Yami: (extremely sarcastically) Yes. It's fan-fucking-tastic.
Bakura: (Whispering) He's hormonal again.
Yami: (Screaming) I heard that you bastard!
Borath: Right. Moving on. Collage is hard so excuse mental exhaustion (technically it's 'Sixth Form' so I'm still at school just with a blue shirt, smaller tutor group and more insane timetable) but my shirt is getting me a kind of reverence in the corridors that I find amusing. All the little kiddies move to let you pass which is nice. It's like 'Christ. She *survived* five years of this and came back out of *choice*!'.
Yami: You're stalling.
Bakura: Like you mind. You've read this chapter.
Yami: Hence me hating you.
Bakura: (Looks down at feet) I hate me too actually.
(Both look up at Borath) Bitch!!
Borath: (Grins 'n' shrugs) Reviewers' opinions count. Yours don't. Excuse late updates but collage is really taking up a lot of my time. I've had three essays to complete so far and I've only been there a week!
Yami: Would you just get on with this?
Borath: When I'm done. Right, I'm not going to be developing the 'Joey-Girl' plot as much as I had planned to simply because I've *got* to finish this fiction and weaving in that is going to take up time and space. If you don't want this thing to be abandoned entirely don't complain. Yugi is going to have way more inclusion in Chapter 22 and the ones following that. Sorry but he's kinda slipped from my work recently. Go read Submission if you want to read Yugi more. You could review that too!!!
Chapter 21: RespectYVO
//To help Joey through his new 'difficulty' she has officially moved in with Seto, Mokuba and I for the next month until her own curse wears off, thanks to me I might add. It's also to avoid that tricky business of parents. That whole 'how the hell did my kid change gender?' thing might be difficult to work around so she told them she's staying with us. The complete lack of caring on their part worries me but she isn't bothered so I'm not going to press.
Bakura is still being a bastard but I think he's let up a little since I last saw Ryou. Obviously something is troubling the Tomb Raider and he is taking it out rather violently on his Hikari, something that does not sit well with me at all. I don't know when it started up again, or if it ever stopped. Ryou won't discuss it and I have my own problems now so I can't put too much energy into investigating his.
There is officially a problem now as I have been dunked in that damn fountain six times and am still male. And pregnant. With twins. This is a very shit situation if anyone is wondering.
Seto is getting concerned and after the initial humour element wore off Yugi is worried about me as well. I do not think I could physically come through the next four months intact with twins. One child, it might work out. Two I haven't got a hope with.
It's not the fountain that's broken. We gave the water time to fill the spring again and slosh around a bit before I got in and I've tried everything to initiate the change. Getting in naked in the dead of night was a more desperate attempt which, to my despair, also failed.
Something is wrong with *me* and I simply can't fathom what it is. I feel fine all things considered and my Soul Room seems to be normal. I've considered asking Tetsuo but actually thinking about that made me decide against that action. He is merely a card. It is doubtful he would have any idea of what's wrong; he's not versed in this curse.
Hopefully time will sort his problem out before it becomes a hazard. Until then all I can do is keep searching within and be patient.
At least I have company now. With Seto at work and Mokuba at school I'm on my own at the house a lot now. Yugi is still going to school despite offers to stay with me concerning this recent development but stops by as often as he can. Joey and I haven't got much of a choice but to stay out of school. Joey-turned-female and me as a pregnant guy is going to be interesting to confront a teacher with. An amusing visual to entertain there but now entirely feasible in real life.
Speaking of entertaining Joey is providing me with much-needed distraction now. Quite a lot of the time rather inadvertently. For example the argument over whether or not she should wear a bra. I told her to run downstairs and knew I'd won when she got three steps down before screaming in pain and clutching her arms across her chest. I know way too much about the female body for my own good.
It's bad that I don't have one at the moment though.//
****
Yami glared at the coffeemaker as he waited for it to finish its task. Damn machine would not work fast enough when he wanted it to and could swear that it was laughing at him when he wasn't looking.
He wasn't allowed caffeine anymore, just one item on a *very* long list there, and one that he was not happy about. Decaffeinated coffee just tasted different. Bad. Crap coffee. And still he need craved the damn stuff.
Grinning when there was enough made, Yami poured the liquid into two mugs and set them on the table, picking up the sugar spoon with one hand whilst using the other to adjust the white towel wrapped around his hips. It had to rest under his stomach now, another thing he was a little annoyed with but that was tinged with some joy when the reason for that was remembered.
Hearing the water click off he took a seat at the table and waited for Joey to enter for breakfast. He'd already eaten having been up for an hour already the twins deciding that they didn't want him lying down anymore and doing their best to make him move.
Yami snorted with amusement into his mug when Joey entered, her own fluffy white towel also slung around her hips. She frowned at him questioningly but had to wait for him to compose himself enough to speak.
"You're a girl now, Joey," he stated with as straight a face as he could manage.
"Yeah, I kinda figured," came the confused reply.
"Then you need to have your towel wrapped higher around your body."
Blushing six shades of red Joey hastily corrected the towel before dropping into a seat and doing her best to avoid Yami's eyes. Rolling his eyes and laughing slightly at the display he sought to make the other teen more comfortable.
