Here is where we start our boys' 'preparations'. A Happy New Year everybody!

-----------------------

Chapter 5:

Let's Get Started

-----------

Yugi has had his share of strange and altogether unsettling experiences. How could you not, when your body hosts the ancient spirit of a pharaoh after all. He'd faced life-threatening situations, nearly had his own spirit sacrificed to the darkness (courtesy of a certain tanned Egyptian dark), and been turned to his favorite duel monster card at one point in Duelist Kingdom (this time courtesy of Yami Bakura). It seemed impossible for his life to get any more unusual as it is.

Of course…this was soon proven wrong. Never in his short life did Yugi expect to be faced in such an uncomfortable situation as he was having now. And though it was by no means as dangerous as any of his previously stated experiences, it was still…one of a kind, he guessed.

The question was repeated once more, "Yugi? I could be the one on top or bottom, whatever you feel comfortable with…"

But Yugi was not comfortable, not at all. He merely stared at his dark half, his mouth moving up and down but no sound coming out.

It was an innocent question, really; Yami Yugi, being the considerate person he was, was giving Yugi the choice of what 'position' each of them should adopt in their make-believe relationship.

Yugi almost felt like cursing Pegasus. Today was the first of their soon-to-be regular 'training course', and the very first thing the white-haired man had decided for them to tackle today were their false identities. They didn't really know why they needed one to start with, but Seto had been strangely persistent.

It seemed innocent enough, Yugi had first thought (he's scanned Pegasus' lesson plan last night and had been really worried about what the man had planned for them), but then Pegasus said, "But before that, I think we should settle just who's who in your relationships," at the boys' confused expressions, he clarified, "You know—who gives and takes? Who's seme and uke? Who screws and gets—"

Yugi had blushed red by then.

And that was when Yami Yugi had given him a pitying look and asked that question which he most definitely couldn't find it in himself to answer. "What would you like, Yugi?"

Yami Bakura's face formed a sneer as he looked at the pair, "Pathetic," he said, and then turned to Ryou, "I'm sure you know that I'm not giving you a choice in this matter."

Ryou gave his other half a heated glare, but nonetheless stayed quiet.

Yami Bakura smirked, "Oh, come on, its all for the best! You know you couldn't be dominant in a relationship, even with a girl."

The thief watched in amusement as Ryou started sputtering nonsense.

Meanwhile Malik and Yami Malik were having an argument of their own.

"I don't know why you're being so picky about it," Malik frowned, "You're always bossing me around at home, why can't you give me the chance to be 'the boss' for once?"

Yami Malik looked down at his light and rolled his eyes, "It's not my fault you're a push-over."

"Excuse me?" Malik said in disbelief. He waved an arm towards Yugi and Ryou's direction, "If I'm a push-over, what does it make those two? HUH? WHEN HAVE I EVER BEEN A PUSH-OVER?"

Obviously, the dark side had struck a nerve.

Ryou, who was standing around three feet from the clearly enraged Egyptian, scooted away, temporarily forgetting his own squabble with his dark. Malik's angry outbursts were getting more and more frequent lately and though he couldn't really blame the other (since he pretty much felt like screaming in frustration too), he decided to play it safe and stay away from Malik incase the other boy started getting violent.

However, Yami Malik remained unfazed by his light's outburst, probably used to it by now, and said in a deceptively reasonable tone, "Honestly, Lightside," he jerked his head at the others in the room, "Let's ask them shall we?"

"…What?"

Yami Malik said nothing but turned to face Yugi and Ryou along with their other halves, "Oi, can you picture Malik on top of me?"

Malik's lavender eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. The others' expressions were not unlike his, even Seto, who'd been looking over everyone with disinterest with his usual emotionless mask, looked very much disturbed by the Egyptian dark's colorful question.

Pegasus looked absolutely delighted, "That's right. Really get into your act. Use mental imagery if you have too, all the more convincing!"

Yami Bakura looked at him like he was insane, pupils dilated.

Yami Malik just ignored this though and considering the others' silence as a 'No' and turned to his light, "See? They can't even imagine you being dominant."

Ryou looked at Yami Bakura. The spirit had a blank out-of-it expression on.

"Yami…?"

The other seemed to snap out of it, he blinked and looked at Yami Malik, "Well…I can imagine it the other way around," he said in a surprisingly casual voice, causing everyone's head to snap towards him. Now even Pegasus looked a bit unnerved.

