Queer As Tachi – Chapter 25
Thanks to Yugi’s care, the gash on Yami’s temple had stopped bleeding a while ago, but Yugi refused to move him until he was absolutely sure. Once Joey and Tristan were finished securing the door they were available to help, and together they picked Yami up and escorted him into the storeroom where it would be much safer. Joey ran upstairs for a towel, a dry shirt, and a pillow, while Yugi settled himself onto the floor with his back against a shelf and prepared to take his wounded lover back into his lap. Yami sat up and held the bandage to his head while Yugi fussed over him, toweling his hair dry and wrapping him in a warm, dry shirt instead of the one that had been soaked by his stint in the rain. At last, with his head wrapped snugly and his body protected against chill, Yami laid with his head resting on Yugi’s leg, a cold compress on his forehead. Yugi had sobered up considerably, and sat watching over his partner while their friends finally collapsed to seats themselves. Yami closed his eyes to rest, while Yugi stroked his damp hair and held his hand, as much for his own comfort as for Yami’s. “Seriously?” Joey asked his best friend after something he said. “Not even a paper cut?”
Yugi shook his head. “No, nothing. Yami’s never bled in all the times he’s had this body. I don’t know why I didn’t expect him to…since he’s capable of everything else that a real body should do.”
“I think you were more upset that he was hurt than surprised,” Tristan pointed out. “A smack on the head isn’t much but seeing blood…”
“As long as this doesn’t affect things in the long run.” Yugi closed his hand around Yami’s as he looked down. “When you go back into the Puzzle, will you still be hurt? Will it make any difference?”
“I don’t know,” the pharaoh replied calmly. “I suppose we will find out tonight.”
“Just rest up, then,” Joey encouraged. “We got things. Yugi can take care of you.”
Yugi looked up to his friends. “Just what time is it, anyway?”
Tristan checked his watch. “Wow. About five.” He shot Joey an amused look. “Is it dinnertime yet?”
“Only five?” Yugi heaved a long sigh. “It feels like this day is just crawling by. And it’s still not getting any better out there…”
“It’s okay, Yug,” Joey assured as he sat back against a box. “We’re safe and sound down here. It can’t last forever, sooner or later it’ll die down and we can relax.”
Yugi resumed stroking Yami’s hair, combing it away from the bandage wrapped around his head, as the motion comforted them both. “I guess. I just hate all this uncertainty.”
Though he lay with his eyes closed, Yami was not asleep. He murmured unexpectedly, “The wind has shifted.”
The others stared at him. “What are you talking about?” Joey queried.
Yami tilted his head in Yugi’s lap, his eyes barely opening. “All day, the wind has been pushing against that side of the building,” he noted. “Now, I can hear it coming from the other direction. It’s shifted.”
Joey and Tristan looked at each other. “I don’t hear nothin’,” the former said. “Just wind, period.”
“Getting hit on the head helps you hear better?” Tristan shrugged.
“Guys!” Yugi complained.
Yami just smiled faintly and closed his eyes again, settling back down. “The front door isn’t rattling anymore,” he added.
Yugi turned his head to listen and noticed that he was right. Not long ago, the wind had still been shaking it, though its new reinforcements held. “I wonder what that means,” he mused. “I don’t know anything about weather, I wish I could say for sure if that meant the storm was passing or something.”
Joey reached for the radio, setting it upright on the center box and fiddling with the antenna for a bit. Eventually, he got the station to come in clearly, and stood for a minute or two holding the antenna just in case he was the magic link that got it to work. “…currently, the police barricade is set up at Hill Street, but authorities say it may be moved back if the floodwaters rise. All areas from Gingko Street to the harbor are currently impassable to vehicle traffic. Any residents who had not evacuated are being rescued at this time and brought to downtown shelters. Turning to the north side…”
Joey turned to Tristan with a hard, serious look in his eyes. “Shit…that’s your place.”
Tristan was sitting with his elbows propped up on his knees, simply staring at the floor as he listened to the broadcast. “Yeah, I know,” he sighed. “I figured on that, though. That’s why I’m not down there.”
“But your flat is on the second floor,” Yugi reasoned. “Do you think it’ll be that bad?”
“Well, I’m not that close to the harbor,” Tristan thought aloud, “my place is closer to where they said the barricade is set up. So maybe it’s not that bad. Eh.” He shrugged stiffly. “What do I have to lose? My manga collection?”
“Your parents will help you out if you lose everything, won’t they?” Joey wondered.
“Probably, yeah.”
“Hold on, guys,” Yugi broke in, “they’re talking about our side of town now.”
They hushed and leaned in to listen to the radio as the steady voice of the broadcast anchor came through, fuzzing only once in a while with static. “Reports from authorities vary, there are some neighborhoods with wind damage but others are nearly untouched. Power is out in all areas of Domino City and down the coast, and is not expected to be restored until after the storm passes. Train service is suspended until further notice, and authorities say no one should be out on the streets until the storm is over. A curfew is in effect from dusk until dawn starting tonight, citywide. This is radio station THX, current time is five-fifteen…current weather is…”
“We know what the current weather is,” Tristan heckled the radio.
“Hey, I want to hear this,” Yugi begged.
“Winds from the west, shifting to southwest,” the broadcaster was reporting, apparently getting the most recent information from the shuffling of papers in the background. “The typhoon made landfall at approximately three-twenty p.m. local time, seventy kilometers north of Domino, its general direction is east-northeast at forty kilometers per hour. It is expected to lose much of its strength and organization as it passes over land and will be downgraded to a tropical storm, perhaps as early as sunset tonight.”
