"Yami, I've had a crush on you since Yugi first got the puzzle."

/God Yami, you should just admit that you like him already./

/I can't! It's a pride issue./

/So you do like him./

/I do not/

"Just admit it already, you like him and you're gay!" The teacher, who had been staring at Yugi waiting for an answer to a question Yugi hadn't heard, started. At the same time, Kaiba's books fell to the floor.

"What did you say?" The teacher asked.

"I'm so sorry Mr. Kawasaki! I wasn't talking to you!"

"Well, Mr. Kaiba seems to think you were talking to him."

"I wasn't talking to him either." Kaiba, who had recovered his books, glared at the teacher, who didn't push the subject. Mr. Kawasaki went back to teaching his subject, and Yugi went back to talking to Yami.

/Why am I having such a problem talking to you through the link/

/I have no idea, I can't remember anything like this happening before./

/It's not like you can remember much of anything./

/Now that was below the belt./

/Sorry./

/I think it's better if we don't risk using the link until we're safely out of class./

/Ok then./ And Yugi could finally pay attention to his teacher, not that he did. After class, Kaiba pulled him aside.

"I want to talk to you about some of the things you said earlier."

"About that. I'm really sorry, I wasn't talking to you."

"You've said that before, but I still can't figure out who you were talking to."

"Would you believe me if I said the ancient spirit that lives in the puzzle?"

"Would you blame me if I said no?"

"Not really."

"Then why did you tell me that?"

"Because it's the truth."

"I don't care if you think it's the truth, I don't believe it."

"Ok then, Kaiba. I guess I'll see you after school." Yugi started to walk off, but stopped when he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"Wait, Yugi." Kaiba spun Yugi around and pushed him gently up against the lockers. Kaiba leaned in close and Yugi could feel Kaiba's breath on his cheek.

"W-what is it, Kaiba?" Yugi tried to squirm away from Kaiba. Kaiba closed his eyes tightly, shook his head, then opened his eyes and walked away as if nothing had happened.

Yugi felt sweat on his forehead, and he slid down the locker until he was sitting on the floor. Maybe it was just his imagination, but it looked like Kaiba had been about to kiss him.

/So close, yet so far./ Yami wailed from inside his soul room.

"Yug! Did I just see what I thought I just saw?" Joey came running down the hallway and stopped in front of Yugi. "That bastard, I'll go get him for you!" And Joey once again ran off down the hall before Yugi could stop him.

"Hey Kaiba!" Joey yelled, trying desperately to get Kaiba's attention. "How dare you do that to Yugi?"

"And what exactly is it that I did to Yugi?"

"What did you do to Yugi? You practically molested him!" At the last statement, everyone in the hallway turned to look at the two. Kaiba's eyebrows shot up into his hairline before he regained him composure.

"What, jealous, mutt?" He sneered.

"No-NO!" Joey shouted.

"Need to say it twice to convince yourself?"

"No!"

"Third time's a charm, idiot." Kaiba turned on his heel and walked away, leaving a stunned Joey to deal with the crowd.

By sheer coincidence, the girls' bathroom that Tea was hiding in was right next to where the two boys had been fighting, and she heard every word.

"I didn't know anyone even knew I existed back then."

"Hi Mokuba, may I speak to Kaiba please?"

"Oh wow, sure Tea, I'll go get him." Mokuba opened the door a little wider to allow Tea into the entry hall. He then disappeared down another hallway and returned a few minutes later with his big brother in tow.

"What do you want?" Kaiba asked shortly.

"You molested Yugi!" Tea's fist met with Kaiba's face.

"Is there anything else you want? No? Good, there's the door." With that he shoved Tea none too kindly onto the front step and slammed the door behind her.

"What was that all about?" Mokuba asked.

"A misunderstanding. Now, I have to go get ready for school." So in thirty minutes, he was walking up the steps too school, a spectacular bruise blooming on his left cheek. About half way up the steps, he found his way was blocked by Tea, who was waiting for him.

"Look, I'm sorry about your boyfriend." Kaiba snapped, side stepping her and walking up the stairs.

"He's not my boyfriend!"

"Really?" Kaiba turned back to stare at her. "Then explain why you at the ice cream parlor him, on what he called a date."

"I wasn't with Yugi, I was with Yami." Kaiba had had enough of this game, and was sick of people telling of about Yami, so he decided to end his conversation with Tea.

"Well, who ever you were with, they didn't seem to enjoy their date." With that, he walked into the school building and left Tea standing speechless.

