Chapter 10- Helping Hand

Yugi got up the next morning. It was a teacher word say, so they didn't have school. He went downstairs and found that Touma was already up.

"What are you doing up, Touma?" Yugi asked.

"Not much. Enjoying the quiet, actually. I rarely get any peace and quiet with a five-year old boy in the house along with four rather hyperactive teenagers. You're the only one that is calm." Touma said.

"Hey, Touma. Can I ask you something?" Yugi asked, sitting on the couch beside his cousin.

"Sure thing. What's that?" Touma asked.

"You know that we told you about Heba kissing Atemu yesterday to get Vivian off his back." Yugi said.

"Yes." Touma said.

"Well, I'm not positive about this, but I'm thinking that Heba might have a thing for Atemu." Yugi said.

"What makes you think that?" Touma asked.

"He seemed to be enjoying the kiss. Not to mention the fact that he looked rather dazed by the kiss along with Atemu." Yugi said.

"Hmm. That does sound odd, but doesn't necessarily mean that he likes Atemu. It could have been a heat of the moment kind of thing." Touma said.

"Well, I asked Heba about it last night, and he got kind of defensive." Yugi said.

"Okay. That may mean he feels more for him." Touma said.

"I want to talk to Heba about this, but I'm not sure that I should. I don't want to seem like I'm sticking my nose into his business." Yugi said.

"Yugi, if you just talk to him about it, then there is nothing wrong with it. Just don't go trying to force him together with Atemu." Touma said.

"I won't." Yugi promised him.

"Okay. The most you can do is talk to him about it. The rest you have to leave to him." Touma said.

"Okay." Yugi said.


Yami walked downstairs and found Seiji in his study.

"Yami, what are you doing up? It is Saturday." Seiji said.

"I know. I was kind of wanting to talk to you about something." Yami said.

"Okay." Seiji said.

Yami walked into the room and sat down across from Seiji. "Seiji, I get the feeling that Atemu might have a thing for Heba." Yami said.

"What gives you that idea?" Seiji asked.

"Well, yesterday, when Heba and Atemu kissed, they both seemed to enjoy it, and they were rather dazed after the kiss." Yami said.

"That doesn't necessarily mean that they like each other. It could have just been something that was in the heat of the moment." Seiji said.

"Well, I thought that, too. At first. When I asked him about it last night, Atemu got kind of defensive." Yami said.

"I see. Well, there may be some feelings there, and they may not. I really don't know." Seiji said.

"Well, I thought about talking to Atemu about it and seeing if he would tell me anything or not. I just don't want to seem like I'm trying to be a busybody or anything." Yami said.

"Well, as long as you just talk to him about it, it should be fine. Just don' try to push him." Seiji said.

"I won't. Thanks for advice." Yami said before he got up to leave.

Seiji smiled. 'Kids denying that they are in love.' Seiji thought.

Seiji started to think about his own first love.

~Flashback~

"Hey, Touma." a younger Seiji said.

A younger Touma turned and smiled. "Hey, Seiji. What's up? You're a little late." Touma said.

"I know. Sorry about that. My grandfather wouldn't let me leave until I got done with all of my chores." Seiji said.

"No problem. I was just reading." Touma said.

Seiji shook his head. "All you do is read, Tou." Seiji said.

"I know that. I like it." Touma said.

"I'm not saying that anything is wrong with it." Seiji said.

"Anyway, why did you want me to meet you here?" Touma asked.

The two were sitting at the lake by the park.

"Well, there was something that I wanted to talk to you about." Seiji said.

"Well, talk then. I don't have anything to do." Touma said.

"Well, Tou. You know that we're friends, and that I wouldn't want to do anything to hurt that." Seiji said.

"I know. What are you getting at?" Touma asked.

Seiji didn't answer. Instead, he leaned forward and caught his blue-haired friend's lips in a kiss.

Touma was obviously taken off guard, but he recovered from his shock and started to kiss back. He reached up and wrapped his arms around Seiji's neck.

Seiji deepened the kiss as he pried Touma's mouth open and started to roam around the inside.

