Right, this chapter starts right at the end of the last. It was that the last chapter was so long already that I had to stop. :p

xXx

Chapter 3

"Hey Ryou, what happened to your hand?" Ryou glanced down at bandaged hand; he had completely forgotten about his injured wrist since it was on his lesser used hand.

"Oh, I fell and landed awkwardly on my hand. It's not serious." He said vaguely, not wanting to tell Yugi about the party and the fight. "I'm just lucky it's not my writing hand. It would be bad for me to turn up at school and not do anything." Yugi laughed.

"Most people would call that unlucky. Now you have to do the work." Ryou laughed with him as they packed up their maths stuff and made their way towards the door.

"What do you have now?" Yugi asked. They stopped outside the maths classroom and Ryou reached into his bag and dug out his timetable.

"I have French with…Madame Lombère." Yugi's eyes lit up.

"I have the same class as you! What do you have after?" Ryou glanced at his timetable again and pulled a face.

"I have geography. I hate geography." Just then, he spotted Marik leaning against a wall, looking like he was waiting to go into a classroom. Ryou smiled and started walking over to him. It didn't look like Marik had spotted Ryou yet; in fact it looked like he was waiting for someone. His advance was stopped however, by Yugi's grip on his arm.

"What are you doing?" he hissed, a fearful expression on his face. Ryou looked at him bemusedly.

"I'm going to say 'hello'." Yugi shook his head stubbornly.

"You do not want to do that. That's Marik. He's like the school psycho or something, him and his boyfriend Bakura. He'll like, punch someone for looking at them funny." Yugi was expecting a number of reactions from Ryou after his statement (most of which to display some sort of fear), but not for Ryou to start smiling.

"Don't worry about it; he won't do anything to us. C'mon, let's go." And he dragged Yugi over to Marik, Yugi getting paler and paler with each step.

"Hi Marik. Where's Bakura?" Marik turned to look at them, and smirked.

"Pipsqueak." He nodded in greeting. "Who's the Yami look-alike? I know that he doesn't have any siblings."

"This is my friend Yugi. Yugi this is my friend and my brother's boyfriend." Yugi's eyes widened.

"Bakura's your brother!" Marik rolled his eyes.

"Obviously runt, he looks just like Bakura. Any idiot could see that" He turned to Ryou. "You finding your way around alright?" Ryou nodded.

"Yeah. I had a little problem this morning when I couldn't find my locker but I got help." Marik raised an eyebrow as Ryou blushed lightly for no apparent reason.

"Who helped you?" Came a voice from behind Marik. Ryou's eyes lit up and Yugi paled another shade. Ryou hugged his brother tightly, a huge smile on his face. He turned to Yugi, Bakura's arms still around him and began introductions again.

"Bakura, this is my new friend Yugi. Oh and it was Yami that helped me this morning." Bakura smirked as his brother blushed again.

"Umm...Ryou? W-we uh, need to go now or w-we'll be late for our next lesson." Poor Yugi was scared out of his mind; people like him were usually prey for people like Bakura and Marik. Ryou nodded and pulled away from his brother. They said their goodbyes and Ryou and Yugi started walking toward the exit, Yugi finally regaining his natural colour. But just as they were leaving Bakura called out,

"Come to the sixth-from block at lunchtime, alright?"

"Alright. See you later Bakura. Bye Marik."

"Later pipsqueak."

xXx

"Hey Yugi, over here!" Yugi looked around to locate the origin of the voice and spotted Ryou standing by the entrance to the cafeteria, waving his arm. He hurried over, weaving in and out of the lunchtime crowd, his lunch in his hand. He finally reached Ryou, managing not to get mowed down by the other students.

"Yugi, d'you want to come with me to the common room?" Yugi's eyes lit up before he frowned.

"I'd love to but we're not allowed in there."

Ryou smiled as he grabbed his hand and started to make his way toward the sixth-form block. "Don't worry. I was in there this morning; most of the sixth-formers don't actually mind if we're in there."

