Journey Maker: Hey look! A Steven series reader! Geez, I wonder if this is awkward for you. You know, like when you see someone from your school that you had a class with and you use to talk to, but you would never hang out with otherwise... okay, so I'm sure this is different. Anyhow, thanks for the review!
AmePiper: It's totally cool, I feel bad for you cause you got a lot going on and then you have me updating like crazy. I'm glad you liked the ending though, I'm probably gonna need one of your self esteem boosters for this one as well for this chapter, I just feel like it sucks. I mean, check out the title of it. So many things are wrong... but anyhow, thanks for your review and I hope you can still find it in your heart to enjoy this!
Kes-Bluehope: Thanks for the review and enjoy the chapter!
Chapter 2: A Little More Hard Core
Yugi yawned as he slipped on his pajama top and heard a knock on the door. "Come in," Yugi said, placing his millennium item on the bed before turning towards the door. Yugi's mom walked in and smiled.
"Hey honey, just wanted to come in and tell you good night," Yugi's mom walked over to him and hugged him tightly before kissing him on the forehead, "How was your date with Tea?" Yugi blushed.
"Mom! It wasn't a date! We're just friends." Yugi's mom shrugged and grinned.
"Okay, okay, whatever you say dear, good night." She walked out of the room and closed the door.
"Good night," Yugi stated, looking back at the millennium puzzle lying on his bed. "Hey Pharaoh?" A double image of Yugi broke away from Yugi's back and stared back at him in a ghost-like form.
"What is it Yugi?" Yugi was now staring at himself in the mirror.
"When do you think I should ask Tea out?" Yugi asked, "I feel like this thing we've had has been going on for a while now…" Yami looked at him with a blank face.
"I don't know…" Yami said plainly, "Maybe when she decides which one of us she likes?" Yugi frowned and looked towards Yami.
"Do… you really think so?"
"You know what it means, you know just as much as I do that it's unclear as to which of us she truly loves."
"But she knew me way before she knew you."
"And I knew her way before any of you knew I existed." Yugi sighed and looked down at the ground before placing the millennium puzzle on his desk and switching off the light. Yami was still looking towards him, waiting for a response. "Yugi?" Yugi walked by him without so much as a glance, getting into his bed and turning his back towards Yami.
"Yugi, are you upset?" Yugi was silent. Yami was slightly fearful, he hated thinking he had upset Yugi. Yami floated over to Yugi's bed. "Yugi?" Yami reached out towards Yugi, but stopped. He took a deep breath before floating back into the millennium puzzle. The night was still young.
Yami lay sprawled out in the middle of the maze of his soul room, staring up into the complexity of his ceiling. He couldn't fall asleep knowing he had made Yugi mad or sad in some way. Yami sat up and thought for a moment, trying to decide what to do. Yami got up and walked over to the door, opening it slightly and staring across the hall at the soul room opposite from him. Yami would just pop in real quick and apologize.
Yami decided to act on that and walked over to the soul room, opening the door. The room was still just as messy as it had always been, toys and action figures scattered everywhere, it was symbolism at it's best. Yami stared down and noticed Yugi was sitting in the middle of his room, an action figure and a tank in each hand. Yugi turned around to see Yami standing in the doorway, his eyes looked sad.
"Pharaoh… I wasn't expecting you. I'd love to chat and all, but I'm kind of in the middle of an action figure war," Yugi held up the action figure in his hand to show to Yami.
"I see… Well, Yugi… I just wanted to apologize… for earlier." Yugi shrugged.
"It's okay, I might've overacted on my part. I guess… I guess I'm just a little sad. I mean, I feel like my life has completely changed since you came along. I mean, not that I don't like you or anything, its just… some days I wish I didn't always have to save the world, or worry about my friends being in danger… some days, I just wish I was a normal kid again," Yugi turned back around, looking away from Yami, "But… I should really get back to this war I kind of have going here, so good night."
Yami stepped out of the room and closed the door. He was hurt and ashamed of himself. It was true what Yugi had said, if he weren't around things would be different and Yugi might have a chance at a better life. Yami hated feeling like he was responsible for everything bad that had ever happened to Yugi, but whom else could he blame? The only reason bad guys ever showed up was because of some grudge they had against Yami.
Yami went back to his room and decided to get some sleep himself. Maybe some sleep would do everyone some good. Still… Yami couldn't help wondering what life would be like for Yugi if he didn't have to share a mind with Yugi. Yami knew he would miss Yugi, but the one thing that Yami wasn't sure about was whether Yugi would miss him back. But that was something that could be thought about at a later time. Yami shut his eyes and let sleep finally come to him in the dark hours of the night.
The next morning Yugi was up and ready to go, last night's events had not yet come back to him, and he was quickly getting ready for school. Yugi buttoned the final button on his uniform before checking the mirror one last time to make sure everything was in check. Yugi didn't want to have to get another uniform violation.
"Yugi! You better get down here, Tea's here!" Yugi's mom called from down stairs. Yugi's heart leapt when he heard Tea's name.
"Coming!" Yugi called, grabbing his backpack and bounding down the stairs. Tea was standing in the doorway next to Yugi's mom. "Hey Tea!" Yugi said happily as he ran over to Tea's said.
"Hey Yugi, we better hurry if we want to get to school on time." Yugi nodded.
"You got it, see ya Mom!" Yugi said, running out onto the sidewalk with Tea.
"Have a good day at school!" He heard his mother call out. Yugi looked over at Tea, but Tea was doing some sort of speed walking, so Yugi had to run to catch up.
