Behind the Pixels
By Zelia Theb
Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is the property of Kazuki Takahashi. The disclaimers for these side stories are the same as all of the disclaimers for the parent story Beyond the Pixels. Radiant Eclipse, the land of Virei, and all other characters belong to me.
As far as this pharmacy scene goes…well I don't know much about Japanese pharmacies. I know that other stores have separate checkouts for different sections (much like a department store), but I have no clue when it comes to pharmacies. So…I pictured this particular one to be very much like a regular pharmacy. The reason it isn't Japanese-ish? Chalk it up to the Alternate Universe -grins evilly-. When all else fails, just claim 'AU'.
Yes, I've decided to jumble all of the stories in no particular order at all whatsoever. I just had no desire to wait for this story. So I'm going to start putting up chapter references to the parent story.
Beyond the Pixels Reference: Chapter 8
I had a hard time reading this, so I may rewrite it so it flows better in the future. Anyway... Enjoy!
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II: The Pharmacy
Hiroto Honda and Yugi, or rather, the other Yugi, Yami, walked into a pharmacy a few stores down from the chic clothing store that they left Jounouchi and Anzu in. It was one of the largest of its chain in all of Domino. They were shopping for some items to help Jounouchi along on his date with Nymphe, which was schedule for midnight of that day.
"What is this place?" Yami asked Honda. He glanced around, tilting his new sunglasses just enough so that he could peer over the bridge and take in his surroundings.
"This my friend, is a pharmacy," Honda said, placing an arm around Yami's shoulders, "It's a place to buy medicine and other stuff that people use…like soap, hair products…"
"Hair products?" Yami asked. He was being lead by Honda's guidance down an aisle of…hair products.
"You know, like this stuff," Honda pointed at a shelf lined with hair gel, "You use this, don't you Yugi?" The brunette let go of Yami and grabbed a bottle of yellow hair gel that read 'Light Hold: Level One' on the front.
"Oh…we are almost out of this," Yami said, grabbing a bottle of the light colored gel himself.
"Eermm…no, buddy," Honda said, firmly gripping Yami's wrist and placing the bottle back on the shelf. He smiled and reached for a green bottle, then laughed, "You can't use level one. I use level two, you will need level five."
"Oh."
"Come on, let's keep going!" Honda said, walking further down the aisle. He looked at a sign labeling the aisles, and wondered out loud, "Hey…I wonder where we would find cologne? Have you seen it, Yugi?" He turned around, but Yami had disappeared. Damn, now he would have to play hide and go seek.
He paced down one of the vertical paths, looking left and right for a dark stick with wacky hair. Yami was staring blankly at a shelf of petroleum jelly. The rest of that area was home to various lotions and other lubricants.
"Honda, what's this for?" Yami held up a jar of the jelly.
The taller boy approached him, and answered, "It's for…stuff." He grabbed the jar and restocked it.
"What stuff?"
Honda sighed. He gave Yami a strange look and said, "You know, I thought that in taking over Yugi's body, you would know some of this stuff. After all, you somehow managed to pick up Japanese and bits of English, and you're like an ancient Egyptian." [A/N - Ever wonder that?]
Yami still stared at him, tapping his foot impatiently, waiting for an answer. Honda sighed again, and replied, "Fine. Lubrication and keeping things moist."
"What is machine oil doing here?"
Rolling his eyes, the annoyed brunette retorted, "Oh, you know about machines, but…never mind. It's for people who don't want to hurt when they do certain…things. Ya know…I'll show you a video tonight that should explain it." Yami picked up the jar again to read the label and make sure Honda was telling the truth.
"Oh, Honda!" a girl's voice cried out. Honda turned around to see a girl with black hair approaching him from around the corner.
"Oh, hey…" the boy searched for a name, but couldn't find one. All he knew is that it was the prettiest girl from his class, accompanied by her best friend, a girl with blonde hair.
"What are you doing here, Hon…" She was interrupted when Yami shoved the jar in Honda's face suddenly, pointing to the label.
"It doesn't say anything about that usage here, Honda." He could swear that he heard Yami cackle a bit.
"Uhh…Yugi…" he stuttered.
