WARNING: This chapter is full of sexual innuendos. Soo…if that offends you (if it did, I assume you wouldn't read this story) then please don't read it or flame me. Either way, I don't care if you do or don't. I just want to say you've been warned.

Hakoro-and-Tsukiko101225: O.O Poor Kura!! Hehe, yes you're funny. I love funny reviews. Besides, long ones are great too. (Easier to respond to…) But that's a secret! Soo…keep Kura quite so he dun tell it! Lol. Thanks for the review.

Love'sBakura: T.T It's painful to write I tell you! I don't like hurting Kura… and yes, umm… I don't know if he comes back in this chapter or not. Either way, he WILL return I promise!

Youko's Kitsune Girl: and I'm gunna assume, ASSUME, that 'Lana' is rape in Japanese or something? Actually, to tell the truth I was thinking of putting in a lemon at the end…but I don't know how everyone would like that…Let me kno what you think!

11. One Fine Christmas

Christmas Day

It was around eight or nine that night. Ry had stayed home all day. There was no point in going out. The library was closed due to the holidays. Besides the library, no one had invited him over for a party anyways. He didn't doubt anyone.

The DVD he had been watching begin to suddenly skip. Ryou groaned and rolled off his bed. Today wasn't the best day in the world, though he's had worse. So he wasn't complaining.

When he had first woken up, Ry could make out the faint sound of water spraying violently from the basement. So he had leapt out of bed and raced down the stairs. Once he reached the first floor, he was afraid to peek in the basement. Creaking open the oak door, Ryou peered in at the near stagnant water piled about 3½ inches on the concrete floor. Some of the board games that Bakura had stored down there were now a mile away from shore and floating in the middle of this ocean of a basement. Near the rear of the cellar, the harsh spraying continued. Steam gently rose and became visible when Ry descended the stairs. He didn't even need to reach the bottom step before realizing due to the scent and heat that his hot water heater busted.

With a shaky, angry sigh, Ryou back tracked up the stairs. By now the hissing of his water heater had dissolved to mere purr. There was no hurry to call anyone to come and fix it. It was Christmas and every place you could think of was closed. Kind of ironic that all his towels were upstairs, so all he had to do was bring them down and that his dryer was downstairs. So while some of the towels dried the water, the wet ones would be able to dry at the same time.

Ryou didn't think it was very funny. After slamming the door to the basement, he heard a crash from the living room. The teen stopped dead. He looked at the doorway of the living room and spun around. He didn't even want to see what he broke this time. His legs quickly carried him into the kitchen when breakfast didn't go along so well either.

"I burnt the eggs, this DVD is skipping, the heater busted, I slipped up the stairs, and now Bakura's senior picture frame broke," Ryou cursed into his carpeted floor through the corner of his mouth. He had moved a television into his room about a week ago. It was nicer that way, because Ry wouldn't have to face that damned front door or the room that brought his so much pain so many times.

With another groan, the teen pushes his self off the floor. When he gets to his hands and knees, he stops to hear a knock come from downstairs.

"Hmm…" Ryou growls as he stands up, "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

As the frustrated boy ran down the stairs he almost tripped on the last one. He stumbled a bit but caught his balance just before grabbing the door's brass handle. When he swung open the door he was greeted by a few people he wasn't expecting to see.

"Merry Christmas Ryou!" They greeted all with huge grins on their faces.

Ry stared in utter surprise at the gang outside his home. There was Yami and his buddy Yugi. Both dressed nicely like they've come from a party earlier. Yugi brought along a friend named Joey or Jou for short. Jou had brought along his boyfriend; that seemed odd to Ry coz he would've said Jou was straight. Jou's boyfriend was named Seto Kaiba. The name sounded familiar due to the fact that Kaiba was the richest man in Domino. Ryou swung open the door to let them all in. When they came inside, he saw that he had more guests standing behind them.

Malik had shown up along with a friend quite similar to himself. Good looking with spiky blonde hair, rather tall and a dark tan muscular body; close to Malik's colored skin. Malik told him that they had met last night at a bar; Malik obviously didn't show up to work. They must've hit it off big because they were around each other the whole night. The shocked teen found out later that his name was Marik.

"It's nice to meet you all," Ryou stated warmly when the group had found a seat in the living room. "But I don't get why you're all here…"

"Well," Malik begins, "we all had family get-togethers to attend to. But when we thought about it, what was a party without Ryou Haruki?" The six other party goers laughed, Ry just smiled.

"Exactly. So Malik called Yami up and I called Jou. Oh yea…I never did apologize for interrupting your present from Kaiba. Sorry," Little Yugi blushed. But Joey's face turned beet red. Kaiba put his arm over his boyfriend's shoulder.

"Embarrassed my little puppy?" Seto coos in his official sounding voice. "Well then next time don't answer the phone."

