Snippets of Stars - or random odds and ends I found on a USB and decided to dump here. So, basically, snippets, scenes and such that maybe, possibly, but probably won't be continued/finished. Most won't be edited properly. This will probably start out as a collection of Harry Potter/Yugioh 5Ds snippets, but others crossovers will be added later. If anyone is interested in adopting one of these please PM me.

Catch It Quick

Jack's inability to hold down a job, and therefore permanent state of brokeness, may have had an influence on him leaving Satellite. Of course there were other reasons, but what if some of those reasons were negated by him finding gainful employment, and with it introducing the gang to one of the most unusual people they could ever hope to meet?

Jack snorted as he walked away from his latest adventure in employment. His asshole of an ex-boss was clearly a moron, and there was no way they could seriously have expected him to clean that shit off the floor. If the dumbass couldn't handle the truth, well, that wasn't his problem.

The two hour stint as a waiter was the latest in a string of jobs the blond duellist had, ahem, walked away from. While he wasn't sorry about losing any of them, Crow was seriously starting to get on his case about his money problems, and even Yusei was starting to notice, and had been throwing him looks every now and then. Kalin had yet to comment, but then, none of them were really sure how he felt about money. He was more of a direct control guy. It wasn't that he had a problem; it was just that the necessities were so damn expensive! How the hell was he supposed to function without coffee and ramen?

He ignored the little niggle in the back of his mind that agreed with Crow. The niggle whispered about his debt, sometimes, late in the night. It whispered and hissed about how far it was getting out of hand, about impulse control, and about what would happen if he let it grow even further. They probably wouldn't stop with him either...

Just as he was really building up for an epic internal rant, a small, a flash of white caught his eye. He turned towards it, and found himself staring through a small window into a rather dimly lit shop. The brightness that had caught his eye was a sign tucked up into the corner, 'Help Wanted'. Well, there was nothing to lose, and he was curious as to what this place actually did. Plus, the others wouldn't need to know that he was working a different job than he had been that morning...

Smirking slightly, Jack straightened up, and pushed open the door, and was instantly assaulted by a multitude of scents and spices. There was no bell over the door, but he couldn't shake the feeling that he'd set off some kind of alarm, and felt the back of his neck prickle in reaction.

XXxXX

"Well now, what do we have here?" A soft voice echoed around the blond, and he almost jumped, but restrained himself. He could feel the annoyance from losing a job, which had fled at this new opportunity, returning. "And what can I do for you?"

"You could start by actually showing yourself", Jack couldn't help but snap. A quiet laugh was his only response.

"And where would be the fun in that? You people have such amusing reactions. I can really see why Ollivander did it, although it was rather terrifying at the time", the voice mused. Jack couldn't tell where it was coming from, but figured it had to be the direction he was facing. There was only the door and window to his back.

"Is this how you treat all potential employees?" Jack sneered, trying not to show how freaked out he really was by this. He was fairly sure he succeeded.

"Ah!" Suddenly it wasn't so hard to pinpoint the voice, and the blond couldn't help but choke as he twisted to the left and almost completely around. "So, you're here about the job. Well, you seem interesting enough." He could just make out a rather slender figure in the shadowed corner.

"Interesting? Is that all you look for? I'm the most interesting person in this whole town." Jack was confused, and that only made him more frustrated, but there was also something else, something-

"This whole town, you say? That certainly is something. I suppose you know anything and everything there is to know too?" Then before Jack could retort, the figure continued, "The hours are a bit irregular, and the job itself is a bit of a mash up, but you'll be here for about four to six hours three days a week. Pay is $12 an hour for regular things and I'll double it if anything really chancy comes up. You can start now or come back tomorrow, but I'd advise against wearing anything you don't want damaged, and maybe avoid anything overly shiny."

Jack blinked. "That's it? No interview? No CV? Just, 'you're hired'?"

"'Hired' is relative." The figure shifted, and started to move forward."Well, you did say you were interesting, and what's the use in a CV when you've probably never done what you're about to, and will probably never again? Besides, it's not so much the help I need. So very few actually come in here knowing anything at all. It's been getting a little dull."

