Hey guys, big apologies this week. My edit had to be something of a rush job tonight I'm sorry. Between losing power in my apartment for 15 hours, yelling at my landlord, university seminars and a four hours dinner date with the girls I'm feeling a bit 'Sex and the City'd out tonight!

Chapter 12: The Mourning Star in Plain Sight

"You're prolific aren't you?" Yami supposed grasping delicately at Yugi's upper arms to half gesture, half tug, the Faen up onto the couch beside him and sighing Yugi leant into his side, fell into his arms, head lulling onto his shoulder.

"With what?"

"Your writing?"

"Could say that," Yugi retorted lazily, dazing as he shuffled himself more comfortably against the Reaper.

"We should get something of yours published." He thought aloud languidly.

"Eh, no thanks," Yugi mumbled nonchalantly turning his face into Yami's neck. "I don't care if no one ever reads my stuff. I write it for me. When I'm bored or sad or a thought won't get out of my head any other way. It's directed energy not a career prospect."

"Yeah but I bet people would love your stuff."

"I'd have to make sacrifices, change things. I wouldn't be able jus to write for me anymore."

"Maybe but-"

Yugi's phone, a sharper siren ring tone which made the Faen tense, rang out buzzing in the young man's pocket and silenced Yami let the other groggily shuffle to sit only using his own support as he fondled the device. That ring tone was a code to Yugi, Yami had only recently realized, the Faen had rigged his whole Natural life to attune with his Supernatural one. The rings tones were just another way of sorting priorities: if it was fluting like the one at the garden then Yugi didn't have to rush to answer it if he was busy but if it was sharp like it was now it meant someone important.

"Hello?" He coughed. "Oh hey Ryou, what's up?"

Yami pushed into his arms to shuffle himself up to full alertness.

"Ahuh? Yeah well that figures." Yugi groaned. "He'll be right Ryou don't worry about him…Argh,Ryou- yeah I know, I know, but really? He only gets one coupon a year and we're blowing it on this shit? He's out getting wasted."

Bakura, mysterious, un-liked Bakura no doubt causing new trouble for his adoring Ferry Man. Yami had yet to meet Bakura, to see him or touch him or prove he was real but he didn't have much desire to do so. Bakura seemed to be that one friend every circle had who was generally, unanimously, despised by all but the most enduringly sympathetic. In this case that was forgiving Ryou thanks to the nature of his soul type. Yugi had little patience for Bakura and as a creature related very closely to the Seers, a Child of Lilith, Yami doubted very much that he would find some quality in Bakura to be fond of.

"Oh fuck him," Yugi snorted impatiently. "Of course I would Ryou but I'm not bailing him out of his shit… yeah? Well for you- Yeah, I promised, I meant it. I always do… Of course, but why do you want to blow it on-" the Faen frowned delicately. "Oh did he now? Fucker… yeah, alright, fine I'll go get him home. You just hang tight. Yep, okay, love you Ryou. Bye."

"What's up?" Yami wouldn't even pretend he wasn't going to get involved. He had stuck by Atreyu this long he rather took pride in being leant on by the Faen. He wanted Yugi to get him involved, he wanted to help, he wanted to be in on the secret and trusted.

"Bakura fucks off to God knows' where a lot," he sighed in disgust. "He's drunk at some bar somewhere and wants help getting home. Usually I don't give a fuck. Ryou knows I won't do shit for Bakura but I told Ryou if he ever really needed me to help I'd bail them out but it's a once a year kind of offer. No refunds. Bakura worries him silly all the time. Now Ryou wants to go drag him home but Bakura won't tell him where he is because apparently he doesn't want Ryou to see him like this. Ass wipe wants me to come get him."

"Oh right," Yami grumbled, "cause that doesn't sound fucking suspicious. I mean you and Bakura are so close."

"I know right?" He heaved irritably waving the phone between his fingers. "I better go get him though. You want to come with?"

"Sure," what else would Yami say? What adventure would he miss out on? What dangerous situation would he let fearless Yugi walk off into alone?

"Better suit up then." The Faen sighed and in an offhanded gesture pecked his lips against Yami's cheeks as he rose. "I don't trust Bakura's sorry Seer ass as far as I can beat him."

There was a peculiar intermingling of sensations as Yami followed his wisp up the stairwell into the more pungent, darker hung, regions of Yugi's timeless grove of a home. The air was still thick and tangible with magic that shifted round them like water, still seemed to bubble and fade as if they were submerged in it.

As Yami slumped onto the edge of Yugi's bed and let the Faen prep himself, text Bakura for a bar to haul him out of, Yami was practically a doll for the other to arm however he saw fit. He didn't mind that. Maybe it was just Atemu's calm which had wafted thickly into his veins but there was pleasure in adventure like this. This was right and normal. Yami was a Reaper, he had been for four billion years, and amongst all this danger there was nowhere better he could belong. As uncomfortable as it may have been for practicalities he thrived in this environment and it soothed some burn inside him to be lulled into the lushness of this mythology.

