Chapter Text
A happy sigh was overpowered by the thrum of the bass reverberating through his chest. It was easy to lose himself in the flashing lights and whirl of dancing bodies, and sometimes what Yugi needed most was a quick break from being the King of Games.
It’s not that he wasn’t honoured to have the title, of course. He’d kept that inheritance even after Atem had been pulled back from the afterlife, and he was grateful to be able to keep playing the game he loved and meet such wonderful new friends at every tournament he attended.
But still. Sometimes a guy just needed a break.
Along with the wonderful opportunities, his title came with a certain notoriety. Some days it was all he could do to get away from the damn paparazzi and get a minute to himself. But here, at his favourite club, dressed to the nines and signature hair colour half-hidden in a tight ponytail, he could skate by unnoticed for a night. The regulars just knew him as Yugi, and the rest were too busy being dazzled by the multicoloured lights to pay much attention to him.
And tonight, he’d doubled down on his anonymity by going out on his own. He hadn’t planned it that way, of course, he loved his friends more than anything, but it was almost impressive that everyone else managed to be unavailable on today of all days. Atem was helping Otogi playtest his latest invention before a looming deadline, and Jou was visiting Mai out of town before the next tournament. Honda was stuck working, a skype chat with Tea just wouldn’t cut it this time, and Ryou was always busy on Fridays with some Monster World group of his so he hadn’t even bothered. But it had been a rough week and he really needed to disappear for a bit, even if he had to do it on his own. So, tonight was his night and his night alone.
Yugi took a deep breath and relaxed into the beat of the song as it changed. He’d been dancing for hours, and it felt like that last of the week’s tensions were just about drained away. He smiled and closed his eyes, snaking his arms upward and letting the flow of the music sculpt his movements.
“Hey, aren’t you that famous duellist?”
There went several hours of relaxation. The voice was loud and grating. Yugi cracked an eye open, and saw some dude staring him down. He turned away, hoping that if he feigned deafness the guy would take a hint and leave.
“Hey. Hey, did you hear me?”
Yugi felt a hand close around his arm and snapped his eyes open with an irritated look. He tried to pull away, but the hand tightened.
“Hey, I asked you a question. You’re totally him, aren’t you?”
Yugi frowned and angled his body away. This was exactly what he’d been trying to avoid. “Let go of me, please.”
“Hey, no – c’mon, you gotta give me a dance first, at least. My friends will never believe this.” The hand on his arm tugged insistently and the guy treated Yugi to what he must have thought was a winning smile. It was a good thing Yugi was too polite in public to wince.
“No, thank you. I was just going to leav-”
“Aw, come on, you have time for one quick dance with a fan.” He pulled hard at Yugi’s arm, raising his other hand towards Yugi’s waist with the clear intent to pull him into a dance whether he wanted to or not.
“No, I don’t.” Yugi scrambled for a quick excuse. “I was just about to leave to go find-”
The stranger’s eyes lit up. “Are you here with some of the other guys? Aw man, you gotta take me along!”
Aw, shit. At least the guy wasn’t trying to grab Yugi around the waist anymore, but he was supposed to be leaving him alone. Yugi tried to look stern, knowing full well he still couldn’t hold a candle to Atem’s glower. He doubted this guy would flinch even if he could, though. He opened his mouth, still not quite sure what excuse was going to fight its way out past his lips.
“Well, actually, I’m here with-”
Yugi barely held back a startled yelp as he was dragged back by a solid arm around his waist. He couldn't help the little ‘oof’ as the back of his head collided with what felt like a very well-built chest, though. His addled brain still hadn’t quite decided whether this was an improvement or not when a low growl emerged from the man behind him.
“Actually, he’s here with me. And you should piss the fuck off.” The new stranger’s other hand reached out and neatly yanked the offending fingers off of Yugi’s arm with a growl. “Now.” The guy he’d been trying to get away from in the first place seemed to be stuck buffering as he stood stock still with his hand still hovering in the air between them.
