Beastly King (Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic Puzzleshipping/Blindshipping)

Epilogue

Senior Year

“Hey, your name’s on this.” Aibou’s tone is derisive as he passes back copies of the Domino Academy homecoming court ballot.

Yeah, Yuugi and I went back to the academy. It took some string pulling on Aknamkanon’s part to get us back in,  but our classmates welcomed us back into the fold – that is, if whispering behind my back that I’d flunked out of boarding school, been involved in a scandalous affair with the headmaster’s daughter, or had a
nervous breakdown can be considered welcoming back. At the academy, it probably was.

“He must have had a nervous breakdown,” I heard Vivian Wong say one day when Yuugi and I passed her in the hall. “Or maybe he took a blow to the head. Why else would he go out with a nothing like him?” Apparently, she’d been serious about my calling her if I transformed back. She’d mentioned several times that she was waiting for a call. She was still waiting.

Now I look at the ballot. Sure enough, there’s my name. “Must be a typo.”
“Righ'.” Jonouchi-kun next to me said with a short laugh.

“I haven’t seen these people in two years. Why would they nominate me for homecoming court?”

“It couldn’t possibly be based on looks, right?” Yuugi said with amusement in his voice.

“Maybe so. Whatever.” I crumple the ballot into a ball and try to score a basket with it in the trash
can. I miss and head to the front of the room.
But the sensei reaches it first. “Sennen-san, I believe this is yours,” he says. “In the future, there will be no three-pointers in my AP English class.”

“Hai, sensei.”

“There’s no special treatment around here, Atem-san. For anyone.”

“Hai,sensei.” I salute, then shove the ballot into my pocket and head for my desk. “Jerk,” I whisper to Yuugi.

Yuugi looks at the sense. “What Atemu means is, he’s very sorry, and it won’t happen again.”
Around us, people are giggling. I notice that hardly anyone’s filling out their homecoming ballots. I
count three wastebasket basketballs, waiting to be thrown as soon as the sensei turns his back again, two paper airplanes, and one origami piece, not including the people who are just letting the ballot sit while
they text-message.

“We don’t have to go to the dance, by the way,” I tell Yuugi. “It’s pretty lame.”

But Yuugi says, “Of course we’re going. I want a real corsage from you – any color rose you like –
and I have the perfect suit.”

The sensei must have decided we’d spent enough time not filling out our ballots because he starts class, and we go over an hour of English lit that Yuugi and I, at least, already know from our years of homeschooling with Ryou.

On the way out, I corner the sensei. “Nice guy, ragging on us.”
Saraqa-sensei shrugs. “Hey, you wouldn’t want people thinking I was showing favoritism just because we happen to live in the same house.”

“I wouldn’t mind.” But I’m joking and put my hand up for a high five. “See you later, Ryou?”
“Much later,” Saraqa-sensei – Ryou – says. “I have school tonight. Don’t want to have to teach little snots like you forever.”

Ryou’s going to school too. Grad school, so he can be an English professor. But I made sure my tou-san wrote him a great recommendation to teach at the academy for now.

“Oh, yeah,” I say. “Well, we’ll keep the pizza warm for you.”

“I’d think you’d be studying too hard to have time even to order pizza.”

“Then you’d think wrong. This class is easy compared to what we used to do.”

After school, Yuugi and I usually take the subway to the house in downtown Domino where we still live with Ryou, Mai, Valon and Chris. Aknamkanon offered to move me back into his upper class apartment after my transformation, but I think
we were both relieved when I said no. I wanted to have someplace for Yuugi to stay. So now we all stay together.

“Do you want to walk over to Ginkaku-ji?” I say to Yuugi as we leave the academy after I finished teasing Bakura on his crush on sensei. We do that
some days, to look at the garden, not the part about teasing Bakura.

But today, Yuugi shakes his head. “I want to go see something at home.”

I nod. Home. It’s still such a bizarre and beautiful word for me, to have a home where I can come and go, a place where people actually like me.

When we reach the house, Yuugi disappears upstairs. His room is still on the third floor, and I hear
noises from above. I pick up the mirror we always keep in a place of honor in the living room, the
repaired mirror that Anzu brought the day the spell was broken. “I want to see Yuugi,” I tell it.

But as I knew would happen, I see only my own face. The magic is over, but its effects will live
forever. There was definitely magic in Yuugi and me getting together.

Yuugi comes down a few minutes later.

“Where is it?” he says.

“Where’s what?” I’m polishing off a box of Cheetos and a glass of milk. I’ve finally figured out
where everything is in the kitchen.

“Stanford's suit,” Yuugi says. “I’m going to wear it to the dance.”
“That’s what you want to wear?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong with it?”
“Nothing.” I take another handful of Cheetos.

“Is it because it’s not new?”
I shake my head, remembering my comment to Anzu. “Around here people buy new dresses and suits for a dance.” I want to slap that guy except – oh yeah – he was me. “It’s just… I’m not sure I want other people to see… to know about… never mind. It’s fine.”

“Are you sorry you’re not going with some homecoming queen girl or something?”

“Yeah, right. No. No. Stop asking me stupid questions. It’s fine.”
He smiles. “Then where’s my suit?”

I look away. “In my room, under my mattress.”

He gives me a funny look. “Why would it be there? Were you wearing it? Is that why you don’t
want me to wear it?” He’s kidding, but even so…

“No.” I start downstairs to get the dress. I don’t expect him to follow me, but he does. I walk
through my rooms, past the rose garden, then lift the mattress and take the black and silver satin from the space between it and the box spring. I remember the days when I used to smell his cologne, though I would
never tell him about it in a million years. Still, I remember the first day I saw the suit, the first day I saw him in it, being so afraid to touch him, but hoping maybe he’d love me. “Here. Put it on.”

He examines it. “Oh, it has a few buttons hanging. Maybe you’re right about not wearing it.”
“You can get it fixed. Take it to the dry cleaner. But first put it on.” Suddenly, I very much want to see him in it again.

A moment later, he’s wearing it, and it is exactly as I remember, the cool black satin contrasting
with the warm pink-white of his skin. “Wow,” I say. “You’re beautiful.”

He examines himself in the mirror. “You’re right. I’m gorgeous.”

“And so modest. Now I have to ask you something.”

“What’s that?”

I hold my hand out to him. “May I have this dance?”

THE END

Th-Th-That's All Folks! Happy Puzzleshipping and Blindshipping. Finally finished this book, going back to the others :)

Ja Ne

Sagario