The newscaster moved on to read some sketchy news headlines from around the world, just to break the monotony of storm information, so the boys sat back with a sigh. “So we’re probably in the worst of it now,” Yugi realized. “It should get better after this.”
“Told you,” Joey smirked.
“Well, they were saying when we got up this morning that it lost some of its punch going over South Korea,” Tristan reasoned. “I think we lucked out big-time.”
“Yeah, it was a super-typhoon earlier in the week,” Joey recalled.
“Hey, Tristan?” Yugi said more gently. “If your place is flooded real bad and the police won’t let you go in there, you’re welcome to stay here a couple more days.”
His friend smiled at him. “Thanks, Yugi.”
Thanks to a fresh and not so dire update, the four young men were able to calm down and go back to hanging out, talking and joking, except for Yami who lay quietly with his head comfortably pillowed on Yugi’s thigh. The cool cloth on his head had lost its power, but the ache wasn’t unbearable so long as he kept his eyes closed. Straining to see in the semi-dark would not help. Eventually, when checking their watches started to get annoying, they began to talk about going back upstairs where it was more comfortable, before boredom and hunger got the best of them. At the very least, the storm should have been dying down by now, or would by nightfall. Joey dutifully checked now and again, walking a circuit of the upstairs rooms checking for damage, and finally came back down after such an inspection to report that it sounded like the wind had gone down. “It’s not so bad, really,” he insisted. “You know how before when we came down here you could hear the boards we nailed down rattling around like crazy? They’re not doing that now. It’s pretty quiet.” At that moment, a peal of thunder rolled across the sky to prove him wrong.
“Well, I guess we can move back upstairs, then,” Yugi said cautiously. “Then Yami can lay down on the futon. This cold, hard floor can’t be good for him.”
“I’m fine,” Yami spoke up to assure. “Though I wouldn’t mind going upstairs. As long as Joey’s sure.”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” Joey snorted. “I wouldn’t have said it if I wasn’t. I didn’t like the sound of the roof ripping off any more than you did.”
Yugi shot him a glare before he could even get up. “The roof was not ripping off! Don’t say things like that, Joey!”
“Easy there, Yug.” Joey smiled to put him at ease. “You know I’m only kidding.”
“It’s not nice to kid about things like that,” Yugi complained. “You know how worried I am about the whole thing.”
“I know, I know. I’m sorry.” He came over and crouched down to help Yugi lift Yami up out of his lap. “Here, I got you.”
Joey knelt with an arm around Yami while Yugi stood up and shook out his leg, trying to get the circulation back into it before trying to do anything dangerous like climb stairs, and then together the two of them hauled the pharaoh to his feet. Though he knew his friends were perfectly able and willing to help him out, Yugi decided it was his task alone to escort Yami up the stairs, being there for him to lean on. In turn, Yami decided it was not his place to point out that he was feeling fine and just let Yugi guide him as he pleased. Upstairs, all four sprawled out on the futons in the dark living room, making it a late dinner with bottles of water and sandwiches and anything else they could dig out of the kitchen. The wind still moaned in the rafters of the house, and occasional rattles or cracks of impact from debris being blown against the boarded-up windows made them jump, but for the most part it did sound a lot better compared to the afternoon. Yami sat with them, quietly smiling at Joey and Tristan being their usual energetic selves, giving Yugi all the assurance that he was fine and the cut on his head was not that serious. Even so, after they finished eating and settled down to play games again, now that the radio broadcasts had gotten exceptionally boring, the pharaoh stretched himself out on the futon to lie there and rest. He could still watch over the other three, and Yugi seemed to like having him lying next to him, available for caressing and hair-stroking. As the night wore on, the storm seemed to be dying down, though they could still hear rain drumming steadily on the roof over their heads. Eventually, even Yugi tired of gaming and curled up next to Yami, celebrating his victory in the board game he had been playing with Joey and Tristan by flinging an arm over the pharaoh’s chest and cuddling up beside him. In the lull that fell over them, they could hear the radio quietly burbling in the corner about curfews, executive orders, and rainfall totals. Before too long Tristan got up and turned it off, figuring they had passed out of the dangerous portion of the storm and could let it go. “Hey, Yugi,” he said as he returned to the pool of light cast off by their battery-powered lamp. “It’s getting kind of late. Maybe you and Yami should…well…”
Yugi lifted his head from where it had been comfortably pillowed on his lover’s shoulder. “Hm? Tristan?”
“You’ve only got a couple hours till midnight,” Tristan offered, going at it a different way. “You’ve been stuck with us all day, no – a couple of days straight, here. You guys don’t want to be alone or anything, do you?”
“Oh…no, it’s okay,” Yugi assured both of his friends. “We already agreed that it wasn’t the right time. Besides, now Yami’s hurt…”
“I’m not hurt,” Yami interrupted. “I feel fine, Yugi. My head doesn’t even ache anymore.”
Yugi propped himself up on his elbows and frowned at his partner. “Even so, I’m not going to put any stress on you…”
“Go on, Yug,” Joey broke in. Yugi glanced at him to find him sitting nearby with his elbows on his knees, his eyes quiet and serious. “We didn’t say you two should run off and have sex. You just need some alone time.”
Tristan cocked a raised eyebrow at him. “Alone time?”
A faint blush dashed across Joey’s cheeks. “That’s what Mai calls it, when she wants to stay in with me instead of go out with you guys, and just…hang.”
