I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Walk With Me

Chapter I

Beginnings

Unless you have enough money, there is no gain without pain. That's the terrible truth. It's true what they say. The truth hurts.

"1-2-3-4, I declare a thumb war." The blonde boy of about ten chanted, his fist interlocked with his friend's. "5-6-7-8 try to keep your thumb straight!" At once, both children began trying to smash down the other's thumb.

"Ha! I win!" the blonde's friends declared triumphantly a moment later.

The child scowled at his light-haired friend. "You got lucky, is all."

"Naw, I'd say he won fair and square." Their audience of one smirked. "C'mon, Ryou, my turn."

"Man this is boring. When's Kira comin' home?" the blonde sighed as his companions started another thumb war.

"She's gone to pick up that new kid. She'll be back soon." Another child replied, walking in the door. He had wild, bleach blonde hair. The child sat down next to the blonde boy.

"I win!" the challenger grinned at the former champion's mock glare.

""Kura, where Malik?" the bleach blonde haired boy asked.

"Beats me. I should be asking you, Marik. Wanna play?" the present champ extended a fist.

"Nope." Malik shook his head, messing his hair up even more.

The next moment, Joey jumped to his feet. "I hear the garage door! Let's go check out the new kid!" He took off at full speed, his friends running to catch up.

Joey skidded to a stop in front of the door to the garage, flung it open, and bounded down the steps. "Kira-kun, you're back! Where is he, huh? Huh?"

"Down, boy." Bakura drawled. "Where are your manners?"

Ryou giggled. "As if you have any."

Bakura scowled and took a swipe at the shorter boy.

"Ok, kids, back off. Give some space, will you?" A young woman stepped out of the driver's seat with a smile.

"Yes, Kira." All four obediently stepped back.

Kira opened the back door of her car, and leaned in. A moment later, she reemerged with a sleeping child safely in her arms. Asleep, the boy looked younger than the rest. His hair was peculiar – black, tipped with crimson and golden bangs fell over his closed eyes. It was messy and unkempt. He was thin, and his exposed arms were covered with scars.

"What's his name?" Joey asked, not disturbed at the least by the child's appearance. After all, he himself had looked very much like that once as all the other children around him had.

Kira smiled sadly. "He hasn't got one."

"I like 'Yami.'" Bakura declared.

"Me too." Ryou and Malik chorused.

Joey pause, studying the sleeping boy. After a moment, he nodded firmly. "Me three."

Kira chuckled. "Yami it is, then."

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"This is so dumb." Seto Kaiba sighed as he waited impatiently for a red light. "Why do we have to do this again?"

"Because we want an 'A' in this course." Yugi Mouto replied from the back seat.

"I knew I should have signed up for something else." Seto groaned. "I hate interacting with other people."

"So why in the world did you sign up for community service?!" Téa asked from the seat beside Yugi.

"Because I needed the hours for my résumé!" the CEO growled.

"That's a stupid reason. You already have a secure job!" Tristan scoffed from the passenger seat.

"Shut up. You are aware that the only reason you're in this car is because Yugi used his puppy-eyes on me, right?"

"I'll be quiet." The other teen muttered.

"OK, here we are." Seto sighed ten minutes later, pulling in front of a small house.

"Are you sure? This doesn't look like a foster home." Yugi said skeptically.

"I'm positive, Yugi." Seto said, looking at the address again.

"Well, come on, guys. Let's get this over with." Tristan groaned, getting out of the car.

The four trooped to the front door, and Seto rang the bell.

A moment later, the door opened to reveal a white-haired teen glaring at them. "What ever you're selling, we don't want it." He snapped before anyone had a chance to say anything.

Seto glared right back. "We're not selling anything! We're from Domino High. Didn't anyone tell you we were coming?"

"Nobody told me anything about it!" the teen growled back. "So fuck off."

"Why you–" Seto snarled.

"Bakura, who it is?" a slightly shorter teen with soft brown eyes and white hair similar to his companion's appeared.

