Moons: Here we go…chapter four. I'm sorry about the wait, it took me a lot longer to finish chapter eight of My Immortal. I was out looking for Aurora's muse so she would stop moaning.…
Aurora: Right! o.O …wait a minute…YOU LIE!! But I can forgive you if you brought me my muse.
Moons: You're lucky…hold out your hands and close your eyes.
Aurora: YES!!!…*does as told*
Moons: You are lucky, this was their last copy.
Aurora: Copy?!..*Opens eyes to see a CD sitting her hands* HEY!!! THIS ISN'T STEVEN TYLER!!!
Moons: Sure it is. Read the case…Aerosmith…that's Steven Tyler is it not?
Aurora: Damn you tricky little…read her chapter cause it will be her last.
Moons. O.O…eep…
Unbroken
CHAPTER FOUR
Yami looked about the huge building. People ran here and there, each one seeming to be in too much of a hurry to realize how close they came to bumping into the amazed teen. Insticntivly, he took a step behind Yugi.
"What did you say this place was called?" He asked in a tiny voice.
Yugi had to grin at the older boys wonder. Yami was so inexperienced at life. It was almost as if he had been locked away for ages, never seeing the real world. A bed thrilled him, a TV frightened him, and now this place awed him.
"It's a mall." Yugi finally answered him. "It's a place where there are a bunch of stores. If you come here you can get everything you need in one shot. And we're here to buy you some clothes. You can't spend your life in those rags."
Yami looked down at his clothing and noticed the various stains and rips. He didn't understand what was wrong with his appearance. He had always been treated best, Master's orders. But when he took a look at Yugi's clothes, he got somewhat of an understanding. Yugi was wearing pristine clothing. There wasn't a rip in them or stain visible on them. His clothes made Yami look like a bum. He was snapped out of his observation by Yugi tugging on his arm.
"Let's go Yami." The smaller boy gave him a gentle smile. "Let's do this fast and get you back home. I can tell you're uncomfortable."
Yami gave a quick nod and followed Yugi into the pulsing mass of people. Yami tried to keep up with the small boy, but he was able to manipulate his way through a crowd easier then Yami seemed to be. People bumped into him and barked gruff comments of 'move it' or 'get out of my way.' Yami could only nod and mutter his apology. Finally Yugi pulled him into one of the stores and the moving crowd lessoned to a mingling few.
"We can find you something nice in here." Yugi didn't seem at all flustered by the mob they just had to swim through.
He guided Yami over to a rack that contained a couple dozen pairs of jeans. He began flipping through them and occasionally asking Yami which pairs he liked. Yami seemed to point out every pair of black or dark jeans they came across. Suddenly Yugi stopped his searching and glanced at Yami with a questioning eye.
"What size are you?" He asked.
Yami blinked and just stood there for a second. Finally he decided to answer.
"Size?" Yami took another second to think. "5'8"?"
"No Yami that's your height." Yugi groaned, rolling his eyes. "Your size. You know, your pants size?"
Yami could only stare blankly at Yugi. He had no idea what he was talking about. He never had picked out his own clothes. They were always supplied for him.
"I-I don't know." He stuttered, somehow distraught by the fact that he didn't know.
Yugi offered him a comforting smile and grabbed his hand. He gently led him towards the back of the store and pointed at a row of doors. Yami looked from the doors to Yugi with the questions written on his face.
"Go into one of those rooms and take your pants off." Yugi didn't seem to have any qualms about saying this. "Inside your pants should be a number. Read it off to me and I'll bring you some clothes to try on."
Yami nodded and walked into the small room. When the door shut, he felt a twinge of panic needle through his chest. He hated small places. He was always thrown into a small room after his lessons and left there. That treatment had caused him to develop a small case of claustrophobia. He fought back the rising fear and stripped himself of his pants. Just like Yugi had said there was a number printed on a tag that was sewn into his pants. Too embarrassed to call out to Yugi, Yami opted for a more private conversation.
'Does a 7 sound right to you?' He asked, hoping it was the number Yugi wanted.
"Damn!" He heard Yugi's quick shout and let a smile grace his lips. "Yami you can't do that with out warning me. It would really suck to die of a heart attack at 15!"
'Sorry Yugi.' Yami's apology was heartfelt. 'But if it makes you feel better you can do it to me. If you want to talk mentally to me you can. I'll automatically pick up at your thoughts aimed at me with out having to think about it.'
'R-really?' Yugi's mental voice had the same child like innocence that his physical voice had. It caused a warm feeling to wash over Yami's body.
'Yes, really.' Yami smiled when he could feel Yugi's mental joy. 'Now let's get on with this shopping. I really don't like enclosed spaces so I want to spend as little time in this room as possible.'
Yugi decided not to question Yami's fear and took off, grabbing pants that were the right size and shirts he thought were right. When he got back to the dressing room he slid the clothes under the door.
