Summary of Chapter Eight: Yami and Ryou had a little bonding time and Yugi is annoyed with Ryou about all that. Tozoku was a d-bag to Téa for waking him up at eight am on Saturday (can you blame him?) and Duke saved Ryou from the wrath of little Yugi. All in all, it was a long chapter of not much… But I enjoyed writing it! I hope you liked it.


Chapter Nine

'Hey,' Tristan's voice groggily rasped out, 'hey, Yugi.'

'Huh?' Yugi looked up from his desk where he was working on his calc homework, or struggling to work on it using the notes from Téa that he'd copied down.

'Why are you fighting with Ryou?' He said with a cough, holding his head as he warily sat up and leaned against Joey's bedframe.

'I, I'm not?' Yugi said stumbling over the words.

'Coulda fooled me.' Tristan said holding his head between his knees.

'Ah, will you's two shut up, would ya?' Joey groaned as he rolled over to face the wall.

Tristan elbowed the bed behind him and shook the mattress a little bit but got no response from the hungover Joey. 'Do you like this Yami guy?'

'No,' Yugi said defensively, 'I already told you guys, I'm not gay.'

'Then why does it matter if Ryou talks to him?'

'Because he's not a very nice person and Ryou is too naïve to see it.'

'How do you know?'

'How do I know what?' Yugi twisted around in his chair and eyed Tristan, increasingly annoyed.

'Either, I guess.' Tristan shrugged. 'How do you know he's a bad guy and, or that Ryou is naïve?'

'Ugh.' Yugi scoffed as he rolled his eyes and turned back to his assigned work.

Tristan shook his head and lay back down on the carpeted floor, placing his arm over his eyes and sighed. 'You should talk to Yami when you're not fuming and just see how big of a piece of shit he really is.' He said softly and then began to snore.

Yugi put down his pencil and let out an exasperated sigh. This was useless. Téa's notes sucked, the assignment was hard, Tristan's words hung in the air along with the sounds of snoring and the smell of alcohol and vomit. Yugi shook his head and got up from his seat, leaving the room.


They sat down at a small table at the little café in the student union with some coffee for Duke and tea and biscuits for Ryou. They sat in relative quiet just like their walk over to the union. It was cold and Ryou wished he had grabbed a jacket to go over his sweater but Duke seemed un-phased and he was in a sleeveless hoodie and jeans.

Duke cleared his throat, 'so.'

'Hm?' Ryou said looking up.

'Are you okay?'

'Yeah? Why wouldn't I be?' Ryou asked wryly.

'Dunno, you and Yugi seemed tense this morning.' He shrugged, 's'not like you two.'

'Hm.' Ryou said taking a sip of his tea.

'So…'

The silverette sighed, 'how many times are you going to say so?'

'Tell me about this Yami fellow, what is he like?'

Rolling his eyes, Ryou answered, 'I'd rather you just keep saying so.'

'Well, I'd like to hear what you think if he's interesting in someone in our group… Yugi seems to think he's a tool.'

'I don't think he's interested in anyone in the group, at least not now.'

'How so?' Duke drank his coffee and frowned at the bottom of his cup.

'Feel free to grab another cup.' Ryou offered in an attempt to avoid the subject.

'Maybe later.' Duke answered and eyed the teen, knowing full well how this game was played.

Tapping his fingers on the wooden table Ryou examined the little maze of bricks and mortar that made up the wall of the union. 'I don't know, he was definitely into Yugi but I get this feeling that Yugi probably snubbed him hardcore… He was polite and I guess friendly, you could say, when I ran into him but I don't really see him as being one to give us as a group or individually much attention after whatever happened between he and Yug…'

Duke sighed, 'maybe he wasn't into Yugi at all, maybe he was into you? Or maybe he's just really friendly?'

'He doesn't talk to anyone in that class and Friday he just stopped the two of us, no he stopped Yugi on the way out of class.' Ryou said taking another sip of his tea. Now it was cold and he had lost his appetite for it.

The dark haired boy shrugged and stretched back in his chair before standing up. 'Do you want another cup?' He asked taking the tea that Ryou had clearly lost interest in.

The boy nodded weakly and Duke nodded in response turning to head back toward the counter to get refills.


Téa walked along the sidewalks of the main campus from the dormitory side of the university toward the student union, seemingly unflustered by her rather abrasive altercation with Tozoku. She had gone to see if the distant friend of the group wanted to grab a bite to eat with her but apparently the answer was a hard no.

She sighed against the cold, wintery breeze as it ripped across the campus. Winter was definitely around the corner and it wasn't really something she was looking forward too. Although, she would get to go home to see her family and cats again; that was a plus.