He strained, not for the first time, to push his imagination and his memory back to something before this life time. He could feel wisps of it. Things felt right, natural, as they should have given his past incarnations but even after four years and meeting Yugi, Atreyu, in person he could remember nothing. He could barely access any power beyond the uppermost epidermis of his core, his soul, as far as magic. It was a weakness and a curse but try as he might his mind hit nothing as it mined but a black, indestructible, wall he couldn't penetrate. No history book felt familiar to him. No scene stirred some unforseen reaction in him. Nothing urged some old part of him. It was as if everything before this life was a dead, empty, void. He would have to ask Yugi if he had this much trouble remembering or perhaps he should follow the Faens suggestion a few breakfasts ago to check his older writings for hints of who or what might be lurking in his subconscious?

"Think you can fit into my silver chainmail?" Yugi quirked as he rifled through the top drawer of the dresser.

"My hands aren't much bigger," Yami assured, and caught the little unbundle of netted silver fingerless gloves like a football quarterback catching a ball. "What are you going to wear?"

"I've got back ups," he gestured, raising his hands to demonstrate fairly inconspicuous rings and bangles which Yami intrinsically understood to be silver and iron.

It was funny how much he had learnt to understand in such a short stretch of time as Yugi finished dressing. The Faen was fairly careless about changing in front of Yami out of his slacks, kicking them up with his heels, to slip into a pair of more reliable jeans. His thighs, the backs of his calves, were just as tenderly beautiful and mermaid-esque as the rest of him. Jenzar or not, Reaper pride or not, Yami didn't think he'd ever stop loving the being that was Atreyu and Yugi. That said he couldn't blame Jenzar for loving him either.

"You're prepared for everything," Yami remarked idly as he bounced up onto his feet after the prepped Faen.

"Got to be," Yugi smiled. "Let's go get this sorry piece of shit."

"Any advice for my newbie ass?"

"Just follow my lead," he retorted easily as they slipped down the stairs and out into the night, "you're getting really good at that."

Were they a team? Maybe not much of one but it felt like it.

Yami let that thought warm inside his ribcage, blooming, as he snapped the front door shut behind them.

"You're kidding." The bartender twitched. He had that nasty expression that suggested he thought Yugi was playing some kind of trick on him he didn't quite understand.

"I'm so serious it hurts." Yugi sighed dully presenting a twenty dollar note between his index and middle fingers as he rested his elbows on the bar. "Now can I pleasehave my drink?"

He frowned a little longer but snatching up the generous payment grumbled and foraged behind the counter. Yugi swivelled on his seat, his side bushing Yami's as he turned, to get a better look over the club. The place was large, an old factory maybe, with a high sloping corrugated roof. Music pounded across the vast dance floor and stretching his eyes Yami could hardly see anything familiar in the sea of seething bodies.

They'd made an immediate, casual, beeline for the bar and as of yet Yugi had expressed no inclination to search more actively for Bakura. Yami wasn't sure who he was looking for, what kind of face, but he trusted Yugi would direct him when it was necessary. Yugi was nothing if not business like and in this claustrophobic disco tech tangle. Yami could've been fooled into thinking they were hunting on some astral plane.

"Lord Nicki Minaj," Yugi groaned miserably, as he swung his fixed stool back and forth between Yami and the bar.

"I guess we're not in a rush." Yami supposed leaning into one arm.

"I just want to be ready for anything." The Faen elaborated moving in towards Yami as he swung back around.

The music forced them to whisper, faces almost together, struggling to hear without shouting out their intentions. It felt good, hot, and perhaps Yami was wrong for liking it.

"Thanks," Yugi purred, accepting the glass the bartended begrudgingly complied to hand to him. Sipping as a precursor he assured himself of the drink's quality before pivoting back round and slipping of his stool.

The glass was misted, laden with ice cubes, and Yami rather thought it must've been lemonade but while Yugi carefully kept the straw between his teeth he picked out the ice cubes to drop stealthily under the bar. Straw back in the glass he took to stirring the contents idly as he began his pace round the perimeter. Typically Yami found himself just a fraction behind Yugi's lead and dipped his fingers into the back pocket of the Faen's jeans to keep them close and unseparated as the crowd thickened.

"Bakura's in a booth, far wall," Yugi murmured over his shoulder pressing his lips right up to the shell of Yami's ear to be heard as he tried to keep them moving. "Don't sit down okay?"

"Wouldn't dream of it," he promised stomach tightening with anxiety.

