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"Yugi-Oh A Time to Every Purpose"

Act I: Present Day

Chapter 10

"I'm always the brunt of everyone's joke! Always being laughed at! Geez, doesn't coffee ever come off?"

Scrub, scrub!

Clean freak Tristan Taylor could not have a stain on his shirt in public. He had gone straight to the men's room and doused his brand new, silk shirt in hot water, not to mention a generous helping of hand soap until bubbles were floating everywhere.

They all treat me like a total nobody. First, Duke wrecks my flowers! Then, Mai and Tea with their female cracks and then Joey...sheesh! I just wanna float down this nice bubbly drain...Calgon, take me away...

Tristan was not crying in the golden handled sink. It just looked that way to the newcomer who had somehow found HER way into the men's restroom as she was powdering her nose, en route, totally ignorant of where she was going until she looks up to spot the shirtless man standing in front of her, bubbles afloat everywhere around him.

"EEK! What are you doing in the women's rest room! And without a shirt, too!" The young woman lets her powder blue hair fall into her face powder in hysterical surprise as her makeup case falls to the floor in a clatter and the powder puffs up into smoke all around her.

"Achoo!" "Achoo!" "Achoo!"

"God bless! God bless! Gesundheit!"

Bubbles and powder dust fill the air as the pair race around the corner of the spacious rest room to the waiting area. Tristan turns to the woman to question what the heck she thought she was doing thinking that this was the women's rest room when the female removes her sunglasses, rubbing the dust and bubbles from her cloudy eyes.

"Miho! Miho Nosaka! It's you! Where've you been? When did you get back to Domino City!" Tristan excitedly asks the girl he had a crush on forever when they were first year students in the same high school, years ago.

"Tristan? Tristan Taylor! Oooh! How lucky! Miho was hoping to see you again!" Miho looks Tristan up and down. His fully grown manly height and equally manly form was on full display before and was more than a sight for sore eyes.

"I've just gotten back from my tour in America. I'm a fashion model and airline stewardess, and a rich collector of art and antiques and such things...Yes, I collect...expensive paintings. That's me! Rich socialite world travelling girl-that's me all over!"

Miho smiles big as her eyes scan the artistic bathroom frantically. Tristan got the idea that he was being snowed by this familiar pretty face.

"Really, Miho?" Tristan asks, with the concerned face of a true friend. He knew the blue haired girl better than that.

"No, Tristan...no...I'm not one of those things...Miho wanted to be, but I'm such an airhead that I keep getting fired! It's tough to be an airline stewardess and not get sick on passengers! And even tougher to be a fashion model when high heels trip me up everytime! Ohhhhhh! I'm such a failure in America! I had to come home, unemployed, penniless, unwanted and unloved by anyone! I'm a loner...A joke...Pooh Miho! Wahhhhhhhhhh!"

Miho lets her tears spill out all over Tristan. She clutched at him for moral support. He was the only friend she had left in the world it seemed.

"Aww, you poor kid. Don't you worry! Uncle Tristan will take care of everything from now on!" Tristan proudly states, patting her back in comfort as she weeps openly all over his chest.

"Really, Tristan? You'll really take care of Miho?" Her big, baby face and baby voice coo up at the boy expectantly.

"Yup! Count on the big cheese in town-Tristan Taylor-to steer you right, little lady!" Tristan, back to his old, over-confident, blustery self once again, puffs up, wiping away Miho's semi-crocodile tears.

"Tristan! You're the best!" Miho exclaims in her high pitched voice. She throws her arms bodily around Tristan's bare back, hugging him to tightly that he was losing breath rather quickly.

"Hey! Who left the water on in there! What a mess for me to clean up!" The custodian of the museum cries out as the water in the sink had been left on all the while.

Tristan jumps away from his blissful embrace when the shocked janitor appears around the corner to see the young couple in such close intimate proximity. Tristan turns his nose up at the old man haughtily and scoops up his now drenched silk shirt, wrings it out and pulls it back on. Miho giggles as he tugs her out the door along with him, both their shoes dripping wet.

"We're-uhhh-friends of Seto Kaiba, one of your finest patrons! Just put any damages on his tab!" Tristan calls back in guilt. Miho unabashedly laughs as they race away from the scene of the soggy crime, hand in hand. It seemed all Tristan needed was some other loser in need to lift his spirits.

" Ahem Ladies and gentleman, attention everyone! Attention! Now I want everyone to be calm. Everyone must remain calm-absolutely calm." The curator of the museum who had been so confident before in front of the audience calls for their attention beginning to stammer and stutter uncontrollably over his repetitive words.

