Pairing: Puzzleshipping (Yuugi x Yami)

Premise: A string of busy nights leads to a small getaway – but the night turns to morning a little too quickly.

Summary: Morning comes whether you set the alarm clock or not. Yami wakes up to a rather unique one.

Continuity: Mixed, w/ altered post-canon either way you slice it.

Notes: This is a giftfic for tunafax on Tumblr (also known on Ao3 by the same name)! It's just a cute and fluffy piece – I hope that she likes it! It's a little PWP, because I didn't want to write an epic on why Yami has a separate body. I couldn't format it the way I wanted, so the title is repeated below.

Warnings: mentions/implications of nudity, if that's even notable.

Oh, no.

The first word of the morning was, "Fuck!"

An interesting alarm to say the least, but it was effective. It was also the reason why Yuugi would be late. Yami stirred, roused from sleep, and looked around. Though they were just waking up there was sunlight blaring through uncovered windows. It's late, he thought, and curled up into himself. He wasn't the one who had to go to work, after all. The bed rocked as Yuugi scrambled to untangle himself from the sheets after his war cry.

Well, if Yuugi was already late, rushing around wouldn't make it better. "Good morn–" Yami cut himself off, gasped and lurched forward; but it was too late. The body beside him had already tipped over the edge and crashed with a thud. He winced, and then shivered; the sheets, too, found themselves a new place on the floor.

When he peered over the edge Yuugi looked – not cross, per se, because Yuugi was rarely angry about anything - unhappy.

"This is your fault."

"How is this my fault?" Yami argued back. He made a face, nose crinkling for just a moment before the expression dissolved into a smile. "You didn't have any complaints last night."

Neither of them had. Yuugi was almost always busy, between helping out Sugoroku at the shop, juggling school and friends and managing everyone else's happiness. Certainly noble undertakings, even from the perspective of an ex-Pharaoh, but it left the two of them a bit short when it came to each other. Taking a few moments - or hours, or a whole night - couldn't be a bad thing. Sometimes Yami got lonely, when he exhausted his usual distractions. If he'd done things right, the last seven or eight hours wouldn't be anything his companion forgot easily.

In just the few seconds it took to form those thoughts Yuugi was already up and digging through drawers, throwing clothes onto the floor with abandon. There were a few mutterings in between but nothing that Yami could make out clearly.

"Just relax," he said, calmly.

"I can't," Yuugi snapped, not even bothering to look up at him. "Because I'm late." A white, short sleeved button-up was singled out from the rest and was hastily pulled on.

It reminded Yami of their old school uniform, and he chuckled. "Gramps isn't going to yell at you for being late." And to be honest, he didn't understand the sense of urgency. To him it seemed silly to freak out about such a thing. Judging by the light outside, they were nearly an hour off schedule, but the store was right downstairs.

"But he should." Now Yuugi was shuffling through another drawer for pants. "Look, I don't want him to think I'm slacking off, or that I don't take this seriously. When I get a job somewhere else, am I going to expect them to understand me being late too?"

Yami sighed, finally rolling out of bed himself. Some things just couldn't be helped. "You might as well slow down, anyway. You haven't even taken a shower yet. That's probably a better idea."

Fingers stopped, halfway through the task of buttoning, and clutched tightly at the fabric. No matter what Yuugi wanted the situation to be, Sugoroku Mutou, who was up every morning at the crack of dawn, was not going to fuss about either of them being late. Least of all Yuugi, who had loyally helped him run the shop for years at this point. So far as Yami was concerned, they could worry about it when they no longer worked at the shop. For now, they had leeway and there was no sense in not taking advantage of it.

Yuugi growled, tearing the shirt off just as quickly as it was donned and stalked towards the bathroom. The door shut loudly seconds later and Yami winced for a second time that morning. He didn't think it was likely that Yuugi would let him climb into the shower too, so he kept busy by changing the sheets on the bed. A glance at the bedside clock confirmed that it was probably all for the best; Yami was a cheeky bastard, after all, and it was more likely that he would spend more time coaxing Yuugi to waste a little more time than actually encourage him to get ready.

