Author's Notes: There is a space in Tea's name because of the e with the accent; it does not appear in the version I type, fanfiction.net adds it. I am sick of that happening, so I will just refrain from adding the accent. You all know how it's pronounced.

Between writing this chapter, I attempted to research elevators. Unfortunately, not much information is available on the internet (unless you want to install one). However, I thought you [the readers] might enjoy these interesting pieces of trivia:

It is a fact that the "Close Door" button on elevators is in place for purely psychological reasons. (I don't know if this is entirely true, my father disagrees; it comes from www.1001uselessfacts.com.) Elevators were first demonstrated at the Chicago Exposition (World's Fair) in 1898. They have a safety device that is supposed to keep them from falling (well duh). In extremely tall buildings (taller than KaibaCorp), the main elevators do not go all the way to the top; one must change elevators to reach the highest story.

Chapter Two: Touch Mai and Die

"I can't believe we're stuck in this stupid elevator," complained Joey for the eighth time in two minutes. Yugi sighed again, closed his eyes, and leaned against the wall of the motionless elevator.

"It's not stupid, you are," snapped Kaiba, standing stiffly in the corner near the control panel. "You're the one who broke it, mutt!"

"I told you to stop callin' me a puppy!" snarled Joey, leaping up from his seat on the floor of the elevator and trying to push past Tristan and Mai to get to Kaiba.

"Lay off, Joey," commanded Tristan wearily, blocking his friend. "I'm still recovering from Ryou's friend over there."

Bakura, sitting on the floor facing a corner, snorted obnoxiously. He turned his head slightly to glare at Kaiba with eyes glowing creepily before resuming his position. Kaiba gulped automatically and backed closer into his corner, which was diagonal from Bakura's.

**FLASHBACK— TEN MINUTES:**

"GET OFF OF ME!" shrieked Kaiba, trying to free himself from Bakura, whose hands were around Kaiba's neck. The evil spirit of the ring shook the duelist violently, despite the rescue efforts of Yami, Tristan, and Ryou.

"You'll pay for attacking me when you're my slave, mortal!" raged Bakura, trying to summon his dark powers to rip out Kaiba's soul.

"Let— go— of him!" grunted Yami, trying with all his might to subdue the raging evil powers.

"You stay out of this, pharaoh!" snapped Bakura, releasing Kaiba and whacking Yami in the face. Tristan and Ryou seized the moment to force Bakura into the corner opposite Kaiba. Tristan sank to the floor in sudden pain as Bakura forcefully elbowed him in the stomach. Ryou managed to calm Bakura enough so that he didn't resist anymore, but Bakura refused to listen to what Ryou had to say and turned his face to the corner. Yami leaned against Yugi and Tea for a moment, blinking as his face stung painfully from Bakura's sudden blow.

"Are you all right?" asked Yugi concernedly, trying to look at his friend's face. Yami said nothing, just emitted a low "errr" and continued to lean on him and Tea for support. Suddenly, he whirled around to throw himself on Bakura.

"That was the last straw, you @*$(&$# grave-robber!" he shouted, grabbing Bakura's hair and pulling violently. Bakura emitted a loud cry and grabbed Yami's wrists, trying to force him to let go. He tried to stand up, but Yami pushed him back into the corner of the elevator, now trying to kick him.

"I'm sick of always being the mature one!" he shrieked, channeling his anger into violence as he began to pummel Bakura in the face repeatedly. Yugi and Ryou were frantically trying to pull the spirits apart as they fought.

"Let go of him, Yami!" begged Yugi, trying to tug Yami's arm away from Bakura's head. "Stop hitting him!"

"Stop it, Bakura!" pleaded Ryou, trying to yank Bakura's arms off of Yami's wrists as they scuffled.

Suddenly, a flash of extremely bright light flooded the elevator. Everyone cried out and covered their eyes with their hands and arms to block out the painful brightness. "I've got you now, pharaoh!" cackled Bakura as his Millennium Ring blasted light. He used this advantage to get Yami in a headlock before the light faded and the pharaoh retaliated by jabbing his fingers into Bakura's eyes. Letting out a howl of pain, Bakura released Yami, who stumbled backwards into Yugi and Joey, touching his bleeding lip gingerly. The two spirits were quickly separated by Mai and Tea. Tristan hunched on the floor, trying to refill his lungs.

