All Roads Lead to Kemoket

by Cryptographic DeLurk

..

AN: Warnings for juvenile humour and sexual harassment. And I hope dearly this reached a level of absurdist humour that couldn't be mistaken for "lol, furries" but, if I failed, please know this wasn't intended to be disrespectful.

Also in the fic itself they go to regular old Comiket instead of Kemoket but, well, like the title says, I'm sure their road will lead them there eventually.

And sorry not sorry.

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"So whaddaya need this complicated set-up for anyhow?" Jounouchi poked at the wires behind the printer-scanner, and flicked his finger against the computer monitor. He studied it with a kind of mixture of curiosity and distaste. "What do you even spend all of your time doing on this thing?"

Yuugi hesitated. Schoolwork was the correct answer, but Yuugi didn't think that was what Jounouchi-kun wanted to hear. The other thing he spent time doing was browsing porn sites but, somehow, he didn't want to tell Jounouchi-kun that either. It wasn't as if they hadn't been upfront about that kind of thing in the past, but he somehow felt worried, at this point, that it would give the wrong idea. Yuugi had somehow reached a point in his friendship with Jounouchi-kun, where every word was measured. He wanted to always say what would please Jounouchi-kun, and wanted to make himself seem as pleasant and inviting and desirable as possible.

It was maybe lucky that, today, Yuugi needed to focus on catching up on his readings for uni. He had his textbooks and worksheets spread out over his bed and, so, for once he didn't need to use the computer.

Yuugi got up to go stand next to Jounouchi-kun. "Well, there are lots of things you can do with a computer," he assured.

The top of Yuugi's head only came up to Jounouchi's shoulder, and he hesitated, before resting his cheek against Jounouchi's forearm.

Jounouchi-kun didn't pull away. He chose, instead, to respond incredulously to Yuugi's statement. "Like what?" he said, with all the authority of somebody who had slept through all their computer classes in school, gotten his first smart phone three years too late, and became confused trying to respond to messages on LINE. "If you're always ignoring me to be on this thing, it must be something pretty special."

He pouted in a way that made Yuugi melt. Just a little.

Yuugi tried to smile shyly. "There's nothing better than spending time with you, Jounouchi-kun~ I don't mean to ignore you. I just can't help being busy sometimes."

Jounouchi-kun leaned his arm back against Yuugi's face. He frowned, a little guiltily.

Everything was going just right. All Yuugi had to do was introduce Jounouchi-kun to the next best thing.

"Well, you know, there is a pretty big Duel Monsters community online," he said, trying to sound tantalising. "You can play simulated matches with people remotely, and there are forums that discuss the best decks, and all sorts of things."

Yuugi directed Jounouchi-kun into the desk chair. He leaned over Jounouchi-kun's back and reached for his hand, directed it over to the wireless mouse.

It took a couple of clicks to bring the screen to life.

Yuugi pulled up a few different tabs. He set Jounouchi-kun up with an online duelling account on some amateur site, opened up a few online forums, and pulled up an article on Industrial Illusion's latest releases. Jounouchi-kun was three turns into an online duel, rubbing his hands together excitedly in anticipation of smashing his opponent with Time Wizard, when Yuugi decided it was safe to go do his college assignments in the knowledge he'd appeased Jounouchi-kun.

It was a long four hours of reading, punctuate by Jounouchi-kun's cheers and curses and the excited tapping of his foot, before Yuugi's mom called him down to help serve dinner. He stretched his arms above his head, and went to check on Jounouchi-kun before he was out the door.

Jounouchi-kun hurriedly closed a couple of tabs as Yuugi peered over his shoulder.

The tab that was left open was familiar though.

"Oh, pixiv?" Yuugi asked. Jounouchi-kun had apparently followed a few convoluted paths of external links in the four hours that Yuugi had left him to explore Duel Monsters online.

Jounouchi-kun nodded vigorously. "Yuugi?!" he said excitedly. "You knew that this was here?! There are a ton of people that have done illustrations and manga and made up all these stories about the Duel Monsters cards!"

"Yeah," Yuugi nodded. "It's amazing how passionate and creative some people are about the game."

"Yeah, but-" Jounouchi-kuns eyes darted to the side. "Some of the stuff is pretty… lewd…" he decided.

Feeling caught, Yuugi laughed nervously. "Well, yeah, but- who hasn't entertained a fantasy about the Dark Magician Girl? Not me~"

Oh, god, he hoped he didn't sound like an idiot. He chuckled a bit more. Oh, god, he hoped he didn't sound too self-conscious-

Jounouchi-kun brushed past this easily though. "Nah, but- I'm not even talking about the Dark Magician Girl… Panther Warrior. Guard Penguin. Aligator Sword. There are pictures of Red Eyes with a fuckin' huge dragon dong." Jounouchi-kun paused for a bit too long. "Haha. There sure are a lot of weirdoes out there, huh? Haha."

"Oh, you were talking about Kemono?"

Ke-mo-? Jounouchi-kun mouthed.

"Yeah, it's pretty bizarre," Yuugi agreed. "I don't really get it. But-"

Jounouchi-kun stood up straighter in his seat.

"It's nice that people of all types can find something different to enjoy about Duel Monsters… Remember how Anzu was inspired by the Dark Magician Girl at the Duel Monster's stageplay." Yuugi's eyes lit up. "Like that~ It's such a great game. So if people can come to enjoy it, whether it's by playing the card game, or following the professional matches, or working to promote it like Kaiba-kun, or watching Pegasus-san's cartoons, or by creating artwork or writing stories – no matter how perverse or bizarre – it makes me a little happy."

Yuugi paused. He wondered how bold was too bold.

He reached out to take Jounouchi-kun's hand. He wondered if he imagined the blush in Jounouchi-kun's cheeks, when Yuugi rubbed his thumbs over Jounouchi-kun's knuckles.

"A-Anyhow, I've had a lot of wonderful experiences with you because of Duel Monsters, Jounouchi-kun. So I'm happy if other people can enjoy Duel Monsters, in whatever way they want, with their-"

-friends.

Yuugi smiled softly. "With the people they care about most."

"Y-Yea-" Jounouchi-kun agreed, a little breathless.

The moment was ruined when Yuugi's mom called up the stairs and told Yuugi to hurry up and come down to get dinner, but it didn't put a hamper in things for long.

A lot happened after that.

Jounouchi-kun used the extra money from his wages to buy two tickets to the amusement park, and he invited Yuugi along.

Yuugi showed Jounouchi-kun how to use the computer scanner when he appeared one day sheepishly holding a collection of muscular Tiger Axes drawn on lined paper.

Yuugi kissed Jounouchi-kun one day in the back room of the game shop. And Jounouchi-kun responded a little over-enthusiastically and ended up knocking down a few boxes of merchandise.

Jounouchi-kun stopped closing computer tabs when Yuugi walked up behind him. (Although this only confirmed what Yuugi had gathered from the browser history.)

Yuugi stopped calling Jounouchi-kun 'Jounouchi-kun' and started calling him 'Jounouchi'. 'Katsuya', even – sometimes.

Jounouchi bought a nice collection of coloured pencils, stopped drawing on lined paper, and garnered a couple thousand followers on his pixiv account.

Yuugi graduated from college, released a bestselling game of his own design, and came out to his parents.

Yuugi briefly contemplated downing a couple of cups of bleach when he walked into his room one day and found Jounouchi lying in bed drawing a Thousand Dragon ( ) getting fucked in the ass by a Baby Dragon. (Heh~ Juniors dominating seniors is the latest trend, Jounouchi explained weakly.)

