Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Simple ❯ Blackmail ( Chapter 17 )
[ 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: 09.01.2014 | Pages: 11 | Words: 8.0K | Visits: 97 | Status: Work In Progress
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Angst / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 09.01.2014 | Pages: 11 | Words: 8.0K | Visits: 97 | Status: Work In Progress
Disclaimer: I do not own
anything relating to Yu-Gi-Oh
Note: Story will be updated every Wednesday
Warning: TONS of cursing throughout story
Chapter Warning: Homosexual slander and general lemon
Homosexual Slander Warning: Pertains to first part.
General Lemon (I'm pretty sure that's what it is, I don't know though, really) happens in fourth part of chapter. Very brief by all means. Not really graphic. It's more just a mentioning of a lemon that happened earlier in story.
Chapter XVII: Blackmail
"Motou, Sennen?"
Yami opened his mouth to say that the project was not done but Yugi cut him off with a simple, "I'm going to email it during lunch. My internet was down over the weekend."
The teacher nodded and marked this on the clipboard but did not say anything towards this, continuing down his list; Yami gave Yugi a startled look but the blue-violet-eyed boy merely winked once before going back to the worksheet they had all been given.
"Why would you email an incomplete project?" Yami demanded a little sharply as he got to the smaller boy's side; Yugi raised an eyebrow and glanced at him sideways, looking confused for a moment before laughing.
"Oh, yeah, no, it's not incomplete."
"But I didn't–"
"I finished it up. You had a lot more on your mind far more important than just some stupid project. Besides, I didn't need your help for the rest of it," he explained, though Yami gave him an extremely guilty look. "Don't worry about it."
"But–"
"Seriously, don't bother apologizing about it. It doesn't matter. I'm smart enough to pull a simple partner project on my own," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"I…Well, thank you."
"No problem. You had far more important things to worry about than a stupid project."
Yami wanted to argue, but it was actually hard to find a reasonable way to do so; Yugi knew all about what had been going on so far in his life so it really didn't matter what he tried to say because he wouldn't be able to lie about it.
"But, if we ever get partnered up for another project, you can do it all for me," he offered.
Yami chuckled softly, smirking before nodding. "Deal."
"See you around?"
He had a small tinge of confusion when that comment reached his ears. He was so used to one of them going to the other's house and discussing it after class that he was literally left standing there with a highly confused look before slowly nodding.
"Yeah, I…See you around, Yugi."
"See you around, Yami."
Apparently that didn't really entitle the rest of the day because after that small conversation in the hallway, he didn't see Yugi again. Or at least not that he knew of.
And it wasn't until lunch that he even really remembered that, because it was indirect in the first place.
When he ran into Joey–literally ran into, causing them both to stumble backwards while Yami nearly lost the Puzzle piece in his pocket with the collision–the immediate thought in his head was to see–and he didn't know why, considering it all–if Yugi was around nearby, and then he felt so stupid afterwards that he really wanted to roll his eyes at himself but thought that might be offensive considering the hotheaded blond in front of him.
"Sorry," he murmured softly, watching honey brown eyes narrow into slits as he started to walk around him; it was only when he had gotten a few steps away that the taller teen finally spoke.
"Fucking fag."
Yami froze and then spun around so fast that Joey had no chance to stop him when his fist shot out and slammed into his nose with enough force to throw him on his back; Yami immediately took up the task of stomping on his stomach violently.
He was so tired of being called that, like it was something wrong and unnatural. And it was only further frustrating because at his words his head flashed with his father's words on the phone.
So what if hewasa faggot?
The word didn't even hurt anymore.
But it was so demeaning.
And he hated it.
And why the fuck was it even an insult to be gay in the first place?
He didn't think there was really anything wrong with him. He was still healthy. It was not hurting anyone. It didn't make him psychotic. He didn't try to force someone or do anything like that, and yet, someone like Joey, was trying to make him feel bad about itwhilebeating him down for it.
And he was so fucking tired of it.
Which was probably why he was practically trying to stomp Joey into pieces.
On the plus side, though, maybe he would get a little sympathy from Mai afterwards–when he dragged his bloodied half-dead body off the ground when Yami finished up with him; honestly, that hardly seemed like it was going to be anytime soon.
There were people coming; he could hear them, but he didn't care enough to look up. No, he was too absorbed in his current very fun pastime of stomping Joey's guts out of his stomach and grinding his ribs into dust. Personally, it kind of felt like a long time in coming, considering that Yami had never really fought him like he was now.
"Fag is kicking his ass!" someone in the hallway cracked up.
The group was growing tenfold with every minute that Yami stayed preoccupied but his head was starting to hurt slightly and his fingers felt drained, like someone had sucked the energy from them, his fingertips twitching and tingling with something akin to pain but pleasurable all at once. Like he had fallen asleep on them earlier and they were just beginning to wake up.
But he was so furious and this attack he was partaking in hardly seemed to lessen it. But then, he was angry about so many things now–about his parents turning their backs on him, aboutallowingYugi to use him all over again, about the stupid boy being there when he closed his eyes every night always ready to play a beautiful erotic game that made him feel nasty when he woke up again–so he honestly never expected it to happen in the first place.
Yugi sought his way through the mass of people, shoving who he thought could possibly be Jaden Yuki–maybe, he didn't know, he'd only really met the kid once but he bounced off the walls and it irritated him to no end so he had dropped him like a rock as soon as he was given space, not once talking to him again afterwards–who hit Yusei–Yugi had no fucking idea what the hellhislast name was–to gawk with bug eyes as a fire-eyed Yami stopped stomping and then straddled his waist, punching violently.
He really thought he ought to tell him to stop, to help his former–friend? Was he ever actually his friend?–but that thought died fast, really before it was ever even given form; no, instead he watched. Jaden came up to his side and shouted something that didn't really connect with his ears but he was pretty sure he was telling him to stop it, while Yusei told him to shut up and stay out of it.
Yami continued punching nonstop, blood spraying his face and knuckles as Joey struggled violently beneath him, trying to push him away with hands to his ribs; pain coursed through his system when the blond punched at his wounded lower right rib–it neverhadhealed right due to all the "strenuous activities" he had indulged himself with when it came to Yugi–but he still did not pause in his movements.
Another well-aimed punch had him snarling and choking him with his left hand but the action was cut extremely short with arms wrapped around his torso and jerked him away from the blond who lunged and landed a punch. Yami struggled harder, snarling and spitting and raging, kicking before elbowing the teacher holding him straight in the face. "Let me go! I'll kick his ass so hard he won't be able to walk!"
Someone in the crowd said something about him putting the wrong verb in that sentence, that he really wanted tofuckhis ass so hard that he wouldn't be able to walk, but that was hardly what caught Yugi's attention.
No, what caught his attention…was Yami and the fury he exerted.
His eyes were the shade of blood on his face, kicking and grasping out with his hands, snarling and struggling, his movements sloppy because the teacher was too tall to even let him touch the ground. He squirmed and struggled harder but nothing worked as the grip tightened around his torso and restrained him, muscles that kept his back pressed against a body that he hated even without knowing its owner.
Groups in the crowd were howling with laughter, others chanted for him to let Yami go, and Joey was spitting at him as he was taken away; it only spurred him on and at some point he started kicking backwards, his shoes connecting with knees belonging to a man who refused to let him go.
"I'll tear his face off. Let me go!" Yami seethed, struggling harder. "I'll tear his intestines out and wear them like a necklace."
"Ew."
Bakura burst out laughing and Malik snickered as they watched him squirm and struggle, at one point digging his nails into the man's arms and trying to pull himself out of his grip like some kind of cartoon character.
"Poor Yami," the blond muttered, leaning against the locker and shaking his head, arms crossed as he watched him.
"He's a real ball of sunshine today," Bakura snickered.
"He's a fireball."
Bakura nudged him with his elbow. "I wonder if we can piss him off like that sometime," he murmured, smirking widely.
Yami let out a caterwaul of anger at his expression, struggling harder.
"Geez, he's really pissed off." Malik turned his attention towards Joey and gave him a Cheshire cat grin. "Oh look, the cat lost the canary."
Bakura looked around once and then purred, "This is going to be fun."
Both of them started forward but then stopped when they saw a teacher was making their way through the crowd; Bakura curled his lip in distaste and Malik glowered before their eyes both flickered towards Yugi who swallowed hard. The fury in their eyes was not masked by any means when they shouldered past him, making him stagger back with the impact of their limbs and his.
Yugi glanced once over his shoulder at them and then swallowed hard before turning away again, stomach twisting slightly.
Yami was pushed into the chair in front of the assistant principal who stared at him in shock for a moment before shaking her head and walking off; it was twenty minutes before Seto walked in, gave him a single look that bordered angry but amused to no end, and then turned and walked into the office with the principal.