"What is it, already? Spit it out, man." Joey impatiently asks. He was already beat from traipsing up and down the museum in search of his pretty little sister and the two high class weirdos who had taken off with her.

Ya know, after it all, Kaiba and Pegasus remind me a lot of each other...They're both total egotistical, arrogant, high falutin jerk-offs and I want Serenity to stay away from both of 'em! Argh!

"Well, young man, you see..." Sweat drips from the brow of the curator who was furiously scanning the doors and exits for some reason. "Ladies and gentlemen, you must remain calm-"

"Yeah, you already said dat!" Joey says in frustration.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the man continues on, ignoring Joey's comments, "we have received a bomb threat."

The gasps and shuddering of elderly and young alike reflect the gravity of the situation. The man was itching to make a clear getaway himself, but restrains from running to the nearest door. He had to be a leader and-

"Everyone, calmly now. Please make for the nearest exit. Everyone, that is, except for Mr. Seto Kaiba, please. Will you step forward, Mr. Kaiba?"

When no one responds, the curator clears his throat.

" ahem Alright, calmly, everyone head to the exits. No pushing or running, please. Just calmly walk, calmly..."

The man kept repeating the word 'calm' until he himself breaks out into a run and all hell broke lose with him. Screaming women and children, old people-all together make a dash for the several exit doors of the museum all at once.

"Now everyone, don't panic! We got dis covered! Single file, no pushi-AHHHH!" Joey Wheeler 'wannabe-superhero/fireman' takes the initiative to direct traffic-and gets run over by the stampeding crowd instead.

"Joey!" Yugi and Tea both cry out as they see their best friend go down. But it was Mai who proved that love was not a word to be trodden upon this day. She elbows and kicks her way with her stiletto high heels through the horde of frenzied, panicked people until she reaches her Joey. She physically has to smack someone right in the face, before all three hundred pounds of the woman trample Joey.

Mai manages, in a moment of adrenaline strength, to pick up her downed lover and carry him to safety, away from the melee of human beings running for their lives.

"What's all the trouble here, man? Whoa! Rampage!" Duke comes out of the cafeteria, soda pop still in hand, when he heard all the commotion upstairs and decided to investigate.

"There's been a bomb threat, Duke! And people are panicking." Yugi explains in his deep throated voice the severity of the situation.

"Bomb threat! Ahhh! Miho's afraid of bombs! Ahhh!" Just then, a wet Tristan and his blue-haired companion walk up as well. Miho decides to faint away in Tristan's arms before HE could do likewise to someone else.

"I've got you, Miho, my darling! I'll save you!"

"So, I guess then, Joey's yours, Duke. Tristan seems to have his hands full this time." Mai comes up to the gang, huffing and puffing as she drags Joey's beat up body along and shoves him into Duke, whose face shows clear protest to the assumption.

You've been eating too much at that fancy pants restaurant of yours, man! Oof!

"Is he all right, Mai?" Tea looks her poor, heroic buddy up and down for any bad injuries.

"No irreparable damage to any vital organs, it seems. Of course, he's out cold, poor baby." Mai smoothes back Joey's messy hair, planting a kiss on his now bruised cheek to 'make it better.'

"Hmph, my hero..."

"Now, children! Single file-hold onto each other's hands, just like you were taught. Yes, that's right-Jennifer, Cindy, keep up in the back there! Oh, dear!" Rebecca, the school teacher, is perplexed. She didn't know if she should go to the rear of the line and pick up one of the two smallest girls who were slowing the group down or if she should continue on, leading the tearfully hysterical class out.

"I've got them, Miss Rebecca. You keep going." Ryou calls out from the back. He had easily scooped up the two crying children-one on piggyback, and the other safe in his arms.

"You're a good soul, Ryou! Thank you so much!" Rebecca felt like crying herself, but she was the teacher and adult here. So she must act it. "Come, children! We're adventurers, remember? One by one, no runs! Side by side, no one hides!" Rebecca starts chanting the school's 'safety first' song as she goes along.

"Isn't she super?" Ryou comments to Tea as he passes by them, the charges safely in his arms and around his neck as he joins the march down the stairs.

"We've gotta get out of this place before it all goes up in smoke. Come on, follow me, gang!" Duke starts to head for the exit behind them when Joey, in his arms, stirs to consciousness.

"Wait! Where's Serenity?" The brother protectively always thinks of his little sister, despite himself.

"I'm sure she got out already out a back exit. Let's go! I've got you, Miho!" Tristan says, carrying the whimpering girl down the exit steps.

"But-" Joey slips back to unconsciousness as Duke rushes down the stairs, Mai at their side.