The two broke apart because of the lack of air.

"So, I take it that you like me." Touma said.

"Yeah. I do." Seiji said.

"Then I guess the feeling is mutual." Touma said before he kissed Seiji again.

~End Flashback~

"I wish that I had held onto you, Touma. Maybe we would still be together if I hadn't been so stupid." Seiji said to himself sadly, angry that he had let the blue-haired man go for such a pathetic reason.


Yami knocked on the door to his brother's room. "Atemu, are you up?" Yami asked.

"Yeah. I'm up." Atemu replied.

Yami walked into the room and found that Atemu was already dressed. "Hey. You mind if we talk?" Yami asked.

"No. Come on in." Atemu said.

Yami walked into the room and sat down beside Atemu.

"What's up?" Atemu asked.

"Atemu, I want to talk about what happened with Heba." Yami said.

"Yami, I don't want to talk about it." Atemu said.

"Atemu, I just want to talk. It's not like I am going to do anything." Yami said.

Atemu sighed. "Okay. We'll talk." Atemu agreed.

"Atemu, I really want to know. Did you like kissing Heba?" Yami asked.

"Well, I don't know. I mean, I guess I did enjoy it. I admit that he was a good kisser." Atemu said.

Yami smiled. "Now what was so hard about admitting that?" Yami asked.

"I don't know. I guess because of what happened." Atemu said.

"Atemu, you're not petty enough to go after someone because of their looks. Bakura and Marik are. Why did you do that?" Yami asked.

Atemu sighed. "I'll tell you the truth. When I saw Heba, I sort of felt, well-" Atemu trailed off.

"You had an immediate crush, didn't you?" Yami asked.

"Yeah, I did. I just didn't think that Heba would want to have much to do with me, so I figured that it would be better to have him hate me than know that about me." Atemu said.

"That was when you thought that he wasn't gay." Yami said.

"Yeah. I was surprised when he announced in class yesterday that he was gay." Atemu said.

"I figured that you felt something for him given the way that you kissed him. That was quite an intense kiss you gave him in front of Vivian yesterday." Yami said.

Atemu blushed lightly. "Well, I sort of lost myself in the moment. Besides, like I already said, he's a damn good kisser." Atemu said.

"Did you ever think of talking to him?" Yami asked.

"I don't know. After what I did, I don't think he would want to talk to me." Atemu said.

"You never know if you don't try." Yami reminded him.

"How would I get him over here?" Atemu asked.

"Leave that to me." Yami said.


Yugi knocked on Heba's door. "Heba, you up?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah, Yugi. I'm up. Come on in." Heba replied.

Yugi opened the door and walked into the room. "Wow. You're actually already dressed." Yugi said.

"Well, I decided to go ahead and get dressed before I went downstairs." Heba said.

"You mind if we talk a minute?" Yugi asked.

"Nah. We can talk." Heba said, throwing the magazine he had been looking through on the nightstand.

Yugi shut the door and walked over to sit down beside Heba. "Heba, I wanted to talk about what happened with Atemu." Yugi said.

"Yugi, that is something that I don't want to talk about." Heba said.

"Heba, you can't avoid the subject. I really want to talk about this with you." Yugi said.

"Yugi, there is nothing to talk about. I kissed Atemu to convince Vivian that Atemu was gay, and that she needed to back off of him. Atemu kissed me to prove the point. That's the end of it." Heba said.

"Heba, you enjoyed the kiss. That was written all over your face." Yugi said.

"Yugi, I didn't." Heba protested.

Yugi just looked at him with a look that said he didn't believe him.

Heba sighed. "Okay. Maybe I did enjoy the kiss a little." Heba said.

"Heba, I knew that you were gay. Hell, you announced it in your class, so the whole school knows that now." Yugi said.

"I know. It's just that Atemu is such a jerk that I didn't want to admit that I liked the kiss. He's actually a good kisser." Heba said.

Yugi smiled. "Now, was it really so hard to admit that you like him?" Yugi asked.

"Actually, yes." Heba answered.

Yugi sighed. "Heba, I want you to answer this honestly. Do you like Atemu?" Yugi asked.

