AN. Sort of important – the 'family/friends reject Yugi for no apparent reason' plot is well used, and usually badly. I hate it. I've yet to see anyone give a decent reasoning for it and it pisses me off – not only are almost all characters out of character, but they switch out of their out-of-character-ness becoming an OoC OoC, which is just painful to read... But plot devices which have been beaten to death with their own foot can be revived if they're used properly, and I'm hoping to do something unique. So if I make a bung of it please let me know. It's called constructive criticism, and that I love. Thank you.

~Lost Socks and Leprechauns

Italics indicate a change in language.


Prologue: A short sequence to be explained at a much later date.


The class was nervous. Not an unusual occurrence by any stretch – they'd never quite adjusted to the lecture hall fixtures spontaneously combusting or otherwise imploding in the presence of their young professor, and they likely never would – but it was odd that there were several dark priests (aside from the usual one) in the room, and they were all giving the projector screen rather suspicious glares.

The professor for his part seemed rather put out.

"Look, it's just a bloody door. I know where it goes, why it's here, and what needs doing. It'll be five minutes, tops."

"But you don't know-"

"Yes, actually I do, Malik, and if you'd just calm down and let me explain-"

"But you can't know what will happen! You could be killed!"

"MALIK." The quickly panicking priest froze along with all under twenty years of age. "I have spent years working with these. Travelling, researching, studying – never mind everything from before! I know. Every. Single. Last. Little. Detail. I know how it works. I know where it goes. I know what I will find. There is some uncertainty, but by far less than in our usual... outings. I am going to use it, because as much as I hate to admit it, the grinning idiot has a point." The professor gave the window his best glower. And sighed, defeated. "At least someone might be spared."

The priest, Malik blinked, and stared balefully at his feet.

"Alright. –But should they really be here?"

"If no one twitched when the podium blew up last week they'll be fine now."

Silence reigned for a moment in the half light.

A white line blazed across the canvas screen and opened outwards, revealing a light bright as the sun, fire and gold.

"He couldn't come up with anything subtle for once, could he?" The professor snorted and strode into the light.

A handful of the braver students would later claim he'd laughed.


"Paths, once crossed, remain crossed."

The Watcher King, Act One


Scene 1: Flawed Design

Sitting by the half shuttered little window watching the clouds pass by, he wondered how it had come to this.

And just what the hell had happened?

It was a question Yugi Mutou, formerly of Domino, had been asking a lot lately.

It had begun with Yami, as most things in his life usually did, and the ceremonial battle. A card game – what kind of thing was that to measure if one person was strong enough to live their life or if someone else had to end theirs? Who exactly had decided that? But it didn't matter now. Yugi had won. He didn't 'need' Yami anymore. What came after had only proven that.

Yami had walked into the light. And then... they'd never quite figured that out. The light had seemed to ripple and Yami stepped back out, looking more confused than anything. They could only determine was that it wasn't his time to go, or that maybe this was his reward. All that was certain was that Yami was there to stay, and they rejoiced.

For a little while, anyway.

There'd been some work to do after that. Yami needed to adjust to being his own person, apart from Yugi – they'd almost needed a crowbar to separate the two. He'd needed an identity and a past. (Courtesy of Seto) They'd invented family, schooling, medical files, and everything else he might need to get by. The world may have just experienced a near apocalypse, complete with fire storms around the globe and monsters roaming the streets, but it probably still wouldn't accept 'ancient pharaoh reborn' as a reason for not having social insurance.

Identity completed, with Yami formally adopted and a Mutou, they returned home just with just enough time to catch up on courses and write their third year exams.

He'd given Yami space. He needed to grow, and they were both too dependent on each other already. They'd all understood that. Their friends would help Yami adjust to his new life, and Yugi would step back and try to get used to being one person again.

They'd both done remarkably well. Yami already knew most of what he needed to get by. Both adjusted to the quiet in their heads. They were at odds with having private thoughts but they could talk anytime, and once they were ready they could become the devilish duo everyone knew they could be.

Could be. Would not. Ready or not, they'd never closed the gap between them.

Yugi, for his part at least, had tried. He wasn't sure he could say the same for the others.

When he approached them, he would either be ignored, or told not to be clingy. That he needed to stand on his own for once.

Which was absurd. What had he been doing for years? True, maybe faced with Ushio and others he hadn't stood very well but he'd always gotten by. Even possessed by the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle most of the time it had been the spirit to lean on him, not the other way around. Yami had only intervened when he felt Yugi was in danger, and although some of that danger was very real, most often the threat was something humdrum and ridiculous. And while it was nice to finally have someone watching his back, the assumption that Yugi couldn't handle a cold or the idiot threatening to toilet paper his diorama was insulting. That they continued to assume that after all he'd been through with them was worse.

Had he followed them everywhere like a lost puppy? No.

Had he dithered hopelessly, unable to do anything for himself? Non.

Had he struggled to get through his daily grind? Niet.

He'd given them the space they'd asked for; their lives had all been riveted around him for so long after all. He'd told them about what he was doing, and he listened for updates, but space would be good for them.

