A/N: Third chappie! :D! Yay! xD

Disclaimer: If I owned Yugi... Oh, gosh, who am I kidding? Of course I don't Yugi or any of these other awesome as heck characters! x'D

Warning: YAOI, meaning menxmen and such, BakuraxYugi and YamixRyou, language, mature intent, OCC-ness (personalities are backwards! Lights and Darks' personalities are reversed and such-ish!)

Surviving With You

Sometimes, it was hard being him. Yugi couldn't get things to go the way he wanted, couldn't try to not be clumsy, and he couldn't stand up for himself right off the bat. He was a bit slow to the upcoming, but that didn't mean he couldn't take care of himself. He wished he could better himself, to show himself up to Yami, but Yami always seemed to brush it off. Was he, Yugi, a disappointment? Was he not worth the acknowledgement from the all amazing Yami? Was he… troublesome? A burden? Because, that's exactly how Yugi felt now.

"Go with Joey to the arcade. I'll watch the shop for you."

It was such a nice offer. It was extremely generous of Yami, but…

"I already said you can go, Yugi. Quit trying to dissuade me."

…He made it sound as if Yugi was only trouble if he stayed at the shop…

Was he only a problem to Yami? Was he a burden to the guy? Maybe it was because of…

Yugi shook his head. Even if it was because of that there was nothing he could do about it now. That was months ago. Nothing he did could possibly change what he'd done wrong then. He was such a screw up. A clumsy fool. If nothing else, that was probably why Yami was distant with him as of recently. Things were just too awkward now.

"Oi, Yuge!"

Snapping out from his reverie, Yugi looked to his right at his best friend to find the tall blond looking back at him. "Y-yeah, Joey?" Crap, again with the stammering? What was with him?

"Look!" And Joey pointed straight ahead of them, over Bakura's and Ryou's shoulders.

Yugi followed his friend's pointing finger and then let a small smile light up his face. The beginning of the park and the surrounding forest trees were finally in sight. He always loved their park. It was a beautiful sight to see. And Joey knew this. The taller blond liked to see him happy and if, by pointing out what he liked best helped, he knew Joey would do it.

"Ah! That's great!" Yugi happily exclaimed, smiling back at his blond friend.

"Race ya!"

"Wha-huh?" Yugi watched in amazement as Joey swooshed past him, sprinting up ahead of them towards the park. For a moment, Yugi gaped. Then he cried out," That's not fair, Joey! You cheated!" And he raced after his friend without a second thought.

Behind him, he faintly heard Yami shout out," Be careful, Yugi!" His shout was said in such annoyance he nearly hesitated. But he shrugged it off. He was having fun. Yami could just deal with it this one time. And he continued to run off, chasing his blond friend through the trees and across brilliant green grass. Everything was just so beautiful during the summer. Winter was always wonderful too, but to watch butterflies flutter past you and to see people taking leisurely walks through the park was just as great, if not more awesome.

"Ne, you're too slow, Yuge! Gotta do better than that, Bud!" He heard Joey shout over his shoulder, still some distance ahead of him.

"Grr, just you wait, Joey! I'll get you!" Yugi shouted back, quickening his pace as best as he could, and pushing himself harder. He was nearly there to Joey. Ten feet… Seven feet… Four feet…

"Too slow, Yuuuge-! WHOA!" Yugi caught his friend's shirt at the back and together they fell head over heels into a huge heap on the ground, squashing the grass beneath them.

Yugi had landed on top as victor and he smiled smugly down at his friend as he sat up, placing his hands on the other male's chest to brace himself. "Ha! See? Told ya I'd get'cha! Mwa-hahahaha!" He grinned widely as Joey began to sputter over excuses, now red in the face from defeat.

"Y-yah, well, I-I let you win!" Joey muttered.

They looked at each other, both silent for a moment, then, together, started laughing out loud from the silliness of Joey's statement. And it had been the perfect moment until…

"Yugi! What do you think you're doing?" …Yami's angered voice cut through the moment like a knife right to the gut.

Perking up and looking over his shoulder at the sound of his boyfriend's voice, Yugi found that the group had finally caught up to them. Yet, Yami was in the lead, stalking to where Yugi and Joey were with a thunderous look on his face. Shrinking back a bit, Yugi glanced back at Joey and realized the position the two were in. From their view, it was completely harmless-it was just them playing around. But from another view? It was quite insinuating. Especially when in the view of an angry, jealous boyfriend.

Or so he thought.

