Genderbent

Chapter 6 ~ Internal Conflict

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  Yugi unlocked his phone while Mai blow-dried his hair. He took a shower and changed in some spare clothes Mai was letting him keep at her apartment for after their shows. Some of the makeup hadn't come off in the shower and he looked like some horrible creature in the mirror. Mai firmly pulled a wire brush through his hair, one usually used for wigs since his hair was so stubborn, and at this point Yugi was all too used to her abuse.

  He pulled up his text messages and found Joey, Ryou, and Tristan had contacted him hours ago, probably as soon as the show had ended. Before the show Joey had sent him a selfie of the three of them waiting outside the venue, with the caption "can't wait to see our gorgeous best friend!" Yugi blushed but couldn't help smiling. The rest of the their messages were words of encouragement and about how much fun they all had. Tristan made a joke about thinking Yuki was cute enough to date and Yugi rolled his eyes but smiled.

  "What are you grinning about?" Mai teased, tugging a bit extra on the brush through a knot.

  "Ow-uh, Joey, Tristan, and Bakura. I sorta invited them to the show."

  "They were there!?" Anzu seemed simultaneously surprised, happy, and upset at this news.

  "Yeah. No worries. I prefaced it. I told Joey about Yuki, and he wanted to come see all of us. I thought he would've mentioned it to you or something."

  "He probably would have. But Joey might have worried that you'd try to talk him out of it." Mai added, laughing a little.

  Anzu sighed, "I probably would have at first. But I guess I'm glad he was there. Did he say anything about it?"

  "Ah, just that he had a fun time."

  "Onto more important matters." Mai said, pulling the brush from Yugi's hair.

  His hair laid flat against his shoulders for a moment and Anzu and Mai marveled just before it sprung back into it's usual shape. They sighed in disappointment.

  "What happened with Yami after we left?" Mai continued, tossing the brush into a drawer.

  Yugi quickly tapped the pockets of his jeans and then pulled out the card from one of them. He hadn't really looked at it. It was a dark purple card with a simple white border and the image of the back of a trading card in one corner. The letters were in white as well, detailing Yami's name, email, and phone number, as well as his occupation as a "professional duelist." It was a buisness card. But he had told him the number on this one was a personal number. Yugi wondered if Yami always carried around two versions if that was the case.

  "What's that?" Anzu asked.

  "It's a card he gave me. To contact him about the tournament next week."

  "Oh? Spill the gossip." Mai smirked, delicately snatching a makeup wipe and gently wiping it across his face.

  "U-uh. He invited me. He told me he'd 'save me a seat.' We didn't have much time to talk so he gave me his number-you're poking my eye!"

  "I'm not. Deal with it unless you want black clumps in it tomorrow," Mai hissed.

  Anzu laughed nervously, "That's amazing...but...won't you have to go as Yuki?"

  Thump. His heart jumped into his throat.

  "You'll also have to talk to him on the phone as Yuki." Mai added.

  Thud. His heart dropped to his feet.

  He could barely keep it together at the meet and greet. And that was less than five minutes alone with Yami. A phone call? Dressing up to go to a tournament...alone? Maybe he could ask if he could take someone with him. Would that be too intrusive? Yami invited him...her...to the tournament, and didn't offer a plus one. Yuki was the plus one.