Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Yu-Gi-Oh

Note: Story will be updated every Wednesday

Warnings: TONS of cursing in story

Okay so it recently occurred to me that perhaps I should put a note up on this story explaining a couple of things. This story was my first fanfic and it's not the worst; it's not the best. It's full of small things that can be potentially irritating and I honestly slacked off lot with applying the research I did in order to dramatize it. The story is dramatized for more fun and the research got thrown aside in favor of it.

That said, this story is NOT an accurate representation of my views of anyone. It is NOT an accurate representation of anything to do with Japan (which I ONLY used the timeline for school breaks to help plan out the story events). I should have pointed this out a long LONG time ago. But better late than never. NONE of this story is an accurate representation of Japan, from the school and interactions to basically EVERYTHING else. I used a lot more Americanization in the story for the sake of not changing events drastically after originally writing it. That includes the fact that everyone jumped at the idea of calling each other names (cause I went to school with that) and basically everyone and their brother finding out big secrets and making big scenes (cause that happened a lot at my school too). I'm aware that Japan doesn't have a social structure as far as school goes, not like the whole "popular" and "unpopular" that America does, because most often they only really socialize with their homeroom besides after school clubs. I never ONCE claimed this was an accurate telling of setting or style or schooling in Japan. And I never would have had someone asked.

This story is one hundred percent Americanized for the sake of drama. Some of it can seem offensive (from derogatory comments to the abusive aspects) and so I'm going to throw that out here now. It hadn't occurred to me that people were still reading it and I don't want anyone under the assumption that any of the events in here are realistic of Japan. They 1000% are NOT.

Regardless, again, the story was my first. And it is neither the worst nor the best.

Chapter I: Opposites

Yugi Motou was quite literally the smallest person in the school. He stood a head shorter than the second smallest person, Yami Sennen. And Yami could not figure out for the life of him how Yugi of all people was the bad boy of the school. Between the two of them, they shared spiky hair predominantly black with golden-blond bangs, long black lashes, and of course they wore the same uniform. But the similarities ended there. How were the innocent, rounded blue-violet eyes more intimidating than that of the sharp, demonic red ones Yami owned? How was it that Yugi struck fear into the hearts of others while Yami seemed to draw people in?

Maybe it was the choker around Yugi's neck. It looked like it might be enough to mark him as a bad boy because it was like a fucking collar and Yami had his very few fleeting thoughts of what that collar was for. They ranged from his parents hooking him on a leash to make him behave in public to him being a sex slave.

He would rather it be the first. Because at least that was funny. Being a sex slave? Not so much.

But then it was Yugi's business. If he was kinky, that was fine. His own business. No one else's. Still, that didn't stop Yami from wondering. Who the fuck wore a collar? And outside of school, Yugi dressed the part of his school role, he supposed—black tank top, studded bracelets, leather pants, leather jacket or sometimes his school jacket if he was too lazy, and studded black boots.

Sex slave was the only thing that really connected all of those dots in Yami's head.

He didn't ever mention it, however, because who the fuck would go up to someone and ask about their outfits? Who went up to someone else and asked if they were sex slaves? And was it possible to ask that in a nice way that would ensure that they would not be pissed off at them?

Yami pondered this as he stared at the kid in front of him; Yugi, Ushio—he understood why he was a bad kid with the big build he had and the way his brown eyes looked wild enough to just pick out prey, Joey—he understood with his background, and Tristan—again with the background, all stood at the edge of the school entrance, leaning against the wall and talking.

Two former gang members, a current gang member and the most innocent-looking sixteen-year-old in the world. And here Yami had expected Yugi to be some kind of ferocious looking monster rather than a boy who just barely even reached five feet if he even reached that.

Rivaling his own popularity, the four of them were up there, but they weren't popular in a way besides being troublemakers. Yami was popular because he was smart and everyone knew his name because he had the highest grades out there. But then, if another were in his situation, they would have to keep their grades up just as much.

"Don't let them see you staring."

Yami turned his head and stared at his soft-spoken friend. "Why not?" he asked in a bored tone. "It's not like they'll start anything."

The purple eyes narrowed a little. "You have no idea."

"Please, the blond over there is stupid enough to mistake me for his friend," he responded with a roll of his eyes, turning back; that had happened way too many times. "Besides, even those four are scared shitless by Bakura and Malik."

Beside him, his companion let out a light laugh and Yami smirked. Oh yes, his cousins were legendary with their dangerous personalities and disregard for everything; how many fires had they started in the chemistry labs just this week? He couldn't count them on both hands. Every other time he turned around there was news of his cousins burning something—marshmallows, pencils, even a cigarette once because Bakura got bored and wanted to see if it hurt to put out on his arm…god his cousins were so strange. Why Bakura thought that wouldn't hurt was beyond him but whatever.

Oh, well look at that. The four of them were now focused on him. Ushio looked disinterested and bored, Joey looked like he wanted to punch him for the very many times Yami had snapped at him because his name was not Yugi or "yummy", Tristan looked as he always did—indifferent. And Yugi…well Yugi had an eyebrow raised a little as if challenging him.

