Wow, I am wiped. Out of country, back in country, airplanes, ceremonies, lots of forms and a couple of wicked placement tests from hell and here I am. Shit, I had a long two weeks. I am tired. Zzzzzzzzzzzz…
But I didn't check my email for like two weeks so when I got back I had like 125 emails or something like that. It forever to get through them all.
You know what I hate? Retainers. Yuck.
Read, it's amusing. Well, at least I think so…
- ((16)) -
Chyaputa 16: Smoke Signals
- ((16)) -
"Sit, sit, sit!" Jounouchi urged, ushering Honda and Anzu to Yugi's couch. The blonde was jumping around the room in an ecstatic frenzy. Yugi stood back against the wall as Jounouchi took both Anzu's suspicious looks and Honda's blank stare.
This was it. This was the day when Yugi would tell them the real identity of his boyfriend. How would his friends react? Probably about the same as Jounouchi had. Scream at the top of their lungs.
Yugi sighed. He would have liked to have waited longer, actually he would have liked to have never told them at all, but now that Jounouchi had found out he was going around winking at people whenever Yugi got close. Now that Jounouchi knew the only thing stopping him from blurting out Yugi's secret was the fact that he got to break it to them today and act like he had known since the beginning, which he hadn't.
"God, what's the big deal?" Honda questioned tiredly.
Jounouchi rushed to Yugi's side, his knowledgeable grin wider than its natural measurements. "Can I tell them now?" he asked. "Please, please…"
"Wait," Yugi insisted, nervously peeking out the window every two seconds. "I want Ryou to get here first."
Honda's head jerked upwards, startled. "Ryou's coming?"
"So he knows this big secret too?" Anzu asked skeptically.
Jounouchi rubbed his hands together dubiously. "Maaaaaaaaaybe."
Anzu sighed, "It's probably nothing more exciting than Jounouchi dying his hair again," Anzu guessed to Honda and Jounouchi giggled with childish delight.
"Right," Honda gulped and began to gobble down handful of chips at a time. Yugi had noticed that his brunet friend had been acting very strange recently, especially around Ryou. Yugi hoped nothing drastic was going to happen today.
Finally one white haired head bobbed in through Yugi's front door.
"He's here! He's here!" Jounouchi announced, feet jumping a little again. Honda gobbled down more chips and Yugi's nerves redoubled so that he had to clench his hands together to keep himself still. Anzu, amid the nerves and insanity, sat with a very confused and questionable expression.
The second Ryou entered the room, Jounouchi dragged the poor kid over and stuck him on the end of the couch, next to Honda. The brunet choked and gagged on the half chewed potato chip mass in his mouth.
Ryou smiled awkwardly at Yugi. "Sorry, I came as soon as I could. My boss was lecturing me again," Ryou explained.
"That's fine, don't worry about it," Yugi reassured.
'I have all the worry this room can stand,' Yugi moaned to himself as Jounouchi dragged him to the center of the room.
Honda, coughing to clear his throat, chugged his bottle of soda in desperation and leaned significantly toward Anzu, who was on his other side on the couch.
"So what's going on?" Anzu asked persistently, pushing Honda's leaning body away.
"Ok, ok, so Yugi," Jounouchi brought his nervous friend forward to the center of the room, "Has a very, very important announcement!"
Yugi swallowed and then swallowed again, Anzu's and Honda's curious stares looking up at him. "Yeah… so, as you all know, about, ah, I guess, four and a half months ago I met this guy online," Yugi began.
"Yami," Jounouchi contributed helpfully, with another sly wink.
"What's with that wink?" Anzu questioned the blonde.
"Let Yugi tell the story," Ryou suggested. Yugi sighed. This was why he had wanted Ryou here, to bring some rationality into this chaos.
Yugi breathed and started again. "Yeah… well, when I actually met him, three months after that…"
"Oh god!" Anzu screamed and jumped up out her seat in an excited rush.
Yugi flinched. He hadn't even gotten to the actual secret yet. "Um… what?"
Anzu was hyperventilating. "You're, oh god, you're going to get married!" she cried.
Yugi's face erupted with heat. 'M-married!' he exclaimed silently. Married to Atemu? 'Oh GOD!'
Jounouchi laughed so hard he nearly fell over. Anzu realized her mistake and shamefully lowered herself back into her seat.
"Um… no," Yugi corrected apologetically.
Jounouchi wiped the tears from his eyes. "It's about as big though," he hinted.