This wasn't like when those Seer possessed punks tried to break into his home. This was better. He felt more like Atemu, more like his true self actually, prepared to accept this reality and grab it with both hands eagerly. The silver wrought gloves against his naked palms tingled coldly and he knew he could fight with them. He was armed. He wasn't helpless.

"Hey," he tugged at Yugi's back pocket, "will spells work here?"

"Not exactly," Yugi whispered. "It's harder here, less obvious, so don't try anything fancy but if you order a possessed flunkie hard enough they'll fly right out of their meat sack. Don't be afraid to use your voice."

That was impossibly reassuring. Yami had a vocabulary. Yami could put emphasis in his words. This was creeping more and more towards one of their astral hunts and as they unglued themselves from the way to head down the row of booths he slung his arm protectively round Yugi's shoulders as the Faen stirred his drink.

They wandered along the line of booths briskly. Yugi knew what they were looking for and it occurred to Yami, as he blocked out the sight of another frisky couple in the dark corners, to see if he could feel any currents of energy here like he could in Yugi's home. He could feel Yugi's core pulsing beside him prevalently but the smaller was obscuring its glow and his touch tingled much less than it typically did. The other signals were mingled, a sea of small fish, aside from one uneasy black spot just ahead in the ninth booth.

Yugi glanced into it and, sighing, came to a stop with Yami still at his side. The Reaper's body followed the Faen's cues instinctively and Yami felt his arm withdraw to settle his hand on the small of Yugi's back instead arm almost wrapping snug round his taunt hips.

"You look like death." Yugi admonished at the sorry sack of a human being within the booth and, grumbling, what must've been Bakura tipped back his drink and pressed the iced glass to his temple.

"Fucking feel like it," he grumbled hoarsely. Bakura had a deep, rich, tone that would've been devastatingly attractive if not so sailor harsh and his features, which were likewise handsome, were bruised and beaten to a sorry pulp.

Yami did not miss the grinning, gossiping, males in the opposing side of Bakura's booth who were half watching them. Bakura's energy as a type of Seer was as cold and unpleasant to Yami's prickling senses and it obscured the gentle discomfort he received from the site of Bakura's two hyena like accomplices currently not bothering to introduce themselves.

"Let's go Bakura."

"Slow the fuck down." He groaned. "Give me a minute. Grab a seat, get a drink or something."

"Not happening." Yugi ordered stoutly. "We either jet now or I'm leaving you."

Yami fought not to tense, curl, his fingers into Yugi's shirt but he couldn't help twitching as a few sweaty dance floor bodies swayed a little too close to their backs. Those bodies steadied there as Bakura groaned, just behind Yami, two or so of them which likewise made him uncomfortable.

"You're such a kill joy." The man sneered twitching his fingers to his companions in the opposing side of the booth. "See, told you my ride was a prick."

"Yeah well you're unbearable Bakura," one teased, and the other cackled into them as if the joke was funnier than it was. Even with their partner's face against their neck the young man gestured to Yugi. "Don't mind him. Want a seat beautiful?"

"Not particularly." Yugi scoffed steely as he plucked the straw from his drink offhandedly. "Let's go Bakura. Now."

"I'm gonna puke." Bakura warned snappish the glass still cradled to his temple.

The pair of bodies behind Yami and Yugi were steady now, still, and Yami was worried to turn round and break the mounting tension with a rubber band twang. Something had to give.

"You're such a retard." The same young man giggled airily, hissing, at Bakura's pain. "Come on good looking. Dance with me while stupid gets his shit together?"

Yugi sighed.

"I don't dance with shit."

His hand motioned effortlessly. He rocked the glass, slightly tipped, back and forth in a lunge of his fingers and in perfect cinematic clarity Yami watched the drink splatter heavily across the two entangled gigglers.

Fluid hit their skin, singed, and contorting in pain the pair of them hissed dreadfully in high, pained, voices.

Salt water!

It occurred to Yami in a second and his hand was off Yugi's back. Yugi had dropped the glass as quickly as he'd made the gesture. As the salt singed the unfriendly possessed young males the Faen had swung back round him, twisting on his feet, to throw a well-placed silver-ringed fist into the face of one of the grinning bulkers waiting behind them. The third man reeled back, spitting in human pain and an inhuman reaction to the silver and all at once, on cue, Yami found himself round driving his elbow back into the stomach of the body behind him with predatory harshness.

The pair behind them were stumbling as the pair in the booth tried to scrambled out of it towards them and darting Yugi took off into the ground. Yami was glad he knew well enough to lick his heels.

Yugi dragged them to the writhing centre of the dance floor and throwing his arms round Yami's neck slammed them together.

"Side alley through the back door," he hissed against Yami's lips, "they won't attack us in the horde like this. It's too public. We lure them out back and take care of them."