And it took another ten minutes before the brunet returned, gestured for him to grab his things, and said, "You should be ashamed of yourself. This is fucking embarrassing–"
Yami opened his mouth to explain but ended up cracking up when his cousin cut him off.
"Yourseventeen-year-old cousinjust got called in as your fucking legal guardian. That's fucking shameful." The brunet bumped arms with him as he got up.
He wasn't really paying attention to the emails in his box before that one popped up rather suddenly, just as he was about to sign out. The noise of a bubble popping made him stare for a moment or two, his eyes taking in the dark red email notification warily before slowly gliding his finger over the mouse-pad to put the cursor over it. He wasn't really in the mood to read it, but finally, he clicked the stupid thing.
And then he was cursing violently in Japanese and Arabic and looking ready to scream his head off as he glared at the screen.
"I know about you being disowned."
What kind of fucking subject was that?
Yami bared his teeth.
"Either come out on TV in the next week, Atem Sennen, or your predicament will be broadcasted everywhere. I have everything set up to knock you down. Seven days. On Wednesday next week, you will expose yourself or you will suffer dire consequences."
Who the fuck were they to threaten him?
The sender's address bar…was completely empty.
And it didn't help that he was given another email that said only two words.
"Seven days."
He almost hurled his laptop across the room but realized how stupid that would be. No, he wasn't about to damage his electronics. It wasn't like it was the TV or the laptop threatening him.
But what was the purpose of this?
Exposing himself as being gay would do nothing to him.
It would hurt his…
Yami couldn't help it when he burst out laughing.
"Here."
Yami passed the papers over to the brunet who stopped mid-speech with one of his business clients to stare in surprise at him before glowering.
"What is this?" he demanded.
"This is your official warning to get your little client out of here before I lose my temper andthrow him out," he snapped, red eyes blazing as they took in the other boy. Spiky brown hair, semi-narrow blue-gray eyes, short lashes, a somewhat baby face, with really stupid clothes and a pair of–were those goggles?–on his head. Either this kid worked really high up or Seto was letting his company's reputation slip a little.
"Valon, leave us," Seto hissed softly.
The boy gave Yami a wide-eyed look, then glanced at the icy-eyed Seto, and bolted from the room.
"This had better be good," the remaining brunet in the room grumbled at him, grabbing the papers and looking at them in confusion but utmost interest.
"I need you to trace an email."
"From these papers?" he muttered incredulously, looking up at him with an eyebrow cocked in annoyance.
"No, you nimrod. That's torecoverit. It self-deleted after fifteen minutes of being open. And the only reason I realized that was because of that little dot that appears in the corner when people do that."
Seto blinked once and looked the papers over, flipped through them curiously, staring with a darkened expression. "Thank god you actually know how to use the computer now. I guess it's a good thing you reallyarea quick study," he said gruffly.
Yami shrugged a shoulder lazily and watched him. "Well?"
"For fuck's sake, give me a minute," he snapped, rolling his eyes. "And this couldn't wait until I finished my meeting?"
"No."
The brunet let out a single hum of a noise and then pulled his own laptop out of his desk drawer, starting it up and grabbing a scanner and several other items. "You're just lucky I have an extra copy of my firewall on this stupid thing."
"Yes, who would you be without your firewall?" Yami inquired dryly, taking a seat in the computer chair "Valon" had occupied a moment before, spinning around and around while Seto started to analyze the email and recover it.
"Well," he finally murmured after five minutes of the computer working on its retrieval, "it's from a former employee of your father's. He was smart. He gave an alias instead of his information. The email account is purposely rigged. He knew you would come to me with it."
The red-eyed teen narrowed his eyes and tilted his head slightly to the side.
Seto turned his laptop around for him to look at.
"Hello, Atem. Or should I call you Yami? Either way, you won't find me anytime soon. Because I don't want to be found. But kudos to you for coming this far. I knew you had it in you. Smart boy that you are. Not smart enough, however. But if you want a hint as to who I am, I think you'll find my demands to be rather easy and straightforward. I demand my share of the money that was gained from the work stolen from me."
Seto was waiting for something–he really wasn't surewhat–to pass over Yami's face, but it never did.
He remained just as detached as he had been upon entering the room.
The only difference now was that his hands were grasping absently at the upside down pyramid that rested against his torso.
"And he calls me the fuck up."
The brunet couldn't help the snort of amusement.
Yami flashed him a wide smirk.
"There's more though."
The smirk very suddenly collapsed at the shrill sassy voice of the firewall that his cousin had installed to keep his business so powerful and unattainable from outside sources, eyes narrowing into slits of annoyance.
"What else?"
A window popped up as Seto stood and walked around to face the laptop with the red-eyed teen, both of them staring as the pop up expanded and a million different images began to appear on the screen only to have a bar that titled "Disarming Firewall" filling rather rapidly with green to show its progress.
And then a new window popped up and then another, another two bars titled "Hacking Progress" and "Information Recalled" which filled almost immediately.
Finally, theneededwindow appeared on screen.
"Son of a bitch."
Both of them hissed this in unison, glaring at the screen as they took it in.
The same demands. That Yami's father would have to watch his son come out on television as gay, or else the actions they took against him would be exposed. But this one had a soundbite and when it played, Yami felt sick to his stomach.
"What happened to what you used to tell me when I was young, mother? What happened to 'No matter what you do, where you go, or who you become, I will always love you, I will always protect you, and you will always be my little boy, always and forever'–what happened to that? Have I changed so much that you can't possibly love me anymore?" his voice was asking.
Seto gave him a shocked look–and Yami only recognized it as shocked because of the way that his eyes widened momentarily before returning to normal just as fast.
"What happened to what you used to tell me when I was young, mother? What happened to 'No matter what you do, where you go, or who you become, I will always love you, I will always protect you, and you will always be my little boy, always and forever'–what happened to that? Have I changed so much that you can't possibly love me anymore?" the clip replayed.
The brunet shifted slightly away from him, stared at the screen as "What happened to what you used to tell me when I was young, mother? What happened to 'No matter what you do, where you go, or who you become, I will always love you, I will always protect you, and you will always be my little boy, always and forever'–what happened to that? Have I changed so much that you can't possibly love me anymore?" was spat through the speakers again.
"What happened to what you used to tell me when I was young, mother? What happened to 'No matter what you do, where you go, or who you become, I will always love you, I will always protect you, and you will always be my little boy, always and forever'–what happened to that? Have I changed so much that you can't possibly love me anymore?"
Yami hit the desk so hard that the laptop nearly fell over and the sassy voice of the firewall cried, "Hey, I'm only showing you what you wanted to see."
"Make it shut up," he ground out.
And it did. Just as "No matter what" was coming out.
Seto shook his head and let out a sigh before leaning forward against the desk, closing the laptop and turning to him but not speaking.
And while maybe Yami should have been fuming or scared, all his mind could process was, "Do I really sound like that?"
And his cousin was shaking his head with another sigh.
Yami was not expecting him when he showed up. And he especially wasn't expecting him to be holding an envelope with no return address but hisownin the upper left corner, but the writing was far from his and Yugi seemed to know this because the look in his eyes was skeptical as he held it out to him before taking his backpack off and digging through it to pull out his laptop.
He didn't do the normal of asking about what it was, instead opening it and then recoiling, dropping the pictures as his fingers trembled and his eyes stared blankly at the images that lay across the ground.
No…
"Hmm…that was better than my reaction," Yugi muttered, rolling his eyes. "But that was only because Grandpa was looking at them as I was. And you know what he said?"
Red eyes flickered up to lock with his, blinking once in confusion before narrowing into slits, shaking his head slowly though the question was truly rhetorical.
"He told me it was good that I was getting rid of any excess testosterone though he had always wished that I would have children."
He blinked once. "Bullshit. There's no way he said that."
"Oh, no, Yami, he did. You have no idea. He's been trying to get me shacked up with someone since I was fourteen. Said I shouldn't miss out on what life had to offer just because my voice wasn't deep."
Yami raised an eyebrow.
"Actually, I'm starting to think he might have been part of the reason that I started to have that…thing for Tea," he admitted, stepping around the pictures and closing the door before heading for the living room, humming before calling out, "He used to talk about her breasts a lot when she hit puberty."
Yami stared at him for a moment and then turned his attention back to the pictures on the ground before very slowly kneeling down to pick them up.
"Don't bother. Just come over here. I have something that I really need to show you," Yugi said, cutting his actions off as he grabbed the first photo, one of them… Yami shook his head, dropped it like it had burned him and walked slowly towards him to take a seat on the couch next to him.
