The Ties of Friendship

Yay! ::huggles lovely reviewers:: Thanks so much to everyone! You've totally boosted my self-confidence over the story and you ALL ROCK! Just to clarify something (that Lady Tiger LiLy asked ^_^), Yugi spit his water out when Grandpa called Rebecca lovely. It was just a reflex because he does think she's 'lovely,' and he was surprised to hear someone else echoing his thoughts. @.@ I guess it's one of those things that just wrote itself, because I'm entirely unsure how to explain it. Again, thanks to reviewers, and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

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"Who are you?" Rebecca asked uncertainly, unconsciously reaching her hand up and gripping Yugi's, which was clasped on her shoulder. "You're Yami?"

The boy nodded energetically. "I'm Yugi's yami," he clarified.

Well, that was helpful. "And I'm Yugi's Rebecca," she muttered sarcastically.

"What?" Yami was sure he couldn't have heard her right. Unless his hikari was faster than he thought. Yugi didn't have the mind-link with Yami anymore, but he could still read the expression on the Pharaoh's face clearly, and answered it with a violent and panicked shake of his head.

"Yami is a term for a, uh… a spirit," Yugi explained, grasping. "But my yami's name is also Yami. I know it's confusing at first, but you get used to it."

"Right," Rebecca said, raising her eyebrows. "Your see-through twin is jumping on your bed, but I have to get used to the fact that he had a weird name."

Yugi frowned a bit. "Were you always this sarcastic?" he asked rhetorically.

Immediately, Rebecca blushed. Well, yes, she was always sarcastic, but it hadn't really shown around Yugi. That brought up the question of 'why now,' and she answered herself with another apprehensive look at the spirit. So stress did that to her…

"I don't understand," she finally confessed, shaking off all these other thoughts.

Deciding to forget about explaining the other six Millennium Items for now, Yugi put his free hand on the Millennium Puzzle. "Yami is a spirit that lives within the Millennium Puzzle," he explained quietly. Rebecca's grip on his hand relaxed, but he didn't remove it from her shoulder. "He was once the Pharaoh in Ancient Egypt. He shares a body with me, but he can sometimes separate. Like now."

She drew in a shaky breath. "You know, I don't think I would believe you," she said, laughing nervously, "except I've heard the stories my grandfather brought back from his architectural trips in Egypt. And of course, how else would I explain that… that…" she hesitated, afraid she'd insult Yami somehow.

Yami grinned understandingly. "Well, I'll go back into the Puzzle now," he said. Without waiting for Yugi's protests, he disappeared in a flash of light.

Rebecca shrieked again, and Yugi grabbed her other shoulder with his other hand. "It's okay," he reassured her. "He just went back into the Puzzle. It's not really a big deal… he just likes to make a flashy exit."

"Oh," Rebecca said simply, staring wide-eyed at the Puzzle and still feeling a bit confused. "Um…"

Yugi realized just how close she was to him. He was holding both her shoulders… if he was ever going to do anything, now was the time.

…Wait a second, what did he mean, 'do anything'? Gah. Yami was a bad influence on him.

Rebecca finally raised her eyes to his to find him intently examining her. She blushed… there should really be a limit to how many times a person could blush in a day.

… Was it her imagination, or was Yugi moving closer to her? Yes, he definitely was. Closer… his eyes moved downward to focus on her lips… closer… his mouth parted slightly… closer… he drew in a shaky breath through his nostrils…

And they broke apart. "Ugh," Rebecca commented, jokingly plugging her nose. "Garlic."

"Grandpa really went heavy, didn't he?" Yugi asked apologetically. "Um… do you want to brush your teeth or something? I have about five toothbrushes that the dentist gave me, but I always use the ones Grandpa buys. You can borrow one of them…"

"Sure," Rebecca said, a bit shyly. She followed him down the hall, where he handed her a brand-new toothbrush still in the box.

They ended up brushing their teeth side by side, making faces at each other in the mirror. Rebecca leaned over to spit, wondering at the oddity of the situation.

As they walked back to Yugi's bedroom in silence, the raised laughter of their grandfathers floating up the stairs, it occurred to her to wonder what would have happened had they not been 'smelled out'.

"So," Yugi asked, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. "Um… what did you want us to do?"

Rebecca fought the blush. "Er… I don't know," she said vaguely. "Anything."

"Right…" his voice trailed off.

"Right…" she said so silently, it was almost a whisper.

To avoid looking at her, Yugi randomly glanced around the room. Clothes everywhere… random books and magazines lying haphazardly around… half-finished projects, pencils, games, trinkets, borrowed things from friends. A complete mess.

And worst of all… the thing that made Yugi's eyes go wide… the ultimate horror and embarrassment…

His boxers. The boxers his grandfather had bought him, that he wore strictly out of amusement… the ones with Duel Monsters printed all over them. The obviously used and dirty and dorky boxers, lying carelessly on the ground.

And Rebecca was standing on them.

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Rebecca couldn't believe that anyone's room could get this dirty… but then again, she didn't expect to see Yami either. So she eyed her surroundings with extreme curiosity and mild disgust (though she was careful not to let that show).

Yugi's floor… well, what floor? She couldn't tell what color the carpet was – if there was a carpet at all – underneath the mounds of old clothing. Not even the area she was standing on was clean. She'd been forced to step on something, hoping Yugi wouldn't mind. Judging from the state of the rest of the room, he wouldn't.

She wondered what she was standing on. She could only see a corner of the fabric; the rest was hidden by her long skirt. She moved her leg slightly and immediately felt the blood rush to her head. Oh, god. She'd been standing with her foot on Yugi's boxers! Yugi's used boxers!

Through her repetitive pleas to God to just kill her now, she noticed that they had a funny design on them. Bending her head slightly, hoping she wasn't too obvious, she peered down to see… Duel Monsters? Yugi wore Duel Monsters underwear? How… sweet…

Rebecca suddenly became aware that the boy was staring at her with an expression of sheer horror. She jerked her head up quickly, and took a quick step back. She opened her mouth to apologize, then snapped it shut. Damnit, what to do now?

*~*~*

Hmm, what to do? Anyway, as you can tell (I hope) we're nearing some actual interaction. Finally! Bet you thought they were going to kiss back there, huh? ::shudder:: Not with that breath. But now they smell minty-licious! ^__^ For some reason, that's always been an area of concern for me, and it happened to fit into the story nicely. O.o

Guess what? Only one more chapter! And then an epilogue. ^_^

Reviews are always appreciated… did I really need to say that? ^^;; Well, I suppose it's better than getting to one knee and begging.