So, I got this idea after thinking about Cute and Intelligent. ^^ Although, this story will most definately be.. um.. not fluffy. XD Anyway, yeah. I don't own YGO, so, on with the show ..err story.

Beware, J/S yaoi, foreshadowing, and overall weirdness...

{Quarter to Three}

{Chapter 1: Numbers}

Of course it had to rain the day he had to walk home. Without his jacket. Jou shuddered and rubbed his arms as he let out a cool breath. He was hoping to go to Yugi's house that night, but he and his Yami were out somewhere. Most likely on a date again, so he opted to go home that night. He shuddered, wrapping his arms around his torso and leaning in. It was bad enough to rain, but the wind had to kick in at that moment as well.

Jou coughed slightly, and looked to the grey sky glaring. Damn weather. Damn his memory. A gust of wind went past him quickly once more and he pulled himself closer together. It seemed to be getting colder. He sneezed.

'Dammit, a cold is not what i need right now' he thought.

His old house came into view, and Jou picked up his speed. Thunder sounded behind him in a sudden crash; which cause Jou to walk even quicker. He finally reached the door, and moved to open it quietly. It was most likely his alcoholic father would be sleeping at the moment. He opened the door fully, walked in, and silently pushed the door back to the opening. Jou walked slowly to his room, and threw his bag on to his floor, before flopping down on the matress that was on the floor.

He sighed, and sprawled himself over the ratty comfortor while kicking off his shoes. Slowly relaxing, he closed his eyes for a rest. It had been a long day. Kaiba had been extra harsh for some reason. Mokuba must have pissed him off somehow this morning. Jou smirked at the thought. Mokuba was seemingly Kaiba's only weak spot. And Jou had pushed it today. Really, he didn't honestly mean to insult Mokuba, but his mouth ran off before his mind told him not to say anything.

'Damn mind,' Jou thought to himself. He sighed and sat up, grabbing for his backpack.

He pulled out his math binder and piece of paper. He flipped through to the assigned page, and stared down. This of course is what he had been doing during the class itself, as well. It was numbers. Numbers and letters just jumbled together. He understood the concepts, sure, but he just couldn't remember anything. No matter how many times his teacher showed him, he couldn't grasp it, couldn't remember how to do it.

He sighed gruffly, and recited the problem in his head. 'Y²+6+12y=2. Solve for Y.' He could do this. He could. Because there was Y's on both sides, he could.. Damn. He couldn't remember. He banged a palm on his head, as if trying to make the memory resurface.

He shoved the papers away from him and sprawled himself back onto the mattress. His door suddenly opened, and his father stood in the way. Jou looked up at him tiredly, "What is it, old man?"

"Watch your tone, boy, or I wont give you your mail!" It was an idle threat.

"I got mail?"

His father tossed him a small package and left the room without another word.

Jou sat up and examined the box. There wasn't any return address. He jokingly wondered if there was a bomb inside.

He looked around it until he found a small piece of tape that kept the package closed. He pulled it, and opened the box.

There inside were intricately designed silk scarves. He wondered where they came from, but the box still held more. It was too heavy just to carry the scarves. He pulled them out, and continued looking through the box. There was nothing left.

He began looking through the scarves that now surrounded him, and had yet to find anything. He lifted the first scarf he had pulled out, and found two small bracelets. They looked gold, and both held an egyptian-centric eye atop them. Jou stared. The eye looked similar to the eye that was on Yugi's millenium puzzle. He cocked his head. They were just bracelets though. He picked one up, and slid it carefully over his hand. He picked up the second and slid it over the top of his opposite hand.

They were kinda pretty. But definately not his style. He pulled both off and set them next to the lamp on the little table he had next to his mattress, and stuffed all the scarves back into the box. He tossed the box to the other side of the room, and began cleaning up his math binder. He wasn't going to be able to do it. Like usual. Can't say he didn't try though. Yet another thing that Kaiba gave him hell for. Jou wasn't sure exactly how Kaiba had found out that he wasn't doing well in his math class, but he had. It was an everyday thing. Which had, coincidentally, provoked Jou's lash against Kaiba's little brother today.

