The gray clouds were looming over the town today.

They looked out the window watching the sky awaiting night time so they could go stargazing for the night. It was their favorite pastime after dinner since they usually can't sleep properly. Unfortunately, since it seemed like it was about to rain they would probably not be able to see them.

The two boys held each other's hands as they heard a crash downstairs followed by some yelling.

"YOU'RE A FUCKING SLUT!"

"PLEASE STOP HURTING ME!"

There was silence until another crash was heard. They hugged each other hoping for the best. It was a typical day in the Yugi household.

Yugi Amane was only 5 years old when he realized how much life truly sucked. His father was abusive, his mother wouldn't do anything to protect them and would even get beaten. There was no salvation for them.

He held onto his brother Tsukasa who was silently sobbing trying not to be heard. They needed to keep a low presence or their father would come and beat them too for being too loud.

Amane looked out the window and stared out into the ocean. There was a huge boat there with people carrying boxes inside. Sometimes he wished he could run away with his brother and hide in a boat. He sighed knowing how risky and dangerous such a plan was. They were young and had no money, where would they go?

It was night time now, he managed to catch a small glimpse of the stars, they looked beautiful as always.

"HEY YOU PIECES OF SHIT IT'S DINNER TIME!"

They both flinched and slowly moved away from the window.

"I'm scared Amane."

"Don't worry just don't look at him." Amane grabbed his hand in reassurance. He needed to protect his brother from any potential beatings. All they had to do was eat, no eye contact, don't speak unless spoken to. They would be fine.

How wrong he was.

It was a dark night, that much he remembered. It began to rain as he had expected. They were having some soup tonight again. He blew on his spoon and took a bite out of his bread. It was good despite their lack of money.

The sound of thunder and a flash of lightning caught him off guard. Tsukasa had let out a small yelp that caught their father's attention.

"What? You're scared of a little thunder?"

Tsukasa shook his head. "No sir." He was shaking but he tried to calm himself down and eat as quickly as he could.

"He's just a kid…" Their mother said before she was immediately slapped.

"Don't fucking talk back to me!" He yelled, grabbing her by the hair and throwing her on the floor. "Learn your place you fucking slut!"

She began to shed tears which only angered him more. Amane knew what this meant. He quickly ate his remaining food and waited for Tsukasa to finish so they could hide. Once he did he grabbed his hand and almost ran up the stairs until…

"YOU TWO BETTER NOT FUCKING MOVE!" His voice boomed all over the house as some thunder and a flash of lightning were heard.

Amane hugged Tsukasa closely as they sat on the stairs. He could feel his heartbeat rapidly increase as they watched their father beat their mother who kept begging him to stop.

"Amane." Tsukasa buried his face into Amane's chest. It was too much to continue watching.

"Shh, it's okay Tsukasa, don't look." Amane wanted this pain to stop, he wanted it to go away. Why couldn't they be a normal family? One where their parents actually loved each other and cared for them.

It only gets worse and what happened next was proof of that.

"STOP IT! JUST STOP." She was fighting back. Their mother was actually fighting back! She pushed him away from her which caught him off guard. "I'M LEAVING AND TAKING THE KIDS WITH ME!"

He looked angry like something had snapped. Every part in Amane's body was screaming at him to run away, to take Tsukasa and run away.

He watched as their father grabbed a knife and stabbed their mother to death.

There was no time to waste.

Amane grabbed Tsukasa's hand and ran up the stairs to hide inside their room. He quickly locked the door and tried to calm down his brother who was hyperventilating from watching that gruesome scene.

"WHERE DID YOU TWO BRATS GO!?"

His crying only got louder. "We're next Amane, he's going to kill us!"

"No, he's not!" Amane had to think and fast. He looked at the closed window and realized they really had no choice. "Tsukasa we're leaving."

"Where to?"

"Not sure but we'll be together." He smiled at him as he grabbed his hand and opened the window.

"OPEN THIS FUCKING DOOR!"

No time to think they needed to get out. Amane looked down and wondered how they were going to get down from here.

"Amane he's breaking down the door!"

No time to think!!!

There was a pipe and it's raining, they could easily just slide down.

"Quick, Tsu, get on my back!" He said, his heartbeat was frantic as their door was slowly being torn down.

Tsukasa didn't hesitate to do as Amane ordered. They both crawled out the window just in time as their father managed to open the door.

"What!? WHERE ARE YOU BRATS GOING!"

Amane crawled away with Tsukasa on his back as quickly as he could. He grabbed the pipe and slid down fearing they might fall in the process. Their father was screaming at them as he left the window and was likely running down the stairs. He put Tsukasa down and grabbed his hand and started running down the street.

"COME BACK HERE!"

"Amane he's right behind us!"

"Just keep running!"

He needed a plan, he needed a plan, he needed a plan!!

But where!?

At the distance, two men were arguing.

"I'm leaving even if there's a storm!"

"Don't be stupid! What if you get caught in the storm and drown?"

The man smirked. "It's a risk I'm willing to take!"

An idea came to Amane's mind. They could escape on a boat! He noticed a man getting on one of them and getting ready to leave. There was definitely someone up there looking after them, this can't be a coincidence as no one in their right mind would leave during this storm.

