Hi everyone.

Hope you're still with me, we keep plugging away.

The story will start to get a bit more intense soon, so be prepared for some heavy chapters coming up.

I'll keep going, I'm trying to get the finished article to you as soon as, but you'll have to bare with me.

However, let's get right down into the business.

Buckle up and enjoy the ride,

Writey x

Jaden's POV

He sat there drinking his tea.

I didn't even know Russian's drank tea.

As the last dribble hit his tongue, I felt myself getting more frustrated.

"Ahh," he said, as he finished his drink, "thank you my dear."

My mother cautiously took the cup from him and left the room.

My parents had taken Josh and Tessa outside, they didn't want them to be around Victor, especially if the conversation got heated. He had been here for a while now apparently, just making light conversation, but it was all rather suspicious.

Victor slumped back in his chair, and I felt myself get angrier.

"What do you want Victor?" I said.

Victor grinned at me, "well, the kid has some fight, that's going to be useful."

I looked at him confused, "what do you mean?"

I'd never seen Victor concerned up until that point.

His facial expression changed instantly, his grins and smirks disappeared.

He slowly sat up to move closer to Alexis and I, and that's when it really start to hit me just how much he had aged.

He definitely looked older, I could have told you that from the TV but in person, it really hit home.

His skin, face, his posture, even his clothing was completely different. He just looked older; 15 years older.

"Kid," he said, looking at me, "do you really think I'm here to cause trouble?"

I looked at him, he actually didn't, but I still didn't trust him.

"Why are you here?"

I said it slowly, cautiously, I didn't want to give away any fear in my voice.

He laughed slightly, "you know, after being alone for 15 years, I thought it would have been nice to have some company for a change."

"What do you mean, alone for 15 years?"

Alexis hadn't said a word, she had just been studying him. Zane had told her all about the confrontation at their duel and that he went missing after.

Victor rolled his eyes, "oh come on sweet cheeks, surely you can figure it out?"

Alexis looked at him. I could tell she was both annoyed and confused. It probably didn't help being called 'sweet cheeks' either.

Victor waited a second before continuing, "fine, settle down children, it's story time."

If him being here wasn't making me angry already, then his sarcasm and persona certainly were.

Alexis and I sat forward, as much as I wanted him to leave, I wanted to know why he had come in the first place.

"Right," Victor said, looking at us, "that night, when I disappeared, someone, or rather, something was in my room waiting for me."

"So, Zane is innocent?"

I looked at Alexis, I had been wondering the same thing.

Victor laughed again, "you two are funny, of course he is, Truesdale doesn't have the spine for anything like that."

Thank god it wasn't Zane…

"Anyway, where was I…" Victor looked confused for a second, "oh yeah, so I passed and woke up, somewhere so strange, but this is where it gets even more confusing."

He was certainly taking his time…

"I don't remember anything…"

He looked sad, Victor Stoichiev looked sad.

I looked at him, "you don't remember anything?"

He looked up at me, and I was sure his eyes were wet, "I know, it actually makes me sad, 15 years of my life taken from me and I can't remember anything about it."

In that moment, I looked at Victor and realised it was all an act, the macho man, he was actually just like everyone else.

I went and sat next to him and put an arm over him.

I looked at Alexis who had this beautiful smile as she stared at me.

She had actually been more and more in thoughts recently, even with all the card shop stuff, and it was all getting very confusing.

I felt Victor push off me and I moved back to my seat.

He wiped his face and looked at me, with that concern again…

"There is only one thing I can really remember…. And that is your name Jaden Yuki."

I felt my entire body tense…

My name?

Why could he remember my name?

"That is why I came… to warn you," he said, slowly getting to his feet.

I felt sick….

Why could he only remember my name?

Victor started to head out of the room but turned before leaving, "just be careful, yeah?"

I was sure Alexis nodded, but everything seemed a blur to me at this point.

I'm pretty sure Victor left, if he hadn't, I was in for a surprise later.

My parents had come inside and started talking to Alexis about everything, but I hadn't said a word.

