When the Sun Goes Down

Still not sure who I want to pair up for sure but I'm working on it. Oh and in case no one has noticed yet the chapter titles really have nothing to do with the story. I just type down a line from whatever song happens to be playing when I get to that part. Thank you for the reviews though. It's always nice to know people read. Now watch the pretty boys suffer.
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"Mokuba calm down. I can't understand a word you're saying." Jou frowned at the wall and shifted the phone higher. He had been cleaning up the spilled popcorn from the night before when the phone rang.

"Can you just come over. Seto's going to kill me when he sees what I did." The younger teen sounded stressed.

"Come on kid. I doubt you could do anything that would make your brother that mad." He stretched out and snagged a few stray kernels off the top of the tv wondering how they had gotten there. Honda could be such a pig sometimes.

"Fine. I'll come over there then. Give me twenty minutes."

"Whatever kid." Jou shut the phone off and tossed it towards the couch without looking. He wirled around when he heard it strike flesh instead of cushion.

Yami had an amused smirk on his face as he carefully set the phone on the table and eased his way towards his friend. "Who was calling?"

Jou froze. He couldn't seem to make himself do more than blink as the Pharaoh moved closer. He let his eyes slid shut as Yami advanced.

"Jou?" Yami was confused. One minute Jou had been moving around the living room acting perfectly normal and now he was standing there with his eyes closed. Panting. "Jou, look at me."

Amber eyes barely opened. Jou felt warm. Like he was standing in bright sunlight. He tried to clear his head but it wasn't working. It was almost as though it just wasn't important enough to think that hard. His thoughts slipped through his fingers like sand. Sand?

Yami reached out and pushed Jou's honey colored hair back with a sigh. This was why the other was avoiding him. Ever since Marik's little mind fuck with the rod Jou had been easy to...captivate. It wasn't that Yami was trying to do it. It just sort of happened once in a while.

Jou leaned forward and tilted his head down slightly. Yami was taller than Yugi sure but not by much. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice cried out as he closed the distance between his lips and those of the other man.

Yugi stared in disbelief as his dark pulled away slowly. Jou whined in frustration as Yami put a hand on his chest to stop him from moving forward again. "What's wrong with him?"

"I hadn't realized it until he moved in with us. I should have known. Something felt different but I thought..." Yami shrugged. "Something about what happened to him changed him. It's as though he forgets himself. I've been trying not to sneak up on him. It seems to be worse if he isn't aware of my presence. I've never seen anyone react like this after control over their mind had been broken."

The shorter walked closer pausing a few feet away when Jou's glazed stare shifted to him. Yugi ducked his head hiding behind the fall of multi colored hair he had yet to style into their usual spikes. He had seen that look in his friends eyes before. Just never directed at him. Real or not it still caused something in his chest to clench painfully. "Can you do anything about it?"

Crimson eyes studied the lights reaction carefully. Something had crossed his Yugi's face moments before and Yami wasn't sure he had liked what he saw. "About this episode? Yes. About future ones? I've been trying. Nothing I have thought of so far seems to be working."
Yami pulled the puzzle off of his own neck and placed it over Jou's head. He sat it against the blonde's chest gently. "Call his name. His given name"

"Katsuya."

Jou realized two things at once. One was that he was staring at Yugi whom he hadn't remembered being in the room moments before. Two was that there was a weight around his neck that shouldn't be there. He lifted his hands only to find the puzzle. "It happened again didn't it."

Not a question. Merely a statement of fact. No emotion. Emotion was bad. Last time he had reacted to blacking out was when he had woken up to find himself tangled in Yami's sheets. Alone. He lifted the puzzle cord up and off handing the surprisingly heavy item back.

"What hap..." Yugi's question was interrupted by a hard pounding at the door. He shook his head and made his way to the entry. Mokuba stood on the other side with a hoodie pulled up against the rain that was still falling. "Moku. Come in."

"I have a problem." Mokuba shoved his hood back letting his hair tumble down.

"You look like you got in a fight with a knife" Yugi observed in awe. "And lost I might add."

"Gee Yug' you sure know how to make a guy feel better. Now how about helping me before my picture gets plastered all over the place with this emo look and my brother sees it."

"Um, yeah. But what did you do? I mean you're worse about how your hair looks than Honda is about his bike. You freaked last time Mai touched it."

The raven haired youth plopped down on the floor with a glare. "She wanted to put it in pigtails. I'm not into cosplay. Come on guys. A little help."

"Hold on. I'll go get the scissors."

Half an hour later Jou stepped back and examined his work. "Well it's not the same as it was but at least it's all even now. Sorry kid. I tried to save as much length as I could but you did a number on yourself."

"I know. I don't know what got into me." Mokuba stood up and went to the bathroom. He turned his head side to side feeling it brush the nape of his neck. "I don't think it's ever been this short."

Jou leaned against the door frame with his arms crossed over his chest. It wasn't a bad look. Just different. "It kind of makes you look older."

