They're sitting at a booth like they do every Tuesday since that day, two years ago exactly, that they sealed the Millenium Items away in a tomb. After Yugi had said goodbye to his Yami and returned back to life, he came into contact with Ryou, only to discover that the boy's Yami had mysteriously disappeared. A short while later, they discovered the same thing had happened to Malik.

Although Malik still travelled frequently, his home base had now become Domino City. He liked it better there he explained, because it wasn't as hot as Egypt and it reminded him of the mistakes he had made, in a good way. What he didn't say was that it was the only place he had friends besides Odion and Ishizu.

Yugi is flipping through the menu the same way he always does. It's a bad day when he's decisive, as Ryou knows, so his hemming and hawwing means Ryou has nothing to worry about.

Today, the white haired boy has decided to order something simple, and go with a grilled cheese sandwich and fries. He likes the way the cheese turns stringy in his hands.

He likes it better these days, he thinks, ever since Bakura disappeared. Although there are qualities about his Yami that he will always miss, like the strength he had been forced to develop in order to deal with his Yami, or the love he felt when his Yami said the final words "I feel like I am fading away, and dammit Ryou, I think this is the end."

There was no goodbye, no I miss you, but Ryou felt the tone in those distant words, and he knew his Yami better than any other being. Inhabiting a body can do that to you. His eyes prickle with tears, as they always do whenever he thinks of their final farewell, an awkward moment as Ryou stopped walking down the street.

He told Yugi that it felt like something had disappeared at that exact moment. He'd been unsure what Bakura had meant and dismissed it as some silly or trivial thing. Bakura was common to saying stupid things, he preferred to get his thoughts out, so long as he was doing so in Ryou's head.

Ryou looks up to realize the waitress has arrived to take their order. Yugi is handing her their menus, and Ryou blinks a few times to adjust to this new developement.

"You can order now," Yugi encourages him, smiling in that reassuring way. Ryou smiles too, because he knows Yugi would never chastise him. They have been good friends since the moment they both discovered they had lost their other half, since it's something very few people can understand.

"I'll have the grilled cheese combo," he tells the waitress, after a long pause. Conversation is like that with him sometimes, but Yugi understands. It is still difficult to adjust to having the entirety of his mind back to himself.

Yugi shuffles the cutlery around. He's trying to busy himself, preparing to ask of Ryou a strange question that he is unsure what he himself would answer. He adjusts his gaze to focus his big purple eyes on Ryou, a confused and unsure expression fixed on his face.

"Hey Ryou?" he asks uncertainly.

"Hmm?" Ryou responds after a moment, looking up from his intense gaze at the nicks in the table. Sometimes things like this could fascinate him for hours. He wondered if his Yami had ever done drugs when he had been in control, because since that moment two years ago, he tended to have a lot of sluggish moments, and vivid fascinations with ordinary details.

Oh, man, he was so messed up.

"What do you want in a lover?" Yugi blurts, clenching his eyes shut like he does whenever he's about to do anything scary or followed by an unknown certainty.

He does this the same way he did when he told Anzu he loved her. She smiled, patted him on the head and said, "Yugi, I seriously think you're..."

Ryou disrupts this train of thought by answering. "I'm not exactly sure, but I would want him to be understanding. He would have to understand where I'm coming from, and be able to get the whole "absence of yami" thing. So, since he won't have been through it, he'd need to be empathetic. I'd also want him to be patient, kind, loving, supportive, and. non-violent. He shouldn't be very tall, and I'd love it if he wakes up late on Sundays so I can make him breakfast. He should be able to enjoy the fantasy genre, not be ordinary, and it's definitely important that he is someone I could and would love... My gosh, I just went on and on and on! Where do you think Malik is? I thought he was supposed to come today and..."

Ryou stops as the waitress brings them their food.

"I think that might be a bit difficult to find Ryou," Yugi says hesitantly, a bit startled.

A moment of silence passes.

Ryou thinks "...God, I said him? Am I gay? Yami always said I was very feminine. Oh, maybe I'm gay. I feel nervous now. More so than usual and... all of that sounds like..."
Yugi thinks, "Me, of all that sounds like me. Was he describing me? Does he like me? Oh gosh, maybe Anzu is right, maybe I am... gay."

"Gay..." Yugi says slowly, testing the word out and staring at his plate of chicken and rice.

"YES, OKAY, I ADMIT IT, I GUESS I AM!" Ryou blurts out, head in his hands.

Yugi gives him a strange look, startled more so by the sudden outburst than the omission. He fixes his gaze on Ryou and notices the poor boy looks like he's about to snap from all the tension he must be feeling.

"Hey, it's okay Ryou. You know I won't judge you. I was just thinking... about... something Anzu said." Yugi looks away, fiercely embarrassed for both Ryou and himself.

Ryou stares at him and says nothing. Like usual, Yugi snaps, unknowing that Ryou just does that because he's thinking of what to say. Yugi however, always mistakenly takes this long silence as the moment for him to confess.

"Gay, she thinks I'm gay, I was thinking maybe I'm gay. You know? I don't know why I asked you, because, well, Anzu asked me to figure out what I want in a lover, so I thought I would ask you and..."

Ryou finishes where Yugi left off, somehow more determined then he's ever felt before.

"You are what I want in a lover."

A moment of silence passes in which Yugi mulls over this thought, unsure what to say, a feeling he cannot name is growing inside him.

"At least, I think so... I mean, all those qualities I knew I wanted sound like you! I'm pretty sure, well most of them, and I figured, if I'm gay, and you're gay too, maybe... I don't know what I'm saying! I feel like I'm on drugs half the time since Yami left me, I'm slow and lethargic, with long pauses before speaking or I just blurt stuff out."

"And you miss him," Yugi adds, a smile growing on his face.

"Yeah, I do. I guess.. it just wasn't as bad before."

"It's just space, you have more space in your head then you did before and it probably effects some of that. We'll never know."

"So, what now?" Ryou says, picking up his grilled cheese to try to kill some of the uncertainty lingering in the air.

"Now I tell you the answer to whether I accept you as a lover or not." Yugi says, picking up his fork.

"Which would be," Ryou presses, squeezing the sandwich in his hands.

"Yes, it would be yes." Yugi says, smiling. "I think Yami would want it this way. It works this way, it's not much different that what we have now, and we'll make it work."

"It works," Ryou says, finally biting into his sandwich. "It always does."

"It always does," Yugi echoes, agreeing, biting into his chicken and thinking of the future between him and Ryou. His face brightens as he chews slowly because he knows he can (and hopes to) spend the rest of his life with the white haired boy who is calmly licking cheese of his hand.

It'll be work. But they share, they understand something no one else will get. Loss, emptiness, and many adventures over the years have led to this moment.

"What did I miss?" Malik says, startling them both out of their reverie.

Yugi, freaked by the appearance of Malik, knocks his plate into the aisle, and Ryou sprays Malik's face with a mouthful of cheese.

"Just another day," Malik mutters, wiping the remnants of food off his face, and flagging down a waitress.

"Not quite," Ryou says, and he shares a knowing look with Yugi.

Malik looks at them both, raises an eyebrow, and orders a steak. He accepts it, the way he always does, because it's Tuesday, and things are always a little weird on Tuesday. Always.