I am a YouTube junkie. Seriously. Everyday, I come home, got a shit load of homework, sit at my computer and browse YubeTube for like three hours! I've seen all the bad YGO music videos, well, it's kinda impossible to see all of them but I've gotten pretty close, and I've actually seen some good YGO music videos, which of course would explain my SUPER SPECIAL AWESOME comment a couple of chapters before.
Yes, I did mean to have Bakura say "his girlfriend" when referring to Yugi. He was being Bakura and rude. No one thinks Atemu's going out with Vivian Wong they have all seen the beautiful tabloid.
This chapter is kinda short. You see, since I don't update as I write my story, I just write and don't think about the chapters until it's over. So my chapters are kinda spastically divided. Example: last chapter was like 16 pages, this one is probably 8-9ish pages.
(sighs) I'm feeling so inarticulate today.
Have fun!!
-((13))-
Chyaputa 13: Search Warnings
-((13))-
The day was bright and sunny on that summer Saturday afternoon. And that meant grocery shopping for Ryou, or at least, the little groceries he could afford. He had had to beg for his job back at the Pizza Palace after Bakura's little stunt. He was already on thin ice for falling asleep at the counter so often, but with enough tears and groveling he had managed to appeal to his superior's kinder nature. Still, after paying the rent and taxes, he could only afford the barest essentials. Ryou stifled a yawn against a box of cereal. A good night's sleep was a hard thing to accomplish these days. Work kept him busy; that was good because it kept his mind off of certain white haired individuals with dry lips…
At least until that moment anyway.
Ryou's foot caught on something. He almost dropped his food but didn't because fate, sometimes, isn't that cruel. He managed to hold on to his edibles and then he turned to see what had tripped him.
There was a shoe protruding out of a bush. And that shoe was attached to a person, hiding in said bushes.
"Hey, ah… Ryou, right?" the rock star greeted.
Ryou blinked. Before his very eyes, the brush grew a head with hair that looked oddly like Yugi's. Then the regular teenager shook off the spell of minimal sleep and focused his attention again. "Good afternoon, um, 'Yami', is it?"
Atemu smiled sheepishly; his whole body was curled into a very uncomfortable looking ball. "Looks like I'm at your mercy."
"Why are you in a bush?" Ryou asked mildly.
"I, ah, snuck out to see Yugi," Atemu admitted.
"Yugi lives on the other side of town," Ryou said.
Atemu tugged a twig out of his hair. "I got a little lost," he explained. "And then these girls recognized me and I panicked and ran for it and my hat flew off and then I dropped my glasses and well… here I am."
Ryou nodded. "So you're hiding from fangirls?" he reasoned.
"Yes," Atemu confirmed. "Sorry I tripped you. I didn't see your face behind that grocery bag."
Ryou shrugged. "No harm done."
There was a pause. Across the street a gaggle of females were giggling and rushing from store to store. Atemu flinched, making the bush shudder. Ryou shifted his bag so he could glance at his watch.
Once the girls were out of sight, Ryou said, "I live right up here. If you promise the location of my apartment will not be viewed by to the entire world on live television, you can hide out there. It's probably more comfortable then your current location."
"Really?" Atemu's entire being seem to relax. "Thanks. Thanks a lot, Ryou."
"That's alright, I suppose I've forgiven you and Yugi for giving my phone number to Bakura now."
"Ah… yeah, sorry about that," Atemu apologized.
"It's all in the past." Ryou glanced around the street. "The street is as empty as it's going to get. We'll have to make a dash for it."
((13))
"Breaking news!" Jounouchi's blaring voice announced over the phone.
Yugi bit the end his eraser then scribbled some useless equations. "Jounouchi, I don't have time for this, I got homework stuff to do."
"Even if it's about Atemu?" Jounouchi taunted knowledgeably.
