A/N: Ummm, How many of you readers are ready to slap me for not updating sooner? looks around at all the raised hands Uh huh Uh huh, that's what I thought so I came prepared! Puts on hockey mask Alrighty then! Well, I really am sorry for the long wait, but I've had the worse case of Writer's Block ever! But no worries, my Creative Writing class has now ended as of this Semester and there will be no more writing stories for grades. Anyways, I did start writing a new fic to help me get out of writer's block. It's a Yu Yu Hakusho fic, and it turned out a lot better then I thought it would, so for all you Yu-Gi-Oh fans that also like Yu Yu Hakusho and like Kurama I'm going to be putting up that fic sometime soon I hope, but not before I put up the other fic I promised you guys. I'm hoping, since things are starting to pick up again and the FBLA Gold Seal project is almost over (that took up quiet a bit of my writing skills), I'll be able to get the new YGO story 'The World' up. I already have the first two chapters written out on it. But anyways, I've already taken up a lot of you guys reading time so I'm just going to say: Thank you to all that review! They really do mean a lot to me! And now… On with the show… I'm mean fic.

'Blah' Thinking

"Blah" Talking

#Blah# Yugi to Yami

# #Blah# # Yami to Yugi

$:$Blah$:$ Yugi's Doggie thoughts

TEST OF FRIENDSHIP

Chapter 10: New Place, New Face

Golden rays of sunshine poured through the gently pulled away curtains of the living room window. It was a beautiful morning; the sunlight through the window was evidence of that. But to Yugi, waking up was just another day of trying to be noticed for the spiky haired boy he was and not the smaller than usually fluff ball he had now been reduced to.

Speaking of the black fluff ball… he was still sleeping soundly on the couch in the same poison he was in before he fell asleep. The warm beams of sunshine shone softly on his face as if to let him know that he had over slept and it was passed time to get up. Unfortunately Yugi's idea of 'passed time to get up' wasn't 8am on a Saturday morning.

Yugi gurglingly opened his eyes but immediately closed them back when the unwelcome light filled his sockets. He tried opening them again, but this time more slowly so the 'just woken up' feeling wouldn't come all at once. When he was finally adjusted he lifted his small framed body out from under the warm blankets and sat up in a slouching head-down poison.

$:$Oww… the couch is good for sitting, not sleeping.$:$

He stretched and yawned and shook out his fur before taking in a fresh breathe of air. But when the air came, Yugi was pleasantly surprised to smell that the air was scented with the flavor of eggs and bacon.

$:$Yami's cooking… and there's no smell of burnt with it?$:$ Yugi thought as he plopped down from the couch and headed towards the kitchen. When he made it there he was disappointed to find the window from next house over was opened, as was his, and it was their wonderful breakfast that was wafting over into his and Yami's kitchen.

$:$I should've known it was too good to be true.$:$

"Well, you look like you had a rough night?"

Yugi turned his head to the other side of the kitchen and saw Yami fishing through an open cabinet.

$:$Well excuse me for looking rough but you're not the one that had to sleep in a dog's body, on a couch, with one blanket, and no pillow. Besides, you don't look a lot better yourself.$:$ Yugi voiced his sarcasm inside his head, but on the outside he only gave a loud snot and crossed over towards the table.

"And grumpy." Yami added as he came out of the cabinet with two pop tart packs. "I hope you don't mind, but like I said earlier I really don't know what a dog likes besides dog food and I don't have any of that. So I hope you like pop tarts."

Yugi carefully eyed the pop tarts as Yami sat them down on a plate in front of him.

"Next time I have to baby sit you, I'll be more prepared," Yami reassured him as he sat down at the table to eat his own pop tarts, "but I'm hoping the next time I'll have Yugi here to help me."

Yugi sighed and looked down at the pop tart before looking back at Yami. He smiled slightly. Yami was trying, but the truth was, he really didn't know a thing about dogs. Not to mention he wasn't looking so well. All that worrying and searching for him apparently wasn't doing Yami's health a bit of good.

$:$It's okay Yami. I'm glad you're not prepared, because prepared means dog food and I'd much prefer this strawberry pop tarts over dog food. Besides, you worry too much.$:$

The rest of their breakfast was spent in silent as they both nibbled around on their pop tarts that clearly neither of them wanted. But food was food, and at this point, Yugi wasn't about to be picky.

Just as they both finished with their breakfast, the door bell rang.

$:$Wonder who that is? Bet it's Tea.$:$

"Oh, that must be the gang." Yami unknowingly answered the small pups question as he got up and made for the front door. "I forgot that they called earlier this morning and said they were coming over this morning to help look again."