"Y-Yami! Uhm, this is-," Yugi tried to say, but Yami cut him off as the group approached them.

"What was with you two running off, huh?" Yami demanded and he walked straight up to them, grabbing Yugi's bicep to pull him up to his feet. He yanked him away from standing over Joey and off to the side, then Yami began to look the shorter male over, looking for possible injuries with a sharp gaze, brows furrowed way down. "Did you hurt yourself? Fuck, Yugi, you need to be more careful!" He exclaimed, spotting a tiny scrape on the other male's arm.

Yugi stared blankly at his boyfriend, his mind swept clean of any thought. He let the taller teen look him over without comment or complaint, glancing to the side briefly when Joey was getting up to his feet next to them. Then he looked back at Yami quite vacantly. It wasn't that he was disappointed that Yami hadn't been affected by the sight of his and Joey's position-everyone knew that they were best friends, after all, but did Yami feel nothing? Did he not feel a twinge of jealousy at the promising position? Surely he had, hadn't he? Cripes! Yugi scrunched his face up in disgust of himself and looked away from his boyfriend, scowling down at the green grass all around them. He hated these doubts in his heart, but what was he to do otherwise? Yami never seemed to… Oh, whatever! It didn't matter either way.

"I'm fine, Yami. Just a scrape." The shorter of the two muttered, pulling his arm away at the same time he turned to face his other friends, faking a smile for them so that he didn't show his suffering. "Alright!" He shot his hands up in the air in his bout of 'excitement'. "Let's start eating, shall we? This is a good place as any, right?" He wondered, trying hard to ignore the sight of Yami scowling at him from the corner of his eye.

Ryou, bless his sweet soul, immediately agreed while smiling. "Yes, it's perfect, Yugi," He softly replied. "Let's move closer to the tree, though, to be under the shade where it's cooler." Without a word of disapproval, the group shuffled over to be beneath the tree, then they all sat down in a sort of circle. That's when Yugi noticed that Bakura was the one with the basket now. Which was strange-hadn't Yami been carrying it not moments ago? Yugi glanced towards his boyfriend in wonder, then quickly looked away when he found the other male still scowling at him somewhat. 'I suppose he gave it to Bakura when I ran off,' Yugi thought to himself, settling down between Joey and Ryou so that he wasn't in too close of contact with Yami. 'I guess he's gonna blame me for that, too? Though, I don't see why he would, it's just a basket for crying out loud…'

"So how's it going, Roy? Haven't seen y'all all in a while." Joey started as Bakura started to rummage through the basket, everyone watching the silver-head as he did.

"Haven't we been through this already?" Bakura grumbled, hands deep in the basket.

Everyone ignored him as Ryou answered Joey with:" It's been going well, Joey. All I've been doing, really, is lazing about." He chuckled and glanced at Yugi, smiling. "Yugi and I have also been trying to finish our summer homework." He looked back at Joey, still smiling. "How have you been, Joey? Earlier you said you've been busy? What have you been up to?"

"Homework?" Startled, Joey perked up and eyed Ryou skeptically. "What homework? I didn't know we had homework!" He turned to Yugi with that same skeptical look of his and said," He's just yankin' my chain, righ', Yuge? We don't got homework, do we?"

Yugi gave him a sympathetic look, smiling meekly. "Sorry, Joey, but he's right. English, remember? I think you fell asleep when the teacher was talking to us about it."

"Aw, maaan!" Joey's face scrunched up as he yanked at his blond locks, stressed by the news. "Not cool! How the—why the hell does she think anyone is gonna actually remember crap like this when it's summer? Dammit!"

"I could always help you. I've already finished," Kaiba answered, but without his usual smugness. Joey looked over at him in slight shock and found that the brunette was looking quite serious over his offer.

"Oh, err…" Joey grinned timidly, rubbing the back of his neck as he glanced sideways at Yugi, plea in his eyes. Yugi blinked wide-eyed back at him, not understanding what it was he wanted, though he, too, was confused and shocked by Kaiba's generous offer. The guy was normally too much of an asshole to do anything nice for others. It was perplexing when he actually offered something-especially since this was Joey we were talking about. "Gee, Kaiba, I dunno…"

"Oh, Joey, why not?" Yugi quietly asked, looking at his friend with sympathy. He didn't know why he was saying this, but the sudden light going out in Kaiba's eyes made Yugi want to help the brunet. Something was telling him that Kaiba wanted to do this. "He's got top marks in English, right? If he helps you out, then maybe you, too, can get high marks. Plus, wouldn't that mean you have more time to play at the arcade?" Everyone looked at Yugi like he was stir crazy, but Kaiba, no matter how strange it was, actually smiled at the tri-colored haired teen. Yugi smiled hesitantly back before looking at Joey who'd begun to stammer.

