Please forgive any inaccuracies, spelling mistakes or grammatical errors, I went over it but I'm very tired right now. It's my own fault for leaving it till less than half an hour before the deadline. What can I say? I just can't help it.

I hope you enjoy!

Senior prom.

Those two simple words sent a ripple of excitement through the female students of Domino High like no others could. And sent a shock of terror right to the very core of the male ones. For the girls, it meant one of the biggest shopping spree's they were ever likely to see, several weeks of date proposals and the knowledge that they were in for a pleasurable evening of being fawned over. For the boys, it meant trying to scrimp together enough money to hire a limousine, buy decent flowers and pay for dinner. Providing they could find a girl who didn't politely decline their invitation, tell them to get lost, or just plain laugh in their face.

Yes. The males of Domino High were ecstatic that the student council had decided it would be fun to try out what they referred to as 'a wonderful and exciting American tradition'.

None more so than Duke Devlin, who had the enjoyable task of trying to ask the girl of his dreams to go with him before one of the other countless boys in his year with the same intention beat him to it. The fact that his chief rival was one of her brother's best friends did NOT help. Not at all. But then, he was used to crappy odds, he'd had them all his life. Since birth, it had seemed that some unseen force was trying to hold him back, forcing him to fight for every single thing he wanted. In his early years, the only school place available to him had been ten miles away. Not so bad, you may think, but put that together with the fact that his parents had no car, the buses didn't run anywhere even close to his home back then, and his irrational fear of trains, and you came out with a ten mile hike to school every single day, come rain or shine. He consoled himself with the fact that he had never once been a fat child, no matter what he ate. Not that he ate much, given that his parents both had two jobs each just to earn enough to feed the three of them. As if that wasn't bad enough, the playground bullies had singled him out for reasons completely unknown to him, since his parents always somehow managed to cloth him reasonably enough, and made it their mission to find out, every day without fail for three years, just what exactly you could do to a human body with a stick and whatever they could find on the ground. He'd thought, when he moved up to high school, that his luck would surely change, but alas, it was not so. He spent a year and a half at an all girls military school due to some secretarial cock up at his elementary school and any joy he might have gleened from being completely surrounded by girls was entirely overshadowed by being forced to wear the same uniform, pleated skirt and all, as his classmates. Then came the most clichéd twist of events imaginable, his parents died. In a car crash. It was almost too unbelievably tragic, given his hard life, but it happened anyway. Then, he set his heart on running his own gaming business and after years of back breaking work and monumental effort, his luck seemed to finally be changing. The business took off and he opened multiple stores across Japan.

Everything was wonderful, until Yugi, King Of Games appeared. In one day, his reputation was ruined, his sponsors pulled out, and not a week later his entire business went bankrupt. He wasn't angry though, he knew he should be but he wasn't. He was just too damn tired to be angry. If life had decided there would be no breaks for him, so be it. He'd roll with it and settle in whatever gutter he fell in first. He hated to admit it now, but at that point in his seemingly pointless life, he gave up, he surrendered to fate. Then Serenity Wheeler came along. The little sister of the boy he'd tormented during the duel that cost him his business. The moment his eyes first fell on her angelic face, he knew he once again had a reason to fight. He had to have her, to make her his. He could feel in his soul that she was the only girl he would ever truly find happiness with. He couldn't explain it, had never been one for the sappy nonsense the movies portrayed as love, but in that one, glorious moment, he didn't care that he was thinking like a gushing varsity cheerleader. He was in love with Serenity Wheeler and he wouldn't rest until she was his.

Nothing would get in his way. Not Joey, not Tristan, not the teacher yelling in his face…

Blinking, he forced his mind back to reality and was more than a little surprised to find his language teacher standing on the other side of his desk, one hand resting on the surface and the other raised as though she'd very much like to clout him round the head.

"…to a word I'm saying?!" She was screeching, the veins in her neck standing out very unattractively.

"Huh?"

"ARGH! Get out of this classroom right now you cheeky little-" she just about managed to stop herself. Closing her eyes she took a few deep breaths then pointed to the door. "Go. Now."

----------

He let out a relieved sigh as he joined the throng of students eagerly rushing from the school at the end of the day. Their headmaster was an extremely unpleasant person, and not just because he seemed to make a hobby out of yelling at students. The man was just plain ugly. His ears stuck out at bizarre angles, his eyes seemed to bulge from his head, he had hair nowhere but his nose and his teeth were beyond description. Anger did nothing to help the man's unfortunate visage, only served to make him look even more like his head was about to explode. Duke had found himself phasing out again during the rant, his gaze fixated on his headmaster's nose hair, a look of fascinated horror on his face. He'd actually had a stapler thrown at him that time, and received two weeks of detention. He needed to stop slipping into la la land in public, it was becoming a bad habit.

