Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! nor its characters. I also do not profit in any way from this piece of fanfiction.

Be prepared for light angst, one-sided Puppyshipping, implied Thiefshipping, and mentions of Polarshipping

Warnings: Language, Alcohol, Drugs (past)

Chapter 1/3: Hijo de la Chingada

Loud, deep, slow pounding roused Yuugi from his sleep. He faltered for a moment, groggily cursing the little elves that were jumping on his ceiling. He rolled over unsteadily onto his back, his muddled mind aching to fall back to the dark embrace creeping at the edges of his consciousness. The pounding came again. Banging through his small apartment and stabbing through Yuugi's blurred thoughts like a knife to the head. He groaned when he finally realized that the pounding was real and not little elves or a headache.

Oh, god, what is that? he thought to himself, aggravated that he'd been woken. He turned his head towards the bedside table, his shadowed violet eyes squinting at the glowing green numbers on his alarm clock radio. 3:34 am, they read.

Are you kidding me?

Yuugi shoved himself up to a vague sitting position, scrubbing away the sleep still clinging to his eyelashes with his fists. He listened closely to the deafening, mysterious noise, brow scrunched in thought. The pounding faltered occasionally as though whatever it was wasn't entirely sure what it was doing. Yuugi just wanted it to stop so he could go to sleep.

"I swear to god, if it's the neighbors again..." Yuugi grumbled to himself, thinking of the large family who lived in the apartment next to his own who loved to throw big parties and blast loud, accordion-based, Spanish-wailing music until four in the morning or until Yuugi called the cops so he could get some decent shut-eye.

In the beginning, he had gone over to politely ask them to keep the noise level down. But after six similar ventures, he'd begun to feel like an ass and had proceeded to call the police and let them deal with the neighbors. He ran a hand through his magenta locks, tugging on a couple of knots. He still felt guilty about ruining their fun, but at least now he didn't have to face them.

The pounding continued, more insistently, as though annoyed that Yuugi was taking so long to address it. He abruptly concluded that the pounding was coming from the entrance. Yuugi tossed his sheets aside and shuffled out of bed, confused. Someone was knocking. He frowned. It couldn't be his door. None of his friends were rude enough to come 'round at three in the morning. Someone had to be knocking on the neighbor's door and the sound was just reflecting throughout his own apartment. But, still, he made his way to the door, curious as to who exactly was rude enough to disturb half the apartment building with such thundering knocks.

He passed the kitchen, narrowly avoiding bumping into the edge of the dinner table and went past the quiet living room. He paused at the entrance, going up on his tiptoes to peer through the peephole. Maybe he could catch a glimpse of whoever was in the hallway. He jumped in shock. Wild, flaming red hair with blonde highlights filled his vision and Yuugi felt something sour turn in his belly. The exhausting knocking continued and Yuugi quickly unlocked and yanked the door open, a brown fist barely missing his face.

Bleary, wine-colored eyes squinted at him, narrowing with recognition. The man was taller than Yuugi by a head. He wore tight, black, leather pants that clung to every curve of sinewy goodness in his legs. Covering his toned chest was a black tank top, baring his sculptured arms for Yuugi's hungry eyes to take in. He had deep, ochre skin and slanted, high cheekbones. Yuugi's heart skipped a beat and he mentally scolded it.

Not now!

"Oh, is you," the amount of venomous distaste in the man's tone took Yuugi by sharp surprise. The strong smell of alcohol hit him even harder. He scrunched up his nose and waved a hand in front of his face to dispel the strong odor.

"Yes," Yuugi replied tiredly with a yawn, slightly annoyed at the offended tone in the man's voice, "of course it's me. This is my apartment." Oh, how he ached to go back to sleep and leave the obviously inebriated man in the hall. He was too sleepy to deal with whatever this was.

"Why d's it have t'be you?" the man scathingly responded.

Yuugi bristled at the question. This wasn't the man he knew. This was someone he'd never had the displeasure of meeting before. He wished he wasn't getting to know him now. His neighbor's door opened and out came a short, irritated woman.

"Que pasa?" she asked, irate.

Yuugi raised his hand in an apologetic wave and motioned to his swaying friend.

"I'm so sorry," he whispered to her, smacking his friend when he blew a raspberry at her.

"Niño malcriado," she huffed indignantly before returning to her apartment, with a heavy thud of her door.

"Don't be an ass! You're the one who came here to my apartment," Yuugi grouched to his unwelcome visitor. He felt hurt by the man's glaringly unkind attitude. "Go away if you're so offended by me." He let out a cross yelp when the man pushed past him and into his home like he owned the place, dropping something along the way. Yuugi flipped on the lights and turned to glower at his unwanted guest. The thing he had dropped was a blue and white striped cloth.

"Why can … – n't you jus' lea' me alone?" the man bemoaned drunkenly.

"Why are you even here!?" Distracted from the cloth, Yuugi yelled, exasperated. It was too early to be awake. Too late to not be in bed. There was a grown man in his apartment who was so drunk off his ass, his personality had done a complete 180 degree turn. He was rude, hurtful, and so very intoxicated.

The man wavered uncertainly in the hall before choosing the living room and wandering into it. Yuugi let out an irritated noise and closed his door with a mild slam. He didn't want to upset his neighbor more than his friend already had. It seemed as though he would have to accommodate the man for the night and find a way to apologize to his neighbor tomorrow.

