Friends in Odd Places

Terra POV

"This is so gonna rock," I murmured, staring up at the big sign hanging off the door. It read 'Coming Soon—Shining Starr Karaoke Bar'.

I had left Kaiba at the house to come and look at the building, using the excuse that I was shopping. After that, he was more than happy to stay home.

"Are you kidding me? Of course it's going to rock!" I whipped around, startled.

A girl stood behind me. She had long, goldish-blond hair and dark brown eyes—think Ryou's eyes. She was wearing a tight-fitting white shirt with 'I'm A Princess' written across it in pink, and tight blue jeans.

I gawked—there was no mistaking her. This was the girl who introduced everyone who came up on stage—screw that, she owned the whole place. And she was only sixteen.

"S-Sonja Marcy Edachi!" I gasped.

Sonja grinned, peace-singing. "That's me! You are?"

"Terra Cooper," I said weakly, shaking her hand.

"Oh, I know you! You and those friends of yours—Miriku and John and all of them—are on the top ten list of times most visited!"

"Really?"

Sonja grinned wider. "Really, really!" She looked around. "Well, I'd better get to work—this place won't open itself, you know!"

"My friends and I could help you," I offered hopefully.

Sonja nodded. "If you want. Work moves slow around here, even when my baka 'nii-san gets off his butt and helps. And speak of the devil, there he is!" She cupped her hands around her mouth. "Damien Marcus Edachi! Get your butt over here!"

A boy jogged up, grumbling. "Sonja! I'm trying to open up the music shop!"

My jaw nearly hit the ground. "Holy sh—you look like Kaiba!"

And he did—except for the fact that his hair apparently refused to lie flat, and his eyes weren't as hard. He was exactly as tall as Sonja, and wore a white polo shirt and jeans.

Damien rolled his eyes. "I get that a lot," he muttered. "Sonja uses me for cosplay all the time."

"But you look so much like him!" Sonja protested.

"Says you," Damien muttered.

I looked between them. "So you two are brother and sister?"

"Twins, actually," Sonja corrected, "even though we don't look a lot alike."

Damien grinned. "I might look like Kaiba, but 'nee-san looks like a female version of Joey."

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

I sighed—this reminded me of some of my friends. "Well, I can call everyone up and have them over in a minute or so, if you'd like."

Damien nodded. "It would be nice to have some more help—trying to open Shining Starr and Edachi Music Jamz at one time turned out harder than we thought it would be."

I nodded. "Well, we need a bit of fresh air, anyway—so I'll call everyone up."

Miriku POV

Rrrrrring…

I picked up the phone. "Hello?"

"Miriku? It's Terra!" She sounded even more excited than before.

"Yeah?"

"You know the owners of Shining Starr and that instrument shop you always go to—Edachi Music Jamz?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, I just met them! And they said that they could use a little help opening up—and that, if we wanted, we could help!"

I thought a moment. "You know I'd love to, but I have to take care of Yami, remember?"

"Just bring him over. Sonja'll find something for him to do, I'm sure."

"All right…"

"Ja ne!"

Click.

I sighed. Here we go again...

Soon enough, we were all there—me, Mikey, John, Dustil, Dean, Merekai, Malik, Kaiba, Ryou, Bakura, Jonouchi, Yuugi, and Yami. The characters, of course, had on their illusion spells.

The boy who looked shockingly like Kaiba looked at me, and did a double-take. "Well, if it isn't Miss I-Need-Reeds-For-My-Clarinet—Miriku!"

I rolled my eyes. "Shut up, Clerk-Boy Damien."

The two of us collapsed into laughter, which shocked everyone even more.

The tall blond girl—who I assumed was Sonja—tapped Damien on the shoulder. "Do you two know each other?"

Damien nodded, grinning. "Miriku here is one of my top customers—she always needs either reeds, cork grease, or her clarinet fixed!"

Everyone looked at me. I shrugged.

Sonja grinned. "Well, that just saves us a few more introductions!"

She looked at Yami, and winced when she saw his wrist. "Are you sure you're going to be all right, kid?"

Yami growled. "I'm seventeen, thank you."

Sonja blinked. "Daaang—you're short for seventeen!"

Yami growled at her again.

Damien elbowed Sonja hard in the chest. "She didn't mean it," he said quickly. "Baka 'nee-san here doesn't know how to keep her mouth shut sometimes."

"Shut up, Kaiba no eizou."

"I am not Kaiba's mirror-image!"

"Uh…yeah you are."

Yami rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine, as long as I don't put to much stress on it."

Sonja glanced at him. "If you're sure…"

"I'm sure," I said firmly. "I'm the one that fixed him up. He can help, as long as he doesn't do too much."

Yami flashed me a quick smile.

Kaiba sighed. "Well, I suppose we'd better get to work…"

Bakura sniggered. "That's the first intelligent thing you've said in days!"

Dustil looked around, eager as always. "Where do we start?"

Sonja grinned. "We'll start by splitting up."

She pointed to me, Yami, Yuugi, Dustil, Malik, Terra, and Kaiba. "You seven come with me. The rest of you go with Damien. Got it?"

"Got it!" everyone replied.

"Good. Now, let's go!"