Crowd Of Stars

Disclaimer-Yu-Gi-Oh is not mine. It does not belong to me.


I couldn't even remember the last time I had seen my best friend Serenity. When her parents had gotten divorced when she was a child and she and her brother had gotten seperated from each other, my having to leave Japan to join my family in the states had been devastating for her. Thankfully our friendship had stayed intact all this time, and now I was finally going to visit her once again.

It had to have been ten years since we last saw each other, my reheaded best friend and her cute older brother. They were only a few years apart in age and were as close as she and I were before we were all seperated. The two of them seperately had suffered many hardships in the time I hadn't seen them. Serenity's eyesight, which was never all that great to begin with, began to really fail her in her teens and she eventually needed surgery to restore her sight. Her brother Joey, to escape his domineering father, had joined a street gang for a short time. Fortunely, things began to start looking up for both of them. Joey befriended two schoolmates who saved him from his destuctive lifestyle. One was Tristen, a boy he had known from school, the other a boy named Yugi who showed how real frienship could be.Through Joey's frienship with the two of them, he became involved with a game called Duel Monsters, a card game of great skill that Serenity and I too found pleasure in as well. With the help of this new pasttime, Joey was able to win the prioneyoney from a major card tournament to pay for the operation to save my best friend's sight.
From what I remembered of him, Joey had always been the nicest guy, a little absentminded sometimes, but this only made me admire him more. It has only been a year since the operation, and the main reason Serenity and I decided to reunite was because during the whole ordeal of her operation, she had connected with Joey's best friend Tristen and Joey had invited me to come stay with them the weekend of their wedding. I hope you won't feel awkward seeing all of us after such a long time, Serenity had wrote to me, but I can think of no one but my best friend that I would want to be there for Tristen and I on our wedding day!

I had not hesitated to accept, and was nervously awaiting the plane's landing to finally reunite with all of them. I looked at the picture of the three of us from when we were children and tried to imagine what they looked like now. We had exchanged many pictures over the years, but I knew pictures never really held up to the real thing. All I knew was that Serenity had long red hair, Joey had longish blond hair (it had always been that way) and her fiancee Tristen was very tall with dark hair.

I sighed as the plane landed and all the passengers were efficently deboarded. I tried not to be nervous as I made my way through the airport terminal, finally finding my way into the airport itself. I smiled as I saw a small group of young people stand up as they saw me.

"Serenity?" I asked.

The tall redheaded girl in the group smiled brightly and rushed over to embrace me.

"Serene! It has been too long since we've seen each other! I am so happy to see you again!" she told me.

I returned her embrace. "I feel the same way. You look fantastic, this guy Tristen must really agree with you. Theust ust be all your friends you told me about." I told her.

"Yes. This is Yugi and his girlfriend Tea, this is my fiancee Tristen, and of course you remember my brother Joey." she told me.

I looked up at the tall blonde before me and my eyes widened at the sight of him. This was my best friend's brother that she and I had grown up with, the awkward little boy that I had always thought was very cute. The young man that stood before me barely resembled the young boy I remembered. This Joey...he was tall, thin and boyishly handsome.

"Hi Serene. I know it's been a long time, but I'd recognize you anywhere. I'm glad you were able to come to Japan on such short notice." he said.

"I am too. It is such a thrill to finally see the two of you after all this time and your friends too." I told him.

Serenity smiled and grabbed my hands. "Come on. Let's go get your lugguge. We have so much catching up to do." she said.

As she and I walked ahead of the group, Yugi squeezed Tea's hand affectionately, the two of them sharing a sweet smile between them before looking over at Tristen and Joey.

"Hey you guys, what do you think of Serenity's friend Serene?" Yugi asked.

"Anything that makes Serenity happy makes me happy too. I knew when she asked me to send her best friend an invitation to our wedding that I would never refuse her." Tristen said.

"What about you, Joey?" he asked.

"I haven't seen Serene since we were children. She has really changed since then." he said.

"She is much prettier than Serenity described her. Don't you think so, Joey?" Tea asked.

Joey blushed furiously. "I hadn't noticed." he said.

Tristen laughed. He knew better. He had seen his best friend's reaction when he had seen her, and so had the others. Normally whenever Joey was around an attractive girl, he would do something stupid to embarrass himself in front of her and he had looked as though he had restrained himself from doing so when he had seen her. He had been friendly enough, considering the past the friends had all shared. They noticed him smile as he watched his sister and Serene share a private conversation, giggling amongst themselves like schoolgirls.

"The wedding is this Sunday. We're all staying at my parent's beach house for the weekend beforehand. We're going to have dinner on the beach tonight. Tristen and I would really like it if you would join us if you're not too tired from your flight." Serenity said.

"You know I could never refuse a dinner invitation on the beach with my best friend, Serenity. I would be glad to come." I told her.

"Maybe I can hook you up with my brother while you're here. He's gotten really cute, hasn't he?" she asked.

It was my turn to blush. "You're as mean as always, Serenity. You know I've always thought Joey wase, be, but wow, I never expected him to look like he does now!" I told her.

"Tell me about it. I almost didn't recognize him myself after the operation. What do you think of Tristen? Isn't he handsome? He was so helpful and supportive of me while I was in the hospital. I think that's what made me fall in lovc with him." Serenity said.

