Chapter 14

A few minutes later, Yugi was sitting on the sofa with Atem beside him, surveying his friends. Joey and Tristan were laying out a junk food buffet on the coffee table in a glorious array of sugar, fat, artificial flavors, and colors not found in nature. Téa alternated between watching them with an expression caught midway between indulgence and horror, and fixing Seto with a gimlet glare. For his part, Seto hovered near the fireplace, his attention apparently drawn to the display of Yugi's keepsakes on the mantle. Seeing him examine one of the miniaturized ka statues, Yugi tensed and reached for Atem's hand, entwining their fingers.

"Yo, rich boy!" Joey lobbed a couple of peanut M&Ms at Seto's head. "What's so fascinating about those do-dads, anyway? You plotting to hijack Yugi's tchotchkes or somethin'?"

Every eye in the room suddenly focused on Seto. Slowly, he drew his hand back from the statuette and sneered at Joey. "Don't be ridiculous, Wheeler."

Atem rose from the sofa, glided over to the fireplace, and scooped up the three statuettes, shifting them so they were out of Seto's reach. "Are you interested in ancient Egyptian art, Kaiba?"

"Hardly," Seto scoffed, glowering at the genie as if offended they were breathing the same air. "I didn't think Yugi was, either. Hence the whole 'classical archaeology' focus." He glanced at Yugi. "Was I wrong?"

Mind going blank, Yugi fumbled for an excuse. Atem answered for him.

"I have a feeling you're wrong about quite a number of things, Kaiba."

Anger flashed in Seto's ice-blue eyes and his hands clenched into fists at his sides. He took a single, deliberate step toward Atem. Rather than react to the intimidation like any normal person, Atem merely lifted his chin, his body tensing as if preparing for combat. Yugi squeezed his eyes shut for a second, taking a deep breath and readying himself to launch himself between the two larger men before they could come to blows. He hoped. If he mistimed things, this had the potential to be very... painful.

As if sensing Yugi's incipient martyrdom, Téa elevated herself to 'best friend ever' status in Yugi's eyes by verbally stepping into the fray.

"All right! You alpha males can postpone the pissing contest until later." Téa stood, arms akimbo, and fixed them both with the look her male friends had dubbed (though never within her hearing) The Emasculator. "Some of us would like to watch the movie in peace. So sit down, shut up, and have a good time - or else. Got it?"

Clearly satisfied that she had them all suitably cowed, she sank back onto the overstuffed armchair and surveyed the room like a queen on her paisley throne. Atem smirked at Seto, scooped up the shrunken ka statues and, cradling them in his arms, returned to Yugi's side. A beat behind him, and wearing an expression more suited to someone sucking on a lemon, Seto took a seat on Yugi's other side.

Yugi felt like a juicy gazelle stuck between a pair of starving lions. In an effort to defuse some of the tension in the room, he turned to Téa. "So, what are we watching?"

"Disney's Aladdin."

"Aw, man." Tristan groaned and flopped onto his back on the rug. "Not again!"

Mock-frowning, Téa nudged him in the ribs with her toe. "Says the guy who made us watch Live Free or Die Hard fourteen times in a row."

"I'll have you know, that movie is a modern classic."

"So is Aladdin!"

"Yo, Atem..." Joey tilted backward and grinned upside-down at Atem. "You seen this flick before?"

"No. Although, I am familiar with the tale."

"Yeah? Bet this version's not what you're expectin'. The genie's this big blue guy who occasionally crossdresses."

Atem shot Yugi an appalled look. Yugi grinned at him and piped up with, "And he lives inside a magic lamp."

The genie's appalled expression gained definite overtones of "you are so paying for this later." A delicious shiver slithered down Yugi's spine and he mentally rolled his eyes at himself. "Pissed-off genie" should not be an attractive expression on anyone's face, but Atem made it positively mouthwatering. (Yugi was beginning to think there was something seriously wrong with him. Or with Atem. The man exuded some sort of "come hither, Yugi" ray that Yugi was helpless to resist, regardless of what else was going on around them. Yeah, that was his story and he was sticking to it.)

"I like the ending," Téa was saying when he resurfaced from his Atem-addled thoughts. She sighed and put on a deliberately sappy smile, one hand over her heart. "The happily-ever-after."

Atem snorted. "Sure, for Aladdin."

"For the genie, too. Aladdin uses his final wish to set him free," Joey said around a huge mouthful of popcorn.

Téa smacked him. "Gross, Joey! Don't talk with your mouth full."

"Yeah, dude. What were you, raised by wolves?"

Joey howled and threw a handful of popcorn at Tristan, who tackled him into the carpet.

Yugi, feeling Atem freeze beside him, ignored their play-fighting. His own thoughts were in overdrive. Could he do that? Could he use one of his wishes to free Atem? He lurched to his feet, hand gripping Atem's arm to drag the genie with him. "Excuse us for a sec, guys. We'll be right back."

Catcalls and whistles chased them from the room. Tugging Atem after him, Yugi hurried upstairs. He pushed the genie into the bedroom and closed the door behind them before demanding, "Would it work?"

"Would what work?"

"Wishing you free of the curse." Duh. "Would it work?"

"Yugi... The curse is the only reason I'm still alive. If you used a wish to remove it, you would also be removing the magic that keeps me as I am. Besides-" Atem's mouth curved in a half-smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "-wishing for your genie's freedom is hardly a selfish action. There would be no direct benefit to you, so I doubt the magic would allow me to grant such a wish."

Biting his tongue to keep from blurting out just how direct a benefit he would find it to have Atem around all the time, Yugi focused on the other part of the problem: keeping Atem alive without the curse. There had to be loophole they could exploit. In the movie, even after Aladdin had set him free, the genie had stayed a genie. Of course, in the movie, the genie seemed to have been that way from the beginning, not a normal man cursed to become a creature of magic.

"Assume for a moment that you could grant the wish. Are you sure you couldn't survive if the curse was removed?" he said after a moment.

"The human body was not designed to live for thousands of years." Moving to the dresser, Atem set the statuettes down on top of it. "Best case scenario? If the magic allowed the wish to be granted, you would end up with a pile of dust or a desiccated mummy instead of a rotting corpse."

Ew. Yeah, that was definitely a deal-breaker. Even if Yugi could find a way around the selfishness clause, a mummified corpse was not what he had in mind for a life-partner. A young, healthy, human Atem, on the other hand, offered a wealth of possibilities (and direct benefits). Maybe he could work with that angle? He set that aside to reflect on later.

"Okay, we'll revisit this conversation sometime when there's not an explosion waiting to happen downstairs." It probably wasn't the best idea to leave Joey and Seto alone for very long, at least not if he wanted to have an intact living room at the end of the evening. Yugi reached for Atem's hand. "Come on. We need to go make sure Seto and Joey haven't killed each other."

"I don't hear any screaming," Atem said, offering what he probably thought was a comforting observation.

Yeah, that was what he found so worrying. Grim-faced, Yugi tugged him toward the door. "Ever hear the expression 'it was too quiet'?"

-o0o-

When they returned to the living room, everyone was more-or-less where they had left them: Joey and Tristan stuffing their faces with junk food, Téa watching them with the kind of horror only someone who counted their daily carb intake was capable of, and Seto sitting stiffly on the sofa, his face a stoic mask that revealed nothing of his thoughts.

Glancing to his left, Yugi saw that Atem was wearing an identical lack of expression. The genie locked gazes with the CEO and Yugi thought he could hear the air crackling with the animosity between them. He wasn't sure why the two men had hated each other on sight, but clearly the situation hadn't improved with repeated exposure.

Without a word, Atem slipped past Yugi and claimed the near end of the sofa for his own.

Yugi briefly considered wishing himself somewhere far, far away from his living room, somewhere peaceful and isolated, like Antarctica. Then he girded his metaphorical loins, paced over to the sofa, and parked himself deliberately in the demilitarized zone (formerly known as the middle cushion). He sat stiffly, all too aware of the heated death-glares sizzling over his head and threatening to set the tips of his hair on fire.

Téa, who had retained control of the remote, started the movie. The four friends had learned early on that allowing any of the guys, even Yugi, to man the remote was a Bad Idea. 'Apocalyptic popcorn battles' bad. In the interest of keeping his home intact and actually being able to watch the movie, Yugi had dubbed Téa "Regina of the Remote" and so she had reigned ever since.

Silence, except for the sounds of vaguely Middle-Eastern music from the television, fell as the movie started. Nothing untoward happened all through the opening scenes, and Yugi began to relax. Then the blue genie appeared and things got a new kind of tense.

Following the antics of the genie on the television screen, Atem went rigid with strain. On Yugi's other side, Seto made a derisive sound that managed to convey both contempt and a sort of mean-spirited amusement that Yugi recognized but didn't understand. He hadn't really expected Seto to enjoy the movie, but why did he seem to find Atem's discomfort so satisfying? It wasn't totally out of character for the man (when Seto didn't like someone, he made no attempt to hide it), but it almost seemed as if he knew the truth about Atem and enjoyed watching him squirm.

Hoping to defuse at least half of the hostility, Yugi reached over and took Atem's hand in his, giving the genie's fingers a gentle squeeze. To his surprise, he felt some of the tension drain from Atem as the genie's hand relaxed and long fingers readily entwined with his own.

Tuning out the movie, Yugi turned his thoughts back to the problem of Atem's freedom. He had to assume that Atem was right and simply wishing for his freedom wouldn't work. After all, the genie knew more about his own situation than Yugi ever could. If the magic was all that was keeping Atem alive... Hm. And how could he get around the selfishness clause?

So lost in his thoughts that he didn't even sense the passage of time, Yugi startled when Atem squeezed his hand to garner his attention. He blinked at the genie. "Huh?"

"The movie's over," Atem whispered, leaning close so that his breath tickled Yugi's ear.

Glancing at the television screen, Yugi saw that he was right. He had never been so glad to see a movie's end credits in his entire life. He expelled a relieved sigh and surveyed his assembled friends, somewhat astonished to find them all alive and relatively in one piece.

Joey lay stretched out on the rug, hands on his bloated stomach, groaning the contented groan of a sated sugar addict. Tristan and Tea were play-arguing over who had the thicker accent, Iago or Joey. Seto's attention still seemed focused mostly on Atem, as it had been all through the movie, and he wasn't being all that subtle about it.

Yugi's attention had been divided between Seto and Atem and, though he'd only been confused by Seto, Atem's reactions worried Yugi. The genie had remained on edge and silent as the movie played. His lips pressed into a humorless white line and his eyes had been glacial as they fixed on the colorful images on the television. Clearly, he'd seen nothing amusing in the animated antics of the genie and his young master. Even Seto had cracked a smile or two, but Atem had appeared more irritated than entertained. Feeling bad on Atem's behalf, Yugi had grown more anxious as the movie progressed. Now, he held Atem's hand, thumb massaging the genie's palm, and did his level best to send soothing vibes to his lover.

A piece of hard candy arrowed across the room and smacked Yugi in the forehead, shocking him out of his reverie.

"Yo, Yug'!" Joey frowned up at him from his spot on the floor. "What's eatin' you, man? You look like somebody kicked your puppy."

Everyone but Yugi turned to glare at Seto as if convinced he'd committed some unforgivable act during the past ninety minutes. Seto glared back at them.

"I'm just... tired." All too aware that he was a miserable liar, Yugi faked a yawn. "This has been great, guys, but I think I'd better call it a night and get some sleep. Okay?"

Tea and Tristan exchanged knowing glances. Joey looked like he might argue until Tristan nudged him with the toe of his motorcycle boot and tipped his head toward Atem who had let go of Yugi's hand in order to wrap his arm around Yugi's waist. Catching on, Joey grinned and faked a yawn of his own. It was even less believable than Yugi's.

"Oooh, yeah. I getcha." Joey winked and turned his leering grin on Atem. "I guess this means you're enjoying your stay, huh?"

Téa tried not to laugh and only succeeded in inhaling a piece of popcorn. When she stopped coughing, she snickered and asked, "Yeah, Atem, is Yugi still 'benefiting from your services'?"

Yugi gave a second's serious consideration to getting new friends, the kind who would butt out of his love-life. "Guys!"

"I think we've humiliated our buddy enough for one day." Tristan smirked as he got to his feet, hauling Joey with him. "Let's get out of here and let these two get some 'sleep'."

Mortified, Yugi shot a quick peek at Atem, but the genie appeared preoccupied and oblivious to the teasing. He remained in the living room while Yugi - with much good-natured ribbing - herded his trio of traitorous friends out onto the front steps. It was only after they had departed that he realized he'd left Seto alone with Atem. Yugi's heart leaped up into his throat. Oh, shit! He bolted back inside.

Taking the turn from the entryway into the living room so sharply that he nearly twisted his ankle, Yugi wasn't sure what to expect. Certainly not to find Seto and Atem where he'd left them: standing at opposite ends of the sofa and glaring at one another as if attempting to kill one another with their minds.

"Um, guys?"

"Thanks for a surprisingly entertaining evening, Yugi." Although addressing Yugi, Seto kept his gaze on Atem. His sneering tone held a hidden meaning, but it was one Yugi couldn't decipher.

Brow furrowing with doubt, Yugi asked, "So, you enjoyed the movie?"

"Oh, yes." Seto smirked at Atem. "I never realized how amusing that particular story is."

Atem tensed, fingers curling into a fist.

Uh-oh. Yugi's gaze slanted from Atem to Seto, whose smirk widened. Obviously, he'd seen the genie's reaction and, for whatever reason, it pleased him. Double uh-oh. It was starting to look as if Yugi might have to play referee after all.

"Of course, the ending was rather contrived," Seto continued in a casual tone, as if he wasn't deliberately winding Atem as tight as an over-coiled spring. "I mean, who in their right mind would cast aside such a useful tool as a genie?"

Atem hands clenched so tightly that Yugi could practically hear his joints creak. Unable to help himself, Yugi snapped, "Aladdin didn't see Genie as a tool. They were friends."

"A genie is nothing but a tool, a slave to its master's will. You can't be friends with a thing."

Yugi had fully expected someone to throw a punch tonight. He just hadn't expected it to be him. He stood in shock, clutching his throbbing hand and staring at Seto, who had both hands cupped over his nose. Yugi didn't remember swinging at Seto (and couldn't quite figure out how he'd managed to hit Seto's nose), but the clear evidence left no doubt that he had punched the other man. Yugi's stomach lurched. He staggered and would have fallen if Atem hadn't caught him.

Supporting Yugi with an arm around his shoulders, Atem glared death at Seto. "Leave. Now."

The genie's tone left no room for argument and the air around him crackled with barely-restrained magic, raising the hairs on Yugi's arms. Yugi shot a look at Seto. Had he noticed? The taller man lowered his hands, revealing - not the anger or shock that Yugi had anticipated - but a smug satisfaction that settled uneasily in Yugi's stomach like a dose of ice water.

"I'll go," Seto said, gaze still locked with Atem's. "But I will be back."