Chapter 2
The cafeteria was crowded with the sounds of students anxious to get in line to be first to grab their meals and food before it was all taken. The snow had become heavy over the last couple of hours and so anyone would be considered crazy to go spend the lunch break outside. Jonouchi and Yugi were come of the lucky ones who ran to get their lunch first and so had a good choice in seats. They threw their bags into a large unoccupied table near the window where they could see the snow and laugh with amusement as they watch their friends wait in a long line for lunch.
Honda, Ryou and Marik arrived five minutes later carrying their trays of food and talking causally about their weekends and as soon as they had settled into their seats the conversation turned to the topic of detentions.
Honda with a mouthful of food looked in Jonouchi's and Yugi's direction with an amused grin. "So I hear someone was in detention on Friday."
Jonouchi frowned as he finished up his rice salad. "Thanks to a certain pair of stuck up twats."
Ryou looked at Yugi with interest as he raised his eyebrow. Yugi decided to end his friend's curiosity. "Atemu and Bakura from our year gave us a visit on Friday and we all ended up in detention for it."
Marik's eyes widened in surprise and he looked over at Jonouchi for confirmation. It was no secret that his boyfriend Mariku was close friends with the cool boys and so it was strange to think they would pick on Yugi and Jonouchi of all people.
"And before you all get crazy and go over and punch them I would like to say that I have already dealt with them," Yugi said as he returned to his meal.
"And how did you do this?" Honda asked, his food laying forgotten as his attention was now fully focused on his friend's situation.
Yugi swallowed his mouthful and he quickly recalled the conversation in detention. "I spoke to Atemu and we both agreed to forget everything that had happened."
"Did he apologise?" Ryou asked.
Yugi nodded.
Jonouchi was looking at Yugi with as much scepticism as the rest of his friends, but they did not dare question Yugi any further about the matter and the conversations turned to other less personal topics.
"Hey guys!"
The group looked up from their happenings to find Ryuji Otogi standing by their table. Jonouchi got up from his chair to give the boy a friendly hand-shake.
"I'm glad you didn't get lost!" Jonouchi said. "It has been far too long Otogi."
Yugi felt out-of-place at that moment as Jonouchi bought the boy in for a quick hug and when they pulled back he looked across at Yugi.
"This is my friend from Middle school, Yugi."
Yugi blushed as the black-haired boy looked over him and smiled.
Otogi not taking his eyes off Yugi replied: "Jou, how long have you been hiding this one for!?"
Jonouchi laughed and Yugi covered his face with his hands.
"Guys," Jonouchi said. "This is an old friend of mine from way back, Otogi."
Yugi looked the boy over, he had an obvious height difference as being almost a hand higher than Jonouchi and beaded black-hair, there was an easy-going aura about him which reminded Yugi soo much of his friend.
Honda leant across the table as Otogi and Jonouchi sat down. "Nice to meet you, call me Honda."
Otogi shook Honda's hand and gave him a small nod.
Yugi pointed at Ryou. "And this is Ryou."
"He's English," Honda said. "And if it makes you feel any better he is new as well."
Otogi studied the white-haired teen opposite him. "I could have sworn I saw a near identical copy of you just down the hall."
"You probably saw Bakura," Yugi said.
"He is a prick so you should stay away from him," Jonouchi interjected.
Otogi smirked at his friend. "X-boyfriend?"
Jonouchi choked on his meal and he punched Otogi's arm hard as he sent him a sharp stare.
Otogi's attention fell back on Yugi. "There was also a boy with him that looked a lot like you as well."
"That would be Atemu," Honda said. "He and Bakura put Yugi and Jou in detention last Friday."
As if on cue the group were aroused by the sound of Anzu shouting her lungs out in the line to get food. The chatter in the cafeteria quickly died down as all heads turned in the direction of the red-faced teen shouting at Atemu as he entered the room with Bakura. Yugi quickly gathered that he would not need to tell his friend after all about Friday.
"Atemu you are soo dead!"