Yugi felt the pink blush spread across his face. "Is not…" he protested embarrassedly.
"Are you going away?" Honda asked.
Yugi shook his head. "No… um, it's not bad, exactly. I'm-"
"Are you moving in with Yami?" Anzu guessed trying to redeem herself.
'If only,' Yugi admitted to himself, which only made his current blush worse.
"No, I'm not moving in with anybody," Yugi said. "But it is about Yami. I haven't been completely true to you guys about his real identity…"
"Is he really a seventy-year-old ax murderer?" Honda inquired.
"No!" Yugi cried. "No, he's… um, well, actually he's, ah… just happens to be someone you all know…"
"Someone we know?" Anzu repeated, turning to Honda.
"Like a teacher or something?" the brunet asked.
"No, he's about our age… " Yugi admitted vaguely.
"Is he someone at our school?" Anzu asked.
"No. Look," Jounouchi snatched up the remote and turned on the television. The station just happened to be televising the Descendants of Ra's last concert. "Does this give you any ideas?" he hinting meaningfully.
Both Honda and Anzu stared at the screen blankly.
"Is it Ryou?" Anzu asked and then gasped. "Oh! Are you actually dating Ryou?"
"What? No!" Yugi and, surprisingly, Honda exclaimed at the exact same frantic moment.
The said white-haired male shrunk into his seat, trying to seem inconspicuous.
"How did you get Ryou from this?" Jounouchi gestured toward the TV.
"What? You said he was our age and Ryou kinda looks like Bakura? And you were anxious to have him arrive," Anzu pointed out logically.
"No, me and Ryou aren't dating," Yugi managed awkwardly.
"You guys are so off," Jounouchi chuckled.
"Yeah," Honda accused frantically, pacing around the room. His hands were flying out to the sides. "Ryou can't date Yugi, he's already dating Bakura!"
There was a horrible silence.
Just about everyone's jaw dropped open at that.
Ryou looked terrified, like a deer who had already been squashed by the truck.
Yugi gaped. This was… unexpected. 'Oh no, oh damn. Sorry, sorry, sorry, Ryou!'
Anzu unfroze first. "What….?"
"Ryou's…" Yugi tried.
"... dating Bakura?" Jounouchi questioned, confused.
"Yeah!" Honda confirmed loudly.
Anzu's mouth gaped disbelievingly. "No…"
Jounouchi turned forcefully on Yugi. "You didn't tell me Ryou was dating him?"
"But I thought he wasn't…" Yugi mouthed.
"No!" Ryou squeaked, shaking his head. "I'm not! Really!"
"Wait! Is this the same Bakura who…" Anzu asked, still shocked.
"Yes, Bakura! The Bakura from the Descendants of Ra!" Honda claimed.
"I knew Ryou knew him but… he's dating him too! Damn!" Jounouchi cursed.
"I'm not dating him!" Ryou cried.
"You knew he knew Bakura?" Honda demanded, charging over to Jounouchi.
Jounouchi took a couple of steps back because Honda looked kinda scary. "Ah… well, yeah. But he wasn't dating him then!"
"You mean Bakura!" Anzu claimed outrageously, hysteria finally catching up with her, "The Bakura! The Bakura from the Descendants of-"
"But I didn't think you were… weren't you saying just last week that you hated him?" Yugi asked Ryou sincerely but the other was too busy trying to will himself out of existence to answer.
Honda spun to Yugi now. "You knew too!" he cried.
"-the internationally famous guitarist! The multimillion dollar sex demon!" Anzu screamed. Her voice would start screeching soon.
Ryou actually jumped out of his seat aghast, complexion paler than normal. "Sex demon!?!"
Honda swerved back to Jounouchi and grabbed the front of the blonde's shirt. "How long have you known!"
"Honda- you're- choking me!" Jounouchi gasped.
Anzu was hyperventilating again, hands up over her face in shock. Her voice box squeaked with every forceful breath.
"How do you know he knows Bakura?" Honda snapped, very un-Honda like.
Jounouchi, unfortunately, managed to get a good breath of air before shouting "Cause Yugi's DATING Atemu!"
And, unfortunately, his voice carried over the entire room.
That's when Anzu began screaming.
Yugi jumped down next to Ryou and the two of them huddle together like two hunted rabbits.
"Nice knowing you," Yugi muttered to his fellow.
