Summary of Chapter Nine: Joey is hurling left and right. Duke and Ryou have bonded a bit and Tristan and Yugi have bonded a bit. Téa is a talkative, morning person (weirdo). Yami and Marik are going on a picnic! What will the others think? Probably something romantic, but is it? Oh, and Tozoku is going to the park.

Chapter Ten

The pair of them walked out of the dormitory and onto the main lawn of the east campus in silence. The park was only about a ten minute walk away from the dorms but they would need to stop off at the student union to pick up some food for their picnic. Then, from there, to get to the park they would need to hazard a makeshift bridge the upperclassmen put together at the start of every semester. Of course, once the snow started falling they'd have to take the long way to get to the park and use the actual entrance. It wasn't difficult and it was free, it was just a heck of a lot more inconvenient than simply crossing over the fast moving stream below the rickety little wood-plank-bridge.

Yami cleared his throat and pulled his shoulders in closer to him as a cold breeze blew past. 'So that was sufficiently awkward?' He phrased it as a statement but said it like a question, hoping to see what Marik thought and if he had suspected the tensions between him and the young pair, Yugi and Ryou.

'Yeahhh.' Was all he got in response.

They continued on toward the student union in relative silence, save the sparse hums that would come from Marik in no particular melody. After a bit more of this ritual Yami jumped in with a little ditty of his own; humming some beat he wasn't familiar with. Marik looked at his friend out of the corner of his eye and returned the hum with one of his own creation.

It wasn't long before they had a cacophony of hums, whistles, snaps and claps drawing the attention of the rest of the student body that had managed to stumble out into the light of day on that brisk Saturday morning. They laughed at one another as well as the odd looks they got.

'You're such a nerd.' Marik teased as he began to run ahead of his taller friend.

'You started it!' Yami shouted as he began a light jog to keep up.

'Help! Stalker!' Marik hollered gleefully as he attempted to run full speed away.

Yami only picked up his jog slightly to keep in toe with Marik. 'You're going to get me in trouble.' He laughed as they reached the student union and Marik came to a complete stop just before the door. 'Oompf.' Yami sounded as he rammed into the shorter of the two, 'What the?' He said puzzled.

'Fetch the door, Jeeves.' He flicked his wrist at the glass door with the best, poshest British accent he could muster.

Yami smirked as he bowed and held the door open, 'certainly, Master Marik.'

'What do you want for the picnic?' Marik chuckled as he walked into the cafeteria of the union.

The taller boy eyed the options from where they stood out of the way of anyone else wanting to get something to eat. 'Do you want meat and cheeses for sandwiches or should we just get some salad stuff?'

Marik squinted for a moment, 'I'm sort of thinking a salad, but you get whatever you want.' He said waving his student ID card around, which was loaded with several hundred dollars for meals.

Yami laughed, 'you know I have the same thing, right?'

'Duh, you can buy next time.' The blonde laughed as he got into the queue followed by his leathered up friend.

They got up to the register and a rather unfriendly looking woman stood; slack jawed, eyeing the pair of them clearly annoyed.

'Hello,' Marik beamed up at the grimacing woman with a slightly trembling mole on her lip. 'Just two for now, a Philly steak and a café salad, please.'

The woman grunted a little and swiped the student ID she was handed, 'receipt?' She asked, unenthused.

'Oh, no thank you.' Marik smiled at her and trotted off with his salad in hand.

Yami shook his head lightly and took Marik's ID card form the woman at the register. 'Thank you, ma'am.' He nodded and followed his friend out of the cafeteria.

Once they had exited the union and hit the main campus once again Yami waved the ID card in front of his friends nose, 'forget something?' He teased.

'Oh shoot…' Marik frowned, 'thanks for grabbing it.'

The spikey haired twenty something nodded with half a smile, 'did you know that lady?'

'Hm? The lunch lady?' Marik asked, a bit confused.

'Yeah.'

'Nope, but I'm going to get her to smile if my name isn't Big Daddy.'

'It isn't.'

'Then I must make her smile!' Marik shouted in fake surprise.

'That's not really what that saying means…' Yami laughed.

