#askshit

(Oh I can definitely get away with using both in one here ;P) Kaiba wasn't one to lose his temper, he had learned at a young age to direct that feeling forward into his work. It wasn't often he acted out, but he had a more...unpleasant primal reason for his anger.

Something only he brought out of him.

What Yugi-- not Yugi-- Atem brought out of him.

Something in his tone broke Kaiba, enough to swivel around to grab and pin Atem to the wall, face close to hiss a response.

But it died on his lips, eyes flicking down to not-s mouth at the whisper of a gasp. A sound of surprise, not of pain, and enough to make the former Pharaoh's mouth part.

Kaiba's pulse ran high on something more than anger now, a feeling he had less practice in keeping controlled.

And likely the reason he even had him pinned.

"Kaiba." Atem breathed, breaking Kaiba out of his sudden trance to flick his focus to the rest of his face.

Colour dusted his cheeks, out of embarrassment of being slightly lifted or anger he couldn't say. His eyes showed confusion, or curiosity. This was a boundary they never crossed.

He released Atem, forcing himself to take back control and reign in whatever...that...was.

"I need to go." Kaiba said, his tone measured and tight, fighting the air of uncertainty.

He never lost control so easily. And never to....him.

It took few strides to put distance between them, but each felt harder to take. It felt like defeat, yet he hadn't lost anything but his temper for a moment.

Atem, meanwhile, watched Kaiba's back as he regained his own composure. Yugi had teased how often taunts to Kaiba sounded like flirting, but it wasn't until being held against the wall did he understand.

He'd hid how winded he'd gotten, and tried to hide how exciting it felt to be held up against the wall. To be pinned between Kaiba and--

Atem pushed off the wall, running to catch up.

"Kaiba!"

Kaiba stopped, head low as he waited for Atem to catch up. Atem panted, grabbing an arm to force the taller man's attention. Any question he had died on his tongue, the forced indifference of Kaiba's expression laced with uncertainty.

A question, as if asking why.

And it wasn't one Atem could answer...not with words.

Atem grabbed the lapel of Kaiba's coat and pulled him into a kiss, an impulsive feeling guiding him to send them careening into new territory together.

Kaiba gasped for air, pressing lips hungrily for another greedy kiss before Atem could pull way. His arm wound around Atem, pulling his body close in the absence of a solid surface to push into.

They parted slowly, lips swollen from the abrupt make out session. Atem dared to meet Kaiba's eyes, as if afraid he'd mistaken the look of longing in his eyes after staring so long at his lips.

Kaiba looked up, somewhat hesitant as if the act was saying too much. But it was enough, Atem letting go of Kaiba and smoothing away the wrinkles he'd caused.

"We can...discuss this later." Atem finally said, trying and failing not to smile, "If you're too busy right now."

1: What inspired you to write the fic this way?

I was actually partially inspired by all the thiefship/deathship fics where ryou/malik house yami malik/bakura. My FIRST thought was what would happen if things went awry, smack my rarepair into it, and that's how it came about c:

It was also partially based on personal experience, and genuine feelings. More about the friendship thing than anything else in the AU of course. After all, the very first fic was a vent fic as it's tagged lol

Fic I'm most proud of I think is definitely To Balance the Scales, not just as a first dip into smutty writing (okay, PUBLICLY POSTING smut xD), but also for the worldbuilding that resulted. Might even expand it a lil and give Set/Kisara fans a treat :P As for how I get in the mood to write, that's definitely a thing I struggle with most xD It's always a balance between managing mental illness and other difficulties...buuut I find some days just doodling out ideas or re-reading my writing can at LEAST get a little spark if not some embers going. Maybe not for the continuation off where I ended but to a future thread and I just hold onto that and go from there. When that gets done, I go back to see if I can continue and if not? I still wrote something ;P

Music also helps, though there have been days I just spent the time I could have writing into curating a playlist to write to which...isn't that productive, but it helps in the future for my production to get me in the mindset of what world I'm writing!

