--

Chapter 8: Too Close to Me

--

"You're serious."

"Fucking…when am I not serious?"

"All the damn time. But considering you're cackling right now, I'm not quite sure you—fuck, Bakura! Put a damn shirt on!" Atemu slapped a hand across his face, outrageously groaning and asked the Gods why he had been damned with a friend like this moron. His eyes narrowed daringly to the white-haired teenager entertaining himself with a well-done steak Atemu was sure had been stolen.

Bakura sniggered, tearing off strips of meat to put between his teeth (oh, yuck), visibly squeezing it with his tongue and gulped loudly. Ugh, Atemu thought, instinctively wrapping an arm around his stomach. Nasty. With no doubt, Bakura recognized his queasiness and snickered louder, sauce exploding left and right through chortles of amusement. "You are such a fucking pansy!"

"Pansy my ass," Atemu growled with frustration. He ran a cool hand through his hair and with a green face, reminded himself how he'd gotten into this wild predicament. Yugi slammed him into a wall; fury wildly set in his demeanor and practically demanded Atemu's head. Fortunately, the little one had realized pretty quickly what he was about to do, and with enraged orbs, stormed off. Which left Atemu dumbfounded and shocked, because although Yugi had asserted himself, he assumed it would take longer than—he checked his navi—a week.

And then he found Bakura having the time of his life, chomping on, although yummy meat to the klepto, gloriously traumatizing steak to Atemu's mind that reminded him about the spontaneous combustion of his pet turtle. Bakura had apparently been sneaking through the air vents and spying on Atemu's date with the smallish one.

Unfortunately, that flat out meant that Bakura had witnessed the humiliating sight of Yugi slamming Atemu into a wall. With a haughty groan, Atemu rolled his eyes and cringed as bits and pieces of meat exploded between Bakura's teeth. Grimace set across his lips, the dark-eyed teenager flinched as his friend thoroughly cracked his knuckles. "Did you even pay for that steak?"

"No," blissfully said his friend. Bakura cracked a grin. "But if you're that frustrated tonight, go ahead and pay for me."

"Oh, you better be fucking kidding." Atemu sneered and dragged the large abomination from his relaxed place in the bathroom stall. A scowl ripped through his lips and he pointed toward the door. "Leave. Before I fucking make you."

"Uh, earth to Mister Wad-in-Ass," Bakura slapped his best friend upside the head, Cheshire grin spread across his lips as bits of steak splattered across Atemu's face. "You already are trying to make me."

"Because, you fucking…Go then!" Atemu seethed, quickly wiping the said meat off the bridge of his nose while resiliently shoving Bakura toward the door. No such luck. The other stopped him in his tracks, having the advantage of being taller and much bigger as he shoved his foot into the door frame and assumed a throne on his friend's head.

"Ow! Fuck, anyone ever tell you how damn pointy your hair is? You could poke an eye out!" Bakura sniggered, demonstrating his point by yanking at one of Atemu's black tresses. The smaller wriggled, flailed and yelled.

"Fucking—Bakura, get your damn ass off my ear!"

"Hey," the other teenager casually replied, "you check the list lately?"

Atemu halted. His friend slid off his head and rested on his back while Atemu struggled to flop on his bottom. He reached for the navi sticking out of his pocket and grimaced. "No. Why?"

"Your new boytoy's skyrocketed." Bakura fluidly snatched the device from his friend's hand and grinned as the grouchy teenager once again struggled to break free. Successfully, he managed to open up the so-called app invented by friend and cousin, Seto Kaiba, and shoved it in Atemu's face.

The temperamental Atemu paused. Freeing an arm from Bakura's rather large pain in the ass bottom, he grasped it and quieted. "He broke top ten."

"You bet your damn as he did." Bakura ruthlessly slapped the said-ass, which earned a mortified yelp from Atemu and more struggling. "Now, check his friends."

Katsuya Jonouchi, Ryou Inoue and Malik Ishtar. Atemu tapped all of them and froze. "They…all broke top fifty."

"Yes! Now the shithead knows what's going on in his kingdom!" With a mellow crack, Bakura straightened himself on top of Atemu's stomach and crossed his legs. A frown spread across his face and he looked to the smaller expectantly. "It's been like that ever since you wanted to stop using him as a target."

"What do you mean?" Atemu long gave up from getting away from his friend and lay there, uncomfortably propped on his elbows and staring at the screen held out to him.

