Disclaimer: I don't own Yugioh

Chapter 8

Mai Valentine walked down the hall towards the Office of Vivian Wong. She had newly transferred to Domino's Social Services branch and was supposed to be relieving the overstretched social worker of some of, what Vivian had called, 'more stressful cases.'

Mai's electric purple two inch high heels clacked along the tile floor before she came to a stop in front of Vivian's office. She was wondering vaguely how many cases Vivian was going to dump on her. She hoped it wasn't too many; otherwise it wouldn't be feasibly possible for her to keep tabs on the kids like she was supposed to.

She rapped her fist against the door before she was bid, "Enter."

Mai walked into the room and took a seat in front of the Chinese woman's desk.

Vivian glanced up at the buxom blond and said, "I take it your Mai."

Mai nodded, "I am, you were supposed to be giving me some cases."

Vivian gave a relieved sigh before she hand Mai a stack of manila folders all of which had several sheets of paper in them. "You'll be taking on five of my cases. Two twin brothers, who I'l tell you right now are nothing but trouble, and then three younger, unrelated, boys who haven't been in the system very long."

Mai nodded, reached down and opening her bag to slip the folders into her bag before she looked back at Vivian, "Can you tell me anything about the cases or do you just want me to read the files?" Mai asked.

Vivian sighed, "Well the three younger boys are little angels all of them. All three were orphaned due to death of their parents. Car accident, War, Cancer. The oldest of those three is 5 and the youngest is 2. You'll love them." Vivian said.

Mai nodded, "And the twins?"

Vivian sighed, "They were two cases I couldn't wait to part with. They were taken from their biological parents due to abuse and then after that they were runaways for various reasons. They are now on their fourth foster family. Their 16 years old and have been living with their new parents for a little more than a month. Both boys have problems but you'll find that out for yourself since technically I should have checked up on those boys last week but didn't since I knew you were coming." Vivian said.

"Oh." Mai said. She had to bite her tongue to keep her from reprimanding Vivian for not checking up on the twins like she was supposed to. I'll just have to check up on them myself. I'll make a point to go this week.

Vivian nodded, "Bunch of trouble makers. The oldest one, well I guess you could say that since he's about 20 minutes older than his twin, has one of the worst attitude problems I've ever seen and I've seen some bad attitudes in my day let me tell you. Anyway, with his attitude I wouldn't be surprised if he winds up getting himself sent to juvenile detention until he's twenty one. The younger one, he's completely silent...not mute just silent. I've only heard him talk one time and that was back when the boy was 13 and he was pleading not to be separated from his brother."

Mai raised a brow but said nothing. She couldn't very well say anything in defense of boys she knew nothing about.

She rose to her feet and said, "Thank you for the files. I'll get straight to work on these."

Vivian just smiled and said, "No thanks necessary, like I said. I couldn't wait to get rid of those two."

Scene Change

The bell rang signaling the end of another day at Domino High. Yugi slowly walked out of the building planning to make a quick stop at the library before he finally headed home. After all, Yugi thought, I don't know much about Ammut.

He had hardly taken two steps before Duke, Honda and surprisingly Joey ran up to him.

"Hey Yugi." The three said, though Joey just HAD to ruffle Yugi's hair when he said it, much to Yugi's annoyance.

Yugi glared at Joey before he began fixing his hair and said, "Aren't you supposed to be in detention Joey?"

Joey snorted, "Oh please Yug, if that Sennen punk can skip detention then I can too."

Duke nodded before his eyes suddenly widened as if he just remembered something, "Yugi, didn't you get stuck working with him on some stupid ancient Egypt project?" Duke said.

"Atemu's my partner on the project yes. Why, what's your point?" Yugi asked.

"So, you're going to be stuck doing it by yourself?" Duke asked which made Honda and Joey scowl.

Yugi glared at the three and said, "No, I'm not working on it by myself. Atemu is working on it with me."

