Once they were all settled back into their respective chairs and leaning comfortably back, their mugs of steaming tea nestled in their laps Tea looked back to them both and smiled.  If they didn’t remember what happened next then they certainly didn’t remember what happened at Bakura’s, the details of which she didn’t quite remember herself, but she certainly did remember snippets, enough to know that everyone at least embarrassed themselves once during their time there.

“So should I continue now?” she knew what the answer would be before she asked, but Yugi was looking more and more disconcerted the more she talked and it was a rather funny predicament since he was normally so careful that no one could embarrass him on many accounts.

“Yes please do,” his voice was sounding less sure of itself and his eyes were becoming misty as if he was desperately trying to remember some things before she came to them, trying unsuccessfully.

“Okay then,” she leant back against the chair and smiled lightly, “well after we had finished with that game and everyone was a good deal drunker than they had been in the previous few hours we all split off into little groups and talked about random things for a while.  I don’t actually know what you were doing then Yugi.  Yami was with Ryou and me but you just seemed to disappear for a while and I can’t say what you were doing.

“We were having a conversation about how Ryou was getting on with living with Bakura now, as you well know we had all betted it wouldn’t last more than a week, he’d either get tired of being around Bakura so much or Bakura would get tired of having his rather ruthless yami hanging over his shoulder all the time.

“ “No, no,” Ryou stuttered over his words, “I like living with Bakura, as annoyingly tidy as he can be sometimes he’s actually fun to be around.  But can I let you in on a little secret?” he seemed more than eager to tell whether we wanted to listen or not so Yami and me just leant forward slightly, “I think I’m in love with Bakura… I know I used to hate him and all, but how can you keep a hatred for someone so cute?  Even I can’t resist that smile when turned on me”

“I blinked, that wasn’t what I had expected at all.  I thought maybe it was just the alcohol talking, or some strange joke that Ryou thought was funny and nobody else got the real purpose of, but when I looked back at him he had that dreamy look that you can only get when in love and I had to believe him.

“ “So did you tell Bakura yet?” he looked up at me shocked, the alcohol making that hit him a little harder than it should have, he looked completely flabbergasted.

“ “Of course I haven’t, what do think he would like me back after the way I used to treat him?  I don’t think so, I may come from ancient Egypt and not know how to work a microwave, but I sure as hell know when I’ve ruined my chances.”

“ “Perhaps not,” Yami was the one to answer, “after all, you have apologised for that and we know that now you aren’t who you used to be, if he hated you that much would he let you live with him?  Would he have taught you how the world works, or shown you how to live in this time?”

“Ryou contemplated this for a few seconds, “Perhaps you’re right, maybe I do have a chance, if only a small one,” of course it was the alcohol giving him Dutch-courage that made him feel as if he could do anything about it, but whatever it was it was working well.

“Now by this time all conversation seemed to have turned to pretty much the same topic no matter who you listened to.  Everyone in the room seemed to either be talking about a crush they had or listening to someone else talk about theirs.  This seemed to amuse Tristan greatly, who was one of the still fairly sober ones.  He stood in the centre of the room and smiled round at everyone, clapping his hands to gain attention.

“ “Now, who’s up for a game of ‘I Never’” he found this greatly amusing as some of us cringed away whilst others smiled and nodded approval.

“I, wobbly on my feet as I was by this point, raised my hand, “I’m game, far be it from me to spoil anyone’s fun, but could we use someone else’s house?  I can see myself getting very drunk and anyway, we’re running out of alcohol.”

“Bakura nodded, “We can go back to mine if you’d like?” he looked round at Ryou, who was now sat on the floor looking up at him as he spoke, “I’ve got alcohol, enough for a game of I Never, and I think if I leave it much later I won’t be able to get him home.”

“Some people chuckled at the reference to just how drunk Ryou was, he himself scowled lightly but couldn’t quite control his fine motor functions long enough for it to have any real effect on anyone.

“After that I remember us all getting our things together as best we could, you had reappeared by then and were practically draped over Yami’s arm, and heading out for the short walk to Bakura’s.  Once we got there I have little recollection of anything, bar little snippets of the game, I remember we did actually play it, and something to do with Seto, but apart from that I don’t remember.”

“How are we supposed to piece the whole night together if you can’t remember the rest?” Yugi sounded slightly frustrated.

“Hey, I said I’d tell you what I could remember and I did, what more do you want me to do?” she sighed and gestured for him to calm down, “Bakura was still pretty sober by then, as was Tristan and Joey, perhaps one of them could fill in the blanks”

“Hmm,” Yami nodded, “do you know where they are Tea?”

“Well if my memory serves me, which it might not do, but I don’t recall them ever leaving Bakura’s any of them,” she scratched her head, “of course they could well have left after I did, but when I left they were all still there… I think.”

Yugi looked round at Yami hopefully, “Can we go to Bakura’s then?”

“I guess we have no choice,” Yami smiled.

“I’ll come with you,” Tea stood, “I’d like to find out where this leads to, and anyway, I wouldn’t mind knowing the rest of last night either.”