With that, he stepped fully into the light, and Jack nearly choked. Instead of the oldish, creepy looking guy he'd been half expected, there stood before him a young man, barely older that Jack, with long black hair pulled back, a petite build, skin so pale it almost glowed, and the greenest eyes he'd ever seen. They seemed to dance, and match the rather mischievous turn of his lips perfectly. He was incredibly good looking, almost inhumanly so, and Jack couldn't help but stare.

"Tomorrow, then. I rather look forward to working with you Jack. Do drop by any time that suits." With that, he slipped around the blond duellist, and somehow had him out of the door in the blink of an eye. As he walked back to the shared hideout of Team Satisfaction, Jack never even realised that he'd never given his name.

Glowing green eyes watched as blond duellist walked away, and sparked with anticipation. Perhaps this world wouldn't be so bad after all.

XXxXX

Avoiding the disbelieving look thrown his way by Crow, and the small, but encouraging smile from Yusei, Jack headed out the next morning, a little more positive than he had been yesterday. Sure, he was still confused as hell, but he'd decided not to dwell on it. The job couldn't be that bad, and if it was, well, he'd just tell the guy to shove it. It could hardly be that difficult either.

Walking quickly, but not too quickly, back the way he'd gone the day before, it took Jack nearly thirty minutes to reach the out of the way building. It was odd, he reflected, that he could remember seeing it, ever. He'd been sure that they, Team Satisfaction, knew every inch of Satellite. Maybe he'd bring the others here sometime, if everything went well.

Jack couldn't work out why he was feeling so positive about this job when, at most, all he'd ever felt for the many, many others was indifference, with the occasional hint of disgust. If he'd been anyone else, he might even have called himself hopeful, but Jack Atlas didn't hope, he did.

Reaching the right door, he pushed it open, and again felt the eerie sense that he'd set off a silent alarm and was being watched. Just as he was about to announce himself (in the loudest, most obnoxious way he knew) the voice of his new employer rang out.

"Straight through the back, I was just finished making coffee. You want?"

Yeah, Jack thought as he made a beeline for the door just visible at the back, there was no way this could be as bad as the last place.

The blond was greeted with the sight of a surprisingly light and airy kitchen. Leaning at the counter, holding out a steaming mug, the raven-haired man waited with an amused smirk. Choosing to ignore this, Jack all but snatched the mug away, and inhaled.

"Well, at least you've got good taste."

Slowing down, the blond took a moment to savour the taste and smell. It was stronger than what was usually served in cafes, darker, with only a hint of bitterness that was offset with only the smallest amount of milk. It was quite possibly one of the best cups of coffee he'd had in ages.

Turning to ask just how he'd done it, Jack opened his mouth and frowned, realising something.

"What's your name, anyway? You never said."

The other man hummed and smiled. "No, I don't suppose I did. Well, you'll have to call me Ri.

Jack raised an eyebrow.

"No, it's not my full name, but the people around here tend to butcher the pronunciation, so this will work for now. Maybe I'll teach you to say it sometime."

"So what exactly is this place? The front is kind of a dump." No way was Jack restraining himself. He never had (mostly) and he never would (probably).

"Are you offering to clean it? The front is just that, a front. I suppose you could call this an apothecary/curio shop."

"A what?" Jack could feel his confusion from the previous day return, and started to wonder just how long he'd stick this out. It would be a first for him, quitting before he was fired.

"Oh, you know," No, he damn well didn't. Why would he waste his breath asking if he did? "Alternative medicine, odds and ends, books, dreams, endings." But Jack hadn't heard the last two.

"Books? You actually have books? On paper?" the blond's disbelief was clear. No one had books anymore; there hadn't been any around for decades.

"Oh yes, would you like to see? Granted, you won't be able to read them, unless you've spent a lifetime studying dead languages" Ri was clearly enjoying this, and grinned at the clear scepticism on Jack's face.

