You probably wouldn't believe it, but this story got nominated for the Best Puzzleshipping Story this month. I didn't even know they did something like that! :O But, any who, thanks y'all! Y'all are the best readers an author could ever have! And now on with the story I know y'all have ever so patiently been waiting for!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh!

Chapter Eleven

We were maybe in the hug for a couple of seconds longer when Yami finally pulled back. He pushed my bangs away from my eyes and tucked them behind my ear as he whispered, "I am so sorry, aibou. I wish this never happened." His hand went to cup my cheek but I turned my head a little and his hand fell away. I ignored the hurt look that passed through his eyes at the same time he noticed the discomfort in mine.

I let his words sink in at the same time as the cold started to seep in. I could only nod my head to show that I accepted his apology. Trying not to make it noticeable, I crossed my arms across my chest to keep myself warm. Goose bumps formed on my bare arms as the cold blew around. After being in that hug with my arms squished between us and warm arms around me, I took the full blow of the chill. Being in that hug reminded my body that I wasn't protected from the winter air.

Against my will, a shiver went down my spine. I tightened my arm closer around me.

Noticing the movement, Yami's face changed to concern and he asked, "What's wrong?" The affection in his voice reminded me of our time together months ago before all of this... happened.

I shook my head, not wanting to worry him. "I-t's nothing." My teeth began to chatter in my mouth and there was nothing I could do to get them to stop. I looked away from the man in front of me to the scenery around us. Besides the grass being dead, it looked a little damp out. That was weird, it hadn't rained yet. Why did it look like that for?

"Yugi..." Yami quietly sighed my name. He knew me too well to know it was nothing. "Please tell me what is wrong."

I kept my eyes away. The park was empty of people except for us. There weren't any animals like squirrels or birds around to watch, they were all probably in their warm nests sound asleep. Having that thought in mind, I shivered but tried to tame it so it wouldn't be noticeable. I wish I was home, surrounded by warm blankets and snug in my bed.

"S-seriously, i-it's nothing." But I was betrayed. The chattering escaped and mixed in with my words when I spoke. I silently cursed myself.

Yami rolled his eyes as he understood what was going on. He shook his head with a smile on his face and shrugged his leather jacket off of him. Without thinking twice, he handed it to me, causing me to look back over and stare at the jacket in front of me. I shook my head and didn't take it. Just because I was cold didn't mean he'd have to give me his jacket.

"Please take the jacket," he said and moved it closer to me.

Once again, I didn't move no matter how much I was aching for the warmth the jacket would provide. "Y-you ne-need it m-more." The chattering started to get worse as more cold started to seep in.

"Is that so?" Yami replied rhetorically. Despite my answer, he scooted closed and swung his jacket around my shoulders. I flinched from the movement but otherwise stayed still. "No, you need it more. Besides, I'm wearing a long sleeve shirt while you are not. Just take the jacket, Yugi." He softly added when he saw that I was not accepting it.

After a second of hesitation, I gave in and loosened my arms to push them through the sleeves. Immediately I felt the warmth the cloth gave off and buried deep into the jacket without even noticing. The jacket wasn't exactly big on me, it was almost a perfect size. Yami and I weren't far off in sizes, maybe one or two size difference. As I settled into his jacket, the scent of his cologne filtered through my nostrils. Old Spice. I smiled a little at the familiarity of it.

A second or two later, Yami cleared his throat and asked, "So... what would you like to do now?"

I gave him a confused expression and asked, "What do you mean?"

"Did you want to stay out here or would you like to go home?"

I froze up a little. Home. I told myself I wasn't going back. But, that was before Yami... changed. I was never going to go back because I wasn't welcome there anymore. But now, now that Yami recalled he didn't remember anything that happened, did that still count? Was I going to be welcomed there, to my own house? All of his friends were there, or well, they could still be there. If I went back to the house and they were there, would they act the same and still ignore me or will they not remember anything like Yami? I bit my lip, wondering if I wanted to go back home.

All the while, Yami watched my reaction. He saw the confusion and deep thinking represented on my face and understood what I was thinking about. He didn't say anything. All he did was stand up and held out both hands to me.

Glancing up, I eyed his hands, wondering if they were safe.

"Let's go home and get out of the cold." Yami suggested when he realized I wasn't going to respond. "I promise I won't do anything," He added softly as he kept his hands out. I took my eyes off of his hands and looked into his eyes. After a minute, I nodded and took his hands, allowing him to hoist me up.

