Disclaimer: I don't own anything, obviously. Let's keep this short and carry on with the chapter.

Game 002; Shuffle

Taichi Yagami sat his desk. He stared at his laptop. There was an open file waiting for him to read, but he wasn't reading it. The file was in need of proof-reading before the Ninomiya Law Offices sent it off to their client. Taichi, who was now counting the amount of tiles on the ceiling, was ignoring the file. He even had to bring it home to finish up without pay. That is how much his mind was preoccupied with different problems.

"Big brother," Hikari Yagami knocked lightly on the door of Taichi's personal office. She had arrived for their traditional Thursday dinner. When Taichi gave her no answer, Hikari opened the door. Her ruby eyes watched her brother lean back against his chair, "Taichi."

Hikari's soft voice snapped Taichi away from his staring contest with the ceiling. He looked up at her and forced a smile on, "What's up, Hikari?"

Hikari watched her older brother. That sparkle that usually surrounded him wasn't as visible as it normally was. She wiped her hands on the apron she wore, "Dinner's almost done."

"Really?" Taichi smiled. Food has always been the quickest pick-me-up for anyone with the Yagami genes. "I bet it's good."

"Mhmm," Hikari smiled. Taichi's smile was contagious, but that's what attracted people to him. That's why people wanted to be his friend. She brushed aside a few locks of hair away from her eyes, "There's just one problem."

"What is it?" Taichi closed his laptop as he got to his feet. He walked towards Hikari, "What's wrong?"

Hikari giggled, "There's no clean cups."

Taichi mentally slapped himself for that. He'd been too busy with a few cases here and there to even get around to washing his dishes. The days of being as carefree and playing soccer were put behind him. He walked past Hikari, "Let's see if we can fix that."

The sink was filled with dirty dishes. They were piled up in a messy stack. Each tier had a different meal. Taichi shook his head as he opened up a cupboard in search for something to use a cup. He smirked as he opened the cupboard closest to the refridgerator, "Would paper cups work?"


"That color won't do," Sora Takenouchi walked around the rack of clothing in front of her. She put her hand on her hip as her eyes moved from the clothing to the model and back again. She frowned. Normally, she would be able to coordinate the shoot's clothing with her eyes shut, but there was something about the model that was throwing her off. "That's not going to work."

A growl formed in the back of throat as she walked around the clothing rack once more. The room was silent except for the sound of Sora's stilettos clicking against the floor. She crossed her legs at the ankles as she stared at the clothing and then the model.

"Tie your hair up," she commanded as she pulled out an elegant outfit. She handed the model a brightly colored shirt with a dark, contrasting bottom. "This should work. Put it on."

The model obeyed Sora's command. Sora watched as the model nervously put on the clothing. Something was still off. Sora grabbed a few accessories and gave it to the model, "Put these on."

A smile of satisfaction and victory appeared, "Perfect. Carry on with the shoot."

Sora walked to the lunch area of the M.M. Magazine studio. She never liked the chairs in the lunch area. They were always too cold and hardly comfortable.

"Thank you for your hard work," She smiled at one of the workers passing her by. A quick bow and a simple smile. A cafeteria worker came by and placed a paper cup in front of her. She ran her fingers down the side of the paper cup.

The attention that was on the paper cup was pulled away as her phone rang. 'Number Withheld' was the id again. Sora frowned.


"Now," Jyou Kido walked across the hall of the Sakurai Medical Clinic. He held a few folders as he headed to his office. He turned to the young nurses walking a few steps behind him, "Please continue to be careful of the charting. Don't make any mistakes. It's better to be careful than sorry."

Jyou entered his private office. He set down the folders that he had been carrying on top of his desk. He quickly made his way to the sink. It was a routinely handwashing that he did-he turned the sink on long enough to get his hands covered in water, then turned it off as he added the soap. He rubbed his hands together enough for the soap suds to appear then he ran his hands under the water. He hummed the tune of "Moon River" as he washed his hands.

The routinely handwash was quickly finished and he continued humming the song as he dried his hands. A soft knock on the door caught his attention, "Dr. Kido, I've brought your coffee."

"Ah, thank you, Rin-chan." Jyou smiled as he gestured for her to set the coffee on his desk. Jyou almost laughed as he watched Rin set down the paper cups, "Paper cups?"

"The regular coffee cups ran out," Rin smiled at Jyou.

"Oh, okay," Jyou smiled back at Rin. "Thank you, please carry on with what you were doing?"

"Moon river ..."


