AN: Woot, fluff. I hope y'all enjoy. As always I appreciate all of you lovely readers and reviewers and favers and I really hope this meets your approval. Feedback is always welcomed and strongly encouraged.

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Gi Oh

Fun fact: all of the train information in the first paragraph is true to the best of my knowledge.

38. Introduction

Jounouchi had once said that the each and every day forty million people used the Tokyo railway system; forty million people traveling on one hundred and twenty-one different rail lines, being run by only thirty operators.

It had actually been one of his, many, warnings when Yuugi had said he was going to study in their capital city. Yuugi had laughed and gently chided his friend against telling such exaggerations; a million or two? maybe even four or five? Sure he could see that, but forty million was simply ridiculous. He had been certain that Jounouchi's figures were wrong, and now that he was here he was definitely sure that Jounouchi's number had been way off.

It had to be more than that. Much, much more.

Yuugi stood near the platform's edge, pressing his book satchel to his side so hard his arms were sore. He waited with bated breath; his heart was racing in anticipation standing beside his fellow passengers, all of them tensed like sprinters preparing to take off. As the train whooshed into the station and slowed to a halt he bent his knees, readying himself. When the doors of the car opened he took a deep breath and began to move forward.

He only made it two steps before he was rudely pushed the rest of the way in by the stampeding crowd behind him.

As he was shoved into the mass of passengers already aboard he wormed his way through to the other side of the car, aided by the propulsion of those behind him. He wriggled his bag-carrying arms up just in time to keep himself from smashing face-first into the car wall. He didn't even bother trying to turn around; he was very content staring at the wall until there weren't so many bodies practically forcing him into the steel itself.

It was only thirty or so seconds of chaos, but Yuugi still sighed with relief when he felt the train move once more...and then the crowd would at least be still, until the next station.

When the train slowed to a halt again Yuugi again took a deep breath and made sure he was holding tightly onto his bookbag so as not to lose it in the ever-shifting sea of commuters. There was the sudden swell and crush of bodies jostling around him, all shoving their ways in and out of the car, pressing him so hard into the wall he swore he felt the strain of his ribcage beginning to crack.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Yuugi felt a small space around him clear, allowing him to position himself more comfortably and, most importantly, take full breaths again. Placing a minute distance between himself and the wall before him, Yuugi began to cautiously turn around.

He'd only made it a quarter of the way when he was pushed forcefully forward by a swell of movement from the masses surrounding him. Unable to control his momentum in the short span of time, he flew, hands and loaded bookbag up, into the next unlucky obstacle...

Which happened to be the torso of another young man who cried "Ooph!" at the impact. A young man who Yuugi was accidentally groping.

"E-excuse me! I'm so sorry!" Pink with embarrassment Yuugi attempted to jump back, but was blocked by a wall of people, who, feeling the shock wave of Yuugi's force, sent it back, pushing Yuugi harder into his fellow passenger.

Now absolutely beet-red Yuugi tried to pull his hands and bag back to himself, muttering continual, "Sorry, sorry"s. Unfortunately, with the awkward position his arms had been caught in and the cloister of immovable people surrounding the pair, all of Yuugi's efforts only succeeding in cause him to slide his hands rather roughly and suggestively from the man's chest down his sides, closer to his hips. And it was precisely at that moment that Yuugi prayed that either the man whose neck he was eye-to-eye with would either be merciful and spare him the beating or that, more preferably, he would pass out before he died of embarrassment.

"It's nothing. Are you alright?"

For a moment Yuugi thought that he had imagined this sweet voice, those miraculous words. When he finally realized that they were not only real, but directed from the saint of a man he'd collided with to himself, it took a second to shake from his stupor and actually reply.

"Um, yeah, thanks. Are you?" He tried to raise his head to look the man in the eye, but in their close proximity found his way blocked by the other's chin. Feeling he'd already risked this man enough pain without jamming his own skull against his jaw, he lowered his head minutely again and contented himself with staring at neck before him, watching the slight Adam's apple bob up and down as he spoke.

"It'd take more than that to knock me down," boastful as it might have been, Yuugi felt he could most definitely, embarrassingly, attest to that probability judging by what his hands had felt. "But what do you carry in there? Bricks?" there was most certainly a teasing quality in his tone.

The subsiding flush in Yuugi's cheeks were stirred freshly. "Sorry. It's, uh, school supplies. I'm, um, I mean, sorry I bumped into you."

Yuugi couldn't see the face, but he swore he could imagine it bore a smile, a gentle one. "Like I said, don't worry about it, it happens here. It could have been worse for either of us, if it was somebody else."

"Yeah," he quietly agreed. They fell into silence.

Yuugi found himself studying every crook of the neck in front of him, the defined lines of structure and the dips of soft flesh, the most vulnerable apex between throat and clavicle. A sudden series of low, slow vibrations traveled up his fingertips, shaking his attention and supplying his face with an abundance of blood.

"Sorry," he tried to speak loudly enough to be heard over the constant din, "I couldn't hear you."

The head dipped slightly to speak more closely to his ear; warm breath blew on the fine hair there, and tickled the sensitive patch of skin. "I said, 'You must be pretty inexperienced.'"

"What?"

He was about to jerk his head up, possible pain be damned, and give this stranger a piece of his mind when he felt the vibrations of laughter ripple through him.

"The train," the young man clarified with a chuckle, head lowered once more, "You haven't taken the inner city lines very often, right?"

"A-ah, n-no," the breath on his neck seemed to steal his own, shivers ran up along his skin. Yuugi cleared his throat, "No, I haven't."

"You should try to avoid this line at this time of day if you can," it was astounding how such practical words could sound so sensual.

"O-oh, I, um, I have class—" Yuugi realized he was whispering too late and cleared his throat again. "I can't. Class."

The train slowed quickly—too quickly, and a quick hand somehow slid to be pressed against the small of his back, keeping Yuugi from falling into the passenger behind him. "Well then," the stranger kept his hand securely on Yuugi's back, where the warmth heated Yuugi's skin through his jacket and shirt, "maybe you should just stick to this train, and I'll make sure to look out for you. My name is Yami."

"I-I'm Yuugi. I think-" Feeling very flushed and hot pressed against the stranger's chest Yuugi opened his mouth to say something more when the train started to move again and out of the corner of his eye Yuugi spotted a very familiar station disappearing through the train doors. "I think I just missed my stop."

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