Yeah, so, I don't feel like writing duels and whatnot. Besides, this is supposed to be focusing on Serenity, not the others. :)That's why there's no detail of the end of the tournament. You're lucky you get to find out who the winner is…

And oh, yes…The Kaibas finally show up in this chapter! Whoot! Go me!

Chapter 7: Confession

Much to Jou's displeasure, Serenity stayed with Anzu and Kylie all day in the hotel room, giving both girls a blow-by-blow of the events of the morning. Kylie was nearly in tears when she heard about the kiss, but Anzu just scowled.

"It was barely a kiss. He was running for his life a second afterward." She snorted.

Kylie back-handed her arm.

"Shut up, Anzu, it's her first kiss! Don't you remember yours?"

Anzu's cheeks tinted pink and she looked away.

"Umh…yeah. Vividly."

Serenity giggled and flopped backwards on the bed, reaching into a bag of chips beside her. Her first kiss had been with Malik Ishtar. She held that right.

"I remember my first kiss. The whole day afterwards, I kept running into things. It was like I was walking in thick fog."

"When did you have your first kiss?" Serenity questioned curiously, offering the bag of chips to the other two.

Anzu obligingly took a handful, but Kylie just pushed them away.

"A few months ago."

Serenity swallowed her chip with some difficulty.

"What happened?"

"Oh, I caught him with another girl last week."

Serenity and Anzu glanced at each other warily and turned accusatory gazes back on Kylie. Kylie sighed and scratched her leg.

"I know what you're thinking. I'm not just using Ryou as a rebound…he already knows about my ex. He recently had a run-in with his ex-girlfriend and she was with someone else too, so…umh…I guess we're using each other."

"Oh, when he went home?" Anzu mused, looking to Serenity.

Serenity nodded slowly.

"Must be. I didn't know he'd had a girlfriend before, but, I dunno, with the way he picked you up…"

Kylie laughed and popped open the lid of a soda can.

"No, honey, that was fate. We were destined to meet and help each other out of our pitiful, ruined love lives. His ex really did a number on him. You wouldn't believe it, he still carries around her picture."

"Really? Did you see it?"

"Yeah, it fell out of his wallet when he was paying for dinner last night," Kylie giggled, taking a sip of her soda. "Anyways, I can see why he was crushed. She's gorgeous."

"He's never mentioned any girls before…" Anzu trailed, suspicious.

Kylie shrugged.

"Did you ever ask?"

"Oh, great. Now I feel guilty." Serenity mumbled, reaching for another handful of chips.

"What? Why?"

"'Cause he was so nice last night, trying to make me feel better about Malik. He really cared, you know? I guess I've been taking him for granted. I never bothered to get to know him."

"Me neither. He's been part of the 'group', but he's never really been part of it."

"Mmhmm!" Serenity hummed in agreement, too busy chewing on her consolation snack to use actual words.

Kylie worried her lip.

"You guys should get to know him, then. He's really amazing! He acts really shy and everything, but that's just 'cause he gets claustrophobic in large groups. If you get him alone sometime, ask him to sing for you. He's wonderful."

"He sings?" Serenity and Anzu chorused.

"Oh, yes! While he lived in Britain, he was part of a choir. That's why all his best friends are chicks! He said his brother thought he was gay because of that."

Anzu looked to the ceiling in exasperation.

"Figures Bakura would think that."

"No, that's my bag!"

"Nu-uh! It was sitting on my bed!"

"No, you picked it up from my bed, you slept on the left!"

Yugi and Ryou rolled their eyes and stepped away from Jou and Honda, who were arguing so loudly that quite a few people present in the lobby were starting to snigger.

Anzu and Serenity were waiting impatiently by the lobby doors, anxious to get home to their own rooms and luxuries. Yugi and Ryou decided the two girls would be safer than Jou and Honda, and made their way to them. However, only Yugi made it the entire way. Ryou was cut off by Kylie who wanted nothing more than to say a very non-verbal goodbye. Mothers covered their children's eyes and Serenity's eyes were so abnormally wide that Yugi feared they would never return to their original size.

Anzu began giggling and Serenity followed after her.

"Guess she wasn't kidding," Anzu gasped, trying in vain to pull her gaze away from the couple.

