Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Simple ❯ Ground Rules ( Chapter 2 )
[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]
By: YamiYugiPuzzleshipper2 
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.19.2014 | Pages: 8 | Words: 6.5K | Visits: 140 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.19.2014 | Pages: 8 | Words: 6.5K | Visits: 140 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I own
nothing to do with Yu-Gi-Oh
Note: Story will be updated every Wednesday
Warning: TONS of cursing in story
Chapter II: Ground Rules
Yugi hummed as he looked at the shirt in front of him; he, Joey, Tristan and Tea were at the mall because the brunette loved to shop and she always wanted their opinions on the outfits she bought. This time, however, she was mostly going to Yugi and asking if he thought that Yami might like it since apparently she had some kind of misconception that because they were doing a project together they were best friends and Yugi was not happy about this.
Of course he wasn't happy about it. She was constantly asking him what Yami might like and what he wouldn't and while some of her clothes made his mouth water with lust, the joy of it was totally gone with the fact that she would not shut up about his look-alike. Why did she want him anyways? She didn't know him at all and Yugi was her best friend so why the hell did she go to him? They looked just alike! So what the hell made Yami better than him?
He crossed his arms, looking it over and tilting his head slightly. Oh yes, this looked like one of the shirts that Yami would buy. Graphic t-shirts with nothing to them. His lips quirked up into a small smirk.
Yami could not even accessorize. He didn't do anything but wear graphic t-shirts and baggy jeans. So again, what made him more desirable than Yugi?
He shook his head. He wanted Tea to be happy, even if it wasn't with him. If it was Yami who made her happy…
Even if he couldn't understand why she liked him over Yugi, he would help her out. And in order to do that, he would help Yami out.
His heart broke a little at the idea of doing this, but it was becoming more apparent that he couldn't hold a flame to Yami. Not after a whole week of Tea practically ignoring him for the red-eyed boy and constantly pushing him aside in order to talk to him. He just hoped that Yami would keep her happy…if they went out anyways. Seeing as Yami said that he had plans that would be destroyed if he dated anyone.
He was definitely confused about this but whatever. And it wasn't like he could explain to Tea what was going on if he didn't even understand.
So the least he could do was help Yami out with Tea because even if they didn't date, at least he didtry. There was no guarantee that Yami would date her so he could just do this for nothing but it might also double as a way of him getting over Tea and after three years of crushing on her and having her ignore him, it was about time for that to happen.
He set his resolve on this one mission. He was going to get over her.
Not for Yami. Not for Tea. But for himself.
"Your clothing is kind of dull, you know," Yugi commented, looking him over with his left elbow on the table and his chin in his palm, watching him as he continued writing a note on his paper.
"So what?" Yami asked, ignoring him for a moment and then starting to write again, doubling his ten notes in only two minutes worth of time. He put his pencil down and shook his hand out; Yugi couldn't argue with his hand hurting because Yami had been writing for two hours straight now that they had gotten to the library after school.
"I was just saying," he answered, shrugging and sighing. "Do you want me to take over?"
"No."
"Fine, but you can't say that I didn't try to help you."
"No, I can't."
Yugi found it hard to argue with Yami when he was willing to see when he was wrong unlike his own friends who would bite at his heels until he somehow ended up apologizing even when he wasn't wrong.
"Why do you wear those anyways?"
Yami crossed his arms on the table and stared at him for a moment before narrowing his eyes. "Because I like them. Why do you care?"
"Because, like I said, they're just so dull, Yami."
"Yeah, but at least I don't look like some kind of bondage slave," Yami spat, finally losing his temper; his voice had dropped drastically and Yugi was surprised at first by the sudden display of irritation, but it died almost immediately.
"Well at least I'm not still a virgin."
Okay, that had to be the stupidest thing he had said in years because he had not even had a kiss before and he was most certainly a virgin but either way it came out of his mouth and he couldn't take it back, not that he wanted to when Yami responded.
"Well, not everyone is a slut, Yugi."
"Um, Yugi is staring at you," Mana murmured, eyes wide as she looked up over Yami's shoulder. Yami didn't respond immediately and when he finally did, she almost thought that he didn't care but then he twisted around and looked over his shoulder, locking eyes with the smaller teen.
Yugi continued staring and then crooked a finger at him to which Mana's mouth dropped open and Mahado's eyebrows shot up in surprise; Yami raised an eyebrow in challenge and then looked at Joey and back again. Yugi glanced at Joey as well and then sat back in his seat, realizing it was really not a good idea to have the blond and his red-eyed look-alike near each other. There really was no need for a dogfight.
Yami turned away and Mana waved to which Yugi waved back before he dove into a conversation about video games when Joey started talking; Mahado could not even begin to wrap his head around the fact of how strange it was to see the school's bad boy trying to get his friend over there. He was curious about the fact that they hadn't gone to the library for lunch but Yami had explained that he had asked for them not to because he had homework he needed to catch up on.
And he was catching up on homework and class-work and schoolwork in general, clearing up his entire schedule for the next week by finishing all of his future assignments by finding them online. Apparently Yami was pretty good with technology or just enough to do what he needed in order to find out how to get his assignments.
Yugi approached him after school as soon as they got outside; Joey and Tristan, Ushio and Tea were standing a little bit away when Yugi cut him off from where he was walking with Mana and Mahado.
Both groups of bystanders were surprised by his sudden appearance and Yami stared at him as if he had lost his mind for a moment before glancing over his shoulder and spotting them staring at him.
"You ready to go?" the smaller teen asked, messing with his backpack and watching him as Yami blinked several times and then furrowed his brows.
"Uh, yeah…sure, I guess…"
"Great. Let's go." And with that he grabbed Yami's arm and pulled him along, waving at Mana and Mahado and leading the way; Yami glanced over his shoulder at his friends who gave him confused looks and then shrugged, just as puzzled as they were.
"So here's the deal," Yugi announced, gaining Yami's attention; his head snapped around and his eyes were immediately on him, blinking once and then twice. "We're going to be taking a slight detour."
"A detour?"
"Yeah, I have to pick up something from the mall," the smaller teen announced, blue-violet eyes seeming to smirk at him; Yami didn't like the look to them but he didn't argue against it. "So before we go to the library, we need to go there."
He wanted to be a smartass and ask him why they had to go there first but it was common knowledge that the mall closed earlier. He may not have ever actually gone to the mall before, but he at least knew that it closed before the library.
"All right."
Yugi smirked as he turned away. At least Yami was an agreeable person.
When they got there Yami looked a little spooked. Yugi wasn't sure why, but he also knew better than to ask so instead he merely focused on getting Yami to the clothes before he realized there was nothing to pick up. By the time they got to Yugi's favorite store Yami was on to him but didn't say anything.
"All right," the smaller announced, smirking at him. "Let's get you some new outfits and then we can start on our project."
