A/N: aaaaahh I have pink-eye. It sucks… my eye is all red and sticky… and there's nasty stuff in it… oh well, guess I'll type… Happy Easter everybody (unless you're Jewish, then happy Passover… or some other religion that doesn't have a holiday… or atheist like becca….)

Chapter 5:

Kaiba and Joey got ready for school and went downstairs to eat breakfast. Mokuba looked up from his extremely sugary cereal.

"Hey Joey, morning big bro"

"Hey Mokie. Say, what is that cereal? It looks really good."

"It's called sugar bites, 40 grams of sugar per serving. Want some?"

"Heck yes!"

Kaiba rolled his eyes and poured himself some coffee.

When they finished eating they got into the limo to go to school. As they were driving, they went past Ryou's apartment; the lights were on.

"Kaiba, can we stop? Something doesn't seem right." He said, staring out the window.

Kaiba told the driver to stop and he and Joey got out of the car. Joey went up to the door and found it unlocked. He opened it and went inside.

"Ryou?" he called. There was no answer. He went upstairs. He heard the water running in the bathroom.

"Ryou?" he said again, walking to the door. The carpet squished under his feet. He looked down and saw water leaking out of the bathroom. The door was ajar so he pushed it open. Water was pouring over the edge of the bathtub. He let out a shriek when he saw Ryou's body floating limp in the tub. Kaiba ran into the bathroom to see Joey standing still as stone, a look of utter shock on his face. He saw Ryou in the tub and quickly pulled him out. He laid him on the rug and started to do CPR. Finally after 30 or so seconds Ryou began coughing up water. Joey breathed a sigh of relief; Ryou opened his eyes and blinked in confusion. Joey helped him sit up.

"Ryou, what happened?" he asked.

"I-I guess I fell asleep in the bathtub…"

Kaiba handed him some towels. Ryou smiled gratefully.

Somehow Joey didn't believe Ryou's story.

"Where's Bakura?" he asked.

"He-he went out l-last night and never came back."

"Did he rape you again?

Kaiba looked at Joey, shocked. Ryou nodded.

"Did you say anything to him?"

Tears sprung into Ryou's eyes.

"Oh Joey, I told him I loved him and he told me I couldn't love him because he'd hurt me and then I said that he didn't love me and that he said he did and then he left a-and then I— " At this point Ryou was sobbing so hard he couldn't speak. Joey hugged Ryou to him, trying to calm the boy.

"Shh, it's okay Ry, we'll find Bakura if you want or—"

"Thank you Joey." Ryou said. He pulled out of Joey's grasp. "We should probably go to school now." Ryou went into his room and got dressed. The three got into the limo and headed to school in silence.

When Joey walked into the school, he was immediately accosted by Yugi.

"Excuse me Ryou and Kaiba, I need to borrow Joey for a moment." He grasped Joey's hand and lead him into an empty classroom.

"So. Joey, have you talked to Malik since 'the incident'?" Yugi asked, making quote marks in the air.

"Um, no…"

"Well, Ishizu called Yami last night to say that he never came home. She wanted to know if we had any idea where he'd be. I told her to call you but she said she already had and that you didn't answer."

"I was at Kaiba's"

"Well, where's Malik?"

"How should I know? He'd probably with his yami like he always is when he's pissed."

"Wait, he's with Marik? I thought we banished him to the shadow realms," Yugi said skeptically.

"Oh shit- I wasn't supposed to tell you… well, it doesn't matter now, Anyway, Bakura's missing too, He ran out on Ryou last night. Ryou tried to drown himself in the bathtub.

You're his best friend, you should probably talk to him."

Yugi ran his fingers through his hair.

"Damn this is screwed up." He said. "Check you later."

Joey nodded and went back to Kaiba. They sat down at a desk near Tristan and Duke. Kaiba put his arm around Joey. Tristan glared at Joey.

"Oh my god, don't tell me you liked him too." Joey said.

Duke nodded for Tristan.

"I don't know why though, I'm so much hotter and probably a better fuck." He said.

Tristan rolled his eyes.

"Well, am I?" Duke asked Joey.

"Kaiba and I haven't done it yet." Joey said.

"Seriously? I'm surprised, you screwed Malik the night you two got together."

"I was drunk! And it was New Year's Eve, dammit."

"You slept with me pretty quickly too," Duke said.

"Hey, I was trying to find out whether I was gay or not. Can we change the subject?"

"Aw, embarrassed to be discussing your sex life in front of Kaiba-poo?"

"Stop being a jerk." Joey said, his face getting red.

Duke laughed but did change the subject.

"Where's Yugi? He's not here to tell us to stop being horny."

"He said he had to do something before class." Joey said.

"Oh."

There was an awkward silence fortunately broken by the teacher's command to take their seats. Yugi and Ryou were still missing, as was Yami. Malik hadn't showed up either. Joey didn't really think much about it as he fell asleep on his history book.

A/N: This is the first half of chapter five--- I'm to lazy to type the second half but it'll be up this week sometime!