I have kind of bad news…I have so much on my plate with studying and working that I don't think that I will be able to update until the weekend…I'll try, but I won't promise anything.


Yuugi couldn't help himself but pout. There went his chance to find out more and that all thanks to his friends. He had wanted to stalk Atemu, at least he had wanted to try. Hey, he was desperate, so no judgment. But Jonouchi had cornered him and complained about them not spending enough time anymore and Ryou and Malik had given him worried looks. So he gave in and decided to give them his whole attention. Their behavior made him notice how he had behaved. His mind had been so full of Atemu and his own problems that he had completely forgotten about his friends.

It made him feel more than just bad. And one day of just having fun with his friends wouldn't hurt, or would it? Atemu and his lot were here for a little over a year now, so they wouldn't just walk of and disappear. But what had they talked about? Had it something to do with him? He had the strong feeling that it had. But what? And why him? What truth?

The petite teen pulled himself out of his mind. Didn't he want to give his friends his whole attention just a second ago? 'Focus!'

They all were in Burger World. Jonouchi and Honda were fighting over some fries. Anzu was in on it, meaning that she was scolding them and muttering under her breath that she needed more girlfriends. Yuugi wondered why she wasn't doing just that, searching for a few girlfriends, instead of complaining about not having one. Nothing would change by just waiting and sitting around mulling it over and over in one's head.

Now, wasn't he a hypocrite? He was doing the same, just sitting around and thinking and thinking about Atemu instead of confronting him head on. And why had his mind wandered back to him again?

"Yuugi?"

Said teen blinked and smiled at Ryou. "Sorry, what did you say?"

The white-haired teen nervously played with his drink. "You know that you can talk to us if you have a problem, don't you?"

A pang of guilt hit Yuugi full force. Malik was giving him the same look Ryou gave him. He really had worried his friends, hadn't he? He tried to smile reassuring. "Yes, I know." And he really did know. No matter what, his friends would always help him, each of them in their own ways.

"I heard some kids are in the park dueling. Wanna watch and search for new competition?" Jonouchi said. He and Honda obviously got hit by an irritated Anzu. Sometimes Yuugi wondered if she truly needed to be that violent with those two. Okay, they could be overly childish when it was about food and he often got sick watching his two friends stuffing their mouths to fill their black holes called stomachs, but still, they weren't hurting anyone.

"I don't know." The petite teen answered him, since no one else made a move to. He enjoyed watching others playing the game he loved so much, but he feared that he would be challenged to a duel and he wasn't feeling up to one, besides the fact that he hadn't his duel disk with him.

"C'mon Yug'. It'll be fun watching duels with nothing at stake." Jonouchi pressed on in his typical cheerful voice.

Yuugi blinked at him. "What should be at stake?"

The blond mimicked the gesture. "Ya know like the surgery for Shizuka or your title."

The short teen nodded his head slowly. It was true, but why had he the feeling that he was forgetting something? And his title not at stake? His title was always on the line no matter what game he played. There hadn't been a day on that he hadn't felt like he would lose something very important to him if he should ever lose a game. What this something was Yuugi had no idea whatsoever and until now he hadn't really questioned it. Now, though, it also was on the list of things he wanted to know, understand very badly.

"Well, okay, but only from afar. I don't want to be chased over the whole town." His muscles still ached a little from his run from Rebecca.

"That's a word!" Jonouchi cheered.

"But that's boring." Anzu suddenly cut in. "Why don't we all meet up with Rebecca?" There was something in her eyes that made Yuugi recoil from the thought more than it should. But who could blame him? Those two oftentimes gave him the feeling that he needed to choose between them and he truly didn't want to know what they had schemed this time to make him choose.

The young men exchanged glances. Yuugi pleaded with his eyes for the others to say no.

"No." Malik shook his head. "Jou's idea is much more tempting for me. But why don't you go and see her? You know, to spend a little time with another girl."

Ryou was the next to speak up. "Likewise."

