1Author's notes. Yes updated again. This one luckily was co-written by my sister or I would have never got this done. Thanks for supporting my lazy readers R&R if you don't like it I'll kick her ass.
Chapter 9: On my own two feet
A....Whaaat!!??, Yami said after his initial shock of Yugi=s defiance wore off.
AYou heard him, asshole. He doesn=t want to leave!!! Tygris sneered.
AI wasn=t speaking to you! I was speaking Yugi!!!, Yami roared, barely containing his temper. The bouncers had to grab a hold of him before he broke free of their embrace.
Yugi, feeling the need to speak for himself, voiced, ATygris, please, I can handle this...
ABut Yugi...
ANo, Ty.....Yami, I have unfinished business here. I can=t leave with you now.
A look of incredulity passed Yami=s face, then he countered, AYou actually want to stay here even after the fact you got caught??? I don=t know what bullshit Tygris whispered in your ears, but you can=t possibly be thinking you can continue...stripping!!!!!!! This place isn=t for you and I won=t allow this farce to continue any further!!!
Seeing that Tygris was ready to intervene on his behalf once again, Yugi spilled his feelings of frustration and anger in curt, defiant words. ANo, Yami. It=s my decision to make and mine alone! I started this thing and I=ll end it when it=s time for me to. It=s my life and I won=t let you treat me like a goddamn child!!!!
In the crowd, Joey and Tristan eyed each other in surprise. AWhoa, Yugs= is standing up for himself for a change, Joey said. Tristan, shaking his head, said in response, AMan...who woulda thought Yugi had the balls in him to stand up to Yami. Never thought I=d see the day.... AHey, give Yugs= some credit, Tristan. He may be small, but he=s a lot tougher than he looks, Joey countered. Tristan was about to respond further but was distracted when he saw the bouncers began halling Yami to the exit. AUh-oh, I think Yami is going to lose this argument. Look!
AYugi! You must come ho...Get off of me!!!, Yami yelled as the bouncers began dragging him towards the exits.
The bouncers then hurled him out into the streets, flat on his ass. AUuuaah.....Oooof!. Yami ran his hand on his backside, which was devilishly hurting. But one thing for sure, it wasn=t nearly as bruised as his ego was at the moment.
After regaining his composure, Yami began cursing and began banging on the club doors, demanding that they open them for him.
AOpen the doors! Yugi!!! Yuuuugiiii!!!!.
After Yami was forcefully escorted out of the club, the burly bouncer that had aided in Yami=s swift departure nodded in satisfaction. AThat took care of that jerk...Alriiiight everyone! Break it up! There=s nothing to see here anymore. Get back to your places.
Tygris, still rubbing his aching jaw, approached Yugi. A...Are you okay, Yugi?
Yugi looked up at him, and shook his head. AI really don=t know how I feel. I knew he would be angry if he found out but....but at the same time, I couldn=t let him push me around any longer. I have to fight my own battles, where Yami=s concerned.
Tygris nodded in understanding, then smiled. His Yugi had some spunk in him after all. Not that he doubted it, but it was only a matter of time before Yugi bared his fangs, as he did tonight. And he did so at the person who needed it most......
Yugi looked around him to see that they still had an audience who were eying them with interest. He groaned.
ATygris, as much as I told Yami I would not be leaving, I really don=t want to stay here any longer. His embarrassment was evident now.
Tygris looked deeply into Yugi=s eyes, then said, AOkay...I=ll tell Craw you couldn=t stay. He=ll understand. Let=s go then.
As they both began to depart in the direction of the dressing room area, Joey and Tristan took notice.
AYugi=s leaving with that Tygris guy. You think we should go after them?, Tristan said. ANah, man. Bad idea. We don=t want to get involved in this thing. This is strictly between Yami and Yugi. Besides, we already satisfied our curiosities as to what Yugi was really up to and there=s nothing we can do to undo the situation as it is.
Tristan agreed with that assessment. AYeah, maybe you=re right. I don=t exactly want Yugi or Yami knowing that we were here on our own witch hunt. Now that we know that Yami knows, I guess our investigation here is done.
AYep...The party=s over..., Joey replied. He then whirled around to head towards the exit, but bumped swiftly into a young woman passing by, knocking her squarely on her bum. AOh, I=m sorry mi...Joey began to apologize. He looked down at the young girl and saw golden hair, golden brown eyes....heeeeeeeeey......
AOOW...You jerk! Watch where the hell you=re going!!!.
AMai?????? Is that you?Joey replied in surprise.
AWha....Joey???? Joey , what are you doing here? And what is that thing on your head?????, Mai replied in surprise, while getting herself up.
Tristan then came from behind, amused, AWhoa! Mai, didn=t think I=d find you in a place like this!