"Think about it, you royal ass." Bakura smacked the other teen's forehead and looked at him expectantly. "This is the first person you've ever repealed your targeting business over. You made a declaration on Monday and demanded he was 'off limits.' As soon as those words left your mouth, he went from juggling ninetieth to a hundredth place to nine to ten."

"You're kidding." Atemu flatly narrowed his eyes and arched an eyebrow. "What does my word have to do with any—OW. Did you just hit me?! Tell me you didn't just hit me!"

"Okay." Bakura slapped him again and ignored the piercing screech and string of curses that left Atemu's lips. Instead, he leaned over and pressed his elbow into the shorter's head. "Don't think we're stupid, moron. Seto, Marik and I know how lovey-dovey you're getting about this."

"I am not getting lovey-dovey about him!" Atemu rolled around, successfully pressing his stomach to the ground, but unable to get the other off him entirely. They took little notice of the many men who scurried in and out the bathroom.

"Ah, you're getting through the first stage rather well, now aren't you?" The other mockingly snorted like a nerd and spanked a ripe tushie. As Atemu squeaked and tried to break free, Bakura only grinned and waited for him to cease. "So," he said steadily, "I never thought I'd see the day you out of all of us would go soft. You're the last one, too."

Atemu failed, knowing there was no avail and lay his head in his arms. He frowned and silenced.

Bakura continued, this time smiling a little. "I'm not kidding, dipshit. All week you've been smiling more and always looking at your navi." No reply? Good. "And all I see during history is you and Mutou exchanging looks without the other noticing. You know as well as I do how bad Seto's got it for Jonouchi. Unfortunately, he messed it up big time during the sixth grade."

The other teenager nonchalantly shrugged. He recalled that event pretty well, how Seto got himself in that predicament.

"And then there's Malik, who Marik is all hung up over since pre-K. I think the blame's on me for that one, right? Oh, or was it you?" Bakura amused himself and poked at the hedges of black hair in front of him. He shrugged and slapped Atemu's ass once again in attempt to get his attention. Atemu flinched. "Alright. Now point out the last one. Tell me how big of a douche I am."

Curling his fists, Atemu uncomfortably rolled around and dealt with the larger teenager sitting on his torso. He grouchily crossed his arms and eyed Bakura. The fiasco with Bakura was more recent than the ones with Marik and Seto. He knew very well the other pain in the ass was thinking deeply about what happened freshman year and how it blew up in his face. With a sigh, Atemu tore away from the last bit of his humanity and propped himself on his elbows.

"You knew this was going to happen eventually, weren't you?"

"Oh, hell no. I didn't expect you to fall for someone as wussy-like as Yugi Mutou—fuck! Don't hit me again!" Bakura seethed and grabbed his arm where he was just punched and arched an amused eyebrow. "But Seto seems to have taken a small liking to him and Marik is pretty interested in the fact that a hothead like Malik holds him in such high regard."

"You'd like him too if you gave him a chance." Atemu wryly chuckled and eyed the door. His heart broke in two as he was reminded of the fact that he let his anger get out of control and therefore, sparked Yugi's. He felt like an idiot, really, for thinking Yugi would stay submissive as he normally did and would listen to his rant. If there were any prominent feature about Yugi, it'd be his sense of loyalty to his friends. That meant all of his friends.

So despite all of Atemu's claims after finally blowing up about how Anzu wanted to get to his heart by getting into his pants, Yugi would have sympathized more with Anzu and be overturned by anger for his friend being called a…a slut. How long had Anzu and he known each other, anyway? Far longer than the measly month Yugi knew him.

Perhaps he misjudged just a bit. Or, Atemu groused as he eyed his best friend who was now using his butt as a plate for his steak, he misjudged a lot. Despite the oddities of one of his best friends, Bakura proved to be a good source for information, prodding and pretty damn well sneaking out. He'd rob all the riches of an Egyptian Pharaoh's tomb and come out with minimal scratches if given the chance. Of course, Bakura was as loyal as Yugi was. He'd never leave completely and of course always had his reasoning.

Fuck, Atemu scowled. If he could deal with Bakura's ass on his ear for a total of twenty minutes, then he could damn well deal with his supposed date.

"Bakura," he grumbled as he struggled free. "Get off my fucking ass before I make you."