He could easily rise to that challenge. Yami never backed down from one, but four against one hardly seemed fair and he wasn't even sure if that challenge was directed towards him because his smaller look-alike was talking and it caught his stupid blond friend's attention.

The blue-violet eyes were curious. They feigned indifference but Yami could see the curiosity there. He knew what to look for because he himself was master at feigning things and Yugi was a novice in comparison. No one knew how to shield themselves as he did. There was no one.

But now Yugi looked away and spoke to the group and only Ushio was watching him, that bored and indifferent look still plastered to his face but his eyes were narrowing and he was starting to look mad.

"Oh geez."

Yami ignored his friend's comment and his lips curled up into a smirk, first to the left and then to the right, slowly, his lips stretching leisurely, an extremely direct show of challenge, a direct show of superiority. A direct show of self-confidence. Of predatory interest.

Ushio glared and then turned away.

Yami won.

"Motou and Sennen."

Yugi turned his head and stared at the red-eyed male on the other side of the room, narrowing his eyes a little as Yami didn't even glance at him, instead looking at the teacher with a bored expression and then looking at his worksheet.

"Dude, that sucks," Joey whispered next to him, nudging him with his elbow. Yugi fought the urge to roll his eyes; it was not Yami's fault that Joey could not keep their names straight and who the hell gave him the right to call him "yummy" anyways? Or "Yams"? His name was only four letters and if Joey could remember the name Yugi and his own name, what the fuck was wrong with him that he could not remember the name Yami?

Four letters. Started with Y and ended with I. It was only two letters from his own.

Finally Yami looked up, locking eyes from him. Yugi had to blink twice to see that the disinterested look was a mask because when he blinked Yami's expression changed to pure amusement.

The kid was an enigma. He was geeky as hell, had the perfect grades, he was known as a dork because of his perfect grades, and yet he was like a spitfire. The staring he had done earlier that morning when he was with Mahado in the courtyard, that said something way different from the normal average geek. They would have looked away immediately when they got caught. Instead Yami had smirked at Ushio as if he were a sheep grazing in a pin that belonged in the wolf's territory.

And the way he had done it so easily, so obviously relaxed and challenging, was beyond different.

Yami was popular for being the smartest kid in school. Well, if Yugi himself was not counted, because he wasn't sure as far as that went. While Yugi kept up the persona of the bad boy, he was expected to be brainless and he was far from it, but compared to Yami? He had no idea where he stood…

"Please rearrange your seats so that you can sit next to your partners and I will hand out the rubric for you to look over and the choices of which topic you would like," the teacher announced, looking excited.

Yugi narrowed his eyes at Yami who merely sat back and didn't bother to get up; oh, so he thought that Yugi was going to move? Screw that. He stayed exactly as he was.

The teacher looked between them and, of course, not wanting to upset the bad boy of the school, turned to Yami. "Is there a problem, Mr. Sennen?"

Yami looked over at him and gave a purely innocent look. "I can't walk right now. My leg is asleep," he replied, his voice just as innocent as his widened and confused red eyes; Yugi nearly burst out laughing at the display.

"Very well. Mr. Motou, would you please move over here then?"

Yami turned his head and the left side of his mouth quirked up into a smirk, the movement slow and lazy like it had been that morning, a display of power, of predatory leisure.

Yugi didn't bother to respond. He just got up and went over, plopped down in front of Yami and smirked widely at him; who had time for slow when they could go fast? Yugi was a quick person. He had patience but not for stupid things. Yami's little display was anything but wise.

The teacher began passing out the rubrics and Yugi looked his over, staring at the list of colonies for a long time; why did they have US History again? And why had he signed up for it? He didn't want to go to the US. Unlike Tea…

He narrowed his eyes. Tea wanted to go for dance. Yugi didn't say it but he didn't think she could make it with a scholarship with the grades she had. She spent too much time dancing and not enough doing her homework and schoolwork. Instead she floated by on C's and no scholarships were offered for C's.

Oh that was right. Egypt. That was why he had joined this class. They were going to learn about Egypt and Yugi's grandpa loved it in Egypt so Yugi wanted to learn about it…

"Virginia," he stated with finality. Yami didn't reply but as soon as the teacher came over he said, "North Carolina" in which the teacher marked them down for it.

Yugi gave him a sharp look and Yami merely raised an eyebrow, obviously unimpressed. Oh yeah, Yami was definitely an enigma.

They spent thirty minutes just talking about when they could get together for the project and thus decided that the next three weeks they would get together on the weekends and any free days after school—Yugi had these in plenty but did not say anything and Yami just threw this idea out because he knew that he would end up doing most of the project himself—as well as getting together in the library during lunch.

Yami honestly couldn't understand why Yugi was agreeing with him because Yami knew for a fact that he would end up doing it all anyways and Yugi would not help at all; he nearly rolled his eyes when Yugi stated that they might as well go to the library for lunch today to get started but instead nodded and agreed as he saw fit to do.

There was no point in arguing with him anyways.