"That would have been better news when I was oh say 12 but I'm 18 now. I don't need to look older." Mokuba spun suddenly. "Hey! It's a lot lighter."

"Between you and I, we had to have cut off a good 3 or 4 pounds of hair. It's bound to make a difference. You know you almost look like your brother now. I didn't really notice it before but with the shorter hair I can see the family resemblance. It's kind of eerie. Hot even."

Mokuba leaned back against the sink with his hips thrust out. He ran his tongue over his lips. "How hot am I blondie?"

Jou smirked. "Forget it kid. You may be hot but you're not my type." He turned to walk away calling back over his shoulder, "I don't like blue eyes. They creep me out. You can thank your jackass of a brother for that."

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'Bakura please answer me. I'm sorry. I won't tell Yami I promise. Where are you?'

Pain lanced across Ryou's forehead forcing him to drop the link. Not that it mattered. Bakura was either too far away to hear him or he had been ignoring his haikari for the past two hours. Either was a possibility.

Ryou had stayed on the floor sobbing until the sun had almost risen before getting up and taking a shower. The hot water had washed away all of the tear stains and most of his aches. He was currently curled on his bed wearing boxers and a long black tee shirt that smelled like Bakura. Most likely because it was Bakura's shirt to begin with.

Ryou breathed in deeply letting the scent calm his frazzled nerves. It wasn't the first time Bakura had disappeared for the night. Reminding himself the thief was like a cat who always came home for dinner the white haired man drifted off to sleep.

Ryou woke up with a gasp as a heavy weight settled itself across his chest. It was full light outside and he had to blink a few times to clear his sight. He was more than a little startled to discover violet eyes framed by sun bleached hair staring back at him.

Malik laughed from his perch on the others chest. "Hello my friend."

Ryou shoved at the Egyptian who tumbled off him. "Hello yourself. What are you doing here?"

Last he had heard Marik was pissed he had lost the rod to Yami and was going home. Home to Egypt, land of Pharaohs and sand. Lots of sand. Ryou had been upset to loose his best friend but as he had learned a long time ago one does not argue with an unstable alter ego.

Malik snagged he pillow Ryou had been sleeping on and stuffed it under his own head. "Got bored. Isis was going on about all of us needing to be together for the final battle blah, blah, blah. You know how she is. Anyway, Marik got sick of it, I've been sick of it, so we hopped a plane back and here we are. By the way what's up with your yami?"

Ryou snuggled against his friends chest. He traced random patterns on the tanned skin of the others bare stomach. "What do you mean?"

Malik laughed again. A sound that was purely male. "Well I figured 5000 was a little old to be having wet dreams but you should have seen the mess he made this morning."

Heat beating faster, Ryou shrugged. He let his hand wander towards Malik's waistband. "I have no idea why you would think I would know why he's so hard up."

"Well, it was your name he was moaning."

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Seto was typing again. Some weeks were better than others. It seemed as though this would be a bad week for memories.

I keep thinking back to when I first met the midget and his cheerleading crew. I would have been happy to ignore than but no. His grandfather had the last Blue Eyes. My dragon. Then Mokuba had to go and make friends with them. Now I keep having dreams about him. Strange dreams. Something about sand and sunlight. It makes no sense. I know they may all have past lives but I am not Seth. I'm nothing like Seth was. So why do I keep having these dreams? What do they mean? I wake up covered in sweat wondering where I am. And today, in the middle of a meeting, I could have sworn I heard the sound of sand shifting. Almost like in an hourglass. It was distracting. The last time I heard that sound was when my soul was trapped in that damn card. I want to know what's going on. That unfortunately means paying a visit to the short shit. Can this day get any better?

Seto locked his file and stood. He was hungry. He had meetings all day and hadn't gotten the chance to eat. He decided he would grab something quick before heading off to bed. It was late. He opened the door and turned the corner running into the younger Kaiba.

Mokuba's eyes went wide as Seto grabbed him to keep them both from tumbling down the stairs he had just walked up. His breath let him in a grunt as his back hit the banister a little harder than necessary. "Damn it big brother! Did you have to toss me around like a rag doll?"

Seto dug his fingernails into his palms hard enough to draw blood. His brothers hair was gone. Well okay maybe not totally but still it was no where near as long as it had been. In fact it looked almost identical to his own. It was like looking into a mirror. One that made his features darker and a bit younger but still his own.

Seto looked nothing like his mother. And now neither did Mokuba. He had nothing left of her now. It was like losing her all over again.

"Big brother?" Mokuba asked timidly. "What's wrong?"

She's gone.

"You killed her. You killed my mom." Seto stepped back looking utterly lost. He walked away, shutting and locking the door of the home office behind him.

Dark blue eyes filled him tears as Mokuba sank to the floor pulling his knees to his chest. That's why he hates me. I killed the only person he ever cared about.