Kaiba had immediately swung for Jou, but luckily he evaded the punch, and walked out as quickly as he could.

He didn't really like fighting anymore, even verbally. He had grown up since Battle City. He was a better duelist and he himself was more mature. He liked to consider himself a pretty well adjusted seventeen-year-old. So what he wasn't good with math? ..Or grammar. But, that didn't make him a bad person. Jou huffed. He stood and took off his pants to replace them with his pyjama bottoms. He clammored down to his mattress once more, and climbed under the comforter. Maybe he'd take a nap. It was only five o'clock, he'd be able to fall asleep again later.

He closed his eyes and rolled over. No, that wasn't comfortable. He shifted again. Nope, that wasn't either. He shifted again, and faced the small table next to his bed. The bracelets with the eyes on them were placed together like a face. It appeared as though they were staring at him. Jou smiled slightly at the thought, and reached up for them. They were nice looking bracelets.

He tried them on again, one on each arm, and examined them closely. They looked like real gold. Jou remembered a trick he heard to find out if something was real gold. Bite it. If there was any dents, then it wasn't real gold. He brought his arn down to his mouth, and took a bite of the bracelet with his molars. He bit down hard, just to be sure, and pulled it away. His eyes widened when he saw the truth. There were no bite-marks. This was real gold! He wiped at his mouth, and sat up.

Someone had sent him gold bracelets! Real gold bracelets. He stared. Maybe he'd keep them on.

He climbed back into the warm comforter, and closed his eyes.

Jou woke with a start as he usually did, and pulled the covers around him tighter. He looked up around him, and noticed it was dark. He glanced at his watch, and check the time. 5:40 am. ...Whoa. He didn't realize that he was so tired. But now he wouldn't go back to sleep. Perhaps it was for the best, seeing as how he would have to go to school in an hour anyway.

He sat up, cold from the lack of heat in his household, and stood up. He stretched slightly, and looked around for the pants he had taken off the night before. They were jeans. They could be worn a couple days in a row without being washed.

He pulled off his nightshirt, and scratched his back. He checked himself out in the mirror. No funny movements to show off his muscles, but he did check everyonce in a while. He smiled slightly. He was proud of his body. He didn't work out for nothing. Alright, he had to give in. He brought one arm up to the mirror and flexed. A defined muscle showed, and Jou smiled. It wasn't until he noticed his wrist that he stopped smiling. His gold bracelet was gone.

He quickly looked at his arm to see if the mirror had somehow tricked his eyes. No, it was gone. He brought his other arm up just as fast, and checked. That one was gone too. He panicked. Where were his bracelets?! His way cool, gold bracelets?! Jou sighed, and checked around his room. These were definately not something he wanted to lose!

It was 6:20 by the time he had finally given up looking for his bracelets. He would have kept looking, but he needed to get changed for school. He found his uniform pants and shirt and changed. He tied his sneakers on, and pulled a quick hand through his tangly blonde hair. Shizuka would scold him for not taking more care of his hair, but he couldn't worry about his hair anymore.

He grabbed his backpack and headed out the door with a quick, "I'm leaving now, dad," as he left. He half-walked, half-jogged until he reached the game shop to meet up with Yugi, as was his usual routine. He knocked on the door before walking in. Yugi was standing ready with his backpack, talking to Sugoroku.

Jou smiled lightly, and walked over to them.

"Morning, Yugi," Jou told him.

Yugi smiled cheerfully, "Good Moooooorning!"

Jou chuckled, "Ready to go?" and turned heading for the door.

Jou stopped when he realized that Yugi wasn't following him. His eyes were glazed over slightly, and he was standing still. Within moments, Yugi blinked back into reality, and blushed. Jou smirked, as he was fairly sure that Yugi's embarrasment wasn't from talking to Yami infront of him. He chuckled to himself. Yugi loved his Yami. It was pretty obvious. Jou understood that. He didn't care if Yugi was gay,

Their other friends didn't know. Jou wondered how they didn't notice, but he shrugged it off. Yugi really only cared for his opinion. Their friendship had most definately grown since Yugi came out to him.