"Yugi, the truth is that I don't know. I mean, I enjoyed the kiss, but I don't know if I like him." Heba said.

"Heba, it's not like I'm asking if you love him. I'm just asking if you have any kid of feelings for him." Yugi said.

"Well, maybe. I don't know if I love him like you do Yami, but I might like him." Heba said.

"In that case, why don't you try talking with him and getting to know him?" Yugi asked.

"I don't even know if he would want to do that." Heba said.

Before Yugi could answer, his cell phone rang. Yugi took it out and said, "Hello?"

"Morning, Yugi. Hope that I didn't wake you." Yami said.

"No, you didn't. What's up, Yami?" Yugi asked.

"Well, I was wondering if you wanted to come over here today." Yami said.

"I suppose so. When?" Yugi asked.

"I was thinking in a little bit. I know that you said you like to play tennis, so I thought that you and Heba could come over, and we could have a doubles match with Atemu and Heba." Yami said.

"Well, I'll come. I'll have to ask him, though." Yugi said.

"Okay. Come right over if you convince him. Bye." Yami said.

"Bye." Yugi replied and hung up.

"What did Yami want?" Heba asked.

"He wants me and you to come over, so that we can have a doubles match in tennis with him and Atemu." Yugi answered.

"Did you set me up?" Heba demanded.

"No. I haven't talked to Yami since yesterday." Yugi said.

"Well, okay." Heba said.

"Do you want go? It's just a little tennis." Yugi said.

Heba sighed. "Well, since he made the invitation, I guess I don't have a choice but to go. I don't want to seem rude." Heba said.

"Then let's go on over." Yugi said.

Heba and Yugi headed downstairs.

"Touma, Yami invited me and Heba over so that we could play tennis. You mind if we go?" Yugi asked.

"As long as you eat breakfast first. Now, sit down and eat. I'll let you go if you eat." Touma said.

The two ate breakfast before they left to head over to the mansion.

Yugi knocked on the door of the mansion.

Yami opened the door and smiled. "Hey. Glad that you both made it." Yami said as he let Yugi and Heba into the house.

"So, you wanted to play tennis today." Yugi said.

"Yeah. I like to play it, and playing with Atemu is getting old." Yami said.

Atemu came down. "Oh. I didn't realize that they were coming over." Atemu said.

"I thought we were playing a doubles match with you." Heba said.

"You are." Yami said.

"Yami, what did you do?" Yugi asked.

Yami rubbed the back of his head a little embarrassed. "Well, I might have forgotten to mention to Atemu that you two were coming over to play a doubles match in tennis with us." Yami said.

Atemu glared. "You know that I hate when you spring stuff like that on me." Atemu said.

Yami smirked. "I know. Come on. The court is in back." Yami said.

Yugi and Heba followed him out back with Atemu behind them.

"Wow. This is quite the tennis court." Heba said.

"It was here when Seiji bought the place. We use it a lot to play in." Yami said.

Yami brought out the rackets, and all four took one.

"So, who's going to be which team?" Atemu asked.

"Well, I was wanting to play on my boyfriend's team, so I guess that means you two will be partners." Yami said before he grabbed Yugi by the hand and dragged him to the other side of the court.

Atemu closed his eyes. 'I should have known better than to let Yami get Heba over here to talk to me.' Atemu thought.

"Come on, Atemu. We'd better get ready." Heba said.

"And hope that Yami doesn't decide to jump Yugi during the match." Atemu said.

Yugi started off the match with a serve.

The two teams hit the ball back and forth across the court. They found that they all were good at performing seemingly impossible moves in order to stop the ball from hitting the ground.

Yugi and Yami scored the first point.

On the next serve, Atemu and Heba scored.

Yami served the ball, and Atemu hit it across the net. Yugi dove forward and managed to hit the ball back over the net. Heba ran forward and knocked the ball back over the net. Yami hit again, but neither Atemu nor Heba could make it to the ball.

"Match point." Yugi said.

"We noticed." Atemu said.

Yugi served, and they went through the same routine.

