Fanfiction writer, primarily Yu-Gi-Oh slash. Chaseshipping, Stubbornshipping, Kickshipping, and Buddyshipping are my jam. I've left Indecent Rhythm on a cliffie for years and nobody is more sorry about that than me.
i think if your account has existed on this site for a certain number of years you should be grandfathered into ad free browsing. a decade seems reasonable like if you signed up in 2012 or prior you have tenure
Post-original series. Otogi and Honda find themselves in the Utah desert, chasing ghosts and searching for a path forward.
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Otogi jerked from nightmares to a headache and a dazzling night sky. He rubbed his jaw, breathing out adrenaline and scattered memories into the quiet Utah desert.
Years later, people still led with how jealous they were that he knew Mutou Yuugi, that he'd been there to see the original God Cards played. Otogi loved Yuugi, truly, but you didn't so much enjoy Yuugi's friendship as survive it. He was a magnet for unhinged theater kids with murdery vendettas. Spectating in the passenger seat for Yuugi's triumphs could mean literally drawing fire. That roster of unhinged theater kids included himself, thank you, although Otogi was grateful his own misguided intentions stopped at humiliation.
The fans couldn't understand. They saw a kids' card game, thought it was all holograms and harmless fun. KaibaCorp made that shit look and feel so real, it was impossible to know when it stopped being fiction. Until it was happening to you.
Otogi wished he could forget what it had been like to exist in Yuugi's entourage. Sometimes. Sacrificing the good parts would almost be worth it, to have no memory of seeing people die, seeing people overpowered by weird mind powers or technology so bleeding-edge it could have been magic. He wanted to erase the memory of Honda dropping into a pit. Of scrambling for his own life, Shizuka's life, unsure if Honda was alive. He'd love to never lay awake again, sweating over technology that could Do That to Honda; wondering if this was still some Big Five simulation and their bodies were out doing fuck knew what. But of course that wasn't true. Couldn't be true. He'd have to believe it wasn't true or he'd lose his mind. Otogi would really like to go back to a time when reality, however awful, however small, was a cold hard fact.
His breath began to slow. With the top down, the Cadillac served him the whole bowl of nighttime stars, cracked down the side by the Milky Way. The constellations were slightly different here, zodiac skewed from their familiar places. He arched his neck, kneading his shoulder as a slow pan of the sky inevitably brought him back to Honda.
Bright, moonless starlight brushed the high point of Honda's cheek; hinted at lines of shoulder and thigh where he slumped in the shadow of the door. Honda was still asleep; the lucky bastard was like a soldier, capable of grabbing rack time anywhere.
Otogi pulled away from him and scaled the back seat to sit on the back dash of the convertible. He bent, hands clasped behind his head to pull the stubborn tension from his neck.
A few feet outside of Honda's warm orbit, cold desert night air slapped Otogi's chest. He sat up again, headache forgotten as he looked down at his open shirt. Ran light fingertips over aching skin that somehow wanted ohgod more hands on it now and also never wanted to be touched, ever again. His belly clenched as a wave of arousal washed away the last of the nightmares.
Otogi touched his lips, tracing the alien field of soft skin with sensations that no longer seemed to belong to him. He'd kissed people, sure. But the kind of hot, desperate, whatever-the-fuck-that-was that just happened? He could say with genuine honesty that before now, he didn't consider himself the nails-and-teeth type. He'd been into velvety, artistic confidence. Tailored glam. Arch teasing, perfect hair, and personal style. People with their shit together.
Everything Honda wasn't. Honda didn't have his shit together almost by design. Intentionally, in a way that could easily have started as a fuck-you to his father and turned into a life philosophy. Honda didn't know what he was doing, why he'd come all the way back here to find Otogi in Vegas, why he'd suggested driving all the way out here to the middle of the Utah wilderness. To retrace their steps and try to find the marker, he said, some evidence that the Pharaoh's battle in the desert hadn't all been a dream.
They failed, of course. That was the problem with this strangely intense card game—it twisted reality in knots and left you grasping at memories for the truth. The failure led them here, to a gravel turnout on a road parallel a set of railroad tracks, that was ninety percent cow path and just as lonely. They seemed to decide to stop here simultaneously, and dove into the ocean of stars that was the only thing they could both remember clearly.
That, and each other.
Otogi tucked himself in tighter, frowned, then deliberately took up more space, sprawling across the folded convertible top and the trunk of his car. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but it wasn't exactly not. The chilly breeze licked over his chest, and Otogi shivered.