A single eyebrow rose in defiance of his request and Yugi crossed his arms and glared, tapping his foot and then gesturing with a nod of his head and a pointed look. Luckily, instead of arguing, Yami just walked inside the store, but Yugi wasn't oblivious to the fact that Yami's body had tensed up somewhere between the time he was outside and the moment he walked in.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Have you never been in a mall before?" he asked, trying to sound disdainful but coming off as completely curious.
Yami grimaced at his question and then muttered, "I tend to avoid them."
"What? Why?"
"Too many people."
"Oh, so that's what it is. You're antisocial."
This time it came out disdainful and full of scorn and it made Yami stop to stare at him in surprise for a moment before narrowing his eyes. "There are a lot more things in life than having everyone's attention," he snapped icily. "And this bad boy shit is exactly that, isn't it? Because you crave attention and this is how you get it."
Yugi's jaw clenched. How the fuck did he know that?
"Shut up. You don't know anything about me."
"I know more about you than you think. I know that you're the bad boy because you want attention. I know that you've had a crush on Tea for a year prior to my knowing you. I know that you're frustrated with me because she likes me over you. I know that you're pissed off at me right now because you can't understand how someone couldn't want attention. I know that your parents–" He shut up abruptly and then turned on his heel and headed for some pants.
Yugi didn't let him off the hook that fast and snatched his wrist in an iron clad grip when he caught up to him. "What was that about my parents?" he snarled in a fierce voice.
Yami looked at him for a long minute and then suddenly–and Yugi could not figure it out for the life of him–his wrist was free and he was walking away from him again. He blinked once, then twice, taking off after him and getting to his side, spitting, "What did you just say about my parents?"
"I did not just say it. I said it five minutes ago. Get your facts straight."
"Well not everyone counts the minutes. I bet you know the fucking milliseconds too don't you?"
Yami did not answer that he had been keeping track of his time in Japan of two years down to the milliseconds as Yugi suggested. 730 days, 1051200 minutes, 63072000 seconds, and 6307200000 milliseconds and that was only the two years. Adding in the months that had already gone by, he was at 789 days, 1136160 minutes, 68169600 seconds, and 6816960000 milliseconds. His stomach hurt with the thought.
Yugi saw a look of pure pain cross his face and froze. Oh crap. Had he hurt him?
"I–"
"Shut up."
Yami was completely emotionless again, walking past him and looking at the shirts in front of him; Yugi was shocked to see that they were in fact not graphic t-shirts. Instead they were tank tops and Yami was regarding them with the most curious expression Yugi had ever seen.
"What? Have you never seen a tank top?"
"I sit next to you every day don't I?"
Yugi didn't realize he was teasing him until Yami's lips quirked up at the corner, his eyes flickering to look at him. He felt a small blush of embarrassment light his cheeks and went wide-eyed; he hadn't blushed in years. It didn't work with the bad boy persona that he showed off at school. He went to answer sardonically but Yami was no longer looking at him and was instead sorting through the clothes, grabbing a couple of tank tops and thrusting them into his hands.
Yugi was no stranger to this because Tea always did this to him when they went shopping so this was no surprise but he was not happy with the fact that he was apparently Yami's slave now. He didn't argue, however, thinking it a waste of breath to do so, and ignored the indignation that flared through him every time that Yami added more clothes. Oddly enough, most of the clothes looked like what Yugi himself would wear and for a moment he was confused. Did Yami expect him to try these on?
Yugi followed him through the store with a small curious expression, confused by this behavior. Yami normally showed common courtesy towards everyone and now he was treating him like his personal slave and that made no sense to him. Unless, of course, Yami was just like everyone else and thought that he had control over him too. The thought hurt in all actuality and he didn't want to admit that to himself.
When they got to the changing rooms, Yami took them from him easily, pausing and staring at him in plain confusion and blinking a few times before his cheeks started turning red and he fled back into one of the stalls. Yugi stared after him, puzzled and a little dismayed by his actions, unsure of what had just happened; ten minutes later Yami had gone through all sixty-something outfits and looked so sheepish it was not even funny.
Now Yami carried his own clothes, putting more than two thirds of the clothes back and then taking the other one back to the register; Yugi nearly choked when he saw the amount they equaled, mouth falling open and his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. He bought expensive things when he had the money and he knew that most of his clothes were normally on the expensive side, but holy crap, he had never spent close to two hundred dollars on one trip!
He had the money, but to spend it in one place…
He started to dig into his pockets but Yami was already two steps ahead of him, pulling his wallet out and handing over a shiny red and black and dark blue debit card to the cashier who rung it up and asked, "Would you like cash change?" with a wide-eyed, flirty expression on her face.
Yami didn't even so much as blink at her when he replied, "No thank you."
Yugi didn't miss the look of frustration that passed over her face or the way that Yami took his bag with a small smile but a look to his eyes that clearly stated he was not interested in her without being too obvious about it. The cashier got the message and pushed the bag at him to which Yami snatched it off the counter and turned to him. "So, did you want to get something too?"
He had not been shopping in so long that he had forgotten that Yugi was not there to carry things for him and he felt his stomach sink as Yugi stared at him in surprise for a few moments and then slowly shook his head. Fuck, how badly had he already messed up?
"No, we should go ahead and get our project going, right?"
Yami frowned. "I guess."
At the library Yugi was shocked out of his mind when Yami managed to roll all of the clothes he had bought and stuff them into his backpack and make it look as he just had extra books in there.
"So, about the clothes thing," Yami murmured, putting his backpack down and turning to him, "I didn't mean to make you carry my things. I…um…"
Yugi could practically see the thoughts behind his eyes, frowning when he saw the embarrassed and slightly worried gleam to his eyes. Now that he paid attention, he could see that Yami's emotions showed in certain areas of his eyes when he hid them away from others trying to read him. They only showed in those designated areas and they flashed for a fraction of a second. He had a feeling that it only happened when he got distracted in his thoughts and he couldn't push them away because of his concentration being severed.
"It's fine."
"No it's not."
"Yami, seriously–"
"Yugi, it wasn't fair and it's not fine. You're not my slave and yet I treated you like one and I'm sorry," Yami cut him off, grimacing. "It was never my intention to do so and I apologize. I…don't normally go shopping anymore."
He realized when the red eyes darkened and narrowed that it was definitely a bad idea to ask about it so instead he pushed his curiosity away and went to the bookshelves, glancing over his shoulder to see that Yami had his face in his palm and was shaking his head. He looked tensed and tired and maybe even exhausted with the posture he had adopted, his shoulders slumped forward and his back no longer straight, his head down and his left arm lying on the table while his right shielded his face. His muscles looked like they had seized up and locked and his stomach twisted.
What the hell was wrong with him?
"So…you haven't really worn any of the clothes you bought," Yugi commented suddenly to him as they took seats next to each other in the library. Yami looked up in confusion and the smaller teen raised an eyebrow at him, putting his binder down next to him.
"I don't want to wear them just yet," the taller red-eyed teen stated quietly. He would probably never wear them until after he was eighteen and he felt sick with that idea. It was weird, because Yami used to wear clothes like Yugi's when he was younger, well…aside from the fact that most of his tank tops showed off his bellybutton. It was really just a form of rebellion because his parents pissed him off and he decided he would wear whatever the hell he wanted and ordered them online, but he had liked the style. And now, in Japan…
"Why not? They were nearly two hundred bucks," Yugi commented.
