"We are here to see Dr. Clarington." Yami informed the secretary outside of Dr. Clarington's office. He had a very serious, no nonsense look on his face. The elderly woman behind the desk smiled up at the group that had gathered.
"You must be her 4 o'clock, Yugi Motto." She stood up and walked around the large desk. "And these must be your little friends. My you are some very handsome young people." She said pinching Yami's cheeks. "She'll be back in a moment, just sit down right over there." She pointed to some couches near the door.
As they walked over to the couches the secretary walked over with them. Joey felt a bit disturbed by the way that she kept sizing him up and down. It was like she was checking him out. He felt …violated.
"So what are your names?" They all took turns telling the woman their names and she wrote them down. "Oh, look at you all, so young and full of life. Why look at those crazy hair-do's." The woman messed with Yami's hair. "And the clothes." She took this opportunity to size up and cop-a-feel all the guys. She looked over at Bakura. "What did you say your name was?"
"Uhm, Ryou. Ryou Bakura."
"I knew it. You do have an accent. I remember back when I was your age, there were so few foreign kids, that anyone with an accent could have anyone they wanted. And by anyone, that usually meant me." She winked at him. Bakura could only muster a nervous laughter. He was ready to go home now. The sound of the elevator grew and Dr. Clarington appeared. Yami was the first to jump up.
"Dr. Clarington, my friends have come like you asked." Yami announced.
"Yes, this is Joseph Wheeler, Serenity Wheeler, Tea Gardener, Ryou Bakura, Mai Valentine, and Tristan Taylor. Aren't they just adorable?" The elderly woman informed.
"Mrs. Ganglier, what are you doing? You aren't scheduled until 6:00." Dr. Clarington didn't seem too surprised.
"I know but I decided to get in a bit of overtime today. I have to earn my keep you know." Mrs. Ganglier escorted them all into the office after Dr. Clarington. "Well I'll be outside if you need me." Before exiting, Mrs. Ganglier gave Tristan a firm pinch on his right cheek. (Unlike with Yami, the cheek she pinched wasn't on his face.) Tristan jumped with a yelp.
Once the old woman left, Dr. Clarington apologized. "I'm sorry about Mrs. Ganglier." Dr. Clarington told the group. "She's my 6 o'clock but she has this idea that she's my secretary. Well let's get down to business, shall we? I've created a little area for us over there." She pointed to a small area with small armchairs and love seats situated in a circle. There was one small wooden chair at the edge closest to the door.
Dr. Clarington took that seat while everyone else situated around her. "Now I want to make perfectly clear what we will be doing so don't get alarmed. Today I want to ask a few questions, just get the basic idea of what all off you are like, your relationships, what you guys have done. Okay?
"Now don't panic. Afterwards, I want to speak with Ryou privately. Tomorrow, Joseph, then Tristan, Mai after that, Tea, and then Serenity. So since today is Thursday, Joseph will come on Friday, Tristan Saturday, Mai Sunday, Tea on Monday, and Serenity on Tuesday. Is that all right with all of you?" She flashed them all an innocent smile. No one favored the idea but Mai and Serenity were really panicked. They hadn't known Yugi as long.
"Dr. Clarington, what about me?" Yami asked.
"Well you don't have to come back Yugi. You've already seen enough of me." She focused her attention on Bakura. "So Ryou, tell me a bit about yourself." Ryou told her some things about his life and moving to Domino. Every now and then she would scribble things down in her note pad. Once he was done her eyes quickly focused on his Millennium Ring. "So tell me Bakura where did you get that?" She pointed to it causing Bakura to feel the pressure again.
"That, oh my father got it for me when he was traveling in Egypt." She made a few more notes and turned her attention to Tea who was sitting in the next chair over. "And what about you? Tell me about yourself." She continued this kind of questioning throughout the entire group. Uncertainties were settling as everyone started to feel a bit more at ease.
"Well that went well. Now it's time for open discussion. How did you guys meet up? How long has everyone been friends? Anything you would like to get off your chest? I'll start it off by telling everything I already know. All of you seem extremely knit. Tea and Yugi have been friends for the longest. Then Joseph and Tristan came into the picture.