Once on my feet, I was making the move to take my hands back when Yami had sense the discomfort and already dropped them. He smiled warmly at me and gestured with his head so we could start our expedition home. He turned his head and began to walk.

I stayed where I was and stared at my hands that I brought out and held out in front of me. I could still recall the warmth on them left from Yami's own hands. It was nice. Finding my voice, I softly asked to where my other half could hear me, "How do I know this isn't a dream?"

Yami stopped and turned around, facing me. He watched me and didn't say anything as I continued.

"How do I know that when I wake up, this is all real?" I tore my gaze away from my hands to Yami's crimson colored eyes. "How do I know?" My throat closed up a little and a lump formed in my throat. I sounded broken, even to my own ears. How do I know that all of this is even real and not some sick dream to make me break even further? I needed to know. I was already the broken toy in the game shop, afraid to have some false hope of ever getting repaired again. When you get fixed, there's always a chance to become broken again. I didn't want that to happen to me. I took a step back and whispered, "How do I know?"

My Darker half took a step towards me and stopped when I took one back. He stayed where he was and tried to look strong and not hurt when he told me, "I can promise you that this is no dream."

"How?"

"Do you trust me?"

I remained silent and adverted my gaze away from him. Do I trust him? His voice sounded sincere and the way he spoke and how he spoke to me told me that this was the true him, his old self before everything changed. He even looked the same. But, looks could be deceiving. But then why would he be trying so hard to win me back if he would just dump me again? So he could shatter any trust I had brought back.

The other voice in my head did have a point, but for some reason, I wanted to believe in Yami and give him a second chance. Pushing the voice aside, I took a few step towards him until he was only a foot away and grabbed his hand that was at his side.

"I... I trust you." I whispered and looked into the eyes that I had fallen for. "Please, don't misuse it." I didn't even know if I would be able to recover if he did.

My Dark closed the gap between us and squeezed my hand. Using his free hand, he cupped my face -And I used everything I had within me to not flinch- and told me, "I will never. I promise."

XxxxX

The walk home was rather quiet as we were both lost in our own thoughts. We walked hand in hand, staying close but with some space in between us. It was like Yami knew I didn't want to be close to where we were brushing. He just put the distance between us without asking, though I noticed from his eyes that he didn't want it like that. I felt bad, but at the same time I didn't. I needed that space. Being this close to someone again, I felt like my heart would break through my rib cage like it had a mind of it's own. Not because I was feeling giddy or love sick, but because I couldn't be close to someone without thinking about Ushio and having a panic attack...

We made it to the game shop all to soon. I noticed that Yami kept looking over at me every couple of minutes, making sure I was alright and not about to run away again. I didn't give him any clue to show that I noticed, just kept to myself and looked away.

Once we reached the door, Yami reached out and took the handle and slowly opened it. The bell ringed from being opened and I flinched from the sound. But before Yami could notice, I straightened up and let him led me into the dark shop.

The inside was warm and toasty and when the door was closed, it felt even better. My frozen nose that turned red with cold finally decided to defrost itself and I almost shivered in relief. Within a few minutes, I would be able to feel my nose again!

"Come on," Yami softly urged me as he gently squeezed my hand. I allowed him to pull me along as we headed towards the living room. The closer we got to the living quarters, the more I could make out some noise. It sounded like the soft talking of people. They were whispering. I swallowed nervously, realizing who was all in there.

As he exited the shop and into the house, I hesitated in step and felt a slight tugging from our connected hands.

Yami paused and looked over his shoulder to me. He noticed my eyes not on him, but on the door way that led to the room where more people were located. It didn't take a genius to realize my discomfort. But my darker half squeezed my hand once again.

"It's alright. I won't let anything happen." He might not understand my discomfort of wanting to go into the room filled with his friends, but he still tried.

I could only nod my head and swallowed the lump that formed in my throat without my notice. I began to walk with him again and before long, we turned the corner and appeared in the entry way of the living room.

Upon our arrival, the people in the room hushed up and all turned to us, watching us and not speaking. Slowly, they rose to their feet. They all stared at me and I would have flinched. But, that's when I noticed something. They weren't glaring at me. They weren't sneering or giving me bad looks. They were looking at me... with concerned looks. Why?

Before I had time to make assumptions for their looks, a certain blonde hair teen spoke, "About time y'all got home!"

Hearing him talk, loosened some others to speak. "We were worried." Ryou added and looked between me and Yami. His doe like brown eyes were wide with worry, especially when he caught sight of my appearance. I didn't think I looked that bad. But, it had been a while since I last saw my appearance so maybe I did look bad.

