Author's Note: Well, I'm back and ready to finish the story! It's almost over, and I guess this is where most of the cute stuff ends. Time for the tragedy genre to start taking effect. Enjoy the last day of 2012!

Year Thirteen Part IV

"Jou, get over it. Mai's never going to fall in love with you, so you should just let it go."

"Hey, nothing's impossible!" Jounouchi said indignantly, glaring up at Honda as he continued to scrub down the floors. "Mai said I had to grow up a little, that's all."

Honda snorted. "She said that yesterday, and at eighteen how much more 'growing up' can you do? Mai's nine years older than you, my friend, and let's face it, there are plenty of men around here that are her age and are way more mature than you'll ever be."

"Ugh, can you believe this guy, Yug'? And he says he's my friend." Jounouchi grumbled, glancing over his shoulder at the amethyst-eyed mute who had finally decided to grace the pair with his presence. Jounouchi hadn't failed to notice how Yugi was spending more and more time away from their quarters lately, and if he did come back, it was always late at night when everyone else was asleep. The blond also noticed how tired his fellow servant seemed to be as of late, but to be honest, he'd never seen the guy happier. He didn't understand why, but Yugi had always been peculiar, so Jounouchi wasn't going to dwell on it for long.

Yugi glanced up, fixing Jounouchi with an amused look before returning to his scrubbing, shaking his head. The three of them were cleaning the floors after the group of palace slaves that were aiding in field work for the time being decided to enter the palace through one of the main hallways. After seeing how much dirt and mud had been left behind, Mai had asked the three of them to take care of it before anyone noticed and the group got into trouble. After all she had done for them since they were small children, none of them could possibly deny Mai anything. "See, Yugi agrees with me." Honda proclaimed, to which Jounouchi flicked his wet, soiled cloth at him, showering the brunet with the dirtied water. "You're just a lovesick fool is all. We'll find you a girl eventually, right, Yugi?"

The slave nodded without looking up, but Jounouchi heard the chuckle that he tried to cover up. "You guys are bastards." Jounouchi growled, but the affection in his voice told his companions that he didn't mean anything by it. But there had once been a time wen those words would have been accompanied by a fist to the face.

Jounouchi had been born into slavery, just as Honda had. It wasn't much of a life, and for a long while, Jounouchi had been bitter about it. Everything about his life was dictated, like when he woke up and went to sleep, what he ate for his daily meals and even what he did in his spare time. A slave didn't have much of a will, instead following his or her master's orders blindly because that was expected of them. It was their job. Both of their mothers had died when they were toddlers, leaving them in the care of older, more experienced slaves, some of which only concerned with their own well being. Jounouchi and Honda had decided that if they couldn't stand up to the royal family or other nobles, then they would instead turn to their fellow slaves.

The blond remembered how satisfying it felt to make someone cry, to have a tiny bit of control in a life that wasn't really his own. Maybe he had felt remorse for his actions at some point, but if he had, he certainly didn't remember. He and Honda only had each other growing up, and for a long time it was all they really needed. The two of them were a team, and so long as they had each other, it didn't matter if the slaves their age despised them and the older ones thought them to be a nuisance. Honda and Jounouchi were content with their life, but then the two of them received a harsh blow to make them realize just what they were doing.

There came a day when a new slave showed up, and just like the others, he hadn't been able to avoid being tormented by the notorious troublemakers. Jounouchi recalled finding Yugi odd for never speaking, and with a disability like that, he was an easy target. Jounouchi had resented Yugi because he hadn't been born into such a life of misery. He'd tasted freedom, had lived in it for four years, which was more than they ever would, and they'd tormented him because of that. But unlike the other children, Yugi didn't cry when they made fun of him. He wouldn't get upset, wouldn't yell, and wouldn't even remove himself from the situation until Jounouchi and Honda gave up. It wasn't until Yugi came along that Jounouchi began to feel guilty. The other slave was a year younger than the two of them, weaker and more vulnerable in the lifestyle that had been forced upon him, and when Jounouchi began to realize that, he felt lower than the vilest of criminals for what he had been doing, for tormenting a child that wouldn't fight back no matter what they did to him. All three of them had been friends for years now, and Jounouchi still wondered how Yugi had kept up his smile all those years ago after all they'd done to him.

"Speaking of men without a woman on their arm," Honda quipped up after a few minutes of comfortable silence, "when do you think the Pharaoh's gonna settle down?"

