Disclaimer: I do not own YGO.

Alrighty, time for another chapter! But first, all the announcement crap-stuff:

Some of you got the idea that there was some Tea-Yami romance going on. Yes, it will seem like this for a while. But really, they don't like each other; they're just really good friends. And wouldn't you get embarrassed if a shirtless guy fell on you? LOL.

Voting Polls –

Ryou – 6

Bakura – 3

And to address my lovely readers:

Kris Bluesummers: Lol. Read above note.

Luminaria: Thanks for the cookies!

Whimsical Lady: Awe, thanks! Here's an update!

Master Ruby: Thanks for always reviewing!

This chapter is dedicated to Ishtarzkiss75 and Tasha 3 (her humorous fics were removed b/c of script-style and now she'll be leaving ).

Temporary Illness

By: Chi Yagami

Chapter Three – More Mischievous Fun

The couple was currently walking towards the Domino Arcade. After the card fiasco, Ryou had decided to keep a close watch on Bakura. The spirit was lagging behind them, and Tea was rambling on about how great Dance Dance Revolution was.

"You have to play it with me!" she said excitedly. "I'll go easy on you, I promise! What's your favorite song? I'm sure we can play it on DDR! I can't wait till you see it! You're going to love it!"

"Is there an off switch to her?" Bakura asked. Ryou just ignored him.

They entered the arcade and approached the DDR machine. At once, small crowd gathered around them. Ryou stepped up onto the platform uncertainly. He didn't really want to play this game. Oh sure, he knew how to play it, but he wasn't very good at it.

The music started, and Ryou found himself having trouble keeping up with Tea. He found himself constantly staring at her, watching the way her body swayed to the music. In the end, Tea won with a perfect score, and Ryou lost with a D.

Bakura growled. He hated seeing his hikari lose. It reflected on him. He pushed Ryou off the platform and chose a song.

Everybody gasped; the machine had started up all by itself! Tea glanced at the screen and noticed a game was about to start.

Bakura smiled; he was going to beat this girl. He was an excellent DDR player. The game began, and Bakura instantly had the lead.

Everybody was gasping and screaming: it was like Tea was playing DDR with a ghost or something. The platform arrows would light up all by themselves. But what was worst of all was the fact that Tea was losing.

Ryou scrambled to his feat.

"Bakura!" he shouted. "What are you doing? Get down from there now!"

Everybody started laughing.

"Hey look, the queen of DDR is losing to his imaginary friend! How sad!"

Tea lost by ten points, and everybody was laughing at her.

Ryou found her by the restrooms, hiding from everyone.

"Tea! I'm sorry! He wasn't supposed to—"

"HE? I was beaten and embarrassed by some imaginary person of yours!" she yelled at him. "It's true… what they say about you at school… You really are crazy…"

She pushed him aside and ran out of the building, tears streaking down her cheeks. Ryou stood there dumbfounded.

"So, mate, quite impressive, eh?" Bakura asked, coming up behind him. Ryou turned and glared at him.

"Bakura, I'm tired of you! You're ruining my life! The one friend that I had a chance of making now hates me!"

"Yo," one of the kids called, pointing to Ryou, "he's still talking to his imaginary friend! Awe, what a widdle waby!"

Ryou ran out of the arcade and down the street, Bakura hurrying after him.

"You know, I was only trying to get you your dignity back!" he growled.

"I didn't care about losing to her! Everybody else thinks I'm insane, and now she does, too!"

"FINE!" Bakura yelled suddenly. "I. AM. SORRY!"

"What?" he asked bewildered. His yami had never been nice before…

"I said I'm sorry. Look, why don't you call her up?"

Bakura was acting really strange…

"But I don't have her number…"

"Look it up in a telephone book," he suggested. "I'm sure you can find one in the library."

The two boys headed off to the library. Ryou hoped Tea would understand how sorry he was. He cursed himself for not watching where he was going and breaking the Ring.

The library was a very large building, and he had to ask the librarian for help before finding the telephone books. While Ryou was busy looking up his friend's number, Bakura wandered around the room, looking for some kind of amusement. He heard laughter coming from a nearby table and decided to investigate.

"Oh, Malik, you're impossible!" Miho giggled as her boyfriend tugged playfully on her ponytail.

"I told you: I'm busy," he said with a grin.

"All week?"

"Weeeeeeeeeeeeell, not right now," Malik said, pulling her in for a deep kiss. Bakura stuck his tongue out in disgust. He was glad Ryou didn't have a girlfriend.

Bakura grinned mischievously: it was time for some more fun…

Miho left to go to the bathroom, and Malik rested his head down on the table. About 5 minutes later, he was sound asleep. Bakura looked through the guy's backpack and pulled out some paper and a pen. He smirked as he wrote down a message. Then he moved Malik and the chair he was sitting in to a far away table, and he replaced the spot with an empty chair, making it seem as though Malik had left. Then he left the note on the table, grabbed all of Malik's stuff, and moved over to where Malik was asleep. The he wrote another note.

Miho came out of the bathroom to discover that Malik was gone, and a note was left on the table.

Dear Miho,

I'm sorry to say – no wait, I'm NOT sorry – that I'm breaking up with you! I hate you, you… (followed by a long list of bad words)

-Malik

Miho filled with rage; she knew Malik was a bad boy from the start. She gathered her stuff and stormed angrily out of the library.

Meanwhile, Ryou had finally narrowed down the list of Gardners to only two addresses. He had tried all of the other 46 with no luck.