'Either way,' Marik shrugged, 'her name is Stevie and you know how I feel about Steve's and Stevie's.'

Yami rolled his eyes inwardly, 'that little bird's death really got to you, didn't it?'

Marik sighed, 'the bird was Tweetums, the fish was Steve…'

'My bad.' Yami laughed as the two of them continued on their way toward the park's bridge form the east side of campus.

As Duke shut the door into the dormitory lightly Yugi could feel his face getting hot. He had done a pretty good job of keeping his embarrassment from his face while Yami had been there but now it was just Ryou and he; he couldn't contain himself any longer. He frowned as Ryou turned from the door to face him, his eyes uncertain.

Ryou rubbed the back of his neck and kicked his shoe against the carpeted floor a bit in nervousness.

'I don't really know what to say.' Yugi said finally.

'I, uh, I don't really either…' Ryou said, feeling an anxious smile creeping up on him. He raised his gaze to meet Yugi's and burst into laughter. 'We're so stupid, you know that?'

Yugi blinked for a moment before joining in on the joke. 'I can't believe us.' They continued laughing, 'Getting at each other like savage beasts over some guy that probably doesn't like either of us and neither of us are even gay.' Yugi continued to laugh.

The silverette's laughter died down slightly as he wiped a joyful tear away from his cheek, 'yeah, about that,' he started.

'About what?' Yugi said still trying to get a grip on his giggles.

'I've been trying to tell you for the last two and a half weeks but was never really sure how,' Ryou said, a slight tremor in his voice. Sensing the seriousness, or perceived seriousness of the issue, Yugi hushed up. 'I am gay.' Ryou finally stammered out.

Yugi only nodded.

'Are, uh, we cool?' Ryou asked hesitantly.

'Huh? Oh yeah,' Yugi answered quickly, 'I didn't mean for the silence to say otherwise, I honestly don't care who you like.' He smiled at his friend.

'Okay.' Ryou smiled back.

'Shall we go and see if we can help salvage our room… Or Joey…?'

'If we have to.' He chuckled with a fake eye-roll.

Tozoku had climbed up into the old weeping willow that made its home in the little forested area that the student body fondly referred to as the park. It was the only willow on or near Domino University's campus and was a popular place to relax and clear one's mind for the few who actually knew about it. Many students from the city have never actually seen such a tree and it made for an interesting experience. Tozoku, on the other hand, had grown up with these suckers all over the place, something his biological mother had fancied for whatever reason. Unfortunately, after her death, his father had sold the property and moved to the city with his new wife – who, now Tozoku could guess quite safely, was actually his extramarital mistress – Ryou's biological mother.

He sighed at the memory of his mother.

Things had been so much simpler then. Of course, it probably wasn't in actuality, his memory just clouded that time of his youth with rose colored glasses; though in comparison to the rest of his life that wasn't very hard. Ryou was so young when they had all moved in together. Tozoku was about nine and his new stepbrother was probably only five or six? Probably five. He shook his head, 'No.' He muttered to himself, 'I won't think about this, it's nothing but heartache…' He thought.

There was some laughing in the distance. Tozoku looked up, snapped from his daydreaming; he gazed through the swaying branches of the willow. 'Fuck… There's no goddamn rest for the wicked.'

'Look, no hands!' Marik called over to Yami as he crossed the little makeshift bridge.

'How are you going to use hands? There's no railing.'

'I could crawl?' Marik answered after thinking for a moment; earning a chuckle from Yami.

'Be careful, I'm not jumping in after you if you fall.' Yami warned as he eyed the gurgling stream below Marik.

'Yes you would.' Marik said assuredly.

'It's too cold for that sort of nonsense.' Yami shook his head as Marik frowned, hopping down from the little bridge in front of his friend. 'Oh psh, you know I would jump in after you.' Yami confessed.

Marik grinned, knowing he was right all along. 'Let's pick somewhere to eat and we can talk about whatever it is you want to talk about, yeah?'

Yami frowned for a moment; he had totally forgotten the reason for this picnic. His heart sank a bit. Of course now, after their meeting with Yugi and Ryou, he would have to add some more to the list of things to discuss.