"Again, O Wise One, aren't you making me, right now?" Bakura grinned and pulled the grumpy teenager to his feet. He stood up, half-eaten steak in hand and watched silently as Atemu dusted dirt off his pants. "So tell me, Atemu. What is it about this brat that makes you head over heels?"

"I am not head over heels." Scowling, Atemu stuffed his hands into his pockets and thought about the question more. There was a lot about one Yugi Mutou that made him the coolest kid on the face of this Earth. He was sweet….remarkable…witty…playful. Large…adorable violet eyes he could just melt in—godhewassuchacreeper!

Indignantly slapping his face, Atemu rubbed his temples and felt his cheeks burn.

"Good. You're thinking about it." Bakura slapped his friend on the back genuinely and crossed his arms. "But you already utterly pissed him off. Better hurry up and apologize."

Atemu snorted. "You saw how he reacted—I really doubt that anything I did would get me an apology." With a frustrated sigh, he ran a hand through his hair and leaned against the large mirror. He lost count of how many feet were shoved in his mouth after the fifteenth. Dealing with someone so…so sensitive and…and…fluffy was real torture.

Bakura smirked sympathetically and roughly patted his friend on the back. "He's a keeper, you know."

"…yeah." Atemu smiled a little bit and sadly sighed. He crossed his arms and looked toward the door that would lead to his ultimate doom. "I know."

"So…you gonna pay for my steak?"

"Fuck no."

--

How was he going to do this? There wasn't any possible way on earth that Atemu would forgive him without one of those smirks and 'I told you so' glints. With a silent groan, Yugi elegantly twirled Anzu, clumsily standing at the tips of his toes in order for the tall girl to succeed. He bit his lip, cheeks flurrying red as he thought of the best times to apologize to his housemate—like, now—and sighed.

It was rare for his pride to act up. In Yugi's mind, there was only one method to dealing with things—clean, cut, and precise. Keep it clean, keep it snippy, and make sure to be surprised by nothing. He wanted to come to Millennia. So he did. He wanted to stay at Jou's house, so he did. He wanted to apologize to Atemu, but he couldn't. Somewhere in the middle of saying "I'm so, so sorry", there was this gnawing gibberish that was going, "I'm so—blargh-ga-blarga-blarga" and he couldn't seem to vocalize his guilt.

And funnily enough, he was more concerned about apologizing to Atemu than he was about getting his heart stomped o—oh wait, there it was. His heart twitched uncomfortably and Yugi stopped from dancing. He stared at the ground, biting his lip and feeling like the biggest loser on this planet. There was no other sensation to describe it. After all, the smart girl he'd been pining over ever since they were little; the girl he always looked forward to seeing whenever visiting Grandpa in Millennia every summer turned him down and thought it was a big joke.

Big joke, his as—

"Yugi," she asked kindly. "Is something the matter?"

"Nah, just a little parched." He cleared his throat in order to prove his point and slowly backed away with a small smile. "I'll um, go see if I can find Atemu for you, Anzu. And I really need something to drink."

"Oh." She nodded carefully and continued dancing to Miley Cyrus. "Okay."

Seething, Yugi turned away and popped both ear plugs back in his ears. He stuffed his hands in his pockets and slowly waddled off the stage and back to where Mana sat, happily playing pokemon on her navi.

He blinked, peering over her shoulder. "You named your pikachu Jesus?"

Mana grinned and took one of the plugs out of her ears. "What'd you say?"

He shook his head and plopped down on the seat next to her. Feebly, he began typing on his navi and looked to her expectantly after sending the message.

The smile across her face quickly disappeared and she typed back.

Mana – I'm so sorry.

Yugi – It's fine. Just me being an idiot.

"OW! What was that for?!" Yugi lightly groaned, gingerly rubbing his cheek and glaring at the girl who just slapped him. In an instant, Mana stood from her chair and swooped him in a hug. She forcefully yanked the plugs in both of Yugi's ears along with her own and glared at him.

"THAT'S NOT FINE!" Mana yelled over the music. "SHE DECIDED TO DUMP YOU AND DIDN'T EVEN CONSIDER YOUR FEELINGS! AND, AND, AND, SHE WAS MORE RELIEVED THAN SHE WAS ANNOYED THAT YOU WERE 'JUST KIDDING.'"

Yugi winced. Glancing over to the friend who now had a deathly grip over his neck, he quickly typed out a message on the navi. She obliged and read it, but the results were still the same.

