[fic] When it Comes to the Truth - Yugioh, YYxY, general/romance, PG, theme 36
Title: When it Comes to the Truth
Author: Chey (duelist_gurl163)
Theme: 36 - “Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt.” for 50_lovequotes
Rating: PG
Genre: General/romance
Parings: YamixYugi implied
Archive: You're lookin' at it
Warnings: AU hurrah
Spoilers: None
Summary: Maybe the only way to win his heart would be to reach out to him when he was hurt.
Disclaimer: Yugioh is owned by Takahashi, the lucky bastard.
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He saw the lodge employee leave the room for a moment and took the opening, scooting closer to the fireplace, holding his hands out.
Ah…blessed warmth…
“Hey! Not so close to the fire!” A voice barked over the crowd. With a sigh, Yami relocated back to the couch, drawing his legs in close and curling into an awkward ball. The last three days he’d spent alternately freezing and being yelled at…why on Earth did people like this wretched place?!
From the start he’d had issues with the trip. The idea of spending four days in the freezing cold mountains wasn’t his idea of fun. He didn’t ski, he hated the snow, and he didn’t drink so he couldn’t join in when some of the other students would sneak down to the bar at night. He’d only come for the most superficial reason in the world…and a pointless reason anyway because he had barely seen him at all the whole time. He shivered miserably.
Across the room he heard the sound of the big front door slamming shut and lifted his head to see what the commotion was about. One of his fellow students pushed through the crowd in the room and bolted upstairs, his head down to hide his expression.
The same person he’d just been thinking of.
The rest of the bystanders barely reacted, but Yami’s dark eyes followed the person upstairs and he heard another door slam in the distance. He hesitated a few minutes, then untangled himself and headed upstairs as well.
Nobody else was around. All the other students that had invaded the lodge seemed to like the horrible weather and vacated their rooms. He padded quietly down the hall, stopping in front of one of the closed doors. From behind it he could hear muffled noises. He paused; then, before he could talk himself into running away, reached out and knocked softly. “Hello?”
Behind the door the noises seemed to stop abruptly, but nobody answered. He knocked again.
“It’s unlocked,” a voice from inside finally replied.
Yami opened it just enough to peer in. “Hey…”
Inside, the young man from downstairs was sitting on the edge of his bed, wiping his eyes hurriedly. “Hi.”
“Sorry to barge in…I saw you downstairs, I just wanted to come and see if things were okay.”
“Oh.”
“Do you want anything? I could get you some hot chocolate or something if you want. The café here makes excellent hot chocolate.”
The boy managed a tiny smile, still wiping his face. “No, I’m alright. Thanks though.” He studied Yami for a moment. “You’re in my grade, aren’t you?”
“Yeah. My name’s Yami.”
“I’m Yugi.”
“I know,” Yami replied, not thinking.
Yugi paused. “Why’d you come up here?”
“I…I was concerned. You looked really upset about something downstairs. Do you want to talk about it?”
“Not really. But thank you.”
“Alright.”
“Everyone’s having a good time,” Yugi blurted.
“What?”
“It seems like everyone is having fun. But I’m not, I hate skiing, I hate the cold, none of this is fun to me! And today it was just too much, I just wanted to come back inside, and then Risa said I was boring and stupid and I complained too much, and we got into a fight, and now it’s over. So she went off to go find someone ‘better’ and I’m not even sure where my other friends are.” His voice rose angrily. “And now I’m here crying like a loser because I got dumped and I don’t even think I loved her, so it doesn’t make any sense. It just hurt, Yami, when she turned around and said that after all this time that she said she liked me. What if it’s true? If someone who was supposed to love me could see it…” He hid his face in his hands. “And look at this, I’m sitting here dumping all this on you…I’m sorry…you barely even know me and I just flipped out like this.”
Yami was still trying to work out who Risa was, but as Yugi went on he got the impression that she was the girl that Yugi had been dating, and instantly, without warning, came a blinding desire to go find that girl and make her tell Yugi she was sorry.
“Yugi…none of that is true!”
“But-“
“You are NOT stupid, or too shy, or boring, or a loser! Absolutely not, and I never want to hear you say that again!”