"You know, I'm pretty sure that Grandpa might have been looking over my shoulder when I was watching this." He dug through his files for a moment, went from Computer to Library to Videos, dwelled deeper to retrieve a password, and then clicked on a link entitled "I Know What You Did".
His eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
The audio didn't catch their words, but it did catch the moans, the mewls, the growling that Yami had emitted, the squeaking of the bed, the way Yugi hit the headboard a little hard when he was backed up into it.
"How…?"
"I don't know."
Yami reached up and grabbed the headboard, Yugi stared up at him. Yami used the headboard to ram into him harder. Yugi matched him thrust for thrust.
All of it. Recorded. From the window. Of his bedroom.
"Well…that's just lovely."
Yugi barked out a laugh. "They said that I would have to download it. It was password protected and everything. Made it strong enough that I reallycouldn'topen it without downloading it first. He also said to show it to you. Before…the big event happened–what, uh…what's the big event?"
"I have to expose myself as a homosexual on television," he answered distractedly. Wow, actually, as disgusting as it was considering the circumstances, the noises Yugi was making kind of made his pants tighten.
"Seriously?"
"Next Wednesday. News reporters will be all over school grounds."
"Holy crap. That's going to suck." He paused. "So…why is this happening?"
"The guy who sent this…was fired recently. I have no idea why, but he was fired and now he wants to get back at my father but I think it may have been because of my mom, honestly. But, think about it, what could possibly be worse than his 'miracle son' being exposed to the world as a faggot?" he murmured, sitting back and crossing his legs, studying the video for a long time. "He's sent my father a soundbite of my mother and I talking…of her disowning me. The effects of that released with my coming out…that would be devastating towards his campaign."
"Suddenly I wish you weren't my fuck buddy."
"Yeah, join the club."
Yugi stayed silent for a minute, closed his eyes, hummed softly. "You're worse of a bad boy than me," he finally muttered before opening his eyes and glaring at him playfully. "I think I need to change that."
Yami gave him a wide smirk. "Oh, I don't think it gets much worse than destroying your parents' livelihood single handedly."
"Oh, no, Yami, Iwillfind something. I can't be outdone as the top dog anytime soon."
Yami snickered and shook his head, turning back to the video where his smirk fell and shattered into a frown. "Ra, everything is so fucked up."
"I don't really believe in mister sunshine solar deity, but I still agree."
He laughed softly. "You're a strange kid."
"That's why you love me."
They both stiffened simultaneously for a moment.
"Yeah, maybe."
Yugi didn't respond, because there was nothing left to say.
"Well, it's definitely not the only copy if it's blackmail material," Seto said, leaning back against the leather chair, drumming his fingers against the desk; the entire time he had ignored Yugi completely and had only addressed Yami.
The red-eyed boy lolled his head back and let out a sigh. "I know that. Is there any way that you could trace it back and encrypt it or something? Infect them?"
Seto shook his head slowly. "No. I already tried that when the email was sent. The guy is a lot smarter than I originally took him for. He's made himself completely untraceable and if I were to try to put the virus into something, it would corrupt someone else. There is no clear way to get back to him."
Yami drummed his fingers against the armrest, thinking it over, but found no solution. "Well, that's just great," he muttered, tilting his head slightly to the side. "Your firewall had no suggestions?"
"No."
"Damn it."
Yugi wanted to, but he didn't ask what the fuck Yami meant by his firewall having suggestions, because that made no sense whatsoever. Firewall was protection in the computer, protected you from viruses. It wouldn'thavesuggestions to make.
"How many copies do you think there are?"
"Probably a lot. Maybe a couple hundred," Seto muttered. "In case he has to send it elsewhere. Definitely a ton of them left around. There's no way that he would send you one without a bunch of others. That's not how blackmail works."
Yami huffed. "I hate people."
Yugi snorted in amusement and Seto smirked.
"When hasn't that been an issue for you?"
Yami draped his leg over the side of his chair and spun with a kick from the desk, watching the room blur for a few moments before it stopped again and he was looking at Seto rather simply. "Hmm…I don't recall that ever not being one," he admitted.
"Then again, you probably have a right to think that anyways," his cousin said thoughtfully, shrugging once. "Either way…are you polishing that thing?"
"Excuse me?" he asked abruptly, staring in confusion and disbelief towards the question. "What the fuck does that mean?"
He nodded at the Puzzle. "That. Are you polishing it?"
Yami looked down at it, grabbed the chain links in his right hand and lifted the hollow gold pyramid, tilting his head. "Polishing it? No…why?"
"Because you've had that thing since you were three and you finished it at six and you've always had it so how it isnotdirty?"
"Um…"
"Is it real gold?" Yugi asked suddenly.
Icy blue eyes flickered towards him and a nose wrinkled in disdain.
Yami nodded and turned his attention towards his shorter look-alike. "It is."
Seto didn't like the look in his eyes as he looked at the smaller boy. It was not that he did not approve of his choices, but Yami could do so much better and it was rather pathetic that he was settling for someone so mediocre. And what had that mediocrity gotten him so far?
Pain.
Humiliation.
Embarrassment.
Fear.
Heartache.
His hand forced to humiliate himself further by getting on TV to tell everyone that he was gay.
His mother and father disowning him.
Suicidal thoughts and actions–that had yet to be proved beyond his little "cliff diving" experience, but Seto was pretty sure that if he could do it once, he might try it again.
And shitty blackmail.
So no, he didn't approve of Yugi. Not in the least.
Yami could do so much better.
And he hated the way he was looking at him with such keen adoration hidden behind a deep amusement.
And the fact that Yugi seemed to dismiss this and instead stare down at the Puzzle while swapping it occasionally for Yami's face, irked him so much that he almost lunged over the desk and punched him.
But his cousin wasn't a little kid and Seto couldn't do much that would not make Yami hurt him in a counterattack if he was to try to butt in. Yami would have to figure everything out on his own, regardless of how his cousin felt about it.
There wasn't really that much else he could do for him.
Yami was not oblivious to the tension in the room. It was rather hard to ignore his cousin's ire, but he still did it, because acknowledging it meant that he was just giving Seto something further to use against him and he refused to do so. Besides, it wasn't like he could turn it off or anything. And he was so tired of trying anyways.
"Is there any way I could try to block him out of my email or something?" Yami asked, turning his attention back to the brunet whose face twisted from the smallest, slightest of scowls to blink once and shake his head slowly.
"I think that maybe it's safe to assume that this guy might have been the one to text that picture around school–"
"No, that was Tea and Joey," Yugi interrupted, making those ice blue eyes flicker and blaze as they bore into his; he was not intimidated by any means, instead giving him an unimpressed look.
Yami nodded and again kicked the desk to spin in his chair. "Tristan told me that after it happened." He paused. "Besides, Tea was–is–mad at me for that little stunt I pulled and Joey hasalwaysbeen a homophobe."
"You knew about that?" the smallest boy in the room asked, eyes wide as he looked over. He knew Yami was there when he shouted it from on top of that lunch table, but he saidalwaysand not just stated he was a homophobe which implied he had known much longer.
"It's rather hard to miss, Yugi," he replied, coming to a stop and facing his cousin with his head turned towards the blue-violet-eyed boy. "He picks on them indiscreetly and puts them down rather harshly. Not to mention that he sits on the other side of the desk when he's around you in class. And, no surprise, but he also always keepsawayfrom anyone who isn't completely straight."
Yugi frowned a little. "Yeah…he's kind of an ass like that."
Yami shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me. The point is"–he returned his attention to Seto who narrowed his eyes slightly–"that it was Tea and Joey who sent the pictures around school. Now, what I haven't figured out is how they got the picture in the first place. Because how the hell did he get their email addresses in the first place?"
"Probably the same way that they got everyone else's numbers," Seto replied with a roll of his eyes. "The student directory. They have all the contact information and you guys arerequiredto keep your cell phone numbers on there and up to date every semester in case of emergency, right? Along with email and home phone, so it's really no surprise that he got their information."
"Yes, but I want to knowhow. How did he get into the school? How did no one realize that he wasn't supposed to be there? How did he convince them to give him the damn thing? That is supposed to be confidential. They said that they did not give them out to others. And he isn't part of the staff and he sure as fuck isn't a student, so how the hell did this happen?"
"You don't think he might be a parent to one of the students?" the brunet inquired.
Yami stopped short and his shoulders tensed as he narrowed his eyes. "I forgot PTA gets the stupid things every month too," he muttered, leaning back into the seat and drumming his fingers on the armrest. "But I don't think that's possible. I don't…Maybe, but he just started showing up a month or two ago and I don't think that he could be a member of the PTA if he was in Egypt this entire time."
"No, but if he were to transfer his kid into school and sign them up for PTA, they would be required to hand over the directory upon their joining," Yugi replied with a tilt of his head. "So, technically, all it would take is a single day to do it."