At lunch they sat next to each other at a small square table, Yami looking at his books and Yugi overlooking the rubric with a bored face; while they looked at this, Yami couldn't help it when he asked, "Why are you even bothering?" in a sharp voice.

Yugi looked at him and the smirk was in his eyes but not on his lips. "And so it begins," he said under his breath, earning him a sharp look from Yami who did not speak but narrowed his eyes and glared for a moment. "Exactly why wouldn't I help out?"

"Because you have your little gang to go around playing with, right?"

His eyes narrowed and his voice grew a little louder but because of their location, his words came out in a hiss. "We are not a gang, you stupid ass." Blue-violet eyes rolled with clear annoyance. "And just because I hang out with the three of them does not mean anything."

Yami was about to open his mouth but then stopped short when Yugi dug into his binder and pulled out a single sheet of paper. "You want to know who got the highest grade on the test? Because he said that it wasn't you," the smaller teen said, sliding it over to him; Yami didn't look surprised but in the smallest corner of his eye, just beneath his pupil, his gaze sparked with interest as he looked closely at the paper. "So don't make the mistake of calling me stupid when you don't even know me, Yami. I don't know you and you don't know me, okay?"

Yami stared and then tilted his head slightly before handing it back to him. "I apologize," he replied, looking up with a sincere expression on his face; Yugi blinked once before following it with a second one. "I was wrong to jump to assumptions and I apologize. It was wrong of me to do so and I hope you can forgive me."

No one had ever spoken to him like this, not formally like this. Anyone else would have scoffed or called him a cheater—he'd been called that so many times it was not even funny—but they would not have apologized as Yami had done. And especially not in the same way as he did.

He didn't answer for a moment, stunned by the sincerity that he had heard in the red-eyed boy's voice and even more so by the same emotion showing in the red depths.

"Sure," he finally replied, feeling strange and stripped to nothing with the deep soulful eyes that were staring straight into his. Yami sat up a little straighter from the position he had been slumping forward slightly in and Yugi searched his eyes for the smallest moment. Anyone else would not have noticed the subtle shift of his gaze but Yami was observant of everything and everyone around him and so he was immediately alerted to this movement. Yugi was trying to read him and while Yami usually locked his emotions securely behind a wall in his eyes, he was willing to show the sincerity.

"Will you allow us to start again with a clean slate?"

Yugi swallowed. Did Yami always speak like this? Or was he trying extra hard with him because he was worried about the others in his group?

No, Yami was not afraid of them. That was apparent with the smirk and the fact that he had undermined Yugi's decision for Virginia as soon as the teacher had come over again; Yami was not a coward like most of the people in the school. He didn't take it when Yugi made demands for their project subject and he didn't step down from Ushio in the schoolyard earlier.

In the two years that Yami had been in this school with them, Yugi had never once spoken to him or so much as locked eyes with him before; they operated on separate scales and the fact that they were put together for this project had seemed like an insult to both of them. Yugi only found it insulting because his friends were all over him about it the moment Joey told them and Yami because he had unrightfully assumed he would be given the responsibility of the entire thing.

"Yeah, okay," Yugi finally agreed, narrowing his eyes. Yami nodded at him and his eyes were now emotionless, wiped clean; Yugi was awed by that single fact. There was a layer of ice to the red eyes, a barrier, a wall that made him completely unable to read him at all in this moment. Yugi had never seen such a complete control over one's emotions in all his life and it shocked his core. He envied this so significantly he was ashamed but oh, how much he would give to be able to do the same…

All his life he had been dubbed an open book and it irritated him to no end. He strived to do what Yami had just done.

"Hey, Yugi," a familiar female voice called and Yugi looked up to see the tall blue-eyed brunette form of his best friend since kindergarten, Tea Gardner. Yugi leaned forward a little in his seat, immediately aware of how desperate he must look to Yami, but when he shifted his eyes the slightest bit to take in his reaction to his movements, the taller of the two was instead studiously ignoring their newcomer, making marks on his own rubric and circling a particular checkmark on the list.

"Hi Tea."

He was pretty sure his voice came out different, maybe a little deeper? Or maybe it was higher? Either way, it changed and he was aware of that but it always happened when she was close. Because he would be stupid to not notice how hot she had become over the years.

"So, are you—Yami Sennen?"

And the question was completely forgotten. Yugi was completely forgotten.

Yami looked up to give her a silent nod and his voice was normal, without a single change in its deep baritone pitch, when he stated, "Tea Gardner" as if it were the most insignificant thing in the world. His attention was immediately back on his rubric again, his eyes taking in another sweep of the rubric as he circled yet another point…

Yugi felt the jealousy flare deep in his bones. How the hell could Tea just ignore him for someone who could not care less about her existence? He wanted her attention back on him but instead it was all on Yami and he instantly, in that single moment, hated someone for the first time in his life.

Tea leaned forward and Yugi realized that she was trying to show off her cleavage despite the uniform she was wearing, not that she really needed to because she had rather large breasts anyways… The deep royal blue bow was almost eye level with Yami's face, the pink jacket was practically bulging with the way she was bent over, and her short blue pleated skirt was pushed slightly up to expose a little bit of the curve of her ass.

