Chapter 10- The Mall

After school let out, Yugi and Heba went to their lockers.

"Brother, are you worried about going to the mall with them?" Heba asked.

"A little. I'm worried that it'll go back to the way it was before. Them not even noticing that I'm there. Or not noticing that I'm not there." Yugi answered.

"Trust me. They'll know that they're doing something wrong because I'll let them know it." Heba said.

Yugi smiled as he got what books he would need to take home. "I'd better call Ishizu and let her know." Yugi said. He took out his cell phone and dialed Ishizu's cell number.

"Hello?" Ishizu said.

"Ishizu, it's me, Yugi." Yugi said.

"Hello, Yugi. How was school?" Ishizu asked.

"It was fine. I was just letting you know that Heba, Mana, and I were going to go to the mall with Yami and the others." Yugi said.

"You are? Why?" Ishizu asked.

"Because we want to. We want to go, Ishizu. We'll be home later." Yugi said.

"All right, Yugi. I'll see you after while. Bye." Ishizu said.

"Bye." Yugi replied before hanging up.

"Was she angry?" Heba asked.

"More like surprised." Yugi answered.

"Brother! Big Brother!" Mana called.

Yugi and Heba turned to have Mana come up to them.

"Are we ready to meet them for the mall?" Mana asked, her eyes shining with anticipation.

Heba mentally groaned. 'Ra, help me live through this.' Heba thought.

"Yeah, Mana. We're ready. Come on." Yugi told her.

The trio headed out of the school and went to the school gates where they saw that all the others were waiting for them.

"You all ready to go?" Joey asked.

"Yeah. We're ready." Heba said.

"Let's head out then." Tea said excitedly.

It was obvious from the looks on the guys' faces that they did not look forward to this, especially Duke, Tristan, and Mokuba.

"Where's Seto at?" Heba asked.

"Moneybags decided to go to work." Joey grumbled.

"Moneybags?" Mana asked.

"Just a nickname he calls Seto. In fact, I think that Joey only calls him that when he's mad at him or they're in the middle of an argument." Atemu said thoughtfully.

"Can we go on?" Joey growled.

"Yeah. Let's go." Tristan said, seeing the signs that Joey was ready to bust with anger.

"Ryou. Malik. Are Marik and Bakura going to meet up with us at the mall?" Yugi asked.

"No. You know that those two won't set foot in a mall if their lives depend on it." Ryou said.

"Yeah. I think that Marik would rather spend the day helping Ishizu at the museum over going to mall." Malik put in.

"I thought that Marik hated helping Ishizu at the museum with a passion. That was one of the reasons that you moved out of her house." Kyla said.

"We did. I'm just saying that that's how much Marik hates the thought of going to the mall.

"It'll be better without those two anyway. All Marik and Bakura would do is cause any kind of chaos that they could in all the stores that they went in." Sayora stated.

"She makes a point. It'll be a more enjoyable trip if Bakura and Marik just do whatever they do while we're in school." Ryou said.

"What do they do while you're in school?" Mana asked.

"Honestly, we don't know, and we prefer it that way." Ryou said.

"We're all better off not knowing." Mokuba said.

The group headed for the mall.

"Wow! This is a big mall!" Mana exclaimed.

"Didn't you have malls in Egypt?" Sayora asked.

"Yes, but none this bug." Mana replied.

It was a three-story mall with over five dozen stores on each level.

Heba looked up and then looked to where his sister was before he said, "Ra, take me now."

"Actually, you would be asking Anubis that." Atemu said.

"Ra. Anubis. I don't care who it is, but if they have any sense of mercy, they will end my sufferings now." Heba said.

"Come on, Brother. It can't be that bad." Yugi said.

Heba narrowed his eyes. "Spoken like someone who has never been shopping with Mana before." Heba said.

"Is it really that bad?" Atemu asked.

Heba nodded.

"Speaking of which, Mana's gone." Malik said.

"And so are Tea, Kyla, and Sayora." Joey added.

Tristan, Duke, and Mokuba groaned simultaneously.

"What's with them?" Heba asked.

"Tristan's dating Tea, Duke's dating Kyla, and Mokuba's dating Sayora." Yami explained.

"Oh. Boyfriend duties call for them carrying their girlfriends' shopping bags." Heba translated.

Yami nodded as Duke, Tristan, and Mokuba walked off.

"Should you be trying to find her?" Joey asked.

"As long as Mana is with them, she'll be fine. I don't want to be stuck carrying a tone of shopping bags for my sister." Heba answered.

"Well, since the rest of us don't have much to do, how abut we go to the arcade and play for a while." Joey said.

"That's not a bad idea." Malik agreed.

The group headed into the arcade where they split up and started to play different games.