Homeroom was noisy as always, with everyone ignoring the poor teacher whom was trying to take roll. Kaiba had his nose buried in a thick book written in a foreign language, but no one seemed to notice he was holding it upside down. Well, no one except for a Pharaoh trapped in a golden puzzle, but said Pharaoh noticed everything about the billionaire.

"That's a pretty nasty bruise Kaiba's got going on over there." Tristan said.

"Wonder where he got it." Joey said. Tea shifted feet uncomfortably, and changed the subject.

"Well, Yugi, would you mind if I spoke to Yami for a moment?" Yugi nodded, looking too embarrassed to say anything. A second later, the blush disappeared unnaturally fast, and Yugi seemed to glare at Kaiba.

"What do you want, Tea?"

"I want to know what happened yesterday. I would ask Yugi, but I'm afraid it would be traumatizing for him." Kaiba snorted to himself and went back to eavesdropping on their conversation.

"Absolutely nothing happened." What could have happened yesterday that was traumatizing to Yugi? Almost nothing had happened yesterday, except for Kaiba not kissing them, but that would hardly traumatize Yugi.

"Then why was Joey going on about Kaiba molesting Yugi?"

"Joey seems to think my bubble is bigger than it is. I believe that is the phrase you use."

"Your bubble?"

"You know, my personal space bubble? That's what you call it, right?"

"Then why was Joey saying that Kaiba was molesting you?"

"I hardly call 2.795 inches from my face molesting me."

"You measured?"

"No, I'm just really good with math."

"No offence, Yami, but you suck at math." Joey said, breaking into Yami and Tea's conversation. Kaiba quirked a brow in thought. 'I thought math was Yugi's best subject.'

"Does knowing the exact measurements of Kaiba's face from yours yesterday have anything to do with the fact that Yugi thinks you're gay?"

"Wow, Tea's being really catty today." Tristan whispered to Joey.

"If I'm gay, then why do you want to go out with me so badly?"

"I love you, Yami, doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"No, I'm gay, of course it wouldn't."

"Are you sure you're not bi?" Joey asked. Yami seized him around the neck and started to shake.

"No, I'm gay dammit!"

"Mr. Mutou, is there anything you would like to share with the class?" The teacher snapped from the front of the room.

"Yes, in fact. There is." Yami climbed up onto Yugi's desk, and started shouting. "I'm gay, I feel nothing for the person I'm going out with, and the person I do love is-" He was cut off mid sentence, and his whole demeanor seemed to change.

"I'm not gay! How could he say that! You're ruining my life, Yami!" Yugi cried, getting off the desk as fast as possible.

"Mr. Mutou, I think you should speak with the counselor." The teacher snapped, not at all pleased with Yami and Yugi's outbursts.

"But I'm not gay!" Yugi said.

"That's not what you said a minute ago, now run along." The teacher said, shoving a note into Yugi's hand and pushing him out the door.

"Stupid little faggot, I always knew he was gay." The kid next to Kaiba told his friend. "You could tell by the way he dressed and-" Whatever else the idiot was going to say was cut short when his head connected solidly with his desk.

"There is nothing wrong with being gay." Kaiba said, holding his neglected foreign language book above the kid's head.

"I knew almost from the beginning that you were different than Yugi."

Yugi was walking home; cursing to himself about the psychobabble the counselor had put him through.

/I'm really sorry, Yugi. I have no idea what came over me. I really didn't mean to get you in so much trouble, I was just so angry. Please don't take apart the puzzle./

"Don't worry about it, I'm just upset."

/About Tea/

"Yeah."

/Sorry about that. You know, you really should just tell her how you feel and get me off the hook./

"Oh sure, anything for you, Yami." Yugi said sarcastically.

/I didn't mean for it to sound that way./

"Hey boss, look a this freak. He keeps talking to himself." Came a voice from behind Yugi.

"I don't believe it. It's the same freak from a few days ago!"

"We'll get him this time. Go get him boys!" This voice Yugi recognized as the leader of the gang of thugs that had attacked him a few days ago. Because Yugi was in danger, Yami switched with him, and he turned around to face the thugs.

"Stop!" He said, holding a hand out in front of him. The thugs skidded to a halt.

"What are you waiting for? Kill him!" The boss screamed, but the others didn't move.

"He seems different than he was before." One of the thugs muttered under his breath.

"Let's play a game." Yami said, lowering his hand.

"Great idea. I know good one. Let's rearrange Starfish boy's face." The boss said.

Meanwhile, Kaiba was walking down the other side of the street, and happened to glance over at the scene that was unfolding opposite him.

It appeared to him that the same gang of thugs that Kaiba have saved Yugi from just days ago had cornered him. Kaiba started across the street to again save the life of Yugi, but he stopped when he heard Yugi speak.