Atemu and Heba scored again.

"Well, it looks like we're tired at match point." Yami said.

The game continued.

The ball was hit back and forth across the net once more.

Yugi hit the ball over the net, and Atemu and Heba both ran for it.

Unfortunately, the two were not watching where they were going and ended up crashing into each other. Neither could maintain their footing, and Atemu ending up falling so that he landed on top of Heba while Heba crashed into the ground with Atemu's weight falling down onto him.

The two looked at each other with shocked expressions.

"Well, I guess we win." Yami said to Yugi.

"Yeah, and I think that now would be time to leave them be." Yugi said.

"Right." Yami agreed.

The two walked around the court.

"We'll be going in now. " Yugi said.

Atemu and Heba looked up at them from their position on the ground.

"We'll leave you two alone to finish-talking." Yami said before they headed on inside.

Heba instantly turned bright red as he realized what kind of suggestive position they were in.

Atemu also turned red as he got up off of Heba. "Sorry about that, Heba." Atemu said, standing up.

"Not your fault." Heba said, sitting up. "It was both of our faults." Heba said.

Atemu reached a hand down, and Heba took the hand, letting Atemu haul him to his feet.

"Thanks." Heba said.

"Um, listen Heba. As long as you're here, you mind if we talk?" Atemu asked.

"No. I don't mind." Heba said.

Atemu put the rackets and the ball up.

"Come on. Let's go into the garden." Atemu said.

"Why not the house?" Heba asked.

"Because I don't want to have to deal with Marik and Bakura's teasing." Atemu answered.

"Okay." Heba agreed.

The two walked out into the gardens.

'Heba, I wanted to apologize to you for how I acted when you first started at the school. I was acting like a complete jerk with that copycat stuff." Atemu said as they sat down on a bench in the garden.

"Why did you do that, anyway?" Heba asked.

"Well, I guess the honest truth is that I kind of liked you." Atemu said.

"Liked me? You didn't even know me." Heba said.

"I know. The truth is that I thought that you were kind of cute." Atemu said.

"I hate it when people call me cute." Heba said.

"Well, you are." Atemu said.

"Yeah. That's what my ex-boyfriend said." Heba said.

"You ex?" Atemu asked.

"Yeah. It was when we still lived in Tokyo. I dated this guy Dirk for a few months. The guy thought I was cute. After asking me out for like a month, I finally agreed to go out with him. It was fine at first. Until he turned mean." Heba said.

"He was abusive?" Atemu asked, feeling angry.

"Not physically. He loved to toy with my emotions though. Made me an emotional wreck. Finally, I got sick of it and broke things off. It wasn't long after that that I found out the guy had been cheating on me with some bitch all along. She liked to see him torment people, so he pretended to go out with me to do that." Heba said.

"I wish I could do something to them." Atemu growled.

"Well, they got what they deserved." Heba said.

"What do you mean?" Atemu asked.

"Well, turns out that seeing Dirk rape people also turned her own. The guy wasn't a 'fag' as he put it, so he refused to do that with me. Both of them went to jail for two rapes and then a rape and murder. He was too rough and killed her." Heba said.

"Damn it." Atemu said.

"I know. Anyway, they were both killed in jail. That's why I hate being called cute." Heba said.

"I can understand that. Anyway, I admit that at first, I liked you for your looks, but I think that there are other things that I like now." Atemu said.

"Like what?" Heba asked.

"Well, you've got a pretty fiery attitude, and I've always liked that in a person. You take up for yourself, and you're not afraid to tell people what you think about them." Atemu said.

Heba smiled slightly. "Glad that you think that." Heba said.

"I especially enjoyed seeing how Vivian reacted to you kissing me. She was not willing to believe it." Atemu said.

"Well, I think that she knows that now." Heba said.

"Yeah. Thanks to you." Atemu said.

"Atemu, you never did tell me why you started with the copycat thing." Heba said.

"Well, I already said that I thought you were cute. I guess I had an immediate light crush on you. At the time, I figured that you were strength, so I decided to make you hate me so that I wouldn't have to be rejected." Atemu said, not looking at Atemu.