"Maybe later. What do you expect me to do? I'm not cleaning up shit." Jack said bluntly, letting the book issue drop for now. While he might not use tact often, something told him to avoid calling his new employer a liar on the first day. (He didn't know why, he'd never had a problem with it before).

"Well then it's a good thing that there's no shit to clean up. For the moment its just reorganisation, labelling, maybe some lifting. A few things are quite delicate, or require specialist handling, but I'll deal with those. There might be a few delivery runs later, but this isn't the type of place you see much traffic. Follow me upstairs once you finish that and we'll get started."

Jack suddenly remembered the mug in his hand, and glanced down to see it was nearly empty. He looked up, but Ri had disappeared. Draining the last of the coffee, the blond straightened up from where he'd been leaning against a wall, and headed up the stairs.

The warped wooden boards creaked as he put his weight on them, but seemed sturdy enough. Reaching the top, Jack had to stoop a bit to get through the door. Straightening, he glanced around was appeared to be a fairly typical store room. There were boxes everywhere and a few sets of shelves. Light shone in from a high window, casting odd shadows along the wall to Jack's left.

In the middle of the room, Ri was bent over, peering into a fairly big box with an odd symbol on the side. "That was quick. Why don't you start unpacking that big box with the green lines? Just stack everything on the desk beside it."

Grunting, Jack moved to comply. Lifting out a small statue of a snake, he examined the finely crafted figurine before setting it down. This didn't seem so bad...

XXxXX

Two hours later, Jack was wondering at the sanity of his employer. He'd never encountered a weirder collection, hell, he didn't even know what most of this stuff was, and was that a jar of eyeballs?

"Something wrong, sweetling? Oh, I was wondering where I'd left that, thank you." Lifting the jar, Ri swung around with a smile, setting it on a shelf. He continued humming lightly, as though there weren't body parts not six inches from his elbow. "If you come across a smallish box of knives, let me know, and make sure not to touch any of the silver ones, ok?"

What kind of psychopath was he working for? Oh, God, he was a serial killer. That was why he was in this crappy building, he was going to kill him.

"Sweetling? Are you all right? Here, sit down a moment, I'll get you something to drink." The smaller man sounded genuinely worried as he nudged the blond to a chair. Jack snapped out of his minor panic at the touch, reminded himself that he had at least five inches and two stone on the brunette and snapped, "Why the hell do you have a jar of eyeballs?"

Ri looked up at him, blinked, and then a smile broke out across his face. If Jack hadn't had the comment about the knives stuck in his head he would probably have been thoroughly distracted.

"Oh, is that all? I thought you might be sick. Don't worry, they're just toads' eyes. Easier to get than newts' and they have just the same effects mostly. They're for a couple of the heavy duty burn and bruise balms."

"Balms? And what was that about the knives?" Jack was confused again, and embarrassed about his loss of control. The two were combining, and were not helping his temper any.

Ri paused, studying Jack's face, then sighed. "Look, Jack, let's go have a cup of coffee and I'll explain a bit more about what it is I do, alright? At least the bit involving the eyes and knives".

Jack almost refused, but the memory of that coffee stopped him. Still...

"I think I probably have some ramen, too, if you're hungry."

The ramen wasn't cup, but was still very good, and the coffee was amazing, this time smooth with the slightest scent of burnt wood. Ri sat opposite nursing his own cup but sans food.

"I told you this was partly an apothecary, yes? That means I deal in alternative medicines, herbal remedies and such. Not many people have much faith in them nowadays, but it was the way I was brought up, and these medicines were taken very seriously. A lot of it is mixing different herbs and plants, but the serious solutions do occasionally call for animal parts and, yes, they do work."

Jack swallowed a mouthful of noodles "So, what, you give someone a magic potion and they're better? Really?"

Ri frowned lightly. "Sneer all you want, but I've seen them work. Besides, I note a distinct lack of hospitals around here, so are you really going to turn down any form of healing offered?"

Jack scowled but didn't answer. He couldn't, not when Ri was right. There was no real hospital, just a few half-trained doctors scattered around the town. "The knives?" He asked instead.

