Hey guys~
Heads up, I'm working currently on a new fic called "Gambit" that should be up for fortnightly posting soon and I would love to hear your opinions on a couple of questions bellow if anyone's interested.
Also- Lemon for this fic coming up in the next two chapters~
Chapter 20: Reintroductions
Yugi could see Heba's memories. See a version of himself as sharp eyed, gold plated, crowned in brilliant opals and so contrastingly delicate he might shatter if held too tightly. Yugi could remember the Pharaoh holding him too tight, squeezing him up against his own body, wanting to feel him break and finding nothing inside that form but indestructible steel which pushed back at Pharaoh's every summons. That passionate strength in a fragile glassy casing had sealed Heba's fate and made him stunningly delicious to the Pharaoh Yugi realized. His senses, his magical radar, could feel the Pharaoh ripple with cuttingly deep desire when Heba's body, Yugi's surrendered body, bucked under his hands and struggled to showcase that strength the war god had always adored.
There was love in the Pharaoh, an odd shape, shade and texture but sure enough it was love as Yugi recognised it. It was just another warp of the same thing under a new pseudonym for a new lifetime. There was love in Heba too, that was why Yugi was happy to drift half out of control of himself and let the past him take over against Pharaoh because the petite, vicious, King of Murasi had such a secret longing for the song that quelled silently from Pharaoh's being. Heba adored the vibe of him, adored how the Pharaoh unwrapped him and tamed him and ate him in much the same indescribable way Atreyu would always melt under Jenzar's fingers, his voice, whatever shape he took.
Pharaoh's hand ran up Heba's torso fingers spreading to grasp round the slender neck in a vice. Holding Heba crushed back into him, hooking his squirming mermaid forcefully, making Heba flutter gasping and nearly helpless as Pharaoh's twin hand slipped slickly over his bare navel to rip at the taunt shorts pulled up his thighs. Heba moaned, felt the drag of nails following the paths of his body spreading parasitic heat like some infused virus carried in the Pharaoh's touch.
"Mine," Pharaoh spat, fingers flexing round the delicate neck in demonstration hardly driving away the air more emphasising his grip on the reigns. "You are mine."
"Pagan idol," Heba insulted weakly, breathless as he threw his head back into Pharaoh's shoulder to escape the press of his hand and snatching at him like some thief Pharaoh bit, tasting, brushing their lips together.
Pharaoh warped Yami's voice but it was still at the core Yami's baritone singing lusty rasps to them. It was still rich, thick and good. There was fear in Yugi at the violence of it but only enough to exhilarate him and he rather hoped that inside his own mind, experiencing his first possession, Yami wasn't panicking for him. Yugi was used to his incarnations escaping, used to hearing their voices in his head and feeling their opinions cluck from dawn to dusk like a radio he couldn't switch off. Yugi was used to not being alone in his body, he was used to these things that were him and whose feelings he experienced just as intensely as their memories but Yami wasn't. Still Yugi wouldn't stop this, he couldn't bear too, his incarnations had spent so long with no one to talk to and no one to whom they could honestly expose themselves to that they were starved for recognition and attention. Hopefully Yami would forgive Yugi a little weakness. Just like Heba he wanted this.
This pair in particular was insatiable Yugi remembered. They were all posture really though just harmless things playing with each other. Pharaoh had been dangerous once but trapped inside reincarnations since he'd retired a lot of his threatening capabilities for emergency use. Either way, truly dangerous or not, Yugi, Heba or any of Atreyu's subsequent or previous reincarnations were safe. As for Heba well…
Heba fluttered, inhaled sharply as kissing him viciously the Pharaoh tugged Yugi's shorts down Heba's thighs contemptuously. They were stuck on Heba's parted thigh, scrunched halfway down his tangy sweat sheened legs, as the Faen kept his feet on the carpet to try and stand solidly on his own even in the Pharaoh's hold. Heba had to prop himself on the balls of his feet to do so, to maintain some solidarity but even that felt compromised. He was at the mercy of the Champion, on the hook, which was a startlingly vulnerable but secure place to be as the air tickled his skin.
Pharaoh's hands smoothed, foraging, over the exposed skin to creamy, tender, inner heat and darted between the Faen's legs recklessly to brush the smaller creature's secretly burning desire. Heba moaned, couldn't help it, Pharaoh's lips bruising into his. He soaked it up, the fire that calmed Yugi's seas, the intensity of it all reassuring that wounded brittleness of theirs that wanted to be reminded, comforted, that he was home and hehad caught them.
"You're wet for me." Pharaoh announced, almost sighing molten air at the friction, his lips barely off Heba's as he found his captured prize's glassy gaze.
His fingers tightened round the Faen's neck, palm caused electric friction and whining into Pharaoh's next bitter kiss trapped in his snare Heba struggled not to moan under the coaxing dazzle of his touch.
It was so hot it burned and that slick cool of Yugi's core started to bubble like a pool under the midday sun when their energies mingled. His magic responded to Yami's in a way Yugi was sure the Champion's current self didn't yet appreciate the depth of. This wasn't just physical anymore. Yugi's whole entity was rigged with subconscious triggers for this soul that no one else knew how to unlock. The Champion, the Pharaoh's touch were keys in the locks of his mind, body and soul that had almost rusted shut. Yugi, Heba and Atreyu felt no desire for any other signature, unfolded for no one, could not even contemplate feeling love for another under effort but for this soul that chased them. It was chemical the reaction that split their body open with pleasure and Yugi was so glad he'd waited nine lifetimes in chastity because all else would've been a poor approximation.
Pharaoh's tongue weaselled, a viper, past the sewn shut gate of his lips and brought a volcanic torrent spinning venom into Heba. Dry ice hitting skin metaphorically the Faen shuddered weakly, falling back into the clutch of the Champion which kept him from sagging, and tightly fusing them Heba wanted to push more into him. His neck twisted, lips motioning into Pharaoh's, supping desperately for their touch.
