madimpossibledreamer

        “Yugi!  There’s tea!” Grandpa calls upstairs, and Yugi opens his eyes blearily, coughing a little.  He’s tired and doesn’t want to move, but he doesn’t want to waste Grandpa’s work, so he finds the strength and manages to pull himself up from the bed.  His steps are slow, unsure, and it annoys him a little despite how much it shouldn’t.  It’s the Pharaoh in him that hates being weak because it puts him and others in danger.
        When he makes it downstairs, he shuffles to the cup after a muttered thanks that he’s not sure Grandpa can hear and begins sipping.  He’s distracted a little when someone starts giggling.
        He glances up, blinking a little, and almost doesn’t realize that his friends are here.  He’s tired and distracted enough that it takes him a bit to grasp that they aren’t actually supposed to be here.
        “Took you long enough,” Tristan states fondly.
        “Are you all right, Yugi?” Téa asks, looking concerned, and he covers a cough.  He nearly goes for a hug but remembers last minute that he’s sick and there’s limits to how generous he should be. 
        “I don’t want to get any of you sick,” he mumbles, voice hoarse.
        “Aw, come on, ya sayin ya don’t wanna play Duel Monstas?” Joey asks, grinning fondly, and Yugi starts shaking his head apologetically.
        “No, I can barely think straight; I wouldn’t be a good oppone—”  And then he catches the mischievous look on Joey’s face and fixes him with the flattest, most unimpressed look he can muster.  “You’re counting on that because you want a win.”
        “Aww, you’re hurtin’ my feelings,” Joey counters, but he winks when he thinks no one else is looking, and Yugi rolls his eyes, feeling cold and tired and a little dizzy.
        “Yugi, we wouldn’t be here if we were worried about getting sick.  Just—if you get me sick, I expect you to play nurse for me, right?”  Téa says with a smile, moving forward to run comforting fingers through his hair, and he’s half fallen asleep on her already.  He’s blushing a little but she doesn’t seem to mind too much when he hides that in her shoulder.
        “Well, we know you hate being on your own, and you have the best game system out of all of us,” Tristan teases, too, and then soon he’s got his head on Téa’s lap and she’s running her hands through his hair and she and his other friends are arguing about the game, whatever they’re playing, and cursing each other, and the restlessness has turned to contentment.

            Jounouchi hasn’t stopped teasing him since he’d had that talk with Anzu, and as much as he appreciates his friend and as much as he’d missed Anzu, it’s really getting a little old.  “So, come on, ya wanna reconnect wit her, right?”
            Given the emphasis and the weird face his best friend is making, he can easily understand what he’s getting at.  And, well.
            He wouldn’t mind.  Anzu’s grown up, in more ways than one.  She’s beautiful, now… (not that she ever wasn’t, his mind reminds him), and…
            …He’ll probably have a few dreams, but that’s not the point.  “I don’t want to scare her away, Jounouchi!”  He’s louder than he means to be, but then, he’s prone to accidentally blurting things out.  He continues, quieter.  “Anzu is my childhood friend, so her friendship is worth more to me than…”  He waves his hands vaguely, unable to think how to continue.  “She’s probably…dealt with people who don’t see her as a person, and I…I don’t want to be that person.”  His voice is small, on the verge of tears, rather like the Yugi he’d been before Duel Monsters and Yami and everything else.  “Besides, I…it’s been quieter, um.  After he moved on, but it still…I have the feeling that it won’t stay that way.  Maybe it’s better I don’t hang around her too much.”
            They don’t seem like they’re going to be switched onto the PE sports teams anytime soon, so Jounouchi sits down beside him, clapping a hand on his shoulder, doing his best to be comforting.  First things to deal with first.  “Yuge…if she’s at all as stubborn as she seems, then you trying ta keep her out of it ain’t gonna do anything.”
            Yugi smiles.  He still looks a little worried, but he’s calmer than before.  “You’re probably right, Jounouchi.”
            And now for what’s more important.  He’d thought it was just a simple crush, at first, but given the way his best bud is acting, it can’t be something so easy.  “You’ve looked at other girls.  I know ya have.  But she’s the only one you’ve ever looked at twice, or am I wrong?”
            Yugi’s shoulders slump.  “No, you’re not wrong,” he answers in a defeated voice.  “I never forgot about her.”
            “Well, den…don’ worry about it.  We’ll help you, an’…don’ worry about takin’ it slow.  She’d appreciate that, if she’s at all de friend she should be.”
            Yugi smiles.  “Thanks,” he states, before he processes what his friend has said.  “Uhhh, Jounouchi?  What are you planning?”
            “We got dis, mista King of Games.”  Katsuya slaps him on the back and then joins the game again on the players’ call.
            Yugi sighs and stares at his hands.

