Revised

~§~

Chapter 2: Lying Eyes

~§~

It had been exactly five days since Yugi had completed the puzzle and Lailat wasn't any closer to figuring out who the spirit was. She'd spent two nights after their first meeting (first meeting? Was it really that?) trying to connect things and how she knew him. Cath was not being helpful. Gods damn cat.

She's only managed three hours of sleep last night and as she worked on getting ready for school, she couldn't help but think something was going to happen today and she hoped she was wrong about it.

She left not to long after, meeting up with Jounouchi and Yugi to walk to school that morning as they discovered they all lived within a rather close proximity of one another.

As they were walking, Yugi and Jounouchi, the pair had, for some Gods awful reason, decided that the topic of their next conversation was going to be about porn.

Lailat felt an eye twitch coming on. Such a disgusting thing, could they of a least waited until she was not with them to talk about such vulgar things without her around?

"J-Jounouchi did you see the video?" Yugi asked.

"Oh that... I squinted but..." Jounouchi suddenly clenched his fist. "I still couldn't make out the censored bits! Damn! All the good stuff was digitized out!"

Lailat sighed before speaking. "You know that's just a myth, right?" She told Jounouchi.

He raised an eyebrow at her, suddenly intrigued by the fact that the apathetic girl possibly watched porn. "What, have you tried it?"

Lailat rolled her eyes before she replied: "Well when you walk in on someone watching stuff like that..." She trailed off and they watched she a shiver ran down her spine. She shook her head and instead asked: "How do you watch that kind of thing, I would have expected more from you Yugi." Lailat finished looking down at Yugi, who was a head shorter then her.

Yugi started blushing, embarrassed.

"Well whatever, anyway back to our conversation, Yugi, maybe I'll lend you the video sometime." Jounouchi said.

Lailat gave a large sigh and rolled her eyes, letting her mind wander back in time.

Lailat walked down the halls of the large mansion. She blinked and turned down another hallway and stopped at a door. She knocked three times before she opened the door, forgetting to wait for an 'enter'.

Immediately regretting her decision. "Hey, BB. Have you Se- OH GODS! My eyes!" she yelled and covered her eyes.

"Lailat!"

Said girl quickly ran out of the room. "I saw nothing!"

She ran back down the hallway she had previously been traversing on and into the main living room that at the time only had three other younger boys and an even young girl who looked up and saw Lailat.

"Hey, Lai-" The blonde one stopped when he saw the horrified look on her pale face as she continued to run right past them.

"LAILAT! WAIT!" the raven-haired boy, that Lailat had called BB, came sprinting into the room and followed after Lailat.

Lailat shivered again at the memory.

As they arrived at the school gate, Jounouchi noticed something. "Look! There's a television van parked outside the school gate!"

Confused, Lailat looked to where Jounouchi was pointing to see he was right. A huge white van was right there with the letters "Z-TV" painted on the sides. She frowned.

"M-Maybe a famous star is coming to the school!" Yugi exclaimed.

"Oh, yeah that must be it Yugi!" Jounouchi said excitedly. "What do you think Lailat?" He turned to her as Yugi went to the van to check. Lailat's reaction was to shoot him a non-amused expression, but it could have also been a 'you're an idiot' one. She let out a breath causing her bangs to fly up before she walked off towards the school's doors.

It wasn't long after, that Yugi and Jounouchi caught up with her and they found Anzu. "WHAAAT? A STAR?!" she practically yelled.

"Sure, and the evidence is the TV van parked outside the school gate!" Jounouchi said smugly. "Tell her Yugi!"

"W... Well... yeah." Yugi said hesitantly.

"Do you believe them?" Anzu asked Lailat.

"There isn't any evidence that a so-called 'famous' person is coming here as there hasn't been anything on the news about it or any signs this morning about it." She drawled in a monotone voice. Lailat saw Anzu look to Jounouchi out the corner of her eye triumphantly. She guesses out of the two of them, she made the most sense to the brown-haired girl.

Unfazed by it Jounouchi exclaimed: "Morons! She's probably disguised as a student! But I'm going to her alone and unmask her!"

"J-Jounouchi-kun... that... that's…" Yugi stuttered.

Lailat stared wide-eyed at Jounouchi and sigh, nibbling on her thumb.

"You know to have someone strip in public can get you arrested for sexual harassment." Lailat stated.

The three of them all stopped and looked to Lailat wide eyes. Jounouchi covered his mouth to stop laugh while Yugi cracked a smile and Anzu started blushing furiously.

"LAILAT!" She screamed.

"What did I say?" She blinked, staring at her in confusion and that was what made Jounouchi lose it.

~§~

At lunch, Jounouchi, Lailat and Yugi were making their way towards the school canteen to meet up with Honda, Miho and Anzu for lunch.

"Alright! Now we have to find that star!" Jounouchi suddenly declared. Yugi hesitated a bit and Lailat groaned, her eyes became half-lidded as she tilted her head forward slightly, showing her annoyance clearly.

