Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! GX

Prologue

"Alright, let's do a checklist to make sure we've got everything, partner. Paint?"

"Check."

"Wallpaper?"

"Check."

"Plaster?"

"Check."

"Nails?"

"Check."

"Well, guess that's everything we're gonna need for the living room."

"Hey, Jesse?"

"Hmm?"

"Remind me why we need the nails again" the brunette said, grinning sheepishly.

His lover groaned a little but smiled all the same as he responded, "Because if we put nails on the far wall then we can hang up stuff on them and not lose the essentials so often."

At this reminder – it was a good idea, after all – Jaden nodded and looked down at the large pile of Do-It-Yourself decorating items that they had bought. Although they had initially decided to ask for professional help to redecorate this house that they had just bought, they had changed their minds and decided that they couldn't say no to a challenge, even when that challenge was whether or not they could get the place to their liking.

Jaden Yuki and Jesse Andersen, who had been together since their final year at school and loved one another unconditionally – and things had, because of Jaden's unique fusion to Yubel, been difficult at first – had only recently bought this apartment in Domino City and had moved in the previous week. Although they loved the little apartment in and of itself, they both found that the themes – all pink and frilly and stereotypical of a flat bought from an elderly lady – in each and every room were very much not to their own personal tastes.

Therefore, they had opted to spend a week or two redecorating the entire apartment, starting with the living room. This was their first home that they had owned together, their first place as a couple, and they wanted it to be entirely comfortable. Although Jaden's travels and Jesse's life goals often took them both individually away from home, they both knew that they'd appreciate having somewhere nice to come home to.

And so it was for this reason that they two young men now stood in the living room, surrounded by cans of speckled egg coloured paint, boxes of nails, cans of mixing plaster and rolls of plain wallpaper. All the furniture in the room had been conveniently transported into the other rooms in the apartment to make this redecorating operation easier.

Jesse looked at his lover, grinning a little nervously.

"So, where do we start?"

There was a momentary, thoughtful silence before Jaden shrugged and said that they might as well begin by scraping away the flowery wallpaper that was already there. Jesse nodded in agreement – putting up plain wallpaper over patterned wallpaper was known for being difficult – and began rooting around in a bag for a scraper, vaguely noticing that Jaden instead headed into the kitchen to find a sharp knife to scrape away the paper with; he rolled his eyes. Jaden handling a knife and attacking the wallpaper? It was almost funny.

But he didn't dwell on it; he trusted Jaden completely. Together, they'd have this room done by the end of the day, even though they might have to stay up late to make sure the basics were finished. Painting might have to wait until the next day, but that was alright, too.

After all, it was a simple job of redecorating a living room. What could possibly go wrong?

/

On the other side of the country, two close friends of Jaden Yuki and Jesse Andersen – two friends who were in a relationship together and had been for over a year – were engaged in a heated argument about what to do with their free day together.

Days like this, where neither of them had any prior engagements or commitments, were few and far between, and it would be a waste to simply sit in the house and not do anything. With this in mind, they had decided to go out for a day; it was something they didn't do very often, go for outings together.

And now that they were trying to decide on a destination, they realised why this was: their interests were much too different. For twenty minutes straight the two had been sat at a computer, looking up local attractions and debating which they should visit. Unfortunately, it was not going well so far.

The local cinema was showing a variety of movies, but there was not a single film amongst them the appealed to both Zane and Aster. Their taste in films was simply too different – Zane preferred the educational, sci-fi or horror genres, while Aster much preferred comedy or action. It was near impossible for the two of them to select a movie to watch that they'd both enjoy, and so the cinema option was out.

There were various outdoor attractions, but they possessed neither the motivation to go hiking nor the desire to go to the beach. They had a private pool at their house – which they had been sharing, mostly peacefully save for a few fights, for a little over six months – so there was no need to go swimming in the public pool.

In fact, there was but a single attraction that was relatively local and which would be a first visit for both of them: a whiskey distillery. It had been constructed in the previous century as a completely different building and was now owned by a branch of Scottish employers as a distillery, specialising in their famous malt whiskey that had a particular flavour to it which many people found favourable.

"We've got to need to visit there" Zane argued feebly, after his lover expressed mild interest in this particular visit. "We have plenty of whiskey in the kitchen if you want to get drunk."

Aster smacked his lover upside the head, muttering that nobody would be getting drunk, thank you very much.

"Come on, Zane, it'll be educational" Aster pointed out, while wandering around picking up the essentials like wallets and car keys. "You don't need to drink anything."

"I don't see the point in visiting a whiskey distillery if the intention isn't to get drunk" Zane muttered, but he stood up nonetheless, taking his coat which was offered to him by his lover; it was true that Zane had never visited such a place and had very little knowledge about this type of thing, and so what was the harm in the visit? He might even find it interesting, and if he didn't, then he would blame Aster.

The two got themselves ready for the little outing – simultaneously feeling secretly clichéd at this oh-so-romantic trip – and then headed out to the car, with Aster already insisting that he was driving; Zane rolled his eyes – ever since Aster got his licence, he had discovered that he had a strong love of driving and now threw a fit whenever Zane demanded that he be allowed to drive for once, even though he usually did so just to irritate his lover for the sake of it.

And it didn't really matter, anyway – the distillery wasn't that far away, only twenty-five miles or so once they got onto the main road.

After all, it was just one little educational outing. What could possibly go wrong?

/

Meanwhile, in a relatively simple but admirable cottage about sixty miles outside of Tokyo, Japan, there was a high pitched screaming coming from the second bedroom.

