Here's chapter three. This story will involve a pairing with two males, but it will not be graphic and romance is not really the main focus. Also, I will do my best to have the pairing make sense for the plot and keep the parties involved in-character.

Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh.

-O-o-O-o-O-

"Yugi's back? Really?"

Téa and Joey stood outside in the vacant lot behind the school. With the squatters and the loitering kids who definitely would not be continuing into the school, it wasn't the most private place. But in Joey's trailer park, you couldn't drop a pin without a neighbor crying noise pollution.

"He woke up two days ago and came home yesterday," Téa said.

"Huh. And I missed it all."

"I would've called you, but Kaiba was there."

"Oh." Joey said coolly. "Then it is a miracle Yugi came home in one piece."

"Don't act like that. I think Kaiba actually feels bad about what he did," Téa argued.

"Sure he did. Just like he actually felt bad after…you know." Joey let his eyes glaze over as he watched a plastic bag floating on the wind. "No wonder Yami hardly lets him in the house. Now who's the dog?" Joey's laugh was uncharacteristically weak.

"He really does, Joey. Especially since…" Téa looked around, then leaned in close, voice lowered. "Yugi mentioned him when we were visiting the hospital and Kaiba nearly snapped."

Joey stared at Téa, wide-eyed. "Yugi knows we don't talk about that. Why'd he bring it up?"

The kids across the yard looked up from their card game. Téa took Joey by the arm and led him through the obstacle course of bottle glass and food wrappers along the side of the school building.

"That's the thing," she continued as they walked. "Yugi was acting strange, like he didn't even remember it. He kept talking about dueling with cards and going to Egypt."

Joey raised an eyebrow. "O-kay."

"He said that Yami was a Pharaoh who lived in a toy puzzle, and that we all went to Egypt and that both of you used to duel people with cards, whatever that means."

Joey laughed nervously. "I think that means the hospital gave him some awesome drugs." He looked around to make sure nobody was listening before joking, "you think he'll share 'em?"

"He also mentioned someone named Duke Devlin." Téa shrugged. "I have no idea who that is. Do you know him?"

"Er..." Joey looked off to the side, remembering the name from the dirty video ("Roll My Blue Dice: The Sequel") he'd loaned Yugi before the coma. "I don't know him, personally, either." He scratched his neck, sheepishly. "That's pretty weird. That dueling with cards thing sounds kinda cool, though."

"It gets weirder. According to Yugi's memory, he did it regularly. And with Kaiba, too."

"Heh, heh, I thought he would," Joey chuckled lecherously.

"I meant, they dueled with cards a lot, pervert!" Téa said. "Y'know, it's not very nice to talk about your friend's sex life behind his back. Especially if he doesn't remember it," Téa mock-scolded.

"Yeah, I'm just kidding." Joey absently kicked a discarded beer can. "Yugi wouldn't do that with Kaiba. Not yet, anyway." He grew serious again. "He really doesn't remember…you know?"

"He brought it up like it was nothing. He acted like it never even happened, like Tristan was going to walk in any second." Téa noticed Joey flinch when she named he-who-shall-not-be-mentioned. "Sorry."

Joey stared at the ground. "S'okay."

"Even weirder, he remembered some things, but not others. Like, he remembered Serenity and the rest of us, but he didn't even remember that he and Kaiba were friends. I wanted to tell him everything, but I didn't know where to start," Téa continued. "Who knows how much of his memory got mixed up with his coma dream?"

"Well, that doesn't matter as long as we can help him remember it, right?" Joey suggested hopefully. "He can't go around with the wrong idea about things—at least not any more than usual."

Téa gave Joey a hard look at that last bit. "Focus on Yugi, Joey, not on what he's doing with Kaiba." She looked worried again. "Do we have to tell him everything?"

Joey shrugged. "Why not?"

"Even what happened the week before?"

Joey rolled a rock around with his foot. "He has to know about it sometime, Téa. We can't protect him from it forever."

Téa looked down and away. "I know. He seemed so happy, though."

Joey put his hands on Téa's shoulders. "We'll help him get over it. It'll be okay."

"Yeah." Téa gave a small smile. "But we can't tell him right away. We have to take it slowly and delicately."

Joey grinned. "It just so happens 'slowly and delicately' is my middle name."

"But last week in shop class, you tried to hammer in a screw."

