Okay, folks, here we are again! Another update? Shit, naw, couldn't be. Not from me.

Seriously, though, I kind of want to keep up the pace from YWFR. That was the first fic that actually went that fast, and I miss the feeling of being able to crank out a chapter a day. It was kind of cool, if exhausting. Also, thank you very much for the feedback on the last chapter! I hadn't really expected that big of a response, considering the, er, half-a-year gap… ^^;

DISCLAIMER: Nadeshiko es no mi aqui. Me llamo te Juan. JUAN!! No sue me, plzkthx!!!! Me no own.

The plane rides – since of course they'd had to plane-hop to make it the entire distance – had been boring as all get out, considering the many hours each one took. Poor Judai also had only been on a plane once, when he was very young, so he didn't remember to chew gum to keep his ears from popping.

When they finally pushed wearily out of the last flight into the Italian terminal, both boys were more than ready to just find a place to collapse. They found a few seats propped up against the wall and promptly fell into them.

"Someone's supposed to be meeting us, but I don't remember where," Johan muttered sleepily.

"D'you have a cell number for 'im or something?" Judai said.

"Probably. Somewhere. I don't want to get up, though."

"Then let me root around in your bag. I wanna get to a real bed." Johan obliged to some degree, nudging his bag over to the boy next to him with a toe. Judai, with a great show of effort, bent over and yanked it up onto his lap. After rooting around for a few minutes, he found what he was looking for: Johan's cell phone. He scrolled through the contacts list, smiling a bit when he saw that he was number 1 on the list.

"What's the guy's name, anyway?"

Johan looked up tiredly. "Lucien and Falco are supposed to be picking us up. Lucien never turns on his damn phone, so call Falco."

"Got it." Judai punched in the number, including the area code out of uncertainty. A cell phone not ten meters from the two boys began ringing in a shrill, polyphonic version of the song 'Bodybag' by Hit the Lights. The owner jumped a little, but fished it out of his pocket right quick enough.

"Falco here. Whatever you're selling/endorsing, I'm not interested."

Judai smiled. "Um, hello. Sorry, but could you turn around about a good 170 degrees, there?"

Falco looked momentarily confused, then turned the appropriate amount and caught sight of the pair. His face lit up. He tugged on the sleeve of the taller man with him, grinning and pointing. The other man, presumably Lucien, looked up and smiled as well. Judai waved cheerily. Johan twitched his hand in something that was probably supposed to be a wave, but failed miserably.

Judai took in everything he could about the two people now approaching. The shorter one, Falco, had a mop of hair that could've been either light brown or light red. It was impossible to make a distinction. He had laughing bright green eyes and tanned skin that was only marred by the diagonal scar across his left cheek and the numerous scars adorning his hands. All told, in a dress suit, the smaller of the two was downright adorable.

Lucien, on the other hand, seemed far too business-like for a word like 'adorable', even though he looked much like his cousin. Lucien's hair was chestnut coloured and long enough to be pulled back in a messy ponytail. He wore black-rimmed glasses that darkened his whole face. He had no scars showing, but a good chunk of his right ear was missing. Judai tried very hard not to look at it.

Falco walked more quickly than his bigger relative. He fell into the chair beside Judai, promptly turning to face the boy fully. "So, you're Yuki Judai-kun, right?"

Unnerved by the sudden (not to mention FAR too cheerful) confrontation, Judai blinked awkwardly. "Um, yes? I… I take it you're Falco-san?"

"Ah! He knows my name! I don't suppose you know this hulking idiot's name?" he asked. Lucien shot him a look, but didn't protest the label.

"Lucien-san, is it?"

Lucien smiled. "Pleasure to meet you. If I'm correct, you must be absolutely exhausted. We can get you home within twenty minutes if we step on it a little."

"Thank Jesus," Johan breathed. "Thank you so much, guys. I'll be more sociable in the morning… or afternoon, or… whatever time I wake up tomorrow. Jet-lag is a bitch."

"You're welcome, sir. Do you need help standing?"

Both boys laughed at that. "Naw. It's not like I'm some sort of lush stumbling home, y'know."

Falco's face took on a mischievous tint. "Better not be. Your Ma would flay you if she found out you'd been drinking. You're still underage, aren't you?"

"I haven't been drinking! Isn't that what I just said?!?!" Johan gasped, fully awake at the idea of a belligerent Mother to be dealing with.

"Hahaha… I'm just messin' with you. Come on, if you want to pass out any time soon."

The car, unexpectedly, had smelled vaguely of licorice and had been very comfortable. Judai had been a little sorry to have to get out of it, but the thought of a real bed eventually convinced him of the need to be temporarily vertical. Johan had fallen asleep in the car, predictably.

"Need some help with him?" Falco asked. Judai nodded his thanks as Falco helped support Johan's other side as they got out of the car. "So… how long have you two been going out?"

