Dark Magician Girl Of Chaos: Yah. Hi. I'd like to remind people that this story is dedicated to Tie-dyed Trickster (and her various muses.) Also. Here's chapter ten! I'm working on 11 and the appearance of Duke's fanclub as you read this.

Chaos: Story and Ashely Sketcher © Dark Magician Girl Of Chaos/Kenouni Renashin™

Yu-Gi-Oh! and all concepts, including Dungeon Dice Monsters © Kazuki Takahashi.

Dice In The Hand Is Worth More Than A Card On The Table.

Chapter Ten.

Beep beep!

"Good morning Domino City! It's 8:00am and it's a beautiful Saturday morning, and because it's so bright and cheerful, I'm going to play a cheerful song for you. Here we have The Foundations, with 'Build Me Up Buttercup.' Enjoy!"

As the music started to play, Ashely groaned, turned over and glared at her radio alarm clock. She hated waking up to the radio, because it always played something cheerful, and she was not a cheerful morning person.

"Why do you let me down indeed," she grumbled, dragging herself out of bed and stretching. "Over at ten? What?" She frowned, pausing in the making of her bed. "Oh! Duke's coming over today!"

She had just stepped out of the shower, when the phone rang.

Ring ring.

"Gah!"

Ring ring.

"I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Ring ring.

"Argh!" Ashely stumbled over a shoe and landed on her sofa. With a whimper, she reached over and picked up the phone. "Sketcher residence, Ashely speaking."

"That's awfully formal for you, Shell."

Ashely beamed, despite the pain in her shin. "Ryou!"

Ryou smiled. "Hey, how're you?"

Ashely rubbed her shin. "Well, I've been better."

He frowned. "What's up?"

"I just tripped over," she frowned and looked at the offending object. "One of my knee high boots, while I was on my way to answer the phone."

He coughed. "Knee high? Since when do you wear knee highs?"

"Since I got the legs for them."

"Whaaa?"

Ashely giggled. "Aw, don't worry. How're you?"

"A little bored. I thought," he paused, "you might know of something to do."

Ashely thought about this briefly and felt her face heat up slightly at one of the images in her mind. "Um. I don't really know. Have you tried going over to see Yugi and the others?"

"Um, not really."

"Oh right. I forgot that you don't socialise with them that much." There was a rustling from the other side of the phone line. "Honey, what's that noise?"

"Just me getting comfy."

"On what?!"

"A beanbag."

"Ohhh."

"You're not busy, are you?"

"Um, not overly, no. Why?"

"I had the feeling I was interrupting something, and I was hoping for a nice chat."

"Sure, I'm never too busy for a chat." Ashely curled her legs up underneath her, and gently tugged the phone forwards a little. "But I don't have that long."

"I was hoping that you'd say that; how long have you got?"

Ashely glanced at her clock; it was quarter to nine. "About an hour ish."

"Okay." He cleared his throat. "So, what've you been up to recently? Haven't seen or heard from you in awhile."

"Not a lot really," Ashely glanced up to see Chaos sitting in the corner shaking his head slowly. She raised her eyebrows at him, and he rolled his eyes at her. "Y'know, just hanging about."

"You haven't been hanging out with Duke Devlin have you?"

"Wha? Why'd you think that?"

"Well, um."

"And no telling fibs."

"I wouldn't do that!"

"But you'd maybe stretch the truth to prevent me getting hurt?"

"Well…Uh…Maybe."

"Well then. So, why do you think that?"

"Well, Téa was walking past Burger World the other day, and saw Duke in there, and she recognised you from the photos of us that she and the others saw-"

"Wait, they've been in your place?"

"Yes, a few times."

"I see. Sorry, carry on."

"Well, she saw you and Duke in Burger World, and then brought it up when we were round Yugi's."

"Well," Ashely coiled the phone cord around her fingers. "Yes, I have been hanging out with him recently."

"I think you ought to be careful, and maybe stay away from him." Ryou said his voice low.

Ashely frowned. "Why? He's been nothing but nice to me."

"I-"

"And anyway," Ashely interrupted. "I can't exactly stay away from him when I work for him, can I?"

"You what?"

Ryou heard her sigh loudly. "I work for him now."

"But why? What was wrong with your other job?"

"The girls I worked with always left me doing more work than I was scheduled to do."

"Oh."

"I didn't enjoy working there anyway. Working for Duke means I do something I enjoy."

"And what's that?"

"I get to work in a place that sells things I know a lot about; things that I enjoy using." Ryou coughed slightly. "Oh, you know what I mean."

"True."

"So, why should I stay away from him?"

Ryou rubbed his eyes slightly. "Well, he's a bit of a…"

"Bit of a what?"

"Erm, well, he likes his ladies." Ashely giggled. "What?"

"I'm not involved with him honey. I just work for him."

"Then what was with-"

"Burger World?"

"Yeah."

"Well, I was in his shop, looking at the Dungeon Dice figures, and one of his checkout girls randomly quit."

"Uh-huh."

"It was quite busy, and Duke wasn't going to serve customers, so I jumped in."

"Rightttt."

"Afterwards, he asked if I wanted to hang out with him the next day, so I said yes. We went for a walk, and he shouted me lunch."

"Is that it?"

"Well, he said he shouted me lunch so we had an excuse to go out again."

"How sneaky of him."

"I know, that's what I said. Anyway," Ashely glanced at the clock, "we went for another walk, and he told me how he created Dungeon Dice Monsters, then he walked me home."

"Okay."

"Somewhere amongst that, he asked if I wanted to come and work for him, 'cause he thought I'd done very well ringing up the customers the day before."

"I see." Ryou sighed. "Be careful though, okay? Don't do anything stupid."

Ashely blinked repeatedly. "Like what?"

She heard a sigh from the other end of the line. "Like fall for him. You'll only end up getting hurt."