**RETURN TO PRESENT:**

Kaiba gave an involuntary shudder and shook his head as if to clear his mind. He cast a dark gaze in Bakura's direction before momentarily meeting the eyes of everyone in the elevator and focusing back on Bakura. "I don't know what you are, you freak," he whispered, "but if you ever try that on me again, I swear I'll kill you— "

Bakura, aware that Kaiba's eyes were focused on him, calmly picked up the black telephone receiver (which was laying next to him on the floor). Showing it to Kaiba as a magician shows his audience that an object is real and perfectly normal, he then waved his hand and set the receiver on fire.

Mai, Tea, and Joey shrieked and tried to move far away from the evil spirit, who laughed and dropped the flaming receiver on the floor. Ryou and Tristan were stuck by Bakura, and they frantically attempted to stomp out the fire. They finally managed to put out the flames, aided by Yugi and Yami. Bakura had resumed his seat and position in the corner. Everyone turned to glower at Kaiba.

Kaiba backed further into his corner (although he was already as far back as he could go) and glared, wide-eyed. "You monster, I swear you— "

"Put a sock in it, Kaiba!" commanded Yami, resting his head on Yugi's shoulder. Yugi patted his Yami's head and tried to ignore his now-pounding headache.

All was quiet in the elevator and Yugi tried to take advantage of the lack of noise to soothe his headache. Nearly everyone had seated his or herself on the floor and was hunched up on the carpet. The sound of everyone's breathing was a steady rhythm, and Yugi felt himself drifting off into sleep. He was slipping into a dream when a noise sound snapped him back into consciousness.

"No, it's your fault, Kaiba!" exclaimed Joey triumphantly. Yugi looked up sleepily to see victory alight on his friend's face. "You're the one who broke the phone, so now we can't call for help! You got us trapped here!"

Everyone groaned. Kaiba snorted. "Has it taken you all this time to think of a comeback?" he taunted. "You're stupider [yes, this IS a word] than I thought!" With a cruel grin he added, "And that's pretty stupid."

Joey fumed and tried to stand up (he was seated in the middle of the elevator floor), but, trying to stop his attempt, Tea (who was also sitting on the floor) grabbed his leg and pulled. Joey waved his arms frantically, trying to regain his balance. Seconds passed like minutes as Joey tried to regain his balance, but the law of gravity prevented it. Tea gasped and dived into Yugi to get out of the way, smashing Yugi into the wall of the elevator.

So, instead of falling on top of Tea, Joey smashed into Tristan.

Joey quickly got off his friend and laughed nervously, trying to see if he would be mad. "Hey, uh, you okay, buddy?" he asked, watching Tristan, whose face was now smashed into the floor.

Tristan didn't say anything.

Tea, meanwhile, got off of Yugi and tried to get out of his way so he could sit again, although there was really nowhere for her to move. "Yugi? Are you all right?" she questioned. His head was smashed into the point where the elevator wall met the floor and his hands were completely covering the back of his head. He managed to get up with a groan and with the help of Yami. He turned around, slightly dazed.

Everyone in the elevator gasped.

Yugi, having no idea why they seemed shocked, met Tea's eyes with caution. She was staring right above his face…at his hair.

Slowly, very, very slowly, Yugi reached up to feel his hair. His hand shook as it explored the place above his hair where his top spike of hair usually occupied. Moving downward, he felt the entire top spike mashed against the back of his head. His mouth dropped open, and his eyes took the form of a deer's eyes as the deer stares into the headlights of an oncoming car. Low sounds emitted from his mouth, but no recognizable words came out.

Tea was the first to speak. "Oh my…Yugi, I am so, so sorry. Are you all right? Oh Yugi…" She reached out to him, but he jerked backward. He stared at everyone in the elevator (and everyone stared back to see the strange sight of Yugi with his hair in only four main spikes) before bursting into tears.

Yami pulled the sobbing boy close, and Yugi buried his face in his Yami's shoulder. "There, there," soothed Yami.

Tea, obviously feeling awful, reached out again to try and pat Yugi's back. "Oh, Yugi— "

Yami jerked away (and bumped into Ryou— remember, there wasn't much room in the elevator). "Haven't you upset him enough?" he snapped as Yugi wept into his jacket. "Just— just pick on someone your own size!"

