#seriously Atem saying ‘Yugi’ eyes all narrowed and his arms crossed

[theangelofangst]

This is one of my many many favorite Yugi and Atem brotherly moments in the show with the dub.

Yugi so desperately wanting to save/stop Joey/Jonouchi from having to duel Marik., asking Atem to save him. And Atem firmly saying that they needed to let Joey do this on his own.

Like the way he says “Yugi” both times with such firmness and conviction, shows how much of a big brother/guardian role Atem plays in Yugi’s life

[animeangelriku]

Puzzleshipping: Where the Lights Aren’t So Heavy

(Written for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Mini Exchange!)

[Also read on AO3!]

*-*-*-*

It wasn’t that Yugi didn’t like his job. He loved his job, almost as much as he loved his favorite burger joint, of which he had been a regular client almost since he could remember. The thing was, just because he loved something didn’t mean he didn’t grow tired of it every once in a while, or that he wasn’t grateful for it. He had no problem going out to eat burgers with his friends, but there came a point where the cycle went from “enjoyable” to “kind of disgusting, actually.” Damn it, sometimes Yugi just wanted pizza instead! Maybe even a damn salad!

(Okay, the salad thing was mostly his body demanding he eat some vegetables instead of continuing to feed on only fast food—please, for the love of the gods!—but the point still remained.)

His feelings towards his job were more or less the same. It wasn’t that he didn’t like it, because he did. It was just that, after a few years of being a professional duelist and going to tournaments and not really having as much of a social life as he would’ve liked to try to have, making a living off dueling started to slightly lose its appeal. Yugi wouldn’t ever give it up, he would never even dream of it; he knew how lucky he was to have gotten this far and how many people wished they’d been as lucky.

But then he would see the faces he had been surrounded by for half a decade and realize that the only reason he knew the names attached to them was because they were well-known in the dueling industry, not because they had introduced themselves to him or because he had asked them. With barely a moment to himself, it felt like he didn’t have the time to go and strike up a conversation with whoever had been his opponent just a moment ago before he was dragged off somewhere else.

Yugi wanted to strike up a conversation with them. That was the thing. He wanted to get to know the people he saw in every tournament outside of the arena in which they dueled. He wanted to be their friend, or at the very least their acquaintance. Where was the fun in being the King of Games if he couldn’t celebrate his victories and mourn his losses with the people he had fought against?

Then again, he wasn’t always the King of Games—that was a title he often exchanged with Sennen Atem, someone else whom Yugi knew almost nothing about and wanted to get to know better. It had become such a reoccurring exchange, in fact, that most of the time, they were both referred to as King of Games. Although Yugi had honestly found that slightly odd at first, he didn’t mind sharing the title with as worthy an opponent as Atem.

Maybe Yugi would get his chance to approach Atem and strike up a conversation at the Domino Convention Center, where an important press conference would be held, later today. He wasn’t sure what the press conference was about or what was going to be announced (he assumed it was either a tournament or the release of a new deck archetype), but as one of the Kings, his presence was politely required.

And by ‘politely required,’ Yugi thought as he fiddled with the leather cuffs around his wrists, it means that Ryou will have my head if I don’t show up.

That was fine. If it could get Yugi a 10-minute conversation with Atem, he would take it. Baby steps and all that.

*

The gods were apparently smiling down on Yugi today.

He had seen Sennen Atem at the press conference he had attended (in which a new tournament had been announced), but he hadn’t been able to go up to him and introduce himself during it. Then, after the press conference, Atem had left so suddenly that Yugi had lost sight of him. The convention center wasn’t as full as Yugi had expected it to be, but it was still incredibly crowded, and so he’d had no hopes of encountering Atem before the day was over, much less of having the chance to actually talk to him.

“Don’t look so down, Yugi,” Ryou had tried to cheer him up. “I’m sure you’ll get your chance to talk to him at another event!”

What if this keeps happening? Yugi had thought, crestfallen. What if this was what his life was meant to be? What if the only way he would ever know his fellow duelists was thanks to the media? What if he never had the chance to interact with them beyond tournament matches?

“Yeah,” he said out loud. “Yeah, I guess I will.”

Still, Yugi hadn’t given up on trying to find Atem. The guy had to be around here somewhere, right? He wouldn’t have just come to the press conference and then left immediately, right?

Yugi’s optimism and determination had, in the end, been rewarded. He had continued exploring the convention center until he came across a nearly empty room, and suddenly there was Atem, leaning back against the wall with his eyes closed, and this was the perfect opportunity Yugi had been waiting for!

He cleared his throat to catch Atem’s attention. “Um, excuse me? Sennen Atem?”

Atem opened his eyes and turned to look at him. He seemed to be about to say something, but then his eyes widened and his lips parted in surprise.

“Mutou Yugi,” he said as his mouth was overtaken by a smile. There was such kindness in his voice that it made Yugi grin.

Yugi held his hand out for a handshake. “It’s nice to finally meet you outside a tournament for a change.”

Atem chuckled, shaking Yugi’s hand. “Likewise. I assume you came to one of the press conferences?”

“Yeah, the one for Industrial Illusions’ new tournament in a month,” Yugi answered. He was kind of relieved that Atem hadn’t noticed him there. He had feared that Atem had seen him and purposefully avoided him, but now he could breathe calmly, knowing that hadn’t been the case.

“Wait, really?” Atem seemed to come to the realization that they had been in the same room for forty-five minutes and he hadn’t realized, because his cheeks suddenly flushed bright red and he stammered out his next words. “Oh, gods, I’m so sorry, I was there and I didn’t— if I had known, I— I-I hope you don’t think that I didn’t want to—”

“No, no, don’t worry!” Yugi hurriedly said. “I think I was a few rows behind, anyway.”

“Still,” Atem mumbled. The flush on his face lessened, but he still scratched the back of his neck. “I’m sorry.” The smile he gave Yugi this time was shy, so different than the smug, confident smirks that would cross his face during one of their matches, that Yugi couldn’t help chuckling slightly to himself.

“Seriously, there’s no need to apologize,” he assured Atem. “I would expect the King of Games’ attention to be on the press conference, not on the people attending it.”

“One of the Kings,” Atem replied. “Shared title and all that, remember? Besides, I haven’t forgotten how you beat me last tournament.”

Yugi hadn’t, either. He had used Gold Sarcophagus to lock away one of his cards, and if Atem happened to use the same card, its effects would be negated. When Atem had tried to use Monster Reborn to bring back one of his most powerful monsters, Gold Sarcophagus had negated it, leaving him open to Yugi’s final attack.

Not that Yugi was one to boost his own ego, but that had been quite a victory—the one he felt the proudest of, actually. He had taken a huge risk by locking away a card as useful as Monster Reborn, and it had been worth it in the end. Then again, now he also felt kind of embarrassed at the praise, especially coming from the guy he had defeated, despite the fact that Atem had congratulated him at the end of their duel. Thankfully, Atem saved him from having to respond.

“I’m looking forward to the next time we face each other,” he said. Yugi raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth quirking up.

“Already thinking about how to beat my strategy?” he teased.

“Maybe,” Atem answered, his smile turning into one of the smug smirks Yugi was used to. “Regardless of the result, though, I always enjoy facing off against you.”

Yugi had to press his lips together in order to hold back the grin threatening to overtake his mouth. Even though he obviously tried to win every single one of his duels, when he dueled Atem, he didn’t care about the outcome. The only thing that mattered to Yugi was how much fun he had, and he was beyond overjoyed that Atem apparently felt the same way he did.

“I could say the same thing,” he told Atem.  

It was only until neither of them said anything that Yugi looked down between them and realized they were still holding hands. Almost as if Atem had come to the same conclusion just as suddenly, they both pulled their respective hand back, the two of them letting out a small laugh.

“So,” Yugi began after a moment. He leaned back against the wall next to Atem, their arms separated by the shortest of distances. “Any other press conferences you’re interested in attending?”

“Not… really?” Atem shrugged his shoulders and glanced around the room. “Social events and big crowds aren’t exactly my thing.”

“As opposed to Duel Monsters tournaments?” Yugi asked.

