"It only takes one moment of clarity to destroy years of ignorance and let you see your mistakes"

-Geno Roads

One Night in Domino

Kelli frowned as she looked over at Heather, rolling the bottom of her glass upon the table over and over, trying to ignore the stares, frowns and sneers. Her eyes were down, not looking up as the waiter set her food on the table and ran his tongue over his lips.

"There you go ladies." He said quietly.

"Thank you." Heather said, waiting for the man to leave. However, he still stood there, watching Kelli and Heather, shifting from side to side ever once and a while. "Uh…can I help ya?"

The waiter glanced around and leaned down close to Heather. "The manager wants to make sure you two aren't going to be….sticking around for a while." He licked his lips again and shifted, nervous.

"And why is that?" Heather asked in a grumble. She shot a look at the waiter, then let her eyes slide across his shoulder to focus upon the two men that were nodded and smiling at them.

One of them had on a beat up blue jean jacket, his peroxide blonde hair all ratty and tangled, deep sunken eyes staring at her. He gave her a grin, showing off stained teeth and a tongue dyed dark from the juice drink he was sipping on. His friend was a bit bigger, obviously from the Indian Islands, with a shaved head and a scar running down the left side of his nose, across his cheek and ending at his jaw. He was wearing a tight muscle shirt that, while it did show off his muscles, also allowed them a glance at the faint beer gut he had.

"Let me guess…" Heather said quietly. "He's getting too many idiots like whose two staring at us?"

The waiter shook his head leaned in. "I'm sorry but…the owner…he's a fan of Owen Roads…and he said he doesn't want the….please….madam, just go before he comes out." The waiter looked at her, his eyes frightened. Heather didn't really care though.

Her friend had just been betrayed by Owen, and some greased up gorilla wasn't going to tell them where to and not to go. She was itching for a beat down and wouldn't mind decking some idiot right now.

"Listen Chuck…" Heather said, standing up. "..I don't what yoru game is, but I am in no…"

"Heather, stop."

She turned, looking over at Kelli, who had grabbed her arm. The teen looked upa t her friend and sighed. "The kid is just following the orders of some moron, it isn't worth pressuring him." She paused. "Is it even worth taking this food, or did the owner spit in it?"

"Worse." The waiter said. He paused, and gave her a weak smile. "I switched yoru order with those two over there." He said, pointing to the two ooglers. He leaned down and began to box of the salads. "I was always a Yugi Moto fan growingup, and I am a fan of yours too." He paused. "I like Owen too, don't get me wrong…but I don'tt hink you deserve this."

Kelli smiled and slipped the money for the meal into the waiter's pocket. "Tell him it fell on the floor."

"I will Miss….please, have a good day."

"You too." Kelli said, managing a weak smile for the young man. Heather rolled her eyes and the two headed out, barely able to contain their smiles as the two idiots that had been checking them out happily at their meal…with the secret ingredient of course. The waiter gave them a nodded and got back to work.

"Yugi's grandfather is going to kill us, you do realize that Lysandra? Kill us dead."

Lys shook her head at her father as the family made their way through the aisles filled with card packs, accessories and other collectables. Gala was trying to hold in a chuckle as Yami pouted, trying very hard not to appear interested in a items around him. He was failing badly. Lys had inherited her love of duel monsters from Yami. Gala liked the game, sure. But she was content with doing other things too, like practicing her godly magic or reading a good book. Yami and Lys had such one-track minds it was just sad.

"Yami, leave her alone and let her shop." Gala said. "Look over here, magician cardssssss!" She waved the pack in front of Yami's face and giggled as his eyes glazed over, watching the light bounce off its shiny surface. Sometimes she wondered if her father was right: Yami really was a simple minded king that got lucky in duels thanks to the 'heart of the cards'.

Yami shook his head and slapped the pack away. He glared at Gala, his eyes refocusing. "Don't do that!"

"I can't help it that you are so easy."

Lys giggled. "It's true daddy! You are so easy to distract!" She laughed again. "Sometimes you are soooooooo…" Lys froze and Yami held a pack up, wiggling it like Gala had done before. "Shinnnnnyyyyyyy" Lys said quietly, before Yami gave it a toss, sending her chasing after it like a puppy.

"as I was saying." Yami said. "I don't understand why we had to come to XR Cards. I mean, Yugi's shop has enough cards as it is. And we get a discount. And they are family!"

