Queer As Tachi – Chapter 24
The ring of hammers and whine of power saws filled the air as businesses all through the neighborhood scrambled to board up windows and doors in advance of the approaching typhoon, now that Domino City’s evacuation orders had been put into motion. The disruption to normal routine felt strange, like reality had been temporarily suspended, but Yugi didn’t have time to stop and think about it. With Joey and Tristan climbing all over Kame game shop looking for vulnerable points to board up or nail down, he hurried to complete preparations and see his grandfather off. When Mai called the previous morning and told them she would be willing to escort Grandpa Muto out of town, and stay with him wherever he needed to go, it sealed the tentative deal between him and his grandson. Even though they all knew it probably wasn’t a good idea, Yugi’s stubbornness had won, and with the help of his friends, he would make sure Kame survived the typhoon. Even so, throughout the morning he sat with his grandpa and went over every last contingency plan, emergency phone number, and collection of important documents that either had to be safely stored or taken in the evacuation. Morning news reports had the typhoon tracking more or less north of Domino, but wobbling a little in its path, making for enough uncertainty to worry anyone staying or going. It had lost some of its punch going over South Korea, but it was still a sizeable storm. There wasn’t much the people of Japan could do in the face of a typhoon, as islanders no matter where they lived, but the worst damage was likely to be from storm surge on the western coasts. Many of those fleeing Domino and other coastal cities were heading south to Kyoto, Osaka, and Tokyo for a couple of days. At last, with everything coordinated and all his emergency preparations in place, Yugi could say goodbye to his grandpa. Joey and Tristan came down from where they had been nailing a thick slab of plywood over Yugi’s skylight to see him off as well, since Mai was heading out too. She and Joey stood aside saying their own private farewells without many words while Yugi listened to his grandfather’s last-minute advice and then hugged him fiercely. “We’ll be okay, I promise,” he murmured. “I won’t take any chances.”
“Just be careful, I can’t say it enough times,” Grandpa Muto implored. “Use your heads, all of you boys.”
“We will, Grandpa,” Yugi insisted.
“Don’t you worry, Mr. Muto,” Tristan added for himself. “The group of us have been through much worse before. We’ll take care of your shop and each other.”
“I’m sure you will.” Grandpa turned his attention back to his grandson. “May I speak to Yami for a moment?”
“Of course.” He barely glanced down as the Puzzle flashed, revealing the pharaoh’s noble countenance looking out from his partner’s youthful eyes.
Grandpa Muto set his hands on the young man’s shoulders. “Please,” he said in a low, serious tone, “protect Yugi. I know what he’s trying to do, and it’s very brave and generous of him, but it’s not necessary. I trust you, Yami, to look after him. He loves you and will listen to you.”
Yami nodded solemnly. “I will, Grandpa,” he vowed. “I promised even before you made the decision that I would stay with him, and I will. I’ll be out all day tomorrow, but even beyond that, we have Joey and Tristan by our sides.”
“You two just be good.” He hugged Yami, then, a little to the pharaoh’s surprise, and let him go. The Puzzle flashed again, and Yugi regained his self in time to smile at his grandfather. Solomon smiled back. “I’ll be in touch. Here’s hoping the power isn’t out too long.”
“We got cell phones,” Joey pointed out.
“Those may not work either,” Mai sniffed. “We’ll get through somehow.”
“Yeah.” Joey hugged her again, lingering on the embrace this time, while Yugi opened the car door for his grandfather and saw him in. Mai went around to the driver’s side, and then they were off, trying to beat the worst traffic to Kyoto. They still had about half a day before the first rain bands would start hitting the city, but the sooner they got out, the better. The three boys stood on the curb watching the car pull out of sight, and then clapped each other on the shoulders. “Well,” Joey said with some finality. “Here we are.”
“Back to work,” Tristan ordered. “We’ve got a lot to do yet.”
“Yeah, I want to have all the windows boarded up by this afternoon,” Yugi sighed. “Then we can worry about the stuff inside.”
“Let’s finish up the skylights first,” Joey suggested. “That way if it starts raining, we’ll be done climbing on the roof. Last thing I need is to fall off.”
“I wish there was a way to take down the sign, or the lights,” Yugi sighed, looking up at them as they passed through the shop door. “I’m afraid they’re the first thing that’s going to be ripped off the building in the wind.”
“All things considered, the lights are the cheapest and easiest to replace,” Tristan reasoned, patting him on the shoulder as he pushed him inside. “You should worry most about the windows. If the wind shatters those, the rain is going to ruin everything. Not to mention making the building more vulnerable to a strong wind that could knock it over.”
“Well, look who’s suddenly an expert in building safety,” Joey snorted. “Give the boy a job in construction and he thinks he can build a better shelter.”
Together, the three young men worked steadily through the afternoon to make Kame game shop and the house as snug and secure as possible, to protect it against both wind and water, though Yugi said with some assuredness that he heard their neighborhood was above the flood plain and they shouldn’t have to worry about storm surge. Several inches of rain, maybe, but not tidal waves and floods. He did what he could to help Joey and Tristan, but the two of them were taller and stronger and knew their way around tools more or less – particularly Tristan – so they undertook most of the heavy lifting and pounding, while Yugi was content directing and holding things in place. While the other two finished up outside, Yugi went inside and started moving things around, boxes in the storeroom and shelves in the shop, keeping them away from places where water might seep in and preparing them to barricade unstable windows and walls. By the time the sun began to sink into thick, wet-looking clouds, and Joey and Tristan came in for a drink and a rest, Yugi was going through the house unplugging any utterly non-essential appliances in preparation for power loss. Their next step was to fix themselves a decadent dinner in order to finish up anything perishable, since it wouldn’t keep after the power went out. Yugi felt his nervousness subsiding now that he had good company, since they were all able to sit around and play and laugh. They kept the news on, wanting to see just how close the typhoon was getting, but for once they somewhat ignored it and just hung around and talked. There wasn’t anything more they could do to prepare, they just had to wait it out, and there was no reason to get upset or fearful until it actually started raining. With flashlights and a battery-operated radio standing by, all the boys could do was sit and goof off, drinking sodas and teasing Yugi about staying up until midnight. Not that they wouldn’t also be up, even though they had moved aside the couch and chairs to make room for the guest futons. Yugi was fairly certain that his friends had no intention of going to bed before Yami’s arrival.