"Okay, but the last exchange student we had was…Devlin"–Seto sat up a little straighter at the venom that cloaked that single word, and Yugi shifted slightly in his seat, looking terribly uncomfortable–"and that was a few weeksafterthe incident occurred."
"But that would be normal, wouldn't it? It would seem almost like his parents were thinking that maybe it would be too hard for him to catch up at the end of the first half of the semester so he would have to start the second half of the semester, but then again, just putting him in at the end of the first half of the semester would make it seem like they didn't want him to lose more school than they needed, right?" Yugi suddenly inquired.
Both of them looked at him for a moment and then turned back to thinking it over as they stared at each other.
"It's possible," Seto responded quietly, frowning and narrowing his eyes. "And considering how well he's thought out everything else, I can't say I'm surprised if that was in fact what he did."
"So if we get to Duke"–again there was so much venom in this word that Yugi squirmed and Seto sat up a little straighter, eyes sharp and calculating and full of curiosity he didn't bother to hide–"then we can find out who is doing this."
"It's not that simple. I don't think that Duke would know anything," Yugi muttered softly.
The sharp look that Yami gave him made him cringe mentally and his eyes flashed, but he didn't make a physical movement to show the distress that came with the glare the taller boy shot him.
"I mean, why would you tell your son if you're going to be blackmailing a bunch of people?" he amended quickly, swallowing hard and hurrying to correct his mistakes. "And why would you tell him that you–?"
And then something kind of clicked in his head.
"Oh fuck."
He got up and swallowed hard.
"I think I need to go."
Both of the cousins watched him but neither objected to his running off.
Yugi punched him so hard he stumbled and fell off the stool; the bartender looked stunned, opening her mouth to object, and people were starting to stare, but the blue-violet eyes were focused on the teal-eyed boy on the ground before him.
"You fucking bastard," he spat. "You're part of this shit too."
Duke glared up at him. "Part ofwhat?" he snapped.
"Part of this scam. That's why you claimed you fucked me in school after I beat your ass," he growled. "I stayed quiet because I was too tired to bother arguing it out with everyone because obviously they wouldn't have believed me anyways, but what the fuck? What did I do to you? What didYamido to you?"
The taller boy blinked and slowly got up to look at him.
"You just got here a month ago and you're already screwing us over–"
"Oh shut up. Like you don't deserve it."
"Tell me what I've done, Duke, because I honestly don't know."
"Your stupid boyfriend over there–"
"He is not my boyfriend," he shouted. "He's not my anything. He doesn't even matter to me. I fucked him a few times. That'sit. I don't get why the fuck everyone wants to put labels on everything. Is it not good enough to just be used for some release? For fuck's sake."
Duke rolled his eyes.
And for a moment Yugi didn't remember what it was but that motion made him suspicious before tilting his head and realizing exactly what it was.
"You…didn't just transfer here. You were in Domino before. For a year before you left for America again and came back."
Now he looked surprised.
"You stayed for that Duel Monsters convention that was going on. That tournament that Seto put together. The one that lasted much longer than it should have." He shook his head and glared. "If you're mad about me kicking your sorry ass in Duel Monsters–"
"Who gives a fuck about that? No, personally, I have nothing against you."
"Then what do you have against Yami?"
He didn't answer.
"Because if you didn't have something against him, then you wouldn't have claimed to have fucked me," Yugi snarled. "So what is it? What did he do to you?"
"He ruined my chance to become a millionaire."
"Excuse me?"
"Does the wordsuccessmean anything to you, Yugi? I bet it sounds foreign, considering you fuck to get what you want and don't work for it," Duke spat. "He ruined my chance to become successful, famous, wealthy."
"You're delusional. What the fuck does that mean?"
"It means that your little…fuck buddy might want to watch his back."
"What are you planning to do to him? What's the point of all of this?" Yugi demanded.
Duke stood up, smirking, his dark green eyes full of sardonic amusement, full of annoyance and malice. "That's for you to find out later on. Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."
"Surprise?"
The raven-haired boy barked out a laugh and then turned and walked off before Yugi could say anything more.
"Son of a bitch…"
"Duke knows something but he won't say," Yugi said quietly.
Yami blinked once and tilted his head, rubbing an eye tiredly; it took Yugi a moment to realize that the taller boy was in black pajama bottoms and a gray sleeveless shirt, hair disarrayed and his posture slightly slumped.
"Oh crap. I didn't think this through…"
The other boy waved his hand dismissively. "He won't say?" he echoed softly, covering his mouth as he yawned loudly behind his fingers and then snapped his jaw shut so that his teeth made a startling chomping noise like an angered dog.
"He said that there's something big planned for you though. That you should watch your back."
Yami suddenly scowled at him, bristling as he growled, "Was that before or after you fucked him?"
Yugi blinked and rolled his eyes. "Knock it off. You don't fucking need to be jealous of something that stupid. I never fucking slept with him," he snapped, stepping inside and pushing Yami back a couple of steps to lock the door behind him. "Look, the point is that he said they have something planned for you. Something about how you ruined his chance at success or something."
The red-eyed boy narrowed his eyes, obviously not about to let Yugi get away with that simple denial. Obviously he wanted more but was not about to question it just yet, instead turning back to the subject at hand.
"I don't remember doing such a thing. I've never even interacted with him before. All I know is that he's an ass and I've met him once in ninth grade and that was it," Yami stated simply, narrowing his eyes further so that they turned into a pair of gleaming slits only lit by the rather plain yellow light overhead that cast the room in yellow.
"Hmm…did you not indulge inwhitebulbs?" Yugi commented after a moment, looking up at the bulb and back, raising an eyebrow. "Too expensive for Mr. Ambassador's Son?"
"Mr. As does not wish to talk about his crappy lighting."
He let out a small laugh. "I didn't even realize that was what it spelled."
Yami shrugged and leaned against the wall, glancing at the lighting. "That shit does suck though."
The smaller boy nodded eagerly. "It does. I suggest you invest in some white bulbs next time."
"Ha," Yami commented, turning his attention back to Yugi. "Fuck no I'm not investing in jack shit."
He was laughing but the other boy was completely serious in expression, watching him closely. "What?"
"Nothing."
Yugi didn't miss the little flash of guilt and pure hatred that marked his eyes momentarily; he didn't miss the way that Yami's eyes would occasionally flicker towards his neck as if searching for marks and he sure as fuck didn't miss the way the red gaze narrowed as they took in his clothing.
"I didn't sleep with him!" he snapped. "I never slept with him. I ran into him at a bar–agaybar–because I was looking for a place where I would be far away enough from the house that I wouldn't really get home at any point when my grandpa was awake. And so that people wouldn't recognize me. And I got there and…shit happened."
"Shit happened?"
Did he tell him about the fact that he had tried to force him into his car in the backseat to fuck around a little without any actual signals? Did he tell him that he beat the shit out of him for doing so? Did he tell him that Yugi only pushed him away because hewasn'tthe boy in front of him?
No.
He didn't. Because, for once in his life, he really didn't want to hurt him. And if he told him all of that, he might just make Yami think that they had a chance where there was none. And he couldn't do that. Because, despite himself, he cared too much for the red-eyed boy to allow that to happen.
Directly or otherwise.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it. It's nothing."
Yami gave him an incredulous look but didn't press and Yugi was grateful for that, as he always was, relieved that Yami actuallyknewwhat borders and boundaries meant.
"Very well. So, you swear you didn't fuck him?"
Yugi rolled his eyes. "Yes, Yami, I swear I did not fuck him."
"All right, so what is it that you want from me exactly?"
"I–what?"
"Forgive me. That came out wrong." He shook his head, leaned against the wall further, closed his eyes, and muttered, "You caught me during one weird ass dream. I'm not…I didn't mean to snap at you."
"It's whatever. Anyways, so he knows what's going on. And I'm pretty sure that's why he started saying I slept with him. Because that would further screw up your reputation, you know? And I don't know, but I have a feeling that he might try to pull something on Wednesday."
"Nothing will be more humiliating than what I already must do. I am going to alienate myself from my family so permanently it will be amazing. And what's worse is my father isguaranteedto be watching or else news of my status of being disowned is going public in every way. They have the conversation between my mom and me on file…" He blinked his eyes open into slits, staring at him with almost completely black eyes due to the shadows of his long lashes. "So I hardly see what could possibly be worse than what I am being subjected to."
"I'm so–"
"It doesn't fucking matter. You can't do anything to stop it and it's not like you're the reason this is happening. It was my own stupid mistakes that brought this on, nothing else. I was a fool to think that I could possibly get away with what I had done."
"But you didn't do anything wrong."