Honda let go of Jounouchi and had his own opportunity to look stupefied. Meanwhile Jounouchi tried to shush Anzu.
As Anzu quieted down and Honda was consumed by confusion, Yugi leaned over to Ryou. "Sorry, I was planning all the focus to be on me. I didn't mean to drag you into this," Yugi whispered apologetically.
Ryou shrugged. "I kinda… got myself dragged in." Yugi gave his friend a questioning look. "You'll see," Ryou promised.
"Ok…" Honda began. His eyes were wide and their lids were lined with repeated shocks. "What the hell is going on?"
Yugi breathed and then got cautiously to his feet again. "Yami is Atemu. I didn't know until I met him in person three months after I began talking to him online."
"You met a guy you only talked to on the internet?" Honda asked warily.
"He was Atemu!" Anzu claimed shrilly.
"Yeah, well, Yugi didn't know that at the time," Honda said stubbornly.
"You're right. And I knew it was stupid of me but I did it anyway," Yugi admitted.
"So… you've been dating this guy for almost 2 months and you haven't bothered to tell us?" Anzu asked.
"Well…" Yugi hesitated. "I wasn't sure if I wanted to date him at first…"
"If you wanted to!" Anzu cried and fell back on the couch in exasperation.
Yugi bit his lip. "And then I didn't want you guys to overreact."
"Tell them how you ran away," Jounouchi encouraged.
"How does Jounouchi know this?" Anzu demanded fiercely, sitting up again. "Why did you tell him?"
"Yugi didn't," Ryou added calmly.
"Do you guys remember that chaos that happened on Tuesday?" Yugi asked. Honda shut his mouth and stared purposely down at the floor. "About how Atemu was supposedly spotted in Domino and stuff?"
Anzu nodded. "How could we forget. Jounouchi called everyone about getting together a search party and then he never showed up."
"That's cause I went over Yugi's house to get him," Jounouchi explained with excitement. "And then when got here I found Malik, Mariku and Bakura standing in his living room!"
Anzu stared. "No… I don't believe you," she disagreed obstinately. "This is too much. First Ryou's dating Bakura, then Yugi's dating Atemu. I mean, why would three of Descendants of Ra's band members travel all the way to Domino to be in Yugi's living room?"
Yugi sighed and ran a hand through his bangs. "Cause famous people are crazy."
"Atemu snuck out to see Yugi and he got lost," Ryou began, taking over the explaining. "So then the rest of them snuck out to find him."
"They thought Atemu would be with me," Yugi reasoned. "But he wasn't."
"That's when I came in!" Jounouchi added.
"So Jounouchi's only known about this since Tuesday?" Anzu clarified.
"And then after restraining Jounouchi," Yugi continued.
"Restraining?" Anzu repeated, interested and smug at this concept.
"What?" Jounouchi accused, "You would have done the same thing! Don't deny it!"
"I called Yugi," Ryou said, "Cause I had found Atemu."
"Woah!" Honda jumped up. "You had Atemu!"
Ryou tugged one of his bangs again. "Yes."
"Then Bakura went over to Ryou's to pick up Atemu," Yugi explained.
"While I hung out with Malik. And is that guy ever cool," Jounouchi taunted. "We talked for ever and ever and ever and, oh yeah, I got his email."
"You did not!" Anzu screeched.
"Atemu was in your apartment!" Honda cried. "The whole time!"
Ryou nodded. "That's why Bakura was there, yeah."
Honda gaped. "Where was he?"
"In the closet," Ryou admitted.
"Yep, just about every day I get and see a new email from Malik on my computer," Jounouchi bragged. "We talk probably… three times a day. More on the weekends, of course."
"You haven't known him for a weekend!" Anzu caught logically.
Honda gulped and his face got pale. "So Atemu saw… heard…"
"Everything, pretty much," Ryou said.
"What's going on?" Yugi asked Ryou curiously.
"Honda was at my house when Bakura showed up," Ryou explained tiredly.
"Oh," Yugi understood and empathized. "So that's why he thought Bakura and you were dating, huh?"
"They are dating!" Honda cried. And Jounouchi and Anzu started paying attention again. "They both-" Honda gulped, "They both said they were."
Ryou shook his head. "We're not dating Honda. We lied to you."
Honda opened his mouth again, ready to argue but then his conviction failed. "You… what?"
"We lied," Ryou revealed. "Well… I lied. It's complicated."
"Not really," Honda accused. "Either you two are dating or you aren't."
