Chapter 3


Bakura was already dressed for gym class by the time Atemu came into the changing room. He looked up from his iPod at his friend as he dropped his bag on the bench beside him.

"Why are you here so early?" Atemu asked.

Bakura shivered. "I saw that freak again; he's in my English class."

Atemu laughed as he unzipped his bag to pull out his gym clothes.

"I walked straight out as soon as I saw his white head, so I have been sitting here for close to an hour."

"You could have text me," Atemu pointed out, "I was in art, so I wound have been able to avoid another Masaki shouting session."

"We are having bad luck today," Bakura said.

Atemu hummed in agreement.

Bakura frowned at his iPod as he spoke once more. "I seem to have misplaced my phone, it is probably still at Mariku's house from last night."

Atemu smirked as it was highly likely that his friend was right. He seemed to lose things all the time, and he would not have been surprised if Marik had a whole room full of Bakura's lost items.

Atemu loosened the belt around his waist and slipped his school shorts quickly off, clad in only briefs and a tight shirt he was interrupted all of a sudden by a light voice from a meter away. He looked up, unbothered by his vulnerable state of dress as he caught sight of Yugi standing before him holding a collection of paper's out to him.

He turned away, ignoring the boy for several moments as he began to slip off his shirt. Once he had a pair of shorts on; he ended the boy's wait with a casual nod and smile.

"What have you got there?" He asked eyeing the paper.

"You left your papers at art class, and I thought you should have them so you don't get yelled at some more because you misplaced them."

Atemu sewed his brow together, unsure what else to say to the little teen. "Thank you?"

"I just want to apologise… I realise I have been doing that a lot lately for people," Yugi began, "Anzu is a really good friend of mine and she is a good person. I just feel that because she has known be for so long I am like a little brother to her and she naturally feels inclined to protect me. But that does not mean that I support the way she has been treating you. I have spoken to her and she has agreed to drop her issues with you and will be more civil with any problems she has in the future."

Atemu was surprised that Yugi had so much love for his friends as much as he showed right there. He had shown Atemu his strength again and again through detention, when he stood up for Jonouchi, and again how with Anzu. Atemu wished he could find the strength within himself that measured up to Yugi's, but Atemu was at a loss with how he could. He admired Yugi for that.

"Also, did I say we were sorry?" Yugi asked. "And I hope the knock didn't hurt too much."

Atemu put a hand to his chin, stroking an invisible beard as he pressed his lips together and looked off into the distance. As soon as he saw the puppy dog eyes on Yugi's face he dropped his hands in surrender and nodded. As a gift for Yugi's courage he would give him that one request.

"As long as I don't have to go on some kind of date with her to show that I accept your apology then we can call it even."

Yugi's face grew brighter, his mouth wide with excitement and gratefulness.

"Thank you, Atemu!"

Atemu's face suddenly turned serious. "Yugi about Friday... I am sorry."

Yugi shrugged. "I understand the pressures Pegasus puts your kind under. I forgive you all the same. Now why don't we start again, not as enemies, but as friends?"

"I would like that," Atemu said before he would stop himself and he dropped his eyes.

Yugi's checks became a tinted pink as he noticed that the boy before him was shirtless he began to walk backwards, eyes wide as they stuck on to Atemu's form, he half-fell over a bench before he realized he was staring. Glowing even redder Yugi laughed nervously and gave the two of them a small wave, before running into a changing cubical.

Bakura came up behind Atemu and whispered into his ear. "What's this about Anzu?"

"Yugi has managed to stop her hot pursuit of me."

"And?"

"I believe I have just made a deal to forget it all happened."

"But you do know she's a female, right?"

"Yes Bakura I am well aware of that," Atemu assured him as he slipped on his gym shirt and stuffed his clothes into his bag. "What does that matter?"

Bakura's eyes glanced off at the cubical Yugi occupying and he lowered his voice. "When you make up with someone that easily it usually means sex is on the table. Plus, she has boobs; I thought you didn't go for that."

Atemu hissed back in a lowered voice at his friend. "Just because I do not actively have romantic relationships with women doesn't mean I can't be friends with them."

The two friends continued having a verbal spar between each other as they left the changing room and went to the gym to warm up.

X

Tetsu had been looking for a small boy all day and normally he would not have been hard to pick out from a group; he was normally the one who had the brightest hair which stuck out as obvious as a traffic light. He woke from his slumber at the entrance to the gym as the last bell for the day echoed over his head. A class wondered out a few minutes later, and Tetsu pulled up from the wall, flexing his arm muscles, he needed his money.

He smiled as he spotted the boy, walking with a group of his friends causally across the yard. He was not going to be nice this time; there would be no foreplay. He needed his clients to know that his services did not come cheap, and they could not squeeze so easily out of the loan.

He picked the easiest target of the three of them, Yugi Mouto. Tetsu suddenly ran up behind him grabbing him by the bag and pulling him off balance before he had any time to react. He was on the ground in an instant; face crushed into the concrete, and his back held down by Tetsu's large foot.