Grandpa gave Yuugi a new laptop for the New Year, which meant that Jounouchi could have Yuugi's old computer. The gift was enhanced by a contribution of Yuugi's own – a brand new drawing tablet, so Jounouchi wasn't limited to traditional media.

Jounouchi couldn't stop thanking Yuugi for such a thoughtful present, even days later. It was a thanks paid in the currency of hamburgers and blowjobs. Which really only confirmed Yuugi had no choice except to be supportive.

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"Did you know," Jounouchi asked one day, around a mouthful of potato chips, "that you can actually make money drawing this shit?!"

Yuugi looked down, at where Jounouchi was slumped over the kotatsu. He was swiping viciously at the tablet with his pen, focussed intently on the screen.

Yuugi walked around behind him.

This shit was apparently a picture of the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon swallowing a Maha Vailo whole as it mounted a Krystal Dragon. The oddest part was that the Maha Vailo seemed to be enjoying being eaten as much as the other two enjoyed… what they were doing.

Yuugi hated that it somehow made sense in the context of who his boyfriend was. Food and Sex. Jounouchi was a man of simple tastes – creature comforts.

As if on cue, Jounouchi mauled another handful of potato chips.

"Money?" Yuugi asked. "Really?"

Yuugi wished he had said it with less incredulousness. It wasn't that Jounouchi was, in any way, a subpar artist. Just his… subject matter…

Jounouchi didn't seem offended at any rate. He was swiping blue and cream over the bottom layer of the picture.

"Well… spoke too soon, yeah? I guess this guy could be rippin' me off… But it's worth a shot at least. What's the worst that can happen? I spend a day drawing this swag-ass picture of Blue Eyes without getting paid?" Jounouchi snorted. "I was gonna do that anyhow~"

Yuugi held back a sigh of agreement, and nodded his head, but Jounouchi regarded his own words with a degree of distrust.

"I mean, vore's really not my thing usually, and neither is the Blue Eyes, but I'm willing to be lenient," Jounouchi hastened to qualify. "It's not like I can't comprehend the appeal."

What was the appeal of vore? Yuugi wasn't sure he wanted to hear Jounouchi's explanation.

"And anyhow, this guy offered to wire me thirty thousand yen for this puppy~ Money is no object, as long as I meet all his nitpicky specifications… It took a couple go-arounds, but he seemed to like the concept sketches I sent him. Now I just have to finish the thing, and get an account for him to dump the cash in."

At this point Jounouchi started to bat his eyes and smile in the way that meant he wanted a favour.

"Can I just have him wire it to your account number, Yuugi?"

Jounouchi was probably asking this out of his oddly backwards distrust of institutional society, and bank accounts, and anything that wasn't taping an envelope of money to the underside of a drawer. But Yuugi found himself stalling for a different reason. He wasn't in the spotlight he had once been when he was actively defending his title of King of Games, but it wasn't as if the name on his bank account wasn't recognisable.

"I-If you want, I think Grandpa has an extra business account opened at Japan Post Bank. One of them's just listed under Kame Game, but he's got another one sitting around under the name Turtle Paradise." Yuugi scratched at his chin. "It might even be under mom's old name."

"Ah, Mutou-chan's?" Joey asked, brightly. "So, you think you can get the account info for me, so I can pass it over to NEO-san?"

"…NEO …san?" Yuugi tilted his head, confused.

"That's the guy that commissioned this from me," Jounouchi beamed. "NEO-san is his online handle. I'm FlameBeast69." Jounouchi pouted. "I really wanted DragonDicks, but that was already taken. So was regular old FlameBeast. And Lord-of-D. All the good names were already called for." Jounouchi said heatedly, rapping his fist against the kotatsu.

Yuugi giggled, and Jounouchi turned on him.

"You dare laugh at FlameBeast69?!" he demanded, pulling Yuugi down into a snuggly headlock.

Yuugi only giggled harder.

Jounouchi's good mood persisted, especially when the money came through on the Turtle Paradise account a few days later. He treated Yuugi and himself to a nice crab dinner, and spent the whole time talking about NEO-san, who could be overly quiet and overly arrogant, but was very appreciative, and would thoughtfully send Jounouchi links to things that he thought might pertain to his interests.

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Not that much thought had gone into it at the time – ten years prior.

Yuugi had been so elated by Jounouchi-kun's willingness to be friends, he didn't actually know how to proceed with what came after. There was only so much you could talk about the weather, or complain about your teachers. The silences were starting to stretch between the words of their conversations, and neither seemed to know how to fill them. Jounouchi-kun had tried to talk about part time work, which sports he liked best from their PE class, and the glee and schadenfreude in the variety shows on television. When that didn't work, he'd initiated a conversation about the hottest girls in class, and what his type was (beauties over cuties, tits and ass). But Yuugi had been too shy to respond at the beginning there – to say he wasn't sure he had a specific type as much as he had rather specific desires. And so things had fizzled once more.

Yuugi had talked about games, and what it was like living above his grandpa's shop. It was all he knew how to talk about.

Jounouchi-kun listened for a while. Then he interrupted.

"One of my friends is really into American comics. …Or, well, American vintage stuff in general. Old Westerns and Fifties Diners and stuff like that."

"Really?" Yuugi had said, unwilling to let on this was yet another topic he didn't know how to pursue. "Is it… Honda-kun?" he asked. At the time, he hadn't known about any of Jounouchi-kun's other friends or, rather, ex-friends.

Jounouchi-kun scowled.

"No. No, not Honda."

Jounouchi-kun seemed to be remembering something distasteful, and by all measures seemed to radiate a vibe that said the conversation was over. Yuugi let it be.

They came from different worlds, with different concerns and different interests, and Yuugi was afraid the wonderful friendship he had struggled to make would fall to pieces at any moment. He could see the look in Jounouchi-kun's eyes. The way they glossed over and glanced sideways a little too often.

He was completely bored.

But Jounouchi-kun had waved off Yuugi's suggestion that they talk about something else. And, worse, Jounouchi-kun had been completely unwilling to make any suggestions on the front of what they should actually do in their free time after school. Any attempts Yuugi made to prod Jounouchi-kun about what he'd like to do were deflected. Jounouchi-kun had yawned – out of exhaustion or boredom Yuugi didn't know. He flung his briefcase over his shoulder, behind his back, and told Yuugi he was fine following anywhere. And Yuugi hadn't really known what it was like to have friends – not friends other than Anzu – so he did the only thing he knew how to do and led Jounouchi-kun to his home to his grandfather's game shop. Yuugi had blinked back the tears in his eyes that were forming from the anxiety. He had nothing to show Jounouchi-kun, nothing of himself to share, that wouldn't confirm that Yuugi was, in fact, a complete nerd. One that Jounouchi-kun certainly wouldn't be interested in spending any more time with at all.

But somehow things had turned out much better than Yuugi suspected. Yuugi introduced Jounouchi-kun to his grandpa, and watched as they shared an incomprehensibly conspiratorial look. And then Grandpa had pulled a game off the shelf, Machi Koro, and cut open its wrapping with a utility knife. He set Jounouchi-kun and Yuugi up at a table in front of the game shop, with seats in the shape of dice, and they had sat there and played. And at some point Yuugi's mom had brought out tea and snacks, and Jounouchi-kun's eyes had shone and he bit his lip, like he was the one that was undeserving, not Yuugi. And Jounouchi-kun put everything of himself into the game of Machi Koro, and lost, and then spent the rest of the visit walking around the game store asking Yuugi to explain everything from collectable trading cards, to role-playing games, to collectable figurines and anime merchandise.