"You guess?" Serenity replied, also trying to tear away from the sight.

Yugi muttered something under his breath and turned away to look out the window.

"They're practically doing it in the lobby." He groaned, with even the tips of his ears turning a lovely shade of maroon with his embarrassment.

The girls fell into a giggle fit again.

"Kylie! God damn it, sis! Mom's gonna freak when she finds out you made out with someone in public!" Kylie brother said, wrenching Kylie away from Ryou.

"Bobby, let me go!" She whined, sticking her lower lip out.

Bobby shook his hair out of his eyes and gave his sister a threatening look.

"At least go somewhere more private. Don't you know that kissing someone in public in Japan is like declaring you want to get in their pants?"

Kylie giggled.

"No. That would explain the glares…"

Bobby hit his hair away and gave Ryou a furtive look. Ryou, surprising Serenity and Anzu, didn't shrink under Bobby's gaze, but nodded in recognition of him.

"Don't worry, next time I decide to snog your sister, I'll make sure it's in a broom closet."

Kylie gasped, Jou and Honda stopped fighting, Yugi burst out laughing, and Bobby almost murdered Ryou on the spot. Luckily, Grampa Mutou intervened by pulling Ryou and Jou by their jacket sleeves towards the exit. Honda, still holding Jou's suitcase, hurried after them.

It took a few minutes to find the van and load all the baggage, but it gave Kylie enough time to find them. She gave Ryou a huge hug and stole his cell phone to program her number in it.

"Thanks so much, Ry. I wouldn't have lived through this weekend without you."

Ryou smiled kindly and dropped a kiss on her cheek.

"No problem."

She beamed at him before moving on to Anzu and Serenity.

"You two are my Japanese shopping buddies from now on. And all my friends will be jealous 'cause they don't have Japanese shopping buddies." Kylie announced, making Anzu and Serenity snigger.

Anzu handed Kylie her cell phone and Kylie squealed before taking it and putting her number in.

"Oh my God, call me, okay? I have to know what happens with lover boy!"

"I promise. Serenity will be calling him in the morning whether she likes it or not."

Serenity stuck her tongue out at Anzu and Anzu took no extra time to do it right back at her.

"Time to go, kids! You all have school in the morning and I've got to start working at six!" Grampa hollered, opening the driver's side door.

Kylie quickly hugged the two girls and Ryou again, for extra measure, and hurried back towards the hotel, calling out good byes to them over her shoulder.

Jou took shotgun while Yugi wasn't paying attention and locked the door behind him.

"Jou, you loser!" Yugi pouted, clambering into the back seat anyways.

Ryou, Serenity, and Anzu took the very back seat and Anzu pulled out her CD player.

"Who's up for some Malice Mizer?" Anzu asked, grinning.

Serenity nearly sucked the air out of the van and scrambled for the ear phone bud.

"Where have you been hiding that CD all weekend? I've been going crazy without Malice Mizer!"

Ryou shook his head and pulled out his iPod, preferring to listen to more sensible music, such as Nemo and, his all-time favorite, the Dresden Dolls. Well, okay, so they weren't sensible, they just weren't J-rock. He figured there wasn't much of a difference anyways and turned up 'Girl Anachronism'.

Two hours out of Tokyo, half the occupants of the van were sound asleep and the other half were busy keeping Grampa awake. Grampa spotted a sign for a fast food restaurant on the side of the highway and changed lanes to take the next exit.

"Bakura, wake up the girls. We're stopping to eat and stretch."

Ryou complied and nudged both girls awake (they had both fallen asleep on each other halfway through the CD).

"We're stopping for food."

"Oh," Serenity yawned, blinking her eyes a few times to clear the sleep from them.

Anzu carefully rubbed her eyes, trying not to smudge her eyeliner and mascara, and groaned something unintelligible.

"Where are we?" She asked, her voice sounding heavy with fatigue.

"Two hours out of Tokyo. If the traffic stays this good, we'll be home in three."

She leaned forward to squint at the digital clock on the dash board.

"By midnight? But that means only six hours of sleep!"

"So…?" Jou implored, twisting around to give her a dubious look.

"So?" She gasped, not believing her ears. "You need at least eight hours to stay healthy!"

