The first thing he notices when he wakes up is that it's gone.

There is an unfamiliar lightness around his chest, and he looks down. He grasps at the empty space uselessly, hoping that he has imagined its absence.

He hasn't.

He wonders if it's a dream. He has had these nightmares before, after all. He will awaken, and look down to see it there, and everything will be back to normal.

He looks down again.

It hasn't returned.

Now he begins to speak to himself.

"Oh-!" he gasps, clutching the light, loose fabric of his white shirt. "My Puzzle!"

Then he begins to realize his surroundings.

He lies on a mat in the center of a room. The room is large, and it is also white, and very clean. He feels small in this place. It makes him afraid.

"Yami?" he whispers. "Yami, where are you?"

The boy stares up at the ceiling, as though he hears a reply. He smiles. "I'm just glad you're all right," he says to the air.

It has been going on for thirty days straight.

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Fiction

by Lethe Seraph

Prologue

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"Hey. Any changes?" The young man smiles and offers her a sandwich. It's a shame that his long bangs get in the way of his eyes, she thinks – not for the first time. It makes him look like a ruffian. She takes the sandwich gratefully, though.

"Tuna?"

"He turned into a tuna?" jokes Jou. He takes a seat next to her. "No, it's ham. You should know the difference. Seriously, Anzu, how's he holding up?"

"Nothing has changed," she sighs. "I don't think it ever will."

He frowns. His amber eyes glint, impressiveness dampened by those obnoxious bangs. She guesses what he is about to say, and he doesn't disappoint her. "Don't say that. The kid will get better."

She doesn't believe him. "I visited Yugi's grandfather in the hospital, Jounouchi," she says seriously. She remembers very well what it was like. So many wires and noises, and the dull, husky rasp of failing lungs; she remembers wondering how he could still be alive. Whether he even wanted to be alive any more.

"How was he?" says Jounouchi. He asks only for the sake of conversation – he knows already.

"He's had better days," she replies carefully. They are quiet for a moment, watching a boat pull out of the pier. Sunlight sparkles off of the surface of the water. It only makes her feel worse. "I wish that we could have helped him."

He hugs her then, awkwardly; avoiding her half-eaten sandwich. His voice is beginning to choke. "Anzu, you know that nothing we could have done…"

"I know! But…"

"But nothing," he says. "But nothing. Where the hell is Honda?" He pulls away from her, glaring around the harbor. "He's late."

"You thought he would be on time?" Anzu implies that this is a ridiculous notion, and it really is. They both know that Honda has probably gotten distracted, either by food or attractive persons, and expecting Honda to be on time is rather like expecting Yugi to shoot up three feet over any given summer.

"No," admits Jou. "I can still complain, though."

Anzu sighs again. He never changes. Even after … it ... has happened, Jou still makes the same stupid jokes. He still has the same grin as before, doesn't he?

She can't remember.

"Jou?"

"Hn?" Jou is gazing out over the water now. It still sparkles, but not as brightly; a cloud's path has begun to cross over that of the sun.

"What do you think happened to him?"

Jou turns to look at her. She can tell that he is carefully phrasing his answer, trying not to put her in some state of distress. Honestly, she isn't that sensitive. He's so protective. "Well," Jou says awkwardly. "Who can say except for the doctors? I think it was stress, probably. Like they said."

"Yeah…" Another lull in the conversation. The cloud is swelling slowly. She wonders whether it will rain later. Hopefully not; she has some gardening to do at home. Her mother's back hasn't been its best as of late, and Anzu has taken to relieving her of certain tasks. Her mother has always liked flowers; Anzu remembers how the bright, cheery colors always fascinated her as a child.

Maybe that's why she was drawn to Yugi in the beginning.

But why didn't she see…?

"Hey! Sorry I'm late!" Honda finally rushes in, panting. He jumps easily over the back of the bench into the space between Anzu and Jou. "What's up?"

"Why are you so late?" Anzu and Jou both smack the shoulder closest to them. Honda flinches and grins sheepishly.

"I was accosted on my way here," he says, tone rather teasing. "By Jou's bestest friend in the whole wide world."

Anzu catches on and claps a hand to her cheek in mock disbelief. "You mean he talked to you?"

"Why, yes, he did," says Honda importantly.

Jou blinks. "Uh, what?"

"Seto Kaiba!" Honda grabs the remnants of Anzu's sandwich and downs them. "I passed him on the way here," he says, mouth full. "Windbag wanted to know whether the media were telling the truth about Yugi, and if that was why Yugi's been absent for like a month."

"What did you tell him?" says Jou in a dangerous voice. Jou and Kaiba have never been able to look at each other without starting a fight. Anzu, personally, thinks that it's their odd way of showing each other that they like each other, but she's not about to tell them that.

Honda shrugs. "I just said that he's going through some family trouble. That's all."

"Good thing Kaiba didn't run into me," mutters Jou. "I woulda given him some of this, and some of that..." He trails off, punching his open palm with his fist.

They look at each other.

"If Yugi were here…"

"Don't start, Anzu, you'll be crying buckets of tears before a minute is up," sighs Honda.

Jou agrees.

If only Yugi had been there.

--

He lies on a mat in the center of a room. The room is large, and it is also white, and very clean. It is unfamiliar, and makes him nervous.

"Yami?" he whispers, tremblingly. "Yami, where are you?"

The boy stares up at the ceiling, as though he hears a reply. He smiles. "I'm just glad you're all right," he says to the air.

One month, and nothing has changed.