"I don't think I can do this," Atemu said, jittery like he couldn't remember ever being before.

Yuugi laughed. "Of course you can," he assured with utter confidence.

Atemu was fussing nervously with the sleeves of his new uniform. "People are going to ask me questions. What if I forget my story? What if they get suspicious? What if they hate me?" he worried, panic gnawing at him as if it were a tiny creature hidden somewhere in his chest.

"Nobody's going to hate you!" Yuugi insisted, stopping and grabbing Atemu's hands, preventing him from picking at a loose thread on his cuff. "You are going to be fine. And you're way ahead of most people when they go to a new school because you already have friends here!"

"But won't that make people even more suspicious?" Atemu protested.

"So what? Even if somebody figures you out, who cares? You have friends already and you have legal documentation!"

"I have illegal documentation," Atemu corrected.

"Stop freaking out." Yuugi rolled his eyes. "Okay, do you know what would happen if somebody from our school went to the police and told them that there was an ancient Egyptian ex-ghost in their class? They're going to give him a smack, escort him home and tell his parents he's been playing pranks on the police."

Atemu smiled a tiny bit but amused by the mental picture, but the little panic-creature was still chewing on him. "What about Bakura? Bakura hates me," he pointed out. "I'm going to make your group dynamic all awkward."

"Bakura-kun doesn't hate you," Yuugi said, waving a hand dismissively. "It kind of seems like even Thief-san doesn't hate you anymore."

"I think he was just trying to one-up me," Atemu murmured.

Yuugi gave him a stern look. "It probably cost a lot of money to get those papers made. You should act a little more grateful."

"I appreciate what he did, the result in any event," Atemu protested. "I'm just saying that I'm not counting on him having dropped all adversarial feeling towards me. He's hated me for three-thousand years, Yuugi."

"Well you know you could make an effort too," Yuugi said.

"I am! I will!" Atemu insisted. "But it isn't just going to be okay tomorrow or something!"

"Bakura-kun!" Yuugi called suddenly, waving his arm in the air, and Atemu flinched. At the end of the block, Bakura paused to wait for them, having come from the cross-street.

"Good morning, Yuugi-kun," Bakura greeted with a smile as they reached him. "Good morning, Atemu-kun."

"Good morning, Bakura-kun!" Yuugi responded promptly, his voice entirely cheerful, and then where he normally might have immediately started into conversation, he paused, glancing at Atemu.

"G-good morning, Bakura. -kun," Atemu mumbled, squirming awkwardly. "I, um, I look forward to attending school with you."

"Sure, it'll be fun." Bakura gave him a polite smile. "I'm interested to see what kind of student you are."

"You mean if he's a mediocre slacker like me?" Yuugi asked with a sheepish grin.

"You do well in math, Yuugi-kun," Bakura said generously and started walking again.

"Not trig," Yuugi sighed. "I hate trig."

"Maybe you could find an upperclassman to tutor you," Bakura suggested.

"But I'm a slacker," Yuugi laughed. "Besides, I'm going to take over the shop when Grandpa retires, and he says knowing my merchandise and my customers is more important than trigonometry. He actually told me he'd rather I keep up with gaming than my studies. Then Mom threatened to send him to a home." He started laughing again.

Bakura laughed with him. "It really does seem like game and comic shops are one of the few places large corporations aren't moving in. Even Kaiba-kun has kept his company a vendor and not a merchant."

Yuugi nodded, grinning. "A game shop isn't just a store, it's a social network! Big corporations can't compete with that!"

Atemu listened silently, watching the buildings drift past as they approached the school, and as they got closer there would be more and more students in Domino High uniforms walking in the same direction. Atemu's eyes met those of a boy he vaguely recognized, walking along the opposite sidewalk; he was staring back at Atemu who looked away nervously.

"Yuugi!" Jonouchi's voice rang out and Atemu looked up again, feeling rather relieved to see him. "Hey, guys!" He puffed, catching up with them. "Today's the day, huh? Y'nervous Atemu?"

"I'm fine," Atemu lied, poorly, and tried to return Jonouchi's grin.

"Don't worry, buddy!" Jonouchi slapped him on the shoulder. "You'll be fine!"

"Th-thanks." Atemu nodded.

Just before they reached the school gates, a small crowd seemed to coalesce around them and abruptly a handful of girls broke free, swooping in closer with bright, excited eyes. "Bakura-kun! Did you bring another foreigner friend? You know so many exotic people!" one of the girls exclaimed, catching hold of Bakura's arm and hanging off him as he started to flush and look vaguely horrified.

"Oh my gosh! Are you going to go to our school? What's your name?" another girl asked, assaulting Atemu.