"Oh," the girl remarked, "I guess you two are shopping. We'll leave you alone, then." She awkwardly absconded out of the aisle with her friend.
"Damn it…" Honda sighed. He turned around and saw that Yami had escaped once again. He began his search once more, this time a tad more frantic in hopes that he would not run in to those girls again. He found the curious cat-boy and dropped the plastic bottle of gel on his toe when he saw the aisle that he was in now.
Yami was staring almost too casually at a shelf lined with female sanitary napkins. He had one hip relaxed, and his right elbow in his left hand. His right index finger was tapping at his chin, as if he was trying to figure out what was going on.
"YUGI!" Honda yelled in a whisper, "We absolutely cannot be here!"
"We can leave when you explain one thing," Yami proposed, "These napkins…." He checked his hip in the other direction, shifting his weight, and grabbed a small pink package. He stuck the package in Honda's face, and commanded, "Look! Why do people need different napkins?"
"It's not…"
"These ones are for 'Light' people," Yami continued. He put that pack back on the shelf then pointed to another; "These ones are for 'Heavy' people, and those… Those are for overnight? Now look at these over here…" The extremely embarrassed Honda watched as Yami took two steps to his left and pointed at purple packages.
"These ones are 'Lavender Scented' and have wings!" Yami yammered on, clearly distraught by the confusion, "I had no idea that people were so superficial in this city."
Honda watched the girls pass by the aisle. He freaked out, then tightly gripped Yami's wrist and dragged him to the next aisle over, and explained, "Yugi! Those aren't ordinary napkins! Those are for girls when they go through that time of the month!" Yami's mouth gaped wide open as a sign that he realized what the boy was talking about. It slowly formed a smile, and he laughed about his little foible.
"He's buff," Yami blurted out suddenly. Honda turned around to see a rack of magazines. He followed the shorter boy's gaze and noticed that he was looking at the muscle builder magazine. Again, he predictably stepped forward and took a one out of the display.
"D.D.M. is mentioned here," Yami said, pointing to a very small blurb on the lower right hand corner of the magazine.
Honda scrutinized the cover of the publication. It read:
!TEEN POP!
Exclusive!
TP joins Kei Minoru to give you
a 48 page gallery of hot photos!
TP's Top Ten Teen Hunks!
Must Watch TV Shows
The Hottest Voice Actors Around!
We join the young cast of the new
hit 'Crazy Crazy Crazy!'
Other features:
Foreign Boys Rampant in Tokyo
Learn to Play D.D.M.!
Get a Cute PenPal!
Honda sighed. He glanced at the page of the teenybopper magazine that Yami was reading, and saw a half page column about Dungeon Dice Monsters. A photograph of Otogi sitting at a desk; winking and smirking, of course; took up a quarter of the bottom portion of the page.
"Oh, the new issue should be here!" Honda jumped; it was the pretty girl again.
"Oh, hi again," he said nervously, trying to stand in front of Yami so they couldn't see him.
"It's not here!" the blonde girl said, "I guess they are all out of them. They even had pictures of Kei Minoru!" Their faces drooped with disappointment, and they began to walk away…but somehow…
"Here," Yami said, handing the girls the magazine he was browsing through. The blonde couldn't help but giggle uncontrollably. Whether or not it was at the fact that she was able to see Kei or that Yami was looking at it was the question that was racing through Honda's mind. The pretty girl timidly thanked them and they continued on their own shopping trip.
"Cologne, Yugi! Cologne!" Honda shook Yami by the shoulders tightly; "Don't wander off! Those girls are really pretty and I don't want them to think I'm gay!" He roughly gripped Yami's wrist and dragged him off to the opposite side of the store. He figured that cologne was usually near the make-up. Yami tried to struggle out of the grip, but he wasn't nearly as strong as Honda.
"Honda…" Yami protested.
"No!" Honda shot back, "We have to hurry up! We've taken too long as is."
"Ow!"
"There," Honda said, releasing the small and now tender wrist. Yami rubbed at the red mark left by Honda's hand.
"Doesn't Otogi use this?" Yami said, having already broken his attention from the shopping again. He was looking at eyeliner and other types of make-up on the shelves opposite of the bottled fragrances.