He didn't explain that the debit card he had used had a lot more money than justthaton it and instead focused on going through his own binder looking for his rubric. "So?"
"So it's a waste of money if you don't wear them."
They were most likely a waste of money anyways. When he got back, his parents were not going to let him wear those clothes. In fact, he'd probably be put under much worse rules and restrictions than he ever had before and that thought sickened him.
"And you might as well take them back so someone else can buy and actuallywearthem, Yami," he pushed at him, narrowing his eyes; if Yami were smaller, he might be able to wear them himself, but because of Yami's taller frame, he definitely doubted it. "You could have spent it on more important stuff if you weren't going to wear them."
"It's none of your fucking business what I do with my money and my purchases, damn it. I didn't even want to go to the mall, Yugi, you did. And for what reason I don't know and I sure as hell don't care to find out," he spat angrily, glaring.
"I was just trying to be nice," the blue-violet-eyed boy argued, glaring back.
"Well don't! I never asked you to be nice to me!"
"You're a real antisocial piece of shit, aren't you?" Yugi snarled at him angrily.
"At least I'm not some kind of whore."
"Really? Because if I look one then so do you."
"By what means?"
"You look like me!"
"No, you look like me, Yugi."
"Bullshit. I bet I'm older than you."
"No, I assure you thatIam older thanyou."
"Fuck you. There's no way."
"February sixth, you little bastard."
"Damnit!"
"Yeah, so fuck off."
"Just because you're older than me doesn't mean anything!"
"No, it doesn't, but it also doesn't mean anything that you're younger than me!"
Both of them ended up glaring at each other for the first hour of their time at the library. Yami refused to back down and Yugi didn't want yetanotherperson to have the right to look down on him and it irked him that Yami might do so.
"Look…we have a project we need to do," the taller boy murmured, narrowing his eyes. The smaller continued glaring at him angrily. "We need to call a truce so that we can get this project done as quickly as possible, right? And then we can get a good grade and never have to bother with each other again, okay?"
Yugi felt a small pang of disappointment at Yami's words. It was true, in all actuality. They would probably never really bother with each other after this project. Not with the way that they were always on other ends of the hierarchy at school. Sure Yami was an enigma who never really abided by the weird rules that most geeks followed and he was pretty popular, but all of Yugi's friends aside from Tea–oddly enough the more he thought of them together, the more the pain started to leave him only because he knew that Tea would be happy with Yami if he dated her–had a problem with Yami. Joey hated him because he always snarled at him about calling Yami by Yugi's name, Ushio because Yami frustrated him because Yami beat him up when he too mistook Yami for Yugi–Ushio wanted lunch money that Yugi didn't have–and Tristan didn't really have a problem with him but sometimes he would lose his temper and just go off about whoever it was they were talking about at the time of his blowout and most of the time that would happen to be Yami purely because of Tea's shameless crush on the red-eyed teen. And Yugi didn't think that his friends would get along with Mana and Mahado for the most part.
He didn't really care personally that it wasYamihe would probably never bother with again. Mostly it was just that no one had the balls to stand up to him like the red-eyed teen seemed to. Everyone else cowered when he snapped and there really was no way for him to get them to participate in an argument. Yami did that, however. He needed someone wouldn't back down all the time and who would challenge him.
Even if they were just used for being the butt of his jokes, the relief of his stress. He craved someone–anyone–who would not cower when he lost his temper. Yami at least seemed to be someone who would never back down even if he tried to kick his legs out from under him and smother him with nasty bites that would leave tons of emotional damage later.
Even his friends backed off when he fought back. They pushed and pushed and were stunned when he snarled at them, so stunned that they couldn't even think straight long enough to come up with a response and so went immediately quiet.
Yami didn't do that. So far he bit back where he received one and he wasn't afraid to snap at him and push until he couldn't push anymore. It was a fuckingreliefto be around someone who had enough fire to fight back because the rest of them all hid away with their tails between their legs and it was getting annoying.
"All right, so let's stick to one conversation topic and not past that."
"You mean like ground rules?"
"Yeah." Yami had never liked ground rules but if it helped him keep his fucking mouth shut–he'd never really had so much trouble before but his and Yugi's arguing and snapping at each other like this made him frustrated and frustration gave him a big mouth if he wasn't immediately aware of what he was saying–he would embrace them like a lover if he had to.
"All right, fine. So…how about family and accessories?" Yugi announced, narrowing his eyes. "We can't talk about them or ask questions about them. Got it?"
"Sure, as long as you respect my boundaries of money and clothing as well."
"Fine."
"Great."
For a moment both of them were silent and then Yugi smirked at him and his voice was sardonic and sneering when he asked, "So why are you such a geek?"
"Why are you such a slut?"
Yugi couldn't help but laugh at his remark. "Such a geek."
"Such a slut."
Both of them started laughing, grinning and then turning back to their books; Yugi flipped a couple of pages and Yami got his binder open to take out his own rubric and loose leaf sheets of paper.
"So, anyways, I was thinking about it and if we do a poster, we can get up in front of the class for less time," Yugi started, making Yami look up at him. "But then the project rubric says that the more information in the presentation the higher the grade we'll get. So if we do the power point, we can put more information on the slides. But, also, the more slides we have, the less information we could put and have it look like we did more work. We just have to keep a minimum of at least five minutes up in front of the class and we'll be good."
Yami didn't respond immediately like Yugi thought he would. He found it kind of irritating that he had to wait for him to speak but at the same time, he liked the things that Yami had to say and so he didn't rush him. His answers were usually intriguing and sparked something inside of him that he had never really had before–pure and unfiltered anticipation and interest. No one managed to pull that from him anymore. They were all boring and stupid, like dolls. Yami was different–an enigma.
"Okay, but if we do the poster, we can just write smaller so that it looks like we have more information and with pictures, it will look like we've given it a lot more work."
"Okay, but if we do the poster, we have to get up in front of the class and if we do a power point, we can just stand behind the projector and the laptop and talk from there."
"No, he'll make us go over and point it out as we go along."
"We don't know that for sure, though."
"Maybe not."
"What is it with you and not wanting to get up in front of the class? I know you aren't shy and you even agreed."
"Yeah, let's add that to the topic of what we can't talk about."
"What?"
"Talking about oneself. I abhor it."
Yugi pursed his lips. How was he supposed to talk to him if they weren't even going to talk about themselves? How could they even make friends? Yugi wanted to at least know the boy that he was handing his long time crush and best friend over to and how was he supposed to do that if they couldn't even talk about themselves? Plus, what else was there to talk about?
"Fine I guess…" He grimaced and rubbed at the back of his head. "So then, why the hell are you a geek?"
"Why the hell are you a slut?"
