I am so crazy sorry, guys. Honest to Jesus, I was going to write more for this speedy-quick, and then… I didn't. God damn. I don't know how it happened, but second semester was suddenly done before I knew it, and I hadn't updated this thing once. Gasp! I was rereading some of my old fics and laughing at the terrible writing (or the occasional brilliant line) when I reread this. I read just the one chapter and said to myself… My God. Why the hell didn't I continue this? It's starting off well enough; why didn't I get off my arse and work? I couldn't come up with an answer to save my life, so here we are. Meh. To summarize, sorry for the pointless wait. I love you; you know that, right?

DISCLAIMER: [sings] Jesus hates me, this I know,

'Cause I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh~

Judai bit into his mitarashi dango, grinning madly. Before classes began, he'd managed to weasel a promise out of Johan to call his mother and see if an impromptu summer visit was welcome or not. The boy wondered vaguely if Johan would remain true to his promise on his own, or if Judai was going to have to force him to stick to it. He wasn't sure which idea appealed best to him.

"Hey, Judai. Judaaaaaai?"

"Hmm?" Judai said.

"Could you pass the plate of mitarashi before you end up inhaling them all?" Sho asked.

Judai laughed and briefly considered denying the much smaller boy his request, just for fun, before deciding that such a spiteful action befit a four-year-old much more than it did him. He passed the plate.

"Thanks."

"'r welcome," Judai managed to say around a mouthful of mitarashi. Just then, a loud knocking resounded on the door to the Slifer dormitories. The girl closest to the door opened it and let out an excited shriek, melting into a pile of fangirl goo.

"Sounds like Johan's here. Either that, or my brother is dropping in for some reason," Sho muttered. Judai nodded.

The former turned out to be true. Johan stepped over the Slifer fangirl goop and proceeded to bend down by his lover's cross-legged position on the floor. "Hey, I've got an update for you," he said, smiling shyly. "When you've got a moment, could you drop by the Obelisk dorms?"

Judai gave his daft boyfriend a patronizing look. "Hon', you really need to start learning. There's no situation, any time, any place, that cannot be sacrificed for time with you. Come on; let's go." Johan smiled and every girl in earshot sighed at the simple romanticism of the statement. The boys looked like they were pointedly ignoring the exchange. Some were actually used to it, some just pretended to not notice.

Once outside in the slightly overly warm summer air, Judai turned his head to his boyfriend. "Soooo… did you call her?"

"I did, right around lunch time." Judai looked mildly surprised at the other boy's speedy response to his request.

"And?"

Johan flashed that shy, nervous grin again. "She sounded delighted and said she didn't mind in the least if you came. Hell, I think if you decided to cancel at the last minute, she'd probably personally find you and drag you over."

"That's great!" Judai whooped, smiling so widely, his face hurt. "See, moron, I told you she'd be cool with it! What were you so worried about, anyway?"

"Hey, you never know whether she's gonna be in a good mood or a bad mood. This time we got lucky; she sounded like she was in a good mood."

Judai hooked an arm around Johan's waist thoughtfully. "Well, what makes your Mom pissy? I'll just do my best to avoid that stuff?"

Johan sighed. "It's not that simple. Half the stuff that gets her angry on a bad day, she takes in stride on a good day. You can almost never tell with her, you know? Oh! There are a few things that she'll like no matter what. Like chocolate. Or chicken. Chips. Junk food in general, really. She's got a soft spot for grapes, too. And weird blends of fruit juices. She also really loves Broadway, the ballet, stuff like that. And she'll never miss her detective shows on the television."

"So, she's basically a teenaged girl?" Judai asked.

"Uh-huh. Personally, I think most older women are exactly the same as they were when they were younger. Either that, or when they were younger, they were already fully grown in their minds."

Judai laughed. "I'd stick with the second one in conversations, so long as your attached to your extremities and all." Johan laughed along with him at that.

"I also get the feeling that she'd like you no matter what," he said. "I can't think of a single person who doesn't right now, at least." The younger boy blushed and smiled shyly at his feet. It was too adorable. Johan couldn't resist. He leaned over and kissed Judai slowly.

When they parted, both were still smiling. "Do you really think she'll like me?" Judai asked.

"If she's really related to me in any way, shape, or form, she'll love you."

"An' tha's the size of it," Jim said, grinning.

"I… don't even want to ASK how you know this kinda shit," O'Brien muttered, rubbing his forehead, trying fruitlessly the stave off the oncoming headache. "What, do you stalk them or something?"