Ryou leaned against the armrest on the couch, his expression far off and pensive. "He wants to date me. I told him no."
"Who? Bakura or Honda?" Jounouchi asked.
"Jounouchi!" Anzu scolded.
Yugi gasped. "Honda likes…? Oh…"
The brunet's face got sweaty and red like a fruit.
"Oh come on," Jounouchi moaned as he flopped back down in his chair. "Everyone knows Honda likes Ryou. It's so fucking obvious."
"Both," Ryou answered calmly, a detached look in his eyes still. "I refused to go out with both of them."
'I didn't know Honda liked Ryou that way,' Yugi thought and he was suddenly in touch with guilt. 'Have I been so busy with Atemu that I haven't even noticed my own friends?'
"You said no to Bakura?" Jounouchi questioned. "I'm sorry, Honda, but it is Bakura, the Bakura. How could you say no?"
Ryou shrugged. "Because…" the white-haired teenager's head dropped, his face cupped in his hand, "Bakura's greedy and selfish and… and… so fucking stupid."
Sensing the feeling Ryou was suppressing. Yugi sat down beside his friend again and put an arm around his shoulders.
Honda stared blankly at his crush's bent head.
"Not to seem callous or anything," Anzu voiced softly, with the cleanest intentions, "But this kind of opportunity doesn't come around often Ryou. Even if he turns out to have no soul and kills kittens in his free time, you could give him a chance."
Ryou made a noise that sounded like half an exhale and half a laugh. "That's not what I'm worried about Anzu-chan. I think he likes me very much. The problem is…" Ryou took a pause and used it to take in a couple of breaths, "The kind of person he is. He travels, he meets new fanatics every day, he's a goddamn flirt," Ryou choked and then trailed off, "He's glorious and I'm boring…"
Yugi squeezed Ryou's shoulder. "Ryou… you don't trust him enough."
"Of course," Ryou admitted. "Cause the first time I met him he stole from me and then lied about it to lure me back. What kind of a manipulative person does that?"
"You don't know anything until you try," Anzu tried.
"Yeah," Jounouchi seconded, "That and, well, if he does break your heart, me and Honda can always break him!"
Honda remained still and silent.
"Ryou, I know it's hard," Yugi said helpfully, "Sometimes I sit up at night wondering if I'll ever see Atemu again and when I do if he already has someone on the side."
"And how do you know he hasn't?" Ryou questioned.
Yugi started. "I don't. But I know him. And I take that chance."
Ryou buried his head in his hands. "I wish I had as much faith as you Yugi-kun."
Just then, the television, which since fallen from everyone's attention, flashed with urgency as the usual dreary commercials were interrupted.
"Breaking News! Bakura of the famous rock group Descendants of Ra has bought a local garbage company!"
All five friends jumped and stared bewildered at the TV.
The scene of the newsroom faded out to show multiple shots of a large ugly square building with piles and piles of various junk on conveyor belts and pits of festering trash.
"Gross!" Anzu shivered.
The scene flashed to a reporter standing outside the building. "After these last couple of weeks, the public thought they had gotten used to the members of Japan's number one rock band, Descendants of Ra, causing odd havoc. But no one saw this coming. Just an hour or two ago, the band's guitarist, Bakura, bought an entire series of garbage companies that service the town of Domino. This is yet another event related to that seeming normal town of Domino. Does the band have a special interest in this town? Theories, such as Atemu's mysterious significant other residing there, have yet to be proven."
"That's a little close, eh Yugi?" Jounouchi commented.
"A little," Yugi admitted.
"But why would Bakura buy all of Domino's garbage companies?" Anzu questioned.
They all turned to Ryou who was as speechless as the couch that he sat on.
"When asked about an additional crazy incident by the band, Descendants of Ra's manager, Ishizu Ishtar, said, 'This act in no way supports or is in any way related to the organization and its investors.' When asking Bakura's fellow band member, Atemu, the singer, after several minutes of non-stop laughter, said, 'Bakura just wants the attention, of a certain person.'"
Yugi groaned. "Atemu, you idiot."
Ryou remained still. Even when the news station flipped to a shot of Bakura standing at the head of one of the garbage railings. A fellow reporter, inside the garbage building, rushed up to the guitarist.
"Bakura, what is your purpose in buying this garbage company?" the male reporter inquired. "What impact will this have for the families of the workers? Are you fighting for a higher minimum wage in workers every where?"
