"So everything's in order, then?" Yugi raised a brow.
Seto nodded. "Yes. You're officially the owner of the corporation now."
Yugi smiled. "Wonderful. Tell me, Seto, did I ever explain our plans to you?"
Seto shook his head. "No, you didn't." He cocked his head to the side. "Why do you ask?"
"Because it's high time you knew what I'm going to be using your company for."
Ryou hummed as he looked up from his cup of tea. "Oh. Hello, Joey."
The blonde had entered the room rather cautiously, looking around to see who was present. "Yo." He gave a wave while he wandered over to a comfortable looking corner and sat down.
"What brings you to Valhalla?"
"Yug's talkin' to Se-" He cut himself off, though Ryou wasn't sure why. "He's talkin' to Kaiba. Told me to wait here and tell ya he was gonna be a while."
Ah. He'd been about to say "Seto". "Thank you, Joey." Ryou smiled. "At least someone is here to keep me company."
Joey looked around. "... Wait. Where's Malik?"
"With his sister. It seems she has found reason to educate him further on the use of the Millennium Rod." He yawned and stretched out on his cushion after setting his cup down on the table next to it. "I almost wish I had someone to tell me how to use the Ring."
"Couldn't you ask Ishizu?"
"I suppose I could, but I'd rather not." Ryou quirked a brow. "I'm not entirely sure I trust her."
"Can't fault ya for that." Joey scratched at his cheek. "So, uh… I been meanin' to ask for years but… What in the hell didja ever even see in Bakura?"
For a moment, Ryou felt an overwhelming desire to kill him, but he pushed it down. "Well, there was a lot." He sighed. "He took care of me, he was sweet… It took him a while to warm up to me, of course, just like it took him a while to give up on his goal of killing Yami."
"So… Basically, he was Mr. Right to you and Mr. Hellspawn to everybody else?"
"Basically."
Joey scratched his nose with one of his knuckles. "Guess that makes sense. Ya know, you prob'ly never saw it, but Yami was a real jackass at first. He was absolutely nuts, but he was always real sweet to Yug'. And to 'Tem, too, but there was something different, there. 'Tem was super protective of Yami, but Yami seemed kinda… I dunno. Yami was really lacking in warmth toward him, even though he pretended to care."
"Really?" Ryou tilted his head. "He always seemed really sweet and loving, to me… At least when Bakura and Marik weren't around."
"Oh, eventually he was." Joey said, "But at first… Well, sometimes I just don't think that Yami's… Normal."
"I had the same thought about Bakura a lot of the time." He stretched again. "He got so distant sometimes… He got this thousand-yard stare for hours on end and he'd mutter about how 'that meddling king' ruined everything."
"Yami used to do that, too." Yugi's voice chimed as he seated himself in his throne, eyes on his phone. "Minus the 'meddling king' part. Mostly he just cursed about 'Ishtar' and 'the Thief'."
Ryou and Joey blinked at each other.
"That's ominous." Ryou informed him.
"Indeed." Yugi glanced at him over his phone. "We'll just have to ask them about that when we find them. Shouldn't be too long, now, anyway." He smiled.
"So you finalized everything, then?" Joey asked from the corner.
"Yep."
"Hurrah." Ryou chuckled.
"Where's Malik?"
"With his sister."
"Very well." Yugi turned his attention back to his phone. "When he gets back here, we're going to start the next stage of the plan."
"Really?" Joey's eyebrows shot up.
"Already?" Ryou's did as well.
"Yes. There's no reason to delay it any longer than we have to."
Ryou valiantly resisted the urge to jump to his feet and shout for joy. Soon enough they would find them - their lovers. Their protectors. They would find them and then everything would be right in the world again. Hopefully. Oh, he couldn't wait. He was getting antsy.
Malik really needed to hurry up with his sister. If he didn't get here soon, Ryou would probably take it upon himself to go and retrieve him, no matter how busy he was and how much he fought it. He couldn't take much more waiting, he realized. He just couldn't. He'd done enough waiting. He'd waited for three and a half years for this day to come - the day when he'd actually be able to start doing something to spur on them finding their lovers.
Though, of course, back then he'd only been worried about finding Bakura, because Yami and Marik were still around. But soon enough they'd vanished too and so had any traces of sanity he could have previously fooled himself into thinking he had.
It was one thing for him to be lonely and mentally broken, but with Yugi and Malik joining him it wasn't… He wasn't sure what it wasn't. Or what it was, for that matter. He just knew that them losing their lovers too had only brought him even more determination to find Bakura. He guessed he just didn't like having competition for 'most miserable' or 'most psychotic' in their little friend group.