"Four on two isn't great odds." Yami reminded. His hands had moved of their own accord, ordered by the Faen's wordless instruction to gravitate them together as naturally as possible in this space, grasping deceptively rocking hips as Yugi stuck them into the music.

"It's either that or they follow us home." He countered.

"What are they?"

"Seers, definitely," Yugi spat. "Bakura must've sold me out."

"What's the plan?" Yami muttered grimly holding them together through the surging chorus like lovers.

"Going to have to use your voice," the smaller rued, "physical spells won't work. We've got to drive the demons out of those bodies ASAP before they close in too tight. Use the silver if you get cornered and worse comes to worse we run. Stick with exorcism vocabulary and make sure you mean it."

"Got it." Yami swore squeezing Yugi against him. "I'll cover your back."

"No heroics okay?" The Faen ordered fingers tapping against his cheek almost playfully. "Strategic retreat is totally legit here."

"Bodies hurt." He reminded playfully. "I'm not trying anything too grand."

"Let's kick some ass." Yugi grinned.

"Amen."

Yugi may have been Atreyu but in the conscious Natural world Atreyu took on a whole different style through Yugi. Atreyu was a fairy, a fantastical fairy tale crusader, but here in the night streetlamp they rushed under into the back alley Yugi was an almost futuristic action hero.

Yami was acutely aware of his body. He felt the cold air ripple up his spine, felt the twitching light above bother his temples as he blinked, felt the heaviness in his legs over the asphalt and he worried for a second he would lose his nerve here where fighting was different. It would be gritty here but he didn't have much time to complain. The Seers had been watching them, circling them, on the dance floor and as they escape into the open air Yugi had let the cap off his core and the energy flowing off him was a massive signal to lure them out to fight.

The four of them stumbled sloppily, angrily, into the street and Yugi very carefully held he and Yami with their backs to the open ended end of the alley way.

"Filthy Faen!" The young one Yugi had hit in the face spat cheek bones red with the welts of their growing burns. "I'll eat you!"

"I'm delicious and nutritious." Yugi teased as his hands came out in stretched, effortless, gesture before him. "EXPELL!"

The young one shrieked, cringed back, exhaled chokingly though its stolen nostrils like a bull pushing back against a lance and hissing charged with its cohort.

Yami found his hands flying out in-front of him, stumbling slurring syllables, as he struggled past a human culture shock, stage fright, of raising his voice in public that right now was intensely stupid. Life threatening speech fear was about the worse impotence Yami could've hoped for when he finally strangled out:

"EXODUS!" It was weak, clumsy, but the Seers hissed cattishly enough.

"Good one!" Yugi laughed. "Come on! With gusto! BANISHMENT!"

The Seers pushed on and the nearest took opportunity enough to lunge for Yugi. The Faen's back hit the asphalt, tackled, but never stopped fighting: punching, kicking, fingers grasping the Seer's head between his hands as he flung curses.

Yami wanted to help but he was the next one almost bowled off his feet. The Seer got in close and dodging Yami hardly missed the full body assault which made the Seer stumble and hit the pavement as it failed to make contact.

"PURIFY!" Yami hollered down, arm outstretched, directing himself to the Seer on the ground who writhed but was forced to spin back round and drive his silver clad fist into the approaching face of one of the remaining two. "SANCTIFY!"

"HALLOWED GROUND!" Yugi hissed, voice almost biblical, and the Seer in his grip let out a terrible scream before it rolled, half kicked, off the Faen.

Yugi left the now free boy moaning pitifully on the pavement and lurched back to his feet to rush past Yami to the remaining Seers.

"SMITE!" Yugi cried and then rushing, with both hands, drove Seer number four into the back wall of the alley.

"You stole that from me!" Yami laughed despite himself, punching out again to Seer number three, dancing back as Seer number two fought back to its feet and the pair of them came back on him. "EPIPHANY!"

"Get over it!" The Faen refused to apologise driving his knee into Seer number four's groin, both hands grasping the shoulders. "EXCORCISE!"

"DAMNATION!" He wasn't sure where he was directing it anymore with the two Seers closed in on him as he darted from clinging hands and lunging bodies.

Yugi's fist hit the sagging Seer before he realized it was out, gone, and leaving previously Seer number four numb against the wall flung himself back to Yami's aid. Yugi's spells had more punch. They worked faster.

"BANISH!" Yugi screamed.

Yami darted, they made it back together, both of them with their back to the alley wall and inhaling, panting, Yami staggered.

"One more," the Faen panted urging. "One more and we've got em!"

"I'll take your word for it!" Yami heaved, hands out, voice cracking as he gathered air like an opera singer. "REPELL!"

The weakened Seers two and three sagged, lumbered, but shuffled forward insistently.

"Double hitter," Yugi ordered, "I'll push em down you take them out. Ready? SANCTIFY!"

