Yuki: O_O

Anika: Still zoned out from the party last night? (7/11)

Yuki: O_O

Cast: (order of appearance)

Nail Bunny - as himself (to be explained in later chapters or in Naraku no Chibi Neko)

Johnny C. - Atemu

Mr. Eff - as himself (to be explained in later chapters or in Naraku no Chibi Neko)

Psycho Doughboy - as himself (same)

Devi D. - Yugi

Lady with psychic fat - Miho

Warning: ROMANCE! VIOLENCE! ...beware...

Chapter 9: Happiness Lost

---

"Be nice to your friend, Johnny."

"Of course, Bunny, why would I hurt Devi?"

"You never know-"

"You piece of low-lying dung! Nny, you know you will never be happy!"

"Let him enjoy tonight! Let him immortalize the time he has!"

---

"Just SHUT UP!"

"Go die in that plane crash!"

"I'm not going to die in a plane crash!"

"MY FAT NEVER LIES!"

Yugi opened the door to walk out of his apartment building. There stood his date for tonight.

"Hi, Devi." Yugi smiled.

"Hey, Nny."

---

"Wow, I'm sorry to hear that." Yugi sat on the roof of Atemu's little fucked up car, looking down at the other who was half-lying, half-leaning on the hood of the car. "But I'm glad I can't relate. Heh-heh."

"It is kind of funny," Atemu answered. His boot heels were digging into the dirt, as to keep him propped up. "In a fucked up kind of way."

"How long has it been since you drew?" The man's legs were brought up close to his chest, his eyes looking down at the other in interest.

"Aside from stick figures, I can't even remember..." He looked up at the starry sky, anxiety in his features. "And what I do remember, I can't even relate to."

Atemu sat up, his right leg hanging off of the hood of his car, his left one bent so the bottom of his boot was balanced on the beat up metal hood. A serious look adorned his face. "You think that if you stopped doing something that defined you as a person, that maybe, you cease to be that person?"

Yugi looked up at the stars. "I dunno. That's a lot of 'that's."

"No, come on. I'm being serious."

Yugi gasped, as he thought that his date was kidding. He shifted to where his right foot hung down to touch the hood of the car, and his left foot was against the windshield.

"Okay... sorry. Serious time begins... NOW! Okay, if I have this right, what you're describing isn't so much of a creative block, as it is a creative re-routing." The male he spoke to had an insightful, if crazed, look on his face.

"Oooh... I like that."

"So... Where is it being re-routed to?" Atemu was silent for a few moments before answering. He stood in front on his car, crossed his ankles, and laid his hands on the fucked up metal surface of the vehicle.

"What do you think you would do if you couldn't paint anymore?"

Yugi smiled."Ha! That's not even a possibility." He rested his body with the use of his arms as supporting him on the roof of the car.

"I figure my work is all I've got. If I stopped painting, I'd just cease to exist. My every life function exists solely to make sure I have enough strength to get the images out of my head. So it's either immunity, or DEATH!!" His date turned around to look at him, a crazed, wondering look adorning his face.

"Or maybe you'd turn into some hideous, madness plagued lunatic bent of performing ghoulishly obscene acts of murder from which there is no conceivable redemption." Yugi smiled.

"NOPE!"

"damn... so that's just me, huh?" Atemu crouched down, talking to himself.

"What?"

"Nuthin..." Atemu leaned back again on the hood of the car. "The fix is probably pretty obvious. Maybe I just need to stand back, look at the situation from a new perspective. That kinda shit."

"Maybe not." Yugi desired for someone to understand him. It seemed like Atemu was the right person for the job, and he would help him in return.

"I mean, look out at that city. Looks nice enough when you look at it from this far out. Get down there and all the horrible details start coming out. People... like blemishes on some sad, concrete organism." His voice seemed darker when he finished his small rant. "A closer look into what's wrong with you might scare the shit outta you." Yugi sighed and breathed in the night air, the coolness refreshing to his lungs.

Okay, the preceding part was from I Feel Sick, Jhonen Vasquez's story about Devi. The next part is from JtHM #2, but both parts are about the same date.

"It's so pretty when you're looking down on it."

"Yes, it is. It's an amazing illusion."

"Beautiful." Yugi looked down at his date. "Would you like to go to your place?"

The taller male smiled and turned to look at the violet-eyed boy. "Yes."

At the house of the homicidal maniac himself, house 777, the pair sat on either side of the lonely couch in the sparsely decorated living room.

"I really enjoyed tonight, Nny; really." Yugi smiled and looked at his date. "We should've done this sooner! Why didn't we do this sooner? I mean, we've known each other for, what, about three months now? And this is the first time we've ever, actually, been out together! What would you have done if I had never asked you out?"

"I would have been happy just to go to the bookstore and seeing you there. I always like doing that." Atemu looked truly thoughtful and definite in his answer.

"But you have to admit: Tonight was fun. The conversation, the movie, and that view! Looking down on all the people who deserve to be looked down on. FUN!" Yugi's smile was sincere and was constant, even after Atemu stood up off of the couch.

"Yeah, it was very nice; completely. I love Brazil: Gilliam is God. Um... Devi?"

"Yyess?" Atemu turned to Yugi, questioning in his eyes.

"Why did you ask me out? Why did you want to go out with me?" Atemu truly didn't know for what reason Yugi would ask him out.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm not fishing for compliments or anything like that. I just mean, well, I want to know why you thought of me."