Besides, Yugi was supposed to be light-hearted and Malik was supposed to be an asshole with a god-complex. They weren't supposed to be dark and broody. Angry. Ready to kill someone at the drop of a pin. And, really, he wasn't supposed to be any of that either but they could probably be fixed. He was permanently broken.
Bakura being around would help him heal but he'd never quite be the same. He'd always have all these little cracks in his mind that couldn't quite be filled in. Sure, some of them were made prior to Bakura leaving but at the time they'd been scratches. Little grooves in his sanity that he could usually shovel some sense into.
He shook himself out of the thoughts the moment he heard the sound of someone entering Valhalla. He hoped that it was Malik, and when he turned his head, found that, for once, he'd gotten what he wanted.
A grin split his cheeks.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Yugi's expression twist to mirror his own.
"What're you two looking at me like that for?" Malik frowned at them.
"Now that you're here, we can move on." Yugi chuckled. "It's time to start the next stage of our plan."
Immediately the frown flipped into the same grin that was plastered on their faces.
"My friends," Ryou gave a chuckle and a wide sweep of his arm. "As you all know, I have much bigger plans for you than to simply gain riches." A murmur passed through the large, previously silent ocean of Bandits down on the ground floor, below him. "And now, it is time for these plans to come to light!" Another murmur. Several people began to shift about.
"For the three years during which I have been reigning as Bandit King, I have always had a master plan. But I am not alone in these plans, for all of you have a place, and, as you know, I have alliances with both the other Kings. This plan is ours - it began as little more than a suggestion over tea. But now…" He chuckled again, "Now it has flourished into more than we ever could have hoped for." He gave them a moment to consider it, took a breath, and said, "Would you like to know the plan?"
There was a resounding cheer.
He grinned. "Very well, then allow me to tell you - we, the Immortals, and the Ghouls are going to take control of Domino!" Everything went dead silent, allowing his words to hang in the air as if the gods themselves had left them there, resounding off the stone walls of the Thieves' Den. "Now, you may be thinking, 'But sir, we've already done that', and, in effect, we have. But we've only taken territory. We've claimed sections. As we enter into the next stage of our plan, gang boundaries will no longer stand. We can come and go freely - the South will be taken, as well. But while we tear down our gang boundaries, we will begin the true takeover. The takeover of the political powers.
"The Pharaoh will begin the process by using Kaiba Corp. to buy out all the local businesses. Every store, restaurant, and dive bar in Domino will belong to the Immortals. One would hope they'd take that opportunity to kick back for a bit, but we all know those tightasses won't." This milked a collective chortle from his crowd. "And then he will use the pull he has on them to bring on an uprising. He will stage strikes, food shortages, bar fights… He will create panic in the city. Then, when the Mayor can do nothing to stop the mayhem, when he gives into despair, we will take his office. The Ghouls, meanwhile, will be using troops from all of the gangs to take the outer limits of the city. The farms, the docks, the main highways. No one will have a way in or out except by air, but we will be controlling all incoming flights to the airport, and Zen will be seeing to it that this is declared a no-fly zone regardless.
"Of course, we all know that the public won't just sit back and relax while gangs overrun the city like that, and that is where all of you play a very important part. You will be my soldiers. My implements of order. You, along with the masses of Immortals and hordes of Ghouls, will make sure that the civilians cannot fight back too terribly hard while we wean the information we need straight out of the government."
He paused, taking another breath. He examined the teeming masses below him. These were his men. His toy soldiers. Without them, he and the other Kings would be doomed.
"So, my friends… Are you with me?"
He took great comfort in the cheer that he received from them.
Joey had always thought sunset looked more beautiful when you could see it away from all the big-city distractions he was so used to. He thought it looked best when it was, for the most part, uninterrupted by buildings and people - that was why he liked watching it from up here, on the very top of Kaiba Corp. tower. Up here, only the sound of the wind greeted him while he stared out toward the horizon. Only the tops of buildings interrupted his view.
It was peaceful, up here. Peaceful, calm, and entirely the right place for him to be at the moment. This was where he always went we he felt jittery, nowadays, because nothing calmed him down quite like self-imposed solitude thousands of feet above the ground with a perfect view of the edges of the city.
Sometimes Seto joined him, but usually he was left alone. Seto knew a coping mechanism when he saw one.
