Chapter 12- Planning to Flirt
Yugi walked down the hall after another meeting. He had grown accustomed to being a member of the council even though he had only been on the council for a week. He had taken well to his new duties, much to everyone's surprise.
"Hey, Yugi!"
Yugi stopped and turned to find Yami running up to him.
"Hi, Yami." Yugi said.
"Where are you going?" Yami asked.
"To find my missing sister. Apparently, she skipped her lessons with Mahado this morning, so I have to find her and scold her." Yugi answered.
After deciding to stay at the palace, Yugi had talked to Aknankanon and he agreed with him that Mana should start to learn different things like the other children of the palace, so Mana was in lessons with Mahado, Shimon, Karim, and Shada, all of whom taught her different things.
Yami chuckled. "I remember Atemu and I did that quite often along with Bakura, Marik, and Seth." Yami said.
"Can I assume that Seth was dragged into these things against his will?" Yugi asked.
"Sometimes he was. I know that Father would always chew us out good when he finally found us." Yami said.
"And you continued to do it why?" Yugi asked.
Yami shrugged. "It was fun to ditch even if we did get into trouble." Yami said.
"Well, I'm the parental figure that Mana has right now, so I have to find her and give it to her good. I know that Mahado hates it when she skips her lessons." Yugi said.
"I think Mana skips because Mahado and Shimon are the harder ones. She never skips Shada and Karim's lessons." Yami said.
Yugi rolled his eyes. "She can't skip these lessons." Yugi said.
"You know, I might know where she is." Yami said.
"Where?" Yugi asked.
"Follow me." Yami answered.
Yugi followed Yami through the halls of the palace.
Mana and Ishizu were out playing in a covered area of the gardens.
"Shouldn't you have gone to your lesson with my father?" Ishizu asked.
"I know that I should have, but I hate them. He's boring, and so is Shimon." Mana said.
"I think that I'm going to hate it when I have to start these lessons. I won't be able to skip because Father will be one of the ones that are my teachers. I'll get into twice as much trouble if I skip." Ishizu said.
"If my brother finds out, I'm in trouble." Mana said.
"Yes, you are."
Mana whirled around to find Yugi standing there with his arms crossed and looking disapprovingly at Mana.
Mana gulped. "H-hi, Yugi." Mana said.
"Don't you hi Yugi me. You are in so much trouble. Come on." Yugi said.
Mana knew better than to argue or hesitate, so she immediately followed after Yugi, hoping to avoid getting into even more trouble than she was already in.
"Mana, you should probably go, too. I don't think that your father would like to hear that you aided Mana in skipping his class." Yami said.
Ishizu nodded and immediately scampered off.
Yami chuckled. 'I think that I'm going to have to ask Yugi to court him.' Yami thought, deciding he would talk to Yugi about that later.
"Mana, you know better than to do this." Yugi said.
"I know, but Mahado's lessons are so boring." Mana whined.
"Don't whine, and that's not an excuse. Despite the fact that the lessons are bring, you have to go through with them. Go to Mahado's study, apologize for skipping, and listen to the lesson." Yugi said.
"Yes, Yugi." Mana said.
"And I will be talking to Mahado later to make sure that you did go, so don't try to skip a second time." Yugi said.
Mana nodded before going off to Mahado's study.
"Problems?"
Yugi turned to find Heba standing behind him with Hasan in his arms. "What are you doing here?" Yugi asked.
"Well, I needed to get out of the room, so I came out with Hasan. Mana skipping lessons?" Heba asked.
"Yes, and she has barely started them. I swear that that girl will be the death of me." Yugi said.
"She's a kid, and she needs to be allowed to have fun." Heba said.
"Heba, she does have the chance to have fun, but she also needs to learn these things. I'm not going to have them waist their times trying to teach her. Whether Mana likes it or not, she is going to go to these lessons." Yugi said.
"Okay. I hope that Hasan is not that hard to deal with." Heba said.
