Slam dunk
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Warnings/notes : AU, Yami/Yugi, Seto/Joey, Otogi/Honda, possibly slight Bakura/Ryou, oocness.
Disclaimer : I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.
written at 8th june 2004, by Misura
Thanks to the people who reviewed the eighteenth chapter :
To mandapandabug : Thank you for the long review. –smiles- Yes, I wonder how Joey stays so thin too sometimes. I guess he burns a lot of energy by doing … things?
To pisces071 : Thank you! –smiles-
To Seto-Kaiba's-Fan : -giggles- You're right; Kaiba –is- very brave. Thank you!
To DarkShadowFlame : Awww, but you –know- the line between 'soul-mate' and 'stalker' is but a thin one. You're right about characters having swinging moods though. I hope to do something about it. Thank you! –smiles-
To Star Light Shadow : It took me three whole seconds to get the 'car-company'-comment. –coughs and blushes- But hey, Honda's not that bad! At least, Otogi doesn't think so … Thank you!
To Pork Steak the Grande (and It and Sauruman) : I haven't seen an earwig all day, so I guess your wish of well-being worked. For which my sincere thanks. I wish I could thank you with a longer chapter and some Yami/Yugi-action but alas … sorry. My muses are scared of going back to school too. –winks-
To FREAK014 : Why not strawberries -and- him? –smiles dreamily- Thank you!
To Kami Beverly : We-ell, I think the problem is that they -aren't-. –coughs- Sorry, my mind's in the gutter. Thank you!
To Flame Rhiannon : Thank you! –smiles-
To Koyuki : Ooh, I –like- that idea. –winks and grins- Thank you!
To Reppu : We-ell, I kind of ended this fic at the twenty-fifth chapter in the drafts. Which would make it the most-chaptered fic I ever wrote. I'm really bad at ending long fics though. –blushes- Thank you very much! You'll find out some of Joey's feelings in this chapter.
To Keioko-chan : Thank you! –smiles-
To Kaira-chan : Sometimes, I swear you can read my mind. Not wholly, but pretty close to it. –smiles- Thank you!
To Suppis Tenshi : -blushes and beams- Thank you! You'll find out where Yami and Yugi are this chapter, though Bakura … he's just a mystery-guy. –grins-
To hAdOwCat : I'll try to update every Monday, as before. Thank you!
To Lil'wystynyra : Thank you! Glad to hear you liked it.
To firey punk girl : -huggles Yugi-plushie- Thank you! I'm aiming for twenty-five chapters, so yes, things should develop pretty soon.
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Considering Ryou'd been spending the past few hours convincing himself that his meeting with Bakura had been nothing more than a weird dream, his first thought at the sound of the doorbell should -not- have been 'Bakura's back!'.
Something of his emotions must have shown on his face as he opened the door (to discover, of course, that his visitor was Honda, exactly as he should have expected). Honda took one step back, eyeing him a little curious.
"Uhm, I'm Honda Hiroto, remember? We talked yesterday."
"Of course. Come on in!" Ryou managed a smile, which, he sourly considered, probably didn't do much to improve Honda's first impression of him.
"Sorry if I'm early," Honda said.
Ryou was about to reply that half past twelve was hardly 'early', when he recognized the remark for an offered explanation of his slightly strange behavior. Thus, he changed his answer to: "That's fine," adding a defensive "I'm usually awake much earlier than this,".
Honda nodded, apparently accepting this. "It must be pretty busy, going to school -and- doing the household. I hope I'll be able to help you out a bit."
"Let me show you your room," Ryou offered, determined to be a perfect host from now on. To Honda, at least. If Bakura'd ever show his face again, Ryou had some choice words to say to him.
Not that he expected a person who only existed in a -dream- to show up on his doorstep, of course. That'd be ... freaky. And freaky things like that only happened in movies and books.
In the real world, there wasn't anyone who looked almost identical to Ryou.
Right?
"There's another closet in the store-room, if you need one. Or if you don't like this one," Ryou remarked absently, as Honda inspected his room.
"This one's fine. As long as I can store my stuff in it, I don't really care. I'm not really a closet-kind of guy." Honda grinned.
Ryou felt like he'd just missed some sort of cue. Maybe he should have stayed in bed a little longer after all. Or maybe he'd had -too much- sleep. He'd heard neither was very healthy.
xxxxx
Carefully rehearsing the conversation he intended to have with Yugi, about basketball, doing homework together and, perhaps, going to see a movie sometime, Yami checked the adress on his paper one last time with the number on the mail-box. They matched.