“Yami, I-“
“And don’t you dare fall into…this trap that she’s set up, trying to make you feel bad. Just forget about her, she doesn’t even appreciate what she’s lost now. She never loved you…if she did she’d have treated you better! You’re a great person and I know that one day…one day you’re going to find someone that loves you more than anything in the world. Maybe there’s…already someone out there waiting right now.”
“Yami…?”
The puzzlement in his voice was what made Yami stop. He wondered if maybe he’d said too much.
Yugi was staring at him.
Yeah…definitely too much.
“Sorry Yugi,” he mumbled, searching for an excuse for his outburst. “I just…don’t like the idea that you’re putting yourself down because of her. That isn’t fair. Nobody should…have to feel like that.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.”
“I’m not usually like this. I was just feeling crummy already when I came here and then that just made me feel worse on top of everything. I know her opinion shouldn’t matter at all, and honestly Yami, I don’t feel that hurt about breaking up. But I thought she liked me, and I liked the feeling of being liked, and it was just that those words really hurt. And everyone else is having a good time, so I figured there must be something wrong with me if I was the only one that wasn’t and if she noticed those things.” He frowned and rested his chin on his drawn-up knees. “God…why am I telling you all of this?!”
“Hey, if it makes you feel better, I hate this place too,” Yami offered, sitting down a safe distance away on the edge of the bed.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I hate cold, snow, all of it…and did you know you’re not allowed within ten feet of the fireplace? It’s ridiculous.”
“Why’d you sign up to come then?”
Seeing as telling the truth was out of the picture, Yami fell back on an excuse involving avoiding schoolwork and his parents. Yugi nodded. “I just came because Risa was coming…dumb reasoning. I can’t wait to go home. I feel like just taking off now if I could.”
“Then you obviously haven’t had their hot chocolate yet. Trust me, it’s the only thing that’s kept me from hijacking one of those snowmobiles and heading south.”
Yugi found himself chuckling. “…thanks Yami.”
“Hm?”
“Thanks…for this. For listening. For making me laugh. Just a few minutes ago I was mad and upset…and now I feel like things will be okay.”
“Oh…” Yami’s cheeks reddened. “It was nothing.”
“No, it was a lot more than nothing.” His voice was soft. They met eyes for a long moment. Then, “Well, I’ve definitely taken up enough of your time tonight. You can leave, I’m alright, I promise.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’ve got a book to read-“
“You can’t spend the rest of the trip just hiding in here!” Yami stood up and reached for his hand. “Come on, let’s go back downstairs and sit right in front of the fire or something. See how long we can make it before we both get yelled at. Plot snowmobile hijackings. Something fun. And in a few hours downstairs there’ll be music, sometimes dancing…sitting there alone I just look stupid, but if you wanted to come sit there with me we might be able to pass ourselves off as cool and aloof instead. Or if you wanted to dance…”
Yugi was gazing at him again. Yami fell silent, realizing that not only was he now holding Yugi's hand, but he'd just...sort of...asked Yugi out. No wonder he was staring.
“Or…I could just leave you alone…” Yami added quietly.
Yugi was still silent.
“…I’ll leave you alone.”
He let go of Yugi’s hand, but Yugi didn’t let go of his. “What about hot chocolate?”
“What?”
“You were raving about it. So…we have to get some of it first. Before the fire and the yelling and the snowmobile plotting and the aloofness or dancing, whichever we feel like…we should get the hot chocolate first.” He smiled.
Yami smiled too. He tightened his grip on Yugi’s hand again. “Sounds good.”
x-x-x
Notes: This theme was frickin hard. >.< I'm not even sure this fic actually fits it that well, I'm reallllyy taking liberty with the interpretation of it. xD
The random title: I was completely out of creativity and had "Keep Holding On" stuck in my head, so I used used one of the lyrics. I can't wait to start a new challenge where I can just use the theme word as the title when I'm lazy...
Risa's name: If anyone here's seen Series 0, there's one ep where a girl named Risa pretends to have a crush on Yugi in order to get close to him to get some rare card or something. I decided if an evil chick named Risa, (who, BTW, Yami didn't like in the Series 0 episode either) was good enough for Takahashi, it's good enough for this.
The setting: I read someplace that in Japan students can go on class trips and one of the locations is usually a ski lodge/resort. Yami and Yugi always struck me as the kind of people that would hate cold, (mostly because they're so tiny...they couldn't hold heat in. xD) Of course I may be projecting my own hatred of the cold onto them too...hmn.