Would Honda wake up and find him like this? What would he do? Otogi imagined him climbing up and over, straddling his hips and pinning his hands. Oh shit, he fucking wanted that. That was new, and Otogi was hungry for it. This unplanned little trip to self-discovery was going fast enough to leave flaming tracks. Fast enough to time travel, skim alongside moments alone with Honda and wonder what might have happened if he'd only known the potential was this. They could have coped with all the lunatic shit they went through together in a very different way.
The Cadillac rocked, announcing Honda's return to consciousness. Otogi pushed up to his elbows, crossed one knee over the other and grinned down at Honda.
His eyes had adjusted to the dark by now, opening up the night sky into even more stars. He could see detail in Honda's face now, even the parts in shadow, gratified to spot the smile that mirrored his own. Regret seemed mutually missing, at least.
Rather than climb right on top of him and kick off another round, Honda clambered up to sprawl on his stomach next to Otogi. He yelped as bare skin hit cold metal, and they both laughed. He paused, scuffling in the back seat for something, and a moment later Otogi's jacket slapped onto his chest.
"So tell me," Otogi drawled, hiking the fabric over his chest and turning his eyes back to the sky, "was the plan always to drag me out here and seduce me?"
Honda spluttered. Otogi laughed.
"Only curious," Otogi added with a shrug, "I'm not mad. If I'm pissed about anything, it's that you didn't come onto me sooner."
"It wasn't, I swear," Honda said with emphasis, then paused. "Not completely," he added, and Otogi could hear the conscience holding a knife to his throat. Honda's smile—what Otogi could see of it—was sheepish. Maybe a little fearful?
"You're way too straightforward, Honda," Otogi said, "life is going to completely roll you one of these days."
Honda shrugged as he settled into a more comfortable position, still hissing at the cold metal. "I don't have the time or the energy to pretend, dude. Life hasn't got anything I haven't seen before."
"No time? We're in our twenties, we're not dead. What are you talking about?"
"You know what I mean," Honda replied. And Otogi did know. He frowned again, the urge to tease draining in an unpleasant wash of understanding.
"I don't want to talk about any of it," Otogi said, "I really don't. Maybe in ten years? But not now."
Honda's face turned to him, softly blurred in Otogi's periphery while he stubbornly kept his eyes on the stars. He didn't have to see Honda's expression. It was too dark to catch those hazel wolf eyes searching him again; seeing too much.
"You asked, so I explained," Honda said, "I don't want to talk about it either. I'm not going to ask you to post mortem the last five years. But that shit changed me. I'm not who I used to be anymore. If that's who you want—sorry."
Otogi sat up. "Then why are you here? So a bunch of traumatic shit changed us both. How do you even know you want me? Or did you expect a high school kid when you came all the way out here, like you changed but I'm stuck in amber or something?"
Honda didn't move. "Don't react to shit I didn't say," he said. His voice was quiet over Otogi's shoulder, sounding far away.
"You racked up a shit-ton of frequent flyer miles on a gamble," Otogi snapped.
"It is Vegas," Honda said.
"Don't be glib."
"As opposed to straightforward?"
Otogi winced. Sighed. Felt the breeze moving stray wisps of hair and took down his ponytail to fix it.
Beside him, Honda also sighed. "Look, I've been here forty-eight hours, and I think you know I'm a mess," he said, "I quit my job at Dad's factory. I have a degree and work experience exclusively in a subject I honestly hate. I don't play cards competitively. I have no idea what to do with myself, and back home stopped being an option when I stopped being cooperative."
So I'm a rebound, Otogi thought. He smirked to himself, hands busy in his hair. He could be a rebound. Short-term mutual distraction sounded great right now.
"I don't know what I want out of life, but I know you figured shit out here on your own, and it seems like a good place to try," Honda continued.
"And on top of that, you were always the person who got me," he added, "I came out here to find you because I figured if I'm different, you are too. And you didn't let my fuckups keep you away, even when they were pretty big."
"Oh, they were," Otogi nodded, rocking a little and laughing at the gentle force of Honda's shove.
"Yeah," Honda said afterward, "I know. I know, dude. But I could admit it and not have to pretend I was fine. You didn't need me to be brave."
Otogi paused. A few flashes of memory followed: Honda breaking. Angry, terrified, grieving. Defeated. Jealous. "That was not why you hung out with me and we both know it," he said, "I can text her right now if you need a review."