They arrived at the entrance and Ryou turned to Yugi. "Do you know the code for the door?" Yugi nodded and as he reached out to type in the correct numbers, said,

"It's the same code for all the doors in the school." He pushed the doors open and they both went inside. They were about to go into the common room when they were spotted by Vivian. She moved to block their way.

"What do you think you're doing here?" she questioned as she pushed a lock of hair out of her face. "This place is off limits to you lot." Ryou smiled to diffuse the situation as he tried to explain what was going, but the scowl on her face didn't waver once during his explanation.

"I don't care what Marik and Bakura," she spat his name out like it was poison, "Said. They're not here and I'm not letting you in." Ryou sighed and rolled his eyes; he didn't know what she had against his brother (or him for that matter) but he was starting to get annoyed.

"Chill out Vivian," a new voice interrupted, one that made Ryou blush from just hearing it. "No need to get so wound up over this. It's not like you actually care about that rule. Besides I'm here and I'm letting them in, so run along." Vivian's eyes widened at the fact that Yami had taken their side rather than back her up, but then they narrowed in anger. She turned on her heel and stomped off, pushing past Ryou and Yugi roughly. Yami smiled at the both of them.

"Hey Ryou, nice to see you again." Ryou blushed deepened and he had to force himself not to stutter.

"Hi Yami." He managed to get out. Yami nodded then turned to Yugi.

"You're Yugi, right?" Yugi's mouth dropped open.

"H-how do you know my name?" Yami smiled and gestured for them to follow him. They entered the room and Ryou noticed that it was practically empty, except for Kaiba who was sitting in the same chair, typing on his laptop (it looked as though he hadn't moved since morning) and a brunette girl, who was flicking through the TV channels with a bored look on her face. She glanced up briefly when they entered the room and shot them a small smile before returning her gaze to the TV. They were just getting comfortable around the table when Yami answered Yugi's question.

"Everyone kept on asking me whether I had a younger brother in the school because there was this kid who 'looked just like me'. So I found out who it was they were referring to." Yugi just nodded, still dumbstruck that a) someone like Yami knew his name and b) he was actually hanging out with people who, in other circumstances, were most likely tonever givehim the time of day. He was still a little intimidated so he just sat and kept quiet while Yami and Ryou engaged in conversation.

"Yami, I didn't see you at the party yesterday. How come?" Yami's eyes widened in surprise.

"You were at the party, yesterday?" Ryou nodded. "I was gonna go, but my mum grounded me for getting another speeding ticket yesterday, so I was stuck at home." Yami mock-shuddered, "She made me clean my room."

Ryou laughed. "Oh you poor child! Although, compared to Bakura's room, it was probably nothing." Yami grinned in response.

"That is so very true."

"What are you saying about me?" A grin broke out over Ryou's face when he heard his brother's voice.

"We were just saying what a pack-rat you are, and how it should be classified as cruel and unusual punishment to clean your room." Bakura just snorted and flipped Yami off with his free hand, the other carrying bags of fast food. Marik came in behind him, both hands full carrying the drinks. He slammed the door shut using his foot. He and Bakura placed the lunch on the small table by the sofas and the TV, then sat down and beckoned everyone over. Ryou and Yami went over to the food (Yami dragging Seto behind him despite his protests)withYugi trailing behind them with his packed lunch in his hand. He still felt really uncomfortable being in the same room with those people, but Ryou had assured him again and again that it was fine so…He moved over to Ryou and ended up sitting next to him and the girl that was already there. He took out his sandwiches from his packed lunch and began to eat them silently, not feeling confident enough to contribute to the conversation. Ryou was caught up in talking with his brother and his friends so he didn't seem to be aware of Yugi's prolonged discomfort.

Something poked him on the shoulder, and he looked over to the girl next to him. She smiled at him, and some of his uneasiness faded.

"Hi, I'm Anzu."

Yugi smiled back and said, "Hi, my name's Yugi. Nice to meet you."

xXx

Ryou knocked and waited outside his brother's door until Bakura let him in. After lunch, his brother had said that he wanted to talk to him, so he figured that he would see Bakura when they got home.

