Warnings: yaoi, het, oocness, OCs, swearing, blahdidyblah.

Disclaimer: The characters/setting/etc belong to the makers of YGOGX, and dueling info came form both Janime and the upperdeckentertainment yu-gi-oh site, which you can get to from the wikipedia article on duel monsters. It has an interactive demo and FAQs and stuff.

Summary: Chazz gets suckered into being helpful, has a phone call, duels and makes a new 'friend' One of the last happy, fluffy chapter, so enjoy it while you can.

Other: Longest Chapter yet. W00000t. It also had, like, 4 or 5 more pages that I took out because they sucked. Majorly. It was like this really random and weird conversation between Bastion and Chazz that was a) incredibly awkward and b) insanely repetitive. There is a shorter, better version of it in the chapter.

There were sooo many people who I wanted to dedicated this to! Gah! So I chose four.

yamitenshikagomefor being such a loyal reviewer! I really needed to dedicate a chapter to you before this…-feels guilty-

DesertRose89: For giving me a pair of Syrus/Chazz dolls. ZOMG. Just…XOMG. –dies fangirlishly-

Winter Yuy: for such a lovely, long review! And for giving me the idea of Jaden accidentally falling off the island…-snert- And as for your comments on my little shallowness rant believe me, I myself am no 10! Though I know what you mean. So many people feel that they are unattractive, but I really believe beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I mean, I have had crushes on people who think themselves ugly or that most people would think that about.

And mischeif-maker: because otherwise I think she might kick my ass. Jkjk. Because she's reviewed a lot and makes me giggle Squee!

Edit: Thanks to pyscotic KAT for catching a grammar mistake in here. I edited it! Yay!

-12-

"I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail, I'm going to fail!" Chazz sighed, rubbing at his temple in an attempt to calm his aching head. He waited until Syrus passed by him, wringing his hands, and then stuck his foot out, effectively tripping the smaller boy. He grabbed the back of the boy's red blazer and pulled him toward him, completely ruining the bluenette's center of balance. He then proceeded to clamp a pale hand over the offending mouth.

"You're not going to fail, Syrus, so quit stressing." He said in what he hoped was a reasonably reassuring tone. "Now, please shut up. You're cute, but you're wearing my patience thin." He flashed a quick smile at his boyfriend to soften the impact of his words as he dragged the smaller boy to sit next to him on the bed.

"Yeah, like you ever had any patience, Chazz." Jaden chuckled from the other side of the room. The annoying Slifer had committed a breaking and entering on Chazz-well, Syrus had let him in, but whatever- citing loneliness as the cause for his unwanted presence. The school had scrounged up enough extra rooms for the North Academy students so they were all gone, but, strangely enough, Syrus was being rather slow about moving his stuff back. Needless to say, Chazz wasn't jumping to help. As for Chumely, the fat boy had disappeared off to the library to study by himself.

"The simple fact that you're still alive, Slacker, is proof enough that I have both patience and self control." He snapped, thoroughly annoyed. He was trying to study! Exams were barely a day away, after all, and he'd be damned if he got anything less than an A+.

No, Chazz didn't consider himself a perfectionist. Why?

"Aww, Chazz, be nice!" Syrus scolded, pushing the black haired boy's hand away from his mouth.

"Yeah, Chazz, be nice." Jaden echoed a beat behind his friend. Chazz gave him a glance meant to convey the depths of his hatred and frigid sense of bitter irony. The brown-haired idiot only grinned, oblivious.

"Fine, but first I have to politely inform Jaden that he does not get the privilege to tell me to be nice, ever. In fact, he should refrain from doing so ever again if he wants to retain his teeth. And I should warn both of you that if I explode from excessive buildup of sarcastic comments, it's on your heads." He said darkly, glowering at the other two before taking refugee behind his text book.

"Wah!" Syrus screamed. "No! Chazz! You need to help me! I don't want to fail! Chazz!"

"You'll do fine as long as you shut up and study." He said absently, trying to do a difficult chemistry problem in his head. "Ask Jaden. He likes giving pep talks."

"You'll do fine, Sy." Jaden instantly broke in, just like Chazz expected. Incredibly predictable. Did he really lose to that slacker? Lame. "Don't worry about it!"

"How can I not? How can you not?" Syrus asked, somewhat hysterically. "You haven't even opened a single book, Jay! How can you not be worried that you'll fail?" He wanted to know.

"Huh? Oh, I'm not worried. It's just a duel with another student, right? No need to worry, right?" Chazz gave his best annoyed sigh and slammed his palm against his face dramatically.