"I…I know that." He didn't sound very convincing but the look in his eyes said he was speaking the truth. "But that's not what matters. My opinion on it doesn't change the fact that it has broken apart every bit of my connection with my parents."
Note: Story will be updated every Wednesday
Warning: TONS of cursing throughout story
Chapter Warning: Homosexual slander and general lemon
Homosexual Slander Warning: Pertains to first part.
General Lemon (I'm pretty sure that's what it is, I don't know though, really) happens in fourth part of chapter. Very brief by all means. Not really graphic. It's more just a mentioning of a lemon that happened earlier in story.
Chapter XVII: Blackmail
"Motou, Sennen?"
Yami opened his mouth to say that the project was not done but Yugi cut him off with a simple, "I'm going to email it during lunch. My internet was down over the weekend."
The teacher nodded and marked this on the clipboard but did not say anything towards this, continuing down his list; Yami gave Yugi a startled look but the blue-violet-eyed boy merely winked once before going back to the worksheet they had all been given.
"Why would you email an incomplete project?" Yami demanded a little sharply as he got to the smaller boy's side; Yugi raised an eyebrow and glanced at him sideways, looking confused for a moment before laughing.
"Oh, yeah, no, it's not incomplete."
"But I didn't–"
"I finished it up. You had a lot more on your mind far more important than just some stupid project. Besides, I didn't need your help for the rest of it," he explained, though Yami gave him an extremely guilty look. "Don't worry about it."
"But–"
"Seriously, don't bother apologizing about it. It doesn't matter. I'm smart enough to pull a simple partner project on my own," he said with a dismissive wave of his hand.
"I…Well, thank you."
"No problem. You had far more important things to worry about than a stupid project."
Yami wanted to argue, but it was actually hard to find a reasonable way to do so; Yugi knew all about what had been going on so far in his life so it really didn't matter what he tried to say because he wouldn't be able to lie about it.
"But, if we ever get partnered up for another project, you can do it all for me," he offered.
Yami chuckled softly, smirking before nodding. "Deal."
"See you around?"
He had a small tinge of confusion when that comment reached his ears. He was so used to one of them going to the other's house and discussing it after class that he was literally left standing there with a highly confused look before slowly nodding.
"Yeah, I…See you around, Yugi."
"See you around, Yami."
Apparently that didn't really entitle the rest of the day because after that small conversation in the hallway, he didn't see Yugi again. Or at least not that he knew of.
And it wasn't until lunch that he even really remembered that, because it was indirect in the first place.
When he ran into Joey–literally ran into, causing them both to stumble backwards while Yami nearly lost the Puzzle piece in his pocket with the collision–the immediate thought in his head was to see–and he didn't know why, considering it all–if Yugi was around nearby, and then he felt so stupid afterwards that he really wanted to roll his eyes at himself but thought that might be offensive considering the hotheaded blond in front of him.
"Sorry," he murmured softly, watching honey brown eyes narrow into slits as he started to walk around him; it was only when he had gotten a few steps away that the taller teen finally spoke.
"Fucking fag."
Yami froze and then spun around so fast that Joey had no chance to stop him when his fist shot out and slammed into his nose with enough force to throw him on his back; Yami immediately took up the task of stomping on his stomach violently.
He was so tired of being called that, like it was something wrong and unnatural. And it was only further frustrating because at his words his head flashed with his father's words on the phone.
So what if hewasa faggot?
The word didn't even hurt anymore.
But it was so demeaning.
And he hated it.
And why the fuck was it even an insult to be gay in the first place?
He didn't think there was really anything wrong with him. He was still healthy. It was not hurting anyone. It didn't make him psychotic. He didn't try to force someone or do anything like that, and yet, someone like Joey, was trying to make him feel bad about itwhilebeating him down for it.
And he was so fucking tired of it.
Which was probably why he was practically trying to stomp Joey into pieces.
On the plus side, though, maybe he would get a little sympathy from Mai afterwards–when he dragged his bloodied half-dead body off the ground when Yami finished up with him; honestly, that hardly seemed like it was going to be anytime soon.
There were people coming; he could hear them, but he didn't care enough to look up. No, he was too absorbed in his current very fun pastime of stomping Joey's guts out of his stomach and grinding his ribs into dust. Personally, it kind of felt like a long time in coming, considering that Yami had never really fought him like he was now.
"Fag is kicking his ass!" someone in the hallway cracked up.
The group was growing tenfold with every minute that Yami stayed preoccupied but his head was starting to hurt slightly and his fingers felt drained, like someone had sucked the energy from them, his fingertips twitching and tingling with something akin to pain but pleasurable all at once. Like he had fallen asleep on them earlier and they were just beginning to wake up.
But he was so furious and this attack he was partaking in hardly seemed to lessen it. But then, he was angry about so many things now–about his parents turning their backs on him, aboutallowingYugi to use him all over again, about the stupid boy being there when he closed his eyes every night always ready to play a beautiful erotic game that made him feel nasty when he woke up again–so he honestly never expected it to happen in the first place.
Yugi sought his way through the mass of people, shoving who he thought could possibly be Jaden Yuki–maybe, he didn't know, he'd only really met the kid once but he bounced off the walls and it irritated him to no end so he had dropped him like a rock as soon as he was given space, not once talking to him again afterwards–who hit Yusei–Yugi had no fucking idea what the hellhislast name was–to gawk with bug eyes as a fire-eyed Yami stopped stomping and then straddled his waist, punching violently.
He really thought he ought to tell him to stop, to help his former–friend? Was he ever actually his friend?–but that thought died fast, really before it was ever even given form; no, instead he watched. Jaden came up to his side and shouted something that didn't really connect with his ears but he was pretty sure he was telling him to stop it, while Yusei told him to shut up and stay out of it.
Yami continued punching nonstop, blood spraying his face and knuckles as Joey struggled violently beneath him, trying to push him away with hands to his ribs; pain coursed through his system when the blond punched at his wounded lower right rib–it neverhadhealed right due to all the "strenuous activities" he had indulged himself with when it came to Yugi–but he still did not pause in his movements.
Another well-aimed punch had him snarling and choking him with his left hand but the action was cut extremely short with arms wrapped around his torso and jerked him away from the blond who lunged and landed a punch. Yami struggled harder, snarling and spitting and raging, kicking before elbowing the teacher holding him straight in the face. "Let me go! I'll kick his ass so hard he won't be able to walk!"
Someone in the crowd said something about him putting the wrong verb in that sentence, that he really wanted tofuckhis ass so hard that he wouldn't be able to walk, but that was hardly what caught Yugi's attention.
No, what caught his attention…was Yami and the fury he exerted.
His eyes were the shade of blood on his face, kicking and grasping out with his hands, snarling and struggling, his movements sloppy because the teacher was too tall to even let him touch the ground. He squirmed and struggled harder but nothing worked as the grip tightened around his torso and restrained him, muscles that kept his back pressed against a body that he hated even without knowing its owner.
Groups in the crowd were howling with laughter, others chanted for him to let Yami go, and Joey was spitting at him as he was taken away; it only spurred him on and at some point he started kicking backwards, his shoes connecting with knees belonging to a man who refused to let him go.
"I'll tear his face off. Let me go!" Yami seethed, struggling harder. "I'll tear his intestines out and wear them like a necklace."
"Ew."
Bakura burst out laughing and Malik snickered as they watched him squirm and struggle, at one point digging his nails into the man's arms and trying to pull himself out of his grip like some kind of cartoon character.
"Poor Yami," the blond muttered, leaning against the locker and shaking his head, arms crossed as he watched him.
"He's a real ball of sunshine today," Bakura snickered.
"He's a fireball."
Bakura nudged him with his elbow. "I wonder if we can piss him off like that sometime," he murmured, smirking widely.
Yami let out a caterwaul of anger at his expression, struggling harder.
"Geez, he's really pissed off." Malik turned his attention towards Joey and gave him a Cheshire cat grin. "Oh look, the cat lost the canary."
Bakura looked around once and then purred, "This is going to be fun."
Both of them started forward but then stopped when they saw a teacher was making their way through the crowd; Bakura curled his lip in distaste and Malik glowered before their eyes both flickered towards Yugi who swallowed hard. The fury in their eyes was not masked by any means when they shouldered past him, making him stagger back with the impact of their limbs and his.
Yugi glanced once over his shoulder at them and then swallowed hard before turning away again, stomach twisting slightly.
Yami was pushed into the chair in front of the assistant principal who stared at him in shock for a moment before shaking her head and walking off; it was twenty minutes before Seto walked in, gave him a single look that bordered angry but amused to no end, and then turned and walked into the office with the principal.
And it took another ten minutes before the brunet returned, gestured for him to grab his things, and said, "You should be ashamed of yourself. This is fucking embarrassing–"
Yami opened his mouth to explain but ended up cracking up when his cousin cut him off.
