Florence bowed politely to greet Yugi who easily returned the gesture with a smile before initiating a conversation with a breathy: "Hi Florence, how are you? I didn't see you at lunch."

Florence nodded apologetically. "I'm sorry Yugi, I've just been so worried about my sister lately…" She trailed off, her gaze involuntarily wandering to April's turned back as she continued her conversation with the animated blonde boy…what was his name again…?

"She'll be fine Florence, especially with Joey." Yugi smiled up at Florence who remained doubtful to say the least. Tactfully deciding to change the subject, Yugi cast his eyes to the school gates where a long black limo had been stationed only moments before. "So what's with you and Kaiba?"

Florence directed her eyes back to meet Yugi's inquiring violet ones. She had to stop worrying about her sister… even though something wasn't right.

"Not a lot except he's a total jerk." Florence announced venomously.

Yugi couldn't resist laughing at the way she appeared to despise Kaiba. "Well…" He started, "he seems that way, but me and Yami just think he's lonely."

Lonely, my ass! Florence thought, a momentary glare disfiguring her face before being replaced with a vague, unconvincing smile. "Hmm… well I'm not so sure…" She paused thoughtfully, brushing her messy fringe away from her eyes. "So are you a friend of Kaiba's then?"

Yugi paled slightly, shaking his head vigorously. "No. Kaiba doesn't consider anyone worth his time except himself and his little brother. He's too obsessed with work for anything else. But Kaiba…" Yugi frowned slightly. "Well, let's just say I'm not one of Kaiba's favourite people."

Puzzled, Florence met Yugi's gaze. "What do you-?"

Florence broke off upon feeling a gentle touch on her arm. Spinning around, she met her sister's doe-brown eyes. Her eyebrows rose an undetectable amount as she noticed a dark tinge colouring her sister's brown cheeks.

Grinning merrily up at her sister, April removed her hand from Florence's shoulder, briefly trailing her eyes over her sibling's short companion. Ha! Another candidate! She thought in amusement.

"Florence," She began, fixing her eyes back on her sister's own, "are you going to head back now with Joey and I or are you going with your friend?"

Florence paused for a moment in thought. Although her sister appeared to want her older sibling to join her, the opinion was apparently not shared by the red-faced blonde who shifted nervously from one foot to another behind her. On the other hand, Florence wanted to finish talking to Yugi. The conversation had just begun to get interesting. Fortunately, she was saved the hardship of a decision by a strong calming voice cutting through her thoughts.

"Why don't we all walk together?" Yugi suggested. Florence immediately felt suspicious. Glancing at the spiky haired boy out of the corner of her eye, she registered his change in personality. As she had suspected, she was no longer accompanied by Yugi, but his alter-ego and spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, Yami.

Florence turned to Yami. There was no doubt about it, she realised, he even looked taller. Yami surely was a separate person from Yugi.

The blonde girl nodded at the spirit, silently welcoming him to their exchange, "That's a great idea, thank you Yugi."

A small frown momentarily creased April's brow. Why was her sister acting so strangely? Her thoughts were distracted by a soft breeze that crept stealthily across the tarmac ground, sweeping crisp brown leaves to dance playfully around the four teenager's ankles, silently heralding autumn's arrival.

That was a point, April suddenly remembered as the company strode over the carpet of brown and red while maintaining friendly banter, it'll soon be Florence's birthday… 17… She couldn't believe it. It still seemed that only yesterday that she and Florence had met one another.

…..

April remembered the day still clearly as a memory from the present day. It was not something that faded easily.

She remembered the terror as she waited alone on the cold plastic chair. The way it dragged at her skin exposed by the ragged, orphanage-issued shorts. She was skinny as a rake. April had lived in the orphanage as long as she remembered. There was only life in the orphanage. In fact, for all she knew, she had been born in the orphanage.

As the small girl waited, she winced, rubbing her arm from the bruising spreading from her shoulder to her elbow. Yesterday the kids had teased her too far. Again. So she had struck out at them only to receive a beating for her efforts. But it was only normal. They always teased her for her skin colour and the way she was always the last parents looked at when searching for a child to adopt.