"Fair enough. I like being a slut." If being a slut meant un-kissed, crushing on a girl for three years, being treated like a doormat by the four he called his friends, and acting out because he wanted attention. Ooh, ooh, anattentionslut. That definitely worked.
"Well, I like being a geek." If being a geek was code for troublemaking outside of school, being afraid of almost everything since he came to Japan, homesick, and desperate for companionship he couldn't quite get from Mana and Mahado no matter how hard he tried.
"Why?"
"Because I still have plans after high school is over and in order to obtain them, I have to keep my grades at their highest."
"I like the attention."
"I knew it."
"Yes, yes, you knew it."
Yami smirked at him and if Yugi hadn't been paying attention to his eyes, he would have missed it when the playful gleam entered them. "You're a little mental aren't you?"
"And you're a little secretive aren't you?"
"With good reason."
"Not better than mine."
"We're not comparing them because that would get a little too close for comfort."
"Good point."
"Yeah, have to remember the ground rules."
"Yep."
"So is the attention worth it?"
"Worth what?"
"Worth all of the trouble you go through to get it."
Yugi looked away and started messing with his own book again. "Sometimes, not always, but sometimes," he replied with a roll of his eyes. He waited a few minutes and then slowly looked over at him, tilting his head slightly in sardonic challenge. "Are the plans you have for after school worth alienating yourself like you have?"
Yami didn't get offended like Yugi had expected him to.
His eyes became shadowed, flickered but showed no emotion, lowering to the table. His eyelids lowered so that his eyes were only half-open. His gaze stared blankly at the sheet of paper in front of him.
"I don't know."
"Wait, where are we going?"
Yugi sighed. "My house."
"What? Why?"
"Because we need to start working on the presentation part of the project and if we're going to do a slideshow–"
"We never agreed on that."
"I know that but–"
"Then why would you assume–"
"I'm not assuming anything, I just thought that we should see which one we think is better," Yugi replied, cutting him off easily in order to keep from fighting with him; after two weeks of working together, refining their essay over three different times because Yami reallydidhave an insane weak point for punctuation, they still fought like cats and dogs every now and then though they had settled to mostly joking around. Yami was actually very easy to mess around with.
It begged the question of why more people weren't like him, why they all got so offended so easily at the smallest things. Why they all became carbon copies. It also begged the question of why he was friends with those four morons–Tea included; they all treated him like a doormat and he was sick of it but he didn't have the energy to deal with the crap that would come of trying to assert his dominance.
"You have a thumb-drive right?" Yami asked after a moment, playing with his royal blue school jacket and watching as Yugi nodded with a small humming noise; Yugi's house was within walking distance and Yami had to appreciate that. He'd gotten a headache from lack of sleep after a phone call from his mother two days before and it was driving him insane. Irritable, cranky, pissy. That was exactly what he was.
Yugi's house was a game shop that looked oddly like a turtle–the mouth was the front door, the turtle's flesh was completely yellow, the roof was green, and Yami guessed they were security cameras or something but there were two black machines just beneath the green roof with the word "Game" in large purple letters. The windows were all red in frame and Yami liked the shade of it–deep but not too deep, kind of bright but not too bright.
Yugi led the way in, the bell on the door ringing as they walked in. Yami glanced around. There were a lot of games. He recognized a lot of them due to his cousin and his own gaming experiences, but holy crap, there were also older games too and it made his lips twitch; at least Yugi's home had a nice selection and didn't discriminate just because the game had grown older than most people liked to play…
"Grandpa, I'm home."
There was a shuffling in the back and Yami turned away from some Duel Monster cards–he had never lost but he never exactly played it anymore since he and his cousin had gotten into a massive fistfight over his winning against him because he accused him of cheating because he had the Egyptian God cards Obelisk the Tormentor, The Winged Dragon of Ra and his very personal favorite the red two-mouthed dragon Slifer the Sky Dragon–to see the short–but taller than Yugi–gray spiky-haired elderly form of Solomon Motou.
"Ah, Yugi, welcome home." And then plum-colored eyes were very suddenly on Yami. "Ah, you must be one of Yugi's friends from school, huh?"
Yami blinked and Yugi rolled his eyes next to him, saying, "Grandpa, this is Yami Sennen. Yami Sennen, this is my grandpa. He's doing a project with me in history class. You remember, the one I that told you about before?"
His grandpa blinked once and then smiled. "Oh yes, he decided to be an asshole and choose North Carolina over Virginia," he said with a wink at Yami while Yugi groaned and covered his face with his hand.
"Yes, Grandpa, that would be Yami."
"I think my stories precede me," Yami muttered with a good-natured roll of his eyes, lips twitching in amusement. "Did he tell you how he demanded we did Virginia without even giving me a chance to say anything?"
Solomon started chuckling and Yugi glared at him fiercely.
"Shut up, asshole."
"Yugi!"
Yami chuckled softly and messed with the strap of his canvas bag. "Let's get started," he announced, looking to Yugi who sighed and rolled his eyes.
"We'll be upstairs, Grandpa."
"Sure."
Yugi led the way upstairs while Yugi glanced over his shoulder once and spotted the Slifer the Sky Dragon Booster Pack; oh yes, he did love the red two-mouthed dragon. Definitely his favorite Egyptian God. The Winged Dragon of Ra looked like a giant chicken as far as he was concerned and Obelisk wasn't really the one he used very often because he was the least favorite of the cards.
Solomon looked over at the cards and then at Yami and smiled a little; he recognized him, Yami realized with a sickening feeling. Yugi's grandfather recognized him…
"Yami."
He turned back to find his shorter look-alike at the top of the stairs waiting, gesturing for him to follow and he glanced back once before hurrying up after him; Yugi led the way to his room and took a seat at the desk, starting up the laptop set there, and pulled it onto the bed, patting the spot next to him. Yami hesitated for a moment, uncomfortable with the fact that they were alone and sitting so close together; everything in him was geared towards pulling away as soon as he sat down and he had to fight off a blind panic in his stomach for several moments.
Yugi noticed. Yami knew he did. But he was nice enough not to mention it.
"So I was thinking that if we do the power point, we could also present one that isn't the complete one and we can turn in the complete one for points while having the shortened be solely for the purpose of presenting. Plus, we might still be able to stick it out behind the projector instead of having to get in front of the class and hold up a poster."
"All right. So then will you keep the thumb-drive or shall I?"
Yugi turned towards him with wide eyes as his laptop booted up. "Wait, so we're going with the power point?"
"We…might as well. It makes sense. We can just copy and paste and it's not as messy as posters tend to be. Plus it's easier to recover on the computer than if we accidentally made a mistake on a poster. We throw something away and we're screwed over." He sighed and looked at the laptop, hitting the enter button and watching as the screen changed to a few rocks and water. He recognized the screensaver as the same of his own laptop. "Maybe I don't want to be in front of everyone but the visual counts just as much as the essay if not more and in retrospect a poster would be a rather stupid idea."
Yugi blinked. "Plus it's easier to take from one place to the next, right?" he offered.
"Yes." He was so tired. "Much easier."
