Her Sweetness: Hey, all. I've been dumped by the love of my life recently. So sorry this chapter is late. I'm still not totally better but what better cure than writing, huh?

Rascals R Wee

Chapter 9:

"Here, Fruity, sniff this."

'No!'

"Aw, don't be that way, Fruity. Do Grandpa a little favor."

'That's one hell of a little flavor.'

Grandpa had since taken Little Fruitcake into the house right after Yugi had left. He knew that there was little chance of just finding Yami out of the blue. He had to have some sort of direction. That's where Little Fruitcake came in. The two of them were in the boys' room and Grandpa had searched through all their piles of dirty clothes and finally found a pair of Yami's underwear.

He held the soiled undergarments before the cat, trying to force him to sniff but Little Fruitcake was adamant in his refusal.

'Do I look like a damn dog?' he meowed while trying to struggle away. 'I won't do it!'

Grandpa sighed in aggravation. He really didn't have time for all this meowing and protesting. By now, Yami could be in Calcutta, he thought. So he grabbed Little Fruitcake by the tail and the poor kitten meowed loudly, opening his mouth wide and Grandpa stuffed the underpants inside.

'MMF!' Little Fruitcake mumbled and frizzed his fur in disgust at the awful odor.

"There we go," Grandpa said, nodding with satisfaction. In a moment, he pulled the underwear free of the kitten's mouth. "Now, do you have Yami's sent, Fruity?"

The kitten coughed. 'Unfortunately.'

"Great!" All of a sudden, Grandpa pulled out a red leash from inside one of his overall's pockets and latched it onto the kitten's collar. He pointed out of the doorway, "Lead the way!"

'Oh, you must be joking—'

"GO!" and with that warrior-like wail, the old man kicked the kitten in the rear and off he scampered, out the door and down the stairs and eventually onto the street, on their way to who knows where.

"Welcome, passengers. This is Captain Gummy speaking, I'll be your captain on this flight to Melbourne, Australia. Please buckle your seatbelts when the red lights flash. We will take off shortly. Enjoy the flight," said a man's voice from the intercom. It buzzed off for a second and then buzzed back on for the pilot to add, "Oh… and, for the man in seat 11B in coach, the flight attendants will not sing you a lullaby before you take your nap so please stop asking. Thank you."

The man in 11B sulked in his seat.

The chibis and the stroller had bounced right into the coach section of the plane. As they went bouncing along, all the time the three of them shouting and squealing, an attendant saw them go through the gate and tried to follow them, shouting, "Hey! Come back!"

But they couldn't stop the stroller and wouldn't have done so if they could because now they were in. The stroller hit a bump in the carpeting and bumped off the aisle and into a row of seats. For Bakura, who was the first little one to come bouncing out of the carriage and into a seat, the ride had become rather fun and he was slightly upset when it was over. Yami bounced out second, landing on top of Bakura's head and Marik went third landing into a stranger's lap.

Bakura and Yami were in the window seat, Yami whining when Bakura threw the little pharaoh off of him. The man sitting next to the two was the man who had earlier been harassing two lovely flight attendant to sing to him as he was growing tired. He now looked down at little Marik who was in his lap.

"Whoa, nelly. What're you kids doing here? Where's your mom?" he asked them, not really expecting a response.

"Dead," they all echoed which was not untrue.

The man raised his eyebrows in surprise. "You can talk!"

"No shwit, Sherwock," Marik said crossly and hopped out of the man's lap and into the seat with the other two. He turned his attention to them and said, "Well… didn't tink we'd make it heres we are. Was' our nwext move?"

Bakura shrugged and looked at Yami.

Yami opened his mouth to speak but yipped instead when Marik slapped Bakura.

"What da fweak was dat for!" Bakura shouted, a tiny red hand mark on his cheek.

"For wookin' at Yami wike he gots all da answers!"

"Well you asked!"

"I didn't ask him!"

Bakura crossed his arms. "Well, I hwope ya didn't ask me cause if ya did, you're dwumber den I am!"

"Twake dat back!"

"No, I won't!"

It seemed apparent that the two would break out in a fist fight and they were already garnering some stares for others in the aisle. Yami shushed them hurriedly by waving his hands and the two glared at him. Yami shivered and said meekly, "Pwease, no mwore fightin'. Wets jus' wide da pwane till we gets at Melbourne an den we can go at da New Zeawand, mm'kay? A-An' we can say dat Mawik came up wit dat pwan, 'kay?"