It turned out Jounouchi-kun was a complete nerd too, only the kind that lay dormant until somebody arrived to awaken the call in him. And Yuugi had awakened the call in him, cemented the day that he had Grandpa build a Duel Monsters deck for Jounouchi-kun, and train him in the art of war.

Yuugi's newly-found friendship had been saved. And so he gladly accepted his destiny as the one to introduce Jounouchi to all the bounty that geek culture had to offer.

So it had only been natural that Yuugi had also been the one to introduce Jounouchi to the Kemono fandom that fateful day. It was his destiny. He had to accept it.

Jounouchi had made two cups of hot cocoa, and filled them both with marshmallows, before he came to bed. He was sketching Berfomet in his book, and detailing in the muscles on its arms and chest. It was nothing obscene, so Yuugi wasn't bothered on that level, it was more Jounouchi's chosen topic of conversation.

"NEO-san and I are thinking about collaborating on a project," Jounouchi said brightly, without looking away from his sketchbook.

He continued without giving Yuugi a chance to respond. Which was just as well because Yuugi hardly knew what to say.

"NEO-san's so cool," Jounouchi said, for what seemed like the five hundredth time in the last hour. "He knows how to program video games. Isn't that the coolest?! I don't know anything about programming!"

Last week, Yuugi had learned that NEO-san was also good at drawing. Not in the same kind of style that Jounouchi was. Nor was NEO-san comfortable posting online. But that's what made it all the more heartwarming when NEO-san had deigned to share a couple of sketches privately with Jounouchi. Jounouchi was blinking back happy tears, as he showed Yuugi the drawings NEO-san had messaged him of Curse of Dragon, and the Blue Eyes, and Gandora. They were rendered in a photo-realistic type style, and Yuugi felt like he might have been able to appreciate them more if there wasn't such a big focus on bloodly, festering wounds.

"Anyhow, we're talking about making a visual novel." Jounouchi grinned. "It'll be the next Morenatsu… Except we'll actually finish it! And it'll have Duel Monsters! And more dragons than just Tatsuki-chan!"

Yuugi blinked and didn't ask what Morenatsu was.

Jounouchi shaded his drawing vigorously.

"Yeah, but NEO-san's gonna do the programming, and I'm going to do the art, and we're collaborating on the scenarios. I thought we'd just publish it as DoujinSoft, but NEO-san had some other ideas. Well… it's going to take a while to finish anyhow, so we won't be worrying about distribution for a year at least…"

"That's great," Yuugi offered, sipping at his hot chocolate.

It was great, wasn't it? That Jounouchi was making friends. And that Jounouchi was having fun with his hobby.

And Jounouchi listened to Yuugi when Yuugi talked about the mechanics of game design, and his business lunches with Kaiba-kun, and articles he'd read about new archaeological discoveries. And Jounouchi always seemed to pay rapt attention, although none of it was really his 'thing'.

"Y'know, I wasn't sure about NEO-san at first," Jounouchi admitted sheepishly, "what with him being such an obvious fan of moneybags' deck… But I'm glad I gave him a chance!" He brightened. "You can't fault a guy for thinking the Blue Eyes is bangin'. And when I asked him straight out one day what he thought of Kaiba, and he said he didn't think he was all that impressive."

Jounouchi raised his nose smugly.

Yuugi thought he should probably scold Jounouchi for being so derogatory regarding Kaiba-kun, but he found himself wishing, very pettily, that Jounouchi had, not, in fact given NEO-san a chance.

Yuugi took another sip of hot chocolate and, in the time it took to suppress these thoughts, Jounouchi had continued talking.

"NEO-san and I have kind of different tastes, but that's why combining them will reach a larger audience." Jounouchi beamed. "You know I really like Tiger Axe and Lycanthrope, and other beast-warrior type monsters – more humanoid types right? And I like dragons too, but not the way NEO-san really loves reptilian types. NEO-san really likes gore and bondage too, which is kind of… I love drawing it for him, I mean. But I'm into more wholesome stuff like orgasm denial and knotting and bukkake right? We kind of had a long back and forth on what to include in the game too. We both kind of want to keep it oriented around male characters for the most part, but he agreed to let me put in a route with Amazoness Fighter getting attacked by beasts, so long as we also do something creepy with Silent Abyss. And-"

"Hey," Yuugi interrupted. "What's that?"

Jounouchi had moved on from his drawing of Berfomet, and was now doodling in the corner of the page. It was an SD character, a little mascot tiger in a jacket. It was cute, even.

"This?" Jounouchi said, pointing at it.

Yuugi nodded eagerly, hoping this would prompt a change in subject.

Jounouchi grinned. "I'm tryin' to come up with a character to use to represent myself. Tigers are cool, right? Like me? NEO-san suggested a Shiba Inu but, ugh, dogs, you know… Anyhow I'm thinking about blogging about the game's creation, so if I can do it as comic with Tiger-sama as my stand-in, it'll let me share notes and drawing tips in a more exciting kind of form, yea-?"

Jounouchi beamed, and he paused briefly to chugged down some of his hot chocolate before continuing, leaving a trail of marshmallow foam on his upper lip.

"Aaaagh!" he groaned. "It'd be so cool to do something with the Hieratic Dragons in the game too, but-"

Yuugi's eyes glossed over. His eyes panned over to the clock, and then the blinds on the bedroom window.

There was no hiding it. No escaping it.

He was completely bored.

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There were two new sets of shoes in the entryway. A pastel pink pair of canvas slip-ons, and a garish purple pair of heeled sandals.

Yuugi didn't recognise them. But it was easy enough to figure out who they belonged to, especially when he walked inside to find Jounouchi sitting at the dining table surrounded on each side.

"And that was when I told him he had another thing coming if he thought he could get the best of me with a wimpy card like that, and flipped Mirror Force on him! Ho ho!" Mai-san laughed, before she turned her eyes to meet him. "Yuugi!" She waved excitedly. "It's been a while. How have you been? Has Jounouchi been a gentleman with you?" She snickered and elbowed Jounouchi's arm.

"Oi!" Jounouchi protested. "What're you trying to insinuate?" he complained to Mai, before turning back to Yuugi. "Yo. Welcome back."

Shizuka-chan stood up from her seat and bowed slightly. "It's good to see you again, Yuugi-niisan."

"It's good to see all of you, too," Yuugi agreed, nodding his head to Mai-san and Shizuka-chan in turn before taking a seat.

"Mai was just telling me about some of the extra matches she played during her tournament in Amsterdam." A sly smile played on Jounouchi's lips. "But who can trust the testimony of such an arrogant woman. It's hard to tell whether or not she's just making up a load of crap."

"Ah!" Mai-san gasped, in a dramatised play of offense. She kicked at Jounouchi's shin under the table, and watched him laugh and grin smugly as he pulled his legs up and away to safety. "I think a certain arrogant man should think about trusting the words of his elders." Mai-san announced with an exaggerated huff.

"Shizuka, you were there too," Jounouchi prompted, turning to his sister. "There's no way Mai did as perfect a job as she says she did. Tell us how it really happened."