Mana grabbed him by the shoulders and violently shook him. "JUST BECAUSE YOU WERE WRONG DOESN'T MEAN THAT ATEMU WON'T FORGIVE YOU! HAVEN'T YOU SEEN HOW FOND HE IS OF YOU?!"

Yugi gritted his teeth and attempted to wriggle out of Mana's grasp. No avail. "Mana, I—"

"WHAT?"

"Mana, maybe it's best if we just email each—"

"WHAT? I CAN HEAR YOU OVER THE MUSIC!"

He sighed in exasperation and tapped buttons on his navi.

"…oh." Mana kindly picked herself off of her friend's body and sat parallel to him, a look of obedience finally crossing her features.

Mana – Did you manage to hear anything that I said?

Yugi – I'm not sure. My ears still hurt from your yelling at me. Yugi eyed her wryly and smiled at the sheepish grin that crossed her lips.

Mana arched an eyebrow.

Mana – You don't LOOK like you just got your heart ripped out, split and tattered into two.

Yugi – Yeah, I'm a little more occupied with um…other stuff. He sat back in his seat, hand running through his hair. A frown settled upon his lips. How on earth was he supposed to apologize to someone without injuring his pride?

"Hey."

"Bah!" Yugi jumped from his seat, instinctively flinching and colliding faces with the person in front of him. The other hissed, clutching his forehead in sync with Yugi grabbing his nose. "Thanks," Yugi snapped flatly. Just the perfect way to end the perfect evening: with a broken nose and sneezing blood-boogers everywhere.

"Aww, Atemu, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. And you?"

God dammit. Yugi took the tissue offered out to him and pressed it tightly to his nose. His head hovered airily as he looked through his eyes and noticed the stoic demeanor of the only crimson-eyed teenager known in Millennia. He sighed, pride slowly shrinking as he looked away.

"I'm fine," Anzu cheerfully replied and clung tighter to Atemu's arm. The other smiled gently and shook his head. What the hell, Yugi bitterly grumbled, was with the fucking change of attitude?

"Actually, Anzu," Atemu said without hitch and in perfect tone, "I was talking to Yugi. I think he knows as well as I do how hard of a head I have, but considering the blood, I'd say it was a bit too hard."

If that was an attempt to make him laugh—well, Atemu was damn well succeeding. Yugi stiffened, tightly holding his lip and resisting the tears to water from his eyes. Despite Anzu's earlier claims about how sweet and delicate of a person his housemate could be, both boys knew Atemu had an ego larger than the continent of Russia.

He resisted all urge to smile and looked over to Mana in desperate attempt for help, but she only looked between both boys, bit her lip, and returned to Jesus, the docile Pikachu. "I'm fine," he grumbled quietly.

This wasn't right. He should have apologized by now. Unfortunately he already told Jou, Malik, and Ryou that he wouldn't need a place to stay and that of course, implied that going back to the Yamino Residence after their not-a-date. Unfortunately, it did not imply nor suggest that he would be ramming the hottest teenager in Millennia into a bathroom mirror and lashing out the last sixteen years of pent-up frustration.

But this wasn't the normal kind of guilt. Why was he feeling guilty anyway? He was rightfully angry for how his housemate lashed out at one of his best girl friends, but he was…sickeningly right in saying Anzu's right of mind was kind of sort of…shallow.

It was a pride thing. Yugi's cheeks flared and he studied the décor of their table. Having an issue with his pride and downsizing it was certainly not clean, snippy, OR precise. In fact, it was the exact opposite! Oh…gosh. Oh gosh. This city was changing him. No more…no more just saying yes to Father whenever he forcefully suggested to leave the household. No more going along with Mom's antics in order to impress some busybody and getting a job. No more…no more passive aggressiveness when eying his brother and sitting in his room, atrophying until the next day came.

Oh God. Staying with Atemu was making him develop a personality!

"SO ARE YOU UP FOR IT, YUGI?"

"Bwa?" Yugi snapped out of his shocking thoughts and looked up, eyes widening in surprise as Mana leaned over with hands pressed to his lap. A smile beamed across her face and she gestured to Atemu and Anzu, who humiliatingly watched him and expected an answer. "Up for what?"

"Going to the mall." Anzu smiled adorably and soothingly took away the napkin pressed against his nose before replacing it with a handkerchief stuffed in her chest. With an incoherent blush, Yugi looked her in the eye and urged her to continue. "We can hang out at the arcade and then go see Valentine's Day. Don't you think that would be fun?"