"The threads were worn. I had to improvise."

Téa looked at her watch. "We'd better hurry or we'll be late."

They continued up the battered concrete steps and into the school.

"Why did your shop teacher give you partner projects, anyway?" Téa asked as they walked the halls. They reflexively brushed the flaking puke green paint and small chunks of plaster from their hair and clothes.

"I dunno. Something about how team members are like tools and we need all of them." Joey snickered at the forced metaphor. "My team member was definitely a tool."

"Joey Wheeler, if you continue to talk smack about Yugi's other friends-"

"Okay, I'll quit it. But seriously, the guy should know by now. Me and Kaiba do not work together well, no matter how good we are at that class." Joey turned to enter the classroom, Téa following close behind.

As was usual for a half hour before class, the room was empty. The school seemed like a ghost town, just like it had for the past month without Yugi. They didn't bother to turn on the lights; half the bulbs were blown and there was enough light coming into the window. Besides, they didn't need the sallow cast of the fluorescent lights this early in the morning.

Téa looked out the dusty window and saw a familiar dark auburn-haired boy trudging toward the entrance. "How are we going to get Kaiba to not tell Yugi everything?" Téa asked.

Joey ran his finger over the obscenities carved into his chair. "I don't think he'll be in any rush to tell Yugi about…that thing, especially not after their fight. At least, not if he's as smart as Yugi says he is."

"If he does want to, though?"

Joey put his head on the desk, his hair flopping over a vulgar drawing. "Then we're screwed like that lopsided table."

-O-o-O-

Yugi woke up to silence and light streaming through the overhead window.

"Weird." He sat up. "I know it's Daylight Savings Time, but I don't think it's supposed to be this light this early." He looked at the clock and jumped.

"Eleven o' clock?" He flew out of bed and into his clothes, not even bothering to close the bedroom door.

He was fastening his backpack shut when Solomon walked through the door. "And just where do you think you're going, young man?"

"Can't talk now, Grandpa. I have to find Kaiba." Yugi tried to duck out the door, but Solomon grabbed his arm.

"Oh, no, you don't. You still need your rest, according to the doctor. Speaking of which, why was your alarm set for 5:00 AM?"

"Because I needed to get up early to talk to Kaiba." Yugi fidgeted, glancing toward the door. Maybe if he promised a duel, Kaiba would see him today.

Confusion passed over Solomon's face. Yugi was used to this by now. "I didn't realize Kaiba would be awake at five, let alone coherent."

Yugi didn't have time to figure out what that meant, because Solomon was dragging him back toward the bed. "You don't need to be rough-housing with that Kaiba kid. Back to bed with you."

"But what about school?"

"Don't worry about that. I'm sure you can get your assignments from Téa. Perhaps a break from all that stress will help your memory."

Yugi paused. As much as he really needed to get to school, he would appreciate a break. Maybe he could finish writing about his trip to Egypt. And maybe later, his grandfather would let him go out for a while—with Yami as a chaperone, of course.

He settled down with his journal and continued to write about Egypt. The words seemed to fly from his brain to the pen, across the page until he came to the point where Kaiba joined them. He could remember everything before, but the memories surrounding the boat ride to the Millennium Stone were blurred all to hell. It was like trying to use a focus knob with Vaseline covered hands: clarity slipped from his fingers and hippocampus. Bits of a scene would flicker in his mind's eye before fizzling into the darkness created by his closed eyes: exploring Egypt with his friends; Bakura's wicked grin; Kaiba's hands grabbing his collar.

Yugi jumped. That last one felt a little too real, as if it had happened recently. He could actually feel Kaiba's hands against his neck, hear his growl, almost see his snarling face. The odd thing was, it was mostly a blur. While he distinctly felt Kaiba's hands on his collar, he couldn't make out what Kaiba was saying, Kaiba's face was a blur except for the mad gleam in his blue eyes, and there was a strong scent of alcohol that Yugi was certain would have been out of place.

"I can't just sit here at home." Yugi got out of bed and put on his shoes. "I have to talk to Kaiba." He looked at the clock: a quarter past twelve. They'd be breaking for lunch right now and he could drop by the school and at least arrange to talk to Kaiba at a later date.

"I hope he actually stayed at school for lunch," Yugi thought, stashing his journal in his dresser.