Atemu had stopped in his tracks, his body tiled towards the screaming girl. His face looked rather relaxed and blank. Bakura on the other hand was laughing his head off, he had to take a seat just so he wouldn't fall over.
Ryou continued to eat his rice, his attention remaining glued downwards as he spoke. "And that would be our lovely friend Anzu."
X
The last thing Atemu ever expected to happen when he walked into the cafeteria was for Anzu Misaki of all people to yell at him and nearly make him permanently deaf. It did not help either that Bakura chose the most annoying time to lose his cool and fall down in laughter.
Anzu had pulled herself from the lunch line and was storming over to him with a look of an angry hawk who had just had her eggs robbed. "Atemu come here now!"
Atemu swallowed hard. It would appear we might not be having lunch today. He began to walk slowly back, eyes growing wide as he feared for his own safety.
She grabbed him roughly by the arm and pushed him into a nearby chair next to Bakura. Her eyes blazed with fire as he stared him down. He never thought he could be more scared of someone in that moment.
"Did I hear correctly today that you have been terrorising my friend?"
Bakura laughed. "What's got your knickers in a twist Masaki?"
The girls face went slightly redder as she looked at Bakura. She waved a fist in front of his face as he held his hands up getting up from his chair. "Alright I will leave you two love birds to work out your domestic problems."
Atemu's eyes followed his friends form as he walked away to grab some food. He was envious of Bakura for the first time in his life and he would be lucky if he got any food after this.
"So, are you and your lover boy Yugi having some problems?" Atemu asked as he broke into an amused smile just so he could see the reaction he might get from Anzu. She came right up close to him, leaning over as she breathed a thick stench of perfume into his face. Her voice stung like venom as he spoke. "Is it true that you beat up Yugi and Jou?"
Atemu's expression fell. "Before you drawn to conclusions listen to me-"
He was caught off guard by a hard fist which came flying at his left check and he was thrown off to the side, chair and all, on to the cold ground. His right shoulder managed to take much of the impact and so his head stopped short of the floor. He decided that he had been deserving that for a while.
Slowly, he flited his form until he was resting on his knees as looking up at Anzu. She gave him a satisfied look as she flexed her hand. "That is for my friends, arsehole."
She began to walk off, thrusting her hips from side to side as she drifted over to a table of her friends. Atemu recognised the group all too well. He found feel his checks going even redder as he glanced briefly into the eyes of Yugi, he dropped his head not making eye contact with the rest of the silent room and he left the cafeteria.
X
Bakura had cut the lunch line, pretending a little first year was his best friend and as he pulled away from the food with a tray full of rice dishes his eyes scanned the room for a place to sit.
Atemu was nowhere to be seen after going off on a sulk.
Bakura took a seat at the first table he saw, where a group of second years were sitting and chatting about girls. As soon as they saw the person that joined them the abruptly got up from their seats, hurrying away briskly from their unfinished meals.
Bakura did not care that people were scared of him. It made him feel more powerful in a way knowing that people pissed themselves silly just by glancing him in the eye.
He bought his chopstick up to his mouth to have the first bite just as a teen he did not recognise took a seat opposite him. Bakura stuffed the rice into his mouth and dropped his chopsticks to stare the teen down.
"The name's Otogi," the teen said.
Bakura gave Otogi and disinterested glare as he returned to his meal.
"I just can't help wondering if you are somehow related to Ryou."
Bakura stopped to stare blankly at the teen once more.
"Are you?"
"I do not know who the fuck Ryou is, nor do I care why a brat like you would be soo interested in me."
Otogi smirked at the reply Bakura gave him, and he leaned back in his chair. "You are friends with Atemu then. Is he and Yugi related somehow?"
Bakura slammed his chopsticks down. "Do you have nothing better to do?"
"I am just trying to get to know everyone," Otogi said.
"Piss off."
Otogi laughed, and then to Bakura's relief he looked like he was about to leave. He watched him as Otogi went back over to the table he had been sitting at earlier.
Bakura's whole body relaxed.
But it would not be for very long.
Five minutes later he found the same irritating face sitting back opposite him.