"Mmm." Shizuka-chan hummed softly, smiling at them both. She waited a long minute before caving into the eager expression on Jounouchi's face. "Sorry, onii-chan," she laughed, a blush taking over her cheeks. "I'm afraid Mai-san was just as amazing as she says she was. If not more so."

"Aaaagh!" Jounouchi groaned. "No way! No way!"

Mai-san laughed triumphantly. "See, Jounouchi. You just can't win against me~!" She stood up, flounced around the table, and wrapped her arms around Shizuka-chan's shoulders. "Shizuka-chan, thank you for being on my side~" She pressed a kiss to the side of Shizuka-chan's forehead.

Shizuka-chan glowed.

"Hey, hey." Jounouchi pouted. "That's my sister. Hands off in front of me." He grabbed Mai-san's sleeve and tugged her back towards her seat. And Mai-san let herself be led away with a small giggle.

Shizuka-chan was talking about a candlelit dinner on the Keizersgracht now, but Yuugi was getting a bit restless. Especially when, a moment later, Mai-san and Jounouchi casually dropped a comment about watching the new Duel Links reality show at eight.

The low table in front of the TV was cluttered, there didn't seem to be a plan for dinner, Jounouchi hadn't made any tea for their guests and, when Yuugi excused himself and walked into the kitchen area, there were bowls and cups and the dirty remains of instant noodles left in the sink.

Yuugi tried to remind himself that Jounouchi didn't always get much time to visit with Mai-san and his sister. So Yuugi should go easy on him and let him enjoy himself… even if it was Jounouchi's turn to make dinner and clean the dishes… Probably he wouldn't have minded if he'd had a better day at work anyhow.

Yuugi had just gotten off the phone with the unagi-don place, and set up a tray with a teapot when Shizuka-chan walked in to meet him in the kitchen.

"Yuugi-niisan…" Shizuka-chan bowed her head slightly. "Did you need help with anything?" Her skin flushed. "I'm sorry. Onii-chan and I got caught up talking, so I forgot to offer any help hosting."

"O-Oh, no, please," Yuugi felt his own cheeks redden. "You don't have to worry about that. You're our guest, so…" It wouldn't feel right to put his sister-in-law to work.

"Ah, thank you, Yuugi-niisan," Shizuka-chan bowed again, but she hovered while Yuugi steeped the tea in the water from the electric kettle. She followed him, in companionable silence, when he carried the tray out to the low table in the sitting room.

He set the tray in the corner, and began gathering the scattered mess off the table: gaming magazines, extra batteries, lone pachisi pawns, old textbooks. Jounouchi had started building a garage kit model of a Red Eyes. It wasn't fully assembled, its skin was still a dull unpainted grey, and the parts that had been glued together hadn't yet dried. Yuugi had to be extra careful so as to move it safely up onto a shelf without breaking it apart.

"Are you sure you don't need any help, Yuugi-nii?" Shizuka-chan prompted, when Yuugi fumbled and almost dropped his textbook on his foot.

Jounouchi was still in the other room, laughing with Mai. And Shizuka-chan was offering to help Yuugi out in his stead. And, well, maybe Yuugi was feeling just a tad passive-aggressive.

Yuugi's eyes met with the sketchbook, sitting under the TV remote.

"Mmm, actually Shizuka-chan… That book right there." He nodded when Shizuka-chan tapped the edge of it tentatively. "It's Jounouchi's sketchbook, and I'm not really sure where he wants it. Would you go show it to him and ask him where he wants it put away?"

"Of course, Yuugi-niisan!" Shizuka-chan beamed, happy to be of help. She swiftly pulled the sketchbook out from under the remote, and clasped it to her chest, before flouncing off towards Jounouchi and Mai-san.

Yuugi wasn't sure what he meant to have happen. He thought it would have been enough to imagine the split-second of panic and insecurity on Jounouchi's face, as Shizuka-chan unwittingly handed him the smutty sketchbook. But Yuugi wasn't exactly displeased when Shizuka-chan slowed in her steps.

Unable to resist the curiosity in this inherent window into her brother's life, Shizuka-chan tentatively opened the sketchbook, held up against her forearm.

Yuugi pretended not to look, as Shizuka-chan flipped through the pages, face slowly turning beet red. She started walking again towards the dining area, at a snail's pace.

Yuugi couldn't quite put his finger on the inexplicable mix of emotions he was feeling. Parts gleeful and mortified and worried. He found himself hurrying to clear off the rest of the table and arrange the tea tray and the room so he could hurry back to Jounouchi's side.

It seemed relatively quiet over where Shizuka-chan was. Until it suddenly wasn't.

"Jounouchi!" Mai-san exclaimed.

Yuugi hurried back to the dining table.

Mai-san was standing up, looming menacingly over Jounouchi. She was holding the closed sketchbook in one hand, and she set him with a disgusted scowl. Shizuka-chan was standing next to her, a hand pressed over her mouth, and cheeks still flaming red.

"I am absolutely ashamed of you!" Mai-san continued.

Jounouchi wilted painfully under her scrutiny. And Yuugi was starting to feel terribly guilty for prompting the discovery of Jounouchi's drawings like this.

"Absolutely disgusted," Mai-san huffed. She turned her nose up. "You had a talent like this… and yet you don't have a single drawing of Harpie Lady in your sketchbook!"

She slammed the sketchbook down on the table in front of him.

"Fix it," she commanded.

Yuugi watched baffled, as Shizuka-chan scrambled to find a pen, and Jounouchi scrambled to find a blank page in his sketchbook. And, five minutes later, Jounouchi was drawing frantically, with a terrified look on his face, as Shizuka-chan watched wide-eyed over one shoulder, and Mai-san doled out critique from over the other one.

"Jou-nou-chi," she pursed her lips into a cute pout. "You have to make Harpie Lady more sexy. Sexiiiierrrr~" she whined. "Make her expression more-" Mai-san twisted her face into a ferocious grin. "And make the boobs more-" Mai-san pressed her breasts up, accentuating her cleavage.

"Just be patient and give me a moment will ya, Mai!" Jounouchi snapped at her. "Ow- Ow-" he whined when Mai-san pinched his cheek teasingly.

"Onii-chan…" Shizuka-chan's eyes shone, fixed on the drawing. "So cool! You really are super talented at this."

"Heheh~" Jounouchi's expression melted into a gleeful smile, as he rubbed away the bruise on his cheek and basked in his sister's approval.

Yuugi sat across from them, elbows propped up on the table. A smile tugged on the edge of his lips.

Nothing bad had happened because of him. He felt relieved.

"When you're done with Harpie Lady, you should draw Goddess with the Third Eye," Mai-san was demanding. "Shizuka-chan would like that~"

Shizuka-chan's face bloomed a happy pink. "Oh, would you, onii-chan?" she pleaded.

"Heheh~" Jounouchi's stupid grin got even wider.

"Something dirty with Harpie Lady and Goddess with the Third Eye together would be good too." Mai-san winked and blew a kiss at the siblings.

"Mai-san…" Shizuka-chan protested weakly. The smile on her face betrayed her.

Jounouchi's nose scrunched. "I'm not even done with the first Harpie Lady and you've got another two drawings lined up." A smugness took over his smile. "High maintenance. Demanding. Lewd and vulgar. And you wonder why nobody will put up with you, Mai."

"Oh, don't act coy," Mai-san chastised. "We've already seen all your dirty laundry. Like you're any different, and didn't just luck out with Yuugi."