He wanted to ask why Yugi lived with his grandpa. He wanted to know why Yugi lived there in a shop with him. But that would involve family and family was off limits so he didn't ask.
Note: Story will be updated every Wednesday
Warning: TONS of cursing in story
Chapter II: Ground Rules
Yugi hummed as he looked at the shirt in front of him; he, Joey, Tristan and Tea were at the mall because the brunette loved to shop and she always wanted their opinions on the outfits she bought. This time, however, she was mostly going to Yugi and asking if he thought that Yami might like it since apparently she had some kind of misconception that because they were doing a project together they were best friends and Yugi was not happy about this.
Of course he wasn't happy about it. She was constantly asking him what Yami might like and what he wouldn't and while some of her clothes made his mouth water with lust, the joy of it was totally gone with the fact that she would not shut up about his look-alike. Why did she want him anyways? She didn't know him at all and Yugi was her best friend so why the hell did she go to him? They looked just alike! So what the hell made Yami better than him?
He crossed his arms, looking it over and tilting his head slightly. Oh yes, this looked like one of the shirts that Yami would buy. Graphic t-shirts with nothing to them. His lips quirked up into a small smirk.
Yami could not even accessorize. He didn't do anything but wear graphic t-shirts and baggy jeans. So again, what made him more desirable than Yugi?
He shook his head. He wanted Tea to be happy, even if it wasn't with him. If it was Yami who made her happy…
Even if he couldn't understand why she liked him over Yugi, he would help her out. And in order to do that, he would help Yami out.
His heart broke a little at the idea of doing this, but it was becoming more apparent that he couldn't hold a flame to Yami. Not after a whole week of Tea practically ignoring him for the red-eyed boy and constantly pushing him aside in order to talk to him. He just hoped that Yami would keep her happy…if they went out anyways. Seeing as Yami said that he had plans that would be destroyed if he dated anyone.
He was definitely confused about this but whatever. And it wasn't like he could explain to Tea what was going on if he didn't even understand.
So the least he could do was help Yami out with Tea because even if they didn't date, at least he didtry. There was no guarantee that Yami would date her so he could just do this for nothing but it might also double as a way of him getting over Tea and after three years of crushing on her and having her ignore him, it was about time for that to happen.
He set his resolve on this one mission. He was going to get over her.
Not for Yami. Not for Tea. But for himself.
"Your clothing is kind of dull, you know," Yugi commented, looking him over with his left elbow on the table and his chin in his palm, watching him as he continued writing a note on his paper.
"So what?" Yami asked, ignoring him for a moment and then starting to write again, doubling his ten notes in only two minutes worth of time. He put his pencil down and shook his hand out; Yugi couldn't argue with his hand hurting because Yami had been writing for two hours straight now that they had gotten to the library after school.
"I was just saying," he answered, shrugging and sighing. "Do you want me to take over?"
"No."
"Fine, but you can't say that I didn't try to help you."
"No, I can't."
Yugi found it hard to argue with Yami when he was willing to see when he was wrong unlike his own friends who would bite at his heels until he somehow ended up apologizing even when he wasn't wrong.
"Why do you wear those anyways?"
Yami crossed his arms on the table and stared at him for a moment before narrowing his eyes. "Because I like them. Why do you care?"
"Because, like I said, they're just so dull, Yami."
"Yeah, but at least I don't look like some kind of bondage slave," Yami spat, finally losing his temper; his voice had dropped drastically and Yugi was surprised at first by the sudden display of irritation, but it died almost immediately.
"Well at least I'm not still a virgin."
Okay, that had to be the stupidest thing he had said in years because he had not even had a kiss before and he was most certainly a virgin but either way it came out of his mouth and he couldn't take it back, not that he wanted to when Yami responded.
"Well, not everyone is a slut, Yugi."
"Um, Yugi is staring at you," Mana murmured, eyes wide as she looked up over Yami's shoulder. Yami didn't respond immediately and when he finally did, she almost thought that he didn't care but then he twisted around and looked over his shoulder, locking eyes with the smaller teen.
Yugi continued staring and then crooked a finger at him to which Mana's mouth dropped open and Mahado's eyebrows shot up in surprise; Yami raised an eyebrow in challenge and then looked at Joey and back again. Yugi glanced at Joey as well and then sat back in his seat, realizing it was really not a good idea to have the blond and his red-eyed look-alike near each other. There really was no need for a dogfight.
Yami turned away and Mana waved to which Yugi waved back before he dove into a conversation about video games when Joey started talking; Mahado could not even begin to wrap his head around the fact of how strange it was to see the school's bad boy trying to get his friend over there. He was curious about the fact that they hadn't gone to the library for lunch but Yami had explained that he had asked for them not to because he had homework he needed to catch up on.
And he was catching up on homework and class-work and schoolwork in general, clearing up his entire schedule for the next week by finishing all of his future assignments by finding them online. Apparently Yami was pretty good with technology or just enough to do what he needed in order to find out how to get his assignments.
Yugi approached him after school as soon as they got outside; Joey and Tristan, Ushio and Tea were standing a little bit away when Yugi cut him off from where he was walking with Mana and Mahado.
Both groups of bystanders were surprised by his sudden appearance and Yami stared at him as if he had lost his mind for a moment before glancing over his shoulder and spotting them staring at him.
"You ready to go?" the smaller teen asked, messing with his backpack and watching him as Yami blinked several times and then furrowed his brows.
"Uh, yeah…sure, I guess…"
"Great. Let's go." And with that he grabbed Yami's arm and pulled him along, waving at Mana and Mahado and leading the way; Yami glanced over his shoulder at his friends who gave him confused looks and then shrugged, just as puzzled as they were.
"So here's the deal," Yugi announced, gaining Yami's attention; his head snapped around and his eyes were immediately on him, blinking once and then twice. "We're going to be taking a slight detour."
"A detour?"
"Yeah, I have to pick up something from the mall," the smaller teen announced, blue-violet eyes seeming to smirk at him; Yami didn't like the look to them but he didn't argue against it. "So before we go to the library, we need to go there."
He wanted to be a smartass and ask him why they had to go there first but it was common knowledge that the mall closed earlier. He may not have ever actually gone to the mall before, but he at least knew that it closed before the library.
"All right."
Yugi smirked as he turned away. At least Yami was an agreeable person.
When they got there Yami looked a little spooked. Yugi wasn't sure why, but he also knew better than to ask so instead he merely focused on getting Yami to the clothes before he realized there was nothing to pick up. By the time they got to Yugi's favorite store Yami was on to him but didn't say anything.
"All right," the smaller announced, smirking at him. "Let's get you some new outfits and then we can start on our project."
A single eyebrow rose in defiance of his request and Yugi crossed his arms and glared, tapping his foot and then gesturing with a nod of his head and a pointed look. Luckily, instead of arguing, Yami just walked inside the store, but Yugi wasn't oblivious to the fact that Yami's body had tensed up somewhere between the time he was outside and the moment he walked in.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Have you never been in a mall before?" he asked, trying to sound disdainful but coming off as completely curious.