Inside this room, a weary and irritated mother was pacing around the room for the billionth time that day, rocking her screaming infant in her arms in a useless attempt to calm her. Her daughter was, usually, a remarkably quiet and peaceful child, so this unstoppable screaming was almost entirely unfamiliar to Alexis. Her daughter never acted up this way; something had to be wrong but she had no idea what.

At first the worried mother had been incredibly patient, doing everything she could think of for the little girl – she had tried feeding her, changing her, bathing her, playing with her, talking to her, and in desperation, leaving her in her cot, ignored for, ten long minutes. After none of this had worked, however, Alexis was beginning to become frantic. Neither she nor her husband had any idea what was wrong.

Alexis Rhodes had, shortly after her graduation from Duel Academy, married Jim Cook, who had and continued to support her through her teacher training. Although she had initially studied at a college in America, she had returned to Japan when she was around seven months pregnant. It all worked out reasonably well; she could take the end-of-year exam and the college had – considering that she had a natural gift and was hard working – promised that she could return the next year and pick up where she'd left off. And so Alexis had a year out of college to spend with her baby girl; all it meant was that she would be graduating from the college a year later than expected.

She had given birth to a healthy baby girl after two months and a week in Japan; this cottage was actually a holiday home of her brother's that he was lending her for the year. That year was nearing its end and soon she would return to college; for now, though, the young teacher-to-be was just happy to have some time with her beloved husband and darling little girl, even though said little darling was presently driving her mad.

The bedroom door opened, revealing her husband, attired in his usual with a weary smile on his face.

"No luck?"

"I don't know what she wants, Jim, I've tried literally everything" Alexis complained, shoving the squealing infant at her husband and collapsing onto the rocking chair by the window, her face in her hands.

With the whinging girl now in his arms, Jim tried walking her up and down the hallway for a few minutes before he sighed in defeat, returning to his wife with a disappointed frown.

"I don't know what's up with her" Jim said unhappily. "I wonder if we should –"

He was prevented from finishing his sentence when he felt something wet and clamping on his finger and he looked down in surprise.

He had been absentmindedly stroking the little girl's soft cheek in another attempt to placate her whilst he had been speaking, and it seemed that she had gotten a hold of his finger with his mouth and was now chewing on it.

Jim fell silent for a moment, and Alexis looked up in utter shock – the crying had ceased save for a few whimpers. She noticed that their little girl was chewing on her father's middle finger, and realisation hit her.

"Oh" she breathed. "Is that all it was? She's just teething!"

"No wonder she's so riled up" Jim muttered. "She's not had anything to help her. Must be painful."

Alexis nodded thoughtfully, a little irritated that she had not yet bought – had not, amongst the events of the past few months, thought to buy – anything for her daughter to teeth on. And she certainly didn't think it was a good idea for the kid to go around teething on people; something had to be bought.

"Jim, I'm heading out to the store."

"What? Why?"

"I'll get her something to teethe on and then maybe she'll stop crying" Alexis said offhandedly. "My head's killing me."

Jim nodded; he also had a headache from the screaming.

With his usual pleasant goodbye to his much loved wife, Jim watched Alexis head out the front door and get into the car. His daughter was still chewing on his finger and he was, by now, finding it rather uncomfortable, and so he did the natural thing – he pulled his finger away from the child.

Unfortunately, this was far from what she wanted, and the beginnings of tears built up in her eyes, prompting him to thrust his finger back towards her, while looking around for anything better. He'd just have to make do for half an hour or so; it wouldn't take Alexis any longer to drive to the nearby shop and come back. They could deal with this easily enough now that they knew what it was that was bothering their baby.

After all, it was just natural teething. What could possibly go wrong?

/

Meanwhile, in the heart of the city of Tokyo, yet another couple was making plans for the day. Although for them, this was not any ordinary day.

Three years ago today, Chazz Princeton and Syrus Truesdale had started dating. Today was their third anniversary and they intended to make a celebration of it. Surely they deserved at least one anniversary that they could remember with happiness? Their first two had, sadly, not been successes.

Their first had been acknowledged but the occasion was lost in amongst an important pro-league duel for Chazz and dealing with the funeral preparations for Syrus' recently deceased father. Although they had bought one another chocolates and other such little mementos, they hadn't been able to make a big deal of the occasion like they had really wanted to.

Their second anniversary was even worse. Plans were made for a magnificent night, but things were once again interrupted. The night before the special day, Syrus' brother had pushed his heart too far and ended up collapsing. Although the doctors said it was just stress and that he would be as recovered as was possible within a few days, Syrus had not been able to relax until, three days later, Zane was released from the hospital. Chazz tried to make their anniversary special, but it was simply not possible with Syrus so worried for his brother.

And so, after two disasters in an otherwise successful relationship, the two were determined to have a wonderful day. After all, didn't the saying go that the third time is the charm?

In their oversized house – oversized not by national standards but by the overcrowded city's standards – the two were presently planning their day in a way they had not been able to do for the previous two years.

Things looked to be going great – they would keep things simple but romantic, and with a bit of luck, everything would go well this year. Dinner at a fancy restaurant followed by a Shakespearean play at a grand theatre – because Syrus had a rather secret love of the playwright and Chazz knew his lover would enjoy it. Besides, after that, Syrus would just love to make it up to Chazz, and those things could only be done in Chazz's favourite room in this house: the bedroom.

Yes, the plans were made; theatre tickets bought, table at the restaurant booked, clean sheets on the bed.

Everything was planned and nobody had called to say that something had come up. They had nowhere else to be and nothing else that needed doing. It was a free day with the plans made. It was going to be a success this year.

After all, everything was ready to go, all planned out. What could possibly go wrong?

Please R&R