Yuugi felt oddly flattered, as Mai-san turned to wink at him across the table.

By the time the food was delivered, and they moved into the sitting room, the tea Yuugi had made had gone cold, but everyone drank it anyhow and didn't seem to mind.

Kaiba-kun's Duel Links reality show was proving to be rather amusing. Mai-san and Shizuka-chan were absorbed enough in it, that Jounouchi could take the opportunity to clandestinely scoot closer to Yuugi.

"Thanks for getting the unadon, Yuugi! It's delicious! I really owe you one!" Jounouchi squeezed his shoulder and pressed a quick kiss under Yuugi's ear, too fast for anyone else to notice.

.

.

"What's wrong?" Yuugi asked.

"Nothing." Jounouchi frowned moodily. He crossed his arms. There was no sketchbook in bed tonight.

Yuugi watched as Jounouchi curled his bottom lip under his teeth, and bit at it, frustrated.

Yuugi wondered if he should ask if it was artist's block. Or ask if something had gone wrong at Jounouchi's work – he seemed to get into disagreements with his supervisor quite often. Or maybe it was something Yuugi had done wrong.

Yuugi scooted closer to Jounouchi. Considering the way Jounouchi leaned his torso against Yuugi's shoulder in response, he could probably eliminate the third option.

Yuugi considered for a moment. Maybe it was wrong to take the easy way out of things, but…

Yuugi snuggled closer to Jounouchi's chest, and turned his head up, and Jounouchi giggled when Yuugi pressed a kiss to the underside of his stubbly chin. Jounouchi curled up into a ball and rolled back on his futon.

Jounouchi was smiling again. And Yuugi was struck, not the first time, by how simple and organic and visceral Jounouchi's happiness could be. He kissed Jounouchi's cheeks, and pulled down his collar to press another kiss to the top of his chest, and Jounouchi laughed and smiled. He let Yuugi spread his legs apart, and lifted his butt up to unpin the seat of his pants as Yuugi pulled them off. And Jounouchi cupped Yuugi's face and laughed gleefully and impatiently, as Yuugi struggled to pull off his own pyjamas and reach for the lube while entangled.

Everything was Jounouchi's breathing, and Jounouchi's grip on his shoulders, and Jounouchi's legs wrapped around him. And everything was tight and breathless and warm. And Yuugi still wasn't sure exactly how it came to moments like this, but it felt so singular and important – just how close he'd managed to come to Jounouchi, just how intimate and whole their connection was, and just how much they were part of the same solar radiance when their dewy skin pressed together.

"Are you feeling less troubled?" Yuugi asked afterwards. "Katsuya?"

Jounouchi was lying sideways across the futons. He had a stranglehold around Yuugi's torso, and was resting his face against Yuugi's stomach. He had melted into this position, shortly after Yuugi had pulled out of him, and refused to let go, which had made it rather difficult for Yuugi to clean up effectively.

Jounouchi hummed contentedly. "Yea~ I feel great, Yuugi." He sighed and smiled lazily into Yuugi's stomach. And Yuugi peered fondly down at his face.

Slowly, though, the lazy afterglow seemed to clear. Jounouchi's brow furrowed. A contemplative frown tugged at the edges of his mouth. After a moment his eyes opened alert. He bit his lip, and Yuugi could see the anxiety in the way his forehead creased and relaxed.

Yuugi felt a stab of sympathy pain. He wished he could make whatever was bothering Jounouchi disappear.

"You know you can always tell me if something's wrong, right?" Yuugi said, tracing a finger over the worry lines on Jounouchi's forehead. "I'll always be on your side, Katsuya, so please let me know if there's anything I can do…"

"Yuugi…" Jounouchi turned his face up. His eyes were shining, overcome with emotion, and he let go of Yuugi and propped himself to kiss Yuugi on the lips.

Yuugi's cheeks were glowing as they pulled apart, and Jounouchi opened his mouth to speak.

But then the words actually came out.

"Do you think it would be unethical to draw Kaiba getting fucked by a Blue Eyes White Dragon?"

There was a sinking feeling, like Yuugi had suddenly swallowed a rock. All traces of sympathy evaporated instantaneously.

"What?" Yuugi asked blankly.

Jounouchi shook his head mournfully. "Well, okay, actually I did a couple of sketches already, but… Ugh!" Jounouchi growled frustrated, before continuing with his ramble. "Let me start over: NEO-san wanted to commission a piece with the Blue Eyes and the Kaiba Corp CEO. And so I thought to myself- yes, another person who wants to see that snotty asshole ground into the dirt. So I agreed right away, okay? But, then, in the process of churning out some sketches for the composition and, er, drawing Kaiba in the middle of- uh-" Jounouchi's face coloured, and he huffed euphemistically. "Well, I started thinking it was a little creepy to be drawing somebody I actually know in real life for my fetish artwork. Well… I dunno, he's a public figure so I feel like it's kind of up for grabs but… It just doesn't feel quite right. But NEO-san was offering a mint premium for this piece, and I feel bad refusing after I already agreed to do it… What do you think, Yuugi? Is it too creepy to be drawing something like that, or do you think I'm worried about nothing?"

Yuugi was speechless. But Jounouchi was looking up at him, rapt with admiration, like he only needed Yuugi to point the way, choose the direction, and he'd go running off without a second thought.

"So… this is what's been bothering you the whole evening?" Yuugi's eyes narrowed. "You've been distracted this whole time because you couldn't figure out whether drawing Kaiba-kun – a personal friend of ours – having sex was okay? When I'm your boyfriend?!"

Jounouchi blinked, confused, as Yuugi untangled himself from Jounouchi's limbs. Then there was a sudden panic in Jounouchi's eyes as he finally seemed to comprehend just how badly he'd stepped in it. "It's not like that, Yuugi," he protested.

There was a sudden nagging thought in Yuugi's mind.

"Were you thinking about this while we were having sex?"

"N- No!" Jounouchi yelped. "You were a very good distraction!" He giggled self-consciously.

"Distraction?"

"No!" Jounouchi fumbled. "I mean- what you were doing was very distracting," he corrected. "Or… How could I not be distracted by a hot stud like you?"

Jounouchi smiled and rapped his fist against Yuugi's bicep teasingly.

Yuugi was not charmed by it.

And he knew Jounouchi's tells a little too well.

"You lied earlier, huh? You hadn't completely put Kaiba and the Blue Eyes White Dragon out of your mind earlier?"

Jounouchi gaped for a minute. Then he composed himself. "Well… it might have crossed my mind a couple of times," Jounouchi admitted. "You were so fierce with me, Yuugi~" Jounouchi gushed. "It might've reminded me a little of… And, hey, it's not as if the thought of Kaiba taking a dragon dick up the ass is going to make me less hard."

Yuugi grimaced. He rolled the comforter around himself and flopped down on his futon, turned away from Jounouchi.

"Good night, Jounouchi-kun," he said tersely.

"Aww, don't be like that, Yuugi," Jounouchi protested. "You know I love you… And don't tell me you've never thought of Kaiba or Anzu or your porny spanking vids at some inopportune moment."

Yuugi huffed. That was neither here nor there.

"Go to sleep. We can talk about it tomorrow."

He really was too soft for his own good though, because when Jounouchi huddled close and tentatively curled into the small of his back, Yuugi let him.

.

.

"How do I look?" Jounouchi asked anxiously.

Yuugi blinked away the tiredness in his eyes.

