Confessions Part 1

Confessions
By Zephra85

A day at the park leads to Ryou and his Yami opening up to each other about the ones they love… (Warning: Shounen ai fic. Read with caution.)
Part 1 of 2.
Characters are Copyright to Kazuki Takahashi. I own nothing, so don't sue me.

I sit quietly at the park picnic table, twiddling my fingers with one of the points on my Ring. I hunch over, putting my weight on the palm of my free hand, staring vacantly at my friends.

We had decided to have a picnic at the park near Domino High a few days earlier. (And when I say ‘we’, I mean Anzu.) Everyone had an assignment on what to bring. (Again, Anzu’s decision.) Honda was to bring sandwich fixings, Jounouchi was to bring potato chips and crackers, (He bought seven different kinds of chips, and no crackers.) Duke was to bring beverages, Anzu brought the utensils, I was to bring some fruit, (I brought a bunch of bananas, three apples, three oranges, and some grapes.) And my beloved Yugi, whose assigned task was so fitting for someone so sweet, was in charge of bringing dessert.

Well, at least, that’s what I’d like to say. Not about the dessert, he did bring some. In fact, he couldn’t decide what kind of dessert to bring, a cake, cookies, or a gelatin mold. He ended up bringing all three. (All he made himself. I was in a complete state of euphoria when I was eating a slice of his cake. I pretended he made it just for me.) I remember when he stumbled across the street carrying all three. He nearly toppled over trying to balance them all. Fortunately, his Yami came out of the puzzle at that point and stopped his fall. Yugi blushed a bright pink while in his Yami’s arms. I wish it had been me, lucky Pharaoh…

A ripple of laughter breaks my thoughts. I look over at the source. Right now, Jounouchi is trying to balance a grape on his nose. He looks so silly wobbling back and forth trying to prevent it from falling. It fell anyway. Yugi threw his head back and laughed. I wish I could make him laugh like that. I continue to stare at him, drinking in every detail about him. He’s wearing one of his leather tank tops again, like he always wears underneath his school uniform. I can’t believe someone with such a sweet and timid personality could be comfortable wearing something so daring. I love when he shows his shoulders.

At that point, he brushes his golden bangs away from his face. The attempt is in vain, however, for they fall right back in place. I adore his hair, especially the bangs that fall in front of his gorgeous face. His violet eyes, his cute nose, his perfect neck, his slender build… God, he’s so beautiful.

“I think the Pharaoh is much better looking.”

I jump at the sound of a familiar voice behind me, and quickly see that it is my own Yami, the Thief King. He stood casually, with his hands stuffed in his pockets, slightly leaning against the table. His usually cold eyes were staring out with a look of thoughtfulness. I never even felt him come out of the Ring; he nearly scared me half to death. I took a breath of relief.

“You’ve had a habit of sneaking up on my thoughts recently.” I tell him, with a slight pout in my voice, embarrassed that he heard me. He looks down at me with a slight smirk.

“I haven’t been sneaking, you just stopped watching out for me, Hikari.” He says, finishing with a little chuckle.

I smile at him in spite of myself. I’m very happy that we’ve become friends now, my Yami and I. He very much resented being in my body, and I lived in fear of him. Now that things have settled down, he’s become a little softer, a little kinder. He’s still cold and malicious to the others, though. I’m the only one who has seen his new side. Although he and the Pharaoh are getting along better now too. You could never tell when you see them together, they’re always making snide remarks to each other, but every once in a while, you can catch a glimpse of them smiling at one another after a witty insult of some kind. I’m not sure if my Yami knows that I’ve noticed. He would probably deny it. But we have become very close over the past few months. I’ve come to put all my trust into him.

“So,” he continues, sitting down next to me, facing the opposite way of the table. “Why are you sitting over here, instead of with your friends?” He asks me. I turn away quickly, looking back at Yugi.

“I don’t know… I just feel like being alone for a moment, I guess…” I mumble.

“I think it’s because you don’t want little Yugi to see you staring at him like a lovesick puppy up close.” He replies. I can almost hear him smirking at me, because I know he knows I’m blushing.

“Well… so what if that’s it?” I slump down, leaning my head against my crossed arms, still looking at my beautiful Yugi, longing for what will never be.

