Title: Choose Your Reality part 3 of ?
Author: Sorceress Fantasia
Pairings: Too many to write here; mainly YY/Y
Warnings: AU, slight angst, spoilers for YGO's ending, maybe an OC or two, humour
Disclaimer: I would love to say I own Yu-gi-Oh, but sadly, I don't. I own only this plot.
Intro: They say that for every universe that exists, there is another universe that runs parallel to it. But when Yami discovers that, he also finds himself faced with two Yugis: one who sees him as his best friend, and another who loves him more than life itself.
Note: Inspired by a short (one-shot, in fact) manga by Watase Yui, who is also the author for 'Fushigi Yugi' and 'Ayashi no Ceres'.
His blanket was going to rest in pieces if he kept this up, but Yami couldn't help it. After he finally managed to switch off the television (Yami doubted that he would switch it on again for fear of further trauma), he had dragged himself back to his bed. And once he flopped onto it like a spineless octopus, his hands had gotten the insane urge to do something. Anything. And his blanket became his unfortunate victim.
Vaguely, he wondered if hospitals charged patients for ruined blankets.
But oh, if he had to, Yami was willing to pay for a dozen more blankets. His hands needed to destroy something or he would go crazy. Or maybe he already was crazy. That would explain why what he had always thought to be the rule of the world was suddenly becoming something that was despised and condemned.
"By laws of nature, a man and a woman cannot -I repeat- cannot be together! It's not just immoral. It's also illegal. You can get arrested for saying things like that!"
Yami could still see Vicky screaming in his face, already on the verge of shaking him by his collar if it wasn't for Nancy pulling her back. But maybe a bit of shaking would do him some good. Maybe a bit of shaking would shake some sense back into his overloaded mind. Or with his luck, shake whatever remaining sense he had /out/ of his brain.
What world was this? Rather, what had happened to the world he knew? Or perhaps Nancy was right: he had hit his head too hard and got confused. Maybe homosexual relationships had always been the norm, and he had just gotten confused.
But... that did not explain why Yugi's had kissed him back. Why did his aibou kiss him back? And so passionately at that. Even though Yugi had always been affectionate with him, he did not go around kissing people, Anzu or not. Then again, he couldn't still be a couple with Anzu in this world now, not with all that legal trivialities and the apparent... hetero-phobia. Right, hetero-phobia.
So Yugi had kissed him.
At that memory, Yami felt a smile blossoming on his face. Slowly, he raised a finger to his lips, to where he had shared his first kiss with Yugi earlier. He could still feel the warmth, the softness, and the taste. It was sweet, but he couldn't put a finger on... on what type of sweetness it was. Was it the cotton candy type, where it was sweet and felt like one could just melt? Or was it the fizzy drink type of sweetness, where it also made one feel all fuzzy inside? Then again, it could also be the chewing gum type, where the sweetness did not stay long, but one just couldn't stop nibbling and chewing.
Yami continued to mull over that with a dreamy leer, occasionally sniggering aloud. It was only when he felt, rather than see, someone waving a hand in front of his unfocused eyes that he noticed that he was not alone anymore. He blinked.
"Jou? Honda? Anzu?"
They smiled widely at him. He blinked again, turning to his left.
"Otogi? Ryou?"
They smiled at him too, sighing in relief that he still recognized them. Then, Yami he spied movement behind those two, and so he blinked again.
"Bakura? Kaiba?"
He felt his jaws fall. It was common knowledge that Bakura couldn't wait for him to die just so he could pilfer the millennium puzzle. And he had always imagined the older Kaiba tap-dancing on his grave while Mokuba tugged at his trench coat and pleaded for him to stop. Mokuba was so much nicer than his older brother.
"Well, looks like something /did/ cushion that nasty fall, after all," Bakura sneered, but somehow, it was missing that venomous undertone. Without it, the sneer sounded more like a playful teasing. But Bakura never teased, because teasing wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and it wasn't in the tomb robber's genetic make-up to be nice. He gloated, he goaded, he taunted, but he never teased.
Before Yami could replace his jaws, however, Kaiba did the unimaginable. He agreed with Bakura, and Yami quoted, 'the-biggest-piece-of-wannabe-tomb-robber-trash'.
"I suppose it's all that mush inside his head. That would certainly have absorbed all the impact from hitting the ground with his head."
Yami was still reeling from the shock that Kaiba had actually agreed with Bakura - not to mention add onto his comment - that he did not manage to retort like he usually did. Instead, he sputtered.
"Oh, stop being mean, Bakura. Yami just woke up!" Ryou admonished his darker half with a frown. "Besides, Yugi wouldn't be happy if he heard that comment."
The rest nodded their acquiescence.