"I have to babysit the son of my sister, so..." Honda trailed of, not needing to say more to explain himself.

"Well, it's decided then!" Jonouchi jumped to his feet.

Anzu flushed in anger and stormed of feeling insulted, but she had to make one last comment before she left them. "You should spend more time with your friends, all your friends instead of playing Duel Monsters all the time. Friends are more worth then that game."

Yuugi and the rest just stared after her. Without wasting a thought about Anzu they left Burger World, they were too used to her constant friendship speeches to let it bother them. Honda departed from them with a wave of his arm and they walked of to the park.

As they reached the park they sat down on a small hill that was far enough from the dueling kids to not be noticed and gave them a good view, too. Jonouchi joked about a few of the children, how they dueled and what mistakes they made, after which Malik had to make fun of Jonouchi, mostly to defend the poor kids.

It made Yuugi laugh. For the first time since last week he felt at ease with the world again. But there also was something that felt amiss, like there should be someone else with him and he was pretty sure that it was neither Honda nor Anzu or any other of his friends. No, whoever it was that was missing had a more important role in his life. But who could it be?

"Dammit!" Yuugi was startled by the sudden shout of Jonouchi. "I completely forgot about Mai! We wanted to meet." Another wave of guilt washed over Yuugi. His friend probably had only forgotten about her since he wanted to cheer him up, take his mind from whatever it was that troubled him. He also felt touched, though, he truly had good friends.

"Then go." The short teen urged him.

"Sorry guys." The blond started to say.

"Stop talking lover boy and go and get her." Malik pushed him with a smirk. Yuugi and Ryou joined him in his chuckles.

Jonouchi blushed. "It's not like that!"

"Keep telling yourself that!" Yuugi wasn't sure if his friend had heard Malik since he already had brought a great distance between them. He shook his head. Jou really was in a hurry to see her; hopefully he wouldn't be too late.

"And so there were only three." Ryou said with a small smile. "You could think the others want to escape us."

"Not you. Only me." Yuugi answered to that.

Malik rolled his eyes. "Don't be stupid. Why would you think that? 'Cause you're so depressed that it makes us sad too?"

Had he really been that bad? "I'm sorry."

"So, what are we going to do now?" Malik asked both of them with a bright smile. Yuugi just shrugged. He was sure his voice would give away if he would say a word. Why did he deserve such good friends?

Ryou crossed his arms over his chest, supporting his chin with his right hand. "No idea. How about we walk around until we find something interesting?"

"Sounds good." Malik answered and grabbed one arm of each and pulled them along. Yuugi knew that Malik loved a good walk, to just move around. His family had lived underground until his father died under mysterious circumstances for some reason no one knew. Ishizu, his sister, explained once that the Ishtars were descendants of an old clan of tomb keepers. Yuugi hadn't much more information and Malik closed up on them when they asked him about that time.

And again he wasn't any better. Wasn't he closing up on them too? He had never once thought about talking with his friends about his current problem.

Abruptly Yuugi came to a halt, forcing the other two to stop as well. "Why?"

"Yuugi?" Ryou asked carefully, confusion written on his face.

"We never talk about them." Yuugi simply stated as if it would be enough of an explanation.

"About whom?"

Yuugi wasn't listening to Malik. His mind had caught up to several things at once he should have noticed a lot sooner. Since the moment Atemu and his friends steped into his life he never truly had talked about them with his own friends. He knew Malik mistrusted Mariku and Ryou feared Bakura like he himself had hated Atemu since they made it pretty obvious, for the entire world to see.

Secondly, and how hadn't he noticed this, Atemu, Bakura and Mariku watched over them, helped them whenever they needed it, did everything for them, even the smallest things. For example Bakura once had 'accidentally' freed all the frogs the students should dissect. Ryou had fainted at the mere thought of dissecting helpless animals. Or that guy, that wouldn't leave Malik alone, behaved from one day to the other as if his own shadow would want to murder him when he came near Malik. Yuugi had the sinking feeling that Mariku had been involved in that. And Atemu. What hadn't he all done for him? Once Yuugi nearly would have gotten hit by a door a bully wanted to slam shut right in his face, but Atemu had pushed past him as if in a hurry and had taken the hit. At that time Yuugi had been gleeful about it, only later did he learn from Jonouchi that he was the one who should have made an imprint in that door.