"Don't be so embarrassed. I've seen it all, had it all and actually require it all right now," he trailed off with a frown. //Oh *that's* a fantastic start to the morning. Dimwit.//
To Yami's relief Joey didn't take them both down that avenue. It had already been discussed and dissected in detail over the last few days and they were still clueless as to what to do.
Eyes flickering to the Game King's pronounced stomach when he stood again to refill his mug Joey grinned and pointed. "I bet ya could balance a mug on that now."
Yami snorted and glanced down himself, admitting silently that that was quite possibly true. The balancing-thing had become a bit of a game in the final weeks before Kiara's birth and with two in there now he was being rammed though the growth aspect quite quickly. "They're active now so I'd rather not try. But you're probably right. I'm starting to miss being able to see my toes again you know."
"They're fine. Still connected to your feet an' all that. What are we doing today?"
Shrugging slightly Yami turned around and leaned against the counted to look at her. "Anything you like. Seto took Kiara to the office with him today so I'm free and Yugi has some kind of assignment at school so he won't be around until later."
"I think that he's going to freak out his staff like that," Joey laughed folding her hands behind her head.
"How so?"
"Oh come on! Do you remember what Kaiba used to be like? Hell, they'll probably be surprised to see that he can be, you know, human," she finished with a grin.
Yami turned this information over in his head a few times before seeing the humour in it and smiling also. "How about going to the park today?
"Sounds good. Am I borrowing your old clothes again?"
"If you want them to fit properly I think you should."
****
"Get back you here you little twerp!"
Yami and Joey had been sitting quite happily in the park for the last twenty minutes simply enjoying the pleasant weather before that blood-curdling shout was heard. The Game King had been getting some curious looks off of passing strangers due to the sheer size of his stomach, but that had been happening so often as of late that he was actually immune to their looks. Joey was having a harder time ignoring the stares she received though; quite a few males teens had shown their appreciation of her new body making her squirm in, what Yami thought, was quite an amusing manner.
His attention was now directed solely on that shout, the owner of the voice he feared he knew too well. Standing slowly, he turned full circle scanning the surrounding area with his eyes until he saw a flash of platinum hair flickering past the bushes. A twin mop could be glimpsed a few paces behind the bush and more shouting could be heard from inside the bracken.
Yami only paused for a second in indecision before narrowing his crimson eyes to slits and heading in the direction of the shouting, Joey following on his heels her expression clearly showing that he knew what was going on. Sure enough, seconds later Ryou burst out of the bushes with twigs and leaves lodged in his hair, Bakura hot on his heels like a Hell-hound.
Instinctively Ryou darted around Yami and stood behind him, panting hard from having legged it across most of the park. Bakura skidded to a stop at Yami's toes sending all three of them Death glares. "Get back here you pathetic creature!"
"Hey! Lay off Bakura," Joey said, raising her hands and moving slowly to Yami's side.
"Shut up mongrel, this is none of your concern," he snapped backed, reaching around Yami for his Hikari.
"Leave him alone Tomb Raider. Ryou doesn't need nor is he deserving of such treatment," Yami growled out sternly, still using his body as a barrier between the pair. He sensed that Ryou had taken a few steps backwards, the harsh breathing not quite so loud anymore.
"He needs to grow a bloody backbone if he's gonna survive in this world! Pussyfooting around that fact isn't going to help him so I'll have to beat it into him," Bakura replied sharply his eyes still on Ryou, taking another step forward to force Yami out of the way.
Glaring, Yami refused to move and when the albino-haired teen tried to dart to his side eliciting a cry of fear from Ryoun, he snapped out a hand and grabbed his arm. Bakura didn't take to being restrained very well and tried to snap back out of the hold, pulling Yami forward into him when he didn't let go. The combined weight and momentum sent them both backwards into the bushes, where they quickly discovered that the ground was quite severely sloped.
Fighting became a secondary concern to Yami now as they both tumbled down the hill; preventing anything from knocking his stomach had risen pretty damn fast on his list of importance. He managed to prevent blows from scattered rocks and branches, but the fact that he and Bakura were still holding onto each other meant that they were in extremely close quarters.
It wasn't much of a surprise when his knee was knocked firmly into the side of his gut.
Gasping as his vision went white for a second, Yami shoved the other teen away from him and splayed his arms to halt his descent. It proved unnecessary as they had both reached the flat relief at the bottom of the hill, Bakura swearing over what looked like a broken wrist and Yami lying back with a hand on his stomach.
Everything had gone alarmingly still inside.
TBC
Borath: Hmm. I wasn't actually going to 'TBC' it there. I just figured that you lot would rather have a short update than none at all. Chapters will come more often if they're short so bear with me. Reviews are more important now than ever because you're contending for time with homework as well as a social life.
Bakura: Bollocks. What social life?
Yami: Bollocks? That's a funny thing...
Bakura: What?
Yami: Well, bollocks means bad but the dog's bollocks is good.
(Both yami's look to Borath for enlightenment)
Borath: (Shrugs) I'm British. That's how things are. Go figure.