Chapter 1 - Love In A Bottle

She had never met a person who was so close to perfect. His only flaw was that he didn’t love her. She intended to change that.

That was why, on this sunny Saturday afternoon that would usually see her going to the pool or studying in the park, Rebecca Hawkins was standing outside a small, run down looking store, clutching Teddy close to her chest as she tried to make herself go in. Why was she even here? She didn’t believe in this stuff, she didn’t believe in anything that wasn’t scientifically proven. And yet, here she was. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that it couldn’t hurt to try and pushed the door open. A bell sounded from somewhere at the back of the dark room as she entered. No one was at the small wooden counter, so she amused herself by browsing the shelves, reading the brand names aloud in disbelief.

“McClary’s Beard Growing Cream For Women…Sundlands Glow In The Dark Toothpaste…Persirans Singing Quill…are they really serious?!”

“Quite serious, I assure you” a voice replied from directly behind her. Letting out a small squeak, she spun around to face the shop assistant, a short, dark haired woman wearing a green robe.

Laughing nervously, she mumbled an apology. The woman just regarded her curiously, waiting to hear what she wanted. After a few moments of silence, Rebecca finally realised what the woman wanted.

“I, uh, see, there’s this boy and I really like him, only he doesn’t like me, so I was wondering…”

The woman smiled and started to walk towards the counter before she even finished her rushed request. “You seek a love potion. A quick and easy way to his heart.”

Rebecca nodded, even though she realised the woman had not been asking.

“There is a potion” she continued, keeping her eyes locked on Rebecca as the young girl took a step closer, her face a picture of eagerness, “But I cannot help you.”

Rebecca’s face fell immediately and she let Teddy fall to the floor with a thump, holding onto him by only one arm. “Why not?!”

“It is a powerful potion” the older woman replied, folding her arms together under the large sleeves of her robes, “Not something a child should be messing wi-“

“Money is not an object.”

“How much do you need?”

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An hour later, she locked herself in her bedroom and carefully took the potion out of the brown paper bag she had kept hidden in her jacket pocket as she passed her grandfather on the way in and inspected it. She would have expected it to be pink, or at least red, like love potions always seemed to be in the movies, but it wasn’t. It was green. And it did not look like it tasted good. She was going to have to hide it in something with a really strong taste if she didn’t want Yugi to get suspicious.

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“What did you say this stuff was again?” Yugi asked, blinking down at the murky green liquid in the cup before him.

“My grandmothers secret tea recipe, she swore by it!” Rebecca replied, flashing Yugi a grin. She had called him earlier and invited him round for tea and a friendly duel. Something she knew he would never pass up.

“I’m sure she did…” Joey muttered, sniffing the cup and wrinkling his nose in distaste. Rebecca shot him a cold look. Unfortunately, Joey had turned up with Yugi, and since she had never actually specified that he had to come alone, she had no choice but to let the mouthy blonde in too.

“I’ll go get some cakes” She said suddenly, shooting to her feet with the grin back on her face, “Come on Teddy, let’s go pick some yummy ones!” Stopping at the door to the kitchen, she turned and winked at Yugi, “You drink all that tea now, it’ll help you grow big and strong.”

Yugi gave her a weak smile as she disappeared into the kitchen then looked back down at the foul smelling tea with something akin to fear in his eyes.

Rebecca returned a few minutes later and was extremely pleased to see that nearly all the tea was gone. She knew Yugi was too polite to not drink it. Now all she had to do was make sure he was looking at her exactly ten minutes after he’d drunk it, just like the strange woman in the even stranger shop had instructed. She couldn’t be sure how long it had been so she needed to get him away now. It would be a total disaster if he were to end up head over heels in love with Joey!

“So, how about that duel? Shall we go down to my games room?” Turning her head to Joey, she gave him a rather unfriendly look, “You can go out to the back and play with my dogs if you want, instead of watching us, it’ll be more interesting for you.”

Joey, oblivious to the insult, nodded happily. “Sure, I like dogs, I’ll go play wit ‘em.”

After directing Joey to the garden, she quickly dragged Yugi to her games room and the duel began. She truly didn’t care who won, all she cared about was the success of her plan. And so far, it seemed to be going perfectly.

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She had a hard time stopping herself from dancing around her room that evening. It really had gone like a dream. She’d been with Yugi more than long enough for it to have worked and the duel had been a tie, not a loss. And then there was the fact that when they’d come back out, Joey had been jumping up and down in the garden yelling insults at Kaiba, despite the fact that he’d obviously left quite a while before. He hadn’t calmed down for at least fifteen minutes and it had been highly amusing. Yes, overall, a very pleasing afternoon. And now that the potion was getting to work on Yugi, it could only get better.

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Hugging Teddy close for a moment as she mentally prepared herself, Rebecca went over what the woman in the store had said to her. She had to leave it a few days for the potion to take effect, but once it did, his heart would be hers. It had been a week, more than long enough, she was sure. Pulling her face out of the top of Teddy’s head, she reached up and rung the bell beside the door on the side of Mr Muoto’s store that led to the section they lived in. Yugi’s cheerful face appeared in the doorway a few moments later. Chirping a greeting, he stepped aside to let her in. She smiled gratefully and waited patiently for him to close the door and lead her to wherever he intended to. He took her to the small lounge and they settled on the couch.

