Yu-Gi-Oh is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi, and this work is only a very appreciative celebration, from which we hope to derive no profit of any kind.
Sunday, Yami was barely around. He and his new pet floated in and out of the common areas at odd moments, leaving sparkles of pixie dust in their wake. They trundled down the hallways together, so close that the spikes of their hair should have tangled, and headed for who knew where, to do who knew what damage to Pegasus' carefully thought out plans. It was like his partner had decided to commit public suicide, Pegasus thought. It was like he'd willfully chosen to take the best opportunity for profit he was ever going to be given, and toss it in the waste bin, like a boy throwing away a half-eaten bun.
"Do you have any idea what you're doing?" He'd about given up hope of ever getting Yami alone, when he finally managed to catch him, Yuugiless for once, passing by the library. Pegasus wasted no time on elegance, but hustled his partner into the empty room and shut the door after them. "Have you gone mad?"
Yami looked at him, with a half smile on his lips that Yuugi had put there, still on his lips. With effort, he blinked the dream-clouds from his eyes and met Pegasus' gaze. "I could say the same of you, Colonel Crawford," he said. "Aren't you the one who's always talking about there being servants everywhere, who can overhear?"
"Dammit, Yami. Are you... Have you…" Pegasus took a deep breath. He forced himself to calm down. "I've been in love," he said finally. "I know what it feels like."
"In love!"
"Oh, wasn't I supposed to notice? Do you think anyone could have failed to notice how you've been mooning after little Yuugi ever since we got here? – And the way you took him upstairs last night: Like a groom leading his bride to the wedding chamber!"
He'd let go of Yami to pace. – Yes, his composure was really that far gone. "It's the carelessness of it that's unforgivable, he said, "the sheer, blatant stupidity of behaving like that with a mark. That boy's supposed to be your brother! It's a good thing the parents are both so selfish. Papa can't see beyond his magnum opus about Scotland The Brave, or whatever it is, and Mama thinks she and I are deep in the best flirtation ever. – As if there's a Scotswoman living, who knows anything about flirtation."
He stopped pacing and turned. "You've put this job at risk. And for what, for love?" The word came out like it was poison.
Yami had always been brave, never afraid to tell the truth directly. He nodded now, meeting Pegasus' eyes without shame. "Is that so terrible?"
He turned away, crossing the room to stand by the window, staring toward, but not seeing, the bare landscape outside. "I love Yuugi." His voice was softer now.
"Incest is a crime," Pegasus said, "and fraud is as well, if your true identity is found out."
There was a long moment of silence before Yami spoke again. "It's worse than you think, Pegasus," he said finally. "I …I'm going to tell Yuugi who I really am."
No! Pegasus drew in his breath, speechless for a moment, and too shocked to feel anger, or fear, or anything but surprise.
"My talented Yami?" The words came out floundering, disjointed. "The boy who charmed Otogi-san out of all that prize money the Emperor had given him? …The one who's been kissed by all the most famous beauties of Europe, male or female, and emerged unscathed? And this clumsy little stick …this moon-calf… Yami, why?"
"You've been in love." Yami looked at him. "How can you not understand?" Pictures flooded through Pegasus' mind: Mademoiselle Cecille, and the spring they'd spent together, when a long dry-spell had forced him to work legitimately, as her tutor. He remembered how the sun had caught sparkles in her blonde hair, the tender way she used to look at him when they were supposed to be reading history together. He'd still be there with her, he thought, if she hadn't… But he pulled his mind back to reality, to the present.
"Fine," he said. "You've made your point. Love is blind, and all that poetic rot. Your blue-eyed boy means the world to you, for now at least. I'm not going to be able to talk rationally to you about him. Let's talk about our partnership then, instead."
"We came to do a job," he said. "I've covered for you up until now, keeping Yuugi's parents distracted, but I'm not going to be able to do it forever. We have to get the Emerald and get out of here, before the Jardines twig to the fact that you're not their son, which is going to happen pretty quickly, if you keep pulling Yuugi to the side and buggering him the way you've been doing."
"I haven't!" Yami's face flamed, his eyes darkened to magenta.
"Spare me the technical defenses," Pegasus said. "Weren't you supposed to get the Emerald at tea on Saturday? I suppose that idea went by the board, everyone was so distracted. Have you an idea when the Earl is going to give it to you?"
"It's to be my Christmas present," Yami said, his voice mechanical. "Fa …ah, the Earl, wants my portrait finished before he gives it to me."
Pegasus nodded, allowing himself to feel some satisfaction, until Yami added, "but you're not taking it, Pegasus. I can't let you."
He was silent, at a loss for words. "I …I'll give you everything I've got," Yami said, "my money, all my belongings." – All the things he'd given him, in other words. But it hadn't been like that; up until now they'd been friends as well as partners. – "You must see that I can't let you hurt Yuugi's parents." He turned an appealing look Pegasus' way.
"What I see," Pegasus said dryly, :"is that being revealed as a liar and a cheat – And a sodomite, which also carries a criminal penalty by the way. – is going to be bad enough, without the Emerald being gone as well. I'm supposed to bow out of this and leave with nothing more than I came with, while you make your Grand Revelation. This whole family is mad, and you seem to have caught their madness, if you really think the Jardines are going to welcome you with open arms, instead of packing you off to the nearest gaol as soon as they find out the truth." He snorted. "I see no reason to."
But he did. And his heart went out to Yami, who was so young, too young to realize the suicidal stupidity of his decision. Had he ever been that young, that blind himself? "After Christmas," he said. "I'll leave, and you can tell whatever you feel you have to." Yami nodded.
"Your savings will pay my hotel bill for the rest of the winter," Pegasus said. He gave a short laugh, at himself, for being stupid enough to capitulate to Yami's mooncalfery. "I'll send you a postcard from Paris. It will brighten your cell at whatever gaol they send you to."
Yami looked at him, an expression of false bravado on his face. "I'll send you a photograph of Yuugi and me together," he said. "I trust him. He won't turn me in." He turned and left the room, returning to his boyfriend probably. After a long while, Pegasus left too.