"Look, I understand that you're very serious about your work," Yamato Ishida rolled his eyes as the assistant director of B-Vex spoke to him. The man was only a good 4'9" and was considerably bald. He wore thick framed glasses in an attempt to get along with the younger generation. "But the way you criticize Haruki for her lyrics is too harsh. She was crying today, Yamato."

Yamato rolled his eyes as he overlooked the new lyrics he formulated. He tapped the pen against the table as he crossed out a few words and rewrote what he deemed as better lyrics. He ran his fingers through his hair. He hummed the tune of Haruki's song as he read the lyrics.

"I know her lyrics weren't the best," the assistant director continued on as Yamato carried on with ignoring him. He assistant director stood next to where Yamato sat. "Yamato, you know these artists are very sensitive. You were like her once, try to understand."

Yamato stood up and walked around the assistant director. He went to the water cooler and procured a paper cup. He smirked at the paper cup as he pressed the button to fill it with water.

"Suzuki," Yamato took a sip of the water, "I'm just doing my job. Do you or do you not want another hit song?"

"Yes, of course. Why wouldn't we want another hit song?" Suzuki nodded frantically, "It's just that you continually make our artists cr-"

"Then, quit butting in and let me do my job." Yamato hated record labels. He always hated them. This hate fostered back in high school when he had his own band. He knew that record labels would take that creativity he had and warp it into something ugly ... a few years later, and look what that's done to him. "I'll get her to sing a hit song, so back off."

"I know. You always come through, but don't you think you could-"

The door to the room opened slowly. Yamato smirked as he set his paper cup down on the table. In the door frame stood Haruki. Her tears were gone, her make-up was perfect. She even changed into something a little more risque.

"I'm ready to work on that song now," Haruki smiled. A hint of seduction flittering in her eyes.

Suzuki stood befuddled. "Wha-?"

Yamato pushed Suzuki past Haruki. The little old man was very light and hardly formed any resistence, "Now, good bye, Suzuki. We've got work to do." When the door shut and clicked to a lock, Yamato turned around to Haruki. "Let's work on your vocals a bit, shall we?"


Taichi got back earlier than usual. His workload was much lighter than he expected it to be. He stretched his arms upward. He didn't have work the next day, so he was rushing to get changed. He wanted to spend a few hours with a few friends. Possibly go drinking and probably try to fix things with his fiancee. As he opened his door, he stopped.

Did he see what he thought he saw?

Was that really there?

In the middle of the four apartment floor?

"What are you guys doing?" Taichi walked over to the three surrounding a small coffee table. Sora was sipping her glass of wine quietly-she was in her pajamas. Jyou was complimenting Yamato on the dishes he cooked-he was in his pajamas. Yamato laughed at the compliments-he was in his pajamas. "Why are you here?"

"Pajama party," Sora smiled.

"Cool," Taichi sat down next to Sora. He looked at the dishes. They looked amazing. He put his hand to his stomach. He was hungry, "I think, I'll have som-"

Jyou took the dish away. "Yamato, how long did this one take to cook?"

"About thirty minutes or so," Yamato said as he moved all the dishes away from Taichi. "I cooked most of them simutaneously, so it wasn't too long."

"Guys, I'm hungry." Taichi watched as Yamato and Jyou continued to ignore him. "WHAT? WHY ARE YOU IGNORING ME?"

Sora looked at Taichi. She looked at Yamato and then Jyou. Then back at Taichi. "Pajama party."

"I can see that," Taichi frowned at Sora. He wasn't stupid. He could tell they were having a pajama party. That's why they were all out here, eating food in their paja-he looked down and then up at Sora. "Jerks."

Yamato chuckled as Taichi ran to his apartment. He settled the plates back to their original positioning. "But really, Jyou. What's thing you mentioned?"

Jyou adjusted his glasses. He sipped his wine, "T-to be honest, Yamato, I'm not even sure if I want to do it anymore. It seems too risky. You should never try to do something that could get you in too much tr-"

"I'm here!" Taichi shouted as he returned in his flannel pajamas. He pushed Yamato aside and dug straight in for the food. Food was Taichi's best friend. It always has been and it always will be. "This is good," Taichi said in between bites. "Did you cook this Sora?"

"No," Sora laughed. "I wish I did. Yamato cooked it."

Taichi stopped eating. He stared at Yamato. He stared at Yamato long and hard. "You bought it and plated it."

"No, man. I cooked it. Some people can actually cook their own food instead of having that cute girl you always have come over every week cook it for them." Yamato set his wine glass down.

