A Different Kind of Duel Part I
May. 8th, 2016 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerNot labeling with all the shipping names; I'm new and can't keep them straight.
~Dreamer~
Main Points:
Yugioh Legacy!verse
Chapter Summary: Téa's dancing at the arcade when she sees a familiar face in the crowd.
Word Count: 1435
Rating: teen
Usually, Téa will head down to the arcade to blow off a little steam when all the incessant practice becomes too much. Of course, it might be a little messed up that she’s using a dancing game to deal with her stresses due to being a dancer, but.
If her best friends can deal with tournament jitters by dueling a little for fun, then the same shouldn’t be so weird for her, right?
Her latest opponent skips off, smiling at the autograph, when suddenly her audience starts making noises like a flock of startled birds. Someone sounds disgruntled. “Oh, come on, who’s this punk? Challenging the Queen of Dancing?”
Téa glances up and feels the déjà vu hit her like an oncoming train. It’s all she can do not to grin. That’s pretty familiar spiky hair and blond bangs. He’s taller, with legs that almost aren’t too short anymore and a skinnier build, even more so than the last time she saw him, and he’s…been doing well, apparently, since he now wears the confidence almost as if he was born with it. Somehow, he turned from this short kid to an adult when she wasn’t paying attention, and she feels a pang even as she’s happy to see him. He still doesn’t quite look his age, but he only looks like he’s in his late teens, not in elementary school still. He’s in all black and leather, complete with that silly collar she notes with fondness. He has even more jewelry than she can remember, including golden earrings.
He’s hardly a punk, but then, if all you know of him is his appearance, then, yeah, you might make that mistake.
She’d missed him, but it seems like those months where he’d left to figure himself out in Egypt weren’t wasted. He doesn’t look unsure of who he is, like a stranger in his own skin. And of course, he’d find the silliest way to announce that he’s back. He can’t call her and warn her, no, he has to just show up and make a production out of it.
Sometimes his sense of drama is as bad as Kaiba’s. It’s only really a shock that he could actually keep it under wraps long enough to pull it off. Whenever he gets excited about something, he tends to call her (sometimes in the middle of the night, but then, he didn’t seem to have figured out the time difference thing, and she doesn’t have the heart to tell him), so it’s only the strategic planning he’d inherited from Yami that could really have kept him from blurting it out like he’s Joey.
The situation’s so familiar. And by the challenging smirk on his face, the look so much like the Pharaoh’s in his eyes, she can tell he’s appreciating the irony, too. In fact, that might have been the point.
Well, if he wants to compete on her stage, let him. Here she truly shines. It gives her, in Duel Monster Terms, a Field Power Bonus. Well, not that that had been used in its truest sense since Duelist Kingdom, but still. “So, you think you can beat me, huh?”
The smirk doesn’t disappear, but then, they’re playing a game, and he’d always loved those. Sure, it’s not your traditional game with cards or game pieces, but it makes it no less a game. “I’m certainly going to give you a battle you deserve.” The voice is lower, not quite the Pharaoh’s. He bows, and he’s just showing off now.
One of her irate fans has had enough. “Do you have any idea of who you’re talking to?”
They both ignore him, though. “Well, come on, stop talking at me and let’s dance.” She knows why he’s talking. That’s how you play the game, witty banter back and forth just the same as the monsters pounding each other.
The game starts, and Yugi slips into his Game Face, concentrating. It’s a bit of a shock when she realizes he’s keeping up, move for move. The last time she’d dragged him to a dancing game, he’d whined like the little kid he’d always protest he wasn’t. It took a little while to get out of him that he wasn’t happy about his height and was a little clumsy, generally. Still, he did okay. Here, he’s doing much more than okay.
“Holy—are you seeing this? This nobody’s keeping up with our Dancing Queen!” someone calls, and there’s an astonished response.
“Wait, hang on, let me through, this I gotta see!” From the sounds of it, one of her fans starts pushing through the crowd.
He must’ve practiced. He put a lot of work and thought into this. She glances over and sees him look back, a small grin appearing before the tightly focused attention reappears. And he’s enjoying this. All of this. Throwing himself into this wholeheartedly like it’s one of his duels. Yugi, remind me what the rules of engagement are, because you kind of forgot to tell me what’s at stake here.
She has to ignore that, or she’s going to get her butt kicked. Enjoy this now, worry later.
Unlike that other time, though, her opponent’s completely playing by the rules, and so is she. She almost doesn’t realize it’s over when the song stops, and allows herself to think about points again. She glances up, and while it’s not a near-perfect score like hers, it’s closer than anyone’s gotten in a while.
Someone whispers, shocked, “He kept up with her.”
There’s a nervous clearing of the throat, and Yugi’s there, holding out a hand for her to shake like he’s still a complete stranger like they’d been pretending. To almost everyone, he must look like he’s still completely confident, but up close she can see the slightest bit of red dusting his cheeks. “That was a good challenge. I look forward to trying again, at some point.”
She can’t keep doing this, even if he can, and is pretty sure her squeal is way too high in pitch as she attacks him with a hug. He nearly falls over with her on top of him.
“W-woah, Téa, I—” He’s stammering now, barely able to breathe, and suddenly her bodyguards are there, prying him out of her arms.
It’s somewhat amusing to note that her fan club is completely silent.
“It’s okay, I know him. Obviously.” She rolls her eyes and then grins at her friend, the time falling away. “Speaking of which, you’re in trouble for not having called me in a while, mister.”
“I—” He still looks a little bit in shock, and now the blush is probably obvious to everyone. He really didn’t care for the fame, ever, did he? He takes a deep breath, and when he looks back up and meets her eyes, it’s Yugi with Yami’s confidence.
That’s more than a little bit sexy. “I didn’t want to give the surprise away. Apparently, the next tournament is here, and I don’t really have anything else I can do between now and then.”
“Is that really true?” she asks, trying to keep another squeal in. The last thing she needs to do is start acting like Rebecca.
He takes another deep breath and shakes his head. “Actually, no. I could’ve done something else. I just…wanted to hang out with you again. I’ve missed everyone, so much.” His eyes are a bit moist, but he doesn’t allow too much of the emotion into his voice.
“Aww! That’s sweet!” one of her audience yells. When all eyes turn to the girl, she shrugs. “What, it is.”
“Don’t tell me you went and found a sale on Duel Monsters cards,” she teases, before realizing this is Yugi, he wouldn’t…
Yugi gives her a smile, sheepish and fond and just a bit impish, and pulls three cards out of his pocket, safely encased in a plastic container. Her brain refuses to process that before she remembers that oh, yeah, he did mention something about him and Yami being the same, all those years ago. So, does he have his memories? He would have to, to set something like this up. And then she realizes something else. That was…that felt like a date. No one said anything, so I wasn’t sure, but…that’s why my brain has been telling me to figure out what’s going on, because if he’s doing this…
She looks back up at his face, and he’s smiling, sweet and hopeful and nervous and confident at the same time. He searches her expression and nods almost imperceptibly. Your move, Téa.