"Yugi's grandfather taught Joseph how to play Duel Monsters. This man … Pegasus, he held the soul of Yugi's grandfather captive so Yugi and Joseph battled through Duelist Kingdom to get it back. That's where all of you became better friends with Bakura and met Mai. After winning back the souls of Yugi's grandfather and the Kaiba brothers, some of you were trapped in a virtual world.
"Then after learning the origins of Yugi's spirit, the four of you," she pointed to Yugi, Joey, Mai, and Bakura "entered the Battle City tournament where mishaps such as kidnapping and brainwashing took place, but everyone survived up to the finals. Many of you were hurt so on and so forth until a virtual boy intercepted the blimp and …" she looked at the wide eyed group. "I'm sorry did I lose you?" No one said anything.
"All right we can't play ignorant so lets just go with it. If we don't, Yugi will seem insane." Bakura thought to himself. "Oh no you didn't lose us, in fact, why don't we just start our discussion now."
"Of coarse." Dr. Clarington agreed.
"Dr. Clarington, do you think I'm insane?" Yugi asked. While Dr. Clarington was talking Yugi had taken over his body again.
"Of course not." That poor deluded child. "Any who, lets get going. Now Bakura, everything that I said, is it true? Did you guys really have such fantastic adventures?"
"Yes, we did. We all got through it together." Bakura was anxious to see what her reaction would be. He expected a funny look or a head gesture or at least a bit of surprise. But Dr. Clarington's face did not change.
"So what would you say your friendship with Yugi is like?" Dr. Clarington asked her second question.
"Our bond is stronger than any other force on the planet. Nothing could break us apart. Right Guys?" Tea quickly included herself in the conversation.
"Right!" everyone except Mai answered. But everyone including Mai was thinking the same thing. Great there she goes again.
"It's true. We all went through that stuff and we're still here because our friendship can get us through any challenge."
"Well isn't that sweet." Dr. Clarington smiled. "I can see where Yugi gets all of his strength from. But have there ever been any moments of doubt between any of you? Any circumstances that could have hurt your close friendship?"
"I've never doubted any of my friends and I never will. And we're such great friends because there have been a lot of times when our friendship was at risk but we wouldn't let it stop us." Dr. Clarington nodded as she wrote down more notes.
"Mai, you seem awfully quiet. What are your thoughts about friendship?" Dr. Clarington was trying to get people to speak for themselves.
"Me? Well I'm not against the friendship thing but I'm not as dependent on it as some of the other guys." She was thinking about Tea and Yugi especially. " I mean, after being by yourself for so long having people that care about you is the greatest," now she was thinking especially about Joey. " But if you ask me sometimes knowing that you can tough it out by yourself is what really makes you strong."
Thank the Lord! Someone who isn't delusional! Dr. Clarington thought to herself. She wrote down a note of some questions she could ask Mai. "Well that seems alright." She smiled brightly at Mai. She could see Tea glaring at Mai from across the circle. "I can see there is a contrast on views in this group. How do the rest of you feel? Are your views more like Tea's or like Mai's?" There was a dead silence in the room. "Alright, let's try someone who hasn't spoken much. Serenity what are your feelings about friendship."
Serenity meekly looked around the room for help and was met with a reassuring look from Joey. "Well, I think I agree more with Tea. I don't know what I'd do without my friends. I'd be lost, especially without my best friend in the whole world. My big brother, Joey. He gives me the strength I need to go on and protects me. I don't think I could function without him or anyone else for that matter." She looked back around the room to make sure she said the right thing, which was noted by Dr. Clarington.
"How about you, Joey? Are your thoughts about friendship more like Tea's or like Mai's?" Joey took this into consideration for a moment before answering.
"Well, from what's been happenin' over time, I've learned that having your friends by ya side can really lighten the load of a challenge, and can push you ta try ya best. So I guess in that way I'm more like Tea." Dr. Clarington nodded her head in agreement along with most of the others. "But…" Joey paused because he could feel Tea's eyes piercing into him from across the room. "I've also realized that some of my greatest work's been done when I do things myself. So, in all, I guess that makes me agree more with Mai."
"You would." Tea said, hardly loud enough for anyone to hear. Of course, with her mind reading like psychiatrist abilities, Dr. Clarington did hear it and took note.
"Hmm, I sense a need for a change in style. How about we play a game?"
