Slam dunk
****
Warnings/notes : AU, Yami/Yugi, Seto/Joey, Otogi/Honda and possibly slight Bakura/Ryou, oocness.
Disclaimer : I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.
written at 4th february 2004, by Misura
Thanks to the people who reviewed the third chapter :
To Grimmy : Thank you! Slash ... well, it depends on your definition, like I said in my earlier reply. :)
To Leaf Zelindor : Well, at least Otogi'll have his report finished. ^^; Thank you! :)
To Kaira-chan : I hope you'll also like the Yami-parts in this chapter. I think they're a bit ... sappy? cliche? but ... Anyway, thank you very much! ^_^
To DarkShadowFlame : Hmm, I'm afraid that isn't going to happen too soon. Though Joey'll do his best, from time to time. ^_^; I hope you'll like what I did to/with Yami in this chapter as well. Thank you very much!
To Yugi-obsessed : Uhm, within the next three chapters. I hope. ^^; Thank you! :)
To Kaneda-Shotaro and Yami Tetsuo : Thanks, I did. :)
To EnternalDarkFlame : I'll try to update every Monday. Thank you. :)
To DerangedButMagic : Thank you! :)
To Koishii No Tenshi : Thanks, I did my best. :)
To Star Light Shadow : Thank you! :)
Bakura : I take that bet! ^_^ *If* I were in this story, that is. -_-;
To Suppis Tenshi : Sorry, it's all Joey's fault that Yugi's going to have to wait some more. ^^; Well, and mine for getting sidetracked. Thank you very much ; I hope this chapter'll live up to your expectations. ^_^
To Anime Crazed : Thank you, I did my best. :)
To invisible-eyes : Yami ... will get a nice surprise in the form of Yugi. ~.^ Thank you! :)
To Digimagic (and Sarah) : Thank you! (I like Seto/Joey too, can you guess? ~.^) :)
To Kiawna : Sorry to hear you don't like the way I wrote Yami thus far. I'll try tuning it down a bit, but basically, I do consider him to be in possession of quite a lot of self-confidence. ^_^; Thanks.
To Sleep walking funky chicken (Strings, Sarah and Pegasus) : It's good to be inspired, isn't it? Thank you. :)
To Seto-Kaiba's-fan : You know Joey too well. ^_^; Thank you! :)
To Carmen5-Nemrac : You spoke the magical word so ... thanks. :)
To Romennar : Thank you! :)
Otogi : Also for the sympathy. ^_^
To Miami-chan : You spoke the magical word. Twice, even. So, here it is ... hope you'll like it! :)
To Pikpik246 : o.O;
**********
It was ten o'clock in the evening by the time Yami called it a night and suggested for Joey to go home and finish his book-report. Well, what he actually said was that he got bored of playing against someone as untalented as Joey, but the blonde knew Yami didn't mean for his words to be taken literally.
So he had, grumblingly, agreed, insulting Yami's stamina and calling Yami a coward for not daring to keep on playing when he was getting tired and thus might actually be no better than a normal human. Which statements Yami had chosen not to dignify with any reply, instead wishing him a 'pleasant evening and good luck with that book-report'.
Joey had to admit the tri-colored boy had a point in that last thing. He'd need a great deal of good fortune if he wanted to finish the report at a decent time. Maybe it hadn't been very smart to go out *before* he had been done with it after all. Though it had been fun to play one-on-one with Yami ...
When he wasn't around other people, Yami was a lot more fun, allowing himself to just relax. The whole 'why' of this was a mystery to Joey, but he had grown to accept it, more or less. He'd still try to get Yami to become a bit more social, to meet new people. He hadn't had much of a result to show for his efforts thus far, aside from one or two days of being completely ignored by Yami, but Joey hadn't given up just yet.
Otogi usually said Joey liked challenges (at least, when he was in a good mood. More often he simply called Joey 'insane', 'unrealistic' or 'stubborn'), which was, in a way, pretty much the truth, Joey supposed. Though personally, he liked to think he also did the things he did because Yami *deserved* to have more friends, just like Seto *deserved* to be glomped. Because once you got to know them, those two really weren't as bad as they seemed.
Not that he exactly *knew* anything about Seto that proved the brunette wasn't every bit the bastard Otogi often proclaimed him to be but ... his heart told him it was true.
"Man, I'm sounding like one of those pulp romances. And I'm wasting time. Hmm, let's see, question number sixteen : 'Describe how the different characters in the book interact with each other and show how this interaction reflects the age in which the book has been written, using quotes.' What the heck do they mean with *that*? I wonder if Otogi's still awake. I could call him ... "
*****
Seto stared at the now empty basketball-court. Or rather, at the bag lying in the grass next to it, seemingly completely forgotten by its owner. Joey Wheeler. The mutt.
He honestly hadn't gone for a walk with the intention of yet another spying-session on the blonde who took such delight in chasing and jumping him. Rather the opposite in fact ; he had hoped to clear his head of the puppy in the cool night-air. At home, everything seemed to make him think of Joey.
His computer, which he had used to look up every scratch of information on the mutt he could find, his bed, which was the only silent witness to his less-than-chaste dreams involving Joey, the book he had been trying to read, in which a dog saved a young boy's life ... it was all very annoying and embarrassing and definitely not something he'd ever discuss with anyone else, but there it was.
It had driven him out of the mansion, after which his feet had betrayed him by carrying him to Domino High, since his thoughts had been too jumbled to think of any other destination. He should have been smart enough to turn back at seeing there were people playing basketball, instead of sauntering over for a closer look.
Once he'd seen Joey, he hadn't been able to turn away anymore. Not until the mutt had left, talking to Yami as if they were the closest of friends. Or even, Seto's mind supplied ruthlessly, a little more than friends. Not that he'd mind or anything if it was true, Seto assured himself. If the mutt wanted to rut about with icicle Yami, that was his mistake. No business of Seto's at all.
"Idiot mutt," Seto growled, picking up the bag against his better judgment. He had no idea what he was going to do with it, how he was going to return it without alerting Joey to the fact that he had been watching him and Yami. But he did know the thing was valuable to Joey. He couldn't leave it, pretend he hadn't seen it. "Stupid fool."
Walking home, he wondered if he was speaking of himself or Joey.
*****
Even if he ought to be used to coming home to a cold, dark house, Yami still felt a stab of hurt as he turned the key in the lock and walked into the hall, turning on the lights. For some reason, he could never quite stop hoping his parents would be there, not having told him they'd return earlier to surprise him. They never had done anything like that. They probably never would do anything like that either, because the thought that Yami might like such a thing would never cross their minds, he thought.
What Yami would or wouldn't like didn't seem to cross his parents' mind very often period. Oh, they probably tried, he didn't doubt that for a moment, but they never *asked* him anything, so mostly they did stuff that only made him feel worse, rather than better.
When he had been aged twelve, it had been gifts. A new one every week, arriving by air-mail, accompanied by a hastily scribbled note to tell him they loved him. Which he found hard to believe, really, considering he mainly knew his parents by the portrait standing on his nightstand. He couldn't remember a time when they'd really been a 'family', the way those sappy commercials showed it.
It would have turned him into a depressed, quiet teenager. If he'd cared.
Yami didn't care anymore. Everything was so much more easy that way, much less painful. And so the weekly gifts had been replaced by monthly cards, before those in turn were replaced by a phone-call every two months, if he was lucky. Last time, his father had said he was proud of Yami acting so 'grown-up' and 'mature'. His monthly allowance had been raised and it had been another four months until the next phone-call.
~tbc?~