Amber- Hey! Hey everyone! Lookie here, new chapter! I feel like it's short though :
Danny- Can we just get on with it already?
Amber- Yea, today is not the day to dilly dally here, so on with the warning and disclaimer!
Danny- *Sighs* I am so not in the mood today... Amber does not own Yu-Gi-Oh! no matter how much she cries and kicks and screams.
Amber- This story also has yaoi! Please enjoy!
-Chapter 5-
"So, Ruki, Yuki, Malik, welcome to my show!" a man with blonde, graying hair smiled at the two boys sitting on the couch beside the desk.
"Thank you, Ren-san," Yugi smoke up, smiling.
"So, now, we're all wondering what you two were like in school. We all know Malik was schooled by his sister and is now going to a public school," the man, Ren, leaned forward on his elbows. "Tell us, were you popular, bullied, a wallflower perhaps?"
Ryou and Yugi glanced at each other. They had an answer, wasn't the truth though. They were anticipating this question for a while. If they said they went to a school, they might as for the name of that school. If someone did some digging they would find out Ruki and Yuki never existed.
"Honestly," Ryou mumbled. "We were both home schooled and still are!" He chirped, now smiling. "My mother home schooled me and Yuki's mom had put an add for a home school teacher, to which my mom answered. It's how we met!"
Yugi nodded in agreement. "I started going over to Ruki's home for lessons and we became fast friends!"
"Really? Now, then, what about Mai Valentine, how did the three of you meet?" the man's eyes gained a twinkle to them. "And do you know anything about her mysterious boyfriend?"
Ryou, if he were no good at acting, probably would have started choking on air right then and there. Instead, he placed a smile on his face and allowed Yugi to answer this time. Luckily, they had a story for this too.
"Well," Yugi started. "We auditioned for a movie together and we met right before. She said we reminded her of some friends of hers and wanted to be in the movie with us!" He answered, not noticing the suspicious look that Malik sent his way.
"As for boyfriends," Ryou chirped. "That's not really our place to discuss!"
He pouted, "Fine then, don't give us the juicy gossip," he looked directly at Malik and cupped his own cheeks in his hands, grinning mischievously at the sandy haired boy. "What about you? There are rumors going around about you and a certain heart throb singer. That the two of are dating. Is any of true?"
Malik, in reply, laughed. "I always knew that when a male and female became best friends, rumors would go around that they're dating. When did the same thing happen with two males?" he wondered, more to himself then the talk show host.
"I can't help but notice you dodged my question," Ren raised a pointed eyebrow and gave him a give me more details type of look.
Malik shook his head, a soft smile coming onto his face. "No," he answered. "There is nothing going on between me and Marik."
The words left his mouth and Yugi and Ryou shot surprised glances at each other.
Malik was lying.
It might not have been obvious to some people, but Yugi and Ryou could tell. The look on the interviewer's face showed he didn't notice the lie, but then again why would they? Malik was a phenomenal actor.
There was just one reason why they could tell the boy was lying.
They were liars too.
Oooo
"You're getting back into the habit of bringing games?" Ryou questioned as he and Yugi walked side by side to the school. The tri-colored hair boy had a game with a strap over his shoulder.
Yugi beamed up at him. "Mhm! Since Yami and I are doing our report on games, I found out he likes games too and I decided to bring some for us to play in the morning!" He answered happily.
Ryou smiled at him. It was nice that he was so happy. He, like Ryou, always dreaded classes the other wasn't in because it made things uncomfortable. They would be left out during group projects or partner work and on team challenges were always picked last.
It was nice that Yugi didn't have to put up with that any longer.
Now if only he could find someone to get rid of the feeling of being alone.
Yugi hummed happily when they reached the school building. He nodded at Ryou, gave a small wave, and headed off in his own direction. He hurried to class, ever since Yami had found out about the game he played with Kishi-sensei, he had become a competitor. He had to try harder to get to class before anyone else.
But before he knew what was happening, a hand grabbed the back of his collar on his school jacket and he was being dragged to a secluded hallway that was closed off for repairs and roughly slammed against a locker. He let out a yelp and sank to the floor.
"Well, well, well, Yugi-kun. I didn't think I'd ever be able to do this again!" A dark chuckle reached his years and Yugi's head snapped up. He stared frightfully up at the large boy towering over him.