"'s called occasional e'vesdroppin', mate. Tha's ha'dlly stalking."

O'Brien breathed deeply. "So… Judai is going to Johan's place over the summer. So what? Isn't it pretty normal for people to go and… I don't know, meet the folks, or something?"

"Ye can't tell me you're not int'rested," Jim said, raising his visible eyebrow. "It's the Mafia fo' Chrissakes! If you're lookin' fo' somethin' more int'restin' than that, I daresay you'll be disappointed with what the w'rld 'as to offer!"

"I just can't say I'm the nosy type. I like to leave people to their own business. Is that so wrong?"

"Yes. Right cr'minal, that is," Jim muttered.

"Listen, Aussie boy. Just leave the two of them alone. They've got more than enough on their plates without you interfering – again."

Jim sighed, glaring at the shorter boy, but eventually gave in under that piercing, coldly logical stare. Good thing there were loopholes around to keep him company.

Vera Andersen grinned to herself. So her little boy was bringing the fabled Judai home? Now, of course, Johan didn't know that his mother knew of Judai, but then, if she allowed him to withhold such important information from her, what kind of mother would she be? She checked his internet listings and went through his books and journals. She also had tapped his cell phone years ago, when she first bought the thing for him. Frankly, she was surprised her son hadn't noticed it yet. She needed to have a stern talk with him one of these days about being more vigilant. He just wasn't careful enough, and that worried her. Vera smiled. Well, perhaps the boyfriend could help with that. From what all she'd read and/or heard, Judai sounded like the perfect motivator to get her lazy son off his rear end and do something. She giggled.

"Vera? You alright?" asked Cyrano. The most tightly-knit of the Family had opted for card games with dinner that night, seeing as not a single one of them ever had the attention span to just sit quietly and eat. Tonight they were playing Hand-and-Foot, (1) a game which required there be partners. Cyrano had the honour of being the Boss's partner this particular round, while the were playing against Falco and Lucien. Most of the others sat around the table and placed bets while drinking and eating. Since today was a confirmed good day for their boss, the atmosphere was a light and happy one.

"Hmm?"

Cyrano sighed. "I asked if you were alright. You started laughing, and some of us get a little worried for your sanity when you cackle like a madwoman and don't really have an explanation for it." Vera smiled indulgently at the hulk of a man as though he were a three-year-old she had met on the street.

"Dear Cyrano, I was just contemplating my son's latest bout of wonderfulness."

"Is that so?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, humming. "The boy's found himself a proper boyfriend at last. I was starting to wonder if he'd lied to me about being gay when he called this morning and asked if it was all right for him to bring the boy over this summer break." The others didn't know she'd tapped her son's phone, nor did they have any need to know, so Vera neglected to mention that the boyfriend was old news.

"Good for him!" Falco said, meaning it. "You know, I was always so shocked that I'd never seen Johan with anybody before. With his looks and talent, you'd think he'd score easy…" Lucien, being Falco's cousin, threw the ice from his drink at the other man's head.

"Do quit being dirty, o cousin of mine. If you have the hots for the Boss's kid, you'll have to fight the new nameless boyfriend for him." Falco gasped indignantly and returned fire with ice of his own. The battle ensued.

"Judai… Yuki Judai… That's the boy's name…" Vera blinked at her hand without seeing it, thinking hard. Fight for him… that… was it!

"EVERYONE! I HAVE A BRILLIANT IDEA!!!" Vera exclaimed, jumping up, but in her excitement still retaining the common sense necessary to hide her cards from prying eyes, not that anyone was looking. They were too busy exchanging looks. Whatever the Boss's 'brilliant idea' was, odds were it wasn't going to end well.

"We want only the best for my little boy, right?" Emphatic nodding. People genuinely did like Johan. He was a likable person by nature. "And if Judai-kun leaves my little boy in the dirt, we'd have to kill him, but my boy would still be heartbroken, right?" More nodding. "So here's the plan: we see just how dedicated Judai-kun is before we go handing over Johan-kun's heart, all right? We make up a bunch of tests, pretend like we don't like him, and make him prove himself – and prove how much he actually loves my boy! So whaddya think?"

"And… this is to keep Johan's heart from getting broken in the end?" Cyrano said, looking skeptical.

"Of course!"

"What if… Judai-kun, did you say? – What if he doesn't pass the tests?"

"Oh, that won't happen," Vera said carelessly, waving a hand. "Judai-kun's head over heels for Johan. He won't lose; not if he can help it."

