Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Piano Man ❯ One-Shot

The Piano Man

It's nine o'clock on a Saturday,
The regular crowd shuffles in.
There's an old man sitting next to me
Makin' love to his tonic and gin.

Yugi pulled open the doors to the familiar scent of booze and cigarette smoke. This was where he spent his Saturday mornings, ever since he'd taken up piano lessons again after Duelist Kingdom and discovered that the piano at the local bar was open every weekend.

He headed straight for the piano in the far corner, but his eyes caught a familiar flash of silvery-grey hair. Double-taking, he recognized the "ghost" immediately as Pegasus, brooding over a glass of Chardonnay at the bar, minus the usual tacky red suit.

At almost the same moment the younger boy saw him, Pegasus looked in Yugi's direction. It was sort of hard not to notice the tri-colored hair. "Yugi," he acknowledged with a slight nod.

"K-Konichiwa, Pegasus," Yugi said nervously, his hand subconsciously drifting to the ever-present Puzzle around his neck.

Pegasus sighed and flashed a rueful smile. "Let me guess. You're wondering what I'm still doing in Japan, where's the Sennen Eye, how the hell am I still alive, or all three." Yugi only managed a nod. "Those bastards from KaibaCorp mutinied and left me stranded here, though fortunately not without access to my bank account. I believe you already know where the Eye is. After all, you've probably kept in contact with that psychotic thief who stole it from me and left me for dead..." Pegasus drifted off, staring down into his glass. After taking a swill, he continued, "I'm not going to answer the third question, so don't bother asking."

He says, "Son, can you play me a memory?
I'm not really sure how it goes,
But it's sad and it's sweet and I knew it complete
When I wore a younger man's clothes."

Yugi no longer felt threatened by the older man and dared to ask, "Do you even know that answer yourself?"

At first Pegasus responded with stony silence, but another sigh broke him. "No."

"Pegasus-san..."

"Everything's so screwed up - life, the world, the Shadow Games, all of it. I thought I'd finally be able to escape it when the spirit in Bakura's Ring ripped the Eye from me, but by some twist of fate I'm still here, still mourning for my sweet Cynthia, still bearing a guilty conscience and Keith's blood on my hands..."

Da, da da, de de da
Da da, de de da... da da
Sing us a song, you're the piano man!
Sing us a song tonight.
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody,
And you've got us feelin' alright.

This time he trailed off and didn't pick up again, and so Yugi went to the piano, carrying with him part of Pegasus' grief. He could still feel it burning away at him after several songs, and it didn't show any sign of burning out any time soon.

Now John at the bar is a friend of mine.
He gets me my drinks for free,
And he's quick with a joke or to light up your smoke,
But there's someplace that he'd rather be.

Yugi gave up after a few more songs, finally taking a break and going over to the bar.

"Hey, Yugi," Jou greeted his friend, looking up from wiping down the bar. That was his part-time job, being a bartender. He had another job, but never happened to mention what it was.

"Hey, Jou," Yugi returned the greeting, sinking his head into his hands.

"You look depressed."

"Gee, can ya tell?" Yugi snapped, but immediately apologized for his harsh tone. "Gomen."

Joy shrugged it off. "It's alright. How's Sugoroku-san? Still holding up well?"

"Hai. The doctor told him to hire more help around the shop so he won't keep throwing his back out. How's Shizuka?"

"She's doing alright," Jou said, almost wistfully. "Her eyesight is nearly perfect now, aside from needing glasses for reading." He seemed to have something on his mind, but Yugi didn't press him.

He says, "Bill, I believe this is killing me,"
As a smile ran away from his face.
"Well, I'm sure that I could be a movie star
If I could get out of this place."

Jou must've decided to share his thoughts, because he suddenly exploded. "Christ, I can't stand this place! Everything smells like booze and smoke, and I'm probably going to end up with cancer after breathing in so much of that crap. You know what really gets me, though?"

Yugi didn't know, but he figured today was his day to hear everyone's sob story, so he shook his head and motioned for his friend to continue.

"It's all these people. All of them have some story or other to tell, and I'm always getting stuck listening to the less-than-sober patrons."

"I know how that feels," Yugi remarked with a hint of sarcasm, which Jou thankfully hadn't picked up.

