Cherophobia - Describes someone who's afraid of being happy because whenever they get too happy, something bad tends to happen.

Yugi has never been able to be happy for very long. As soon as he grasps it, tragedy always follows. After this pattern of misfortune, he decided that he was just meant to be unlucky and any future sign of serendipity would be snatched from him, so he pushes any sign of happiness away, including love. He wouldn't be caught dead in it. But when he meets Yami, the new employee that works at the same place where lands his internship - Kaiba Corp, all of his vows to stay away from happiness seem to be all forgotten…and he finds himself determined to make Yami his.

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh or Kaiba Corp, or it's employees. Yugi would like to own Yami's body however…

"Mr. Mutou, please take your seat."

The teacher did absolutely nothing with that statement but light the fire that fueled the class in an uproar as he stood at the chalkboard – reluctantly, only there because Mr. Maximillion Pegasus volunteered him when no one raised their hands to come solve the math equation on the board. Yugi was probably one of the worst students, not in behavior, but academically wise, and yet Pegasus seemed to choose him the most out of everyone else. Yugi started to think he had some sort of personal pleasure out of embarrassing him to solve this obvious foreign language.

Yugi turned a deep crimson red as his face felt almost like a sauna as he slowly sauntered to his seat, his head hung low. I swear he does this shit to make my life miserable, he scowled, twisting his face at the thought. He tried to be good at math, he honestly did. But it was just one of those things, that he just couldn't grasp, no matter what he did. Why couldn't Pegasus choose a better student, such as Teá or Ryou? They were absolute wizzes at this thing, as if they've been practicing math since they were 2. They both even tried helping Yugi after school for hours on end, but to no avail. Yugi was just too distracted and bored to even care to learn, which was also part of his problem.

Being only 5'3 did have its advantages. Yugi could use his short legs to return swiftly to his seat without drawing more attention to himself than he already did with his fuck up of a performance. And it would have been a peaceful retreat if he saw that foot stick out in front of him in time…

THUCK! Yugi tasted nothing but cold concrete as his face fell sickeningly on the marble tiled floor. Of course it was concrete because Pegasus was too lazy to have carpet – that would mean having to vaccum and shampoo more often whenever it got dirty.

His face grew somewhat numb as he lifted his head, feeling a heartbeat in his ears from all the ringing. He didn't realize that his nose was bleeding until someone pointed it out to him. Oh great. Pegasus was having a hard time quieting the class down from their giddy jeers and screaming laughter. They felt absolutely no sympathy for Yugi. Despite him having done nothing to them, they didn't seem to like the kid very much. It appeared as if they, and the whole world had something against short people. But Yugi couldn't help that!

He turned to his right to discover who tripped him and to his horror he locked eyes with D'Mitri Thorn, the biggest guy in the class, not to mention the dumbest.

D'mitri was 19 years old and still in high school, being held back 2 years. If anyone needed a math tutor, it was him. He didn't even try to apply himself, even at the easiest of math problems; at least Yugi did. But they both couldn't grasp the concept of precalculus algebra. But Yugi still saw himself way better off in life than this guy.

D'mitri gave Yugi a stern whatcha-gonna-do-about-it look before he took his seat behind him, defeated. He was about a foot taller than Yugi. He wasn't stupid. He actually wanted to live past his 18th birthday. Yugi knew how to pick his battles. And Joey, Yugi's best friend, wasn't in this class with Yugi and the others, otherwise, he and D'mitri would have went 12 rounds, easy. Joe had a hot blooded temper but he was extremely protective and loyal to Yugi, ever since Yugi saved he and Tristan from getting their asses handed to them by the Elite – basically Domino High School's biggest and baddest clique. No one messed with them, and they seemed to get away with a lot more than they should've been able to. Rumor has it, they paid off a few administrators to keep quiet and give them leeway, but then again, it was just a rumor. No one dared to question it. Everyone tried their best to keep a far distance from this group, but somehow Joey and Tristan owed them money, for whatever reason (Yugi never found out) and when they didn't have it well…

Instead of them getting beat up, Yugi took the fall for them. It cost him some of his teeth and a lot more of his dignity, but at least he got 2 new buddies out of the deal. The 3, including Teá and Ryou, have been inseparable ever since.

Yugi slumped in his seat for the rest of the class, not paying any attention to what Sensei was explaining at all, knowing that if he didn't pass the class, he most likely wouldn't be able to apply for an internship of his dreams at of all places, Kaiba Corp. He and Seto Kaiba were always, and probably will always be rivals, at least when it came to the popular game of duel monsters, but Yugi never really saw him as an enemy. Just someone who had lost his way, blinded by anger and poisoned by his troubled past that he seemed to take out on everyone, including his brother, Mokuba. But by this time, the CEO was 21, well out of high school, and doing well with his company, and even improved his attitude a smidge, and Yugi wanted to become part of it. He wanted to train to join the marketing/creative team and eventually become the head there, but to even be considered for a spot in the internship, prospective students had to have an A-B grade point average, and Yugi was see-sawing between a B-C average. All because of this stupid class. A class that had NOTHING to do with what he wanted to major in in college, but it was required that all students take this class, or the like, or you couldn't graduate. And despite knowing all of this Yugi spent most of the class period daydreaming just because he couldn't grasp the material. "You need to study!" Teá said to him once. She was always so practical, more worried about Yugi's grades than he was, but it was all in good intentions. He liked that the most about her.