Yugi then spoke. "But... I've been thinking... what if there's some other reason the TV van was parked outside?" Jounouchi turned to Yugi in disbelief. "Yugi! Not you too?!"

Dejected, Jounouchi said: "You're hopeless! I thought at least you'd believe me!" He then took off. "Fine! I'll find her on my own! Hmph!"

"Hey, Jouno-uchi!" Yugi called after him but the tall blonde ignored him and walked around a corner. Leaving Lailat and Yugi in his dust, Yugi looked down upset.

Wrapping an arm around his shoulder, Lailat spoke. "Jounouchi just being himself, he'll be back in no time."

Yugi managed to crack a smile.

"I'm not too hungry so I'm gonna go return a book to the school library, I'll meet up with you at the canteen." Yugi nodded and headed towards the canteen to get his own food. Lailat noticed that Yugi bumped into a guy with a big nose and a black and yellow headband sitting under his dark blond hair, she didn't recognize him which made the ravenette frown but carried on anyway.

After returning the book, Lailat failed to find Yugi in the canteen and took off to find Jounouchi to see if he had seen the smaller boy. She found him near the van. Seeing her Jounouchi smiled. "I see you finally decided to follow my lead and look for the..." He trailed off when he noticed her scrunched brows. "What's the matter?"

"Have you seen Yugi?" Furrowing up his eyebrows in confusion, he shook his head. Lailat licked her lips in worry. "I thought I saw him walk off with a strange kid I hadn't seen in school before."

Showing that he understood Lailat's suspicion, he asked, "You know where he went?"

"Check behind the school?" She suggested.

Nodding in agreement, the two made their way there.

~§~

Running around a corner, Lailat immediately spotted the boy from before throwing another punch at Yugi.

"Stop right there!" Jounouchi yelled.

"You jerk, what do you think you're doing to our friend!" It was the first time the two boys heard Lailat raise her voice. The ravenette then punched him in the side of his head and he stumbled down to the ground.

Jounouchi then took him by the collar ready to punch him while Lailat ran to check Yugi and his injuries.

"Are you alright?!" Lailat's eyes filled with worry which was odd but Yugi nodded and the worry disappeared almost immediately, hidden behind the familiar apathetic gaze.

"I... I didn't want to... really... but the Director..." The boy mumbled, sweat running down his face.

"Director?!" Jounouchi's eyes widened with his words.

"Cut, cut! Very good!" Lailat heard a gruff voice say. Then the Director came in wearing a white t-shirt tuck in pale orange pants. "You can go now, Fujita!"

"So, you're the one who put Yugi through this?!" Jounouchi glared at the Director and stood next to Lailat and Yugi.

"I... I'm sorry, Jono-uchi... there wasn't a star after all..." Yugi mumbled, grimacing in pain. Lailat gritted her teeth and closed her eyes turning towards the Director with a cold glare.

"It wasn't your fault! These jerks lied to you!"

"Stop the camera! They're friends, we get it! This kind of stuff is a waste of tape." The Director said and started to dig in his ear with his pinky.

"You filmed this? For a show?" Lailat spoke quietly, trying to keep all emotions from entering her voice.

The Director smirked cruelly before speaking again. "Look... it was just bad luck you got picked for the victim. Just coincidence about the same odds as rolling the die and getting a one... heh heh. But because of that, we've tapped a good show! The viewers will sympathize with you and send in letters by the dozen! You're a star Yugi! The star of your own program!"

"Are you asking to die?!" Jounouchi growled at him before grabbing the director by the shirt. "Heh heh heh... hit me then... just remember, I'm recording the whole thing."

Jounouchi eyes widened, flinching as he remembered, they widen more when the Director kneed him in the stomach. "Stop the cameras!"

Lailat jumped forwards to try and catch Jounouchi but the Director shoved her too.

"Jounouchi-kun! Lailat-chan!" They heard Yugi scream.

Laughing sadistically, the Director said: "Don't you get it? You can't fight the power of the media! If I want, I can make you the laughing stock of the world."

While he was enjoying his triumph, Lailat noticed a light. She turned around to see that Yugi transformed into the Spirit. Her charcoal ones met his crimson ones. Their eye contact ended with the Director walking off saying: "Heh heh... but don't worry! I'll hide your face with a digital mosaic at least no one will know it's you."

The Spirit gave him a glare before looking at Lailat who was now standing again. "Lailat, go take Jounouchi to the infirmary." He then got a thoughtful face before continuing. "Also... could you get me a die?"

Lailat nodded and knelt, picking Jounouchi up, wrapping an arm around his waist as she walked away. Luckily for Lailat, the nurse was inside the infirmary when she got there, the lady quickly taking the blonde from her grasp. Lailat slipped out before the woman could turn and question her. Making a stop to the games room, she picked up a die. Lailat blinked and her lips twitched when she saw the symbol that was on the side with the one. She pocketed it and met up with the Spirit at the school gate, where she chucked the die at him, catching it he glanced down at the side facing up at him which was an eye of Horus. He shot her a smirk.

