inonebasket | (no subject)

It didn't really matter if he could hear what spurred the apology; that Yugi was troubled enough to do so was reason enough for Yami to try and console him. Your family is as kind-hearted as you. I don't want to take advantage of their hospitality, but it doesn't look like I have a choice.

As for us... Yami leaned forward and draped his arms over Yugi's shoulders, pulling him into another hug as he rested his cheek against Yugi's hair. We'll figure something out, Aibou. I said I wanted to stay with you forever, and this doesn't change that feeling in the least.

Yugi had, at first, frozen up from the hug, if only for a second. It was still unexpected, and Yugi wasn't hugged very often. Sure, his friends would sling their arms around his neck, and sure, Rebecca would cling to him, but they were never like this. Just as soon as he tensed, though, he relaxed, shut his eyes and slid his arms around Yami's waist.

And I still feel the same way.

He was right. They'll figure something out. They've done it countless times, even when the situation seemed hopeless, and they'd do it again. They were a team. This was just another tough challenge that they would win.

... The avalanche idea sounds good. For your lost memories. The growing smile and the snort against Yami's chest tells enough about the seriousness of that suggestion.

Lying to Yugi's mother and grandfather wasn't quite as traumatizing as having the fate of the world rest on the outcome of a single duel, but Yami still didn't like the idea. Maybe one day they could tell them the truth.

But until them, he would do what it took to stay with Yugi. We could always go the 'crazed fan' route. The trauma of waking up next to my idol gave me amnesia.

Or maybe you just hit your head too hard while rescuing me from a card game gone horribly wrong. Might as well make you look heroic, right?

At least Sugoroku would believe that, and even sympathize. Even more so if they had said it was from a duel with Kaiba. The thought made Yugi chuckle - Of course he wasn't planning on telling that to his grandfather; he felt bad enough having to lie about the reason for Yami's existence in the first place. It felt a little better on his conscience to joke around about it some.

I think we'll be surprised. Your grandfather is a lot sharper than he lets on; he might already know about me. Yami shrugged. He wasn't sure if Sugoroku really did know about him already, but it wasn't as if he and Yugi were exceptionally discreet. They would take advantage of the fact that people often didn't see or hear what they didn't want to. It was easier to believe that their minds were playing tricks on them than to believe that a boy had two souls.

If he does ask, we can always say I don't remember how I lost my memories. It's the truth, anyway.

It was true. Yugi's mother had caught him yelling at Yami once, though that was definitely his fault. If one has another soul living inside their head, one does not exclaim to it to stop teasing him in the middle of the hallway and right front of his mother. He was sure that she told his grandfather about it, but apparently, nothing came out of it. It was never brought up again.

He nodded his agreement; They'd have to be prepared for surprises. If not, all of their planning might crumble away. It'd make the most sense, too. All right... That sounds like the game plan.

It explained everything; The missing possessions, the amnesia, and they could write off the similarities as something even they couldn't figure out. After all, people could find others who looked similar to them every day.

As he finally leaned out of Yami's embrace and leaned back on his hands to really bring their plan together, he let his head tilt as he took in his other's appearance. Solid. Breathing. Definitely more muscular, though their adventures together certainly did something to Yugi's physique, too. His eyes were sharper, his pose was much more confident than his was, and he looked as if he laid himself out on the roof and got a tan. Now that they were face-to-face like this, it wasn't hard to see the differences between them.

I still can't believe this is really happening. A smile began to form as he thought of everything they could finally do together. Oh, if only they could just leave right now and not have to worry about explaining everything just yet...

Yami mirrored Yugi's smile, though it didn't match his other's very closely. More of a devilish grin than the excited, boyish expression Yugi was currently wearing. He was a little bit worried about what would happen, but he also had become familiar with the Mutous in his time with Yugi; they weren't the type of people to ignore someone in need. He wouldn't be thrown out. They'd be suspicious, naturally, but despite the fact that Yugi never asked for much he more often than not got his way when he wanted something.

And he could make himself useful until he managed to find his feet, both financially and otherwise. He wasn't completely helpless. Just a little behind in the times.

But first. We should tease the others with this.

Yugi knew exactly where he was heading with this. It was hard not to with that smirk on the other's face.

That'd be mean! It was a weak protest, considering his own smile and the way he chuckled in his thoughts. It only became weaker when his next question, hesitant yet excited, was sent to Yami. ... What are we going to do to them?

Something harmless. I'm still coming up with a plan, but considering we have bigger things on our plate it'll have to be put on hold.

Yami glanced at the door as footsteps thudded softly up the stairs, and realized that he was pretty much cuddling Yugi. That would not make a good first impression, so he scooted away and sat back on his heels. Ready?

Yugi missed the warmth when Yami pulled away. It was something he was happily getting used to; a warm body instead of a ghostly force. But he glanced at the clock - right, this was about the time Sugoroku would arrive to wake him up and help him out with the game shop. He took a deep breath and stood, readying himself to face the challenge of coming up with one of the biggest lies he'd ever have to tell to his grandfather.