“Ah…yeah, that’s what I meant.” Tristan returned his gaze to Yugi and Yami lying together on the futon. “You’ve had a hard day. Go be alone with each other, till midnight.”
Yugi remained where he was, staring hard at the space between his folded hands, but then Yami sat up sharply, sweeping back his tousled bangs with the brush of a hand. Yugi glanced up at him to find him smiling down. “Come, Yugi,” he murmured gently. “Tristan is right. You’ve been through a lot, you and I need to talk.”
Yugi blinked in surprise, but as Yami got up and padded across the room without waiting, he realized he needed to go along, to find out what he meant by that serious comment. He shot Joey and Tristan a look over his shoulder, but they only smiled in response. Grabbing a flashlight, Yugi followed his partner to the bedroom, and closed the door all but a crack as they entered. “Yami?” he wondered. “Is everything okay?”
Yami turned where he was and gathered his young love into his arms, hugging him tightly with his face buried in Yugi’s neck. Yugi whimpered a little and hugged back, his arms tightening across Yami’s back as he melted completely into his partner’s embrace. After a long, motionless silence in which to savor each other’s presence, Yami lifted his head slightly and whispered into Yugi’s ear. “Now it is.”
“Yami…” Yugi squeezed him again, nuzzling his neck. “Are you okay? Really?”
“Yes. It doesn’t hurt.” Yami leaned back enough to allow them to gaze at one another. “I had a headache earlier, but it’s better now.”
Yugi pouted at him in disbelief. “Would you even tell me if it did hurt?”
“Of course. Because I know you would want to do anything in your power to help me.” The pharaoh brushed his hand gently along Yugi’s cheek. “And I wouldn’t deny you the chance to be my savior. I know how you feel. But come, now.” He slid his hands down Yugi’s arms in order to grasp his hands and pull him toward the bed. “Sit with me, and spend the rest of the day with me. If you don’t want to strain me, that’s all right – we can just sit here together.”
Yugi found it impossible to argue with him, and let himself be guided to his bed. They had one small flashlight to illuminate the pitch-dark room, which Yugi left lying on the end of the bed so it pointed at his mirror and was reflected into the rest of the room. They sat together with their backs against the wall, arms entwined, holding one another and occasionally stroking one another’s hair or face. The boards covering the skylight rattled threateningly now and then, but the worst of the wind had passed and it didn’t seem like they would rip off now. It served merely to remind them where they were and what was going on in the wider world, making their alone-time that much more special. After a long, comfortable silence, Yugi raised his head just enough to catch his partner’s attention. As their eyes met, he murmured, “You said we needed to talk?”
Yami’s violet eyes glowed with softness. “Perhaps that was an exaggeration,” he said. “I just wanted you to come with me, and not worry about bothering our friends. But if there’s anything you want to talk about – anything at all – you know I will listen.”
“I know.” Yugi settled against him, resting his head on Yami’s shoulder. He had deliberately chosen to sit on his partner’s right side, so he wouldn’t even accidentally brush against the bandaged wound to his left temple. “I’m so glad you were here with me today. Any time I felt myself getting that nervous twinge in my chest, all it took was the warmth of your hand on mine and I felt so much better.” He shifted his head so he could kiss his partner’s cheek. “I’m just sorry you got hurt.”
“I’m sorry I scared you,” Yami said in return, laying his hand over Yugi’s and stroking with his thumb. “I didn’t consider what I was doing to be that dangerous. I just wanted to protect the game shop.”
“That’s why you did it?” Yugi looked up at him and then snuggled into him again, a soft noise of worry and gratitude in his throat. “You big stupid…heroic… you…”
For a moment, Yami didn’t know what to say or think, so he just sat there with a perplexed frown on his face. But the way Yugi snuggled and held him, he figured it wasn’t that much of an insult after all. “I couldn’t stand by and watch,” he explained. “What’s important to you is important to me.”
“Thank you.” Yugi smooched his cheek again and quieted, resting against him with their hands clasped, fingers entwined. “Seeing the blood on your face did scare me, but I realize now that we’ve been really fortunate up to this point. You are real, when you’re out of the Puzzle, which means you’re vulnerable to all the bad things that can happen to a real body, just as much as the good things. I never worried about you getting hurt before.”
“Perhaps because we weren’t in any situations where I might be,” Yami pointed out. “We’ve only been going on dates and making love, not…going into battles or anything.” He sighed gently. “You’re not going to start being overprotective toward me, now, and not let me touch the kitchen knives or ride in a car for fear of an accident, are you?”
Yugi chuckled. “No. You and I have risked our souls in the shadow realm…this world is way less dangerous. If I can handle it, so can you.”
Yami chuckled back, brushing his lips over Yugi’s brow in reassurance. “I love you, my dear Yugi,” he purred softly. “I may not have single-handedly saved your store today, but as long as my presence here hasn’t been a burden to you, then I’ve done my job.”
“You’re never a burden.” Yugi hugged him securely. “You helped, more than you know. I’m glad you were here, so I could rely on you.”
Words failed them after that, so they spent the rest of their time together holding each other and trailing soft kisses across each other’s lips. They had no concept of the time, no way of knowing how close to midnight it was, since Yugi ordinarily didn’t carry a watch and didn’t know where the one he used for the ritual timing was at the moment. As such, it felt like time stood still, like they had eternity in which to sit and indulge in the closeness, the warmth and comfort, the sweetness of their kisses. Now and then they would whisper softly of their love for each other, but nothing else needed to be said. They simply kissed and snuggled and protected each other from the lingering howl of the wind above and beyond their boarded-up hiding place. At last, without warning, Yami took a sudden breath and began to fade, the spell binding his body together expiring and stealing him away. Yugi held his hand until it vanished, and closed his eyes as his soul warmed from within with the return of the spirit to its house. He lingered for a few minutes there with the empty clothes in his hands, savoring his thoughts and memories, and then got up to visit the bathroom before going back into the living room.