Everyone except Yugi looked confused. "In this exercise, I will pick a name from this group and ask the rest of you the first word you would use to describe that person. The first person we'll be talking about is…Tristan. Let's start with Yugi and work our way around."
At this time, Everyone studied the way in which they were situated. To the right of Dr. Clarington was Yugi. Next to him was Bakura and Tea on a sofa. Also on the sofa was Serenity, and Tristan sat on a chair beside her. Next was Joey who was sitting in a comfortable armchair but nervously moved to its armrest, leaving Mai who preferred to stand behind Joey's chair. The plan was to be able to allow Joey to squeeze her hand if he was nervous, which Joey had been doing since that last question he'd been asked. No one seemed to notice, except Dr. Clarington of course, with her super psychiatric powers. "So Yugi as soon as you're ready you can start."
"Determined." Yugi said confidently, moving on to Bakura.
"Positive." He said. Tea thought of something to say.
"Reliable" Tea said remembering how Tristan was able to contact a plane for Joey at the duel tower. They moved on to Serenity.
"Friend." Serenity said innocently, making Tristan almost fall off his seat crying. He refused to accept that Duke had asked her out first. Like always, Dr. Clarington took note of that. Skipping Tristan, they moved to Joey.
"Family." Joey said nudging his still crestfallen friend. Mai grinned.
"Smitten." Everyone held in a grin, including Dr. Clarington. Everyone except Serenity that is. Poor naïve Serenity still didn't get it.
"Alright, how about Serenity next. Yugi?"
"Sweet." Yugi said without much thought.
"Innocent." Bakura said with about the same amount of thought. Tea had to think a little before she spoke.
"Vulnerable." She said after a while. Tristan looked at her wantingly.
"Taken." Serenity still looked puzzled causing Tristan to almost fall again. Joey looked deep into his little sister's eyes.
"Inspirational." Serenity began to blush a little bit and smiled happily.
"Naïve." Mai said, kind of breaking the moment. If Dr. Clarington were allowed to make judgments, she would have agreed with Mai, but that wouldn't be fair. Who was she kidding? She's a psychiatrist! Her job is to make judgments…for the sake of professionalism; we'll call them assessments.
"Now let's do Bakura." Dr. Clarington said after a moment. Yugi had a difficult time trying to say something about Bakura, being that he had two different halves. After a while, Yugi decided to try to play it safe.
"Bilateral?" Yugi said meekly. Both he and Bakura awkwardly cleared their throats in discomfort.
"In one word, I'd have to say RYOU BAKURA is proper." Tea said nodding to everyone in the room.
Tristan thought of a good thing to say. "Diverse."
Serenity looked around at everyone confused. She had never seen the other side to Bakura. "A gentleman." She looked around. "Right?"
Joey considered his options carefully. He took a look at Bakura and started to chuckle. "Sissified." He laughed.
"Oh thanks mate." Bakura said sarcastically. Bakura was sitting with his legs crossed but suddenly noticed it and uncrossed them.
Mai had the hardest time trying to think of something to say. Everyone sat in his or her chairs, on edge, waiting for her answer. That included Dr. Clarington, who believed that whatever she said would be true. After a while, Mai answered. "British?"
Everyone in the room was finally able to breathe again. The room filled with nervous laughter. "Let's try Joey, now. Yugi?" Dr. Clarington resumed.
"Awesome." Yugi smiled.
Bakura grinned too. "Loud mouthed."
"Okay, I had that one comin'." Joey admitted.
"You most certainly did." Bakura agreed. When they moved on to Tea she looked angry, but she wasn't really looking at Joey. Dr. Clarington could tell that she was thinking about Mai.
"Exploited." She muttered. Joey looked at her confused, Mai looked angry, and almost everyone else looked tense. There was a long silence before the even more confused Serenity spoke up.
"The greatest."
"Family" Tristan, reiterated what he had said about him. Finally it was Mai's turn and her gaze was focused back at Tea as she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.
"Mine." She said venomously. Once again there was silence before Dr. Clarington resumed.
"I can't help but feel some tension between you two." She said, pointing at Tea and Mai. "Is there anything you would like to get off your chests?"
"No. It's a dead issue." Tea answered.
"Something tells me that it's not."
"Yeah, Tea." Mai interrupted. "Something's telling me that it's not too."