Behind the Scenes

By Anime2000

Disclaimer: As stated before, Yu-Gi-Oh! is not property of Anime2000 and is rightly Kazuki Takahashi's work. All rights reserved.

(-----------------)

Yugi froze. Who was behind him? It definitely wasn't Joey or Tristan. They would have announced their arrival by slapping him on the back and asking if they could have a shot at the game he was playing. It wasn't Tea because she would have normally yelled a 'hi' before running over. He knew that Mai and Serenity was with her, so the person behind him couldn't have been either of them. Duke? He doubted that he would come. Bakura probably wouldn't come, but Ryou might. Or he might not. That just left Yami. But what if it wasn't-

"Are you going to turn around or what?"

Yugi sighed in relief. He knew that voice. "Isis!" he said turning around. "You scared me for a moment there!" He smiled cheerfully as he faced the Egyptian girl. "Hey, where are Malik and Mariku?"

"Oh, him?" asked Isis. "Funny you should mention-"

He was interrupted by a loud banging noise behind him. She grinned almost embarrassedly as her brother's 'darker side' banged angrily at vending machine, demanding to get his money back. Apparently, it had swallowed up his dollar and refused to give him a coke.

"Mariku!" Malik's voice could be heard as he tried to stop Mariku from breaking the thing. "You don't bang on it like that! You do this!" He gave it a swift kick and a can came rolling out. "See?"

Mariku picked the Sprite up and stared at it for a moment before saying, "I wanted a coke."

"Then I'll take this," Malik replied, snatching the can of Sprite out of his hand.

"Thanks, Malik," Bakura said grabbing it out of the blonde's hand.

"Bakura?" asked Yugi, his eyes wider than they originally were. "You here?"

"Actually," the snowy-haired teen replied tossing the can of Sprite from one hand to another. "I'm Ryou," he said opening it as his twin walked up. Whether it was by accident, or on purpose, he ended up drenching Bakura in the sugary beverage. "But Bakura is here."

Everyone stared at Ryou. Especially Malik and Mariku. Bakura was just staring at him in disbelief.

"That was my Sprite you just wasted," Malik said frowning.

"That was MY money you just wasted!" Mariku shouted pointing at them.

"That was not funny, Ryou!" Bakura yelled looking ready to rip his brother apart.

"Yeah..." Ryou folded his arms, "But..." He looked around at the people around him. "It was worth it!" He said laughing at the expression on his friends' faces. Mariku, Malik, and Bakura just stood there recovering from shock. Then they realized that Ryou was running away and they ran after him.

"D'you think Ryou'll be okay?" asked Yugi to Isis.

"Yeah, he's a pretty fast runner," Yami said for her. Remember? He came with Bakura and Ryou.

"Yami!" Yugi said happily. "You're here!" He gave his older brother a hug and said, "Do you have any money?"

"Eh?" asked Yami. 'Oh yeah. I thought I forgot something. Haha... You can't go to an arcade without any money,' the spiky-haired teen thought to himself. "Ah... no." He looked around. "But... um... Tea might have some!" he exclaimed pointing to the brunette that was walking through the front entrance of the arcade.

"Tea? Tea!" Yugi cried running over to his friend. Change that to friends. Mai and Serenity was there too.

Yami breathed a sigh of relief. "Forgot money?" Yami turned around to see Tristan. Nobody knows how he got here. Perhaps it might have been because his house was just two blocks away from the arcade, and he only rides his motorcycle to show off... To who? Serenity?

"Yeah." He nodded. "Say, do you have any-" Before he could finish his sentence, he realized that Tristan was already playing Pinball. "Oh." And Tristan wasn't very good at Pinball. "Ah.... Tristan?"

"What?" Tristan asked as he lost his second ball. "Dang!" His score? 2,000.

"Serenity's here," he said, pointing to the group of teens and a tri-haired boy near the entrance.

"What?!" Tristan looked behind him at the mentioning of Serenity's name. "Hey! Serenity's here!" Yami blinked, but he decided not to say anything. "And what's Devlin doing with her?!" He ran off towards them, leaving Yami with one ball left.

'Better than nothing,' Yami thought as he started to play.

(-)

But where could Seto and Mokuba be? Why, on their way here, of course!

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"No."

"Are we there yet?"

"For the last time, Wheeler, NO!"

And Joey was with them.

"Are we there yet-"

"Mokuba, don't even start," growled Seto. This was the last time he let Joey in the car with them. "Man, this truck just won't move, will it?!" He grumbled, glaring at the vehicle in front of him. "Mokuba, how would you feel if we DIDN'T go to Yugi's party-"

"But Kaiba, we're-" Joey started, but Seto cut him off.

"Wheeler, I swear, if you say something else again, I will make sure that you will never be able to say anything again!" Seto warned, turning around.

"But, Kaiba-"

"No! Don't say-"

"Kaiba, we're there!" Joey blurted out.

"Wheeler- We are?"

"Yeah! See?" Joey said pressing his finger against the glass window. Mokuba looked over the taller boy's shoulder.

Seto stared blankly at the truck in front of him. He was so frustrated that he didn't realize that he was already there.

"Well, Kaiba, are we-"

"Shut up!"

(-)

"Whoa! Look at that guy!"

"He's got that far with only one ball!"

"He's gonna beat the high score!"

"Hey, isn't he that guy from Yu-Gi-Oh!?"

People whispered excitedly around Yami as he kept on playing. He didn't notice that a whole crowd of people had gathered around him. He didn't realize that there were people slapping him on the back and cheering him on. He was oblivious to his surroundings. All he knew was that he couldn't let the ball get past his defenses. He couldn't let it go through-

"What's this? Yami playing Pinball? Now, I never would of thought of this!"

-the flippers.

That voice snapped Yami out of his trance. Yami watched helplessly as the last ball went in between the bottom two flippers. (Don't you just hate it when that happens?) He didn't beat the high score.

Yami turned towards the direction where that voice came from. He knew it very well. "Kaiba," Yami said, his voice dripping with rage. "I almost beat the high score! You distracted me!"

"High score?" asked Seto as Mokuba and Joey ran in separate directions; towards their favorite games. "Do you mean... mine?" He smirked.

Yami opened his mouth, but closed it because he couldn't think of anything to say. He knew it was Kaiba's. That's why he was trying to beat it. So how could Yami say that he just failed when he knew what he was doing?

"Geez, some King of Games," said a guy walking out of the crowd. Slowly, the large crowd that had been around Yami had diminished to seven people: Tea, Serenity, Mai, Yugi, Isis, Duke, and Tristan.

"You did a great job, Yami," Tea said trying to cheer him up. "It doesn't matter if Kaiba beat you just this once!"

"Yeah!" Yugi joined in.

Yami heard them, but he didn't feel any better. "What's the matter, Yami?" asked Seto tauntingly. "You couldn't beat me, could you?"

"No," said Yami. Then he smiled. "But there will always be one game that you'll never beat me in." He pulled out his deck of Duel Monsters.

"Is that a challenge?" asked Seto, taking out his own deck that, too, had been conveniently at hand.

"What else?" asked Yami shuffling his cards. Both rivals glared at each other while the spectators watched excitedly as they got ready for their Duel, completely unaware of Ryou, who was behind them, running for dear life while being chased by Bakura, Malik and Mariku who were throwing basketballs at him.

(------------------)

Fun. A Duel coming.
R&R! And no flames!