"Suck," Pharaoh ordered, fingers flexing round Heba's throat as he pressed the pads of two digits against barely parted lips that were damp from the passion of their kissing and the rough thrust his tongue had just made into the tight mouth.
Heba considered it, glazed, exhaling onto the tips of the Pharaoh's, of Yami's, nails obviously caught between consent and an insult. Yugi saw Heba's memories. Heba had made a deal with this devil that had secured him a six hundred year reign at the price of his returned love and Heba's disobedient urges to scorn Pharaoh prickled at the direct command. He was chained by how disastrously good Pharaoh made him feel, how weak, and he rather resented it. Pharaoh was impatient however and revoking his chance to let the Faen comply dug his fingers, hooking and curling, into the Faen's mouth regardless. Shivering with a dizzy, grunting, sound Heba couldn't help as his tongue brushed along them for the taste. Heba's memories of the Pharaoh as Yugi saw them, vague as they were with the other trying to bundle them like trinkets, told him that Heba was in no real danger and conversely rather liked things this way. He rather liked being conquered. It must've been a novelty for him.
For his part Atreyu would allow Jenzar any liberty, as Yugi would now give Yami or attempt to, because this creature would always catch them from any height they might fall. Rough or not Pharaoh didn't seek any tears from Heba just to sate his own hunger for the other which, unsurprisingly, made them all ripple with want after four centuries painfully alone.
Pharaoh drew his hand away slipping moist fingers between himself and Heba's arched back as the Faen's palms found the cool surface of the stain glass panel set in the door. Hardly wet, drying, fingers searched to brush and finding what they wanted circled the tight unyielding ring of muscle. A thousand nerve ending sprung to life, a million lifetimes of memories followed immediately, and heady under the memories Yugi's logic tried to fight for an anchor.
"Ah!" Heba stiffed whispering conspiratorially as if he'd forgotten altogether to hate the Pharaoh which he quite had now that he wanted him too much to push or struggle. "That won't be enough."
It was a practical, realistic, concern which was funny for Yugi to try and explain to a past incarnation and his Pharaoh. Don't stop, never stop, was sighing on repeat in their head but they weren't a girl this time and they didn't drip hungrily without help. Spit was not, reasonably speaking, the most reliable lubricant.
"Funny," Pharaoh teased unhelpfully, rubbing slowly as the tip of his digit pried. "Feels like you want me just enough."
"Ngh," Heba whined, an almost contented sigh escaping brokenly as to his surprise the Pharaoh's intrusive touch sunk rather uninhibited to the first knuckle breaching him with a stomach dropping rush. "Oh!"
He flexed, constricting and lazing in pleasure at the friction. Sound dragged out of him, his fingers worrying the door, calves quaking on his tiptoes, Pharaoh arm holding him aloft. They'd almost forgotten this the thrill of being breached and invaded and parted and taken. The feel of a Champion ever so slowly inching inside them…
"You love every-" Pharaoh wiggled forcing the intruder another knuckle deeper and strangling a sound from the Faen, "-single second of this."
"Yes." Heba moaned hand fumbling behind him to trace the shape of Pharaoh's cheek under their palm. This was Yami's body, Yami's past self, Jenzar's incarnation… Yugi fell to giddy pieces right along with Heba and no resilient, resistant, strength propped them up but Pharaoh's grip.
Pharaoh sunk his finger to the hilt, a mystery Heba couldn't imagine pulling off with so little to grease his entrance, but the Faen's body parted, air kicked out of him, and that contrasting sensation of rightful wrongness brought another gooey wave of molten heat down the tendons of his thighs. The Pharaoh leant Heba back into him. Heba's wrists hooked, folding behind him round the other's neck, and smoothing his hand down the Faen's navel the Champion stroked languidly at his aching arousal. Heba swooned, mewling, and the Pharaoh coaxed him between his hands. Fingers prying, thrusting, Heba into on one side his strokes working their body on the other to complete controlled submission in his grasp.
Heba arched his back, grinding back into Pharaoh's jerky little thrusts and let them rattle him. A second, barely coated, finger tugged him apart making the Faen groan into the smooth bottoming out of one deep thrust. Yugi could feel their knees quake uselessly. The stroke between their thighs should've, Yugi pestered, been more tempting than the penetration between their curves but…Oh…
"Nhh-Ah!" Heba bucked.
Leaning back and letting Pharaoh enter them, letting Yami and Jenzar back inside them, was the real pleasure here. Atreyu remembered that memory which Yugi had called back to the surface of his imagination so many times: the window silland they all of them almost crumbled groaning.
"Hmm…" Another procession of soft, tight, little purrs escaped.
Gooey, like at midnight with only his own hands, Yugi felt all the parts of himself rebound off each other like redirected fragments of light interloping. Yami's touch, Pharaoh's touch, was homely and timeless and constant in all his drifting. This was more satisfying than even his own hands and it made Heba rock on the balls of their feet to rut back. Atreyu called up that wafting imagery which made even that oldest part of Yugi weak. The window sill, that first time when Jenzar had been bound up inside them to conceive Morphis for the first time with the Champions shoulders under Atreyu's curled hands as he rode him.
"Ngh," Heba's lips pursed, Pharaoh chuckled and the King struggled to contain himself from caving into his own contracting vocal chords.
"Back to my arms," Pharaoh hissed against his earlobe, scrapping the skin between his teeth. "Where you belong and where you'll stay. I don't care how long Jenzar got us kidnapped for you purr for me when I take you and I'll touch you just the same as always. I expect you to fold like this for me and I'll make you."
"Ooh," Heba was giddy at that, moaning slow, even Trey swooned back a little into a pile with Yugi at the back of their head under the possessiveness lacing those syllables. That was a promise they'd missed. That assurance of 'I will catch you always. I will save you always.' had been the most crippling absence to face.
Heba's fingers curled in Pharaoh's thick hair, tossing his chin back to kiss wetly at the man's firm jaw and cheeks while he squirmed in his hands.