That night, I went to bed early, I hadn't said goodbye to Alexis, goodnight to my family.

I just couldn't get the dread of what Victor had told me out of my thoughts.

Why had my name been the only thing he could remember?

The next few days had come and gone.

There wasn't really anything exciting to happen, we just continued to sort out the card shop.

I guess I didn't mind it that way, actually not having anything going on, it had been a while since I had some form of peace.

Well, peaceful enough…

I hadn't been able to sort all my thoughts out.

Everything that I had learned…

The card shop.

Yugi.

Stoichiev.

There was so much to contemplate.

Even with everything I went through at Duel Academy, this was a lot.

Yet something kept me grounded, a constant, and that was Alexis.

We were spending more and more time with each other as the days went on, and I found myself feeling at peace when she was around.

I found myself feeling happier, wanting to be around her more and every conversation I wanted to impress her.

Like, when have I ever tried to impress her?

It was all becoming more focussed, my feelings, they were all merging into something, that thing…

I had no idea what it was.

But all I knew was I enjoyed our time together.

Speaking of spending time together, we had really started to collect a workforce for the shop.

Joshie had been helping around the shop more, now that we had offered him a job.

Mum and Dad had been especially grateful given the amount of time he was spending at home.

Amalie had been around constantly, whenever we were there, she was as well.

We basically looked at her as part of management anyway.

Josh and Amalie had actually been getting on really well. Amalie had said she had seen him as a sort of younger brother which made me smile. I think she secretly wanted to be part of our family.

They had just been doing odd tasks, there had only really been odd tasks to do. We were almost done in truth.

It had been largely down to the help from Kyle and Sabrina. The two of them had been in and around the shop most days and would help whenever they could.

They were both actually really useful, I think them being around the shop for so long had made them get to know the ins and outs of it all.

As much as Josh got on with Amalie, he was the opposite with Kyle, both of them didn't see eye to eye.

I think they both wanted to boss each other around, and it wasn't working.

They even had a few confrontations about it all.

In the end, the only way I could break everything up was by making them do different tasks.

Yubel, Dee and DK had still been moaning about a strange presence in the shop.

They had said it wasn't good, and as if it was always around, but I still couldn't sense a thing.

Alexis couldn't sense anything either, which made me think they were starting to lose their touch a little bit.

"Done," Alexis said, coming out of the back room. She was trailed by Amalie and Kyle.

Me, Josh and Sabrina were sat, chatting about duelling.

"Done?"

I didn't really know what that meant.

"We're ready, it's opening time."

I almost spat out the part of a sandwich I was eating.

"Wait, just like that?"

I hadn't even thought about the prospect of opening the shop.

"Yeah, unless you had anything else to do."

Alexis gave me a knowing look.

She was right, everything was ready, but I wasn't sure.

With everything going on, was it safe to open the shop.

"I don't know…"

I gave Alexis a look and she smiled. I knew she would understand where I was coming from.

"Oh, don't worry Jay," Josh said, standing up, "we're ready."

"Yeah," Amalie said, "plus, all this sorting with you lot is starting to get boring."

She nudged Josh and I was sure he blushed slightly.

"Yeah," Sabrina said, "you'll be great."

I felt someone clap my shoulder, "exactly, Sabrina and I will be in every day."

I turned and saw Kyle smiling at me.

For someone who could get so angry, he was actually a really caring person.

That gave me and idea…

"Well then, let's do it!"

Everyone cheered, but I waited for them to settle.

"On one condition…"

Alexis looked at me questioningly.

"Everybody here is now a member of staff," I said with a smirk.

Amalie, Josh and Alexis gnawed at me, before turning to face Kyle and Sabrina.

It was safe to say they were both stunned.

"You're... you're offering us a job, really?"

Sabrina seemed stunned, but Kyle was grinning from ear to ear.

"You can count me in," he said, "man, this I going to be awesome."

"What's he up to?" Alexis said.

"Huh?"

I looked at Alexis for an answer.

