped forward a little, giving a small bow. "Greetings."

Sugoroku was started to think faster than he'd needed to in a long time. There was a lot of information that was just told to him in this short introduction. Firstly, Yuugi had said This is my Ojii-chan, rather than saying this is my Ojii-chan Sugoroku. Yuugi probably knew exactly what he was doing introducing him this way. Yuugi didn't want this Yami to see him as just another person in the room. He wanted their relationship to be closer than that. Thus, having Yami refer to Sugoroku as Ojii-chan as well.

This also meant that Yami did mean a lot to Yuugi, to want him to be as close to his only caretaker as he was…

Or at least, growing to be.

But there was another part of Mr. Motou's mind that was racing at the moment, and that was all of the legend and lore of ancient Egypt he'd ever studied. One woman…there was that one woman in the Cairo museum that wanted him to know about a certain pharaoh.

She saw the box filled with puzzle pieces that had been given to him by his colleagues. There is a pharaoh, from the far off past, that is rumored to have been trapped. He was young, and the power had gone to his head faster than bubbling champagne. He wanted immortality more than any other Egyptian that ever wrote down their history. His underlings found a way. By creating a powerful object crafted of the finest gold and electrum, they were able to seal him inside, until the object was found, completed, and the life force of the one who completed it enacting the ability for him to come back, more powerful, and more wretched than ever. But the pharaoh had been fooled…the object was made impossible to complete, thus, trapping him in a cold darkness for all eternity. Be warned…do not be the unlucky soul who stumbles across this object in the tombs of Saqqara.

Sugoroku had worked endlessly in that ancient tomb. It was, in fact, the very first pyramid in Egypt, now nothing but a set of rotting steps that shadows the now extinct city.

He came from the puzzle… Could Yami be-? Is he the-?

"Yuugi…who is he? Where did he come from, exactly? Does he know who he is? Is he alive? Who was-?"

Yuugi smiled. "I know what you're thinking of, Ojii-chan. You told me a long time ago about the pharaoh who had been double-crossed by his council. This is, in fact, one in the same person. He was Pharaoh Atemu, but that was a long time ago. That is not him anymore."

"But his body, how is he here? Is he truly immortal?" Stunned? Oh, that was an understatement, Sugoroku could hardly believe his eyes. And ears.

"I am alive, elder, because Yuugi is alive. I will remain immortal and un-aging so long as Yuugi is alive and wears the puzzle. The spell was altered."

"But, how-?"

Yuugi walked forward, looking back at Yami with a look in his eyes that his elder could not read, but apparently this ancient spirit understood, as he stayed back as Yuugi continued to walk forward towards the elder man. "Ojii-chan, I know this is hard to accept at the moment. Believe me, if it wasn't for Yami, I wouldn't be here right now. He has already saved my life on more than one occasion." He held the puzzle up, poking his fingers at the minute cracks on the surface. "The spell wasn't supposed to work that way. I saw a memory from him by accident, and I watched him be told that the only way to alter the outcome of his confinement was by way of powerful blood magic." Yuugi shook his head, and Mr. Motou could now see that the puzzle was not entirely clean. There were little spots that were flaking off here and there. Very small but all the same-

It was the color of old rust and muted black. Dried blood.

"I never would have believed that anything that held a connotation for 'magic' was fantastical dreaming, but," he looked back up again, and there was an old pain in his deep purple eyes that would probably never leave. "That's my blood in the puzzle, Ojii-chan. I unwittingly bonded Yami to myself. He couldn't leave now, even if he wanted to."

Sugoroku shook his head. "You weren't supposed to be able to finish that." And the blood...it made him shiver.

Yuugi nodded. "I know. But, please, don't be wary of him because of his past. I love him, Ojii-chan. I couldn't be separated from him now."

Mr. Motou looked at his grandson, and then he looked back at Yami, who was standing idly by the fridge, far away from their conversation. He seemed to have found something that managed to capture his interest, as he kept pulling the magnets away from the fridge, and then watching as they reattached themselves. Funny…his hair looked as damp as Yuugi's. Just as damp. Someone had to jump in the shower first…right?

Aged purple eyes became wide. "In love, would you just so happen to mean-?" He didn't finish his sentence. He couldn't.

"Intimately," Yuugi supplied. He nodded.

Sugoroku was silent for a moment. This was going to take a bit of digesting. "And how long as he been in his own body?"

"Since Monday night," Yuugi replied softly.

Silence again. "Ahh," he gruffly sighed, running his hands through his hair roughly. For a moment, it felt like something inside was going to crack. Instead of fighting it, however, he let it, and allowed the shards to fall where they may. "What the hell," he finally asked helplessly. Really, there was no fighting this. Change Yuugi's mind?

That might happen on a cold day in hell.

Walking up to Yami swiftly, he looked at him pointedly, waving a shaking finger. "You, if you ever, ever do anything wrong, if you just so much as step on toe out of line I'll…I'll…" Yami didn't looked in the least bit worried as he gazed at that finger moving up and down in front of his face in warning.

Sugoroku sighed, dropping his hand. "Welcome to the family, Yami."

Crimson eyes grew warmer. "Thank you, Mr. Motou."

The sound of grease singing captured the elder's attention, and he turned around, seeing Yuugi flipping the barely, burnt omelet on the stove. "Ojii-chan, your breakfast is almost ready."

He walked over, got a plate, and handed it to Yuugi. "You know, son, sometimes I just don't know what to make of you."

Yuugi laughed. "When do you ever know what to make of me?" He pulled out another two eggs from the egg carton next to him, cracked, them, and started the next omelet. "I want cheese and bacon in mine. Give Yami lots of onions and some ham."

His grandfather gave him a funny look. "How do you know he likes onions?"