"PURIFY!" Yami felt like a miner, a cotton picker, replying in some chain song but with unearthly, unphysical, force the Seers hit the ground and scream, writhed, out of their stolen bodies.

Yugi exhaled weakly, slumping fully into the wall, and groaning slipped from his feet to pant on his arse in the alley as Yami sunk beside him.

"Holy shit." Yami croaked in surmise.

"Bout that." The Faen concurred laughing breathlessly closing his eyes as he gathered himself. "Okay," he whistled preparing himself for the effort of rising, "ready for round two?"

"What now?" The Reaper sighed.

"Now," Yugi heaved stumbling to his feet and offering his hand to help Yami onto his heavy, sweaty, legs while their hearts were still pounding. "We find Bakura."

There was something dark about the turn of Yugi's voice but Yami could catch the venom and reflect it readily. Bakura had sold them out alright, turned them in, to Seers which was worse.

Bakura was hobbling down the street with the broken swagger of a wounded predator as Yami and Yugi exited the main entrance of the club to follow briskly. The Child of Lilith could feel them, surely, given Yugi's core was seething out waves of furiously violent inclination as they followed.

Yami was alive. Too alive even to be truly mad at Bakura, with sweat forcing his shirt to cling to him and the burn of use aching in his muscles, because he'd never felt this good. His heart kept fluttering, skipping, over his breath as his mind reeled through the details. They'd fought well, he and Yugi, and Yami had really, here in the Natural world, been a Reaper down and dirty. He hadn't gotten in a fist fight since he was eighteen and he hadn't shouted spells in public since he was eight. It was amazingly surging, reassuring and confidence soaring. Atemu was totally overlapped with him now filling his cockles with joy.

The Lance of Lazarus, still hiding as a red pendent, bounced against Yugi's clavicle in the moonlight mingled street light as he increased his stride.

"Bakura!" He spat.

The man ignored him as he hobbled along sourly.

"Bakura!" Yugi snapped. "You will halt your sorry ass and talk to me you coward!"

"What do you want!" He bellowed, twisting back on uneasy footing towards them as he hauled his himself to an uneasy stop leaning into a board wooden lamp post.

"You sold me out to Seers!" The Faen challenged furiously.

"Yeah, tell me something new," Bakura chortled tossing his arms open. "Whatta you want from me?"

"I could've been killed!"

"No you couldn't have." Bakura sneered. "I know you Motou. You're ruthless. Yeah, I told the Seers I knew you, I owed a few of them and, as you can see,-" he gestured over his beaten body illustratively "-they wanted to collect. So I weaselled my way out of it with you. It's what I do."

"You sacrifice other people." Yugi spat.

"I figured," the nasty bastard explained lips upturning, "that you'd rip them up. Now I don't owe anyone right? Least not till they reform in a few years and by then they won't care."

"You made Ryou worried shitless about you." The Faen shook venomously. "You used my promise to clear up your crap! I don't do this nonsense Bakura. I don't play round with stupid bottom feeders like you!"

"Cause you're too old and too boring." Bakura snorted planting one hand on his hip. "What does it matter? You're fine."

The Child of Lilith bumped his fingers against Yugi's chest, shoving him, and viciously fast the Faen caught his wrist and slammed Bakura's palm against the crimson pendent. The hidden Lance of Lazarus.

"Ah fuck!" Bakura screeched wrenching his hand back, swearing, holding the painfully wounded hand in its shaking twin. "Fuck Motou!"

By the look of things Jenzar's magic could read Yugi's heart well enough to know Bakura was an enemy or, perhaps, the Lance simply recognised any creation of close relation to a Seer instinctively. Either way it did the trick.

"Next time you want to call me: don't." Yugi ordered. "My pact with Ryou? I'm revoking it. I'm not ever helping you again. Ever. This is the last lifetime I play with you. If I ever see you again after this reincarnation I'll send you packing to your cousins. We clear Akefia?"

"Don't get all high and mighty on me!" The man sneered nastily still clutching his scorned hand. "I don't give a damn what you are Atreyu! You and the rest of the Reapers can kiss my ass. Yeah, I'm almost a Seer, same mother, but guess what? There's a lot more of us than there is of you. I know which team I'm vouching for. So you play high and mighty all you like but first why don't you tell your replacement meat shield all about the big master plan the Faens have?"

"Jesus," the Faen scoffed, shaking his head. "Cause trying to destroy the universe is so much better huh?"

"I just happen to like living." Bakura snapped. "I like life. Nasty, mean, messy life. Seers destroy order. Destroying the universe is your job you extremist prat! So you can kiss my ass!"

Yugi whipped his hand up and, effortlessly, flashed Bakura the finger.

