Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Ca-Si-No! ❯ The Purer Sides of Darkness ( Chapter 1 )

“Now, Sorcerer of Dark Magic, Valkyrian, finish this duel with a Dark Armageddon team attack!”

 

The two powerful mage holograms looked at each other and nodded. (A/N: If you haven't seen Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie, then you won't know what the “Sorcerer of Dark Magic” or “Valkyrian” look like. My memory of them is very vague, and I'm too lazy to find any online piccies. So [sticks tongue out] *spiiit*) Upon their master's order, the magic-wielding myrmidons rushed toward their enemy with raised weapons (the male equipped with a staff and the female with a wand). After mixing a little black magic into a batter of some 4000 Life Points [and baking at 350 degrees—WTF am I doing!?], the duel-winning recipe was complete. (I'm a LOSER!)

 

The winner of now 11 duels in a row… Yugi Mutou!” the suited man at the side of the dueling arena announced, hand-presenting the spiky-haired boy, “Arisu Kushinada is to pay him an equal of one hundred times the number of Level Stars in her deck!”

 

Yugi brushed the sleeves of his tuxedo and reunited his hand, on-field cards, and Graveyard with his Deck. Arisu shook her head while reassembling her deck. She sighed hard as she began to separate the monsters from the rest of her deck. Organizing her monsters by Level Star, she started doing her thinking habit: she dug her cobalt, star-&-crown-painted nails into her long, midnight-blue hair and lightly ran them back, avoiding knocking her diamond and pink zirconium tiara off her head. She continued to comb her hair even after all her deck's monsters were arranged. Arisu had a stern face as she counted her monsters' Level Stars.

 

“Fairy King Truesdale, Queen of Autumn Leaves, Cosmo Queen…” Yugi's eyebrow cocked up to the names of what he knew were high-level monsters. “Oh, WOW!” Arisu exclaimed, “I lost out big time, tonight!” The royalty duelist shuffled the monster cards back into her deck and whipped her deck tin and checkbook out from dress-matching (Way to squeeze in a description, Jordan!) purse. She popped the deck tin lid open and dumped her cards in, then threw the tin back into her purse. The duelist platforms soon began to lower. At the bottom of the dueling arena, Arisu pulled out the pen she had latched to her checkbook and flipped to the first unwritten check. “Ten thousand, five hundred…” she mumbled, writing what she said. (That's good practice, since I'm in Consumer Math. I actually have to write those numbers out in words. GRR!) She signed the check at the bottom, then closed her pen and stuck it back into the inner spine of the checkbook. Tearing the check out, the girl dropped the register into her purse, hopped off the platform, and walked over to Yugi's side. Yugi hopped off and walked over to her. “Here, Yugi,” Arisu calmly said, handing the shorter boy his check, “I accept my defeat without any complaints. You are a skilled duelist. Only a small number of people have managed to usurp my throned ones' positions, and of those people, you were the only one that gave a court-pleasing performance. For overpowering my Cosmic Empire Deck, I present you with this check for a well-won $10,500.”

 

Modest as always, even while the duel spectators applauded, Yugi scratched the back of his head, blushing and giggling. (AWWW!) “Hey now,” he replied, “You're what I'd consider a duel. I honestly thought you had me when you pulled that “Exile of Lower Class” card on me in the… Hang on…” Yugi started counting on his fingers. (AWWW!) “Was it… 27th turn?” (A/N: “Exile of Lower Class” is MY own, continuous Magic card. [I hate how they changed it to Spell cuz some just aren't spells. Spells are always cast, but magic can be anything!] “Cosmo Queen” must be in play in order to use “Exile of Lower Class.” Any monsters on the Field, in Graveyards, or in players' hands that have no stated connection to royalty are immediately removed from play.)

 

They laughed.

 

At the Fire Breath Bar behind them, the 16-year-old Brit-boy known as Ryou sat watching the majestic duelist and her spiky-haired opponent. The more the two card flirts (?) talked, the deeper the boy's face reddened.