Yugi got to see this but the fact that her chest was in Yami's face drove him insane with jealousy. Oh yes, he definitely hated Yami in this moment. If he did not depend on Yami for this project, his head would be cut off and put on a stick and Yugi would parade around with it.

"It's a shame we don't have a class together," Tea said in a slightly lowered voice.

Yami and Yugi both caught the sultry edge to it, but Yugi was now glaring at Yami who was ignoring the attention he was being given; finally, after circling another note on the rubric, he turned to her and said, "I haven't had a class with you at all since I've been here."

And his voice was not harsh but it was not very friendly either and Yugi nearly lunged at him. How dare he speak to her like that?

She ignored it and said, "Yeah, that sucks, huh?" with a smaller lean towards him.

Yami didn't look down once. He kept his eyes on her face and his eyes narrowed the slightest degree; she was pretty in the plainest of ways. She did not wear makeup. She had a relatively heart-shaped face. She had bright azure eyes that were pretty. She had a plain haircut with bangs, her hair just above her shoulders.

"Not really," Yami replied easily, shrugging and sitting back with a straighter posture, putting his pencil down and looking at her. "We've never exactly spoken before this moment, Tea."

And then she flushed. And Yugi saw red.

"She's just trying to make conversation!" he snapped.

Tea looked at him in surprise. "Calm down Yugi," she admonished and Yugi looked at her, glaring slightly before his expression softened the smallest bit. "It's true. We've never spoken to each other before. But that's only because we never had a class together."

And her attention was solely on Yami again. Yami kept his back straight, his head raised a little as if he were feeling threatened, and his posture may have looked relaxed but Yugi could see that his muscles had tensed the smallest bit.

"There's no guarantee we would have spoken even if we had classes together," Yami said calmly, narrowing his eyes slightly; did Yugi normally let Tea talk down to him like this? No wonder she never acknowledged his crush. "We could have sat on opposite sides of the room. There weren't any partner projects that I had in any of my classes so the possibility of us having spoken is actually very slim. Especially considering I had almost all of my classes with your friend Joey."

This was directed towards Yugi and that was why his eyes were on the smaller teen who looked irritated but surprised by his sudden attention; he blinked once and then narrowed his eyes and Yami got the message, turning away to Tea again.

"In all honesty, we probably would not have spoken at all even if we did have classes together."

Tea frowned a little, obviously not liking her attempts at flirting shot down and Yugi stared plainly at Yami with an expression that said he was insane to shoot her down like this; Yami could not understand why guys considered her one of the hottest girls in school. She was hardly anything to look at but then he guessed it was just the fact that she had bigger breasts than most of the girls at school.

Her, Vivian, Mai, and Mana. The four hottest girls in school because of their bodies.

Tea seemed nice enough but if she was willing to treat her friend like he was a child and she was above him and ignore his crush, flaunt her stuff at his look-alike, he could honesty say that he had no interest in even being friends with her.

Yugi finally decided to push his jealousy away and reached for the paper in front of Yami, pulling it over to him and feeling Yami's attention immediately on him as well as a more reluctant Tea. "What are these?"

"My weak points," Yami stated easily. "I need you to help me out with them with this project because I really can't do too well with them."

Yugi stared at the page for so long he might have gone cross-eyed. So even the smartest boy at school had weak points. He pushed the page back over. "Sure, I can help out with that."

Yami nodded and Tea looked between them, irritated by the lack of attention; when Yugi glanced at her, the warning was clear in her eyes that she wanted Yami's sole attention and he needed to stop interfering. The smallest teen in the school turned away and looked at his own rubric before following Yami's lead and circling some of his weaker points as Tea smiled a little and turned back to the taller male.

"That's pretty smart," she praised him.

Yami turned to her and the disinterest was blocked out by the blank look in his eyes. "Thanks," he replied.

"Do you do that for all partner projects?"

"This is the first one I've had all year."

Of course it was. The school year was just beginning, after all. He noticed the slight smirk that crossed Yugi's face, obviously amused by this statement and the fact that Yami had just deflected Tea's flirting.

She blinked and then flushed a little. "Well, I mean for all partner projects as in…in general."

"I've never had a partner project before now."

This statement struck Yugi as odd. It managed to make him look over to study the boy beside him. All throughout his years before high school he had definitely participated in a ton of partner projects. It was actually like a rite of passage in order to even prepare for high school.

But then…he had never heard of a Yami Sennen before in Domino City. Although, Yami might have just lived in a different part of Japan.

That would not have been different at all. Although he was pretty sure the schooling system was relatively the same.

Tea used Yugi's only thoughts to her advantage.

"So, then what about before high school?"

The atmosphere changed suddenly, very suddenly, with this question. Yugi felt it and it made him raise his head, but Yami's pose had not changed and his eyes had not faltered in their defenses. But the air around him was suddenly different. Yugi did not know what it was but it was definitely there.