"U-Ushio," he stuttered out, his eyes screwing shut.
Because of the game he had always managed to avoid bullies. He hadn't had to deal with the main one what felt like a long time. Had he gotten too comfortable with Yami and Kishi-sensei? Should he still have worried about getting caught by bullies?
A rough kick to his stomach brought him back to the painful reality of the situation. He let out a gasp and clenched his stomach. He felt the strap on his shoulder snap and the taunting voice reached his ears.
"Now what do we have here?" Yugi forced his eyes back open and watched as Ushio smirked down at him, holding the game up by the strap.
Amethyst eyes widened in shock as Ushio started to swing the game through the air, no.
No.
No!
No! He had brought that game for Yami! His fists clenched, he was so tired of being pushed around!
On shaky legs, Yugi placed his hands on the locker and forced himself up, glaring harshly at Ushio. "Give it back!" he demanded loudly.
"Tch, you little punk," Ushio scoffed and delivered a blow to Yugi's face, making him fall back against the lockers again.
Yugi let out a soft whine and once again, albeit with a bit more trouble, forced himself to stand up. "Give it back," he repeated, eyes narrowed.
"Can't you just stay down?" Ushio sneered and lifted his hand to hit the boy again, but a hand on his stopped him. "Who the hell-"
"Leave the kid alone," a voice spoke and Yugi peered past Ushio and to his surprise saw a blonde boy there, glaring at Ushio.
"Stay out of this!" Ushio snapped.
"Jou..nouchi-kun?" came the mumbled, surprised question.
Jounouchi shot a smile at the small, bruised boy before turning back to Ushio and twisting his arm behind his back. "Like I said, leave the kid alone!" he snapped and pushed the large boy to the floor. "Get out of here."
Ushio growled and dropped the game to the floor once he finally got up. "This ain't worth it," he spat, glaring at the two boys and stalked off.
Yugi, once the bully was gone, let out a relieved noise and fell back against the lockers, ignoring the class bell, and sank to the floor. Soon a thump followed a body had sat next to him.
Yugi turned slightly and smiled at Jounouchi. "Thank you," he mumbled.
To be honest, he was still a little shocked that Jounouchi was the one who had came to rescue. He was always the one that was telling him he needed to be a man and taking his games before he stopped bringing them to school. He figured we do the same now, tell him to act like a man.
A silence took over and after what seemed like forever Jounouchi finally broke with a simple, "I'm sorry."
Yugi looked over at the boy in surprise. "Sorry?" he repeated slowly. "For what?"
"...Everything," he mumbled and gave an exhausted smile. "For all those times I tried making you tougher, never really had to I suppose, the way you stood up to Ushio like that," he shook his head. "I don't get why you never stood up to me. You just sat there and took it and never, not once, did I see a look resentment in your eyes."
Yugi rested his chin on his knees, taking in the boy's words and then he turned, smiling brightly. "You were just trying to make me a man!" he said cheerfully. "You weren't bullying me!"
Jounouchi stared at the boy in shock before throwing his head back and laughing loudly, "You're a weird guy, you know that?"
Yugi didn't stop the pout that made it's way to his face. "Heh? Why do you say that?"
Jounouchi never got the chance to reply as the sound of running footsteps reached their ears. They looked over to the source and saw Yami there. He stopped running and stared at the two of them. His face was tinted red and he was breathing heavily.
"Yami..."
The boy hurried over to Yugi and knelt in front of him, frowning deeply. "What happened?" He demanded, taking Yugi's face in his hands and inspecting the bruises forming on his cheeks.
"Ushio happened," Jounouchi scoffed in reply.
Much to Yugi's surprise, Yami let out a growl and took his hands away. "That guy..." he huffed and turned back to Yugi, his eyes softening as he looked at the boy. He placed a hand on his shoulder, "Come on, you need to get to the nurse's office."
Yugi nodded and let himself be helped up by the two boys.
Oooo
Ryou glanced around the room nervously, the day had started off good, great even! He hadn't received any kicks to the back of his chair from Bakura and he had been able to talk to Malik through out the class, which he found he got along with surprisingly well as himself rather then Ruki.
And then the next class came, thirty minutes had passed, and Yugi still had yet to show up. He was starting to get worried.
