This story is planned to be a little AU.

It is yaoi.

The usual disclaimers apply.

1. Guess

"There's another one of those billboards," Crow said, pointing.

Yusei followed the line of Crow's finger toward the gigantic panel. The photo consisted of a single, beautifully-formed hand and wrist, the hand curled around a glass of what looked like very expensive scotch, three ice cubes, the glass a perfect balance between the masculine and the refined. The skin of the model was pale, but impossibly perfect, almost translucent, like alabaster; the kind that only appeared in ads. Yusei had to concentrate to maintain the line of his D-wheel. Guess, the billboard teased. Marketing at its best.

"So?"

Crow pointed to a billboard a little further along, one that had appeared a couple of weeks ago: a close-up of two bare feet crossed at the ankles in a leisurely pose. You could just see the hems of the stone-washed jeans the man was wearing, and, to top it off, a dog was curled on the oval rug where his feet were resting. Again, the feet were incredibly beautiful. Feet! Once again, the prompt was, Guess.

"So, that's Quest's new campaign. We're supposed to guess who the model for the campaign is. It's hush-hush, a big deal. There's a contest behind it and they're revealing the model a feature at a time."

Yusei blinked. "Really. How far have they gotten?"

"Oh, there's three or four out by now," he said.

They were pulling into Poppo Time, and after parking, Crow headed to the coffee table and picked up Duel. "These Quest ads are everywhere," he said, leafing through the magazine. "Here's one." He handed the magazine to Yusei.

There was another one, a lean yet muscular leg draped over the edge of a bed somewhat suggestively. The suggestion was all inside the mind of the viewer, of course: it was only a bare leg hanging over the edge of a bed, after all, but it was long, lean, and—dammit—perfect. Yusei scowled. The Quest logo and contest details appeared at the bottom of the page.

Crow looked at his expression and said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yes. How can a man look that good?" He tossed the magazine on the table. Then, as though it were a continuation of that thought, he said, "By the way, have you seen Jack today?"

"No, and I have no idea where he went. He said something extremely vague about job-hunting, but I think that he may have been going to meet that friend of his, Kazama, for a friendly duel. I don't think he's gotten around to it yet."

Yusei considered that and shrugged. There was no telling with Jack. He had a way of disappearing for hours on end with no explanation. Who knew what he did? Sometimes he ended up in trouble. Sometimes he simply … disappeared. Other times he was around helping … or, aggravatingly, failing to help. Worst of all was when he impeded progress by trying his best to help and ending up working against the team. Jack preferred working as an individual and felt that he could best contribute by being the best he could be … but that wasn't always the case. Yusei saw and understood how much it frustrated Crow, but he couldn't help admiring Jack's purity. He just couldn't stand giving less than his all in anything that he did.

… Which was why it was so hard for him to get and hold a job.

But not having him around made the garage feel so … vacant.

An hour later, as Yusei was cooking up some dinner, Jack breezed in, looking as perfectly put together as usual. "Hey, Jack," Yusei said. "Want some Udon? I'm making plenty."

"Sure. Where's Crow?"

"Checking on the kids." Yusei poured Jack some tea. As he served the Udon, he noticed Jack raising the teacup to his lips and paused for a moment.

"What?"

Yusei flashed on the hand holding the glass of scotch. Nah, he thought. Jack couldn't possibly sit still for that long. And even if he could, he'd tell the photographer what to do and get himself fired.

"Nothing, Jack … Not a thing."

Author's notes:

OK ... Maybe the third time's the charm trying to post this. Not like this story is a big deal, it's only a little bit of slightly AU fluff. I'm hoping for some mild humor, but I can never tell how I do, so I'm hoping for some feedback in that area. The writing is still in progress, so I'm a little nervous about posting, but I have a fair idea of where it's going ... it's probably obvious enough that you can tell too. If you find this at all entertaining, feel free to let me know (even by pm). I haven't gotten a peep about my sequel, which I'm taking to mean either everyone understands my frustration or no one cares about it anyway. Oh well ...

This is planned not to be nearly as long as Satisfaction, but I think it will be longer than I'd originally thought. The chapters might be shorter, but I'm hoping that once Pride is complete, I can start knocking it out at a reasonable clip. (BTW, if you're following Pride, the next chapter might be delayed, it's not because of this story, I have family stuff.)

(Sorry about the length of these notes, but the notes for Pride have gotten so bloated, I'm used to being verbose. Feel free to skip them.)

Preview of chapter 2:

Aki blushed again and Yusei thought that she might have had the same thought that crossed his mind but she was afraid to admit it. "Have you figured it out?" she asked.

"Not yet," he said, tossing the magazine onto the coffee table.

At that moment Jack walked in. Yusei called, "Hi Jack!" trying to sound casual, but he found it virtually impossible to prevent his eyes from wandering to their most natural target after what he had just seen.

Yusei and Akiza discuss the campaign.