It wasn't just the night with Yuugi that had calmed him. Spending so long in the shadow of the danger and intrigue of the Millennium Items made it a little difficult to worry over details as he had once done. Not that a lack of life endangerment was a reason not to take other things in life seriously, but it was a little hard for him to feel the urgency for being late for work when no one would be challenged to a Shadow Game, no one had lost anything or anyone dear to them and - if nothing else - more likely than not that Sugoroku would make a joke about it and move on.

So when Yuugi dashed out back out, water still in beads over skin, pulling the shirt on again - didn't even bother to unbutton it again, just threw it on - Yami let him, and didn't fuss. Maybe it wasn't a bad thing that Yuugi worried and he didn't. It wouldn't be the first time that being opposites served them well. But it was still clear that frustration lingered because at some point between tripping while putting on pants and tripping while putting on shoes, Yuugi said irritably,

"You're really just going to stand there? Really?"

Yami bit back a retort, not at all fond of the implication that: for one, this was really all his fault - which it wasn't - and that he was being lazy somehow. Fact was, this wasn't his day opening the shop and Yuugi hadn't asked to swap shifts at all. But as Yuugi stood there, exasperated, shirt only half tucked and hair disheveled, it was hard to feel justified in being even the least bit mean. After all, their little 'date' hadn't had to happen at all. Yuugi could have picked to sleep, or get ahead with his homework or any number of things. Surely he could put up with a bit lip service.

He settled for a small sigh to vent his frustrations. Circling the room as Yuugi reached for a jacket hung near the door that would lead him away, to jobs and work and responsibility, Yami kept silent on his thoughts. Instead, he said,

"Thanks for last night," as quietly - calmingly - as he could muster. Eyes held contact for an extra second or two before he looked down, hands reaching out to make a few adjustments.

"...!" Yuugi gasped at first and tried to back away.

But Yami was insistent, keeping his lover in place as he straightened and tugged and gathered. That shirt was all wrong, crunched up in some places and slack in others; the second button from the top had been skipped and ...well, maybe nothing could really be done about their hair, but he would try.

Yuugi groaned. "I don't have time for–!"

"You're already late. At least go downstairs looking like you cared, since you do." Yami couldn't help it, couldn't let the sour pout on Yuugi's face sit. He pressed a small kiss to it, and smiled. "We had a good night. Have a good day, too."

A few seconds filled only with the shifting of fabric sounded between them, but Yuugi seemed to finally accept the situation for what it was. There was sharp intake of breath, followed by a sigh, and a dejected gaze pointed toward the floor below them. No lingering glances on Yami's unclothed form - which he took offense to, especially - no cheery smile to greet the day with... it simply wasn't Yuugi. At least, not the Yuugi that he knew.

Finished with his handiwork, Yami felt satisfied. At least one of them had themselves together. Kind of. Messy hair would have to do for the moment. "There. Not so bad, is it?"

Violet eyes flickered to the right, looking at something behind him. "An hour and fifteen minutes. Late."

"Definitely late," Yami said, leaning forward to plant another kiss. This time it was reciprocated, though. Their lips locked for half a second before they were separated. Maybe if Yuugi were less upset, he could have made an argument for staying in bed and making it up to Sugoroku later, but he had a feeling that would be pushing it. "It could be worse, though. It could be noon."

"I guess..." Was Yuugi coming around? Still no smile quite yet.

"If you don't try to feel better I'm going to come downstairs and flirt with you in front of the customers."

The jaw falling slack rather than twisted in a scowl or pushed out into a pout was good enough. "Don't! I'm leaving, Yami - I don't even know why I bothered." It was an empty threat at best though and finally, Yuugi seemed to be fighting a sheepish grin.

It'd have to good enough. "Have a good day, Yuugi."

{FIN}