"Yeah, so cut Yami some slack, Kaiba," Jou said, to which Kaiba responded with a shrug. Then, Jou turned back to his friend. "Hey Yami buddy, you feeling any better? I almost freaked out when I found you lying unconscious on the streets. Thought you were drunk at first, but you never let yourself drink that much! And I don't even remember letting you drink that much at the sakura festival! What happened to you?"
"And you didn't even tell Yugi you were leaving! He worried himself sick about you, you know?" Anzu chided lightly, arms akimbo and looking none too happy. It figures. She was forever worrying about Yugi's well being, and Jou and Honda always got a kick by telling her she was the perfect epitome of a mother-hen. That never settled down well with Anzu though, even if everyone knew it was the truth.
Yami could only shrug; he couldn't remember what had happened before he woke up in the hospital apart from a sakura tree, a love umbrella (1) and a heavy heart. And to think the person who indirectly caused all that was demanding to know why he had gone out by himself without telling his aibou. He had slipped away from the festival while Anzu was busy kissing his Yugi, hadn't he? It was all her fault.
"Can't remember much. Just bits and pieces of the picnic we were having before I woke up here," he replied offhandedly. "Anyway, why are all of you here?"
Otogi shook a finger at him with mock disappointment.
"Of course we're here. We rushed down as soon as Yugi called us and told us that you finally woken up. That took you long enough. What could have happened to land you in hospital in a coma for three days? As far as the doctors know, you're actually really healthy. They still can't understand what could have knocked you out like that."
Yami blinked. He had been unconscious for that long? In all that murkiness, it felt as though he had been out for only a short instant. Three days for a momentary lapse of memories was too much. Vaguely, Yami wondered almost with annoyance how much he had missed. He hated that feeling that things were out of his control.
Then, one of Nancy's stray comments came back to him. Yugi had spent all of his free time by his side? For three days? That would explain why his little angel looked like he was ready to fall asleep on his feet. Yami decided that Yugi was going to get a bit of TLC once they got home.
"Hey Yami, where's Yugi?" Honda asked.
"Oh... he's getting lunch."
The gang nodded.
"Makes sense; there's no other reason why he wouldn't be with you at this time of the day. But I bet the nurses had to drag him all the way to the cafeteria," Jou quipped, earning him no small amount of chuckles from the rest of his friends. "Man, Yugi's been pushing himself too hard. Splitting all his time up between the hospital, school and the game shop. The least he could do is eat something so he wouldn't get sick, yeah?"
"You don't have to worry about that, pup," -Kaiba shrugged- "The nurses here do enough of that."
Yami waited for the outburst he knew Jou would have at the nickname. As much as Yugi had tried to convince him that puppies were cute and loyal almost to a fault, Jou never hid his apparent dislike for the name. He never forgot how Kaiba had once compared him to a dog that had lost and could do nothing but howl and whine pitifully. Not that Kaiba was actually sympathetic enough to take pity on him, of course. But Yami was stunned to silence when Jou only grinned.
"Definitely. Man, Yami, you should have seen just how the nurses reacted to Yugi when they first saw him. I think they were fussing over what they had dubbed the 'cutest thing on earth'," he said, ignoring Bakura's protest that it was only because the nurses hadn't seen his Ryou at that time. "Then they were all over him, pinching his cheeks and swooning all over him."
After placating Bakura, Ryou put his two cents in as well, picking up where Jou had left off.
"I swear the nurses just fell over like bowling pins when they discovered that Yugi was here to visit his live-in boyfriend," –he giggled at the memory- "But after they saw you and Yugi together, they're all just swooning over you two as a couple. I think they're calling you two the 'cutest couple in the hospital'."
"Yeah! You can almost see those lovey dovey hearts floating around them when they see Yugi with you," Honda added with a grin.
"Wai... wai... wait!" Yami sputtered, flailing his arms around and almost throwing his blanket off. He could have sworn he had heard them say... "What did you guys say about me and Yugi?"
Anzu blinked.
"That the nurses are swooning over you two."
"No, before that."
"They're calling you two the 'cutest couple in the hospital'."
"No, before that." But there was key point number one: 'couple'. Yami mentally filed that piece of information away.
The nurses were really upset when they found out that Yugi already had a boyfriend?" she asked in confusion.
Key point number two: 'boyfriend' was filed away as well.
"No, after that."
Everyone started to stare at him, their expressions in sync: all were of utter bewilderment. As far as they could remember, they hadn't missed out any vital information in their short recap. Furthermore, it was nothing Yami wasn't familiar with; Yugi was easily one of the most adorable people around, and it wasn't strange to find girls –and even boys- gazing dreamily at him and asking for a hug. So it wasn't particularly a shocker to them that Yugi had managed to mesmerize the nurses too, though none of them had expected to find /all/ of the nurses swooning over him.