"I'm not your puppy damn it!" Jou cried out.

"Oh really? Well it's quite the opposite in bed. You'll let me call you anything as long I'm fast and hard," Kaiba laughed. Joey was so embarrassed that he hid his face in one of the blue throw pillows.

Yami laughed at the poor teen. Yugi kind of looked down as if embarrassed him self at the comment. Malik and Marik seemed to be taking mental notes on this…verbal event. Ra only knew the things that they would occasionally whisper to make the other smile.

"Well, I'm glad to have you all over. But I haven't a gift, food, or game for you all," Ryou worries out loud.

Seto stands up; his tall, well maintained figure was shown off in his pose. Crossing his arms and setting his hips off to the right he states, "Well we just got back from our own parties. That's why we're here so late. Besides, we're here to give you something. Malik go get it."

Malik stands up and sighs. "I'm going to go with him…just so he doesn't get lost," Marik calls as the front door closes.

Yami, Yugi, Ryou, and Seto all stare after the two. Jou still had his head buried in the pillow. Seto groaned and sat next to him, whispering things into the distressed teen's sandy blonde hair.

After no sign of Malik or Marik, Yami walks outside with an annoyed groan. The windows of their car are fogged up and unfortunately that's the vehicle with the gift. The older teen swings open the passenger door to see the two men in the back seat making out.

"Ya know, the least ya could've done was bring the presenting THEN come back out. Dear Ra…" Yami curses at them. Slamming the door he returns hold a fairly large box.

"Guys, you really shouldn't have," Ry states nervously.

"But we did! Now open it Ry!" Yugi squeals excitedly.

The white-haired teen tears open the gift wrapping that has cute little morbidly drawn reindeer on it. No doubt Yugi's doing.

When the paper was removed completely Ryou looked at it. It was a Kaiba Corp., Laptop. Ry jumped back in surprise.

"These computers are the best on the market! Not to mention the price!" Ryou yelps.

"Well a little birdie had to work it out of me," Seto sneers eyes Jou again who had finally taken his face away from the cushion.

"Kaiba!!" Joey cries loudly.

Kaiba shudders, "Oh Jou…do that again. I liked it."

Yami clears his loud loudly. "Well it's obvious you two want to get home, so why don't you hook this up first?"

"Sure…" Seto mumbles before walking over to the box.

The overjoyed teen stepped out of his way. Ry turned around to see Yami and Yugi sitting on the couch talking idly. He stopped and watched them for a second. They seemed so happy together. Both of them could look each other in the eyes and say anything, Ryou didn't really want to take that away. Not now or ever.

"Hey Yami, can I talk to you in private for a moment?"

Red eyes glanced up for a moment to peer into Ryou's green ones. Yami could tell that it was semi-important so he patted Yugi's hand and stood up.

"Yeah, what is it?" The spiky haired teen asked when he met Ry in the kitchen.

"All of this. Why would you do this for me? I was so mean to you the last time you were here. I can't believe you'd actually—" Ryou begins to exclaim.

Yami presses two fingers to his lips. "Ryou, I gave you advice in my own way. It worked. Don't keep blaming yourself about this whole thing. You were put under so much pressure that you burst and you took it out on the nearest thing, me. I'm totally aware of what was going on, please stop apologizing," Yami pleads.

"But I tend to ruin everything! Like Malik's emotions were—" Ryou sobbed.

"Hahaha, you think Malik got Marik by himself? That's a good one! Actually, Seto is the one behind that trick," Yami laughs.

"Huh?"

"Marik, he works for Kaiba. He uses his good looks and body to sell computers. Stupid I know, but it works. I had told Yugi about your dilemma. He must've said something to Joey. Malik's description must've enhanced into a description of Marik. Kaiba got pissed, sent Marik out of the building. Anyways, Marik was at the bar yesterday night. That's when he met Malik. He called Seto and got his job back. That's when Kaiba's ingenious plan arose. He told Marik to get back at Malik's ass. Well Marik did just that. You should've seen them outside in the car…he had his ass. Malik must like it so he'll remain busy for a while," Yami finishes his explanation with a grin.

Ryou laughs a bit at the ironic set of events. "Well you know, you and Yugi seem to get along pretty well," The teen laughs.

The older boy smiles, "Yea, I think he's the one Ry. I'm so into him."

"Yami! Get your ass out here!!" Seto shouts from the living room, "and bring Ryou's too!!"

The laptop was ready to go when the two guys returned. Yami sat next to Yugi who grabbed his hand instantly. Ryou on the onther hand approached the computer. Seto had already programmed it with a bunch of various links on the desktop.

"Well I gave you the internet, a various amount of word processors, a small amount of games, etc," Kaiba informs.