Yugi walked towards him now, and Jou waved back to Sugoroku.

"Sayaonara, 'jiji!" Jou yelled out to him.

"Jou! You should respec--" Sugoroku was cut off as Jou closed the door.

"Damn kids today..." He shook his head and walked back to his spot behind the counter. He would be opening the shop for the day soon.

"Jou?"

"Yeah?" Jou looked down to Yugi.

"Are you alright? You've been awfully quiet today." Yugi was such a nice guy.

"Oh, I'm fine, Yugi." Jou stared out ahead of them.

Yugi look at him slightly worried, but shrugged it off. Jou would tell him if anything was wrong. They finally reached the school where Anzu and Honda were waiting for them as usual.

"Good Morning, everybody," Yugi's voice sounded out. Everyone said their good mornings to eachother and they walked off towards their first class. The bell would ring any minute now.

"Jou?" It was Anzu.

"Yeah?"

"How did you do on the homework last night?" Anzu was curious by nature, sure, but she asked him this every morning. It got on his nerves usually. Luckily today, he was feeling strangely calmer than normal.

"Eh, same -ol' same-ol', you know. I couldn't figure that shi-- um, stuff out last night." Yugi didn't appreciate curse words.

"Oh, Jou."

"Yeah, well, no big deal. I'll figure it out sooner or later." Jou walked off leaving the group behind him.

"Having trouble in mathematics again, mutt?" the familiar voice sounded out to him.

Jou stopped, feeling slightly stung more than usual. He turned. "Yeah. I am. So what?"

Kaiba was going to respond but stopped, "What? No insult?"

Jou sighed and shook his head, "I'm really not in the mood for this right now." He walked off. 'What was that?' Jou asked himself. He's never backed down before. Jou wasn't sure where his sudden mood change came from, but he wasn't happy about it. He continued walking down the hall until the bell for first period sounded out.

He walked down the corridor and to the left. He walked into his first classroom. He already couldn't wait for brunch.

Jou squinted against the sun. Yesterday's storm had brought along a rather sunny, warm day after it. Jou was feeling better from the morning, bad mood almost completely gone.

"Hey, Jou?"

"Yeah, Yugi?" He turned around to the boy sitting on the grass behind him.

"Come sit by me!" Yugi smiled, "Pleeeeeeease?"

Jou smiled, his bad mood forgotten, and moved to sit next to Yugi.

Yugi smiled broadly and showed his lunch. "Want any?"

'Ooooooh, food,' Jou thought. He nodded, and grabbed for the twinky that rested beside the vegetables.

Yugi smiled. Jou's mood from the morning seemed to be gone, which made him happy.

Jou sat quietly once more and munched on his twinky. They were sooo good. He heard Yugi lay down against the grass, most likely going to talk to Yami.

Jou sighed lightly and lay down next to Yugi, closing his eyes. Anzu, Ryou and Honda's voices faded away slightly, and he thought back to the problem from last night. 'Y²+6+12y=2. Solve for Y.' ... Solve for--

Waitaminute. Jou shot up quickly and lunged for his backpack. He pulled out his math binder and looked through his book until he found the problem. He read it over quickly, and he suddenly blurted out, "Y is equal to .345 and 11.655! Yugi! Yugi!" Jou laughed, and shook his resting friend. The rest of the group sat slightly stunned, staring at Jou. Yugi sat up groggily and asked what the fuss was about.

"Yugi! I figured out the problem! .345 and 11.655 are both equal to Y!" He laughed, spun on his knees, and fell back on to the ground.

The whole group was smiling happily for him. Yugi frowned.

"Jou? What math problem was this?"

"You had to factor this problem. That was the work. It's like.. twenty of them. I couldn't figure them out. And the one I couldn't do last night.. well, actually the only one I tried working on. I just figured out how to do it." He laughed happily, and fell back.

"That's great Jounou!" Honda's voice drifted over to him. Yugi stood and grabbed the book away from Jou's backpack.

"Where's the work?"

Jou looked up, "Huh?"

"Where's the work for the problem?"