Yugi was so lost in his thoughts that he almost didn't hear the bell ring. He jerked his head up from resting on the back of his hand, shooting a glance at Pegasus who was shaking his head in disbelief.

"You seem to be more interested in the back of your eyelids than passing this class," he said gruffly, his almost perfect white stiff hair hiding one of his eyes. Yugi probably thought it was best if he didn't have both of them boring a hole into him. He shuddered slightly.

"I'm sorry Sensei, but I just don't understand this material at all. Perhaps if I had a tutor – "

"We've tried that before, remember, Mr. Mutou?" the Sensei raising his eyebrow, interrupted.

Yugi half chuckled, half clearing his throat, nodded his head in agreement, but didn't say anything, reminiscing the study session turned water balloon fight between him, Joey, Teá (surprisingly), Tristan, Ryou and Mokuba.

Pegasus grabbed a few pieces of tissue and handed it to Yugi. "Looks like you had a little accident there," he said pointing gingerly.

Dammit. Yugi had forgotten all about his bloody nose. The blood had dried up by now, along with some mucus that must have strewn from his nose from the air that was sucked out of him when he hit the grown. He took the tissues, embarrassingly, before thanking the Sensei and leaving the classroom.

"I hope you're ready for the test next week young man."

Yugi rolled his eyes. Of course he wasn't.

Thankfully, math was the last class of the day before school let out. Yugi waited at his locker for his friends to meet up, before they walked home, and to gather all the books he needed for homework. Homework. It almost left a bitter taste in his mouth. Most of the stuff his teachers assigned him wasn't even collected the next day to be graded, nor was it hardly on any tests. What was the point of even doing it? Yugi sighed, shoving the books into his backpack anyway.

He closed the locker door and turned around, only to be greeted by Rebecca, his ex girlfriend. Yugi's eyes widened as she was literally 3 inches away from his face. She could have stolen a kiss if she wanted to.

"Hi, Smooshie!" she exclaimed in her high pitched voice that would have made an onion cry. She reached out to hug him.

Yugi flinched and took a few steps back. "Hi, Beck," he said under his breath. She was the last person he wanted to see right now.

"You need any help with that?"

"Help with?"

"Your books."

"Nope, I'm good!"

Rebecca shot Yugi an incredulous look before deciding that starting a silly argument over books wasn't worth it. Maybe next time.

"Later," she said dryly. Yugi exhaled a sigh of relief when she disappeared around the corner.

Yugi and Rebecca dated for 8 months. When they first met, Yugi was smitten immediately. She had long, dark brown hair flowing all the way to her ass that swayed when she walked. And speaking of her ass, Yugi liked the firmness of it, not being able to unglue his eyes from it when she walked away in her white frilled mini skirts that she wore all the time. All of those squats were finally paying off.

But not only was she beautiful physically, she was also beautiful mentally and emotionally. Yugi was shy and timid and quite frankly, intimidated by her beauty. He told his friends how he felt about her, and they goaded him into asking her (especially Joe), but in the end, it was Teá who brought the 2 together, despite her being secretly jealous. She had a crush on Yugi since they were in elementary school. She always found him adorable. But fearing that Yugi never felt the same way, she didn't tell him how she felt and, well, that was that. She managed to keep her jealousy at a stand still, and at the same time, wanting Yugi to be happy.

By their 3 month anniversary, Yugi was head over heels in love with Rebecca. They spent almost every waking minute together, from make-out sessions in between classes, to spontaneous dates to the park or fancy restaurants that Rebecca's grandfather always paid for of course. Yugi simply didn't have the money, and he certainly wasn't going to ask his grandpa for it. Owning your own game shop didn't bring as much luxury as everyone thought, but it did get them by. Initially, it didn't bother Rebecca that Yugi wasn't rich and didn't have expensive paraphernalia at his disposal, but the dates were getting pricy and she put more and more pressure on Yugi to "man up", in her words, and pay for more dates. But the only thing he could afford to pay for were tickets to the dollar movie. But to Yugi, it shouldn't have mattered because they were spending time together.

But it sure did matter to Rebecca. As the months passed, she became more and more superficial and demanding, passively-aggressively suggesting that Yugi get a job to support her shopping habits and their constant dates. He really couldn't because of the heavy demand of his classes, especially his nagging precalc class. He explained this to Rebecca, and she was sufficiently surprised, as if she was expecting him to succumb to her ultimatums. She then suggested that Yugi apply for a job at Kaiba Corp at the entry level when he graduated. If he graduated. That's where he got the idea to register for an internship, but since he was still in high school, he had to be put on the waiting list.

