Disclaimer: you know where to look
Author Note: hey there all. I can't believe this little story has generated almost 3,000 hits and 50 reviews. It really makes me glad. I would like to throw out a special thank you to Pace, who helped me out of this little funk I was having. This chapter is for her. Thank you to all the others who reviewed every chapter, or even just popped in to leave a few words. So, anyways, here is chapter 8…even though it will attempt to tell you otherwise. Bah, technology.
Yugi lay prone on his bed, his amethyst eyes half lidded as he squinted at the late morning's sun that shone through his window. The young boy groaned and rolled over, throwing a hand over his face to shield his eyes. His hair was a mess and his eyes were puffy as if he had been crying.
Half-heartedly, he threw the blankets off of his form, but made no further effort to move from his bed. Glancing at the clock on his bedside table, Yugi sighed. It was 9:49; well past the hour that school started. When his grandpa had knocked on his door, telling him to hurry, or he would be late, Yugi had just stared at the ceiling. Eventually, he heard the retreating footsteps. The teen had no intention of going to school today, not after what had happened. If he saw Anzu, he thought he might…
A shrill ring made Yugi start in fright, and pull the hand off of his face. It was his telephone, and it made another insistent ring before he reached and knocked the receiver off the base with a hand.
Muttering darkly at the fact he had to move, Yugi grabbed for the dangling phone, and put it to his ear. "Hello?" he asked warily. He hoped it wasn't the school secretary. "Hello?"
"Yugi. It is me." The voice was crisp and direct, and the boy didn't recognize it at all.
"Who's this?"
"Bakura."
Yugi sat up in bed, his eyes now confused as he held the receiver close to his mouth. "Bakura?" he echoed.
"Ah," Yugi heard a throat being cleared over the line, and then the familiar British accent saying, "I mean, it's Ryou."
Sitting back against his wall, the boy threaded fingers through his tangled hair, attempting to smooth the mess. "Oh, hello, Ryou. Wow, it's been so long I didn't recognize your voice."
"Yes, I have been around—err, busy. Yes, busy." Ryou sounded nervous, and he kept clearing his throat as if his voice was rusty. Yugi heard a thud and a faint curse over the end of the phone.
"So…" Yugi let his eyes wander around his room, as he talked a bit quietly. There was no need for his grandpa to overhear. "Why are you calling, Ryou?"
A sharp laugh. "Aren't I allowed to call an old friend?"
"Yes, of course you are." Yugi swallowed hard as his eyes caught and held on the discarded millennium puzzle that lay on his floor. The silence over the phone seemed to echo over and over, until Yugi tore his eyes from the puzzle. "Could you hold on for a moment?" he didn't wait to hear his friend's reply before throwing the phone on his bed and jumping up.
The boy didn't want to touch the item, but nor did he want to look at it sitting there. He considered kicking it under the bed, but for some reason, his conscious wouldn't let him do it—or perhaps it was the fact that he wasn't wearing socks and would therefore have to come in contact with the puzzle if he kicked it. Hurriedly, Yugi pulled the blanket off the end of his bed and threw it over the golden object, sending the phone flying when he did so. He jumped and caught it, and then sat on his bed, pressing it to his ear. "OK, sorry about that."
"Yes, yes." Ryou sounded impatient, and Yugi could hear him switching the phone from ear to ear repeatedly.
"So…" Yugi rubbed the back of his head. When did talking to a friend become so awkward?
"Come over to my house."
"What?"
Ryou's tone changed to one of good nature. "Would you come over? To have a chat with me about…all the times we need to catch up on?"
Truth be told, Yugi did not want to go anywhere today, and by the way Ryou was talking, he didn't much care for the idea of "chatting" either. He sighed quietly, and looked at the clock once more. "It's a bit early for visits, wouldn't you say?" Yugi realized today was a Monday. "Hey, why aren't you in school right now, Ryou?"
"Why aren't you?" the British boy shot back almost immediately, but with no scorn in his words. He laughed then, as if it was an afterthought, yet it sounded forced.
"I…" Yugi came to an idea that would save him. "Actually, I called in sick today. So I shouldn't be outside much—"
"Sick? All the better a reason to come and see me. They say misery loves company!"
"Oh, they do say that, don't they?" Yugi muttered under his breath, tapping his forehead with a finger. Ryou was being so persistent! "But, I don't remember where you live—"
"That's ok; I will come and pick you up." Ryou's cheer seemed to almost ooze out of the phone, and Yugi laughed awkwardly. "I'll be there in ten minutes. See you then!"
Click.
Yugi was left holding the receiver, looking at it in horror. "Ten minutes?" he squeaked in disbelief as he looked at himself in the small mirror on his wall. "I can't do my hair in ten minutes! And get ready!"
He was up in a blur of movement, throwing clothes around and grabbing his pants, and tossing a shirt onto his dresser. Yugi hopped on one foot as he tried to get his leather pants on, and as he did so, he stumbled. He put out his other foot to stop from falling, and it happened to come down on the hidden puzzle that lay under his blanket. The offending object stuck its blunt side into the tender part of the bottom of his foot, causing Yugi to yelp in pain.
Darkly, the boy hopped over to his shirt and grabbed the hairbrush, keeping off his smarting foot. He collected the items into his arms, and glared at the still hidden item. Yugi then turned sharply and half stomped, half limped over to the bathroom to finish getting ready there, making sure that he slammed his bedroom door shut as he left.
I hate my computer! I wrote a huge thank you to everyone out there, and then I moved my finger weird on the touchpad and it sent me back and erased it all! Damn laptops...Just wanted to say thanks to Dogdate for always reading, and I swear one of these days I will write you the kinkiest Seto Kaiba story I can come up with. And also to darkyami7, Almadine-Azaleea, Myou tenshi, Oroko, Linzy and Anora. Thanks for the support guys!
