WSJ: ^^v So that's my reasoning behind Gwen's name. It does mean 'white forehead', but it also means 'new moon'. And, for those who've been asking me, the meaning of Rhiannon is also Welsh, and means witch, nymph, or goddess.

Scott: >.> I think I'm scared of you now...

WSJ: ^__^ Goodie. And no, Scott's name has no particular meaning. His name came from a character in one of my novels that never went anywhere. And while we're on names, Hiro's "full name" (which I don't think I've mentioned yet) is Hiroshi, which means "generous". I really named him after Hiro Ohata though, a character from J. Austin Wilde's Ranma Goes to War series of fanfics.

But anyway, I'm getting off topic. v_v;; On to the fic!

Jonathon: *looks around nervously, doesn't know why he's here* SJ doesn't own YGO. She doesn't own Amoura, Yunet, Amoura's family, or Lisa either, because they're Brood's. She does own me, Scott, Hiro & Gwen, and various other OCs.

WSJ:....Oh, and anyone who's seen Bakura lately, send him back to me, okay?

Scott: Oo; What?

WSJ: *_o Bakura ran away. Something about not being forced into relationships...

Scott & Jonathon: *snicker*

WSJ: On a side note, I'd like to draw attention to today's date, 6-12-03. ^^v It's my two year anniversery! Exactly two years ago today is when I started writing for FF.N! Happy b-day to me! *dances around*

()()()()()

The Yamis of Tokyo U: Freshmen

Chapter 15: The Show Must Go on!
(aka the Half-Naked Nuns chapter ::Rated PG-13::)

"Gven!"

Gwen rolled over at the insistant whisper, dislodging Yunet from her hair as she did. "Mmph? Amoura, it's..." she squinted at the clock. "Two AM. What do you want?"

Amoura's face was flushed in the darkness as she leaned over the edge of the bunk to look down at Gwen. Tea slept unaware in the other bed across the room. "I zink I 'ave found my prinze charming!"

Gwen blinked. "Your what?"

"I 'ave been up all night zinking about it. 'e devended me vhen no one elze vould, juzt like you zaid. And 'e iz zo handzome too!" She giggled, reminding Gwen rather more of herself then the Amoura she knew.

"Whoa, back up about two sentences! You mean Bakura?! Yami Bakura? Ryou-kun's older brother?!?!" Gwen was wide awake now, wide awake and rather disturbed.

"Oui!" Amoura said, grinning. ""e is zo vonderful! Juzt like you zaid Gven."

Gwen blanced. "Me and my big mouth..."

"Vhat?"

"Never mind. Look, Amoura, just because he stood up for you doesn't mean he's the right guy for you! He's your friend, it's what friends do. Yugi stands up for me all the time, but that doesn't mean that I love him. Besides, you really only noticed the guy today! At least give it some time. That's the entire tragity in Romeo and Juliet, you know."

Amoura looked confused. "Vhat iz?"

"The fact that they went too fast. I mean, the entire play encompasses twenty-four hours. If they'd just held off the wedding for, say a few months, they may not have had to die in the end. Or at least," she added. "That's what my English proffessor says." (^~v Luv ya' Mrs. G!!)

"If you zay zo..."

(WSJ: Help me mommy! The writer's block hurts! *cries*)

Long after Gwen had gone back to sleep, Amoura lay awake. In fact, she was still awake at 6AM when Tea got up to get ready for her early morning English class. "Amoura?" she asked in surprise when she found Amoura in the small livingroom/kitchen of their dorm, drinking a lukewarm cup of coffee. "What are you doing up?"

Amoura sighed deeply. "Couldn't zleep..."

"Well I think that much is obvious." Tea said, setting about making herself a cup of tea and Amoura more coffee. "Anything you want to talk about?"

Amoura stared into her coffee cup for a minute. "'Ow do you know vhen you are in love?"

Tea blinked. "I suppose you just... Know. Is that what's wrong? You think you're in love?"

Amoura nodded, slightly tearfully. "Oui, but I do not zink 'e noticez me at all! And sometimez, I zee a look in 'iz eyes, like 'e iz already in love vith zomeone elze."

"No obvious girlfriends though?" Tea asked, and Amoura shook her head. "Hm... Is it anyone I know? Maybe I could talk to him."

Amoura sniffled and nodded. "Oui. R'ou's older brozzer, Bakhura."

The tea cup Tea was holding slipped through her fingers and smashed on the tile floor, sending hot tea splashing across her slippered feet. She appeared not to notice. "Nani???"

"I zaid... Bakhura. R'ou's brozzer..." Amoura repeated, almost meekly. "Iz zhere zomezing vrong vith zat?"

Tea was staring at her slack-jawed and bug-eyed. "Bakura????? But, but you can't love him! He's- he's a kami! A yami-kami!" (Note: Yes, that sounds retarded. But it literally means "dark spirit" in Japanese) She clamped a hand over her mouth to keep from adding Albeit a mortal one.

"A..." Amoura stumbled over the unfamiliar Japanese words. "A... black ancestor?"