But as they started to converse in hushed tones and hurried voices, there was still one person coherent and astute enough to answer.
"Yami, sometimes I think the size of your ego can solve the famine in Africa," Kaiba started, pushing himself off the wall he had been leaning against. With a bored look, he took a few steps closer to Yami's bed. Everyone turned to stare at him.
"You just enjoy reminding everyone that Yugi is your live-in boyfriend and that you two are halfway to the altar, don't you?"
At that, Jou and the rest of the gang laughed heartily, teasing Yami about his ego that even Yugi had not managed to tame. Kaiba continued to look bored, even though there was a faint tugging at the corner of his lips, while Bakura just rolled his eyes and grabbed his hikari closer.
None on them noticed the wide-eyed look Yami was sporting. Neither did they hear the endless echoes of 'couple', 'boyfriend', 'live-in boyfriend' and 'halfway to the altar' resounding in his mind.
"Well, I'll have you know that Jou and I are on the same pinnacle of life as you two. Or maybe we're closer to the altar than you two," Kaiba added, reaching out to pull his boyfriend to his side. Jou only responded with a half-hearted protest, which was quickly quelled by a kiss on his lips.
Yami's jaws dropped.
"So maybe you and Jou are three-quarters to the altar, but you can't beat us!" Bakura said smugly, brandishing the silver ring on his ring hand. He held up Ryou's hand as well, showing everyone the matching ring.
Yami almost choked.
"Honda and I will get there," -Otogi turned to fix Honda with a glare- "Right?"
The other man only nodded quickly, albeit a little sheepishly.
Yami thought he had finally gotten his karma for all that 'mind crushes' he had performed before, but other than that, he thought he was holding up quite well. As well as it was possible for someone who had suddenly found all his friends switching partners (of the other sex, no less!), of course. Hesitantly, he turned to Anzu, wondering if she would drop another bomb on him.
She did, and she never quite understood why news of her imminent engagement to Mai (who was currently away doing photo shoots in Europe) caused Yami to nearly hyperventilate.
Deciding that her patient had enough stress for the day, though she had no idea why the statuses of his friends' relationships could cause him that much stress, Doctor Yamanaka sent all of them home.
So Yami was left alone to let all the recently acquired information sink into his mind, and also to calm down and retain consciousness. Fainting two times (and one near-miss) in three days was quite enough to fill up his embarrassment quota for the year, so he had no intention of any encores. Instead, he slumped in his bed like a puddle of jelly for a bit of rest, much to the relief of his poor, abused blanket.
But his mind could hardly find any relief in the rest, for epiphany still had not given up on delivering a swift and painful kick to Yami. His previous conversation with his friends was fresh in his mind, and with every kick laced with the key points from epiphany, Yami's headache got worse.
Key point number one: 'couple'.
Key point number two: 'boyfriend'.
Key point number three: 'live-in boyfriend'.
Key point number four: 'halfway to the altar'.
In his fragile state of mind, Yami couldn't be sure if he was coming to the correct conclusion, because from what he could understand, all his friends (including his mortal enemy, Bakura, who strangely, did not seem to act like his mortal enemy anymore) were telling him the same thing: he, Yami Mutou, was the live-in and halfway-to-the-altar boyfriend of Yugi Mutou, his crush since... well, ages past!
Surely, that couldn't be it! He couldn't be Yugi's boyfriend cum lover cum other half cum... whatever else one called one's boyfriend!
But Yugi had returned his kiss earlier. When Yami had kissed him in his frenzied state, Yugi had allowed him to plunder his mouth, had allowed him to caress his body, had allowed him to swallow his every moan and every groan. And Yugi had kissed him back.
Yugi had kissed him back.
Did that mean that Yugi liked him? Loved him, even?
Yami felt his heart pounding and his face burn up. Gods, he had to find out the truth. He had to know if he could embrace Yugi like he had done before, all those months ago. He had to know if Yugi would still peek through the corner of the door during stormy nights, silently asking if he could dive under the blankets with Yami. He had to know if Yugi would still lay his head against his chest, drawing strength from him as Yami drew his. He needed to know!
A soft 'whoosh' of the door alerted Yami, and he turned his head. His heart throbbed painfully when he saw who was there.
Yugi winced sheepishly.
"Sorry, did I wake you up?"
Yami shook his head as best as he could while pushing himself off from his bed. When he tried to sit up, he found gentle arms supporting him up.
"Be careful," Yugi said, fluffing up the pillow and placing it against the headboard.
Yami could only let himself be supported until he was leaning comfortably against the pillow.
Are you feeling okay?"
He nodded dumbly.