"Kiss me," Heba pleaded and growling Pharaoh plastered against him. "Ah!"
There was some victory in shuddering, moaning, against Pharaoh's lips but containing enough of the sound to not seem so totally lost in his arms when Heba reached rapture. He spasmed, thighs sweaty, calves quaking and Heba's arms fell back before him to slump against the fractured golden light of the stain glass panel set in the door. Pharaoh's fingers slipped very languidly out of him and still panting Yugi felt his muscles ache as he came back into total control of his body to let Heba ebb back into his mind.
"Yugi?" Yami rasped, the author seemed to quake and sounded rather frightened.
"Hmm," Yugi cooed shaking on his legs, "welcome back Captain."
"Are you okay?" He whispered arms coming against him to bundle Yugi back around to face him on trembling legs.
"I'm epic." The Faen grinned playfully up into that handsome face. "You like Pharaoh?"
"I…" he laughed. "That was one of my past lives?"
"Oh yeah," Yugi nodded, "they're kinda wild."
"He just possessed me." Yami snorted amused but mildly horrified. "It was weird!Are they inside you like that? More of them? All awake?"
"Yeah," he whispered a little beside himself with awe. "Never had anyone to talk to though since I was sixteen cause they scare Ryou too much when they pop in unannounced."
"That didn't hurt did it?" He fretted next.
"Did it look like it?" Yugi purred tossing his arms round the Champion's stunned neck. "It was fun. Heba's like an itch I can't scratch unless you're here. I feel reallygood now."
"Yeah?" Yami softened mildly at the reassurance that all was well and Yugi suspected the author might even be proud of himself when he chuckled. "Going to have to get used to that."
"They help," he promised, "it's like roleplaying. They're all part of you and you get better at controlling them. It's like an engine. When all the parts of you are happy you're great and if something happens some of them are better at dealing with stuff so you can lean on their memories."
Yugi knew he was beaming like a lunatic but he couldn't help himself. Years of secrets he'd kept were tumbling out unafraid to this dashingly handsome man who erased all those ugly duckling feelings he'd had bottled inside him. He could be himself with Yami, he could be all Atreyu Damestaire, no secrets and no masks just himself. It was so refreshing, so freeing, that even though the nerves of lazing his paranoia were pronounced he wanted to run full throttle to this. He wasn't sure yet if Yami appreciated how truly, deeply, Yugi adored him for taking this weight he'd been carrying alone. Yugi didn't think he could ever word it just right to explain.
His core thrummed at the giddiness. When he was joyous to this extent it seemed to think he needed more energy so it pumped him full of magic and Yugi was sure he'd be hyper for days if Yami was around much longer. His stomach dipped however, lurched even, at just the thought of the author not being beside him tonight like he had been last night. Nothing could be better than how Yami held him like he was a present and had nestled when Yugi nuzzled in his tossing.
"Shower?" Yugi proposed trying to downplay his own eagerness but from the wicked grin Yami's face he supposed it must've twinkled out in his eyes. He almost wanted to bounce on his feet as he tempted: "I promised you one."
"You did," Yami smirked eagerly at the prospect, relaxing as Yugi lay into him. "Then some breakfast?"
"Hell yeah," he promised. He wanted to bake scones suddenly on a whim. There was something he loved about producing sustenance for people in his home which he put down to Carolyn. "Did you bring clothes and everything?"
"Yep," the Champion answered, almost wavering to a frown when he continued cautiously. "Not sure what you want to do about my place and your place though? Did you have a think?"
"Yeah," Yugi murmured, "I want you here-" he caught himself when he realized he must've sounded brutish and shrugged, "-or I want to be there maybe? Whatever you think..."
It was odd to hand over a choice. Then Yugi considered it might be too fast, too young and too stupid a suggestion but it had been so long since they'd lived with Jenzar. Yugi was a kid with a toy he never wanted to return. Atreyu, his oldest self, was sure they could co-exist happily like they had a million times before and Yugi nearly stumped himself at the ridiculousness of discussing something so dully practical and real world. He liked giving Yami an out to say this was too much. The author was still adjusting to this insane snippet of living Yugi was transposed into by force with all its dangers and he deserveda way out. Yugi's fingers played along the back of his neck, feeling the cusp where his hair thinned on the skin, and found it strange not to be barking orders but rather turning the remote over.
"You don't mind?" Yami's smile was so cautiously exuberant Yugi gelled back into submissive acceptance that all was well in his world finally. The author wanted him, wasn't sick of his bizarre ticks yet. "I mean, hate to say it, Jenz aside I'm big chunk older and you've never shared and you don't have to have me here if you don't want or you're not ready. You like your space I think."
"You like quiet." Yugi agreed. "I feel kinda stupid, clingy I guess, but I really hate the idea of you having to go somewhere else. I want to have you there when I wake up."
"I want to be here," Yami stressed, taking him by his elbows tightly in emphasis. "I fucking love this house. It's gorgeous. I want to part of the aquarium."
"Part of the antique shop?" He laughed unable to resist leaning up into his tip toes letting his disposed shorts sag round his ankles.
"Yeah," the author nodded arms settling round his waist, "I'm thinking we keep my place though."
"It's cleaner," Yugi joked but soured by the practicality in his fantasy nodded; "but yeah if you need somewhere to run off too if this doesn't work we're going to need it."
"Pft," he snorted, "I am way too hooked on you for this not to work. Just blame Jenz. I want us to have a safe house, you know? If something breaks in here I want to know I can hide you somewhere else just in case and for now it's not really a problem to pay two rents so…why not?"
Yugi's insides glowed as Yami rather bashfully tumbled off into a Champion's nervous first attempt at explaining his security plans. Nothing could've come out of his mouth at that moment which would've been better and nodding Yugi was keen to follow suit with the idea.
"I like your place." He added offhandedly. "This joint is such a fucking mess I don't know how I'm going to fit you in."
"We'll clean." Yami shrugged. "Doesn't matter we'll figure that out tomorrow."