As he stopped to wait for the traffic to clear, he let his mind wander (but not too much) towards the problem of asking Serenity to go with him. He could just walk up to her and ask, but every time he thought of doing that, his stomach started doing somersaults. What if she said no? What if someone else had already asked her? He'd be humiliated and devastated, and he really wasn't keen on that idea. SO, the first thing he needed to do was find out if she already had a date. Who would know? Serenity had lots of friends, but none of them really liked Duke very much, they had caught him staring at Serenity too many times. Most were under the impression that he was working his way up to stalking her. But he needed to interrogate one of them, he couldn't make further plans until he did, so which to choose? Surely there was at least one who still saw him as a human being and not a walking pile of dog doo?

----------

Hovering nervously in front of the door, he took a steadying breath then knocked. He didn't really want to do this, but he couldn't think of anyone else. All he had to do was stay cheerful and everything, theoretically, would be fine. So he plastered a friendly smile across his face as the door opened, revealing a chirpy brunette wearing a baby pink apron with hot pink fur lining the hem. He just about managed to control his gag reflex and opened his arms wide.

"Tea! How are you? It's been too long since we had a good chat!" He could feel his self respect going down a notch as he spoke every word, but it was for the greater good. He had to keep telling himself that.

She squealed words of greeting and threw her arms around his neck, tiptoeing as far as her feet would allow to cling as tightly as possible. Pulling back, she beamed and ushered him inside.

"I'm fine, we were just making cookies!"

It was harder to keep down the bile this time, but somehow, miraculously, he managed it. Tea's apartment was like something straight out of a nightmare. Everything was pink. The walls, the floor, the furniture, the decorations, everything. But that wasn't all. Every available surface was loaded with stuffed animals and the walls were cluttered with pictures of unicorns, flowers, fairies and various other fairytale creatures. The room was so stuffed with girlish clutter that every time he shifted his gaze, some new horror caught his attention, even if he'd looked in that direction already. This must surely be some kind of hell dimension, how could a person actually live here?! Shaking his head slightly, he pulled his thoughts back to the situation. Damn it, he'd done it again!

"We?" He blinked, cocking his head curiously and glancing towards the kitchen.

Tea nodded then turned to face the kitchen door.

"Hey, stop baking for a sec and come say hello. Duke's here!" She called happily. A few moments later, Yugi appeared in the doorway, teddy bear apron spattered with cookie dough and a wide smile on his face.

"Hello!"

Duke gave a small wave as he responded, looking between Tea and Yugi curiously. Why were they alone together? Was this some kind of cookie date? Settling his eyes on Tea, he smiled and folded his arms.

"So, are you two going to the prom together then?" He asked, thanking whoever might be listening for the easy lead onto the right subject. He guessed the answer as Yugi instantly went red and Tea giggled.

"Yugi asked me last night" She gushed, glancing shyly at her date.

Duke flashed her a half smile and opened his mouth to continue the conversation and wait for an opening. He stopped before the words had even formed as another figure appeared in the kitchen doorway. Apparently Yugi and Tea weren't alone. He mentally turned on whoever he had thanked moments before and spat a stream of curse words at them. On the outside, he smiled as Serenity walked towards the group.

"Hiya, I didn't see you there."

"Of course not silly" Serenity giggled, swatting him playfully on the arm, "I was in the kitchen, you'd need x-ray vision to have seen me!"

Duke prayed he wasn't blushing as he considered x-ray vision and the girl standing before him. Oh what he'd give to be able to look straight though that kitten covered apron and the soft garments beneath it…

"Uh…Duke?"

He blinked and lifted his eyes to Serenity's questioning ones. They stared at each other for a few moments then Serenity began to giggle again.

"You're so strange" she chuckled. There was no malice, it was simply a statement. Duke let out a short chuckle of his own then took a step back.