"Here you go Yami." He waited until the older boy had grabbed the mass amounts of clothes before straightening up. "Keep what ever you like that fits."
Yami went about trying on the clothes. He was amazed by the choices that Yugi had given him. He never had choices on his wardrobe; he was just supplied with one. He never had to decide between dark jeans and light jeans, a red shirt or a yellow shirt. It had always been dark jeans and black shirts. Yami was almost afraid to shy away from what was normal for him. He was trying on a pair of unusual pants–they were black and made of a rough, shiny material—when painful thoughts barraged his mind.
'Look it's the runt. Wonder what he's up to. Clothes shopping with someone? Must be that other loser, the British-sounding one. No matter, we can take them both out together. Saves us having to run around and try and find them later.'
'Boss really wants to break that shrimp. No matter, it will be punching practice for me. My boxing coach will really be impressed by my improvements.'
'Yes, we finally get to start the ass-kicking!'
Yami gasped at the painful thoughts and clutched at his head. He usually didn't hear random people's thoughts unless they were directed at him. But ones like these thoughts, ones of pure evil, always hurt. It was like someone was poking at his brain with a hot fire iron. He placed a hand on the wall, trying to stay on his feet. It hurt so badly.
"Yami?" Yugi's voice came out question. "Are you okay? I thought I heard yo-"
Yugi was cut off when he squeaked in terror. Yami tried to fight the pain but it refused to let go of his mind. He collapsed onto the tiny bench in the dressing room and gripped his head tightly between both palms. The walls seemed to be closing in on him and his breath came in short gasps. He was barely able to hear the conversation going on outside his tiny prison.
"Hello runt." It was the first voice he heard in his head that now was hissing outside the door. "Funny we should run into you here. Now we don't have to search for you to give you a beating."
Yugi whimpered and the sound seemed to fight off enough of Yami's pain to allow him to stand and stagger towards the door. He pulled it open and saw three rather large looking boys surrounding Yugi. One had a hold of the front of Yugi's shirt. Yugi seemed absolutely terrified. But Yami wasn't paying attention. He only wanted the pain to stop.
The three thugs looked up in time to see an older boy dressed in leather stumble out of the dressing room. It wasn't the British reject like they were thinking, not even close. The boy that stood in front of them had to be a relative of Yugi's. They looked identical. The only difference was the fierceness in the elder's eyes. There was almost a hazy sense of pure anger. Something about the boy's eyes stopped them all dead in their bullying tracks.
"L-leave Yugi alone." His voice was almost a hiss as he spoke to them through clenched teeth. "You mustn't hurt someone who hasn't done a thing to you. And if you hurt him, I have the right to hurt you."
Yugi saw something both amazing and terrifying begin to happen. Little bolts of electricity began to crackle between the fingers of Yami's hands. Yugi could tell what Yami was thinking. Or wasn't. He seemed to be staring at the thugs through some kind of fog. It was like he wasn't thinking about anything but stopping these random people from hurt a random person he had meet. Granted Yugi was a little more then a 'random person' but modesty was a quality he had a full grasp on. He didn't see himself as being a savior like Yami did, he only saw himself as being helpful. That's when an idea struck him.
'Yami don't hurt them.' Yugi knew that in any other situation he would have loved to see someone shake up his tormentors the way Yami was. But Yami was about to make a mistake and use his powers.
Yugi saw Yami flinch as though his thought had hurt him. That's when Yugi understood. Yami must have his form of what they called a headache. Maybe too much mental communication fried out his brain and caused him pain. Or maybe he had heard something else…but would hearing something mentally hurt him?
At that moment Yami turned pained eyes on him. Yugi could see all the overlapping emotions. He looked near passing out. When he turned his head, the bullies took their chance to bolt. Yugi had to admit, Yami had looked pretty intimidating when he burst out of that dressing room in leather. But now Yugi could see him trembling. Something was defiantly wrong.
"Y-Yugi." Yami murmured in a soft voice. "It-it hurts so bad."
With that final thought, Yami fell foreword onto his knees. Yugi let out a cry of surprise and panic and caught Yami's upper body to keep him from falling onto his face. He looked frantically around for some help and was distressed when he saw that none of the other customers were paying attention to them. But one salesclerk came bustling over, her large frame jiggling as she ran.
"Oh dear," Her voice, even though worried, seemed somehow joyful. "Is that young man all right? Get too hot in those leather pants?"
The woman broke out into high pitch gales of laughter that were only broken up by loud, wheezing snorts. Yugi flinched and reflexively drew back. While he was glad to finally get help, the mountain of a woman looming over him wasn't his idea of the best help. Cracking jokes would do Yami no good.
"No." He answered, wincing when the woman let out another piggish snort of laughter. "I don't think he's feeling well. We shouldn't have come shopping, really, but he…he…he lost all his clothes on our vacation and had nothing to wear when we got back!"
