Authoress Note: DAMNIT!I intended for this to be last fucking chapter of Let Me Save You, but it didn't fucking work!! I have probably two more planned out (though one is really short.) I'm so damn sorry for the long wait! I just... Ran out of the time and inspiration to write. Anyway, stay tuned for the rest, which WILL be out shortly, even if it kills me! Thank you ever so much for reading this! Anyway... I hint at humor in this chapter (at least in the beginning) but it probably won't be funny after this one. Okay, I've probably said too much already. READ!
Disclaimer: I own nothin'. If you try to sue me I will counter sue you on the basis that you are an idiot.
Summary: AUYugi and Yami do not know each other, but they've both been going to the same café. Yami has been watching Yugi and is learning all about him. What happens when Yami gets in over his head with his little fascination? Songfic to Evanescence's "Give Unto Me"
Once again, thank you so much to everyone who has ever bothered to read this, and a double thank you to everyone who has taken their time to review it. You have no idea how much your comments mean to me, or how much they brighten my day. Thanks so much!
Let Me Save You
Chapter VI: Tired
Sunday was spent lazing about the Game Shop. Yami opted to stay with his little light to ensure that he would be alright. There was no doubt in his mind that Yugi would be perfectly safe and fine without him, but after the events of the last two days, he decided not to take any chances. Yami, with the exception of yesterday, typically woke up around 7:30 or 8:00 o'clock. Yugi slept until around 11:00 today, which did not surprise the crimson-eyed teen for some odd reason.
During the time that Yugi slept and Yami was awake, Yami wandered around the house part of the Kame Game Shop. In his meandering, he discovered a bathroom connecting with Yugi's bedroom, a small kitchen, a living room type area, and another bedroom. However, when he discovered the other bedroom, the fact that it was a bedroom was unknown to him and he walked in to find a very asleep old man who was just barely covered with a sheet. He made a mental note to ask Yugi who he was when the boy awoke. Another mental note was made to inform him to never enter that room again. Out of things to do, the teen decided to try to cook breakfast. He had a run in with a half-empty carton of eggs when he tried to put them away, and, sadly, the carton succeeded in escaping his grasp and fell to the floor. None of its contents survived. Luckily, everything else went smoothly, and by the time that his light was awake, the table was set for three, and Yami was on his way to wake up the boy.
While they ate, Yami made a point of finding out who the near-naked man in the room was. Yugi giggled when he heard the story of how Yami was so unfortunate as to discover such a find.
"That's my grandpa!" the boy managed over his laughter. "Sugoroku Mutou, my dad's dad. I've been living with him for as long as I can remember, but I must say that nothing like that has ever happened to me!"
Yami's face tinted pink as he took a very long drink from his orange juice. A few quiet minutes passed before Sugoroku came tripping down the stairs into the kitchen.
"Do I smell bacon?"
"Yes, Grandpa. Yami already made you a plate." Yugi looked up and answered his grandpa before diving back into his omelet.
"Yami?" Sugoroku looked from his grandson to his guest, obviously confused. "Yugi, who is Yami and why does this boy look so much like you?"
Spiky hair bobbed as Yugi looked up once more to reply. "'This boy' is Yami, and I don't know why he looks so much like me. He's my friend."
Yami nodded in acknowledgment. "Pleased to meet you, sir."
"Same to you, but formalities are not accepted in this house. Call me Grandpa." Sugoroku said as he took a seat in front of Yugi and next to Yami. He then, suddenly, became completely absorbed in his breakfast.
"Okay, um... Grandpa..." Yami replied nervously.
Yami looked over at Yugi who smiled at him in that "Ha-ha-you-just-got-told" sort of way before Yugi leant over to Yami and whispered to him. "Grandpa doesn't talk when he eats. He thinks it waists his jaw's energy."
"So I see..." Yami replied with interest as he watched the gray-haired man scarf down his meal.
Yami's crimson orbs lingered upon the breakfast plate in front of the elderly man, taking in the sight of the cheese-bacon-and-sausage omelet disappearing from the plate. His thoughts on how a slow old man could shovel food so quickly from his plate to his mouth quickly evaporated from his mind as Yugi addressed him.
"Did you sleep fine last night?" the small teen boy felt somewhat ashamed that he forced the older boy to stay with him through the night. He kept his face clear of any emotion, though inside himself he pleaded for Yami to not be angry or annoyed with him. In all actuality, Yugi had nothing to fear or be concerned about. Yami enjoyed spending time with Yugi as much as Yugi enjoyed the comfort of Yami's presence.
Yami couldn't clearly remember why he lived on his own though he was merely a teen, but he knew it had something to do with his parents not being able to stand the sight of him. He reminded his mother of his father and his father of his mother, and they hated each other so much- for some reason or another- that they neither would take him when they divorced so they sent him off to live on his own. He was well provided for, seeing as how they both sent generous sums of money each month, but he got lonely at times. He rarely attended school anymore and most people see him as having a cold exterior which disinclines them to talk to him. These past two-and-one-half/almost-three days that he had been with Yugi had been the most time he had spent with anyone in the past five months.
The elder boy smiled a genuine smile. Yugi noticed the sincerity of that smile when he saw it reach up and swirl around in the scarlet depths before him. Oh, it's not that Yami's other smiles were not sincere, it's just that this particular smile seemed to hold more meaning and feeling that any of his others.
"I slept great, and you?"