"Jaden," Amalie said, "she didn't say anything."

Everyone was staring at me like I was weird, but I knew what I'd heard.

Alexis had definitely said something, I was sure of it.

This had a happened a few times recently, hearing Alexis when she hadn't actually said anything. It had been ever since Yugi had visited and I was beginning to wonder whether I was losing the plot.

"I'll do it," Sabrina suddenly said.

Everyone quickly adverted their gaze away from me and towards Sabrina.

"I'll do it," she said, sounding more confident, "I'll take the job."

Everyone cheered and clapped.

"Well then," I said, "that settles it, we have ourselves a workforce."

They all started to congratulate each other, but Alexis came straight over to me.

"Jaden," she said, in a lowered tone, "are you sure about this?"

I looked at her confused, what did she mean?

"Yeah, why?"

Alexis looked back at the others, "I don't know, I just have a feeling, what about what Dee and the others have been saying, having everyone around might not be the greatest idea."

Before I had the chance to answer, I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.

"One second," I said to Alexis.

As I looked down at my phone, I saw Alexis out the corner of my eye walk away.

"OH YES!"

I looked up and saw my brother doing some form of dancing.

Well, trying to dance anyway.

I looked down at my phone and realised that the message was in the family group chat…

JoshYuki ItsYaBoyJaden

Meet N'Duel tomorrow, your father forgot to tell me, can you grab some things on your way home x

My mum had sent another message just after with a shopping list, but at the bottom there was a more prominent message.

Oh ItsYaBoyJaden invite Alexis as well please x

Josh had already asked and explained to Alexis what a Meet N'Duel was before I even had a chance to talk.

There was one final message.

Oh yeah, it's everyone as well by the way.

The little kid inside of me started to get excited.

Everyone!

Oh boy, it's Meet N'Duel time!

Alexis's POV

What a few days.

The card shop, Dee, meeting Yugi and Victor Stoichiev showing up.

It had all been so crazy.

At first, I thought I was losing my mind, being able to talk to Dee.

I mean who wouldn't think they were crazy, being able to talk to duel monsters.

But, actually, everything really had begun to grow on me.

Well, Dee had that was sure.

Yeah okay, she went on a little bit.

But she was actually just what I needed.

It was funny, she could read my thoughts, even when I didn't want her to read my mind.

She knew everything about me, I knew everything about her.

We had so much time to get to know each other, that I almost saw her as my best friend.

She had worked out straight away that I liked Jaden.

I mean it's not hard.

Especially when she can read my mind.

She liked to tease me, privately of course, but still, it didn't help that I was around him all the time.

Clearly, my feelings towards him hadn't changed.

If anything, they were showing even more.

I just liked being around him, I liked the attention he would occasionally give me and having him there.

After the conversations with Yugi and Victor, he had been acting strange.

I mean I wasn't surprised.

He was just acting strange around me.

But then, I wasn't exactly being truthful to him either.

I had just arrived at the Yuki's house.

I had been invited to a family tradition of theirs…

The Meet N'Duel.

I was actually looking forward to it.

It had been a while since I had done anything like this.

My family and I had never really been that close, except for my relationship with Atticus, so doing things like this was actually a real treat for me.

There had been a lot of preparation done apparently.

Jaden and Josh had left early. Apparently, they had to go and collect a number of things for their mum on the way home and I had gone to grab a few things for my tea, which meant Amalie had offered to lock up.

I looked at the Yuki's house in front of me.

I hadn't been able to park in my usual spot, in fact I hadn't been able to park in any spot at all, I'd ended up halfway up the close.

It was safe to say there were going to be quite a few people inside, given the number of cars outside.

I had been told that the Yuki family was rather large.

Heck, that didn't surprise me one bit.

From what I had gathered, these Meet N'Duels were just fun family events. Josh had explained to me all about it yesterday. It wasn't competitive. It just got heated. That's what he had said.

I made my way to the front of the house and knocked.

I'd never had to knock before, it felt strange.

I waited a few seconds before the door opened and a large stocky man answered.