"That is one of the lamest excuses that I have ever heard." Heba said.

"I know." Atemu said.

"But I understand. Truthfully, I had a crush on you, too. I just started to really think you were nothing but an asshole when you all started that about being copycats." Heba said.

"You did?" Atemu asked.

Heba nodded. "I thought that you were handsome. Of course, that changed at lunch." Heba said.

"I know. I was a real asshole. I admit that, and I am sorry about that." Atemu said.

"I know. Just out of curiosity, did Yami really not tell you that Yugi and I were coming over?" Heba asked.

"Well, no. He told me earlier that he would get you over here so that I could talk to you. He didn't mention how he would do that." Atemu said.

Heba smiled. "Well, I didn't mind. I love playing tennis, and I don' get to play doubles very often." Heba said.

"Heba, I know you might not want to, but I wondered if maybe you would go out with me some time." Atemu said.

"Atemu, rushing into a relationship is what got me hurt last time." Heba said.

Atemu nodded, although he was hurt at that. "I understand." Atemu said.

Heba reached over and placed a hand on Atemu's. "I'm not saying no." Heba said.

"You aren't?" Atemu asked.

Heba shook his head. "What I'm saying is that it might be better if we just took this slowly. Rushing into one was what got me hurt." Heba said.

"Well, I don't mind. Truthfully, you would be the first relationship I have, and I don't want to rush into this either." Atemu agreed.

"We can start off by just getting to know each other." Heba said.

"I agree. And kissing to irritate Vivian at school." Atemu said.

Heba cracked a smile. "I agree with that." Heba said.


Yugi and Yami were playing cards.

Yami threw down a card and picked up a new one. Yugi did the same.

"How do you think they're doing?" Yami asked.

"Well, as long as they both stay calm, they'll be fine. We've got them to see each other. The rest is up to them. We did all that we can." Yugi said, throwing down another card.

"I guess so. I just hope that they can work everything out." Yami said.

"I know what you mean. They'll work it out if they really want to." Yugi said.

"How is it that you're so smart?" Yami asked.

"I have a very wise cousin who offers me sound advice." Yugi said.

"Same here." Yami said.

Atemu and Heba walked in.

"Hey, guys." Heba said.

"Hey. Everything okay?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah. Everything's fine." Heba said.

"What are you playing?" Atemu asked.

"Gin." Yugi said, laying eh cards down.

"We've played four times already, and he's one all four times." Yami said.

"No, Yami. Gin." Yugi said, pointing to his cards on the table.

Yami threw his cards up into the air. "Five times he's beat me." Yami said.

"What happened to being the King of Game?" Atemu asked with a smirk.

"Apparently, he has been dethroned by his boyfriend." Yami said.

"What happened with you two?" Yugi asked.

"Well, if you must know, we have agreed to go out." Heba said.

"You did?" Yami and Yugi asked at the same time, surprised.

"Yeah. We managed to talk everything out. We're going to take this relationship slow." Atemu said.

"Good idea." Yami said.

"Well, since you're here, do you want to play?" Yugi asked.

"Sure." Atemu said as he and Heba sat at the table.

"What should we play now?" Yami asked.

"How about poker?" Yugi asked.

"We don't gamble." Yami said.

Yugi shrugged. "Who said it was for money? We can use the chips and not won anything except the game." Yugi said.

"I'll get them." Atemu said. He stood up and got the poker chips from the cabinet in the room.


Seiji stood in the doorway to the family room, smiling.

'I'm glad that Atemu and Heba worked things out.' Seiji thought.

Seiji turned and walked back toward his office. 'I may have messed things up with Touma, but maybe they won't.' Seiji thought.

Seiji let out a sigh. He missed his blue-haired lover dearly. He knew that he was the one who had messed things up. He just wished that he could change what happened.


Hope that you liked it. Just so you know, I know absolutely nothing about tennis or Gin, so that's why there's no much about them.

Next: The other couples get together.

I know some of you want to know about Seiji and Touma, but all that will come out in a few more chapters.

R&R.