Jou suddenly laughed, "This will probably sound stupid, but do you remember that one time in high school when Anzu took the liberty of signing me up for drama club?" He continued after Yugi nodded, "Even though that was probably the lamest joke Anzu ever pulled, it was fun, and I was actually pretty good at it. I hoped that I could try acting again someday, but I don't think that's possible. I need this job and my other one just to support my sister and myself, and it would be selfish of me to do that to Shizuka, what with this being her junior year in college. I just couldn't do that to her."

Yugi looked at him with sympathetic eyes. "Jou..."

Oh da, da da, de de da
Da da, de de da... da da

Now Paul is a real-estate novelist
Who never had time for a wife,
And he's talkin' with Davy who's still in the Navy
And probably will be for life.

Bakura glanced up from his drink to the uniformed man standing over him.

"Mind if I sit here?" Honda asked, not waiting for a response before taking a seat and lighting a cigarette, which Bakura promptly took from him and deposited in an ashtray. Honda scowled, but didn't take out another one.

"What brings you here, and what's with the uniform?"

Honda sighed and muttered, "You wouldn't want to know..." He then noticed the briefcase by his pale-haired friend's side. "Is that real or a bomb? If it's the latter, can I borrow it?"

Bakura gave him an odd sideways glance. "It's my work. I need to make a stop in the office today. When did you develop that attitude?"

"Since two months ago when Miho ran off with some guy from America. Actually, it was a little after that, around the time the doctors in the ER had to pump my stomach."

Bakura was about to ask why he'd tried to kill himself, but figured it was best not to know.

"Didn't you ever get married, have kids or anything?" Honda suddenly inquired.

"No... Work takes up too much of my time, so I never had that chance." He would've added that hanging around in places like this didn't help, either, but was compelled to ask again why exactly Hond was wearing that uniform.

"My parents got the bright idea to ship me off to America to join the Navy."

"Two questions - Why America, and why the Navy?"

"Other than the fact that I have an uncle in California, I don't know. And the Navy thing was completely random." Honda started muttering into his beer something about the man Miho married, a vulgar word arising every third word or so.

And the waitress is practicing politics
As the bus'nessmen slowly get stoned.
Yes, they're sharing a drink they call loneliness,
But it's better than drinkin' alone.

"Kaiba?" Anzu asked, poking at the figure bent over a table in the corner. "Are you stoned or high yet?"

Not bothering to lift his head from its position buried in his arms, he muttered, "Half-stoned, half-dead. Go away."

Anzu, despite the fact that she was on her shift, took a seat beside Kaiba. "What, and let you drown in your well of self-pity? I don't think so. Here's that beer you ordered."

"Great, now I can be half-stoned, half-dead, and half-drunk." Anzu started to say something, but he cut her off. "And don't tell me that's too many halves because I don't care."

Anzu felt the need to strike up a conversation. "Are things still rough with Mokuba?"

"If by rough you mean is he still a hormone-ridden teen in serious need of an attitude adjustment, then yes, things are rough."

She was getting tired of Kaiba's tone, and told him so. "He's not the only one who should have his attitude adjusted."

"Go away and let me get drunk, woman," he grumbled, lifting the glass to his lips. Before he could take so much as a sip, Anzu grabbed the glass from his hands, downed about half of it, and slammed it back down in front of him. She met his questioning gaze with an annoyed one.

"Something told me I needed that more than you did."

Sing us a song, you're the piano man!
Sing us a song tonight.
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody,
And you've got us feelin' alright.

Jou had gone back to cleaning the counter, obviously not wanting to talk anymore, so Yugi returned to the piano. He struck up a familiar tune by Billy Joel, reaching a crescendo at the final two verses and chorus.

It's a pretty good crowd for a Saturday
And the manager gives me a smile,
'Cause he knows that it's me they've been comin' to see
To forget about life for a while.

And the piano sounds like a carnival!
And the microphone smells like a beer!
And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar
And say, "Man, what are you doin' here?"

Oh da, da da, de de da
Da da, de de da... da da
Sing us a song, you're the piano man!
Sing us a song tonight.
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody,
And you've got us feelin' alright.

The patrons of the bar applauded Yugi as he slid off the bench and headed towards the door, giving Jou and Pegasus each a nod in his haste to get back to the shop and help his grandfather. He felt the Sennen Puzzle activating as he pushed past the doors.

"Are you going to go back there every weekend?" Yami asked. He hated the way his Hikari always left that bar with a sinking heart.

"Hai, Yami."

"But why? Why do you put yourself through that, only to share their pain and sadness?"

"Because someone needs to be their piano man."