Chapter 8

Ryou's POV

I groaned as I felt myself waking up, wishing for just a few more minutes of that sweet bliss known as sleep, but of course the harsh sunlight prevented me that bit of mercy. I opened my eyes slowly, instantly snapping them shut the second the light streaming from the window blinded me. Ugh, we forgot to close the curtains yesterday, I thought to myself as I turned over and opened my eyes again, this time keeping them open. I sighed and slowly sat up. Looking around the room, I felt a small smile creep onto my face at the sight of the others sprawled in various positions, Joey had somehow managed to fall of the bed and was still snoozing on the ground, while Malik was half hanging over the edge of his bed, Yugi was the only one in a decent position, curled up and hugging his pillow. I considered laying back down, but the option was stolen from me as the room's door slammed open and Ann barged in.

"Wake up sleeping beauties, we got work to do!" she shouted, carrying a clipboard that no doubt had our day's schedule printed on it.

The others groaned, except for Yugi, who always seemed to be lively in the mornings. Joey looked over at the digital clock on the bedside table and turned to glare at Ann from his position on the ground.

"It's eight in de mornin', Ann, can't ya let us sleep in jus' once?" he asked.

"No can do, kiddo, we got lots to do this morning and if you want any time to yourselves today, you better get up and be ready in the next five minutes. Chop, chop!" she chirped back.

I sighed and decided I'd better take advantage of the others languid states and get the shower before them, goodness knows there's no hot water left after Malik's done. I stood up and managed to grab a change of clothes and slowly snuck my way to the door, slipping out undetected and head over to the bathroom. Minutes later I could hear the banging on the door as they told me to hurry up. I finished my basic routine soon enough and grabbed my brush as I exited the door, Yugi slipping in while Joey and Malik were in a heated argument about who knows what. I walked over to the small kitchen while gently working out the tangles in my hair, once satisfied I set the brush down on the table and got out ingredients for a simple breakfast: omlettes, toast, and juice. Yugi came down as I finished the second omelette.

"Hey, Ryou...I wanted to thank you," he started, "For waking me last night, I mean," he added when he saw my confused expression.

"Yugi," I sighed, putting down the spatula, and turned to face him properly, "You know you don't have to thank me for that, you were clearly having a nightmare and I know how bad they can get sometimes, so I woke you before it could get any worse, you'd probably do the same for me," I finished with a small smile which he returned.

"So, do you need any help?" He asked, his enthusiasm returning almost immediately.

"Well, if you could get started on the toast and then pour some orange juice into the glasses, it'd help," I suggested. He nodded and began.

We cooked in companionable silence for awhile, bringing back memories of the few times that Bakura would help me out in the kitchen, though those times were few and far between, they were some of the more enjoyable times between us. I shook the thoughts from my head before more unpleasant memories got drudged up. Soon after, as I was finishing the last omelette, Malik came down, Joey behind him, arguing something about how the Winged Dragon of Ra was similar to Moltres from Pokemon.

"Joey, for the last time, that card is nothing like-" I interrupted before Malik could get started on the rebuttal.

"Hey you two, breakfast is ready, grab your plate and a glass of juice," I said, ending the argument with the mention of food. We grabbed our plates and sat down at the small table. Ann, having already eaten, simply stood by the counter and began telling us our plans for the day, heaven forbid we ever get to plan our own days.

"Alright guys, I know this is supposed to be a vacation, buuuuttt," she dragged out the word in a way that let us know bad news was coming, "Since Teen Vogue informed us of their idiotic decision last minute, I had to look in for something to fill in the publicity gap, and lucky us, I managed to score an interview with the Japanese branch of the Early Calls show, which as we all know is one of the biggest shows world wide, big enough to actually have sections in different places of the world," I tuned her out after that. Wow, Early Calls, was big, enough to cover the gap Teen Vogue left and then some, I was shocked out of my thoughts by what Ann said next, "And the interview takes place in 45 minutes! So, c'mon guys, we'll barely make it in time as it is!" That got us moving, that's for sure.

"Sweet, merciful ground, I love you!" I exclaimed as I dropped to the ground and started showering it with kisses.

At least, that's what I wanted to do, but seeing as I could hardly feel my body, I'd settle for standing on it and worshiping it in my mind. Ann's driving was bad, on a good day, but apparently when she's on a time limit like that, things like the speed limit don't matter to her at all, "The needle never went below 80..." Yugi muttered next to me, my heart went out to him, Malik on the other hand seemed more excited than I'd ever seen him. Joey, though walking a bit unsteady, seemed almost unaffected by the manic driving we just went through.

"C'mon, we're on a tight schedule," Our ever so sympathetic demoness reminded as she dragged me and Yugi by our arms to the the front doors.