"Because Lys wants to look for some foreign cards and Yugi's grandfather refuses to carry any."

Yami nodded, watching as his daughter returned to pack he had thrown to the shelf and moved to the section she was looking for. She was right now pawing through the cards from Holland, looking for the correct set.

The aisles of the store resembled those of a music store. The packs were set in tilted shelves, making it easy to combo through them quickly and find what you were looking for. Each section of shelving had been devoted to a certain kind of deck in the Japanese or American game. Instead of a player needing to comb through pack after pack to find that one that helped their beasts or their rock monsters, they simply went to the shelf that had packs that were considered the best for that deck type. This made for things to be much more streamlined.

However, the current aisle they were down didn't do things that way. They were in the aisle that held packs from around the world. It was in one of these packs that Lys, according to her research, would discover the cards she needed to make her deck unstoppable.

"What are you looking for anyway Lys?" Gala asked as her daughter began to gather up packs and throw them in the basket she had grabbed when they entered the store. From the looks of things, Lys had selected about 4 sets from Holland and was loading up on them.

"Well, my deck is pretty strong, but I realized that I was going to need better monsters if I wanted to win in the finals. A lot of my plants have weak effects, and a lot of people have already seen them, including Lilka, Owen and Tressa. I can't risk going up against their decks head on without a surprise. So, I did some research and found some little known plant monsters from a set made a few months back in Holland, as well as some other goodies."

Yami nodded, stroking his chin. "I'm surprised you're being so conservative. I would have thought you'd be buying up those boxes…" He paused as Lysandra's eyes lit up like candles.

"Boxes?" She got on her knees and was nearly drooling over the 10 boxes of packs that were locked in the bottom of the case. "Get me a sales clerk!" She shouted, her face plastered against the glass.

Yami chuckled as he and Gala went to go get someone with a key. "She gets this from your father."

Gala frowned. "No, she gets this from you!"

"I don't do research on rare cards from Holland!" He paused and grabbed a magazine from a rack. "I like to stick with cards I can get easily instead of dealing with confusing rulings."

"My father doesn't salivate when he sees a new combo…like you are now!" Gala shouted, causing Yami to rapidly wipe his mouth. "Whya re you getting that magazine anyway?"

"I was interested to see what new spell cards ar coming out." Yami said. He paused for a moment, giving Gala a short smirk. "You never know when I'll need to know."

Gala frowned when she looked at the cover, the words: NEW PROMO INSIDE splashed upon the front. "You liar…you just want to promo that comes in it…like you need more cards." She paused, licking herlips, thinking of the best way to ask. "So…just curious…"

"IT's a field card for dragons. The Dragon's Cavern or something like that. I figured I'd give it to Tressa."

"Well, that's nice…"

"SALES CLERK!" Lys shouted.

Yami and Gala gave each other a tired smile and went to get their princess what she wanted.

Seto Kaiba frowned as he looked down at his pager, the little annoying device flashing: CALL TEA over and over. He shifted the groceries in his arms, trying to get them balanced just right so that he could get the pager back in his pocket then get his cell phone. Sadly, and much to his disgust, he found that his cell phone was not in his pants pocket but was instead in his jacket pocket.

He had been all set to go home after a long day at Kaiba Corp when Tea had called, begging him to get the groceries because she needed to go see Kaos. While he wanted to ask her why they needed to get groceries in the first place when they could afford to order out, he had decided that it was better to simply swallow that question and do the shopping then argue with Tea. She may have seemed like a nice sweet girl, but tell her that you didn't want to do something and she would make you pay. Seto still remembered the month he had slept on the sofa because he had refused to go game night at Yugi's house.

He began to shift the bags, moving the one in his right had up as he gave th one in his left a tight bear hug, hoping there wasn't anything breakable in there. After about 40 seconds of shifting and wiggling, he managed to grab his phone and click iton, waiting for the familiar buzz to signal that it was ready for him. He was right now regretting his choice to have the limo driver not take him home. It had been a smart idea at the time. He knew if he pulled up to a grocery store in a limo, people would be asking questions and soon he would be swarmed by fans, paparazzi and duelist wishing to take on the great Seto Kaiba.