Jounouchi was radiating cheer and excitement. Like it wasn't five in the morning. Like it wasn't five in the morning after he'd stayed up all night printing out free copybooks for his first Comiket.

Jounouchi was wearing a white blazer over a light blue t-shirt, and a pair of dark shades. He ran his hand through his hair nervously, pressing the bleached locks down so they looked slicked back. Yuugi knew he wanted to look good for when NEO-san and his other fans came to buy his book.

You look like you walked out of an eighties gangster movie, Yuugi didn't say.

"Very handsome," Yuugi tried.

Jounouchi beamed.

Neither of them had a licence, so they stopped by Kame Game, and Yuugi's mom drove them most of the way, and then they made it the rest of the way on-foot. Jounouchi carried all their bags, and laughed mockingly as they walked past the seemingly endless line of event attendees. And then they were inside the exhibition centre.

It took a while to get to their table, because Jounouchi spent a lot of time dropping by the tables of other circles on the same aisle, introducing himself and asking about their about their work. And Yuugi was a bit embarrassed when people recognised him, but he was also resigned at this point. He'd given up hope that this was just a passing phase. And Jounouchi wasn't exactly keeping his work a secret – now that Mai-san and Shizuka-chan knew about it – and Yuugi wasn't exactly keeping his relationship with Jounouchi a secret. So Yuugi shook hands with the different people they met and said, yes, he was the former King of Games, and yes, he was currently publishing games under Kaiba Corp's label, and yes, he was FlameBeast69's boyfriend.

"Whaddaya think of my book?!" Jounouchi said when he finally got to their table, and ripped open the cardboard boxes to reveal his first (un)official publication. "It looks great, huh?"

Without waiting for an answer, Jounouchi slammed the backpack with the copybooks he had brought with him down on the table, and run off with a couple dozen copies of his latest book.

Yuugi stacked the books on the table, and arranged the tin money box behind them (filled with a couple of rolls of hundred yen coins), before taking a moment to look at Jounouchi's book.

It did look great, as a matter of fact. The Red Eyes Black Dragon was facing off against Battle Ox in battle, each with bared teeth and flushed skin. The line art was sharp and bold, and the colours vivid and glossy. And Yuugi was kind of pleased that Jounouchi had gone with a more conservative safe-for-work cover image, although there was a little R18 label in the corner to warn for the book's internal contents. Jounouchi had spent the last month or so regaling the story of its creation to Yuugi, why he decided to go with 'Battle Ox x Red Eyes' (in that order) and how he tried to capture both adversary and the bonds of love and friendship in graphic monster porn. Yuugi flipped to the last page of the book, to the author's notes, where Jounouchi's cartoon tiger delivered the summarised version of this speech in comic format.

"Hehe~" Jounouchi snickered as he returned. The stack of books he'd carried off had been traded off for another stack of books. "Drawing my own book was the best idea ever!" Jounouchi proclaimed. "I trade a couple of them off, and now I get to enjoy everyone else's work for free!" He pulled one out of the pile triumphantly and handed it to Yuugi. "I even got a Dark Magician Girl one for you~"

"Thank you, Jounouchi." Yuugi smiled. "And your book looks great."

Jounouchi giggled happily at the praise. He fussed as he set up the table – hauling the copybooks out of his pack, and arranging the price tags and signs.

And then he fussed over Yuugi. He pulled a fuzzy blanket from his bag (Yuugi didn't even know he had brought one) and proceeded to wrap it around Yuugi in his chair.

"Thanks so much for getting up early to come with me to this," Jounouchi gushed. "It means the world that you're here to support me for this. But I know you're tired, so you can nap if ya want. I'll wake you up later if I need your help with something."

Yuugi was going to protest that he could stay up, but he was very tired. And it was very warm and cozy. And somehow he fell asleep without realising it. He'd groggily woken back up a few times, when the waiting crowd was finally let into the convention centre, when the noise had gotten particularly loud, when Jounouchi had bumped into him by mistake as he hurried to sell his books to waiting fans and make change from the cashbox. But Yuugi always yawned and nodded back to sleep shortly after.

And then it happened-

Something interesting enough to wake him up entirely.

Jounouchi elbowed him awake, and Yuugi's eyes blinked open to a scowling face that, while wasn't quite right, was a little too familiar.

"Jounouchi, I- I am here to- tell you your little entrepreneurial act is in violation of Kaiba Corp's intellectual property rights."

.

.

It took Yuugi a second to realise. Kaiba-kun must have been wearing a wig and contacts, because his hair was a little too long, and jet black instead of deep brown. And his eyes were an unremarkable shade of chestnut, instead of bright and beady blue. But, once you knew the man, you weren't going to mistake his features for anyone else's. Not to mention, even in the least remarkable of his coats, it still carried a sort of dramatic flair distinctive of the one and only Kaiba Seto.

Jounouchi was quicker on the uptake than Yuugi was.

"Hold this," he grumbled under his breath. He handed Yuugi the moneybox, an oddly bent pink and white striped paperclip, and a packet of what appeared to be souvenir chocolates. Jounouchi proceeded to crawl under the table, instead of walking around it. When he stood tall, on the other side of the table, he was right in front of Kaiba-kun. He reached around behind his sunglasses and pulled them down a fraction, so Kaiba-kun would receive the full brunt of his glare.

Kaiba-kun seemed a little off his game, because it took him a second.

"Crawling on the floor – like the dog that you are, I see."

"Listen here, you unbelievable piece of shit-!" Jounouchi snarled.

And then they were off.

"Excuse me-"

Yuugi turned to where another Comiket attendee was trying to pay him for Jounouchi's book, headless of the argument happening five steps to the left.

Yuugi gave a quick bow and hurried to make change from the thousand yen bill he was handed.

"I should have known better than to think a worthless hick like you would be above selling obscene drawings of Duel Monsters," Kaiba-kun said coldly, his eyes fixed on Jounouchi.

"There's nothing obscene about it!" Jounouchi protested. "Everyone here is expressing their pure passion for Duel Monsters! Only a heartless piece of scum like you wouldn't understand that!"

"Hey, are you Mutou Yuugi?" some other customer asked. "Did you draw this? Can you autograph it."

"Oh, um, no, my boyfriend drew it." Yuugi said, brushing the customer off, trying to refocus on, Jounouchi and Kaiba-kun's disagreement.

Jounouchi was pressing too far forward into Kaiba-kun's space, his nose mere inches from Kaiba-kun's. And Kaiba-kun was uncomfortable and trying to pull back, without making it seem like he was uncomfortable and trying to pull back. He stretched his neck up and refused cede any ground. It was business as usual.

"Heartless?" Kaiba-kun snorted. "At least a heartless person like me knows what's depraved and degenerate." He sneered, and nodded towards the Battle Ox on Jounouchi's doujinshi. "So, does the mutt get off to the idea of humping a cow? Do you need to be neutered and kept away from the other farm animals?"

"Kaiba, you sick fuck…" Jounouchi growl morphed into a mocking laugh and a disaffected shrug. "But I suppose you wouldn't know what somebody with a normal sex life looked like though. When was the last time you had a little lovin'? Oh, that's right. Never! I bet you couldn't pay a cow to let you fuck it!"

Kaiba-kun's eyes narrowed. "You have no idea what and who I could pay for… I'd say… your boyfriend."

Jounouchi's eyes flashed in anger. "Your brother."

Kaiba-kun looked murderous.

This was obviously only a second away from escalating to bloody noses and broken bones, so Yuugi figured it was about time to intervene. He cleared his throat.