Yugi's heart skipped. "What is it?" The rock star hadn't said anything to him last night about any more important announcements and Yugi wasn't sure if he could take another one of Atemu's surprises. It was probably nothing. But what if reporters had found out more stuff about the leader singer's mysterious significant other…?
"Go to channel 57. You won't believe this!" Jounouchi cried.
Yugi picked up the remote from the shelf and turn halfway to face the TV. The news lady was stationed on the corner of a busy street but… wait. Yugi's pulse slowed.
"Oh crap," he hissed. He knew that street.
"For those viewers joining us right now," the reporter lady introduced into her microphone. "Just moments ago several pedestrians claimed they saw Atemu, the lead singer of the famous teenage rock band Descendants of Ra, on the streets of suburban Domino. The city where only a week ago Atemu was spotted in a clothing department store-"
"Shit!" Yugi cried out loud, forgetting he was still holding the phone to his face.
"-so I thought if we all got together and joined up with some other fans, we could searched the streets ourselves," Jounouchi was rambling to his friend but Yugi was not registering any of it.
'Atemu, you idiot!' Yugi moaned in his head.
"-If we get organized we can catch him before the reporters do! I already talked to Anzu, she's on her way. I called Honda but he didn't pick up. I know he doesn't like Atemu as much but he won't miss out on this-"
"Yeah, ok, Jounouchi I got to go," Yugi said in a rush.
"Ok, but Yug-"
"Bye," Yugi said and then hung up. The phone fell from his hands. His pulse was delivering too much oxygen to his brain. His anxiety was like a maddening cloud racing around his head. He could not think. Then something Jounouchi had just said struck him like an arrow.
"If we get organized we can catch him before the reporters do…"
"Oh no," Yugi moaned, "Oh no, no, no, no…"
'I have to find him, before the reporters, before Jounouchi… I got to find him!' that was the only logical solution in his brain. And he wasn't going to find Atemu by standing there.
Yugi dropped his pencil without acknowledging it and ran for the stairs. At the bottom of the landing, Yugi heard voices.
"…this guy, but he's so old!"
"Maybe Atemu's into that type of thing. Yuck, bet you're glad you didn't do anything with him now, eh cos-cos?"
"Idiots, this isn't him. I told you I've seen Atemu's lover."
Without seeing them, without ever meeting them, Yugi knew whose voices those were. H
e dashed around a row of shelves in the game shop and found all three of them. Malik, Mariku, and, of course, Bakura.
This was all so very, very strange. Like Yugi had just stepped into a TV and everything was very superficial. The natural laws of his world were crashing down.
"What are you doing out here!?" Yugi squeaked, arms flying.
The three famous people turned to him. Yugi's stomach dived for a second in excitement; there were famous rock idols were in his house! Then it rose back up into his throat with a furious sickening rush that left his core full of dread.
"That's the guy," Bakura announced to the other two, pointing accusingly.
"This kid?" Malik asked curious, glossy platinum hair looking more luxurious than it ever could in any photograph.
Mariku squinted with mean eyes. "He's so… Atemu-looking. Ew. And short. Good lord he's short." Malik nodded in fascination.
Yugi's face inflamed. But he had no time for this. "You guys can't be here! People will see you!" he hissed.
Bakura shoved his way to the front of the pack, his dark, intense eyes narrowed. Together their presence was quite overwhelming. "We'll leave once you hand over Atemu."
Yugi gaped. "I- I haven't got him," he admitted. "I was just going out to look for him."
Mariku sneered, "Likely story." Malik elbowed him in the side.
"It's the truth," Yugi insisted. "Go and search upstairs and check for yourselves if you want, just get out of the store where people can see you!"
Were all famous people this thoughtless?
"Sheesh," Mariku grumbled. "Noisy bugger."
"Hey," Bakura snapped at him. "I'm the only one who can use British references."
"Since when?" Mariku demanded.
"The day you were born," Bakura snarled.
"Can you guys please move this upstairs!" Yugi begged.
