Chapter Twenty-One:

The next day was Saturday. Joey had been intending to cancel the bowling trip with Serenity, but Yugi insisted there was no need. He couldn't play, but he could enjoy watching them compete. Tristan did not come, and Tea had her performance in Kyoto, while Yami had had a date night with Kaiba.

"Wonder what on earth a date with Kaiba could be like?" Joey mused while they drove to the bowling alley. It lay almost between the manor and Serenity's off-campus apartment, so it was just the two of them in the car.

"I would guess like any other couples'," Yugi said pointedly.

Joey snorted. "Yeah, I can see Kaiba going to the movies or out for ice cream."

"They're flying the helicopter to Sapporo to eat at Hyousetsu no Mon and then to the Sapporo Museum because Yami wants to see a Woolly Mammoth." Yugi chuckled. "So, like other couples, but fancy."

Joey grunted. "Moneybags wouldn't settle for less, I bet."

"I think Mou Hitori no Boku has some pretty expensive tastes, too, actually." Yugi smiled affectionately.

At the bowling alley, Yugi watched and cheered as both Wheeler siblings bowled. Joey went obviously easy on his sister, who repaid him by bowling five strikes in a row. Clearly shocked, Joey struggled to catch up, but his misplaced chivalry cost him and Serenity gleefully won with a two-twelve.

"I joined a bowling league at school," she said. "Did I forget to mention that?"

Joey growled good-naturedly and ceased taking it easy. He won the next game with two-forty-eight to Serenity's two-twenty-nine, then won the third two-fifty-six to two-thirty-seven. Serenity then evened the score to a tie by beating Joey's two-sixty-two with an astounding two-seventy-four.

"Wow," Yugi said. "That team of yours must be so glad to have you."

Serenity smiled modestly. "It was Joey who taught me how to bowl in the first place."

"You definitely got better yourself," Joey said. "You couldn't break two hundred when we played."

"When your arm is better, Yugi, we should do this again."

Yugi laughed and shook his head. "I played as good today as I would without the sling."

Joey glared at him. He never did like self-depreciation, especially from Yugi. Still, Yugi knew he definitely wouldn't be cracking two-hundred himself. Sports never had been the games he was good at.

******

Thanks to the care Yugi received from his loved ones, he healed on schedule and had his sling off on Tuesday. He was still sore and was to remain on an ibuprofen regimen with exercises intended to loosen up his damaged ligaments, but could move his shoulder and wrist their full ranges of motion. So, Thursday saw him, Joey, and Tristan joining their fellow cast-mates at the Inn.

"Yugi, I'm so glad to see you," Erica said when they arrived. "How are you doing, honey?"

"I'm good, Erica, thank you. I'm sorry-"

"Don't apologize! Why should you apologize for being assaulted? Don't worry about production, what matters is that you're okay. I'd like to get my hands on whoever broke into your apartment," she added, said hands clenching on her clipboard.

Kevin came over at that moment. "Yugi. Good to see you back. Are you going to be okay with getting back into the swing of things?"

"Yes." The truth was, Yugi was still far from excited about finishing the movie, but he was determined to see his promise through. At least they were about half-way finished.

"Yugi, I want you to know, I'm taking care of all your medical expenses," Erica said.

"Oh, you don't have to-"

"It's done. Just show your bills to Cara when you get a chance and she'll get it settled."

There was that tendency toward getting her way Kevin had mentioned. Yugi wanted to protest some more, but he knew it wouldn't do any good. Erica was just trying to be nice. She was much kinder than Yugi had ever considered. Why was she a horror movie director?

Kevin got them back to business. "Well, if you're up for getting back to it, head on over to Marie's. You got your scripts from Cara?"

Joey held up his. They'd visited the crotchety office manager on Monday. Unsurprisingly, she hadn't mentioned Yugi's injuries once, had handed over the scripts to Joey without looking at him, and told them to let her get back to work if they didn't have any other unnecessary delays for her. Yugi had put his good hand over Joey's mouth while he thanked her.

"Good. Marie won't have much for you this time, since your characters got cleaned up and changed last time you were here, so if you're hungry, Candy can get you some food before you head on over to the set. We'll be starting with you lot meeting Tristan's character for some more set up. I don't expect we'll do much more than that today."

Tristan, Joey, and Yugi went to the make up trailer, where Yugi was briefly fussed over by Marie and Joanna before they got started on the makeup. There was little to do besides use the partition to change clothes then allow the makeup ladies to add the powder and much smaller, bloodless cuts to Yugi's and Joey's faces that signified their cleaned-up injuries. Yugi thought real cuts would have continued to bleed for far longer, but it was a movie and sometimes authenticity gave way to practicality.