Another soft blush covered Atem’s cheeks. “Tournaments are different, I guess. It’s always just you and your opponent, and you don’t really have to worry about saying the wrong thing, you just have to focus on doing, you know?”

Yugi nodded his head. He never would’ve thought someone like Atem would be nervous in front of an audience, though he could understand the feeling.

“You should’ve seen me at my high school graduation,” he chuckled. Atem turned to him, his head cocked in a way that asked for more information. “I had to give a speech,” Yugi said, “but I was so scared of messing it up that I had to lock myself in an empty classroom for ten minutes to calm down.”

“What?” Atem demanded, as if he couldn’t believe such a thing had happened to Yugi. “No way!”

“I’m serious! I don’t mind big crowds, but don’t ask me to give a speech, please. That’s my one true weakness.”

“A bold fact to tell your opponent,” Atem said, his lips twisting into another smirk. Yugi narrowed his eyes at him.

“I was under the suspicion you were honorable enough to keep a secret outside the arena,” he said. “Should I not have been?”

Atem’s smirk became a genuine smile once more. He pressed his lips into a thin line and ran his thumb and index finger across them like he had just zipped his mouth shut. Then he pretended to throw an invisible key away. “Your secret’s safe with me.”

Yes, Yugi had thought as much. Still, he was glad to have confirmed it.

“If it makes you feel any better,” Atem began to say, “before my first tournament duel, I was so nervous and terrified that I actually threw up.”

“What?” Yugi almost shrieked, completely shocked by the confession. Atem had always seemed so confident, so sure of himself, so prepared for whatever challenge he might face. “I don’t believe you!”

“It’s true!”

“You?”

“I know, I know,” Atem said, laughing. “Once I started getting used to dueling, I got better, but I still feel sick before a match every now and then.” He leaned even more against the wall, as if revealing such a personal anecdote had taken a great amount of energy. Yugi felt… honored that it had been him whom Atem had confessed such a thing to.

He bumped their shoulders together. Once he had Atem’s attention, he mimicked his gesture from earlier, pretending to zip his mouth shut and throwing the key away.

“Your secret’s safe with me,” Yugi echoed.

The genuinely thankful smile Atem gave him made him feel like his chest was being squeezed, and he had to look away in order to breathe normally again. Who would’ve thought he would go from knowing close to nothing about Atem to knowing one of his deepest secrets, to being trusted with one of his deepest secrets?

I should’ve done this years ago, Yugi thought. He shook his head. At least he had finally been given the chance to do it, no matter how long it had taken.

The room they were in suddenly started to fill with more people. Yugi assumed another press conference had probably finished, and these were the people who had attended it. Maybe a tournament was about to start, and these were the participants.

Next to him, Atem shifted his weight from one leg to the other one. Yugi recalled what Atem had just told him, that social events and big crowds weren’t his thing, and he couldn’t help admiring him for his bravery. It couldn’t be easy for him to be in a place that made him so uncomfortable, and yet here he was. He was definitely worthy of the title of King of Games.

“I could really use some fresh air,” Yugi said. “Do you want to get out of here?”

Atem turned his head to look at him. Yugi was giving him the chance to walk out of a situation he might want to escape, but he was also giving him the chance to stay if he so wished. He really wanted to continue talking to Atem, but he wanted to ensure that Atem was in a space in which he felt comfortable instead of trapped or anxious.

Atem crossed his arms over his chest and raised a curious eyebrow. A smile was tugging at his lips. “What did you have in mind?”

Feeling slightly bolder, Yugi held out his hand, his palm facing upwards, and said, “I guess you’ll have to find out.”

Atem glanced down at his hand and then at Yugi, back at his hand and back at Yugi again. For a moment, he didn’t say or do anything, and Yugi felt little sweat beads start to form on his temples. Had he gone too far? Had he crossed a line he hadn’t even known was there? Had he ruined his chances of becoming Atem’s friend before they could even be called that?

I really want to get to know you better, Yugi thought, hoping he could somehow transmit the message to Atem through his eyes.  

To his luck, it appeared that he managed to do so. Atem’s smile widened into a grin.

“I guess I will,” he said. He grabbed Yugi’s hand and squeezed it as if he never wanted to let go.

Yugi grinned back. The feeling was mutual.