"Then why did he walk out on you in class today?" Duke asked.

Yugi bit back a groan. Why can't Duke just keep his mouth shut? Yugi thought.

"That punk ditched ya Yug?" Joey asked.

"He didn't ditch me Joey. He had to leave; I think something happened with his brother." Yugi said.

Joey rolled his eyes but decided to change the subject slightly, "Honda, next time that Sennen punk turns up in school you and I need to give him a serious ass whooping."

"JOEY WHEELER!" Yugi shouted, before he kicked his friend in the shin, "How dare you say something like that."

Joey yelped in pain and latched onto his shin with both hands before he began to hop around. "Damn it Yugi that hurt." Joey said.

"Yeah man what the hell was that for?" Honda asked before he stepped up and supported Joey so he wouldn't end up falling flat on his face.

"I'm just sick on you three being complete jerks to Atemu and Yami." Yugi said hotly.

Duke gazed at Yugi for a second before he said, "Why don't you try and tell the truth Yugi? Tell us why you really are so interested in helping."

Yugi turned to look at Duke, who had an annoying smirk on his face. "You can wipe that smirk off your face Duke, there's nothing to tell."

"Oh I think there is." Duke said.

"Like what?" Joey asked, once he had finally stopped hopping around.

Duke's smirk widened before he said, "I think Little Yugi here has a thing for bad boys."

"WHAT THE HELL DUKE?" Yugi shouted.

However, the three ignored their smaller friend while Duke decided to elaborate, "Well, for one Yugi is obsessed with helping them, that by itself is a major sign. Girls always love trying to help guys with tough pasts get over it with there help...in a way they feel like they get to play nurse, and get close to the bad boy at the same time. Also, Yugi I think finds Atemu's whole tough guy routine hot. Long story short...Yugi wants to get laid." Duke finished.

However, as soon as Duke had finished talking Yugi kicked him in the shin as well.

Joey and Honda turned and looked at Yugi for a second. Honda opened his mouth to ask Yugi about Duke's theory, only to stop when Yugi bit out, "One more word about me wanting to sleep with Atemu and I'm not going to be aiming for shins anymore. I'll aim a little higher but still below the belt so if any of you wish to have kids some day then I'd drop it."

Honda's mouth snapped shut.

Yugi then picks up his bag and starts to head down the steps.

Honda turns back to Duke and said, "Yugi does realize he has no chance with Atemu since he's probably too busy banging his brother."

"Or getting banged by him." Joey pointed out.

Yugi froze for a second before he raced back up the steps, dropped his bag and punched Honda in the jewels. Joey and Duke immediately covered theirs.

Honda dropped to his knees before he rolled up into a ball. Yugi glared at the three for a few seconds before he picked back up his bag and left.

Yugi walked down the sidewalk towards the Domino City library still fuming about what his friends had said. What the hell is their problem? And how dare Duke say that the only reason I want to help Atemu is because I want to sleep with him. That's not it at all and they should know that. I want to help Atemu because someone needs to. Because, I care. Not because I want to get into his pants. Even if I do think he's hot, that has nothing to do with...

Yugi came to a stop, his eyes widening when he realized what he'd just thought. I am attracted to him, but not for the reasons that Duke thinks. It's not because he has an attitude nor is it that he's a bad boy. I like that he's strong. I like the way he looks after his brother.

I'd kind of like if I could find someone who'd look after me like that. Yami's really lucky to have him. Yugi thought as he continued on his way towards the library.

Duke's still wrong though, I don't want to help Atemu just so he'll like me. That would be wrong, not to mention incredibly selfish. You don't help people with selfish motives in mind. If you do that then you might as well not help at all. Grandpa may not have told me anything really about them but he did say it was bad.

I could never really understand that though, and neither could Grandpa...how people could willingly hurt their children. I mean, yeah I've been beaten up by bullies at school but my Grandpa never beat me...and nor did my mom or dad ever lay a hand on me.