Yami grimaced at his question and then muttered, "I tend to avoid them."
"What? Why?"
"Too many people."
"Oh, so that's what it is. You're antisocial."
This time it came out disdainful and full of scorn and it made Yami stop to stare at him in surprise for a moment before narrowing his eyes. "There are a lot more things in life than having everyone's attention," he snapped icily. "And this bad boy shit is exactly that, isn't it? Because you crave attention and this is how you get it."
Yugi's jaw clenched. How the fuck did he know that?
"Shut up. You don't know anything about me."
"I know more about you than you think. I know that you're the bad boy because you want attention. I know that you've had a crush on Tea for a year prior to my knowing you. I know that you're frustrated with me because she likes me over you. I know that you're pissed off at me right now because you can't understand how someone couldn't want attention. I know that your parents–" He shut up abruptly and then turned on his heel and headed for some pants.
Yugi didn't let him off the hook that fast and snatched his wrist in an iron clad grip when he caught up to him. "What was that about my parents?" he snarled in a fierce voice.
Yami looked at him for a long minute and then suddenly–and Yugi could not figure it out for the life of him–his wrist was free and he was walking away from him again. He blinked once, then twice, taking off after him and getting to his side, spitting, "What did you just say about my parents?"
"I did not just say it. I said it five minutes ago. Get your facts straight."
"Well not everyone counts the minutes. I bet you know the fucking milliseconds too don't you?"
Yami did not answer that he had been keeping track of his time in Japan of two years down to the milliseconds as Yugi suggested. 730 days, 1051200 minutes, 63072000 seconds, and 6307200000 milliseconds and that was only the two years. Adding in the months that had already gone by, he was at 789 days, 1136160 minutes, 68169600 seconds, and 6816960000 milliseconds. His stomach hurt with the thought.
Yugi saw a look of pure pain cross his face and froze. Oh crap. Had he hurt him?
"I–"
"Shut up."
Yami was completely emotionless again, walking past him and looking at the shirts in front of him; Yugi was shocked to see that they were in fact not graphic t-shirts. Instead they were tank tops and Yami was regarding them with the most curious expression Yugi had ever seen.
"What? Have you never seen a tank top?"
"I sit next to you every day don't I?"
Yugi didn't realize he was teasing him until Yami's lips quirked up at the corner, his eyes flickering to look at him. He felt a small blush of embarrassment light his cheeks and went wide-eyed; he hadn't blushed in years. It didn't work with the bad boy persona that he showed off at school. He went to answer sardonically but Yami was no longer looking at him and was instead sorting through the clothes, grabbing a couple of tank tops and thrusting them into his hands.
Yugi was no stranger to this because Tea always did this to him when they went shopping so this was no surprise but he was not happy with the fact that he was apparently Yami's slave now. He didn't argue, however, thinking it a waste of breath to do so, and ignored the indignation that flared through him every time that Yami added more clothes. Oddly enough, most of the clothes looked like what Yugi himself would wear and for a moment he was confused. Did Yami expect him to try these on?
Yugi followed him through the store with a small curious expression, confused by this behavior. Yami normally showed common courtesy towards everyone and now he was treating him like his personal slave and that made no sense to him. Unless, of course, Yami was just like everyone else and thought that he had control over him too. The thought hurt in all actuality and he didn't want to admit that to himself.
When they got to the changing rooms, Yami took them from him easily, pausing and staring at him in plain confusion and blinking a few times before his cheeks started turning red and he fled back into one of the stalls. Yugi stared after him, puzzled and a little dismayed by his actions, unsure of what had just happened; ten minutes later Yami had gone through all sixty-something outfits and looked so sheepish it was not even funny.
Now Yami carried his own clothes, putting more than two thirds of the clothes back and then taking the other one back to the register; Yugi nearly choked when he saw the amount they equaled, mouth falling open and his eyes nearly bugging out of his head. He bought expensive things when he had the money and he knew that most of his clothes were normally on the expensive side, but holy crap, he had never spent close to two hundred dollars on one trip!
He had the money, but to spend it in one place…
He started to dig into his pockets but Yami was already two steps ahead of him, pulling his wallet out and handing over a shiny red and black and dark blue debit card to the cashier who rung it up and asked, "Would you like cash change?" with a wide-eyed, flirty expression on her face.
Yami didn't even so much as blink at her when he replied, "No thank you."
Yugi didn't miss the look of frustration that passed over her face or the way that Yami took his bag with a small smile but a look to his eyes that clearly stated he was not interested in her without being too obvious about it. The cashier got the message and pushed the bag at him to which Yami snatched it off the counter and turned to him. "So, did you want to get something too?"
He had not been shopping in so long that he had forgotten that Yugi was not there to carry things for him and he felt his stomach sink as Yugi stared at him in surprise for a few moments and then slowly shook his head. Fuck, how badly had he already messed up?
"No, we should go ahead and get our project going, right?"
Yami frowned. "I guess."
At the library Yugi was shocked out of his mind when Yami managed to roll all of the clothes he had bought and stuff them into his backpack and make it look as he just had extra books in there.
"So, about the clothes thing," Yami murmured, putting his backpack down and turning to him, "I didn't mean to make you carry my things. I…um…"
Yugi could practically see the thoughts behind his eyes, frowning when he saw the embarrassed and slightly worried gleam to his eyes. Now that he paid attention, he could see that Yami's emotions showed in certain areas of his eyes when he hid them away from others trying to read him. They only showed in those designated areas and they flashed for a fraction of a second. He had a feeling that it only happened when he got distracted in his thoughts and he couldn't push them away because of his concentration being severed.
"It's fine."
"No it's not."
"Yami, seriously–"
"Yugi, it wasn't fair and it's not fine. You're not my slave and yet I treated you like one and I'm sorry," Yami cut him off, grimacing. "It was never my intention to do so and I apologize. I…don't normally go shopping anymore."
He realized when the red eyes darkened and narrowed that it was definitely a bad idea to ask about it so instead he pushed his curiosity away and went to the bookshelves, glancing over his shoulder to see that Yami had his face in his palm and was shaking his head. He looked tensed and tired and maybe even exhausted with the posture he had adopted, his shoulders slumped forward and his back no longer straight, his head down and his left arm lying on the table while his right shielded his face. His muscles looked like they had seized up and locked and his stomach twisted.
What the hell was wrong with him?
"So…you haven't really worn any of the clothes you bought," Yugi commented suddenly to him as they took seats next to each other in the library. Yami looked up in confusion and the smaller teen raised an eyebrow at him, putting his binder down next to him.
"I don't want to wear them just yet," the taller red-eyed teen stated quietly. He would probably never wear them until after he was eighteen and he felt sick with that idea. It was weird, because Yami used to wear clothes like Yugi's when he was younger, well…aside from the fact that most of his tank tops showed off his bellybutton. It was really just a form of rebellion because his parents pissed him off and he decided he would wear whatever the hell he wanted and ordered them online, but he had liked the style. And now, in Japan…
"Why not? They were nearly two hundred bucks," Yugi commented.