Yuugi winked. "Call it intuition." His eyes flickered over to the fridge where Yami was still standing, seeing the old spirit now thoroughly immersed in its contents. Yuugi raised an eyebrow curiously as he watched Yami's backside scour the inside, and when he came back out again, he seemed to be rather enjoying a substance that was inside of a little white container.

At first Yuugi thought that it was really odd that Yami would like sour cream so much to eat it plain, when suddenly Yami's grip shifted, and Yuugi saw a cow surfing on a wave of chocolate pudding. "Yami!" he barked. "You're not supposed to eat pudding for breakfast!"

Said spirit took a curious look at the pudding container, and then looked back at Yuugi defiantly. "And why not?"

Yuugi growled, stalking back over to his other. "Because it's not healthy, it costs a lot of money, and I was saving that for desert tonight!" He plucked the pudding container from Yami's hand.

Crimson eyes looked between the container and his empty hand, suddenly snatching it back and running around the table in the kitchen. "You can't deny a king a tasty treat!"

Yuugi gave way to chase, intent on getting that pudding container back. "I'll deny you a warm bed tonight!"

Sugoroku watched as Yuugi tackled Yami to the floor, and kept on watching as the container went flying, the majority of it landing on Yami's head. Two gasps escaped from the both of them, Yuugi at first looking angry at losing his desert until he saw the absolutely horrified look on Yami's face. "My hair," Yami whispered, shocked.

Yuugi laughed. "Serves you right!" He got up, and pulled the almost comatose Yami over to the sink. The elder man watched interested as Yuugi shoved Yami's head into the sink and began to clean the chocolate covered strands. They were chuckling about something, but whatever it was, he couldn't hear what they were saying. "We were planning on going out today to the mall for some new school supplies. I am not letting you out of this house looking like a particularly large dog sat on your head for far too long." He ran his fingers through Yami's hair again, pulling the last of the pudding out, and turned off the sink.

"No? What was wrong with the way I looked?" Yami asked playfully. "Maybe you need a new look, too, aibou." Yami pushed his sopping wet head of hair straight into Yuugi's chest.

Mr. Motou found the two of them sprawled out on the kitchen floor a moment later, laughing themselves hoarse. He realized that this was their first weekend together. Ever.

What an odd revelation. They looked like they'd known each other since they were in diapers.

When they stood back up, Yami's hair was only damp, but Yuugi's shirt was dripping wet. "That was just mean," Yuugi huffed between his smile. "Very mean!"

Yami laughed, too, pulled Yuugi into his arms, and planted a soft kiss on his cheek.

"All right, come on you two! These omelets are going to be cold and burned if we don't eat them!" Red and purple eyes looked over at him and blinked. "Do I still get to have some chocolate pudding?"

And so the chase began again.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Yuugi and Yami stood next to each other, gazing at the Duel Monster cards on display at a game store inside of Domino Mall. "I wouldn't mind one of those," Yuugi pointed out, a card with a silvery surface glinting at them in enticement.

"Mirror force is a nice card, but easily countered," Yami replied.

"Yes, but most people are too stupid to figure out how to."

Yami laughed, hugging Yuugi to his side. He was about to say something else, too, until the squeal of some dying creature behind them filled their eardrums painfully.

"Aren't they just adorable," they heard someone say. Yuugi stiffened, becoming nervous, and turned around, Yami following suite.

Three girls stood in front of them now, all decked out in long skinny legs, short skirts, pastel shirts and too much make up.

"Yuugi," Yami whispered. "What are those thing?"

Yuugi looked on with terrified eyes. "Modern girls." He shivered. "They're monsters. Aliens. Not of this earth."

Yami was silent for a moment as they started to walk over, gaggling amongst themselves. "Should I kill them?"

"No, don't kill them!"

He did some more thinking. "Should I send them to the Shadow Realm?"

Yuugi looked at Yami confused. "The what? No, don't do- oh no. Here they come."

One of the girls that came up had short brown hair and sparkling blue eyes. "Are you two brothers?"

Yami blanched. Like hell. "No, we're not." Yuugi was too dumbstruck to say anything.

"Hey, stud, how about a date," one of the other girls asked, winking at Yami.

Yuugi snarled. : Yuugi, what's a date,: Yami asked curiously.

: Modern terminology for getting to know someone more intimately, without actually hopping in bed the first night. Basically it's modern-day wooing.:

Now it was Yami's turn to snarl. "I already have one," Yami stated smugly, then quickly turned Yuugi towards him and gave him a passionate kiss.

Yuugi rather enjoyed it, and wasn't even bothered by the obnoxious noise as the girls moaned in mourning. "You see," the brunette stated sadly. "All of the good ones are either taken or gay."

The girls left, and Yami broke the kiss off reluctantly. "Tease," Yuugi panted, smiling. "You're pretty good at chasing off unwanted vermin."

Yami laughed, starting to pull Yuugi towards an ice cream stand, where Sugoroku just so happened to be standing. "I do have my good qualities." He nodded at the ice cream advertisement. "I want to try some of that stuff…whatever it is. I saw a treat that said chocolate, so I know it has to be good."

"You're developing an addiction to chocolate," Yuugi stated.

Yami gave him a sinister look. Oh, the things he could become addicted to…"Well, I could stop my addiction, but then what would happen to you? Our bed would be awfully cold from now on."

Yuugi gazed at his other from the corner of his eye. "Don't make a threat you can't keep." : You can't resist, and you know it.:

: Doesn't mean I have to come to terms with that quite yet.:

Suddenly, just as Yuugi started to laugh again, they found an ice cream cone underneath of each nose. "Would you like some," Sugoroku asked them? "It's good!"

Yami found yet another thing that he could become addicted to.