"The rules of the game are simple. You have one minute to take the puzzle from me, but you cannot touch me. If you win, my life and my puzzle are yours. However, if you lose or you break the rules then you have to play a penalty game as punishment."

"You fool. Did you actually think the only way we could kill you was with our fists?" One of the thugs said, taking out a knife. The other thugs followed suit. "We could just slice you to ribbons with our knives! That counts, right?" He added as an afterthought.

"As long as you don't touch me yourselves, anything goes." Yami said.

"Why do you care about the rules of his game? Just kill him you idiots!" The boss yelled. The thugs nodded and circled around Yami, knives held at the ready.

"How hard can it be for three of us to kill one shrimp?" A thug asked his comrades. The first hugs smirked at his friend remarks and threw himself at Yami, knife held out. Yami sidestepped and the knife missed its target by a good two feet.

"Tick tock, tick tock, forty seconds left." Yami commented from where he was lounging against a brick wall.

"You brat!" The second thug shouted, before he went after Yami himself. His knife ended up embedded in the brick wall, but Yami was no where near where it had landed.

"Thirty seconds." The third one launched his attacked and missed like all the others. The second one had failed to recover his knife from the wall, and signaled to the first thug that they should attack simultaneously. The third thug had over compensated after missing Yami and had landed on his face. He was currently cursing at Yami from the ground while

Yami stood there and smirked, thus he did not notice the other two. Kaiba, however, did.

"Yugi!" Yami turned to see Kaiba running across the street. Despite the fact he was in the middle of a knife fight, Yami felt his heart skip a beat and he paused. The first thug took advantage of Yami's distraction and lunged at him with his knife. Yami saw him coming out of the corner of his eye but couldn't react quickly enough and was cut across the cheek. Yami spun to face the second thug, but again his timing was off and the second thug landed a punch to his stomach. Kaiba arrived just in time to catch Yami as he fell backwards from the blow.

"Yugi, are you alright?" Kaiba asked frantically. Yami nodded and pulled himself out of Kaiba's grip. Yami walked the blood off of his face, and pointed at the second thug.

"You broke the rules, that means all of you lose. As punishment for blindly following one who would lead you down the wrong path, you will turn on your false leader. Punishment Game: Revenge!" He held his hand out, open palmed, at the three thugs. Darkness enveloped the alleyway and three thugs started to scream. Yami turned on his heel, grabbed Kaiba's hand, and led him out of the alleyway. As they walked away from the alley, they continued to hear screaming, but it was no longer the thugs.

"What did you do back there?" Kaiba pulled his hand out of Yami's grip and stopped walking.

"A simple Shadow Game." Yami replied, turning to look at Kaiba.

"Shadow Game? Don't give me that crap. Last time I saw you with those thugs, you could barely hold your own, let alone beat them."

"Ah, but last time I wasn't there to help Yugi."

"What are you talking about? How can Yugi be there to help Yugi?"

"Do we need to go over this again?" Yami sighed. "I am Yami. The other one is Yugi. Yami. Yugi. Yami. Yugi. I thought you were a genius Kaiba, this shouldn't be that hard to understand!" Yami shouted the last part, looking extremely frustrated. Kaiba opened his mouth to say something, but closed it before he said anything. There were now two people standing in front of him, looking alike, but different at the same time. The twins looked at each other, looking equally shocked and then, once again, there was only one person standing in front of him.

"What the hell was that?" Kaiba demanded.

"I have no idea. Will you excuse me for a moment?" Yami's eyes glazed over.

/Yugi, do you have any idea what just happened/

/No, but for a minute it felt like we were separate./

/That may explain the deterioration of the link./

/What do you mean/

/It's just a theory, I'll explain later./ with that, Yami blinked and turned to face Kaiba, who was staring at his watch impatiently.

"Why did you feel the need to come to my rescue?" Yami asked Kaiba. Kaiba turned bright red, and stuttered incoherently for a minute before snapping out a response.

"Well, you didn't seem to disappointed to see me coming to your rescue." Kaiba turned and started to walk off, still blushing.

"Wait, Kaiba!" Yami caught him by the arm. "Thank you."

"It was nothing." Kaiba said, "You probably wouldn't have gotten cut at all if it hadn't been for me." Kaiba reached out and brushed his thumb over Yami's cut. Yami flushed and blinked a few times. There was an awkward silence for a moment before Kaiba jerked his hand back, pulled his arm out of Yami's grip, and turned to walk away.

"I have work." Was all he said by way of explanation.

"I think I owe you ice cream." Yami called after him. Kaiba turned back to face him and smirked.

"On second thought, work can wait."