 

He and Yugi had been business partners for a while, but things gradually changed since they first met. Yugi was brilliant at giving descriptions and explanations, while Ryou professed consumer mathematics (unlike myself) and inventory management. The two of them had their own gaming company called FarohPlay Corp. They even had a 20-storey factory-cum-office building built in LA (A/N: The gay capital of the U.S.). During the average day, they'd be working in the shop outside the company skyscraper, which was affiliated with the actual company. Yugi would always be helping a customer find what they wanted or teaching them the basic rules of a game. His kindness, patience, and “people skills” really turned Ryou on. He couldn't help but smile whenever he saw his spiky-haired partner talking to a customer.

 

Ryou's eyes locked onto Yugi as he sat at the corner of the bar and ordered a drink from barkeeper Pegasus. “I'll have the Celticila,” Yugi requested rather quickly. (A/N: Celtic Guardian + tequila. It was hard to find a spelling for it, despite that it's a made-up word.)

 

Ryou parted some of his white bangs from his face, but continued checking Yugi out. (AWWW!) His trembling hands made ripples in his mug of Tsurugian Ale. He brought his left thumb up to his mouth and started biting off a hangnail.

 

“Ow! Fuck!” he lowly cursed when he pulled the loose nail fragment off. Ryou spat the piece behind the bar and examined his finger.

 

“Blood…” sounded a voice from behind him. Ryou jumped; it was Yugi.

 

“Wha…? How did you—?”

 

“Here,” Yugi offered, pulling out a thin, wax wrapping from the pocket of his classy, black pants. (Girl, ya did the description squeeze-in again! [Talking to self.]) He pulled the two tabs apart and stripped the Band-Aid from the wax sheets. After peeling the wrapper off of the actual Band-Aid, Yugi took Ryou's bleeding finger into his mouth. Ryou was shocked, but decided not to say anything since it was making him horny. (AWWW!) Yugi then blew the finger dry and placed the Band-Aid on his friend's fingertip. “Better?” he cutely asked.

 

“Oh, um, ish…”

 

“Good,” Yugi replied, smiling with relief, “Come on. I gotta talk to you.”

 

Ryou quickly downed his drink. Trembling, he hopped off the barstool and slowly… sadly… followed Yugi out of the casino and onto the rear garden balcony.

 

The night air was warm, much like the day air. From the exit, to the left and right, were long hooked flights of stairs leading to the lower grounds, where the Trent Garden peacefully slept. All around the garden were plants grown to look like Plant-type Duel Monsters, such as Griggle, Dream Sprite, and [obviously] Trent.

 

“Yugi, why are we here?” Ryou asked insecurely, even though he was following Yugi down the rightmost stairs.

 

“I told you already,” Yugi calmly answered, “`I gotta talk to you.'” He walked on, leading the white-haired boy straight into the Trent Garden. “I need you to tell me something.”

 

Yugi stopped between the patches of Man-Eating Plants, Rainbow Flowers, and Barrel Lilies, which surrounded the plant statues of Green Phantom King, Fairy King Truesdale, and Queen of Autumn Leaves. Ryou stopped just behind him. He was skeptical about whether or not their present location was the right place to talk, what with it seeming all… romantic. Or maybe it was all in his head from being in love…

 

“Ryou…” Yugi started, “I know we've been friends for a long time, but…” (I know: “That line's so cliche'!” Quit yer bitchin' n' keep readin'!) He paused, biting the side of his inner lip, then resumed. “I've been having this random feeling that you like me as more than what we are.” Ryou's eyes blew up. “I mean, you haven't done anything, but… I don't know, I just have this feeling…”

 

“W-well, I kinda—”

 

“You don't have to tell me,” Yugi told the other boy, interrupting, “I just wanna tell you that… after having this feeling for so long, well…” Yugi sighed, then turned to look Ryou square in the eye, though Ryou was slightly taller. Ryou waited semi-patiently. Finally, Yugi finished by saying, “I've been kinda curious…”

 

Ryou gasped, for he immediately knew what Yugi meant. Such a comment reminded him of all the awkward times in which he felt “curious” about Yugi.

 

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

 

“Ryou?” Yugi called the boy from Memory Land. Ryou shook himself out of his fascination before he made himself hard.