Yugi felt the arm around his waist tighten possessively. Ok, it’s not that it wasn’t a very nice arm, attached to a very nice chest, but this was getting out of hand fast. Yugi tilted his head back to try to get a look at the new arrival, and barely managed to avoid looking as stupefied as the jerk who had been pawing over him a second ago.
This guy looked like… but it couldn’t be… they’d have known… but…
The man glanced down, catching Yugi’s gaze with his lavender eyes, and stretched his mouth into a huge, hauntingly familiar grin as he gave him the slightest of winks. “Right, Yugi?”
…but what the ever-loving FUCK was Marik’s dark half doing here?!
One of the traits of a great duellist is quick thinking and the ability to improvise with whatever cards you’re dealt. And Yugi was nothing if not a great duellist. He shoved the many, many questions whizzing around his head aside and straightened his back, glaring back at the creep who started all this. One problem at a time. “Right. Please go away.”
Yugi felt the low chuckle behind him more than he heard it. “Yes, please. Or I’ll make sure you recognize me, too. And you probably won’t be as excited about that.”
Yugi shivered at the words. He still hadn’t quite had the chance to figure out whether he was being saved or doomed, and that didn’t help the situation much.
At the very least, the guy – and Yugi suddenly became aware that he hadn’t even tried to introduce himself, in that disconnected sort of way a shocked mind spits out random bits of trivia in an effort to not appear completely useless – seemed to have enough instincts to realize this wasn’t a fight he wanted to have. He took a step back. “Fine, whatever. I was just trying to have a good time.”
Marik’s shadow grinned wickedly. “So were we. So fuck off.” With that, the guy finally relented and tossed his hands in the air as he stomped off.
Yugi let out a small breath. One problem down. He shifted his weight in the other Marik’s hold, and was surprised that the arm was dropped immediately. He took a step back, and the two faced each other in awkward silence. Marik – or not-Marik? Yami Marik? – dropped the theatrical grin and let his face fall flat an unreadable. Yugi scrambled for what to say.
Yugi was still processing when the blond let out a low grunt and spoke. “You’re welcome, I guess. Don’t get caught by another weirdo.” Yugi must have continued to gape in silence for a second too long, because the blond shrugged his shoulders and turned away. “Bye.” With that, he swept away into the crowd.
Yugi blinked. And blinked again. And then once more, just to see what that would do (nothing much, as it turns out). He finally caught up with himself as the tips of the spiky blond hair were about to get lost in the crowd, and he darted after the man. “Wait!”
He doubted he was heard over the music, which seemed to suddenly rush back to full volume. Yugi scrambled forward, dodging elbows and sloshing drinks as he tried to track where the spikes in the distance were headed. He wedged himself between two couples flailing wildly on the dancefloor, huffing out a quick “excuse me” on the way by before trying to worm his way through the next cluster of people. Of course, no one noticed him to move out of his way. Sometimes, being short was exhausting.
He stretched up on his toes to try to catch another glimpse of blond, and spotted what he hoped were the right spikes heading towards the seating alcoves in the back. He ducked back down and forced his way through the crowd with fresh determination. Even if he wasn’t going the right way, at least it would be less crowded over there.
Yugi stumbled out the edge of the dancing crowd and quickly scanned the alcoves. His eyes caught a flash of gold. There. His back was to Yugi, but the look was unmistakable. Yugi scrambled up behind him, and reached a hand out to tap him on the shoulder before he thought better of it and held his hand back. “Hey! What was- ”
Marik’s shadow turned around, and Yugi got his second shock of the night as he spotted who he was talking to.
“Ryou?!”
Ryou’s face lit up and he hurried around the other man to snatch Yugi up in a quick hug. “Yugi! There you are! I was just getting the story on what happened, and I was so annoyed that this idiot just walked away without inviting you over to explain, I mean really.” Ryou turned back to the man behind him. “Social skills, dear. Get some.” Ryou poked a finger at his chest, and the blond rolled his eyes as Ryou turned back to Yugi. “Are you here with the others, or do we have you all to ourselves?”
Yugi was starting to feel like his head was going to explode. “Uh –I came out on my own tonight, actually. I was trying to be low key.”