Yugi sat with his head crocked to the side as he watched Yami disappeared into the front of the game shop. He didn't begin to leave the kitchen until he heard his friend's voices float in through the open door. Sitting sheepishly in the doorway, he watched as they all filed in.

"'Ey Yami," Joey greeted," ow man, you don' look so good. Ya sick?"

"No, I'm fine Joey." Yami sighed as he ran a hand through his tri-colored hair.

"Awww, did the poor Pharaoh miss out on his beauty sleep?"

Yami and Yugi both jerked their heads up in the direction of the voice only to find a sharp-eyed, spiked hair Ryou, or better known as Bakura.

Yami growled, "What are you doing here?"

Bakura smirked and stepped the rest of the way inside the shop and shut the door behind him. It was a jester in itself; clearly saying that he was coming in whether Yami liked it or not and there was nothing he could do to stop him. But he spoke something different. "Why pharaoh, I thought you'd be happy I came to help out; after all, I seem to have better luck keeping up with my hikari then you, so I might just be able to help you with yours."

Yami didn't take to these words too kindly. He gritted his teeth and clutched his hands into a fist to help keep his self in check. "Bakura, I have no room for your sarcasm today or any other day for that matter, so if you're not going to take this seriously, then you might be better off going back where you came from."

Bakura 'humphed' at Yami's pathetic threat, "Where, Ryou's house?"

"No," Yami growled out as he stepped closer, "your tomb."

Bakura's smug look turned into a glare; a glare that would've lasted longer if not for Ryou jumping in.

"Alright you two, this is not what we are here for."

"Yeah, we don't have time for this." Tea jumped in as Ryou slipped back away from the fight.

"Geeze Ryou," Joey whispered, "Those two fight worse than me and Tristan."

Ryou sweatdropped but smiled back, "And I live with this."

"Speaking of Tristan, where is he?" Ryou added as he looked around.

"He was right behind me," Joey replied.

Just then the door to the Kame Game Shop opened for the second time that morning. Tristan stepped through the doorway and waited a minute before shutting it behind him.

"What took ya so long Tristan?" Joey asked.

"Sorry, Princess here decided to take a detour."

$:$Princess?$:$ Yugi thought, but as soon as he had a large dog stepped out in front of him and sat down.

$:$Ugh!$:$ Yugi thought as the rather large dog caught him off guard. He sat recoiled back on his haunches as he watched the big dog examine him.

Finally, after what seemed like forever, the large dog crouched down in a lying poison and wagged her tail. Yugi was about to sit back up straight but stopped when the dog in front of him spoke.

"Oy."

Yugi's eyes grew wider and he blinked rapidly to make sure he wasn't hearing things.

"You brought your dog Tristan?" Yami asked as they all watch 'Boo' and Princess' first meeting.

"Yeah," Tristan said as he continued to watch. "Princess doesn't get out and get the chance to meet a lot of dogs, so I thought it might be good for the both of them if they got to know one another."

"They seem to be getting a long well." Ryou pointed out.

Princess stopped wagging her tail and wiped the doggish grin off her snout and looked at Yugi inquisitively. "Hello? Are you in there?" She barked.

Yugi, who was still sitting there amazed that he was talking to another dog, or well, that another dog was talking to him, snapped out of his daze and realized how rude he was being.

"O—oh sorry," Yugi fumbled with his words, "you just took me by surprise."

"Oh," Princess barked, glad that he wasn't afraid of her, "sorry about that, I've just been anxious to meet you that's all."

"Meet me?"

"Oh yes," Princess yipped, "Master Tristan has told me all about you, but he did forget to mention how cute you are."

Yugi blushed, which was invisible under his fur. $:$Thank goodness, that's the last thing I would ever want Tristan to say about me.$:$

"So," Princess said when she saw this conversation was going no where, "Are you excited about our little outing today?"

"Our outing?" Yugi barked

"Yes! Master Tristan says we are going to look for one of there friends today and we get to go along! Doesn't that sound exciting. I do love a good mystery."

$:$Geez, this dog really doesn't get out much.$:$ "Oh yeah, great." Yugi lied.

"Well then, let's go see where they plan to take us to," Princess yipped with excitement as she came up from behind Yugi and use her noses to push him along towards the group.

"Hey hey, easy." Was Yugi's grumble as Princess never ceased her pushing.

When Yugi and Princess had made it over to the living room where the gang was now holding court, it appeared that a decided had already been made. Joey stood up and voiced that things had been settled and that they would all start at his apartment and branch out from there.

"We'll check every possible route home dat Yugi could of taken and maybe we'll find some kinda clue or somethin'."