Ryou suppressed a snort and patted her shoulder instead.

"I'm sure losing two hours of sleep just this once won't make you any less healthy than you are now."

"That's what you think." She muttered darkly, flopping back into the seat and crossing her arms over her chest.

His eyebrows shot up.

"Trust me, I've made it on four hours or less. You'll be fine." Serenity assured, holding onto Anzu's wrist.

"Four hours?" Anzu breathed, her cheeks losing their color. "How do you survive throughout the day?"

"Umh…I just do? I dunno."

Yugi, growing bored and annoyed with the banter behind him, stared out the side window and wrinkled his nose.

"Hey, it's Kaiba's limo."

Instead of making Anzu stop preaching about eight hours of sleep, she took up grumbling about Kaiba instead. Right before Yugi snapped, Grampa parked and turned off the engine.

"Let's get something to eat before your blood sugar gets any lower, shall we?" He asked while propping open his door.

"Yeah, sure." Yugi muttered, sliding open his door.

Ryou and Honda were quick on his heels after him and Serenity, being the farthest from the door, urged Anzu out with a few light shoves. Finally free from the mini van, Serenity took a deep breath of night air and watched as a limo pulled into the parking lot. Not drawing any connection between the limo and Kaiba, she mused to herself how nice it would be to ride in a limo instead of the back of a van.

"Oh well," she sighed, turning and stretching before entering the restaurant.

"Seren, I'll order for you." Jou muttered, pulling whatever funds he had left out of his wallet.

"Umh…just takoyaki…"

"Okay. You can go sit with Yugi over there."

She frowned but did as she was told. Yugi barely gave her a glance before he let his head fall into his arms again.

"I think…I'm going to murder someone…with a deck of cards…" He trailed.

Serenity's laughter bubbled up and Yugi shifted in his seat.

"Wouldn't that get your cards all dirty? Why not use your trophy?"

He looked up, his eyes burning with inspiration.

"Yes! You're a genius! My trophy would kill a lot more people than my cards!"

"Uh, you don't plan on killing me do you?"

Yugi's gaze shifted beyond her to the door.

"No, but I could kill him and Anzu at the same time…"

Serenity turned in her seat to see the Kaiba brothers in the doorway. Seto looked extremely uncomfortable and suspicious, but Mokuba looked right at home. Serenity stared between Yugi and Seto cautiously.

"It's a good thing you left the trophy in the car, then." She mumbled, goose bumps rising on her arms.

"Whatever. At least mine's bigger than his…"

Serenity's mind instantly fell into the gutter (which was a rare occasion) and all the blood rushed from her cheeks.

"Wh-what? How do you…?"

Yugi, seeming tremendously amused, grinned.

"Trophies, Serenity. My trophy is bigger than his."

Serenity didn't say a word, steaming in embarrassment.

What was worse was that Yugi knew exactly what she was thinking, which meant…his mind had gone to the gutter as well.

'Of course, he is the one attempting to murder people with a trophy…'

Grampa, Jou, Honda, and Ryou came over with trays of food balanced precariously in their arms. Serenity caught Ryou's drink before it fell to the floor and he smiled appreciatively.

"Thanks, er…sorry about that…"

A whine interrupted her reply and nearly everyone in the restaurant turned to look at Mokuba Kaiba tugging on his brother's shirt sleeve.

"Nii-chan! You can't just wait until we get home!"

Seto, noticing the stares, muttered something to Mokuba that made the smaller boy pout.

"You're so stubborn! Poor Sae! She never gets a day off 'cause you won't eat anything but her cooking! What'll happen when she retires or dies in a freak kitchen fire!"

Yugi sniggered at the boy's imagination.

"Freak kitchen fire…that reminds me. Have you talked to Bakura at all this weekend?" Yugi asked.

Ryou blanched and fumbled for his cell phone.

"I forgot all about him! Ky distracted me every time I…er…forget I said that…"

Serenity giggled and took her takoyaki from Jou's tray.

"What she did in the lobby…is that normal for her?"

Ryou nodded, pulling his chopsticks out of their package.

