Zane woke up the morning after the welcome dinner in his bed, sandwiched between two unfamiliar bodies. His first thought was 'oh shit those two were propositioning me', but then Zane realized they were all still clothed and breathed a huge sigh of relief. Zane opened his eyes, sat up in bed, and surveyed the chaos around him.
His room was a fucking mess. Champagne glasses were everywhere, a twister mat was on the floor, and someone had written 'the cake is a lie' on his wall in red marker. Zane gaped at the absolute disaster before him.
'How in the hell did my room get this messy?!', the third year asked himself, because he genuinely had no idea. After agreeing to play ultimate twister with James and Chazz (a terrible decision, really), Zane couldn't remember a thing. He must have gotten so drunk he blacked out, which honestly surprised him. He wasn't a blackout drunk, that was usually Atticus's thing. At that moment, James groaned and sat up.
"Ah fuck, my head… I'm getting some serious deja vu right now.", James grumbled to herself as she woke herself up, recalling how she had woken up on that park bench just yesterday with a similar feeling of being hung over. James noticed she wasn't alone in the bed and looked to her right, where a confused and hung over Zane sat. James blinked at him.
"Oh hey, good morning sleeping beauty.", James said in a flirty voice, a small smile on her lips. Zane ignored her flirty tone and looked at her in bewilderment.
"What the fuck happened last night?", he questioned. James shrugged.
"Hell if I know. Everything after meeting you was a blur. A really fun, really drunk blur.", James told him. Zane groaned and buried his face in his hands.
"I regret my previous life choices.", the man bemoaned. Why did he agree to play ultimate twister with these two idiots? He should have known that agreeing to play any sort of 'ultimate' board game with drunk people was a recipe for disaster. He was best friends with Atticus, for God's sake! He knew what not to do with a drunk person! James gave him a dry look.
"So does ninety percent of the population. Get over yourself, you ain't special.", James told him bluntly, not in the mood to play 'name that drunk regret' when she was nursing a killer hangover. Zane lifted his face from his hands and gave the girl a withering look.
"Harsh, but okay. Do you think Chazz remembers what happened last night?", Zane asked, taking the remark in stride and trying to find a solution to his situation instead of just complaining about it. James snorted.
"Fuck no, that boy's a total lightweight. It'll be a miracle if he remembers that we started dating last night, let alone anything involving you.", James responded, and Zane felt a small part of his soul die when he found out the girl was taken.
"I'd say congratulations, but the only thing I know about Chazz is that he's an arrogant jerk through the complaints of a friend.", Zane said, recalling what Alexis had told him yesterday. James glared at him.
"Hey fuck you, he's getting character developement.", James shot back, slipping up and referring to Chazz as a character and not a person. Zane didn't notice this and instead returned his focus to trying to remember what the hell happened last night.
"That aside, we still need to figure out what the hell happened last night. I don't like having holes in my memory. Anything could have happened last night and we wouldn't know about it. For all we know, we could've committed a murder!", Zane exclaimed in worry as he clutched his expensive sheets in his hands. He was not used to forgetting entire evenings, and it frightened him. James snorted at his distress.
"Calm down pretty boy, I doubt we committed any crimes aside from underage drinking. If we did commit a crime, even my drunk self would be smart enough to have us all in some Mexican motel far away from the crime scene long before anyone even realized what we did. At most I think we got a little rowdy and had a three person party here in your room.", James rebutted, and Zane's cheeks tinted red at being called 'pretty boy'. That was a new nickname. He found he liked it when it came out of James's mouth. James sighed and reached over to the bedside table beside her.
"But if you're really so worried about your missing memories, then maybe we should start looking at our devices. Drunk-me has this habit of filming every interesting thing possible when she's totally wasted. Maybe she filmed enough stuff to put your mind at ease.", James explained as she pulled her phone off the table, trying to soothe Zane's worries. Zane began to look less upset.
"Really? Well go ahead and check then!", Zane pleaded.
Zane knew he was probably getting irrationally upset over nothing, but he didn't want to find out he did something stupid from someone else and then beat himself up about it later… and he wanted to know who wrote on his walls. Like seriously, who does that? He was going to have to clean it and the rest of the mess from last night by himself because he didn't want housekeeping asking unwanted questions. It was really irritating for him. James rolled her eyes at the boy's urgency.