"Some idiots form some high school. I'm telling them to beat it–"

"Bakura! I told you this morning, they're supposed to be here!" the other boy said exasperatedly.

"Told you." Seto smirked.

"What makes you think we'd want you here?!" Bakura snapped.

"Bakura, don't be rude. Please, come on in." the shorter teen smiled and opened the door wider. "My name's Ryou, and this, as I'm sure you've already figured out, is Bakura."

"Seto Kaiba. And this is Yugi Mouto, Tristan Taylor, and Téa Gardener."

Ryou shut the door after the last person had walked in. "Actually, the head of the household isn't here right now. If you'd take a seat, I'll get you something to drink. Follow me." He led the four to a small living room, where they sat down.

"Hang on a moment. C'mon, 'Kura, help me." As the two left, Yugi heard Bakura saying "We don't have anything to give them, Ryou! They've got tons of money, by the looks of it. I mean, Domino High is the best in the area! That where all the rich kids go. Let them feed themselves!"

Yugi cringed. Bakura had struck the bulls eyes.

"Hello, what's this?" another teen entered the room. This one had lavender eyes and messy, bleach-blonde hair. "Who the hell are you?"

"We're from Domino High." Yugi explained with a soft smile.

"Hump. The rich snobs. Well, I suppose it'd only be polite to give you my name, huh? It's Marik. Don't forget it." The teen cocked his head. "Say, you look familiar. Seto Kaiba, right? The CEO of KaibaCorp.?"

"That's me." Seto nodded with an arrogant smirk.

"Ohh…this is interesting. HEY MALIK! C'mere!"

"What is it?" What looked like taller replica of Marik entered the room. Looking closer, Yugi noted that Malik was taller, bigger, and darker than the other.

"This is the filthy-rich CEO of KaibaCorp." Marik grinned, jerking a thumb towards Seto.

"Is he now?" Malik raised an eyebrow. "What the heck is he doing here?"

"He's a guest, not an animal at the zoo." Ryou shoved the taller teen out of the way. "Be polite. Here you go. It only water, but it's really all we've got."

"Thank you." Yugi, Téa, and Tristan chorused. Seto 'humph'ed and nodded.

"What's all the fuss about?" A teen almost as tall as Seto asked, walking in.

"We've got guests. Guys, this is Joey." Ryou nodded towards the blonde.

"Hi." Yugi said with a polite smile.

"Do you all live in this house?" Téa asked curiously.

"Yup. There's actually one more. Which reminds me, where is he?" Ryou looked up at Bakura.

Bakura shrugged. "YAMI! COULD YOU COME HERE, PLEASE?"

"Wow, he actually said 'please'" Seto muttered, rubbing his ears.

Bakura glared at him. "Just because I'm not polite to you, doesn't mean I can't be polite to someone else."

Soft steps announced the arrival of the final person in the house. He was a young teen, shorter than his house-mates. His tri-colored hair closely resembled Yugi's except it was very messy.

"And this is Yami." Ryou smiled.

The mentioned teen kept his eyes trained on the ground, and walked over to stand by Bakura.

"No offense, but it's a small house. Does it really fit all of you?" Tristan asked skeptically.

"It does its best, and that's always been enough." Ryou answered.

"Ijuni-san is back." Joey commented, cocking his head at the sound of the engine shutting off in front of the house. "If anyone needs me, I'll be in my room." With that said the tall blonde left.

"Me too." Marik commented, and left also. Malik followed him. Bakura gestured beckoned to Yami, and the two followed their house-mates' example and took their leave.

Ryou, seeing he was the only one left, sighed. "Well, come on." He led the four to the front door.

A man in his late twenties, early thirties, stood there, flinging his coat into a small closet by the door. The man's clothes were dirty and rumpled. His black hair looked like it hadn't been washed for days. He looked up with ice blue eyes as the five teens came up to him.

"Who are these?" he asked with a deep frown. "I told you boys, no friends over without permission."

"These are the student from Domino High, Ijuni-san." Ryou said, keeping his eyes down.