"Move it," Malik urged, pushing the two of them out of the store. "We don't need more trouble."
The four clobbered up the stairs and Yugi shepherd them into the living room.
"Dinky place, ain't it?" Mariku complained with a grimace as he flopped down on the couch and set his feet up on Yugi's coffee table.
"Oh no. Atemu made the news," Malik moaned in despair. Yugi had forgotten to turn the TV off before he left the room and now the same new cast was repeating itself over and over again.
"…several pedestrians claimed they saw Atemu, the lead singer of the famous teenage rock band Descendants of Ra, on the streets of suburban Domino. The city where only a week ago…"
"Serves him, right! Sneaking off like that," Mariku cursed nastily. "Hey, shortie, ya got any food around here?"
Unlike his other two comrades, Bakura had not lifted his attention from Yugi for one second. Now he was advancing threateningly on the kid. "Atemu snuck out last night. If he's not here then where the hell is he?"
Yugi nervously squeezed his hands into a knot. "I have absolutely no idea. I didn't even know Atemu was coming over. He never mentioned it!" Yugi fell into a chair, head in his hands. "And I specifically told him not to come here during the week! Why doesn't he listen?" Yugi's blood rang, crashing against his ear drum. He was panicking. He was totally freaking out. He had to find Atemu! But if he left how would he stop these celebrities from getting loose and captured themselves? What was he supposed to do?
An unexpected hand placed itself on Yugi's shoulder. The normal teenage boy looked up to see Malik's sympathetic expression. "Don't worry, I'm sure he'll be fine."
Yugi swallowed and gave a jerky nod. For a rock star, Malik seemed rather sensible. That was good.
"Well, what the fuck do we do now?" Mariku snarled, getting up from the couch and gesturing violently at the air.
"We find Atemu," Bakura ordered briskly, face hard.
Yugi stood up from his desk. "You guys can't afford to be seen right now. I'll go look for him."
"All by yourself?" Malik asked.
"No fucking way, I ain't staying here in this crap hole!" Mariku cursed.
"Keep it down," Yugi urged. "My mom is-"
Mariku gave Yugi a nastily degrading look. "Keep your thoughts to yourself, midget!"
"Could you not be a complete animal for one freaking second!" Malik scolded.
Mariku made a haughty look. "You didn't seem to mind before."
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" a squeal split the air. Yugi spun, looking wildly for the source.
Then he spotted a supremely-unwelcome Jounouchi in the doorway to the living room.
All three famous people and Yugi flinched. After the scream, the blonde just stood there, completely aghast. "Y-Yugi, y-y-y-you got D-D-D-Descendants of Ra in your living room!?" Jounouchi exclaimed, too loudly.
"Ah… it's not what it looks like?" Yugi tried lamely. But it was too late. Now he was truly, completely, utterly, perfectly screwed. No amount of Jounouchi's stupidity could make up for this.
Jounouchi let out another pure fanboy scream.
"Fuck," Malik groaned, fingers in his ears.
"Mariku!" Bakura summoned and gestured, almost lazily, to Yugi's blonde friend.
Mariku needed no encouragement. He was already halfway across the room. In one swift movement, Mariku grabbed the fanboy by the collar and flung him down on the carpet, bound his arms behind his back and promptly sat on him. Jounouchi choked on his screech.
"Fuck! What the hell are you doing?" Jounouchi cried.
"Don't hurt him!" Yugi cried, lurching forward.
Malik shook his head sadly at his cousin. "Don't worry," he reassured. "I'll make sure he doesn't cause any permanent physical damage."
"What about emotional damage?" Mariku inquired, palming Jounouchi's face to the floor.
"That too," Malik scolded.
"Yugi!" Jounouchi growled. "What the hell is going on? Why are- in your house-"
"Sorry, Jounouchi," Yugi apologized hastily, "We don't have time now but I'll explain later, I promise."