It was quite a good idea. An idea that should have been thought of to begin with instead of looking around in 'know nothing' places that couldn't offer any clue as to where or what happened to Yugi.

$:$Now we're getting somewhere!$:$

$:$This is going no where…$:$

Yugi dropped down to the hard sidewalk as his friends checked every nook and cranny except for the one that might hold evidence. His eyes darted up and followed Princess as she darted by and yelled "Come on Yugi there's still places to search."

"No thank you, I'm quite tired of looking for myself." Yugi mumbled.

"Come again?" Princess asked, which caused Yugi to jump. He hadn't expected her to be right in front of him so quickly.

"Uhh, nothing, I said okay, let's go,"

"Okay!" Princess accepted the answer and ran off ahead of Yugi, still yelling for him to hurry and catch up.

$:$How can dogs have so much energy? I'm a dog and even I don't have that much energy. I think it's just her.$:$

Yugi begrudgingly pulled himself up from his current position and scampered off behind Princess with his tongue hanging slightly from his mouth.

"Well that's it." Yami placed his hand on his forehead and combed his fingers back through his hair, "We've checked everywhere…"

"Not quite," Bakura interrupted as he walked over to the nearest house and flipped open the lid on the mail box that was mounted on the side of the wall and then peeked in. When he was done he walked back over and stood back by Ryou. "Now we've checked everywhere."

"Bakura!" Ryou scolded and elbowed him in the ribs while everyone shot the former thief dirty looks.

Yugi's eyes were half lidded in annoyance. $:$Thanks Bakura…$:$

Yami sighed and messaged his brows, "This doesn't make any sense. We've checked every possible path from Joey's apartment to the Kame Game shop and we've still no closer to finding Yugi than we were when we started."

"Maybe he didn't go straight home," Tristan offered, "maybe he went somewhere else, or met somebody."

The ex-pharaoh's frown deepened at the thought of Tristan last comment, "That's what I'm afraid of…"

Even though the taller Yugi had meant his last statement to only be heard by himself, Joey couldn't help but over hear it. The blonde knew that Yami wasn't referring to what Tristan had originally implied, and silently he had thought the same thing. But it was one thing to think it, and another thing to have it admitted out loud. That made it seem real, and that's exactly what he didn't want.

"We'll check the allies," Joey said as he jammed his hands in his pockets and started to walk off in the direction of the nearest alley. "There are short cuts all the way around the city back here, and I'm not goin' home till I've checked 'em all."

"Joey…" Tea whispered. She recognized that serious look in Joey's eyes. It was an expression that never graced his face to often. Only when he was dueling or having a fight with Kaiba did he have that look. It was a sign that things had gotten serious.

Yugi too had seen the look in Joey's eyes and knew as well as Tea what it had meant. Yugi knew what was going through Joey's mind. He knew he was thinking that at this point hope was running thin and that was something Joey wasn't willing to let his mind admit. Yugi felt bad for making his friends feel this way, but there wasn't much he could do. What else could he possibly do to make them see that the dog they have been dragging around for the last few days wasn't really a dog at all, but the best friend that they had been searching for?

"Hey guys?" Tristan asked as he looked around, "Has anyone seen Princess?"

Everyone stopped for a moment and looked around except for Joey, how really didn't seem to care much for the whereabouts of Tristan's pet companion at the moment.

"There she is Tristan."

Tea pointed out the large German Shepard bounding out of one of the allies with what looked like some kind of white paper hanging from her mouth.

"Hey girl, don't go running off like that," Tristan kneeled down and patted the top of her head before giving her a questioning look, "What'd ya got in your mouth? You shouldn't put things in your mouth from the allies, you don't know where it's been."

Tristan quickly pulled the flat, white object from Princess' mouth and looked at it. He eyes widened as he stared down at the object while Princess stared up at her master with a bright expression and a happy wagging tail.

"What is it Tristan?" Ryou asked as he came up from behind.

"You guys aren't going to believe this, but look."

Everyone gathered around Tristan, this time Joey seemed more interested and came over as well. There reactions, except for Bakura's, mirrored that of Tristan when they looked at the object in his hand.

Yami quickly relieved Tristan of the object and inspected it closer. "This is Yugi's."

In Yami's hand was a single group photo of all his friends.

Yami's glaze harder as he looked up from the picture and his eyes landed on Tristan. "We need to know where this picture came from."

"Right," Tristan nodded and then turned to look at Princess. "Princess, I need you to show Tristan just where you found the photo. Can you do that for me girl?"

Princess barked and wagged her tail and looked over at Yugi who seemed to be awaiting her answer as well. "I should have been a detective dog."