But not today.

She supposed that was why they had beaten her so bad.

April's head snapped up upon hearing footsteps. Her heart pounded. Could it be…? Was it them…?

No. Just another orphanage teacher who glared down at the scruffily dressed orphan, hoping to be rid of another parentless child. April watched the teacher's back retreat, kicking her feet absently, bored by the lack of entertainment in the cold, empty hallway.

How long would she be waiting? Forever? Perhaps they would never come. Perhaps it was just a cruel trick…

Suddenly a conflict of voices made April glance down the hallway.

A young blonde girl accompanied by two adults strode down the hall. The girl had her arms crossed firmly across her chest, dark eyebrows drawn in a frown which so closely resembled her present self.

"But why? Why do I need a stupid sister?" She whined unhappily, dragging at her parent's unyielding hands. Suddenly the blonde girl looked ahead, meeting April's dark eyes.

April automatically returned her gaze to her lap, pretending she hadn't heard. It was better that way.

The blonde child lapsed into silence. Her upper lip pouting as she sulkily followed her parents.

"Hello. Are you April?" A soft voice asked gently. April paused. Should she react? What was she supposed to do?

Finally, she lifted her doe eyes to meet a pair of kind, sparkling emerald ones.

"Hello sweetie." Said the woman beside the gentle, green-eyed man. She extended her hand sympathetically and caught April's brown fingers within her own.

"Yes… my name's April." April replied finally, meeting the woman's concerned blue eyes before flicking back to the man's sparkling emerald. Bracing herself, the small girl asked the inevitable question: "Are you going to adopt me?"

The adults straightened up and exchanged a glance, then a nod before smiling down at the small girl, ignoring the small blonde girl's resumed protests. "Yes. Yes we are."

April smiled the widest grin she could muster. It was a long time since she had smiled, and this was the happiest moment in her life.

"Thank you…" She whispered.

With those words, the emerald-eyed man stooped down and lifted April's cold, frail form onto his shoulders as if she weighed no more than a feather.

April knew then, from the warmth of his shoulders and the expression of grudging acceptance on her new sister's face, that this was where she belonged.

…...

"Hey April. What about ya?" The Brooklyn accent abruptly jolted April from her memories and back to the land of the living. Dragging her gaze from the ground, her dark eyes still slightly unfocused, April lifted her gaze to meet the blonde boy's concerned expression.

"Sorry Joey. I spaced out. What were you saying?" April glanced over at her sister, half-expecting her to be smirking at her younger sibling's usual disconnected attitude. But to her pleasant surprise, Florence and the tri-coloured hair boy were walking separately from herself and Joey, engaged within deep conversation, their expressions serious but their eyes sparkling.

"I said do ya like duelling April?" Joey repeated, unsure whether to be amused or frustrated by the short girl's short attention span.

"Me? No, not really." April finally replied, drawing her gaze away from Florence and her companion to meet Joey's liquid brown eyes. Seeing the blonde boy's slightly disappointed expression, she added, "But with a fanatic like my sister in the house, I can't help but know a bit thought I'm not very good. Florence is the champion duellist of our family."

With the word 'family' April's heart sank once again as she remembered the events of the past few days, what with the dreams about her real parents. It wasn't as if she had really even thought about them before… but now… now everything had changed.

"Ya know what they call me?" Joey bumbled on obliviously, "Jumpin' Joey Wheeler, almost-finalist of Duellist Kingdom! Of course Yuge's da real champ!" The blonde paused in his rant, sensing April's discomfort. Glancing down at his shorter companion, Joey felt a pang of guilt upon noticing her upset expression. Instinctively, the boy reached out a comforting hand and laid it gently on her shoulder. "Hey, I'm sorry if I upset ya April. I was just askin' ya about duelling." He bent down slightly to look into April's dark, slightly moist eyes.

The younger girl lifted her arm and quickly wiped her glistening eyes on her sleeve to prevent tears from falling before meeting Joey's half-concerned and half-horrified gaze.