"I was home schooled."

It was so simple an answer that it shouldn't have sent alarms off in his head, but it still did; sirens wailed at high pitches as he stared at the other boy.

"Excuse me," a tall man with dark hair said, coming over to their table and looking at Tea; Yugi looked over as well and narrowed his eyes with annoyance, knowing that he was about to tell Tea to leave. He wished he would tell Yami to leave and Tea to stay and then he instantly felt bad for that thought because Yami did nothing to him and had not even flirted back with his crush's attempts. "You have a project to do at the computers."

Tea nodded a little, frowning. Of course her teacher would cut into her attempts to flirt with Yami. "Okay," she replied and then turned to them, smiling. "See you later guys."

Yami did not even blink when she winked at him and Yugi turned red with anger at the display of his ignorance and her flirting with him. He glared for a moment at the teen beside him but Yami was immediately turning to him a second later, staring.

"What did you circle?"

Yugi stared at him for a moment and then turned to his paper, looking it over before sliding the paper over to him. Yami was immediately looking at it and it irked him severely, making him growl, "Really?"

"Do not get pissed off at me. I did nothing to you. It is not my fault you have a crush on a girl who doesn't pay attention to you aside from admonishing you," Yami snapped, not bothering to look up. "I don't even want to date anyone. I have plans for after high school and dating would ruin them severely."

Yugi narrowed his eyes and glared. "So you didn't care that she just flirted with you?" he asked sharply, not buying it for a moment.

Yami turned his head and stared at him. Yugi froze when he saw the cold dangerous glint in his eyes, hiding in the outer edges of his irises, easily hidden if he wasn't so close to him and paying attention. "I have plans for after high school that dating would ruin," he repeated in a deadly calm voice. "So no, I do not care that she flirted with me. I do care that she hurt you with her careless flirting with me. I apologize that it pissed you off but I did not take part in it and as so, you should not take it out on me."

Yugi would have opened his mouth but he was a little overwhelmed by the look in Yami's eyes and the way his voice had dropped dangerously. For a moment he just stared and then he finally nodded and muttered, "Sorry."

Yami didn't care for it but he still accepted it regardless. "Shall we start over for real this time or would you rather we continue biting at each other's heads?" he replied, his voice growing lighter and his eyes guarded once more.

Yugi stared and alarms went off in his head at Yami's sudden change of demeanor but he still nodded a little, fighting off the unnerved sensation that made itself known in the back of his mind.

Mana was immediately on him as soon as he stepped into the courtyard, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him over to her. "Tell me everything."

"Such a gossip."

She grinned at his teasing and rolled her eyes. "Of course I am. Now spill."

Yami looked over at the blonde girl next to him and smiled a little. She was one of the sweetest people he knew, but she was so excitable it was amazing she could function properly half the time, always yapping and shivering like a Chihuahua when she was wound up.

But she was beautiful, he admitted that much. She had gorgeous golden-blonde hair that was predominantly straight but curled up at the ends and long bangs that framed her face nicely. Her blue-green eyes were always bright with happiness and kindness. Her face was heart-shaped and clear, flawless, and her long eyelashes brought her eyes and her creamy skin to attention to anyone looking her way. She never wore makeup aside from once putting on some eye shadow for a dance and she had shown him the pictures. She had a nice curvy body and her personality definitely made her even brighter.

Yami liked her. He thought she was beautiful. But he was not interested in any way past friendship and in all honesty, maybe there was something wrong with him to think that when guys practically fell over themselves with thoughts of dating her.

But then again, Mana was not interested in dating anyone either.

Mahado grinned at him. "Was it as bad as you thought it would be?"

Yami smirked a little and messed with the strap of his canvas bag before putting his hands in his pockets. "It was…well, not great but it wasn't horrible either," he replied evenly, shrugging. "We fought a little but we were okay for the most part."

Mana threw her arm around his shoulders and then leaned in to his face, giggling with her lips barely an inch from the flesh of his cheek; anyone else besides her and he would have told them to back off but Mana was a very touchy feely girl and she was exuberant in nature and though it had taken tons of time for him to get used to, he had eventually and he was now okay with this.

"Well that sucks. But tell me about him."

Yami's lips twitched. Mana had this thing for Yugi. It wasn't a crush but she had this habit of thinking he was awesome because he was so adorable.

"He's pretty smart."

"You sound surprised," Mahado snickered.

"No," Yami argued, shaking his head a little. "I knew the kid was smart. I never doubted that. I just…didn't expect him to agree to do all of the project with me. I mean, I didn't really expect him to make a schedule for the project with me."

"Schedule?" Mana asked, pulling away a little and staring at him in surprise. Mahado's eyes flickered to a point over Yami's shoulder but then he was immediately paying attention to him again. Yami would have thought something had happened but then realized that he had probably just seen someone walk by and just paid attention for that single moment.

"Yeah, we're going to be getting together for the project every weekend and any free days we have after school and during lunch."

"Shit, seriously?" Mana whined and Yami smirked at her, chuckling.