"....." Tea sweatdropped slightly, mad at herself for letting something about Bakura's past (which he'd tried his best to bury) slip. "Close enough. Amoura, the guy is not good news! You don't even want to know some of the things he's done in the past! He's lied, cheated, stolen... He's even killed!! And you know all the scars Ryou has that everyone wonders about? Bakura gave him most of those!" Amoura gasped, and Tea knew she should just shut up, but she was on a roll. "He says he's reformed, better, and Ryou sticks up for him. But..." Tea shivered and lowered her voice. "The look in his eyes when he was threatening Director-baka yesterday... Amoura, I was so scared he'd hurt her!"

Amoura's eyes were huge. "He'z... He'z not vreally like zat! He can't be!" She was remembering the gentle Bakura, the one who'd held her while she cried and wiped away her tears. She couldn't think of him as hurting anyone, especially not his little brother Ryou, whom he protected at every turn.

Apparently Tea read this in her eyes, and sighed deeply. "Look, I know I can't stop you Amoura. Just do two things for me, okay? Wait until after the play, and then, if you still think you might love him, go talk to Ryou. He knows Bakura better then anyone."

Amoura thought about this for a minute, and then nodded. "Oui Tea, I'll do zat. Zank you."

Tea smiled. "You're welcome Amoura. Yikes! I'd better get to class! See ya'!"

"Bye..." After Tea left, Amoura set about cleaning up the smashed teacup in silence.

"Mew?"

Amoura looked down to see Yunet lapping at the puddle of tea and chuckled. "You zilly kitty. Tea is not good for you." she sighed. "Love iz zo much eazier vhen you are a feline, no?" She finished cleaning up the spilled tea and shattered cup, then decided to go to Ryuji's for breakfast.

She put on a coat and wound a scarf around her neck, then slipped out into the still-frigid January weather. (I don't know much about Japan's weather patterns, but since it's on the same latitude as where I'm from, Ohio, I'm just going with the same basic patterns, kay? ^^)

Ryou was out in the field between the dorms, doing his usual morning kata. He waved at her as she walked past, and she waved back. For a moment she was tempted to stop him right there and then and ask him if what Tea had said about Bakura was true, but then she shook her head. 'No, you promized Tea you vould vait until after zee play. You owe 'er zat much, at leazt.' So she kept walking.

Duke (who always seemed to be stuck with the morning shift) looked up in surprise when she came in. "Amoura, right? Welcome."

The cafe was sparse this early, the only other patrons being a blond woman, a green-haired guy, and a girl with brown hair and glasses who were sitting together in the corner. The blond and the guy were eating at a pace fast enough to put Ranma Saotome, Lina Inverse, and Usagi Tskino all to shame, while the woman with glasses just watched them, sweatdropping every now and then.

Amoura stared at them, and Duke followed her gaze, laughing. "Ah, them. They pop in here about once every two or three months, deplete our food stores, then go back to wherever they came from." Both sweatdropped as the brunette with glasses got fed up and started yelling at the other two to stop eating. The blond looked up momentarily, said something which sounding vaguely like "Ne onee-chan? But we're hungry!" and then went right back to chowing down. Duke decided to get Amoura to a table before it escalated into violence. "Right this way."

The day passed, as days will, and it soon came time for the day's practice. Director-baka announced that after "careful consideration" (there were a lot of snorts to that) she'd cast Amoura as Elsa. Really though, she was just trying to avert mutiny, since several other actors and actresses, including but not limited to Serenity, Gwen, Yugi, and Yami, had threatened to quit if she didn't. After a lot of pleading, Bakura had grudgingly come back to continue to play Franz.

At first Amoura was uncomfortable, but with everyone else's encouragement she gained more confidence. Opening night drew ever closer, and everyone began to tense in anicipation. The show was set for the 21, 22, and 23 of April. At the end of February, the cast becan experimenting with various costumes.

Now, it was already mentioned that Ishtar and Malik were working backstage. Malik was assistant sound-and-light director, and Ishtar was on the costume commitee, heaven knows why. Duke was also on the costume commitee. And believe you me, when Duke and Ishtar get together... It's not pretty.

Take this little vignette, for instance.

It was roughly a month before the performance, and costume hunting was going on in earnest. The music room had been hastily confinscated for the girls' changing room, and the art room for the guys. (All the "culteral" stuff was housed in one building, just a hop and skip from the drama center)

"Duke! Ishtar! Get your hind ends over here!"

The two teens exchanged long-suffering looks and trotted over to Mrs. Benson, who was in charge of costumes. She thrust several bundles of black cloth into their arms and gave them each a stern look. "Take these over to the nuns, they've only got about half their costumes because I couldn't find the rest. Here they are, so take 'em over."

"..."

Duke and Ishtar headed outside and across the small lawn to the Culteral Center, where Ishtar toed the door open and they stepped in. "So where do you look for nuns?" he asked.

Duke gave him a sour look. "In the conservatory, baka."

"Conservatory? I thought it was an abbey?"