"You bring Coco?" Yugi cooed temple slumping to rest on Yami's cradling clavicle as the Champion mapped him a little, taking time to savour the rare treat of holding him so freely.
"Coco?" he mumbled.
"Your cat?" Yugi snorted playfully, quirking his glance up.
"Oh shit!" Yami spat reeling. "Right! I have one of those! Fuck!"
Yugi collapsed into giggles. Fucking spaz. Trust Jenzar Fraveous to forget he had a cat. No wonder Trey never let him baby sit for long. How had Morph made it to adulthood so many times? How Jenzar had made it to adulthood so many times unattended was actually an equally pressing question.
"Heh," the Champion sighed good humouredly, nuzzling the top of his head where it had slumped back. "I love you."
Yugi would never get sick of hearing that. It plucked at his heart strings in a way that perhaps Yami didn't comprehend and waters rippling, the tempest calmed, he clutched the author sweetly. Yami was still so excited to get away with saying it romantically without consequence or guilt and it was glorious that way when he said it like a school boy sneaking into Yugi's window.
"I love you too," he promised intently, flowing with the truth of it till his core sparkled. "I so glad it's you."
That was Yugi's prized compromise. His saving grace in this was the final wondrous truth that two perfect souls were actually one in the same and he had no hard choice to make between them. Yugi would say it over and over he thought, for years yet, just in awe. Did Yami understand how relieved he was that the author he'd lost himself with was not some phantom Yugi had to part with? Yes, Yami was Jenzar and that was a precious thing in itself given his eternal tenderness but that in this life knowing Yami Sennen was someone he didn't have to share was better. Yami was Yugi's not Atreyu's or Heba's but all for Yugi and when he was so used to sharing his sense of self, his identity, to have something that belonged just to Yugi Motou was fucking perfect.
"One cat," Yami announced hair still damp from the shower as he deposited a disgruntled Lord Coco in Yugi's awaiting lap. "He's not happy with me."
"I'm sorry Majesty," Yugi fussed into the furry face as shunning his owner-come-slave Coco sprawled over the Faen for a belly rub back leg kicking Yugi's fingers, "he forgets his own name sometimes. You and I ain't got no chance of getting him to remember we exist."
"I put it down to a long term case of scatter brain," the author chuckled, sinking into the small patch of space between Yugi and the armrest for more of an excuse to press together. Yami seemed rather starved to gobble up every chance he could take to hold Yugi and the Faen had no interest in stopping him. "I had like three messages from my publishers too."
"What'd you forget now?" He teased.
"Convention tomorrow," Yami sighed. "You'd think nerds never slept."
"You have any idea how long my generation spends online?" Yugi snorted. "Of course we don't sleep. Where is it?"
"Middle of Tokyo," he shrugged. "They'll pay my parking which is a small mercy."
"Oh well," Yugi eased back into him, "we'll manage for a few hours."
"You want to come?" Yami prodded. "We could even call up Kaiba and take Mokuba if he wanted a day out of school."
"Are you kidding?" He laughed. "You're going to spoil Mookie silly. He'd dig the shit out of that. I won't embarrass you?"
"You have any idea how cool it'll be to answer questions with Atreyu Damestaire chilling in the front row with Cobalt's little brother?" Yami snorted. "I'm going to feel like a bad assknowing I get to take you home and seeing your face."
Yugi felt himself colour, teeth scraping his lips and tried to keep any satisfaction off his face. It wasn't so much that he liked the world knowing about this dirty laundry, he didn't, but after spending so long kicking butt it was nice to get a little bit of fanfare even under the guise of a fictional character. Especially now he could associate those damn books with better things: with mistakes, with fate, with meeting this dashing little spaz-tard called Yami Sennen who acted like a high schooler over him.
Yugi remembered being thirteen. He remembered learning on the run to be fast footed, to juggle, to recover from tears at the drop of a hat, to be wild eyed and sleepless and still act normal. He remembered the maze he'd waded through to figure out who he was, the hallucinations, the voices inside him, the instincts and the sixth and seventh senses. He remembered learning his real name, he remembered the doctors and the tests and realizing slowly but surely that that untraceable face he recalled from every single incarnation was gone. He remembered realizing that all the strange things that had followed him from infancy had weight. He remembered realizing that Jenzar Fraveous was gone. That he was alone. That he was vulnerable.
Yugi could still remembered the way his stomach dropped through his pelvis like an avalanche when at sixteen he'd heard a girl in his class at Domino High say the words 'Atreyu Damestaire'. He'd panicked thinking Seto and Ryou had betrayed him. He'd gone into damage control mode and had endured the palpitating of his heart the whole day through as he frantically tried to piece together who had let the lid off a four billion year conspiracy. He remembered finding Trance, the source of the epidemic breech in their secrecy. Yugi remembered realizing he'd been outed, that they'd all been outed, by a Reaper. The thought had been impossible for him to fathom. Some human, some man, had told an entire literate world and all the demons hiding in it who they were and what they did. Like in some old fable a human they had trusted, offered immortality to, had shared their sacred secrets and put their entire fairy world in jeopardy.
Yugi had coped with old eighties rock at the time. He'd had to reassure Seto and Ryou who were just a fierce and as reverted to primal survival mode. That was how they'd survived high school really, like soldiers running from hell hounds never able to stop thinking or checking. Yugi had been so angry at Yami, had been so terrified when the first possessed Seer had found his school or had possessed his classmates… He was worried he'd do a Buffy and burn down the school gym at prom or something. He'd had to move, leave his family, be Atreyu the commander and hide at Kaiba's mansion for months till he found a way to live with his own weapons rather than security cameras and guard details. He'd soured to bitterness and after the second book he'd been ready to show Atemu Pheramora, Yami Sennen, why there were only three Faens needed to protect the nine billion people approximately living on Earth.