What had he done to upset her so much? What had he said? Aww heck!

Leaving the assuring heat of Joey's hand on her shoulder, April finally spoke up: "Thanks Joey. I'm alright just still coming to terms with everything." She managed to smile weakly at the worried blonde.

Upon feeling a piercing glare burning into the side of her head, April suddenly glanced over to her right. Florence was sending invisible daggers. Mystified by her sister's sudden venom, April glanced around for the source of the problem. Realisation hit her as the warm pressure on her shoulder lifted slightly. Joey's hand was on her arm. And Florence looked like she was about to start a murder spree.

April gently nudged Joey in silent warning. Immediately looking in every direction like an animal hunted by a dangerous predator, Joey attempted to identify what was bothering his short friend. As his gaze fell on Florence, the blonde recoiled from having received a full blast of the older sister's toast-burning glare.

Snatching his hand back from April's shoulder as if his fingers had been scorched by the ferocity of the blonde girl's glare, Joey hastily moved several steps back and fixed a sheepish expression on his face.

Sending wary glances at Florence out of the corner of his eye, Joey was strongly reminded of his nemesis. Just like rich-boy. He noted as April continued to walk beside him in silence.

However, as icy as she seemed, Yugi – or was that Yami? – seemed to have no problem in communicating with her. In fact, if Joey had been slightly more observant he would have noticed that his friend had more than a passing interest in the girl.

…..

Yami found her fascinating. He couldn't throw off the feeling that there was something familiar about her. In fact, his curiosity was so great that he had enquired whether he could take Yugi's place, just this once, so he could discover more about this intriguing, tight-lipped teenager.

"How long have you been duelling for?" Yami asked quietly, his deep purple eyes following the spots of shadow cast on Florence's hair by the dappled light pouring down from the trees above as they walked beneath the numerous varieties.

"Oh, a long time. Certainly years. In England…" She trailed off, turning silent for a moment as she longingly remembered her homeland. England was the one and only home she knew. And she missed it. Perhaps more than anyone would ever know.

Drawing her gaze up from the leaf-covered ground, Florence found herself sinking into a pair of mesmerising, deep violet eyes. Jolting out of her reverie and throwing her feelings aside, a light blush crawled across the blonde girl's cheeks before she broke his gaze and continued.

"In England I won my fair share of competitions and dragged my sister along to watch a fair few." She smiled at the memory then looked back at April… her sister.

…..

Florence remembered the time, oh-so-long ago, when she had despised her sister. She hated the way she had invaded her house. Used her toys, and worst of all, stolen her parents. But everything changed the day Florence turned 11.

Florence had finished her lessons early and was grumbling under her breath about how much she hated school. It was pointless. The kids were pathetic and she was above all their boring make-up, silly dolls, girly pink clothes and petty quarrels.

School, in Florence's point of view, was just a nuisance and completely unnecessary.

She remained in her state of gloomy thoughts until a scream broke through her thoughts. Curious to see the cause of the commotion, the blonde girl rushed towards the school, ducking behind the trees to find the shaded spot hidden behind the dry green.

Florence's eyes widened upon registering the scene in front of her: three of the youths from her year were standing in a triangle, leering down at their trapped victim who was penned in by their human barrier. The figure huddled between the boys was a girl – judging by the skirt which was bunched around her knees – she was curled into a protective ball, one hand grasping the other around her tightly clamped legs, attempting to stunt the boys' advances.

'You're different. You ent got no parents.' One of the boys announced, prodding the huddled girl's body, resulting in his cronies' cruel cackling.

Another stepped forth, snorting with laughter as he added his own insult: 'Yeah. That's right. You don't look like us neither.' He enforced his point with a harder prod, this time at the figure's head, causing the curled up, pitiful creature to flinch away with a muffled yelp.

'Go home. We don't want you here!' The last of the three concluded, suddenly lunging forward to shove the girl's frail form so hard that she unrolled from her protective cocoon and gripped the floor for support, her knuckles white as she turned her tear-filled, doe-brown eyes to meet the laughing boys' in a glare.