"What did Bakura mean?" Yami asked gently with his hands in his pockets as they strode into the nearest McDonalds to sate themselves with post fight munchies at this ungodly hour.

"The destroying the universe shit?" The Faen sighed rifling through his pockets for cash staring down the glossy display plaques of the fast food joint. "It's a cultural disagreement between the Faens and the Seers that's pretty ancient and universal for why we don't get along. The Seers think that chaos keeps the universe going, they like it, so they make the universe as wild and cruel as they can. Faens, Reapers, Watchers and all other sorts of types keep the universe ordered so that, maybe, one day everyone can stop being assholes to each other and just be happy together."

"And that's bad because?"

"Well," Yugi groaned as he elaborated, "everything in the universe, both sides of the Veil included, used to be part of one whole. We all had one point of origin. We're all related. Science calls it the big bang. You remember that right? Amar would've told you when you were newbie? In the first life the universe came into being when that whole became pieces?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well the Seers think that if we keep all our rules and learn to get along, co-exist, that the whole universe will become homogenous till we absorb back together and everything ceases to be in order to re-assemble that original thingwe all come from. They think that order's the engine by which we kill the universe and individual existence. So their answer is to fuck up that order."

"Well," Yami chortled, folding his arms across his chest languidly contemplating a burger. "They're jack asses aren't they?"

"Pretty much," Yugi snorted, laughing transparently. "Chocolate sundae?"

"Hmm, hot fudge," he considered thoughtfully.

Yami's knuckles were bruised. It made typing tedious but that was, he supposed, a relatively small price to pay compared to the skid marks he had. Least now he understood how Yugi always managed to look like he'd gotten into a fight. It didn't matter anyway. Yami had hit a dead end.

The opening and the ending of his book would be relatively simple to cover: Yugi and Atreyu would be two different people and Atemu would get one. Problem solved. Happy Ending gift wrapped. Killing off Jenzar entirely and having Atreyu switch Reapers, making Atemu a Champion, would probably be a more popular ending. It just sounded grander. Yami worried though that a finish like that would hurt Yugi, make things unbearably awkward or ruin things between he and Jenzar if the Champion returned. What that ending would reveal about Yami's dreams and preferences wasn't the best way to start a relationship off.

In the meantime Yami had another problem which had left him bamboozled but charged with a sense of purpose. How to structure the plot, how to get from beginning to end, without mentioning Sanctuary or Yugi or anything equally dangerous to expose? He wasn't sure yet. Mainly it meant a lot of mind-mapping and swivelling in his desk chair chewing the end of his pen. The chewing was a dirty habit. Even typing he found himself chewing as part of some nervous or creative twitch. Still dead end reached or not he found himself enjoying the process of fabricating the elements necessary to get away with telling this story properly.

Mind-mapping had settled so he could let the ideas churn in-between his temples, kind of like fondue, as he raised the volume of the speakers to pump some dreadfully romantic R-and-B. He had a tendency to shove all the odd bits and awkward ends of one story in one document scissoring it up and letting it grow in isolation while he played with it. Fingers scampering over the keys he had no idea what to say, he couldn't until he figured out this plot hole, so for the moment he was just letting his fingers ramble odd nonsense he might've been able to slot in later.

The One that Got Away came on and passed fittingly as Yami combed the back regions of his mind for nothingness. He plucked words stupidly, too much purple prose, but let them flow without cap and eventually they formed sentences.

Sort of…?

Yami contorted his features, knitting his brows together, and re-read the passage carefully.

Black sky, black plateau, purple juxtapose just along the interim. Sunset here, nearly twilight, no breeze, actually… no moon, no sun, no stars, no water, no fertile soil- wait…

Rip. Counter. Slash. Block. Scream.

Hit stone, scream, swarmed.

Vultures.

Eating? No, tearing? Dissect…?

Oh god…

Help! HELP ME!

Lost. Lost. Lost. Fuck. Damage? Leaking, dying…? No… Oh god no… how? OH GOD! DYING! DYING! FUCK! MOVE!

Oh god. Hurts. Heavy. Blood? Oh god… going to die… going to die here… Not here, proper burial, fires, forefathers… not here… please don't let me die here…

Keep moving. Keep moving. Oh god we're falling apart…MOVE DAMNIT!

Yami slammed the plastic lid shut. He couldn't take it. His heart throbbed, panic rose as bile in the deepest part of his throat all the way down to his stomach and slipping back into his seat where he had risen onto his hackles he realized he was shaking. The hell was that…?

Terror dissipated into hesitant excitement. Were these feelings, words, memories of a past life or a past death perhaps? Finally!

It was just the tip of an iceberg. Abrasive and frightful in the intensity of the reaction it stirred in his gut. It was a part of his subconscious he didn't necessarily like for the memory in particular but the fact it was there, that he'd found the edge or tail of some old coat just behind that impenetrable wall where his memories of this life ended and those before it began, was stupendous.

