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Yugi doesn’t hate Seto Kaiba.
Really, he doesn’t—although the media has tried endlessly to play up their “intense, eternal rivalry” (and although Jou and Honda laugh themselves sick when they find that quip in a tournament review) Yugi has done his absolute best to insist to anyone who will listen that no, while he and Seto take great pleasure in challenging each other across the dueling arena and make each other strive to be their personal best, he certainly has nothing but the kindest feelings toward someone whom Yugi truly considers his friend.
At this particular, specific moment in time, however, literally three seconds before Yugi had been about to finally ask Anzu out, Yugi is willing to reconsider his stance on just how much he wants to throttle Seto Kaiba.
“I don’t see why this couldn’t wait,” Yugi says, trying to glance back at Anzu while not tripping over his own feet to match Seto’s pace. “I had something important to do.”
“What could you possibly have had to do,” Seto asks, stalking ahead of Yugi with the grimmest look on his face, like he was walking into a room full of lions instead of a brief post-tournament interview, “that’s more important than your contractual obligation as King of Games?”
What’s he got to lose? Yugi hedges his bets, circles around a couple of potential lies, and settles on, “I was going to ask Anzu out.”
Seto stops so abruptly Yugi almost runs into him, and they both pretend the other’s face isn’t beet-red. Seto is silent for just long enough that people start to notice their pause, curious, before he clears his throat and pointedly looks away. “Go.”
“What?” Yugi whips his head to look back again, but he can’t see Anzu through the crush of people. “Are you serious?”
Seto still isn’t looking at him. “Dead serious.”
Yugi doesn’t press his luck any more than that, and he takes off down the corridor before Seto can change his mind. A clump of reporters detach themselves from the herd but Yugi has a head start—he makes it all the way to where Isono is conferring with a couple of tournament employees. He ducks a bow as he skids to a stop. “Have you seen Anzu?”
It’s all Yugi can do to keep from tapping his foot with sheer impatience as Isono drums his fingers together and thinks. “I believe she already left.”
Damnit. “Do you know where she is?”
“Outside, I presume.”
“Right.” Yugi’s turning for the exit before it occurs to Isono that the King of Games has somewhere else he’s supposed to be. “Thanks.”
Anzu does, in fact, turn out to be outside, leaning against the wall and humming something under her breath. Yugi’s face is red all over again and this is ridiculous—they’ve been friends for ages and there hadn’t been a minute that Atem didn’t insist on what a good couple they’d make, and he wouldn’t have thought that if there wasn’t something there, right? Yugi straightens his jacket, runs a hand through his hair, clears his throat, and walks to where Anzu is waiting. “Hey! I’m sorry about that, it was,” Yugi cringes. “Well, it was Seto.”
Anzu shrugs, smiles. “I figured.” She watches him fidget and arches an eyebrow. “Are you okay?”
“Yes!” It’s too loud even to him and Yugi tries to smooth it over with a laugh that’s hopefully not as hysterical as it sounds. “It’s just that—I mean, I just wanted to—Hah, well, I was wondering if you’d—”
“Anzu, Yugi! Hey!”
Clearly, the universe at large wasn’t going to make this easy for him. He feels Jou’s hand on his shoulder before Jou himself swings into view with Honda in tow, can’t do more than stare as Anzu suffers their antics through the dull-fuzz-roar of Honda’s tournament recap from the nosebleed seats, watch Anzu smile and roll her eyes and honestly be the goddamn light of Yugi’s life if only he’d have a moment’s peace to tell her so.
Jou’s hand on his shoulder grips and shakes. “Yugi?”
Anzu leans forward, brows knit together, concerned. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” No, he’s not, this is the dozenth time he’s gotten up the guts, let alone tried, but the very gods of fate are apparently actively working against him getting a date and is this Atem, somewhere in paradise, playing matchmaker and just generally taking all of Yugi’s plans to shit? Yugi rolls his shoulders, smiles back. “I’m fine.”
-
To say that Grandpa Mutou considered Yugi’s stellar rise to fame a good thing would be putting it stunningly mildly. Not only had Sugoroku realized that a champion grandson was good for business because every child with the fine motor skills to shuffle a deck of cards would want to play Duel Monsters, but having that same champion grandson sell those children their Duel Monsters cards was even better for business.
Which is how, every day from the end of school to closing time, Yugi finds himself behind the Kame Game counter, smiling for photos and signing autographs and selling more Duel Monsters packs than Grandpa Mutou can keep up ordering. Most customers are polite enough to only make him suffer a few minutes of small talk, which gives Yugi just enough time to do his homework and stock the shelves and plot, for the umpteenth time, how to go about asking Anzu on a date.