"Wrong and wrong again, idiot!" He practically shouted. "Don't you listen to anything, ever? The duel's only half of our grade. The other half is from a written test. It's like our entrance exams, get it? God, you are such a dumbass!"

"Chazz! Jaden is not a dumbass!" Syrus squeaked in protest. Chazz rolled his eyes and folded his arms over his chest.

"Oh, right, of course not. Actually, Jaden has a rare and unique form of genius that is out of the understanding of the rest of us so we just think he's a dumbass. In reality, he is just operating on such a totally different level of understanding that we regulars can't relate to. Sorry, I forgot."

"Aw, thanks! I think you're pretty smart, too!" Jaden said gratefully. Chazz let out a growl of annoyance and had to count to ten in his head to refrain from chucking his book at the slacker's head.

"I was being sarcastic, and you just proved my point." He explained, struggling to keep his voice as neutral as possible. He turned and buried his head in his boyfriend's shoulder, ignoring that this meant he was both bent at a slightly uncomfortable angle and had blue hair tickling his ear. "Help me, Syrus, I feel the explosion coming on." He muttered.

"Eep!" Syrus squeaked on finding himself as an impromptu pillow. Chazz felt him raise his hand and tentatively pat the darkly clad boy's back in what the Princeton figured was supposed to be a soothing manner. "Though you haven't really been keeping any of it in, you know."

"You don't know what goes on in my head." He muttered caustically against the bluenette's neck, smirking when he felt the small teen shiver slightly.

"You know, Chazz," Jaden's obnoxious voice broke in, ruining the moment. "You've yelled at me and Alexis for just looking at each other and yet you can get all huggy with Syrus? What gives?"

"Well, to put it simply, Yuki," Chazz said with an evil smirk which was sadly invisible to Jaden. "You and Alexis are ugly; especially the 'you' part. Syrus and I are hot. There's the difference. Oh, and by the way?" He tacked on sweetly. "It's Alexis and me, not me and Alexis."

"That's it!" Syrus suddenly exclaimed joyfully. He jumped up with no warning, accidentally ramming his shoulder into the thin boy's nose and making his boyfriend fly back across the bed with an undignified 'oof!' to hit his head against the wall. Tiny flares of pain lanced there way from both sides of his head, making him wince.

Chazz was never one to let his displeasure go unknown. "Ow! Fuck! Syrus, that hurt!" He whined. The bluenette turned to see Chazz holding his nose while struggling to right himself. Chazz was gratified to see that his boyfriend's eyes immediately filled with distress.

"Oh no! Chazz, I'm sorry! Are you okay?" He asked worriedly. Chazz sighed dramatically and flapped his hand.

"I'll live. Continue. This better be worth it." He muttered, not willing to let the incident pass without remark but also hoping that Syrus would get that excited look back on his face. Damn his cuteness.

"Oh, right!" And there it was. "Well, I was thinking, Chazz is smart, right?" Chazz blinked, utterly lost.

"Of course I am!" He said, letting his bravado take over in an attempt to hide his complete confusion. "I was the best Obelisk coming out of the Prep Academy, after all. You don't get to be that by just sitting round and looking nice."

"Well, yeah." Syrus said, clearly unsure how exactly to reply to that. He quickly recovered. "Anyway, since Jay and I are clearly going to fail, I was thinking-"

"-You could tutor us!" Jaden finished, evidently catching on to Syrus's plan.

"Hmm…let me think…no." He returned his attention to his book until someone began to pull on his arm. He looked up into glittering silver eyes and gulped audibly. Oh great, Syrus was going to manipulate him again, wasn't he?

"Please, Chazz? It would really be helpful and would mean so much to me…" He trailed off with a beseeching expression on his face. Chazz glared.

"Fine! You know, eventually I'll become immune to that." He threatened. "Just you wait."

"Er…immune to what?" Jaden asked. "Immune to studying? Immune to tutoring? Immune to helpfulness?" He went on to list as many things as he could think of, completely missing the point.

Chazz was seriously considering homicide.

-12-

It was weird. That was the only way to describe it. Weird. Chazz had thought that by this time, he would be yelling and throwing desks across the room, but, oddly enough, nobody had sustained a single injury thus far and it was almost calm in the little room.

Surprisingly, the former Obelisk was actually a good tutor. Once he worked some anger out of his system by ripping up Jaden's messy, half-assed notes, he simmered down to a calm and patient mood that most people didn't ever get to see.

"You're a fucking idiot, Yuki."

He was still Chazz, though.

"Huh? But I thought…" Chazz cut him off with a sharp pencil tap on the brown haired boy's notebook.