That felt like an old miasma. Some foggy recollection distanced from him. The wound had been amputated and the sections of his life felt thoroughly divorced between the past and the present. Yugi had weathered the storm, done what he always did, and after a good kick in the teeth he had his prize for pulling the strings together. Jenzar was home. The Sequesters had cleared Yami of a security pact violation. His coven, his family, were safe and he could see his Grandpa again soon. He deserved to celebrate and Yami certainly did so maybe for the first time Yugi could take some real pleasure in all the flattering details of the books and the popularity of them…?
Faens, Champions, Reapers, Reaper Specialists, Reaper Knights, Watchers, Timers, Sequesters… All the soul types who remembered their past lives did a lot of hard yard for very little in return. They worked their asses off living two lives to keep order running on the front stage so the universe could play out its details. Yugi, Denn-Elec and Vegas protected the Veil for the population of a planet between the three of them. All while keeping viciously maintained confidentiality on the issue. Maintaining a ruse that was the meaning of life in a way so, yeah, they deserved a little appreciation. A few teenagers who thought the idea of their existence as a concept was cool.
"Good thing Drea's not a Sequester on Earth," Yugi muttered with a smile, "he'd thrash us for being so chill about it all here…"
"The books and stuff?" Yami nodded then as if on a whim he caught the tail of a memory. "He's good isn't he?"
"Drea?" Yugi snorted. "He's one of the best Sequesters in the universe. They used to rip him away from me, from us, to drag him off to planets in chaos. Poor thing's never really got a chance to settle down roots somewhere."
With a sigh Yugi slumped back into the couch at his trouble child the black sheep. Yami sighed and nodded thoughtfully in consent. Yami understood now, he knew, he'd been there for it. Yami and Yugi had one hell of a reputation between them for that matter but Drea was…He was Trey's conundrum really if they were honest. Morphis and Nephele found their feet alright and had patterns but Drea still seemed to be finding a pattern. He was fighting a current looking to scratch that insanely deep itch within him that ached to be loved.
"I think..." Yugi sighed, "Drea's so steady. He never changes. I think he wants someone to be steady with him. I mean you remember those thousand year trysts he had with other Sequesters, or Morphis, or Neph, or you. Hell he even tried to mate a Watcher when he got lonely enough. He needs something and I just…"
"You wish you could give it to him." Yami muttered. "I know. I… it all comes back to me in big chunks but I know I've tried to give it to him sometimes too. It hurts to see him struggle. He excels in so much."
"I know," he groaned tossing his head back, "I know I shouldn't care too. I mean, it's not our business, we're not his parents this time and there's not exactly much we can do."
"He's on Yusei's planet," the Champion shrugged flippantly, "Yusei's a great Champion, his Faen is good too, Scarlet, maybe Drea could find them and make a coven. That wouldn't argue with his preferences."
"Same problem though." Yugi retorted. "He has a coven with us but it just makes him feel lonelier. Cause I always have you and Drea doesn't have enough. Yusei and Scarlet would just make him jealous."
"It'll be alright." Yami chuckled, "this is so surreal. I've never chatted about someone like they're my kid failing high school…it's weird it feels this natural."
"They're my babies," Yugi caught himself, "ourbabies. Where ever they are. I can't let them go."
"I don't want you too." Yami purred softly. Why did Jenzar find his parental inklings so attractive? He was possessive often enough that Yugi didn't understand how children fit into that equation. Maybe it was just because children were theirsthat was the real kicker of satisfaction for Jenzar. "We have more family though don't we? I remembered them, sort of, other kids and other immortal allies."
"Oh yeah," the Faen grinned. "Some of them are on Earth. I was hiding with them for a while. Settled with Seto and Ryou recently."
"Hey on that note, question," Yami quirked, "how come we're both boys so often? I remember a lack of boobs frequently for you and almost consistently for me?"
"Cause humans on Earth only have two genders." Yugi shrugged with acute resolution. He'd long since come to terms with this. "Think about it: the Gate Keeper reincarnates us close together on purpose. We're most effective at keeping order the sooner we can get our memories, the quicker we can team up, and the less trouble it causes in the natural world. Everyone else gets a random throw but we get put together on purpose. They move things to get us close together.
So, if we died of dysentery or malnutrition or whatever else every other life before we reached adulthood it would be a waste of resources. On Earth, historically anyway, boys- sons- get better treatment. Boys got bigger portions in Egypt than anyone else in the family and when you're poor that makes all the difference. Parents, Lords, fought to keep sons alive because they inherit their honour and protect them when they're old. Girls become someone else's' problem. If we'reboys we're more likely to make it to adulthood and if we're girls we're going to end up as someone else's' possessions.
If you're a boy and I'm a girl then socially, culturally, I can be yourpossession and we can hunt better without the natural world telling us off for religion or whatever else for being so close. If we're both boys we're more likely to make it to adulthood to hunt longer each life time. If we're boys then we're physically stronger to survive attacks. There's a mess of reasons. Girls don't have rights or they didn't for centuries and frankly homosexuality's only been a big deal the last few centuries."
"Point," Yami blinked, "fair point. I've got to find an excuse to put that in book three…" He glazed a little thoughtfully rearranging the puzzle pieces of plot in his head. "Wait a minute… Faens can't talk to Third Star cause of the Secrecy Pact, right? But she's your god-supervisor-mother and the Gate Keeper's the god of all the different types of Reapers but he looks after the Faens too right? I mean he doesn't haveto but he does because Third Star can't talk to all of your directly because it would be too risky."
"Yeah?" Obviously, some back part of Yugi added concurrently.
"You think Third Star and the Gate Keeper…?"
"…" Yugi lost his voice for a second before: "Pft!" and cackles. "Oh my god! I bet they are! Oh my god!" He buried his face in his hands cackling. "They're totally god smutting! Mummy and Daddy are actually-" another giggle. "I guess it makes sense. I mean some of the gods get on and some of them don't but Reapers and Faens? Well who wouldn't!"
"Should've guessed," Yami chuckled, "but con tomorrow! Right?"
"Totally."
