Hey, guys. So, after the next chapter I'll have to start pairing people up, and unless you want Professor Hawkins and Sugoroku together, you'd better let me know who you think. I mean, I can go with the typical pairings, but since you guys are actually reading this I want to do what the majority of you like. Seriously, I think Shadi might have to elope with Kaiba. It's okay though, because I've heard Jounochi has a thing for that crazy fish guy.

This chapter is a little crazy, a lot of scene changes and back tracking, just work with me, please. The future chapters shouldn't be so insane!

Disclaimer: Still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Who's Got the High Score Now?

Chapter One: Friendly Encounter

"Hello Malik!" Ryou greeted his waiting friend with a small wave of his hand as he stepped outside, before he turned back to lock the door of his apartment.

"Hey!" Malik responded with a wave back, "You ready to go?

"Yes! I can't wait to see those guys again. It's been what-"

"Twenty-seven days and approximately eight hours," Malik finished for him, with a grin and a peek at his watch.

Ryou let out a small laugh, "Guess I'm not the only one."

"Oh! We've got to hurry or we won't make it in time, and I am not waiting another hour for the next bus to come!" Malik exclaimed as he took a second glance at his watch. The two teens picked up their pace towards the bus stop, hoping they'd be able catch the bus which would in turn take them to the inner city, and the hottest arcade around.

Months ago Ryou and Malik had run into a group of four teenagers, the same age as them, in the city while they were out. The two groups immediately hit it off and had in turn spent the whole day hanging out in various stores and the arcade getting to know each other, eventually trading phone numbers with promises to hang out again. Of course, those promises were hard to keep when the two groups went to different high schools; Ryou and Malik attending an esteemed private school, the others a local high school, Domino High.

Malik came from a well-to-do family who had already paid all of his tuition up front. Ryou on the other hand only had a father figure left in his family; his mother and sister having passed away after a car accident when he was younger. He was able to attend the private school do to some connections his father had formed over the years and scholarships based on his excellent grades.

One of these connections was the reason Malik and Ryou had met and become such good friends. Years ago Malik's older sister, Ishizu, had become good friends with an archeologist while overlooking a dig at an ancient burial site in Egypt. In the end the acquaintance turned into a friendship, which developed into a business opportunity which had in turn lead to a relocation to Japan for the Ishtar family. When Ryou's father brought him to work one day the two young boys got along so well they became an inseparable mischief-causing duo that often ran rampant throughout the Domino Museum.

"Yeah, Yug'! You're doin' awesome!" Jounouchi cheered as he watched his friend's name climb its way up the scoreboard. Yugi had just scored enough points to put him in the third highest place, and he still had all of his lives left. Some people had stopped to watch after Jou's little outburst, only to continue by after a minute, obviously not finding the fight for second place as exciting as Jou. Both teens were entranced by the game, neither of them paying attention to what others said until one voice spoke out above the background noise.

"Wait...this little brat is the one who beat me?"

"Um, excuse me?" Yugi questioned as he turned to face the male that had just spoken.

"Who you callin' a little brat, you punk?" Yami heard from beside him as he felt a hand grab his collar.

"Jou! Stop it! He wasn't doing anything." Yugi admonished him, placing a hand on Jou's shoulder in an attempt to calm his friend.

"Wasn't doin' anything?" Jou questioned Yugi, hands tightening on Yami's collar. "I think insulting my best friend is doing something," he turned back to spit the last few words into the face of the male he was beginning to lift off the ground when a blow connected to the side of his face. Yami was freed from his grasp and landed on his rear-end after a stumble backwards. Yugi let go a small gasp as his hands shot to cover his mouth, eyes widening at the scene before him, the game completely forgotten. In two seconds flat his friend had gone from standing next to him to being splayed out on the ground, a wild-haired teen standing over him, fist still tightly formed now positioned by his side.

"You always get in trouble don't you, Yami?" The teen spoke, without interest, as he turned to watch his friend adjust his collar as he rose from the ground.

"It's not like I try to." Yami replied as he proceeded to dust his pants off.

"Hey! You bastard!" was the only warning Marik had before he was tackled to the ground by another teen, this one with a brown spike of hair. It was Yami's turn to let a small gasp escape, he hadn't seen that coming.