He sighed, leaning against the railings. His nerves were still buzzing from Yugi's speech to the Immortals. All his senses were on high alert - every single teeny tiny noise got to him. It was ridiculous, but he'd been incredibly overstimulated today. He was excited, nervous, scared, angry; he'd been given the news that he'd be working very closely with Zen and Spectre; he still had to at least try to be a decent boyfriend… It was really a lot to handle all at once. Maybe if he was a little more emotionally balanced and things weren't getting so serious he'd feel better but the problem was that nothing was going to be too incredibly calm until all of this was over, and who knew how long that would take.
It could be a few days to a couple of years. He didn't think he could handle this much stress long term, really. He'd probably go insane. Maybe end up killing Seto and himself to escape.
He knew he'd been spending way too much time around Yugi and Ryou when that thought made him laugh rather than making him upset.
He sighed again and rubbed his temples. This wasn't good. Well no shit, Sherlock, he said to himself, this is terrible. Everything's terrible.
"Not… Everything." He found himself smiling just a little bit when he heard footsteps on the stairs behind him. There are some parts that make this shit worth it.
Seto's arms wrapped around his waist and the man's chin rested on his head. He said nothing, he just held onto him. Joey pushed himself away from the railings and leaned into the taller man's chest. Seto was warm… His touch was strangely comforting, considering that just a few weeks before he'd had to fight with himself not to flinch away from every non-intimate brush of skin.
He gave another sigh, this one much more relieved than exasperated. He laid his arms over Seto's and looked up at him through his bangs while he tipped his head back to rest on Seto's shoulder. "Hey." He said after a moment.
"Hey." Seto smiled at him gently, voice soft.
Joey couldn't help smiling in return - he loved how considerate Seto was. It was so refreshing after the day he'd had… And refreshing in comparison to the cold demeanor he used to project.
He was so glad that he didn't have to deal with that anymore. He liked being loved. Being cherished. It was nice, really. He'd never gotten this before. He was pretty sure he was addicted to human contact now.
Was that even a thing? He wasn't sure, but he also didn't really care.
"Still feeling overwhelmed?" Seto murmured.
"Just a little bit."
"It'll pass." He kissed his forehead.
Joey closed his eyes and gave him a big, dopey smile. He heard Seto chuckle as he pressed another kiss to his forehead.
"It really is beautiful up here, isn't it?" Seto asked after a long moment.
"Yeah." Joey opened his eyes to look out over the city again. "It is. It's calming… Quiet."
"Think it would help Mokuba de-stress?" Seto joked softly.
He chuckled in reply. "Maybe. Good luck getting him up here, though. Isn't he scared of heights?"
"Less scared of heights, more scared of falling." He shrugged.
"Makes sense."
There was a much longer silence this time, filled mostly by Joey losing himself to his thoughts.
Eventually, Seto spoke again. "So… Their plan is really in it's final stages?"
Joey nodded. "Yeah."
"That what has you stressed out?"
"Kind of."
"Then I'll shut up about it."
"It's alright, babe." He chuckled. "You don't have to shut up, it's just… I didn't honestly think we'd ever get this far. It's kind of nerve-wracking to have finally made it…. Not to mention I'm stuck working with Spectre and Zen for the time being."
"Ryou and Malik's right hands?" Seto guessed.
"Yeah."
"You'll do great, Puppy. You put up with me all the time, after all."
"But I love you." Joey pouted. "They make me wanna strangle small cute things."
"I thought you liked small cute things."
"That's the point."
Seto let a smile overcome his lips. "So, Puppy, I've been meaning to ask…"
But he didn't continue. He just went completely silent, and Joey's heart began to race. "Y-yeah, babe? What is it?"
"That Brooklyn accent of yours… Why do you use it around Yugi and the others?"
Relief washed through him. That was all this was about - he didn't need some huge personal secret. It was something minor. "Ah, that? It's a defense mechanism. I feel… I feel like people take me a little more seriously when I sound like a rough 'n tumble Brooklyn boy."
"So why don't you use it with me? Are you not worried about me taking you seriously?"
"It's… It's not that." Joey frowned. "I trust you. I don't feel like I need to act big and bad around you anymore. Besides, it started as a play to get you to trust me and not think I was a total idiot… And now I don't really see the point in putting my guard back up after I purposely tore it down for you."
"So… You're more comfortable around me than a friend you've had for years?"
"Pretty much."
"Puppy, I'm touched." He nuzzled into his hair. "That's sweet."
"Oh, hush."
"Make me."
He turned in his arms and kissed him.