 

“Yugi…” Ryou whispered, leaning into his friend's ear, “I… I've been into you like that… for a while…” The bright smile on Yugi's face was so adorable, Ryou had to really pull himself together to resist kissing the oh-so-tempting lips. (Glomp him, Ryou, while you're still alone! Oh, sorry. I typed out of turn. Heh heh… Do carry on.) He blushed so hard, his cheeks began to flare up from the insides.

 

“Really?” asked Yugi.

 

“…Yes…” Ryou answered, somewhat ashamed.

 

“Good,” Yugi openly confessed, “because I'm not really curious about you.”

 

Ryou dropped his eyes and sadly asked, “So… You just used my emotions to find out what I think of you? I thought we were even friends.” His vision blurred from tears.

 

Noticing Ryou's crying, Yugi quickly reassured him, “No, that's not it, Ryou—”

 

“You're going to tell everyone else, aren't you?!” Ryou asked, crying loudly with increasing anger. He was never too comfortable about being gay. Before, his problem was a fear of hurting his friends. After receiving the Millennium Ring, it wasn't long before he realized the unusual changes in his life. Ryou loved board games, so obviously, he'd play with friends. Minutes after starting a game, though, he'd lose consciousness, and when he came to, the game was already over… with his friends leaning against the table… each one in a coma. Ryou couldn't let go of his self-hate for what happened to his still hospitalized friends. The stress of thinking about sexual harassers and homophobes was too much for him.

 

“Ryou—”

 

“I THOUGHT YOU WERE MY FRIEND, YUGI!” Ryou abruptly raised his hands to his aching head and braced it, digging his nails into his scalp to make himself think of it instead of the internal pain. The pain strengthened by the second, and soon, Ryou was thrashing his head about in attempts to rid the frightening memories and unnerving future possibilities.

 

“Ryou, I—”

 

“HOW COULD YOU, OF ALL PEOPLE, DO THIS TO… I TRUSTED YOU, YUGI! I THOUGHT YOU'D BE MY NEW BEST FRIEND! I… I FELL… IN LOVE WITH YOU! MY… My head…” Tears were running down Ryou's face like rapids. It made Yugi cry to see his friend so distraught. “My head hurts… I… I HATE MY LIIIIIIFE!” Those were the words that harmed Yugi the most. He never said he didn't like Ryou, but the fear in the boy's mind and heart caused him to misinterpret Yugi's message. Unstable, Ryou dropped to his hands and knees.

 

“Ryou…”

 

“I… HATE… ME!”

 

Unable to tolerate his friend's proclamations of self-hate, Yugi stomped on the ground, knowing it will bring Ryou up from the ground. Ryou hurriedly got to his knees, trying to get up and back away from Yugi. Yugi took that opportunity to big-step forward and wrap his arms around Ryou. He closed the space between his arms and closed his eyes. Ryou stopped his thrashing almost instantly. His hands were no longer at his head, but pressed against the spiky-haired boy's chest. His headache died down, but he continued to cry.

 

Yugi did not enjoy holding the boy in his arms. He didn't want the boy to be crying. He wanted Ryou to be smiling in his arms. He loved Ryou. He wanted to give Ryou the whole world. Thus, that's what he told him.

 

“Ryou…” Yugi whispered ever so softly into the British boy's ear, “I don't want to hold you like this when you're crying. I want you to be happy. When I said I wasn't curious about you, It was because I already knew how I felt about you.”

 

Ryou lifted his head to look Yugi in the eyes and asked, “What do you mean by `already knew?'”

 

“I love you, Ryou.”

 

Ryou's eyes instantly stopped leaking. “You… What?”

 

“I want you smiling in my arms, Ryou, not crying. I want to make you happy. I would give you the whole world, if I could… but I can't. I am the most I can give you. Please, Ryou, baby, can you smile for me?” Ryou sniffed and smiled for Yugi. Yugi smiled back and said, “Yeah… Come on. Let's walk around.”

 

Ryou nodded and laughed, “Okay.”

 

After tenderly kissing Ryou's lips, Yugi helped his new lover to his feet. Holding hands, the boys continued deeper into the Trent Garden.