"So Yugi, how did you sleep last night?" Tea asked in a quick tone, she was probably worrying about being late. Tea could be like that sometimes, but Yugi loved her all the same.
"I slept… okay. How about you?" Tea gave a loud groan; her walk became more of a stomp as she began telling the epic tale of her night.
"Ug! Joey kept calling me last night trying to get answers from me for the homework last night. I kept telling him to do the homework himself, but he just kept trying to pry it out of me. I hung up on him after about 20 minutes, but he kept calling me back. Then I got so angry I started yelling at him, which woke my parents up, and they were NOT happy about waking up in the middle of the night." Tea slammed her fist into the palm of her hand. "Sometimes Joey can be such an idiot!"
Yugi chuckled. "Well, he's our friend, and that's what friends are for." Tea shook his head, and looked up ahead.
"Oh good, we're almost there, come on! If we hurry now, we still have some time to yell at Joey!" Tea grabbed Yugi's hand and pulled him along all the way until they reached homeroom. Tea walked right up to Joey and tapped him on the shoulder. Joey turned around.
"Hey Tea." Tea was tapping her foot.
"Oh, you're not still mad about last night, are ya?"
"Of course not, I only got grounded for a month!" Tea's eye was twitching, which usually meant danger for anyone either in front of her or near her.
"Well hold on, before you completely explode, check it out," Joey pointed over towards the corner of the classroom, "Kaiba looks like he might break down and start crying or somethin." Tea and Yugi looked towards Seto, whom was sitting in the corner of the classroom all by himself, he was hunched over his desk and was staring blankly at the ground with the most depressed look. Tea's heart melted and her emotions switch from anger to concern.
"Wow... I've never seen Kaiba so sad before. What do you suppose happened?" Tristan walked over to where the three were standing, he figured they were just as concerned about Seto as the rest of the class was.
"So apparently the reason why Kaiba is so vulnerable is because he had some fight with Mokuba last night that didn't really end well." Tea turned towards Tristan.
"Do you know what happened?" Tristan shook his head.
"That's all I heard." Yugi frowned, turning back towards Seto. He didn't think anyone had ever seen Seto so depressed in his life, which only sparked the desire within Yugi to go and help him.
"The poor guy..." Tea said quietly to herself.
"Here, I'll go talk to him," Yugi said, walking towards Seto.
"Yug, makes you think he'll go and randomly open up to you? He hates you!"
"I dunno, it's worth a try." Yugi pushed through the other students and stopped when he had finally made it over to Seto's desk.
'Yugi, I don't think this is a good idea,' Yami said from within Yugi.
'Oh, what harm will it do?' Yugi said in reply. Yugi stood there for a few moments, waiting for Seto to notice him and look his way. But Seto was too deep within his own thoughts and worries that he didn't even realize Yugi was standing next to him. "Hey Kaiba..." Seto broke away from his trance and looked up. His typical angry look returned.
"What do YOU want, Muto?" Yugi sat in the desk next to Seto's.
"To talk, you look pretty sad." Seto turned his head in disgust.
"And what makes you think I would tell you?" Yugi shrugged.
"I don't know, the fact that I know you better than most of the people here? So... what happened with Mokuba?" Seto eyed him.
"How did you know it was about Mokuba?"
"It's either about him or your company, and last I heard your company's been doing pretty well. So what's been up with your brother?" Seto crossed his arms and looked away.
"Well, I would expect you to know, shouldn't I? Considering you ran into yesterday and all."
"Oh... so was the fight about how you're too overprotective?" Seto was silent. "Your brother is 11 years old, Kaiba. That may not seem that old to you, but you can't go treating him like a kid for the rest of his life. After all, what are you going to do when he's 18 and he moves out? You can't protect him forever." Seto glared at him.
"Leave." Yugi got up and left without question. He had tried, that was all Yugi could think as he walked back towards where his friends were sitting.
'It's probably best if we stay away from Kaiba for a while, he tends to be vicious when he's emotional,' Yami said, appearing once more, floating beside him.
'Why do you always have to comment on every single decision I make?' Yugi asked, slightly annoyed. He walked over to his friends while Joey was bouncing up and down.
"Oh, Yug, Yug, Yug! I just remembered, switch over to the Pharaoh, I got a story to tell 'em!"
"Why can't you just tell me?" Joey shook his head.
"Nah, sorry Yug, I think the Pharaoh would get it better. It's kind of more him than you."
"Aren't we the same people, though?"
"Not... really..." Tristan said, scratching his head, "The Pharaoh's... just a little more hard core than you." Yugi was staring at him in disbelief.
"Look, can you just change into the Pharaoh before this gets anymore awkward?"
"Fine!" Yugi switched into Yami, and forced himself into the puzzle.
"Yugi wait!" Yami said, looking down at the puzzle.
"Oh Pharaoh, there you are, I got this great story to tell ya..." Yami sighed, but continued to look down at his puzzle from time to time as Joey talked, wondering how Yugi was doing. Yami just wanted to show Yugi that things weren't as they appeared, but left him alone all the same.
A/N: Hey guys! Sorry for the crappy ending... and the slightly crappy chapter. This chapter is totally new, considering the new idea for this story just came to me during the last chapter. Anyhow, I hope you'll forgive me though for my failure of a chapter. I promise things will get more interesting soon though! You just gotta believe it!(oh wait, I already said that) Oh yeah, and my computer is broken again, but I won't let that stop me. I'll keep writing stories till the end of time! Wow... not even my author's note is going well. Hope to hear from you guys soon!