Author's Note: Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! It's so nice to be loved *sniff*. Sorry about not updating in a while, I've been busy *ducks rotten tomatoes*. I have! So here's a nice chapter for you. Well…you can decide if it's nice.

But I HAVE been busy looking up elevators! Here's some great information from The Ersatz Elevator, number six in A Series of Unfortunate Events. "An elevator is essentially a platform, surrounded by an enclosure, that moves along the vertical axis via an endlessly looped belt and a series of ropes. It's controlled by a push-button console that regulates an electromagnetic braking system so the transport sequence can be halted at any access point the passenger desires. In other words, it's a box that moves up or down, depending on where you want to go." (In case you were wondering, the moral of that book is to beware of elevators on the top floor of a building that have an up button.)

Chapter Four: When You Gotta Go, You Gotta Go

Yugi listened to the muffled sound of Kaiba crying quietly in the corner with his eyes closed. His terrible headache felt like it was splitting his head apart, and wrinkled his brow in pain. His head rested against Yami, who held the boy close for comfort. He sensed Yugi's pain, and it was affecting him as well. He sighed, about the tenth time in a minute, and massaged his temples.

The temperature had dropped to about 40 degrees and the air conditioner was still blasting. Joey had gotten stuck sitting directly underneath it, and sat hunched over himself, buried in his jacket, mumbling angrily to himself. The whooshing as the air rushed out had become a familiar sound to all of the elevator's occupants, but a new, screechy whistle had joined the whoosh like a fingernail scratching a blackboard. Everyone covered their ears and managed to block out most of the noise, as it wasn't really that loud.

Tea stared off into space, at the wallpaper above Yami's head. She was still feeling miserable for accidentally denting Yugi's hair. She had tried to apologize, and when Yugi had refused, she knew he was furious. Yugi never got mad, at least not that mad at one of his friends. She wondered if he'd ever forgive her. She wondered if the air conditioner would ever shut off. She wondered if they'd ever make it out of the elevator. And she wondered if something was hanging out of her nose, and if she should risk picking it to fish it out. [A true glimpse into the mind of Tea!]

Tristan had finally sat up and was leaning against the wall with his eyes closed. His ugly tan trench-coat was wrapped tightly around him, but he was still freezing. Aside from Joey, he was closest to the vent. And besides that, he wasn't thinking anything. He wasn't really smart enough to understand the concept of free thought.

Bakura was still facing the corner, where he'd been since the very beginning of the elevator ordeal. He was burning with anger against Yami and Kaiba, but was making himself feel better by thinking of ways to kill them. He had almost surely settled on smothering Yami to death in a sand trap, but couldn't quite decide what to do with Kaiba…he was toying with drowning , but thought it would be a nice follow-up to the telephone receiver incident if he burned him at a stake.

Mai leaned against the wall opposite Tea and Tristan and was still clutching her stomach, although the stench of Ryou's earlier farts had all but faded, only leaving that pleasant little after-scent. Waves of pain still cascaded through her stomach, but not nearly as bad as before. The only good thing about the pain was that she didn't concentrate on being the coldest out of everyone, even though she wasn't even sitting directly underneath the vent. She was clad in her casual skimpy attire of white "shirt" and short violet skirt with tall boots and a jacket. It's really hard to sit with your legs up and not show any underwear under a short skirt, she had realized. It was kind of a tight fit, too, since she had put on a pound or two since the tournament at Duelist Kingdom, and a pound or two really made a difference in her clothes.

Ryou seemed to be in the best mood. Sitting Indian-style next to Bakura, he gazed pleasantly around the elevator. He had been quite embarrassed when he had farted constantly earlier, but that had all passed as his beans digested. An optimist, Ryou reflected that at least he and his friends were spending some quality time together, something they really hadn't done since the Duelist Kingdom tournament. Humming a tune to himself, he pulled out his deck and began to shuffle it absent-mindedly.

Kaiba sat hunched in a corner near the smashed control panel. His head was covered by the top of his coat, and he had actually been crying. He had never been so humiliated in his life. It was all Mokuba's fault, too! He had said yes to that stupid computer dating service during the middle of writing an extremely important report. He hadn't really been listening, and Mokuba had gotten angry when he tried to cancel the subscription. He did NOT need a girlfriend! He had had a company to run! He didn't need a meddling brother either. And he didn't need to be stuck in an elevator with his worst enemies when he was supposed to be holding an extremely important business conference!

A scream of rage pierced the whooshing air conditioner noise and the screechy whistle. Joey had leaped up and was jumping up and down, apparently trying to hit the air conditioner vent with his fists. He snatched off his jacket and jumped up and down waving it like a banner.

"I CAN'T TAKE THIS COLD ANYMORE!" he shouted, and it became clear that he was trying to cover the vent with his jacket. He continued to leap up and down, and although the elevator (thankfully) didn't shake, he didn't land in the same place from which he jumped. For example, you know that when you jump up and down, your feet don't land in the exact same places where they were before you left the ground. The same was true for Joey, but he was in an elevator. There wasn't any extra space on which he could safely land. That space was occupied by Mai.

"OOOOWWWWWWWWW!" Mai howled as Joey's foot landed on top of hers, and, losing his balance, Joey toppled into her lap. "GET OFF ME, YOU @(&#*^@$&%!" she screamed, pushing her back against the elevator wall to try and stand and get Joey off of her. She had risen her behind about a foot off the ground when she, and everyone else in the elevator, heard it.

RIIIIIIIP!