"Atem?" Jounouchi wondered, pausing in his cleaning as Yugi did the same. "Honda, why are you thinking about his love life?"

The brunet shrugged, sitting back and placing his dirtied rag into his bucket of water. "I usually don't, but it occurred to me the other day that someday he's going to have to produce an heir to the throne unless he wants that bastard cousin of his to take over, and so far, he's never showed interest in anyone."

Jounouchi paused, considering his friend's words. He'd grown up hating Pharaoh Atem, but after all these years under his service, the blond had realized the guy wasn't that bad. He'd never treated them all unfairly, never raised a voice or hand to any of them in his life. The slave remembered hearing that Yugi had once pushed Priest Seto into the river in the presence of the Pharaoh and one of his Priestesses – Mana, if Jounouchi remembered correctly – and Atem hadn't done anything except give Yugi a halfhearted warning. The slaves were aware that Yugi could have been severely punished for what he had done, and the fact that Atem hadn't done that earned the respect of a good deal of the slaves, Jounouchi, Honda, and Mai included. Jounouchi was grateful for what Atem had done – Honda was as well even though he'd never say so – but they were far from friends.

Yugi, on the other hand, was the monarch's personal slave and spent more time with him than anyone other than his Priests, and it was obvious to everyone that Atem cared for Yugi and vice versa. If his friend had been able to speak, Jounouchi would've inquired about the Pharaoh's personal life, but that wasn't the case, so he would have to make do with the rumors passed from slave to slave. "You know, you're right." Jounouchi said eventually, glancing at Yugi, who was still resting on his knees, watching the two of them with an unreadable expression on his face. "Atem's never showed any interest in girls."

"What about that Priestess of his?"

"Mana? No, I think they're just friends."

"Remember that girl from Sinai that attended the ceremony on Atem's thirteenth birthday? Princess Viv-something? She was all over him all night. Gave Mai and her dancers a real runaround."

Jounouchi sniggered under his breath. "Yeah, I remember her all too well. Acted more like a concubine than royalty. I wouldn't be surprised if he had sex with her that night. Royalty like that never hesitate to get some; they take whatever chance they get. Maybe they've been having secret rendezvous this whole time! I bet he got that fancy, new necklace from her as a gift or something. I, on the other hand, want to wait until I get a hold of that special someone."

"Jou, for the last time, there is no way Mai is going to settle for you."

"Settle? Any woman would be lucky to – "

Jounouchi broke off with a yelp of surprise as he was doused in lukewarm river-water, and while he received the bulk of it, Honda didn't escape the sudden attack either. After rubbing at his eyes furiously with the palms of his hands while Honda snapped obscenities, Jounouchi turned to glare at whoever had dumped water on him, only to come face to face with Yugi. His friend was standing over him, one hand clenched tightly over the rim of the bucket while the other rested firmly on his hip. "What the heck did you do that for, Yug'?" The soaked blond snapped, if only to hide his confusion. This was the first time he'd seen the amethyst-eyed slave look even remotely angry.

"Don't talk about things you know absolutely nothing about." Yugi surprised the both of them by speaking, the depth of his irritation evident in his voice. For all Jounouchi knew, that could really be what his voice sounded like since he'd never heard Yugi speak before, but he knew better. Yugi's natural voice couldn't be that cold.

Honda looked just as confused and surprised as Jounouchi felt, and Yugi rolled his eyes before turning to walk away, presumably to get more water now that he'd wasted what he'd had left. "Well, that was random." Honda exclaimed once Yugi was out of hearing range, though Jounouchi was still watching his friend's figure become continuously smaller the further away he walked. "Now we have to clean this up as well. What's his deal? And better yet, why is he suddenly talking?"

"I don't know." Jounouchi replied. He didn't know a lot about what had just happened, why Yugi had dumped water on them, why he'd started speaking after years upon years of silence, or why he had looked so angry. The slave couldn't fathom what they'd said to elicit such a reaction from the normally docile Yugi. He couldn't have gotten so worked up over what Jounouchi had said about Mai, so it must've been when they mentioned Atem. But why would Yugi get so upset about it? It didn't make sense.

And while Jounouchi may not have understood, that didn't stop him from feeling guilty that he had been the cause of his friend's uncharacteristic outburst.

A.N. Yugi likes to punish people by making them wet. Yes, I am aware of how terrible that may sound, and no, he did not soak them just because they were talking about his devastatingly handsome lover.