"No, you clearly did not think. If you had thought, perhaps you might have thought about the little fact that if you have fewer than three cards in your deck when Lady Assailant of Flames is flipped face up, the Flip Effect doesn't activate." He explained in the nicest way he knew.

"Really?" Jaden scratch his head. "You sure?"

"No, actually, I'm just messing with your head. Of course I'm sure! Jeez, if this whole pro dueling thing doesn't work out, you could probably become a professional village idiot."

"You think?" For some reason that completely escaped Chazz, Jaden seemed to be actually considering the possibility.

"Yes, yes, I do. It's one of those things that set us apart. I believe that being an idiot is one of your areas of expertise. In fact-"

"Oh, hi, Alexis!" Syrus sudden greeting distracted Chazz and he turned to se the blonde Obelisk standing in the doorway, a bemused expression on her face as she surveyed the scene before her.

"Hey, Syrus." She replied. "You're all studying, I take it?" Jaden bounced up and ran over to his girlfriend. Chazz averted his eyes when they went through their required sappy greeting smooch, but refrained from actually making a comment when Syrus gave him a fierce warning glance.

"I liked it better when you were a push over.' He muttered to his boyfriend.

"Wha?"

"Never mind." He sighed. He hadn't really meant it, anyway, he just liked to complain. He turned back to the intruders, aka Alexis and Jaden and ran a hand through his hair while Jaden responded to his girl's question.

"Yeah, Lex. Chazz is helping us study! He's really smart; you should have him help you, too!" Chazz jumped up when Alexis started nodding, looking all too interested in the offer.

"What? No way! This was a one time, two person only offer! I didn't want to do this! I was forced into this. I only agreed because, well, you know…" He trailed off with a miniscule gesture at Syrus, who smiled.

"No, Chazz, I don't know." Jaden said, confusion written all over his stupid face. "I thought you had agreed out of, like, the kindness of your heart."

"If you were anyone else I would think you were being sarcastic. I don't have any kindness in my heart!"

"Sure you do, Chazz!" Syrus piped up. "I can think of a lot of times when you've been really, really kind. Like when-" Chazz hurried to cut his boyfriend off before something embarrassing was said.

"Fine, but I only have a little and none of it is reserved for that Slacker." He finally said. He threw a disgusted glare at Alexis. "Stop laughing, woman." He snapped, sitting back down.

"Oh, stop pouting, you big baby." Alexis taunted, taking her boyfriend by the hand and sitting down across from Chazz and Syrus.

"I am not pouting!" He retorted, quickly withdrawing his lower lip. "Fine. Alexis can study with us, but if you expect me to help you, you ought to respect me."

"Alright, alright." Alexis agreed. "But only if you can explain to me about Archfiend cards. I know that we went over it in class, but Crowler always gets so off topic that my notes are everywhere."

-12-

"So, can any of you three imbeciles tell me why Example B is cheating?" He asked. "Come on, I promise that if you answer and are wrong, I won't make fun of you too badly."

"Watch who you're calling an imbecile, Princeton.' Alexis warned. "I'll have you remember that I got into Obelisk, too."

"Oh yeah? Well, you're a girl. It doesn't count. It's not as if they could put you in Slifer. Now, back to the question. Anyone going to venture a guess or must I insult you all some more?"

"Um…" Syrus hesitantly spoke up. "Is it because you can't summon Ray of Hope without having 2 LIGHT monsters in your graveyard?"

"Exactly!" Chazz beamed. "Right on all accounts. See, Syrus, you aren't going to fail. You're doing incredibly well"

"Hey! How come we don't get that kind of praise when we get something right?" Jaden wanted to know.

"Um, duh." Chazz turned back to his textbook and thumbed through it. "Lemme see, if I was Crowler, what would I ask…Besides things demeaning Jaden, of course, which I'd ask even as The Chazz…"

"Well, this has to be the strangest study session I've ever laid my eyes on." All four kids turned to see Bastion smirking from the doorway. "Mind if I join in?"

"Why do you need any study help? I thought you were supposed to be Mr. Braniac or something." The youngest Princeton griped somewhat spitefully.

"Well, yes. However, since the whole Shadow Rider thing started up I have not been as focused as is probably expedient."

"Wah? Exponents? I thought we were focusing on dueling." Jaden whined. "Ow! Chazz! It hurts when you throw books at me!"

"Good, it's meant to hurt. He said expedient, not exponent. It means suitable or advisable. You really need to read more." He turned back to Bastion before Syrus or Alexis could voice any kind of disapproval toward his actions. "Is that all? Sucky reason."

"Well," Bastion admitted with a slight blush. "While I got the best score on the entrance exams, I didn't get a perfect score and when I went over everyone results I realized that every question I got wrong, you, Chazz, got right. I would like to remedy this matter and so it makes sense to get help from you."