Yugi looked up and noticed that he had finally reached the Domino public library. He quickly jogged up the marble steps and walked into the building.

He walked over to the nearest computer and typed in: Ammut, in the search function to pop up any books that would help him and Atemu with this project. Unfortunately nothing popped up. Yugi silently groaned in frustration before he almost smacked himself for not thinking of this sooner and deleted Ammut from the search and typed in: Egyptian Gods, instead. Yugi smiled triumphantly when this time the computer popped up several hits.

Yugi picked up a small slip of paper that was sitting in a basket next to the computer as well as one of the mini pencils and began to jot down the call numbers and book titles. Once he had written them all down he closed his search, got up and headed into the history section of the library.

Once he had found the section he needed he, much to his surprise, was able to find the books he was looking for relatively quickly and as an added bonus they weren't on the top shelf where he couldn't reach them.

Once he had grabbed the books he needed he carried them up to the front desk and checked them out before shoving them into his bag and heading out the door and towards home.

However, now that he had finished his task at the library, his thoughts ended up drifting back to Atemu and not only what had happened to him but also his desire to help.

I probably should just leave helping them to Kaiba like I had said I would, but for some reason that just doesn't sit well with me. And, I also get the feeling that Kaiba is going to focus on helping Yami and Atemu's going to wind up being forgotten...his attitude is probably giving off the impression that he doesn't need help even though he probably needs it just as much as Yami does.

The real question though is how am I supposed to help him? Every time I try and talk to him he tells me to buzz off. He gets very defensive. How do you help someone who not only doesn't seem to want you to but also tries every trick in the book to push you away?

Yugi came to a stop, his eyes widening as a thought suddenly occurred to him, what if I didn't act like I was trying to help him...didn't act like I was at all interested in finding out about his past and instead just focused on trying to get to know him as a person? Maybe that would work. He pushes people away because he doesn't want them to know about what he's hiding so if I stop trying to discover his secrets then maybe he'd react better to me.

Yugi smiled when he thought a bit more about that idea, If I treat him like he's completely normal then maybe he'd let me in and just maybe after he gets to know me a bit better he'd trust me enough to confide in me about what had happened to him. Not to say that he isn't normal because he is...he's just been through some bad stuff that is still affecting him.

By this time Yugi had reached the Game Shop. He walked in with a smile on his face and said, "Hey Grandpa how was business today?"

Grandpa looked up from the newspaper he'd been reading and smiled at his grandson and said, "Business was alright, albeit a bit on the slow side. How was school?"

Yugi smiled, "School was good. We have a school dance coming up and our class is responsible for planning it. Today in Homeroom we came up with the theme of the dance, its going to be awesome." Yugi said.

Grandpa chuckled before he set his newspaper aside and said, "What theme did you guys decide on?"

"Ancient Egypt." Yugi replied.

Grandpa nodded, "That is indeed an interesting theme, it's certainly unique."

"That's why everyone voted for...well, okay not EVERYONE, some people voted for some of the other ideas but that's why it's so cool this idea hasn't ever been done before." Yugi said.

Grandpa smiled, glad to see that his grandson was so excited about the upcoming school dance, not that he'd go, but at least he was excited about helping to plan it.

"And guess what else happened today Grandpa?" Yugi asked.

"What?" Grandpa asked.

"Today in Ancient History we were split into pairs to do group projects on something dealing with Ancient Egypt." Yugi said.

"That sounds interesting. You didn't get stuck with a slacker did you?" Grandpa asked. He hated it when Yugi got stuck with someone who didn't want to do their share of the project but wound up taking all the credit.

"No, and that's the best part. Atemu's my partner." Yugi said.

"Atemu? Really?" Grandpa asked, he was mildly surprised to hear that his friend had won the uphill battle to get the boys to go back to school.

"Yeah, we're doing our report on Ammut, which was Atemu's idea." Yugi said.