Malik gaped at the thief. Yami Malik on the other hand merely nodded appreciatively at Yami Bakura's input and said, "Believe me now?"

Malik didn't speak at all for quite a while after that.

"Well…I think I speak for everyone when I say that we should move on into a different topic some time soon?" Seto said, directing the implied order to Pegasus.

"Oh! Of course," he answered immediately, "You could…eh…settle this later on among yourselves…yes…"

All the lights nodded except for Malik. The poor boy was staring forward with a blank look on his face.

"Alright then! Well, we're going to assign you some identities now since it would be inappropriate if you three introduce yourself as dark spirits to Mr. Dream," he said while looking at the three darks.

Seto nodded in approval. "Yes. You could choose your own names since Dream would probably wonder why you're named Yami-whoever. And besides, you technically don't exist so we'll have to make a personal file for all of you."

"But I like my name…" Yami Yugi said in a disappointed manner.

Yami Bakura raised an eyebrow at him, "You don't even have a name, Nameless Pharaoh."

"Shut up."

"I want my name to be Marik."

Seto looked at him skeptically, "Marik?"

Yami Malik only nodded, completely ignoring Malik's confused gaze, "But that's—"

"Alright then, Marik it is," Seto said, taking note of it in his head, "Surname?"

"Eh…Ishtar?"

"You can't have the same surname as Malik…I don't think Dream's a fan of incest…"

"Oh…right. How about…Ishtal?"

Malik was about to retort, "Hey, you can't—"

"Marik Ishtal…" Seto cut in again, trying out the name, "Well, if that's your final decision."

Malik was looking a bit peeved and said, "But that's almost like my name. He just interchanged the l with r and vice versa! Wouldn't this Dream guy eh…see that as somewhat strange?"

Seto shrugged, "I don't see any reason why he should be, just say it was a coincidence or make up some kind of romantic story if you have to."

The young blonde blanched.

The CEO smirked to himself; he got to admit, this little deception play was giving him quite an entertainment. Better than TV at least.

Suddenly, Yami Bakura's voice said, "I want mine to be Bakura…Bakura Ryou."

Ryou looked at his other half dubiously, and in the same protesting tone Malik had used before said, "But that's my name, just reversed."

"Well…Marik just reversed the letters in Malik's name, why can't I do the same with the words with yours?" Yami Bakura said in a firm and questioning voice. However, it was obvious that he was not going to change his mind.

"But people call me 'Bakura'," Ryou said.

"So? Just make them call you 'Ryou'. I call you Ryou. I'm sure your friends, no matter how stupid they are, could at least do that."

Seto snorted, "Just make sure you don't get Dream suspicious," he said warningly.

Yugi looked away from Seto and Yami Bakura's conversation and turned to his other self. He wondered what name his partner would pick.

Yami Yugi looked thoughtful. What could his name be? He recalled Yami Malik and Yami Bakura's—or rather, Marik and Bakura's choices. In a way, that's not entirely that hard to see, both had chosen a name that still connects them to their lighter halves, whether this was intentional or not, Yami Yugi didn't know. But one thing he did know was that he wanted the same with Yugi.

He also decided that he liked his name just fine.

"I'm keeping mine," he said to Seto.

The look at him questioningly, "Keeping what?"

"My name—Yami Yugi," he said in a tone that brook no argument.

Yugi looked fairly surprised at this, and looked up at his other half. Yami Yugi noticed this and said, "But if you don't want—"

The smaller boy's eyes widened, "Oh! No, it's really alright…Yami. I even like it too," he said with a reassuring smile.

Yami Yugi positively beamed.

"Alright then," Seto said finally. He took out his laptop and started typing, his fingers almost looked blurred as it raced over the keyboard. "I'll just make your biography and Pegasus could guide you on to our next step."

Pegasus took the simultaneous nods all around the room as the signal to assume his role as the boys' trainer once more. A smile was present in his face as he said, "Let's get started."

---------

"Smile, Bakura, smile!"

Yami Bakura, now dubbed as Bakura Ryou, gritted his teeth in obvious irritation. He decided to hate Pegasus starting this very moment. He had expected the man to start with the simple stuff, like clothes, or speaking gay, or walking gay, or something like that. Unfortunately, Pegasus said that he felt like that it would be best if they start with the couples stuff first, since they'd be sort of applying it to whatever they'd be doing.

