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 march 2004, by Misura
Thanks to the people who reviewed the ninth chapter :
To Johnny-Depp-Luv : In the future? ^^; And most of my other fics, of course. ~.^
To Leaf Zelindor : Oh, Yami'll be very nice to him. A little too nice, even ... ^_^;
To Icy Flame : Bakura's location is unknown, even to me, for the moment. I'm sure Ryou's presence will lure him out in the open though. ~.^ I like the idea of a bet - or a striptease! - but ... well, you'll see. Thank you very much! ^_^
To Ril : Sorry, no Ryou in this chapter. Thank you! :)
To Suppis Tenshi : Hope you'll enjoy the more! Thank you! :)
To Seto-Kaiba's-fan : ^^; Thanks for the vote of confidence. :)
To Hidden Dreams : ^^; Sorry.
To Sugar-Kat : You spoke the magical word so ... thank you! :)
To Kaira-chan : Of course Yami's not mean! Nobody in YuGiOh really is, I think. ^^; Thank you very much! ^_^
To Kiawna : ^^; Ah, the protectiveness of puppies ... Thank you very much! ^_^
To FungiFungusRayne : You can never have too much sugar! ~.^ Thank you!
To Yugi-obsessed : Thank you, I did my best. :)
To Imigo : A 'moment'? Well, read and find out! Bakura has never been mentioned in this story yet, but he'll make an appearance soon, if all goes well. Thank you very much! ^_^
To Crystal Blaize : Loving Seto *too* much isn't possible. I mean, he's cool! ^^; Another Seto-less chapter, I'm afraid. Thank you! :)
To UnknownDarkMystery : ^^; You're welcome! I did my best and hope you'll like this chapter as well. :)
To Star Light Shadow : Thank you! :)
To nekomoongirl : There, there, don't call Yami names! Thank you! :)
To Kitty Neko : You spoke the magical word ... thank you! :)
To Koishii No Tenshi : One week, soon? ~.^
To hAdOwCat : Erhm, sorry to disappoint you. Thank you! :)
To Sansi : Here's the next chapter, I hope you'll like it. :) Thank you!
To invisible-eyes : What match? ^^; Thank you! :)
To Sarasusamiga : Some more Yami/Yugi in this chapter, though I'm afraid their business is far from resolved. ^^; Thank you very much! :)
To FREAK014 : Well, I did warn for it, ne? ^^; Sorry to hear about Joey. Thank you! :)
To Anime Crazed : You read my mind! ^^; Thank you! :)
To Lethe Seraph : Well GCYY may be quite some chapters away yet. This more like a SCYY. ^^; Thank you very much! ^_^
To DarkShadowFlame : Why? To be able to toss in Bakura/Ryou, of course! Why else? ^^; Thank you very much! ^_^
To Anonymous : Thank you very much! ^_^
[Edit : fixed the error Kaira-chan pointed out to me. Thank you!]
**********
Yugi had expected Yami to sneer at him for failing at such a simple thing as throwing a ball. Instead though, the look Yami threw him as he picked up the ball was almost friendly.
For a few moments, they stood there regarding each other in silence. Yugi desperately tried to think of something intelligent to say, something that wouldn't make him sound like an idiot. Yami's face betrayed nothing of his thoughts, causing Yugi to wonder if perhaps he'd imagined Yami's earlier sympathy.
"I assume you came here to practice?" Yami inquired softly, just as Yugi was about to decide that saying *anything* was better than keeping silent while his face kept getting redder and redder.
"Y-yes." Yugi nodded gratefully. "For the try-outs," he added.
"Of course," Yami replied, tossing the ball to Yugi, who caught it barely. Yami was a bit puzzled why, since he knew he had thrown it well, with the intention of demonstrating that *he*, unlike Yugi, was able to estimate distances. "A sensible idea."
Yugi flushed. Whether because he was angry at Yami's tone or because he was embarrassed by nearly missing the easy ball, Yami didn't know. Lifting the ball in his hands, Yugi seemed at a loss as to what to do with it next.
Yami wanted to roll his eyes, or at least demand his ball back and tell the boy to forget about the try-outs. For some reason though, he found his annoyance with Yugi fading. Someone as shy and clumsy as Yugi, who stuttered at the slightest surely could never pose any kind of threat to him, could he?
"Well, it's usual to start with some simple shots for warming up," Yami remarked, gesturing in the direction of the nearest basket. Yugi obediently turned to face it, the ball lifted. He stood that way for nearly a ful minute, before he sighed and shook his head.
"Can't you look at something else while I practice?" Yugi stared at Yami imploringly.
"I'm just looking," Yami replied, slightly sharply. "I'm not going to snatch the ball out of your hands or try to block your shot or anything."
"It's not that," Yugi explained, fidgeting. "It's just that I don't like people watching me."
Yami stared at him incredulously. "It's *just* that you don't like people watching you? However do you think you're going to play a game of basketball if you can't throw a single ball while someone's looking at you?"
"I ... " Yugi began.
"In a real game, people will do much more than merely 'looking', you know," Yami continued, taking a step forwards. He wasn't that much taller than Yugi, really, but from the expression on his face, he felt as if he was twice as tall, looming over the other boy like some giant. "People will be yelling at you and doing everything they can to get you to lose your concentration."
Yugi's eyes were very wide and large. In a distant part of his mind, Yami wondered how the two of them had gotten to stand so close to each other. It was as if their noses would touch if either of them would lean forwards a little bit more.