"Ammut?" Grandpa asked, his face showing his confusion, "Never heard of it, who or what was that?"

Yugi smiled and said, "You know I hadn't either until I googled it in the library on my lunch break. Ammut was a goddess in Ancient Egypt."

"Ah." Grandpa said.

"Yeah, I went to the library on my way home and checked out some books so Atemu and I could work on it." Yugi said.

Grandpa smiled, "I'm glad to hear that you aren't procrastinating on this Yugi."

Yugi nodded and said, "Well, I'll let you go back to your paper, I'll be upstairs if you need anything."

Grandpa nodded and picked back up his paper while Yugi scampered up the stairs and changed out of his school uniform and into some more comfortable clothes.

Once had changed he scooped back up his bag and headed out the house door, but not before leaving his grandfather a note on the kitchen table telling him where he was going.

Twenty minutes later Yugi was standing in front of the Sennen's mansion. He bounded up to the front door and raised his hand and knocked twice.

It wasn't long before the Sennen's butler came and greeted him. "Good afternoon sir."

Yugi grinned at him and said, "Good afternoon to you too. Can I come in? I need to talk to Atemu."

"Of course sir." The butler said, stepping aside to grant Yugi entrance. He then led Yugi into the sitting room and said, "Would you like anything to drink sir?"

Yugi shook his head, "No thanks, I'm just hear to work on a project with Atemu." Yugi said.

"Ah, well I'll go and let him know that you're here sir." The butler said before he bowed slightly and left the room.

Ten minutes later Yugi was mildly surprised to see Atemu plopping down in one of the armchairs across from him. Yugi smiled brightly at him and said, "Hey."

Atemu scowled, "The stupid butler said you were here to do a school project with me." Atemu said.

Yugi nodded, "That's right, the one we were assigned today in Ancient History, the paper we're doing on Ammut." Yugi said.

Atemu sighed and said, "Can we just work on it another time? I really don't want to do a stupid paper right now."

"Well," Yugi said, "I don't want to work on the paper either but it doesn't change the fact that we need to get it done."

Atemu slouched down slightly and said, "Fine, tell me what you want me to do and I'll get it done tonight. Would that make you happy?"

Yugi frowned for a second before he smiled again and said, "No, we're supposed to work on it together, not just have you do your section by yourself and me do mine. That's not how group projects work."

Atemu groaned, "And you're telling me that there is no chance that you'll let me put this off until tomorrow?" Atemu asked.

Yugi smiled brightly but shook his head, "Nope."

He then reached into his bag and pulled out the books he'd checked out earlier that day. Atemu got to his feet and said, "Well, if you're going to make me work on it then follow me, we'll work in my room."

Yugi nodded and got up following Atemu. He knew Atemu didn't sound too pleased about it but Yugi was determined to ignore Atemu's attempts to push him away.

Yugi followed Atemu up the stairs, though he paused when Atemu came to a stop outside a closed door, "If I let you in here you have to agree to follow some rules. Rule number one keep your voice down. Rule number two stay the fuck away from my brother. And finally rule number three, if I tell you to get the fuck out you will because I'll warn you now you break any of those rules and I'll kick your ass." Atemu said.

Yugi nodded, "I'll follow the rules. I promise." Yugi said.

Atemu nodded before he opened the door and walked into the room. Yugi followed Atemu into the room and glanced briefly around. The room was pretty good sized, certainly much larger than his room at the Game Shop. There were two beds in the room, on one of them was Yami sleeping. The room was devoid of any major signs of personalization that normally adorned teenage rooms like posters, leaving the walls bare. At the back wall was a desk top computer that Atemu was plopped down at and starting up.

Yugi slowly made his way through the room before he took a seat on the floor next to the computer Atemu was booting up.