"Fine, whatever. Professor Princeton could use a student who answers his questions with regularity. Sorry, Syrus. Now, Misawa, name two ways to Special Summon the card Freed the Matchless General from the graveyard."

-12-

"This is quite the operation you have going here." The unexpected voice, no matter how quiet and calm, made Chazz jump with surprise and almost fall off the roof that he was standing on.

"The 'little' tutoring group had grown larger and larger as more and more students caught wind of it and came to join in. After Mindy, Jasmine, a few Ras and half of Slifer dorm had asked to get in on the action; Chazz had decided it would be 'expedient', to quote Bastion, if they moved to a bigger space.

This meant that he had made all of his 'students' sit on the ground before Slifer while he lectured and questioned them from the roof, a perch he had deemed auspicious enough for his important nature. He liked being the sole black trench coat on top of the world, or dorm, rather, staring down at a liberal smattering of red and yellow blazers.

For whatever reason, Alexis and her sidekicks were the only Obelisks there. The others appeared to be boycotting Chazz now that he was a Slifer. Ah well, not to worry, if they were going to be that way, he didn't care if they all failed. They'd only ever liked him because he was rich, anyway.

The number of Obelisks present, however, had just jumped by roughly 66 percent when those two had shown up and made Chazz nearly fall to an early demise.

"Zane? Atticus? Why are you two here, braving it alone in Slifer territory?" He asked, trying to cover his near miss with a semi-asinine comment. Chazz was pretty good at those. "This is really more a freshman thing." Which was true enough, after all, Chazz didn't know what they taught in the second or third year and so couldn't quiz people on it.

"See, Zane? I knew he'd make some kind of sarcastic comment like that! Pay up!" Atticus held out a hand expectantly. Zane gave him an exasperated glance.

"Later, Atticus. Stop making us seem immature in front of the people we're supposed to be role models for." He hissed, but Chazz could still hear every word and snickered.

"Oh, right. The impressionable kiddies. I forgot." Atticus turned to the assorted first years and pinned them with a stern look. "Don't gamble, children. Or have big, gay, love af-"

"What Atticus and I are actually here to tell you," Zane broke in, pretending not to hear his lover speaking. "Is that the lists of the duel matches have been posted and the teachers were wondering why the only first years showing up were Obelisks."

"The lists are up?" Chazz felt his eyes widened. "Class dismissed and stay out of my way!" He quickly swung himself down onto the porch with the ease of practice from night spent stargazing from the roof and bolted down the stairs. He darted quickly among the masses of other students running toward the main office, thanking every deity he knew of for his lithe form, which made it easy to weave in and out of the others.

He shoved his way to the front of the group accumulating in front of the list and drew his finger down until he came to P and then quickly sought out his own name.

Chazz Princeton…Bastion Misawa…1:30 exam room G

"Well, Chazz, it looks like we're going to have a rematch." The polished voice came from around his left shoulder. He turned and smirked cockily.

"Not much of a rematch. I have an entirely different deck now." He reminded. "I'm a completely different person. If you think that…huh?" he turned to see Crowler sniffing arrogantly.

"Ah, yes, Mr. Princeton. You have a call in the office. Come along, now, please." The tall man said snootily before turned. Chazz followed the professor before realizing that practically all of their little group was following him. Syrus, Alexis, Chumely, Bastion, Zane, Atticus, Slacker, yup, seemed like everyone. He even saw Kyle hovering around the fringe.

"You know, I realize The Chazz irresistible but you don't have to follow me everywhere." He pointed out awkwardly.

"Well, it's just last time you went to get a call in the office, well, your brother's were trying to take over the school." Chumely explained. "Dunno about him, though." He said, jerking a thumb at Kyle.

"Me? Oh, I'm just bored." The small boy said. "You don't mind, Chazz, do you? Please can I come? Please?' He begged bouncing in circles around his hero until the taller boy felt his head spin.

"Stand still!" He barked, annoyed.

"If I stand still I'll get left behind." The preteen pointed out sensibly. Chazz felt himself twitch in irritation.

"Then just walk in a straight line, okay? If you're going to come then walk next to Jaden. I can't deal with annoyance from more than one side." He grumbled. He jumped when Kyle gave a happy shout and flung his arms about the dark boy's waist. "Get off of me, you twit!"

"Sorry, Chazz!" The boy said, not a bit apologetic and bounced over to begin an animated conversation with Jaden. Those two were irritatingly similar.

"Thank god." He muttered when they reached the doors. He walked in and waited for Crowler to press the button. A respectable looking young woman's face filled the screen. She appeared to be around her early thirties and was pretty in a quiet kind of way.

