I got lots of nice reviews for the last chapter, so I've decided to keep going. I might get back into my Ranma fanfiction, but, that might not be for a while ; I've been playing Magical Melody (Harvest Moon game for the Gamecube) for the past three days. Straight. With out sleep. Needless to say this should be entertaining. A snippet of our conversation about said game:

"IT TRIED TO EAT ME!"

"It was a cow!"

"That was scary. I fear for my life."

Oh, thank you all my reviewers, I really appreciate the support.

P.S., Kaylie: Yes, yes you have. It's called Gravitation. Don't lie. Lies make baby Jesus cry.

-

"So, what exactly does starting this party entail?"

"Well, that's open to suggestion, but there's food, and music, and duel monsters set up…" Yugi trailed off.

"My GOD, again?" Marik sputtered, shuffling in the big purple cape. Bakura reached to wrench it off of him, but he wrestled it back without being revealed.

"Well, some of us actually started playing the game for fun." Tristan chirped from the general vicinity of Joey and the food table.

"Yeah, not to take over the world or swallow it in darkness." Joey agreed, giving a pointed look at Bakura & Company in particular. "We could think of something else to do."

There was a thoughtful silence, in which Bakura shifted his weight several times, and then finally turned to Ryou. "Did you invite me to a party that had no purpose, no activities, and no acceptable human beings to be around with?"

"…No."

"…"

"I hope not?" Ryou shifted his gaze.

Bakura glared at his shorter light. It was an hour or two until dark, and until then there was really nothing to do. Yugi was started to look very uncomfortable and put-out by the down-hill start of his (nonetheless still meaningless) party.

"Look, if you don't want to be here, just leave." Yami seemed to notice this, and promptly moved to stand in front of the nervous high-schooler. "Nobody wants you here, anyway."

Bakura felt heat rising to his face. "What's got your panties in a bunch? I had the decency to show up where I was asked to show up. What more do you people want from me?"

"Keeping a promise is one thing but lingering where you're not wanted is just sad."

"You know what? I think you all have unrealistic expectations. News Flash; Pharaoh, not everyone is as lovey-dovey friendship-can-do-anything goodness-prevails-over-evil as you are. Come to think of it, very few people are. So when somebody isn't as bright and fucking chipper as your little pep squad, you can't get all high-and-mighty on them. They're what's considered normal." Bakura mocked Yami openly, and by his rapid intake of breath, one could tell he was preparing to launch into a long winded Bakura monologue. Yami decided it would be better prevent this occurrence with a well-placed piece of fruit. Yes. Citrus-y justice had been served.

Ryou watched the orange roll across the lawn after ricocheting off of Bakura's head. He rested his gaze where the fruit rolled to a stop. From there, he slowly lifted his eyes back to Bakura, who stood in shock with one arm up and his mouth open. Yami stood smirking cockily, watching Bakura slowly lower his hand.

"You really want to take it there?" The so-called albino asked in a serious tone, brushing the spot where the hard rind hit his cheek.

Yami merely raised an eyebrow in response.

"Okay, suit yourself." Bakura promptly dipped his hand into the nearest cooler, of which there were several stacked against the wall of the house, and pulled out a carton of ice cream. Before Yami was quite sure what the hell he was going to do with said carton, Bakura had ripped the container apart and the sugary, creamy contents went sailing through the air

and landed on Yami's head, in his multi-colored hair.

Seeing a combination of ice cream and carnage, Marik got excited, and deigned to flick his hand out from the cape long enough to chuck a bowl of salad at Kaiba. Why Kaiba, no one was sure, but the CEO was enraged. He looked briefly down at the French dressing dripping off his (most likely very expensive) summer trench coat and, without hesitation, flung a cup of punch back at him. The cup, only obeying the laws of physics, splashed all between him and Marik with the purplish liquid.

And thus the 4th of July food fight had officially started.

"Works for me!" Malik exclaimed, and began pelting Tea with miniature hot-dogs.

In the middle of the food fight, in which both food, drink, and condiment splattered all over the yard, a meek little boy poked his head out from the back door. He narrowly ducked a poorly-aimed banana. "Hey. Hey."

"TAKE THAT, YOU ALBINO BASTARD!"

"Hey."

"POINTY-HAIRED PIECE OF SHIT!"

"Hey!"

"YOU'RE ONE TO TALK!"

"WOULD YOU SHUT UP ALREADY?"

All eyes turned towards the screech. Mokuba stood glaring in the doorway.

"In case any of you were wondering, the dance floor is all set up." And he disappeared inside.

"Oh yeah." Yugi piped from underneath one of the tables, "I forgot about that."