Yami slides down closer to me, and brings his lips so close to my ear that I can feel his hot breath on the naked skin.

“If you told him how you felt, he would most certainly reciprocate his feelings.” He practically whispered. I can’t help but sigh.

“No he wouldn’t…”

“Yes, he would.”

“What makes YOU so sure he will?”

“What makes YOU so sure he won’t?”

I snap my head around, my eyes beginning to tear up.

“Because he’s in love with his Yami.” I spit out my words as if they were some bitter piece of food. For that’s what they felt like to me. I could never compete with Yugi’s Yami. He’s so strong, confident, reliable, kind, and sexy to top it off. Who would ever chose me over him? But I don’t have much time to mope about it, because I’m completely shocked at the huge smile on Yami’s face.

“No, he’s not.” He says, grinning so widely that he appears sadistic. I have never seen him smile like this before. It mildly frightens me. I raise my eyebrow at him, a certain look of skepticism on my face.

“How would you know?” I ask, my voice dripping with suspicion. His face goes into shock, and he completely clams up.

“I can’t say.”

“Why not?”

“I just can’t!”

“Are you hiding something from me?”

“No!”

“You’re lying.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“Yes you are.”

“No I’m not.”

“Why can’t you just tell me?”

“Because the Pharaoh forced me to promise not to!”

My mouth dropped open. Him hiding a secret from me is one thing, but him promising the Pharaoh something other than to kill him in his sleep was a completely inconceivable concept.

“When did this happen?!” I inquire, not attempting to hide the shock in my voice.

“What?”

“You promising the Pharaoh something. The two of you MUST have been alone to talk about something so obviously secretive.”

“No we weren’t!”

“You were actually alone with him and you didn’t kill him? You certainly have changed.”

“No I haven’t!”

“So, you had a perfectly good reason not to kill him when you actually had a chance to be with him alone?”

“Yes! I mean no! I mean-”

“So what was the reason?”

“It was for you!” He blurts out. Now HE’S the one blushing. I can only stare in disbelief; I’ve never seen him blush before. He quickly stands up and turns away from me, crossing his arms and sulking.

“I WAS going to kill him, but then he gave me some information. I couldn’t kill him after that. Then he made me promise not to tell. I wanted to tell you, especially after I found out that you loved little Yugi, but then I realized that I shouldn’t tell you, because you would find out yourself if you would just have the courage to confess your feelings.”

He said it all in practically one breath, and I couldn’t seem to find my voice. He had never spoken to me like this before, and for a moment, I stopped feeling sorry for myself when a thought had occurred to me. Maybe Yami was feeling the same kind of pain I was. Finally, I did manage to find my voice. I stood up, looking at my Yami’s turned back.

“Why would you be so adamant about keeping the Pharaoh’s secret?” I waited. He didn’t reply.

“Do you… love him?”

He stiffened up so much after that, I was positive that his eyes must have bulged out of his head. He spun around towards me, his eyes filled with rage. Rage I had not seen since he used to hate my very existence. He even looked like his was about to hit me like he used to. I stepped back, reliving bad memories, afraid that I had angered him so much that he would go back to his old ways. He must have seen the terror in my eyes, because his faced softened, and his body relaxed. I took a few steps cautiously towards him, gathering up my courage to speak again.

“Yami… do you?”

At that moment, he smiled like I had never seen him smile before. His eyes more gentle than I ever thought possible. And then he spoke.

“Perhaps not in those exact words, but… yes. I do.”

I felt my eyes tear up again, but I knew I was smiling. Unable to contain myself, I threw my arms around my Yami, very close to crying tears of joy.

“Yami… I’m so happy for you!” I cried out. I pulled myself away to look at him, I was grinning ear to ear. I had never seen him blush so much before.

“So, when are you going to tell him?”

“WHAT?!” He yelled, blushing even more that he was before.

“You’re always bugging me about confessing to Yugi, so when are you going to confess to the Pharaoh?”

“I’m not!”

“What?! Why not?” I put my hands on my hips and turned my lips into a pout. What a hypocrite. He turned his eyes away from mine, still blushing, he began to rub his forearm nervously.

“I’m… afraid.”

“Of what? Rejection?”