"Is this the young Mr. Princeton?" She asked. Chazz rolled his eyes.

"Take a wild guess. Hey, Leysa." He said. "What's new in the world of secretaries?" She cleared her throat.

"Is this the young Mr. Princeton?" She repeated, voice sounding strained.

"If you repeat stuff too many times I'll get bored. What's so important that you interrupted my very important intimidation of Misawa?" She clenched her jaw and suddenly leaned forward, her calm demeanor vanishing in the place of annoyance.

"Come on, Chazz! You know that the elder Mr. Princeton's are sticklers for procedure so would you please stop being an arrogant brat and pretend to be a good, dutiful brother until a time when I don't get caught in the crossfire?" She snarled before sitting back and going back into 'secretary mood'. Chazz smirked. You had to love Leysa. "Is this the young Mr. Princeton?"

"Yes, this is him. What is this call concerning?" He replied in practically the same tone of voice.

"Mr. Slade Princeton and Mr. Jagger Princeton send their well wishes for your exams and say that they are sure that you will do a service to the family and get perfect scores. Winning, of course, is the expected outcome of the duel portion." She said and shot a slightly sympathetic look at the camera. "Sorry." She whispered.

"When they say stuff like that, it makes me want to throw duels just to piss them off." Chazz muttered. Even though he knew that he wouldn't because he couldn't actually try to fail his brothers, as much as he wanted to.

"Did you say something, Mr. Princeton?" Leysa asked, which was obviously code for 'do you want me to put that on the record, please say no, I'm saving up for my wedding and getting fired because of you would really put a damper on those orchid arrangements?'

"No, I did not. Continue."

"Excellent, sir. They also say that they will send someone to pick you up in one of the helicopters promptly at the end of your last day and you aren't to be late as they have someone important that would like to make your acquaintance at dinner that night. Are there any return messages, sir?"

"Yeah, sure. Tell them that they can go to-"

"Chazz, please!"

"Sleep easy in the knowledge that I will be there on time.' Chazz continued smoothly, smirking evilly. Leysa growled and leaned forward.

"Don't make me come down there and kick your skinny ass, brat." She spat before writing down his message and offering him a polite smile. "Is that all, Mr. Princeton, sir?"

"Yes, that is all."

"Thank you for your consideration, Mr. Princeton." She leaned forward to cut the connection before pausing. "And please, please, please, do be on time, Chazz. You're sending me to an early grave already. Good luck, kid." The screen blacked out.

"Who was that?" Syrus asked in a rather awed tone of voice.

"Her? Oh, that was Leysa Ardwell. She's our family secretary. Her family's worked for mine pretty much forever. She's sixteen years older than I am, so she helped raise me. She's nice, but for whatever reason she seems stressed out a lot."

"You seem to be the cause of many headaches for her." Zane observed. Chazz adopted an innocent act, which, if his friend's reactions were any indicator, didn't work so well.

"Who, me?" He dropped the act and smirked. "Oh, don't worry about her- she's used to it. Besides, dealing with Slade and Jagger all the time, I feel it's my job to shake up her routine once in a while. Keep her on her toes. Now, if you don't mind, I need to go prepare to cream Bastion in our duel."

-12-

The match had already lasted 20 minutes. Bastion held the advantage right now but Chazz wasn't worried as he made his next move.

"I activate Dark Scorpion Tragedy of Love! Now, when Don Zaloog and Meanae the Thorn are on my field, I can sacrifice Meanae to destroy all the monsters on your field- in this case, your Super Conductive Warrior Linear Magnum Plus Minus!" Damn, Bastion's card had a long name. "Then I summon Spirit of the Breeze in attack mode."

"Are you sure you want to do that, Chazz? You do remember that your monster has no attack points." Bastion pointed out. Chazz just smiled smugly.

"Oh, I'm well aware of what I'm doing. Now I place a facedown and end my turn. Have a good draw, Bastion, you'll need it." He smirked. In the back of his mind, he was aware that a few kids were watching them, but he didn't let himself get distracted.

"I'm not too worried. I summon Mathematician. Due to its effect, I now send one card from the top of my deck to my graveyard. Now, Mathematician, destroy his Don Zaloog!" Chazz gritted his teeth as his monster exploded, voicing complaints about the matter the entire time. His life points dropped by 100 points, making them fall to the depressingly low number of 180.

"That all you got? Guess all your equations didn't work so well after all." He goaded. Bastion frowned at him.

"If I was n your position, Chazz, I would not be so cocky. I put a face down on the field and end my turn. Back to you." Bastion placed his card and nodded. Chazz drew, feeling very smug.