"W-well, I-I guess, but y-ya know it's not all that… Er, I mean… ," Joey trailed off just in time to get a face full of sandwich. Everyone looked in the direction it'd been thrown from to see Bakura pulling out another sandwich from the basket, looking quite indifferent even after having thrown the packaged food. When he caught everyone's stares, he scowled and shrugged noncommittally.

"Are we gonna eat or what? I'm tired of listening to him mumble his unimpressive babble when we could be eating," He said with just the slightest hint of defense while unwrapping his sandwich of peanut butter and sliced bananas.

"You-!" Joey shook a fist at him with anger in his eyes, but the he realized he was saved. He wouldn't have to answer Kaiba! Perfect! Joey reached over and grabbed a peanut butter sandwich as well, trying to hide a triumphant smile as he muttered," He's right. Let's eat!"

Kaiba's expression turned to his normal look of indifference, but, watching his eyes follow Joey's movements, Yugo presumed that Kaiba had really expected an answer. The poor guy was left hanging and Yugi found himself pitying the brunet. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but Yugi felt the need to help Kaiba out, even if just to cheer him up a bit.

"You know, Kaiba," Yugi started somewhat hesitantly, setting down his sandwich. He watched the older teen reluctantly tear his eyes away from the blond of the group to look at the shortest and, once having his attention, Yugi smiled small. "I heard that Mokuba has a new puppy. What's its name?"

Glancing briefly back at Joey one more time, Kaiba gave up on him for the time being and stuck his attention on Yugi, his eyes showing indifference. "Fido." He said dully.

There were some laughs amongst the group and even Yugi smiled some, his head tilting in interest. "Fido? Why that name?" He politely asked, just as curious as a newborn baby.

Kaiba shrugged barely, snorting. "He's been reading some American novels as of late. His logic is strange at times."

"Mokuba is a good kid." Yugi cheerfully replied, smiling sweetly. Kaiba merely nodded. It was the end of the rather short conversation, but at least he'd gotten the taller guy to speak. That all in itself was an accomplishment. Especially considering the brunet had not used an ounce of snooty-ness or anything of the likes.

The group ate their lunches that had been made by Yugi and Ryou and it was just as they were finishing up when a bell was heard. The group of guys looked up to find a man riding a bike pulling an ice cream freezer with little pictures of what he had stickered to the sides. Joey's face brightened up at the sight, same as Ryou and Yugi. They all looked at each other and cheered," ice cream!"

Yugi glanced at Kaiba with an excited smile and saw how Kaiba smiled at the sight of Joey smiling. An idea popped up in his head that made Yugi jump up to his feet all the while grabbing Kaiba's hand. "Come, Kaiba! Let's go buy ice cream for everybody! Help me carry them, okay?" He said as his excuse as he tugged the taller guy after him.

"Be careful, Yugi!" He heard Yami warn him as they broke from the group.

"Yeah, yeah," Yugi muttered in impatiently, but, for the most part, ignored his partner. When they were partially a ways off from the rest, Yugi let Kaiba's arm go and looked up at him, finding the guy glaring intensely down at him. Yugi shoved away the urge to 'eep' at the face of certain death and grinned nervously at him. "S-sorry! I wanted to ask you something!" He quickly said to the guy as an explanation for his actions.

"I figured as much." The man evenly replied, looking just as impatient as Yugi had been with Yami. "What do you want?"

"It's about Joey…"

"What about him?" If he had been any lower, Kaiba would have perked up like a love-struck fool, but it was in his eyes and Yugi felt reassured and slightly smug. Kaiba had it and had it bad, it seemed.

"I was wondering…" Yugi trailed off as the man with the ice cream came riding up to them and stopping. Kaiba made an impatient noise however as if he didn't care if they were heard and so Yugi continued as they waited as the man cooled down for a moment. "It seems as if it's so sudden that he's caught your eye… Why're you chasing him now? What changed your opinion?"