“So, did you want another duel?” He asked curiously, “I don’t know about you, but I find ties very unfulfilling.”

She giggled and shook her head. “No, we just wanted to hang out with you.”

“We?” He asked, obviously confused. His confusion only lasted a moment though as Rebecca lifted Teddy up in front of her face and wiggled his arm so it looked like he was waving. “Oh, yeah…”

They spent the next hour or so chatting about anything they could think of, from preferred sweets to favourite movies. After a while, she noticed that Yugi kept opening his mouth, then closing it again and biting his lip, as though he wanted to say something but was unsure if he should. Her heart swelled with hope. Did it really work? Was he trying to decide how to tell her how he felt? Eventually, she couldn’t take it anymore. She had to know.

“Is there something you want to say? You can talk to me you know, I’ve been told I’m a good listener when I actually shut my mouth.” Yugi laughed and smiled at her, still looking somewhat nervous.

“Well…you see…” He took a deep, steadying breath and clenched his hands on his knees, looking at them instead of Rebecca as he spoke, “It’s just that I’ve been thinking about you a l-lot recently. I think you’re a great person and I’ve never met another girl like you. In fact, I doubt there’s another girl like you out there. So, I was wondering if…if maybe you wanted to go see a movie sometime? It’s ok if you don’t, I mean, you probably know loads of guys way smarter than me that you’d rather go out with, so please don’t worry about my feelings, just be straight with me, I want you to be happy.”

She couldn’t believe it. It really had worked! But…she wasn’t as happy as she thought she’d be. Sure, she was ecstatic that he’d said that to her, but it just didn’t feel right. Could she really date someone who only liked her because of a magic potion, however much she loved them and wanted to be with them? The more she thought about it, the more she realised it was wrong. She should never of done it. Looking away from Yugi’s blushing face, she sighed deeply and squeezed Teddy.

“I would love to go out with you Yugi, believe me I would, but I don’t think it would be right” She said sadly. He blinked and cocked his head.

“Not right? What do you mean? Are you already seeing someone?” He couldn’t keep the disappointment out of his voice.

“No” She replied quietly, “I’m not seeing anyone. I…I did something I shouldn’t have.” Now he looked really confused.

“What did you do?”

“I went to a specialist and got a l-love potion. I didn’t think it would work, but apparently it did, and now I would give anything to turn back time and stop myself giving it to you because I know I can never be with you while you only have feelings for me because of a spell.” After a few moments of silence, she peeked up at his face. He had one eyebrow raised and appeared to be in deep thought.

“When did you give it to me?”

“A week ago…” She nearly dropped Teddy in surprise as he let out a bark of laughter. “What exactly is so funny?”

“Oh Rebecca, I’ve liked you for more than a week. I’ve liked you since the first day we met. Why do you think I let you win?”

Her heart felt like it was going to explode and she could do nothing to stop the tears of relief that leaked down her face. Throwing Teddy aside, she wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled into his shoulder. “Oh Yugi!”

He hugged her back until she pulled away, dabbing at her eyes with her sleeve. Settling back into the couch, he grinned at her. “So how exactly did you administer this love potion?”

She giggled again and scooped Teddy off the floor. “It was in the tea.”

“Ooooh, well then, it definitely couldn’t have worked, because I didn’t drink the tea” Yugi admitted, blushing slightly again.

“What? Really?” Rebecca blinked.

“Yeah, sorry” He said sheepishly, “But it smelt really awful.”

She couldn’t help laughing. “What did you do with it then?”

“I managed to convince Joey to drink it.” He replied, looking a little embarrassed. Rebecca stopped laughing at this point. Joey drank it?! But…he’d been outside with her dogs when the ten minutes would have come about, so there was nothing to worry about, even if the stuff did work, which she still doubted. Shaking her head, she silently promised herself that she would never again dabble in so called magic, it was far to stressful. Focusing back on Yugi, she opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by the insistent buzz of the phone. Smiling apologetically, Yugi picked it up and reeled off a greeting, the residence and his name. He was more than a little surprised by the voice on the other end.

“Muoto! You have to help me!”

“Kaiba, what on earth is wrong? You sound like you’ve been running a marathon.”

“I feel like it too!! I wouldn’t usually ask you for help, but you’re the best person I can think of to call him off!”

“Thanks…call who off?”

“The mutt! He won’t leave me alone! He keeps telling me we belong together and that we should stop this silly squabbling and just…just…oh god! It’s too horrible to repeat!”

“Uhh…I’m not sure what to say…”

“Oh crap, no! Get away from me! AAHHHH!!!!”

Yugi pulled the phone away from his ear as Kaiba’s voice was abruptly cut off and stared at the phone, not quite sure what to think.

“What was that?” Rebecca asked, very confused by the half of the conversation that she had been able to hear.

Yugi looked up at her and blinked a few times before replying. “Uh…nothing. So what movie did you want to see?”

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