Ryou burst out laughing. “Well, that sure was a bust. Come, sit with us! You must have so many questions!”
Ryou cheerfully pulled Marik’s other half into the booth behind him, like this was no more unusual than old friends catching up over coffee. The two looked comfortable with each other – clearly Marik’s darker half popping back into the world of the living was old news for Ryou. Yugi settled down on Yami Marik’s other side, trying to sort his thoughts out into coherent questions.
Ryou sat back with his usual calm smile. “Well, you two must have all kinds of things to talk about.” He gestured vaguely between them. “Go for it.”
Silence stretched out between them. Yugi could practically hear the grating dial-up tone in his own head as he tried to figure out how to start a conversation with someone who was supposed to be a) evil and more importantly b) dead, but was apparently neither of those things at the moment.
Marik’s other self stared back at him a few seconds, and then his shoulders slumped ever so slightly and he turned to Ryou with a dejected look. “Ryou, just let him go and enjoy his night. He’s probably scared shitless right now.”
That kicked Yugi’s mind into gear in a hurry. “I’m not scared! Why would I be scared? You saved me from that creep!” The blond looked stunned at that pronouncement, and Yugi rushed to continue. “At this point, I’m just really, really confused. You haven’t done anything bad, and Ryou obviously trusts you just fine, so why shouldn’t I?”
Yugi paused when he noticed that the blond was starting to look rather… emotional, which was totally unexpected. This was so not the guy he remembered gloating over Joey’s unconscious body. Ryou leaned in and gave the blond’s leg a lingering, reassuring squeeze. Ok, so they were apparently very comfortable with each other. Yugi stared at Ryou’s fingers lingering on the muscular leg for a moment too long before he’d quite caught up with his own thoughts, and shoved any half-formed thoughts on the subject of legs aside to figure out in a more private moment.
Yugi cleared his throat. “So, uh…. I had no idea you were back…um, Marik?”
“Kek.”
“Huh?” Yugi wasn’t even sure if the short sound had been a word or the sound of a clearing throat. Had he already offended the man?
“My name is Kek.”
“Oh.” Yugi felt somewhat abashed for thinking Kek was just clearing his throat. “Ok, Kek then. That’s… uh, unique?”
Kek shrugged. “Ryou found it in a book and thought it was funny. I like it alright, so I kept it.”
“Oh.” Another few seconds of silence stretched out. “Well, um… how did you get… um… here? With Ryou?”
Kek raised an eyebrow and the barest hint of a smirk crept onto his face. “We took a cab.”
Ryou elbowed him hard in the side, laughing. “That’s not what he meant, and you know it. Stop being an ass.” He turned to Yugi and rolled his eyes. “He’s been staying with me for a while. As far as we can tell, when Seto poked a hole in the universe for Atem to come through, the rest of them popped back out too.”
“He’s been here that long?!” Yugi’s voice came out as an embarrassingly high squeak. “But… but that was ages ago! Why didn’t you tell anyone?”
Ryou, to his credit, didn’t look the least bit thrown off by his reaction, and settled back in his seat like a professional storyteller that had just been handed the start of a particularly beautiful yarn to spin. “Well, you see, when they reappeared quite literally on our doorsteps – Bakura’s back too, by the way – ”, Ryou cheerfully ignored Yugi’s sputtering and carried on, “ – they didn’t really have much of a place to go, now did they? Bakura’s always been pretty independent, so he just buggered right off to who knows where – ” and again Ryou ignored Yugi’s sounds of distress, “ – but poor Kek here was at a bit of a loss, you know, since he wasn’t used to being a person on his own, right? He seemed tame enough, so I offered to have him stay with me to get himself oriented. And I did survive living with the ring, after all, so I figured what’s another strange houseguest anyways, but then of course as it turns out – mmmph!”
Ryou’s rambling speech was cut off by a large hand clamping over his mouth. Kek had been slowly worming an arm around Ryou’s neck as he spoke, and was now clamping down on him. Firmly. “Shh, you’re giving away all my secrets.” He used his other hand to stroke Ryou’s hair as though he were soothing a misbehaving cat, and then let out a bark of laughter. “And by all means, keep licking my hand like that, you know it doesn’t bother me.”