Yugi’s bedroom was even darker than usual with the skylight boarded up, forcing him to turn on his desk lamp in order to have just enough light to see by. He liked performing the ritual in the semi-dark, he felt the solemnity of the incantation and the moment just called for it. Joey and Tristan remained in the other room, allowing him to have his privacy for when Yami first appeared. Not that they were going to get into any compromising positions; Yami had already declared, with Yugi’s agreement, that this was not the time for squirreling themselves away and hot, sweaty sex. Yugi knelt in the middle of his floor with his pin and watched the clock, beginning at the stroke of midnight without fail. Once again, like last month, he found himself growing breathless and exhausted before even finishing the spell, but he clutched the Puzzle and willed himself to continue, his voice escalating in volume until he practically shouted the final words. Power exploded silently outward from the artifact, knocking Yugi completely backwards and his hands off the Puzzle. He was still lying there, eyes closed, his head reeling dizzily when Yami’s arms came around him, picking him carefully up and cradling him. Yugi blinked and lifted his head, smiling faintly to see his lover’s corporeal face knit with a concerned frown. “There you are,” he breathed.
“Yugi,” Yami fretted. “Are you all right? You nearly lost consciousness that time.”
“M’okay,” Yugi mumbled, though he didn’t move from where he lay. It was rather nice to be held by Yami this way. “Just…give me a few seconds.”
Yami leaned over him and kissed him softly on the bridge of his nose. “I’m going to let you catch your breath while I get dressed. All right?”
“All right,” Yugi sighed. “Yeah, you probably should. Joey and Tristan are still awake. They want to say hi.”
The pharaoh gingerly laid his lover back down on the floor and brushed a hand over his brow before pushing to his feet and going to fetch the pajamas laid out on the bed for him. “I know what we’re not going to do tonight,” he murmured, “but are you expecting to go to bed right away?”
“I don’t know if I could sleep right now.” Yugi stretched his arms over his head, taking a few deep breaths to calm himself before feeling able to sit up. “I want it to start raining, so I can stop waiting and just deal with it.”
Pulling on a t-shirt, Yami came back to him and crouched down beside him, resting comforting hands on his shoulders. “I don’t think I remember being through a storm like this with you before. Will it be that bad? It seems unusual to me that everyone is so on edge and fleeing a rainstorm.”
“It’s not just a rainstorm,” Yugi explained with a shake of his head. “A typhoon is really serious. The waves are going to come up into the harbor, and surge inland, and the wind will be strong enough to blow boats onto land and knock trees over. Come to think of it, there hasn’t been one like this since you came into my life. Most of the time they miss us directly, or weaken by the time they get here.”
“I see.” Yami hugged him around the shoulders and then stood up, helping Yugi up along with him. “Then, I’m glad I can be here to protect you. I’ll stay by your side no matter what happens.”
“Thanks, Yami.” Yugi melted into his side, content to cuddle up to him as they headed out of the room together.
Tristan and Joey looked up simultaneously as they heard the shuffle of feet on the carpet. “Hey, there he is!” Tristan called out. “What’s up, Yami?”
“Hi, Tristan. Joey,” the pharaoh said with a smile.
“The gang’s all here,” Joey grinned. “Can’t think of a better way to ride out the storm.”
“I’m glad you two are here with us,” Yami said placidly. “As much as I was committed to protecting Yugi no matter what he chose to do, I admit, it’s nice to have friends around.”
“Sorry if we’re keeping you from having any fun,” Tristan said kindly.
“No, don’t worry,” Yugi sighed as he sank to a seat next to Joey on the futon. “My mind’s too wrapped up in worrying about the storm to think about anything else right now. I’m too wired to even sleep.”
“Shoulda drank less soda,” Tristan suggested.
“You should at least try to sleep, Yug,” Joey nagged. “We won’t see the really bad weather till the morning anyway, there’s no sense torturing yourself by sitting up waiting.”
“What’s the latest?” Yugi wondered. He reached for the remote and flipped to a station that had gone to full-time typhoon coverage, and the four of them sat around for a while watching, gleaning as much information as they could about the storm. Yami had to admit to himself that he didn’t understand the first thing about weather systems, but from the way the anchors talked and the reporters looked standing out on the harbor piers with heavy rain coats cinched up around their faces, he gathered that this was a big event. Everyone in Domino was preparing for it, and the last few evacuees were fleeing on the late trains or clogging the highways out. Apparently, traffic was much worse further north where the eye was expected to make landfall, sometime within the next day, but Joey assured his friends that it wasn’t in the direction Mai and Grandpa were going. Then, all four of them perked up to see the downtown reporter standing in such a way as to have the brightly-illuminated KaibaCorp building as his backdrop. “Wow,” Yugi murmured for all of them. “Looks like even Kaiba’s got his hands full. His company’s still that busy this late at night?”
“I can’t imagine trying to board up all those windows,” Joey muttered appreciatively. “He’s gonna get punched in the gut, once the wind blows all those out.”
“You think that will happen?” Yami wondered.
“Every little brick and board cluttering up the streets is gonna go airborne,” Joey explained, “so yeah. Every one of them windows is gonna be shattered.”
“I’m having a hard time feeling any sympathy for him about that,” Tristan said airily. “I just hope he’s got some sense of decency and isn’t trying to call his employees in for a regular day of work tomorrow.”
“I don’t think Kaiba’s that mean,” Yugi demurred. “A lot of people had to evacuate, they wouldn’t stay back just because KaibaCorp might be open.”
“Oh, hey,” Joey realized, “that reminds me. Talked to Duke lately?”
“Hm.” Yugi thought about it. “I called him a couple days ago, before any of this really got crazy, but I don’t know what he’s doing. I hope he’s not dumb enough to ride it out like us.”
Joey clapped a hand to his friend’s head and ruffled his hair playfully. “At least you admit that this is a bad idea!”
“Hey!” Yugi fended him off and sidled up to Yami instead. “If it was such a bad idea, what are you doing here?”
Joey smiled knowingly, his brown eyes glowing. “Because somebody had to keep an eye on you. Not that I don’t trust Yami, but…somebody else has to keep an eye on both of you.”
