"You know that's never a good idea, Jou," Ryou said with a small laugh as he shook his head.

Jounouchi rolled his eyes as he crossed his arms with a grin.

"He can be the best at games, but there is no way he can win with bets," Jou said as he smirked.

"They're the same thing," Ryou commented, earning a snicker from Yugi.

"Let it go, Ryou," Yugi chuckled, "It's Jou, once he thinks it, he'll always think it."

"Hey! That's not true!" Jou exclaimed as he glared lightly at Yugi.

Ryou laughed and smiled. Then he looked around, looking for something.

"Have you guys seen Malik yet?" he asked as he turned around and looked back at the school.

Both boys shrugged and shook their heads as they also looked back at the school.

"He should have been here already," Jounouchi said as he sighed and leaned against the school gate.

Right as they mentioned him, Malik came running furiously out of the school building. Yugi's eyes widened as he noticed how red the other's face was as he came toward them.  With a raised brow, Yugi stepped forward to greet the sandy blonde.

"Is everything okay, Mal?" he asked.

"No!" he exclaimed with a huff as he immediately hugged Yugi.

Yugi was shocked, but hugged the other back. Before long, Ryou and Jou were at their sides, questioning the sandy blonde. However, he just continued to hug Yugi and mumble inaudible words under his breath.

"Malik!" Yugi exclaimed, "What on earth happened? Are you alright?"

Malik whined as he pulled away.

"I hate princes so much," he said.

That's when they all understood and sighed.

"What happened?" Ryou asked.

Malik huffed and sighed as he began to retell the events of before he arrived.

~Earlier~

Malik sighed as he walked down the hallway. The bell had rung, signaling that the last class of the day was over. This was a good sign for him, considering that it was Friday, and he was going to sleep over at Yugi's place with Jounouchi and Ryou. But first he had to go to the computer lab to print out his science lab early.

As he walked toward the door, all he heard was a loud banging and the sound of something crashing. Worried, he sped up and entered the lab, looking for the source of the sound. That's when he noticed a certain prince banging on a computer's keyboard. Marik Ishtar, who was currently beating the life out of the technology, and was even cursing at the thing.

"Son of a bitch," he heard the other curse as he continued to break the keyboard, "God damn thing won't fucking work."

"Woah! Calm down!" Malik exclaimed as he moved toward the other and stopped his fists, "Jesus, no wonder it's not working! You punched the life out of it!"

Malik sighed as he let go of the other's wrists and stepped back. He looked down at the keyboard and noticed that some keys had been broken in the process. This caused him to wince as he was reminded that he was responsible for the care of the school's computers, which means that because of this idiot, he would have to stay late to finish it, meaning he would get to hang out with his friends late.

Still in his train of thought, he didn't realize that said prince was currently messing with the keyboard still. The sound of the keyboard cracking finally rose to his attention, and he snapped his gaze toward the other.

"Oh my Ra!" he exclaimed as he grabbed the keyboard, "Stop! Stop! What are you trying to do?"

The other sandy blonde prince huffed.

"I'm trying to print out my English paper," Marik said as he glared at the computer.

"Well, beating the life out of a keyboard isn't going to get you there!" Malik exclaimed with a growl.

Then he pulled back and looked at the other.

"Where is your flash drive?" Malik asked as he held out his hand.

Marik stared at his hand for a while, before a look of realization came upon him. He sighed and pulled out a blue flash drive and gave it to Malik. The smaller of the two took the drive and began to move toward another computer. With ease, Malik was able to access the files from the drive and open up the one that said "English Homework". As he opened it, he read over it and felt his soul leave his body.

"This is awful!" He thought to himself as he read over the paper.

"Is something wrong?" Marik asked as he noticed the look on the other's face.

"No!" Malik responded a little too fast, "No... It's fine."

Marik nodded and hummed as he watched the other work away at the keyboard. Before he even knew it, Malik had easily printed out the paper and handed it to him.

"Thanks!" Marik exclaimed with a grin as he took the paper and stuffed it in his bag.

Malik shrugged, "It's no problem. Now, please leave before you break another keyboard."

Marik laughed.

"You're funny," he said, "Before you came, there were four other keyboards that didn't work by the way. You should probably check those out, too, I guess."

That's when Marik gestured toward the four computers next to the one he was caught breaking. Malik felt his world darken as he noticed the computers and his posture immediately broke. Marik, oblivious to the other's inner turmoil, smiled and patted the other's shoulder.

"Thanks for everything," he said and then left happily.

Malik clenched his fist and looked at the five broken computers. He was going to strangle the prince. He was really going to make sure that only three princes existed when he was done. Malik growled as he stomped out into the hallway, only to find it empty, and Marik was long gone. Letting out a frustrated noise, Malik slammed the door behind him and began to run toward the exit of the school grounds.

~In the Present~

"And now I'm here," Malik said with a sigh as he glared down at the floor.

"It seems we all had an encounter with at least one of the princes at our school," Yugi commented as he sighed.

"You're kidding," Malik breathed out and watched as Yugi shook his head.

"Actually, I didn't have any type of encounter with a prince today," Ryou said in a matter-of-fact voice.

"Lucky you," Jou mumbled as Ryou laughed.

"Well, I wouldn't call myself lucky," Ryou said, "I did have a run in with Miss Wong earlier. At one point she got hit in the head with a soccer ball, and when I tried to help her, she just shoved me to the ground and left me there."

"Oh, is she still upset over the whole singing thing?" Jou asked with a laugh.

"Upset? I would go so far as to say she's based her hatred on me off of that," Ryou said with a laugh.

Yugi shook his head and sighed. Then he turned to look at Malik, who was in deep thought and clearly was upset over the fact of the computers. He smiled softly and placed a hand on the other's shoulder.

"Hey, why don't you just come over with us and rest, and then tomorrow, we can come back and fix those computer keyboards together," Yugi suggested.

Malik looked over at Yugi with a raised brow, before sighing and nodding.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea," he said as he looked down.

"Cheer up, Mal!" Jou cheered as he draped an arm over the other's shoulders, "After we party it up, you'll start to feel a lot better!"

"Party it up?" Yugi asked with a raised brow.

Ryou shook his head as they started to walk down the sidewalk.

"You mean we'll be playing board games until you finally give up on trying to beat Yugi," Ryou commented with a smirk.

"Even if he was able to beat me," Yugi hummed, "He'd still continue to challenge me, feeling as though I went easy on him."

"Yeah, and then you'll completely destroy his confidence," Malik laughed as he thought about it.

Jounouchi rolled his eyes as he tossed his bag over his shoulder and walked.

"Oh friends of mine, why have you forsaken me?" Jou whined dramatically.

The boys laughed at their friend as they made fun of him and continued to walk.

To be continued...

Gabby: Well! There ya go! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! Thank you for reading! I own none of the characters! Just the plot!