R Amythest: forgot the loveable key last time, eh? ^_~ ah, it's back! And here's the epilogue! Italics show read print, emphasis, flashback, voice in phone, voice in head, or dream Emphasis during dream, flashback, phone calls, a voice in head, or read print

'thoughts'

*~*~* = lapse of time and/or change of scene

[Ryou to Bakura over soul link]

]Bakura to Ryou over soul link[

{Malik to Ishtar over soul link}

}Ishtar to Malik over soul link{

Yugi to Yami over soul link

Yami to Yugi over soul link

~Duel Monster speech through telepathy~

*~*~*

"Dimension the dice!" Ryouji call out, and turned back to Tea with a smug grin on his face. "Your turn."

Now, right here you might be thinking, 'wait a sec. Is this #^%$#@$%#^ authoress skipping around?!' Well, no.

"Oh great," Tea muttered, fingering the die she knew held the Magician of Faith. After the shadow realm incident, they agreed it'd be best not to spread the whole relationship around. Because someone was bound to ask how they came together and well. . . it's not like everyone knew about the shadow games. Or should know, for that matter. "Well, I'll dimension this die," she pressed the Magician of Faith, level 3 and effect, into the board. Ryouji was actually winning, which wasn't too big of a surprise. And now, they were doing their best to suppress it at Mai's party, since Yami seemed to have told Yugi, and Yugi kept quiet. But it was just charming that the two have gotten together.

"Mmph. Tsk, tsk, that was a bad place don't you think? Ah well. Strike Ninja, attack!" Ryouji taunted. They were now dueling on the large stadium-type platform, since he didn't really want to hurt her with the direct damage holographic ones. And at no rate did Ryouji go easy on her. . .

"Hey! Why won't you let me close to your heart points for one brief turn?" Tea growled back, snatching the three die and tossing them. Behind them, Mai gave a chuckle and approached them.

"Hey, Otogi, can I borrow your dog suit for a second?" she giggled. Ryouji arched an eyebrow.

"Need ta keep that boyfriend of yours under control eh? Sure. Have fun," he said mockingly, tossing her the 'spot-the-dog' suit. Mai caught it, giggled, then turned to Joey.

"It's your dare."

"Mai~!"

Mai looked him straight in the eye. "Look, if you wanna chicken out, fine! It's either the mink coat or the dog suit!"

Seto smirked. "Mai did something right for once. It's either begging me for cash, which I will cuff you for, since Clifford could beg better than you, or you can just calmly put it on and get humiliated. It's simple."

Joey looked helplessly at Ryou, Bakura, Ishtar, Malik, and Tristen for support, but they didn't help. Bakura, Ishtar, Malik, and Tristen were laughing, and Ryou, trying to be polite, simply turned around, giving a few snickers. He gave them all a glare before putting on the suit, and flatly saying "Woof, woof." Everyone, including Ryou this time, burst out laughing, and Joey buried his head in his ha- er. . . paws. Seto especially seemed to get a kick out of it.

"Okay, Joey. You're forgiven," Mai said, smiling, as she briefly pecked the top of the 'head' of the suit.

Tea controlled herself and used the movement crests and magic crests on her Magician of Faith. "There. Ryouji? Ryouji, are you paying attention to me?"

"Huh? Um, yeah! I need to tell you something. . ." he gestured towards the window. Tea tilted her head and followed him. Once there, he quickly draped the curtain around them. She held her breath. Outside the comforts of Mai's small home, the lights of Domino seemed to cast a spellbinding effect, their glow reflecting off the faces of the lovers. The moon above was, coincidentally, in a lunar eclipse, and glowed a brilliant orange. From a nearby cherry tree, blossoms fell. Ryouji's hand nudged near Tea's hair, and a few strands parted to reveal the cherry blossom that fell earlier in the day.

"It's beautiful out here. . ." Tea finally replied, breathless.

"That's not what I meant to show you," he replied. . .

*~*~*

"Malik!" Ryou whined, ducking again. "Do I HAVE to?"

"Now, I don't want to be called Super Weenie of the Day any more than you, do you?" Malik said, trying to reason with him. "And you DID agree to 'Spin-the-Bottle,' so even if it IS a homo situation, just-!" Ryou squeaked again and dodged right, colliding into Malik and landing flat on top of him. "Well. . . that certainly was interesting," he muttered before firmly grabbing the other and kissing.

When he was let go, Ryou started rubbing his mouth against his sleeve before pausing. "Hey, that wasn't half bad." He said slowly. Tristen snickered.

"Hey, anyone notice someone missing?" Mai asked as Ryou grumbled and spun the bottle, having it land on Mai. He raised and eyebrow before gulping and quickly pecking her cheek.

'At least it wasn't Tristen or something,' he thought, looking prim.

"Yeah, wasn't like, everyone dared here?" Yugi asked, watching Mai basically tackle Joey to the floor, glomping him and kissing him for all life's worth.

"Hey! Cut the riddles out- it's simply, where's Dicey and Friendship?!" Seto growled.

Everyone started glancing around the room, unaware of the silhouetted figures by the window, completely satisfied.

*~*~*

R Amythest: ^^ cute! See, I told you you'd get your happy ending!

Ryouji, Tea, Ryou, Malik, Yugi, Yami, Ishtar, Bakura: *nod, nod*

Yami Amythest: cruel as the authoress may be, she doesn't lie.

R Amythest: yup, yup! *glomps COH Ryou* yaypies!

COH Ryou: ergh. . . review, please! I guess. . .