Yugi cast his eyes back over his shoulder with mild trepidation. This was surreal. Okay, it was only fair considering how much surreal-ness he'd put Yami through but still… Screaming fan girls were not something in Atreyu's contract. He didn't have training to deal with this. He felt like a lion at a Zoo Enthusiasts meeting hidden under the refreshments table hoping not to be uncovered while Yami waited comfortably on stage. Why was Yami so anxious around Yugi? So blushing? Yami was reclining up there, like he'd done it a million times before, like some swagging King.
"This is awesome." Mokuba beamed beside him in the front row.
"Yeah actually," Yugi laughed breathlessly, casting a shy smile to Yami as the author caught his eye to grin spectacularly with self pride. The man was so content in himself today now that Yugi was here approving of him. The Faen wasn't quite sure what to do aside from get flustered which his warrior pride didn't accept readily. "You been having fun with Joey?"
"Yeah he's okay," the teen shrugged, Joey had been planning to attend the convention for weeks for the Duel Monsters tournament and Mokuba for the guests. Kaiba had, in all his wisdom, shuffled them off together to 'bond'.
It was exceptionally mature for Seto Yugi remarked to himself. Seto was so fiercely protective of Mokuba that it was peculiar for him to shuffle along the teen to try and kinder a bond with someone else. He must really like Yami's American friend. Yugi did too actually, Joey Wheeler was no Kisara but that was three thousand years ago, the blonde was insightful and just what was needed for Seto. Yugi thought he was really quite wondrous, totally approved of him, and hoped the blonde would hug Seto like a leech for a few life times. They worked. Mokuba would warm up to the affairs of his brother for that matter and Yugi would make sure of it.
"Bet he doesn't fret over you as much as Seto does?" Yugi teased idly as the crowd, making him increasingly uncomfortable, stumbled in costumed and excitable. His magic was raking the room for Seers but Yami's Champion core was blotting out everything else with a wave of crimson.
"Nah," Mokuba grinned mildly, "Joey's really chill. He lets me go do my own thing if I want."
"He plays Duel Monsters too," the Faen approved, "is he any good?"
"Yeah," the child perked, "he's got major balls. His entire deck's built round chance cards. All the gambler's set."
"No way?" He whistled low. Yugi had done some duelling in his time, like Yami unsurprisingly, and he had quite an appreciation for Pegasus but that was a story for another time. Chance cards eh? Yugi considered it. Chance… luck…? A light bulb flashed and Faen instincts satisfied Yugi smiled.
"Heh?" Mokuba prompted him to share.
"Nothing," he dismissed playfully, "don't worry."
Luck. Joey Wheeler, the sassy blonde American, hadto be a Luck Lottery, a Loreat, and Yugi could not have liked the idea better. Of course he was. Why hadn't the Faen guessed it earlier? Joey was such a prime example of the soul type it was almost too obvious. They were good souls but not warriors or back stage staff in the Supernatural universe. They had no capabilities for remembering their past lives, no capabilities to hunt, but they were exceptionally useful in keeping the universe flowing in interesting ways.
Seers of all colours made chaos, creatures like Reapers kept order, Watchers took notes, Christians and other types in their multitudes wrestled with ideas of morality, Timers made sure there were consequences so things could be achieved… it was a system. Like an engine or an ecosystem. The world was so precious because the future was never certain and in fact didn't exist until it was the present. You couldn't go back in time or forward thanks to Chronos but, despite what Watchers would like, the universe wasn't predictable. Seers ruined things and Luck Lotteries kept it interesting. Souls like Joey Wheeler created chance, serendipity, good luck and bad and their cores scattered it around in bursts for people to run into under the direction of Supervisor Loki.
It made Joey the perfect distraction, disruption, to Seto's orderly life and for Yami it was a great asset for a Champion like Yami to have. Yugi could lap at the humour of it from his third point perspective. Faens were relatively immune to luck good or bad.
"Alright!" Yami laughed from the stage over the mic. "We all set? Good to start?"
Yugi's belly tightened with ridiculous anxiety. So surreal, so fly on the wall, he felt like he was at his own funeral. The patrons weren't guaranteed to be friendly either. How well would he take being called clichéd? He'd made a promise not to use magic on anyone unsuspecting but he was more worried about how these people would affect him. He'd tried so very hard to stay out of the fandom during his vendetta. It had hurtwhen he was sixteen to, essentially, be gossiped about. Now it was fascinating but frightful.
"Okay," the author exhaled, "hey everybody!"
They screamed. It was startling. Lord, Yami just giggled and Mokuba looked like he might bounce right out of his seat.
"Well that was one hell of a hello. I'm going to assume we've all had our power thirsttoday," he chuckled. "Questions? Yep!" He gestured.
It was a procession of fairly even handed questions, typical things, and Yugi shoulders lazed unevenly. They were teens, tweens, they weren't about to besiege him but the Faen would've felt less vulnerable in a cage.
"What do you like to read?"
"Romance," Yami groaned, "I'm such a girl."
They squealed. Yugi smiled.
"What styles do you like?" Oh now they were getting educated.
"I'm not real good with Post Modernism or Modernism, to be honest, but I love me some Realism on occasion. There's something really fun about writers like Dickens who are so sarcastic and then they sort of wander off tangents right out of the real world into gothic castles. Halfway through Great Expectations Dickens seems to just, ya know, forget he's writing a Realist novel and goes: ya know what this needs? Axe murders, fire and psychotic old ladies. Brilliant." He shared in their excitement. "I like Shakespeare, fantasy, sci-fi… All the nonsense I shove in a book like it's a big cliché blender."
"Who's your favourite author?" The brunette in the back chirped.
"Oh," Yami wavered, "that's a dangerous question. Who am I going to offend today eh? Um, let's see… not Stephanie Meyer, sorry," mottled but generous applause answered Yami's cackle, "but…I like…" he teetered. "Look, to be honest, my favourite is probably Anne Rice. Gay vampires, what's not to love?"
Now that got a response.
"In Lapse," oh they had a quoter, "the Faens aren't supposed to be in contact right?"