"I SAID COME BACK HERE!"

He was still chasing them!

It was now or never. "Tsukasa when I tell you to jump you jump okay?"

He nodded. "Okay."

They were getting tired and he was catching up to them. They needed to time this right…

One.

Two.

Three.

"JUMP!"

They jumped as the boat was starting and began to sail away. They had managed to land on top of some soft surface. They stayed still as the boat got further and further away from the dock.

"COME BACK HERE!!!"

His voice got further and further away.

"I SAID COME BACK!!"

Amane could finally breathe again as he realized they were safe. They were finally safe…

They were going to be okay.

14 years later…

He opened his eyes as tapping on his shoulder increased. He tensed up causing the person to flinch and look at him apologetically.

"Sorry."

He shook his head. "It's okay." He rubbed his eyes and looked around. He was sitting on a rather comfortable sofa in a waiting room. The sounds of the phone's going off and people walking around.

Oh, he was at a police station.

"You're Yugi Amane right?" The man asked.

He nodded. "Yeah, that's me." Now that he got a good look at the man he noticed he was an officer.

The officer motioned for him to follow. He felt nervous as he never expected to be in such a place. He wasn't going to prison mind you. His brother was being held due to being found trespassing private property. He was apparently with some friends high as fuck. No drugs were found on him though but he did clearly consume some.

This freaked Amane of course.

Tsukasa was sitting on the bench inside a holding cell with his buddies from middle school. They were chatting and smiling. The moment he noticed Amane his expression changed into an unreadable one.

Amane felt a lump form on his throat. Never in a million years did he ever think he would see Tsukasa in a literal jail cell.

Since when were they this distant?

"Yugi, you have a visitor." The officer immediately left, leaving Amane alone with his brother and friends. Tsukasa wouldn't stop staring at him with that unreadable expression.

"Hey…" Amane said, he hated how small and weak his voice sounded. He thought Tsukasa was fine and doing well. Why was he such a failure as a brother?

"Hey." He merely said. He looked away not wanting to meet his eyes.

"Tsuchigomori uh, paid the bail." He looked at Tsukasa for any signs of emotion. Anything really. It's been years now, Tsukasa changed a little too much to his liking. He cleared his throat as he faced his friends. "Uh, Sakura-chan will pay for you guys later."

They both groaned in disdain.

"Of course she would leave us in here."

"My lady why…"

Amane sweatdropped. "I'm sure she'll be here soon."

They groaned even more as if knowing full well she'll just leave them there until they die of old age.

The police officer came by and opened the cell. He let Tsukasa out who mocked his two friends for having to wait a bit more. "See ya sluts." He gave them the middle finger on his way out.

"Fuck you Tsukasa!"

"Mitsuba don't scream, they'll get mad at us again."

"Since when do you care, Natsuhiko?"

As they left their voices began to get further and further. Amane always wondered why those two got along with Tsukasa, it was obvious why now.

Once out of the station he took out his car keys and opened the door. He looked at Tsukasa who hasn't said a word to him this whole time. He sighed and turned the engine on- driving all the way home. It was fairly silent between the two, almost as if they were complete strangers instead of family.

Which was ironic considering they were identical twins.

It had been how many years?

Probably around five years since they had a proper conversation or any type of communication between siblings. They used to be close back when…

Their father was always a deadbeat. He was an abusive and very unstable person. It felt like all types of despair were violently shaking them as the abuse only got worse.

Then it stopped.

Their father was found dead in a ditch completely unrecognizable aside from DNA from his teeth… or something, he didn't know and he didn't care. They later found the body of their dead mother buried in the backyard.

When Amane and Tsukasa escaped they had to deal with the harsh world that is the street life. They were lucky to be found by a Tsuchigomori. He was a police officer at the time and was investigating their father's case. He ended up getting attached to the Yugi twins and decided to take them in. Despite finally having a proper guardian and a proper stable home life. Things weren't that great…

Tsukasa was becoming unstable at the time as he recalled but if he were honest, so was he. A lot of dark thoughts would come to mind especially when Amane thought about the horrors that they went through as kids and seeing the literal murder of their mother who was finally ready to leave and protect her children.

When they turned 14, Tsukasa straight up stopped talking to Amane. This hurt him of course, they were so close before but suddenly things changed…

And they never stopped.

And now 5 years later it was still the same.

Out of all the possible scenarios, he didn't think Tsukasa would enter the world of drugs. And due to his poor thinking, it ended up becoming true, not only that but his friends were doing it too. He's known those guys since middle school, it sucked knowing they were having troubles too.

He wanted to talk to Tsukasa, he wanted to understand him. Understand why this is happening, why they were no longer close like before.

When he got home he decided now was the time to have that long overdue talk.

When they walked through the door into the dark and rather gloomy apartment, he set down his keys and took a deep breath.

"Tsu-"

"I'm going to bed."

He paused as he realized Tsukasa straight up went upstairs to head to bed. This pissed me off immensely. He grabbed his arm and yanked him back down the stairs and forced him to sit down on the chair.

"You're not fucking going anywhere!" He yelled, not only surprising Tsukasa but also surprising himself.