Judai smiled. "Hard to put a number on it, really. Pretty much from the first day he showed up at Duel Academia, we didn't really give each other an inch to breathe. He always hung out in my dorm instead of Obelisk dorms. Apparently, there were too many stuck-up assholes in his dorm, or something like that." Falco laughed, giving Judai courage (and consciousness) to continue. "Then one day, somebody said it was almost like we were dating. We took the idea and ran with it, I suppose. It just fit the whole relationship so well, there wasn't even really an awkward stage with the whole, 'Is he gay too?', 'He'll never love me back', 'I'm all emo and angsty in this corner over here' thing. I'll admit I'm grateful for that. I don't even think we've ever been on what can be construed as a real date. I said it before, and I'll say it again: We never give each other time to breathe, so it's like every minute of every day is part of one gigantic, on-going date. Does that sound corny as hell to you?"

Falco shook his head, then realised that Judai probably wouldn't have seen it, as dark as it was. "Nah. If anything, I'm kind of jealous of you guys. Er, well, not that way, but… just… it seems too easy."

"Easy?" Judai thought back to the numerous forces of evil that had tried to off both him and Johan before. He didn't think 'easy' was the proper word for those particular encounters.

"Yeah. It's like you two, as a couple, haven't ever really had any hardships to overcome. No awkward asking-the-other-out stage – you said it yourself. Just what have you guys gone through, if anything?"

Judai frowned. The words rang a bit true. There was no doubt in his heart or mind that he absolutely loved Johan… but, Falco's words made a lot of sense, too. "We've had a falling out, even if it was only one."

Falco seemed interested. "Oh, really now? What over?"

"I was being a little bit of a whore and Johan got to thinking that that was all there was to me," Judai said.

"Ouch." Falco at least had the decency to wince in sympathy. "How'd you get over that one?"

"I didn't really know why he was angry at me, so I was all childish and was… er, mean… right back. Eventually, he got up the cajones to tell me what was wrong. I chewed him out for ever thinking something that stupid, and we sort of made up. Didn't really take that long for me to forgive him. I just wish he'd spoken up sooner. A week of that crap and he still wouldn't tell me!" It began to occur to Judai that perhaps his new Mafia friend wouldn't appreciate him talking smack about the Boss's son. "I still love him, though."

"That's so like Johan!" Falco said, laughing. Apparently, it didn't bother him that much. "He used to have these fits when he was really little, but he was always way too shy to say what was wrong! Once, he refused to eat any and all kinds of meat for a month before we realised that it was because he was trying to turn vegetarian after he'd made friends with one of the dairy cows and thought she'd be slaughtered for food! A month he said nothing!" Judai laughed. It really did sound like just the sort of thing his stupid (but cute) lover would do.

"Hang on, lemme get the key," Falco muttered, trying to support Johan while digging around in his back pocket. Without realising it, they had arrived at the front door.

The twin doors were impressive things, towering a good five meters in the air and made of what might've been oak with inlays of some other kind of lighter-coloured wood that Judai couldn't begin to name. They were such beautiful things. The house they were attached to was not so much a house as what Judai would describe as a sprawling castle. Shit. He'd known Johan had money, but… this was a bit over the top. Strike that. Make that absurdly over the top.

"Crap. Hey Lucien?"

"Yes?" Judai jumped. He'd forgotten that the larger man was there.

"D'you have the house key? Mine's gone mysteriously missing."

"You really need to double check that you have everything BEFORE you leave the house, Falco. That may serve you well one of these days. I've got mine, but don't expect me to just hand it over next time. You'll be on your own then," Lucien said.

"Thanks. You're a real pal," Falco said.

Judai heard the muffled click of the lock mechanism and heard the louder squeal of one of the mammoth doors swinging outward just enough to permit each member of the party.

"Well? Are you going to move, or are you going to gawk like a tourist, Judai-kun? Hmm?"

"Can I gawk?" Judai said without really thinking about it.

"Hahaha… no. Come on."

"'Kay."

Judai didn't remember very much of anything else that had happened that night. He didn't remember going through assorted hallways, going through secret passageways, elevators, and other various places. He didn't remember ending up at Johan's room, where Lucien dumped their respective suitcases and bags inside, followed by the two of them saying that they wouldn't mind a bit of sleep themselves and leaving the two boys to their own devices. He didn't remember anything about Johan's room, though he must've looked around at some point in time. He didn't remember trying to get the bigger boy's unconscious body up onto the bed, which was annoyingly high off the ground, or then climbing into bed without changing his clothes or brushing his teeth (eww) and passing out himself.