"Right," Yami laughed trepidatiously, one hand grasping his opposing elbow as he cradled the mic. The audience, like Yugi, seemed to find something amusing in the caution of his gait as she started her question. Yami milked it, murmuring into the mic, "why do I have the worst feeling I'm about to called up on a plot hole?"
Hysterics.
Fuck Yami was good at this. Yugi threw his arm over the back of the propped chair and was fascinated to watch.
"Then how come Denn and Trey and Vegas are allowed to fight together to protect the Hive from the Seers right at the end?"
"Good point," Yami conceded. "Look the Faens have the Secrecy Pact like you know. Obviously. They're valuable resources and the less they know about each other the better. Cause the whole policy is there so that if something happens to one of them they don't know enough to tell some big bad where the others are but…" he laughed, "but I'm stalling. Um, look, best person to ask is my plot hole fixer."
Oh no, he wouldn't, Yugi stiffened as Yami looked for help.
"Yug?" He appealed hopefully.
"Don't bring me into this! They're you're plot holes!" He baulked half cackling as suddenly there was a runner pressing a microphone at him and an audience laughing.
"Please?" Yami pried glancing back to the audience. "Hey this is Yugi by the way everybody. He puts up with me regularly, makes sure I don't starve, kisses me when I fuck up… He's great."
Oh now the whole room was simmering, little bastard, Yugi cursed laughing.
"Well," Yugi sighed caving, Drea would kill him for sharing this. "Look in extreme circumstances, for the good of everyone, the Gate Keeper has authority to temporarily revoke the Pact. If he has to do that then he's got to minimise the security info lost in some way. He'd call on all three Faens from Earth for example rather than from several planets because then you've only got one planet compromised. It's military strategy and in a big fight there's not much time for a goss sesh, you know?" I barely saw Denn and Vegas in all the chaos, Yugi had to catch his own tongue on, but the room seemed settled.
"See?" Yami grinned to pass over it. "This is why I cart him around with me. He bullshits great answers. Sorry Yug, baby," he appeased to the ruffled little Faen as Yugi shook his head at him and the audience fluffed. He turned back to the audience and warned jokingly in a low voice: "I'm in trouble now. I won't get dinner tonight."
"Will Trey and Atemu get together?" The next girl piped excitedly and she had quite a few agreeable followers.
"Maybe," Yami teased, winking down to Yugi who had to resist the urge to bury his face in his hands now he had a great deal more wandering eyes aware of him.
"That's not an answer!" Someone cheeky shouted.
"I know," Yami grinned, "I'm horrid."
Yugi talked Mokuba out of waiting in line for a signature easily. The littlest Kaiba was smashingly pleased with himself now that Yugi had secured him access to Yami Sennen whenever he damn well pleased. So he scampered off to watch Joey duel while Yugi traced the rows of booths riffling through the dvd stacks at the Madman stall. He liked conventions. He was a nerd at heart. A little understated today in his dress though: that white embroidered top he loved which flowed, his heeled badass thigh high boots, the Lance pendent, his tear drop earring… his casual things. Given more time Yugi would've cosplayed so maybe next time. It was kind of scary there wouldbe a next time.
He still felt on edge, a little restless, while Yami was hogged at the signing booth pouring over pages and giving himself the closest thing to wankers' cramp humanly possible in public. This was all sinking in. Yami had the fun of realizing his fantasy was real but Yugi had come to terms with that yonks ago. Now, conversely, he had the mellow realization that came in waves: his first boyfriend, Jenzar home, dating a famous author, dating an older man… Yugi was going to be stained pink before he could help himself and he'd gotten so good at not blushing around Yami. At sixteen he certainly hadn't expected to end up on the arm of the man who'd written those books. He felt like a school girl all butterfly flutters.
A little lap of memory came to him at butterflies. He had them on every accessory really. Yugi didn't even think about it anymore and it made him smile to recall their origins in his favouritism: his wings. The wings Jenzar had made for him in Sanctuary for a dance…
His phone buzzed, rattling, in his pocket and fishing it out he was surprised to find Yami's number.
"Hello?" He murmured into the handset, one set of nimble fingers still rifling through the dvd stack. "You got a break already?"
"Nah not yet Baby," he laughed enthusiastically, "can you come back to the booth for me though Gorgeous?"
"Yeah?" Yugi supposed. "Why?"
"Surprise," Yami teased, and the Faen resisted the urge to groan.
"No throwing me at fan girls." He ordered.
"Deal." The Champion promised.
When Yugi made it back round the edge of the indoor dome to Yami's end of the signing panel there were a couple of stragglers, ununiformed, chattering behind the desk who Yugi didn't recognise. His heart leapt uncertainly and gesturing Yami beckoned him up apologising to the front of the line begging for a moment. This whole building reminded Yugi uncomfortably of the Nest, of Yami being in danger, and when the author took him by the elbow behind the desk he was still protective as hell.
"Yugi," Yami beamed conspiratorially to the straight faced Faen, "this is Leon and Jaden."
Leon waved rather uncertainty, bashful, and bouncing Jaden looked about ready to escape his skin when Yugi's eyes settled on him. Yugi saw more with his senses than with his eyes these days: he saw the pulse of Leon and Jaden's cores, found them unthreatening on the top level at the web of strings connecting them to the world and the souls, auras, themselves were of familiar texture.
"Hey," he smiled.
"You three go have fun," Yami prefaced, "I'll be done in another hour or three and then I'll take us all out to dinner."
"Seriously?" Jaden beamed.
"Hell yeah," Yami promised. "Clear it with your parents. I haven't seen you in ages."
"Okay?" Yugi laughed bemused tilting his head to the others as Yami shepherded them back out arm hooking round Yugi's waist unexpectedly a second later to press a firm, sloppy, kiss to his cheek bone.
"Don't worry," he whispered, pecking his temple. "Have fun."
"Kay," Yugi pursed his lips, turning into the Champion as the other pulled away. His heart tugged a little as they slipped apart but Yami smiled and composed, ruthless, as he was Yugi recovered quickly enough.
