The following morning gray clouds still covered the sky and this time I remembered to bring my umbrella. When I got down from breakfast Jiichan was already in the shop. He smiled at me, "Good morning Yugi."

"Morning Jiichan," I said with a smile feeling a bit better after a good nights sleep. "I'm going to hang out with Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun today."

"Alright but be home by eight," he said in his parental way. "I don't want you staying out to late. This weather could give you a good cold."

"I won't," I promised and took an apple that he handed me, then hurried out of shop. As I got to school Anzu was waiting for me and I waved to her. She ginned at me, but then I saw Anna and her friends hurrying over to her.

"Anzu," I hear Anna say as I passed by, "The movie starts at five, I figure we can get in some shopping before then."

Anzu laughed, "That'll be fun. Excuse me." She slipped past the other girls and headed over to me as I stood by the gate. "Yugi, Good morning."

"Morning," I said and smiled, "how was work?"

"Same as always, Maroko was being sour all night. It's a wonder he's the manager," She explained and I nodded, and then glanced over at Anna who was standing with Miho. She looked at me softly and said, "I'm coming over by you, you know."

"Oh really?" I started to ask and looked over at the girls. "Funny sounded like you were going with them to the movies."

She shook her head, "I never said yes to that."

"But you want to go," I said and she shook her head again. "You don't?"

"No, I want to come over and hang out," she told me and smiled. "I told you yesterday I wanted to, so I'll be over at four. Okay?"

I nodded, "Okay" and she walked back over to the other girls to talk. I grinned to myself. This was going to be a fun day, Anzu was going to come over, and maybe I could get Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun to come and visit. I walked into class; Bakura-kun was sitting talking to Asabi-san, waved me over.

"Yugi," he said with a gentle smile, "I'd like you to meet my friend Mayumi-chan. Mayumi; this is my dear friend Yugi."

I smiled and she grinned at me, "Pleased to finally meet you Yugi, Ryou-kun's told me how you won Duelist Kingdom. How was your trip to Egypt by the way? I've always wanted to go there."

She pushed her green hair behind her ear and I saw Bakura-kun watch her with a blush to his face. I hid a smile as we spoke. Mayumi had met Bakura-kun over the summer when he had found her hat, but she wasn't in our class last year.

"It was really lucky that he managed to find the cap," she was telling me and touched his hand. Bakura-kun blushed again, mumbling softly, "No it wasn't."

"Yes it was, don't lie," she giggled and looked at me. "He's so modest around me. Is he always that way to you, Yugi?"

"Well you never know with Bakura-kun," I laughed and Bakura glanced away obviously knowing I meant his other self. I guess he still hasn't come to terms with that yet. I thought as Mayumi-chan got up, she whispered something to Bakura then headed out of the room waving at me.

"Bakura-kun, I was wondering," I asked quickly, "Do you want to come over to hang out today?"

"After school?"

I nodded and he blushed, "Well um, actually I was going to go watch a movie with Mayumi-chan after school. Maybe some other time Yugi?"

I smiled, "Okay, well have fun then."

Bakura turned a bit red and I laughed in spite of myself. I was really happy for him. Bakura-kun has always had the worst time in school ever since he transferred here. Teachers didn't like him because of his hair, and some students used to make fun of the fact that he was such a quiet person. We became his first friends here, and I was glad that someone could see the good in him the way we could. I grinned and he chuckled.

"You're going to ask how long we've been going out, aren't you?"

I nodded slowly as he smiled, "About a month. I couldn't go out with her before because…well you know. If Voice did come out, I…I didn't want her to get hurt."

He looked away and asked, "Do you ever miss him?"

"Mou hitori no boku?" I asked and he nodded as I slipped into my chair. "Yes. Most of the time I do. I think I hear him when I go to sleep, but then I wake up and he's not there."

"Sometimes I think we're the only two people in the world that can ever understand this type of loss." He says quietly and I nodded my head. Talking to Bakura helped me a lot when I first felt down. It's something that brought us closer as friends. Even though our other selves were enemies, somehow, we became good friends. I think that's one of the strengths that bind my friends to me; that no matter what happens, we're always going to be friends. I smiled as I saw Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun running in.

"Hi you two," I said as they slammed the door looking scared.

"Yug, Bakura…don't…open…the…door." Jounouchi panted and Honda-kun stared at us looking pale.