As it was, he woke up a bit before noon in a dazed state. Judai tried to blink his eyes open, but blinking just encouraged his eyes to stay closed. He settled for staring blankly at the ceiling. Eventually, he began looking around the room. The bed was smack-dab in the middle of the room, the headboard hitting dead-center on one of the walls. Normally, such placement would've made the room appear much smaller and cramped. Johan's room, however, felt open and breezy. Unlike most of the splendor in the rest of the house (castle, as Judai adamantly thought about it), this room was only slightly larger than normal, instead of gargantuan. Most of the colours in the room were pastels, and most of those were of the blue-green variety. Various dueling posters that were somewhat outdated adorned the walls, along with knickknacks that held little meaning for Judai, but probably had long, complicated, wonderful stories behind each one. He was looking forward to wheedling the details out of Johan when the other boy got around to waking up.

There were a bunch of pieces of furniture that didn't interest Judai much, like the dresser or the small chest at the foot of the bed. Taking up more than two-thirds of a wall was a bookcase that was half full of dueling magazines, books, and old newspapers, half full of other books that Judai hadn't read. Hell, most of the real books there looked like they were in foreign languages! Sure, Judai wasn't much of a book person, but he felt no shame in admitting that he'd probably never spare a second glance for the bookshelf. Some things caught his eyes, like the sporadically placed shelves adorned with miscellaneous curios. On one shelf there were a few childish drawings of the Gem Beasts that Judai found absolutely adorable. Part of another wall was taken up by a stained glass door, which probably led out onto a veranda. The door was a work of art in and of itself, each of the Gem Beasts having been rendered into stunning glass form. Each twist and curve caught the noon-day light and held it perfectly without being bright enough to blind morning eyes into opening against their will. But what held his attention most of all was the only clean horizontal surface in the entire room: a table in one corner of the room that looked to be about 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. It was a dueling table, with painted outlines for each kind of card to be played. The table itself was a brilliant, eye-smarting shade of aqua, which Judai rather thought resembled Johan's eyes. In order to get a better look, he swung his legs over the edge of the bed and began to totter his way over to the table when a very loud knock on the door made him jump.

Judai hurried over to the door, trying to fix his hair, but, in the absence of a mirror, failing miserably.

He opened the door to see a man, easily seven feet tall and then some, towering over him.

"Umm… g-good morning?" he said.

"Good morning, Yuki-san," the man said. His voice was low and oppressive – rather what you would expect from a man of that stature. "I have a message from the Boss to deliver. I would not expect Andersen-sama to be awake as of yet?"

"Er-uh, no, he's not up yet. Should I give this to hi-"

"The message is for you. Please heed it well. The Boss does not appreciate being kept waiting." And with that, the man handed Judai a small paper, turned on his heels, and walked away. Judai, with a supremely confused look on his face, closed the door and looked at the folded bit of paper in his hand. What the hell?

Johan pried himself up, seemingly woken up by the noise. "Huh? Wazzat?" he muttered, still not fully awake.

"Hell if I know." Judai walked over and sat down on the bed, unfolding it. His eyes scanned it quickly. It… still made no sense to him.

"What's it say?" Johan asked.

"Apparently, your Ma wants me to come meet her in half an hour in the 'Audience Room', whatever that is," Judai said. "'Under pain of Death' and everything."

Johan yawned. "Ah, she ends all her letters that way. She thinks it's bad luck or something not to threaten death at least once in every letter she writes. I don't know. I'll go with you, seeing as you'd probably get lost around here…" He yawned again as he tried to stand up. "But first, we're gonna need to change clothes. There's no way we're going to be comfortable in the same clothes we slept in last night."

Johan went through a third door that Judai hadn't even noticed into a private bathroom to change. Judai stayed on the bed, staring uncomfortably at the letter. It was oddly impersonal a thing, and the phrasing made the whole thing sound ominous. Almost as ominous as the messenger himself. Maybe… maybe Johan's mother wasn't going to be as happy too see the new boyfriend as Johan had thought.

Maybe today was the infamous 'bad day', and maybe Judai was already on her bad side.

(A/N) I haven't proofread any of this. Please don't judge me for crappy grammar or phrasing errors. I'll fix them in the morning when I don't feel ill or tired.

I haven't made much progress in my chapters, now have I? I'm one for the annoying imagery, I know. I promise, next chapter, something'll bloody well get done. I feel kind of bad for Judai, though. He's going to get a lot of crap thrown his way. I also kind of don't want to write a mean Vera. I like her. She's crazy enough to be likable, even if she is something of an OC. I hadn't even really thought about her character at all until I realised that I had to name her. Oops. Originally, I was thinking that her real name should be unknown the whole way through. Her alias is Verruckt Andersen. 'Verruckt' is German for 'crazy' or 'nuts', so I figured it suited her pretty well. The word 'verruckt', on the other hand, is not a pretty word on paper, even though the pronunciation is kind of nice-sounding. So, I decided that her nickname would be Vera. 'Vera' actually sounds a bit like the German pronunciation in the first place, so it's not that far of a stretch.

GAH! I ranted. Baka Nade-chan.

I really hope you like this chapter. Speedy update, huh? That's gotta count for something, right?

Review fast or die slow, loves.