"It is for me too. Of course, it's a little inappropriate and unpleasant to watch, but…'normal'. It freaked me out when I first came to Japan. No one was publicly displaying affection for each other. They didn't even hold hands…"

"Dating's against school rules, though, isn't it?" Yugi questioned, already halfway done with his food.

A sudden snort escaped Ryou as he searched through his phonebook on his cell phone for Bakura's number.

"Never stopped me before…ah! Mind if I call your house to make sure it's still in tact?"

Grampa shuddered and shoveled sushi into his mouth to take his mind off of his potentially destroyed shop.

"Go ahead…" Yugi trailed, watching his Grampa curiously.

Ryou pushed the little green button and waited for Bakura to pick up.

"This is the Mutou residence, Bakura speaking."

Serenity, being close enough to the phone to hear, sniggered.

"Hey, you're still alive."

"Of course I am. I'm immortal, smart one. When are you getting back?"

"In a few hours, if the traffic's good. You haven't, er, destroyed the kitchen, have you?"

Bakura was silent for a minute.

"I'm a failure, Ryou…a complete failure!"

Ryou's eyebrows peaked in surprise.

"Er…why?"

"I burnt it!"

"You burnt what?" Ryou gasped.

"The…the…the noodles! I burnt the sodding noodles! I left them on the stove 'cause I heard the shop bell ring and I thought it was locked, but it was just a little kid, so I kicked him out and by the time I got back to the kitchen, the noodles were burnt to a bloody crisp! It's all! That! Damn! Kid's! Fault!" Bakura yelled, sounding as if he were punching something with each word.

Ryou, eyes wide as if he'd just seen a ghost, turned his gaze to Serenity.

"Umh…wow." She whispered.

"Bakura, just because you burned the noodles doesn't mean—!"

"No. I'm giving up cooking. I couldn't…even…keep the…noodles!"

"No, no, really. Don't give up cooking! I've been eating well for the past week…"

"No," Bakura sniffed, "I'm through. I'll find another hobby."

"But…but you were such a natural at cooking! I mean, it's not exactly normal, but you were good! You really shouldn't give up just because of one mistake. Don't you think all those guys with the famous cooking shows burned the noodles every once in a while?"

He listened to Bakura sniffling for a bit, wondering if his words would have any effect. It wasn't like Bakura to get emotional over a lost hobby, but then again, he'd never lost a hobby before.

"You're right…hey, do the Mutou's own a cat?"

"Er…Yugi, do you own a cat?"

"No, but there's a stray who always comes around the back. Why?"

"Bakura, there's usually a stray cat near there. Why, what's wrong?"

"Well, I'm deathly allergic to cats…I can't stop sneezing and sniffing. And if it gets really bad…well…then comes the swelling and the coughing…"

"Bakura…" Ryou murmured.

"Hmm?"

"Get out of that house! I'm not having father pay for a medical bill!"

Bakura snorted, sneezed, and cleared his throat.

"And here I thought you cared. Fine. I'll go back to the apartment for tonight."

"Good."

"What's the stupid pharaoh doing letting a stray cat around here anyways?" Bakura grumbled, sniffling some more and hanging up on Ryou.

Ryou let his phone drop to the vinyl seat beneath him.

"Are you sure I can't get rid of him with holy water? Or am I really going to have to resort to suicide?" He sighed, taking a self-sympathetic bite of his very vegetarian meal.

"Oh, please don't. I dunno what I'd do if you died."

Ryou's smile vanished after a few seconds.

"Promise me you'll come to my funeral?"

"Even if it's in England!"

"Good. So the day I finally snap…I can rest assured that someone will be at my funeral."

Serenity giggled and Anzu pulled up a chair to the side of the table.

"How long could it possibly take to make a nutritious, energy-sufficient meal? I've been waiting for—"

"Anzu! It's a fast-food restaurant! You know, grease, burgers, kitchen fires…?" Ryou asked.

Anzu blinked in confusion.

"What does that have to do with the two hours of sleep I'll be losing tonight?"

Ryou groaned and stuffed a piece of food into his mouth.

"You'll never survive in university…ever…"

Grampa pulled into his parking space back in Domino and chuckled when he saw all the teens asleep on each other.

"Yugi, wake up. I need your help." He said, shaking Yugi's knee.