"Umm… ma'am? How precisely would you know this?"

Vera glared at the speaker. "I'm fucking psychic, you prat. Now get me straight here. I suppose it's not half so much about actually testing him as messing with him. This might give him an idea of my particular brand of humour. Now," she said, rocking back in her chair, "I don't know about you, but I'm already in my Foot. I may well go out before another three turns have passed me by, so I'd work on whittling my Hand down if I were you."

And that decided the matter.

"And that's all! Have a wonderful summer, students! To our seniors: congratulations and good luck! To our other students: I will see you next year! Goodbye!" Chancellor Samejima said merrily, waving to the huge congregation of students as they began to surge towards the doors in the back of the auditorium, and subsequently, to the docks, where the boats were waiting to take them all home for the summer.

Johan had to hold tightly to Judai to keep from losing him in the over-abundance of humanity streaming around them. "Judai! Please slow down!" he screamed out.

"Sorry, no can do! If you slow down now, you'll get trampled on by the stampede!" Judai yelled back. Or, at least, that was what Johan thought he heard.

Johan contented himself with being a human hacky-sack until they were out of the building.

"Okay, so what time's our flight?" asked Judai as they climbed onto one of the statue pedestals to escape the still oncoming surge of teenagers. Johan yanked a timetable out of his shirt and peered around the paper.

"According to this, our flight's in four hours. We still need to hurry like hell if we wanna get through customs and all that annoying stuff and still have a bit of time left to catch our breath," Johan said.

"Okay," Judai said, grinning madly. "Shouldn't be too much of a problem." He gestured to the flow of homo sapiens. "Wanna?"

Johan caught the drift. "Sure. We've little to lose, aside from a limb or two."

They grabbed onto one another's hands, took a deep breath, screamed, "CANNONBALL!" at the top of their lungs, and jumped directly into the human stampede.

About seven minutes later, the pair managed to get to the Slifer dorm, panting heavily.

"Missing anything?" Judai asked, once he was able to get the words out.

Johan actually felt the need to check. "Nah. Nothing that can't be reattached, at any rate."

"Great. Now let's grab our bags and go, 'kay?"

"Oh, come on! Gimme a chance to live for a moment, please?" The taller boy clutched a stitch in his as he slid down the wall to hit the floor with a soft thump. Judai shook his head, laughing softly, but conceded. He sat down beside his boyfriend, the two leaning instinctively towards the other. Johan chuckled weakly. Judai relished the sound. "You're going to enjoy this a lot, aren't you?"

"More than you could ever know," Judai said. "Thanks for being cool with my little whims." He leaned over and kissed the other boy. It wasn't particularly deep, just a simplistic, sweet, but no less passionate, thank-you. Instead of pulling away altogether, they kept their foreheads touching.

"I'd give in to any of your 'little whims', so long as you take to thanking me like that," Johan said into his lover's lips. He didn't see it, but he could feel the smile.

"Well then, I'll have to come up with a whim or two to meet the demand, now won't I?"

I'm seriously realizing now that I have no freaking idea when the hell this is supposed to take place. MY TIMELINE DOES NOT EXIST. If Haou is there, then shouldn't Ryo NOT be still in school? And shouldn't Sho be in the corramn Ra Yellow dorms by now, not eating with Judai at the Slifer dorms? The hell?!?!?!?! I DON'T KNOW. You know what? I'm just gonna pretend like this is a parallel universe in which I dictate which parts of the story I want to keep and which parts would take away from the story and must therefore be hidden from the eyes of man. I have decreed this, and so shall it be.

(1) Hand-and-Foot – I was kinda hoping I wouldn't have to explain this one, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I should. I'll give you the watered down version, though, since I don't have the time or the patience to talk about ALL the rules. It's almost identical to Canasta, except that instead of everyone drawing from one deck, everyone gets two decks to pull from: and Hand and a Foot. You use your Hand first. When you run out of cards in your Hand, you move on to your Foot, which you keep face-down on the table until the time comes to use it. Once you are rid of your Foot, you have gone out. Points are tallied up to determine the winner at that point. Because of partner-up thing, unfortunately, even if you have a billion freaking points, if you go out at an un-advantageous time for your partner, you can still lose. Bad deal, huh? Because of this, for the most part, only strongly in-synch people pair up. It's much easier to read a person's body language when you know the person really well.

All right, all right. Y'all know the drill. Review fast or die slow.