"Yeah, so you can't really have your shopping buddy until next month."

"Why are you guys even going to work so hard on this project anyways?" Mahado finally asked.

Yami pulled away from Mana when she started flicking the ends of her hair over his face, both of them laughing.

"It's a pretty big grade," the red-eyed teen replied, pushing her hair away; when she kept going, Yami grabbed her hand, the two of them twining fingers for a moment as he gave her a playful glare and then pulled his hand away. "I mean, it's pretty much our first major grade and it's fifteen percent of our grades…"

"You are such a nerd," Mahado snickered.

Yami flipped him off and watched as Mana jumped a mile when a voice murmured, "I agree wholeheartedly."

All three of them turned towards Yugi who grinned a little; he had to admit that Yami had been rather nice from what he had heard since he'd gotten there. Mahado had looked at him and not told the other two despite the fact that Yugi didn't make a move towards him saying otherwise. And Yami had not badmouthed him at all, even stating that he had thought he was a smart kid.

"That's messed up," Mana grumbled, giving him a playful glare. "You shouldn't go sneaking up on people like that. It's not nice."

Yugi smiled at her. "Sorry," he replied, looking at her with a playful expression. "I was expecting your brother to say something but I guess not."

Mana turned around and swatted her laughing twin's arm; Yugi felt a little weird when he saw that Yami's attention was solely on the blonde. He had seen them playing and that same weird emotion had come up when he had seen their hands together, and it made no sense to him so he pushed it away.

Mana turned to Yami suddenly and grabbed him into a hug, pulling him extremely close to her and Yami chuckled as he rolled his eyes and patted her on the back. "You're a real bitch of a hugger," the blonde griped at him and Yami laughed before hugging her just as tightly; as soon as he lightened up she pulled away and danced over to her brother, winking at him. "See you later. Have fun you two."

Mahado laughed and shook his head before nodding at Yami. "See you tomorrow."

"Bye guys."

Yugi watched the twins walk off, smiling a little when he saw Mana turn her head to look at them over her shoulder, waving every once in a while and making Yugi's smile widen as he waved back. She was a pretty friendly person and he definitely liked that she was not ashamed to be that way.

"So how much of that did you hear?" Yami asked, appraising him with a guarded expression.

Yugi turned away from the twins to look at him and then shrugged. "All of it after you said that I was a smart kid," he replied, a smirk tugging at his lips.

Yami nodded almost imperceptibly. "Then you pretty much heard the whole conversation," he stated easily, his entire posture relaxed despite the way he held himself. He was still straight-backed, his aura was proud and nearly regal, and when he started walking Yugi could practically see the pride rolling off him in waves.

Yugi matched his pace, surprised by how fast Yami walked though maybe it shouldn't have considering how Yami had classes all across the school and he was never late for any of them; he knew that Yami's class before the one they shared was on the exact other end of the school and up three flights of stairs. Mostly he was surprised by the fact that Yami had been so friendly and gentle towards Mana. It seemed way out of character for the person he had thought Yami to be. He had figured he was only popular because he was a nerd and everyone went to him for things but if he was so nice to Mana it was possible that he was friends with others for other reasons that that.

"So, I was thinking that we would split the research between us in order to lessen the load of it," Yami announced, looking over at him and searching his face. "That way we can start on the rest of the project much easier and earlier than we could have otherwise."

Yugi blinked once and then shrugged. "So?"

Yami tilted his head and Yugi immediately felt bad for the borderline-snapping tone of his voice when he said, "So I thought that I would ask you if you were okay with this. Otherwise I suppose we could just split the work up completely between us but I figured it would be easier this way so we could work better with the presentation."

He turned away and his teeth worked at his bottom lip with guilt for his tone of voice when he was only trying to be nice to him; he felt his stomach twist as he realized not one of his friends had ever actually asked his consent about things. And yet Yami, who he barely knew, was showing him the decent courtesy. "Yeah, that…that's fine," he replied, letting out a breath. "But we still need to work out what format we're going to do with the project."

"I was thinking a poster," Yami murmured. "Past the essay, the visual does not really matter as much."

Yugi looked at him and messed with his backpack's straps, frowning. "What? I thought we'd do a power point. It makes more sense. It gives us more layout for information because we can make as many slides as we want."

"Yes, but a power point will just mean more time up in front of the class."

And that was when Yugi realized that he had never once actually seen Yami up in front of any of the classes they had had together over the two years they had been in high school together. And it was not a lack of projects given to present because they had been given them in abundance from ninth to tenth grade.

Yugi was shocked out of his mind when Yami pulled the door open and held it for him, eyes widening slightly before offering a small smile. "Thanks." Yami merely nodded and followed him inside. "So…I am kind of confused about something."

"Perhaps I could clear it up for you."

That was a little bit of a strange way of saying he would answer the question but Yugi didn't comment on this, instead turning to him as they walked towards the tables in the back. "All right, so I just remembered that I have never once seen you up in front of the class before," he admitted, taking a seat and pulling his backpack off; he watched Yami just sling his canvas bag onto the table where it skidded for a second before he pulled it back and dug through its contents to grab his binder.