A silence fell over the yawn once again. Malik stopped trying to decorate Marik's face with chocolate sauce. Duke questioned aloud when and how he got covered in cherries and whipped cream1. Kaiba managed to slip inside after his brother. Joey glanced over to see Bakura and Yami still going at it, the two of them having broken eight plastic knives and one spork trying to induce bodily harm to the other. Yami was currently being drowned in the punch, Marik hovering by them.

Ryou quickly walked over and pulled his dark off of Yugi's, holding him back as Yami pulled his head out of the liquid and gasped.

"Sunuva…"

"Now, now, don't want to break character, do we, Mr. Friendship?"

Yami just glared. Yugi beckoned everyone inside to get cleaned up and maybe dance. The bass of good dance music started thumping from inside.

Bakura found himself watching Yami whilst being dragged through the door by both Ryou and Duke. "Haha. Look. Bastard's choking."

"Shut up, you, you started all of this."

"Did not."

"Did you just eat a cherry off of me?"

"No."

"… It's hanging out of your mouth, Bakura."

"That proves nothing."

"Here, I found a towel."

Bakura took the towel and immediately buried his face in it. Marik said something, but he was too busy being enthralled by his accomplishment of starting chaos and havoc at the pharaoh's shindig.

"Hey. Did you hear me?" Marik nudged him with a naked elbow. Bakura looked the fellow psycho up and down.

"You took off your cloak?"

Marik grinned ear to ear. "No point in hiding empty bottles."

The thief stared at him blankly for a minute. Malik giggled madly and held up a small bottle.

"… Watermelon schnapps."

"And some other schnapps, and 80 proof vodka-lots of it, and some wine I stole from the place I got the lighter2-"

"Oh, hey, I had almost forgotten about that."

"A lighter? Marik gave you a lighter!"

The devious trio turned to Ryou, who remained beside Bakura holding up the disheveled towel. "What did I say about lighting Yugi-kun's house on fire?"

"Um, I believe it was something along the lines of 'don't.'"

"Exactly." The chocolate-eyed hikari held his hand out expectantly.

"Dammit! I hadn't even used it yet…" Bakura dropped the beautiful, shiny red lighter into Ryou's hands. He closed his fingers around it no sooner than it hit his palm and dropped his fist to his side.

"OI."

"Schwa?" Marik looked up and saw a staggering Yami blinking into his face.

"Wher'vsh Bakurra?" He gurgled.

The tomb-keeper blinked, not fully grasping the degree of Yami's current condition. "Right in front of you?"

"Than'sh." Yami promptly launched himself over the threshold, latching onto Bakura for support.

"What the fuck?" Bakura stumbled, grabbing onto the Yami's arm with one hand.

"Oiuee ouiee! I canneat you, you're cute…" Yami giggled into Bakura's shirt. He bunched the fabric into his fist with one hand, and the other hung limply at his side.

"I think he's drunk." Marik stated flatly.

"No shit, Sherlock."

"I didn't think he'd react this drastically." Malik rubbed his chin in mock-pensiveness. "Guess he can't hold his alcohol."

Ryou stared with mild horror at his best friends yami, who was now rubbing his face all over the shirt of his own (appalled and yet bemused) yami. "Considering the fact that he was previously housed in the body of an under-age high school student, I'd guess he can't."

"Kurakura smellsh funneh." Yami giggled, falling to his knees. He was now entirely propped against Bakura, who was pushing the pharaohs face away from lower region nervously. He cringed at the slurred speech and the nickname it entailed.

"That would be the soda you poured on me. Remember?"

"No."

"I didn't think so. Twerp! Oi! Get your lush off me!"

Ryou hushed him promptly. "No no no! How's Yugi going to hide Yami? His grandpa's going to find him sooner or later and figure out someone spiked the punch. He could go to jail for serving alcohol to minors."

"He didn't serve it, we did. Actually, we didn't really even serve it."

"It doesn't make a difference. There was alcohol here," He gave a most dangerous glance in Marik's direction. "and that's illegal, like everything else you three seem interested in. We could probably hide him at my place."

There was a moments silence while Yami hummed a nonsensical tune into Bakura's pant leg. The air passing from the pharaoh's mouth onto the fabric was heating his leg quite quickly, and Bakura tried to shake Yami off much like one shakes off an overly-affection dog. Cough.

"Get off already!"

"Geroff gerofff!" Yami squeaked, and clung tighter, wrapping his arms around Bakura's thigh. Bakura grunted in annoyance and tried to pry him off.

"Before this goes any farther, we should probably take up Ryou's offer."

"Fine! Just GET IT OFF."

"Geroff geroff! Kurakurachansan…" Yami hiccupped.