He didn't explain that the debit card he had used had a lot more money than justthaton it and instead focused on going through his own binder looking for his rubric. "So?"
"So it's a waste of money if you don't wear them."
They were most likely a waste of money anyways. When he got back, his parents were not going to let him wear those clothes. In fact, he'd probably be put under much worse rules and restrictions than he ever had before and that thought sickened him.
"And you might as well take them back so someone else can buy and actuallywearthem, Yami," he pushed at him, narrowing his eyes; if Yami were smaller, he might be able to wear them himself, but because of Yami's taller frame, he definitely doubted it. "You could have spent it on more important stuff if you weren't going to wear them."
"It's none of your fucking business what I do with my money and my purchases, damn it. I didn't even want to go to the mall, Yugi, you did. And for what reason I don't know and I sure as hell don't care to find out," he spat angrily, glaring.
"I was just trying to be nice," the blue-violet-eyed boy argued, glaring back.
"Well don't! I never asked you to be nice to me!"
"You're a real antisocial piece of shit, aren't you?" Yugi snarled at him angrily.
"At least I'm not some kind of whore."
"Really? Because if I look one then so do you."
"By what means?"
"You look like me!"
"No, you look like me, Yugi."
"Bullshit. I bet I'm older than you."
"No, I assure you thatIam older thanyou."
"Fuck you. There's no way."
"February sixth, you little bastard."
"Damnit!"
"Yeah, so fuck off."
"Just because you're older than me doesn't mean anything!"
"No, it doesn't, but it also doesn't mean anything that you're younger than me!"
Both of them ended up glaring at each other for the first hour of their time at the library. Yami refused to back down and Yugi didn't want yetanotherperson to have the right to look down on him and it irked him that Yami might do so.
"Look…we have a project we need to do," the taller boy murmured, narrowing his eyes. The smaller continued glaring at him angrily. "We need to call a truce so that we can get this project done as quickly as possible, right? And then we can get a good grade and never have to bother with each other again, okay?"
Yugi felt a small pang of disappointment at Yami's words. It was true, in all actuality. They would probably never really bother with each other after this project. Not with the way that they were always on other ends of the hierarchy at school. Sure Yami was an enigma who never really abided by the weird rules that most geeks followed and he was pretty popular, but all of Yugi's friends aside from Tea–oddly enough the more he thought of them together, the more the pain started to leave him only because he knew that Tea would be happy with Yami if he dated her–had a problem with Yami. Joey hated him because he always snarled at him about calling Yami by Yugi's name, Ushio because Yami frustrated him because Yami beat him up when he too mistook Yami for Yugi–Ushio wanted lunch money that Yugi didn't have–and Tristan didn't really have a problem with him but sometimes he would lose his temper and just go off about whoever it was they were talking about at the time of his blowout and most of the time that would happen to be Yami purely because of Tea's shameless crush on the red-eyed teen. And Yugi didn't think that his friends would get along with Mana and Mahado for the most part.
He didn't really care personally that it wasYamihe would probably never bother with again. Mostly it was just that no one had the balls to stand up to him like the red-eyed teen seemed to. Everyone else cowered when he snapped and there really was no way for him to get them to participate in an argument. Yami did that, however. He needed someone wouldn't back down all the time and who would challenge him.
Even if they were just used for being the butt of his jokes, the relief of his stress. He craved someone–anyone–who would not cower when he lost his temper. Yami at least seemed to be someone who would never back down even if he tried to kick his legs out from under him and smother him with nasty bites that would leave tons of emotional damage later.
Even his friends backed off when he fought back. They pushed and pushed and were stunned when he snarled at them, so stunned that they couldn't even think straight long enough to come up with a response and so went immediately quiet.
Yami didn't do that. So far he bit back where he received one and he wasn't afraid to snap at him and push until he couldn't push anymore. It was a fuckingreliefto be around someone who had enough fire to fight back because the rest of them all hid away with their tails between their legs and it was getting annoying.
"All right, so let's stick to one conversation topic and not past that."
"You mean like ground rules?"
"Yeah." Yami had never liked ground rules but if it helped him keep his fucking mouth shut–he'd never really had so much trouble before but his and Yugi's arguing and snapping at each other like this made him frustrated and frustration gave him a big mouth if he wasn't immediately aware of what he was saying–he would embrace them like a lover if he had to.
"All right, fine. So…how about family and accessories?" Yugi announced, narrowing his eyes. "We can't talk about them or ask questions about them. Got it?"
"Sure, as long as you respect my boundaries of money and clothing as well."
"Fine."
"Great."
For a moment both of them were silent and then Yugi smirked at him and his voice was sardonic and sneering when he asked, "So why are you such a geek?"
"Why are you such a slut?"
Yugi couldn't help but laugh at his remark. "Such a geek."
"Such a slut."
Both of them started laughing, grinning and then turning back to their books; Yugi flipped a couple of pages and Yami got his binder open to take out his own rubric and loose leaf sheets of paper.
"So, anyways, I was thinking about it and if we do a poster, we can get up in front of the class for less time," Yugi started, making Yami look up at him. "But then the project rubric says that the more information in the presentation the higher the grade we'll get. So if we do the power point, we can put more information on the slides. But, also, the more slides we have, the less information we could put and have it look like we did more work. We just have to keep a minimum of at least five minutes up in front of the class and we'll be good."
Yami didn't respond immediately like Yugi thought he would. He found it kind of irritating that he had to wait for him to speak but at the same time, he liked the things that Yami had to say and so he didn't rush him. His answers were usually intriguing and sparked something inside of him that he had never really had before–pure and unfiltered anticipation and interest. No one managed to pull that from him anymore. They were all boring and stupid, like dolls. Yami was different–an enigma.
"Okay, but if we do the poster, we can just write smaller so that it looks like we have more information and with pictures, it will look like we've given it a lot more work."
"Okay, but if we do the poster, we have to get up in front of the class and if we do a power point, we can just stand behind the projector and the laptop and talk from there."
"No, he'll make us go over and point it out as we go along."
"We don't know that for sure, though."
"Maybe not."
"What is it with you and not wanting to get up in front of the class? I know you aren't shy and you even agreed."
"Yeah, let's add that to the topic of what we can't talk about."
"What?"
"Talking about oneself. I abhor it."
Yugi pursed his lips. How was he supposed to talk to him if they weren't even going to talk about themselves? How could they even make friends? Yugi wanted to at least know the boy that he was handing his long time crush and best friend over to and how was he supposed to do that if they couldn't even talk about themselves? Plus, what else was there to talk about?
"Fine I guess…" He grimaced and rubbed at the back of his head. "So then, why the hell are you a geek?"
"Why the hell are you a slut?"
"Fair enough. I like being a slut." If being a slut meant un-kissed, crushing on a girl for three years, being treated like a doormat by the four he called his friends, and acting out because he wanted attention. Ooh, ooh, anattentionslut. That definitely worked.