"Well, I'd better be going, I just stopped by to say hello. I'll catch you guys later." Waving as they called their goodbyes, he slipped back out of the apartment and started down the stairs. He waited until he reached the bottom to punch the wall. So much for that idea. He could always wait and come back a later, but that would probably look a little weird, especially if he brought up the prom again. No, he needed a new plan. Sighing, he rubbed his aching knuckles and practically stomped out of the building. He got as far as the nearby park then flopped down onto a bench and stared moodily at a flock of pigeons. He couldn't think of a single thing. The one time he actually wanted his brain to drift into that sea of thought that usually cut him off from the outside world, and all he got was silence. Figured, that was pretty much how his life had played out so far. He tilted his head back and stared up at the cloudless sky. He stayed like that for a few minutes then slowly lowered his head. Almost immediately, he sprang back as best a sitting person can and got just high enough to fall over the back of the bench. Bakura, still standing in a bent over position, about two inches from where Duke's face had been when he lowered his head, grinned and poked his tongue out through his teeth slightly.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Duke yelled, pulling himself up by the back of the bench and glaring at the psychotic yami. Bakura retracted his tongue and stood up straight.

"What? I just came over to say hello."

Duke bit his lip to hold in the string of insults threatening to explode from his mouth. Now was not a good time to pick a fight with the ex-tomb robber, he had more important things to do. Bakura blinked and kneeled on the bench, folding his arms on the back of it and staring at Duke.

"Something on your mind?" He stated as much as asked. Duke stared back at the surprisingly perceptive yami, he didn't think Bakura really paid attention to the people around him.

"Well…actually, yeah" And before he could stop himself, he blurted out his problem and the fact that he had no idea how to solve it. Bakura listened and nodded as he spoke, managing to keep the psychotic giggling to a minimum, which Duke was grateful for. As he finished, he walked back round the bench and sat on it once again. Bakura slid off his knees as he twisted to sit next to him.

"It's simple enough, just ask her" Bakura said, resting his elbows on the back of the bench.

Duke sighed and massaged the side of his head, "It's not that simple. If sh-" He stopped for a moment as Bakura, moving with almost superhuman speed, pulled a knife from his pocket and nailed a pigeon, once the albino's attention was once again focused on him, he continued, "If she rejected me, I don't think I could bear it. She means everything to me."

Bakura looked him up and down then snorted. "And I was so sure you were a guy. I guess Marik won that bet. Though perhaps I can convince him to split the winnings since you're homosexual?" Tapping his finger to his lip, he let his mind, what was left of it, drift into deep thought. If he was aware of the outraged glare he was receiving from his companion, he showed no signs of it. Duke clenched his fists and filed the insult away to deal with at a later date.

"Are you going to help me or not?" He demanded, standing and glancing round the park to locate the exits as though he was sure Bakura would decline. Usually, he would have been right, but the crazed yami was in an unusually good mood. He had successfully completed the heist he'd been planning for months that morning, and he'd only been shot twice. It didn't happen often, but when Bakura had good days like this, he became almost socially acceptable. Almost. The pigeon pinned to a nearby tree with a knife through its heart was evidence that he was still borderline anti-social, even at his best. Flashing Duke a devious grin, he pulled out his cell phone and held it in the palm of one hand, poking the buttons with one finger of the other hand. Ryou had managed to teach him the basics of the device, but that was all he knew. Punching in the last number, he lifted the phone to his ear and waited. Duke watched him curiously, folding his arms and raising an eyebrow at the look on the other's face. He got the feeling he wasn't going to like this.

"Hi" Bakura said suddenly, the person on the other end having answered, obviously, "I need to know something."

Duke's other eyebrow joined the already raised one as he tried to figure out what Bakura was doing. He watched as he paused to let the other person speak.

"Yes yes, that's very nice, but I rang you to ask a question, not to hear you waffle on about whatever it is you're doing." Another pause, shorter this time, "Hn, whatever. I just need to know if you already have a date to that ridiculous end of year ritual your school is inflicting upon its students."

Duke's eye nearly popped out of his head as he frantically waved his arms around, trying to silently tell Bakura to stop. Again, if he noticed, which he undoubtedly did, he gave no sign.

"Fine, prom, whatever, just answer the damn question woman!" Bakura continued, his right eye starting to twitch slightly. Duke stopped windmilling and held his breath. A moment later, Bakura snapped the phone shut without another word.

"She currently has no date" He said simply. Duke didn't know whether to punch him or hug him, though he knew Bakura wouldn't take kindly to either, so he wisely decided to do nothing. Gnawing on his lip, he considered this new information. She had no date, so if he asked, she could say yes, but would she? That was the big question now. Stage two was finding out if she liked him or not. He glanced at Bakura to ask his advice, but the ex-tomb robber was already moving away, heading out of the park towards home. Sighing Duke turned and started towards another exit. Time to find another accomplice. He had just reached the park gates when he heard the squeal of brakes followed by a loud thud. He stopped in his tracks let his eyes widen. Before he could turn, a gravely voice carried easily across the small park.