He glanced at the desktop once Atemu had signed in and couldn't help but smile at what he saw was the wallpaper Atemu had chosen; apparently he had agreed to personalize that at least. On Atemu's desktop was a pencil drawing of him and Yami standing next to each other, Yami was about a step behind Atemu and partially hidden behind his brother's body. Atemu's eyes were narrowed and his body was tense like he was ready to pounce if anyone got too close. However, the most interesting thing Yugi thought about the picture was that Atemu was drawn as a Pharaoh. Hmm, guess Atemu really likes Ancient Egypt. Yugi thought.

Yugi tore his gaze away from the computer and pulled out the books he'd checked out of the library.

Once Atemu had opened a blank word document he glanced down at Yugi and said, "So, what exactly are we going to do for this project?"

Yugi shrugged, "I don't know. We have to make some sort of visual that depicts what we were researching." Yugi said.

Atemu leaned back against the chair and glanced up at the ceiling, Yugi assumed that meant he was thinking.

After the two had just sat in silence for several minutes Yugi decided to speak up, "Atemu?"

"Hmm" Atemu replied though he did not look back down at Yugi.

"What interests you so much about Ammut?" Yugi asked.

Atemu glared down at Yugi and hissed, "Why the fuck would you care why I was interested in Ammut?"

Yugi smiled and said, "Well, I don't really know that much about Ammut so I don't have any idea what we could do for our presentation, however, perhaps if you told me what YOU liked so much about it then maybe we could play on that idea."

Atemu looked at Yugi for several seconds before he said, "I like Ammut's role in the weighing of the heart. I like that she devours the hearts of those whose hearts are weighed down by the evil they committed in their lifetimes. Not only does she keep that person from moving on to paradise but she also makes it so they can't be reincarnated. She permanently wipes out their existence."

Yugi looked up at Atemu and said, "That's interesting. So, why don't we show that then? Since that was her role in Ancient Egyptian mythology why don't we make a model showing that? We can make a large clay model of Ammut and have in her jaw the heart of someone who failed to pass the weighing of the heart."

Atemu considered the idea for a moment before he nodded, "That would work." He said.

Yugi grinned for a second before it dropped from his face and said, "Can I ask you a serious question Atemu? You don't have to answer it if you don't want to."

Atemu sighed, thinking here we go. Before he said, "Yeah, sure go ahead."

"What are you so afraid of?" Yugi asked slowly.

Atemu's eyes widened in shock before they narrowed in rage as he reached down and grabbed Yugi by the collar of his shirt pulling Yugi up so there faces were inches apart and he hissed, "I'm not afraid of anything and how dare you presume that I am."

"You know it doesn't make you any weaker or any less able to defend your brother if you admit to being afraid. In fact, if you admitted what you were afraid of and were able to overcome it you'd be better prepared to protect your brother." Yugi said.

Yugi knew that he had stepped over a line but he couldn't help it. He really wanted to try and help Atemu and he had blurted out his question before he had thought better of it.

Atemu just glared at Yugi for several seconds before he released his hold on Yugi's shirt, dropping Yugi back onto the ground. "Let's just get this stupid project done so you can leave." Atemu said, turning his attention back onto the computer.

Yugi looked at Atemu for several seconds before he came to a decision and got to his feet, walked behind Atemu and wrapped his arms around him. Atemu immediately tensed before he hissed, "Let got of me."

Yugi didn't let go.

Atemu reached up and grabbed the front of Yugi's arms and pulled the harshly away from his body before he rose to his feet and shoved Yugi so he landed on the ground.

Yugi looked up at Atemu who now towered over him, his eyes burning with rage. Yugi met his gaze, his eyes shining with determination, though there was a slight tinge of fear.

Atemu took a step towards Yugi, only to freeze when another voice said, "Atemu leave him alone."

Both Yugi and Atemu looked over towards the bed where Yami was sitting up, glaring at his brother.

Yami got up and slowly made his way over to his brother and rested his hand on his brother's shoulder. Yami said nothing else, just looked straight into his brother's eyes. For several minutes the twins just looked at each other before Atemu sighed and went and plopped back down at the computer.