"Same thing. Mostly."

Further down the hall a door opened and Serenity stepped out, followed by Gwen and Lisa. They were each dressed in their "play clothes", which were supposedly made out of curtains. They passed the boys on their way back to show Mrs Benson how their costumes fit, and waved breifly. After they were gone, Ishtar exchanged a long look with Duke.

"Should we?"

"Hell yeah!"

(((Note: This next scene, while not hentai, comes close. V_v;; Definately PG-13. If you don't want to read it, skip down to where I've put the line of stars.)))

They headed for the girls' changing room, and Duke nudged it open with one elbow. "Ladies! We've brought more costumes and two lovely men to go with it!" He and Ishtar stepped inside and tried not to drool.

If I may butt in here again, it should probably be noted that Ishtar is, as earlier shown, a pervert. Duke is mostly just a womanizer. Of course, I say mostly. All men (except on the account of Ryou, as he's rather lacking in the eyes department) long to see what Ishtar and Duke were now seeing. Half-naked women, en masse. This is, of course, because all men are perverts. This may or may not be true, but Akane seems to think it is.

The room froze. Several girls dove franticly behind various racks of clothes, and little Rhian shreiked and climbed into the piano sitting in the corner. All eyes were on the two men, save the eyes of the two men, which were everywhere else.

Thankfully, no one was actually stark naked, but most of them were wearing barely more then bras and shorts, since Director-baka had insisted that all women wear a pair of spandex shorts under their costumes (it was, in fact, her only smart order).

Tea's head and shoulders poked up from behind a rack of ballroom gowns, beat red and glaring. "Ishtar! Duke!! Get OUT!"

Duke flashed her a coy grin. "Ah, but my dear Tea, we are having such a good time right here."

Now the room was dead silent too, save for a low growl coming from the throat of Miho. The lavendar-haired girl, who was clad in a black nun skirt, a wimple, and her bra, suddenly lauched herself toward them with an almost primal yell. Her friend Heather grabbed her and yanked her backward.

"Miho!" she hissed. "Think about it! What would happen if you tried to kill them dressed like you are?"

Miho blinked, and then grabbed a random shirt off the rack nearest her, yanking it over her head. Several other women got the idea and began to feverishly dress in anything they could find, all the while shouting encouragement to each other.

"We'll get 'em!"

"Yeah, we'll show them!"

"How dare they, trying to peep on us!"

Duke and Ishtar glanced at each other and gulpled. Oh crap, they were in trouble now. Slowly they began to inch toward the door, but unfortunately for them, Rebecca spied their attempted escape. "Hey! They're trying to escape!!"

Ishtar and Duke threw caution to the wind, turned tail, and ran.

***********************************

"Hey, do you hear something?" Gwen asked, stopping in her tracks. Lisa and Serenity glanced at her, confused. The three were on their way back from talking to Mrs Benson, and were just outside the door to the Cultural Center.

"Like... screaming?" Serenity asked, surprised.

"Hey yeah," Lisa said. "I hear it too!"

The door in front of them burst open, and Ishtar and Duke ran out at top speed, a mass of woman in various costumes thundering behind them. The two men were hard pressed to keep ahead of the mob, and sooner or later they knew they'd be caught. But of course, they'd much rather that it be later!

Serenity, Gwen, and Lisa stood staring long after the mob had passed. Serenity was the first to recover, and blinked several times. "Was that..."

All three looked at each other.

"Never mind."

()()()()()

WSJ: *jumps up triumphantly* YES!

Ryou: >.> Geez... What now?

WSJ: ^^ I just discovered a cure for writer's block!!!

Ryou, Jonathon & Scott: O_O NANI???

Ryou: But authors and authoresses have been trying to discover that for years!! How'd you manage to find it?!?!

WSJ: *shrugs* Trial and error and lots of writer's block.

Scott: So what's the cure??

WSJ:.....Maybe I'll wait and tell you next chapter. ^^v

Scott, Ryou, & Jonathon: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WSJ: Oo; Okay okay, fine... Here's WSJ's Writer's Block Cure.

1)Get up from the computer.
2) Go to the kitchen.
3) Fix yourself a big mug of strawberry lemonade (this can be made by adding 1/3 cup of Hershey's Strawberry Syrup to one gallon of lemonade)
4) Sit down in front of the TV
5) Watch your favorite TV show (Kim Possible!! ^^v)
6) Go outside and play catch with you little brother (if you've got one).
7) Call up your best friend, just to chat.
8) In general, FORGET ABOUT WRITING. When you go back to whatever you were working on after some real R&R, your writer's block will have gone poof. ^^ I really do recommend the strawberry lemonade though. *^^* Yummy.

Chapter 16: Opening night! Serenity's got the gitters, Yugi's developed stage fright, Duke and Ishtar are cross-dressing (WHAT??) and through it all, the True Pharoah decides it's time to make his move. But what's this? The telepath with the steel-blue aura shows up! And he's actually helping Ryou fight Jalila?!

God bless minna-san!