Cautious he considered trying to dip into the jar again and seeing what he could find. Fingers twitching he parted the seam of the laptop to open it up like unfolding a book-

"Yo! Yami!"

Fucking Joey Wheeler trapped behind the front door was moaning his arrival. Yami groaned. He loved Joey dearly but right now? Lord!

"Coming!" He hollered back over his shoulder, snapping the laptop shut, putting Pandora's Box back into the corner it had come lumbering out of the shadows from like a primal beast.

Joey was irritable? Nervous? Fidgeting uncertainly on the spot at the top step and he looked keen to barrel past Yami as the author stuck he head out.

"Hey," Yami greeted cordially, "what's up? You okay?"

"I had gay sex." Joey deadpanned. The tone, the expression, was perhaps purposefully reminiscence of an old black and white horror flick. If Yami had any directorial genius he would've made lightning crash about now.

"No? Witchcraft!" He retorted dramatically. "Come in, come in, quickly! We have to sacrifice a goat to the Lord and purify your soul!"

"Shut up." The blonde grunted. "I'm sensitive right now."

"I'll bet you are." Yami cackled.

"Ah shuddup!" He rumbled shoving his way inside Yami's house.

It was rather fortuitous they occurred to meet so frequently at Yami's place. It was better for the public hygiene of all really. Yami had seen Joey's place frequently since they were teenagers: lots of dirty laundry on the floor of every room, undone dishes, video game consoles littering the place like fallen soldiers… It was lived in, loved, but there was the creeping scent of an almost putrid lack of care that slipped towards hoarding tendencies and imagery. The clearest contrast to explain the metaphor would've been Yugi's cluttered house. Yugi's house was very similar to Joey's but whereas Joey's felt like a frat boy mansion Yugi's had the scent and primness of a cluttered antique shop.

"So what happened to you?" Joey demanded stoutly as he threw himself back into the couch. "Get in a fight or something?"

"Just a little one," Yami shrugged at the scratches, he hadn't taken any Seer lodged fists to the face last night thankfully.

"Who with?"

"You know Ryou?" He prefaced. "His boyfriend got wasted and I helped Yugi haul him home."

"Whipped." Joey emphasised flicking his fingers in a tossing motion as he recreated the little lashing sound.

"Whatever," he grunted, he'd slide that off the table for today. "Give me all the goss on getting your cherry popped."

Joey didn't like the teenage school girl comparisons apparently given how he thrust his tongue out sneeringly and threw his head back into the cushions.

"I had queer sex." He repeated to himself in torpor at the ceiling. "Totally fagalicious fairy sex and I was the bottom bitch. The hell is wrong with me?"

"Nothing," Yami sighed playfully, "unless it was with Kaiba."

"No it was Neil Patrick Harris," Joey grunted saucily, "you know how I love all American yanks."

"Totally," he chuckled. "Was it that bad?"

"No," the blonde grumbled, "it was just fucking weird."

"Kinky," he teased.

"Not like that!" Joey moaned. "Just… I don't know! It didn't feellike sex. There wasn't enough awkward messing around and he knew what he was doing and I went all butter mouth and it was kinda like we were still fighting and…argh… I don't even know. It was weird!"

"Bad weird?" Yami quirked.

"No…" the blonde concluded indecisively. "It was really good. It just didn't feel like sex."

"Didn't feel like your idea of sex." He countered checking his own thoughts ponderously. "That's not a bad thing Jou. It's different with two guys.

"Eh…" He mumbled.

"You're adjusting." Yami counselled crossing his legs up with him into the coffee table so he could sit like a swami. "You had fun? He had fun?"

"I guess."

"He came?"

"Once or twice," Joey sniggered embarrassedly.

"Then he had fun." Yami snorted. "That's what counts right? Unless you want a baby or something. I mean, Jesus, if it bugs you that much you can top next time."

"I can?"

"It's not written in stone Joey." He chortled. "There's not some secret Gay initiation code that says you have to sign up for a life of bitch-ness or brawny dominance. This isn't prison. It's not written in the stars somewhere."

"I guess…" he considered.

"Only problem might be that stick up Kaiba's ass." Yami assured teasingly. "You're happy though, aren't you?" He had to ask. He'd played Joey's father so long it was protocol.

"Yeah," Joey shrugged. "Got you, it's fun, Kaiba's kinda fun to be round too, Yug' and Ryou are nice guys, Mokuba's a lot like Serenity and Serenity thinks Kaiba's the fucking bomb. Not worried about cash any more. Kaiba throws it round so much it's not like I feel bad when he wants to buy text books or something. It's just different."

"Why?" He pressed. "Don't you love him?"