So, he had told the driver to go home without him, left his suit jacket and tie at the office, unbuttoned his shirt the way he had seen Geno wear his, and tried to beas unassuming as he could possibly be. It seemed to have worked, no one had said a word to him. Of course, now he was wishing some fan would run up and talk to him so he could give the person the bags he was juggling and give Tea a ring and find out what was so important.

He paused, wondering why the phone in his hand was still…still. 'Oh please don't tell me…' he looked down and sighed as the blank screen glared back at him, taunting him. '…I let the battery run out….damn it!'

Seto resisted the overwhelming urge to throw the phone into a wall and storm home. He knew Tea would kill him if he destroyed another phone, and if he dared to not call her back and just head home, he would earn yet another month on the couch, if he was lucky.

Instead, he simply began to search for a payphone and hoped he had some change to make the call.

"Why didn't you let me talk to that owner?" Heather whined as they stepped out of the restaurant. "He had no right to treat us that way! I would have given him the move my dad taught me!" She held up her fists, like she was a boxer, and began to bounce around. "I'd jab with the left, a cross feign with the right, then bam bam bam! 4 hits to the gut!"

"That was three hits." Kelli said, unable to keep the sad expression on her face. Heather was simply acting too strange.

"That's what I want you to think! But the third hit is so strong, it…uh…counts at 4! That's the Wheeler Whammeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!" Heather let out a cry as she tripped into some garbage cans, falling to the pavement. Kelli let out a laugh and helped her frined up.

"IT's nice that you would try and fight someone and get arrested just for me, but I was raised not to fight."

"With yoru fists!" Heather said, dusting her jacket off. "But I wouldn't call the beautiful tongue lashing you gave Owen a peaceful conversation." Kelli bit her lip, lowering her eyes. However, Heather didn't notice, instead she swung her arms about, a big grin on her face. "And when you crammed that stupid jacket of his in the trash…it was just amazing!"

"No, it wasn't." Kelli said quietly.

Heather blinked, her body still in celebrate mode. "Uh….it wasn't? But I thought it…"

Kelli shook her head. "I shouldn't have reacted that way. Instead of proving my point, I chose to act like a baby and a poor sport."

Heather shook her head. "But he should never have thrown the match! That wasn't respectful, just like you said early. All that shit about loving you and yet he acts like that?"

"I'm not saying he wasn't wrong Heather." Kelli said softly. "But how did I handle it better then him? A mature person would have given him the cold shoulder, let him try and prove that he understood what I was saying. But I let my anger lash out, and now…"

"And now he knows he can't do that!" Heather said. "He's learned his lesson and will come back humble."

"You really think that Heather? IF someone did to you what I did to Owen, you would really go back to them? Owen…..I think he really did love me. But in our first fight, I simply threw it all away. He should have made amends for his mistake…but I didn't even leave him an opening for him to do so…atleast one that he knows about." She sighed. "I miss him heather, but I don't think he would ever come back without me making the first move."

"And you wouldn't dare do that!" Heather shouted as they turned a corner. "that's like admitting that you're…"

"Wrong…I know." Kelli let out a sigh. "But Heather…i…I don't think he'll ever come back to me. He thinks I hate him. I didn't mean everything I said. I am disappointed with him. I am mad that he did that…but I miss him so much." Kelli trembled, trying to keep herself from crying. "But he won't come back to me now Heather. He…he just won't."

"Then forget him!" Heather shouted in frustration. "I never did like that family. All stuck up and…"

Kelli's eyes flashed and she glared up at her friend. "Would you shut up about Lilka? Gods, I am so sick of you and Lilka fighting. It's because of people like you two that Owen flet he needed to…" Kelli paused, closing her eyes as the truth hit her like a ton of bricks. "…he had to do that."

"What do you mean?"

Kelli wrung her hands together. "Thinka bout it. If he won, Lilka would have rubbed it in my face. People would have seen me as weak, wondered why he would date a duelist that couldn't stand up to him. But if he lost, then he has everyone thinking that he has lost his touch." She sighed, running her hands through her golden locks. "So he did the only thing he could do: He took control and insured both sides were happy and content."

"He shouldn't have been doing that anyway." Heather countered.

"You're right…but he did…" She sighed. "I don't know what to do Heather…I love him, I'm mad at him, and I drove him away." She shivered, reaching to tighten her coat around her small form, missing Owen's large red jacket. Her mind went back to just a few hours ago, throwing it…in the trash. "Oh Owen…I'm sorry." She whispered sadly in the air.