I looked over at Tristen, who appeared to be teasing Joey unmercilessly, making all their friends laugh.

"He seems very nice. Just being able to be here again with you and your friends is good enough for me." I told her.

What I said was true. I was very excited about spending the weekend with my best friend and maybe getting reacquainted with her handsome older brother and their friends.

Once we arrived at the beach house, I desposited my things in the small room that was to be mine during my stay and decided to take a short nap to rid myself of my jet lag. Walking into the kitchen after waking from my much needed rest, it seemed as though I walked in just in time to interrupt a shared private moment between Serenity and Tristen. Seeing them in a warm embrace, sharing a tender kiss between them, made me smile. they looked so incredibly adorable together, and she was postively glowing from just being close to him. Finally realizing I was int he room, they parted from each other, laughing nervously.

"Oh hi Serene! Sorry about that; I hope we didn't embarrass you." she apolgized.

I smiled. "No, not at all. I thought the two of you looked cute together. Did I miss anything while I was asleep?" I asked.

"Well, let's see. Yugi and Tea have spent most of the day playing Duel Monsters, alternating between them and Joey, and I was playing too until just now when Tristen got back from the store witht he wine." Serenity said.

"We don't usually drink wine, but they allow it on the beach as long as you clean up after yourself and this was a special occasion." Tristen said.

I smiled and decided to give the couple some alone time as I walked into the living room to join the others. It seemed as though they had moved the card game close to the fireplace where it was nice and warm, yet not close enough to harm the cards themselves. Joey was stretched out against the wall with his shoes off, dressed simply in ablack button down short sleeve shirt and black jeans. The dark clothes really made his fair hair stand out, and he was looking over his cards intently for the best play. Yugi, who was obviously used to waiting for him to make his move, was leaning back comfortably into Tea's embrace. They were so cute together, the taller girl with the considerably shorter boy. Serenity told me that she had seen Yugi transform before into an older boy, the spirit of the gold puzzle that hung from his neck. She said that the two boys were very different, yet his older form wasn't much taller than he himself was. It didn't seem to bother Tea though; they looked postively radiant together.

"Who's winning?" I asked, coming to sit down between them.

"Well, right now it's a draw because Joey has taken such a long time to make his move. Come on Joey, it's almost time for dinner." Yugi said.

"Pushy, pushy, okay here goes. I play...a monster face down in defense mode." Joey said.

"Okay then. I play the Dunames Dark Witch in attack mose to attack your hidden card." Yugi said.

Joey smiled. "How about that, Yugi? I actually beat you! I take your last remaining lifepoints with the Ruby Eyes Centipede." Joey said.

Yugi threw down his cards, grinning wildly. "That was a great play! You get better at this every time we duel. Congratulations." Yugi said.

"Nah. It was because Serene was sitting here that I won." Joey said.

"Me? Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Because whenever I need the confidence to win at Duel Monsters, I think about Serenity and you're her best friend, so that was only natural." Joey said.

"You are such a good brother, Joey." Serenity said, she and Tristen walking in to join us.

"Yeah, he's full of it alright. Is everybody ready to go to dinner?" Tristen asked.

We were all ready for dinner and left for the little seafood shoppe on the beach where we were picking up our meal. We had brought our own wine, a few blankets and some tiki torches to keep the bugs away. Joey had grabbed soem towels and his denim jacket and shoes that completed his outfit.

We had a hard time choosing what to have, so Joey suggested that the three of us order the seafood sampler and we could share it between us. Each sampler was large enough for two to share, so Yugi and Tea shared one, Serenity and Tristen tyhe other, and he made sure I was okay with sharing the last one with him.

"I don't have a proble with that. You and I used to be good friends too, Joey. If you're not awkward, I'm not. I just hope you get your share. I'm a big eater." I told him.

He smiled. "I remember; I am too. I'll be fair if you will." he said.

"Don't trust this guy. He didn't even think I was good enough for his sister." Tristen teased.

"Joey! Is that really true?" I asked as I heard Serenity and Tristen laugh.

"I only hesitated to introduce them because I thought he wouldn't be serious in dating her. He has quite the reputation." Joey teased back.

"That is such a crock! I pratically saved myself for Serenity. He's just jealous because no girl will look cross eyed at him." Tristen said.

"I find that hard to believe as handsome as Joey is." I said.

Joey smiled, putting his arm around my shoulders. "Now this is my kind of girl! She knows perfection when she sees it." Joey bragged.

"Oh Joey, you're so disillusional, but I love you anyway." Serenity said.

"Thanks...hey!" Joey said.

Everyone had a good laugh at Joey's expense while we waited for our food to come, but it was all in good fun. For the moment that Joey had been so close to me, I felt the same way I had the first time we had shared our first childhood kiss.

We had both been around six years old and were sitting under their parents' tree in the backyard just admiring the flowers. Serenity had gone inside to get us more to drink, and I looked over at Joey, sure he was going to tease me for sitting in the grass staring at flowers. What he did instead was pick a very pretty one nearby and hand it to me.

"Oh thank you, Joey. That is so nice." I told him.

Then just as unexpectantly, he leaned in towards me and gave me a quick kiss on the lips. We were only children, but even thenelt elt a jolt just from the contact.

"What was that for?" I asked, blushing.

He was blushing too. "I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about." he told me.

We never spoke of it again after that, but I had never forgotten that kiss or my two best friends.