"Got my money?" Tetsu asked.

A tall boy with messy sandy hair was suddenly running at Tetsu to throw a punch at his face. Tetsu blocked the fist with ease, adding to it with a countered punch to the boy's face. He landed on the ground unconscious next to Yugi.

"Jou!" Yugi cried breathlessly in a raspy voice.

"We don't want any trouble Tetsu…" Honda said. He was looking back at Tetsu a look of terror on his face but at the same time a hardness that showed there would be some fight to protect his friends.

Tetsu did not like when his victims told him what he could and could not do. He took his foot off from the collapsed Yugi, and he made an attempt at Honda. The boy blocked a punch and managed to run a few meters away before the bully lost interest and returned to Yugi.

Yugi took his opportunity to crawl over to Jonouchi, checking his friend was still breathing. He pulled himself to his feet and stood between his friend and the bully. He did not want anyone else getting hurt.

"Leave us alone, please."

He spoke from the heart without the fancy words most people in a fight had the ability to use. He wished sometimes that he could take the speeches his heroes from stories made and sell them as well as they did.

Honda returned rather quickly with Kaiba on tow, and seeing his partner sprawled out motionless in the snowing pavement made him more determined to help.

"What do we have here," Kaiba said coolly. "A child without his caregiver."

"I have been hearing stories about you, fags."

Kaiba glared at Tetsu at the insult meant for him and Jonouchi.

Kaiba shouted. "Yugi, take Jou and get out of here. I will handle the pathetic bully from here!"

Yugi ignored his friend's pleads as he turned to confront Tetsu.

"Leave them alone," Yugi said, standing completely exposed at an arm's length away. His voice was not a plea as it was more a warning that if Tetsu laid a hand or said anymore he would not stand by any longer and let it continue. "If you want someone to pick on here I am, bring it on!"

"Yugi don't be stupid," Kaiba said.

Tetsu sneered reaching down in an attempt at grabbing Yugi by the collar. But the boy suddenly ducked and slid between the man's legs landing on his knees as he completed the manoeuvre. His trousers wet from the cold snow seeping into them. He quickly jumped to his feet and spun round to Tetsu. The bully did not look amused in the slightest, and he was quicker in his movements this to grab Yugi. He caught him just as he made a sideways step to avoid a dummy-punch, pulling him up off his feet and bringing him close to his own face so he could stare him down.

"Fight me fag, show me how strong you are. Then, when I win you have to pay me triple for what you already owed me."

Yugi choked as he spat back. "What are you talking about?'

A figure suddenly came into the show at that moment. Flashing like a cape-wearing hero by the speed he ran, he quickly launched forward without warning and had Tetsu on the ground moaning in pain within a few seconds. His moves were swift and intelligent avoiding Tetsu's blows with ease as he passed bellow the man's guard and dealt him a single punch between his legs.

Yugi used the moment of weakness to pull himself from Tetsu's grip and took a step back to get out of the boy's area of reach, he observed the scene with both admiration and shock.

His hero was not a cape wearer at all. He looked rather ordinary.

Atemu knelt down beside Tetsu and warned him in a harsh tone. "If you touch my friends ever again I will personally make sure that the next punch permanently ruins your chances of any children. But that would not be such a bad thing anyway."

He had called them friends.

Yugi looked amazed at Atemu's quick take-down of Tetsu, but he did not say a lot when the boy asked him if he was ok. Yugi just nodded and returned to his place alongside Jonouchi. Atemu looked sceptical as he eyed the boy's bruised checks and dishevelled clothes; he wanted to question him further, but Jonouchi was the main concern right now.

"Where did he get hit?" Atemu asked as he knelt down beside Yugi and the fallen boy.

"I didn't get much of a chance to look," Yugi admitted sounding worried.

Kaiba was soon at Jonouchi's side as well, and he carefully inspected his boyfriend over, checking his neck for a pulse, he breathed a slight sigh of relief.

Honda and Bakura were standing overhead watching.

"I saw his shoulder hit the ground first, followed quickly by his lower body then head," Honda explained.

Kaiba finished looking Jonouchi over before he slipped an arm under his lower back and shoulders, he lifted him up slowly, using his legs to brace himself against the boy's weight and lift him up. Atemu gave his cousin a hand in picking Jonouchi up. Kaiba paced his boyfriend's head on his chest and held his upper body whilst Atemu took hold of the legs and lower abdomen.

"We will need to get him to the sickbay, we have to make sure he didn't hit his head too hard," Kaiba instructed.

Bakura make no indication to move from the fallen bully. "I will make sure the bastard does not get up."

The group migrated slowly through the school halls, until they came to the office. The sickbay was a small isolated part of the building that was quiet and hardly disturbed by any unwanted sounds from children outside.

X

The nurse had not been overly surprised to see a boy in such a state being carried into her office at the conclusion of the day. She intrusted the boys to place Jonouchi in one of the beds by a window as she hurried off to fetch her medical equipment.