Jounouchi turned to Yuugi. And, where Jounouchi's eyes went, Kaiba-kun's followed.

Yuugi smiled. "Jounouchi. Kaiba-kun. I don't really appreciate getting dragged into your argument like this. And I don't think Mokuba-kun would either. If you could both tone it down, please."

"Right, Yuugi. Sorry, Yuugi." Jounouchi apologised sheepishly.

"Hn." Kaiba-kun seemed to deflate. He took the opportunity to cross his arms, which had the benefit of putting an extra blockade up against Jounouchi's invasion of his personal space. "This hardly needs to be a personal argument. Your little comic stand is in violation of the law. I suggest you pack it up, head home, and expect a call from my lawyers."

"Kaiba!" Jounouchi shouted exasperated. "There are dozens if not hundreds of Duel Monsters doujinshi stands at this event, and I don't see you starting with this copyright bullshit on anyone else!"

"I- I'll get to them eventually." Kaiba-kun shrugged.

"It's a parody book." Jounouchi picked a copy of his doujinshi off the table and pointed at it angrily. "A par-o-dy book! It's completely legal."

"Are you claiming to have a better understanding of copyright and obscenity law than me?" Kaiba-kun said.

"…Maybe…" Jounouchi clicked his tongue and broke eye contact.

Kaiba-kun seized on this weakness. "Even if I didn't have a massive pile of evidence to implicate you, you think you can go up against Kaiba Corp's legal team? Even if he pleads guilty, how will the deadbeat pay his legal fees? What kind of pitiful allowance does Yuugi hand out? Afraid of getting tossed out on the street, mutt?"

"Moneybags…" Jounouchi seethed, but Yuugi could see from the way Jounouchi's fist flexed that he was, in fact, a bit shaken by this.

Yuugi finished selling the next couple of books before turning his full attention to dealing with the situation at hand.

"Kaiba-kun. It would be really nice if, as a favour to me, you could give Jounouchi a break."

"Hn?" Kaiba grunted questioningly, turning to Yuugi.

Jounouchi puffed his cheeks and looked sullenly down at his feet.

"Well, it would make things rather difficult for me," Yuugi explained. "If you sue Jounouchi, I'm going to have to get involved in the legal proceedings. It will cut a lot into the time I spend with the business, and the projects we're partnering on."

Everyone seemed to consider this for a long moment.

Kaiba-kun must have sensed this was an easy way to escape while he still had the upper hand.

"Fine." He turned to Jounouchi. "Be grateful you have somebody who's worth something to step in and save you from your own stupidity."

Jounouchi boiled, but he didn't seem to have any kind of clever retort.

"I'll be going." Kaiba-kun turned on his heel, and his faux black hair and coat whirled behind him.

"Kaiba-kun," Yuugi called after him, "before you go?"

Kaiba-kun paused, although he didn't look back over his shoulder.

"You didn't come to sue Jounouchi in the first place though, did you? If you came to give Jounouchi a legal warning on behalf of Kaiba Corp, you'd want to be recognisable. It doesn't make any sense to wear a wig and coloured contacts."

Jounouchi's eyes bulged.

Kaiba-kun waited a bit too long to answer. "The disguise is just so… I wouldn't be bothered by anybody in the crowd on the way over…"

"Oh my god," Jounouchi said.

"Kaiba-kun, you're carrying a shopping bag," Yuugi pointed out. "Could it be that, like Jounouchi, you're also a fan of the beast genre?"

"Absolutely not," Kaiba-kun said.

"Oh my god, you're NEO-san!" Jounouchi shouted.

When Kaiba-kun didn't respond, Jounouchi's face broke out in a wide grin.

"I was finally supposed to meet NEO-san in-real-life today, and I was starting to wonder why he hadn't shown up yet… I can't believe you came over here and started lecturing me about obscenity." Jounouchi broke down into giggles. "Oh my god, you tried to commission a picture of the Blue Eyes White Dragon fucking you. At least now I know why you were so adamant 'Kaiba-sama' wouldn't have a problem with it."

"Shut it!" Kaiba-kun snapped. He turned furiously on Jounouchi. "You're the one who agreed to draw it and then backed out! And- And-" Kaiba-kun sputtered. "You drew Neo-Spacian Grand Mole with a four-headed penis! Moles don't even have four-headed penises! Echidnas do! They're marsupials! It's a different evolutionary branch entirely! Why do you even draw moles?!" Kaiba-kun snorted. "And Amazoness Fighter?! Panther Warrior?! You have such low-brow tastes!"

Jounouchi looked if anything, even more thrilled. "Me? I'm the one with bad taste? I'm not the sadomasochistic freak who keeps wanting pictures where dragons claw open each other's intestines and eat each other whole."

"No, you just want pictures where every monster in existence has some mutated five foot penis," Kaiba-kun spat. "One might say you're compensating for something."

"Oh, you think so?" Jounouchi leered. "How 'bout we meet in a bathroom stall in five minutes? I'll bend you over and show you just which one of us is compensating~"

The mix of utter disgust and intrigue that passed over Kaiba-kun's face was not promising.

"Jounouchi..." Yuugi scolded.

"I wasn't really gonna~" Jounouchi pouted.

If anything, Kaiba-kun looked even more furious. It didn't take long for him to capitalise on this fury though.

"A bathroom stall?" he grinned maliciously. "If your taste in Duel Monsters weren't enough proof, I'm glad you've made it abundantly clear that you have the sensibilities of a two-bit whore."

"We can't all have the sensibilities of a richie rich boy." Jounouchi grinned back viciously.

"Imbecile."

"Jackass."

"Deadbeat."

"Dragon fucker."

Kaiba-kun whirled his canvas shopping bag up to slap Jounouchi in the face. It didn't have the same kind of effect as a briefcase, but Jounouchi flailed back anyhow and rubbed at his chin.

Kaiba-kun also flailed. He lost his grip on the shopping bag and watched it tumble to the floor. His face burned, and he gave Jounouchi one last angry glare before storming off, abandoning the shopping bag on the concrete surface of the exhibition centre floor.

Jounouchi snorted derisively. Yuugi saw him mutter something under his breath after Kaiba-kun, and then he stuffed his hands in his pockets and walk back behind the booth.

Once Jounouchi was back to looking after the table, Yuugi went out to gather Kaiba-kun's things. A couple of Kemono-themed books had dropped out of his bag, along with a folder, and Yuugi paid no attention to the former, but the latter caught his attention.

Jounouchi was frowning with a wobbly lip when Yuugi returned to his side. He was holding one of his copybooks. A short five-page comic about Vampire Lord.

"Are you okay?" Yuugi asked softly.

"Oh… yeah," Jounouchi said unconvincingly. "I was just- I feel like such an idiot."

He flipped the Vampire Lord comic over. There was a blank page on the back, where he had sketched a Blue Eyes and a note in messy hiragana.

"It's just I ran out of copybooks, so I put this one aside to save for NEO-san. But since I graffitied up the back of it, I can't give it to anyone else now. What a waste." Jounouchi sniffed.

"I think this is for you." Yuugi slid Kaiba-kun's folder over at Jounouchi. It was a plain manila, with a post it placed neatly over the top – For FB69, it read.

Jounouchi flipped it open with a resigned look. He snorted at the roaring Red Eyes, sketched and shaded delicately in charcoal. He didn't look through the rest of the papers stacked inside, before flipping it shut again.