Ready. He looked as if he was about to face an opponent on the battlefield, really, with the way a frown was set on his face and his fists clenched with stress. Yugi realized that he'd have to do a lot of the talking here, and if anyone should be on the receiving end of suspicion, he wanted it to be him.

Soft knocking was heard a few seconds later, and then a voice followed it. "Yugi! Rise and shine!" The door opened, revealing the form of Yugi's grandfather. "Hurry up now! Today is... Oh?"

With his other looking like he's going off to the frontlines, Yami felt significantly more tense as Sugoroku stared down at the two of them. He became acutely aware of the fact that his toes were going numb, and wondered if it would be all right to sit a different way for this. Or maybe it wouldn't matter, because more than likely they'd be headed downstairs to that Mrs. Mutou could be included in the discussion.

Oh God. They were going to have to discuss this.

Yami decided to take the lead and turned to Sugoroku, bowing his head and pressing his hands to the floor. The old man made a noise of (amused?) surprise but Yami chose to ignore it in favor of keeping his head straight so his words didn't come out sounding stupid or arrogant. "I apologize for the intrusion. It's a pleasure to meet you." ...though they'd met before. Were kind of even sorta related.

Yugi relaxed himself as Sugoroku walked into the room and even smiled for him. He'd only give himself away if he looked tense and ready to fight. Yami started it politely, but his grandfather wasn't didn't look suspicious or surprised. It was more... amused? The expression rattled his determination just a little, but once Yami was finished, he gestured to him to tag himself into the battle.

"Grandpa, this is..." What should he say? "Yami" and "Mou hitori no boku" were nicknames, but he had to come up with something quickly. "... Yami. He's a close friend of mine, and he-"

"So you're the pharaoh who lives in that puzzle!" Sugoroku exclaimed, cutting Yugi off and completely destroying the boy's unshakable defense.

"... Eh?" Everything Yugi was about to say suddenly vanished in his mind.

WHAT.

"I- no, I'm- You just-" Yami was almost never at a loss for words; he always had something to say, and it was (almost) always coherent. But with their carefully -read: shoddily- constructed lie already flipped onto its head he found himself up the proverbial creek without a paddle or a canoe.

Then he sat back on his heels and desperately wracked his mind. How in the world did Sugoroku know he was a pharaoh? The spirit thing, yeah, Yami can believe he'd picked up on it. But...pharaoh? Had he just concluded that because the puzzle had been found in his tomb? Yami had no memory of meeting with Sugoroku outside the pretenses of being "Yugi," so he had to have guessed.

"Yes," he said, rather dumbstruck. "I suppose I am."

"Well," Sugoroku placed his hands on his hips and gave a wide, welcoming grin, "It's quite an honor to have you here! I was wondering when I could meet you this way!"

He seemed to have decided that Yami would be staying here. In fact, he rounded on Yugi, who stared dumbly with a slack jaw, and fixed him with a determined expression as he declared, "Yugi, we need to think of a good lie to tell to your mother."

Yugi himself was absolutely speechless. When- Why- How did his grandpa know about this? Sure, Yugi wasn't exactly discreet when it came to hiding his other self's presence, but he never called him pharaoh or anything! At least, not in front of his grandpa! Well... He did discover the puzzle and give it to Yugi years ago, but did he really know that much about it?

It took a moment for Sugoroku's statement to register, and once it did, Yugi blinked hard and replied, "Eh, uh... I mean... Y-Yeah, we do. I... guess. I mean, we kind of already came up with something... A, uh, fire. That destroyed his things."

Yami dropped his face into his hand, shoulders shaking.

Sugoroku's expression flattened and he gave them both a somewhat reprimanding look. "No no, that's not nearly enough. Your mother, she likes the dramatic effect Yugi. We'll need to think of something much more complicated."

Yami hunched over and covered his mouth with both hands, barely able to muffle his laughter.

Yugi shot Yami a look at that - This was serious, and he's laughing it away! But then he turned back to his grandpa, suddenly on the spot. A fire destroying Yami's home was absolutely dramatic! But he was right. His mother did love the dramatic things. She does love to watch soap operas, after all...

"... His house got robbed, he tried to catch the thief, but a fire broke lose in the house, and then an avalanche buried it and made him lose his memories?"

Maybe all of their suggestions in one explanation would work. Or just sound silly.

"Hmmm...dramatic, but a little too unbelievable. She's awfully good at drawing the line." Sugoroku padded over to the bed and had a seat on the edge of it, a hand on his chin.

"What if I hit my head and I just don't remember any of that?" Yami supplied unhelpfully after sitting back up and controlling himself. He wasn't sure he was going to keep their ridiculous story straight if it got too ridiculous.

Yugi, realizing that he was the only one standing, decided to sit cross-legged beside Yami as he tried to think. At his suggestion, Yugi glanced over at his other with a helpless little smile; it was a nice attempt, but... "Then we'd skip out on everything she wants to know. I... guess I could be there, and that's why you're here. Mom likes acts of kindness."