"I am! Don't get your panties in a twist!", James said as she started scrolling through her camera roll. She was at least grateful for one thing that was resulting from Zane's annoying panic; he wasn't noticing that she was using a phone around twenty years too advanced for it to exist. James eventually found several videos from yesterday on her phone. She turned up the volume and began to play the first one. Zane leaned over her shoulder to get a good look at the screen once he heard the audio start playing.
"Why the fuck are we going up all these stairs?", James's voice complained, her words slurred with intoxication as she held her phone up shakily. She and Chazz weren't in frame; the only person that was was Zane, who was climbing up the stairs of the Obelisk boy's dorm. The Zane in the video sighed and looked at James with a tired expression. It was clear this wasn't the first time he had had to answer this question.
"Because we need to go to my room. You lost the key to Chazz's room, you don't remember where your own dorm room is, and I'm not letting you sleep in the hallway. We need to climb the stairs to get to my room.", Zane explained from the top of a flight of stairs. James caught up with him, her phone shaking violently as she did so. Then Chazz spoke up.
"But do you have twister?", Chazz asked, probably not having paid attention to a word of what his upperclassman just said. Zane sighed heavily and the video stopped playing. The actual Zane sitting beside James glared at the device in her hands.
"Well that didn't tell us anything.", the third year complained. James pulled up the next video.
"Hold up, there's more.", James told him. She hit play on the second video, and immediately she and Zane were hit with the disastrous image of Chazz and Zane on a twister mat, trying not to collapse on top of each other. Real-life James snorted with laughter and covered her mouth at the scene. Zane glared at her.
"Oh shut up.", he said, but James just started laughing harder.
"Right foot green.", video-James's voice called out as the sound of a spinner being spun was heard in the background. Zane moved his right foot onto green, but fell on top of Chazz in the process.
"OW! MY LEG!", Chazz yelled, and Zane groaned in pain as he got off of Chazz.
"Fuck.", Zane cursed. Video-James cackled at the sight.
"You know the rules. Drink.", James commanded. Video-Zane shook his head and cursed under his breath.
"Next time we're playing fucking Monopoly.", Zane griped as he stood up and walked over to a table where several champagne glasses stood. Zane picked one up and downed it in one go, before setting the empty glass back down on the table. Video-James snickered.
"I'll still beat your ass either way~!", James sung at him. Video-Zane flipped her the middle finger, and Video-James cackled as the video ended. Real-life Zane had a contemplative look on his face.
"Well that would certainly explain how we got so drunk neither of us remember anything. Though I don't recall you ever mentioning 'ultimate twister' was a drinking game.", Zane stated dryly. James raised an eyebrow at him.
"And? What did you expect it to be? You accepted an offer to play a board game with 'ultimate' in the name. The fact that it was a drinking game should have been a given.", James rebutted. Zane gave her an intense look.
"Still, we should have cut ourselves off when we left the party. Forget getting black out drunk, it's a miracle we didn't die of alcohol poisoning!", the third year complained. James shrugged.
"But that's the thing. We didn't die of alcohol poisoning. And even if we did, it's not like we would be bored. We could just haunt the shit out of this dorm for all eternity!", James said, laughing at her own joke. Zane sighed in resignation. He clearly wasn't going to get through to her any time soon.
"I suppose you're right. Those videos should account for most of what we did last night, but I do have two more things I want to know; A, who wrote on my wall, and B, how did we all end up in bed together?", Zane asked. James began to look sheepish.
"Ah well, I'm pretty sure the answer to your second question is that we exhausted ourselves being drunk as fuck and dropped onto the nearest soft surface the second the booze high wore off. As for the answer to your first question… that would be me. Sorry. I've been told drunk-me should never be given access to art supplies.", James said. She knew she was the only person who could have written on the wall; she was the only person in the Yugioh world that knew what Portal was, after all. Zane looked at her with a long-suffering look and sighed yet again.