Florence felt a surge of anger as she watched the scene. How dare they? Cowardly, pathetic, lowlifes! Not only were they teasing a person about their skin colour, their appearance, but also their parents. And worst of all, that person happened to be her sister!

Before the three bullies had chance to register her presence, Florence lunged forwards and slammed a fist into the nearest boy's face before pouncing on the other two and fearlessly tackling them to the ground with several well-aimed punches.

Luckily for her, Florence was surprisingly strong and agile for her age, and within moments the three boys fled, clasping their hands to bleeding scrapes and broken noses, cowering away from Florence's burning, emerald glare.

'C'mon April. Let's go.' She said gruffly, helping her trembling sister to her feet and brushing the dirt off her dusty uniform.

…

Of course, her actions hadn't gone without consequences. The following day Florence and April were landed in an office with a volatile, bellowing headmaster.

Aware of her sister's current state, Florence hastily interrupted the headmaster's rant and confessed that the situation was entirely her fault – April had simply been an innocent bystander.

After all, what was the point in arguing with someone who wouldn't listen?

As a result, Florence had been suspended for a week and received more than a fair share of detentions.

When the headmaster had delivered her sister's punishment, hissing: 'Don't do it again or you will be expelled!' April turned to her sister who still bore a small collection of cuts from the events of the previous day.

'Thank you.' She said shyly.

Avoiding April's eyes, Florence grunted in response. 'What are sisters for?'

April didn't reply and simply directed her gaze on the ground beneath her feet, swearing a silent pledge: if Florence was ever in trouble, she would help her in return.

Unfortunately, when that time came, there wasn't a thing she could do…

…..

Yami gazed at Florence, desperately trying to guess what she was thinking. To no avail.

Seems like there is more to her than first appears. Yami commented to Yugi's spirit form.

Yugi's transparent figure nodded. She's more talkative with you Yami. Maybe you can find out more. Maybe she could help you find the key to unlock your past.

Yami smiled at the shorter boy's spirit form. They were like brothers. Identical brothers at that.

Thank you Yugi. You are right. We shall see what destiny has in store for us.

With a final grin and a nod, Yugi's ghost-like figure disappeared once more into the Millennium Puzzle. Turning back to Florence's pensive, unseeing gaze, Yami finally broke the silence between them.

"You seem very close to your sister." He commented as the blonde raised her head upon hearing his calm, soothing voice.

"I am." Florence paused for a moment, another long silence lingered in the air between them until she finally chose to break it: "What about you? When did you learn to duel?" She asked, remembering their previous conversation.

Yami's deep purple eyes darkened slightly and his eyebrows joined in a frown. "I don't know. So much of my past is clouded…" He paused thoughtfully, deciding whether to release some of the little information he had about his past. "Perhaps… perhaps I learnt when I entered Duellist Kingdom."

"Duellist Kingdom?" Florence repeated, nonplussed. She'd heard of a lot of duelling tournaments, but never this one. But perhaps that was unsurprising as she had been living in England for most of her life. Not Japan.

Yami's eyes widened momentarily. She didn't know about Duellist Kingdom? Well, she'd only moved to Domino recently, he supposed. Returning his shocked features to a more normal expression, Yami elaborated.

"Yes. A tournament hosted by the creator of Duel Monsters, Maximillion Pegasus. After beating Kaiba, I received an invitation," Pensively, Yami raised a hand to push away one of his spiky blonde bangs, revealing a dark look that momentarily marred his handsome features. "of sorts."

"You beat Kaiba?" Florence gave an unladylike snort to Yami's alarm. "No wonder you're not his biggest pal." She tried to imagine how Kaiba must have felt to be beaten at one of his biggest interests. Pretty damn annoyed. Serves his big head right! "So who won the competition in the end then?"

Yami smiled mysteriously, his deep, sparkling purple eyes piercing Florence's emerald green orbs.

A dawning realisation grew on the blonde teenager. Could it possibly be that her spiky-haired, enigmatic friend was one of the best duellists in Japan, if not, the best?