Nonetheless, Yugi was beginning to see Rebecca's true colors. While he loved and cared for her well being, she just wanted someone to spoil her rotten. But he still tried to make the relationship work.

The cherry on the sundae, however, was one night at Rebecca's 6 bedroom white and red brick mansion, surrounded by white steel pointed tipped bars, with a security code being the only method of entrance. If you didn't know the code, you couldn't get in. Rebecca's grandfather was away on another archaeological excavation, leaving her all alone with Yugi. The 2 did their usual making out pastime, but after only 4 months, Rebecca thought they should take their relationship to the next level. Yugi, of course, was totally undisclosed of her plans. He was still a virgin- she wasn't. He wanted to wait until the time was perfect and that – that definitely wasn't it. Rebecca was drunk from her grandfather's scotch whisky, that she wasn't supposed to be drinking because she was underaged, and she was feeling frisky. Yugi didn't know that she was drunk when he arrived at her house but after a few minutes of kissing and making out, he smelled the alcohol on her breath. But by the time he realized this, she was already trying to rip his shirt off and pinning him down on her light pink silk sheet bed.

She had succeeded in taking his shirt off and climbing on top of him, kissing his neck and saying dirty unmentionables in his ear. Yugi couldn't help but admit that it felt so good. He surrendered to her wants, taking off her blouse, then her bra, touching and squeezing her breasts, causing her to moan, making him grow harder and harder in his pants. Rebecca, feeling this growth, kissed him on his chest and went lower and lower until she approached his swollen member.

Just as she went to unzip his pants, a cold realization slapped Yugi in the face. He didn't want to have sex with Rebecca when she was in this intoxicated state. It didn't feel right to him. He grabbed her hand, and then eventually her arms, pulling up to her up to him to stop her. In this memory, he vaguely remembers her screaming and scolding him for stopping her and that he should just "fuck her brains out" because she was horny. As much as Yugi wanted to, he refused. No. Not like this.

She tried to climb on top of him again and succeeded initially and began grinding on his cock, making Yugi moan unintentionally. Damn this feels so good, Yugi was thinking. But he couldn't go through with it.

"You like that don't you?" Rebecca said, a dark want in her eyes.

A wave of guilt vanquished over Yugi as he once again smelled alcohol on her breath. Searching for some inner strength, he snatched both of her arms and flung her off of him, causing her to sprawl on the floor, leaving Yugi on the bed panting, looking down at his member still erect.

He grabbed his clothes and ran for the door before any more damage was done, being followed by Rebecca, cursing at him and he even thought he heard her call him a douchebag. When Yugi arrived home, he couldn't get the image of her grinding on him out of his mind, so, desperate for release, he masturbated, feeling deep shame afterwards. At least it was better than releasing inside Rebecca, possibly getting her pregnant, which was his biggest fear.

Needless to say, she ended their relationship the next day, claiming that he wasn't "man enough" for her. Yugi wasn't sure if she meant stature wise or what. In any event, Yugi figured out that Becca didn't really love him for him and just wanted him for her personal piggy bank. When she started dating his former friend Duke Devlin, he was at the end of his rope; he felt at his lowest for the longest time and if it weren't for his friends, he probably would have never bounced back.

That is…until one night when Teá came over to comfort Yugi in his sorrow. Her intentions were there, but the visit resulted in her kissing Yugi on the lips, and him returning the exchange. In his vulnerability, Yugi thought he could find refuge in her. Until a few days later when she confessed that she only kissed him to make him feel better. There were no feelings involved at all. Teá felt guilty for taking advantage of Yugi at such a fragile state, but after that second blow, Yugi couldn't take any more heartbreak. He swore off women and dating until after graduation and decided that relationships just weren't for him.

"YUGI! Let's go already, half pint! For fuck sake!"

The booming familiar voice violently shook Yugi from his reminiscences. Damn, he had to stop doing that. He saw that the gang was waiting for him at the exit. He hurriedly ran up to catch up to them, heavy books in hand and all.

"What's with you man?" Joey demanded, a look of concern in his eyes.

"Nothing, just…don't worry, I'm fine, Joe. Just a lot on my plate."

"There better be something on my plate soon, or else I'm gonna go ape shit!" he chortled, laughing at his own joke.

The gang all jumped in Tristan's 2005 Honda Civic down the familiar street, Domino Avenue, first dropping Yugi off since he was the closest by. Everyone said their goodbyes and Tristan waited for Yugi to walk in the game shop before he sped off.

Just as he opened the door, his eyes widened and he dropped his backpack at his feet, almost in disbelief at what awaited him.

"Kaiba?!"