"Oh, I didn't need to. I just kinda... got it."

Yugi smiled, but inside he was confused. "Why don't you try another one?"

Jou nodded.

Yugi sat down and factored out a problem near the bottom. After about two minutes, Yugi read out the original problem.

Jou ran the problem through his head a few times and the answer finally came to him within seconds, "X equals 7 and .2364."

Yugi's eyes brightened. "Jou! That's right! I thought you didn't understand this stuff..."

"It just kinda came to me. Don't know how really. Just thought about the problem then.. poof! he he."

Yugi smiled. He was happy Jou could finally do the math he was having such trouble with.

All throughout his math period, Jou was consistantly the one who raised his hand. Why hadn't he understood this stuff before? It was so simple! The math teacher was surprised, to say the least, that her most troubled student was suddenly answering the questions that plagued him with trouble only the day before.

As the class finally ended and the teacher asked for Jou to stay after.

"Mr. Jounouchi, I want you to answer me now, and truthfully. Have you been looking at the answer book?"

'What?' "....nooo," he answered, slightly perturbed.

"I have trouble understanding how you can so completely understand this subject when you haven't understood it since we started the unit."

"No, I understand what you're saying," 'Bitch.' "But I haven't looked in the answer book. I mean you can ask me a question right now, and Ill tell you the answer."

The eyed him wearily, then asked a question which had all three of her classes stumped on.

It wasn't twenty seconds until Jou stated the answer, "12 and .12685"

The teacher blinked. She sifted through her papers for the answer, and found it was just what he said. She looked up at him in shock. She quickly said another one off the top of her head, and sat down to answer it herself.

Jou came out with the answer, which just so happened to be the answer she came out with as well.

"Well, Mr. Jounouchi, I'm impressed. I apologize for acusing you of cheating." She bowed to him, "Keep up the good work."

Jou bowed, grabbed his backpack and then left the room. What was with everyone being so surprised? Suddenly a painful shock ran through his head. It caused him to stop in his tracks. Where had this massive headache come from?

Surely it couldn't be just because he used his brain. Jou smiled slightly through the pain and waited it out. It couldn't go on forever. Slowly it ebbed away, and Jou felt perfectly fine.

'...Weird.'

He walked towards the front of the school where Yugi usually waited for him. When he reached there, surprisingly Yugi wasn't there. He walked around yelling for him every few seconds. He came upon the library. Maybe Yugi was in here.

Jou opened the doors quietly and walked in. Of course this place had to be huge. He shoved his hands in his pockets and made his way slowly around the book cases. He glanced over the titles until one caught his eye. Advanced Chess

He pulled it out, and flipped through. He paused, turned back to the first page, and started reading.

He realized that all the words he was reading were-- it seemed like it, atleast-- sticking in his brain. He read a little faster.

He paused and ran over the information. Yup, still sticking. As if he just read it. He read a little faster. A little faster. Within minutes, he has already made it a quater of the way through the book. And then he dropped it. What the hell was he doing? He blinked and recalled the information. It was there. Just like the quadratic formula. It stuck. He picked the book back up and put it in the shelf.

He looked around again and started walking towards the stairs. He spotted Yugi finally. With Kaiba.

What was it he was holding? ...And why exactly was Kaiba with him..

Jou walked up, slightly suspicious.

"Jou! There you are. Sorry I wasn't out front. I came to see if Kaiba could do something for me."

'Sure, Yugi,' he thought with comtempt. "Alright."

"I'm really sorry."

Jou sighed. He really had no reason to be mad at him. "It's fine. Ready to go?"

"Oh, Um I have one thing to get. Be right back." Yugi ran off before Jou could say anything, and he was left standing with Kaiba.

This would be fun.

{End Chapter 1}

Ezra/JI: I hope my new name change hasn't confused anyone. ^_^ This is still JI, just back to my original name!.

Betty: I'm still her alter-ego!

Ezra: ... Sadly. °_° Long first chapter, eh? Be prepared, most of the chapters are going to be rather long. XD I hope you readers don't mind.

Betty: ¬_¬.. Review please!