As if on cue, the door to the classroom swung open and Yami walked through, a serious look set in place and he made his way over to the teacher, saying something to him. He then looked up and beckoned for Ryou.
Ryou, now confused, tried to ignore the stares as he walked up to the front of the classroom.
"I need Yugi's contact information for his parents, he fell asleep and they aren't on file. Since you're his closest friend..." Yami trailed, letting the sentence finish itself as he led the boy outside of the classroom.
"You mean his grandpa," Ryou said and faced Yami, and at the boy's confused face, added. "He lives with his grandfather," he explained with a shrug.
Yami frowned. "What about-"
Ryou instantly cut him off. "That's not place to discuss," he shook his head, "You'll have to ask Yugi about that," he smiled at Yami.
The boy's frowned deepened. "You two have the same smile."
That struck Ryou, "W-What?" he stuttered out.
"You and Yugi, you have the same smile. It's fake," he said bluntly.
Oooo
Ryou glanced one last time in the mirror of the bathroom at the hospital. It felt good to be Ruki, after what Yami has said to him. How had he noticed something like that?
He shook his head, making the blue wig atop his head to become crooked. He quickly fixed it and sighed, opening the door and walking over to the white haired boy that was sitting in one of the chairs in the waiting room. He tapped him on the shoulder and smiled brightly. "Good to see you again," he spoke when Bakura whirled around.
Bakura frowned and stood up, "Right." he sighed and gestured for the boy to follow him. "Come on then," he led him to a hospital room and inside was a girl with short snowy hair, sunken cheeks and tubes in her nose.
Ryou's heart clenched as he watched Bakura walk over to the girl and lightly shake her awake. A pair of green eyes fluttered open and when she zeroed in on him she gasped.
"Oh my gosh!" even in her excitement, the girl's voice was strained. "He's actually here! Big Brother!" Her pale hands gripped the hospital sheets under her, causing her knuckles to go white.
"Hi," Ryou breathed out and walked over to her, holding his hand out. "I'm Ruki Nakamura."
"I I- I'm Aimi Bakura," Ryou couldn't help but note how weak her grip way and it made him want to cry. "I-I can't believe you're really here! I feel like I'm dreaming!"
Ryou let out a small laugh, "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you Aimi!" he took a seat on the chair next to the hospital bed.
He went to ask her what she was like, but was cut by the girl, who pointed at the doorway. "Big Brother," she spoke in a bit more firm voice. "Out," she demanded.
Bakura frowned. "Wait... what? Why?!" he demanded, crossing his arms.
Aimi giggled a little. "Because I don't want you threatening Ruki-san anytime!" she pointed to the door again. "Now shoo!"
Bakura held his hands up in a mock surrender, "Fine, fine, I can tell when I'm not wanted," he rolled his eyes and left the room, nearly slamming the door behind him.
Aimi then turned to Ryou. "My Big Brother is a little protective," she said sheepishly.
Ryou shook his head, "It's sweet," he said simply.
"I think it might just be because I'm sick," she said softly. "He despises mom and dad. I think he would me too if I weren't sick."
Ryou frowned, "Don't say that! It's just the natural reaction for a big brother to care about his little sister!" he argued lightly.
Aimi looked up at him, her green eyes shining, "Do you have a little sister?" she questioned.
Ryou sighed, he as Ruki didn't, but...
"No, but a boy I know, Ryou, did, and he told me all about the times with his little sister," he answered, placing his hand on Aimi's frail one.
Aimi, replaying the sentence in her head, frowned. "Did?"
White teeth sank into rosy lips as Ryou tried to keep himself from crying, it still cut him up when he thought about his mother or younger sister. "Yea," he nodded. "She... she's an angel now," he breathed.
Aimi looked down. "I'm not going to ask what happened, there's enough depression in this room," she flexed her fingers lightly. "What was she like?"
"From what Ryou told me, happy and cheerful and never let anything get her down..."
That set it off, just like Bakura spilled everything about Aimi to Ruki, Ryou did the same about Amane to Aimi. He didn't even realize that he started referring to her as his sister instead of Ryou's.
-End Chapter 5-
Amber- Did you like it? And what did you think of Aimi? Also, what about Jou? I was thinking of adding puppyshipping in this fic. If so, the ideas to bring Kaiba in, fufufu!
Danny-...I don't even want to know what's going on through that brain of hers. Anyway, please review.