They were finished in around half an hour, but filming was set to start at ten, so with a little less than thirty minutes left, they opted not to go to Candy's and headed instead to the Inn.

For the first part of the week, since they'd gotten their scripts, Yugi, Joey, and Tristan had practiced their lines with each other. Yami had even helped out by reading the rest of the characters' lines, in such a flat, monotone manner that it was funny. If acting was not one of Yugi's strengths, it was far and away not one of Yami's.

The second Act was about as awful as Yugi had been dreading. After about a third of it set up them meeting Tristan's character Stefan and being allowed to stay at the Inn until the weather cleared, it devolved into the dark, gory tale it had been leading up to. It started with over-the-shoulder shots of a mysterious man watching their group through the windows. As Tristan's character was in some of those shots, this sure-to-be-the-killer character was not him. Once the tension had been established, alleviated somewhat by Akihito's teasing of the women, an unimaginative power outage plunged the whole Inn into darkness. Tristan's character located flashlights and candles and the group split off into rooms to try to get some sleep. With more horror-typical scares and tropes, Nadia and Sota met their fates. The Act ended with the characters of Yugi, Joey, Ishio, and Rin finding Nadia's skinned body in the kitchen.

Yugi was so not looking forward to filming that scene.

What was almost as bad, in terms of discomfort for Yugi, was that his and Rin's and Joey's and Nadia's characters all had sex scenes. They didn't read particularly hardcore, but Yugi had felt the blood drain out of face when he first got to that part. Joey, too, was no longer as confident about his role in the movie. These were scenes they had both adamantly skipped when asking Yami to read for them.

"Okay," Joey said to him that night when they'd retired for bed. Yugi had healed enough that they were sharing again, which was a relief. "So, you know, we oughta talk to Erica, about… Well, those scenes."

"Yeah," Yugi sighed. "I had hoped I could get by without asking her to change anything for me, but I just don't think I can do that."

"Me either," Joey admitted. "Nadia's nice, she's cute, but…" He trailed off, clearly unable to formulate his thought, but Yugi understood.

It's wasn't like Yugi was all that surprised about the inclusion of those scenes. Horror and sex were often paired together, much to Yugi's confusion, and he'd watched Lynch movies with Joey before. Still, not having sex scenes in a horror movie was not unheard of, not even for Erica, so he hoped she'd take it well.

"We need to decide what we're going to do about the apartment, Yug'," Joey said. "I mean, manager isn't going to care where we're staying as long as we pay the rent, but-"

"It's a waste of money," Yugi agreed. Of course, now that they were being paid for the movie, money didn't matter as much for the short term. But it was still a waste. "What do you want to do?"

Joey considered. Finally, he said, "First the calls, and then two break-ins."

Only, it turned out, neither had really been break-ins. The police couldn't figure it out, but there had been no sign of forced entry. The only damage to the place was the around the stairs. Yugi knew he had locked both the front and back doors before he'd gone to bed, but admitted he could have been mistaken. Still, it was unlikely someone had just come up and tried the door. It had been targeted, for one reason or other.

"My keys," Yugi said suddenly. "When I lost them. Someone must have seen and took them. And recognized me and found out where I lived." Yugi shivered. That was definitely one of the many downsides to any sort of fame.

"But they were behind the stand," Joey protested.

"Unless, whoever took them made a copy and gave mine back, so I wouldn't change the locks. Only they fell off the hook. And then he waited until you weren't home."

"That son of a bitch," Joey snarled. "If I ever get my hands on him…"

Of course, it had been over a week from the time Yugi noticed his keys missing to the attack, but Yugi was over at the Game Shop often and Joey had only been gone overnight the once. Still, why had the man waited until almost dawn? Something didn't add up, but Yugi was now sure; this hadn't been a random anything.

"We should find another place," he decided. "Just to be safe. Even if I didn't want to, Mom is really against the idea of us staying there again."

"It's for the best," Joey said. "I'd like to see that asshole try again, I'll kill him, but I'm not going to make you the bait."

Yugi smiled with weary affection. He knew Joey meant it, and that worried him. Which was a reason he hadn't voiced to Joey that he wanted to find another place; if the man tried again, Joey wouldn't hesitate to go after him, and could wind up hurt or worse.

"We'll start looking tomorrow," Yugi said. "I'll check with Kaiba that it's okay for us to stay for a bit longer."

Joey snorted. "Yami'll tell him-"

"It's his house, Joey, not Yami's."

Joey grunted. "It's like they're married anyway."

Yugi smiled, but knew he'd ask Kaiba directly.

tbc...