"I ... " Yugi said, once again not finishing his sentence.
Yami found his attention wandering from Yugi's eyes to his hair. Like his own, it was three colours - gold, red and black. Almost without himself consciously willing it, he reached out his hand to touch it, to feel if it was as soft as it looked.
"I have to go." Yugi bolted, abruptly dropping the ball. Yami stared after him numbly as he sprinted away through the exit to disappear from view.
"What's *his* problem?" Yami asked, to no one in particular, ignoring the echo in his own head that questioned what his own motivations had been in acting like he had. If it had been Joey -or anyone else for that matter- he'd never have ...
Of course, Joey would never behave the way that Yugi had. Nobody Yami had ever met would. So, in a way, it was all Yugi's fault. Yugi had caused it all. Yami wasn't to blame for anything at all.
The words sounded false, even to himself. If only -
"Ouch!" Odd, how he hadn't noted the landing spot of the ball before. The toes of his left feet were hurting quite a lot now.
*****
Yugi's lungs felt like bursting when he sagged against the door of his home. He had no idea why he had run off like he had. Yami would probably think even less of him because of it. Not that Yami's opinion was *that* important to him. After all, they hardly knew each other.
How silly of him, to want to impress Yami then, to be so angry with himself for being reduced to some stammering, clumsy fool when Yami was around. Though he had also felt nervous with Otogi and Joey watching him, it had been even worse with Yami.
"Yugi? Where have you been? I was worried." His grandfather took in his appearance, concern in his eyes. "What has happened to you? Are you all right?"
"I'm fine, grandfather, really." Yugi managed a smile, feeling a pang of guilt. Couldn't he do *anything* right this evening? "I just kind of lost track of the time and ran all the way home."
"Ah, well, next time you can simply walk, Yugi." His grandfather smiled in return. "I know what it's like when you're with friends, involved in some exciting game. Just give me a call, will you? Then this foolish old man is reassured that nothing bad is keeping you away."
"You're not a 'foolish, old man', grandfather!" Yugi protested, considering whether or not he should correct his grandfather's idea that he had been at Otogi's.
"Compared to you, I'm definitely old." His grandfather chuckled. "But still young enough to enjoy my life and make myself useful every now and then. Ryou sends his greetings by the way. I expect you will see him at school tomorrow."
"I hardly even remember what he looks like," Yugi confessed. "The last time I saw him seems very long ago. Though I guess there won't be that many new students I can mistake him with."
His grandfather snorted. "You only met him once, in Egypt, when both your parents and his were visiting there. You were hardly one year old then, so I'm not surprised your memories of him aren't too clear. In fact, I'd be surprised if you would have had any at all. He's quite easy to recognize though, thanks to his white hair. I daresay nobody else your age has that."
"Hmm." Yugi conceded that was probably true. Although he had also thought he'd never meet someone with the same combination of hair-colors as his own ...
"Don't fret about it too much, Yugi. You'll see that everything will work out just fine tomorrow. So, off to bed with you!" His grandfather tried to look stern.
Yugi was too tired to do more than nod. And hope that his grandfather was right.
*****
Otogi glared at the screen of his computer which showed a seemingly faultless program-code. *Seemingly* faultless, yes. Because there *was* a fault in it, somewhere. Each time he tried to run the program, it crashed within half a minute.
The only problem was that he didn't have the slightest clue what to look for. There were so many things that could go wrong in writing a code that it might almost be faster to rewrite the whole of it than to check it all for errors.
He might get lucky, of course. And one was supposed to learn from mistakes after all. If there was some fundamental flaw in his programming, Otogi preferred to know about it as soon as possible, so that he wouldn't continue to write inperfect code.
Unfortunately, it was very, very boring to read line after line of letters and numbers. After his fifth cup of coffee, Otogi had lost count of the number of times he had nearly fallen asleep. He knew it might not be too smart to do this kind of thing on a night before a schoolday, but he couldn't stand not knowing what was wrong.
A quick check of the clock taught him it was a few minutes past midnight. Which meant he had viewed about half of the code in two hours. Not too shabby.
If Lady Fortune willed it, he might get a nice six hours of sleep yet! The prospect cheered him up considerably, giving him new energy to work his way through the last half.
When the doorbell rang, at first Otogi hardly noticed. Partially perhaps, because he wasn't expecting anyone to drop by at an hour like this. His visitor appeared to be the insistent type though and at the third ring, Otogi saw himself forced to abandon his work to go open the door.
Having promised himself a nice hard yell at the culprit who had interrupted him, Otogi was thoroughly chagrined to find himself face to face with his employer, the owner of the gameshop above which Otogi's apartment was located. Behind him stood a boy of about Otogi's own age, with unremarkable brown hair and eyes. He didn't look too happy about being there.
"What - "
"This is my nephew, who will share your apartment, until I have found some other place for him to stay."
Otogi blinked, wishing his mind was a little less sluggish. Or at least more inclined to formulate lines in human speech instead of programming language.
"But - "
"If you want to keep your job *and* this apartment, I'd suggest you don't make any trouble over this, boy."
Otogi reminded himself it would be very hard to claim strangling a person to have been an accident.
"I - "
"That's settled then. Good night. Don't be late for work tomorrow."
~tbc~
A/N : Next chapter will be mainly Otogi/Honda and either Bakura/Ryou or Seto/Joey. I haven't decided yet. ^^;