DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fanfiction produced for entertainment purposes only. Yu-Gi-Oh! and all related characters are the creations of Kazuki Takahashi.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Ryou and Yugi's musical talents are a gift from me for the duration of this story ;D
Chapter 2: The Plan
By Shadow's Mirror
Yugi took one last look at himself in the mirror and took a deep breath. It was time. He quickly slipped his arms into the sleeves of his jacket, his mind running through the plan again, even though it was far too late to change it now. He wished he could have had Yami's help with it, but that would have ruined everything. A grin flickered across his face at the thought of Yami and Bakura's likely reactions to what would happen that night.
They had no clue what was going on. It was going to be a complete surprise, just the way he and Ryou had planned it. Provided that all went well.
There was still one thing that could go wrong, but Yugi was determined not to dwell on it. If he thought about it too much, Yami might pick up on it. He didn't want any awkward questions. Not tonight.
As he finished buttoning his jacket, Yugi left his bedroom and headed for the stairs, calling out as he went. "Grandpa! Yami! I'm ready!"
By the time they arrived at the Auditorium, a crowd had already begun to gather outside. After wishing Yugi good luck, Grandpa went inside to find his seat. Yami and Bakura had insisted on escorting their lights safely inside, so Yami stayed with Yugi. The performers' entrance was around the side, but Yugi had arranged to meet Ryou out front first. If he could find him.
Yugi sighed as he turned to Yami. "Can you see Ryou? It's times like this I hate being so short."
Yami smiled and obligingly scanned the crowd for the familiar white hair of their friend. It only took him a moment to spot the teenager, standing next to the building with a very nervous look on his face. Yami frowned slightly when he saw Bakura standing a few feet away. The tomb robber did not look happy.
With a soft sigh, Yami lightly touched Yugi's arm to get his attention. "Yugi, Ryou is standing over there, with Bakura. They've either argued, or Bakura is not pleased about having to listen to the entire show again. Not that I can blame him for that…"
Yugi pulled a face. "Yami! It's not going to be that bad! Really!"
Yami sighed, but made no comment as he carefully guided his light over to Ryou and Bakura.
Ryou managed a small smile as he caught sight of Yami and Yugi threading their way towards them through the crowd. "Bakura, they're here," he said softly. Bakura nodded, but remained silent and Ryou sighed softly. The spirit had wanted to stay at home, so Ryou had needed to use the dreaded 'hikari eyes' to persuade him to come. As a result though, Bakura was now sulking about the fact that he had been unable to say 'no' to his light. As if he'd had a chance against the eyes…
On the bright side, since Ryou would be backstage for the first half of the show, he wouldn't have to deal with Bakura's sulkiness until the intermission. Maybe not even then, if Miss Ridgemont refused to allow he and Yugi to join the audience after their act was over. Unfortunately, Yami would have to deal with Bakura for the whole show. The potential for trouble was enough to give Ryou a headache.
Yami took one look at the pain in Ryou's eyes and frowned at Bakura. "Whatever's happened between you two, put it aside for tonight. Ryou needs to be able to concentrate and he can't do that if he's worried about you."
As Bakura spluttered indignantly, Yami turned to Ryou. "Try not to worry, Ryou." He glanced down into the violet eyes of his light. "That goes for you too, Yugi. Bakura and I will be fine. We're looking forward to hearing the two of you." He put the lightest emphasis on 'hearing' and smiled slightly as Yugi's eyes widened and a faint crimson blush stained his cheeks. A soft gasp came from Ryou, confirming that he too had caught the reference.
Yugi shifted uncomfortably and caught Ryou's eye. "Come on, we'd better get inside. Miss Ridgemont won't be happy if we're late."
Bakura stirred. "Is she the one who looks like a Harpy Lady, without the wings?"
A startled giggle escaped from Ryou before he could stop it. He glanced at his yami and was even more surprised when Bakura smirked slightly at him. It was the smallest hint of a smile, but suddenly nothing seemed anywhere near as worrying as it had five minutes earlier.