Whatever Tristan and Joey had been doing to occupy themselves during the hours the lovers were shut away in privacy, they abandoned it when Yugi came back alone, still wearing the Puzzle. He frowned at both of them. “You’re still up? It’s midnight! I would have thought you guys would be passed out asleep by now.”
“No way, man,” Joey replied. “For some reason, I’m totally wired. I can’t sleep.”
“Me either,” Tristan agreed. “Who can sleep with all that racket from the wind?”
“You’re not in bed either,” Joey pointed out. “I thought for sure Yami was going to take you and tuck you in for the night.”
“No,” Yugi sighed, “we just sat on my bed and talked. And stuff.” His hand glanced over the surface of the Puzzle as he sat down with his friends on the futons. “Thanks, guys. I was trying to be responsible, but I didn’t realize how much I needed that time alone with Yami.”
“So how’s he doing?” Joey nodded towards the Puzzle. “He make it back in all right?”
“Well…yeah.” Yugi blinked suddenly. “Yeah, he vanished right out of the bandage on his head, it didn’t affect him at all. His mind is quiet right now, I’m not going to bother him to make sure, but I can sense him like normal.”
“See?” Joey teased. “All worried for nothing.”
Yugi made a face at him. “He’s my soulmate, of course I’m going to worry.”
“Scary day, huh?” Tristan asked rhetorically.
Yugi nodded at him, and then gave a long, tired sigh. “I’m exhausted but I’m too anxious to sleep. If we’re going to stay up like this, let’s do something.”
No one had any suggestions, though they talked about it for a while, getting sillier and sillier until Tristan daring Joey to climb out on the roof to see what that last clunk was all about somehow segued into a half-assed game of truth or dare. Yugi tried to dissuade his friends, considering it a game that girls played, but Tristan’s challenge about deep, dark secrets was enough for Yugi to cave in and determinedly prove that he had none. Being as they were barricaded into a darkened house in the middle of a typhoon, with the power out and the night getting late, there wasn’t a whole lot they could dare each other to do, so when they grew tired of trying to think of something, they ended up mostly picking “truth” and spilling their secrets. It was a good opportunity for them to get information from each other with no aversions, or so Joey seemed to think as he needled Tristan on a “truth” question about his interest in Joey’s sister, Serenity. “No, seriously!” Tristan said when his answer met doubt and disbelief. “I mean, well, yeah, I think she’s cute. What guy wouldn’t? But we only email once in a while. I haven’t even seen her since she came down for your graduation from high school. On my honor as a player of this game, Joey, it’s the truth.”
Joey eyed him suspiciously. “You email? How often?”
“Not that much,” Tristan quickly explained. “It used to be more often, but I guess she’s busy with high school now or something. Every couple of weeks I get a message to say hello but that’s about it.” His brown eyes widened. “Don’t tell me she talks to me more than she talks to her own brother!”
“No!” Joey protested. “I get lots of email from Serenity. But it’s been a long time since she put in a ‘say hi to Tristan and Duke for me’ so…I gotta wonder.”
“What? ‘…and Duke?’ No fair.” Tristan sat back with a growl. “Well, there you have it. Are you happy now, Mr. Protective Big Brother?” Joey gave him a smug look in response. Tristan turned to their third companion. “Your turn, Yugi. Truth or dare?”
After being thoroughly embarrassed about having to confess what sex toy he had bought for Yami in the last round, Yugi eyed Tristan warily and decided, “Dare.”
“Ah, good,” Tristan snickered. “This is going to be easy, I already had one thought up for you. Yugi, I dare you…to kiss Joey.”
Joey’s head snapped around so he could focus his most wicked glare on Tristan. “What?” he seethed through clenched teeth.
“On the lips.”
Yugi glanced at Joey briefly and then tilted his head in a nonchalant shrug. “Okay.”
Joey’s eyes flew wide open at the response. “Yugi!”
“What? It doesn’t mean anything, Joey,” Yugi said, pushing himself up on his hands in order to crawl closer. “It’s just a dare. You’ve got Mai and I’ve got Yami, and this isn’t going to change that.”
“Aw, man,” Tristan whined. “I should have dared Joey. It doesn’t bother you.”
Yugi shot a quick smile over his shoulder at Tristan. “Exactly. Kissing boys isn’t an issue for me, I don’t mind.” He sidled up to Joey, beaming innocently. “Close your eyes.”
“What? No way!” Joey yelped. “I don’t want you to try anything funny!”
Yugi shrugged again. “All right, if you want to watch, go ahead.”
For a moment Joey flailed as though being attacked by a shark, but then slumped down in defeat with a long sigh. “Fine. Get it over with.” He straightened up and faced Yugi, but very obviously closed his eyes first.
Giggling a little to himself, Yugi leaned in and tilted his head just-so, kissing Joey very gently and quickly on the lips. Tristan chuckled in the background as Yugi sat back and waited for a reaction. “Well?” he wondered as Joey blinked at him.
Joey made a disgruntled face and looked sharply away. “Guess that wasn’t so bad,” he muttered under his breath.
“Yeah, I should have saved that dare for Joey,” Tristan said regretfully. “Oh well.”