"It's simple; I like you. I enjoy our talks when you come visit me at the bookstore. I like you for all those reasons people ask a person out for. There, I've said my thing. Now I trust your thoughts run along the same lines. If not, then I'll just awkward and leave, quietly, after killing you." Both beings in the room glared at each other, their thoughts clouded...

"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" and so on... Both laughed to their hearts' content at the sick humor they adored.

"Aahhhm. Yeah." Atemu caught his breath, a pleasant smile on his face, gazing at Yugi. "This is strange. What do I say? You are beautiful, I mean... God, I'm so completely happy, right now. You've made me happy." These emotions felt so new to Atemu, he wanted them to last... so did Yugi.

"Good," he said, leaning in, "then let's both be happy." Atemu laced his fingers together, new to this kind of situation, but ready to try and participate with the woman on the other side of his couch.

Both young adults closed their eyes, leaning closer to each other, waiting for only fulfilling moment in both of their lives.

"Yes! Yes! Happiness! I'm happy!" Atemu's eyes snapped open as he stood up, walking away from the couch and Yugi...

"Nny! Where are you going!? Nny!!" The only answer that Yugi got was the slamming of Nny's door to his room.

"Happinesss? Beautiful happinessss. Ahhhhh, yesss, so RARE. So lovely like the beautiful and the dreaming moon..." Mr. Fuck stood to the right of the broken mirror in Atemu's room, the devilish smile seeming wider on his face. "A rapturous alien sky after the oppressive shit-smear of clouds has broken; True pleazzure. Ssmile and FEEL it!!"

Atemu's other headvoice, Psycho Doughboy, on the opposite side of the mirror, opposed the other's words.

"Mr. Fuck lies Johnny! No love, no happiness, NO MOON!! Nothing for you!! I speak the only truth! UNTAINTED KNOWLEDGE! Listen to m..." He was cut off.

"Shut the FUCK up, Psycho Doughboy!! I'm in NO mood for a depression!!"

"YESSSSSSSSSS!! GO, NNY! Don't let the beautiful moon set!!! Capture it!! Freeze it! Forever in time with never losing it to another day!!"

Atemu stood taking in the words and grabbing some things off of the desk the mirror rested on.

"Nny!?" Yugi's voice made the maniac look to his door with his peripheral vision.

"Oh, there you... are." Yugi opened the door of the room, looking at Atemu, who seemed to have come to some deep resolution.

"Nny?" He saw something shiny, something metal. "Nny, what are you doing?"

"Immortalizing the moment." There Atemu stood, his smiley knives in both hands, ready to spread some mayhem.

Yugi's thoughts: 'Suddenly, being out with a guy who dumps in his pants seems reeeeeally nice.'

"Umm..." Yugi looked for a way out of this situation... perhaps with words. "Look, I had a really nice time tonight, but I'm sort of sensing a downward shift, so I'll be leaving now."

"No!" Atemu couldn't let Yugi leave... he couldn't lose the moon, the beautiful moon... "You don't understand; I'm happy!! I can't let you go. We've begun something lovely and, as with all things that start, it, inevitably, ends! The beginning is always so fine!!"

The man crossed his arms, the knives still eager. "But decay soon follows. A degeneration into the tired old situation. The rot sets in. This way, There is only the beauty of the start." He began to creep closer to the beautiful moon, his moon, his Yugi.

"Shit!! Stay away!! I'm leaving and I don't want you coming near me!!" Yugi tried to turn the doorknob frantically as he kept his eyes on the man he once felt a connection to.

"I can't let you leave, Devi." The homicidal maniac spoke with a smile. "I want you, always in my mind. Happiness is such a rare thing." His arms crossed in front of him, his hands level with his shoulders. "I can't recall a bad memory for any of the others. They were ALL beautiful! All of them!! And now YOU!!"

"THEM?!!!" Yugi was now in a panic, as Atemu kept approaching him slowly, as he gave away the fact that there had been more than one victim. "God, how many?! OH, FUCK!! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!! DON'T TOUCH ME!!"

As Yugi turned his attention back to the door, Atemu's voice dropped to a half-whisper, half-spoken voice. "Please, be silent before you say something to spoil the mood."

Yugi turned the knob on the door halfway before Yugi ran to her, brandishing his knives. Atemu flew up in the air as a boot made contact with the center of his face, his knives clattering to the wooden floor. After kicking him, Yugi punched before he could fully regain his balance. Atemu fell to the floor, blood pouring from the earilier blows to the head. The younger male grabbed him by the back of his head, by his hair, and dragged him close enough to his desk to smash his face into the already cracked, now destroyed, mirror.

The doughboys went flying off of the wooden structure.

Atemu's head made a loud CRACK as his jaw hit the desk. Outside, Yugi, running for his life, panted to keep the energy from the adrenaline in his body.

Inside house 777, Atemu had fallen to the floor, glass decorating the wooden planks that the man's fingers twitched upon. Blood gathered in a beautiful, red pool to the right side of Atemu's head.

Witty closing remarks have been replaced by massive head trauma and severe hemorrhaging.

"Johnny, that was SO rude of you."

Yuki: YAY!

Anika: DOUGHBOYS!

Yugi: I kicks butt!

Atemu: Wow, I am so weak and emotional.

Yami: Read and review!