Though the news was very informative and useful, it was also very boring, so before long all four of them found themselves growing tired, leaving longer and longer stretches of silence between their comments. Yami kept his arms around Yugi, and knew when to gently encourage him to get up and follow him to bed, figuring that once he did so, all of them would consider it a good time to try to sleep. Smiling over his shoulder, the pharaoh wished his friends a good night and guided Yugi to their bedroom. His young love gave no protest and hardly said a word as he fell into bed, the Puzzle thudding onto his chest, though as soon as Yami slid in beside him, Yugi curled up and fastened his arms tightly around him. Yami kissed his brow lovingly. “Are you going to be all right?” he murmured.
“For now.” Yugi nuzzled him comfortably and settled down, his head on his partner’s shoulder. “As long as you’re holding me.”
Yami breathed a deep sigh of contentment. It was dreadfully dark in the room now, so much so that for once, he couldn’t see Yugi beside him. But all he needed was touch, scent, and warmth. “Go to sleep,” he purred softly. “I’m here with you. I won’t let anything happen to you, ever.” He felt Yugi’s lips caress his neck and throat, and then his lithe body heave with a deep sigh that sent a warm draft over his collarbone. Yugi’s cheek rested on his chest, and he could feel the brush of eyelashes on his neck as Yugi closed his eyes and surrendered to sleep. Though he wasn’t very tired, Yami closed his eyes and very shortly was asleep beside him, arms enfolded around him.
The bedroom was still just as dark and foreboding when the pharaoh awoke, though there was some subtle shift that made him aware that it was morning, perhaps some faint light that found its way in between the board and the window. He could hear a steady sound above them, rain drumming on the roof, but nothing else seemed amiss. He left Yugi to sleep while he slipped out of bed and wandered into the living room to see what the morning had brought them. Tristan was still sprawled out asleep on the futon, snoring lightly, but Joey sat in the kitchen with the radio, hunched tiredly in a chair with a mug between his hands as he listened to reports. He glanced up as Yami slunk in like a shadow and gave him a faint smile. “Morning.”
Yami nodded. “Is everything all right?”
“For now.” Joey gestured with his mug. “Power’s still on – I heated up some water for tea.”
That sounded like a good idea, so Yami retrieved a cup and busied himself making some. He sat down with Joey and listened to the weather broadcast with him, glad to hear that there really wasn’t any news to be had except that it was, as he expected, raining now. He leaned an elbow on the kitchen table and set down his mug. “Did you sleep well, Joey?”
“Mostly,” Joey sighed. “Tristan snores like a bear. But once I was out, I was way out.” He raised his eyes. “You?”
“Fine, though I’m not exactly tired. Yugi was very restless, I’m not sure he slept well.”
“Eh, he’s worried,” Joey shrugged. “He can’t help it. You left him to sleep, did you?”
“I’m sure it won’t be long before he…” Joey suddenly snickered, and Yami glanced over his shoulder to see what he was laughing at. Yugi had just walked in, rubbing his eyes. The pharaoh smiled. “As I said.”
“Morning,” Yugi mumbled, pattering straight over to Yami and putting himself deliberately in the way so his lover would hug him. Accordingly, Yami wrapped his arms around the young one’s waist and pulled him in to be snuggled. Once that was over, Yugi sat down on Yami’s knee and faced Joey. “What’s it doing?”
“Raining.” Joey clawed a hand through his unruly hair. “Nothing else. Nothing to worry about.”
“When Tristan’s up, we’ll turn on the TV,” Yugi sighed. “No sense in waking him, though, as long as everything’s still kind of quiet.”
Joey thumbed in the direction of the radio on the counter. “They’re saying it won’t make landfall till this afternoon. We’ve got a while.”
Naturally, Tristan was the last to rise, feeling pretty smug with himself for being able to sleep through the other three chattering in the kitchen. They switched on the TV to hunt for current radar pictures of the storm and information on any damage yet, though the worst was likely still to come. While sitting around drinking tea and talking, the boys could hear the house starting to creak in the wind, and the rattle of tree branches outside hitting the boarded-up windows, but for now it all held. The latest reports indicated that the eye would make landfall somewhere north of Domino in the late afternoon, but the bands of rain whirling around the center would be dumping rain on the entire coastline, with maximum storm surge corresponding with the full moon’s high tide. Yugi glanced up a little, hearing the wind howl in the rafters, but swallowed his worry for now. They were warm and snug and dry, and right now it felt like a party with his friends there. “Hey, we’re holed up above a game shop,” Tristan noted when they all had grown bored with watching the news. “Let’s play some games.”
“Yeah, while we can still see each other across the table,” Joey chided. “Wanna make something to eat now? And duel?”
“Well…sure. I guess,” Yugi conceded, heading back into the kitchen. “Who wants to help?”
Being as the subject was food, Joey was more than happy to jump up and lend a hand, leaving Yami and Tristan standing around the living room in front of the TV. The pharaoh was particularly curious and disturbed by the repeated shots of reporters standing out in the gale-force winds, squinting through rain-spattered eyeglasses and shouting into their microphones to describe what it was like to be outside in the storm. With all the windows boarded up, the boys had no way of just glancing outside to see for themselves, but they didn’t need to see to know that it was wet and windy. “Why do they do that?” Yami wondered after the millionth report by a rain-soaked reporter on the coast. “A storm like this isn’t that much of an oddity that people don’t know what it’s like, is it?”
“Nah, it’s all for ratings,” Tristan shrugged. “Everybody inland is watching just to see which one of them gets blown over first. It’s kinda funny. At least one reporter every typhoon gets knocked off his feet right in front of the camera.”
The pharaoh shook his head. “I know our decision to stay and not evacuate was not the most…”
“Intelligent?”
“…conscientious, thing to do,” Yami corrected him with a smile, “but compared to those reporters, I feel rather smart.”
“Yeah, I like being dry and safe.” Tristan gave him a little punch in the shoulder. “And we’ve got you here. I know that’s a big comfort for Yugi.”
Yami glanced toward the ruckus in the kitchen that told of Yugi and Joey making a mess out of what was to be lunch. “He’s being very brave,” he murmured, “but I know how frightened he is. Not of the storm itself, but of losing his grandfather’s store in it.”