“Don’t worry,” Yugi added with one of his trademark innocent smiles. “I didn’t kiss you the way I kiss Yami.”
“I figured.” Joey sat back with a sigh of relief and shook his head. “Not bad. Kinda…sweet.” His head turned sharply in the other direction so he could focus a glare on their other companion. “Tristan, you are so gonna get it.”
“I’m not dumb,” Tristan grinned. “There’s no way in hell I’m picking ‘dare’ from you after that.”
“All right Yug, lay it on me,” Joey went on.
“What do you want?”
“Truth! After that?” Joey exclaimed.
Yugi laughed. “Fair enough. Hm…” He thought it over and settled on something fairly simple, to give Joey a break after being forced to face his inner phobia of one of his male friends hitting on him. “Have you ever done anything illegal, like drugs or drinking or anything?”
“Aw, you went soft on him!” Tristan complained.
Joey stuck his tongue out at Tristan. “Drugs, no, never,” he declared forcefully. “I don’t mess with that, that’s bad news. You already know that when I was a street punk, when I first met you, I smoked, but…that’s about it.”
“That’s not all you’ve done,” Tristan prodded.
Joey conceded with an aloof shrug. “All right, yeah…I’ve had a beer or two in my time. Not anytime recently, though.” His mood sobered. “Not since I wised up about my dad and decided I didn’t want to follow in his footsteps.”
Yugi cocked his head curiously. “When did you stop smoking?”
“Hm, must have been…right about the time I picked up Duel Monsters.” Joey gave his best friend a weak little smile. “I only did it to be cool and tough, and you didn’t care about that, so…I dropped it. Not like I could afford to make it a habit, if I wanted to stay off the streets. I’d rather spend the money on cards.”
“But…how could you have bought them if it’s illegal for underage kids to…” Yugi began to ask, looking sincerely confused.
Joey ruffled his hair. “Boy, you are naïve, aren’t you?” he taunted. Yugi groaned in annoyance and shoved him in retaliation. “All right, Tristan…truth or dare?”
“I told you, I’m not picking dare,” Tristan said smoothly. “Truth.”
“Oh, I can still get you back with that,” Joey snickered. “In fact, I’ve got the perfect question to make you squirm.”
“Bring it on,” Tristan sniffed.
“Okay, smartass…let’s say you were interested in guys,” Joey said with a grin. “Which of our friends, or people we know, would you hook up with?” His brown eyes flashed wickedly. “Hypothetically speaking, of course.”
Tristan stared at him, his jaw falling open. Yugi laughed. “Oh, this I’ve got to hear.”
“Hook up with,” Tristan repeated. “As in, actually…”
“…have sex with, yes, genius,” Joey affirmed.
“Among the people we know?”
“Or maybe the people you know…just in case there’s a hot burly construction worker at your job you want to take a ride with,” Joey continued, grinning evilly from ear to ear.
“You are so mean,” Yugi said to him.
“Yeah, well, just getting him back.” Joey stared huntingly at Tristan. “Well?”
“Give me a second, I have to think about this,” Tristan grumbled, frowning. “Hypothetically, right?”
“Unless you really do secretly have the hots for some guy we know…”
“Say ‘Joey,’” Yugi piped up.
“Hey! No helping!”
Yugi pouted at him and sat back. “You don’t have to freak out about it,” he grumbled under his breath, though Joey wouldn’t have heard him. “It doesn’t mean anything. Does that mean,” added, more loudly, “that Tristan has to pick someone who’s already gay?”
“Uhh…” Joey glanced at him, and then back at Tristan. “I dunno. Do we know anybody besides you who is?”
Yugi did, sort of, but he knew not to mention it. “I don’t think it matters. It’s just a stupid hypothetical question, it’s not like Tristan really is chasing some guy. I think he should be able to pick anyone he wants. And for the record,” he said concludingly, lowering his voice to a pout again, “I’m not exactly gay.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Joey muttered, not entirely convinced. “So, Tristan? Done thinking yet?”
Tristan scowled comically at him. “It’s not an easy question! I don’t have any kind of secret crush like that, so I have to weigh my choices carefully. And I can’t say Yugi?”
“Nope, he’s taken.”
“Damn.” Tristan thought for a moment longer, but then sat up as if arriving upon a conclusion. “All right, I got it.”
“Who?” the other two pressed, leaning in.
“No laughing.”
“Nah, we won’t,” Joey promised. “Who would it be?”
“Well, how about…Duke Devlin?”
Contrary to his vow, Joey burst out laughing and fell over backwards on the futon. Yugi, however, screwed up his face in thought. “Well, that’s not a bad choice,” he mused. “Why’d you pick him?”
Tristan kicked Joey’s convulsing form before answering as seriously as he could. “Well…he does own his own game shop,” he said. “So, he’s well-off, but not like Kaiba well-off.”
“Oh, I see,” Yugi laughed. “You’re just after his money.”
“No, no! I mean…he wouldn’t need me to pay for the date,” Tristan said with a sheepish grin. “And I guess he’s kind of hot, as guys go…he’s got that rock-star thing going with the hair and the earrings. The way he brags and charms the girls, I’d bet he’d be good in bed. That’s all.” He shot Joey another dark look. “That’s what you wanted, wasn’t it?”
Joey sat back up, wiping his eyes. “Yeah, yeah,” he agreed, catching his breath. “I guess, you got a point. Who else do we know? Kaiba?”
“Oh, let’s not even consider that,” Tristan quickly said. “Please.”