"You did good Princess, but now I need you to take them to that alley where you found my photo."

"Your photo?" She yipped in confused, "I thought this belonged to the boy that we were looking for."

Yugi eyes widened and he sat back on his haunches, "Well it is, but… I'll tell you later, but right now we need to hurry okay."

"Alright, alright, don't get your knickers in a twist," Princess said as she turned and bolted for the alley.

"Alright guys let's go!" Tristan said as they all took off behind Princess.

They all stood gathered in the back of the alley way, looking around for anything that might give them a clue to where their shortest friend might be.

"Nothing looks outta place ta me," Joey said as he kicked an empty can out of the way.

Yami clutched onto the photo and looked at it again. He stared hard at it as if he were trying to look through it and not at it. After what seemed like minutes Yami sneered at the picture and dropped it to the ground. At about the same time Bakura narrowed his eyes in disgust and placed the back of his hand over his nose.

"Only a mortal fool would see nothing has happened back here," Bakura sneered at Joey.

"So you sense it as well." Yami stated more than asked.

Bakura only snored at the pharaoh and continued to look disgusted.

"What is it?" Tea asked

Yami stared at the alley walls and the discarded photo once more before answering. "Something happened back here, something that has to do with fowl magic, the air around this alley reeks of it. And since Yugi's photo was back here I'm willing to bet this is the reason we haven't seen him in two days."

All except Yami and Bakura looked taken back by this information.

"What do you think happened?" Joey asked, "You don't think that whatever dis bad magic was did somethin' to our little bud do ya?"

"No of course not Wheeler," Bakura said sarcastically, "there has been loads of times where bad magic has done good things… oh wait, no there hasn't."

"Bakura!" Joey yelled in frustration and shook his fist at the grinning tomb robber, "how would you like to end up in that dumpster over there?"

"Enough!" Yami yelled, "we don't have time for this so if you two want to continue this take it else where."

Silent followed shorting after the ex-pharaoh's outburst.

Yugi was currently ignoring the 'humans' and was looking around on his own.

$:$I can still remember what happened in here perfectly. It's almost like watching a movie.$:$ Yugi took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, but shortly after he had expelled the air from his lungs a puzzled look crossed his face. $:$And what's even weirder is I can still smell my scent in here.

Yugi stiffed around more discovering a trail of his scent leaving out of the alley. His expression brightened. $:$This is my trail from the night of the accident. If I can get them to follow me, I can follow my trail to all the place I have been. This alley, the park, Tea's house… Hopefully they'll see the pattern between me and doggie me and put two and two together.$:$

"Boo! You're a genius!"

Yugi whipped around to see that Princess was stiffing the same spots that Yugi had just sniff off himself.

"We can follow this scent and let it lead us straight to their friend."

"Uh, yeah." Yugi replied weakly.

$:$oh man, this might be a little more difficult then I thought since deputy dog is right on my heels. And it's not like I can tell her it's me, she would never believe me.$:$

Princess barked at the gang trying to encourage them to follow her. Yugi finally joined her in trying to get them to follow. He knew it would be harder for him to get them to see that his trail and his dog trail was the same with Princess around, but for right now they both had the same goal and that was to just get them to follow.

"What is it girl?" Tristan asked as they all stared at the two vociferous dogs.

"I think they want us to follow them Tristan." Ryou offered as he stepped closer to the dogs. When he did Princess sniffed the ground again and ran up the alley a little ways before turning back and barking.

"She must have caught onto a scent in the alley," Tea said as she joined Ryou a little ways up the alley.

Yami looked unsure, "But she could have caught any scent in here. How can we be sure she has the right one?"

"Let's put it this way man," Joey answered. "If we stay here, we're lookin' at a dead end, but if we follow Boo and Princess at least we have something to go by."

Yami seemed to think about it for the moment before nodding to Joey.

"Let's go," Yami said, and with that, they all took off after the two tracking dogs.

A/N: Okay I know, it sucked right? But at least it is an update. This chapter is what I like to call an info chapter. I needed to show the progress the gang was making and introduce Tristan's dog. So how did you guys like her? Anyways, the next chapter is guaranteed to be way better and way sooner. I have quiet the little outing in store for our little Boo in the next chapter and there will be more humor in the next chapter as well. I hope you guys haven't forgotten about me in the long wait and I apologize again, Gomen! I hope you like it and please review and tell me what you thought. Also, since I made you guys wait so long, I'm going to allow everyone to give me a swift kick in the butt for not updating so soon, but remember, one kick per review… my poor butt might not be able to handle more than that. Until next time!