A suppressed giggle passed among Bakura's so-called companions, receding after much death-glaring on his part.

It took them a few minutes, but they had actually managed to pry the giggling, babbling Yami off of Bakura. The former pharaoh now resembled more a loose mental patient then a drunken teen, but no one really paid much attention to the difference. They tossed him over the end of Malik's bike, not trusting him to be able to walk the few blocks to Ryou's apartment, and the other three followed on foot.

"… Sorry you had to leave the party…" Ryou trailed off, looking for something to break the awkward silence. Halfway through, however, he had realized that it was actually an improvement.

"Bah. Sucks to their shitty party." Marik scratched the back of his head. "That was stupid. I don't know why we even went."

Ryou flushed. He felt bad for Yugi, who was actually just trying to bring the two parties together. Kaiba floated in and out, but he was usually busy anyway, and they suspected he opted not to show up even when he didn't have immediate work to do. But as usual Malik, Marik, and Bakura simply refused to mingle, and they had managed their way out of another get together.

"Come to think of it, you always come to a party when you're invited, but you never stay."

"Are you saying we shouldn't even show up?"

"Well, no." His voice came out much more flatly then he first surmised. "I mean, why do you show up? Are you really that obliged?"

Bakura shrugged. "I follow you, mostly. I can't stand that idiot Pharaoh, but sometimes he's funny. Like today."

"You mean until he started molesting you."

Bakura stated something colorful here, and struck Marik over his head. Marik replied with an equally colorful recrimination and they began an impromptu karate match, which Ryou found most amusing, seeing as neither knew karate.

"Guys, we have to catch up to Malik, regardless of the respectability of Bakura's cat."

"Don't mess with us, man, we'll BOTH cut 'ya." Bakura made a stabbing motion, slicing the air in front of him. He accordingly adopted a poor ghetto accent.

"Isis's snakes could probably eat you both alive. At the same time." Marik made a hissing noise and trotted forward to catch up with Ryou.

Bakura thought for a minute, and then started cautiously, "Ryou... why do you have to be the voice of reason all the time?"

Normally Ryou would have thought the question rhetoric, like Bakura's usual whining. But he slowed down, actually considering the question seriously.

"I'm used to it by now. It's what's expected of me, isn't it? I don't mind…" He paused, thinking more.

"You don't have to be, we don't mind."

"No, I HAVE to be, or you'll get hurt, or thrown in jail. That's just how…" A sudden smile spread across Ryou's face.

"How you what?"

".. Nothing, we're here." Ryou said curtly, and pulled the keys to the apartment complex out of his pocket. He quickly ushered them in and up the stairs. Marik was busy wondering where Malik parked his car, and while Bakura did make a mental note to force Ryou to finish his sentence, he was also distracted. Yami was singing quite loudly, and Ryou made an interesting face when he recognized the song.

"Is that-?" He pulled the apartment door open.

"M-O, M-O-R, M-O-R-N-I-N-G W-O-O-D, LET'S GO!"

Yami spun in a circle, dancing on the counter top. Malik was rolling across the kitchen floor, his breathless laughter (and choking) barely audible over the radio blasting from beside the sink. (Ryou enjoyed listening to music while doing dishes, or so he says.) Said hikari and company's jaws promptly dropped, as Yami bounced about, singing still.

As if the song wasn't bizarre enough, the pharaoh had also apparently felt the need to pull his jeans off and fasten them onto his head, so his spikes were efficiently covered by denim. Marik promptly crumpled onto the floor in hysterics, and Bakura let out a few sharp chortles. Ryou simply stared, possibly already slipping into a catatonic stupor.

"Wh-wher.." Marik stopped, gasping for air and words. "Where the hell did this come from?"

"I jus' turned on the radi-o-" Malik gasped back, losing his voice once more as Yami tumbled off of the counter and sprawled out over the carpet.

Bakura leaned over, supporting his hands on his knees, and truly laughed. When he finally straightened himself out, he noticed Ryou smiling blissfully.

"Whazzamatter?" He chuckled, unable to shirk off his own grin.

"Because, that's just how I show that I care about you guys." He said the words breathlessly, and they were just above a whisper. Bakura was certain they didn't reach either Ishtar, and certainly not Yami, who presently was rolled into the rug. Bakura stayed still a moment and watched all of them, especially Ryou, who continued smiling.

-Owari-

Haha! I FINISHED IT. .. AND MAN DOES IT SUCK. I'm sorry it took me so long to get this second half out. But I just got the idea to finish it and it's sappy and bad as usual.

But, hey. It's … kind of cute? XD Review anyways, plzkthx?

… I didn't just type that.

1 For Kaylie xD

2 Marik doesn't know how to mix drinks very well…