The conversation was cut short as the four students finally reached the street which lead to the girls' house. Reluctantly drawing her eyes from Yami's dark, penetrating gaze, Florence glanced towards her sister.

A scowl appeared on the blonde girl's face.

Alright Wheeler. I warned you once… you are so dead. Florence thought ferociously as she noticed the blonde boy's proximity to her sister and his hand once again on her shoulder. Just as she began to stride towards the doomed blonde and her younger sibling, a strong hand gently, but firmly, gripped her forearm, wheeling her back around to be transfixed by a pair of endless purple orbs.

"I –" Yami cleared his throat. "Thank you for walking down with me… Florence." He said her name softly, sending an inexplicable shiver down her spine as he continued to gaze shamelessly into her emerald-green eyes.

After a few long moments, the grip loosened and Florence quickly moved away, a dark blush staining her cheeks. Why was she like this? She was never like this!

Yami watched in a mystified silence as Florence's back retreated. What did he do wrong? He continued to observe as the blonde approached her sister and Joey with her hands set aggressively on her hips and a murderous expression on her face.

Once more, Yami wondered why he felt this connection with her. This bond. He almost jumped in surprise as Yugi appeared beside him without warning, raising an eyebrow at his doppelganger.

Hey Yami. He greeted, So what's the deal with you and Florence? The shorter boy asked, unable to prevent a slight hint of resentment from entering his voice.

Nothing Yugi. It's just I feel a connection through her to my past. Yami replied cryptically, concealing his confusion of swirling thoughts deep within the endless chasm of his own mind. At least that way Yugi wouldn't stumble upon them by accident when they shared minds.

Okay, want me to take over now?

Yami nodded, still pensive as he stepped aside, his figure becoming transparent as Yugi re-entered his body. The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle had a lot to think about now.

…

Florence marched over to where April and Joey stood; cheeks aflame as they gazed into one another's eyes and their hands so close they were almost touching. Wait, were touching.

Sensing another presence, the two looked up in unison, breaking one another's gaze and their smiles fading rapidly to expressions of worry, and in Joey's case, fear.

The sisters' eyes met for a brief moment before Florence lunged out to grab the front of Joey's shirt, yanking the tall blonde boy around to face her.

"Wha-?" He shouted in confusion before being cut off by a fearsome glare from the older of the Driver sisters.

Florence lowered her voice to a threatening, almost inaudible, whisper: "A word to the wise Wheeler, touch my sister again, and you'll regret even being born." She hard resisted the temptation to smirk as the blonde boy gulped and attempted to evade the girl's burning green glare. "Don't lay your dirty paws on her again."

With one last jerk, Florence released Joey who promptly stumbled away faster than she thought was physically possible.

In moments, the teenage boy had disappeared around the corner of the street, leaving Yugi, who had watched the entire event, open-mouthed and awestruck.

Remind me to never get on her wrong side. Yugi commented to his counterpart's ghost-like form.

The spirit of the Millennium Puzzle lifted his head at the comment and glanced at the scene. Yami smirked.

…

April turned, hands on hips, to confront her glowering sister.

Sparing a glance for her unusually ferocious sibling, Florence paused, the glare rapidly falling from her face.

"Florence, what's the big idea? He was my friend and you scared him away!" April shouted indignantly, her frustration only growing as her sister appeared to ignore her and continued walking in the direction of their house.

"Looked like he had a bit more than friendship on his mind to me." Florence muttered as her sister caught her up. She realised now that maybe she shouldn't have reacted so dramatically, yet… she was only trying to protect her sister.

"So what?" April demanded fiercely, stepping in front of Florence to block her path, forcing her sister to look directly into her accusing eyes, "What if I did want something more than friendship?"

Steadily holding her sister's gaze, Florence sighed and laid a hand on her younger sibling's shoulder. "I just don't want to see you hurt… like I was. Sure, it only happened once, but that can be enough to affect you for months…years even. I don't want you to have to feel that pain… on top of everything else."

April shrugged off her sister's hand. "But it's not about what you want!" She replied bitterly, glaring one last time at Florence before striding away and leaving her sister alone and pensive.

…………………..