Predictably, Bakura turned toward the camera and glared the lens in the eye.
Ryou's breathing got loud.
Then the guitarist pronounced clearly, "No comment. This is private property. Get out."
The white-haired rock star turned and charged up the stairs of his newly acquired garbage building and slammed a door in the reporter's face
"Whether the reason is a childish dare or a demonstration on the workers union, this reporter will be standing by," the shaky male reporter announced into the camera.
"Shit…" Jounouchi whistled. "That's…"
"Ryou?" Yugi said turning to his friend. "You ok?"
Ryou hesitated. "Did anyone else see that…" Ryou touched his own neck, "That silver cross necklace he was wearing?"
"Yes, I thought that was odd," Anzu agreed.
"Do you think the loss of Ryou has made him go religious?" Jounouchi asked seriously.
"Ryou?" Yugi asked, very concerned.
And then, Ryou laughed.
All four of his classmates were shocked by this particular outburst but Ryou just kept on laughing and laughing, to the point of hysteria.
"Should I fetch some water?" Anzu wondered.
Ryou shook himself. "No- no-" He laughed some more, his arms tight around his chest. "It's nothing- nothing like that-" And Ryou continued to laugh.
"Then what?" Yugi asked softly.
Ryou pointed at the TV, tears in his eyes. "He-" Ryou gasped, "He was wearing- you saw it- and he's looking for- mine!"
"I don't think we follow you," Honda added, uneasily.
Then the phone rang and Yugi must have been psychic because he knew who it was before he picked up the phone. "Hey Atemu," he greeted.
"Hey, I guess you saw the news," The singer teased. "Man, I am still laughing."
Yugi looked back at his white-haired friend, "So is Ryou."
"Is that a good sign?" Atemu inquired.
"I suppose," Yugi admitted. "'He just wants the attention of a certain person'? You are so bad."
"Yeah, yeah, Bakura will clock me for that later," Atemu dismissed. "So, do you want a ride?"
Yugi paused. "To what?" he asked curiously.
"To Bakura's new the garbage plant! I'm assuming Ryou's coming?"
"Um…" Yugi looked back over his living room, "Can you fit five?"
"You told your peeps the big news?" Atemu asked.
"Yeah," Yugi admitted. "Five seconds ago, and they're still here."
"Then it'll be eight cause I got Malik and Mariku already in the car," Atemu counted. "And those two are ecstatic."
"You don't mind?" Yugi asked.
"Nah," Atemu reassured, "What's two awkward parties with fanboys in a week?"
Yugi sighed. "You're too fantastic, Atemu."
"I love you too," Atemu cooed. "We'll be there in ten minutes."
Yugi actually froze on the phone. The plastic slipped beneath his fingers as his heart thumped and thumped and thumped in his ears.
"Yugi?" Atemu called.
"Ah…" Yugi winced. His brain was numb.
'He said love! Shit! Love! Do I have to say it back? If I don't, what will he think? Oh shit! Why now? Why now?'
"Yugi," Atemu said again, simply this time with even a little laugh in his voice. "Don't worry about it."
Yugi gaped. "But… ah, wait I…"
"See you soon," Atemu said and then hung up.
Yugi felt disgusting and gross, like the gum left underneath student's desks. But he didn't have time to think about gum right now. Ryou had to go fix his relationship, in whatever bizarre way he could.
So Yugi put 'love' out of mind and turned back to his guests. "Who wants to go on a trip?" he asked brightly.
Ryou, because he was psychic as well and therefore already knew where they were going, stood up and walked to the door.
((-16-))
YAY!! Can you say climax? Well sorta anyway. Man, that was fun to write, that whole scene. Poor Honda-baby, so unloved. I'll cry later.
(GASP!) Atemu said love!! What will little Yugi do? So confused.
I have sad sad news my avid readers. We are encroaching upon the end. I know, I know its tear-jerking but I have a new story in the wings waiting to burst out and fulfill your desires. Hopefully you'll like that one as much as people seemed to enjoy this one. (sniff)
NEXT CHAPTER!!! Bakura is rather down in the dumps (hahahha, you get it? Down in the dumps? Woooooooo, don't you just love word puns? (tomatoes are thrown at author)) and who comes to cheer him up? You do you think? Good-old-peggie-Pegasus! No. I'm kidding. Seriously. I'm kidding. I hate that guy.
REVIEW!!!
I hope you are eating your veggie-tables. Cause your going to need them.
REVIEW!!!