"Excellent. Now, during my standby phase, I activate my Spirit of the Breeze's special effect. As long as she's in attack mode, I get 1000 life points during my standby phase!" His points went up to 1180.

"No!" Bastion gasped.

"Yes!" He crowed. Then he turned a mocking smile back to his Ra friend. "Perhaps you should spend some more time learning the effects of weak cards." He taunted. That was the best part about using a deck with cards that nobody else wanted- nobody took the time to learn about them and so didn't expect him to use them well. "Maybe then you'd have destroyed her instead."

"Fine, then. Get all the points you want, Chazz- it won't change the outcome of this duel." Bastion snorted. Chazz sneered in reply.

"You're right- I'd win anyway. It just makes it easier in case my plan A doesn't work so well. Now I summon Masked Dragon to the field. Masked Dragon, attack his Mathmatician!"

"Huh? What's the point in that? My monster is stronger, so yours will be destroyed!" Bastion exclaimed. Chazz smirked and watched as that exact thing happened and ignored the 100 point drop to his life points as his trench coat ruffled around him.

"Good- that's exactly what I wanted to happen. You see, with Masked Dragon destroyed, its special effect kicks in. I can summon any dragon type monster with less than 1500 attack points to the field from my deck and I choose Armed Dragon LV3!" The orange monster appeared.

"So what? That's an even weaker monster than before and since you can't level it up until your next turn, I can destroy it beforehand!" Bastion argued.

"It's a good thing it isn't sticking around then, isn't it?" Chazz scoffed. "Because now I use my facedown spell card- Level Up! By sacrificing one monster with LV in its name, I can summon Armed Dragon LV5 regardless of Special Summoning rules! Now, using Armed Dragon special ability, I can send one card from my hand to the graveyard and a monster on your field with equal or less attack points is destroyed."

"My Mathematician!"

"Exactly." He discarded a card and the monster shattered while he laughed. "And now- Armed Dragon! Destroy him!" The monster complied and Bastion shouted while his life points drained down to 0. He fell to his knees.

"You"

"Go"

"Bye"

"Bye."

The monsters disappeared off the field and the duel disks deactivated. Bastion stood up and they made their way to the middle of their court where the proctor was waiting.

"Good duel, Bastion." Chazz said, controlling his natural impulse to gloat and rub it in the other boy's face as best as he could.

"Thanks. You too." Bastion said and smiled. They shook and turned to the proctor.

"Good job, both of you. Your results will be mailed to your place of residence over the summer. Remember, your grade is not decided on whether you won or lost but how well you played your deck and reacted to different situations. Thank you, you may both go."

The two walked in silence onto the grass where the group had decided to meet for goodbyes. Chazz was biting his lip to keep from jumping around shouting out how awesome he was for winning. He didn't want to hurt Bastion's feelings, which surprised him. He hadn't actually been aware that he gave a crap. He wondered when he'd grown a conscience. Probably when he started dating Syrus.

"You can let it out. I know you want to. I won't be offended, you know." Chazz blinked in surprise and turned to the smiling boy beside him.

"Seriously? You won't really?"

"I'll be fine. Come on, let it out. You look like you're about to burst." Chazz stared slightly at the smirking boy beside him and shrugged.

"All right, but I have to warn you I'm not going to be responsible for my actions in the next few minutes."

"Fair enough." Bastion nodded. Chazz took in a deep breath, let the feelings well up in him and let it all out in a rush.

"Hah! I won! The Chazz won! The Chazz rules all! Chazz it up! I am the most awesome…ever! I won! Hah! Hah! The Chazz rules, baby! The Chazz is unstoppable! The Chazz will conquer everything in his path because he is the Chazz and the Chazz is amazing because I won!" He fell back against the ground, exhausted from the demented little dance he had been doing around Bastion. He sighed and closed his eyes happily. "I won. I really, truly won." He murmured to himself, voice soft and ever so slightly disbelieving.

"Better?" Bastion asked, thoroughly amused. Chazz got up and brushed his coat off before nodding.

"Much. Thanks. You did duel really well, though." He offered in the closest he could come to an apologetic tone.

"Yes, I am rather pleased with my performance as a whole- I would have beaten most other decks. I think, however, if I am to beat you again I shall need to come up with a strategy for dealing with your…slightly unorthodox methods."

"What do you mean?" Chazz asked, genuinely interested. He glanced up ahead and saw the tree where they had been planning to meet. It looked as if they'd be the first ones there.

"Well, you must have realized by now that your deck is a very unusual one to use at an advanced level of game play. You use the monsters that most novices would deem useless, with very few exceptions. You don't use your cards individually, but, instead, you have them all interact with each other through sacrifices and effects. You also force your opponent to make choices that you set up to fool them into walking straight into your strategy."