"Cute girl? What cute girl?" Taichi continued to scarf the food down. "Oh, you mean, Hikari? That's my baby sister. Man, get your eyes checked."

"Now, Jyou," Sora diverted the attention away from Yamato and Taichi. Somehow, she knew it'd lead into a fist fight or something that involved violence. Men, go figure. "What was that thing you were talking about?"

"Yeah, it's something risky." Yamato raised his eyebrows, "I'm interested in that part."

"W-well, Rin-chan and the other nurses were talking about it during one of their breaks and I just happen to overhear it. I-I-I wasn't trying to eavesdrop or anything either. That's a very disrespectful action but you know, it was difficult not to overhear them. They were speaking so loudly, you know and sometimes there are those things that you can-"

"Okay, we get it." Yamato waved his hands in the air. His patience wasn't exactly the kind that could last very long. "Now, go on. Explain what the thing is."

"Love Shuffle," Jyou took his glasses off and cleaned them as he spoke.

"Love Shuffle?" The trio in front of Jyou said in unison. They also had matching puzzled expressions on.

"Yes, Love Shuffle ... though," He placed his glasses back on, "They were referring to it as 'LoveSha'."

"Okay, we get it has different names. Now, be kind and explain it," Yamato leaned back. He stretched his arms upward as he leaned back. "I'm curious as to what is."

"Well, it's a Shuffle of Love." Taichi muttered, "Self-explanatory, duh."

"How about I reshuffle that fa-" Yamato was stopped by Sora who jumped up at Jyou, "Shuffle of Love? Is it like that?"

"Well, according to the girls, you really do Shuffle the love." Jyou looked up as he folded his arms, "What Rin-chan mentioned was it was eight of them, four couples, who did this. They used four Queens and four Jacks. Basically, they each picked a card and that was their partner for the week."

"So, partner swapping?" Yamato smirked.

"Yes and no. Rin-chan said they did this to test if they were still truly in love with the person they were with."

"And the results?"

"Much more interesting than you'd expect." Jyou nodded as he spoke. He picked up his cup of wine and twisted it between in his fingers. "None of them stayed together. They found someone else to love within the group. It's been a year since they did it and they're all perfectly content."

"And you're suggesting we do this because?" Taichi frowned. Even though he and his fiancee were on the rocks right now, they would get back together eventually. He'd patch everything up and it'd be perfect.

"I'm in." Yamato chimed in. "It seems like fun. God knows I've been getting bored with some of the ladies I've entertained lately."

"Me too," Sora nodded as she took another sip of wine. "I just got off a horrible relationship. This seems like fun."

"No, I'm not in," Taichi pouted. He folded his arms. At this moment, he was twenty-four but he looked as though he was twenty years younger. "I'm not joining. Why do you guys all think my engagement is over? It's not."

"Then bring her into the Shuffle," Sora tried to persuade Taichi. "Maybe if she dates other guys, she'll find out that you're the perfect one for her."

"Well ..." Taichi continued to pout.

Yamato rolled his eyes, "Unless you're scared you can't make her fall in love with you again."

"I can make her fall in love with me no problem," Taichi glared at Yamato.

"Then it's settled," Yamato agreed for everyone else, "That's at least five of us in for the shuffle. Oh, can you bring your sister into the shuffle too?"

"Why?"

"She's cute and I love to get to know her," Yamato smiled.

"I-I-I think you should," Jyou stared at the table, "We're going to need other members for this. If your sister is in, we'll still need one more guy and two more girls."

"Mhmm," Yamato smirked, "Since Taichi seems like a popular guy, let's have him figure out the rest of the members for this game. I think, that's a fabulous idea."

"Me too," Sora agreed. "You seem like a popular guy with lots of friends. You should do it for us, Taichi."

"Thank you," Jyou bowed.

"I ... What?"


Author's Corner: Hey, guys. It's me. Thank you for reading the previous chapter and thank you for reading this one too! It's appreciated, I promise. Also thank you to those that left a review for me. That is also appreciated greatly. Much to love all of you.

To answer the question about whether or not this will be a collection of one shots or a multi-chapter fic, it's going to be a multi-chapter fic. Mhmm. So, please bare with me. The first couple of chapters are setting up for the Love Shuffle game. Forgive me if they're a bit slow. Also, I was in the middle of planning a fake tour for the Teen-Age Wolves in the Digitumblr RP, so it's taking me awhile ... but I digress.

Anyway, thank you for reading! Please review if you have the time.