...

...

As he had been doing all this week, Yami woke up alone. Of course, this was probably due to the fact that he had slept until at least 10 each morning, obviously missing morning classes. Marik had performed some of his 'exemplary student' magic that had allowed Yami to be excused from them. So he slept all morning, attended afternoon classes and then his evenings were filled with Ishizu.

He looked over to his room-mates immaculate made bed, Yugi probably thought that he had been too tired (as he returned to the dorm in the early hours of the morning) to noticed that he had been sleeping in his own bed. He wasn't even sure of the last time he had really touched the kid.

Yami hadn't had time to deal with this blatant avoidance yet. But now he had the time, Ishizu soon to return from whence she came, and he fully intended to sort it out.

He must've been more exhausted than he thought, as the next thing he knew he was being woken up by Yugi slipping back into the room. He blinked a few times as if he was going to disappear in front of him, a skill that he had seemed to learn over the past week.

"Kid?"

"You were still sleeping?" Yugi half laughed, "Seriously?"

"M'tired"

Yami detected definite bitterness in the reply that came "Oh I'm sure you are, but you have to get up"

"Whhhhy" Yami drawled, pulling the covers back over his head. Extremely hesitant to even think about leaving the warm cave he had created.

"It's an emergency, Mel is sick"

…

…

Yugi passed Yami his coffee as he took a sip of his own, they were walking down the road in companionable silence along with Marik and Bakura, Ryou having stayed behind to keep an eye on Mel.

It had been a long week, not having Yami around. However, Yugi thought, it made his decision to stay away from him a lot easier. However now he was back, things were going to get difficult. He could already tell that Yami was just itching to pin him against some solid surface and just…

Yugi quickly ended that thought with a shudder. Unfortunately he was still holding the coffee at the time, which Yami obviously felt judging from the sly smirk he gave him. Yugi quickly dropped his gaze and propelled himself forward to catch up with the other two.

"So why are we doing this again?"

"Ahh, it's your first time" Bakura said, wrapping an arm around Yugis shoulders.

"First time what?"

"Mel being ill is quite an event" he explained "It isn't something that happens often for starters"

"Aaaand let's just say that Marik here isn't what you would call a nursing type" Yami cut in with a grin.

Marik shot him a glare and threw a punch which was easily dodged by his cousin "I resent that"

"You resent it but you can't exactly deny it" Bakura muttered.

Yugi looked between the three of them and just raised his drink back up to his lips muttering "I'm not sure I even want to know anymore"

"You set the kitchen on fire one time…"

"Are you kidding me?" Yugi spat out turning to Marik, who shrugged "What? I wanted to make the guy some soup or something"

"Definitely 'or something'" Yami added, making Bakura laugh with a snort.

Marik pouted "You didn't have to come if all you're going to do is mock me"

"We just have to keep an eye on you-

"Atem?" A woman's voice exclaimed, making all four of them look around to find it. Yugis sight settled on an elegant woman walk towards them all, smiling and waving. A strange feeling began to stir within Yugi, the girl was beautiful. Tall, thin, large expressive eyes, and brown hair that framed a delicate face. Yami stepped forward opening his arms and the woman walked into them a happy smile spreading across her face as he wrapped them around her. Yugi felt a rush of hatred for just how fucking perfect they looked together.

"Hey Tea, how are you- OW" Yami trailed off into a shout of pain as the woman (Tea, Yugi corrected) whacked him about the head.

"How am I? You hung up on me weeks ago and never called back you absolute shit!"

"I was busy, you were busy!" Yami yelled raising arms to protecting himself from the onslaught of slaps Tea was raining down on him.

"Excuses" she sighed, stopping her attack and rearranging her hair, not that it really needed it (thought Yugi, somewhat bitterly…fuck I have issues)

"Sorry"

"No, you're not but it's okay. I hear you saw Ishizu when she came down?"

Yugi almost felt his ears perk up at the mention of that name Ishizu just who the hell is she?

"Yeah I did, most of the week"

"Oh but when it comes to me-

"You two are in very different positions" Yami grinned, ducking from an expected slap which he was not wrong in expecting.

"So…is Yugi with you?" Tea grinned conspiratorially. Yamis gaze narrowed and his mouth stayed shut. So Yugi spoke up "That would be me"

Yugi did his best not to react to the way she looked him up and down, her grin widening for some reason, her "Interesting" didn't help the feeling.

"Tea…" Yami began, but she apparently got the gist of what he was going to say before he said it from his tone and backed away, "Okay okay I'm going. Call me soon though?" She said, with a small genuine smile which Yami returned, "Of course."

"Well then" she stepped forward "until next time."

Then she and Yami were kissing.

…

…

Back in Marik and Mels room, Ryou took the bag of shopping off of Bakura as the all came through the door.

"Did you manage to get everything?"

Bakura moved towards the bed, helping to raise Mel into a seated position "think so. Did you get the nurse over?"

Ryou nodded "Yeah, she said to just keep him in bed and if the fever doesn't break by tomorrow to call her again" he looked to where Marik had sat, on a chair next to bed "that okay with you?"

"Yeah, thanks for staying."

"Couldn't let you do it" Yami laughed, leaning against one of the desks that were pushed against the wall. Yugi was sat in its chair next to him, but he was staying quiet.

He couldn't process what had just happened. It's not like he didn't know that Yami had been with girls, probably was still with girls despite their messed up thing. But to see it right in front of him…with his own eyes. The calm, friendly manner that Yugi had never been witness too, maybe it only came out to the women Yami was with. A relationship with a mature, beautiful woman…wouldn't it boring for Yami to be with someone so childish by comparison?