Tristan gazed seriously at him. “They aren’t doing so well, are they?”
With a sigh, Yami shook his head. “I don’t pretend to understand the workings of business and finances in this modern world, but I know what it feels like in my heart when Yugi thinks about money. I can sense his pain.” He shifted his glance to Tristan, his brow knit worriedly. “Do you think staying here was a good idea?”
“I don’t think it’s either good or bad,” his friend replied honestly. “Like you said, there are people out there doing much stupider things. If nothing happens, or the damage is minor, then it’ll turn out to have been not so bad for us to stay and batten down the hatches. I guess, we can’t really judge ourselves till the storm is over.” He sighed tiredly. “I just hope I have a job to come back to when it’s over.”
Yami raised an eyebrow. “You work in construction, don’t you? I would think your skills would be in high demand when it comes time to rebuild what the storm knocked down.”
“Hm…yeah, guess you’re right,” Tristan said a little more brightly. “But I’m betting the job site I’ve been at is going to be a mess. Months of work that we’ll have to redo from scratch after it all gets blown away.”
“Well, that’s not good.”
Just then, without so much as a clap of thunder or a noise of wind, the house plunged suddenly into darkness. Yugi and Joey simultaneously groaned from the kitchen. “Dammit!” Joey cried out. “And just when the water was about to boil!”
“Looks like it’s going to be a cold lunch for us after all,” Yugi said. “Hey, one of you guys? All the flashlights are in there.”
Tristan had snatched one up right away, and now flicked it on, making shadows leap away from him as he waved it toward the voices in the kitchen. “You mean like this one?”
“Can you bring us one?” Yugi asked in exasperation.
Pulling out any fruit or rice or leftovers that could be eaten cold, the four boys settled down in the living room with one battery-powered lamp and the radio, gathering around the table to eat and shuffle their Duel Monsters cards. The party atmosphere had dampened only slightly, thanks to the inconvenience of the power being out, but those who had been through typhoons before knew not to expect it to come back on, perhaps even for days, so all they could do was make the best of it and pretend they were camping or having a slumber party. Dueling took their minds off the storm for a while, but as the afternoon wore on, the wind grew stronger and harder to ignore, until it was positively howling like a great beast around the house. Yugi hadn’t been terribly scared of the storm until he could hear it keening like that, drowning out all but the most raucous of laughter around the table. Rain drummed steadily on the roof, and thunder rolled and shook the building right down to its bones. After a while of this, Yami noticed his lover’s worry, unable to overlook the tense little body resting against his own. He liked to hold Yugi in his lap, one arm around him, but doing so made him all the more aware of the slightest change to Yugi’s posture, grip, even his breathing or heart rate. He was getting more and more distracted from the cards in his hand, and peals of thunder that he had previously ignored now made his head jump slightly and his eyes lift uncertainly to the roof over their heads. Even Joey could be seen glancing up now and then from the game on the table, his brown eyes shining with a hint of worry. Yami tightened his arm around Yugi and whispered in his ear, guiding him as always to make the right move with a magic card in his hand that would beat down Joey and prevent him from taking advantage of Yugi’s distraction to win. As soon as the card was on the field and Joey groaned and declared that it wasn’t fair for Yugi to be taking hints from Yami when they weren’t technically bonded, the pharaoh smiled and rubbed his lover’s back for encouragement. “Yugi,” he put forth, “I’m not sure I like being upstairs in this storm. Is there a safer place we could be spending the day?”
Yugi slumped back against him, thinking. “Well,” he answered, “I think they said on the news that the safest place to be is on the first floor, in a room without windows.”
“You mean like, the front part of the storage room downstairs?” Tristan offered.
“As long as it ain’t flooded,” Joey added.
Yugi closed up his hand and set the cards down on top of his deck. “Maybe now’s a good time to do a check of the house, make sure there isn’t any flooding or anything. At least until there’s a break in the storm where we can actually go outside and look. But yeah.” He glanced over his shoulder at his partner, smiling faintly. “We should probably go downstairs and wait in the storeroom. I’d feel a lot safer down there, too.” His eyes darted upward once more. “I don’t like the way the wind sounds.”
“It’s not even stopping, now,” Tristan noted as he got up. “It’s just a constant roar.”
Pocketing their dueling decks, all four of them grabbed the flashlights and radio and headed down the stairs into the shop, dividing up to go and check all points for signs of trouble. Yami made sure the side door leading up to the house was still shut tight and barricaded, while the others checked the shop, the storeroom, and the back office. So far, there was no indication that the rain was getting in nor floods surrounding them, but the noise of wind was just as ferocious down there as upstairs. The only thing they couldn’t hear was the rattling of boards and shingles on the roof being beaten by wind and rain. Joey said he wasn’t sure the front door of the shop was going to hold indefinitely, but if the wind died down at any point they could go out and check it, and barricade it again as necessary. Once satisfied with the inspection, they set down the lamp on a big box in the middle of the storeroom and turned it into their table. Tristan ran back upstairs for snacks and sodas, and they did their best to regain some of their fun by going back to playing games. Only now, all four of them sat a little more straight, kept their voices a little bit low, and paused now and again to listen to the news broadcasts coming constantly over their radio.
With the power out and the interior storeroom lacking even boarded-up windows for light, the four friends couldn’t tell whether it was day or night, nor grasp the passage of time. What seemed like hours was only minutes, sitting there in the dim light of the lamps listening to the wind battering the house. In time, even the radio became rather pointless, as the signal was too weak to stand up to the elements and then the broadcast studio lost power, knocking it off the air. Joey fumbled with the dial, searching for any other station that might come in, regardless of whether it was news or music, but then Tristan shot out an arm and made him stop fiddling. “What is that?” he asked in a low, wary voice.
Everyone took a breath and held it. “The wind,” Joey replied as if it were obvious.
“No, it’s more than that,” Tristan worried. “Listen.”
Yugi couldn’t hear anything besides wind himself, but then Tristan raised a finger at the same time as he heard something else – a different kind of roar, and the clattering of something outside that sounded like boards or branches striking the house. “That sounds bad,” Yugi murmured.
“Did you leave any part of any window open so we could look outside?” Joey asked him.