"I'm going after Atemu," demanded Bakura who was being doggedly insistent about the Atemu issue.
"You can't! We can't have you both captured by raging fanatics," Yugi reasoned pacing the room.
"Hey!" Jounouchi cried indignantly.
"No offence intended," Yugi replied.
"Speak for yourself," Mariku growled in Jounouchi's ear.
"He'll be caught anyway if we don't do anything," Bakura spat, his eyes bulging with controlled haste.
"I know! That's what I've been saying, I'll have to go look for him. It's the only way," Yugi explained shrilly grabbing his discarded coat and moving toward the door. "You three have to stay here! Understand?"
"You going to let a drawf tell you want to do?" Mariku slurred cockily.
"Shut up!" Malik and Bakura responded simultaneously.
Just then the phone rang.
Yugi glared at the three famous people as he stepped toward the phone. "I mean it. No leaving! Don't even make a sound in this house. I can't have my mother finding you all."
As Mariku scoffed, Malik glared at his cousin, and Bakura stared unblinkingly at the normal teenage boy, Yugi picked up the phone.
"Hello?" he spoke, resigned.
"Hey Yugi." Yugi recognized the speaker.
"Ryou, hey," Yugi greeted.
And then he remembered the white-haired, crazy person standing directly behind him, whose eyeballs were now drilling into his head.
Yugi gulped; he knew now that the phone could be viciously ripped out of his hands at any moment. "Um… now's really not a good time."
"Oh. Well, I was just calling to tell you that Atemu is at my house," Ryou responded lightly.
Yugi's feet skipped in place. "You've got him!! Oh thank god! Ryou you're the best!"
"You can thank me by picking him up. Soon would be nice. I don't want my block to be on TV," Ryou suggested.
"Yeah, we'll be right over! Bye!" Yugi cried and in his excitement hung up the phone. And he turned around and faced the other people at the room, a huge grin that almost hurt his cheek muscles on his face.
"Atemu's at Ryou's house!" Yugi announced.
Malik frowned in question, "Whose Ryou?"
Mariku toyed with the ends of his huge hair. "Atemu's other sex machine?"
Jounouchi's body jerked from the floor. "Ryou's in on this too! Ah man!"
But Bakura did not speak. The guitarist stared, eyes wide.
Then, and Yugi should have seen this coming, Bakura dived for the door.
"Bakura, no!" Yugi cried.
But nothing could stop the white-haired guy's descent down the stairs or his charge through the game shop. Yugi managed to follow fast enough that he saw Bakura swinging into the shiny car the three famous people must have taken to get there.
"Wait!" Yugi yelled, stumbling out of his house. "You don't even know where you're going!"
Bakura cocked an eyebrow as the engine purred into life. "You think I don't know where he lives?" and then he revved up the car and shot backwards back onto the street, scratching the bumper of a fellow passing car.
Yugi stood limp on the lawn, mouth slightly open. "Mad. Every single famous person is mad," he concluded, dazedly. And as he turned back to his house, back up the insanity in the upper story, Yugi realized that in his conversation with Ryou he had missed the opportunity to speak to Atemu.
((-13-))
Chaos. Mwahahahahaha.
Bakura is a fiend. He is sweet. I love that guy. Mariku and Malik too. God I love these people.
I do feel sorry for making out Jounouchi to be a mindless fanatic. Even though he is mindless most of the time. I usually do give him more of a personality in my stories, you know, the silly best friend who then turns around in a time of crisis and gives some profound advice that you didn't think he was capable of. Yes, I did just end a sentence with a preposition.
Ryou is so modest. I love him. But it looks like he'll been in some trouble next chapter… (eyes next chapter warily)
NEXT CHAPTER! Ryou is in some trouble. There's knocking on his door, more than he expected. One who brings death. No, not really, I'm being melodramatic. Oh yes, and Atemu really does jump out a window this time.
REVIEW!!