AYou too, Tristan??? This is the last place I expected to see you two., Mai replied.
AWell I didn=t exactly expect to see you here either, so you better be explaining yourself, missy! What the hell made you come to this strip joint, anyway???? Joey said in growing anger.
Mai was going to respond, when suddenly Tea and Serenity=s voices were heard from behind. AMai, come on, let=s get going ....
ATea!!!??? Serenity!!!! What the hell is going on here???, Joey said in incredulous anger. Tristan eyed Serenity in something akin to shock and.....more shock. Oh, he definitely wasn=t amused now.
ASerenity???? Who..What...You girls have A LOT of explaining to do. And no funny business!!!!, Tristan curtly responded. Tea flinched and Serenity blushed furiously with embarrassment.
AWE have a lot of explaining to do??? What are YOU guys doing here? And what=s up with that dead rat over your mouth, Tristan???, Tea retorted.
ADead rat!? It=s a moustache, and a rather darn clever disguise, thank you!!!!!! ........And stop trying to change the subject!, Tristan said in response.
AIt=s not as bad as it looks. We just came out for a night of innocent fun. That=s all. Honestly., Mai replied in defense of the girl group.
ASo how come I wasn=t aware of this little night of innocent fun=, huh? Just admit it, Mai. You got busted! And Serenity, what=s gotten into ya all of a sudden to do a stunt like this?!! I can understand Tea the freak, but YOU? , Joey snipped.
ATea the freak???!! Excuse me! ..., Tea began to comment, but was cut off by Tristan=s obvious displeasure. ASerenity, what are you doing here?!, Tristan demanded.
He stood crossed armed, eye brows tilted in great annoyance, waiting for her explanation.
Feeling guilty, Serenity began to explain, AGuys, please. It was just a one time thing. It was girls' night out and...
AHush up, Serenity., Mai jumped in. A We don=t need to defend ourselves like we=re some criminals. We came here to have some fun together. That was that. I don=t see anything wrong with that, so if you guys can=t handle it....
ACan=t handle it? It=s okay for you to go behind my back and have some fun=, but if I ever did such a thing...
Mai=s eyebrows arched into what looked like humorous disbelief at Joey=s hypocrisy. AWell, you didn=t exactly explain YOUR reasons for being here, so explain that!!! She was glaring at Joey while she said this.
AExplain what!??? Unlike you girls, we don=t have anything to hide. We only came here because we suspected Yugi was in this place, so we came here to confirm it.
AOh cut the crap, Joey! Just admit you came here to see some titties! , Tea replied.
ANo, it=s the truth! Our reasons are justified while YOU guys are guilty as charged! GUILTY!, Tristan accused.
AI won=t buy that for one minute!, Mai scoffed. AIf you guys can=t accept the fact that we went to a strip club out of sheer, honest fun, then don=t expect us to give you the benefit of the doubt either. Besides, we=re not the ones dressed in doofy-ass disguises that could come out of a bad western movie. Now who REALLY has something to hide????.
Offended, Tristan replied, AHey!!!! Stop dissin= our disguises! It was..
AOh, shut up, Tristan!, Tea retorted. Tristan glared at Tea for her rudeness.
ACome on girls. We don=t need to take this. Mai said as she was on her way towards the exit.
Tea soon followed, while Serenity was still sheepish about getting caught. AGuys, we really didn=t mean any harm. It was all in good fun. I=m sorry, Tristan. She avoided eye contact with Joey and ran up to catch up with the other two girls.
ADon=t let the door hit ya butt on the way out! And I WILL be waiting for my apology, Mai!!!!, Joey shouted after them. A group of people near by were staring in their direction, obviously eavesdropping on their entire conversation.
Noticing, Joey turned to them, saying it loud enough for them to hear, AHey! What are you lookin= at? Stop being a buncha nosey asses! You can break up the gossip corner and start breaking your asses home! Now scram! He heard someone say something like Ashut the fuck up, homo, but he paid them no heed. Shaking his head, Joey looked at Tristan in disbelief. ACan you believe that shit!?, he said in half disgust, half amusement.
Tristan responded, AActually, I can, now....We didn=t think Yugi would be a stripper either. I guess we really don=t know each other as well as we all think.
Joey snorted in renewed agreement, AHmmph, yeeaah, you got that right.....sheesh. But honestly, all these surprises gave me whiplash. Now my neck=s hurtin=!
What am I going to do? ...
Sitting in the passenger seat of Tigris=s silver Lamberghini, Yugi was dreading the inevitable....
He knew he had a lot of explaining to do....but he didn't know how he would go about telling Yami. He wouldn't understand...he just doesn't know.....
"Yugi...Yuuugi!"
"Huh? ..."
"You okay?", Tygris asked reassuringly.
"Oh...sorry about that. I was just....." Yugi shook his head in worry...