With a disgusted noise, Honda also sat up. He folded his legs, facing the opposite direction, and leaned a little into Otogi's shoulder. "You're really annoying, sometimes," he said.
"So that whole time you really weren't trying to date Jounouchi's little sister?"
"Of course I was! So were you!"
Otogi gave his ponytail a final tug and dropped his hands with a nod. "Just so we're clear. So you had this epiphany what, in hindsight?"
Honda groaned. "Was tonight not enough of an indication that I like you? Why do you have to make this hard? Yes, you were an asshole and I hated you when we were teenagers. And I didn't realize how much I hated you because I didn't want you and Shizuka to leave me until way later." He shoved his hands through his hair. "Is it okay that not all of us were emotional geniuses at seventeen like you were, O Enlightened One?"
With a snort, Otogi held up his hands in surrender. "I'm just trying to understand," he said defensively, then froze as Honda's full admission sank in. "Wait, leave you? Both of us? The fuck are you talking about?"
"You're going to have teeth marks on your hip, dude," Honda snapped, words and tone making Otogi's belly flip, "it's too late to be surprised I'm into guys."
Otogi took a breath, resisting the urge to look down at himself. His body began to remember the night again, smarting bruises sparking under his fly.
He wasn't surprised. He wasn't at all, really, and Honda's honesty deserved an honest answer. "Not that," he admitted, "Honda, I thought you'd leave. I mean whatever, we were teenage dirtbags, but I thought if you got what you wanted with Shizuka I'd stop meaning anything to you, too. I didn't know you felt like that."
"I didn't know it either," Honda said, "but I can tell you what I did know? I didn't have to impress you. I didn't have to give a shit about the damn card game to keep you around. With you I could just be a gearhead and—"
"—and an awkward weirdo with a hero complex," Otogi added.
Honda chuckled. "That too." He sighed again, leaning harder into Otogi. "With you, it wasn't hard to feel okay. I could be next to you and feel like I was where I needed to be. Not struggling to catch up. If I needed to be messy now, I thought maybe you'd be okay with it."
Otogi blew out a breath. He rubbed tired eyes, careful of his eyeliner. "I am okay with it," he said, feeling a weight retract from his shoulders, "I promise, Honda. That didn't change. And you are messy. You're a fucking nightmare. You realize I'm not going to save you, right? I can barely take care of myself out here. If you need a couch to surf, I got you, but you cannot eat my groceries forever."
"Heard," Honda said, "I have to go back anyway. Once I'm here for good though," he let the sentence trail off, a hundred potential futures implied in the silence.
"It's going to take a while," Otogi said, "you know you don't have to come all the way here. Move away from your family instead. Cheaper and faster." He felt Honda shrug.
"Nowhere is far enough," Honda replied.
He wasn't wrong. Not by Otogi's measurements, anyway. "Heard," he said, with a crooked smile for the desert. He ruffled a hand through Honda's hair.
The cool of the night intensified, until Otogi felt his nose going numb. He patted Honda's bare shoulder. "Let's head back. You want food? Happy to subsidize your ass on this self-discovery weekend, at least."
Honda scooted down into the back seat and retrieved his lost shirt. "I can pay my own way," he said, "I don't wanna be the sidekick this time."
Otogi heard the defensive twinge in his voice and reached out for his shoulder in the starlight. His aim was true, and Otogi used it as an anchor to pull himself down alongside Honda. There were no sidekicks in this car. Not anymore. Otogi wasn't sure what they were, wasn't sure where they were heading besides back to the hazy incandescence of Las Vegas in the distance. But if he had anything to say about it, this time? Nobody would be tagging along.
"Hey," Otogi said. He slipped an arm around Honda's neck and towed him in for a kiss.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Otogi Ryuuji | Duke Devlin, Arthur Hawkins | Arthur Hopkins, Rebecca Hopkins | Rebecca Hawkins
Additional Tags: Missing Scene, Doma the Dark Organization | Waking the Dragons Arc, Otogi Had a Bad Childhood, Utah - Freeform, Arthur Hopkins is a Good Dude
Summary:
Professor Arthur Hopkins is a teacher, and he's observed his share of teenagers over the years. Making his way across the Utah desert with his granddaughter after a harrowing experience, Arthur takes a moment to observe the boy who's become their assigned guardian. Otogi, on the other hand, doesn't much like being catalogued like an interesting artifact. A brief missing scene that takes place during the Waking the Dragons Arc, after Yugi leaves Otogi in charge of protecting Arthur and Rebecca Hopkins.