Yuugi pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes and rubbed them harshly. He decided he would put the man to bed and get his answers in the morning. He desperately wanted to know why the man was being so hostile. He'd thought they were good friends! But it was way too late and Yuugi was in no condition to calmly and rationally seek his answers. His friend much less so.

The ironically sobering thought that drunks often admitted deep truths due to the uninhibiting effects of alcohol came to the forefront of his mind. Yuugi felt his eyes prickle and he took a deep breath. He would not contemplate that now. Sighing, he followed the drunk.

Said drunk was moving everything his hands came upon. He picked up a wireless game controller from a shelf and placed it on the coffee table. He pulled books from the bookcase, flipped through them absently and dumped them on a side table. He smacked photographs after staring hard at them. Yuugi felt his vexation increase.

"Will you stop touching everything?"

"Why dun' you start?" came the man's incoherent reply as he continued to wreak havoc on Yuugi's belongings.

"Let's just get you into bed," Yuugi said, feeling more than a little defeated, forcing his aggravation with the situation aside for now.

"Ugh," the man mumbled, "why here?"

Yuugi clenched his jaw.

I'm wondering the same thing.

"Keep'n me 'ere," the man slurred.

"No one is keeping you here!"

The man ignored him and continued to blame Yuugi on his imagined misfortune. Yuugi decided to ignore him. The man was out of his mind and Yuugi would not argue with someone who could not control themselves. He knew it was futile to even try.

He moved the coffee table to the side and pulled the cushions from the couch, his muscles protesting the various movements. As his supposed friend went on like Yuugi's own small, personal hurricane, he pulled out the foldout bed and even retrieved fresh sheets for it. When he was done, he pulled back the sheets and went over to the stumbling man. Yuugi steered the still-grumbling man to the bed and none too gently shoved him onto the mattress.

"Rude," the man groused as Yuugi roughly pulled off his black leather boots.

"Asshole," Yuugi bit out, throwing the boots to the ground in his anger. He didn't usually curse, but he felt like this particular situation called for some vulgarity on his part. He was the one being inconvenienced. The man was basically taking advantage of his kind personality. "Sleep tight," Yuugi hissed as he flicked the sheets over the man's disoriented form.

With a derisive snort, he turned on his heel and switched off the lights as he left. He retreated to his room, his anger receding as he walked. He felt so very drained and tiredly collapsed onto his bed. He didn't even want to cover himself from how emotionally exhausted he felt. His dearest friend – I guess not dearest anymore, Yuugi thought sadly, I wish I knew why he hates me so much. Guess I'll find out tomorrow.

He glanced at his clock one final time; 3:48 am, it read. Letting out a tired breath, Yuugi pulled his pillow closer and curled around it, heart tight in his chest.

The sound of thuds in the hallway startled Yuugi and he lifted his head from the bed to peer into the darkness. He jumped when the man lurched into the room.

"There y'are … 'm sleep'n 'ere," the man croaked as he made his way to Yuugi's bed and gracelessly fell onto Yuugi's much smaller body. Yuugi's outrage returned full force. He shoved forcefully at the squirming, hard body above him.

"Oh, my god, go back to your couch!"

The man managed to pull himself over Yuugi and flopped down beside him, next to the wall.

"Urgh, 'm so tired of your fucking voice," the man groaned.

"Get out."

Yuugi was done. Beyond done. His patience was shot, his emotions were frayed, and he did not want to deal with this anymore.

"Move o'er … you're takin' uh th'whole bed."

"It's my bed," Yuugi said loudly. He was so close to sobbing. He just wanted to sleep and forget this. He wanted to be so very far away from this demon.

"I can't beh-lieve I 'ave t'sleep wi'you."

"Get out, get out, GET OUT!" Yuugi covered his face with his hands, clenching his fingers shut against his eyes. He could not believe this was happening to him. He did not deserve this. He was a good person. Why was he being subjected to this torture?

"Why 're you sooo loud?"

"I'm going to kill you when you're sober," Yuugi laughed, though it was more than a little hysterical.

"Still talk'n?" the man curled against Yuugi, molding himself intimately to Yuugi's body and Yuugi only had the impact from his shock to stop himself from hitting the other away from him.

"I'm really going to kill you when you're sober," Yuugi vowed seriously.

"God, go th'fuck t'sleep already." The man's arms fumbled around Yuugi and pulled him closer until Yuugi's back was flush against his front. He nuzzled his face into the other's neck. Yuugi still desperately wished to punch him, dumbfounded as he was.

"I am going to make you so miserable in the morning," Yuugi promised as he fought the embarrassed flush from appearing on his face.

Snores filled the silence afterward. Yuugi was tense in the man's hold, fists clenched over his face. He knew the man would have a vicious hangover when he awoke. He honestly could not wait. He was going to make his "friend" pay.

You'll regret ever coming to my door, Atemu.

And with that vengeful thought, Yuugi relaxed in the other's hold and slipped into sleep.

Translations:

Hijo de la Chingada = Son of a Bitch

Que pasa? = What's going on?

Niño malcriado. = Rotten child.

"Last Nite" is a song by The Strokes.

So that's the first part of this short story. Thank you for reading. Hm, any good? Note: This story was first published on my Ao3 account where I have more stories that I won't be posting here.