Title: Something Uninteresting
Theme: 14 – Frustration
Summary: "If you need saving from your joke of a disaster date, I'll be over here."
Rating:K
Genre: Humor/Romance
Notes: AU and, after little debate, OOC too. Ah well.

"Horrible test Roush gave us the other day, wasn't it?"

Yugi looked up from his coffee and blinked, startled. "Excuse me?"

"The exam. It was horrible, wasn't it?"

Yugi looked around, seeing nothing to distract him from communicating with the inevitable, and finally leaned forward to Atem, muttering, "I'm kind of waiting for someone, Atem."

"Right," he said dismissively, smirking, then continued. "Of course, you, being you, were probably the only person prepared for it. Well, maybe you and that Ryou kid."

Yugi frowned. "Waiting for someone as in, I'm waiting for a date. Could you… I don't know, leave?"

"Personally though, I think if you don't know it beforehand from her prattling in class, there's not much you can do, so I opt out of studying."

"Leave as in go away. Please. I'm waiting for someone."

"So how did you do?"

Yugi sighed, resisting the urge to roll his eyes and press his fingers to his temples, as he attempted to deal with this new level of frustration. She was already a few minutes late – not by fault of her own, he was sure, but added that Kaiba had dumped a shiny new Duel Disk prototype sketch to be analyzed and drafted into a report that morning, his car keys had mysteriously vanished in the washer, and Joey had skived out on paying for lunch today, forcing him to empty out his wallet – he just wasn't in the mood.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked.

"Making small talk." Atem raised one side of his mouth into a more defined smirk. "First I say something stupid and unimportant, then you say something responsive and dull, and after a few minutes of this we delve into the Real Conversation."

"Yamino," Yugi warned.

"Chilly weather we're having, isn't it? Your turn."

Yugi did not know how to handle this situation. Atem Yamino was not one to be persuaded once had made up his mind, and he was not afraid of toeing or crossing any lines to get what he wanted. But Yugi was not going to engage in small talk with him. He knew what happened to you if your date catches you talking to Atem Yamino, or even if Yamino is merely within sight range. Suddenly your date is just another girl at the coffee shop who has no interest in you and is dedicating her affections to the person sitting opposite your table, the person currently grinning at you as if he's reading you, and it's only a matter of time before you crack and fall to his charms. That's what happened.

"Atem," Yugi said, quietly, "I really like this girl. Please go away."

"Personally, I think we could use some snow because I've been meaning to stuff some down Bakura's pants, but so long as it doesn't rain like last week I think I can live with the cold." He nodded to Yugi. "Now you say something about politics, or the color of the tablecloth, or something equally interesting."

"Yamino, can we have this conversation another time?"

He raised an eyebrow at this, still smiling. "Another time? When? Tonight? Tomorrow?"

"An unconfirmed time in the future."

"The near future, then?"

"Fine, whatever. Just go, please?"

"All right, I'm leaving." And thank God, he was. Atem stood from the table and pointed. "If you need saving from your joke of a disaster date, I'll be over here." He motioned toward a table across the shop, conveniently close enough to keep an eye on him and watch how his date went, but fortunately not near enough to be able to hear any conversation. At least that was something.

"Right, thank you. Bye."

As he left, Yugi, exhausted already, tilted his head back, closing his eyes. He was looking forward to this, now, after the day he'd had. A tiny, cozy restaurant tucked into the middle of downtown Domino, a wide window allowing him a view of the city life, a warm coffee cup in his hand, and a lovely girl coming to meet him.

Yugi gave a sigh of relief and sagged in his chair. He proceeded to sit back and wait. And wait… and wait…

But after forty minutes, he was done waiting; it was getting dark, his cup was empty, and it was rough facing the truth, but he was left with no other option. He had been stood up. After the day he'd had, not to mention the sight of Atem Yamino openly flirting with one of the cashiers as if to further rub salt in it, the only thing Yugi felt up to doing was crawling back home and sleeping for two days.

She hadn't shown up. Why hadn't she shown up? Why had he known that conversing with Atem Yamino was a sure-fire way to make sure this ended in a disaster?

"I'm sorry."

Yugi looked up. "No, you're not."

Atem shrugged and put down two more cups of coffee, one for each of them. He took a seat beside Yugi and laid an arm around his shoulders; Yugi found himself too depressed to shrug it off. "Sure I am. You must feel awful." He paused. "If she's run off to someone else, just tell me who, and I'll make sure he wakes up tomorrow underwater."

Yugi shook his head, halfway to laughing. If he hadn't known any better, he'd've said that Yamino had planned this. But he did know better, and he knew he couldn't push the blame onto his shoulders, so he sighed, "Not now, Yamino."

"Au contraire, I think now's an excellent time," Atem replied briskly, tilting his head back and downing a large swig of coffee.

Yugi looked down at the table cloth. Pale lilac. That was pretty weird.

"Odd choice in color for a table cloth, don't you think?" he said finally, then reached out and took the coffee Atem had purchased for him in his hand. "Your turn."

Words: 989
A/N: This idea just popped into my head of Atem attaching himself to Yugi and being all cocky and annoying while Yugi's being stubborn and still loving it anyway. I think I satisfied myself.