He bounded downstairs and noticed the silence. He went into the kitchen and found a note from Solomon saying that he was running errands. After scrawling a note of his own, he ran out the kitchen door. He was sure he could remember the way to school. Even if the Kaiba Corp building had moved, the school had to be in the same place.

He was slightly put off by the unfamiliar scenery. Instead of new storefronts and highly polished edifices, along the road to Domino High School were old, boarded-up, or just plain decrepit buildings.

Yugi hopped over the stray cinderblocks, then ran around the car under which they once sat. He couldn't remember Domino being this unkempt, but in the back of his mind, he was unsurprised.

He stopped to let a rusty car cross the intersection. Still no sign of the Kaiba Corp building. He was starting to wonder if he was even going the right way. Or maybe he had forgotten where the school was, too?

He crossed the street and saw the signs indicating that this was, in fact, a school zone. He was right after all, maybe. He followed the signs to Domino High.

Except, this building couldn't be the right one. Domino High was fairly newly built. This place looked like it had been around since the Cold War. It sort of looked like the Cold War had happened there, too. Like, an arms race, only with litter instead of nuclear weapons. The general layout looked the same, but the details were so far off, Yugi had to check the rusty sign twice, then thrice to be sure.

He slipped through the chain-link gate like a spy in the enemy base. "How am I going to get past the hall monitors without getting caught?"

Yugi decided to sneak around the back. He was grateful for his lack of height as he walked under the windows. As long as the security guards and monitors didn't look down, he'd be all right.

As he grew closer to the back, the sound of several teenagers grew louder. Yugi looked at his watch. They'd have finished lunch and would be outside by now.

"I can at least visit the others if I don't see Kaiba," Yugi thought, continuing past the dumpsters to the back yard.

Observing the scene, Yugi wondered if these were students at the school, or just loitering kids playing hooky. Scattered clusters of kids milled around the yard in a disorderly fashion. A small group at the edge seemed to be absorbed in a game of craps. A few couples took the opportunity to fondle each other behind a shack with a rusted blue roof. The two hall monitors were nowhere in sight. When Yugi crept closer to inspect the smoke coming from the empty pool, he saw why; they and a few other students sat at the bottom, passing a couple joints around the group.

The most baffling thing about the scene, however, was the students' clothes. Why wasn't anyone wearing a school uniform?

He spotted Joey's blond mop sticking up above a bush behind the pool. "I'll hang out with them until lunch is over."

"Forget about homework. I'm going to see Yugi as soon as we get out," Joey said. Now that Yugi was behind the bush, he could see Joey and Téa standing together with their backs to him.

"You can see me right now," Yugi said, stepping further into the yard.

Joey and Téa jumped slightly and turned around. Like the rest of the students, neither of them wore a school uniform. Joey's green jacket was more vibrant than the wilted bush behind them.

"Hey, Yuge! How was the other side?" Joey asked.

Yugi smiled. "I don't remember much of it, but I'm sure it was a trip."

"Uh-oh." Joey looked at Téa.

"Not yet," Téa said. "Yugi, I thought you were supposed to be resting."

"Téa, it's a miracle he's even alive! We oughta be celebrating the fact that he's up and about," Joey said. He looked back at the school. "Nothing important's happening after sixth period, right?"

"Well, I didn't want to disrupt the school day or anything," Yugi said sheepishly.

"What are you doing here?"

Yugi looked up at the newcomer. Towering over him was Seto Kaiba. Like Joey and Téa, he wore street clothes. But it was what he wasn't wearing that gave Yugi pause. If uniforms weren't required for today, why wasn't Kaiba wearing his high-tech white trenchcoat?

"I just came to-"

"You're supposed to be at home," Kaiba interrupted. Yugi could see Kaiba's hand twitch slightly against his worn over-shirt. "You nearly died."

"Kaiba!" Téa scolded. Kaiba stared wearily at her, a far cry from the glare Yugi was sure he'd give.

"You got a problem with Yugi coming to see his friends?" Joey stepped up to Kaiba.

Kaiba stared him down. "No, but his grandfather might. I distinctly remember him saying 'no school for at least a week' back in the hospital."

"I just remembered," Yugi said. "Grandpa will probably be back soon."

"Yuge…You didn't sneak out just to see us, did you?" Joey asked coyly.

Yugi scratched the back of his neck. "Yeah, I kind of did."