Tsukasa's surprised expression changed into a scowl. "Listen Amane, I'll pay him back if you want, I'm heading-"

"Tsukasa!" He yelled, interrupting him. "Stop! Just stop! Why won't you fucking talk to me!?" He felt his composure of five years waiver as he looked at his brother.

He was hurting, he knew that.

The abuse was not easy to overcome or get over. You can't just forget such traumatizing events. Amane never did forget but he was able to at least move on to an extent. But seeing Tsukasa so down… stuck… with absolutely no resolve.

It hurt him.

Tsukasa couldn't look him in the eyes. He felt his body begin to shake as anger began to build up inside. "Let me go Amane."

"No!"

"Amane-"

"I refuse! We need to talk, we need to communicate! We're family okay? If you have problems you can count on me-"

"I DON'T WANT YOUR HELP!" He pushed Amane to the ground without realizing it.

Amane stayed on the ground in utter shock. Never in a million years did he expect Tsukasa of all people to hurt him. Granted the fall didn't hurt as much as the fact that Tsukasa was the one to do it. "Tsu… do you hate me…?" His voice was a bit hoarse, he felt his vision begin to blurry.

Tsukasa was horrified, for what he did and for what his brother was saying. He couldn't answer him. Instead, he ran up the stairs and slammed the door shut to his room.

Amane stayed on the ground wondering where things went wrong.

--

He knew it was rather late but he decided to visit Tsuchigomori in order to get things off his chest. He entered his office, he was now chief of police due to his many years in the force and results.

"Tsuchigomori." He slowly opened the door. He saw the older man eye him in curiosity. It was rather rare for Amane to come visit him these days since he was so busy with college and extra activities.

"What's up?" He asked as he went back to his paperwork. Lots of weird cases were popping up lately.

Amane sat on the chair and looked down fiddling with his fingers. "It's about Tsukasa." His gaze was still on the ground.

Tsuchigomori stopped what he was doing and paid full attention to the child he had grown to care for these 14 years. "I'm not mad if that's what you're worried about." He sighed, he really wasn't upset, he realized Tsukasa had stopped going to his therapy sessions and was lying about a lot of things these past few months. He only hoped he didn't fall in with the wrong crowd. He knew his friends were good kids so the influence was a third party.

Amane shook his head. "No, I know you're not mad… it's just I don't know what to do, I don't understand why he suddenly stopped talking to me." He could feel tears starting to form. He didn't think Tsukasa would ever grow to hate him or something. He always tried his best for him. If he didn't want to go college then he would support his decision.

And he did!

Tsuchigomori sighed again as he placed his cigarette in the ashtray. "Tsukasa has always suffered from anxiety and panic attacks. Not to mention separation anxiety and trauma from seeing your mother get murdered. He doesn't think highly of himself and has told us he thinks he's a burden."

"I know that!" Amane exclaimed.

Tsuchigomori held his hand up in order to calm him down. "Yes I know, but keep in mind during middle school you were getting better so to speak and even made some friends." He began to explain wondering if he was following.

"Tsukasa also made friends though, he had Natsuhiko, Mitsuba, and Sakura-chan," Amane said, not really getting where Tsuchigomori was going with this.

Patience, he said to himself. "But here's the difference Amane, you made friends way before he did and there was a period where you would ignore him, remember?"

Amane looked at him in shock. He was sure he never excluded Tsukasa, ever, he was there for him and would support him and-

Wait.

"You see what I'm trying to say?" Tsuchigomori asked as he noticed Amane starting to remember. "Yes you would care for him, even sacrifice things for his well being, but Tsukasa always saw himself as a burden so when you would do all these things and then ditch him sometimes it created this perception that-"

"I was moving on and he couldn't catch up and by ignoring him he thought I didn't care about him anymore…" He wasn't sure how spot on he was, there had to be more than that but on the surface that seemed to be the case.

Tsuchigomori nodded. "His therapist told me he broke down once because you didn't show up to the art exposition his class had because you decided to hang out with Akane."

At that Amane felt like he had been slapped. He did what? When was that!? And why didn't he remember that!? Was that why Tsukasa stopped doing art? He felt a lump form in his throat. How many times did he exclude his sibling who had a rough time trying to let go of the pain?

Tsuchigomori patted his back. "It's okay Amane, I think Tsukasa just needs to learn that you didn't mean it and that these things happen, even if you had shown up and always been around, he needed to learn that you guys would eventually go your own way one day." He sat down beside him. "You guys are adults now and Tsukasa is doing stupid shit but I'm sure he'll sooner or later understand your point of view and stop making bad decisions."

Amane hugged him tightly. "I just wanted us to have a better life."

Tsuchigomori held onto the boy like he once did 14 years ago. "I know kiddo."

--

Guess who's back?

Back again~

Vipper's back~

Tell a friend~

I bring you all this project, I have another in the works but it's longer and needs more time so for now I present Past Sins.

This is NOT a family friendly story like romance is overrated, keep in mind this story will get dark and maybe graphic.

It's rated M for a reason.

Do look forward to future updates, I'll update when the chapters are ready, don't expect daily or weekly uploads.