"Yourseventeen-year-old cousinjust got called in as your fucking legal guardian. That's fucking shameful." The brunet bumped arms with him as he got up.
He wasn't really paying attention to the emails in his box before that one popped up rather suddenly, just as he was about to sign out. The noise of a bubble popping made him stare for a moment or two, his eyes taking in the dark red email notification warily before slowly gliding his finger over the mouse-pad to put the cursor over it. He wasn't really in the mood to read it, but finally, he clicked the stupid thing.
And then he was cursing violently in Japanese and Arabic and looking ready to scream his head off as he glared at the screen.
"I know about you being disowned."
What kind of fucking subject was that?
Yami bared his teeth.
"Either come out on TV in the next week, Atem Sennen, or your predicament will be broadcasted everywhere. I have everything set up to knock you down. Seven days. On Wednesday next week, you will expose yourself or you will suffer dire consequences."
Who the fuck were they to threaten him?
The sender's address bar…was completely empty.
And it didn't help that he was given another email that said only two words.
"Seven days."
He almost hurled his laptop across the room but realized how stupid that would be. No, he wasn't about to damage his electronics. It wasn't like it was the TV or the laptop threatening him.
But what was the purpose of this?
Exposing himself as being gay would do nothing to him.
It would hurt his…
Yami couldn't help it when he burst out laughing.
"Here."
Yami passed the papers over to the brunet who stopped mid-speech with one of his business clients to stare in surprise at him before glowering.
"What is this?" he demanded.
"This is your official warning to get your little client out of here before I lose my temper andthrow him out," he snapped, red eyes blazing as they took in the other boy. Spiky brown hair, semi-narrow blue-gray eyes, short lashes, a somewhat baby face, with really stupid clothes and a pair of–were those goggles?–on his head. Either this kid worked really high up or Seto was letting his company's reputation slip a little.
"Valon, leave us," Seto hissed softly.
The boy gave Yami a wide-eyed look, then glanced at the icy-eyed Seto, and bolted from the room.
"This had better be good," the remaining brunet in the room grumbled at him, grabbing the papers and looking at them in confusion but utmost interest.
"I need you to trace an email."
"From these papers?" he muttered incredulously, looking up at him with an eyebrow cocked in annoyance.
"No, you nimrod. That's torecoverit. It self-deleted after fifteen minutes of being open. And the only reason I realized that was because of that little dot that appears in the corner when people do that."
Seto blinked once and looked the papers over, flipped through them curiously, staring with a darkened expression. "Thank god you actually know how to use the computer now. I guess it's a good thing you reallyarea quick study," he said gruffly.
Yami shrugged a shoulder lazily and watched him. "Well?"
"For fuck's sake, give me a minute," he snapped, rolling his eyes. "And this couldn't wait until I finished my meeting?"
"No."
The brunet let out a single hum of a noise and then pulled his own laptop out of his desk drawer, starting it up and grabbing a scanner and several other items. "You're just lucky I have an extra copy of my firewall on this stupid thing."
"Yes, who would you be without your firewall?" Yami inquired dryly, taking a seat in the computer chair "Valon" had occupied a moment before, spinning around and around while Seto started to analyze the email and recover it.
"Well," he finally murmured after five minutes of the computer working on its retrieval, "it's from a former employee of your father's. He was smart. He gave an alias instead of his information. The email account is purposely rigged. He knew you would come to me with it."
The red-eyed teen narrowed his eyes and tilted his head slightly to the side.
Seto turned his laptop around for him to look at.
"Hello, Atem. Or should I call you Yami? Either way, you won't find me anytime soon. Because I don't want to be found. But kudos to you for coming this far. I knew you had it in you. Smart boy that you are. Not smart enough, however. But if you want a hint as to who I am, I think you'll find my demands to be rather easy and straightforward. I demand my share of the money that was gained from the work stolen from me."
Seto was waiting for something–he really wasn't surewhat–to pass over Yami's face, but it never did.
He remained just as detached as he had been upon entering the room.
The only difference now was that his hands were grasping absently at the upside down pyramid that rested against his torso.
"And he calls me the fuck up."
The brunet couldn't help the snort of amusement.
Yami flashed him a wide smirk.
"There's more though."
The smirk very suddenly collapsed at the shrill sassy voice of the firewall that his cousin had installed to keep his business so powerful and unattainable from outside sources, eyes narrowing into slits of annoyance.
"What else?"
A window popped up as Seto stood and walked around to face the laptop with the red-eyed teen, both of them staring as the pop up expanded and a million different images began to appear on the screen only to have a bar that titled "Disarming Firewall" filling rather rapidly with green to show its progress.
And then a new window popped up and then another, another two bars titled "Hacking Progress" and "Information Recalled" which filled almost immediately.
Finally, theneededwindow appeared on screen.
"Son of a bitch."
Both of them hissed this in unison, glaring at the screen as they took it in.
The same demands. That Yami's father would have to watch his son come out on television as gay, or else the actions they took against him would be exposed. But this one had a soundbite and when it played, Yami felt sick to his stomach.
"What happened to what you used to tell me when I was young, mother? What happened to 'No matter what you do, where you go, or who you become, I will always love you, I will always protect you, and you will always be my little boy, always and forever'–what happened to that? Have I changed so much that you can't possibly love me anymore?" his voice was asking.
Seto gave him a shocked look–and Yami only recognized it as shocked because of the way that his eyes widened momentarily before returning to normal just as fast.
"What happened to what you used to tell me when I was young, mother? What happened to 'No matter what you do, where you go, or who you become, I will always love you, I will always protect you, and you will always be my little boy, always and forever'–what happened to that? Have I changed so much that you can't possibly love me anymore?" the clip replayed.
The brunet shifted slightly away from him, stared at the screen as "What happened to what you used to tell me when I was young, mother? What happened to 'No matter what you do, where you go, or who you become, I will always love you, I will always protect you, and you will always be my little boy, always and forever'–what happened to that? Have I changed so much that you can't possibly love me anymore?" was spat through the speakers again.
"What happened to what you used to tell me when I was young, mother? What happened to 'No matter what you do, where you go, or who you become, I will always love you, I will always protect you, and you will always be my little boy, always and forever'–what happened to that? Have I changed so much that you can't possibly love me anymore?"
Yami hit the desk so hard that the laptop nearly fell over and the sassy voice of the firewall cried, "Hey, I'm only showing you what you wanted to see."
"Make it shut up," he ground out.
And it did. Just as "No matter what" was coming out.
Seto shook his head and let out a sigh before leaning forward against the desk, closing the laptop and turning to him but not speaking.
And while maybe Yami should have been fuming or scared, all his mind could process was, "Do I really sound like that?"
And his cousin was shaking his head with another sigh.
Yami was not expecting him when he showed up. And he especially wasn't expecting him to be holding an envelope with no return address but hisownin the upper left corner, but the writing was far from his and Yugi seemed to know this because the look in his eyes was skeptical as he held it out to him before taking his backpack off and digging through it to pull out his laptop.
He didn't do the normal of asking about what it was, instead opening it and then recoiling, dropping the pictures as his fingers trembled and his eyes stared blankly at the images that lay across the ground.
No…
"Hmm…that was better than my reaction," Yugi muttered, rolling his eyes. "But that was only because Grandpa was looking at them as I was. And you know what he said?"
Red eyes flickered up to lock with his, blinking once in confusion before narrowing into slits, shaking his head slowly though the question was truly rhetorical.
"He told me it was good that I was getting rid of any excess testosterone though he had always wished that I would have children."
He blinked once. "Bullshit. There's no way he said that."
"Oh, no, Yami, he did. You have no idea. He's been trying to get me shacked up with someone since I was fourteen. Said I shouldn't miss out on what life had to offer just because my voice wasn't deep."
Yami raised an eyebrow.
"Actually, I'm starting to think he might have been part of the reason that I started to have that…thing for Tea," he admitted, stepping around the pictures and closing the door before heading for the living room, humming before calling out, "He used to talk about her breasts a lot when she hit puberty."
Yami stared at him for a moment and then turned his attention back to the pictures on the ground before very slowly kneeling down to pick them up.
"Don't bother. Just come over here. I have something that I really need to show you," Yugi said, cutting his actions off as he grabbed the first photo, one of them… Yami shook his head, dropped it like it had burned him and walked slowly towards him to take a seat on the couch next to him.
"You know, I'm pretty sure that Grandpa might have been looking over my shoulder when I was watching this." He dug through his files for a moment, went from Computer to Library to Videos, dwelled deeper to retrieve a password, and then clicked on a link entitled "I Know What You Did".
His eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
The audio didn't catch their words, but it did catch the moans, the mewls, the growling that Yami had emitted, the squeaking of the bed, the way Yugi hit the headboard a little hard when he was backed up into it.
"How…?"
"I don't know."
Yami reached up and grabbed the headboard, Yugi stared up at him. Yami used the headboard to ram into him harder. Yugi matched him thrust for thrust.
All of it. Recorded. From the window. Of his bedroom.
"Well…that's just lovely."
Yugi barked out a laugh. "They said that I would have to download it. It was password protected and everything. Made it strong enough that I reallycouldn'topen it without downloading it first. He also said to show it to you. Before…the big event happened–what, uh…what's the big event?"
"I have to expose myself as a homosexual on television," he answered distractedly. Wow, actually, as disgusting as it was considering the circumstances, the noises Yugi was making kind of made his pants tighten.
"Seriously?"
"Next Wednesday. News reporters will be all over school grounds."
"Holy crap. That's going to suck." He paused. "So…why is this happening?"
"The guy who sent this…was fired recently. I have no idea why, but he was fired and now he wants to get back at my father but I think it may have been because of my mom, honestly. But, think about it, what could possibly be worse than his 'miracle son' being exposed to the world as a faggot?" he murmured, sitting back and crossing his legs, studying the video for a long time. "He's sent my father a soundbite of my mother and I talking…of her disowning me. The effects of that released with my coming out…that would be devastating towards his campaign."
"Suddenly I wish you weren't my fuck buddy."
"Yeah, join the club."
Yugi stayed silent for a minute, closed his eyes, hummed softly. "You're worse of a bad boy than me," he finally muttered before opening his eyes and glaring at him playfully. "I think I need to change that."
Yami gave him a wide smirk. "Oh, I don't think it gets much worse than destroying your parents' livelihood single handedly."
"Oh, no, Yami, Iwillfind something. I can't be outdone as the top dog anytime soon."
Yami snickered and shook his head, turning back to the video where his smirk fell and shattered into a frown. "Ra, everything is so fucked up."
"I don't really believe in mister sunshine solar deity, but I still agree."
He laughed softly. "You're a strange kid."
"That's why you love me."
They both stiffened simultaneously for a moment.
"Yeah, maybe."
Yugi didn't respond, because there was nothing left to say.
"Well, it's definitely not the only copy if it's blackmail material," Seto said, leaning back against the leather chair, drumming his fingers against the desk; the entire time he had ignored Yugi completely and had only addressed Yami.
The red-eyed boy lolled his head back and let out a sigh. "I know that. Is there any way that you could trace it back and encrypt it or something? Infect them?"
Seto shook his head slowly. "No. I already tried that when the email was sent. The guy is a lot smarter than I originally took him for. He's made himself completely untraceable and if I were to try to put the virus into something, it would corrupt someone else. There is no clear way to get back to him."
Yami drummed his fingers against the armrest, thinking it over, but found no solution. "Well, that's just great," he muttered, tilting his head slightly to the side. "Your firewall had no suggestions?"
"No."
"Damn it."
Yugi wanted to, but he didn't ask what the fuck Yami meant by his firewall having suggestions, because that made no sense whatsoever. Firewall was protection in the computer, protected you from viruses. It wouldn'thavesuggestions to make.
"How many copies do you think there are?"
"Probably a lot. Maybe a couple hundred," Seto muttered. "In case he has to send it elsewhere. Definitely a ton of them left around. There's no way that he would send you one without a bunch of others. That's not how blackmail works."
Yami huffed. "I hate people."
Yugi snorted in amusement and Seto smirked.
"When hasn't that been an issue for you?"
Yami draped his leg over the side of his chair and spun with a kick from the desk, watching the room blur for a few moments before it stopped again and he was looking at Seto rather simply. "Hmm…I don't recall that ever not being one," he admitted.
"Then again, you probably have a right to think that anyways," his cousin said thoughtfully, shrugging once. "Either way…are you polishing that thing?"
"Excuse me?" he asked abruptly, staring in confusion and disbelief towards the question. "What the fuck does that mean?"
He nodded at the Puzzle. "That. Are you polishing it?"
Yami looked down at it, grabbed the chain links in his right hand and lifted the hollow gold pyramid, tilting his head. "Polishing it? No…why?"
"Because you've had that thing since you were three and you finished it at six and you've always had it so how it isnotdirty?"
"Um…"
"Is it real gold?" Yugi asked suddenly.
Icy blue eyes flickered towards him and a nose wrinkled in disdain.
Yami nodded and turned his attention towards his shorter look-alike. "It is."
Seto didn't like the look in his eyes as he looked at the smaller boy. It was not that he did not approve of his choices, but Yami could do so much better and it was rather pathetic that he was settling for someone so mediocre. And what had that mediocrity gotten him so far?
Pain.
Humiliation.
Embarrassment.
Fear.
Heartache.
His hand forced to humiliate himself further by getting on TV to tell everyone that he was gay.
His mother and father disowning him.
Suicidal thoughts and actions–that had yet to be proved beyond his little "cliff diving" experience, but Seto was pretty sure that if he could do it once, he might try it again.
And shitty blackmail.
So no, he didn't approve of Yugi. Not in the least.
Yami could do so much better.
And he hated the way he was looking at him with such keen adoration hidden behind a deep amusement.
And the fact that Yugi seemed to dismiss this and instead stare down at the Puzzle while swapping it occasionally for Yami's face, irked him so much that he almost lunged over the desk and punched him.
But his cousin wasn't a little kid and Seto couldn't do much that would not make Yami hurt him in a counterattack if he was to try to butt in. Yami would have to figure everything out on his own, regardless of how his cousin felt about it.
There wasn't really that much else he could do for him.
Yami was not oblivious to the tension in the room. It was rather hard to ignore his cousin's ire, but he still did it, because acknowledging it meant that he was just giving Seto something further to use against him and he refused to do so. Besides, it wasn't like he could turn it off or anything. And he was so tired of trying anyways.
"Is there any way I could try to block him out of my email or something?" Yami asked, turning his attention back to the brunet whose face twisted from the smallest, slightest of scowls to blink once and shake his head slowly.
"I think that maybe it's safe to assume that this guy might have been the one to text that picture around school–"
"No, that was Tea and Joey," Yugi interrupted, making those ice blue eyes flicker and blaze as they bore into his; he was not intimidated by any means, instead giving him an unimpressed look.
Yami nodded and again kicked the desk to spin in his chair. "Tristan told me that after it happened." He paused. "Besides, Tea was–is–mad at me for that little stunt I pulled and Joey hasalwaysbeen a homophobe."
"You knew about that?" the smallest boy in the room asked, eyes wide as he looked over. He knew Yami was there when he shouted it from on top of that lunch table, but he saidalwaysand not just stated he was a homophobe which implied he had known much longer.
"It's rather hard to miss, Yugi," he replied, coming to a stop and facing his cousin with his head turned towards the blue-violet-eyed boy. "He picks on them indiscreetly and puts them down rather harshly. Not to mention that he sits on the other side of the desk when he's around you in class. And, no surprise, but he also always keepsawayfrom anyone who isn't completely straight."
Yugi frowned a little. "Yeah…he's kind of an ass like that."
Yami shrugged. "Doesn't matter to me. The point is"–he returned his attention to Seto who narrowed his eyes slightly–"that it was Tea and Joey who sent the pictures around school. Now, what I haven't figured out is how they got the picture in the first place. Because how the hell did he get their email addresses in the first place?"
"Probably the same way that they got everyone else's numbers," Seto replied with a roll of his eyes. "The student directory. They have all the contact information and you guys arerequiredto keep your cell phone numbers on there and up to date every semester in case of emergency, right? Along with email and home phone, so it's really no surprise that he got their information."
"Yes, but I want to knowhow. How did he get into the school? How did no one realize that he wasn't supposed to be there? How did he convince them to give him the damn thing? That is supposed to be confidential. They said that they did not give them out to others. And he isn't part of the staff and he sure as fuck isn't a student, so how the hell did this happen?"
"You don't think he might be a parent to one of the students?" the brunet inquired.
Yami stopped short and his shoulders tensed as he narrowed his eyes. "I forgot PTA gets the stupid things every month too," he muttered, leaning back into the seat and drumming his fingers on the armrest. "But I don't think that's possible. I don't…Maybe, but he just started showing up a month or two ago and I don't think that he could be a member of the PTA if he was in Egypt this entire time."
"No, but if he were to transfer his kid into school and sign them up for PTA, they would be required to hand over the directory upon their joining," Yugi replied with a tilt of his head. "So, technically, all it would take is a single day to do it."
"Okay, but the last exchange student we had was…Devlin"–Seto sat up a little straighter at the venom that cloaked that single word, and Yugi shifted slightly in his seat, looking terribly uncomfortable–"and that was a few weeksafterthe incident occurred."