"Heba, I know that Atemu did the same thing, so if he's anything like Atemu, he will." Yugi said. He thought a moment before he added, "Now that I think about it, you would have done the exact same thing."
"Okay, so maybe I would, but you shouldn't be so hard on her." Heba said.
"She won't learn if I don't make her to these things, Heba. Now you know why Mother and Father put me in charge of her instead of you. They knew that you would let her get away with everything." Yugi said.
Heba grinned. "Okay, so maybe I would have. I admit. They made the right choice." Heba said.
"Come on. You don't need to stand around holding Hasan all day." Yugi said.
The two walked down the hall and walked into the lounge where they found Jou, Ryou, and Malik sitting in the room.
"Hey, guys. What's up?" Jou asked.
"Not much. Do you guys not have much to do?" Yugi asked.
"Not really. Most of our jobs revolve around just keeping the room neat and tidy." Ryou said.
Heba sat down with Hasan in his arms. "Yugi, what do you plan on doing about Yami?" Heba asked.
"Heba, what are you talking about?" Yugi asked, sitting down by Jou.
"Come on. We all know that you like, Yami. We knew that before we even found out that you're a guy." Malik said.
Yugi blushed.
Jou laughed. "No need to be embarrassed. We've all known for a while." Jou said.
"I don't plan on doing anything." Yugi said.
"Come on. You two got along great in the months between when we arrived and when Vivian and those two pulled their stupid stunts." Heba said.
"Heba, I am a guy. The person he got to know was a girl." Yugi said.
"Technically, he did get to know you. He saw your personality, and that wasn't something that you faked, Yugi. Everyone knows that Yami is gay, and he's probably ecstatic to know that you're a guy." Ryou pointed out.
"Still, he had to have changed his mind when he saw that I was a guy, and that I lied about who I was for all that time." Yugi said stubbornly.
"Yugi, Yami gets that you had to lie about your gender in order to protect Heba, and the truth is that being a girl did throw suspicion off of you. I don't think that he would hold that against you." Malik said.
"You ought to tell him, Yugi. It's not going to do you or him any good not to talk about this." Heba said.
"He makes a point." Jou said.
"I don't know." Yugi murmured.
Yami paced back and forth across his room, thinking. "How can I find out if Yugi likes me or not." Yami thought.
"Have you ever thought of asking him?" Atemu asked from where he sat.
"Yes, but I'm not sure that just telling him that is going to make him want me." Yami said.
"Yami, if he liked you, he likes you." Atemu said.
"I know, but I really don't want to look like an idiot by saying that I like him if he doesn't like me." Yami said.
"So, you're telling me that you're afraid of rejection?" Atemu asked.
"Yes, I am." Yami answered.
"Yami, everyone is afraid of rejection. There's always the chance, but you should at least tell him." Atemu said.
"Hmm. Maybe I could find out another way." Yami mused.
"We can't use the Millennium items for that reason." Atemu said.
"I know that!" Yami snapped. He groaned and said, "I'm going to try and find out a different way."
"How's that?" Atemu asked.
"Simple. I'll flirt with him." Yami said.
Atemu rolled his eyes. "Just do me one favor." Atemu said.
"What's that?" Yami asked.
"Please don't try to make him jealous by acting like you're with someone else. That always blows up in your face." Atemu said.
"I know, and I wasn't about to even try that. I remember what happened with Seth." Yami said.
"Yeah. That was bad, especially when Jou nearly killed himself out of grief." Atemu agreed.
~Flashback~
"Seth, are you out of your mind? This isn't the way to find out if someone likes you." Aknaudin scolded his son.
"Please, Father. This is the only sure-fire way to find out." Seth said.
"Seth, it might be a bad idea. This might not do what you hope." Atemu said.
"Meaning?" Seth asked.
"He means that if Jou does like you and thinks you're with someone else he will a) not say anything, b) move on, or c) dos something drastic." Bakura said.