Kaiba eyed Yugi for a moment, then looked away, off towards where their group was sitting. "I ran into him a week ago at the super market…" He started off slowly, probably considering if he should really confide with the shorter male. After a moment of silence, he glanced back at Yugi. "I honestly don't remember what we started arguing about, to be truthful." He sighed, rolling his eyes. "But things were said and I suppose I said something harsh and he said I was a cold-hearted bastard. Then he went on about needing to get laid. Before I could even make a remark of NOT needing to get laid, he doubled back and said differently that I needed to find my light." At the sight of Yugi raising a brow at him, Kaiba shrugged. "I don't know. That's why I asked him what he meant. He said that I needed to find someone that will light up my world. Probably warm my "frozen heart"." He snorted.

Yugi blinked in absolute shock at the un-Kaiba-like noise, then glanced towards their friends, somewhat perplexed. Kaiba was laughing… Because of Joey? Had the blond reached that deeply into Kaiba's heart with just mere words?

"He also said…" Yugi looked back at Kaiba as the guy continued to talk, giving his full attention to the male. "That if I found this light, then I wouldn't be such a dick anymore. Well, I put his words to heart for some reason and started to look. I went out again the next day to the mall and it's like the idiot was following me. I ran into him again… And then again at the Starbucks down the street. Then another time on my way to the library… And again at the pet store when I was out getting Mokuba some more dog treats for Fido. And it made me realize…" Kaiba sighed and looked down into the freezer of the ice cream on wheels. "Joey is so bright, both in personality and the way that he dresses… He always catches my attention first thing every time we're in class… He's… Joey is my light."

Yugi was amazed at how many times the two had run into each other. Had it all just been coincidence though? What a crazy thing! But then Kaiba's last words really did him in. He nearly fell over from the shock, having to grab the freezer machine to keep his balance. He stared at the brunet. "Wh-what?" He stammered, once more glancing at Joey. "I-I dunno, Kaiba… Don't you think that all those times were just a coincidence? I mean, I'm sure that Joey wasn't implying himself as a possible candidate to be your 'light', you know…"

"Oh, I know he wasn't intending to be put into the equation."

"Then why…?" Yugi looked at him with much confusion, slowly shaking his head while Kaiba reached into the freezer, pulling out six red, white, and blue popsicles out that had pre-packaged wrappers on them.

The brunet smirked. It was eerie. It was mischievous. Something that just didn't look right on Kaiba's face. But only because it was downright scary. "I had a dream about him…"

"Oh…"

"A very explicit dream, I might add."

"What?" A blush appeared on Yugi's face as he looked at Kaiba. He didn't mean… did he?

As if reading his mind, Kaiba nodded all the while paying the ice cream man the money that was owed. His look scared the man off quickly. Kaiba was smirking a bit more wickedly than before. "Yes, Yugi. Those kinds of dreams. And I've got quite a few theories that I have learned through those dreams. Interesting theories. For example, Joey might like being licked and nipped behind his ears. But not only that – I would like to see the blond tremble beneath me as I-."

"Alright! Okay! Uhm, T-M-I, yeah? I get it. I really do. You want Joey. Joey's your only "light" in your world. Gotcha." Yugi quickly agreed, not wanting to hear any more disturbing 'theories'. Not about his best friend. Never. He was already scarred just by hearing a partial one... Joey's ears… Yugi shivered. He was too innocent for this!

"So you will help?" Yugi looked up and found Kaiba raising a brow at him questioningly.

Cocking his head, Yugi hesitated. "…Help? With what?"

A smirk twisted Kaiba's lips. Yugi had a bad feeling. "Catch my Puppy, of course."

…Yup. Bad feeling twisting in his stomach.

Yugi stared at the guy like he was crazy, slowly becoming nervous. He grabbed the popsicles from the brunet's hands and started to lead their way back to the group, if only to get away from the question. "Well…"

"You said you understood, did you not? Don't you want me to be happy?" He frowned in his sad, Kaiba-like way and the guilt started to eat at Yugi's insides. Something must have shown to give Kaiba a heads up on such, for his smirk returned with vigor and a devious glint appeared in his eyes. He was planning something, and it couldn't be good.

"Uh… Well…" Yugi averted his eyes, jaw clenching. Damn his guilty conscious. Why was he such a good friend?

"I mean… If I can't get Joey… If I can't have him… Or see what I see, then I suppose I might have to confide in you a lot more often. I do happen to have a lot of dreams, after all."

Yugi quickly looked back at Kaiba and the strange, perverted look on Kaiba's face was all it took.

The short male all but whole-heartedly agreed with a nod of his head as they finally reached their friends once again.

TBC

A/N: Sorry for being a bit late. :3 Been a bit stressed and all.

How was it? Starting to get a bit more interesting? Sorry if I bored y'all!

Until next time then!

Ciao!