He'd gotten a job – he knew grandpa's shop wasn't really how most the world worked, and besides, he needed to save for college. He'd met people, made other friends, despite the problems he'd once had. His marks had soared, rivalling even Kiaba's despite being younger. He'd joined the track team and made captain, the districts' best long distance runner even if he could only sprint to save his life. He'd won or placed in every race he'd been in for the last year. He was neither hopeless, nor lost, nor hurting.

At least not until he realised that his dearest friends were no longer his dearest... and maybe not friends at all. Even Grandpa was distant, doting one the newest member of the family.

It had seemed slow at the time but in hindsight it'd happened very quickly, over a matter of days, not weeks. They'd tuned him out more and more, usually outright ignoring him unless someone thought he'd done wrong or Yami wanted him to cover his shift at the shop. After a while the once spirit didn't even ask and just left, assuming Yugi would cover for him. He never heard what was going on, information neither offered nor supplied when he asked. Most families would be thrilled when their children got jobs – Solomon had been so angry that he'd nearly disowned his grandson, railing about how Yugi was 'abandoning the family business' when he was working there more than ever, and without pay. None of his new friends were 'trustworthy' and none of his achievements were ever worthwhile, and why did he always have to try to steal the spotlight from Yami? Was he jealous?

It felt like punishment. For what he didn't know.

Yugi had tried and tried to find what had made it so. What he'd done, or what he'd said – or what he hadn't – to so upset his friends and family. He'd asked them, and was rejected. He'd asked others to see what they'd heard or noticed, but they were as confused as he. He'd gone over every memory he could recall to discover what thoughtless act might have set this off, but nothing came. He'd even researched their behaviour, desperate for something to tell him that he could fix this. And all the while nothing changed; his ostracism for some unknown crime went on.

Tired, stressed, and alone in his own home, was it any wonder he'd fallen into depression?

And then, on Christmas break Solomon and Yami had left. He'd known nothing of it until he'd found the short note on the door telling him they'd be gone for three weeks, mind the shop and replace anything you use.

He'd been moved out by New Years.


The process had actually begun well before they'd left.

He had found support in the teachers and friends and peers who had watched the Mutou's home life spiral, splinter and shatter. Some had offered to put him up for a few days to get him away from the little game shop on the corner, others giving advice to the increasingly depressed Yugi, and sometimes a shoulder to lean on. But he was surprised to find his strongest ally in his sometimes rival, Seto Kaiba.

When, a mere five months after returning to Domino, Yugi's personal spiral had begun to reach more concerning levels he'd gone to a doctor and was prescribed anti-depressants. And he did feel better, if a little anxious for having to take the drug so often. A few weeks later a teacher saw him taking one of the pills in the school bathroom and confiscated them, fearing an illegal substance. The problem was eventually sorted with a call to the good doctor, but not before Solomon was involved. The baffled man gave a coarse cry – "Enough of this nonsense! Yugi's happy!" – ending the matter, but the damage was done.

The pills vanished from his room two days later. It would be a long week until Doctor Morgan would refill his prescription. He invested in a small safe.

His thoughts had travelled down their darkest paths that week, pushed farther by new flavours looks of shame, disappointment and disgust. But in catching a dangerous line of thought he didn't recognise as his own, he knew what he needed. It was not the Mutou family.

He cut out of school at lunch and caught Seto before he could leave for Kaiba Corp. The CEO shocked the world: Seto was more than ready to listen. They spent the afternoon talking.

Yugi filed for emancipation three days later.

Over the next few weeks he would often find things in odd places, not where he'd left them. Noticing a drop in his mail he searched the house, finding letters and tournament invites and bank statements stashed in his grandfather's room. He registered a post box. Reading the statements he found money spent in places he never went, clubs and restaurants, but he knew who did. He opened a new account after having a long chat with the banker, Seto and his lawyer.

The finally delivered subpoena was ignored, dismissed as a bad joke.

And then Solomon and Yami Mutou left.

And Yugi would leave them behind.


"Yugi?"

He blinked, glancing up at the clouds. Had they started the descent already?

"Yugi? You OK?" Concerned brown eyes filled his vision. Mokuba. The younger Kaiba bounced in front of him.

"Just thinking." He watched the clouds pass, now overhead. "Shouldn't you be buckled up?"

"Yes, he should."

The boy fled laughing from his brothers' gaze. They watched his settle further up the jet, next to a pale head. Kaiba turned back to him, blue eyes knowing, but silent.

"I'll be fine. Really." A hand waved, path drooping, gesture lazy. "Just... thinking."

The newspaper rose with a snap.

"... and thank you."

Eyes knowing, but silent.


NOTES:

Yes, I know Yami uncovered his name.

I don't know much about the emancipation process, but I figure it'd process quickly, in the interest of the child.

I have Yugi turning sixteen at the end of high school – he skipped a year in elementary and took heavy course loads in high school, but his marks dropped when the bullying started.

Also, I don't have a beta, so if you see an issue hit me please.

~Lost Socks