A cry of "You tried to make your own medicine with stuff from the chemistry lab" brought Yugi back to the conversation going on in the room.

Ryou was running a hand through his hair, his cheeks were flushed so obviously he had been the one yelling. Yelling at Marik from the looks of things seeing as he was pouting in the corner. Mel was back to lying down in the bed, having been forced fed some medicine. On a tray next to him was a tray filled with bottles of water, dry biscuits, cold packs, towels and an assortment of cold relief things. Ryou pointed to it, still talking to Marik "If he wakes up in the night and wants something, only stuff from this tray okay?"

"Sure" Marik muttered.

"I mean it. No fulfilling random requests or deciding you can make something better. Just this alright?"

"I got it okay"

"We're going to take that as our cue to leave" Yami said, stepping away from the desk and reaching an arm down to grab hold of Yugi "come on kid."

Without even thinking about it, Yugi harshly slapped the arm away "Don't touch me."

Fuck

Yugi blushed as everyone's gaze focused on him. Yamis was especially intense, he was just stood eyeing up Yugi carefully as he shook his arm slowly, a red patch already forming on this skin. Yugi quickly stood and headed towards the door "I'll see you later" and left.

"Someone got dumped" Kura snorted, whilst Ryou just shouted "What the fuck did you do?"

"Oh didn't we tell you?" Marik cut in "We saw one of Atems lady friends whilst getting your list"

Ryou just groaned.

"What? What does that have to do with anything?" Yami said. Although he knew.

He just wanted to push the boundaries a bit. It was obvious that Yugi was feeling some kind of jealousy about the whole Ishizu situation, though he himself was at fault for not explaining that. And he didn't want to just yet, he almost wanted to drag some kind of fight from Yugi, especially now that he had started to avoid him.

"You kissed another woman in front of our pure Cutie, are you an idiot?"

Yami couldn't help himself, he snorted out a "He's not that pure"

"What did you do to my cutie?!" Marik screeched.

"Don't yell" Ryou admonished "You've brought this upon yourself you know Atem"

"Ryou-

"You've fooled around too much, now it's going to come back to bite you in the ass-

"I don't have to listen to this." Yami turned his back on the remaining group and followed his room-mate out of the door, giving it a slam behind him.

"Well, this is going to be interesting" Ryou sighed "We'll be off too, you going to be okay?"

Marik nodded "scouts honour."

Once the final two had left, Marik crawled onto the bed to lie next to his lover, stroking his hair away from his fevered face.

"I hate it when you're sick"

…

…

Yugi was not prepared for the inevitable consequences that were going to come from striking Yami. He honestly hadn't meant too, he'd just been so wrapped up in his own thoughts (and stupid images of him kissing that girl)that he wasn't really sure what he was doing. Ow! Or paying attention to where he was walking he thought as he walked straight into the door of his room, stubbing his foot and hitting his head.

He bent down to cradle his head and toe, resting his forehead against the door lightly as several swear words resounded in his mind.

"What the hell?"

Looking over his shoulder Yugi found Yami had followed him and was looking down on him with a strange combination of amusement and anger.

"Stubbed my foot" He murmured

"Klutz"

"Shut up- what are you doing?!" He coughed as he felt Yamis arms wrapped around him and hoisted him up as if it were the easiest thing in the world before swinging him over his shoulder.

"Carrying you over the threshold princess" Yami smirked as he reached around and opened the door without dropping his prisoner.

Oh for fucks sake "Put me down"

"But you hurt your foot"

"I can still walk, put me down!" Yugi had begun to pound on the boys back which was just annoying more than anything. So he bumped him a bit before kicking the door shut behind him.

"Don't want to."

"What?"

Yami dragged Yugi down from his shoulder and propped him up against the wall, bracketing the boy within his arms "You're avoiding me aren't you?"

Not meeting his gaze, Yugi just gave a short "No I'm not"

Bollocks "You've been avoiding me all week and now you won't go near me"

"Not true"

That was just a blatant lie and now Yami was pissed off. The kid was avoiding him right now. He reached out to grab the boys chin and forcibly make him meet his eyes as he delivered his line "Then the next time you slap me away I won't forgive you"

Yugis heart jumped "Wha-

"You got that?"

The intensity of the glare made Yugi want to run and hide, but he still had a firm grip on his chin. There are going to be marks a distant part of Yugis brain offered.

The silence was getting to Yami now "Your answer?"

Yugis mouth was so dry he really wasn't sure if he'd be able to answer "I…Yami-

That was it Yami thought, last chance was used and wasted. So he did what any rational person would do and bent down to sink his teeth into the pale flesh of Yugis neck.

Yugi let out an indignant squawk that had an edge of genuine pain and fear to it as he raised his hands and wrapped them within Yamis hair in a feeble attempt to pull his head away. Eventually Yami pulled back, checking his work. Satisfied with the red mark of his teeth that he'd left behind and moved back further after giving it a final lick.

"That'll remind you that you can't run away from me"

Yugi was just blinking up at him, his hand rubbing over the mark in a motion that he wasn't probably aware of. Yami moved to sooth him in some way but the next thing he knew Yugi was off and out of the door, closing it with a slam echoing Yamis own from earlier.

…

…

Ryou opened the door, the loud banging making it impossible to ignore, and found a dishevelled and wild eyed Yugi behind it.

"Wha

"I think I want to talk about it now."

…

…