Joey grinned. "I'm rubbing off on ya."

Kaiba rolled his eyes.

Yugi tittered. "I should get home before he does."

"Yeah, you should," Kaiba agreed. "And I'll make sure you get there."

"Um, I think I can get home on my own," Yugi started.

"I know you can. But I'm going to show you a shortcut."

Yugi drew back a little. Did he really want to be alone with Kaiba on a possibly unfamiliar route?

He looked at Téa, who gave him an "It's okay" nod. It must be safe, he thought.

"I guess I'll go with Kaiba, then," Yugi said.

Joey backed off from Kaiba. "Okay. Bye, Yugi." Téa waved.

Yugi walked over to Kaiba. The bell rang, signaling the end of the lunch period.

"Do you need to get excused from class?" Yugi asked Kaiba.

Kaiba sniffed. "Not going to bother." Behind them, Téa made a "tsk" sound.

-O-o-O-

"Stay by me, keep your eyes open, and don't let anyone get too close," Kaiba told Yugi as they set off.

"What kind of shortcut is this, anyway?" Yugi asked, looking around. The vacant lot they walked through looked more jungle than urban with grass Yugi could've hid in. Hell, Kaiba could have hid in it and you'd never see him.

"The kind that I take." Kaiba put a hand on Yugi's head and turned it forward. "Don't look back either."

Yugi wasn't exactly sure whom Kaiba was warning him about; he almost expected a tumbleweed to roll through the grey streets. Except for the occasional straggler, Yugi hadn't seen one person to watch out for, let alone a suspicious-looking one. But maybe that was the danger. The suspicious characters were the ones you didn't see.

"Why wasn't anyone wearing their uniforms?" Yugi asked as they crossed the street.

Kaiba's brow furrowed. "If they can't afford to fix the place, how can they afford uniforms?"

"Oh." No wonder Domino High looked busted.

Kaiba led him to an alley between two storefronts. Kaiba paused just before the alley, poked his head around the corner of the building and listened. "The coast is clear," he said after a few seconds. He walked down the alley, Yugi trailing reluctantly.

At the end was an assortment of crates, trash cans, and other debris in front of a fence about as tall as Kaiba. Through a few cracks, Yugi could see grass and a residential block in the near distance.

"We're gonna go over that wall," Kaiba told Yugi, "but we need to move some stuff first."

Kaiba got to work rearranging the debris into a makeshift staircase. Yugi stepped in to help after a few seconds, wondering why Kaiba couldn't just call his limo. He ultimately figured it'd be rude to ask. Maybe this was applicable to dueling and Kaiba was testing him by making him climb on alley trash.

Yugi dragged some tires around the base of the staircase. Kaiba paused to look quizzically at him.

"They're for padding, in case we fall," Yugi explained.

Kaiba seemed impressed—he almost half-smiled. "Good thinking."

Soon, they'd built a pile to climb on. They climbed to the top and Kaiba vaulted over the fence. Yugi swung his legs over, then let himself drop. He landed on his feet, thankfully.

They were about to continue when they heard a voice from the rusty, out of use car on cinderblocks. "Kaiba."

"I know that voice," Yugi thought. He turned around and standing behind him was Alister.

"The guy who blamed Kaiba for his little brother's capture!" Yugi's mind raced back to the fight with the Doom bikers. "I thought he left Domino."

"So ruining my family isn't enough for you and now you have to trespass." Alister's eyes weren't staring daggers, but ten-foot spikes at Kaiba.

"Not this crap again," Kaiba growled under his breath. "Like I pay attention to what my father does."

"But it's your fault they took my brother."

Kaiba's hands curled into fists. Yugi stepped in front of him.

"Alister, I don't know exactly what happened, but it's not fair to blame Kaiba for what his father did. He has nothing to do with your brother," Yugi said in the calmest voice he could muster.

Alister stared at him like his hair had transformed into a giant pot leaf. "Who the hell are you?"

"Someone who needs to keep his head down and his mouth shut." Kaiba pulled Yugi back towards himself.

"But-" Yugi started.

"This isn't your fight. Stay out of it," Kaiba whispered harshly. Alister was still standing there, staring at them both. Kaiba turned to leave. "I had no control over the situation," he said to Alister before walking off.

Yugi glanced back. Alister had gotten back in the rusty car and was smoking a cigarette.