The tanned teen jerked his head over to the weeping willow, 'under the tree?'

'Sure.' Yami said a bit distantly as he did his best to arrange his thoughts. How exactly was he going to go about this?

The duo took their seats under the aged willow, its whip-like limbs swaying gently in the cool autumn breeze. It was such a serene location. The babbling brook a few meters away, the wind moving through the wood, the birds and animals chirruping and scavenging about; all of it was framed in the beauty of the tree's branches. That was the wonder of the tree; not only did it frame the picturesque scenery it also offered refuge to those who needed it from the real world. The pair needed a bit of each.

Yami stretched a bit before nesting up against the trunk of the tree, feeling the odd grooves with the back of his head, his hair catching ever so slightly against them. Sighing he squinted his hazel eyes at the sun kissed youth as he searched through the bag of goods they had just purchased form the cafeteria. 'Marik,' he started, 'I'm not too sure where to begin.'

'Hm? Wherever you want.' The teen smiled as he pulled out his salad and the sandwich fixings for his friend.

'Well yeah, but I don't know where exactly that is.' He smiled faintly as he took the sandwich stuff and began to assemble his lunch. He cleared his throat, 'Remember our last year of high school?'

Marik flinched a little bit as he dressed his salad, 'uh, yeah?'

'When Toz was in juvi and I had turned his dad into the police for abusing Miss Bakura…?'

'Yeah,' Marik choked a little, 'what's this about now, Yami?'

He cleared his throat again before continuing, 'I didn't tell you this, but Toz is here at DU and last semester he and I got into a fight… I was trying to get him to rejoin our group, I told him we missed him but he wasn't buying it and, uh, it all escalated kinda quickly. I'm surprised we weren't expelled for misconduct.'

Marik was still, in his face and stance as well as emotionally.

Yami reached over placing a hand on his friend's thigh, who was kneeling beside him. 'You okay?'

'Uh, yeah, I uh.' He stammered out, 'I had a feeling he was probably going here, everyone goes here, I just uh, I was just figuring he was ignoring us and trying to keep his distance…'

'I know.'

'I had no idea you two had met up…'

'It's not like that, we ran into each other. He definitely wasn't expecting it, neither was I, really.' Yami bit his lip in uncertainty. Moving his hand from Marik's thigh he picked up the salad and proceeded to toss it for him.

Marik watched somewhat distantly as his friend placed the freshly tossed salad back before him. He felt an inappropriate smile creeping up onto his expression.

'What?' Yami asked, hesitation still hanging in his throat.

'You just tossed my salad.' Marik smirked mischievously.

The taller of the two blushed a bit and swatted at his companion. 'You're so immature.'

'You know you like it.' Marik beamed as he picked up the salad to munch on, 'we should see about finding Toz, he probably needs us…'

'I don't think he needs us, Marik,' Yami responded, 'he's perfectly capable of making friends for himself.'

'Hmph.' Marik sounded, 'I wouldn't be so sure, you two are complete buffoons when it comes to that sort of thing, if I recall correctly.'

Yami rolled his eyes in play, 'we would have made friends eventually, thank you very much. But that's not really all I have to say…' he bit his bottom lip once more, out of a nervous habit.

The tanned boy looked up from his salad and gave a half smile of reassurance.

'You know that group of people we say in the hallway of the dorms today? You were talking to one?'

'Oh yeah…' Marik's smile transformed into a frown, 'that's the guy that I was with waiting for you to get to that party the other day.'

'Ah, the one you made an ass of yourself around?'

'Well, I wouldn't put it in that many words. His friend said I was staring at him from across the frat house and it upset him.'

'Well?'

'Hm?'

'Were you?' Yami did his best to suppress a grin.

'No! I mean, a little, but I was just sort of looking in that general direction…' Marik turned a shade of red Yami didn't even know existed. He burst out laughing. 'Oh shut up.' Marik commanded.

'Alright, I'll grant you reprieve,' Yami continued to laugh, 'that isn't what I wanted to talk about anyway, but I'm ears whenever you want to talk about it.'

Marik's pout lessened a bit.

'The two shorter guys that were in the hall with that guy,' Yami started, wiping a tear of laughter form his cheek, 'remember when the one silver haired guy and I waved to each other?'

'Vaguely.'

'That's the guy that was in our room this morning, the one I met in the men's room, well I didn't actually meet him there, we have calc together with his friend Yugi, like I said in the hall this morning.'

Marik was silent as he attempted to piece this all together.

'Anyway,' Yami continued, 'earlier in the week they came into calc really late so I offered them my notes and they were good with it but then when Yugi came to pick them up from me at the archive's desk he was a complete tool to me…'

'That sounds confusing…' Marik answered after realizing his friend had paused as if waiting for feedback.

'You're telling me… I was just being friendly… Albeit, I think one of them, or both of them think I dig them, or one of them?'

'Do you?'

'What?' Yami said, taken aback by the question.

'C'mon Yami,' Marik said with a friendly smile as he got to his feet, 'I wanna go for a walk.'

The spikey haired man sat in confusion for a moment before getting up to follow his friend, looking something of a lost puppy – a brooding, lost puppy.

And with that, they had walked off out of Tozoku's earshot. He shook his head and went back to examining the sky through the branches of the willow. He wanted to reconnect with those two, or at least with Marik, and he absolutely needed to reconnect with Ryou. It wasn't even an option – especially if Yami had his eyes set on the boy, for whatever reason.

The door swung open as Duke leaned against the wall watching Tristan hug the trashcan that Joey had previously been getting to know. 'Hey you two,' he chirped out with a slight flick of his wrist. 'Tristan's at it now, as you can see.'

'They alright?' Yugi asked, gesturing to Joey who was crouched beside his still unmade bed and Tristan knelt on the floor nearby.

'Yeah, hopefully they'll remember this and stop drinking when I tell them to next time.' Duke offered.

'Heh, next time…' Joey muttered out with a slight shutter.

Tristan began dry heaving at the thought of it which made Duke roll his eyes. 'What's up with you two?'

'First off, how do you know Yami's little friend?' They both chimed in.

'Oh, we just met at the party the other day, Tristan told me he was staring at me after I had already ran into him and brought him over to where we were hanging. He said he was waiting for someone, I assume it was Yami now.' He cleared his throat, 'anyway, I asked him if it was true he was watching me and that's how we ran into each other but I was a little rude about it and he ran off. So I wanted to apologize for that.'

Yugi hummed a bit as if to process the story. 'How do you think he and Yami know each other, anyway?' He asked his silverette companion.

'They're roommates, I believe.' He answered, 'don't ask how I know.'

Yugi nodded and then flushed to signal without his willingness that he had jumped to conclusions of a nasty nature. 'Do you think…?'

'Couldn't tell ya,' Ryou said with a slight grimace, 'they had separate beds, so…'

'Yug, Ry,' Duke said to get their attention, 'you two cool now?'

Pulling them from their aside, they both looked up at the taller man and smiled, nodding in the affirmative.

'Thank god.'

Tozoku hopped down from his perch within the willow. He cautiously eyed his surroundings making sure no one was around, specifically Yami or Marik – he didn't need that reunion just yet. With no sign of the two he carefully went off toward the makeshift bridge back to the main DU campus. He had watched as the duo had made their way off into the deeper section of the wooded park a few minutes earlier and was determined to get out of the park before they returned from their 'walk', or whatever it was they were off doing. Tozoku rolled his eyes as he thought about the pair and began to trapeze act his way across the wooden bridge.

He pulled his jacket tighter around his torso as that pesky autumn breeze ripped over the flowing stream below him and the bridge. It would be getting dark in the next few hours and he wanted to grab some dinner and maybe see if Ryou was anywhere on the main campus; albeit, he was probably at the library or in his dorm with his dweeby friend Yugi. Sighing, Tozoku set off for the student union to grab a quick bite.

Notes: I don't really have any notes… I may try to get this story updated once or twice a week… I was planning on every Monday but I posted earlier yesterday so this chapter can go up today :)

-May the Fourth be with you.

-Comments are always nice! Thanks xoxox