A sleepy grunt escaped Yugi as he shifted back to consciousness.

"We're home…?" He mumbled, rubbing his eyes.

"Uh-huh. Help me get the others awake."

After twenty minutes, they had everyone inside the living room behind the game shop and a few were even willing to help bring in the luggage. The rest had already crashed on the floor and the couch.

Grampa carried in Yugi's first place trophy and placed it in the shop just for show, but Yugi pulled it back down from its shelf and horded it away to his room before anyone could stop him.

Jou, realizing that everyone else was asleep, shook Serenity's shoulder until her eyes opened.

"What?" She hissed.

"I won't tell Dad."

She paused and her expression softened.

"Thanks…"

"But if you ever kiss any guy in front of me again—"

Serenity smiled and rolled her eyes.

"I know, Jou…relax. I won't ever do that again." She whispered, breaking into a yawn.

"Good. I only did what I did because I was trying to protect you…I didn't know if he'd changed or not, and I didn't want you getting mixed up with the wrong crowd, you know? I mean, he was pretty bad before…total jerk face, if you ask me…but if he's changed, then I guess it'll—it'll be okay."

Jou waited for Serenity to answer, but when she didn't, he looked down and found her fast asleep. A small smile curved his lips and he patted her hand affectionately.

"Good night, Seren…"

Ryou's cell phone woke them all up in the morning. Honda smacked Ryou's arm and rolled over. Bakura sniggered, watching them from the doorway with the house phone in his hand.

Ryou groaned and put his cell phone to his ear. In his semi-conscious state, he forgot to push the talk button and sat there mumbling into the speaker for a while until he realized his mistake. Bakura was nearly dying of laughter, but Ryou finally answered the phone correctly and Bakura sobered.

"'Llo?" He murmured.

Bakura put the house phone up to his mouth.

"Wake-up call, Ryou."

Ryou snapped his phone shut and sent Bakura a very nasty look.

"You're here."

"Yeah. School starts in half an hour. Thought you should know. Breakfast?"

Ryou rolled his eyes and scrambled to his feet.

"Did you bring my uniform?"

Bakura snorted and rolled his eyes.

"Do I look like your slave? You're lucky I still cook for you."

"Great. I guess I'll tell them something happened to it…in a freak kitchen fire."

Bakura's eyebrow quirked up.

"Not a morning person, Ryou-chan?"

Ryou narrowed his eyes at him and headed for the stairs.

"Get the rest up. Make sure you freak out Anzu."

Serenity giggled and Bakura looked down at her.

"You were awake?"

"I'm a light sleeper."

"Oh…so…how did things go with Malik?"

She didn't answer, but her smile told him enough.

"Ah. I see. You wake them up. I'll make breakfast."

"Mmhmm…"

Yay! It's done! Not really! But who cares? Haha, I had soo much more to put into this, but then I wouldn't be able to write the last chapter and the epilogue. :Smile:

Soo, next chapter will be relatively short…maybe. Depends on what I can fit into it. You see, I already have the epilogue written up and I just need to fill in the blanks. So don't expect too much for next chapter. Just a warning.

Disclaimer: I don't own Malice Mizer, or The Dresden Dolls and their song 'Girl Anachronism' (listen to it!), nor do I own the burning of the noodles. That would be my best friend's. Also, I don't own that line about a non-verbal goodbye. That belongs to J.K. Rowling. And of course, I don't own YGO. But I own myself and the story line. And Kylie. I do claim ownership of Kylie. Okay, I'm done.

Anywho, since my website does NOT work, I'm going to give reviewer thanks, they just won't be personal. Basically, a list of names…'cause I'm thankful to all of you! And once I get my website working, you can find a more personal response. :)

So, to all my amazing reviewers:

You guys keep me going on this site. If not for you, I would have completely left and gone to fictionpress. But I'm here until the end!

My amazing reviewers are as follows:

Kelsey, Wicked Little Town (aka Unlaundered Plebian, lol), Landi McClellan, cheeky-eyes, TheWooze19, Mira Nova 23, The Dirty Hippy formerly known as TheElfChaser, and Cymoril Avalon.

Yes, those are ALL the names of those who have reviewed thus far. Thanks guys!

Review please!