“I don’t think Kaiba’s into that anyway,” Yugi said. “Come to think of it, he doesn’t strike me as the relationship type, period.”
“Hey, I didn’t say it had to be a relationship,” Joey reminded them both. “All I said was ‘hook up.’ But yeah, given your other options…probably a good choice there, Tristan.”
“Thank you,” Tristan snorted, not at all grateful. “Can we find another theme for the questions, now? Yugi? What do you want?”
“I guess truth,” Yugi replied.
They went around a few more times, but after a bit they exhausted their supply of dirty little secrets – since the three of them already knew a lot about each other thanks to their friendship history – and dropped the game in favor of just talking. By this time Yugi was starting to yawn, though the idea of going to his bedroom alone without Yami there to curl up with did not appeal to him. He put it off as long as he could, but when he started to nod off where he sat next to Joey, his friends nudged him and told him it was time for bed. “I guess,” he reluctantly agreed with them, lifting tired eyes to the ceiling over their heads. They could still hear the wind and rain, but it sounded no worse than an average storm now. “I miss Yami already,” he sighed. “While he was here, the day seemed to drag on endlessly, but now that he’s back in the Puzzle I feel like we didn’t have any time at all.”
“Hey.” Joey laid a hand on his shoulder and shook him alert. “There’s plenty of room out here on the futons. You want to just crash with me and Tristan, instead of being in that big, dark room all by yourself?”
Yugi sat quietly for a moment, mulling it over, and then turned hopeful eyes on his friend. “You don’t mind?”
“‘Course not,” he assured. “Go on, get changed. I warn you, though – Tristan’s a blanket-hog.”
“I am not,” Tristan said indignantly.
“Then why are all the blankets on your end of the futon?”
Yugi pushed himself to his feet. “All right…I’ll be right back.”
The other two watched him go in silence, and then busied themselves rearranging the blankets to make room for three. “Good call,” Tristan said under his breath. “I think playing the game cheered him up a bit but he shouldn’t be alone right now.”
“Yeah, he’s kind of fragile,” Joey sighed. “Yami’s okay but watching him get hurt really shook Yugi up. He needs us near him right now.”
Tristan tossed his head to indicate the blanket Joey held. “Put him in the middle. Then we can both look after him.”
“Okay. Yeah, good idea.”
In a few minutes Yugi came back, barefoot and clad in pajamas, carrying his pillow. Much as he wanted something to hold on to, he left Yuki on his bed. He could see by the way Tristan and Joey were setting themselves up that they wanted him to sleep between them, and passed it off as a consequence of continued retaliation for the Truth or Dare incidents. He threw down his pillow and sank down onto the bedding, fumbling with the blanket before finding a way under it. Even as he curled up on his side, remembering at the last minute to take the Puzzle from his neck and set it above his pillow where it could watch him, Yugi found himself being graciously, silently tucked in, as Joey settled down behind him and tugged the blanket over their shoulders. Tristan stretched out on his other side, giving a big sigh as his head hit the pillow, and lifted a hand to tousle Yugi’s hair kindly before withdrawing and making to go to sleep. At last, Joey reached for the lamp and clicked it off, plunging them into a deep darkness that seemed to magnify the storm sounds outside. As exhausted as he was, Yugi fell asleep almost right away, but his muddled, unsettled dreams kept waking him periodically, as if some part of his mind still wanted to monitor the storm and make sure it wasn’t doing any severe damage. It was then that he noticed his friends’ closeness, a strange sense in the dark that they were lying very close beside him – and Joey’s hand rested on his arm as he slept. With Tristan’s muscular form snoring on one side of him and Joey cautiously touching him on the other, Yugi suddenly felt very safe, and very loved. He rolled over to face Joey, curling up in the sheltering space formed by the curve of his lean body, and fell back asleep. After that, his dreams didn’t disturb him anymore.
The power was still out when the boys woke in the morning, but the worst of the typhoon was well over. Tristan woke first to find himself platonically snuggled up to Yugi’s back, and extricated himself gracefully before hunting out his watch to find out what time it was. Considering how late they had been up, it wasn’t much surprise that they had slept in so late, but Tristan decided to leave the other two undisturbed and stay in bed a while longer, until they could all get up and form a plan together. It took a while, but eventually they all did get up, and searched out flashlights and the radio to find out what was going on outside their fortress of silence. It seemed the trouble was past, and they were free to go outside and have a look around.
With a light rain jacket flapping loosely around him just in case, Yugi walked a complete circuit of the shop and the house, looking it over very carefully for damage and making mental notes about what it would take to repair it. Joey walked with him, pointing things out, while Tristan followed at a much slower pace, prying off some of the boards to let natural light back into the house. He and Joey would set to taking off all the boards once Yugi had deemed his inspection complete. The odd detritus of the storm cluttered around the base of the building and up and down the sidewalks gave them something to giggle about – sign boards, a child’s toy, a chair from a sidewalk café two blocks over, a rather soggy lump of fabric that must have been a rug. Anything not nailed down or stored inside had blown everywhere, leaving curiosities thrown in with the boards, shingles, and leaf litter. Joey even found a sock, which they all turned their noses up at since it was damp and dirty, the perfect thing with which to chase Tristan up and down the street until they got tired and threw it away. Yugi’s attention was more on the damage to the building, since every missing shingle and beaten-up chunk of siding would cost money to replace. They hadn’t lost any windows, fortunately, but both the front and the rear utility door were wrecked and needed to be replaced. All the glass had shattered out of the front door after the wind shifted, meaning the shelf that had been shoved in front of it was ruined from the rain. The rear of the building showed the most damage, with many shingles ripped off the roof and large gouges raked into the siding from debris that had been thrown against it. They were fortunate not to have lost the giant tree behind the house, since it could have fallen in and crushed the entire corner of it, but it had lost great limbs and most of its leaves. Their power lines were still connected, but the ones next door were down. Yugi went all the way around and came back to the front, sighing sadly at the battered game shop sign. The “M” was gone, as were all but one of the spotlights. Looking even further up, it appeared the decorative shutters on the outsides of the windows on the second floor were gone also. Joey came up beside him and set a hand heavily on his shoulder. “She came through it pretty good,” he remarked.