Yugi and Atemu sat next to each other on the edge of the bed left of the one Jonouchi occupied. Whilst Kaiba stood by his bed, eyes averted down his boyfriend's sleeping face.

Atemu found his attention focused on Yugi's bruised and batted face and he could not remember if these had all come from the fight earlier or Friday. One of the boy's bag straps had been ripped and he had sodden clothes from the trip through the snowy ground, but he looked find despite all of his. He had his eyes focused ahead on his friend with a look of concern, having not uttered much since arriving. One of his hands gripped the covers of the bed he sat on whilst the other held the head of his bag. The fact that his feel dangled a foot from the ground made Atemu share a small smirk with himself.

When the nurse returned Kaiba was forced to over back from Jonouchi and he began to wonder over to the other side of the room. He looked more worried than he had ever seen him. He decided he would leave Yugi for the moment and get got up to walk over to Kaiba.

"Hello cousin," Atemu said.

It was the first time in two years that they had uttered a single word to each other.

Kaiba looked at him. "Nice work you did there. I do wonder where your courage came from."

Atemu ignored his cousin's remark. "I have taken up the Japanese tradition of Karate."

Kaiba gave him a smirk. "That might explain why you are less of an arse than you were when we were living in Egypt. Then again, it could also be because you do not have your daddy watching your every move."

Atemu rolled his eyes at his cousin. "It has helped me think about a lot."

"Except you are still missing one thing," Kaiba said. "You are still falling for the same mistakes with Pegasus as you also did in Egypt with your father."

He decided he would not give his cousin the satisfaction of a reply and he looked over his shoulder to check on Yugi and Jonouchi.

"Jou was adamant you hated his guts."

That caught Atemu's attention as he strayed away from Jonouchi to look up at Kaiba.

"What made him think that?"

Kaiba gave him blank look as if to say 'are you really that thick.'

"I think after today though he will probably be after you for an explanation."

Atemu's raised an eyebrow at him. "Why could that be?"

"You're not meant to save the underdogs," Kaiba said. "You are the pinnacle of this whole school; it is the rules is it not?"

Atemu tightened his lips; narrowing his eyes self-consciously pulled away from Kaiba just as Honda entered the room with an entourage of friends. Ryou and Marik entered followed closely by Anzu.

Seeing the huge group of friends under the one room all of sudden made Atemu feel slightly out of place. He had done his duty and now he should leave before someone made the suggestion that it was his fault, yet again, for one of their own to get hurt.

He was about to leave them his eye caught on to Yugi's small form once more and he had to check on him before he hurried along.

"Have you been listen to what the nurse says?" Atemu asked; Yugi jumped at the sound of a deep voice behind him. He looked behind and saw Atemu leaning against one of the bedheads, his face revealing a look of concern as well as casual coolness.

Yugi stumbled in his attempt to compose a comprehendible sentence. "I-I-I think he will live, he tends to get knocked out really easily."

Yugi put a hand up to rub the back of his neck, and he gave a small light hearted laugh, a sound that caused Atemu to smile.

"I am glad to hear that he is all right," Atemu admitted, "And that Tetsu was not able to hurt anyone any more than he already did… Are you all right?"

The bruised checks of the boy went a light shade of pink under his eyes as Atemu reverted the conservation back to him.

"I am all right, just slightly grazed," Yugi assured him. "But speaking of which, where did you learn to do that?"

"Do what?" Atemu asked knitting his eyebrows together.

"That karate move or whatever it was."

He relaxed his face as it became clear. "I grew up with it and I have also since living in Japan have been going to Karate classes to amerce myself in the culture."

"Well," Yugi said. "It looks like I owe you another thank you."

Atemu shook his head, holding his arms out to stop his friend's attempts to thank him. He could not help, but smile at how kind and genuine this boy before him was, sometimes it felt like an angel had been given to him. The words caught in his mouth as he lowered his arms and looked deep into Yugi's sleepy eyes. He could sense a light tug daring to pull him closer towards the other's personal space which he chose to ignore.

"No, this is just me doing something any friend would do for another friend."

"Okay…"

Yugi was looking at him strangely, as if Atemu had something alien. He decided to not question the boy about it for the state of his checks were already as red as they could be, and Bakura would probably punch him if he kept him any longer.

Atemu held out a hand to Yugi. "I think this might do for now."

Yugi's wide eyes pared down at the popular boy's hand as if it was going to infect him with poison from an invisible snake wrapped around his arm.

Atemu smirked, laughing lightly. "I assure you I do not have a snake up my arm."

Yugi took hold of the boy's hand in his own, his strong grip a perfect fit around his soft small hands. They held them in an embrace for a short time before Atemu slipped the hand into his pocket. He shared a smile with Yugi, before he pointed lazy behind him.

"Bakura is waiting outside for me, he will want a hand dealing with unconscious bully" He said, sounding annoyed by that fact. "I will see you round?"

Yugi nodded and it was the last thing Atemu remembered as he walk out.

X