"Wow." Chazz blinked. "I didn't realize you'd watched me duel that closely. You're right, though. I do all those things. I can usually guess what the other person will do and so I try to set it up that their move will help me."

"Yes. You are one of the most interesting duelists to watch, actually. While you don't actually break any rules, you do things that people would never think of doing-like having your Masked Dragon go on that suicide mission so that you could go through all those moves and get Armed Dragon LV5 out."

"Well, I figured you wouldn't be expecting that." Chazz said modestly. Well, sort of. "Sometimes you just have to have one monster go on a mission doomed to fail if it means that over all your side will get stronger. Plus, it had the element of surprise I mean; you wouldn't think I'd sacrifice one of my better monsters, after all."

"Particularly if the only other monster you had out at the time had 0 attack points! Though her special effect sure would be useful." The Ra mused, tapping his chin thoughtfully. Chazz nodded.

"Yeah, but it works better if she's not the only monster on my field and the other person doesn't know about her ability. If they do, they'd probably attack her before she's useful. It'd be nice if I could get a card to give her more attack points."

"Hmm, yes." Bastion agreed thoughtfully as they arrived at the tree. Chazz placed a foot on knot and hefted himself up until he could perch on a branch above the normally taller boy's head. "Um, Chazz? You realize you are sitting in a tree, don't you?"

"No, Bastion. I was completely unaware. Thanks for enlightening me, hmm? Technically, I'm sitting on a tree, you know. If I was sitting in a tree I'd be rather sappy and suffocated by now." He pointed out, just to be a wiseass.

"Yes, but why?" Bastion wanted to know. Chazz smirked and replied, purposefully misunderstanding the question.

"Well, Misawa, it's quite simple. If I was inside the tree I'd probably be in the trunk section and as there isn't a lot of air down there- Ow! Okay, okay. No need to get violent." He grumbled, catching the pinecone which the exasperated boy had lobbed at him and tossing it back.

"What I meant, and what you know I meant, is why you are sitting on the tree branch and not on the ground like a normal person." Chazz snickered.

"I like being above you lesser beings." He said with a grandiose gesture that encompassed everyone milling around and earned him a stare or two. "Oh, look, here comes Syrus, Alexis and her brother. I better come down to say hello." He sighed and dropped down.

"I thought you were a duelist, not an acrobat." Bastion muttered. Chazz gave him a quelling look and was about to retort when something plowed into him in a blur of red, making him stagger and fall onto his back. He knocked his head on the tree trunk and saw stars for a few seconds. When his sight came back into focus, he realized he was staring up at a very excited bluenette who was squealing something repeatedly.

"I won, I won, I won, I won, I won, I won, I won!" He was saying repetitively. "I beat a Ra, Chazz! I won! I was so sure I was going to lose but I didn't because I won because instead losing I won and that means I won! I won, I won, I won!"

"Good job! I knew you could do it, Sy." Chazz exclaimed, a little wheezy. He had gotten the wind knocked out of him and was still recovering. The fact that his boyfriend was situating on his chest wasn't helping his breathing any, either.

"Um, Sy? I think you're hurting him." Great, now the Slacker had shown up along with Zane. They had been assigned to duel one another, an almost unheard of trans-grade match. Chumely, an excited Kyle and a downcast Czar were with them as well.

"Huh? Oh, no! I'm so sorry, Chazz! Are you okay?" Syrus quickly leapt off and extended a hand to help the other boy up. Chazz took it and decided a little payback was in order. He let the momentum carry him so that he 'stumbled' into Syrus and whispered quickly into the other boy's ear.

"Syrus, love, I thought we only did that sort of thing in private." He felt a surge of satisfaction when his boyfriend squeaked and turned bright pink as he realized what position the two had been in. In a louder voice, he went on. "Oh, dear, Syrus, I'm sorry for bumping into you? You look slightly red; maybe you should sit down or drink something. On days like this it's easy to get dehydrated and you look like you're about to pass out."

"Huh? Syrus looked fine until you crashed into him, Chazz. Did you hurt him by mistake or something?" Jaden wanted to know. Chazz groaned in annoyance.

"No, you idiot! Aren't you ever able to pick up on anything? Ever?" He growled, catching the other boy in a headlock and messing up his hair even more than it was already messed up.

"So this is the way the youngest of the Princeton brothers behaves?" A cold voice cut in from behind him. Chazz released Jaden, startled. "A pity." Chazz turned to see a tall, well dressed gentleman staring coldly down at him. He crossed his arms and glared.

