Chapter 11: Twilight Kiss

Bakura lounged lazily on the railing of the Jackals ostentatious ship. All about the white-haired tomb robber, black-robed men and women were cleaning and chatting amongst each other. Bakura sneered, while they functioned well, they were too open. It was a wonder nobody noticed the oddity this ship held. Cultists. That's what people would think. Perhaps that was what they were. Bakura gritted his teeth and clenched his fists until blood dripped from his hand, cut by his nails. To think, the nerve of people that might use the Millennium Puzzle, his puzzle, for some obscure ritual crap. Bakura gave thought to leaving, or killing all of these men and women when Laevenne returned from below decks, a smile touching his face.

"Well?" Bakura asked.

"The Master is interested in you, he wishes to see what you would do, Bakura Ryou. He will come to Domino City and deliver his Millennium Items to you personally if you can deliver him the Puzzle." Laevenne said.

"It appears we have an accord. I don't take kindly to being double-crossed, I'll keep my part of the bargain, see to it that this Master of yours keeps his." Bakura slipped his left hand into his pocket, as he gingerly lapped up the collection of blood on his right. Not so much that he liked the taste of blood, though he did, it was more or less to close the wound, saliva could do some amazing things.

As Bakura descended the gangplank, he gave thought as to how we would go about seeing through his part of their bargain. The Pharaoh and Yuugi were on guard for theft of that precious item all the time. Bakura would need to steal it from someone Yuugi trusted, from someone who didn't know of Bakura's malevolent intent. His mind settled on one perfect candidate: Mutou Yuuhi. Bakura laughed inwardly at the thought of using Yuugi's own flesh and blood to steal that which should have belonged to him some time ago. Ryou sighed at Bakura.

Shut up, Bakura thought to Ryou.

Why must you use everyone that I care about for your own selfishness, Ryou asked of his darker side, the spirit of the Ring.

All this time and you suddenly evolve a backbone, Bakura asked, like it or not, Ryou, I am constantly using people, primarily you, and if you don't want your body injured further, I suggest you stay as far from my personal business as possible.

Ryou was used to being threatened by Bakura, but nevertheless, it never ceased to frighten the young man. Deep down, Bakura probably wouldn't do so much as slash his wrists, since he needed him more than anything at the moment. Ryou had a collection of scars on his wrists from times when Bakura needed to lash out, and suitable people weren't present, so he cut his hosts body. Ryou never lost much blood though, Bakura always thirstily licked it up after he had cut Ryou (A/N: This is for you, Bakura/Ryou fan girls, picture that in your head, you know you wanna.). Bakura casually walked up the street, now in search of the auburn-haired Yuuhi, since the woman, Anzu, left after him, they would surely be together.

Ryou, do you have any money, Bakura asked, I need you to buy some pudding pops, we're out.

-----

Yuuhi and Anzu walked through the door of the arcade, Yuuhi held the door open for his beautiful, younger friend. Anzu made a beeline for the DDR machine. Yuuhi laughed absently as he picked up his pace to keep up with the currently power-walking younger woman. She grabbed some money from her purse and, tossing it to Yuuhi, inserted her coins and started selecting things. Yuuhi leaned his arms on the bar that was behind her.

"Don't do that." A large man with dreadlocks said.

"I don't mind, I won't be using it." Anzu looked back and gave a wink to Yuuhi.

As the first song started playing, Anzu closed her eyes, and felt the rhythm and beat to the song. When the arrows started flashing on the screen, Anzu moved like lightning to tap the corresponding arrow pads on the raised platform. Never missing a beat, Anzu began putting her whole body into the sexual dance she was beginning to perform. Hearing cheers from the crowd behind, Anzu became bolder and threw off her jacket, Yuuhi caught it from the air. Anzu slowed down with the song, a break of the pattern, most players, new ones and sometimes more intermediate and expert players were caught off guard, but not Anzu. She was liquid, all eyes in the arcade were on her, watching her performance. Never opening her eyes, Anzu leapt right back into action when the song picked up. Whistles and awe from the audience moved her onward even further until the climactic finish, which she performed on her hands. She returned to her feet and without looking at the screen for her score finally opened her eyes and looked at Yuuhi. Beads of sweat poured from her brow, and her breathing was heavy, hair in a slightly tangled mess. Yuuhi stared up, in awe. She kicked that Ian guys ass, and gave a encore-worthy performance.

"What do you think?" She breathed.

"That was…" Yuuhi was lost for words "… Amazing."

Anzu smiled, her breathing still heavy and ragged. "Better than Ian Something-or-Other?"

"By far." Yuuhi said confidently.

"I'm glad, I was trying to impress you." She winked. "It's been a while since I did that song on Oni Mode."

