Here we have number two of the Enemies with Benefits 'series' thing... It was going to be a oneshot, but I found that it was getting helluva long, so I'm posting this bit as a Prologue-style chapter rather than as part of the main story.
Not much more to say, really, except: Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!, or any of its characters, and I sure as heck ain't getting any profit from this except from the warm glow of reviews! I also don't own hurricanes. Dang.Enemies with Benefits 2
Stormy Weather Part 1: Prologue
Joey glared at his book, and then groaned, dropping his head to the tabletop with a dull thud. The white-haired teen beside him smiled sympathetically, and looked across the table at Tristan, who pointed to Joey and quipped wryly, "I'm with stupid."
"Who you callin' stupid?" Joey's head lifted in a flash, his brown eyes flashing. "It's not like you can do any more of it, genius!"
"I never said I could," Tristan told him, taking on an air of injured innocence, trying to ignore Ryou's muffled giggling. "I was agreeing with you!"
Joey groaned and sighed, looking at Ryou with a defeated air. "I dunno, Ryou – how do you just get this stuff so easily?" He ran his hands through his blonde hair in frustration, staring sightlessly down at the seemingly undoable Maths written before him in Ryou's painstakingly neat handwriting. Honestly, that kid was a teacher's dream come true: not only could he actually understand the work, but his handwriting was beautifully legible too.
"I don't –" Ryou began, but he was cut off by a loud crash, and the lights going out. Somewhere, a girl screamed in fright, making the hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He heard Joey's chair scraping across the floor, heard his footsteps as he headed confidently towards the screamer, who was almost certainly Serenity, his sister. Well… mostly confidently, ignoring one or two muttered curses as shin met furniture.
After some moments passed in silence, Joey reappeared with the welcome glow of a candle in each hand. His friends hailed him as though he was a conquering hero or something, and he placed the candlesticks on the table before bowing solemnly. "Thank you, thank you. No autographs, please."
Behind him, Serenity giggled. "Oh, stop it, Joey!" she said, giving her brother an affectionate shove. Evidently, the mere presence of her brother was enough to calm her. He winked at her, and then turned back to his friends, a sudden grin appearing on his face. "I guess that's the end of Maths, then?"
A matching grin slid onto Tristan's face, and the brunette closed his book with a snap. "Hear hear!" A thought occurred to him, and he bit his lip for a moment. "Hey, Joey, can I use your phone? I should probably let my mother know I'm okay." He rolled his eyes at the mention of his sometimes overprotective mother, and got to his feet at his friend's nod, taking a candle and heading for the phone.
"We should carry on," Ryou said sensibly, moving the remaining candle closer to their books, so that it shed its light on their books. "We do have a test on Friday, you know."
Joey sighed, sitting down again and shaking his head slowly. "I do know, but I also know that if I don't understand this by now… I ain't never gonna."
"Double negative," Ryou pointed out with a smile, straightening the papers in front of him. "So you're going to!"
Joey made a face at him, and was about to come back with a snappy rejoinder – dependant, of course, on his ability to think of one in the next three seconds that wasn't stupid and that he could say in front of his little sister – when Tristan's voice echoed hollowly through the room. He had no idea why, but perhaps it was merely the effect of the sinking feeling in his gut on his hearing as his friend said, "The phone's dead, guys. There's like a huge storm out there!" The tall youth pointed to the curtained window for emphasis.
Ryou went pale, his usually tanned skin now seeming as pale as his hair, or close to. In a hushed voice that did nothing to hide the note of fear contained therein, he said, "I heard about this on the radio - but it was supposed to pass us right by!" His eyes were wide with panic.
"What, Ryou?" Serenity asked gently, clearly affected by the state her friend seemed to be in. "What is it?"
Ryou swallowed drily, and then said in a tone that sounded to his friends like the slamming of a coffin door, "A hurricane." As his friends exchanged glances, he twined his fingers together nervously, biting his lip. Suddenly, he gave a cry, and smacked his head. "Tea!"
"What about her?"
Ryou's brow wrinkled with honest worry. "She was supposed to come to me now for help with – oh, I hope she stayed home! I'd hate for her to be out in this because of me!"
"Tea's a smart girl," Tristan said reassuringly. "She wouldn't walk to you if it seemed like it was going to rain."
Ryou stared into empty air as another, worse thought entered his head. "What if," he said, slowly, as though dreading the reality that his saying the words would bring, "what if she went early?" His friends stared at him, non-comprehending. He got to his feet, trying desperately not to panic. "That means that she's home alone with Bakura."
There was a communal inward breath as the significance of that statement sunk in. The hurricane was nothing compared to the thought of being alone in a dark house with Ryou's more than slightly psychotic dark half.
There it is... the next bit should be up soonish!
cheerio
GLJ
