Behind the Scenes

By Anime2000

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!; therefore, it is not mine. That means I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!; therefore, it is not mine. That means I don't own Yu- Gi-Oh!.........

Greetings, fellow Yu-Gi-Oh! fans! I have decided to rewrite the first couple of chapters or so.(And my author notes) Anyone who has read my previous work and the new updates on 'Behind the Scenes' would think that two different people wrote them! That's how much my writing has changed! I'll keep as much of my original chapters as I can, but now that I reread them, I felt that I really needed to redo the first part. SO, I replaced all those short meaningless chappies with one big one! And I WAS gonna start this fic out in Duelist Kingdom, but decided against it just because. So, ignore my comment in the next chapter that you read about Battle City in my author notes. Agh, that was a long explanation. But anyways, I now have a better fic, in my point of view.Not to mention have a plot. That's right everyone; there's gonna be SOME story other than characters complaining all the time!

(---------)

The director looked around helplessly as several Duel Monsters ran past him to prepare for the next scene. Meanwhile, a crimson-eyed teen was multitasking by trying to memorize his next few lines and study for his finals that start tomorrow. Yami paced around, muttering unfathomable words to himself and rechecking to see if his answer was correct or not. A brunette laughed and lightly whacked him with her own script.

"I told you to study yesterday while you had the chance," she giggled as the main protagonist flipped through his script while murmuring something about South Africa.

"Lumis and Umbra!—I mean—Egypt... No, Obelisk was the first president of—I mean...Nelson Mandela! Eh...what?" Yami looked at her. His panicky expression caused her to laugh even harder. "Tea, you're good at memorizing useless facts; help me!" he begged her.

Before the brunette could reply, the director grabbed Yami by his collar and led him away. "Where were you?! We start in thirty seconds! Hey Tea, if you see Kaiba, tell him he'd better be ready for the camera in..." He checked his watch. "Twenty-four seconds!"

"But I haven't—you can't be serious—My finals—I need—Ten more minutes, please—TEA, HELP!!"

When the director had successfully dragged the unhappy actor to his next scene, Tea turned around to face the older Kaiba. But since she wasn't exactly as tall as him, she didn't exactly meet him face-to-face, if you understand. Tea gave a surprised squeak and sprang backwards. "Kai-Kaiba!"

He had his thumb in his mouth... and looked very childish. "Paper cut," he snapped when she gave him a weird look. "You know that Blue Eyes White Dragon that I ripped up earlier in the series?" Tea nodded. "Let's just say the rest of my Blue Eyes are avenging it." Seto looked at his thumb, which had started bleeding again.

"Is—is that blood...?" Tea grimaced. "I... I don't like..." She gave him a rough push with a forced smile on her face. "The director is looking for you too! You've got four seconds to get there!"

Seto blinked and stared at her. "Seriously?"

"Well, you've only got two seconds now."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?!" he demanded and, without waiting for her response, ran full speed down the hall. "Some friend you claim to be!"

'Friendship this, friendship that,' Tea thought to herself as she checked her own watch. 'Friendship's a wonderful thing, but am I the friendship expert or something? Not a lot of people care what I say!' She tapped her watch and checked her script. 'Hm, thirty minutes until I show up.'

(-)

Bakura watched his twin with great attention. 'Carefully. Slowly. Hiding in the shadows. No way he knows I'm here. Whoops, step over the cables. Carefully. Slowly..." Ryou looked up from his novel and glanced around the room nervously. 'Ha, behind your chair, moron.'

"Hey, Bakura." The sudden unexpected voice caused the 'tomb robber' to pounce one second too early. He tripped over the cables that he so painstakingly tried to avoid and fell forwards, crashing into the chair.

"...OW..."

Ryou, who had jumped up just in time, turned around and grinned at his brother who had sat up and was gingerly rubbing his sore nose. He turned his attention to Duke. "Thanks, man."

"Yeah, sure..." Duke looked more confused than proud of sneaking up on the ever-so alert Bakura. "So what're you guys doing here? You don't appear 'till a couple of Duels later... I think..."

"You think?" Bakura growled, still sitting on the ground. Then, more sarcastically, he added, "We wanted to help out in any way that we could for the benefit of the other actors!"

Ryou tossed his book at Bakura. It hit his back and fell to the ground with a light thud. Bakura turned his head around enough for Ryou to see his look of disbelief. "Actually, I wasn't aiming for your back," Ryou said almost immediately. "See... I was kinda hoping for the back of your head, but..."

Duke grabbed Bakura's arms to keep him from tackling the other white-haired boy. "Lemme at him!" Bakura snarled, struggling to get out of the emerald- eyed boy's grip. Ryou laughed. "That's it! When you get home, be sure to look for a trail of stuffing!"