"You want to come?" He asked her suddenly, glancing over his shoulder at the school gate, his gaze watching to see if anyone else was around.

Lailat blinked twice and mulled over before nodded. "Sure." With that, she shoved her hands in her pockets.

"Just don't get in the way or you are going to get injured more than you're already are, Dove." Lailat raised an eyebrow and was about the tell him it was nothing (briefly remembering the numb pain of the shove to her stomach) but seeing that he was genuinely worried she kept her mouth closed and gave a mute nod.

~§~

The duo ended up taking a train and then an underground one to react the Z-TV station. Lailat now had her school blazer slung over her shoulder. As they made their way into the station's parking lot, Lailat nudged the Spirit's shoulder. He stopped, shooting her a questioning look but Lailat simply nodded her head towards the Director, who was getting a well done about his latest episode.

The Spirit finally noticing him made his way towards the director's car. "I've been waiting, Director."

Lailat blinked and shot him an amused look, waiting? We just got here...

Surprised the director stuttered. "Y-You're that brat, Yugi..."

He then spotted Lailat as he said distastefully as he eyed her Egyptian bands. "Along with his Egyptian wanna-be girlfriend." Lailat missed the eye twitch the Spirit gave at his insult. Lailat just gave a quiet huff, not at all that affected by it- she had Egyptian heritage, her father came from Egypt but her mother was English so she wasn't as tanned as she would have been with two parents of Egyptian genetics.

"What are you doing here? Come to get paid?" The Director complained.

The Spirit ignored him as he spoke, "You have trespassed in my soul! For that, you must play with me! Play a game that is..."

"A game...?" they heard the Director repeat uncertainly.

Spirit then dug in his jacket pocket and pulled out the die Lailat had given him. "It's nothing to be afraid of... just a simple game of dice! People have been staking their fate on dice since ancient Egypt! Although, back then, we used 'astragali' – the uneven heel bones of calves and sheep."

Lailat hummed, she'd done research into that a few years ago.

"Now." Spirit continued. "Let me explain the rules of this game of fate. We both roll the die. I roll first. Whoever rolls the lowest number wins. I'll even let you go in case of a tie! Sound good?" He smirked at the Director. "However,if I win, then you have to play a penalty game as punishment."

"Ridiculous! Why do I have to play around with you?!"

Spirit ignored him and dropped the die. "Game Start."

Lailat bit her lip as the die rolled and landed on a six.

"Hahahahaha! It's a six! A six! No matter what number comes up, I win. I don't even need to roll the die!"

Spirit held back an eye roll as he spoke. "The odds are in your favour... but the game's not over until you roll."

"Damn! Don't you ever shut up?"

Lailat bit back the urge the growl as it would have been out of character and as a secondary thought decided once this was done she would ask for the Spirits name...

While in thought, she had missed the Director throw the die at Spirits head and it fell to the floor, her eyes flashed to the die as it landed on the floor and narrowed her eyes.

"Hahaha. It's a one! I win." Director said already walking away but stopped when he heard Spirit say. "No... you have to play a penalty game."

Taking a closer look, the director saw that the die had split into a one and six, giving him a seven. Spirit pointed at the director and yelled out: "Penalty Game; Mosaic Illusion!"

The Director's eyes startled to look like pixels and he started to scream as he realized the fate that was given to him. "Director... for bending the truth in front of the cameras... then all you see shall be censored."

Lailat twitched and shoved her hands in her pockets as the Spirit turned towards her again and the duo started their way off. Once they were outside Lailat spoke up. "I just realized something..." she trailed off and Spirit stopped and looked back at her.

"Realized what?" He asked curiously.

"You haven't told me your name." He looked slightly taken back by her words, his lips parted.

"How did you know I wasn-"

"I'm not an idiot." She cut in. "And I remember when I got the puzzle piece from the river."

He hummed, looking amused and intrigued- like she shouldn't have been able to remember him.

"I don't have a name that I can remember..." Spirit looked off to the side with a thoughtful look.

"Ah." It was silently for a few moments as they started walking again before Lailat spoke up again. "I'll call you Yami then."

Now dubbed Yami blinked and looked towards her. "Why Yami?"

"Yami means darkness in Japanese and you're like some dark side of Yugi, so I'll call you Yami." She shrugged and stopped turning back to Yami, who was the one to stop this time and was staring her in the eye.

He narrowed his eyes and stepped forwards, raising his hands to her face, Lailat blinked when his index fingers gently pushed her lips up into a smile.

She shooed his hands away and puffed out her cheeks, feeling them warm for some reason. "Don't do that."

"Why? A smile suits you nicely, Dove." Lailat was taken back by the comment and her cheeks warmed even more. It wasn't even that hot out, why-? She huffed and crossed her arms and looked away.

"No, it doesn't." With that, she took off towards her house leaving Yami standing there watching Lailat leave, a soft smirk on his lips.