"Come in, Ryou." Bakura called out, knowing that if it was their parents, they wouldn't bother knocking. Ryou pushed open the door then shut it carefully behind him. He saw his brother standing by his hi-fi system, inserting a CD. A heavy bass and fast-paced drum beats blared out of the speakers. Bakura smirked and turned it up louder, knowing that it would piss off their parents. And, sure enough, a muffled shout came from downstairs, presumably a demand for Bakura to turn down his music. Bakura ignored it; instead he sat on his bed and beckoned Ryou over to sit next to him. As Ryou was making himself comfortable on his brother's bed, they faintly heard a stampede of footsteps going up the stairs. Seconds later the door was flung open and their father stood, irate, in the doorway. He stomped over to the hi-fi system and turned it off before turning around to look at Bakura.

"And that," he said, pointing behind him, "is to stay off. Understood? That's your punishment for ignoring me when I told you to turn that horrible noise down." And he crossed his arms over his chest, as if daring his son to defy him.

Unimpressed by his father's show of intimidation, Bakura rolled his eyes. "Fuck that. Now that you've tried to be the responsible parent and failed, can you please get the fuck out of my room?" Ryou saw his father's jaw clench and his face get increasingly redder. He winced and ducked his head, not wanting to see the ensuing fight between his brother and his father.

"Kalen Bakura, you watch your mouth!" Bakura rolled his eyes; he'd never taken any notice of that reprimand before, so what made his father think he would start now? "Ryou," Ryou jumped, not expecting to have his name called during the argument.

"Um…y-yes dad?"

"Go to your room. I need to talk to your brother." Ryou nodded and slowly got off the bed. He shot a look at his brother and then made his way towards the door. Or at least he would have, if Bakura hadn't grabbed onto his arm and pulled him back onto the bed.

"Actually, I don't think he's going anywhere. Me and Ryou need to talk and you're interrupting it. Now just piss off, you're not fooling anyone into thinking that you're a good parent whose children respect him."

"Ryou, leave now or you're grounded."

"Oh please, is that all you're good for? Bullying your children into listening to you? That's pathetic old man." Seeing as how he wasn't going to win this battle with Bakura, and how he was losing respect in the eyes of his youngest, Cedric Bakura tried to retreat without losing face.

"You andI are going to have a littletalk later." He growled pointing at his eldest

"Whatever. Like you'll actually be there to have 'a talk' with me later, anyway." Their father stormed out of the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

"Good riddance," Bakura muttered as got up off the bed and walked over to the door to lock it. He switched on the hi-fi on his way back to the bed. "So, how was your day?"

Ryou smiled "It was fine. Apart from getting lost this morning, everything went fine. I managed to make new friends as well."

Bakura nodded and smirked. "Tell me what happened this morning." His smirk widened when Ryou suddenly blushed.

"I, er…was having trouble finding my first class and Yami was kind enough to help me out."

"Is that all that happened?" Ryou nodded, a faint blush still present across the bridge of his nose. "Then why are you blushing?" Ryou ducked his head against he brother's prying eyes. "Did Yami do anything to you?" Ryou shook his head frantically. "Then why are y– oh! You have a crush on Yami, don't you?" Ryou choked as he said that and he buried his head in his hands. He then looked at his brother, who was wearing a huge smirk.

"Okay so maybe I have a little" – Bakura raised an eyebrow at that – "crush on Yami. But you can't tell him! I mean I only just found out that I like guys, you know, that way. I don't think I'm ready for a relationship. And besides, it's not like he could ever like me; I'm just average."

"That is the stupidest thing I ever heard. Whoever told you that was chatting a load of bullshit!" He looked at his brother and sighed when he saw that Ryou still didn't believe it; that there were plenty of people who would like to go out with him. "Alright, I won't tell Yami that you like him…" Ryou let out a small sigh of relief.

"…but that doesn't mean that I can't have a little talk with him."

Ryou choked again.

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