"Preparation is half the battle. The way certain ingredients are tended to can greatly affect the potency of the medicine." Suddenly Ri smiled. "Take some of the bruise balm with you when you leave for the day. I've been meaning to make a new batch anyway. I'm going to head back up, but you stay and finish lunch. Feel free to ask if you have any more questions!"

XXxXX

And so life continued. The eyeballs weren't the last part of a dead animal Jack found, or even the weirdest. The animal parts themselves weren't even the weirdest things Ri had tucked away, and he found himself handling, among other things, archaic weaponry, beautifully carved, almost lifelike figurines and statuettes, oddly carved boxes, many, many keys, and books. Lots of books. Not a single one of which he could understand. The duellist had been reluctantly fascinated by the ancient things, but had never been able to swallow his pride enough to ask Ri what was in them.

Speaking of his boss, Jack was now thoroughly convinced that his employer was insane. He would switch between light humming and total silence with no warning, randomly popped up all over the place, got completely distracted at the strangest times, and was frighteningly focused at others. He also seemed to find Jack's rude, arrogant nature amusing and endearing, and had taken to calling him 'sweetling' above anything else. It was a completely surreal experience for the blond. What was more, he found himself not minding, and was even growing fond of the other male in the same way he was of his teammates.

His teammates, though initially shocked that he had managed to hold down a job for more than a day, were supportive, especially as he was no longer sponging off of them, and still somehow had time to duel with them. They were naturally curious about what made this job so different from the others, but had decided not to question a good thing. Crow had even commented on how it had been ages since he had spent a ridiculous amount of money on coffee, but it just wasn't worth it after Ri's. It helped that the man always had a pot waiting for him in the morning, and seemed to love the dark ambrosia just as much.

XXxXX

It was after the incident with the Magicians' Four duel gang that the two areas of Jack's life finally collided. Despite everything, Crow had been hurt during the incident. It wasn't too bad, but the heavy bruising looked awful, and the redhead winced every time he took a deep breath.

"We can't go to Martha. She's got enough to worry about, and it's not like she could actually help."

Yusei hovered by the door to one of the upper rooms of the warehouse. "We need to do something."

"What?" Kalin snorted, frustration clear. "The doctors around here barely deserve the name, and we don't have the money."

Jack was leaning against the doorpost staring at the wall when, "Ri".

"What?" Come on Jack, we don't have time for this."

"No, dumbass, Ri. He's a kind of Healer. He owns the place I work at."

Crow, propped up on a librated couch, frowned. "I thought you worked in a restaurant," he wheezed.

The blond shifted impatiently, "I haven't worked there in ages. Ri owns this apothecary- weird shop type place around the corner from it. If nothing else, he'll have something to knock you out."

Kalin turned, ready to snap, when Yusei spoke, "You think he'd help? That he'd come here at this time?"

"We can't bring someone else here!" Kalin burst out, then calmed. "This is meant to be a haven for us. Could we bring Crow there?"

"It would probably be better if we did", Jack admitted reluctantly. "I'll run ahead, you three give me a couple minutes' then follow along." Not waiting for a reply, the blond duellist swept out of the room.

XXxXX

"Jack, sweetling, what the hell are you wearing?" Jack had barely opened his mouth when he was pulled into the kitchen. "Never mind for now, sit down and tell me what you need." The black-haired man barely gave him time to breath as he whirled around the kitchen, pulling out containers out of tucked-away presses.

Taking a deep breath, the blond began, "A friend of mine is hurt. The doctors around here are shit, and crooks besides, and-

"Get him in here, we can set him up on the third floor, if he can get that far, yes? Good. It's not his legs then. Are we talking broken bones or gaping holes were there shouldn't be? Bruising, definitely, looking at you, and a fair amount of scrapes. Have you given him any sort of painkiller? No? Good boy. Now, I'll just need..." Ri trailed off, muttering to himself, and it was all Jack could do to nod or shake his head as required.

Hearing a thump, Jack got up to answer the door, and grabbed one of Crow's arms as he did so.

