Feathershipping (Jonouchi Katsuya/Mutou Yugi/Yami no Yugi)
. . .
"Stop doing that."
"Stop doing what?"
Jonouchi glared suspiciously at Yugi, sitting backwards in his chair to stare at him over the top of Yugi's desk. He kept rocking back and forth, back and forth on the back legs of the chair, and Yugi was positive that he was going to tumble forward and crash on top of Yugi's desk, either taking the whole thing down with him or smashing his face in. He half moved his hands up as though ready to catch him, almost subconsciously.
"You keep switching back and forth at weird times."
"You guys keep switching back and forth in the middle of the conversation, I dunno who I'm talking to most of the time."
"Huh?"
Yugi hadn't even noticed—had he and his other self been switching back and forth?
"Sorry, Jonouchi-kun, I don't think we were trying to. It gets to be kind of a habit, you know?"
Jonouchi gave Yugi a raised eyebrow look, as though to say 'how the hell would I know?' Yugi winced a bit with a smile, rubbing the back of his neck.
"We're both listening at the same time either way, so it's like you're talking to both of us at once," Yugi said. "Right, other me?"
"Indeed," his other self said, surfacing for a moment.
Jonouchi jumped a little.
"Gah! See, that's what I'm talking about, you both start talking and it's weird because it's coming out of the same mouth. I don't know who to respond to."
"You can just respond to both of us at the same time," Yami no Yugi said, shrugging with a grin. "We're basically the same person."
Jonouchi frowned.
"But...you're not. You guys are both my friends as different people. I wanna be able to talk to both of ya and not get confused about who I'm responding to, cause you guys are both my friends."
Yugi felt his other self hesitate for a moment—felt him pause with surprise. Then Yami no Yugi fled back into the Puzzle and Yugi was back.
"Huh? Where'd he go? What'd I say?" Jonouchi said.
Yugi laughed a little.
"I think you made him really happy, Jonouchi-kun," he said.
"Huh?"
Yugi cradled the Puzzle in his hands, just to get the weight of it and the coldness of the metal against his skin.
"Other me feels like he doesn't matter a lot," Yugi said, in a whisper, as though to hide the words from his currently embarrassed other self. "He seems to feel like he's just...like an extension of me, or something...that he's not really friends with you guys, he just happens to be here and I'm friends with you."
"R-really? But that's dumb, he's as much our friend as you are, Yug."
Yugi smiled up at Jonouchi.
"I think he knows that," he said with a laugh. "But it makes him happy to hear it!"
Jonouchi frowned, his arms crossed over the back of the chair. He rested his chin in the fold of his arms, just looking at the Puzzle for a moment. Then he reached out to rap it once with his knuckle.
"Hey, knucklehead," he said. "You're always gonna be our friend, you know that? Not just cause Yugi is. But because we like you for you, too."
Yugi could feel the tiny, tiny spark of happy that started at the back of Yami no Yugi's mind, and knew that he was far more pleased and content with this than he would ever admit. He looked up to tell Jonouchi as much when—
Jonouchi let out a soft 'eep' as finally, his chair diddecide to go out from under him, and he tumbled forward towards Yugi's desk.
Yami no Yugi appeared in a flash, practice flinging himself over the desk to catch Jonouchi under the shoulders.
"Idiot!" Yami no Yugi said. "Keep all four legs of the chair on the ground, you're going to hurt yourself!"
His face was so red and Jonouchi was starting to blush too and Yugi couldn't help but start laughing at the back of his own mind, laughing because his friends were all friends and they were all dorks together, in the end.
. . .
A/N: This is a cute one. Next is Fearshipping (Yami no Marik x Ishizu).