“…No, not really. Sometimes I think he might feel the same about me.” He smiled slightly.

“Well? What are you afraid of then?”

“…I haven’t… I mean… I don’t know how… to be with… a man.” His voice so tiny he couldn’t help but trail off. I stood silent for a moment, right before I burst into giggles. I knew I was risking a lot by laughing at the confessions of a homicidal sadist, but I couldn’t help it. He shot a glare of death towards me.

“What’s so funny?” He snarled. I quickly calmed down, but a snicker or two managed to escape my throat.

“Yami, being with a guy is no different from being with a girl!” I told him. He stared at me blankly, obviously thinking I had said something incredibly stupid.

“How can you possibly say that seriously?”

“It’s true! Look, if you care about each other, nothing else matters, including gender.”

“But if I confess my feelings to a man and am rejected, I would feel like a complete fool!”

“So? If you confessed your feelings to a woman and were rejected, you’d still feel like a fool, right?”

“…”

“See? Now,” I continued, putting my arm around his shoulder.

“Everything’s going to be fine, you’ll see.” I smiled at him brightly. He gave a defeated sigh, then looked at me very seriously.

“Fine. You win. I’ll confess to the Pharaoh on one condition.”

“What?”

“You have to confess to little Yugi too.” My eyes widened with fear, before I also gave a defeated sigh.

“Fine…” I pouted.

“And we’ll do it at the same time.”

“What, you mean like, all four of us together?”

“Now that’s just crazy, we’ll each arrange to meet with them separately, but on the same day so we can both tell each other about it and not leave the other in suspense, okay?”

“Okay…”

“In three days.”

“THREE DAYS?! But that’s much too soon! I can’t-” He cut me off with a glare of death. I knew that look. That meant this was not up for discussion.

“Alright…”

“Hey you two!” I hear Yugi’s voice calling out. Yami and I both look over to the table with our friends. Now Honda has begun to compete with Jounouchi by trying to balance a grape on his nose longer. I can’t help but giggle.

“Ryou! Bakura! Come over here! Hang with us!” He yells, waving towards us. I swooned so much over his sweet voice I almost lost my balance. I attempted to keep my composure while we head towards the group. Yugi grins at us.

“What are you doing all by yourselves over there? C’mon,” He gently pushes at the Pharaoh. “Move over Yami, let them sit down!” He gently chastises him. The Pharaoh gives him a look before he obliges. My Yami and I slowly sit down in between them. Yugi smiled brightly at me, and pulled me a little closer to him.

“Look Ryou, you can get a great view of Joey’s nostrils from here!” He said with a laugh, pointing at Jounouchi. The realization of Yugi holding my arm sends shivers throughout my body, leaving a tingling feeling from my head to my toes. I’m in heaven…

“Cut it out Yug! Yer breakin’ my concentration!” Jounouchi says, desperately trying to keep his grape in place longer than Honda’s.

“You can’t concentrate on anything that isn’t related to food!” Anzu teased. Honda laughed so hard his grape fell off.

“Ha! I win!” Jounouchi gloated.

“No fair! Re-match!” Honda demanded.

“Yer on!” Jounouchi smiled smugly as he placed the grape back on his nose. Yugi laughed again, such a melodic laugh. He turned to me and smiled.

“Isn’t this great?” He asked, looking at me with those amazing violet eyes, they’re so beautiful, I had to turn away to hide my reddening face.

“It’s wonderful.” I managed to say. I glance over at my Yami. He was so much better at hiding his feelings than I was. He had already started an argument with the Pharaoh.

“Will you give me some space?! Your arm is touching me!”

“You touched me first!”

“I did not! Just move over!”

“If I move over any more, I’m going to fall off!”

“Good, maybe you’ll break your neck!”

“I’ll break your neck if you keep pushing me!”

Some things never change. At that moment, Duke, who was sitting across from me, leaned over and spoke softly.

“Is everything okay Ryou? You two looked like you were having a heated discussion over there. I’m not trying to pry, I just want to make sure you’re alright.” He said to me.

“Oh, yes,” I manage to answer, a little surprised by his words. “Thanks for worrying about me, but…” I looked over at Yugi, his smile absolutely insatiable. I smiled at Duke.

“Everything… is fine.”


End of Part One