"I always turn my projects in late if we have to present," the red-eyed boy stated, shrugging. "I refuse to get up in front of everyone so I just turn them in late when I know that the teachers won't make me present because it would disrupt the curriculum."

"Why?"

Yami didn't answer.

"I mean you sure as hell are not shy," Yugi stated, staring at him curiously. Why would someone as upfront, proud and regal need to hide away from others? Because he knew for a fact someone like him, who stood so tall and held such an abundance of self-confidence, was not shy, especially after Yami had stared down Ushio and dared to mess with Yugi's decision to work on Virginia instead of North Carolina, not to mention that Yami had gotten into more than one verbal spat with Joey and never once backed down.

"No, I'm not," Yami agreed.

And that was all he got out of Yami on the subject.

"I like your shoes," Yugi murmured, looking her over appraisingly. Tea smiled at him sweetly, modeling off her shoes which were bright pink and blue like the girls' uniform with white laces and her sneakers were cute even if she wasn't supposed to wear them since they weren't part of the uniform.

"Thanks," she said in a bubbly way, winking at him cutely.

Yugi felt his chest swell with the fact that Tea was paying so much attention to him and when she went over and ruffled his hair, teasing one of his bangs, he nearly fell out of his seat with happiness. Oh yes, Yugi was definitely turned on due to the attention, to the look of affection in her azure eyes. Plus the perfume was making him a little lightheaded with desire and though he could push it off somewhat, he couldn't push it away completely. And even better was the fact that Yami was ignoring this whole display as if his life depended on it. He wondered when Tea would get the point that Yami was not into her and he planned to be the shoulder she cried on. Well, if she didn't notice before then, anyways.

Yami flipped the page in the book in front of him, digging through the information and looking for key words in order to pick out the facts that he needed for this assignment. Yugi could flirt all he wanted since the class had all gone to the library this period and was sharing it with Tea's class and they would not get in trouble for it this time around; at lunch Yami really hoped that Tea was not around so that they could get some actual work done and be alone to discuss their presentation further.

Because they hadn't decided whether to do a poster or a power point.

Yami had to admit that the more he thought about it, if he just limited the number of slides, maybe their presentation wouldn't be too long. Besides, posters could get messy and it was way too easy to just delete a slide from a power point, much easier than having to cut out pictures or write and erase.

He shifted his weight, putting his left elbow on the table and leaning his chin into his palm as he flipped the page and continued writing. In the twenty minutes they had been at this, he had written only two sentences and one of them he had erased so many times he was starting to make a hole in the paper. He flipped his pencil around in his fingers several times, still ignoring the stupid flirting going on in front of him because he didn't care to know who was doing what or what pathetic compliments they were feeding each other, and instead started copying some more facts, finally finding some information he could work with.

His hand started to hurt from the constant spinning of the pencil and his tightening grip due to the lack of information he had found so far. Two sentences, twelve words, and now he was adding twelve new bullet points to the open sheet in his notebook and would have to turn them into sentences as soon as he was done collecting information.

Tea took a seat next to Yugi and in front of Yami, staring at the other teen and making Yugi's anger flare again; what the hell was with her attraction to him? Why could she not see that he was not going to fucking pay attention to her?

"Did you do something to your hair?" he tried, grabbing her attention momentarily; she had curled it but it was hardly noticeable and Yugi just decided that he was going to pull it out of his ass in order to make sure that her attention was on him.

She ran a hand through her hair. "Yeah, I curled it this morning but all of the curls are gone," she replied, and then her attention was on Yami again and he was about to wring the boy's neck. "So, Yami, how is the project going?"

He refrained from telling her to ask Yugi because he was more than willing to tell her, but decided against it at the last second; he was not raised to disrespect others and that had not changed just because he himself had changed location. So instead, to show proper respect, he raised his head and gave her a small half-smile, making sure that his face was blank of his irritation, and said, "It's going fine."

Yugi stared at him, feeling like some kind of animal whose mating ritual had just been interrupted; he felt like a bear, wanting to tear into him for treading into his territory, and it irked him to no end. He hated feeling this way and even worse was that he didn't want to feel this way towards Yami, not after Yami had been nothing but nice with all the crap he had put him through so far—snapping at him without cause, throwing out arguments almost every time he opened his mouth. If he were Yami, he would have lost his patience long ago and his patience for the smaller boy seemed legendary, especially considering that Yugi was a naturally patient person or so he was constantly told.

"Oh that's pretty cool," the brunette announced, smiling widely now that she had his sole attention; she didn't notice that he was spinning his pencil around impatiently between his fingers, she didn't notice that he had narrowed his eyes and so his red gaze was shadowed to avoid showing the agitation that was growing drastically in case his guard slipped up at all.

Yugi, however, did notice this and it made him smile slightly because it just reinforced the knowledge that Yami was in fact indifferent towards her attempts at flirting and it pleased him to no end. And then he felt bad for Tea because he knew the feeling of having his feelings rejected like that because Tea treated him as Yami did her and it hurt but he was petty with jealousy at the moment.