"What's the matter," I got up followed by Bakura and my two best friends look at each other with scared expressions as Honda says slowly.

"Girls, are really, really freaky!"

"Um…" Bakura sweat drops at this. "What makes you think that?"

"Because," Jounouchi-kun says in a way that makes it seem the most obvious thing in the world. "They've been tryin' all day to grab Honda."

"Huh?" I looked at Honda-kun puzzled, "Why are they trying to grab you?"

He slumped down, "This damn new look. I'm cursed I tell you. I wanted a girlfriend, but not like this!"

"I don't…" I start to say but then Honda shoved a magazine in my hand and I stare at a picture of a singer of a pop band. "Hey, he looks just like you."

"Not quite but close enough," Honda-kun says with a snort and glowers at the page. "I'd love to knock his smug mug in. Bet he's the one my mom cut my hair after."

Jounouchi-kun glanced at the page, then back at Honda, then back at the page again and said, "Nah, he don't have that 'I'm thinking deep thoughts so much that my head hurts' look."

"Are you sayin I'm not good looking?" Honda hissed, and Jounouchi-kun chuckled.

"Nah I'm sayin that you've got more hound dog look." And he pulled his lips down to make a drooping face.

"I'll hound dog you…" Honda-kun said dropping the magazine, which Bakura-kun collected. He stared at the page and blinked.

"I'm assuming that the reason you were chased in here by girls who thought you might be him?"

Honda-kun nodded slowly as he tried to grab hold of Jounouchi-kun who had scrambled on the teachers desk and was making rude gestures to him. Bakura-kun and I sighed, "I'll go check."

"Yugi don't," Honda and Jounouchi shouted and steeled themselves behind the desk. However when I pulled the door open, there was no one in the hallway. Honda-kun let out a sigh of relief as I slid the door shut.

"See," I said with a grin, then quickly asked if there was any chance of them coming over after school. Jounouchi grinned and jumped off the teacher's desk.

"I was just gonna ask if you wanted us to come over."

Honda-kun groaned, "I can't."

"Why not," Jounouchi-kun gave him a quizzical look.

"My mom wants me to watch Joji today," he explained and then he gave Jounouchi-kun a thump in the shoulder. "And didn't you say you have that magazine delivery thing?"

"Damn, that's right," Jounouchi-kun rolled his eyes and sighed, "And Shizuka's got art classes after school. I totally forgot about that." He looked at me sadly, "Yug, I'm really sorry."

I smiled, "It's okay. Anzu said she'd come over, so."

"Anzu's coming over huh?" Jounouchi-kun smirked at me as the rest of the class started to file in. I held up my hands and moved back.

"No, nothing like that, Jounouchi-kun. We were just going to watch movies."

"Right," He covered a giggle then whispered, "Uh by the way did you ever…"

"The tape?" I sat down fast and shook my head, "I'm really sorry but I think that Jiichan found it and…"

"Ahem," our homeroom teacher gave us a severe look and we became quiet. It wasn't until fourth period, when we have Science that our routine became interrupted. As we shuffled into the lab, our teacher Hayashi-sensei was standing talking with a very tall good looking young man. Both were wearing lab coats, and the young man had his black hair slicked back. He had dark brown eyes and grinned at us as we came in.

"Good afternoon," Hayashi-sensei was saying and we greeted him. Bakura-kun was sharing a lab with me while Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun sat behind us. Both were trying to figure out if they could use the glass stirring rods as spit ball shooters, if they broke off the back ends.

"Jounouchi-san, Honda-san. Please refrain from blowing things up until we actually start doing the labs this year," Hayashi-sensei was saying. My friends quickly put down the rods and tried to look innocent as the class chuckled some. Our teacher grinned under his thick beard.

"I'd like to introduce to you Renga Ki'ichgo. He's going to be our student teacher for this year, and I'd like you to treat him the same way you treat me…" he paused and looked at some of the students, namely Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun, "On second thought, treat him BETTER then you treat me."

Ki'ichigo grinned at us, "I'm pleased to meet you all, and I hope to get to know all of you before the middle of the term."

"If you have any questions Ki'ichigo will be assisting, so you may ask him. He'll also be teaching a few of the labs," Hayashi-sensei was saying. The day moved fast after that, and Anzu came into the class for lunch with us. It felt like old times, she told us about her teachers, and how she thought that Hayashi-sensei's beard had grown another foot.