Standing right behind Ryou was his Dark. He looked at me like he always did but behind those glaring amber eyes, I could see a tiny, tiny spark of concern. "Is the runt okay?"

That was when the last straw blew. My face fell and a whimper escaped from my lips. My hand still holding Yami's squeezed his so hard I was afraid one of us would lose blood circulation. My eyes squeezed shut and the exact moment they did, a picture of Ushio popped into my mind. The bully was smirking at me with eyes full of lust. I remember clearly having my head slammed against the building in the foul smelling alley way. I remember him holding my hair and pulling it just to have my face thrown against the side of the wall again. I remember...

Without even realizing it, I backed up against the wall and slid down it, keeping my eyes tightly concealed. Tears squeezed out through my eyes and slid down my face and dripped off of my chin. My hand had been removed from Yami's and was now wrapped around my stomach along with my other hand as I hugged myself. My knees were against my chest and I bowed my head, trying to think about something different.

'H-He's... always like that...' I thought to myself and I felt myself start rocking. 'B-Bakura always c-called me that... W-why am I acting l-like this?' My another image of the bully was in my head and this time, I was starring up at him. He was saying something to me but I only had my vision, not my hearing working. But I knew he was saying something rude and gross and bad.

"No..." I heard myself whisper in a tone that I could only hear. 'Make it go away.' I thought.

Something, probably a hand by the way it felt, touched my shoulder and remained there. I jumped about a foot into the air like a skittish cat and my eyes popped open. The first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "No, please!" Now that my eyes were opened, tears had free access to escape. They fell down my face.

"Yugi."

My blurry vision focused on the person in front of me. He was kneeling down in front of me with those concerned crimson eyes focused and locked onto mine. Behind him, Joey was there and so was Tea. They both looked stricken by my reaction to whatever it was that had happened.

"Was it something we said?" Joey whispered, his honey colored eyes never leaving my face. He turned to the last person who spoke but before he could demand anything from Bakura, Yami beat him to it.

"I think it's best if everyone went home." He took one last look at my face before standing up and turning to everyone.

Joey gazed back to Yami and looked ready to argue but a tap on his hand from his boyfriend made him swallow his words. He looked over at me -which I was now starring at the ground- and said in a defeated voice, "We'll see y'all tomorrow... You too, Yuge." He noticed the flinch but remained silent by it as he grabbed his boyfriend's hand and half dragged him out of the house.

One by one, everyone began to leave. When they past me, I kept my eyes glued to the carpet. The hikari's tried to say something to me but they were lost for words and ended up needing to have a gently push from their yami's to continue to leave. When the last person left, I still hadn't budged an inch, nor did I even speak.

For what seemed like years, I suddenly became aware that I had zoned out. When I came too, I realized that I was being cradled in the strong arms of my dark. I was curled up against his chest as he was walking up the stairs. From the contact of him holding me, my body tensed and I felt my throat close up. Panic swelled inside of me but before I could have a panic attack, Yami's cool, calm voice soothed me back down.

"Shh, it's alright, it's just me."

I don't know why I became relaxed again, I just did. I let him carry me up the remaining steps before I asked, "Where are we going?" My voice came out a little louder than a whisper and I cringed. My voice was hoarse and sounded tired. It sounded raw and horrible.

Yami didn't seem to mind though when he answered, "To your room. I figured you were tired and needed to rest." He turned his gaze onto me just as he stepped off the last step.

I nodded my head. A good nights sleep sounded nice right now. Maybe when I wake up in the morning I won't be all jumbled up with emotions and confusion. Maybe this was all one big nightmare and when I woke up, I'd be somewhere far from here. Then I wouldn't have to worry about getting hurt again.

My darker half entered my darkened room. He didn't bother with turning the light on, he just walked straight over to my bed where he ever so gently laid me down onto my back. As he was taking his arms back, he told me using a soft voice, "I'm truly sorry for everything that has happened, Yugi." And then he turned around and walked out of my room without another word.

XxxxX

Wow... It's been a while huh?

Lisa: Try a month, stupid.

Alright alright, I've just been busy, is that a crime? At least I got the chapter out! Sorry it wasn't the best, but it was something!

And just for an FYI, I came to the end of my writing in a spiral. Meaning that not everything is really planned out from here. I have a really good idea of where everything is going, but it might take some time to get it written out.

Lisa: Better not take another month.

Ra no! I'll assure you guys that it definitely won't! But until next time guys! Thanks for staying with me!