"Damn it Ty, he wasn't supposed to find out this soon! Everything just blew up in my face....What am I going to say to him now?"
After a short moment of silence, Tygris responded, "All you can do is just tell him the truth. Tell him everything. Look, I don't like your...friend too much, but you need to tell him what he needs to hear, not what he wants to hear."
Tygris sighed. "You don't need to get down on yourself, Yugi. You were just following your heart. Make him see that you're not the innocent Yugi that he's known for this long. That there's more to you than he wants to see."
They stopped at the next approaching red light.
He smirked, and then turned to eye Yugi. "Did you see the look on his face when he saw it was you under that mask? You had him staring, Yugs'....Hell, you nearly made him spill in his pants!!!"
Yugi winced. "Ugh...don't remind me..."
"...like I was saying: For once ...no make that for 'twice', put him in his place. Like you said yourself, you've got to stand up to him more often...just like you did back there in the club. Admit it, you felt damn good saying 'no' to him. Believe me, that conceited prick needed it."
"Tygris!"
"Sorry, I meant 'asshole'..."
"Tyyyy!", Yugi began to chuckle..... "I did feel damn good saying 'no' to Yami. Sometimes I can't stand it when he acts so high and mighty. I guess he can't help himself, being a pharaoh and all."
Tygris snorted at that comment. "He damned sure acts like one. Someone really needs to kick his ass, though...."
Yugi looked at Tygris pleadingly, then said, "Ty, promise me one thing. If you guys do bump into each other, PLEASE don't say or do anything to rile him."
"Wha' you mean? Well...not if he doesn't say shit to me first. Remember, he was the one that threw the first punch. He was the one acting like a complete..."
"...Ass. I know..., but just avoid him...for my sake until I get all this shit straightened out, okay? I still don't know if I can face him yet. God!"
Pouring rain quickly began to hit the wind shield as Tygris clicked on the shield wipers. "So...are you having second thoughts about going to your place then?" Tygris queried while keeping his eyes on the blurry road.
Yugi was staring outside his window, considering Tygris' question. The rain emphasized his gloomy mood. He sighed in disgust. God must be telling him something....
"To tell you the truth, I don't want to face him now. He's probably still raw with anger about my 'disgracing' myself in front of everyone." Yugi blushed, then rolled his eyes at the memory.
Ty glanced at Yugi, then said, "Well, then if you're not up to it, then you can stay at my place then. It's probably best to let this thing blow over a bit, so you can gather your thoughts. Do it when you're ready and when he's a lot calmer to listen. Look at it as another part of the Yugi that turned 'naughty' phase."
Yugi smirked at that, and then replied, "You know, you really could be bad for my health. I really shouldn't be listening to you, but I'll do it just because I'm too tired to argue."
Yugi barely stifled a yawn. "I'll spend the night, but I'll be leaving first thing in the morning. Then I'll tell Mr. Yami more than a piece of my mind."
Tygris smiled at that. "Believe me, if you don't want to do it, I'll gladly give him a piece of MY mind"
"Wow, nice place you got here, Ty!"
Ty grinned at Yugi. "Thanks, glad you like it. Took a lot of ass shaking to get a place like this, if you know what I mean."
Yugi grinned back at him. The place was huge! They were in the living room area. The floors where tiled in black marble, and 4 piece couch set was made of expensive red and black leather. The sitting table was white, and standing flat on the wall was a '50' inch plasma television set with a dvd and stereo player.
"Ty, you sure you aren't loaded with cash or something?! I find it hard to believe you got all this stuff from simply 'ass shaking!'"
Tygris grinned at him. "Come...I'll show you around some more."
Tyris showed him the kitchen area, then the dining room and bedrooms. Then they went into a nice part gallery room, part entertainment room which had a pool table, a mini bar and a stage with a dancer pole on it. The surrounding walls of the rooms were filled with paintings.
"This is what I call 'The Lounge'."
"Wow...I'm impressed." Yugi walked towards the paintings. "The paintings are fantastic."
He went closer to one and began examining it. The painting showed a man in a subway alley. The painting was clearly impressionistic in style. He saw at the lower left bottom the initials "HR". "Who did this painting?"
"I did." Tygris said.
"You're kidding, right?!" Yugi was unconvinced.
"No, seriously, I did this painting. In fact, I did all of these paintings."
"You did ALL of these works of art? Then how come your initials aren't 'TS' instead of 'HR'?"
Tygris looked at Yugi, then began to explain. "My name actually isn't Tygris Sinz, Yugi...In fact, it's just my stage name."
Yugi stared at Tygris as if he was joking this time.
"My REAL name...is Hedio-Kai Ramaza."
1Author's notes: So how'd you like it? Good? I hope so. Please send me your reviews, I need to know what you think.