Yugi watched in mild bemusement as Ryou craned his head back to glare at Kek as best as he could, only to have Kek give him a wide, toothy grin and smack a loud kiss to his temple before releasing him and wiping his hand on Ryou’s sleeve. Ryou pouted at the mess.
“Heh, shouldn’t have licked me, then.” He turned back to address Yugi’s gobsmacked look. “Yeah, he offered to put me up for a bit. But then I decided I liked him. So I stayed.”
Yugi took a deep breath and let all that sink in. “So… now you two are roommates.”
“Who occasionally fuck.”
Ryou smacked a hand to Kek’s chest. “Kek! Stop trying to break Yugi.”
Yugi finally broke down into hysterical giggles. “Who occasionally fuck. Yeah. Sure, why not. I give up being surprised by any of this.” He shook his head. “But seriously, why didn’t you tell anyone? For that matter, how did you manage not to tell anyone?”
Kek settled back, leaving his arm around Ryou. He looked more comfortable now. “Because people get scared of me. People who knew me back in Battle City get really scared of me. It was easier if no one knew, so I stayed out of sight.” He stared intently at Yugi. “Please, keep it that way. It’s better for everyone.”
Yugi thought that was highly debatable, but nodded and let it slide for now. “Does Marik even know?”
Kek scoffed. “Of course. He was visiting Rou when it happened. That’s where the scar comes from.” Kek pointed to a small scar cutting a notch in his eyebrow.
“Oh. I guess living with him wasn’t even an option, then.”
Kek looked almost sad as he shook his head. “No. Besides, Marik’s all grown up and doesn’t need my protection anymore. No real reason for me to try to work that out.” Kek cleared his throat and looked away. “I’m sorry if I freaked you out when I grabbed you, by the way. You looked like you needed help, and the protective parts just… leak out, sometimes.”
Yugi gave him a reassuring grin. “You can protect me from intrusive fans anytime. Honestly. It gets exhausting, having to be nice all the time. I love what I do and usually I love my fans, but… some of them just don’t get that I’m a person too, you know? At least there aren’t any paparazzi here. That’s something.” He sighed. “Sometimes I think I should just hire a bodyguard and be done with it.”
Ryou perked right up and clapped his hands together. “Oooh, you should hire Kek!”
Kek rolled his eyes. “Your crazy is showing, Ryou.”
“No, seriously! It’s better than odd jobs.” Ryou turned back to Yugi. “You should!”
Kek looked ready to argue back again, but Yugi cut him off. “Actually, that’s not a bad idea.”
Kek’s mouth shut with a click. “You’re fucking kidding, right?”
Yugi’s mind was spinning, imaging the scenario playing out. “No, Ryou’s got a point. Everyone deserves a second chance, so I’d love to help if I can. And you’d obviously be good at it, you basically just auditioned.” Yugi gave him a cheeky grin. “Plus, no one’s gonna mess with you. Even if they don’t recognize you, have you seen your arms? They’re practically as big as my whole torso!”
Ryou burst into giggles and Kek blinked in surprise before a grin spread across his face. “Alright. If you wanna try it, tell me what I need to do.”
Yugi beamed. “For now, let’s just go dance. I didn’t get all dressed up to talk business. We can sort out details later.”
Kek nodded and Ryou beamed at Yugi as he started shuffling out of the booth. “Come by next Friday, we can get him through the paperwork or whatever then.” He hauled Kek out of the booth, and Yugi followed.
“Ok, great.” Yugi paused. Wasn’t that the night that…? Suddenly things clicked into place. “Holy crap Ryou, is he ‘the other group I sometimes play Monster World with’??”
Ryou blushed. “Uh… maybe?” He shrugged. “Date nights are important, you know. And sometimes date night really is Monster World!”
“Speaking of date night…” Kek wrapped and arm around Ryou’s waist and tugged him along. “Let’s get back to the party. I’ll keep the weird fans at bay. For now, you can pay in drinks.”
Yugi smiled and nodded. Whatever this was about to be, it would certainly be interesting.