It was safe to say, I'd never met him before.

"Ahh," said the man, looking at me, "you must be my opponent."

I was very confused; I'd never been greeted like that before.

"Err..."

I didn't really have a response to that.

"Who is this strange man," Dee said, hovering over my shoulder.

No idea.

I'd learned not to just talk out loud to my duel spirit, people looked at you funny.

"Oh Wilt, you don't want to be scaring away the competition," said a familiar voice.

Malcom Yuki stepped into the doorway besides the man who was apparently called Wilt.

"Well," said Wilt, walking away, "there is no harm in confusing the opposition."

Malcom laughed at him before turning back to me, "hey Alexis."

He reached in and gave me a quick hug.

That was another thing I loved about being here, was how welcome the Yuki's made me feel.

"Please excuse my brother, he can get competitive," Malcom said, releasing me.

He started to make his way inside and I did so too, shutting the door behind me.

We made our way outside and it sure was a sight to behold.

There must have been about 30 people, all looking rather relaxed and drinking cocktails. Well most were drinking cocktails, others had larger, some had cider, but you catch my drift.

I tried to spot the Yuki's, which was hard in all this.

Well, I suppose everyone was a Yuki, but I meant the Yuki's I know.

I'd already found Malcom, who had started conversation with people beside me.

I looked around and spotted Josh, talking with two people who looked to be about his age.

I finally found Susan and Tess, who were sat chatting. Well, Susan was chatting, and Tess was sleeping.

I looked a little longer but couldn't spot the final Yuki.

"Aww, are you worried about Jaden?"

"Hah, very funny Dee," I said back. I hoped no one was listening in, that would have been embarrassing.

"Everybody," Malcom shouted from beside me, "this is Alexis, our final competitor."

Malcom lifted up my hand, and everybody cheered, much to my embarrassment.

"Now, let's get this thing underway."

Jaden finally showed after a few minutes, apparently, he had spilt drink his top and had to replace it with another.

"Hey," he said, coming to sit next to me, "glad you could make it."

I felt my skin tingle as Jaden got closer to me, he was actually closer than he usually sat, not that I noticed those things or anything.

"Who's winning?"

I looked up at the duel arena, it was two people that I had never met before.

"Umm, the guy in the orange shirt," I said. I wasn't completely sure, but he was winning at one point.

"Ahh, I'm not surprised, he's usually in till the end," Jaden said, leaning forward.

He seemed quite invested.

"Who are these people?"

I'd been meaning to ask Malcom, but I didn't get a chance to do so.

"Oh, just all of my family," he said, not averting his gaze from the duel.

I'm pretty sure I made some weird noise and Jaden started laughing.

Whilst the duel was going on, he explained to me who the people were.

It was safe to say there wasn't 30 people.

Wilt and Chrissy, Malcom's oldest brother and his wife.

They had two children, Chad and Loralee.

Duncan and Quinn, Malcom's younger brother and wife.

They had one child called Hermione.

Kim and her husband, Clarke.

Kim was Malcom's only sister.

They had three children, triplets called Hugo, Vince and Dexter.

Then finally, there was Trish, Susan's sister.

Her husband, Stuart was up duelling now, against their son, Tristan, who was in the orange shirt.

The Meet N'Duel was actually a lot of fun, it was well organised, and I didn't actually do that badly.

I got pretty far, but what you have to understand is that all of Jaden's family are very good.

Like, I'm good, but they're better.

I was actually surprised; Jaden hadn't taken part.

Well, I was, and I wasn't.

I know that he had stopped duelling, but I expected him to do it in his downtime.

"You know, he's not been himself lately," said someone next to me.

I'd been so lost in my thoughts that I hadn't seen Susan come and sit next to me.

"I know," I said, staring at the back of his head.

It did really bother me that he wasn't himself.

"How long?"

I looked at Susan, I had no idea what she was getting at.

"Huh," I said back.

"How long have you had feelings for Jaden?"

I almost spat my piña colada all over the floor at that comment, "umm, what?"