"Well, see," the blonde snorted, "that's the extra weird thing. He's kinda romantic but he's not gooey. Like he's thoughtful but he never fusses. All the girls I've dated fuss and swoon and shit. Kaiba just gets weirdly possessive but all aloof about it, wants me to let him take care of stuff just cause, and I asked a little while ago, like: are we in love?And you know what the fucker told me?"

"Dare I ask?"

"Well duh dipshit," Joey retorted in his best Kaiba, "I thought that was obvious. You want it on a card or something?"

Yami burst out cackling. That sounded just about right.

"You want him to say it?" He asked recovering himself.

"Nah, I thought it was kind of cool," the blonde grinned. "It's nice cause it's not all stuffy and I don't have to do all those crappy baby voices on the phone to some clingy chick. I can just talk smack at Kaiba. Like it's really casual 'I love you', like I have with Serenity, where you know and you don't have to say it every fucking convo to prove it. It's not currency."

Joey seemed to have hit some kind of mental gold within himself, passed a hurdled to flick a light bulb, and he rambled so suddenly Yami let him continue aloud. It was under the guise of talking to his old friend but really, if they were honest, Joey was talking more to himself.

"I don't have to pretend to like shit," Joey continued. "If I pretend to be nice or something Kaiba just tells me off for bullshitting him. I can be really blunt and just tell him off. If he's got his head up his ass he wants me to tell him and if I'm acting like a pussy, he won't comfort me, he calls me out on it and tells me to get my shit together. It's cool. I like it. It's refreshing and easy and… he's awesome. It's like fucking your buddy. I never get jealous and I don't worry all night he's out sucking face with some pretty boy. I trust him cause he's so straight about everything. I don't even worry he's stringing me on cause if he really didn't like me he'd just kick my ass out!"

"Sounds great," Yami chuckled mildly. "So what are you worried about then?"

"Nothing, I guess," the blonde snorted dismissively suddenly easy. "I think I just keep expecting that I should be acting one way, cause that's how relationships are 'spose to work, but that's not how it is. I like this way better. I think I'm just bogged down with years of crap. I mean the sex was greatand we have fun. I like living like this. He's not breathing down my neck all the time texting me asking me where I am. Girls are way too much work! It's bull crap! Guy are so easy!"

"Well fuck me, we got a convert," he laughed. "No more pussy for you."

"Fuck no." The blonde grunted.

"Well I'm a genius," Yami concluded. "Problem solved."

"Seems so," Joey agreed, grinning. "How's Yugi?"

"Gorgeous." It was an instinctive response but the rest was a bit of a dramatic lie. Still a lot was said in jest and slackness. "I want to punch his ex and steal him all for myself. He's so much fun. I feel like such a bad ass around him now."

"Then fucking get in there!" The blonde ordered. "Ya want him, you make him happy, and he clings to you enough! Fuck his ex and tell him to move on!"

"Not that simple." Yami shrugged easily.

"Why not? You're here, handsome and dashing, and this joker isn't. What's he got a second dick or something you don't?"

"Pftt," he snorted, "no but he and Yugi go way back. I want to respect that till they settle everything. Yugi's still in love with him big time."

"You're better," Joey challenged unhelpfully.

"You're biased." Yami retorted mildly. "I expect you to be. You're my best friend. Still, it's complicated."

"Whatever Casanova," the blonde sighed, "but at your girly gay wedding I expect you to make me the head bridesmaid. So what's the mysterious Bakura like?"

Joey snuggled down eagerly as he asked, rubbing his hands together, and Yami had to smile.

"A jackass," he drawled with emphasis.

"Oh goodie," he gobbled up, "tell me everything."

"Oh," Yami chuckled, "well…"

1 I couldn't resist a chapter title with a pun.

2 Okay just as a refresher:
-Ryou is a Ferryman. It's technically a type of Reaper that answers to the Gate Keeper but doesn't remember past lives. It's like a reverse Champion in that instead of helping a Faen create balance and order a Ferryman stops a Child of Lilith from causing chaos by being the shield/punching bag. -Bakura (true name: Akefia Last-name-to-be-revealed) is a Child of Lilith which in the same way is a type of Seer but which reincarnates and hence has a human body. A Child of Lilith, like the Seers, answers to Supervisor Lilith (mother of all Seers. Think chaos mongering Third Star/Gate Keeper).

3 Bakura ain't going nowhere~ I love him too much and he's very handy for later villainous activities.

4 I feel like Joey and Seto have their own romantic comedy going on off screen. It's as if Joey Wheeler has his own mini-day-time movie running while Yami's living a sci-fi epic. Can't deny he is the clear cut voice of wisdom in this fic however.

5 Can I just mention briefly that Pika92 is incredibly awesome and has her own super sexily drawn doujinshi on live-journal? In English?

Love you guys