"Didn't he realize it wasn't Kaiba's fault after the Orichalcos mess?" Yugi asked himself. "Is there evil afoot again?"

Yugi quickened his pace to keep up with Kaiba's long strides. For the next minute while they walked toward the houses, there was no sound except for the grass and bottle glass crunching beneath their feet.

When they were nearly at the end of the grassy lot, Kaiba stopped and turned to face Yugi. "I know you were trying to help back there, but that fight with Alister is none of your business." He started to walk off again, then paused when he realized Yugi wasn't next to him. "I told you, walk by me."

Yugi ran the few steps to Kaiba. Did Kaiba just acknowledge an attempt to help him? Their relationship must've been more complicated than Yugi first thought.

They walked between the houses to the sidewalk. They turned left and came face to face with Bandit Keith.

Keith glared at Kaiba, not completely angrily, but more disapprovingly. Kaiba stared him down the best he could while walking away. Yugi noticed that Keith's eyes never left Kaiba, at least not while they were walking past him.

Kaiba put his hand on the back of Yugi's head. "Quit staring and keep walking," he snapped.

Yugi obeyed. What beef could Kaiba possibly have with Bandit Keith?

"We're almost at your street," Kaiba added. "We're four blocks away."

As they turned to cross the street, Yugi managed to catch a glimpse of Bandit Keith's retreating figure. Keith looked over his shoulder, but this time, he was staring like he was trying to solve a particularly frustrating puzzle.

And he was looking at Yugi.

-O-o-O-

After Yugi was safely inside the game shop, Kaiba set off for his own house. He took the exact same shortcut he'd shown Yugi, except he avoided passing Alister's car. He didn't know why Alister was so territorial about the area around that car when his actual home was in the trailer park across town.

He gazed up the street. He could see the Domino High clock tower jutting up over the rest of the buildings. He considered returning, but turned back to his original course. He'd skipped enough days that they wouldn't care if he missed another. He certainly wouldn't.

He continued without delay until he came to the street behind his house. He walked about halfway down, looked around to make sure nobody was watching, and ran across the grassy strip between the houses to his own backyard. He gave a wide berth to the pile of burnt wood at the edge of the yard.

The silence of the house was deafening in comparison to the slamming screen door. He'd have a couple hours of downtime before the end of school. He sank into a chair at the kitchen table.

"Why don't they all get off my ass?" he thought, glaring at the clock over the stove. "He needs to get it through his thick skull that I'm not coming back."

He glanced out the window. From his seat, he could see the burnt lumber pile. He jerked his chair away; that was the last thing he wanted to see right now.

So Alister was still pissed at him. Fine, let him be pissed. Didn't change the fact that none of that crap was his fault. Kaiba had no idea what Mikey got into and no idea that his father had anything to do with it, so Alister was wasting his time and energy.

Though, he wouldn't have been surprised that his father would have been dumb enough to sell to kids. Kaiba had made a lot of mistakes lately, but he'd never done anything that incredibly stupid.

"Bastard. I'm glad he's gone," Kaiba smirked at the memory of the cop cars on their lawn, Mokuba's bewildered expression upon seeing the backseat passenger, and the resulting destruction of the old shack. It was a snafu, all right, but it needed to happen. One day, he'd tell Mokuba everything, answer all his questions about the incident and more. No longer would his baby brother sometimes look at him sideways.

Kaiba's mood deflated when he remembered his accomplice in the plot. None of it would have been remotely possible if Keith hadn't planted the right ideas in Sozoji's head to convince him to make that phone call. He felt a knot form in his stomach at the thought of being in debt to Keith.

"Great. Now he has a hold on me." Kaiba rose shakily and went to the fridge. This was way too much, especially after the past week. He didn't need quiet; he needed a drink. He dug in his pockets for his fake ID. He stood, turned around, and stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the note, written in neat cursive, on the fridge: "You can do it, Big Brother."

He stood as if he'd been sitting in the freezer for a while. He stopped looking for his ID. He opened the fridge and pulled out a soda instead. He couldn't buy beer and get drunk now; he had to pick Mokuba up from school, and besides, it wasn't yet five o' clock.

Meanwhile, at the game shop, Yugi had found the box with the Millennium Puzzle and was about to open it when he realized he'd completely forgotten to ask Kaiba for a meeting.

-O-o-O-o-O-