The fabric in Mai's skirt had given way and split to reveal her red satin underwear. She stood all the way up quickly, face as red as her panties, and felt the rip in her skirt. Joey was on the floor, blushing slightly. "I'm really sorry," he muttered, trying to move away.

SLAM!!

Mai brought down the high heel of her boot into Joey's stomach with a forceful jab. Joey gasped as all the wind was knocked out of him and tried to breathe frantically. Mai raised her foot to do it again, and almost succeeded before Yami stopped her foot with one hand, the other arm around Yugi. With a loud "GRRRRR!" and a scrunching of her face, Mai wrenched her foot away and aimed it for Yami's face.

Yami ducked just in time, and Mai returned to stomping Joey in the stomach, no matter what he did to try and stop her. Kaiba was watching, and from the look on his face, clearly enjoying it very, very much. Finally Mai had stomped herself out, and sat against the wall. She took her jacket off and covered her lap and front with it. Joey lay on the floor, trying to get any air he could into his lungs.

Tension was obviously in the air. Anger radiated from Mai, pleasure from Kaiba, and fear and pain from Joey. Ryou cleared his throat nervously, and said, "Hey guys…why don't we play a game?"

Tea eyed him suspiciously. "A game?" she questioned dubiously.

"Yeah! It'll be"— eight death glares— "well, maybe it'll help pass the time till someone comes to fix this elevator," he suggested. A stretched silence filled the elevator for a few moments, and Ryou was afraid that they would stone him to death or perhaps set Mai on him.

"A game could help pass the hours," suggested Yami, reaching for his deck inside his jacket. Kaiba grinned cruelly and reached for his own deck.

Ryou and Tea, sensing that danger that would ensue, simultaneously piped, "Something other than Duel Monsters." Yami and Kaiba sighed, but stuff their decks back in their jackets.

"Then what?" wheezed Joey from the floor. Nobody listened to him.

"How about 'I Spy'?" suggested Tea. "To play, one person— "

"We KNOW how to play," stated Bakura tersely, not turning around.

"I— I'm sorry," whispered Tea, eyes starting to fill with tears. She had reached the end of her rope, and couldn't bear to make anyone else mad at her.

"I'll go first!" Ryou said quickly. "Okay…I spy with my little eye something that is…blue!"

Tristan sighed and Joey mumbled "This is stupid," but Yugi and Yami at least tried to play.

"Kaiba's coat?"

"Tea's eyes?"

"Joey's clothes?"

"Yugi's clothes?"

"Yami's clothes?"

"Your clothes?"

"The wire on the control panel Joey smashed?"

"Hey!"

More of the prisoners joined in, trying to figure out just WHAT was blue when the most obvious things were named but not acknowledged as what Ryou "spied."

"Tea's eyes?"

"Kaiba's eyes?"

Finally, everything that could possibly be blue in the elevator had been named. "Come on, guys, it's right in front of you!" exclaimed Ryou, throwing up his hands. "I can't believe you haven't named it!"

Eyes scoured the elevator, but everything blue had been named.

"This is an elevator," Yami growled. "There's only so many blue things in it!"

"Yes," agreed Ryou. "What's wrong with you all? Do you really not know?"

"NO!" shouted everyone, scowling at him. He backed into the corner by Bakura, who elbowed him in the stomach.

"Tell us already," demanded Tristan.

Ryou sighed. "It's Mai's jacket!"

Silence.

It was Yugi who said it: "Mai's jacket is purple!"

"What? It's blue!" insisted Ryou. Everyone stared.

"It's purple. It really is," Mai said, picking up her jacket to show Ryou, who continued to insist that the jacket was blue.

"Ryou, give it up. The jacket's freakin' purple," mumbled Tea, who had just about lost it.

"Shut up! It's blue, you bloody idiots!"

[In an effort to keep this story PG or PG-13 at the most, I will refrain from relaying the next few events, but will explain that they involve Ryou, pain, and more silence.]

"Maybe a game wasn't such a good idea," stated Tea dolefully. Everyone glared at her, saying "You wanna be next, sister?" silently. She shut up.

Joey, who had been relatively quiet (quite a feat for him) ever since Mai had engaged in her stomping ritual, began to twitch slightly. Tea and Tristan noticed it first, and tried to ignore it, thinking Joey wanted attention. The twitching continued, and it began to grow more vigorous. Joey was sitting with his legs up and his mouth was scrunched up.

No one was going to ask, especially not after the results of asking what Tristan had been doing earlier (the breathing-timing thing). Joey was obviously suffering. Finally, he began to whimper, tears streaming down his face.

"What are you doing?" asked Tea wearily.

"I HAVE TO PEE!" Joey burst out, clutching his hand over his private area. "I'M GONNA BLOW!" he moaned.

Everyone backed away. Bakura's eyes met Joey's and he whispered, "If you even— I'll banish you to the Shadow Realm FOREVER. Got it?"

"Yeah, got it?" demanded Yami.

It's funny how situations can bring even the worst of enemies together.

Joey hunched over and continued to whine and whimper.

"Are we ever going to get out of here?" asked Yami tiredly. "No one knows we're stuck in here— "

"Except Mokuba," Ryou added, then passed out again.

"And how will anyone think to look in the elevator?" Yami finished worriedly.

Everyone exchanged frightened glances, but said nothing. Joey continued to whimper, dancing around while sitting (quite a funny sight). Ryou continued to wake up occasionally and mumble something then pass out again, due to the large bump on his head.

…And the elevator STILL didn't move.

Author's Note: Heh heh, will they ever get out? Makes you wonder…also, a disturbing thought…will Joey— you know?

Please review!