“No…but you might be able to get the back door open,” Yugi said. “We had to have some way of getting in and out. And that’s how we got Tristan’s bike in here.”
“I barricaded it but it’s not boarded up,” Tristan added.
Wearing a look of grim determination, Joey got up and waded through the boxes to the rear half of the storeroom, with the utility door that opened on the alley behind the house where Kame received shipments. They had wheeled Tristan’s motorcycle in through that door to keep it safe. Joey made his way cautiously through the cluttered storeroom mostly on his own without use of a flashlight, but the barricaded door was vibrating as though possessed, letting in tiny flashes of daylight around its edges. He rested his hand on the door but couldn’t stop its movement, and after a few moments of listening, turned and stumbled back towards the lamp in the inner room where his friends huddled. “I don’t know what that is,” he called out, “but we better get our heads down now!”
The other three perked up curiously. “Joey?” Yugi wondered.
“The door’s shaking like it’s gonna rip right off any second now!” Joey reported as he blundered in and shut the storeroom door behind him. “The wind’s so loud I couldn’t even hear myself think!”
Yami placed a hand on Yugi’s shoulders just as something thudded into the side of the building with a loud crack. All four boys ducked and dropped to the floor, knocking the useless radio over. Yami threw himself over the top of Yugi, holding him tightly. His lover’s hand came around his and squeezed. Something was definitely hitting the building, numerous small cracks and bangs as it hit the boards over the windows. For a few minutes, the noise level grew exponentially inside, and the friends kept their heads down, crouching on the floor afraid to even breathe as they listened to the world coming to an end beyond their doors. But then, it passed, and the simple howl of the typhoon wind sounded almost quiet by comparison. Tristan bravely picked himself up first, going to the storeroom door and cracking it open. The back door had indeed been ripped open, and now banged wildly against the back side of the building, giving them their first glimpse of murky daylight since waking up. Tristan ran to pull it closed, finding that the lock had been torn off by the wind. “We’re going to have to find some way of nailing this shut,” he reported over his shoulder as Joey got up and came into the doorway. “Man, it’s raining sideways!”
Joey came to his side and looked out, and then tapped his friend on the shoulder and pointed. Immediately around Kame game shop the ground was littered with twigs and shingles, but across the street a whole tree had toppled over. Beyond that, they could see what could have been a collapsed building with raw, jagged timbers sticking up against the blue-black sky. But Joey was pointing at the clouds, at something neither he nor Tristan had ever seen before – a rain-wrapped gray snake of a funnel winding its way into the distance. At the same time, both of them pushed each other back inside and went to find the tools they had stashed after the previous day’s work. Yugi got up and brushed himself off as they came back inside to find a scrap of wood to help nail the door shut. “What, what is it?” he asked them. “What’s it like out there?”
“It’s pretty bad,” Joey reported, not saying directly that he thought he had just seen a tornado. “There’s a house or something up the street that’s all busted up. Dude, your grandpa’s car is gonna be totally wrecked – there’s tree branches everywhere.”
Yugi sighed. “Ah, well. I guess if there’s anything we can afford to lose, it’s the car.”
Once the door had been temporarily fixed, they all gathered around the box in the storeroom again, only now they put the cards away and just sat and talked. Yugi huddled into Yami’s arms, leaning his head against the pharaoh’s chest as they sat together on the floor, fully entwined. For the most part neither of them said a word, mostly just half-heartedly listening to Joey and Tristan talk while they held each other and contented themselves with their shared warmth and closeness. Joey gave a quiet sigh. “It’s just so weird, you know?” he murmured. “All the stuff we’ve been through, in some ways it’s much worse stuff than a little typhoon. But even though we’ve stopped much bigger things, we can’t stop a typhoon.” He gestured toward Yami with a bit of a wry grin. “We even stopped a huge ancient beast with nothing but a couple of dragon cards. And we can’t do anything about a storm?”
Yami smiled in return. “Even if I understood my sleeping powers, Joey, I don’t think they’d have much effect on the weather.”
“That’d be cool if you could, though,” Tristan said flippantly. “If you could really make the cards do what they say. This is, what, ‘Heavy Storm’ and ‘Mystical Space Typhoon’ all wrapped up together?”
“And Dust Tornado,” Joey offered.
“And Gust,” Yami added.
“So what stops those?” Tristan asked.
Yami and Joey looked at each other, but it was Yugi who lifted his head and feebly replied, “Magic Jammer and Remove Trap.”
The others all laughed heartily. “Yeah, that’s not going to help us now, is it?” Joey smirked.
“It’s okay.” Yugi curled up in his partner’s lap and hugged him even closer, closing his eyes. “I feel perfectly safe right now.”
Yami blushed and gave their friends a glance and a smile over the top of Yugi’s head, cuddling him in return. Joey and Tristan smiled back, and then the latter slapped a hand on his knee as he got up. “I’m going to go make another check of the shop. After that last round, I want to make sure there isn’t any damage.”
As the afternoon wore on, it took everything the boys had not to start pacing impatiently in their dark, uncomfortable prison. Though it would have been nicer to be upstairs lounging on the couch or the futons, they all felt safer in the storeroom with several walls between them and the outdoors, since the wind’s constant howl made them uneasy. Joey, Tristan, and even Yugi occasionally got up and walked a circuit of the downstairs rooms to check for signs of wear and tear or water coming in, but so far everything was intact. They listened for any break in the weather to allow them to peek outside and check the status of the rest of the world, meanwhile taking it upon themselves to take turns running upstairs to make certain no boards had been torn off windows or skylights. The rest of the time, they sat together around the crate-turned-table, nibbling on snacks and talking. Considering their lives together, Joey, Tristan, and Yugi had more to talk about, reminiscing and teasing while Yami sat silent among them, observing like he usually did and holding Yugi. Yugi noticed, and while Joey was upstairs making another combination snack run and inspection, he turned to his lover with concerned eyes. “How are you doing? Is everything all right?”
Yami blinked at him, a little surprised. “I’m…fine, Yugi,” he replied innocently. “I’m not afraid, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“Well, no, it’s just…you’ve gotten real quiet,” Yugi noted.
A smile graced the pharaoh’s lips. “I’m just listening to all of you tell stories, that’s all. It’s nice to hear about the funny things that happened to you when you were younger, before you met each other.”