"Did you not listen to me?" Bakura asked.
"I have a theory," Otogi said. "I think the only plausible way that two different people could look this similar and not be related is if one of them is a huge fan boy of the other and they just don't know it."
Bakura spat in Otogi's direction and it landed perfectly on the edge of the table.
Otogi looked at it for a second before a smile returned to his face and he slipped his hands together on the table. "So I have this plan."
"Will you shut up?"
Otogi stopped. "So you don't want to have a crazy experience with your other favourite person? I thought all crazed fans thought about that sort of thing."
Bakura threw a plate of rice as the teen's face. He could understand why Atemu has been in a mood today it seems all the crazy people had formed a group and they were intent on making their lunch a living hell. He took no notice of the boy standing up to shake the rice out of his uniform as he left.
X
It was funny how things worked out. In the final period of that day Bakura was aware of his so-called double as he walked into hard materials. Why had he not noticed that he had been I his class all year? The truth was likely that he had hardly been in class to acknowledge anyone, but Bakura would not admit to something like that.
He threw a bag out of the way and sat at a currently unoccupied chair. A student who was working at one of the band saws snapped a harsh insult which did not faze Bakura one bit. The teen left his partner and went over to retrieve his bag and turned to glare at the student now sitting in his chair.
"Do you mind?" He said.
Bakura pursed his lips and let his eyes wonder to the board ahead as he paid little attention to the boy. The teacher quickly caught sight of Bakura sitting around doing very little and he put aside his board marker and walked over to the desk.
"Bakura," the teacher said. "Since you have arrived almost thirty minutes late to class you will be failing this assignment anyway. To make yourself useful however you can help Ryou and Honda with their project."
Bakura folded his arms in a huff. "Fuck off."
The teacher gave him a stern look and reluctantly Bakura sighed unfolding his arms he pulled himself from the chair. He ignored the laughing student as he passed and headed over to where Ryou was discussing something with Honda.
Bakura sat down at their desk and his intrusion caught them off guard. They stopped halfway through a walk through plan of their next action. Ryou's body stiffened and Honda glared at Bakura and he turned his body to face the boy.
"Do you mind?"
Bakura returned him a frown. "If you have a problem with me here talk to the bastard over there." He pointed at the teacher who had is backed turned to them.
Ryou picked up on the point with curiosity. "You are our helping us now?"
"No I will be watching," Bakura explained not looking up from the desk. "It's not like it will change anything after all…"
As it turned out however Ryou and Honda were useless at anything. They could not cut a damn line with a hand saw without bending it. Bakura had decided then that it would be his job to get it done correctly.
He took a deep breath and then shoved the little white-haired brat out-of-the-way.
"Now do us all a favour and stand right there where you won't touch anything."
The boy seemed to hesitate before he took a step back to allow Bakura to finish the cutting job, and once that had been finished, he gave the boy a glare for good measure, before he roughly ordered Honda to pass him a plan for their next step.
Ryou was breathing rather heavily, and that pissed Bakura off even more, it made him lose interest in the class and he dropped into his stall and slammed his book shut. He dug in his pocket looking for his lighter.
"Fuck this," Bakura said.
Honda came over to him holding a plan. "We need to polish the metal down this the electric sander."
Bakura gave him a sarcastic smile. "That is great, you can do that for us."
Honda looked at him confused. Ryou shook his head at Honda and they shared a silent exchange.
"If the teacher comes over, tell him I have gone to take a shit," Bakura said, standing up and taking his backpack over one shoulder.
"Where are you going?" Honda asked.
"Let him leave," Ryou said,
Bakura frowned at the annoying sound of the English boy's attempt at Japanese -all the more reason to leave.
"I'm going to find someplace where I won't be annoyed by your voice and ugly looks every five seconds finish the project and try to not muck it up any more than you already have."
He wandered off out of the workshop and off to find the nearest toilet to have a cigarette.
X
"Anzu, I hope your hand does not stay permanently bruised for long," Miho said as she, Yugi and Anzu sat together in art class playing around with a Mondrian art style. "We don't want the dance to be ruined because you have black knuckles."
