Grudgeshipping (Pegasus J. Crawford/Kaiba Seto/Mutou Yugi)

. . .

The thunder groaned somewhere far over their heads—something about the faraway ceilings of this place made it seem like the storm was pushed back farther into the sky than it would be if he had been at home in his own room.

"Thanks for letting us stay a little longer," Yugi said, his voice echoing against the stone walls. "I didn't want to fly back with Seto in this weather."

Pegasus chuckled.

"As if I would have made you suffer that? And by that I mean suffer being in a small cockpit with Kaiba boy for a few hours. The weather is a secondary concern."

Yugi couldn't stop his own laugh, although Seto scowled when Yugi glanced over at him over his shoulder.

It wasn't exactly the first place Yugi would have wanted to wait out a storm—Pegasus' Duelist Kingdom castle was not exactly homey, and it brought back a few bad memories. But even those weren't enough to make Yugi want to ride back in Kaiba's Blue Eyes jet in the middle of a thunderstorm.

"I can set you two up on the other side of the building," Pegasus said. "Away from the...you know. The bad memory sections."

"This whole place is a bad memory," Seto said with a roll of his eyes.

Yugi laughed softly, but it was one of those 'I don't know how to respond so I'm going to laugh awkwardly' laughs.

The only reason they were here was for one of Pegasus' sneak peek events for the newest card set, which would feature a few reprints of cards that Yugi and Seto had used during Battle City. After the event, Seto had been dragged off to a few more meetings with business partners, and by the time he was done with that, the storm was brewing, leaving them no choice but to stay overnight at Duelist Kingdom.

Pegasus winced softly at Seto's comment.

"Staying around here doesn't give me too many fuzzy feelings either, Kaiba-boy," he said. "But it's a place to lay your head for a few hours. If you even sleep, that is. Sometimes I wonder."

Seto muttered something that might have been a "fuck you too, Pegasus," but a roll of thunder drowned out whatever it was. It was a testament to how exhausted Seto really was, though, as Yugi hadn't heard him swear at anyone except in very rare instances.

Yugi continued following Pegasus down the long, medieval like hallway lined with armor on stands. Pegasus certainly knew how to keep to an aesthetic.

He paused, however, when his eyes caught on an open door, and he noticed a flash of color inside. Curious, he hesitated in the middle of the hall to confirm what it was. Seto was so tired that he bumped into Yugi before he realized he had stopped, and he jerked back with a swear forming on his lips.

Pegasus noticed the commotion and glanced over his shoulder to see what was going on.

"Oh, I see you found my...art gallery," he said after a pause. "I didn't know the door was left open..."

Yugi tilted his head so that he could see through he crack.

"Is that...Silent Magician?" he asked.

"Probably," Pegasus said, coming back to meet them. "I can't quite remember everything I have in there, honestly..I haven't looked at it in a while."

Yugi glanced up.

"Do you...mind if I have a look?"

For a moment, Pegasus' eyes looked a bit strained, and Yugi almost regretted asking. But then he smiled.

"Of course," he said.

"I'd rather have a look at a bed," Seto muttered, but there was a spark of curiosity in his tired eyes as he followed Yugi through the door.

The room was huge, Yugi realized with a start. The ceiling was even higher than the hall behind them, and the room spread wide like a ballroom. Every wall was covered in framed paintings, in every conceivable dimensions and sizes.

Yugi couldn't even remember all of these monsters' names. He recognized a handful—Silent Magician, Dark Magician and Dark Magician Girl, the Blue-Eyes White Dragon, Celtic Guardian. The rest he had no names for, he wasn't even sure if they were real cards in the game. A red wingless dragon with a long snout and two colored eyes, a fairy girl holding pom poms, a white knight figure with angel's wings and a long cleaver like sword, a dragon made of rose petals, a hero atop a skyscraper with bat's wings.

"Pegasus, these are amazing!" Yugi said, turning in a slow circle with his head craned back to try and see them all. "Are these Duel Monsters designs?"

"Well...yes," Pegasus said.

He leaned back against the door, as though he were reluctant to step fully inside.

"Why aren't some of these actual cards yet? The designs look finalized," Seto said, leaning down to peer at a painting of a glowing red dragon with interest. The exhaustion seemed to have vanished the moment he entered this room, replaced with a deep running fascination.

"Well..." Pegasus said, coughing slightly. "Most of them are vent paintings, really. I come in here and paint them when I can't sleep."

He paused, his visible eye growing distant.

"When the nightmares get too bad."

Both Yugi and Seto looked up from the paintings, and back at the older man. His gaze wasn't on them. It was up somewhere in the shadows of the ceiling, where the paintings rose so high that you could barely see them.

Seto and Yugi glanced at each other, and then back at the room. Yugi was the first to move, wandering back over to Pegasus.

"They're all beautiful," he said. "But we don't have to stay in here if it makes you uncomfortable..."

"Like I said, I'd rather just go to bed," Seto said with a grumble.

Pegasus' smile was tired, but they could both see the relief in his face.

They left the room, and closed the door on the memories behind them.

. . .

A/N: Honestly I should have written this tomorrow when I wasn't tired because this makes no fucking sense and is written horribly, but i'm a little upset tonight and I just want this done, so here it is. Next is Greedshipping (Ushio x Yugi).