The Ties of Friendship

Whoops! I did intend to update once a week, but my account was blocked until today. ::sticks tongue out:: Bleh, my fault. Well, sorry this was late, but the next chapter should hopefully be on time anyway. (Friday or Saturday)

Note: The cards I use in this episode are real. I hope I got the effects right, and I hope I wrote the duel right, but if I didn't please forgive any errors.

*~*~*

"By the way, Rebecca," her grandfather called to her as she hurried out of the house the next afternoon, "I nearly forgot to tell you. I'm going to dinner with one of my friends tonight, and I'd like you to come along."

"Okay, Grandpa!" Rebecca called just before the front door banged shut. She nearly skipped down the walk, feeling incredibly giddy. She'd had the best nights sleep in her mother's bed that she'd had in ages. She'd had a fantastic dream, too, that she couldn't quite remember all of… something about violet eyes…

She focused on the image of those eyes, big and trusting and full of love. Whose had they been?

She was concentrating on those violet eyes in her mind so much, she didn't notice when she walked directly into their owner.

*~*~*

"Rebecca!" Yugi blurted when he saw her jog out of a pretty blue house. He hadn't known she lived near Téa!

The girl didn't seem to hear him; she was smiling slightly at some passing thought. "Rebecca!" he tried again, running up to her.

It was a surprise when she abruptly turned the corner and bumped into him. "Oh!" she cried, startled.

"I'm sorry!" Yugi said worriedly. "Did I hurt you?"

She was silent, staring directly into his eyes, mouth half-open as she absently rubbed her stomach. With a pang, Yugi realized that that was where her delicate flesh had hit his bulky Millennium Puzzle. "Sorry," he apologized again, putting a hand on the sharp edge. "That must have hurt."

Slowly, she seemed to come out of her trance, and blinked at him. "Oh! Sorry, Yugi. I wasn't looking where I was going." She rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. "So… what are you doing in this area of town?"

"I was going to pick up Téa," Yugi said, gesturing at the pink house down the street. "We were just going to meet Joey and Tristan in the center of town again; Joey wants to look for a good duel. Um… would you like to come with us?"

Rebecca hesitated. Oh, she wanted to, especially after realizing that Yugi's eyes had been haunting her dreams. But she was flustered right now, and embarrassed to be around the boy. "I'm… sorry. I can't right now. But maybe I'll see you around?"

"Sure," Yugi mumbled, hating the blush that was staining his cheeks again. "See you."

Rebecca hurried away, wondering what was wrong with her.

*~*~*

"A duel!" Joey cried excitedly, shoving his ice cream cone into Téa's hands as he dashed forward. "Maybe they'll let me play the winner!"

Téa looked at the sticky white vanilla ice cream dripping over the sides and made a noise of disgust. Bakura thoughtfully handed her a few napkins as the rest of the boys dashed ahead.

They'd had relative success finding duelists; just not any good ones. Yugi had beaten his younger opponent with ease, and Joey had taken three down in a row.

Joey elbowed Tristan in the side as he tried to pass through the thick and excited crowd, while the shorter Yugi ducked under easily. He stopped short as he came to the center, however, and when Joey came up behind him he said loudly, "Hey, it's Rebecca!"

Rebecca heard the voice, and saw Yugi's hair out of the corner of her eye. Why did he show up everywhere? She ignored him, however, knowing that it was important to keep her concentration on the game.

"You're going down," her opponent snarled. He was a tough, thickly built teenage boy. He was rude, though, and she suspected he was one of the town bullies. Well, she'd teach him a thing or two.

"Well, let's see where we stand," she said mockingly. "You haven't even touched my lifepoints, while you're down to a measly four hundred. I have my Millennium Shield on the field protecting me, and you have no monsters. And…" she glanced at the card she'd just drawn. "Perfect. I'll lay one card face down, and play the magic card Soul Release! To rid your graveyard of five monsters!"

"Big deal," the boy sneered. "The monsters in my graveyard weren't doing me any good, anyway."

She snorted at him. "And now I'll activate… Graverobber's Retribution!"

Yugi drew in a breath as the trap card was revealed. Joey, who had never heard of it before, folded his arms and nodded importantly.

"What does that do?" someone in the crowd wondered.

"It's a powerful trap card," Yugi explained earnestly. "During each of her opponent's stand-by phases, he loses 100 life points."

"Aw, man," the person said, "so it's all over next turn."

Rebecca tilted her head and gave a confident smile to Yugi. She'd already won, and was feeling cocky. "Make your move any time you'd like," she said airily.

Her opponent slowly drew his card. Immediately, his life points were brought down to…

"Zero," Rebecca announced. "I win. That was easy."

The crowd broke into cheers and immediately began dispersing. Rebecca turned to give a small wave to Yugi, as well as Joey and the others who had caught up, but her opponent stormed up behind her.

"I don't take losing easily," he snapped, grabbing her wrist.

Téa's eyes widened, and Joey bristled menacingly, but Rebecca slowly turned to glare at him. "That's your problem," she snapped back. "And a major problem it is, so I'd suggest you go and get help instead of wasting my time."

He glowered, jerking her wrist back. Rebecca let out a small hiss of pain at the abrupt movement. As one, Joey and Tristan moved forward to grab her opponent-turned-attacker, but suddenly the man froze. His grip on Rebecca's wrist slackened, and she pulled it free just before he collapsed on the ground. A strange eye glowed on his forehead.

Confused, Rebecca turned to Yugi, only to find him… different. "That man was street scum," he announced in a deep voice. His hair had changed, and he was taller, eyes narrower. But Rebecca decided she was imagining things, for when she next blinked the changes seemed to have disappeared. "Come on, guys," Yugi said cheerfully, "let's move along. There's usually a lot of duelists along Brick Street."

Rebecca started to say something, but Téa grabbed one of her arms and Bakura grabbed the other, and the two of them propelled her down the street. Yugi and Joey and Tristan brought up the rear, beginning to laugh and smile again, while the man just began to stir behind them.

*~*~*

^____^ I love Yami and his mind-crush. But I did decide not to have him kill the poor sucker. O.O()

Rebecca was awfully cocky in this chapter. I intended her to be that way. ::shrug::

By the way, I'd like to take this time to confess that the story is already finished. I'm not posting it all because I still want to read the chapters over, make any corrections, etc etc blah blah, but I figured I'd tell you so that you understand if I don't end up using your suggestions! I like some of the ones I've gotten, but don't want to rewrite the story since I'm satisfied with how it turned out. ^_^() In case you want to know, as it stands now it's eight chapters and an epilogue.

Anyway, thank you reviewers! Now… go click the pretty button… ~.^