"You're forgiven because we were all drunk and stupid last night, but have to ask… what the does 'the cake is a lie' mean?", Zane asked exasperatedly. James, not really knowing how to respond to a question whose answer was 'it's a reference from a game that doesn't exist in your world', spent a few seconds sweating over her answer before saying.
"Your mom, that's what it means. Say, do you have any aspirin?", James responded, before promptly getting out of bed and beginning a search for aspirin in Zane's bedside table. Zane blinked at the girl in confusion for her totally random response, and he was about to say something else before Chazz decided to wake up. The black haired boy sat up in bed, looked around the strange room in bewilderment, and then jumped in shock when he caught sight of Zane.
"Who are you and where am I?!", Chazz asked, caught between confused and frightened. As James had predicted, he didn't remember anything from the previous night, including meeting Zane. Zane sighed for the millionth time that day, sounding very, very tired despite having just woken up.
'This is gonna be a long day… ', the third year thought in exasperation. Then James stood up straight, a wide grin on her face and a bottle of aspirin in her hand.
"Found it!", James said triumphantly as she held up the aspirin like it was the holy grail. Zane facepalmed at the sight.
—-
"It was real nice of Zane to let us borrow some of his old uniforms and get ready in his room, after we… ya know… got drunk, stole his bed and had to skip our morning classes to get rid of our hangovers.", Chazz said as he and James left the Obelisk blue dorm for the main school campus. They were both wearing what was basically a slightly too big version of Chazz's current uniform since they didn't have time to go to James's room to get a clean version of her uniform and they still hadn't found the key to Chazz's room so he could get a clean version of his uniform. James nodded in agreement at her boyfriend's words.
"Yeah, especially considering what I did to his wall. I'm not even that into Portal… ", James muttered under her breath. Chazz gained a contemplative look.
"Still, I wonder if we'll be seeing anymore of him. I mean, he is the best duelist in school-official best, sorry babe-but we also kind of acted like total nuisances. It'll be a miracles if he ever wants to see us again in the first place.", Chazz expressed with concern after correcting his slip-up with Zane's title.
From what little Chazz could remember of the night before and the few hours he had spent with him that morning, Zane was a pretty alright guy. Chazz would hate for him to not like him because he met him at the worst possible time (aka when he was drunk off his ass). It defeated the whole point of his attempt at a clean slate that he had just started earlier yesterday if people still ended up not liking him for the way he acted. James gave her boyfriend a thoroughly unconcerned look.
"Oh trust me, we'll be seeing more of him. He's too relevant to the plot for us not to.", James assured, muttering the last part quietly enough that she was sure Chazz wouldn't hear. Unfortunately, Chazz did hear and he looked at James in confusion.
"What was that?", he asked. James began to sweat slightly when she realized she had been caught.
"Nothing.", the golden eyed girl said urgently. She then quickly moved to change the subject.
"Hey, speaking of morning classes, do we even know what the fuck our schedules are?", James asked. She hadn't received any paper copies of her schedule from anyone, so she was clueless. Chazz shrugged.
"Nope, and I've got no idea where we can find them. Maybe they're on our PDA's.", the black haired boy suggested. James groaned.
"I don't know how to use a fucking PDA, Chazz.", James bit out sharply, still tired from staying up too late and nursing a headache. Chazz didn't flinch at her harsh tone, understanding that she was just cranky and taking her moodiness in stride like the good boyfriend he was.
"No problem, I'll help you out. Hand it to me and I'll see what I can find.", Chazz offered with a smile, and James pulled her PDA out of her pocket and handed it to him. Chazz took out the stylus and started scrolling through it. After a few moments, he found something.
"Here we are. It says here you have five classes. Your first is with Crowler, which is the one we just skipped.", Chazz said as he held James PDA out in front of her. James read her schedule. It was pretty much the same as any other school schedule, except instead of fundamental classes like math and English, there were classes themed around dueling. James let out a huge sigh of relief when she heard she didn't have to attend Crowler's class just yet.
"Oh thank god, I won't have to put up with his clown-lookin' ass just yet. Though, skipping his class has probably made him hate me even more than he already does and has probably put you on thin ice, Chazz.", James said. Chazz shrugged.