I was stunned, like I know she's his mother, but I wasn't really that obvious around her. I wasn't obvious around any of his family.

"I beg to differ," said Dee, who was giggling beside me.

I completely ignored her; I didn't need this right now.

Susan laughed, "oh Alexis, don't worry, I don't plan to say anything."

I felt myself go red, I suppose it was bound to happen at some point, I just hadn't told a lot of people. In fact, I'd barely told anyone.

"Probably since the reunion, well, known about them anyway," I said quietly.

I was acting as if it was my first day in a brand-new school, being all shy and quiet.

Susan sat and pondered for a while, smiling occasionally, "it sounds like when I realised, I liked Malcom."

"How come?"

"Well," she said, turning to face me, "it just sort of happens, you can't control it, you don't remember it happening, but you know it's real."

I sat and thought about those words for a minute. She was right it was pretty much exactly how it had happened.

I smiled at her, "yeah, that sounds about right."

"Everybody, can I have your attention please?"

I spun round to see Malcom, stood on a chair, shouting above everyone.

"Oh dear," Susan said, putting her hand to her face, "he's had one to many drinks."

I giggled; it was quite clear he'd had a few to drink.

"Susy… Susy…"

At this point he was slurring.

Susan just melted further into the chair.

"Alright, get on with it," shouted Wilt.

Everyone started to laugh, but Malcom persisted, "Susan, come up here."

At this point I thought he was going to drag her up there.

I felt a vibration go off in my pocket, but I didn't want to miss this.

"You better go mum," Jaden said, coming up to us, "you know he won't stop."

Susan sighed and slowly rose to her feet before making her way to the front.

"There she is, round of applause everyone," Malcom said, hugging his wife.

Everyone gave a muted round of applause.

"Now," he said, readjusting, "my beautiful wife and I would like to congratulate Duncan on victory in the Meet N'Duel."

Duncan made his way to the front to collect his trophy and prize.

Yes, they had trophies and prizes.

"Secondly," he said, scanning the crowd.

He looked around until he locked eyes with me and Jaden.

"Oh god," Jaden said, "what is he doing?"

"What was that?" I said in reply.

"Huh, nothing," he said back.

That was weird, I was sure I heard him say something.

"We would like to announce," Malcom said, still looking at Jaden and I, "that there will be a party tomorrow to celebrate my son, Jaden, opening his new business, alongside the wonderful Alexis Rhodes, and you are all invited."

I tensed.

They were hosting a party for us…

Everybody swivelled and clapped, whistling as well.

Jaden stood, and I followed, soaking in the applause.

"Oh, look at you," Dee said, "take it all in."

I could tell she was jealous, but I didn't care.

As the round of applause died down, Malcom gave everyone the details.

Everybody dispersed, going back to their original conversations and Malcom and Susan came over to us.

"Sorry about him," Susan said, hugging me and Jaden, "we weren't meant to do it like that."

"Oh Susy," Malcom said, "Syrus and Zane told us to tell them however we wanted."

"Syrus and Zane?"

Yeah, I was wondering that as well.

"Syrus and Zane helped us organise it, they'll be here tomorrow, with all your friends," Susan said.

I started to get more and more excited, everyone was going to be together again, just like the reunion.

I felt my phone go off in my pocket again, so I excused myself and checked it quickly.

I started to look through the messages.

"Wait, this makes no sense," I said to myself.

I checked over the phone again.

I felt someone come behind me.

"What's wrong?"

Oh no…

Jaden…

How could I explain this to him?

I slowly turned around to face him.

"Jay.. Jaden… I don't know what happened…"

I felt myself getting emotional…

How had I already managed to screw things up?

"What happened Alexis?"

I looked at him, this wasn't going to go down well…

I took a deep breath…

"We've had money stolen…"

Taa Daa!

Another chapter chalked off, let me know what you thought.

I hope you all enjoyed that one, it took some careful planning.

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I hope you're all well and looking after yourselves,

Until next time,

Writey x