He dialed the number and waited.

"Hello? Hello, is anyone there? I'm hanging up."

It was her.

Ryou was about to open his mouth when—

"No, Yami, nobody's on the phone. Yes, you can now call Yugi and tell him you're staying here for the night." Click.

The phone slipped out of his hand and fell to the floor with a CLANK!

Yami was sleeping over at her house. No wonder they were always smiling at each other or blushing. His hopes of her forgiving him were crushed; she was probably blabbing about the whole thing to Yami right now.

Bakura appeared next to him, and for some odd reason that Ryou didn't want to know, he was smirking.

"Get a hold of the girl?"

"That guy who was in the game shop with only his pants on is sleeping over at her house."

Bakura choked and made a face of disgust. Something had to be done…

"Come on, let's get out of here and go home," Ryou said.

An hour later, Malik woke up. He looked around for Miho, but he didn't see any sign of her or her stuff.

He glanced down and saw the note.

Dear Malik,

I'm breaking up with you! I know about you and that other girl! I can't believe you, you… (followed by another long list of nasty words)

-Miho

Malik ripped up the note and stormed out of the library.

"That wench will pay, big time."

That night, after Ryou had gone to sleep, Bakura snuck out of the house. He had the scrap of paper that Ryou had used to copy down Tea's number and address on. He quietly snuck into her back yard, and then, into her house.

Tea looked at her watch and gasped. It was already ten o'clock and she and Yami had just finished watching a movie. After Tea had left the arcade, she had run into Yami and told him everything. As her best friend, he promised to cheer her up with a night of partying.

"You know, we could call this a slumber party if you were a girl," she giggled, looking up at Yami's face. They were currently sitting on the couch. They had been watching Scream II, and Tea had gotten so scared that she'd curled up in Yami's arms (1).

"Yes, well, I'm not a girl," he replied. They looked at each other for a while until Tea felt a little uneasy. She smirked Yami, and he gave her a questioning look.

"PILLOW FIGHT!" she yelled, snatching up one of the sofa cushions and bopping him on the head.

"Cheater!" he yelled as she jumped off the couch. He grabbed a pillow and chased her around the room. Bakura poked his head around the corner just in time to see Yami toppling Tea. From his point of view, it looked like Yami was straddling her.

"Are they having sex!" Bakura wondered aloud.

Yami ditched his pillow and started tickling her. She started howling with laughter and tried to roll over. However, Yami was much stronger than she was, so she was pinned to the ground.

"You won't escape!" he cried victoriously.

"Oh (laugh) yeah? (laugh) Let's just (more laughing) see about that!" she said, reaching for her pillow and smacking him in the face with it. Yami released her, and she started to run towards the kitchen. But he was too fast for her. Halfway there, he wrapped his arms around her waist and picked her up.

Half kicking in protest and half laughing, Tea was thrown back onto the couch, and Yami sat on her back, shoving a victory sign in her face.

"I believe I win," he said smirking. She smiled and rolled over so that he was now sitting on her stomach (2).

"I haven't had this much fun since… since we did this five years ago!" she said, gasping for breath. Yami nodded. They had been friends ever since he stood up for her in kindergarten when some bullies had been picking on her.

Bakura, who had been watching this whole scene, wanted to puke. He didn't like Yami, mostly because of the incident in the bedroom.

"Why don't they get married already! They were practically HAVING SEX!"

"Yami, can you get off of me now?" she asked.

"I don't know… I kind of like this new pillow of mine," he replied smirking. She stuck her tongue out at him and pushed him off the couch. Then she sat up.

"I think it's time for bed," she said with a yawn. He nodded, and they both went upstairs. Bakura followed them.

At the top of the stairway, Yami kissed Tea on the cheek and said goodnight (3). She then went into her own room, with Bakura trailing after her.

While she was taking a shower and making the mirror all steamy, Bakura got an idea. He crept into the bathroom and waited until the mirror was really steamy (no, he did not try to look at her!).

Tea turned the shower off and wrapped a towel around her body. But as soon as she had stepped out of the shower, she screamed.

Yami came running into the bathroom and tried to comfort her.

"What's wrong?" he demanded. Tea pointed to the mirror.

Written into the steam was the following message:

I'M SORRY.

While Yami and Tea tried to figure out who could've written it, Bakura left the house and went back to his own, hoping she would get the message.

After Yami had convinced Tea that there was no one in the house, they had gone to sleep, this time Yami was sleeping on the floor.

Tea, however, lay awake thinking. She hadn't told Yami about what she had seen in the mirror. Where she should've seen her reflection, she had seen Ryou Bakura's.

(1) I do not own the movie Scream II or any of its partner movies.

(2) Yes, I know what you are thinking: Yami is going to rape Tea. Or something like that. No, as I have said before: they don't like each other that way; they're best friends, and they're really comfortable around each other.

(3) Not a kiss of passion or anything. It was just a kiss of friendship, showing how Yami cares for Tea.

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Well, I hope this satisfies your need to read! If it doesn't, go check out some of my other fics! Please review!

IMPORTANT NOTE: I have decided that whoever reviews this chapter first will get to decide who Tea is paired up with in my next fic. However, she DEFINITELY NOT BE paired with Duke, Tristan, Joey, Mokuba, or Yugi… which leaves the following people to choose from: Bakura, Malik, Ryou, Yami, Marik, or Seto Kaiba. So you'd better review fast!