"What song was that?" Yuuhi asked as Anzu stepped off of the platform.

"The hardest song on this machine: Paranoia Survivor Max." Anzu said, holding her head a little higher. "It never fails to tire me out though. Anyone who wants my next few credits can have 'em." Anzu offered to the throng of people who had gathered to watch her perform.

Yuuhi and Anzu left the arcade and re-entered the busy streets. Like an ant colony, people were rushing to and fro, not pausing or breaking pace for a moment, for two teenagers with nothing to do but saunter around, this was like a highway, and they were the raccoon on peoples headlights. The quickly made for a side street to avoid becoming the road kill on said highway. As they walked, Yuuhi handed Anzu back her jacket.

"Oh, so you caught it, I was afraid some pervert who was into sweat or something would get it." She took it from his hand and held it to her stomach as they walked.

"Don't mention it." Yuuhi stared off ahead, not wanting to look down at his young friend, who seemed to have grown up in his eyes in but a moment. No child moved quite like that. Yuuhi was now painfully aware of Anzu. Now that Yuuhi thought about, Anzu wasn't much younger than he himself. She was Yuugi's age, and Anzu was the same. Both only one year younger. Yuuhi looked down at the tall and… shapely… There he was looking at her! Yuuhi mentally slapped himself. Yuugi liked Anzu. Yuuhi didn't want to hurt Yuugi. Did Yuuhi like Anzu? Was it just the dancing? Yuuhi tore through his mind for the answer when he felt a hand on his arm. He looked down in surprise.

"What're you thinking about?" She asked.

Wrong question. Wrong time. Yuuhi had to think of something, fast. The last thing he wanted was to lead on a friend if she didn't actually like him. "What am I thinking about? What're you thinking about?" He asked.

Smooth, Mutou, smooth, Yuuhi thought to himself.

Anzu looked up quizzically. Then laughed a little. "What am I thinking? Well…" Anzu trailed off and looked down, the slightest bit of pink on her cheeks.

Yuuhi couldn't help but thinking that she was cute at that moment. But there he was, thinking about her again. "… Well?" Yuuhi asked stoically.

"… Well… It's nothing." Anzu said quickly.

Yuuhi stopped. "Come on, tell me." Yuuhi crossed his arms. "I'm not budging until you tell me."

Anzu turned and looked to the side for a moment, jacket still held in her arms. "I started free-styling in there, to impress you. I was wondering what your honest opinion was." Anzu said quietly.

Honest opinion, Yuuhi asked himself. Honestly, Anzu, Yuuhi thought, I was a little turned on. Yuuhi slapped himself mentally for even saying that. Nobody heard him, but the fact that he said this of his friend was reason enough.

"Honestly… I was very impressed. It was really good, it moved me." Ambiguity was the name of the game. "Where do you want to go now?"

"You've been to the river in town right?" Yuuhi shook his head from side to side. "Let's go sit by the riverbank, it's just this way." Anzu began walking with a hurried pace down the street, Yuuhi sprinted forward to catch up.

-----

Jounouchi turned the lock on his door, and when it clicked, he turned the knob and the door creaked open. Jou walked in followed by Mai, Malik and Yuugi. Yuugi looked back and forth. Surprisingly, it was clean.

"Where have the aliens taken Jou, Mai?" Yuugi asked.

"Funny, this place is clean thanks to my better half here." Jou pointed at Mai. "Mai's a clean freak, never woulda guessed she could wash windows and dishes, eh?" Jou laughed and Mai just glared. Jou's laugh died down to a low chuckle and then stopped entirely.

"Katsuya is such a pig that if someone didn't clean up after him, he'd have garbage water falling out the windows. I feel like his Mom." Mai said with a shrivelling glare at Jou.

Jou looked at her with disdain. "My Mom doesn't give me kisses like you do, Mai." Jou grinned and Mai blushed furiously.

Malik and Yuugi watched the lovers spat, if you could call it that. They traded off insults for a moment until Mai slugged Jou in the face, and with blood dripping from his mouth he flew backwards into a wall. He was seeing stars. This was Yuugi's chance to ask Mai about the tournament.

"Mai, Kaiba is hosting a tournament or something, it's team-based and he wanted to know if you could participate." Yuugi said.

"Is Katsuya participating?" Mai asked.

"Think about it: Kaiba and Jounouchi don't like each other, would it be good to have them on a team together?" Yuugi asked.

Mai cast a sorrowful gaze back at the blonde, violence-prone young man and then with a sigh, turned and nodded. "Sounds like fun."

One more, Yuugi thought.

"Yuugi, what are you going to do about the Jackals?" Malik asked. "They are after your Puzzle, sooner or later, they're going to try again. You need a plan of attack."