The little worried furrow remained in the middle of Yugi’s brow. “I don’t want you feel excluded, though…”
“I don’t.” Giving Tristan a quick glance as if to ask his forgiveness for what he was about to do, Yami tightened his embrace and bent his head to kiss Yugi slowly, deeply, just the way he liked. He didn’t let up until he felt Yugi wilt in surrender and heard the little moan in his throat. “It’s all right,” Yami then whispered. “It’s what I would be doing if I were still locked inside the Puzzle anyway.”
“But you’re not inside the Puzzle,” Yugi whispered back, taking a deep breath to compose himself. “You don’t have to just sit here and listen.”
“I can do this.” Yami leaned in and kissed him again, and then pulled him in close so that Yugi was forced to lay his head on his partner’s shoulder. Sighing, Yugi gave up and sank into him, fastening his arms around Yami’s chest and hugging him. Ordinarily, sitting thus with Yugi in his lover’s lap would be a mere moment’s pause before moving on to bigger and hotter things, but for now they had to be content with the comfort.
Joey could be heard coming downstairs long before he appeared, the beam of his flashlight leading the way. It washed over Yugi and Yami as he came into the room. “Aw, aren’t you cute,” he snorted, tossing a bag of snacks to Tristan. “And in front of Tristan, too?”
“Hey, I’m not getting in the middle,” Tristan said, holding up his hands in caution. “It’s Yami’s day, he can do whatever he wants.”
“I figured he wouldn’t mind,” Yami murmured, glancing up long enough to cast another look and smile in his friend’s direction.
“I was with Yugi on that one,” Tristan confessed. “I thought you might be bored sitting here listening to us babble about our younger days.”
“I’m not,” the pharaoh said honestly. “I may not have anything to contribute, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to hear what you have to say.”
“Hey,” Joey said as if interrupting. “It sounds like the wind is dying down a little. I don’t know if the eye is coming over us after all, or if it’s just a break in the rain, but maybe in a little bit we’ll be able to poke our noses out the front door.”
Yami glanced at him as Yugi raised his head. “Is such a thing wise?” the pharaoh asked.
“No more stupid than being here in the first place,” Joey shrugged. He then pointed sternly down at his best friend. “You’re staying in here, though. Me and Tristan will go out and have a look around.”
Yugi pouted angrily. “But Joey…!”
“No buts. I’m bigger than you, I’ll make you stay inside if I have to.” He shifted his hard look slightly. “You got me on this one, Yami?”
“I’m pretty sure I can hold him back,” Yami smiled.
“Okay, but I’m standing right by the door so you can tell me everything you see,” Yugi grumbled. “I want to know every little tiny bit of damage you find on the building.”
Thanks to Joey’s report, none of them wanted to stay sitting in the safety of the inner room now, wandering into the storefront to listen for the change in the wind he had been talking about. Yami thought it still sounded the same, but after a short while the others came to an agreement that it had calmed as much as it was going to, so if they wanted to go they needed to go now. The radio even came back to life, now that the wind was not interfering with the signal so much. Joey and Tristan donned raincoats and handed their flashlights to Yugi and Yami as they worked together to pull back the shelves barricading the front door. Unlike the utility door in the back, its lock was holding, though precariously, and the wind nearly ripped the door out of Joey’s hands when he unlocked it and tugged the latch. He braced himself and let it open partway, making all four of them flinch at the sudden intrusion of gray daylight and a burst of wind. Papers across the room fluttered and blew back as Joey raised an arm to protect his face and peered out. “Nope, not the eye,” he shouted back to his companions. “It’s still raining.”
“Dammit, Joey,” Tristan complained, pushing him out the door. “Brilliant idea. How are we going to get anything fixed if it’s still storming so bad?”
“Ah, suck it up,” Joey retorted as he ducked out into the rain.
Yugi rushed to the door to see his friends out, but Yami did as promised and pulled him back, at least out of the way of the rain being driven inside by the wind. It was blustery, but fortunately at the moment the rain was not coming at them sideways. Compared to earlier, this could indeed be considered a calm. Yugi stood poised at the edge of the threshold, just far enough inside to keep his socks dry, waiting to hear what Joey and Tristan could find. At least he and Yami could see outside, and look down the block at their neighborhood. Slats, shingles, and small bits of tree branches littered the wet pavement, and one of the boards meant to cover a window on a building across the street was hanging loose, swinging dangerously, but overall it didn’t look terrible. Craning his neck, Yugi could see out enough to notice that a huge branch had ripped off a tree beside the building next door and was lying across a power line on the ground. Then Joey blundered into his line of sight, hurrying to get back inside with one hand holding tight to the hood of his jacket. “Joey!” Yugi called out to greet him as he backed away from the door, lest he be showered with even more rain. “What is it? What did you find?”
Joey lowered his hood and shook his head rapidly, though only the tips of his bangs had gotten wet. “No worries, Yug,” he said. “Gotta get the tools, though. Some of the boards on the back windows are coming loose.”
Tristan reappeared from the other direction, ducking inside and doing his best not to brush up against anything as he waited for Joey and Yugi to fetch the hand tools they had stored in the back with his motorcycle. Once again, the two taller boys disappeared out into the storm to fix up what was coming loose, but they weren’t long, and for good reason. Though the sky seemed brighter right where they were, the clouds looked much darker and more foreboding to the south, the direction the typhoon’s rain bands were swirling in from. They only had a few more minutes before the next swath of storms would be upon them, so Joey and Tristan concentrated on the most essential repairs and left the cosmetic damage for later. Yugi gave a start when the wind slammed the door wide open against the building in a sudden gust, but before he could lunge to capture it, Joey and Tristan came back for good. They left the toolbox there in the shop on a nearby counter and latched the door securely behind them. With Yami’s help, they slid the shelves back and finally shrugged out of their wet raincoats. “Man, that was wild,” Tristan exclaimed. “You think we got it?”
“It’ll have to do for now,” Joey sighed, combing his bangs out of his eyes. “It’s a good thing we caught it, though. Another blast like the last one and I could see trees coming into windows, and that’s not good.”
“How bad was it?” Yugi eagerly asked. “Is there a lot of damage?”