"Any longer and birds can nest in there," Honda-kun joked. I watched them, a smile creeping onto my face, regardless of the weather. This was how it was supposed to be. Always. By the end of the day I was already racing out of the building shouting goodbyes as I hurried to the bus stop. The rain was heavy again, and I had given my umbrella to Anzu because she forgot hers at home.

"Yugi, I can't take this," she tried to give it back to me but I just smiled.

"Yes you can. You can give it back when you come over, see you at five!"

Before she could argue I ran for the bus. Rain poured over my head, but I didn't care. I nearly danced my way home thinking that Anzu was coming over and that maybe I could tell her how I felt.

The rain seemed to clear up as I got to the shop; I held a book over my head, and dashed along the street, splashing up puddles. Ducking inside I waved to Jiichan as I took the steps two at a time.

"Yugi," he said following me. "There's something I need to tell you."

"No time," I shouted dropping my wet bag by the landing and throwing off my shoes. "Anzu's coming over and I need to change out of these wet cloths."

"But Yugi," Jiichan was saying as I hurried up to my room and opened the door. "There's something I need to tell you."

"Jiichan, can it…wait." I paused at the door and noticed something moving in my bed. Shutting my door I turned on the light and walked over to my bed to find Dark-san sleeping quietly in my bed. I blinked and blushed some, feeling rather weird. What is she doing in here? Maybe I should just let her sleep. But I have to change.

I bent down near her ear and whispered quietly, shaking her shoulder some, "Dark-san, please, you have to get up."

She mumbled and slowly blinked her eyes open, then looked at me, "Yugi?"

"Hi, ah," my hand slipped onto her forehead and I pulled it away. "Dark-san, you're hot."

"Huh?" she mumbled. "Should I take that as a compliment?"

I shook my head, blushed just a bit, "No, Dark-san you're head feels really warm. I'm going to get Kaasan okay?"

I slipped quietly out of the bedroom and headed down stairs just as my mother was heading up. She had some cloths in her arms and she blocked my way from going down. "Yugi, were you just up in your room?"

I nodded, "Yes. Kaasan, why is Dark-san in there?"

"She came in soaking wet, I think she was caught in the storm," she handed me the clothing. "Here, some warm cloths for you."

I nodded and went back up the stairs, then paused to shout back, "Kaasan, Anzu's coming over, and Dark-san…she felt warm to me."

"She did?" My mother said following me up the stairs and heading into my bedroom with Dark-san's clothing. "I see. Well I'll check. You go get changed."

I smiled at her as she gave me a motherly look, and then hurried into my Jiichan's bedroom to change. Its bigger then mine but really cramped; he has stacks and stacks of books that are older then anything I've really seen. I quickly pulled on my black jeans and a black and white hooded shirt. My fingers dusted over an old photo book of Jiichan's that he had on the bed.

Humm? I've never seen this one before, I thought picking it up and opening the pages. There were pictures of my dad and mom when they were younger, and one's of me when I was little. I laughed, seeing that I was holding game pieces even when I was only in dippers. I closed the book intending to put it away when a photo slipped out and I pick it up.

"Huh?" I stared at the image seeing a woman who's just a bit taller then my Jiichan standing with him, arms linked. She's quiet beautiful and I smiled realizing I was looking at my Baachan. It's black and white, but I can see that she had a really sweet smile and seems to be really happy to be standing with Jiichan. I slipped the photo into my back pocket to keep it safe then walked out of the room.

Heading downstairs I paused on the last step and listened quietly. Kaasan was on the phone and she sounded tired.

"Yes, of course dear," she was saying and cupped her elbow in the palm of her left hand. "No he'll understand I'm sure. I'll tell him. Alright. Good bye."

I slipped back up a few steps and then came down again trying to look as if I didn't hear that conversation. It was clear to me who had called and I wasn't surprised when my mother told me Anzu had just phoned to say she would be late because her mom had asked her to run some errands. I gave a light shrug.

"So she'll be here a bit later, okay," I started to rummage through some games. "Kaasan, where's most of my board games?"

"In the left cabinet," she said, and I pulled open one of the small side doors to our new entertainment center. Tousan had bought it for us last year, and my mom had moved all the games into the cabinets, she claimed to make more space. Jiichan thought that was code for, "It's a mess down in the shop and I won't have a mess up here."

