.:Chapter eight - Moral Support:.

Dashing off down the hall, Yuugi giggled happily, shooting past his very shocked mother, who was nearly run over a second time by their guest, whom followed the boy close behind, whining out some incoherent words. "Oh, my," she said quietly, bending her body and tilting her head to look after them as the two disappeared around the corner.

"Dad...?" she asked slowly, still blinking like she couldn't quite process something. Hey, it was early in the morning. Go figure.

Sugoroku poked his head out of the kitchen, the place where the smell of breakfast was wafting around. "Yeeees?" he drawled, a grin set on his old, wrinkly face.

Miss Mutou did not like that grin, either. It meant 'no good' in her language. "Did... Did my son just run by with a pair of black, leather-type pants, and did Yami just run by afterwards, chasing him with a blanket wrapped around his lower body?"

"...Maybe." the elder replied, sneaking back to his spot in front of the stove, skillet sizzling happily, having waited for him to return.

Putting her hands on her hips, the magenta-haired woman stepped into the said room, standing over her father. "And you wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you...?" She knew he'd done something. Yuugi didn't normally do things like that without inspiring ideas. Or sugar. Either one would have had to have been provided by the grandfather.

"Of course not,"

"...Right." Subject dropped. "Well, I'm going to go do some early early shopping and I shall be back in a few hours. I'll pick up my own breakfast on the way," she added, before turning and smiling innocently through the door to the hall, which lead to the living room. "And I'd better not see anything broken, or morally traumatized when I get back." All said with that childish, beautiful smile of hers. "Tootles!" and with that, she seemed to almost disappear, now no longer standing in the hall period. Not even so much as a smoke cloud. But, then again, that's just how she was.

Shrugging, the old man kept on grinning. "I wouldn't worry. Traumatizing's something more of Malik's style." he said, apparently to himself, since he was left alone.

Just then, a blur darted through the living room, insane cackling filtering around the house and echoing down the hall.

"Give those BACK!" And another one rushed past, blanket sliding along the floor behind. "Those are the only pants I have!" And that was more of a whiny voice, something Sugoroku was sure Yami didn't use very often.

But this was amusing him to no end.

More evil laughter came before a sudden thud and then CRASH, before everything went silent. "...Oops."

Eye twitching up, the elderly man stepped out of the kitchen, moving his way into the room which was surely somewhat destroyed by now. As he entered the said room, he blinked, seeing Yami completely on top of Yuugi, wrapped around him almost, the blanket sprawled around them both. It was riding a tad low, and the grandfather could see what he was sure was an ass-crack.

Next to them was a table that had been pushed over, and the potted plant that had formerly set contentedly on top of it now lay on the floor in pieces.

"You both are so dead when your mother gets home." was all he said before Grampa walked back into the room he came from, going back to his cooking before something got set on fire.

"Oh, crap."

Yami blinked down at the small boy beneath him, who was now squirming to get away. "I'm very sorry," he said, truly feeling guilty. He didn't like to damage another person's things like that--it wasn't a good, nice thing to do at all. Besides, that was more of a Bakura or Mariku thing to do.

Speaking of those two... he hoped they hadn't inadvertently killed the poor boy they were staying with. That would not be good.

"I know, and I forgive you, but mom's gonna throw a fit. She loved that vase." he ranted, finally managing to get out from under the other, after had Yami lifted himself up slightly. "We have to do something before she finds out!" Yuugi continued to whine, pulling at his hair, not noticing Yami slip his pants back on, before standing up beside him. "I heard her leave, but I don't know when she'll be back!"

Yes, panic was a word that fit him well right now. If one did not know the wrath of an angry mother, then they would not understand this fear. But then again, Yuugi's mother was not just an ordinary one. She was like some kind of monster when irritated. Which brought us back to where we were.

They were both figuratively screwed.

"She said in a few hours," came his reply from the kitchen. "Now come get some breakfast before going on your little journey to save your poor, doomed souls."

"But Grampa...!"

"Breakfast. Now."

"...Oh, fine."

And so, the quest to quickly clean up the mess and buy a new flowerpot that looked identical to the former one was put off for a later time. Namely after the food.

It was very tasty, by the way, which Yami made a point to get across. He went back for seconds...and a third. Possibly more was eaten, but we're not going to go into it.

---

Ryou, though, was a tad disturbed from the night before. Mariku had needed a shower after his little romp in the dust bunnies... And frankly, so did his damnable feline. But putting a cat in a bathtub with any kind of running water is a no-no.

But apparently his tanned guest didn't know that.

He also didn't seem to understand the fact that one does not strip off all of their clothes while other people--strangers!--are in the same room! This gave the poor teen much mental scarring.

But after forcing the blonde one into the bathroom, cat in hand, he'd shut the door and barred it with whatever he could get at the moment. Luckily, Princess hadn't shredded too many things... Nothing irreplaceable, anyway. He could buy another shower curtain, after all.

But his hand, unfortunately, could not be replaced. But a nice bandage did help a lot.

Unfortunately for both of them, after the little shower incident, Ryou had no clothes for Mariku to wear... so after letting him dry off, he gave him a blanket and pillow to sleep with on the couch, while he took his father's bedroom. He was positive his dad wouldn't want a naked, somewhat deranged stranger sleeping in his bed.

Princess went into hiding again, most likely to get himself dry, but regardless... he was gone nonetheless.

Mariku had whined about this a while, but was out like a light several seconds afterwards. Ryou was very thankful for this. VERY thankful.