“Nah, nothing huge,” Joey answered. “The house is holding up pretty good. Some of the boards were coming off, though.”
Tristan pointed in the general direction of outside. “But there’s a place up the street that’s got the roof torn clean off. All you can see is bits of it in the street, rafters and insulation.”
Yugi turned frightened eyes on him. “You don’t think that could happen to our roof…could it?”
Tristan was forced to shrug. “Honestly, I don’t know, Yugi. I don’t know anything about how well this house was made. But I looked up as much as I could and I didn’t see anything to indicate it was in trouble.”
“There’s big tree branches and power lines down all over the place,” Joey added. “Best for us just to hole up in here and wait it out, now. Unless something happens, we should just hunker down and let it pass.”
“How long will that take?” Yami wondered. “How long do these storms usually last?”
“The worst part usually passes in a day,” Yugi told him, “depending on how fast the whole thing is moving. But we’ll still get rain for a couple of days.”
“Any good coming out of the radio?” Joey asked as he wandered back into the storeroom. “Meaning anything besides static?”
The others started to follow him, but a loud slam stopped all of them in their tracks. The front door had blown wide open again, and whammed against the building. Another squall was rumbling in, the sky had turned five shades darker and made their flashlights gleam that much brighter in contrast. Cursing, Tristan leaped to muscle the shelving unit out of the way so he could go and grab the door, and Joey shoved past Yugi to help. Their shoes slipped and squeaked on the wet floor, forcing them to grit their teeth and push even harder to move the shelves. Yugi ran up and started grabbing things off the shelf to try and lighten it, making stacks on a counter further inside, and Yami came up behind Joey expecting to assist. The wind was rising to a banshee scream again, slamming the open door repeatedly against the side of the building with such force that the boys feared it was going to tear off its hinges and fly away. As soon as Joey and Tristan could get the shelf pushed a meager foot sideways, Yami wormed his way through the narrow space and lunged for the door, grabbing the latch and pulling with all his might. Joey and Tristan were now arguing about the best way to maneuver the shelf sideways, seeing as their direct push wasn’t working, and only belatedly noticed that the pharaoh was doing the hard part all by himself. The gale-force wind was pushing straight into the door, turning it into a big sail that resisted being pulled shut. Yami stood with his feet braced, teeth gritted, not able to get it closed but refusing to let it fly open again, the rain soaking him through. Joey grabbed for him and got his arms around his waist, finally helping pull, but he ducked and yelped as a piece of loose wood flew past his head and smacked into the door. Debris was now being flung at them in addition to the rain. They heard the clatter of metal as one of the lights above the Kame sign came loose and skittered away into the distance, followed by Joey cursing the rain and the wind. Yugi stood paralyzed inside, watching wide-eyed as Yami and Joey struggled with the door and Tristan stood aside waiting for a chance to grab onto something and help. Right now, only one set of hands could even hold the door handle, which was becoming slippery with rain. Then, as Yami was glancing over his shoulder to shout some advice or suggestion to Joey, another windblown piece of debris came out of nowhere and struck him in the head. Seeing him fall, the red gleam of blood on his temple, shocked Yugi out of his waiting pose. “Yami!” he screamed, dashing across the shop to catch him. The door escaped Yami’s grasp and flung itself back against the wall, and with a crash, the topmost hinge splintered. Joey recoiled, not sure whether he should go for the door or the pharaoh first. Yami collapsed face-down on the sidewalk, but within seconds Yugi was with him, grabbing him, picking him up, trying to drag him inside, all the while hysterically stammering, “Yami, Yami! Come on, Yami! Please!”
“Get the door!” Tristan yelled at Joey, shoving him bodily outside while he fell to his knees next to Yugi. Joey snapped out of his shock and did as he was told, standing boldly astride his friends to protect Yami with his body until Tristan and Yugi could pull him into the shop, at which point Joey wrestled with the door and finally forced it closed.
Yugi turned Yami over into his lap, his hands trembling as he pushed aside the pharaoh’s wet bangs to see the wound. Tristan hunched over them both, restraining himself from reaching in also. “Yami?” Yugi begged. “Please, wake up!”
“Is he okay?” Tristan asked. “Check his pulse.”
Though his hands were wet and the pharaoh’s skin cold, Yugi fumbled to find the spot on his neck where he could tell. “He’s just unconscious,” he reported, “but…somebody get me something to clean up the blood! Yami, please…hang in there.”
“Tristan!” Joey snapped. “Come here and hold this door shut, I’ll take care of it.”
“I can just as easily…” Tristan started to argue.
“You’re stronger than I am!” Joey argued back. “You get the door, I’ll get the first aid kit.”
“It’s in there,” Yugi instructed, looking up and gesturing towards the back of the store. “A blanket, a towel, anything. Oh, he’s soaking wet…I need a towel anyway. Yami?”
Tristan got up and grabbed the door handle from Joey, bracing himself to hold it shut for the time being. Joey had locked it, but with one hinge already ripped off, the lock alone wouldn’t hold. Joey dashed around the counter and disappeared into the storeroom, returning with the first aid kit that had been set aside with other emergency supplies in their downstairs shelter. He vaulted straight over the counter and stumbled to his knees on the floor next to Yugi, prying it open and looking for something to help. There were some gauze bandages, and together Yugi and Joey fumbled to open the package and release at least one. Yugi pressed it against Yami’s head, right over the cut, and held his hand there no matter how much it was shaking. “Hey, Yug,” Joey said then, putting a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. He’ll be fine, just give him a second.”
Yugi only shook his head absently. “Yami…come on,” he breathed. “Please wake up. I need you. Yami…”
The limp body in his arms took a breath and groaned, then, his violet eyes fluttering open briefly and then squeezing shut in pain. The other three jumped in surprise. “Yami!” Yugi exclaimed.
“What…happened?” Yami forced himself to look up, finding Yugi’s face hovering over him, tears shimmering in his eyes. “Yugi…?”
“Are you okay?” Yugi demanded to know, his voice trembling as much as his hands. “Yami…”
The pharaoh tried to sit up but flinched. “Ah…my head,” he complained. “What hit me?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t see it,” Joey replied. “All I saw was you go down.”