"I- I-" Atemu faltered.

"Are you related to Diabound-san?" a third girl demanded excitedly.

"Diabound?" Atemu grimaced. Of course the Thief King would have needed to assign himself a surname too, but Diabound?

"Do you have a girlfriend?"

"Gir- What?"

"Juri-chaaan!" several of the girls giggled in chorus.

"Hey! Hey! What the hell! We're trying to go to class here!" Jonouchi protested, attempting to guard Atemu's right flank. "Lay off already!"

"Don't be a jerk, Jonouchi! We just want to meet him!" a girl pouted.

"Atemu!"

Atemu felt a wave of relief and hope at the sound of Anzu's voice, and turned to see her shoving her way past one of the other girls. He started to open his mouth, to greet her, then she startled him by stepping right up into his space, grabbing both his hands and clasping them in hers as she gazed into his eyes.

"I'm sorry I couldn't walk with you today, Atemu," she said in a strange, really girly, voice. "I had to come in early, but I'm so glad we'll be going to the same school now! We'll get to spend so much more time together!"

Atemu stared back at her, dumbfounded, and felt his face heat up. All the other girls were suddenly making sounds of bitter disappointment and fading back a little, giving them space. Anzu dropped one of his hands but kept hold of the other and started tugging him along. "You're supposed to go to the main office, right? I'll show you where it is!" she giggled in a similar style to the other girls, which Atemu thought sounded rather creepy coming from her.

The crowd parted and let them hurry through, with the others on their heels. Atemu glanced back at the collection of terrifying girls and then at Bakura who was wearing a profoundly irritated look on his pink face. "Diabound?" he demanded.

"Don't look at me!" Bakura put up his arms in an exaggerated shrug. "I didn't even know he'd ordered the papers until he brought them home. I asked him to avoid any criminal activity or people engaged in it while he's injured."

"Not in general?"

"Oh please, do you really expect me to win that argument?" Bakura snorted.

Atemu shook his head and looked back at Anzu again. He felt a little awkward, but not entirely displeased, as he glanced at their still linked hands. "Anzu... why are you holding my hand...?" he asked.

"I'm throwing the harpies off your scent," Anzu explained, casting Atemu a confident smirk and then glancing behind them to check the crowds. "Be careful what you tell them, they can twist anything you say into a shojo-manga setup."

"Don't worry, they'll get less crazy once they get used to you," Yuugi offered. "It's because you're new."

"Unless they find some new thing to obsess about..." Bakura intoned behind them.

They reached the main office at this point and paused in the hall. "Well, I guess we need to get to class," Anzu sighed. "If you get assaulted on the way up, try to outrun them, most of them wear awful shoes."

Atemu felt a tiny wave of panic as he realized he was about to be left alone, but he suppressed it. "Atemu," Yuugi was in front of him, smiling that way-too-sweet-for-a-teenager smile. "We'll see you soon. Don't worry, okay?" He put a hand on Atemu's arm and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine," Atemu stammered, looking away. "I'll see you in a few minutes."

"See ya, man. Don't take too long." Jonouchi patted his shoulder as they started back up the hallway.

Atemu watched them disappear around the corner and then sighed, bracing himself as though he were about to go into battle. He turned back towards the office door and gingerly pushed it open, stepping hesitantly over the threshold. "Please excuse the intrusion," he called in a voice that sounded so tiny and nervous he was disgusted with himself.

"Good morning!" he was greeted immediately. "You must be Atemu Kemet-kun! I'm Student Body President Nagatsuka Takejiro, it's a pleasure to meet you!" president Nagatsuka announced enthusiastically and bowed to Atemu.

"Er- yes, that's me. It's a pleasure to meet you, Nagatsuka-kun," Atemu returned the pleasantry and bowed back.

"Welcome to Domino High!" Nagatsuka said with a cheerful smile. "I'm going to take you on a tour after the bell rings, and then I'll show you to your classroom. I hope you enjoy attending school with us!"

"Thank you for having me," Atemu said, trying to make his voice sound a bit stronger, but it still came out as somewhat of a mumble. "I look forward to studying with you."

...

...

I keep feeling like this is missing something, but I've been tossing it around for a while and I can't think of anything to add... Oh, I've sort of given this series a name now, Bits and Pieces refers to its nature as connected drabbles and also kind of how their building their lives and dealing with stuff in little bits at a time. Er, it sounded more clever in my head. But it needs a name already, so there y'go. I'm kind of wondering if I should do a classroom scene, for Atemu being introduced to the class and settling in a little, but I've not felt any inspiration for it... I'll probably just skip to after school, I have more fan-club shenanigans planned for that.