This morning, he'd called Anzu, to ask her for Yugi's adress. The two of them weren't nearly as well-acquainted as Yami and Joey, or even Yami and Otogi, but Anzu -was- a basketball-player, which distinguished her from the horde of other students. Added to that was the fact that Anzu was far less likely to pester him about his reasons for wanting to know Yugi's adress.
She -had- asked him about it, of course, with typical female curiosity, yet only -after- she'd already given him the adress. He had replied that it wasn't any of her business and thanked her politely for her help.
Perhaps Anzu was simply too kind-hearted for her own good, Yami mused. She didn't gossip, didn't giggle overly annoying, played basketball better-than-average ... all in all, it was a miracle she didn't have a boyfriend yet.
Unless, of course, she and Yugi were ...
Yami shook his head, determinedly shoving those thoughts out of his mind. He had decided that spending some more time with Yugi would help him get rid of these strange feelings he got whenever Yugi was around, which meant that he -would- spend time with Yugi, whether the boy had a girlfriend or not.
Schooling his face to a politely friendly mask, Yami rang the doorbell.
He was somewhat surprised to be faced by an old man as it opened. Had Anzu given him the wrong adress? Or, an only slightly more appealing option, was Yugi's family visiting today?
Yami had hoped to speak with Yugi in private, without a nosy audience. It was, he had told himself, one of the main-reasons for his having waited for the weekend. At school, it was utterly impossible to keep a conversation secret.
The old man, who still hadn't said anything, looked Yami up and down, before speaking.
"You must be Yami."
So. At least it appeared he was at the right house. And ... Yugi had told his visiting grandparents about him? Yami wasn't sure if he should feel flattered or embarrassed.
"I am. And you must be Yugi's grandfather." Yami nodded, hoping his tone was polite enough to be let inside, while also cool enough not to invite further questions.
"I assume you're here to see Yugi." The old man didn't quite ask him anything outright, but he -was- still blocking Yami's entrance. Yami got the impression that if he didn't offer some answers first, Yugi's grandfather would just keep standing where he was.
Considering how shy and absurdly friendly Yugi acted most of the time, it was hard to imagine this old man being his grandfather.
"I am here for Yugi, yes." Yami didn't add 'and I'm not here to be cross-examined by you, so let me pass'. He might have, if he'd have thought it'd have made any -positive- difference, but that didn't seem very likely. "Is he home?"
A rather big flaw in his planning, to fail to check that first. As was, of course, failing to know about the visiting relatives, though Yami realized Yugi might not have told anyone about that. With a grandfather as unkind as this ...
"He is home," the old man informed him. Yami patiently waited for him to continue to offer to call Yugi. A good thirty seconds passed in silence, before Yami swallowed a bit of his pride.
"Could you tell him I'm here?" Yami asked. "Please?"
"Of course." The old man smiled and disappeared, closing the door in Yami's face.
Yami glared at the merrily shining sun. Today was beginning to look like a very bad day.
xxxxx
Joey had noticed Seto the moment he walked into the cafeteria. Had he noticed Seto a moment earlier, he might have been tempted not to go in at all and settle for a less ... nutritious breakfast, but as it was, he'd decided to simply pretend he hadn't seen Seto.
Considering Seto's low opinion of him, the other boy probably wouldn't even -consider- the possibility that Joey'd seen him, sulking in a corner with a cup of coffee. And, admittedly, if Joey hadn't possessed something of a sixth sense when it came to Seto, he might have missed seeing the other.
Halfway through his first stack of pancakes, Joey could almost feel Seto's eyes burning holes in the back of his jacket. It felt ... odd, to have Seto studying him so intensely. Odd, but not entirely unpleasant.
At first, Joey had wanted to ignore Seto. He'd intended to eat as many pancakes as he could, and then leave, playing the 'dumb mutt' Seto thought him to be. Now though, he was beginning to get second thoughts.
Although he -was- curious what Seto's next action would be if Joey'd leave without acknowledging his presence, Joey also preferred to get some clarity about what Seto thought he was doing. Of course, there did exist a remote possibility that Seto had -accidentally- ended up in the same cafeteria as Joey, at exactly the same time and at exactly the right table to watch everyone without drawing much attention himself.
Knowing Seto, there wasn't much of a chance at a coincidence like that. If there was anything Joey had learned about the boy, it was that Seto planned nearly everything in advance. It had made following him around a lot easier. All he'd needed to do was to learn Seto's schedule by heart.
Seto's schedule had never, in all of the time Joey'd 'known' him, included having breakfast in a cafeteria. Or calling Joey in the middle of the night.
Which could only lead to the conclusion that Seto had -changed-, for some reason.
And Joey was going to find out why.
tbc