Yugi was amazed at how quickly he had thought up that lie. He was never a good liar. Or so he thought. Whenever he told the bullies he didn't have money or any valuables, they always knew he was lying and beat him up worse. But the woman believed, thankfully, and clucked her tongue against her browning teeth.
"Shame." She made an 'hmphing' noise and crossed her behemoth arms across her chest. "To waste a perfectly good shopping day. And to think I would get a good credit for the amount of clothes you were about to buy."
"No, no!" Yugi quickly reached into his back pocket and pulled out one of the credit cards that his grandfather left him for when he had to go away. This would be more then his grandfather expected him to spend, but he could always pay him back later. Yugi thrust the card into the woman's pudgy hands and pointed at the dressing room that Yami had vacated.
"We'll take everything that's in there." Yugi noticed that Yami wasn't wearing the clothes he had found him in and decided it would be easier to buy that outfit then try and change the unconscious teen. "And what he's wearing."
The woman's face brightened and she gave Yugi a disgusting grin. She quickly rounded up all the clothes in the dressing room and not so gently ripped the tags of the clothes Yami had on.
"I'll go ring this up for you and bring it back." She seemed too joyful now. "And I'll throw his original outfit in the bag. Free of charge!"
She laughed that horrid laughter and caused her whole body to shake. Like a bull full of jelly, Yugi thought reciting what he knew of the Santa myths. When the old man laughed his body shook like a bowl of jelly. He never understood it until that woman had demonstrated it for him. Shuddering, Yugi gently set Yami down and leaned his back up against a wall.
"Yami?" He murmured gently. "Yami. Come on buddy, wake up. Come back to me. I can't get you home by myself."
"Maybe I can help."
Yugi broke out into a grin when he heard that familiar British accent. He looked up to see the white haired boy standing over him. His gentle brown eyes were filled with a confused worry.
"Ryou!" Yugi sighed in relief. "Ryou, you can help me get him home?"
Ryou gave the smaller boy a quick smile and nodded. It was actually a silly question for him to be asking. Of course Ryou would help. The two of them got bullied together all the time. They were each other's only friends.
"Sure I can help." Ryou gave Yami a once over. "As long as you promise to tell me who he is once we get there."
"I promise!" Yugi shook his head vehemently.
Ryou bent down and wrapped one of Yami's arms around his shoulder and helped him into a standing position. Yami sagged all his weight against the boy's body. Ryou stumbled, a bit surprised by Yami's complete lack of reality.
"Is he okay?" He asked Yugi, honestly worried for the perfect stranger. A perfect stranger whom just happened to look just like his best friend.
"I honestly don't know." Yugi sighed. "He sounded in pain and then he just keeled over. It looked almost like he had a terrible headache."
Suddenly Yami groaned and rolled his head to the side. Both boys turned the attention to him. He began to murmur so quietly that not even Ryou could hear him. His eyes never opened but his volume increased. Soon they could hear perfectly what he was mumbling. And it caused Yugi to panic.
"Master…Master…I'm sorry." Yami gasped. "I didn't mean it…didn't mean it. Code name: Pharaoh…Pharaoh. The key…I'm the key. I must behave…behave. It all depends…depends…depends on-"
Suddenly the woman burst back into the picture and thrust three bags into Yugi's hands and then his credit card. Yugi fumbled with bags as he stuck the piece of plastic back into his pocket. Giving the woman a smile and quick thanks, he pushed Ryou and Yami out of the store.
"I'm guessing you don't like their friendly staff." Ryou joked, noting Yugi's discomfort around the woman.
Yugi shot him a glare. He then turned softer eyes on Yami. The boy seemed to be coming around, but was still out of it.
"Shut up Ryou." Yugi joked, then turned serious. "But let's get him home."
Ryou nodded as they exited the mall. But something was eating away at Yugi. It was what Yami had said. He had heard about The Master already, and he knew of Yami's code name and the lessons he had received from wherever he ran from. But he knew nothing of Yami being 'the key.' It had Yugi puzzled. He would have to wait until Yami woke up to question him. Until then he was just content to help Ryou get him home.
Moons: TA DAA!!! Another wonderful chapter done for you wonderful readers and reviewers. Yeah! Ryou's in the story!! I love that guy. He's second only to Yami and Yugi. n.n
Aurora: Wouldn't that make him third?
Moons: Hush and listen to your muse so you can be my muse for the next chapter of My Immortal.
Aurora:…*grumbles*…fine, I was going to anyway…*Puts on headphones and starts listening to Aerosmith Nine Lives*
Moons: ANYWAY…the next chapter will dip more into what arose in this chapter and bring us back to a lovely character that has been absent for two chapters. Can you guess who? I bet you can't!
Aurora: BAKURA!!!!
Moons: Damn you…but beside my rude muse…please read and review!!!