"Ann Sinclair, I'm here with The Hikari's for the interview," she told the man at the front desk while showing a pass with her name and picture, not even slowing her stride as she simply passed him, barely catching the nod and room number he gave her. Thankfully she let go of our arms by then. We arrived at the room, and she led us all in, heading over to another woman, whom I assumed was our hostess.

"Ah, you made it, I was worried you'd skipped out on us," the woman exclaimed as she caught sight of Ann.

"Of course not, the boys just overslept a little, is all," she responded, then gestured us closer.

"Hello, you must be The Hikari's, it's a pleasure to meet you, I'm Miyuki Sayoko, I'll be the one asking you all the questions," she said politely. We introduced ourselves, and someone announced we had five minutes before the camera's started rolling.

"Are you boys nervous?" She asked kindly.

"Just a bit," responded Yugi, I nodded along with the answer.

"Don't be, just remember, we only want to know more about you boys, nothing to be nervous about, just answer the questions, that's all there is to it," She advised, I felt my nervousness lessen, but only by a bit.

"Alright, on air in five, four," From there, the camera man signed 'three, two, one', and gave the cue.

"Good morning, everyone, today we have a special treat for you all, were here with the up and coming band, The Hikari's!" Miyuki started, she almost seemed like a completely different person than the one we met just minutes before.

"Now then, why don't you boys introduce yourselves, for those at home who haven't heard of you, yet," she said in a joking voice. Since I was first in the line, I went first.

"Well, I'm Ryou Bakura, I'm usually the singer," I stated, hoping my face wasn't as red as it felt.

"I'm Yugi Motou, usually I play the guitar," He stated, a light blush on his cheeks.

"Malik Ishtar, I'm on drums," He stated unaffected by the camera's or small audience.

"Joey Wheeler, I'm deh bass player," He said with his usual confidence.

"So, now that we know our boys, lets get this interview started, so boys, you're all quite young, what made you start a professional band at such a young age?" She asked h that signature reporter tone.

"Well, we were having some problems at the time and just got fed up with it, while trying to cope with the problems, we turned to music for comforts, soon we started playing together, we realized we actually didn't sound half bad and decided to give it a shot, after all there wasn't much we could lose from it," Malik answered.

"What kind of problems were you having, if you don't mind sharing?" She asked.

"Actually, if it's alright, we'd prefer not to answer that, these problems were very personal, and to be honest, we're not to comfortable talking about them. We prefer to leave the past in the past and just try to move forward while dealing with the figurative scars," I answered, I'm pretty sure the others felt the same.

"That's understandable, so Ryou, you said you're the singer, right?" she asked in a brisk topic change.

"Yes, most of the time," I replied.

"Most of the time?" she formed a confused expression that seem just a little to exaggerated.

"Sometimes, we trade instruments, jus' fo' some songs, dough," Joey replied.

"Yeah, for instance, our song Sacred has a full trade, Malik as the singer, Ryou on the guitar, Joey on the drums, and me on bass," Yugi added.

"Oh, why so many changes?" Miyuki asked, seeming genuinely seeming interested.

"Well, Yugi and I just absolutely cannot play drums, we can't handle all the coordinated movements we have to make, and Malik can't do string instruments either, Joey is actually the only one who can handle all the instruments fluently," I answered, blushing a little.

"I see, so, do any of you get nervous on stage, especially you Ryou, since you're more in the spotlight?" she asked, back to interviewer mode.

"Well, actually, yes, I'm very nervous every time I get up on stage, but soon I just lose myself in the songs and the feelings behind them and soon I forget about the crowd, it's just me and the music," I responded, the others nodded in agreement.

"That's very impressive, so how are you all enjoying your stay in Domino City?" She asked.

"Well, it's nice to be back home, but there are also memories here that we'd rather forget about." Yugi answered.

"Dat, an' we 'aven't really had a lotta free time," Joey added.

"Oh?" Miyuki said.

"Well we've had to get some things done before we can start to enjoy our vacation, then we'll get time to relax," Malik answered looking just a bit spiteful.

"Well, I hope you guys get your well deserved rest soon. Anyway, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you for coming, boys," she said.

"Our pleasure, Miyuki," I responded as we started stood up she waved us good bye and started on the next topic. Ann was wating for us backstage.

"You guys did great! Alright now just one more thing on the list," she said, I sighed, just ready to go home and rest.

"What now, Ann," Joey asked, sounding as exasperated as I felt.

"Oh, I think you'll enjoy this one," she said, a mischievous sparkle in her eyes.

"We're going to the amusement park," she grinned.

Better late than never, right? *ducks as rotten food is thrown* Hey! I've been busy, with school, family, and all that jazz, sorta, that and serious writers block. It almost feels like whenever I've got artist block, my writers block goes away. Anyway, hope you guys like the chappie, I actually wasn't going to include the actual interview in this, but I thought about it and figured I might as well. Also, I used a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series, cyber cookies to anyone who mentions it in the review!

Remember, flames will be used for my stove(might as well save gas, right?).