Yami noticed that Yugi was playing one of the newer Duel Monsters video games. He walked over and said, "Have you played this one before?"

"Not much. I haven't gone to the arcade that much lately." Yugi said, trying to be discreet.

Yami, however, knew that it was because of how they had all treated him, and that fact alone made Yami feel even guiltier than he already felt.

"Yami." Yugi said.

Yami was snapped out of his thoughts. "What?" Yami asked.

"I asked if you had played this one before." Yugi repeated.

"Oh. Yeah. I have. I've beat it once although that was kind of hard to do." Yami replied.

"I never thought that you would use the word hard when it comes to games." Yugi stated.

Yami smiled. "Well, it's actually lose that I don't use. Any game can be hard." Yami replied.

"I seem to recall beating you when it came to the Ceremonial Duel." Yugi put in.

"That was just one time, Yugi." Yami retorted.

"I recall beating you a few more times after the duel, too." Yugi put in.

Yami glared. "Okay. So you're the only one that's managed to beat me." Yami said.

"That's better. Denial is never a good thing, Yami." Yugi said.

"I'll remember that." Yami said.

From across the room, Heba watched the interaction between Yugi and Yami. "At least they're no yelling at each other." Heba muttered.

"I don't think that they will." Atemu said.

"Ahh!" Heba exclaimed, jumping before whirling around to face Atemu.

"Don't do that!" Heba exclaimed, swatting Atemu in the arm.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to scare you." Atemu said.

"That's not hard to do." Heba said.

"Anyway, I was saying that Yami and Yugi are not going to get into an argument here. Neither one of them like to draw attention to themselves, so they're not going to start a fight here. If they do end up arguing, I know they would wait and do it somewhere in private, not public. They like to keep their personal affairs just that. Personal." Atemu said.

"That's good to know. I really don't want Yugi and Yami broadcasting everything that happened." Heba said.

Atemu smiled. "They won't. If they talk about it here, it'll be in a low tone." Atemu said.

"Okay. If you say so." Heba said.

"I do. You want to play the racing game over here?" Atemu asked.

"Sure. Can two people play?" Heba asked.

"Yeah. We'll be racing each other." Atemu replied as they walked over to where the game was.

Yugi ended up beating the game, much to Yami's amazement.

"It took me a few weeks to finally manage to beat that game. How did you manage it in only a half hour?" Yami asked.

"I like video games. You prefer games that you actually have to touch the pieces to play." Yugi answered, getting up from the game station.

"Yugi, are you okay? From what Ken and his goons did to you, I mean?" Yami asked.

"I'm okay. I've got a few bruises, but they'll fade like all the others did." Yugi said.

Yami mentally winced at the reminder that Yugi had been beaten up by those bullies during the time that he had abandoned Yugi. He knew that it wasn't Yugi's intention to hurt him, but Yami couldn't help, but feel lower than dirt at what he had done.

Looking out from the arcade, Yami noticed the food court. He turned back to Yugi and said, "Do you want something to eat?"

"Sure." Yugi said.

The two left the arcade and went over to the food court where they both got something to eat and sat down.

"Is you sister as bad as Heba says she is?" Yami asked.

"I don't know. I haven't been around them in years. Heba would know better than I would. Of course, Heba hates shopping, so that adds in to his "torture" of having to go with Mana to the mall. Someone who hates shopping is not going to have high opinions of being in the mall." Yugi said.

"I suppose so. Mana sure seemed happy to be in the mall, though." Yami said.

"I know that she is." Yugi replied.

Yami glanced up at Yugi. 'Things didn't use to be so tense between me and Yugi. We could talk for hours about things without even realizing that we spent all that time talking. Before I started to ignore him. Before everything went wrong.' Yami thought.

'I know that they are all trying, but not one of them have said that they are sorry for what happened. Maybe they really aren't sorry and are just doing this to ease their guilt.' Yugi thought.

Sighing, Yami said, "Listen, Yugi."

"Yes." Yugi said, focusing on Yami.

"I just, well, I wanted to tell that I'm sorry for what happened." Yami said.

"You do?" Yugi asked, surprised.

Yami nodded. "There is no excuse for what we did, and I'm not going to try and make one. I am really sorry for all that happened. You didn't deserve it. I know that. You went through hell for six months, and none of that would have happened had we just notice that you weren't there." Yami said.

"Why did you do it?" Yugi asked.

"I-I don't know, and that's the honest truth. I'm not trying to excuse everything by saying this, but I never meant to hurt you, Yugi. We just didn't notice that you weren't there. We didn't see that anything was wrong. Not one of us noticed that you were gone. Even in the times when we would mention you for various reasons did it dawn on us that you were not there with us. I won't try to excuse it, but I am sorry, Yugi." Yami said.

"Would you do it again?" Yugi asked.