"I mean… I probably should have put it together." Jounouchi muttered sulkily. "Nobody else could possibly like Blue Eyes that much… It's just- I really liked talking to NEO-san. And drawing things for him. And sharing ideas… So much time. So much work. I poured out my soul there… What a waste. Why did it have to be Kaiba?"

Jounouchi sniffled. And Yuugi realised suddenly that tears were teetering on the edge of Jounouchi's eyes. Yuugi felt a stab of sympathy.

But then Jounouchi inhaled deeply and managed to rein himself in. He turned and smiled brightly to Yuugi.

"Well, I'll always have you though. Even if I can't talk to NEO-san anymore, I can always tell you about my drawings and ideas and stuff. Heh, we'll have twice as much time to talk about dragons and monsters and stuff together now. Right, Yuugi?"

No. No. No.

Yuugi realised with a sudden urgency that this was completely unacceptable.

Yuugi stood up. He grabbed the copybook from Jounouchi, and stuffed it into Kaiba-kun's shopping bag along with a copy of Jounouchi's Battle Ox and Red Eyes Black Dragon book.

"I'll be right back," he assured, before racing off after where Kaiba-kun had disappeared into the crowd.

Lost in a sea of Comiket attendees, Yuugi felt increasingly sure he wouldn't be able to find Kaiba-kun at all. He scrambled between the gaps in the crowd. Turned frantically past the Pocket Monster booths. And struggled to not interrupt a spontaneous cosplay photoshoot.

But, then, miraculously, Kaiba-kun was there, halfway up the aisle, standing a head above the more reasonably heighted people.

"Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi called.

Kaiba-kun seemed to hear him, because he stopped. He turned after a second, as Yuugi caught up to him.

"Yuugi," he acknowledged with a small nod of his head.

He looked… not angry at least. A bit despondent, maybe.

"I brought you your bag," Yuugi said. He stepped forward and held out the handle to Kaiba-kun.

Kaiba-kun nodded and accepted it. And Yuugi took a couple steps back again, trying to maintain a distance Kaiba-kun would feel comfortable with.

Nobody said anything for a moment, but Kaiba-kun didn't seem in a hurry to leave, which emboldened Yuugi.

"Kaiba-kun!" Yuugi shouted over the crowd "Are you really okay with leaving things like this?!"

Kaiba-kun's brow arched in confusion and distaste.

"I know Jounouchi can be harsh at times," Yuugi said. "But he really valued your online friendship! And I think you did too! Is it really okay just to let it sink away just because you guys weren't who you thought you were?"

Kaiba's lip curled in disgust. "Even if we were unaware of each other's true identity at the time… it's exceedingly obvious that our mental facilities left us for a while… if we even considered that we could be pleasant online acquaintances."

"I don't think that's true!" Yuugi insisted. "Jounouchi has said so many nice things about you. I think you were friends… I think you are friends!" Yuugi corrected. "There's a bond there that can't be broken!"

Kaiba-kun groaned painfully. "I can't believe you're still going on about friendship this and friendship that. After all these years, you still believe in your stupid fairy tale crap."

"And I can't believe you're still pretending you don't believe in friendship, Kaiba-kun," Yuugi retorted. "After all these years. After everything that's happened with Jounouchi. After everything that's happened with Atem. After everything that's happened with me."

Yuugi thought of the comfortable comradery that characterised his business lunches with Kaiba-kun. How they lingered and dragged into a sweet and cozy silence long after they had run out of things they needed to discuss.

"Nonsense," Kaiba-kun said.

But it was weak. Kaiba-kun lingered unsurely. He seemed at a bit of a loss.

And then a voice cut through, far above the loud and ceaseless murmur of the convention.

"NEO-san!"

Kaiba-kun's eyes widened, refocusing on something behind Yuugi.

Yuugi turned.

Jounouchi was standing ten paces off. He had caught up to them, had abandoned his post at his doujinshi circle's table and run after them. Tears were bubbling up out of his eyes and streaming down his face.

"NEO-san!" he screamed.

"God, he's so loud," Kaiba-kun lamented. He rubbed at his temples with his hand.

Yuugi allowed Kaiba-kun an embarrassed quirk of his lips, in expression of commiseration.

"NEO-san!" Jounouchi shouted. "I always enjoyed working on your drawings! Even the weird ones that were full of gore! …I was so happy to find a friend I could share my hobbies with! I was always happy to chat with you about Duel Monsters! And about our lives! The places we visited! The troubles we had! And the happy moments too!"

Kaiba-kun was rubbing at his eyes, looking miserable. "Ridiculous," he muttered under his breath.

"NEO-san! We were going to work together to make the ultimate adult-themed monster game! It was going to be better than Morenatsu! With Amazoness Fighter! And Silent Abyss! And so many Red Eyes and Blue Eyes! It was going to blow people's minds!"

Kaiba-kun seemed to snap out of his reverie.

"It- It was!" he shouted back to Jounouchi.

"It still can be!" Jounouchi smiled. "Kaiba! I'm in if you are!"

Kaiba-kun wouldn't meet his eyes. The moment dragged out.

But then he nodded.

"Kaiba!" Jounouchi shouted.

Then it all happened at once.

In a flash of white, Jounouchi came barrelling through the crowd, knocking away the other Comiket attendees on his way there, zoning in on them, and then past Yuugi.

Kaiba-kun's eyes widened, and he tried to take on a defensive position, but it was too late.

Yuugi watched gaping, as Jounouchi grabbed Kaiba by the torso and pulled him into a tight hug. Kaiba-kun was struggling, craning his head back and trying to pull away.

And then Jounouchi reached up, pulled Kaiba-kun's black wig free of its pins, and tossed it to the crowd.

"Banzai! That's revenge for pretending to try and sue me!" Jounouchi declared, before giving Kaiba-kun another affectionate squeeze.

And that was how a strange photograph started making rounds through some dark corners of the internet. A photo of Kaiba Corp CEO, Kaiba Seto, receiving a hug from a teary-eyed mobster, standing next to a distressed-looking former King of Games, Mutou Yuugi, at Comiket two aisles down from the Kemono section. Some people said it was just a hoax, but most insisted it was genuine.

And, when the resulting bruise on FlameBeast69's arm healed, he drew a comedic rendition of the photograph, with Mr Mutou as a lion with a wild mane, Mr Kaiba as a white lizard, the mobster as a tiger (who was very manly and not crying at all, no sir). And he sent the drawing to NEO-san, who reported back, rather unconvincingly, that he wasn't amused. Not at all.

.

.

Jounouchi looked a tiny bit grumpy when he slunk into his futon next to Yuugi. He scrunched his butt up and pressed himself forward from his knees, imitating an earthworm as he inched his head up to his pillow.

Yuugi was looking through game designs on his tablet, but he turned brightly to Jounouchi.

"So… Katsuya, how was your date with Kaiba-kun?"

Jounouchi grumbled a bit. He redirected and inched his head over to lean against Yuugi's forearm instead.

"Kaiba's an asshole," he said. "But the food was good. Mr Fancypants has fancy tastes… And we worked through a lot of issues with the monster routes for our game."

"I see," Yuugi said. "Want to talk about it?"

Jounouchi shrugged. "Nah, not really. Argued about it with Kaiba enough for one night."

He pressed a kiss to Yuugi's elbow and turned his head to view the screen of Yuugi's tablet.

"Tell me what you're working on, instead."

..

Fin.