An uncomfortable silence, broken only by the now occasional sobs of Yugi, face still buried in Yami's jacket, filled the elevator. Tea sat with her back to the wall, face in her arms. Bakura faced the corner, scowling at the darkness. Mai had resumed filing her nails, and Joey and Tristan stared blankly into space.

As Yugi's sobs lessened, another sound began to fill up the growing silence of the elevator. Sudden intake of air— beep— pause— gasping outtake of air, beep. Everyone gradually looked up, and noticed that Tristan was doing something by pressing a button on his watch, breathing in, holding his breath, and then breathing out and pressing something on his watch again.

Nobody really wanted to start another scuffle or conversation by asking, but the suspense finally grew to an almost unbearable point and Ryou broke.

"I really hate to ask, but what are you doing, Tristan?" he questioned. Everyone breathed (except Tristan) a sigh of relief.

"Timing how long I can hold my breath!" replied Tristan cheerfully. *Sweat drop all but Tristan* "See, I just got this really cool new watch, and I can time stuff on it, like a stopwatch!"

"That is a stopwatch, you moron," retorted Kaiba (speaking for everyone). Tristan huffed. "Looks like you've finally developed a personality— as an idiot!"

Tristan growled. "You're just a…a….a jerk!" he spat, and tried to think of a good comeback (to no avail).

Joey, trying to edge away from Tristan, bumped into Mai. She put down her nail file momentarily and glared at him. "Don't touch me, Joey Wheeler," she commanded, meeting his eyes firmly before resuming her nail work.

Joey, glancing around the elevator, waited a few seconds, then reached out and gently prodded Mai's shoulder with his index finger. When she put down her file and glared at him, he turned in another direction, whistling. "Joey," she snarled—

"What? I didn't do anything!" Joey protested, trying to appear innocent.

Mai huffed. "Don't— touch— me," she directed, then resumed filing.

[Guess. Just guess what Joey does next, I dare you.]

Joey touched Mai again, then turned and pretended that he wasn't doing anything. He continued to do this as Mai got angrier and angrier.

"Don't touch me!"

"I'm not touching you!"

"Get your filthy paws OFF OF ME!"

"I wasn't doin' anything!"

"Stop it, Joey Wheeler!"

"I ain't doin' nothing!"

"I said to STOP!"

"I DID stop!"

"I SWEAR IF YOU DO THAT AGAIN, I'LL JAB THIS FILE IN YOUR EYE!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!"

Finally, Mai could take no more. She clenched her file in one hand and rested her head on her knees. Everyone in the elevator (except Joey) watched with bated breath. They knew it was a trap.

Unfortunately, Joey couldn't tell that she was just waiting for him to touch her again. Or maybe he was just naturally dumb.

It was another slow-motion occurrence: Joey reaching out to jab Mai in the leg, Mai slowly raising her head, her arm slicing through the air to smash into Joey's face with a loud, obviously painful slap.

"OWW!" moaned Joey, clutching his imprinted face. "What'd you do that for?!" he demanded.

Mai said nothing, but began to file her nails again.

Joey sat fuming in silence for a while, now and then muttering, his hands over his burning cheek. He eventually stopped staring at the floor and gazed up at the wall opposite him (he was sitting against the door). He traced the flower patterns on the wallpaper with his eyes.

Yugi had been enjoying the silence for a while. His headache was roaring through his ears, and the incident with his hair certainly hadn't helped. The temporary silence was like a cool cloth lain against his forehead. However, as he heard Joey's voice murmuring in a constant stream again, he knew it was not going to last.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, twenty-three, twenty-four, twenty-five, twenty-six, twenty-seven twenty-eight, twenty-nine, thirty….

"One hundred fifty-two, one hundred fifty-three, one hundred— "

"SHUT UP, JOEY!" commanded Yami.

"I can't stand that anymore!" added Tea.

"Hey, I'm just trying to count the flowers on the wallpaper," complained Joey. "It's the only thing I can do to keep from being bored that won't get me viciously attacked." He glared at Mai, who ignored him.

"Find another way to occupy your extremely short attention span, you mongrel!" commanded Kaiba, which set off another round of Joey's "don't-refer-to-me-as-a-puppy" speeches.

…And the elevator didn't move.

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