"Yeah! Get 'im, Honda!" Jou called as he sat up, wiping the small amount of blood away from his lip. Yugi dropped to the ground next to Jou to try and help him up, all the while watching Honda and the other teen scuffle and roll around punching each other. He hated to admit he was noticing it, but they were pretty evenly matched. He had definitely been playing that fighting game too much.

"Hey! Hey! Hey! ... HEY! You guys, over there, stop it! Break it up!" called a voice from the other side of the circle that had formed around the fighting teens. Both Yugi and Yami looked towards the growing group of onlookers at the sudden yelling, Jounouchi just getting back on his feet, ready to help his other friend, the shouting having no effect on the fighting duo. "I said, BREAK IT UP!" This time the voice was accompanied by a blonde woman who emerged into the open space in a huff as she freed herself from the crowd.

Having just beaten the bus to the stop Ryou and Malik were out of breathe by the time they boarded it, both agreeing that when they reached their destination it would be a good idea to stop and grab something to drink before they went to the arcade. Jumping off the bus they made their way to the convenience store a few blocks from the arcade. The new path they were taking led them right by Burger World. Concentrating on their drinks they were startled when someone called out to them.

"Malik! Ryou! Hey, guys!" yelled a bubbly, hand-waving brunette, making her way towards them.

"Anzu!" They both exclaimed, backtracking in her direction, drinks in hand.

"I thought you were supposed to be at the arcade already," Ryou stated, puzzled.

I got held late at work," Anzu replied pointing over her shoulder towards the restaurant they had just passed.

"That's right! Yugi said something about you having work today," Malik chimed in.

"Yep, but I've finally escaped!" she cheered with a small arm pump, "Another waitress couldn't make her shift today, and I got volunteered to cover till someone else was called in." Anzu sighed.

Ryou smiled, "We had good timing, then. If you're heading right there you should walk with us." With a nod of her head they turned back on their path towards the arcade.

"What have you guys been up to lately? How's school been?" she asked her companions.

"I've been good! Outside of school that is, physics has been killing me." Malik grumbled.

Ryou chuckled and turned towards Anzu, "You know, I've offered many times to help him, but every time I try he gets distracted!" Seeing how Malik looked away and made no move to disagree Anzu figured it was true.

"Sounds just like Jou and Honda, but you know...with every subject, not just one." They all laughed, Marik instantly back to his peppy self, and turned the last corner towards the arcade.

"How about you, Ryou?" Anzu questioned, genuinely curious.

"How do you think he's doing?" Malik grinned and slung an arm over Ryou's shoulder, "Perfect grades! I don't know how he does it!" he finished with a shake of his head."

"That's just it, Malik, I actually do the work." Ryou replied smoothly, a hint of a smirk present.

"Hey, that was a low blow!" Malik said, throwing his arms in the air in exasperation, his cup flying out of his grip. They all froze and watched it as it fell right on the roof of a black car parked outside the arcade. The top flew off upon impact allowing the liquid and ice contained inside to spread across the vehicle. Exchanging glances with each other they stood there for about a minute in silence before they cracked up laughing.

"H... ho-how… are we going... to clean that... up?" Ryou asked between giggling fits, his face turning red.

"It's not very... nice... but I say... we just run." Malik replied, his face turning equally red.

Having recovered from the laughter fit enough to move Anzu nodded. She immediately stood and pushed Ryou and Malik towards the entrance way. They all stumbled through the door, still giggling only to freeze and look up when they heard someone yelling.

"YOU TWO! Hey!" yelled the blonde woman as she made her way over to Honda and Marik just in time to witness Marik land a blow to Honda's chin and in turn receive a kick to the shin. "Not so fast, I see you JOU!" she screamed pointing at him, "Stop right where you are!" Having heard his name Jounouchi had turned to see the worker coming in his direction. He sheepishly froze up as he saw the angry woman pointing at him.