Marik blinked and sat down, seemingly satisfied.

Bakura did the same and Yami sighed with relief.

The captain's voice came through the speaker at the head of the area: "We are now departing Domino City. Please fasten your seatbelts and prepare for liftoff."

Everyone did as they were told, including the man in seat 11B and the chibis. Bakura took the seatbelt and passed it across Marik and over to Yami who secured it. They were so small that one seatbelt could secure them all and there was still a little room left.

In a minute or so the plane began to stream down the runway and finally took off, going higher and higher into the sky, leaving Domino City behind. Bakura had the place closest to the window and looked out, enjoying the clouds and sunshine in contented silence. Marik sat in the middle with his eyes closed and thought to himself. Yami was kicking his feet happily, pleased that things were going so well.

He felt, though, that there was something amiss. It turns out he was being watched by the man sitting next to him and Yami looked up with his glossy amethyst eyes at the rather pudgy and unappetizing man.

"Umm… yes?" Yami asked innocently.

"What're you doing here by yourselves?"

Yami blinked and thought about something suitable to say so as to not draw too much attention to the three. He finally said, "We're goin' to visit our pawents."

"You said they were dead though."

"… Dere gwaves."

The man thought for a minute, his brown eyes sizing up Yami. He held out his hand. "I'm Marty."

"I'm Yami," said the little chibi and shook the man's hand which was extremely sweaty and slick.

Marty nodded and took his hand back, putting it under his nose and sniffed it profusely. Yami's eyes rounded slightly but he decided to ignore that odd gesture and turned back to face the seat in front of him. On the small monitor by the door to first class, The Three Amigos was playing soundlessly. In order to hear it, an attendant would give a passenger earphones but it cost five dollars and the chibis had no money so Yami tried to lip-read.

But before the pharaoh could really get into it, he heard a loud slurping sound and jerked his head towards Marty who was sucking and drooling all over his fingers.

"Aaaahhh…" he breathed in deeply.

Yami gasped and turned away, blushing. He thought, 'W-Wat's he doin'?' He glanced over at Marik and Bakura and those two were in their own little worlds. Yami thought briefly about asking one of them to exchange seats with him but before he could, he was tapped on the shoulder.

He looked up and there was Marty, smiling down at him.

"H… Hewo again…"

"So, listen, Yami… I was just thinking… You guys are so little. It's a dangerous world out there. You guys shouldn't be traveling by yourselves." He pauses here, then said, "How about we go to your parents' graves together?"

"N-No, dats not necessawy. Weally, we can do it by owselves," Yami said hurriedly.

"Nonsense," Marty said, his eyes glazed over behind his thick glasses. "You need protection. There're bad people out there!"

Yami gulped and turned back to his fellow yamis, now hastily shaking Marik until his eyes were open.

"W-Wat is it!"

"M-Mawik, ya gotta change seats wid me, dis guy is weal scary an' he wants at trabel wid us!" Yami whispered frantically.

Marik blinked and looked over Yami's spiky head to Marty who was rubber-necking to hear their conversation. Marik frowned deeply and said with as much authority as a chibi can muster, "Jus wat da hell do you want?"

"Only to assist you." He held out his hand to Marik. "I'm Marty."

Marik slapped his hand away. "Stwop boderin' us. We dun want fweaks wike you taggin' along, it bad enough we gots Yami."

"Dat's wight!" Yami nodded and then said, "Ey, wait a minute!"

Marik shushed him with a bonk on the head.

"Oh, but I'm not a freak," Marty said. There was a moment of silence during which Marik gave him a disapproving look.

"I'm gunna keep an eye on you, fweak," Marik said cautiously and then settled back down, closing his eyes again.

Yami scooted a little closer to the small tomb keeper in attempt to make himself safer from Marty's lechery. Marty leaned back into his seat in a second and Yami loosened up after ten minutes of safety. He looked back up at the movie which was still playing on the small screen and tried to get back into the lip-reading.

From time to time he would look up at Marty and see that his eyes, too, were closed and Yami happily decided that he was asleep and hopped he would remain that way until they reached their destination. In a few more minutes, Yami took another regulatory glance at Marty and yelped when the sweaty man was starring down at him.

"Uh, uh… y-yes?"

"Would you like to sit on my lap?"

"WHA?" Yami squealed, flinching.