Sighing, Yami settled back down into the arms holding him, deciding not to resist. The cut on his head stung, but he was able to look up and see Yugi clearly even in the dim half-light of their flashlights. “Yugi,” he murmured.
Yugi still kept his hand firmly placed over the wound, though his shoulders shook and his lower lip trembled with the strain of trying to keep his tears from falling. “It’s okay, I’ve got you,” he managed to whisper. “I’ll take care of you. Does it hurt?”
“Not as much as…” Yami twitched uncomfortably, squirming until he could work the Millennium Puzzle out from under his arm. Once it was no longer beneath him, he could lie back and let Yugi hold him. “Much better,” he sighed.
Though it was very funny, Yugi couldn’t let himself laugh for fear that it would only make him lose his thinly-held restraint and break down crying instead. Joey got up and went to help Tristan now that his nursing assistance was no longer needed, debating what they could do to fix the door and keep it from tearing away again. After a bit, Yugi lifted his hand to see if the bleeding had stopped, and then tossed aside the bandage in favor of a clean one. “You’re soaked to the bone,” he noted as he worked. “I need to get you a change of clothes, and a towel and…and you should lie down somewhere. Maybe we should go back upstairs…”
“It’s not safe,” Yami demurred. “I’ll be fine, Yugi. Just…give me a bit, I’ll be able to stand…”
“No!” Yugi protested vehemently. “You lay right here and don’t even think about it. You’re hurt!”
Taken aback, Yami stared at him for a moment before trying to smile. “I’m not hurt that badly. It’s just a little bump on the head.”
“Bump on the head? You’re bleeding! You were knocked out for a few minutes!”
“It was only about a minute,” Joey offered over his shoulder. Yugi shot him a look that made him decide not to help anymore.
Yami reached and laid his hand over the one pressed to his temple, caressing it softly with his thumb. “Yugi,” he said, a little more firmly, “relax. I’m all right. Thank you, for taking care of me.”
Yugi sniffled back his tears, shifting his arms so his lover would be more comfortable in his lap. “Do you have any idea how scary it is to see you fall like that with blood on your face?” he whimpered.
“I imagine it must have been terrifying.” Yami’s eyes softened. “I don’t mean to worry you. I was just doing what I could.”
Feeling stupid, Yugi could only nod. “It’s okay,” he admitted. “You…you did good.”
Tristan and Joey were still holding on to the door, talking about boarding over the hinge and temporarily sealing themselves into the house, when it shook with an insistent pounding. It was too strong and immediate to be caused by debris, it sounded almost like someone was knocking. The boys looked at each other, confused, and then Joey reached to unlock the door and see if he could let it open just a crack without having it torn out of his hand. From the darkness, wind, and rain, a figure with a bright flashlight intruded into the doorway. “Police!” a gruff voice shouted at them. “Who’s in there?”
Joey and Tristan both leaped backwards, though Tristan kept a grip on the door. “Don’t shoot!” Joey responded. “It’s okay, we’re not robbers! We belong here!”
The police officer shouldered into the doorway, shining his light on all of them, lingering on the figures sprawled on the floor. “What’s going on? What are you kids doing here?”
Joey flung out a hand to indicate his friend crouched behind him. “Yugi’s the owner of this place, he asked us to ride out the storm with him.”
The officer’s brow twitched with obvious concern, seeing Yami lying there with a bloodied bandage on his head. “Hey, are you all right? Do you need help?”
“No,” Yami immediately answered. “I just got knocked down, I’ll be all right.”
“Because I can take you to the hospital if you need…there’s no way you’re going to get through in this storm otherwise…”
“It’s all right,” the pharaoh assured in as placid and understanding a tone as he was capable of. “It was my fault for trying to be a hero, and fixing the door.”
“We’re still trying to fix it,” Joey pointed out.
“I don’t suppose you can help?” Tristan added to the officer.
The cop took another step inside so Tristan could pull the door closed, and briefly shined his flashlight around the shop to verify that everything was intact before addressing them. “There’s a bad squall coming in right now,” he said seriously, “you boys aren’t in a good position to be riding it out.”
Yugi looked up from where he sat. “Are we in any serious danger, from flooding or anything?”
The officer shook his head. “No, it’s not too bad up here. Most of the flooding is down closer to the harbor. I just don’t like to see four young men such as yourselves putting your lives in danger.” He focused the beam of his light on Yugi. “You’re really the owner?”
“Co-owner, yes, sir,” Yugi answered politely. “I’m here to make sure I don’t lose the store. We’re all right, this accident only just happened.”
“Well…all right.” The cop sighed. “You’re sure you don’t want me to take your friend to the hospital?”
“Not for a bump on the head,” Yugi answered quietly. “I’m sure they’re having problems with the power, too. You should worry about people who are more seriously hurt than Yami.”
“I’ll be fine,” Yami added. “I’ll rest and not exert myself, my friends will look after me.”
“All right.” The officer looked around at all of them once more. “As long as I know you’re here, I’ll have a patrol come by if there’s anything you need to be warned about. Not too many people stayed, but we’re keeping an eye out for those who did. There are power lines down outside your building, you need to stay in here and not go out for any reason in case any of them are live, all right?”
The three upright boys nodded and chorused, “Yes, sir.”
He then gestured to the tools on the counter. “You’re trying to fix the door?”
Joey shrugged helplessly. “Don’t suppose you have a way of nailing it shut from the outside, do you?”
The officer did not, but he had some other suggestions, and spent a few minutes helping Joey and Tristan rearrange the shelves inside before wishing them well and going outside to do his part to help them close the door permanently. They all thanked him profusely before letting him leave, since he would be putting himself at risk outside in the blinding rain to assist. “This is no light matter,” he reminded them before he left. “You boys are putting yourselves at great risk.”
“We understand fully, sir,” Yugi assured him. “My friends knew what they were getting into when they decided to stay with me. Thank you.”
He nodded, and then it was up to Joey and Tristan to let him out and wrestle the door shut again. Tristan let him take and keep one of his hammers in order to nail a patch over the broken hinge from the outside, regardless of whether the officer would come back after the storm was over to return the tool. They were finally able to secure the door from their side, and shove the barricade back into place to shut out all noise of wind and storm. With that, Joey turned and set his fists on his hips with a determined glare. “Now that that’s done…you. Pharaoh. Your turn.”