Ryou smiled at his yami, his first real smile for several weeks. "Yes, that's Miss Ridgemont. You're right, Yugi. We'd better go." Ryou turned to head for the door and so missed the stunned look on Bakura's face.
Yami nudged Bakura when he didn't move. "Bakura! We need to go with them, remember?" He peered into the other spirit's face, frowning slightly. "Bakura? What is it?"
"Huh?" Bakura shook himself out of his shock, silently cursing at himself for his weakness. It had only been a smile! It wasn't as though Ryou had never smiled at him before. Although, he had to admit, his light didn't smile very often. Quickly cutting off that line of thought before it could go any further, Bakura realised that Yami was still waiting for a response, and their lights were almost at the door! "It's nothing, Pharaoh. What are you standing around for? Our lights are getting away!"
Yami shook his head as he and Bakura hurried after the two teenagers. With Bakura in one of his moods, it was going to be a long night.
"Remind me, why are we putting ourselves through this, again?"
Yami tried to ignore the low voice muttering in his ear and focus on the school orchestra, but there really was only so much screeching that a spirit could take in one day. He was actually glad to be distracted from the noise. Turning to the occupant of the seat next to his own he kept his voice low, even though no one else could hear them. "Because this is important to our lights."
Bakura was silent for a moment. "Sometimes I just don't understand them. I mean, what could be so important about our watching this…" He waved his hand at the stage, words obviously failing him as he searched for a suitable description of the torture they and the rest of the crowd were enduring.
"I have a feeling that we will know the answer to that by the end of the night." Yami blinked and was suddenly distracted. "Was that… No, I guess not."
"What?"
"For a moment, I thought I heard actual music in the midst of the screeching. I must have been mistaken."
Bakura smirked. "With this lot, definitely!"
He looked around the packed auditorium and shook his head in amazement. "I can't believe they got this many people to come to this. Still, they haven't seen the acts yet. I guess they came here thinking a 'Talent Show' meant there'd be talent involved."
"Bakura! That was not nice." Yami struggled not to smile. "Most of these people are probably here for the same reason as you and I. They have family in the show."
"Family…" The word was little more than a breath, and there was a rare flicker of vulnerability in Bakura's eyes as he stared unseeingly at the stage. Yami noticed both, but commented on neither. He knew when it was time to push and when it was time to leave a subject alone. Right now, it was time to change the subject entirely.
"At least we will be able to hear our lights this time. It was very thoughtful of Yugi and Ryou to get us these seats."
Bakura stirred at the comment and glanced over at Yami. "Yeah. It saved us the trouble of getting them ourselves."
"I don't think that woman behind us was very pleased about it though. She seemed to think that having two apparently empty seats in the front row meant that she should be entitled to exchange her seat."
"Maybe she'll think twice about trying it again." Bakura made a face. "I know I'll think twice about tripping someone up, especially someone built like a Fortress Whale and wearing a skirt that would make the Dark Magician Girl blush."
Yami chuckled. "At least it caught the attention of the ushers. I thought they handled the situation very well."
Bakura smirked. "I was surprised they managed to look her in the eyes as they pulled her to her feet."
Yami was about to respond when the orchestra finally finished their act. The audience applauded them loudly, causing Bakura to shake his head and mutter something under his breath that sounded remarkably like 'poor deluded fools'. Yami grinned and opened the program Bakura had 'borrowed' from one of the ushers earlier. He wanted to see who was next.
"When are they on and how soon after that can we leave?"
"Patience, Bakura! I'm looking for them. Ah! They're the last act before the intermission. Whatever that is. Hmm…"
"What?"
"According to this, they're supposed to be on right after Kaiba."
"Kaiba? So he's in it after all?"
"According to this." Yami looked thoughtful.
"Okay, so when's he supposed to be on?" Bakura shifted in his seat so he could look at the program too.
"Two more acts, then Kaiba, supposedly, and then our lights."
"Then we can leave?" Bakura looked hopeful, which made him look surprisingly like his light.