The other thing Grandpa Mutou had realized was that having his champion grandson’s tournament-going friends popping in and out of the shop couldn’t hurt, which is how Jou, Honda, and Anzu find themselves with jobs of their own. Yugi suspects that his grandfather knows, what with his habit of asking Anzu to come in whenever Jou and Honda aren’t around.
That, and the endless amount of winking and nudging Yugi suffers whenever Anzu so much as looks at him in Sugoroku’s presence.
Yugi fumbles with a tin of Duel Monsters cards and almost drops them on his foot for probably the fifth time as Anzu ducks behind him for the broom they keep behind the counter. His hands are sweaty, he can feel his pulse in his teeth, and he’s pretty certain he’s opened and closed the register for no good reason about five times. Yugi Mutou is a nervous wreck and Ryuuji is sooner likely to shave his head than Anzu is to say yes to a date.
Yugi Mutou is also a glutton for punishment, which is why he carefully sets down the tin, clears his throat, and says, “Anzu?”
Anzu half-turns, broom in hand. She smiles. Yugi’s stomach flips. “Yeah?”
“We, uh—we’ve,” this is ridiculous, he’s more than capable of having an conversation with her, he’s done it before plenty of times, “we’ve been friends for a long time, right?”
Anzu leans against the broom. “Since elementary school, yeah?”
“Yeah!” Yugi rans a shaky hand through his hair. “Yeah! And, uh—I’ve really liked being friends with you, but—” Anzu frowns and Yugi realizes exactly how that must sound, but before he has the chance to pull his foot from his mouth—
The bell on the door rings. A customer walks in. Yugi is certain that, somewhere, Atem is laughing at him.
“Welcome to Kame Game Shop!” Yugi hears himself say as the customer makes his way up to the counter, rustling through the packets of Duel Monsters cards near the register and asking Yugi his “expert opinion” on which packet is the best, ignoring the fact that all of them are foil-wrapped and random and Yugi has about as much of a clue as he does. Yugi can only helplessly insist that the customer’s guess is as good as his, dueling prowess notwithstanding, as Anzu settles the broom back where it belongs and gestures at her watch.
Yugi watches her go, picks a pack at random for the customer, and waits until the shop is empty to slump behind the counter with a sigh.
-
This is his last chance.
He’s being melodramatic, of course, but the inconsolable, lovesick little gremlin that must’ve taken Atem’s place in Yugi’s head insists that this is it as Yugi waits on the curb by the shop for Anzu to pull up. She needs help with some errands, she’d said, and Seto had let her borrow one of his cars. Yugi doesn’t ask how Anzu managed that because frankly, he’s a little scared to find out.
His plan is perfect—Ryuuji had insisted he skip the small talk and just go for it when Yugi had asked him for advice, and Yugi had been more than a little surprised when he retreated to ask someone more sensible (Ryou, though beggars couldn’t be choosers) and gotten the same advice. Barring the end of the world—again—or Seto Kaiba popping out from the glovebox to announce another tournament, Yugi is going to help Anzu with her errands and then calmly, cooly, suavely ask her out to dinner.
Calm, cool, and suave make way for sweaty, nervous, and faintly nauseous when Anzu actually pulls up, and it’s all Yugi can do to slip into the passenger seat and keep his hands from shaking when he buckles the seatbelt. They exchange greetings and Yugi is pretty certain his voice doesn’t shake, and then Anzu is merging back onto the road. For lack of something better to do, Yugi fiddles with the radio, flitting from station to station as Anzu pulls first out of downtown and then onto the highway and Yugi realizes—“Anzu, you never did tell me what sort of errands you needed help with.”
“I didn’t?” Anzu hums consideringly. They’re almost completely out of the city now, and Yugi watches her scan the upcoming exits looking for—something? Yugi’s not sure where they’re going, let alone what sort of errands they’re going to run when they get there. “I need your help,” Anzu says finally, eyes on the road and one hand on the wheel, “deciding if the park or the beach is a better place for a first date.”
Her free hand reaches for his across the center console and twines their fingers together, and Yugi is so stunned he blurts, “The beach!” before he can really think it through.
Anzu nods, the corners of her mouth tugging up in a smile. “That’s what I was thinking too.” There’s a blush high on her cheeks too and when she squeezes his hand, Yugi squeezes back. It doesn’t look like he’ll need that plan of his after all.