Distance

Staying

Wednesday, Thursday, were uneventful. Yugi wasn't part of the team at Kaiba Corp involved in the set up for Saturday so he took his mostly free day on Friday to meet up with Jou, Honda, Ryou, and Anzu. It was nice to be all together. It had been ages since Anzu and Ryou had been in Japan at the same time. Honda had to work that night and invited them all out to the bar. They agreed and headed towards the hole in the wall bar that they had often haunted after high school. Honda got them each started with a drink before heading back to the bar to start working. Yugi had always enjoyed going there. But now, being in that dim lit bar, memories were threatening to come back that Yugi had wanted to forget.

Memories from the summer when Yami had left.

Briefly, Yugi remembered back to a night when he had a few too many. He remembered sitting in this same corner booth. His head rested on Yami's shoulder. He couldn't remember all that he had said. But at some point, Yugi had ended up sobbing to him, inconsolably upset over a stray animal he had seen earlier night. Yugi couldn't even remember if it had been a cat or a dog. It wasn't winter or anything either. Yugi honestly didn't even know it was homeless, but it had upset drunk Yugi to the point of tears.

He could nearly laugh now as he thought back to it. How naive he had been to think that Yami would have cared about Yugi's petty concerns. Yugi tried to shake the memory out of his head. How stupid he had been. How overly emotional. How attached to Yami he had been.

Yami was his role model. His best friend. They could talk for hours and it would feel like minutes. There was never a moment between them that didn't feel right. When Yugi's began to recognize the feelings he was having, Yugi could remember back to times at the arcade. Yugi would just watch Yami. Yugi had always been unable to take his eyes off of the other man. Yugi always thought that Yami was handsome, but when he was focused he was like a god among men. As if he put him in a trance.

His thoughts shifted gear. Maybe Yugi had been too clingy? Maybe that's why... He stopped that train of thought and tried to focus on what the others were discussing.

The group had begun joking about what they would wear to the exhibit the next day. Jou swore to them he had bought a pinstriped suit just for the occasion. Anzu wondered out loud if she should rent an 1800s victorian style dress just to confuse everyone. Ryou suggested dressing up like Cleopatra to her and for a moment, Yugi would have put money on her actually going through with it.

After a few rounds, they all said their goodbyes. Jou offered to drive Yugi home, having only had one beer early in the night, but Yugi declined so that he could walk. The fall temperatures and atmosphere were going to be over any day now and he desperately wanted to enjoy each minute he could. He had walked these streets so many times he hardly had to pay attention to the turns he took to get home.

Before he knew it, he was standing outside his apartment building. As he used his keycard to enter, he had an uneasy feeling.

As if he was being watched.

He entered the building and walked quickly towards the stairs. As he reached the stairwell, he paused. He had heard the main door swing closed. But had it shut? And... why did he feel like someone was still watching him?

Before entering the stairwell, he looked back and jumped in shock.

But it was only his reflection staring back at him in the large lobby mirror.

He frowned at it. It frowned back. There were definitely down sides of looking similar to the person who haunted your thoughts.

As Yugi went to his apartment, he wondered briefly where Yami and the Ishtars were staying while in Japan. He supposed they would have been there by tonight. Especially since the set up would probably have needed all hands on deck for the set up of the exhibit and he guessed it would take a least a full week to set up something like this. Remembering the way Isis was, she would probably have insisted on being there for the whole process. Yugi wondered if Yami had called from Egypt, or had he been in Japan when he called? As Yugi curled up into bed that night, his thoughts were consumed with crimson hued eyes and Egyptian artifacts.