"That's good. I was kinda worried when you fainted earlier," Yugi said, smiling.
Yami blushed. It was going to be hard to live that down; he just had to faint during a kiss, did he? Thoroughly embarrassed, he peered at his aibou through his jagged bangs.
"Anyway, I heard from the nurses that Jou and the rest were here but got chased off by the doctor. What happened? They said something about too much stress?"
Yami did not hear the question. His eyes were fixated on Yugi's cherry lips and how they moved with every word. Unconsciously, he wet his lips.
"Yami?" Yugi asked, leaning forward from the stiff hospital chair to stare at the other curiously.
That action brought his lips only centimeters away from Yami's, and Yami felt his breath catch in his throat. The pounding of his heart against his ribcage was becoming difficult to ignore. And when Yugi's lips moved to speak again, Yami closed the few centimeters separating them, swiftly taking hold of those lips he had always dreamed of.
The kiss started slow, merely a chaste tasting like someone savoring the first sip of red wine in his mouth. It was a bitter taste that eventually gave way to an indefinable sweetness, addictive and desirable. Then, the kiss turned desperate, hands frantically pulling the other closer as if afraid to let go. Their tongues danced together like a couple waltzing in a ballroom, and they moaned their pleasures.
It lasted too short.
Yami breathed heavily as he pulled away slightly, his arms almost trembling at the sheer intensity of the lustful fog that had coursed through his blood just seconds ago. His heart was still pounding, but it was no longer achingly painful. Then, he looked at his partner.
Yugi's chest was heaving as he breathed deeply for the air that Yami had denied him earlier. His lips were slightly swollen and bruised, the colour a brighter shade of red than it had been before. And when he opened his amethyst eyes, the gloss of lust, desire and longing shone clearly.
He was the perfect picture of beauty that would make even the purest of hearts lustful.
And Yami was no saint. He was darkness, and darkness craved for light the same way a stranded man in a desert craved for water. It was a need that if left unsatisfied, led to death.
Slowly, he guided Yugi's lips back to his own again. This time, the kiss was slow and held none of the desperation of their previous kiss. It was like warm water lapping over their skin while they lounged in a pool, comfortable and calming. When the kiss ended, Yugi was already sitting in Yami's laps, and he leaned his head against the other's shoulder, breathing in his scent.
It was only then that the spell that had ensnarled Yami finally broke, and he nearly gasped at what had just transpired. Half afraid that the kisses had only been a figment of his cruel mind, he peered down and finally felt the weight of Yugi's head on his shoulder and the entanglement of their fingers. He let out a breath he did not know he had been holding.
The tranquility was disturbed only when Yugi murmured shyly.
"Yami, I hope you'll come home soon. It's so lonely without you."
Yami could almost hear the contented blush on Yugi's face.
"So... get well soon, okay?" At this, Yugi lifted his head to gaze at Yami in his eyes, a tender smile adorning his face.
"Okay," Yami whispered back dreamily, cupping his hikari's cheek. Before he could lean in for another kiss, however, a cough resounded in the room.
Their heads shot up to see a disgruntled Vicky and an almost swooning Nancy staring at them. Yugi laughed sheepishly, and quickly crawled out of Yami's laps and back into the chair.
"Yugi, as much as it is a happy occasion that your boyfriend finally woke up, it'd be a good idea to keep all sexual explorations to the privacy of your bedroom," the brunette said with an almost deadpanned expression, but there was an undeniable twitch in her lips that was threatening to break. It seemed that Yugi had worked his magic on her too.
"But Vicky, they were so cute!" Nancy protested. "If we just lock the doors for a while, nobody would know!"
Apparently, Yugi had worked his magic on Nancy far too well.
Yugi blushed, his face a healthy scarlet.
"Miss Nancy! We weren't going to-!"
"Aw, you don't have to be shy with us! We understand! Right, Vicky?"
"Miss... Miss Nancy!"
As Yugi tried to explain to the two nurses, Yami couldn't help but chuckle. Maybe this new world (he was sure of this now, after the shocking conversation with his friends) wouldn't be too bad after all.
-tbc-
(1): Um, Lily Maxwell has told me that what I've referred to as a love umbrella is actually called ai ai gase in Japanese. Still, to keep a measure of consistency, I'm still going to call it a love umbrella. Unless one day I decide to revise the fic...
Author's Note: Remember I had left a challenge to all readers in the last chapter, asking you guys to name the movie where Nancy and Vicky were from? Well, the movie is called 'Down with Love', as most of you have figured out. Anyway, Artist Josie was the first to get the answer correct, so she's the winner for this challenge. Her prize, as she has decided, is the third chapter for 'Tears of the Phoenix', and it has already been uploaded. Thanx to everyone who participated!