"I'm all right, bugger off!"

Letting his tensed muscles relax, he continued on his way. He couldn't help smiling slightly at the indignant chatter of the people who had moved to help the fallen psycho as it faded away behind him.

----------

He was still walking as the sun neared the end of it's decent that evening. Hands in his pockets, he kicked at any cans he came across, trying, in vain, to vent some of his frustration. He had no ideas, none at all. If only he could muster up the courage to go to her and ask her straight, it would be over then, whether she said yes or no. But he just couldn't, he was too much of a coward. Too afraid of rejection. His entire life had been one long string of failures, he didn't want Serenity to be another one. It would be too much to bear. He knew what was going to happen. He was going to continue as he was now, trying to come up with a plan to find the answer to a question only Serenity herself could answer without actually asking the girl, and he would run out of time. The prom would come and go, she would attend with someone else and he would probably stay at home watching through his DVD collection. He could see it all perfectly in his mind. Reaching a street corner, he leaned against a wall and tried to control the shaking in his legs. As he focused on that problem, the tears fell unhindered down his face. It was never going to happen. Fate just wouldn't allow it, he was sure. He slid down the wall and stared up at the stars, now visible in the rapidly darkening sky. So that was it? He should just stop wasting his time? He looked down again and hugged his knees to him as that thought crossed his mind. The more he thought about it, the more he realised that even though he was terrified at the thought of being rejected in his pursuit of the girl he loved, the thought of giving up on her terrified him a hundred times more. He focused on that, let his mind imagine his heart giving up and letting Serenity go. The pain of these thoughts forced him to his feet and guided him down the street. I'm a fool, he thought as he walked hastily towards the apartment Serenity shared with her brother, how could I even consider surrender? He knew now, after briefly touching on what it would be like without the hope that his heart would be satisfied, that he had the strength to do it. He would go, right now, and tell her. The prom was no longer of much importance, this was about his need to be with Serenity Wheeler. His burning desire to spend the rest of his life making her as happy as he possibly could. His resolve hardened with every step. There would be nothing to get in the way, Serenity was always home by this hour and Joey was out of town with Mai for a couple of days. They would most likely be alone, so if she did reject him, at least they would be the only two to know about it.

He was close now, one more corner and he'd be there. That was when he noticed the smell, the choking scent of burning wood. He felt his heart restrict painfully and he knew before he sped round the corner and saw the flames pouring out the windows of the apartment that had been his destination, writhing and flaring as though the were reaching for something. Without a doubt, he knew she was still in there. He pushed his way through the crowd of gasping, smoke blackened onlookers and ran for the door, swatting away the hands that reached for him as the evacuated residents realised his intention. He ploughed through the front entrance and started straight up the stairs, his arm pulled across his face to try and block out some of the thick, black smoke rolling down the stairs like a deadly fog. He reached the door, flames licking through the frame, charring the edges and slowly warping the wood as it burned on one side. Standing as far to the side as he could while staying in range, he aimed a hard kick at the thing and knocked it clean out of the frame. As expected, a wall of fire reached out almost instantly, grabbing for him as he fell back against the far wall of the hall. Gasping at the heat, he looked around frantically then ran for the nearby janitor's office. To his immense relief, there was a wash basin inside. Quickly pulling his jacket off, he turned both taps to full and drenched it before draping it over his head and upper body. Running back out into the hall so fast that he crashed into the wall, he dove for the inferno that was the Wheeler residence and waded into the flames without hesitation. He forced himself to ignore the searing pain that tore at him every time he was forced to pass too close to the flames dancing around him. He stumbled across the room, meaning to try whichever door he came to first when he heard a faint whimper coming from the one that was most likely the bathroom, judging by the melting octopus stuck on the outer side. He darted for it, kicking it open, diving through, then slamming it shut again in one swift movement. He threw the jacket from his head and took in the sight of Serenity, soot blackened and terrified, before him. Before he realised what he was doing, he dropped to his knees and wrapped his arms around her.