What made you ship it? It's basically thiefshipping but with Bakura un-zorcified, plus relating with scars...also the potential of Bakura being smol because people back then were more often than not smaller than our heights nowadays :P

What are your favorite things about the ship? How they can relate to each other, and since TKB is a different body to YB, Malik gets to share the stuff he enjoys too. so uhh...basically a lot of the same reasons I enjoy thiefshipping xD

Well, when I think of more really (some I forgot oops;;;), I can probably throw out a couple more though~

Transman YMalik spotting nervous teens (sometimes cis, sometimes trans) at a gym...maybe at a hotel or rec center or w/e... and giving pointers. The gaggle of gals that helped him out come to him for advice about their trans kids/grandkids/nephew/niece and everything.

He and Bakura often take in trans or gay kids that get kicked out and help them look for other places while giving them a safe place so they can still go to school, etc~ (Doesn't happen often, but the offer's always there. They feel better that it's not a lot because it tells both of them their parents are more accepting.)

MANY, I have lots :P in fact, I’ve made entire posts and also have a “my headcanons” tag too~

Buut I can share a few I’ve had for a while, liike:

- TKB having asthma because of his time roughing it out in the desert and Sleep Paralysis after nightmares about Kul Elna.

- Bakura (either being separate from TKB or not) having trouble with associating himself with the body he has, like he doesn’t feel right being almost a copy of Ryou and has bouts of dissociation and depersonalization as a result

- Akhnadin trained Atem for ruling the kingdom, which resulted in a lot of emotional abuse that lead to Atem being more cruel in his judgements (and, y’know, trauma of losing a parent and having to take their place as soon as you’re old enough)

- Ryou naturally attracted spirits as a child, forcing his mother to learn light magic to keep the not-so-friendly ghosts away. Once Bakura came around, that stopped...but only because of Bakura :3c

Oh anon, you should know I’m the self-proclaimed rarepair horder xD

That being said...~

Sickleshipping– the obvious answer to “I don’t like how yami malik x yami bakura is named”...unless you’re committed to keeping it Bakura-in-Ryou’s-body >3>

Crosshipping, my original first rarepair and still near and dear ;u;

Visionshipping is just...it’s baseline lesbian pairing and I wish there was more of it :P SO much potential for both of them learning from eachother~

Boundshipping, my current rarepair in focus~ Mostly I see Klepto, and I like that too, but I personally just love the idea of Yugi and TKB specifically. I can see it being as sweet as heartshipping when TKB really trusts Yugi~

Gonna be real, TKB kinda is...more or less because I see a lot of fans putting HIS backstory and making it Yami Bakura's and while that's partially true... YB is made up of TKB's revenge drive and memories, Zorc's power, and Ryou's body, he's a fragment more or less, and I think there's more potential to that over just giving him TKB's traumas and being done with it but TKB himself isn't as explored...SOME fans do which is wonderful to see, but not as often. Also wish at LEAST when giving YB his own body, it isn't just...Ryou copy/paste, because then it seems a wee bit racist to like...erase TKB's ethnicity which kinda plays a big part in his entire backstory? (feel the same about Atem if he's given a new body, jsyk) And just to be clear, I'm not a POC (sorry if my username made y'all think otherwise |3), so I'm not saying more on that, it's just how that reads to me. I'd honestly like to hear BIPOC YGO fans opinions on this, but no pressure; more of a curiosity if anyone would mind sharing their thoughts on it.

Oh, and I guess I do think Yami Malik is a similar idea, mainly because I NEVER see anything with him interacting with the other Ishtars or outside of shipping and I think there's absolutely potential of either him learning to be a new person or learning how share/respect Malik's boundaries with when he fronts or not (depending on what you go for) and...ngl, I think part of that is people being too afraid of being offensive/stereotyping when writing characters with DID as far as that goes. (which, simple solution, look up what the stereotypes are and how people with DID actually communicate with their alters if at all? If you really want to be inoffensive, it's better to research than not to try at all!) And I guess with Ishtars on the mind....RISHID. That man loved his brother so much he carved his face in solidarity, let Malik boss him around for YEARS, and just deserves SO MUCH MORE LOVE IN GENERAL