Seeing that he had stopped she turned her attention back to the two scrambling teens. "You two, BREAK. IT. UP!" she yelled as she walked over and attempted to rip Honda away from Marik. "Jou! Get over here and help me!" she ordered the blonde male, who, incredibly, did as she said. "And you!" She pivoted on her foot to point at Bakura who had appeared out of nowhere, his arms full of tickets. "Get him up!" she cried as her arm flung around to point at Marik who was beginning to get up by himself. Bakura just shrugged and handed his tickets over to Yami, who was still in a little shock over what had just transpired.

"Let go of me," Honda said with a huff as he shook Jou's hand off his shoulder, immediately glaring at the teen he had tackled. Marik returned the glare with one of his own as Bakura came over sticking out his hand to help him up. Marik gladly accepted the gesture and was quickly pulled to his feet.

The arcade worker then began to shoo the gathered crowd away and in just moments she had gotten the majority to dissipate right as a man came walking up to the scene. "Is there a problem here, Mai?" asked the stoic brunette.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, Kaiba-san." she replied, placing a hand on her hip, out of breath.

The young adult took a look around after hearing her words, his eyes spotting the two groups of teenagers making their way apart from each other. "I should have known."

"I had hoped they could have met under better circumstances," Mai replied as she ran a hand through her disheveled hair, "I really thought they would get along, apparently not. I don't even know what started that, or who did for that matter," she added as she watched the two groups, eventually heading towards Jou and his friends with a final glance towards the others.

As they entered the arcade they heard yelling and immediately caught sight of a gathering crowd. "What the…?" Ryou started, confused. The three teens then traded confused glances with each other, hit-and-run drink incident completely forgotten.

Turning back to the scene Malik was the first to speak up, "Well, let's get closer! See who it is!" And at that he headed off leaving Ryou and Anzu to follow. Seeing no reason not to follow they let curiosity take over and lead the way. As the two got closer they both saw Malik pushing his way through the circle, eyes wide. When they caught up they saw Malik talking to Yugi, who was in turn watching Jou and Honda, a worried look on his face. Jounouchi was steering Honda towards Yugi and Malik. Honda was dusting off his jacket, clearly upset about something, which wasn't surprising by the look of things. Both he and Jou were fairly beaten up, bruises visible on both their faces.

"What happened?" exclaimed Anzu as she and Ryou ran up to Honda and Jou.

"They did," replied Jou with a tilt of his head in the direction of Yami and his friends, Honda sending another glare in the group's general direction as his answer. Feeling they'd get no better response at this point in time Ryou and Anzu chose to just go to where Yugi was talking to Malik, eyes wide, arms flailing through the air as he spoke, obviously trying to describe something.

"What the hell did you do this time?" Bakura shot at Yami, the group having moved to the pool room of the arcade.

"Nothing, I was just watching that kid play the new game," Yami informed him, swinging around a cue stick as Marik set the balls into place.

"Then why the hell did you guys start fighting?" Bakura asked, looking between his two friends.

"Hey, all I saw was the blonde holding him up by his collar, thought I'd lend him a hand." Marik shared, looking at Yami mid-sentence; even he didn't know why the whole thing had started.

"It's not my fault that guy has a quick temper." Yami stated, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the wall. All three teens looked up to see another walking their way, no expression visible on his face.

"How many times are you guys going to do this? I'm not going to let you come here again if you keep it up."

"Hey, Kaiba," Yami greeted, Marik and Bakura merely nodding towards him in acknowledgement before returning their focus back to the table.

"Seriously. You think I'm kidding, but I can't keep letting you off the hook if you scare my other customers away," the arcade owner scolded them.

"Look, I didn't mean to start anything. That blonde kid just freaked out." Yami stated with a small amount of frustration evident in his voice.

"Why don't we just get out of here? I don't really feel like playing this anymore." Marik questioned the small group as he rubbed his shin.

"Yeah, I could use a drink." Yami replied, and looked to Bakura, who just shrugged.

"I was just heading out. You all can come over for a bit if you'd like," Kaiba shared as he turned to walk away.

"Beats hanging here," Marik said as he and the others stood and followed the other young man to the front.

The teenage business man made his exit from the arcade only to freeze as the door swung closed behind him. A small hint of anger crossed his face as his eyes came to rest on his car parked in front of him, covered in a sticky, syrupy, mess.

"Well, you didn't have to go far for that drink, Yami." Bakura stated with a smirk as he and the other two exited the arcade.