Bakura had slept through most of the night, though he'd woken up to use the restroom... And after flooding the said room in a few inches of water in the process, he'd learned how to use the toilet. Though whatever happened to the plushie he'd been holding was a mystery to him. He was almost scared to go after it, though, so he just let it be.

But other than having his apartment basically trashed, he'd say the night went fairly well.

He was just cleaning up breakfast when the phone rang, scaring Mariku out of his wits, causing the said male to run screaming across the room and lock himself in the flooded bathroom. After a few seconds delay because of this, the white-haired earthling finally made his way to the phone, answering it with his usual; "Hikari,"

"Ryou! You have to help!"

Blinking at the frightened voice he heard from the other end, the green-eyed teen shook his head. "Yuugi...what's wrong?"

"Yami and I were running, and we accidentally knocked over my mother's vase! We have to find one just like it and replace it before she gets home!" the small boy rushed, sounding near hysterics.

Had Ryou not known Yuugi's mom, he'd have thought the boy was badly overreacting. But he knew, from experience, that he actually wasn't. And he was very glad he wasn't in his friend's spot at the moment, too. "Well, good luck..." he trailed off, rubbing the back of his head.

"Oh, please, Ryou!" the other begged, most likely giving him the 'kicked puppy' look via phone. And he could feel it, too! ...Oh, what utter joy he felt right now.

"Yuugi, please don't drag me into this..." he replied helplessly. He knew that his overly-kind personality would end up shining through, and he'd get dragged down with the other. Sadly, this is what he hated about himself.

"...Malik's coming."

Last resort, eh? ...But if Malik really was going to be helping...

"Fine."

And with that, he hung up, crossing his hands over his hips. "I swear, that kid can read minds, sometimes..." But he just sighed, moving off to get a comb for his hair. "Bakura! Mariku! You're coming with me, too!" he called, feeling like a mother of disorderly children.

Oh, this would be a long, long day.

---

Malik glared at the mirror as he placed both earrings into his ears, putting his full attention into that task, and then shaking his head to get any hair out of his face. "Stupid Yuugi," he muttered, moving to grab some kohl to place around his eyes.

And speak of the devil's little innocent angel-pet.

"Brother," came a melodic female's voice through the door, "Yuugi just called to tell you to, quote, 'hurry your lazy ass up'." Isis finished, ending her message from her spot in the dining room, whilst scribbling different assortments of words down onto some paper. She was a busy woman, after all. Getting up to tell someone something that could just as easily be yelled was such a ludicrous task.

Malik paused his ministrations, having his bottom eyelid pulled down so he could apply the eyeliner fully, hand posed to apply the said makeup. He twitched slightly, trying not to stab his eye out while he raged inwardly. He did not want to see those three freaks again today. In fact, he did not want to see them ever. That would be very lovely, actually.

But alas, it was not to be.

After a few minutes' passing, he was outside his sister's large apartment, straddling his motorcycle and throwing on his helmet, muttering something colorful about 'Damnable midgets.'

---

As soon as the three friends met up, plus the three other ones, Ryou promptly clung tightly to Malik's arm, quite happy to be away from the nightmare-duo he'd so unwillingly housed the night before.

But the Egyptian was used to this--the clinging, anyway--, since the white-haired boy seemed to have an obsession with being close to him. He'd asked about it once, but Ryou never really answered. 'Oh, well. At least he doesn't have a crush on me or anything.'

Oh, if only he knew.

But unfortunately for him, the dove-haired teen wasn't the only one who seemed attracted to him. Mariku did as well. And he showed this by trying to hold his hand at every moment, Ryou glaring at him all the while.

Meanwhile, Yuugi seemed intent on insisting that the two girlier teens simply had to know where he could buy an identical flowerpot.

"Well, where the hell did she buy it from?" Malik asked, his hands on his hips, having yanked his hand away from Mariku once more. The alien just whined and reached for it again, the whole process repeating itself.

"I...I really don't know." the shortest one admitted somewhat sheepishly, rubbing at the back of his hair.

Slapping his forehead, the tanned human groaned, knowing that this wasn't going to be easy. After a few seconds more of being pawed at and clung to, he turned around and threw a violent punch at his look-alike, aiming right for his face. He blinked, somewhat bewildered at the fact that there seemed to be no head there anymore. "Wha--?" and from there, he screamed like the 'girly' boy he was, flailing wildly as he was suddenly picked up from behind and cuddled, like he was a stuffed toy. "Let me go, you bastard!"

This scene seemed to catch many people's attention, since several passer-bys slowed down to watch and raise an eyebrow. "Tourists?" one whispered to the other, who just shrugged and kept walking.

Yami stuck close to Yuugi, still looking like he really was feeling quite guilty. The smaller one kept trying to explain to him that it was both their faults, but more his for...er... certain reasons (namely being a pant thief), but none of it seemed to get through to the red-eyed being. He just kept swearing that he'd somehow make it up to him and his mother.

Both the so-far forgotten Bakura and the short prince were wearing the same clothes they had on the day before, though Mariku had ended up having to wear Ryou's father's shirt and pants, which he was sure he was going to get reprimanded for later... but it was either this, or have the psycho stay naked in his house.

He'd be damned if he was going to let him alone without clothes.

The (now not-so forgotten) white-haired Althasian just stayed in the back of the group, watching everything around him, his hands looped through the top of his pants. He so didn't want to be out right now. There were far too many people about and all the noise was giving him a headache. He didn't like this planet very much, and he wanted to go home...

Just as he was about to make another snide comment in his head, his pinprick eyes landed on something that made his blood boil.

"That bastard has my bag!"

.:Chapter end:.

-Cecilia