Outkasts

Running Into Princes Again!

Yugi was laughing wildly as he looked at the two before him. In a strange turn of events, Malik and Jou had ended up standing with hair full of pink paint, while Ryou was laughing behind them.

"Well Jou," Malik hummed as he looked at him, "This must be karma for wishing bad to Ryou."

Jounouchi growled as he gripped at his hair, pulling out bulks of pink liquid. Then he threw it at Malik's face, who scowled in distaste at the action. Ryou held back a chortle as he started to pick up the bucket that had fallen on the two.

"I knew you two would come in eventually and try to prank me," he giggled as he placed the bucket on one of the counters.

Jounouchi huffed.

"Jokes on you, Ryou, we're not the ones who have to clean up this mess," he scoffed with a smug smirk.

"Jokes on you, Jounouchi, this is an art room. Paint spills in here all the time, so we don't bother with cleaning it," Ryou retorted with a knowing grin.

Walking past the two pranksters, he grabbed Yugi and walked away from them in fits of giggles.

"Well, let's get going then," Ryou grinned.

Yugi laughed. "You, my friend, are a mad genius."

As they walked down the hall, the other two were trying to wipe up most of the paint on their hair with towels from the art room. After they had cleaned up most of it, they followed along.

"So, Ryou, did you run into any princes lately? Or was it just us again who have suffered the fate of our cruel gods?" Malik asked, whining his last question.

"Um, well," Ryou paused as he thought, "I'm doing an art project for my music and arts class with one of the most hot headed princes of all time this week... Does that count?"

Malik's eyes widened as he placed a hand on Ryou's shoulder, causing the other to pause. He sighed and shook his head and looked down at the ground. He sniffled and looked at Ryou with teary eyes.

"Another fallen brother," he cried.

Ryou rolled his eyes and punched his arm. "Shut up. It's not even that bad... It's just that... well... He won't sing. That's all."

Yugi raised a brow. "Isn't this project one-third of your quarter grade?"

Ryou sighed and nodded.

"But I asked if I could do something a little different..." he trailed off with a small smile, "But! He wasn't all bad, Malik. He told off some mean people..."

Malik frowned. "I mean, maybe, just maybe... I don't know. I'm still annoyed at the stupid prince because of what happened today."

"What happened today?" Ryou asked with a raised brow as they walked out of the building and to the front gate.

"Don't even get me started!" Malik snarled as he punched at the air in front of him, "When I get my hands on him, he's going to go from tan to black real quick!"

Jounouchi chuckled, before nudging Ryou.

"He's upset because Prince Ishtar, who had broken five keyboards, came back, and instead of replacing the keyboards, he replaced every single computer, along with Mal's personal one," Jounouchi explained.

Ryou looked at Malik with a worried expression. "It's okay, Mally," Ryou said softly.

Malik's brow twitched at the affectionate nickname that was privileged only to the group of outkasts. Yugi smiled softly and tackled Malik in a hug from behind.

"Cheer up, O'Mally cat," Yugi teased as he squeezed the other.

Malik rolled his eyes. "How many nicknames do I need?"