This all brought him to the next fact. The help of those three was always inconspicuous, they never did it openly. The first time Atemu had done so was the day before yesterday.

Why hadn't he seen it? Even if they were inconspicuous about it, after all what they had done it should have been pretty obvious. Does that mean that he hadn't wanted to see it? Yes, that sounded so right, that Yuugi had to believe it. His grandpa had been right. He truly had to open his eyes. He had to stop being blind. That is if he truly wanted his answers. And Kaiba, with all his knowledge and skills, could only do so much to bring light into their situation.

And maybe talking with all his friends would be the second step to get the answers to all of his questions. They all were involved in this; he wasn't the only one who was affected by Atemu and his friends.

"We need to talk." Yuugi was more than determind. He ignored the anxious looks Ryou and Malik were giving him; he could understand them, though. "About our supposed to be lookalikes."

Malik's expression morphed into an irritated one. "Why? There's nothing we have to talk about." Ryou nodded his head.

"Yes, we have too. Something is going on, is not right and it's all connected to them. Please." Yuugi used his puppy-dog-eyes, hoping that it would have the desired effect.

Malik and Ryou looked torn apart. Yuugi could watch as their eyes showed their inner fight. For a moment the side that wanted to submit to him seemed to win but faster than he could comprehend it both of them glared at him. For the first time in his life his eyes had failed him.

"I'm sorry Yuugi, but I see no reason to talk about them." Ryou responded in a quiet voice.

"Yeah, why should we care about them?" Malik added and crossed his arms over his chest in a manner that suggested that he wanted to protect himself, from what Yuugi couldn't begin to imagine.

Yuugi shook his head. Why had his friends to be so stubborn? Had he behaved the same way? He needed to get them to understand. "Can't you feel it? At least tell me if you can say their names." The answer would either proof that he had lost it or that whatever it was that was going on was affecting them more than he would like to.

There was another moment in silence between them in which Yuugi observed his friends. He was sure that Malik had wanted to make fun of him considering the amused expression he had had, but like Ryou he opened his mouth and no sound came out.

Yuugi would lie if he would say that he was happy about it. For some reason he couldn't fathom he would prefer going insane instead of being proofed right. "See? Now tell me that there is everything right."

"I...Please let it go." Yuugi could barely hear Ryou as he spoke. Malik said nothing.

Yuugi wanted to continue pushing his friends until they spoke, but seeing them so confused and scared made him stop. What kind of friend he was. In his excitement he had chosen the wrong path to approach Malik and Ryou. He had needed time. They will need their time. He bit his lip and took a deep breath. "I'm sorry, but let me beg you to think about it and when you're ready let us talk." He waited to get a response but it never came. He knew he shouldn't leave them alone but their gazes told him to and who was he to deny their wish? He knew he had done enough for one day. "I'm sorry. Take care."

Yuugi left his friends, frustrated with him and the world. He wanted to go to the arcade to let of some steam but the urge to go home all but crashed onto him, forcing him to take a run. He couldn't stop. As he left the park he saw a slim dog with pointed ears growling at a tree. Yuugi wasn't sure but he thought he could recognize the falcon from earlier. He didn't pay any attention to them, though.

When he reached the Game Shop he saw his grandfather explaining a game to a few children.

"You have to watch carefully," he said with a smile, "There is always a clue, sometimes they're presented so openly that you easily can overlook them. In this game you need to be patient, before you can go on to the next phase you need to discover all the hints that matter, understand?"

Yuugi grinned at the eager children and greeted his grandfather before leaving for his room. Now if he only could remember why he went home in such a hurry instead of the arcade...