"Well, I like being a geek." If being a geek was code for troublemaking outside of school, being afraid of almost everything since he came to Japan, homesick, and desperate for companionship he couldn't quite get from Mana and Mahado no matter how hard he tried.
"Why?"
"Because I still have plans after high school is over and in order to obtain them, I have to keep my grades at their highest."
"I like the attention."
"I knew it."
"Yes, yes, you knew it."
Yami smirked at him and if Yugi hadn't been paying attention to his eyes, he would have missed it when the playful gleam entered them. "You're a little mental aren't you?"
"And you're a little secretive aren't you?"
"With good reason."
"Not better than mine."
"We're not comparing them because that would get a little too close for comfort."
"Good point."
"Yeah, have to remember the ground rules."
"Yep."
"So is the attention worth it?"
"Worth what?"
"Worth all of the trouble you go through to get it."
Yugi looked away and started messing with his own book again. "Sometimes, not always, but sometimes," he replied with a roll of his eyes. He waited a few minutes and then slowly looked over at him, tilting his head slightly in sardonic challenge. "Are the plans you have for after school worth alienating yourself like you have?"
Yami didn't get offended like Yugi had expected him to.
His eyes became shadowed, flickered but showed no emotion, lowering to the table. His eyelids lowered so that his eyes were only half-open. His gaze stared blankly at the sheet of paper in front of him.
"I don't know."
"Wait, where are we going?"
Yugi sighed. "My house."
"What? Why?"
"Because we need to start working on the presentation part of the project and if we're going to do a slideshow–"
"We never agreed on that."
"I know that but–"
"Then why would you assume–"
"I'm not assuming anything, I just thought that we should see which one we think is better," Yugi replied, cutting him off easily in order to keep from fighting with him; after two weeks of working together, refining their essay over three different times because Yami reallydidhave an insane weak point for punctuation, they still fought like cats and dogs every now and then though they had settled to mostly joking around. Yami was actually very easy to mess around with.
It begged the question of why more people weren't like him, why they all got so offended so easily at the smallest things. Why they all became carbon copies. It also begged the question of why he was friends with those four morons–Tea included; they all treated him like a doormat and he was sick of it but he didn't have the energy to deal with the crap that would come of trying to assert his dominance.
"You have a thumb-drive right?" Yami asked after a moment, playing with his royal blue school jacket and watching as Yugi nodded with a small humming noise; Yugi's house was within walking distance and Yami had to appreciate that. He'd gotten a headache from lack of sleep after a phone call from his mother two days before and it was driving him insane. Irritable, cranky, pissy. That was exactly what he was.
Yugi's house was a game shop that looked oddly like a turtle–the mouth was the front door, the turtle's flesh was completely yellow, the roof was green, and Yami guessed they were security cameras or something but there were two black machines just beneath the green roof with the word "Game" in large purple letters. The windows were all red in frame and Yami liked the shade of it–deep but not too deep, kind of bright but not too bright.
Yugi led the way in, the bell on the door ringing as they walked in. Yami glanced around. There were a lot of games. He recognized a lot of them due to his cousin and his own gaming experiences, but holy crap, there were also older games too and it made his lips twitch; at least Yugi's home had a nice selection and didn't discriminate just because the game had grown older than most people liked to play…
"Grandpa, I'm home."
There was a shuffling in the back and Yami turned away from some Duel Monster cards–he had never lost but he never exactly played it anymore since he and his cousin had gotten into a massive fistfight over his winning against him because he accused him of cheating because he had the Egyptian God cards Obelisk the Tormentor, The Winged Dragon of Ra and his very personal favorite the red two-mouthed dragon Slifer the Sky Dragon–to see the short–but taller than Yugi–gray spiky-haired elderly form of Solomon Motou.
"Ah, Yugi, welcome home." And then plum-colored eyes were very suddenly on Yami. "Ah, you must be one of Yugi's friends from school, huh?"
Yami blinked and Yugi rolled his eyes next to him, saying, "Grandpa, this is Yami Sennen. Yami Sennen, this is my grandpa. He's doing a project with me in history class. You remember, the one I that told you about before?"
His grandpa blinked once and then smiled. "Oh yes, he decided to be an asshole and choose North Carolina over Virginia," he said with a wink at Yami while Yugi groaned and covered his face with his hand.
"Yes, Grandpa, that would be Yami."
"I think my stories precede me," Yami muttered with a good-natured roll of his eyes, lips twitching in amusement. "Did he tell you how he demanded we did Virginia without even giving me a chance to say anything?"
Solomon started chuckling and Yugi glared at him fiercely.
"Shut up, asshole."
"Yugi!"
Yami chuckled softly and messed with the strap of his canvas bag. "Let's get started," he announced, looking to Yugi who sighed and rolled his eyes.
"We'll be upstairs, Grandpa."
"Sure."
Yugi led the way upstairs while Yugi glanced over his shoulder once and spotted the Slifer the Sky Dragon Booster Pack; oh yes, he did love the red two-mouthed dragon. Definitely his favorite Egyptian God. The Winged Dragon of Ra looked like a giant chicken as far as he was concerned and Obelisk wasn't really the one he used very often because he was the least favorite of the cards.
Solomon looked over at the cards and then at Yami and smiled a little; he recognized him, Yami realized with a sickening feeling. Yugi's grandfather recognized him…
"Yami."
He turned back to find his shorter look-alike at the top of the stairs waiting, gesturing for him to follow and he glanced back once before hurrying up after him; Yugi led the way to his room and took a seat at the desk, starting up the laptop set there, and pulled it onto the bed, patting the spot next to him. Yami hesitated for a moment, uncomfortable with the fact that they were alone and sitting so close together; everything in him was geared towards pulling away as soon as he sat down and he had to fight off a blind panic in his stomach for several moments.
Yugi noticed. Yami knew he did. But he was nice enough not to mention it.
"So I was thinking that if we do the power point, we could also present one that isn't the complete one and we can turn in the complete one for points while having the shortened be solely for the purpose of presenting. Plus, we might still be able to stick it out behind the projector instead of having to get in front of the class and hold up a poster."
"All right. So then will you keep the thumb-drive or shall I?"
Yugi turned towards him with wide eyes as his laptop booted up. "Wait, so we're going with the power point?"
"We…might as well. It makes sense. We can just copy and paste and it's not as messy as posters tend to be. Plus it's easier to recover on the computer than if we accidentally made a mistake on a poster. We throw something away and we're screwed over." He sighed and looked at the laptop, hitting the enter button and watching as the screen changed to a few rocks and water. He recognized the screensaver as the same of his own laptop. "Maybe I don't want to be in front of everyone but the visual counts just as much as the essay if not more and in retrospect a poster would be a rather stupid idea."
Yugi blinked. "Plus it's easier to take from one place to the next, right?" he offered.
"Yes." He was so tired. "Much easier."
He wanted to ask why Yugi lived with his grandpa. He wanted to know why Yugi lived there in a shop with him. But that would involve family and family was off limits so he didn't ask.