Téa opened one of the swinging doors into the union and stepped into to relative warmth of the mostly empty food court. She walked past a table of kids playing some weird card game with monsters and one kid insisting that they use dice or something. She rolled her eyes, 'geeks,' she exhaled under her breath once she'd cleared earshot.

Continuing on her way through the union she headed for the small café, she needed a latte and she needed on desperately. Someone in the dormitory had brewed a pot of coffee in the common room that morning but by the time she'd gotten to it, it was far too bitter for her, even with cream and sugar. She shook her head and grimaced at the taste as she remembered it.

As she entered the small café she was greeted with the sweet aroma of fresh coffee and delicious espresso beans. It was enough to make a caffeine addicted girl cry.

She spotted Duke at the counter and hollered over to him, 'Duke! Hey, Duke! What brings you here so early and on a Saturday? Don't you live off campus?'

The young man coolly turned around on his heels and tipped his head toward where Ryou was sitting. 'Hey Téa, I stayed the night here in the dorms because Joey and Tristan were drunker than skunks last night and I didn't feel comfortable just pawning them off on Yug and Ry, so now I'm here with Ry – he's had a bit of a rough start this morning.' He whispered the last part.

'Oh dear, what happened?'

'He met Yami this morning and when Yugi found out he got majorly dickish…' Duke shook his head, I can't say much more because I don't know and it's not my place but you get your coffee or whatever and feel free to join us.' He smiled and headed back over to Ryou.

Duke set the two cups down on the table, 'Téa is here, I invited her over after she gets whatever she came for, is that cool?'

'I guess,' Ryou said taking a sip of the tea, 'thanks, by the way.'

'No prob, I needed some coffee anyway.'

'I meant for getting me out of the dorm…'

'Oh, yeah, don't worry about it.'

'I was about to cry or scream or… I don't know.'

'I had a feeling.' Duke took a long sip of his coffee, 'I also didn't want Yugi to bite us. He seems feisty like that.'

Ryou gave a little chuckle, beginning to feel a little better now that he'd distanced himself from everything for a while.

'Hey you guys,' Téa said as she pulled a seat up to the table, 'how are you two?'

Duke shrugged and sipped his coffee and Ryou didn't respond. 'No very talkative apparently…' Téa said almost dismissively. 'Either way, I went to Tozoku's dorm this morning to see if he wanted to get breakfast because I felt like he hasn't really bonded with the group much yet and I wanted to sort of like, you know, give him a warm welcome if not a late one, and he slammed his door in my face after having a couple choice words and I was so annoyed, I needed coffee right away. Ugh, the nerve of some people, right?'

She just kept going on, but Duke wasn't listening from the start and Ryou hadn't heard anything past Tozoku. Yugi had said the other day that his stepbrother was not mad at him for what had happened but he really doubted it… How could anyone forgive someone for throwing them to the wolves like that…? Even if they were family, well pseudo-family.

Ryou shook his head a little too vigorously it appeared. 'What?' Téa asked, pulling both he and Duke form their distance.

'Hm? Oh nothing, I was just thinking about something.' Ryou said waving his hand to show he over it.

The girl nodded and sipped her coffee. 'Ah, that's some good joe.'

'You haven't had any yet?' Duke asked.

'No?'

'Oh lord, you haven't had any caffeine and you're already talking this much?' He said in disbelief.

'I'm a morning person, what can I say?'

'I think this is my cue to leave.' Duke joked as he started to get up.

'Oh no you don't!' Ryou said as he grabbed the running man's arm and pulled him back into his seat.

The three of them laughed and continued to drink their beverages and Duke and Ryou pretended to listen to Téa gossip giving the occasional nod or mmhmm to assure her they were hearing what she was going on about. Every so often she would start to catch on and they would throw in something about friendship and she would be thrown off the trail once more. All in all, it had been a relatively calm breakfast. Until Tozoku arrived, that is.

'Tozoku!' Téa called from their table, standing a little, waving him over.

Ryou felt his heart drop and then jump into his throat. What was going to happen? He wasn't ready for this reunion or confrontation or whatever it was going to be. He would probably never be ready, that was his modus operandi, after all.

Tozoku rolled his eyes and sighed inwardly, taking the steps down into the café a few at a time. He didn't really want to talk to anyone but did need to apologize to Téa and it would be the perfect excuse to check up on Ryou.

'Hey you guys,' he feigned shyness and then looked to Téa, 'I uh, I wanted to apologize to you for my rudeness this morning…'

'Oh, it's fine, I'm a big morning person and I guess I just expect everyone else to be as well. I had already been up for three hours when I came to see if you wanted to grab some breakfast.' She beamed. 'Oh! By the way,' she continued, 'would you like to pull up a seat and join us?'