"You look awfully uncomfortable. My lap is soft. C'mon," he said and reached out to pick Yami up from out of his seat. Yami went hysterical and flailed his tiny arms and screamed until his cheeks were blood-red.

Marty recoiled and turned away, laying his head back and feigning sleep. In a second, a flight attendant came running over, looking at the four passengers, asking, "What's wrong? Which one of you screamed?"

Yami didn't want to blow their cover so he said nothing, only sniffled. The young woman came to the conclusion that the three boys must be Marty's sons and so she smiled at them and then walked away. By this time, Marik and Bakura were out of their worlds due to Yami's incessant screaming and they were looking at him now, agitated.

"Wats da matter wid you?" Bakura asked.

"D-Dat guy," Yami pointed shakily to Marty who still pretended to sleep, "he's bein' cweepy again…"

Marik pursed his lips together tightly and then got out of the seatbelt and walked over Yami's legs and onto Marty's lap.

"No!" Yami howled, "Dats jus where he wants you, Mawik!"

"I dun give a dwamn! Wisten, you," Marik poked Marty harshly on the chest, "stwop buggin us, I'mma twell you dis wast time. If I hear won mwore peep fwom Yami, I'll swap ya silly!"

Yami's eyes watered happily. "Oh, Mawik… I-I neva knew ya cared so much…"

"Shwut up, you."

"Uh… yes…"

Suddenly, Marty came alive and grabbed Marik, holding him tightly to his chest. Marik wailed and flapped his arms in panic. Yami screamed and Bakura howled to which everyone involved stopped what they were doing and looked at him. Bakura opened one eye at them and said, "… Wat?"

Marik groaned and then tried to kick his way out of Marty's grip. "Wet go of me, ya big ape! I mean it!"

"Calm down, little one," Marty said in his most soothing of tones, "Uncle Marty just wants to play."

"UNCLE?" all three boys echoed in disbelief.

On the streets of Domino was a small car racing past the other vehicles in a hurry. Inside were three lonely hikaris, all thinking of their lost and tiny yamis off somewhere in the considerably big world. They had come all the way from the East Side of Domino to the West Side and through to Domino Bay and the harbor where the ships come sailing in and out.

Yugi hadn't known this before but there, in the close distance, was a large building, a series of them and a large concrete pad in front of them with a large red circle drawn around it and other markings that Yugi knew nothing of.

They drove through the first gate and over it, it said:

NASA: Domino City

Malik looked over at Yugi and said, smiling, "See? We were right."

Yugi pouted.

Ryou whined, "Can I be let loose now?"

"In a second, we have to park first," Malik said matter-of-factly. He looked around as they waited behind another car to get into the second gate. It was getting to be late afternoon and the sky was being washed in a light glow of orange and yellow. The sun just barely touched the horizon by the time their car got to the front of the line and a man dressed in uniform came up to the window.

"Can I see some I.D?" the man asked, hands on his hips.

Malik blinked and looked at his fellow hikaris. "Um… Anyone have anything?"

"Nope," Yugi said, shrugging, "I left my school ID at home."

Malik threw Ryou a questioning glance.

"Hey, don't look at me, I'm in a Chobits towel."

The guard heard this and asked Malik, "What about your driver's license?"

"Umm… Heh… Actually, I don't really… have one…" he blushed.

"What? Well, it's illegal to drive without one! I'm sorry but I'm afraid I have to call the police. Please step out of the car, all three of you."

"Oh, I'd love to, sir," called Ryou from the back seat, "but I seem to be all tied up."

Malik ignored his sarcasm and pleaded with the guard, "Please, I know we're doing something wrong but we have to get in there! It's a matter of life and death for three little kids!"

"Sure. Ma'am, I'll ask you again, step out of your vehicle."

"And I told you—Ma'am?"

"Do it or I'll take you to jail myself."

Malik slammed his foot on the gas pedal and the car zoomed foreword, breaking through the lowered barricade, sending it into red and white pieces of wood scattered across the roadway. Tire tracks were left there as well and the boys heard a pained scream from the guard whose foot Malik ran over.

He called back out of the window, "WHAT NOW, BITCH? WHAT NOW? DARE YOU TO CALL ME MA'AM AGAIN!"

Yugi's eyes were wide. He shouted at Malik, "What the hell is wrong with you! We're going to get in so much trouble!"

When Malik didn't listen, only drove on, Ryou glared at Yugi from the back seat and said dryly, "I go crazy, huh?"

To be continued…

Her Sweetness: Review, please! It'll make me happy.