Ryou gave Bakura a horrified look. "Not Mr. Teddy!" he gasped and strode over to him. Grabbing Bakura by his shirt, he screamed, "What did you do with Mr. Teddy?!"

"Follow the trail," Bakura replied with an insane laugh. A thoughtful expression crossed his face. "Actually, Mom was having one of her fussy moments when I left, so you should check the vacuum cleaner–..." He noticed that Ryou looked very murderous. He turned to Duke. "Now would be a good time to let go of me."

(-)

Serenity watched for a few moments before asking, "Who's that?" Tristan's older opponent looked back at her. That's when she realized: "Oh! You're—you're... I'm so sorry!" With an embarrassed grin, she quickly explained, "I didn't recognize you without your costume!" He looked different in jeans and a T-shirt.

"Not many people do," he replied as he placed two monsters in his Graveyard to summon a level-seven Duel Monster. "I'll attack your Battle Ox, and I win."

"Geez, I'm not supposed to lose to a Duel Monster until the Noa arc..." Tristan sighed and gathered up his cards. "You're pretty good, Mahaado."

"Rematch?" He asked, reshuffling his deck and slapping it on the table.

"No way." Tristan pocketed his own deck and got up. "I think I'll save some what's left of my dignity. After losing to you three times in a row, I mean."

Mahaado placed his elbow on the table and rested his head on his hand. He drew a card and grinned slyly. Turning his attention from the Dark Magician card in his hand to Serenity, he said, "Come on, don't you wanna beat me in front of Serenity?" He emphasized her name.

"Dude, shut up!" Tristan snapped, turning red. What started out as a simple infatuation in the anime had turned into a real crush.

"Right." Mahaado nodded and stood up. "You're not too bad a Duelist yourself. I'm going to check out the four-way Duel... and hopefully stay undetected while doing so." Tristan watched him walk out of the room. Before he closed the door, he added, "By the way, Tristan likes you, Serenity, but he can't find the courage to tell you. ...But that's just in the series, of course."

Tristan looked at Serenity and then at the closed door. Her face held a mixture of confusion and vexation... Or was she blushing? Either ways, Tristan figured he had some explaining to do. 'That evil, evil magician.'

He ran as fast as his short legs could allow. He didn't like being short. But then again, he was acting for a teenager when he was obviously younger. But he was still pretty short, he decided. "Hey, Mahaado!" He yelled at the man who was walking a few steps in front of him. Mahaado slowed down for him to catch up. Yugi frowned when he was standing alongside him. No, he did not like being short. A friendly grin replaced that. "Have you seen Mai?"

Mahaado hesitated for a moment in thought and then answered, "A couple of days ago, I think. Why?"

"I, uh..." Yugi looked away, feeling slightly embarrassed. "I... wanted to say sorry for calling her 'Mom', you know? She's really nice and all... but... um..." Mahaado cocked an eyebrow as Yugi finally looked at him with those huge, worried eyes. "I... I don't know how to apologize...But I really should... Did she say anything about that...?"

Shaking his head, Mahaado said, "No, but she already knew that Yami had foolishly let you try his coffee. She probably forgives you anyways. Now, I'm not sure about your own mother and..." Mahaado's eyes followed a random guy walking leisurely down the hall with a mug in his hand. Yugi watched him too.

"Hey. Is that coffee?" Yugi asked hopefully.

Mahaado snatched it out of the person's hand and threw the contents out a nearby window. He looked outside and waved at someone who started yelling some offensive things at him. "Was coffee," he said to Yugi and the stunned man. "Now, it's going to be a stain on Joey's new shirt."

More yelling. This time, closer.

Mahaado looked behind him to see the very angry blonde walking towards him at a quickening pace. "Hm... I hadn't planned on that."

Suddenly, Serenity and Tristan walked by, chatting amiably with each other. Joey stared at them and then glared at Tristan. Deciding that this was more important than a brown blotch on his shirt, he stalked after them.

The nameless man looked at Mahaado and then said, "What was that all about?"

"Just doing my duty of preventing disaster from occurring to my little Duelist," Mahaado replied, handing the mug back to him. He looked at Yugi. "Hey, if we're lucky, we might catch the rest of the Duel on the roof."

"I'm not short," Yugi pouted as they walked away.

"I didn't say you were," said Mahaado coolly, leaving the man with the mug scratching his head in a mystified way. He was obviously no big fan of Yu- Gi-Oh!.

()

How was that? Was it better than how I had originally done it? Tell me how I did overall, please?

I never DID specifically say who Mahaado was, as in 'Mahaado is...' But... it's kinda obvious, isn't it? Any guesses?

R&R, and no flames!