Satisfied that Atemu had backed down Yami turned and walked back over to the bed and laid back down.

For a few seconds Yugi just laid on the floor before Atemu snapped, "Are we going to work on this project or not?"

Yugi sat up before he walked back over and plopped down on the floor next to the computer, "We can stop for tonight if you want." Yugi said.

Atemu nodded, "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." Atemu said.

Yugi nodded and repacked his bag and headed out the door. It was going to be a lot of work but he'd get through to Atemu Sennen if that was the last thing he did, after all Kaiba wasn't the only person capable of helping the boys Yugi was certain of that.

Yami watched as Yugi walked out of the room before he walked over to his brother and lightly cuffed him on the back of the head.

Atemu looked away from the computer and glared at Yami, "What the hell was that for Yami?"

"For you being a complete idiot, not to mention a jerk." Yami said.

Atemu got up and walked over to Yami and picked him up. Yami immediately wrapped his arms around his brother shoulders to steady himself while shouting, "ATEMU PUT ME DONE!"

Atemu chuckled and after he walked over to his bed said, "As you wish." And let go of Yami, dropping him onto the mattress. However, Yami tugged Atemu down with him since he didn't let go of his brother's neck.

The two siblings chuckled for a minute before Yami said, "I was serious Atemu you were being an idiot."

Atemu rolled his eyes, "I don't like that annoying brat trying to stick his nose into stuff that isn't his business." Atemu said.

Yami sighed, "Atemu, I think he likes you. That's why he's so determined to try and get you to talk to him." Yami paused for a moment before adding, "Not that I would know why he'd be willing to put up with you treating him like shit but for some reason he does."

Atemu shook his head, "Yami that brat doesn't like me. He just thinks I'm some mystery he needs to solve or some broken toy he needs to fix and once he's done that he'll lose interest and move on." Atemu said.

Yami took a deep breath and said, "Até, if you honestly believe that than you are an idiot. That kid wouldn't have let you do what you just did to him and talk to him the way you do if he wasn't being genuine."

Atemu raised an eyebrow and said, "This coming from the boy who thinks a boy who has a crush on him, just like you do, is going to want nothing to do with you because you kissed him back after he kissed you first in an effort to help you."

Yami playfully punched Atemu in the shoulder and said, "That is completely different and you know it Atemu."

Atemu just shook his head and said, "Can we just drop the subject of the brat."

Yami sighed but let the matter drop, though he couldn't help but add, "You shouldn't call him brat. It isn't nice Até."

Atemu rolled his eyes, "Well, with you being an exception to the rule, last I checked I wasn't a nice guy." Atemu said.

"Would it kill you to try and be nice?" Yami asked.

"Yes." Atemu said.

Yami sighed again and rolled over so he was facing away from Atemu. Atemu sighed and wrapped his arms around Yami while he spooned against him. "You mad at me Yami?" Atemu asked.

Yami took a deep breath before he muttered, "It doesn't matter so just drop it."

Atemu sighed but he decided to do as Yami had asked and let the matter drop. But he had meant what he said about that brat. He was just curious because he wanted to solve a mystery or play doctor and once there wasn't a mystery to solve or something to fix he would move on to something else.

And if Atemu was completely honest with himself he didn't want to let someone get close, to tell his secrets and try and help only to have them drop him like a hot potato once he'd learned all he wanted to know...or once he'd been deemed fixed.

So, he'd keep pushing the brat away. If he really was serious about wanting to help than he wouldn't give up. However, if his motives weren't true he'd give up and move on to something else after he'd been pushed away enough times.

Although, it would be nice if the kid was honest about his motives. Atemu sighed as he starred up at the ceiling. And silently prayed, let him be legit or have him go away because Yami's not the only one who doesn't want to get his hopes up. I don't want that either.

A/N: Thanks for reading. Please review and let me know what you think, I like getting the feedback.