Disclaimer: I don't own Yugi or any of the characters.

/Yugi to Yami/

[Yami to Yugi]

'Thoughts'

One Second

Yugi was sitting in his room finishing up his homework when he heard voices coming from the kitchen. 'Sounds like Yami and Joey are back.' Yugi thought. He decided to go and see what they were doing. He got up from his desk and walked down the stairs. Yugi was about to enter the kitchen but what he heard made his stop in his tracks. He saw Joey sitting at the table and Yami was looking in the fridge.

"Yami, did you hear what happened to Yugi today?" Joey asked.

"What happened this time?" Yami said slightly annoyed. Yugi was shocked by the tone of Yami's voice. 'Why does Yami sound annoyed with me?' Yugi thought 'does he think I'm a burden?' Tears started to form behind his amethyst eyes.

"Ushio cornered him at school and started punching him, luckily I happened to walk by then and I stopped him." Joey replied, "We really should teach him how to defend himself."

"Don't you think I've already tried that?" Yami snorted, "He doesn't want to hurt anyone, no matter how bad they want to hurt him, I really don't know what to do anymore."

"Come on Yami, you really don't..." Joey started by was cut off by Yami.

"Yes I do mean it Joey, he does nothing to protect himself." Yami explained annoyed, "He just sits there and takes it, and I am really getting sick of...." Yami was cut off when he felt an overwhelming sadness through the link, he turned to go upstairs to check on his light but stopped when he saw Yugi standing in the doorway crying.

"Aibou?" Yami took one step towards Yugi and was startled when Yugi took a step away from him shaking his head.

/you do think of me as nothing but a burden./ Yugi said through the link. He kept repeating it over and over as he ran out of the game shop. /he doesn't care anymore, I'm just a burden, I'm just a burden/

"Yugi! Wait!" Yami yelled. Yami chased after him.

Yugi was so upset that he wasn't paying attention to where he was going, he didn't realize until it was too late that a car came speeding down the street. The car tried to swerve to avoid hitting Yugi but instead ended up spinning out from the ice on the road and throwing Yugi's little body into the nearest building. Yugi hit the wall hard and he slumped to the ground. He was unconscious before he even knew what happened. Yami ran out of the game shop just as Yugi hit the building.

The last thought of Yugi's that Yami heard was /you do think of me as nothing but a burden/

When Yami got to Yugi, he was laying on the ground unconscious. Yami ran up to him and gently turned him over, Yugi had a huge bump on his head which wouldn't stop bleeding. His leg was bent in an unnatural position and Yami could tell it was broken. Yami removed his jacket and gently placed it under Yugi's head. Yami then saw that Yugi wasn't breathing, he looked at Joey. Joey gently pushed Yami aside and began CPR to revive his best friend. After a few minutes Yugi finally responded and started coughing.

Yami looked extremely relieved. He turned to Joey again and yelled,

"Joey, go back into the house and call an ambulance. NOW!"

"I already did Yami," Joey replied, "there on their way now."

Yami nodded to Joey then returned his attention back to Yugi. Yami noticed that Yugi started shaking violently. He turned to Joey.

"Joey, give me your jacket." Yami said. Joey took off his coat and handed it to Yami.

Yami placed the jacket over Yugi's shaking form, he knew that it was not a good sign it meant Yugi was going into shock. Yami was relieved when he heard sirens in the distance. The paramedics jumped out of the ambulance and quickly tended to Yugi. As they loaded him into the ambulance, Yami jumped in after him. They were about to object, but the look in Yami's eyes told them that it was not a good idea. They just shrugged and went back to Yugi.

Yugi was starting to look very pale and his shaking was getting worse. Suddenly, Yugi gave a single shuttering breath and stopped breathing again. The paramedic quickly took action and once again CPR was performed on Yugi. It didn't work right away this time, so they decided to use the paddles. Yami watched horrified as Yugi's body jumped slightly off the stretcher. He worriedly looked to the paramedic who continued shocking Yugi's body. After what seemed like an eternity Yugi started coughing again, but suddenly he started to shake violently.

"He's going into shock!," the paramedic yelled, then she turned to Yami, "He's losing too much blood we have to do a blood transfusion now or he won't make it to the hospital."

Without hesitation, Yami nodded at her and rolled up his sleeve. The female paramedic then inserted a needle in Yugi's arm and another one in Yami. Yami stared sadly at his light, he couldn't get Yugi's last thought out of his head. He held Yugi's hand and decided to try the mind link.

[I'm so sorry my little light, I never meant to hurt you]Yami saddened even more when he received no reply. They quickly arrived at the hospital and Yami was stopped while they wheeled Yugi away.