"I believe Yugi and Ryou need to stay for the entire show. Yugi mentioned that they'd see if they could join us after the intermission, but he thought it unlikely."
"Because of the Harpy Lady probably." Bakura sank back into his seat. "I hope Kaiba is here."
"You do?" Yami eyed him warily. "Why?"
Bakura smirked. "Because his act is the funniest in the whole show."
Yami tried not to laugh. "We'll know soon enough."
"What do you mean, Seto isn't here? Where is he?" Miss Ridgemont's usually shrill voice was even higher with her distress.
Joey winced and rubbed his sore ears. Not for the first time, he wished Kaiba had chosen someone else to deliver his message. But Kaiba had insisted that he was the only one capable of making the stage director believe such a story. Joey still wasn't sure whether that had been a compliment or an insult. Since it was Kaiba, he suspected an insult.
"Kaiba's assistant called. He said Kaiba had come down with laryngitis and wouldn't be able to make it tonight."
Miss Ridgemont eyed Joey suspiciously. "Seto was fine at this afternoon's rehearsal…"
"It came on quick. The guy said something about Kaiba having to rescue Mokuba, that's his little brother, from the swimming pool. I guess he caught a chill or something."
Miss Ridgemont bit her lip and glanced through the gap in the wings, through which she could just glimpse a section of the audience. "Oh, that poor boy… But this really is terrible news. It's too late to change the intermission times, which means that we're going to have to find someone to fill in for Seto's turn…"
Behind her back, Joey signaled Yugi and Ryou.
"We'll do it, Miss Ridgemont!" Yugi said enthusiastically.
The teacher looked startled, and just a little faint, when she realised who had said that. "Oh… Oh no, Yugi, Ryou, I couldn't possibly ask that of you. Besides, you're supposed to go on right after Seto… Thank you, but… I'm sure someone else…"
Yugi and Ryou traded a swift glance as Miss Ridgemont looked away for a moment. It was time to bring out their secret weapon. They both looked up at her, giving her the 'hikari eyes' that never failed to work on their yamis. Miss Ridgemont gasped faintly as she suddenly found herself confronted with two pairs of wide eyes, one innocent violet and one gentle dark brown.
"Please, Miss Ridgemont!" Yugi started off, looking up at her as innocently as he could. "I know that we haven't been doing very well at the rehearsals, but I'm sure we could do better if we could play something that we'd had more of a chance to practice. We've been working really hard on two songs for something else, but we could do them tonight too, if you want us to."
"Oh yes, Miss Ridgemont." Ryou took up the plea, trying not to appear as nervous as he felt. "We were only able to practice at the rehearsals, you see. We've just been so busy with our other two songs. We know them much better. If we did them instead, I'm sure that would fill in the time." Yugi nodded in agreement.
Miss Ridgemont blinked as a faint look of hope appeared in her eyes. "Two songs, you say?" The boys nodded. "You've been practicing them instead of the one you were supposed to do tonight?"
Yugi lowered his eyes so he was looking at the floor. "I know we should have been practicing this one too, but we have to play the other two at a party tomorrow night, and we've been working on them for months. We had to have them perfect and they're harder than the one we were going to do here." Ryou lowered his head too and nodded. Anxiously, they waited while Miss Ridgemont made her decision.
"Very well, boys. I'll let the announcer know about the change. He'll need to know the details…"
Yugi and Ryou raised their heads and smiled. "Thank you, Miss Ridgemont," they chorused happily.
The announcer, a young man in his late teens, stepped up to the microphone. "Ladies and Gentlemen, we apologise but there has been a slight change in the program. Unfortunately the next student scheduled for this evening's program has come down ill, so the next act will be Yugi Moto and Ryou Bakura performing…" He looked down at his card and frowned slightly. "a piano and vocal act they've called 'A Gift from Light to Darkness'."
In the audience, Yami and Bakura gasped in shock.
The announcer stepped back into the wings and the curtain began to open.