I was busy digging away at the board games, Risk, Monopoly, the game of life, I didn't look up when Kaasan greeted Dark coming down the stairs. "Dark-san, what are you doing out of bed? Are you sure you're feeling better?"

"I'm really okay, Ayami-san," Dark replied, calling my mother by her first name. I glanced up and saw Dark-san leaning over the couch watching me.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking for games to play," I explained and she sat down next to me peering into the cabinet. I blinked and kept pulling out items, when she suddenly let out a laugh.

"Candyland!"

"Huh?" I peeked up and saw Dark was holding out an old edition of Candyland. She grinned happily as she ran her hand over the box.

"I haven't seen this game since I was ten," she grinned looking at me as she took it to the table and set it down. "My Gecko and I used to play it all the time. Although I think he let me win when I was like five."

I blinked, Her gecko? "You played with a pet lizard?"

She stared at me, and then broke into giggles covering her lips with her hand, "No. No..I'm sorry. I should explain." Dark grinned as I listened quietly. "Gecko is what I called my grandpa on my dad's side. He told me too when I was little because I couldn't say grandpa, and it just sort of stuck."

"Oh," I said and gave her a light smile. "Bet people got confused by that."

Dark-san grinned and set the game on the small table, "All the time. Even after I got older and he was there. Kids at my school would look at me like 'Who's she talking about?'" her hands brushed over the box slowly and a sort of sad look came over her blue eyes. "I really miss him."

I blinked not sure if she was talking about him being in America and she missed him because she was away from him, or that he was dead. Kaasan helped sort it out when she said, "How long has he been gone Dark-san?"

She looked up and thought for a moment, "Six years this December."

Kaasan nodded as she asked, "You lived with him didn't you?"

"Till I was twelve," she said with a smile. "Then I moved in with my Dad. He and my mom are divorced."

Kaasan nodded politely, and Dark-san quickly looked at me, "So why are you digging up all these games?"

"Ah, well a friend of mine is coming over. Anzu-chan, and I just thought that it would be fun to play some games. Like old times." I explained and Dark-san nodded.

"Is she coming over now?"

"Not quite," I said pulling out a card game and setting it on the side. I had three piles, no, yes and maybe. At the moment the no pile had more because it took more then two people to play them. I dug a bit deeper inside, adding, "She said she would be late."

I heard the lid of the box on the table be tossed onto the table top and sat up. Dark-san was setting out Candyland, smiling some, "So let's play then."

"Huh? Oh sure if you want," I said settling in across from her. She pulled out the four little gingerbread men split them in her hands and then flipped them around behind her back.

"Okay pick an arm," she said and I pointed to her right. She pulled out the blue and red, so I took the red, which always took, while she chose the green and set them up at start and shuffled the cards. Her fingers played around with the small color cards, and I watched with a raised eyebrow. It was like a magic trick. Her fingers divided the cards, then merged them, split them again between her five fingers, and finally shuffled them into a pile.

"Were did you learn to do that?" I asked and she blushed.

"My Gecko was a magican," Dark-san explained and grinned. "He taught me a lot of tricks."

"That was really cool though," I said and her blush grew a bit more.

"You think? I don't show too many people," she said and I drew a card from the pile, blue, and moved my little gingerbread man to the first blue space that was on the candy path. I nodded and grinned.

"Yeah I think so. I bet it took you a long time to learn that trick." She laughed some and grinned at me.

"Well not exactly," Dark-san explained and pulled her card, moving her guy to a green space. "He started to teach me when I was three. But I could probably show you how to do it if you wanted."

"That would be really nice of you, Dark-san," I said as we played the game. She told me after a while that she used to make up stories about the gingerbread guys visiting the different locations on the board. I chuckled as she pretended to have her gingerbread try and learn the secret of King Candy, the leader of Candy land, and where he was taken to. I was surprised to find myself joining in and doing the voice to Jolly the gumdrop guy. Dark-san giggled happy, and neither of us heard Anzu-chan come in until she sat down next to us.

"Candyland?" she asked me, and I flushed.

"Anzu-chan! I…I didn't even hear you come in," I stumbled and looked at Dark-san who gazed at Anzu-chan. She smiled.