Yugi cupped his own chin, mirroring the movements of his grandfather as he threw out another suggestion. "An earthquake? No, we would've felt it too... Some kind of rescue that went wrong?"

"You're making me out to sound like some sort of puppy, Aibou." Yami raises a brow as he glances sideways at Yugi. He was found and taken home, and now Yugi has to beg his mother to keep him. It makes him feel awkward, embarrassed, pleased and a little humiliated all at once.

"Well...we could always tell the truth." Sugoroku leveled Yugi with a questioning look.

Yami, you practically asked for it there. Yugi gave a cheeky grin as he reached up to ruffle Yami's hair, as if doing so to a dog. Yugi would never do this to his other friends, but, well... He felt like he could do most anything with Yami and get away with it.

But with his grandpa's statement, he stopped and balked, even backpedaled a little bit on the floor. "What?! I can't do that! She wouldn't believe something like that!"

"Not if we show her the puzzle, and not if I give her the facts." Sugoroku gave a mild shrug; he was sure Yugi's mother would believe her son, especially if he backed him up. Yugi, however, feared that should would find it all too ridiculous to have under her roof.

Yami batted Yugi's hand aside, though Sugoroku's suggestion made him recoil a little bit as well. Tell Yugi's mother that he's a long dead Egyptian king that's been possessing him and getting him into a hell of a lot of trouble. Yeah, he can't see that blowing over very well.

At that moment, the door swung open and revealed the object of their indecision. And she didn't look very pleased. "I guess the truth would've been a little too much to expect, huh?" she asked, arms folded and leveling all three of them with a glare. "You must think I'm pretty stupid."

Oh shit.

At least, that's what Yugi would say if he said such words. Instead, he reared himself back, but then moved forward so that he could get between her and Yami, almost defensively so. It was him that she should be mad at, not his partner.

"Mom! Uh..." He glanced around, hoping to find something that could help him explain the situation to her. "It isn't like that, mom; I think you're really smart! It's just that this is kind of... difficult..."

"Settle down, Yugi." Sugoroku stood from his place and walked to her side to set a hand on her shoulder. "Let me explain..."

Yugi's mother didn't really look like she wants to go quietly and she nudged Sugoroku's hand away, attempting to get a better look at Yami around Yugi's shoulders. Which isn't that hard to do.

"What exactly is the truth? What's going on? Yugi, tell me who that is!"

Yami couldn't let this go, not seeing her as angry as she was. He stood and attempted to step around Yugi so he could explain. It wasn't Yugi's fault; it was probably his, even if he didn't remember it. And he couldn't let Yugi take the blame for something like this (or anything, really). "Please, don't be angry at him. It's thanks to Yugi that I'm even alive right now."

"Wait, mou hitori no boku," Yugi stood then and placed his hand on Yami's arm, hoping to convey that he wanted to do this, even if it meant taking the blame. He sighed, then, and turned his head towards his mother, though he kept his gaze on the floor. It was hard to stand up to an angry parent.

"Nine years ago, Grandpa went on an expedition through an Egyptian tomb. There, he found this." He held the puzzle in his hands, and while Yami wasn't in there anymore, he still held it as if it was his most precious treasure. "Only... It was completely broken apart. It was a puzzle, Grandpa said. The hardest one that's ever been made. It took me eight years to complete it, even though I worked on it every night." Yugi looked up at Yami then, a small smile on his face as his confidence started to return to him. "His spirit was sealed inside the puzzle for thousands of years, and when I solved it... It let me act as his host. I didn't even realize it until a few weeks later, during that tournament I went to. You know, the one Pegasus held?"

Finally, he was able to meet his mother's gaze with his fists clenched. "Mom, he's been my best friend ever since then. You wouldn't believe how much he's changed my life! And I think I might have changed his, too... But just this morning, we woke up like this, him with his own body. That's never happened before... But please, let him stay here! Or if you want to kick him out... I'll go, too!"

Yami was silent and let Yugi speak his mind, but at the last sentence he couldn't help but groan and cover his face with his hands. It was...it was flattering, yes, that Yugi would go as far as to leave with him, but the last thing he wanted to do was estrange Yugi from his loving family for his sake.

Luckily, Mrs. Mutou didn't seem like she wanted him out of the house that very moment. She gave Yugi a Look, folding her arms. "...so those times when you were behaving strangely...I was speaking to him." She gestured to Yami, then seemed to realize she was being rude and corrected herself. "To you."

"Yes," said Yami, lifting his face and attempting to look as confident and sure as ever. Not in all the duels they'd had, with souls on the line, had he ever been this nervous for himself. For Yugi yes, but not for himself.

"You know," Mrs. Mutou said as she swung around to fix her gaze on Yugi instead, "I could tell something was going on. I never thought it was something like this," and for the first time she sounded unsure of herself, "but I knew it was something. I know how my own son behaves." She touched a hand to her forehead. "...why didn't you tell me before, Yugi? What did you think I would do?"

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

wanna just play the 'rents between the two of us?

Okay nevermind |D

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject