Intimadashipping (Bandit Keith Howard/Mutou Yugi)
. . .
((uses elements of Yu-Gi-Oh R canon. Takes place about a year after the conclusion of the series))
. . .
He wondered, for a moment, how he had ever found this man intimidating.
Well, he thought as he grimaced, leaning against the bar, back then, he himself had been a lot shorter than the other man. Now, Keith Howard didn't even have height to give him any sense of power. Not that he had much of that aura in the first place now...not like this.
Yugi remained at the side of the bar for a moment, considering the man who had passed out on the counter. Glass scattered the floor around the bottom of his stool, an uncountable number of bottles left behind. His bandanna was ragged and stained. It clearly hadn't been washed in a very long time—judging by the smell, none of him had. His hair stuck messily and greasily out from behind the flap of the bandanna, his sunglasses chipped so that Yugi could see that he was completely asleep, lost to gods knew how many drinks. This was a man who had given up.
Yugi hesitated. Just a few moments longer. He pulled his reading glasses from his nose and tucked them into his pocket; a nervous habit that he hadn't been able to stop once he had started to need them. He didn't deny that there must have been some fate involved; that of all the dingy bars on this backstreet in San Francisco, he had happened to walk into the one that contained one of his former nemeses. He was honestly shocked that the man was still alive. Pegasus had killed him in a Shadow Game once, and Yugi had almost assumed that, after having been brought back to life by the Tenmas and beaten once again by Jonouchi, he had died again. He had a remarkable grip on existence, in the end.
Yugi heaved a quiet sigh. He wondered if he should try to wake him. If there was anything that he could say, or do, that might be helpful. Jonouchi would have laughed. Helpful? To this asshole? Why would you bother? Yugi grimaced; he could hear Jonouchi's voice so clearly that it was almost scary. But then again, Jonouchi had told Yugi quite a bit about the last duel he had with Bandit Keith, how he had returned that stolen Time Machine card and asked him to duel him again, as a duelist and not a demon. For as angry as Jonouchi might act, he, too, had seen at least a spark of hope from a fellow duelist.
For a moment, Yugi's hand reached out, hovered over Keith Howard's shoulder.
And then his arm dropped back to his side.
He knew that there was nothing here that he could do. Mutou Yugi was not Keith Howard's favorite person in the world, and anything Yugi could say would only sound like preaching, an attempt to fix him. That wasn't what Yugi wanted to do.
He looked at the man for just a moment longer. He looked more broken than anything. Lost and small.
Finally, Yugi turned away. His shoes made sticky sounds as he crossed the bar, and went back out into the sunlight.
It was sad, really...that sometimes second chances weren't taken.
. . .
A/N: I don't know. Does anyone seriously ship this? Next is Interfereshipping (Yami no Marik x Jonouchi x Mai).