Honda threw his hands up in the air out of frustration. He decided to retrieve the last items by himself, so he glared at Yami and suggested, "Why don't you pick out the cologne, Yugi?"
"All right," the boy replied. He set down the black pencils that were in his hand and began testing the various colognes with his nose.
"I'm going to get the last of the items. Come back up to the front of the store when you're done." Yami nodded, relieving the brunette a tad.
Honda walked up to the front of the store, where there were two checkout counters. An older man tended to the one on his left, against the wall, and a young woman worked the one on his right, near the doors. For this specific need, he needed to go to the left counter.
He approached it slowly, trying not to make a scene. He set Jounouchi's hair gel down on the surface of the counter and waited for the clerk to begin the transaction.
"Would this be all for you today, sir?" the man asked politely.
"Not…exactly," Honda answered, leaning into the counter as to not let everyone else hear him, "I'm looking for a box of…you know."
"I'm sorry?" the man blinked, clueless as to what Honda was referring to.
Honda noticed that the girls from earlier were making their way to the register as well, but they chose to check out at the woman's counter. He braced himself, then insinuated, "You know, those things." Was this clerk really that clueless or was he a forty-year-old virgin?
"I'm sorry sir, I'm afraid that I don't understand what you are asking me for," the clerk informed him. It was then that Yami came up from behind Honda and set a bottle of cologne and his own hair gel on the counter. He noticed the girls were still taking care of their own transaction behind him.
Honda snatched a pack of breath mints from a bowl on the counter and placed them next to the other items, then continued to try and buy the items; "Those things…ya know. They protect against things…it's for a man…"
"Sir…?"
Yami smirked. Honda nearly had a heart attack. Yami had wrapped an arm around the extremely embarrassed boy's waist and trailed a finger flirt-like along the edge of the counter. He peered over the bridge of his new sunglasses again, winked at the clerk, then said, "We're looking for those things."
"Oh…oh….OH!" the clerk stammered. Honda felt the spying eyes of his classmates from behind him, coupled with a giggle and a gasp. He could even swear that he heard one of them whisper 'I knew it' to the other.
"You aren't purchasing any…" the man trailed off, stifling his own laughter, "Would you like lubricated, heated, ribbed, spermicide…or the three in one combo…"
"No pun intended," Yami finished the clerk's thought, grinning widely.
"Um…the five count…combination…" Honda mumbled.
"Hot date tonight?" the clerk asked, still trying his hardest not to laugh or break a smile. He placed all of the items in a plastic bag and gave Honda the total.
"You could say that…" Yami answered. The girls giggled again.
"Agh!" Honda scoffed, "That's it! Let's go now!" He aggressively seized the bag after paying and walked swiftly out of the doors with Yami attempting to hang on to his waist. Once they walked a few feet out of sight of the store, Yami let go and put his hands in his pockets.
"What's the matter with you?!" Honda yelled.
"You have to flirt to get what you want, don't you?" Yami said seductively.
"Not with me you idiot! With the salespeople!" Honda huffed and stomped ahead of the shorter boy."
"Oh." Yami chuckled.
Honda's brown eyes went wide. He spun around and glared at Yami with a look that could kill an angel. In an extremely deep voice, only belonging to the most evil of demons, Honda said, "You mischievous little jerk. You were messing with my head the whole time that we were in there!"
This time it was Yami who was shocked. He smiled nervously and shrugged his shoulders in the air. Honda knew that the spirit was praying for Sanctuary.
They continued walking in silence, until they caught up to Jounouchi and Anzu standing outside of the clothing store. Jou was holding a black bag, a sign that everything seemed to be complete. Honda was surprised that shopping with Anzu didn't take as long as he had expected.
"Did you get everything?" Anzu inquired.
"Yep, got everything!" Honda answered, offering up the plastic bag to Jounouchi.
Yeah, there was so much that I wanted to put in there. Several ideas were tossed up in the air as to what Yami was going to look at. The only problem that I found was how repetitive the story was going to get. As an animated episode, it would have worked, but as a written story, there are only so many ways to say "he took that item off of the shelf", know what I mean?
I hope everyone liked it!