"So you must be the friend that was coming over," Dark-san said and grinned. Anzu looked at her carefully. Ever since I had the puzzle as a whole my friends had become wary of anyone that wanted to be friends with me. So I knew Anzu was trying to figure out if Dark-san was being legitimate. She must have felt that Dark-san was a pretty good person, because she shook her hand and Dark-san gave her a little bow."

"I'm Mazaki Anzu," Anzu-chan told her. Dark-san grinned and introduced herself, explaining that she was the new help in the shop. Anzu gave me a quick look and I cleared my throat.

"I was going to tell you," I blushed some, but then Kaasan came over with some food and drinks.

"Are the three of you going to play together?"

"Um…" I started to say looking between the two girls. I had invited Anzu to hang out, but I didn't want to be rude to Dark-san. But she didn't know Anzu-chan at all.

"Sure we are," Anzu said with a grin and smiled at me, "The more the merrier right?"

I nodded, as always Anzu looked out for me. Dark-san grinned and reset the board.

"Want to play? It's really easy." She held out the last two tokens and Anzu took the yellow. Dark-san looked at the lone remaining green and then set it next to the blue with a gentle smile. "I can't stand leaving a token behind when it's on its own. So these two are going to be twins, if that's okay with the two of you?"

Anzu laughed and nodded, "Sure, so how do we play?"

Between the two of us, Dark-san and me, we explained how to play the game. Dark-san seemed a bit more subdued with Anzu-chan there, and after a while, when we were playing our third game, one Dark-san didn't know much about, she stood up and excused herself.

"I should be going home. It was really nice meeting you Anzu-san." Dark-san bowed some and Anzu nodded.

"Nice meeting you too, Dark-san."

Dark-san looked at me, "Thanks for playing the game with me Yugi. I'll see you tomorrow."

I nodded keeping my eyes on the board, "Yeah…see you tomorrow Dark-san."

When she was gone Anzu gave me a hard nudge, "Huh?"

"You didn't even look at her when she left. That's not like you Yugi. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," I lied. How could I tell Anzu that if I looked at Dar-san I might blush again? I wasn't supposed to do that, after all I liked Anzu-chan, and that was that. I grinned at her. "Hey want to watch a movie?"

She nodded; a bit skeptical of my answer, but soon enough the whole thing was forgotten about. Anzu-chan stayed till dinner then went home. She waved happily as she left and I wanted to kick myself. All afternoon there were chances for me to tell her how I felt, but I couldn't do it. Dinner was a quiet affair again, and I kept moving the food around my plate until Kaasan said, "Well if you can't eat you can at least get in some study time."

Nodding I hurried upstairs and sat at my desk trying to study up on the early 90s for my world history. My mind buzzed playing out what should have happened today. Anzu-chan would have come in, and I would have given her a flower, then sat her down and took her hand. In my mind I had no problem being like other me. I could tell her exactly how I felt, and then she blushed when I asked her to go out with me.

"Yes Yugi," she would say and hug me. Maybe even give me a kiss. I blushed as I thought of that, then pulled my mind from it and stared at the page. I shut my book, feeling sick of history and sat down on the bed, and put my face in my pillow to give a yell. It was so frustrating not being able to say to her that I liked her. I was about to toss it back on my bed when I saw my Pjs neatly folded and a note on top of that. I picked it up and saw my name written neatly across the front. Flipping it open I found myself reading a thank you note.

Dear Yugi, It read and I scanned it to see that the whole thing had come from Dark-san. She wrote, I just wanted to say thank you for letting me use your pjs. I'm sorry if I caused you some nervousness by me being in here. I know that I would be surprised to see some boy sleeping in my bed too. 'Laugh' But I just wanted to thank you for being so sweet and letting me use them. And also I wanted to say thank you for brushing my head to wake me up, it reminded me of how my Gecko, 'grandpa', used to wake me up when I was napping. And, thank you for the cookies yesterday. I really owe you one for being so kind to me. Your friend Dark. P.S. I made sure that they were folded the same as you left them. They're really cute.

I smiled softly and put aside the note. That was really nice of her to send it to me. Slipping on my pjs I curled under the covers, and was about to go to sleep, when it hit me what she said. She didn't wash them, she just put them back, and I felt my face flush. It was just like she was hugging me. I settled my beating heart, and tried to sleep, but eyes kept flashing back from a bright blue to dark midnight and back again. I didn't sleep very well that night at all.