Yuugi flopped down on a box near the door. Jounouchi didn't have much furniture yet. "I don't know what I'm going to do. Going to their ship and doing something is out of the question, and sitting around and waiting would be nerve-wracking."

"Agreed." The blond Egyptian conceded. "Giving them the Puzzle is out as well. They are holding the God monsters, if they know what I did, then we could be in very big trouble if the get your Puzzle."

"Agreed." Yuugi conceded. "There is too much at stake and it's not like they're swarming me like your Ghouls did."

"What if they send a Triad armed with a God monster? You beat Osiris when I did that." Malik said.

"Obelisk is weaker than Osiris as well, I might be able to overpower Obelisk, Osiris… It would take a miracle for me to draw the right combo I would need against Osiris, and then there's Ra…" Yuugi trailed off.

"Only a select few can control the Winged Dragon of Ra, you know that. Remember what happened to Rishid and Jounouchi?" Malik asked.

Yuugi, Mai, Jounouchi, everyone who was there remembered. Rishid had summoned a fake Ra and the God itself showered it's wrath upon both players. Jou won by chance, and the darkness within Malik, Marik, was able to manifest itself, and he did horrible things to Mai, Ryou, Jounouchi, and Yuugi himself. Nobody was safe from the lunatic, but thanks to a clever trick on Yami's part, the regular Malik returned, and was able to banish his evil for good.

"I remember." Yuugi said cryptically. The room fell into silence, until Jounouchi snapped up, and he was angry as a bull seeing red.

"Mai! Why the hell did you hit me?!" He roared.

"You said some hurtful things to me Jounouchi Katsuya! You deserved every bit of what I gave you!" Mai's eyes flashed angrily as the two stood, glaring and gritting their teeth at each other.

Jounouchi's shoulders heaved, and Mai's breast did. Sparks were zapping angrily in this room. Yuugi and Malik slowly backed away before the imminent explosion could occur. As soon as they closed the door, Mai and Jounouchi leapt at each other and fell to the floor, passionately kissing each other.

Malik and Yuugi tore down the hall when they heard the crash, and soon, they were outside, Yuugi running home, and Malik running to his hotel.

-----

Yuuhi and Anzu were sitting on the grass, staring into the churning body of the river that ran through the city. To Yuuhi, they were uncomfortably close, and he was thinking of everything but Anzu. The worst part was the silence, all he could hear was her breathing, content, and even.

"I like coming here." Anzu broke the silence. Her voice was quiet held a hint of secrecy to it.

"It's a nice place." Yuuhi agreed.

"The sunsets are nice, too." Anzu said. "To tell the truth, I wanted to hang out with you today. There's eight years worth of information to catch up on."

"There isn't much on my end to talk about, you know just about everything." Yuuhi shrugged and then lay flat on his back. Anzu sat, knees almost to her chin with her arms wrapped around them.

"A lot has happened on this end." Anzu said with a chuckle.

"Tell me." Yuuhi said without sitting up.

Anzu launched into everything that happened since the day he disappeared from her life. She went into detail about all that happened and all the friends and enemies that they had made. Duellist Kingdom, Battle City, all the stuff before, after and in between. It was quite a story. She then started talking about her biggest passion, dancing. Yuuhi remembered her dancing all to well. As Yuuhi was reminiscing about that particular part of his day, Anzu lay down on the grass next to him.

"I should really be going home soon." She said wistfully. "Not like anybody is waiting for me though." Anzu heaved a sigh. "I've lived on my own for a while now."

Yuuhi couldn't help but feel sorry for his brunette friend. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. A slight smile touched her lips as she propped herself up on an elbow, she leaned over and kissed Yuuhi. In surprise, his eyes shot open, and then she stood.

"I have a dance class to go to in the morning, I'll see you later." Anzu winked and took off down the street as Yuuhi was still recovering his wits.

He shot up quickly and looked off after her. He touched his fingers gently to his lips. Strawberry. Her lips tasted like strawberry. He fell back onto the grass and stared into the darkening sky. What was he going to tell Yuugi, or even Anzu if he didn't like her like that. Was that even that kind of kiss, or was it a friend thing? Yuuhi would've pondered further but his mind was interrupted by a familiar voice. He turned back to see Ryou. His ring with the eyes on it shimmering in the twilight.

"Yuuhi, can we talk about something?" Ryou asked.

End of Chapter 11

Next Chapter: Stuff happens, w00t! Otogi and Honda should be showing up since they haven't been seen in a while, Shizuka as well. Some Seto, Isis and Rishid as well. Most of this is actually going to happen since I'm not actually in the mood to be funny now.

Fieren: Okay, I'm starting a different style here, I don't know if anybody (is reading T.T) noticed or not. As always though, R&R and tell me what you think?

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