The man instantly straightened. "Ah, yes. I'm sorry I wasn't here to meet you all. And please excuse my appearance. It's my line of work, you see. Messes a person up."

Seto, the unofficial spokesperson for the group, stepped forward. "That's all right, we understand. You're Ijuni-san, the runner of this foster home, correct?"

"Yes that's me." The man replied. "Did you meet the boys already? I trust you were treated politely?"

"Quite. You have an interesting group."

"Yes, yes I do. Ryou, did you give our guest something to drink?"

"Yes, Ijuni-san, I did." Ryou said, still not looking up.

"Good. Come, let us talk." Ijuni-san beckoned to the group from Domino High. They followed him into another room. Ryou took his chance and fled up the stairs.

"You guys left me!" he hissed in a very uncharacteristic manner as he entered the room his foster brothers were in, shutting the door quietly behind him.

"Sorry Ryou. You're the one Ijuni likes most." Joey was sprawled at the head of one of the two beds in the room.

"Yeah. He's least likely to get mad at you. He just doesn't seem to like the rest of us that much." Marik was sitting crossed legged next to Joey.

"That's because the lot of you have no manners." Ryou growled, flinging himself down next to Marik.

"Exactly. So how can you blame us for leaving you?" Malik asked lazily, stretched out of the floor, leaning on the second bed.

Ryou sighed, knowing the others had him cornered. Looking past the top of Malik head at the second bed, he frowned. "Bakura, is something wrong?"

"Something's up with Yami." The taller teen murmured, not taking his eyes off the teen curled up under the covers in front of him.

"Something's always up with Yami. It's become almost normal by now." Malik muttered. "Just leave him be."

"I meant more than usual, fool." Bakura snapped back. "He kinda collapsed into bed the moment we got back in the room. That ain't normal, even for him."

Ryou slid off his bed and walked over to the sleeping teen. Maybe it was just his imagination, but Yami looked paler than usual. The boy brushed some of the golden bangs off the other's face.

Just then, the door opened, and all of the occupants of the room (save Yami) looked up. Their guests stood there.

"Nice room. Whose is it?" Tristan asked.

"Ours." Marik replied shortly. "Something you want?"

"Téa and I have been put to cleaning duty. These two are here to 'socialize'." Tristan replied. "So we'll leave now." And, true to his word, they left.

Seto and Yugi walked in. "Do you all sleep in here?"

"Yup." Malik said. "So it's nice and warm in the winter."

"But hot as hell in the summer." Joey sighed.

Seto sat down on the bed nest to Marik. "We're supposed to socialize, as Tristan said. Whatever that means."

"It means talk." Yugi replied, going over to stand by Ryou. "Is he ok?" the teen asked, indicating Yami.

"I hope so." Ryou muttered. "With him, it's always hard to tell if he's sick or not."

"Why?" Seto asked, curious.

"That's just the way he is." Bakura said. Then he added, "Not that it's any of your business."

"This is going to be a long afternoon, isn't it?" Seto sighed. "I could be getting things done."

"You're right, you could be." Marik stood, and went over to rummage in a handmade drawer. He came back with an old radio. "So. Think you make this ancient thing work?"

The rest of the afternoon passed with Seto trying to fix the radio with the limited supplies he had, and Yugi talking with various people in the room to try to learn more about these new acquaintances.

Yami woke up almost two hours after he fell asleep. He didn't say a single word the whole time Yugi and Seto were in the room.

At last, the time came for the four to leave. And so, without further ado, they did.

Closing the door, Ijuni turned to face his charges.

"I heard about your rude behavior from Tristan." The man said, narrowing his eyes. "I thought I told you to behave yourselves in front of any guests."

"You just don't want to embarrass yourself, and ruin you non-existent rep." Malik snapped. "Leave us out of it."

"We act as we want." Bakura added.

"So f--- off." Marik finished.

Ijuni's face turned red. "Why you ungrateful little –"

Suddenly, he lunged forward, grabbed Yami up by the collar, and slammed the boy into a wall.

Please review 'n tell me whatcha think!