"Nothing bad is going to happen." Seth contended.
Ryou ran up then. "Bakura, come quick!" Ryou cried, forgetting decorum, which meant something, was wrong.
"Ryou, what's wrong?" Bakura asked, alarmed.
"It's Jou. He's going to kill himself by jumping from the balcony." Ryou said, near hysterics.
"Which balcony?" Seth demanded.
"The one in the hall over the gardens in the north wing." Ryou said.
Seth took off.
"This can't end well." Atemu said as they followed.
At the balcony, Jou was at the railing, ready to jump.
"Jou! Get down from there!" Seth pretty much ordered.
"Why should I? You've already got someone that you love." Jou said.
"Damn it, Jou! This isn't funny!" Seth growled.
"Why do you even care? All I am is a personal servant that you make fun of all the time. You don't even care about me!" Jou growled, tears falling down his face.
"That's not true. I lied, Jou. There isn't someone else. There never was. I'm in love with you. I just said that there was someone else so that I could make you jealous. I'm sorry, Jou. Don't jump." Seth said.
"Hold it. You just said that you were with someone to make me jealous?" Jou asked.
"Yes." Seth said.
The next thing Seth knew, he was on the ground with a painful jaw from where Jou had punched him.
"You idiot! Do you have any idea what you put me through the last few weeks?!" Jou screamed before falling into Seth's arms.
"Sorry, puppy. I won't do that again. I promise." Seth said.
~End Flashback~
"That certainly was a mess, but it was a good thing that everything worked out in the end." Atemu said.
"I know, and that's exactly why I wouldn't do that to Yugi. I wouldn't want to hurt him like that." Yami said.
"Well, you can try flirting with Yugi. Just make sure that you don't do something too drastic." Atemu said.
"I won't." Yami assured him.
"Yugi, do you love Yami?" Heba asked as he and Yugi walked down the hall.
"I don't know. I mean, I like him a lot, but I don't know about love." Yugi said.
"Then isn't that enough reason to want to tell him?" Heba asked.
"Heba, Yami could have anyone that he wanted. Why would he choose me?" Yugi asked.
"I asked the same thing when Atemu wanted to be with me. You just have to accept it." Heba said.
"I don't know. I may just wait a little while." Yugi said.
"Well, you could try a little harmless flirting." Heba said.
"And since when have you known me to flirt?" Yugi asked.
"I could help, and I'm sure that Jou, Ryou, and Malik will help out, too." Heba said.
"Okay. I can try." Yugi said.
Mahado showed up then with Mana in tow.
"Mahado, can I assume that Mana did her lesson this time?" Yugi asked.
"Yes, she did. She made up all that she missed, and she did apologize for skipping. I hope that this will not happen again." Mahado said.
"No, Master Mahado." Mana said.
"Good. If you want, you can go play with Ishizu for a while since you did that." Yugi said.
Mana's eyes lit up. "Thank you Yugi!" Mana exclaimed. She hugged Yugi tightly before running off.
"Energetic." Heba stated.
"Yugi, can I talk with you a moment?" Mahado asked.
"Of course." Yugi said.
"I know that Mana has magic as a daughter of Ra, but I've noticed some other magic as well. I think that she would make an excellent apprentice for myself." Mahado said.
"You want her to train to be a magician?" Yugi asked.
"With your permission, of course." Mahado said.
"Well, I will talk to her about it." Yugi said.
"Thank you." Mahado said before leaving.
"Wow. Mahado's apprentice. From what I've heard, he's never even found someone he would consider as an apprentice." Heba said.
"Well, we'll talk to Mana. She has to understand that it will be something she has to be dedicated to." Yugi said.
"That can wait. We need to talk to Ryou, Malik, and Jou." Heba said.
Yugi sighed. 'I knew I shouldn't have told Heba.' Yugi thought, knowing that Heba wouldn't let him out of this.
Hope that you liked it.
Next chapter will be the flirting between Yugi and Yami.
R&R.