'Oh I, uh,' Tozoku started to try to find a way out of it when Duke stood.

'He can take mine, I should go back to check on Joey and Tristan.'

Ryou quickly shot Duke a pleading look, begging him to stay and the request was received.

'Well, on second thought, I'll grab another chair, you take mine. I'll stay for a bit longer and we can catch up. Haven't seen ya in class for a few days.' Duke came up with the excuse quickly and Ryou breathed a quiet sigh of relief. He would have to thank Duke when they were in private.

'Uh, yeah.' Tozoku said uneasily before shaking the feeling away and replaced it with his usual smirking indifference. 'The thing about classes is this, I don't care.'

Téa gasped and Duke laughed, 'I was talking about me,' he said, 'I've skipped the last three days.'

Tozoku smirked, 'I knew I picked the right guy to sit next to.'

'I would say you picked the wrong guy to sit next to,' Téa chimed in, 'both of you! Who will you get your notes from?'

'Notes are for nerds,' Duke jeered, receiving a high five from Tozoku.

For the first time in a fairly long time Tozoku felt like he was actually making friends, albeit there was a weighing feeling of anxiety and unfriendliness welling up in the back of his mind; he could feel it.

'You two are tools.' Téa responded, 'Ryou takes amazing notes, when I was out for a few days last week looking for my cat he took notes for me and they were immaculate.'

'Like I said, notes are for nerds.' Duke joked again and held a hand up for another high five from Tozoku, but received only a glare of disdain.

Duke put his hand down and apologized to the table and Ryou slouched down into his seat, unsure of what to do or say and really unsure of what Tozoku was going to do or say.

'Yeah…' Tozoku said flatly. 'I didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night, I think I may head back to get a nap or something.'

'Alright,' Duke said, 'I've got to head back to check on Joey and Tristan for real this time. Would you like to tag along, Ry?'

The young silverette nodded in affirmation.

'What will I do then?' Téa asked, sounding a bit hurt by the exclusion.

'You could go take some notes?' Ryou said as he and Duke ran off toward the dormitories, high fiving each other and laughing on the way.


Joey had been throwing up since he was awoken by Tristan and Yugi bickering. The smell was absolutely acrid. Tristan was feeling a bit better than when he woke up; miraculously so, considering the amount of alcohol he had consumed the night before, so he and Yugi had taken a step out into the hallway to allow for Joey to attempt to compose himself. Yugi was sitting on the floor trying not to hurl from the smell seeping out into the hallway as Tristan propped himself up against the wall in an attempt to not fall over from dizziness.

'What on earth is that god awful smell?' A familiar voice sounded from the opposite end of the hallway.

Yugi looked down it and saw Duke and Ryou walking back toward the dorm.

Spotting Tristan and Yugi, Duke waved and said to Ryou, 'I'll give you three guesses and it's one of your roomies.'

'Joey?' Ryou asked a bit confused.

'No doubt he's throwing up everything he ate and drank last night. I told the poor sucker to slow down.' Duke shook his head as they met up with the other two outside the dorm room. 'How long's he been at it?'

'At least twenty minutes…' Yugi said still a little sickened by the smell and the knowledge of what unholy things were happening in his room. 'Ry, I'm sorry… I didn't mean to snap at you and you definitely didn't deserve it. You can be friends with whoever you want and I, I don't know why I reacted the way I did.'

'Jealousy.' Tristan hiccupped.

Duke smirked and raised an eyebrow at Tristan and Yugi, what had they talked about when he had taken Ryou to get breakfast?

'Or something else.' Yugi shook his head with a weak smile.

'Or jealousy.' Tristan said again, earning a swift elbow to the shin from the sitting spiky haired teen below him.

'Or something else.' Yugi echoed his previous sentiment with the same smile.

'It's okay Yug, I understand, I think?' Ryou scratched his head in mock confusion. 'It was probably just jealousy.' He joked.

'Or something else.' Yugi responded through gritted teeth.

'Yeah, probably ealousy-jay.' Duke said with a wink to Ryou.

Yugi just rolled his eyes with a playful bird toward the three of them.

'Oh merciful rubber duck, what is that?!' A familiar voice sounded from down the hall.

Duke twisted around quickly to see if his hunch was correct. From the stairwell he caught glimpse of skin-tight grey jeans with tears at the knees and a tanned midriff followed by a lilac tank top with a beige leather jacket and familiar, shoulder-ish length dirty blonde hair. 'Shit.' He mumbled to himself.

Ryou eyed Duke warily earning another concerned glance between the two from Yugi who stood up to see what they were looking at.