"Thanks guys. I really appreciate all of this. Even though Malik and Marik aren't here to hear this, but I'm going to write about my life in a story…I didn't want to call you by your real names without permission. You know that entire 'to protect the innocent…' deal. So I was going to ask for aliases. Seto?" Ryou asks with much gratitude.

"Use my real name."

"Yami? Yugi?"

"Real names."

"Jou?"

"Umm…you can use my real name but leave out the…sexual content ok?" He pleads.

Ryou winks, "I promise Jou."

After a moment of laughter, Malik and Marik reappear. Both looking as relieved as ever.

"My back seat better be in good condition," Yami growls.

Malik sits on the couch and laughs, "Don't worry Yams, it looks like we just 'came' and went." Marik was the only one to laugh at the stupid joke.

Seto smirks and turns to Joey, "You ready babe?"

Jou groans and stands up without a word.

"I really love this gift you guys," Ryou thanks again.

Seto smiles slightly, "If that story becomes a major seller, I'll give you something else. My baby better come in handy and you better take good care of it."

"I will. I promise."

By now it was 11 o' clock and everyone was really tired. Ryou yawned and sat back in his chair. Seto and Jou had already left. Kaiba had mentioned something about 'unfinished' business from earlier. That business was quite obvious. Malik and Marik were exhausted from the previous events in Yami's back seat. Yugi was sleeping silently on Yami's shoulder. Though he and Ryou were the only ones talking.

"All will be fine for you Ry. Dun worry about it," Yami assures.

"I think you're right. I have nothing, no one, to hold me back now," Ryou agrees before taking notice to the other guys in the room, "And I don't want to ruin the conversation but I think the others are ready to go."

"Yea, I think we're going to get out. Thanks for the wonderful time. Come on guys get out to the car," Yami ushers to Malik and Marik. They groan and stand up. Then slowly nudging Yugi, Yami pulls him off the couch. "We'll talk later about this kind of stuff. Bye Ryou."

"I'm sure we will. Thanks for everything Yami. Bye," Ryou waves as they head out to the car. Gently closing the door, the boy turns and looks at his Christmas gift. "This jumpstarts my career even more. But first I'm going to bed."

He picks up the laptop and gently folds the screen down. Leaving the trash and the box, Ry wanders upstairs and walks down the hall. All the problems from earlier seemed to vanish or had just slipped into the back of his mind.

2 Years Later

Only the sound of furious typing can be heard from Ryou's room. He's been working nonstop on this book since he got his computer. The only occasional breaks were for food, the bathroom, sleep and school/homework. But now he didn't have to worry about the school area. He graduated over 6 months ago. It was short-lived however when Malik claimed that he had to meet Marik somewhere. Ryou wasn't particularly interested in his plans.

"I'm sorry," Malik suddenly apologizes when the two begin to ride down the road.

"Huh? For what?" Ryou asks totally confused.

"I never exactly told you sorry for suddenly showing up with Marik—" Malik begins.

"Just…don't worry about it anymore. That was years ago. I'm glad you found someone and I'm happy for Yami too. It just makes me realize that I can stop worrying about you, because now I know that you're okay after what happened."

"…yeah, I guess you're right. How's your story coming along?"

"Great! I have almost all of it done! It's coming along wonderfully," Ry beams.

"Good to hear."

Those were the last few words spoken between the two in a long time; about six months ago. But the typing teen really didn't care about the couple at the moment. For all he knew they probably had AIDS but still screwed each other.

Ryou tilted his head to the side. He had never exactly thought about a title or a way to end the novel. It never really occurred to him. The twenty year old grabbed a pillow off his bed and hugged it for a moment. He sat there in his seat thinking directly on how to end the book. The last part he talked about was the last meeting he and Malik had.

"Hmm…" Ryou groaned quietly. That's when an idea clicked.

Looking back down at the key board his pale fingers typed out the words: "They all left me with a little pain inside. Each of them mentioned the hype about life and being great. But where's the love for me these days? Now I've realized that holding on is harder than it seems. Especially when you're reaching for so much more than you've ever been shown. It was so much easier to just give in. But none of my friends would let me do it. If you have friends like that, you'll never need others to back you up. Just believe in yourself and your dreams."

Ryou pushed his chair back onto the hind legs and smiled widely. The book was totally completed, well except for the title. He would self-title it but those never sold out. Ry wanted a title that would catch people's attention and make them want to read it. It took him hours to come up with the title: Scabbed Memories.

AN:

Okay…it was a little boring, but hey, all stories have them in it. But I must ask you all an important question!!

IMPORANT: Seeings as how it seems most girls enjoy this RxB stories. I was thinking of putting a lemon at the end of the story and possibly including and alternate ending to what I originally have written. PLEASE, let me know. If I don't hear anything, I WILL NOT POST NEW MATERIAL after the story has ended.