"Please sir," A nurse said, "You have to wait here while we help your brother." She led Yami to a vacant seat and then left heading to the ER where they took Yugi. Yami decided to call their friends and tell them what happened. He called Ryou first and asked him to call everyone and meet him at the hospital. Ryou wanted to know why but Yami told him that he really didn't want to repeat this too many times. It was too painful. Ryou reluctanlty agreed and told Yami he would make the phone calls.

Joey was the first to arrive, he had run the whole way and was extremely worried about Yugi. He saw Yami sitting in the waiting room and quickly ran up to him.

"Have you heard anything?" Joey asked desperately.

"No," Yami shook his head sadly, "He's still in the operating room. They had to revive him again in the ambulance plus give him a blood transfusion. I'm so worried about him."

Joey placed a comforting hand on Yami's shoulder. "He'll be okay," Joey replied, "Yugi's a fighter, it will take more than this to keep him down."

Yami gently brushed Joey's hand off his shoulder, "You don't understand Joey, its my fault that he's even in this mess." Yami hung his head, unable to look the other in the eye, "I really hurt him today, I could see it in his eyes, I could hear it in his thoughts. His last thought to me was that I think of him as nothing but a burden."

Joey was about to reply when the rest of their friends showed up.

"Yami, Joey what happened?" Ryou asked worriedly. They told the others what had happened. At first Bakura looked like he was ready to kill Yami, but Ryou held him back.

"How could you!" Bakura sneered, "How could you hurt your hikari like that?"

Yami hung his head in shame at Bakura's words. "I didn't know he was there, and I know that's no excuse but..." Yami was interrupted when he saw the doctor approach him.

"Who is here for Yugi Moto?" The doctor asked. Yami stood up and approached the doctor.

"How is Yugi?" Yami asked frantically, "is he going to be okay?"

The doctor explained, "He came out of surgery alright but he slipped into a coma due to the concussion he received. We had to revive him again several times. He is in critical condition, but he is finally stabilized. His leg was broken in several places and we won't know anything else until he wakes up."

Yami was heartbroken. 'Oh Yugi what have I done' Yami thought. He turned to the doctor "Can I see him?"

"Alright, I'll come and get you once he is moved into the ICU." The doctor replied. About an hour later the doctor reappeared and led Yami to the room Yugi was in. Yami hesitated before entering the room. He slowly opened the door and was shocked by what he saw. Yugi was laying in the bed with machines and wires connected all over his poor lights body. He could hear the heart monitor beeping in an uneven beat. Yami sighed sadly and sat in the chair beside Yugi's bed and held his hand.

[Yugi?]Yami tried the link again but still received no response [I'm so sorry Yugi, I never meant to hurt you]Yami felt his heart stop when the heart monitor attached to Yugi started beeping erratically. Suddenly, a doctor came charging into the room and pushed Yami away from the bed.

"We're losing him!," The doctor yelled, "Hurry up guys we don't have much time!."

Yami watched fearfully as the doctors frantically worked to save his hikari's life.

'No Yugi, I can't lose you,' Yami thought, 'please you have to be alright. I'm so sorry Yugi.' Yami thought.

To Yami, it seemed to take forever for them to stabilize his hikari again. He was relieved when the monitor was beating again. It wasn't as strong as before, but at least his light was still with them.

The doctor placed a hand on Yami's shoulder. "That was close," The doctor explained, "We have him stable again, but if he doesn't wake up soon, I don't know if he'll wake up at all."

Yami stayed by Yugi's side, refusing to leave. Joey and the rest of his friends visited often, bringing Yami things to eat so he didn't have to leave Yugi's side. Whenever Yami tried to leave Yugi would whimper in his sleep and start tossing and turning, but the second Yami grabbed his hand he calmed down again. So Yami just sat in the room, held Yugi's hand and whispered comforting words to him.

Its been a month since that terrible night and the longer Yugi stayed in the coma, the slimmer his chances of recovering were getting. Yami refused to give up on his hikari. Luckily, Yugi was stable but he just wouldn't wake up. Yami was really starting to worry. 'What if he doesn't wake up?' Yami thought, 'No I can't think that way, I have to stay positive for my aibou.'

It was late at night and Yami was almost asleep when he heard a soft moan from the bed beside him.

"Yugi?" Yami asked, "Come on Yugi, I know you can do it." He whispered. Yugi started to stir slightly and Yami rushed to find a doctor. They both came running in the room as Yugi slowly opened his amethyst eyes. He looked around the room with a confused look in his eyes.

'Where am I?' Yugi thought. Yami quickly ran to Yugi's side and gently grabbed Yugi's hand. He was very surprised when Yugi flinched away from his touch.

"Aibou?" Yami said quietly.