                “Rebecca?  What’s wrong?”
                She glances up, instantly tries to get rid of all traces of the homesickness on her face, but from his frown it didn’t work.  “Where are the others?”
                Yugi gestures vaguely, somewhere up ahead.  “Rebecca.”  That voice is sterner than the Yugi she knows.  Probably the Pharaoh.  She doesn't care too much for him, but he's not going anywhere anytime soon.
               “I’m…missing the celebrations, I guess.”  It’s odd.  It’s not one of those things she would’ve thought would be high on her list, particularly with how much time she spends with her Grandfather, rather than in America, but she finds herself missing it now.
               Yugi looks confused for a full minute before he asks, hesitantly, “Oh, yeah…isn’t today some big holiday in America?”
               She rolls her eyes, pokes at him.  With the speed he gets out of the way, she wouldn’t be surprised if he’s ticklish.  “Only the Independence Day, jeez.  Is all this stuff I hear about Japanese schools being so much better just lies?”
               Yugi looks flustered, but he doesn’t get to respond, because an idea strikes him.  “Stay there!” he calls, and runs off as fast as his short Muto legs can carry him.  She doesn’t get a question out before he’s gone.
                He returns with a glowstick and proudly hands it to her.  “I know it’s not exactly fireworks, or…whatever else, but…it’s something.”
                “How much did that cost?” she asks, digging around in her bag, but he quickly stops her.
               “You’re my friend.  And my friends deserve to be happy.”  The words themselves may be cliché, but…he means them, with all his heart, and there’s a power behind them that she would’ve missed, before he’d shown her what it meant to have a friend, to put your heart into whatever you did.  If there was one person good at demonstrating that, it’s Yugi Muto.
               “Téa’s lucky,” she states, and giggles a little as he turns bright red.  “But…I think I really needed a friend, so thank you for being such a good friend.”
               “You’ll always have a friend.  You’re not alone, Rebecca,” he says with that same fervor, and the smile he gives lights up the night as beautifully bright as memories of fireworks.
               (Later, Joey learns that it’s a holiday and promptly insists that they go to Burger World, rather than one of the restaurants in Kaibaland, as it’s ‘more American’.  He might’ve just been looking for an excuse not to give Kaiba any more of his money, but the way that he—all of them, really, even Téa when she’s not worrying about a potential rival—worry about her, welcoming her into the group as if she’s one of them, which involves a level of ‘take care of friends’ she hadn’t even guessed existed—well, it’s heartwarming.
               Mai shows up, and is welcomed with the same open arms.  How she always knows exactly where to show up is a bit of a mystery.  Somehow, it hadn’t occurred to Joey that he was flat-out broke, but between Mai, Téa, and Yugi they manage to scrape together enough to pay for the meal, which seems oddly fitting.  Tristan’s caught between admiring a new girl that Rebecca’s never met before, who seems like a little bit of an airhead and likes to speak in third person, and Joey’s sister, Serenity, who’s fairly quiet but definitely interested in all the stories being thrown around.  She’s not sure when the moment exactly hits, but it feels like home, and she’s beaming by the point her Grandpa and Grandpa Muto walk in.)