And that is how Bakura found himself seated beside Ryou, with his arms around the milder-looking boy's shoulders.

A few meters in front of them were Pegasus and Seto, who seemed to have taken the task of 'judging' whether they were doing a convincing act or not.

Seto allowed himself a smirk at the—dare he say it—cute picture the two white-haired boys projected. He made sure to capture a picture of the two with the high-tech surveillance camera coincidently placed perfectly at one corner of the room. You never know when blackmail material would come in handy, especially when dealing with someone like Bakura.

"Someone's looking constipated…" came Marik's drawl from the side.

Bakura made to snarl back when Seto said, "He's right, Bakura. You're suppose to enjoy holding the one you love."

Ryou blushed faintly at this.

Bakura glared heatedly, "Shut the hell up."

Seto merely rolled his eyes heavenward and said, "Whatever," he waved for them to stand up, "I honestly didn't expect you to be good at this as, say, Yami and Yugi was."

"No one acts as gay as those two, even before this stupid thing," he said hotly, withdrawing his arm from his light's shoulders and stomping off with a still-red Ryou following close behind.

Yugi turned red whilst his partner glared at his fellow dark.

Ignoring the hostility in the air, Pegasus motioned the Egyptian pair over, "Your turn boys. Show us how you feel about each other."

Marik sauntered over and sat, patting the space beside him whilst smiling mischievously at his light. Malik looked slightly perturbed but sat nonetheless.

"Alright, now one arm over—"

Marik and Malik simultaneously tried to get an arm around each other. A glare was exchanged between the two and Marik said, eyes glinting, "I'm the dominant one, remember?"

"I don't think so," was Malik's equally heated reply, not removing his arm from around Marik's back.

Seto and Pegasus watched with amusement as the two tried to stare each other down, neither moving at all. Seto was about to yell at the two to stop this nonsense when Bakura loudly said, "A light challenging its dark!" he laughed, "You're losing your touch Marik."

Clearly enraged by this, Marik whipped his head around to glare at the other boy. "NO WAY IN HELL!" he screamed. Bakura simply smirked.

He then turned back to pin his 'challenging light' with a furious glare. In a flash, he had jerked Malik's tan arm off him whilst tightening his own hold on the other's shoulder. Before Malik could react, Marik had brought his free hand behind his light's head and brought it closer with such force that he basically rammed Malik's head into his chest.

The slighter boy's yelp was muffled as and his arms flailed madly whilst Marik kept their position, shouting, "You're going to be uke and that's final, Lightside! Now I'm gonna be the one to have their arm around your shoulder and you can't do anything about it!"

Malik, with his face pressed flat against his dark side's chest only gave a muffled yell in response, squirming wildly.

Marik's eyes darkened and he held the other tighter, this time yelling, "STOP SQUIRMING! WE'RE GOING TO CUDDLE AND YOU'RE GOING TO LIKE IT, DAMNNIT!"

Yami looked at the disturbing scene before him, and couldn't help but feel grateful that his relationship with Yugi wasn't this demented. Beside him, Yugi felt very much the same. It was clear that the pair had issues.

Seto watched as Malik twisted and turned in his dark's grip whilst said dark was shouting things like, "START CUDDLING!"

This was worse than Ryou and Bakura…far more worse, he corrected himself, as Malik actually started to bite Marik's shirt, in an attempt to hurt or maybe make Marik let him go, like some feral animal with a stormy inhumane look on his face.

At the background, Bakura was cheering, "Whoop! Now this is what I call 'hard love'. Get him Malik!" as Ryou tried in vain to shush him, probably worried that one of the currently rabid Egyptians would go for them if provoked.

Seto ran a hand tiredly over his face. Well…he never expected this to be easy…

----------------

Well there you go. Did this in one sitting since I was feeling strangely inspired for some reason.

Now…just to clear things up, Yami Yugi, Yami Bakura, and Yami Malik will from now on be referred to as Yami, Bakura, and Marik respectively since they had their name changed in this chapter. Hope this doesn't confuse you.

Look at all those sweet moments (snickers).

BTW just a question guys, but I've suddenly stopped receiving review alerts in my e-mail. I don't know what's wrong since I have it 'enabled' and all. Any way to fix this?