"But that would be normal, wouldn't it? It would seem almost like his parents were thinking that maybe it would be too hard for him to catch up at the end of the first half of the semester so he would have to start the second half of the semester, but then again, just putting him in at the end of the first half of the semester would make it seem like they didn't want him to lose more school than they needed, right?" Yugi suddenly inquired.
Both of them looked at him for a moment and then turned back to thinking it over as they stared at each other.
"It's possible," Seto responded quietly, frowning and narrowing his eyes. "And considering how well he's thought out everything else, I can't say I'm surprised if that was in fact what he did."
"So if we get to Duke"–again there was so much venom in this word that Yugi squirmed and Seto sat up a little straighter, eyes sharp and calculating and full of curiosity he didn't bother to hide–"then we can find out who is doing this."
"It's not that simple. I don't think that Duke would know anything," Yugi muttered softly.
The sharp look that Yami gave him made him cringe mentally and his eyes flashed, but he didn't make a physical movement to show the distress that came with the glare the taller boy shot him.
"I mean, why would you tell your son if you're going to be blackmailing a bunch of people?" he amended quickly, swallowing hard and hurrying to correct his mistakes. "And why would you tell him that you–?"
And then something kind of clicked in his head.
"Oh fuck."
He got up and swallowed hard.
"I think I need to go."
Both of the cousins watched him but neither objected to his running off.
Yugi punched him so hard he stumbled and fell off the stool; the bartender looked stunned, opening her mouth to object, and people were starting to stare, but the blue-violet eyes were focused on the teal-eyed boy on the ground before him.
"You fucking bastard," he spat. "You're part of this shit too."
Duke glared up at him. "Part ofwhat?" he snapped.
"Part of this scam. That's why you claimed you fucked me in school after I beat your ass," he growled. "I stayed quiet because I was too tired to bother arguing it out with everyone because obviously they wouldn't have believed me anyways, but what the fuck? What did I do to you? What didYamido to you?"
The taller boy blinked and slowly got up to look at him.
"You just got here a month ago and you're already screwing us over–"
"Oh shut up. Like you don't deserve it."
"Tell me what I've done, Duke, because I honestly don't know."
"Your stupid boyfriend over there–"
"He is not my boyfriend," he shouted. "He's not my anything. He doesn't even matter to me. I fucked him a few times. That'sit. I don't get why the fuck everyone wants to put labels on everything. Is it not good enough to just be used for some release? For fuck's sake."
Duke rolled his eyes.
And for a moment Yugi didn't remember what it was but that motion made him suspicious before tilting his head and realizing exactly what it was.
"You…didn't just transfer here. You were in Domino before. For a year before you left for America again and came back."
Now he looked surprised.
"You stayed for that Duel Monsters convention that was going on. That tournament that Seto put together. The one that lasted much longer than it should have." He shook his head and glared. "If you're mad about me kicking your sorry ass in Duel Monsters–"
"Who gives a fuck about that? No, personally, I have nothing against you."
"Then what do you have against Yami?"
He didn't answer.
"Because if you didn't have something against him, then you wouldn't have claimed to have fucked me," Yugi snarled. "So what is it? What did he do to you?"
"He ruined my chance to become a millionaire."
"Excuse me?"
"Does the wordsuccessmean anything to you, Yugi? I bet it sounds foreign, considering you fuck to get what you want and don't work for it," Duke spat. "He ruined my chance to become successful, famous, wealthy."
"You're delusional. What the fuck does that mean?"
"It means that your little…fuck buddy might want to watch his back."
"What are you planning to do to him? What's the point of all of this?" Yugi demanded.
Duke stood up, smirking, his dark green eyes full of sardonic amusement, full of annoyance and malice. "That's for you to find out later on. Wouldn't want to spoil the surprise."
"Surprise?"
The raven-haired boy barked out a laugh and then turned and walked off before Yugi could say anything more.
"Son of a bitch…"
"Duke knows something but he won't say," Yugi said quietly.
Yami blinked once and tilted his head, rubbing an eye tiredly; it took Yugi a moment to realize that the taller boy was in black pajama bottoms and a gray sleeveless shirt, hair disarrayed and his posture slightly slumped.
"Oh crap. I didn't think this through…"
The other boy waved his hand dismissively. "He won't say?" he echoed softly, covering his mouth as he yawned loudly behind his fingers and then snapped his jaw shut so that his teeth made a startling chomping noise like an angered dog.
"He said that there's something big planned for you though. That you should watch your back."
Yami suddenly scowled at him, bristling as he growled, "Was that before or after you fucked him?"
Yugi blinked and rolled his eyes. "Knock it off. You don't fucking need to be jealous of something that stupid. I never fucking slept with him," he snapped, stepping inside and pushing Yami back a couple of steps to lock the door behind him. "Look, the point is that he said they have something planned for you. Something about how you ruined his chance at success or something."
The red-eyed boy narrowed his eyes, obviously not about to let Yugi get away with that simple denial. Obviously he wanted more but was not about to question it just yet, instead turning back to the subject at hand.
"I don't remember doing such a thing. I've never even interacted with him before. All I know is that he's an ass and I've met him once in ninth grade and that was it," Yami stated simply, narrowing his eyes further so that they turned into a pair of gleaming slits only lit by the rather plain yellow light overhead that cast the room in yellow.
"Hmm…did you not indulge inwhitebulbs?" Yugi commented after a moment, looking up at the bulb and back, raising an eyebrow. "Too expensive for Mr. Ambassador's Son?"
"Mr. As does not wish to talk about his crappy lighting."
He let out a small laugh. "I didn't even realize that was what it spelled."
Yami shrugged and leaned against the wall, glancing at the lighting. "That shit does suck though."
The smaller boy nodded eagerly. "It does. I suggest you invest in some white bulbs next time."
"Ha," Yami commented, turning his attention back to Yugi. "Fuck no I'm not investing in jack shit."
He was laughing but the other boy was completely serious in expression, watching him closely. "What?"
"Nothing."
Yugi didn't miss the little flash of guilt and pure hatred that marked his eyes momentarily; he didn't miss the way that Yami's eyes would occasionally flicker towards his neck as if searching for marks and he sure as fuck didn't miss the way the red gaze narrowed as they took in his clothing.
"I didn't sleep with him!" he snapped. "I never slept with him. I ran into him at a bar–agaybar–because I was looking for a place where I would be far away enough from the house that I wouldn't really get home at any point when my grandpa was awake. And so that people wouldn't recognize me. And I got there and…shit happened."
"Shit happened?"
Did he tell him about the fact that he had tried to force him into his car in the backseat to fuck around a little without any actual signals? Did he tell him that he beat the shit out of him for doing so? Did he tell him that Yugi only pushed him away because hewasn'tthe boy in front of him?
No.
He didn't. Because, for once in his life, he really didn't want to hurt him. And if he told him all of that, he might just make Yami think that they had a chance where there was none. And he couldn't do that. Because, despite himself, he cared too much for the red-eyed boy to allow that to happen.
Directly or otherwise.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it. It's nothing."
Yami gave him an incredulous look but didn't press and Yugi was grateful for that, as he always was, relieved that Yami actuallyknewwhat borders and boundaries meant.
"Very well. So, you swear you didn't fuck him?"
Yugi rolled his eyes. "Yes, Yami, I swear I did not fuck him."
"All right, so what is it that you want from me exactly?"
"I–what?"
"Forgive me. That came out wrong." He shook his head, leaned against the wall further, closed his eyes, and muttered, "You caught me during one weird ass dream. I'm not…I didn't mean to snap at you."
"It's whatever. Anyways, so he knows what's going on. And I'm pretty sure that's why he started saying I slept with him. Because that would further screw up your reputation, you know? And I don't know, but I have a feeling that he might try to pull something on Wednesday."
"Nothing will be more humiliating than what I already must do. I am going to alienate myself from my family so permanently it will be amazing. And what's worse is my father isguaranteedto be watching or else news of my status of being disowned is going public in every way. They have the conversation between my mom and me on file…" He blinked his eyes open into slits, staring at him with almost completely black eyes due to the shadows of his long lashes. "So I hardly see what could possibly be worse than what I am being subjected to."
"I'm so–"
"It doesn't fucking matter. You can't do anything to stop it and it's not like you're the reason this is happening. It was my own stupid mistakes that brought this on, nothing else. I was a fool to think that I could possibly get away with what I had done."
"But you didn't do anything wrong."
"I…I know that." He didn't sound very convincing but the look in his eyes said he was speaking the truth. "But that's not what matters. My opinion on it doesn't change the fact that it has broken apart every bit of my connection with my parents."