They all walked round to Bakura’s, Yami wondering if anyone would even be up yet but going anyway, there was no dissuading Yugi now anyway so he may as well keep his mouth shut until they arrived. The walk was short but Yugi was in so much of a hurry they seemed to make it there in record time despite that.  Knocking on the door of the large house, Yugi bounced on his heals impatiently as he waited for someone to answer the door.  When someone did it wasn’t at all who he had been expecting.  Seto stood there, looking more refreshed than any of the three visitors and stood back to allow them to walk in.

“Is Bakura in?” Yugi didn’t even take time out for a hello, “or Joey or Tristan?”

Seto looked unimpressed with the sudden invasion, “Joey went back to Mai’s last night, Tristan is still sleeping on the dining room floor, but Bakura and Ryou are both in the living room if you’d like to go and talk with them.”

Yugi waved his thanks and quickly scuttled off, leaving Tea and Yami to give apologetic smiles before wandering after him.  Seto followed them anyway, obviously interested to see what all the urgency was.

Bakura was sat between Ryou’s outstretched legs on the sofa, his head lying on Ryou’s shoulder and Ryou’s arms wrapped lightly round his hips.  Taya had to stifle the need to aaaw at them and perched herself on the arm of the chair Yami had chosen to take refuge in.  Bakura looked up, his eyelids heavy and mumbled a sleepy hello as they all entered the room.  He stretched his arms and sat up slightly, then decided he favoured the position he had relinquished and slid back down to where he had been.

“Can I help you?” he questioned politely, whereas Ryou, not being so polite, scowled at the intrusion.

“I have a favour to ask of you,” Yugi looked apologetic but he still needed to get to the bottom of this, “I don’t really remember anything that happened last night and it’s important that I do.  Tea has already run through everything that happened at her place but she can’t really remember what happened once we got here, do you think you could fill us in?”

“I can try,” Bakura looked thoughtful, “I stayed fairly sober all night so I think I can probably fill in the rest for you, why is it that important?”

“Because we woke up in bed together this morning and he wants to know what happened,” Yami supplied for them.

“So did we,” Ryou deadpanned, “your point?”

Bakura nudged him lightly in the ribs and smiled, “Well I’ll help as much as I can, lets see, you know everything up to when you got here?”

“Yes,” Tea nodded, “I remembered all that myself, but I don’t really remember anything after that.”

“Well, after we got here Joey went in search of as much alcohol as he could find, which was quite an amount considering the fact that I tend to stash it for just such an occasion, and we all sat in a circle.  Tristan had previously announced a game of I Never and that idea seemed to have grown on people as the time passed until everyone was willing to play once it was set.  We let Tristan have a turn first since it was his idea.

“ “I never…”he thought for a moment, “I never had a crush on Yami.”

“He smiled triumphantly as Tea, Mai and Yugi all downed a shot.  Next in the circle was Yami himself and he already seemed to know what he was going to say.

“ “I never slept with Joey,” this causing Mai, Tea, Tristan and surprisingly Seto to all down a shot each and go red.

“ “I never went out dressed as a woman just to get into a club that I wanted to investigate,” Joey smiled triumphantly as Yugi downed a shot and there were questions floating round as to what exactly had happened in that situation but no explanation was given.

“ “I never ordered someone to strip because I was bored of the entertainment at that time,” Ryou looked up as if he wasn’t aware of who was going to have to take the wrap for that one.

“ “That was a long time ago,” Yami mumbled, downing a shot and sticking out his tongue.

“ “I never got kicked out of Pepsi Blue for trying to come onto one of the bouncers at the door,” Seto chuckled.

“ “Mokuba isn’t here,” Mai answered looking round shocked as Tea put the glass to her lips, Seto just smiled and nodded his agreement of this.

“ “I never nearly burnt down the house the first time I tried to use the oven,” Yugi almost pondered the sentence, Yami and Ryou both clicking glasses together before downing their penalties.

“ “And I never had to spend the night in a prison cell for going to a fairground wearing nothing but my underwear because of a dare I was given,” Joey chuckled as everyone looked up in surprise, obviously expecting that if anyway would have done that it would have been him.  Tristan and Mai both clinked glasses and chuckled, obviously having expected that one to be brought up.

“ “Hey, it wasn’t your turn,” Ryou jabbed as he watched the two drink their shots.

“ “Who cares?  I had one and no one else spoke up,” Joey looked indignant and happy at the same time, something only someone who’s drunk can manage.

“ “Yeah and it was a good one,” Yugi chuckled, “did you two really do that?”

“ “Sure did,” Mai laughed and tried to stand but wobbled and ended up sprawling on top of Joey who had been sat opposite her.  Joey took the opportunity to snatch a kiss, lending the idea to Ryou, who swung and did the same to me and everyone dispersed and the game was forgotten, after all it’s hard to keep a bunch of drunken people concentrating on a game like that for more than half an hour.

“After that Yugi disappeared for a good half hour and when he did return everyone had split to their own groups and where having conversations about things only drunks can find interesting.”