"Eh, I don't care. I don't even like him anyways. If I knew I would end up missing his class if I spent all night with you, I still would have spent the night with you in a heartbeat.", Chazz said casually, and James felt touched.
'Egyptian gods, he is so sweet. We haven't even been together a day and he has already won the title of best boyfriend. I should try to get that first date ready as soon as possible… ', James thought, then she grinned when she had an idea.
'And I think I know exactly what I want to do for it!', James thought, before looking at Chazz with a wide smile. Chazz looked confused by her sudden cheerfulness, but smiled at her nonetheless.
"What's got you so smiley all of a sudden?", Chazz asked with a chuckle. James's grin widened and she took Chazz's hand into her own.
"I've got two words for you; duel date.", James revealed as she swung her and Chazz's arms. Chazz raised an eyebrow.
"Oh?", he exclaimed in surprise. James nodded.
"Mhm. I've decided what our first date is gonna be. We're gonna have a midnight duel at the Obelisk duel arena. Tonight.", James told him, having already decided in her mind that this was what they were going to do for their date, and she was not going to change her mind. This was too important for her to do that.
In the anime, Jaden's first duel against Chazz was the start of a lasting bond of rivalry that survived shadow games, character development and a literal cult that worshiped light. It was the duel that told everyone watching the show and in-universe that Jaden was the Yugi of the series, and Chazz was the Kaiba. But James wanted her and Chazz's first duel to represent the start of something else; the start of a hopefully long-lasting and loving relationship. She wanted it to represent the start of a partnership between them, in both romance and dueling.
James gained an ecstatic look as she thought about what she and Chazz could be like as a couple; they would be Cyrus and Jaden (because while James didn't hate Cyrus, he got boring as a character after the Shadow Riders showed up and he basically became a glorified hostage for villains to take to get at Jaden, the same with Chumley), but better. They would work together, instead of working against each other in a rivalry. They would be a force to be reckoned with. Chazz gave her an amused look.
"A duel. How romantic.", he said sarcastically, though he didn't protest James's idea. If she wanted to plan their first date, then he would let her. But he would be adding his own special touch to things. James rolled her eyes at him.
"Don't give me that look, it's not just gonna be any duel! We can have a picnic afterwards, I'll make it romantic!", James refuted. Chazz gave her a disbelieving, but still amused look as he laughed
'And I'll take this as a chance to introduce you to my more… interesting cards.', James thought. If she was going to have a relationship with Chazz, she was going to need to tell him the truth of where she was from soon. And the best way to ease him into the whole 'I'm from a world where you're an anime character' thing was to provide proof, aka duel monsters cards that shouldn't exist. Chazz continued laughing.
"If you say so. But isn't it against the rules to be out past nine?", Chazz questioned. James scoffed.
"Who cares? No one enforces that shit anyways. So long as we're not too loud, no one will care.", James responded, and Chazz nodded.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Hey, we're here!", Chazz relented, before pointing to the large building before them. It was the main building of Duel Academy. James took a moment to fully take in the grand structure, before she regained awareness and scowled.
"Yeah, and we're already late for our next class. Thank god it's with Banner. Come on, we sneak it without drawing attention if we're really quiet about it.", James remarked, before she started dragging Chazz into the building by his hand. Chazz frowned at the familiar situation.
"Why is it I'm always stuck sneaking around when I have to go somewhere with you?", Chazz asked, but James didn't hear him, so he didn't get an answer as he continued to be dragged.
After a few moments of hurried walking, James and Chazz eventually came to Banner's classroom. Thankfully, the door had been left cracked, so they were able to slip in unnoticed. The couple took the two seats closest to the door and began to listen to Banner's lecture, pretending like they had been there the whole time. Banner didn't notice their sudden appearance because there were too many students in the room to keep track of. James surveyed the room, once again seeing the faces of several familiar first years. James eventually caught sight of Bastion, who was sitting near the front taking notes like the good student he was. After a few seconds, Bastion realized he was being stared at and glanced behind him. His eyes widened in surprise and he smiled when he saw James. The Ra then subtly pulled out his PDA and started typing a message. A moment later, James PDA vibrated on the desk. James picked it up and saw that she was the one Bastion had sent a message to.