"No. Never. If I could change that past, I would have made it so that we didn't do that, but since the past can't be changed, I will say that I would never do it again." Yami said.

Yugi smiled. "You know, you're the only one." Yugi said.

"The only one what?" Yami asked, confused.

"You're the only one who has bothered to apologize to me for what happened. No one else has. I was beginning to wonder if the only reason that you asked me to come today was so that you could ease your guilt by doing something with me." Yugi said.

"Of course not, Yugi. We really want to make things up to you." Yami said.

"You all don't have to try and make everything up to me. The only thing I want is to know that you are sorry for what happened. Doing things like this just make it seem like you're trying to ease your own guilt." Yugi said.

"I'm certainly not, Yugi. I really am sorry about what happened." Yami said.

Yugi smiled slightly. "I know you are. I can tell. I won't say that it doesn't still hurt because it does still hurt. A lot. I was really hurt by what happened, and I even felt betrayed by it. I never thought that you, of all people, would do that." Yugi said.

"I never thought that I would have, either. None of us even noticed, and I don't know how we didn't." Yami said.

"You know that things can' just go back to the way they were before." Yugi said.

"I know that, Yugi, and I know that it's going to take some work to get your trust back again, but I'm willing to work on that." Yami said.

"I'm glad of that." Yugi said.

Yami bit his lip before he spoke again. "Yugi, there's something that I want to be honest with you about." Yami said.

"What's that?" Yugi asked, a little worried.

"Did Ishizu or Heba tell you how we found out about everything that we did?" Yami asked.

Yugi frowned. "No. I don't think so. Why?" Yugi asked.

"Well, I think that I should tell you how we found out." Yami said.

"Okay. Go ahead." Yugi said.

"Yugi, when we were at the hospital that night, Yuesei went home early. He found your diary and read it." Yami said.

Yugi's eyes widened. "H-he read my diary?" Yugi asked.

Yami nodded. "You wrote down everything that happened. That's how we got such a clear picture of what we did. Yuesei read us the most important entries. Or what he thought was the most important." Yami said.

Yugi gulped. "I'm sorry." Yugi said.

"For what?" Yami asked.

"I shouldn't have wrote everything down that I did. I just didn't think that anyone but me would ever read it." Yugi said.

"Yugi, you don't have to apologize for the things that you wrote. It's what you felt, and you had a right to write down every word that you did. There's no reason for you to apologize." Yami said.

"Some of the things that I said about you guys was so hurtful and degrading, though." Yugi said.

"Hurtful, yes, but they weren't degrading. Yugi, we needed to hear that because it made us see how much we had been hurting you. It made us realize that we were doing things that were completely wrong, and we had no reason to do it, Yugi. You never did anything to hurt us and we did everything to hurt you." Yami said.

"Still, they were hurtful." Yugi said.

"Yes, and they forced us to see that we were in the complete wrong." Yami said.

Yugi looked up. "So, you're not mad that I wrote the things that I did?" Yugi asked.

Yami reached across the table and placed his hand on top of Yugi's. "Yugi, how could I be mad? You were only writing what you felt, and you were well within your right to do so. What you wrote only made me see how I was a failure as a Yami, and I know that I need to do better now, and I am. I'm not going to let that happen again. Granted, it'll take time, but don't apologize for writing down your feelings." Yami said.

Yugi smiled. "Thanks. I needed to hear that." Yugi said.

Yami smiled back. "Anytime." Yami replied.

From the arcade entrance, Atemu and Heba watched them.

"I think that Yugi and Yami will be okay. They were talking about what happened, but it looks like they're still on good terms." Atemu said.

"Somewhat. It'll take a lot to get them back to where they were." Heba said.

"Maybe, but at least they are trying." Atemu said.

"Agreed." Heba said. He suddenly groaned.

"What?" Atemu asked.

Heba pointed.

Atemu looked and saw Mana was heading their way with a bunch of bags. "Good luck carrying all of that home." Atemu said.

Heba glared. "You're no help." Heba said.

Atemu smirked. "I'm not Mana's boyfriend nor am I yours, so I have no obligation to help." Atemu said.

"Which leaved me to carry them." Heba said.

An hour later, the group left the mall to go to their separate homes.

Yami left the mall feeling a lot better. He had managed to reconnect with Yugi on some level, even if they did have a long way to go. He was happy to have the chance to make everything up his light.

Yugi also felt better. He was glad that Yami was sorry, and he was sure that, given time, he would be able to trust and interact with Yami like he used to. He just needed time to heal the wounds that had been made in his heart.

Hope that you liked it. I wanted to show you Yugi and Yami trying to reconnect as well as a little interaction between Atemu and Heba.

Next chapter will have a little time skip. A little more trouble in the next chapter.

R&R.