"It's ok now, it's alright" He soothed, feeling the almost icy cold of her tears as they slid down his neck where she had her head buried. They stayed like that for only a moment before he pulled her up and slung the recovered jacket over her head. "Come on, we need to go." Without waiting for a response, not that the traumatised girl would likely have given one, he hoisted her into his arms and booted the bathroom door open once again. He shielded her as best he could, bent as low as he dared with his precious cargo and forged ahead, aiming for where he thought the door was since he could no longer see it through the strengthening flames. Finally, halfway across the room, he made out the hazy outline of the exit. His relief lasted only seconds though as a heavy beam creaked ominously above them, halting him for a moment. In that moment, the beam tore through the weakened plaster of the ceiling and crashed to the ground in the exact spot he would have been standing had he not paused. As it was, the collision only knocked the pair back, Duke landing heavily on his back with Serenity still clutched tightly to his chest. The fall seemed to jolt her back to awareness and she let out a wracking cough before staggering to her feet. Duke followed close behind, ignoring the pain screaming through his body from so much abuse.

"What do we do now?" Serenity yelled over the roar of the flames, shrinking away as a chunk of the wall crumbled nearby, "There's no way through!"

Duke stared hard at the beam for a second, considering its angle and the intensity of the flames licking at it. It was a heavy block of wood and the fire had not yet claimed it completely, there were still patches that were only just beginning to smoulder. Over these areas, the door was still visible. More so than before, in fact, for when the beam had fallen, it had smothered the flames directly in front of the portal. There was no chance of climbing over it, the thing might not have been roaring like the rest of the room, but it was still on fire and no doubt red hot by now. There was only one option. Turning back to Serenity, he plucked her off the floor and got a firm grip on her.

"What are you doing?! There's no way we can get past that thing, it's too ho-" She cut herself off with a gasp as she realised his intention, "No don-" This time she was cut off by the sudden stomach churning feeling of flying through the air. He had hurled her clean over the beam. She hit the floor on the other side, her momentum rolling her the remaining foot or so out into the smoke filled but still relatively flame free hallway. She let out another serious of choking coughs then pushed herself upright. The smoke was fast beginning to overcome her, it seemed much thicker out here away from the flames, though it was entirely possible she just hadn't noticed the smoke so much when she was in the middle of the fire. She staggered and started to fall, only managing to steady herself by throwing her body against the wall and practically clinging to it. Her vision started to double and the roar of the flames became muffled. The last thing she saw before the darkness washed over her was the rain of rubble and flame as the ceiling of the apartment she had barely escaped collapsed with a ground shaking boom. She was already lost to over exertion as the fire crew thundered up the stairs, and was completely oblivious as they carried her out to a waiting ambulance.

----------

She sat in the hospital, picking at the food before her without much enthusiasm. Finally deciding to give up on the idea of eating, she stood and placed the tray on the bedside cabinet. She stood there, staring at the half eaten food for a good while, lost in thought, before turning her head slowly to regard the heavily bandaged figure in the bed beside her. He had been lucky. Very lucky. When the ceiling had caved, the floor had given way, dropping him and a good portion of the debris down to the apartment below. He had still been seriously wounded, suffering countless broken bones, severe smoke inhalation and 2nd degree burns, but he was alive. The fire crew were adamant that had the floor not given way, there was no chance that he would have survived. She sat back down and rested her elbows gently on the bed, gazing up at his concealed face. For the thousandth time in the three weeks since the incident, she was flooded with guilt. He was in this state because of her. If he had not needed to rescue her, he would still be ok. She lowered her head and tried to push away the guilt. He hadn't needed to rescue her, he chose to rescue her. He chose to dive headfirst into a burning apartment, not even knowing if she was definitely in there. Why? Why would he risk his life like that? She had her hopes. Perhaps her feelings weren't as one sided as she thought. For a long time, she had found herself wanting more than just friendship with Duke Devlin, she had just been too scared to tell him. Too scared that he would reject her, tell her that she was just a friend, or worse, just his friends little sister. The thought of that possible rejection had been enough to keep her silent. She regretted that now with all her heart. He hadn't woken once during the entire three weeks, and the doctors couldn't say for sure if he ever would. Yes, he was alive, but as it was, he wasn't much better off than he would have been had he not made it. Thoughts like that didn't surface very often, and when they did, they were quickly squashed. He was alive and he would wake up. He hadn't left her in the fire, he wouldn't leave her now, of that she was certain. And when he awoke, she would tell him. She was determined, whether he rejected her or not, that he would at least know. All she could do now was wait. Smiling, she slipped her hand into his and gently stroked it with her thumb.

She had a feeling she wouldn't have to wait too long.