"Who are you?" He asked in his best scornful voice. The others had gone quiet when the man had spoken.

"My name, Mr. Princeton, is Hilliard Oberton. I'm Mr. Slade Princeton's personal assistant's assistant." The man replied coldly, presenting a business card. Chazz took it and glanced over it. He rolled his eyes.

"Hilliard? Seriously? You must have some trauma." He muttered. The man's frown deepened. "I said I'd meet the helicopter at the official end of the school day. I still have an hour left." He snapped. "So get out of my sight."

"I decided to come an hour early." The man replied smoothly, icy demeanor never faltering. "The esteemed Misters Princeton and Princeton have appointed me to watch over you during the summer when they are unable to do so and I thought we should have time to get acquainted. I had heard a few things here and there and wanted to see if they were true. Evidently, they are.' He sneered, making it quite obvious that he was less than impressed.

"I don't need a nanny." Chazz scowled. "And especially one as moronic and dull as you seem to be."

"Your venerable brothers do not seem to agree, Mr. Princeton." The man remarked, unruffled. "They want someone to watch you so as to stop you if you seem about to do something," here a significant pause was taken. "Brash that might reflect badly on your brothers…and yourself, of course."

"Of course." Chazz spat, true hatred coloring his voice as he clenched his fists at his sides, shaking with rage. "Well, too bad for them because I refuse to go anywhere with you. I'm old enough to think or myself."

"Oh, did I forget to mention? Your brothers are also deciding whether it would be the best course of action to remove you from Duel Academy and have you go into another field- I heard them talking about the military as an option. My input, which I can give at any time directly to your eldest brother, is vital in their decision making process." He pulled out a slim black cell phone. "I suppose if you really fell that way, I can always report that to your brother. I doubt he'll be pleased."

"You're bluffing." Chazz snapped, eyes glued to the phone. The man gave a cold chuckle and flipped open the phone.

"Am I, Mr. Princeton?" He asked, with a twisted smile on his face. He typed in a number and held the phone up to his ear. A few seconds later, he spoke. "Ah, Miss Ardwell, I'd like to speak to Mr. Slade Princeton. It's a rather urgent matter and-"

"Stop!" Chazz cried out, shoulder caving in, his head hanging in shame. "You win. I'll come." He said, voice barely above a whisper.

"Ah, never mind, Miss Ardwell. It seems the matter has resolved itself. Sorry for bothering you. Goodbye." He hung up and smirked down at the broken figure before him. "I knew you'd see it my way, Mr. Princeton. I do believe that the two of us will get along famously."

"Hey! You can't do that!" Both turned, having forgotten in their power struggle that they had an audience. Syrus was glaring, looking about imposing as it was possible to look for a boy his height. The others stood behind him, all with matching expressions.

"Chazz is a great duelist and you can't take him out of the academy!" Jaden said. Mr. Oberton raised his eyebrows, amused.

"Jaden is right." Alexis agreed. "So stop trying to-huh?" Chazz was shaking his head.

"Leave it." He growled. He didn't meet their eyes.

"But Chazz-"

"I said leave it, Syrus!" He snapped, lashing out. He could practically feel the hurt emanating from the bluenette. He winced. "I'll…I'll see you all next year, okay?" He turned and walked past his 'keeper', who smirked triumphantly at the students and took long strides to catch up with his charge.

"Now, Mr. Princeton, were those friends of yours? You do realize that your brothers aren't sending you here to make friends, don't you, Mr. Princeton?" Chazz nodded numbly, knowing their words were floating back to be heard by the other kids.

"I know." He answered, aware that he'd just be chastised if he didn't speak a reply aloud. "They aren't my friends. They're just…some random people dueled with." He also knew that if Slade and Jagger decided that the reason he was losing was because he was being 'distracted' by his friends, well, bad things might occur to the people he had started to care about.

He just didn't know if the others would understand that, too.

-12-

Squee! Okay, so the end sequence wasn't quite as good as I'd hoped it would be, but whatever. I hope none of you mind the two OCs introduced in this chapter, Leysa Ardwell and Hilliard Oberton. They'll both appear at other times when the plot picks up(coughnextchaptercough) and so I wanted to introduce them here.

Next chapter will be from Chumely's POV and there will be PLOT. Lots and lots of PLOT. After next chapter, there will not be so much happy-go-lucky duel academy romantic fun. No sirree. In fact, every single couple already established is going to have some major angst heading their way soon.

I already have most of the next five chapters planned. It's so exciting! I can't wait! –squeals and hugs self- in case any of you want to know, the order of POVs will go: Chumely, Syrus/Zane(unsure), Chazz, Bastion/Atticus(unsure).