Anzu waved Miho's worry away as she focused on her own painting. "I find it exhilarating."
Yugi looked up from his painting to see if he could catch a glimpse of Anzu's injury.
"Does it hurt?" Miho asked.
"Not really," Anzu said. "It feels more relaxed in away knowing it has taught that arrogant cool boy a lesson."
She put her paint brush down. "Yugi."
Yugi raised an eyebrow at her. "Anzu?"
"Has Atemu been bothering you since lunch?"
Yugi blushed, looking slightly embarrassed. "No."
His eyes dropped to his painting.
"This is good."
Miho grabbed Anzu by the shoulder as she and already lost interest in her painting before she had even place a colour on her canvas. "Anzu, have you asked Honda if he will go to the dance with me?"
Anzu shook her head. "I think you should ask him yourself."
"But I do not see him as much as you do."
"Although," Anzu began. "Maybe you won't have to I heard Honda saying to Jou that he was thinking about asking you instead."
Yugi covered his ears to the girls screaming and wished for a moment he had some guy friends in the class with him. It was not what Anzu and Miho were not good people, it was just that he felt slightly left out when Anzu was off with her girlfriends, and males tended to act more civilized and talked more about important things instead of fashion and gossip.
There are squealing were silenced by the main door opening as Atemu came into class twenty minutes late, he did not look like he cared at all. The whole class had turned to glance at the tall boy as he entered the room. Yugi found himself staring for the first time since seeing Atemu during detention.
Atemu was tall and slender with the most amazing red eyes like they were made of hot lava. The large puffer jacket did not do justice to his form, but his finely chiselled face and styled hair still left a lot to be desired for.
He was halfway across the room when Anzu noticed the teen walking nearby and she dropped her excitable exterior and she turned to stare him down.
She muttered 'bastard' under her breath.
Atemu looked over in her direction, but his gaze became caught not on the girl who had punched him earlier, but Yugi himself.
X
Anzu Masaki was the most irritating person that Atemu had had the joy to meet. She might have had her good points, but Atemu and never seen them. He had been the object of fixation for Anzu when he first arrived at the school two years ago; however, things quickly changed when Atemu did not return her affections. She was always too smart for her own good and he was sure that she suspected there was more than just lacking romantic interest.
The Egyptian took his seat next to Vivian Wong, muttering a quick greeting as he dropped his bag and looked over at the little teen Yugi.
Vivian smirked at him with a hint of amusement in her voice. "What are you staring at Yami?"
Atemu quickly snapped his eyes away to look at his desk. "Nothing."
Vivian sniggered, flinger her long hair out of her face. "I heard you got beat up."
"It was only a slap, nothing I couldn't handle."
"By a girl."
Atemu looked over at her. "And your point is?"
"Was she a one night stand," Vivian asked. "Was she annoyed that a man like you isn't one for commitment?"
"I would never date Masaki."
"'Course you wouldn't. So what made her soo pissed off?"
"She is annoyed that I landed her boyfriend in detention."
"That little Yugi kid that Pegasus sent you off on?"
"Yeah," Atemu said.
Vivian laughed as she turned to the group at the table and began to tell the story of Atemu getting punished at lunch by a girl. Atemu sighed as he received looks from the whole crew. Just as his reputation could not get tarnished anymore.
The art teacher slapped a paint brush on his table. Its wet ends sent blue paint spraying out on the table and onto Atemu's bruised face.
She shouted. "Atemu, stand up!"
Within five minutes of entering the room he found himself in the unluckiest situation imaginable.
X
Yugi dropped his head in embarrassment and picked up his brush to continue his painting, trying not to draw attention to himself. He could feel his insides jumping round in his stomach as he tried to not look at the teen next to him.
Anzu had not touched her artwork since Atemu had been placed opposite her. Her nails were getting shorter and shorter as she dug them into the side of the desk, scratching downwards as he watching the cool boy closely.
Atemu ignored Anzu cold stares and he casually turned to tap Yugi lightly on the shoulder. Yugi looked up from his painting and was met by a pair of intense red eyes.