I've come up with some ideas for the holograms. I'll tell you about them at lunch.
James grinned at the message. She had almost forgotten about her pet project. She couldn't wait to get back into it. Chazz looked at his girlfriend in confusion.
"Who's messaging you?", he asked, wondering who James could know well enough on the island to message. Maybe Zane? James gave Chazz a small smile.
"Bastion Misawa. We became friends yesterday before I met up with you and we started working on this personal project together. I'll tell you all about it later. Oh, and FYI, he's having lunch with us.", James said, and Chazz groaned when he heard he wasn't going to get to be alone at lunch with his girlfriend. James laughed at his distress.
'A new boyfriend, a new science bro, and a new begrudging upperclassman friend! I'd say I've done pretty good on the social interactions side of my life at Duel Academy. Now I just need to keep my grades up!', James thought chipperly. It was then that Banner noticed her presence and shot her a smile.
"Ah, Miss… McKenna, was it? Could you please return Pharaoh to me? He is by your feet." Banner asked. James blinked and looked down. She saw that Pharaoh was indeed by her feet and was busying himself with rubbing his body against her legs. James picked the cat up, sat him in her lap, and looked at Banner with a dead expression.
"No.", she answered for no reason other than spite. She understood that Banner felt he had no choice to become a Shadow Rider because of his terminal illness, but that didn't change the face that he probably killed several of the abandoned dorm students when he lured them into that trap and was responsible for Atticus becoming a Shadow Rider/entering his goth phase. Because of that, James didn't particularly like or trust him. Banner looked at her in bewilderment when he heard her refusal, but he soon recovered and continued smiling.
"I will give you a Mokey Mokey card if you do it.", Banner offered, and James narrowed her eyes as she realized something.
'Wait… was that a Yugioh GX abridged reference?', James wondered, recalling Banner saying a similar line in Shadyvox's Yugioh GX abridged. She wondered if that was just a coincidence or if whatever force that brought her there was fucking with her. That line of thinking was ceased however, when James realized she had yet to give a response to Banner's offer. James continued to look at the hidden Shadow Rider with a dead look.
"No, he's mine now.", James refused yet again, impulsively laying claim to Pharaoh. She wouldn't mind having a pet. She liked cats. All eyes were on her and Banner. Banner began to sweat. He wasn't really sure how to respond to a student blatantly stealing his pet, so he decided to just keep smiling and pretending it was normal.
"Well okay then. Now, can anyone tell me what the spell card Mystic Wok does?", Banner asked, returning to whatever he was teaching on the board, and everyone went back to watching him lecture, content to pretend like nothing had happened as well. James smirked. She had definitely won that argument. Chazz looked at his girlfriend strangely.
"Uh, James… What the hell was that?", Chazz questioned, unsure if what he had just witnessed had actually happened. Had his girlfriend seriously just stolen a professor's pet in the middle of his class, or was he still drunk? Then again, such random actions wouldn't be that surprising coming from the girl that played Slifer the Sky Dragon at a freaking school entrance exam… James grinned at the black eyed boy.
"I have no idea. Now hold Pharaoh so I can go to the bathroom.", James said, before promptly shoving the cat into Chazz's arms without warning and quietly leaving the classroom. Chazz looked at Pharaoh with a tired expression.
"Why do I get the feeling this is only the beginning of a series of extremely questionable decisions on James's end?", Chazz questioned, briefly wondering if he should start running for the hills. Then he remembered what James meant to him, and those thoughts were promptly banished. But that didn't stop him from questioning her chaotic judgement. Pharaoh stared up at him, looking just as confused as he did.
"Mrrow.", the cat said in response. Chazz huffed out a sigh.
Well that happened. I'll probably end up actually writing Chazz and James's duel/date. Those two are basically the power couple dynamic of trophy-spouse-who-can-kick-ass (Chazz)/Magnificent-bastard-who-is-a-sucker-for-their-SO (James). Fucking with the Duel Academy staff gives James life, and writing her fucking with the staff gives me life. Next time, duel dates and more Chazz favoritism!
So long and Goodnight, Thackery Binx.