“Thanks to you guys,” Yugi said quietly. “If you hadn’t helped board up all the windows, it would have been much worse. Instead of just one shelf, we would have lost most of the game shop, our merchandise, and probably furniture upstairs.”
“Did you lose anything in the shop?”
“No, it looks like it’s all safe. I’ll know better when the power’s on and I can see everything.”
“So.” Tristan joined them, twirling his hammer like it was a sword. “What’s the verdict, boss? Can we start?”
Yugi looked up to him and nodded. “It’s safe now. We can open all the windows. But the front door needs something nailed over it, and if you can fix the lock, great. We have to keep the shop protected in case of looting or anything.”
“If nothing else, we’ll nail the shop door closed for now and go in and out through the house,” Tristan suggested. “You’re not gonna be open for a while anyway.”
Yugi sighed even more sadly. “I know.”
Though the skies remained cloudy, the rain had passed in the morning, leaving Domino wet but in the clear. The final verdict was that some areas near the harbor had flooded, but in most places it was just street flooding and some first-floor buildings. Power would be restored as soon as possible, but there were only small pockets of the city that hadn’t gone out at all. Tornadoes spawned by the rotating winds of the typhoon had ripped into some neighborhoods, including to within a block of Kame game shop, and sustained wind damage had blown lighter boats up onto land and blasted windows out of skyscrapers downtown. For Yugi and his friends, all that mattered was home, and they spent the rest of the day removing boards from windows, storing them in the back storeroom for use later in reconstruction, and throwing debris into a pile behind the building where a big tree limb they couldn’t move already sat. A police car on patrol swung by late in the afternoon, making sure they were all right and letting them know about food and water available at an emergency shelter nearby. The cop also kindly returned Tristan’s hammer, and said he was glad to see the boys had come through safe, though they had to swear to him that Yami was all right, he was just inside taking care of things, so he wouldn’t try to look for the injured young man he remembered. Yugi began the cleanup right away, getting himself dirty and scratched picking up shingles and branches and tossing them into the junk pile, while Joey and Tristan climbed up to the roof and pried the boards off the skylights and upper windows, getting a closer look at the damage on Yugi’s behalf. It was backbreaking, thankless work, but they did it and kept going until night fell again, at which point they retired inside and clustered around hot meals delivered by the shelter organizers who had gone through the neighborhood looking for victims. At least now they could open the windows and air out the house, and sit and watch the moon trying to fight its way free of the clouds. Yugi no longer feared being alone in his bed, and after doing his best to wash up, he left his friends to sleep in the living room while he sat down and held the Puzzle in his hands. Yami had been mostly silent throughout the day, his spirit at rest, though he responded whenever Yugi spoke to him in their minds if for no other reason than to reassure himself. He finally had the chance to go and see him, just for a few minutes, since he needed sleep badly and figured he wouldn’t be able to stay awake long enough to sustain the trance. Once safely inside the realm of the Millennium Puzzle, Yugi pushed open the door to Yami’s mind and found him sitting, waiting, though his attention seemed to be elsewhere. Yugi rushed up to him and threw his arms around him from behind, hugging him fiercely. “Are you all right?” he whimpered.
“Yugi,” Yami said with warmth. His arms came around Yugi’s, grateful for the hug, and then he extracted himself long enough to turn and gather Yugi into his embrace. “I’m fine,” he added. “None the worse for wear.”
Yugi lifted his head and looked to see for himself, running a hand over Yami’s face in disbelief when he saw there was no cut on his forehead. “It disappeared,” he whispered. “You’re not hurt.”
“My body was hurt,” Yami reminded him. “But it seems that when it vanishes at midnight, so does any injury it sustained.”
Yugi smiled, though a hint of worry remained in his eyes. “Yeah, but we have to wait a whole month to find out what happens when it appears again.”
“I’m not worried.” Yami hugged him even more tightly, finding that both wanted to sink into each other. “I’ve been at rest most of the day. I think my mind was more exhausted than my body.” He kissed Yugi’s forehead. “But yours…”
“I know, I know,” Yugi said quickly. “I only wanted to see you, and make sure you’re okay. I’ll go to bed for real. I’m totally wiped out, I need to sleep.”
“You certainly do.” The pharaoh stroked his cheek with light fingertips and smiled. “But first you need to be kissed and held and told that everything will be all right.”
Smiling gratefully, Yugi curled up in his lap and laid his head on his lover’s chest. “I think that sounds like a good idea.”
Power came back on the next day. It was also Joey and Tristan’s first chance to make their way across town to their respective flats, to see if they had any damage. All seemed well, more or less, save for whatever food was spoiling in Joey’s fridge. He decided to stay with Yugi until Grandpa Muto and Mai came back from Kyoto, which would be sooner than he thought, for later that night his cell phone finally had enough of a signal to receive a call. Everything on the news both in Domino and the other cities where people had evacuated to indicated that authorities were allowing people to come back in, and Yugi was able to give his grandfather enough reassurance about the house before the phone ran out of battery power. But at least they knew their loved ones were safe, and were returning in the morning. Power was not yet back in the flooded areas around Tristan’s flat, so he opted to stay at Kame also, now that they could make a big, hot dinner and play video games all night long.