'Slow down.' Another familiar voice called out, though this one much deeper and less nasally.

'I can't, I am both intrigued and sickened! I must find the source!' Marik turned back up to the stairway not noticing his audience.

'What if the sickened side of things ends up being more powerful?' The deeper voice laughed as Yami came into view at the bottom of the third floor stairway.

'Then you'll have to clean me up, I'd imagine.' Marik giggled.

'Wouldn't be the first time.' Yami said rolling his eyes before he saw the cluster of people toward the middle of the hallway. 'I think we found the source…' He whispered to his friend. As they got a little closer he recognized the silver haired boy in the baby blue sweater and began to wave before he saw Yugi behind Ryou and the other two men. He felt his stomach do a somersault.

Marik's pace slowed down, he recognized the man with the die-earring and was uncertain of what to do next. He fell into step with Yami and nudged the taller of the pair with his shoulder as if to say, take the lead. This was something Yami had grown used to when it came to Marik but lately the younger teen had begun to grow out of his shyness and this made the older one wonder what had set him back…? Right now he really didn't feel like taking the lead.

'Hey.' Ryou waved back meekly uncertain of what to do.

'Hey, uh, Marik, was it?' Duke said taking half a step forward.

Marik blinked and took half a step back forcing Yami to stop, unsure of what was about to happen he felt suddenly protective of his friend and eyed the black haired boy warily.

'I uh, I just wanted to apologize if I came off being a total jerk yesterday, I really wasn't trying to,' he rubbed the back of his neck nervously and kicked some imaginary dirt on the floor as if it had insulted him. 'I guess I uh, just wasn't really expecting to talk to someone new at the party.' He looked up weakly, still feeling bad about the previous night. 'In all honesty, I only went to babysit my two goons of friends.' He shot a weak smile in an attempt to make the timid boy feel more comfortable.

Yami looked between Ryou, Yugi, the stranger, and Marik out of his peripherals looking for some sort of hint at the attitude of the group. What was going on?

Marik sighed and nodded, 'it's okay, you probably just thought I was being super weird. I am super weird.' He chastised himself quietly.

Yami put a limp arm around his friend and pulled him to his waist, 'if you're weird I'm the Queen of Sheba.' He said quietly to Marik.

'She was the Queen Regent.' Marik said with a light smile cracking across his face.

Yami rolled his eyes.

'I uh, you weren't being weird I was just overreacting, I think.' Duke said, 'let's start over, I'm Duke. You're Marik, This Ryou, Yugi and Tristan and our friend Joey is in there barfing up a storm.' He tilted his head into the room beside them.

'I found the smell.' Marik said looking up at Yami but he wasn't paying attention.

'I know Yugi and Ryou, we're in calculus together.' The taller of the two newcomers answered, 'I'm Yami, nice to meet you.' He said to Tristan and Duke.

'Yeah.' Tristan said halfheartedly, still leaning against the wall.

Duke held out a hand and a smile on his face to the two of them. Yami took it and gave two curt shakes before Marik did the same.

'Well, we should be going I think.' Yami said as he felt Yugi's eyes burrowing into him and Ryou's unease fill the air around them all.

'We're going on a picnic!' Marik beamed.

'Oh, where to?' Duke asked, though not really caring.

'The park, we've got lots of stuff to talk about but first we have to get food.' Mark laughed as he started to walk past them, pulling Yami along by the wrist. Yami didn't look at the group or say anything else as he followed his friend down the rest of the hall to the next flight of stairs.

'See ya!' Duke and Ryou both called out almost in unison.

Ryou let out a wary sigh after the other two had left their line of sight and Yugi slumped back down against the wall. Duke looked between the two and then up at the ceiling's fluorescent lighting. It hurt his eyes but he needed to just take a moment.

'I'm going to go check on Joey.' Duke finally said, returning to the real world. 'Tristan, come with me.' He commanded, pulling him back into the foul smelling room without waiting for an answer.


Tozoku snickered at his kid brother's suggestion as he walked off in the opposite direction. He had said he was going to go back to the dorms to get some rest but he felt like he needed a breather. A brisk, autumn walk in the park, maybe a nap under the willow tree on campus or even at the library; somewhere he wouldn't be disturbed. He sighed as he stopped at the crossroads at the center of campus before deciding on a walk in the park. That would probably do him more good emotionally and physically, more good than a nap would anyway.


Notes: Oh the Mamas & the Papas… I feel like this chapter is nothing but ups and downs… Oh well, I hope you like! As always, I liked writing it! Next chapter should be soon-er-ish? Who knows?

-Reviews/comments and personal messages are always welcome. If it's criticism, keep it constructive please ;)

-Thanks for reading!