"I…er…" Heck no. Yugi sneakily glanced at a distracted Atemu and then back to the sparkling blue eyes he could never seem to resist. Those oblivious pools flickered curiously and she genuinely grinned before allowing Mana to hold the handkerchief in place on Yugi's nose. He wanted to go home and die in a hole. A date with rejection needn't go longer than the confession, did it? B-But the way she was just smiling…and how c-cute she looked… "Okay," he breathed lightheadedly.

Mana eyed him expectantly, frown tightly laced across her lips before she dryly shook her head and patted him sympathetic on the shoulder. "You know," she whispered, "You do a lousy job at saying no."

"…and why," he whispered back while Atemu sighed and took out his keys, "did you find it necessary to just scream at me all evening?"

She grinned. "Yugi, I'm loud. Not stupid."

That being said, Mana gracefully stood up and tugged at Anzu's arm to usher the other girl toward the car. With a mischievous wink left behind, Yugi was left sitting there alone, bloody handkerchief pressed awkwardly to his nose while his housemate watched.

A grimace left Atemu's lips and his eyes narrowed before he bent down and observed the wound himself. "Guess I wasn't kidding about my hard head then, huh?"

Yugi snapped out of his thoughts and shrugged. "I guess."

Atemu brushed away the bangs from Yugi's forehead and forcefully yanked the handkerchief from Yugi's grasp. His eyes narrowed at the accidental wound and he tilted the shorter's head forward. "Nasty."

"You're making it worse," Yugi grumpily muttered. He attempted to sniffle then grimaced as the blood backed up and into the depths of his throat which was indeed, according to Atemu, nasty.

The other smiled grimly before taking out a small packet of tissues and wadding it up before shoving it up Yugi's nostril. He gently pinched the bridge of his housemate's nostril and plunged his hand in ice water.

"Wut a' yoo do—" Yugi yelped as Atemu gracefully scooped Yugi off the chair and into his lap. Red fluttered across Yugi's face and he stiffened as his spare hand grazed the leather of the other teenager's pants.

Atemu didn't notice. Instead, his dripping wet hand appeared over the bridge of Yugi's nose, ice cube in hand before it was pressed between Yugi's eyes. "Take no offense to this, smart one," Atemu muttered softly once he secured himself, "but you're already really short and considering how much blood there is, you might get lightheaded by standing up."

…oh. Yugi caught the squeak daring to leave his mouth as the other teenager readjusted on his lap and grumbled something about "cursed white-haired minions." His cheeks flared again and he tensely rested against Atemu's chest. He felt more than saw the smile above him before the taller took Yugi's free hand and put it against the ice cube.

"Next time you have a bloody nose, do this instead of leaning your head back." Atemu gently slid away and helped the shorter teenager to his feet. He firmly grasped Yugi's shoulder and guided him through the dining hall with a cautious look. "Dipping your head with a bloody nose could actually cause the blood to go back and clog airflow."

Yugi slowly nodded and took in this new information, but had nothing to say about it. Instead, his eyes wandered elsewhere and he was reminded of the night when Atemu bandaged his feet. Instinctively, he curled his toes and felt the red across his face darken. Apparently, the Gods were determined to only have them cooperate when Yugi got injured by the hands of Atemu.

"…okay, I can understand that," Atemu whispered quietly as they got to the parking lot. The girls were waiting patiently by Atemu's car and conversing about whoknowswhat.

Understand what? Yugi's eyes widened and he looked over to Atemu. What on earth was he—?

"I'm sorry for giving you a bloody nose, Yugi." Crimson eyes closed for a moment and the taller teenager stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Fuck, I'm…sorry for everything. I can't seem to do anything right."

Oh. Yugi's eyes fell to the ground and felt his heart sink. Atemu shouldn't have been the one needing to feel guilty. Atemu shouldn't have been saying sorry. He was. That being said, Yugi's newfound pride drowned to the bottom of the ocean.

--

Author's Note:

Sorry for the long wait on this chapter. C: I'm glad I got so much feedback for it; it's fun to listen to all of your replies and of course, a lot of you said that Yugi would have to swallow up his pride and apologize. Unfortunately that's not the case, huh? I also wanna apologize for not replying to your reviews for the chapter before the last; I left right after posting the last one and after reposting it and seeing you guys have already reviewed, I wasn't sure what to do. xD; Anyway, thanks a lot and…reviews would be nice!