"Look, Tea, I'm sorry, but I have to get at least twenty sentences down and I can't talk while I am doing that," he said politely, trying to cut her off immediately before she could even start flirting with him again because he needed to do as much of the essay as possible to prevent them getting a lesser grade than the others because the teacher was taking what they had at the end of the period and they needed a good number because anything less than twenty was getting a failing grade and twenty was just barely there.

"Oh, okay," she said, looking disappointed.

Yugi continued staring at him and Yami's eyes flickered over for the smallest of milliseconds before he started digging into his work again, hurrying through and skimming the information before copying some again. Yugi had to admit that Yami had a smarter system than half of the kids in the class as far as information gathering went. He wrote fast, which was an added bonus, and thanks to the neat notes he wrote, it was easy for him to rearrange them into sentences later. They needed three sources for information by the end of the class and Yami had already gotten the packet they were given and recorded it as well as the two books he had gotten through. He was on his fourth now and Yugi liked his strategy to do the essay but he was also a little worried about the fact that Yami only had fourteen bullet points and they were already halfway through the class. He didn't doubt him for a moment because Yami strived under pressure, Yugi found out after Yami got through three books in the library in the last ten minutes of yesterday, gathering almost fifty facts and citing each of them without so much as a pause in motion. But he still worried. And then he felt bad because he was over here flirting with a girl who barely noticed him unless she wanted to get his opinion on something or point out a flaw or just mess with his hair.

Yami was immediately working on his paper again, trying to convince himself that he was under pressure because stress was a powerful motivator when it came to him, but found nothing. Only a minute later Tea got up and walked off with a farewell that Yugi echoed and then turned to Yami again, not glaring but not exactly looking at him with a friendly expression either.

He didn't really have a right to, but he asked anyways.

"Why haven't you asked her out yet if you're so into her?"

Yugi felt his eyes widen for a second and then glared and snarled, "Mind your own business."

Yami didn't try to hide the half-smirk that appeared on his face, writing another bullet point of information as he replied simply with "Very well."

Yugi never wanted to hit someone so badly before in his life but he wanted to punch Yami until he couldn't move his lips anymore. He glared but Yami ignored him and finally, when he felt his anger subside, he started to help him out, scooting closer to him and pointing out information that might be useful. Yami would either copy what he pointed out or state that it was not needed or that he had already written that one down.

With the two of them working together, they got twice as many notes though Yami seemed to be on the same page as him every time he started to point one out, writing it down almost before he could even say anything; it felt so strange to have a person work so well with him and one who was willing to work with him like this in the first place.

Because normally with partner projects he had been teamed with Joey and had been forced to do all the work for them because Joey was rather scatter-brained when it came to schoolwork and he got way too distracted to even do anything. Not to mention the first time they had worked together before they became friends, Joey had threatened to break his nose if he didn't do it and get a high grade.

Yami actually treated him with a lot more respect than he was used to and he was a lot friendlier than Yugi had thought him to be as well as being thoughtful towards him. He fought back, but he was not nosy and he didn't demand answers like he wasn't doing so now and Yugi found this to be good but he was so used to having his buttons pushed at that he was confused by a simple show of decency and it hurt to admit that.

"Sorry for snapping at you," he muttered, chewing his cheek.

Yami didn't look up at first and his pencil kept moving and for a moment Yugi thought he was ignoring him but then Yami stopped and looked at him, giving a small smile as he replied, "It's fine. Don't worry about it."

He was a lot more blasé than anyone Yugi had ever met if he was not offended by his display of anger and he blinked several times, shocked out of his mind that Yami was forgiving him so quickly.

"All right, start finishing up your rough drafts so I can see them," the teacher announced, standing up and watching them; Yugi watched as Yami flipped shut each of the six books in front of them and then started sorting through his notes, marking them with numbers on the side and then making sentences out of them on a fresh piece of paper.

He was amazed by how quick and efficient Yami was. His brain seemed on an entirely different wavelength, steps ahead of everyone else, making the essay seem professional even though he really shouldn't have been able to make all the sentences out of the facts that they had gotten. Not to mention he managed to use all fifty of the notes in only ten minutes.

When Yami finished he got up and Yugi hurried off with him to hand the paper over; their teacher looked stunned for a moment and then looked up and stared at Yugi when he said, "Did you do any of this at all?"

Yugi started to answer, to snap at him that he wasn't stupid and he could shove it up his ass because he was a piece of shit teacher anyways, but Yami cut him off with, "I write faster than him but he helped me find what we needed and even helped me sort out the notes so the essay would make sense."

The teacher blinked a few times and then looked at the sheet and started to read through it before making several red marks with the pen; all of them were punctuation, oddly enough, and Yugi remembered that Yami had circled punctuation down on his rubric sheet as one of his weak points. Yugi really needed to ask him about that because Yami was smart as hell and he didn't understand why punctuation—which Yugi found easy—would be a weak point for him.

He didn't get around to it that day.