"Bit out of the way, isn't it" the redhead tried to joke, but it fell flat as Yusei followed him in, and Kalin glanced around suspiciously.

"Where's this healer of yours?" the bluenette frowned.

"Third floor, and he's not my Healer." Jack snapped back. They were all tired and on edge, and the only one not snapping was Yusei, but only because he was so used to tuning out their arguments.

"Oh, get up here already, sweetling. There's only so long I'll let you talk before I decide you have imaginary friends and a talent for voice acting" Ri's light voice broke up the impending argument, and the gang quickly set about getting their friend up the stairs.

Ri received the same reaction from his teammates as Jack's had been. They stopped and stared at the slender young-looking man, before a groan from Crow brought them back to earth.

"My my, you are in a state, aren't you. Still, it's not nearly as bad as it could have been. Come on now, get him to the bed." Ri conducted the confused group easily, and wasted no time in tending the their injured companion.

"You know where everything is, Jack, go and get something to eat. Mind you, if you touch my coffee I'll rip your spine out through your ear and feed it to you," Ri's tone remained soft even as he issued the threat. Jack, used to the odd comments by now, merely steered Yusei and Kalin back down to the kitchen.

Seating the two at the table, Jack set about making up three cups of instant ramen that had started appearing in the kitchen not long after he'd started working there. There was silence as the odd kettle boiled, then-

"Is he-"Kalin began, only to be cut off by Jack's snort.

"Completely bat shit insane. Possibly bipolar. Maybe the weirdest guy in existence. Yeah. But he's a genius, and he takes no shit.

"Will he be able to fix Crow?" Yusei broke in, accepting the cup Jack passed to him.

"Definitely. We probably don't want to know how. Gods know I don't. But he'll do it. If nothing else then because it will let him smile and give cute nicknames to more people. "

"There's a spare bed and a couple of couches up here when you're ready, sweetling. Oh, and could you lock the front door before you head up? It's going to rain something awful in an hour or so..." Ri's voice drifted down to the kitchen

Dragging himself up, the blond went to the door. "I'm taking the bed."

XXxXX

Yusei woke slowly. That in itself was unusual. He felt oddly comfortable and rested. There was something in the back of his mind, prodding him, trying to tell him something, but it slipped away like water when he reached for it. Oh well, if it was important, one of the others would tell him...

The brunette shot up, eyes snapping open. The others, the duel, Crow, Jack's healer... He twisted his head, looking, then calmed himself, and actually took stock of everything. He felt fine, great even and his friends-

-were, with the exception of Jack, all passed out around him. Crow was curled up on a single bed under a surprisingly large window. Kalin was stretched out on a worn couch pushed against the opposite wall to Yusei, breathing deeply. The other single bed, which was horizontal to Crow's was empty and unmade, but the raven-haired duellist couldn't find it in himself to worry.

Deciding to find his missing teammate and their host, he rose and, upon leaving the room, decided that following the strong smell of fresh coffee was his best bet.

"-really, sweetling, tell me who on this earth or under it told you that brown and black was a good combination, so I can beat them over the head with a paint set." A sweet voice greeted him. He glanced around to see Jack at the table, clinging to a rather large mug with a snake on it.

"-must have been colour blind, but, then what's your excuse? Oh, hello darling, tea or coffee?"

Yusei started as he suddenly found himself the focus of deep green eyes. He blanked completely.

Ri, sighed, and ushered him to a seat beside Jack. "Tea. There's fruit and bread if you want it. No, Jack, you are not having ramen first thing in the morning."

Jack frowned sulkily, though Yusei knew he would deny it, and slumped back into his chair.

A bright yellow cup was set in front of him. "You seem like a H, although there does seem to be a strong red streak in you," the other brunette hummed, settling down across from the duellist pair.

There was silence as the three sipped their drinks.

XXxXX

Yeah... can't actually remember where this one was going. I can remember being given out to for wearing brown and black though, so I think that's why that's in there.

Let me known what you think, though, 'cause there may be a few more half-scenes related to this around (i.e. in the same folder, under the same name)