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Atem sees Yugi's smile in the water, just a few feet beneath his dangling feet. He's thrown people off this bridge before; the fall won't kill him, but the current's strong enough.
Someone sits next to him. The only one among countless cars, walkers and cyclists to stop in the two hours he's been here. Not a cop. Steady like Anzu, but quiet.
"What can I do?"
His voice is steady too. Steady like Yugi's smile. The smile Atem will reach for after every memory's gone through.
Atem says, "There was a book my friend read. English. There was a wild place and two people. I remember one line because it was perfect. 'He's more myself than I am.'"
The tan blur in his periphery turns back to the city line. Yugi liked to say Neo Domino has stars for lights. Constellations people could put their hopes and ideas into.
"What was his name?"
Atem opens his mouth. Takes a breath.
Chokes out nothing.
After a pause, the stranger says, "I'm Yusei. Fudo Yusei."
Atem looks at him. The twilight stars reflect blue and purple on the yellow marker and blue, almost indigo eyes. His hair is black, but the style is similar to Yugi's, just a little more layered. There's no smile. He's lovely though.
"5D's?" Atem says.
Yusei nods.
"They disbanded."
"Just separated. They'll be back."
Atem grunts. "Good on the Riding circuit."
"Yes. Stiff competition on standing, though. If you are who I think you are."
Atem...Atem's smiling. A little.
Yusei answers him. Even lovelier.
Atem grips his arm with sudden desperation. "Did he send you?"
Yusei tilts his head. "Maybe. I had a feeling you weren't a copycat. And I want to help a friend."
Atem whips back to the water. Yugi's smile has brightened.
"...if I was your friend. What would you do to help?"
Without hesitation, Yusei says, "Anything."
Underground dueling and black market deals, if you're clever, can afford the apartment Yusei has. It's dark by the time they get there, so Atem can't see the details, but the size alone breathes security and money.
Yusei seems to have a sixth sense for people's needs. He shows Atem his bed. Gently removes the golden Puzzle whose partner was melted, puts it on the nightstand. Lends him clothes that are a bit too big but are covered in someone else's scent instead of blood and Yugi. Climbs in with him.
Atem can't be alone. The feeling rushes viscerally. He can't be alone or he'll die, and he. He doesn't want to die.
"Stay with me," he demands, and Yusei says, "Of course."
Yusei harbors him like a rope in a rip tide. Atem yells and writhes in his sleep; he holds him, whispers to him until he's awake, then holds him through his sobs without judgment. Atem doesn't leave bed; he brings him food and sits with him. Atem shivers from the sheer cold in his chest; Yusei brings him more blankets and company. He's quiet, for the most part, but when he talks, his words are careful and important.
Atem finally leaves the bedroom after two weeks. Yusei beams silently and shows him to the kitchen. Across from the appliances is a bar with three metallic gray overhead lights. Through the enormous windows, Atem faintly feels the afternoon sun on his back. Sensations are still distant.
Yusei makes him tomato soup, learned from his adopted mother. Interacting with him, Atem's not surprised Martha, the Mother of Satellite, raised him. He met her once and left, as everyone does when leaving her, knowing he'll never forget her.
Yugi had been with him.
A massaging hand gradually pulls him back to the soup.
"I'm working on my D-Wheel," Yusei says when he's finished, "Would you like to help?"
"I'm not a mechanic."
"I can teach you the basics."
There are scars on Yusei's hands. They grate on the base of his throat until he feels a little more.
The rope tugs.
The rope keeps tugging.
Yusei's good with machines. He's absorbed the stars Yugi envisioned and builds the ideas. He builds new memories for Atem. He builds an invisible pacer that keeps Atem's heart beating.
He doesn't notice until three months in that Yusei's based his self-care around him.
All he needs to do is say he's hungry and Yusei will eat with him. He'll say he's tired and Yusei will sleep.
An itch grows like thorns scratching his chest. Intimately familiar but startling. He hasn't looked at someone and felt like this since. Since.
Yusei's in the middle of replacing a part in his D-Wheel. Atem cups his jaw, widening his eyes.
"I need to kill," Atem tells him.
Yusei stares.
Then looks thoughtful. "I know a place."
Anyone who's in the circuit knows about Kiryu and Yusei. Kiryu's bloodthirst and Yusei's devotion.
Atem starts to wonder if they're both seeing other faces in each other.
Yusei takes him to Kiryu's old hunting grounds. It's new, so Atem lets him.
A woman is molesting a child in the corner. Yusei's rage is a wall of tension that forces circulation through Atem's fingers.
The woman shouts that she'd paid fair and square.
Atem twirls his knife before gutting her.
He turns to see Yusei comforting the child with Yugi's voice. The child's heard of Martha, and Yusei convinces her to go. To reassure her acceptance, he says to tell Martha that he sent her. A name drop's good currency, and the child knows it.
She refuses further help and runs off with a tearful thank you.
Atem drops his knife and grabs Yusei's face with bloody hands. He makes a noise like a wounded animal and kisses him.
Yusei presses him against the wall, nearly tripping on the corpse.
Yugi...didn't like the killing. He understood that Atem needed it, but he never followed him, never kissed him until Atem was washed off. Never dug nails into his hips and turned his head to lick his fingers.
Yusei is not Yugi.
Atem is not Kiryu.
They're made of jagged pieces, and they adjust themselves to fit.
"Do you kill?" Atem whispers.
Yusei's eyes are supernovas. "If they hurt my friends. If my friends want it."
Atem licks his lips. "I want you to kill."
Yusei's strangely tentative on initiating the next kiss. Atem tilts his head until they're open-mouthed again.
Yusei picks up his knife. Bloody handprints paint his cheeks and chin. "How do you want it?"
Shadows pool at their feet. Atem hasn't felt them since Yugi choked on smoke. Yusei notices them. When they reach for him, he reaches back.
"I just want to watch," Atem says. His third eye hums open. Yusei's aura undulates with silver-white light. Yugi was shadowed gold, a perfect match to Atem's, but Yusei is not Yugi. He can't replace Yugi. No one can.
But Yusei is still something vital.
The body is a machine to Yusei. He's precise in opening it and rearranging the parts to make something incredible. The heart in the skull, the brain in the chest. Arms and legs switched. Intestines wreathing the picture.
He lays the masterpiece at Atem's feet and Atem sees an empire.
5D's and Millennium. Yusei by his side, a new heart sent by the only one Atem could share a soul with.
Atem kneels beside him and kisses him again. Even after Kiryu, Yusei's inexperienced with tongue, but he's a fast learner.
After, he presses two fingers to Yusei's forehead. Yusei shivers as a piece of Atem's shadow awakens his own third eye. The exchange sends images of a crimson spirit and undying stars. The talk about the 5D's team is true.
Atem will know where Yusei is with just a thought. He feels his shadow and curls around Yusei's heart.
Yusei sways a little, dazed. He accepts Atem's kiss regardless.
"My friends think I'm dead," Atem whispers. "Come with me."
Yusei touches their foreheads and smiles.