"I missed hearing what we were meant to do. Do you know what we are painting?"
Yugi's insides tightened and he looked at his own work. "We are meant to be looking at a painting of Mondrian. I don't think I like it very much."
A small smile crept up Atemu's face and he looked down at what Yugi was painting. It was as if there was some internal battle flashing behind his eyes, a confusion between wanting to act like a prat and acting like a decent human being. His smile was slightly shaky and Yugi decided to ignore it.
"That is quite good," Atemu pointed out, before he could stop himself. "I had seen real paintings by Mondrian because I went to an exhibition in Paris when I was younger. They are much better in person, so that experience can help change your mind about someone, even a painter."
Yugi blushed finding he was losing concentration as he had been repainting the same red line for the past minute or so.
"What is Egypt like?" Miho asked, interrupting her friend's conversation with Atemu.
Atemu pulled back a bit from Yugi and leaned back in his chair, his gaze finding a spot on the table of which to rest it as he frowned at the mention of his homeland.
"Sand that's all there is to say about it."
Anzu looked at Miho hard, her eyes going back to Atemu. "Why don't you enlighten us about yourself Atemu?"
Atemu titled his head to one side as he studied Anzu's question. "Why are you so curious?"
Anzu shrugged. "I am not. I just wanted to start off on something."
"Then why don't you cut the crap then and ask me what you really want to ask?"
Anzu's eyes travelled over to Yugi. "I don't have a question as such, just an observation. Did you know Yugi that Atemu is a upper-class twat?"
Yugi nodded, as he turned to look at Atemu.
Anzu continued. "He a selfish little daddy's boy which can explain why he has not a single backbone in his body. He depends on Pegasus to his orders rather than relying on his own thoughts about anything. He picks on little people to make himself feel more important."
"Anzu," Yugi said as he tried to catch his friend's attention before she said anything more stupid.
Atemu reached forward a placed a soft hand on Yugi's shoulder to stop him. "Don't worry little one. I will be leaving anyway."
Atemu pulled himself up leaving his class work as he did not even flash Anzu a single look as he left.
X
Anzu had not spoken after Atemu left. Her grip around her brush was tight as she tried to push the paint around the paper, but it did not do must justice for her.
"Here let me," Yugi said.
He had come and taken the seat next to her and took his own brush to help his friend finish off the background colouring. Anzu looked sideways at him, watching him work at her picture.
She sighed as she realised she had been hold her muscles for much of the day. "It is hard being angry at someone all the time."
Yugi laughed softly. "Then try being happy, or at least more forgiving."
"But I can't just let go of what Atemu did to you!"
Yugi placed his paintbrush in the jar of murky water and he looked at her. "I really do appreciate you and Jonouchi wanting to protect me, but don't you think it is about time I fought my own battles?"
"He might hurt you again."
"He might, however he might not too," Yugi said. "I should have bought this up earlier, however now is better than never, because Atemu and I have agreed to forget what happened on Friday. He apologised and I am willing to forgive him and give him another chance."
Anzu remained quiet after that. At the end of the class Anzu reached out to grab Atemu's papers that he had left behind and Yugi have her a curious eyebrow raise.
"Atemu left them here I will take them and give them to him in his next period-."
"You do not have to," Yugi said. "I am in his next class so I can hand them over then. I can also bring up the fact you want to make a truce with him."
Anzu seemed hesitant to give up her chance to talk to Atemu again, but she gave as she became aware of how she had acted. She looked slightly embarrassed that her pursuit to protect Yugi she had gone slightly over board in pushing Atemu into shape.
"Was it too much?" She whispered handing over the paper after they had packed away their art supplies into their lockers. "I mean, should I have said nothing to him?"
"No, I think I can sort that out," Yugi said. "Atemu seems like the sort of person that would understand how friends are there for each other."
"Even though I am agreeing to stop abusing him it still won't change the fact I hate his guts," Anzu said.
"I don't ask you to love him, just learn to be more platonic around him."
X