Yugi was sweeping dirt and mud out of the game shop, and his friends were trying to find small repair jobs they could do on their own, when Mai’s car pulled up outside Kame around noon. Yugi dropped the broom and raced outside through the open door to meet his grandfather even as he was getting out of the car, eyes wide and mouth agape at the tattered appearance of his shop and home. Hearing his grandson’s exuberant cry, Solomon Muto braced himself to meet the hug barreling towards him. “Yugi!” he said. “There you are. Are you all right?”
Yugi hugged him quick and let him go, noticing that he was looking more at the shop than at him. “I’m fine, Grandpa,” he assured. “You didn’t have anything to worry about, we were okay here.”
“Look at this place,” Grandpa Muto sighed. “It’s a wreck!”
“This is nothing,” Joey broke in as he appeared out of the shop, wiping his face on his already-dirty t-shirt. “You guys lucked out big time.”
He turned immediately as Mai came to his side, but she took one look at him and made a face. “Ugh, Joey, you stink,” she exclaimed. “When was the last time you showered?”
“This morning,” Joey shrugged. “All the power’s back on here. But Tristan and I spent half the morning helping out some folks up the street haul junk out to the curb. Compared to them, what happened here at the game shop is like a little scratch.”
Mai looked him over and nodded. “All the same, I’m not going to hug you until you’re clean.”
“It’s nice to see you too.”
“Really, Grandpa, it’s not that bad,” Yugi insisted. “Let me show you.”
“The shop can wait,” Grandpa countered, patting him on the back. “I just want to make sure you made it through all right. You’re more important to me.”
Yugi smiled gently. “I’m fine, seriously. In fact, the only one who even got a little hurt was Yami…”
Mai and Grandpa both stared at him with wide eyes, forcing him to tell the story on the spot and then doubly insist that the pharaoh’s spirit was not permanently affected by the injury to his corporeal form. They brought Grandpa’s bags inside and went upstairs to talk further, where Tristan was, and stood around swapping tales for a while longer. Mai assured Yugi that she had been fine staying with his relatives in Kyoto, they had been very hospitable above and beyond the call to duty. “Your aunt is very…traditional,” she said tactfully with a smile. “I don’t think she would have normally wanted to be seen rubbing shoulders with a girl like me. But your grandpa insisted that I was one of your friends, so she was very nice to me.” It wasn’t until later that she took him aside and grabbed a fistful of chain to pull him up close. “If you ever make me spend that many hours in a car with your grandpa ever again,” she hissed, “I’ll kill you. Slowly. Painfully.”
“Oh no.” Yugi looked mortified. “He didn’t hit on you, did he?”
“He knows I’m dating Joey,” Mai growled. “Let’s just say I wasn’t exactly comfortable with the occasional turn of the conversation.”
“I’m so sorry, Mai,” Yugi worried. “If there’s anything I can do to make up for it…”
Mai let him go and straightened up, sweeping back her hair in an aloof gesture. “Just don’t let it happen again,” she sniffed. “Joey? Come on, grab your things. I want to see our place.”
With that, Joey was gone, leaving only Tristan to stay one more night until he could be certain the neighborhood around his flat was in the all-clear zone to go back into permanently. He busied himself around the house as much as he could, though at this point the repairs to the roof were going to require a professional. Yugi and his grandpa stood alone together in the shop for a bit, going over the minor damages to the display shelf and detailing any lost merchandise that had to be made up for. The main door had been fixed, but it still needed new glass – it was just a big boarded-up plank with a lock, for now. “Once the storm was over,” Yugi confessed in a quiet tone, “I didn’t stop worrying for a second. I was afraid someone was going to try to break in and steal from us. They had some problems with looting downtown, I heard.” He gazed sullenly at the floor. “That was why Yami risked himself to help. Both of us knew that a loose door with just a shelf behind it would be a tempting target to thieves. And they might not have cared that there were people inside.”
“It was a risk you didn’t need to take,” Grandpa Muto insisted. “Insurance covers theft, Yugi. I could deal with that much more than I could deal with losing you – or Yami, for that matter.”
“But it’s okay. We came through it okay.” Yugi looked up, out the door to the late-day sunshine warming the streets. Things were slowly getting back to normal out there, schools would be back in session shortly and their main customer base would be back looking for cards before they knew it. “I know we didn’t actually do much, if anything, but I feel like just being here was worth it. Like I saved the game shop somehow. But if the wind had been worse, or the eye had come closer to Domino, or that tornado hadn’t stopped before it hit here…it wouldn’t have mattered.”
“Next time, I don’t care, you’re coming with me,” Grandpa said firmly. “We’ll board the place up and go, and not look back. We’ll deal with what happens afterward. But,” he added, beginning to smile, “I admit I’m pretty relieved myself that you took care of the shop.”
Yugi gave him a worried look. “How bad do you think it’ll be?”
“I don’t know,” Grandpa admitted. “I have to wait for the insurance claim to be made, and then look for someone to do the repairs. But I think insurance will handle most of it.” He clapped his grandson on the shoulder. “We’ll make it. Somehow.”
Yugi nodded weakly, dropping his eyes to the floor again. “Yeah. Somehow.”