"Hey," Jaden muttered shyly at his elbow, almost radiantly reverent of Yugi and bashful Leon as he stood the youngest between them. "You're Trey right?"
He whispered, Leon tightened with knowing readiness and Yugi unfurled a realization of what exactly Yami had done. He found his smile again, core rebounding with sparkling light as he met Jaden's hopeful eyes.
"Depends who you are?" He teased.
"Jaden Morphis Horus Yuki." He winked but then lost his nerve to shrug.
"Yes!" Leon swore happily under his breath as Yugi's pulse raced with newfound exhilaration. Then it leapt again with a new twinkle from Leon: "I'm finally older than you for once!"
"Neph?"Jaden snorted gaping. "No fair!"
"Nephele," Yugi cooed, hooking his arms round the pair of them. "You dated Yami?"
"Yeah," the other blushed, "mad?"
"No," he beamed, squeezing the pair of them in close. Leon was soft, a little bit older than Yugi and ever so slightly taller but still so gently reverent of his authority, while Jaden clutched him with such apparently acceptant joyousness, naivety, Yugi felt all his parental instinct washing back.
It would be so much easier, some little Atreyu part of him breathed with a sigh of relief, to let go of seeing Yami as the baby of the coven if they had two new babies to tease.
"How old are you guys?" Yugi supposed.
"Twenty-two," Leon perked, "and what are you Jaden twelve?"
"Oi!" He grunted, creeping to reach Yugi's height and certainly even with Mokuba, "I'm seventeen!"
"Ooh," Leon teased turning to Yugi, "seventeen? Got a badass here."
The brunette shoved his tongue out under Yugi's chin and laughing, twittering, it was as if the three of them had known each other in these mortal bodies for decades. In a way that surpassed differences of age, more like the filialness of cousins really, and Yugi's old worn authority flourished unchallenged with them. Leon and Jaden were so keen to flank him it was instantaneous in its motion and they ambled off from Yami rather fearlessly Leon's arms linked with Yugi's, Yugi's round Jaden's shoulders while the teen grasped his waist like a gaping fan boy.
"This is so fucking cool." Jaden cooed.
"You can say that again," Yugi laughed breathlessly, "what should we do? A friend of mine's over at the tables playing Duel Monsters if you want to watch?"
"Can ya compete?" The teen supposed.
"Yeah I think we can grab a table," he laughed. "You play Jay?"
"Hells yeah," he grinned, "you?"
"Yeah I can cut a deck," Yugi grinned, "you Leon?"
"I…" he laughed a little, "I have a fairy-tale themed deck."
"Sweet." Jaden and Yugi chorused instinctively.
"Well then I think we better go beat the crap out of each other in a little competitive duelling." Yugi smirked.
"The world is perfect," Jaden spasmed unbridled, "I am so glad you guys are real! I don't know anyone who remembers who I can talk to!"
"Give me your phones," Yugi ordered, "can't have that. Japan's riddled with Seers."
Jaden was bouncing again and more restrained, nonetheless, Leon appeared rather breathless and beaming at the prospect. They knew each other eternally. Nothing would change Atreyu's love for them that was timeless, selfless and senseless but in the mortal coil as Yugi, Leon and Jaden rather than Atreyu, Nephele and Morphis it was a scary prospect to consider their current incarnations might just not gel. Yugi usually had a good sense for when these things wouldn't work. This was not one of those times. These kids were going to be stuck with him now. He could taste it and it made him exuberant. He had his family back, his coven expanded, he could die with joy.
"Hey Yugi," Jaden quirked, newly shy again when he spoke. "Can I ask you something?"
"Anything."
"How come the Lance of Lazarus' emergency form looks like Slifer the Sky Dragon?"
"Pegasus Crawford is…" he laughed, "he's an old friend. He knows more about what's going on on this planet than Ido. A lot of Duel Monsters cards are based off mythology, which is always based off us, or fairy-tales, which again is our line of work, and then there are a few that are pretty specific references to some of us. Slifer, Obelisk and Ra are what Jenz, Sev and Amar's emergency modes look like for the Lances' of Lazarus, Orpheus and Dante."
"Pegasus knows?" Leon whispered awed.
"He knows everything." Yugi snorted. "He knew every Faen and Reaper on Earth and their Lance modes before Yami ever put pen to paper."
Notes:
1 Why yes we shifted to a majority POV from Yugi this chapter! We're going to be sticking with him mostly but we will jump back and forth from now on between characters.
2 Be honest, how many people forgot Yami had a cat? I did!
3 Why yes I did just throw in a reason why this get to be a Yaoi fic~ to me if you're reincarnated for a purpose on Earth it makes more sense historically to make you a boy.
4 So Yugi's figured out what Joey is even if Joey doesn't know and isn't supposed to know. For that reason we can safely assume being a Luck Lottery Joey doesn't have an astral form.
5 So each of the Earth Champions has a lance. Here are the specifics:
Jenzar/Yami- Lance of Lazarus- Emergency mode Slifer
Amar/Rishid- Lance of Dante- Emergency mode Ra
Sevitiucs/Raphael- Lance of Orpheus- Emergency mode Obelisk
NB- Lazarus, Dante and Orpheus are all mythological figures who rose from the dead!
Questions:
Okay so, for the new fic "Gambit", there's a couple of things I'd love to hear your thoughts on. It's an AU.
1. Side pairing- currently the fic is Yami/Yugi with side pairings. What do you prefer as a side pairing Timaeus/Yugi or Atem/Yugi? (in this Yami and Atem would be separate people with no shared history)
2. I write everything with a soundtrack. How interested would you be to know at the end of a chapter what songs I use for the battle scenes and the pairings or characters? (I would include songs that would give you hints about characters motivations/histories/etc as well but to get good quality versions of some of the tracks you might have to download the actual songs)
Anyway guys love you load, dying to show you some new stuff and hope you have a great week!