Yami watched on as his tenshi bit into another forkful of his omelet, and he suddenly remembered something that he had been meaning to tell the boy in front of him. "Oh, Yugi." The spiky head bobbed up to watch Yami as he spoke. "I used the last of the eggs and cheese to make breakfast, and you're also down to about a glass of milk left."
Yugi nodded while grinning. "Okay. We'll just go to the market after breakfast. It shouldn't take too long, and I have to get other stuff anyway." Yami nodded and continued eating. Neither of them could think of anything else to talk about while they ate, so all they heard through the remainder of breakfast was the scraping of utensils on dishes and other various breakfast-time noises.
In due course, Sugoroku wiped his mouth with his napkin and stood up from the table. "Ah thank you- Yami, is it?" Yami nodded that the man had the correct name. "Yes, thank you Yami. You boys needed to go to the store?" The two nodded, as their mouths were full of food. "Okay then. Yugi, you know where my wallet is so just get some money out of there and you can be on your way. I'll stay here and clean up after the meal."
"Okay Grandpa," Yugi agreed and stood up to go to his Grandpa's room. He came back moments later as Yami was lifting their plates from the table to load into the sink. "Let's go!"
Sugoroku bid them farewell and out they went. Yugi filled the silence of the walk with mindless chatter, which most likely came from nervousness. One would never guess by his attitude the events of the previous days. He bounced about like a hyper child, talking about birds and trees and the flowers they saw on the way. Yami, not knowing what the correct response to any of this babbling would be, just smiled, laughed, and nodded. When they reached the store, Yugi listed off what they needed and decided that they could get done faster if they split up. Yami agreed to Yugi's idea hesitantly, but did not argue and Yugi's excitement prohibited him from seeing the older teen's blatant discomfort.
"Okay, so if you will get two gallons of milk, the bananas, apples, and broccoli, then I will go get the cereal, bread, eggs, juice, and cheese."
Yami took mental note of his items and answered. "That sounds fine. We'll meet back here in ten minutes, okay?"
"Will do!" Yugi squealed happily before he bounced off to get his items.
Throughout his search for the items, Yami was in some form of shock- to say the least- at Yugi's alacrity for everything today. He picked up and hand basket and headed off towards the dairy section for the milk.
'There was no alcohol [1] in the house, so nothing could have fallen into his eggs...'
Yugi began his mission with getting the eggs. He noticed as they were walking to the store that he was unusually upbeat and chipper for all that had been happening, but he had dismissed it as nervousness. He wasn't sure how he was supposed to act now, even though he knew that just those two days shouldn't make him change himself. Shrugging his thoughts away again, he kept his happy front up and bounced along the aisles for the eggs. Soon he found himself getting his last item- the bread. Upon his arrival in that aisle, Yugi found he was not tall enough to reach the kind of bread that they always had in his house. Deciding to just go for it, he set down his basket and took a jump and reached as high as he could for the bread, and he grasped it and brought it down on his second try. However, landing caused him some difficulty and he stumbled and fell backwards into a pair of teen boys that he would soon recognize as seniors from his high school.
"Ah!" He exclaimed as he jumped away from the bigger of the two who he had knocked into the stand he was facing. "Gomen nasai!"
The senior pushed himself off the wall and straightened himself. Back facing toward Yugi, he straightened his jacket and shrugged his shoulders as if to shake off anger or annoyance before he turned to confront Yugi. The amethyst eyes of Yugi looked on fearfully, as he was too surprised to move. When the biggest of the three teens present turned around, purple eyes widened then quickly fell to the floor as he hung his head.
"Gomen nasai, Dai-san! Gomen nasai, Matsuo-san! [2]" Yugi hurried to get his apology out to hopefully quell their tempers. The spiky-haired teen did not know them well, but they had a run-in once before and Yugi ended up robbed and beaten. He avoided them from then on, but around his school's campus they were infamous for having violent tempers that went off in seconds.
"Kusoyaro! [3] What the fuck do you think you were doing?!" Dai cursed at Yugi. Not only was his voice deep, but it was loud and husky, sounding somewhat like gravel rubbed against sand-paper. It was not exactly unpleasant to listen to, nor was it pleasing to the ears, but it served its purposes.
"I'm sorry!" Yugi panicked. "I really didn't mean to! I couldn't reach the bread so I had to jump and when I landed I fell back and-"
"Shut up!" Dai interrupted, slapping Yugi's face in the process. Small hands flew to hold the abused cheek as amethyst eyes began to drown. The salty liquid fell from his eyes down his face, ignoring the efforts he made to hold them back.
"Aw," Dai mocked the boy, cocking his head to one side and putting on a face of sarcastic concern. "Did that hurts?" Yugi's silence was taken as a 'yes,' and the teen smirked. "Let me give you something to take your mind off that pain."
A fist connected with Yugi's stomach, sending him to the floor whimpering and doubled over in pain.
Looking at the crumpled form on the floor, the large teen stepped closer and threatened, "You better pray to whatever god you got that we don't see you again in a long time." The brute gave his friend a nod and they walked off, each one smirking at their 'success.'
Yugi forced himself to stand and stop crying as soon as they were gone. His stomach ached from the blow, but, ignoring it, he forced a smile back on his face, picked up his basket and his bread (which was miraculously undamaged), and set off to the front of the store to meet Yami.
Taking a deep, shaky breath, he reassured himself. 'I'll be fine. Perfectly fine.'
'Check... check... check... check-check... Got it all.' Yami carefully went over his part of the small list in his head as he stood at the front of the store waiting for Yugi. Considering Yugi's behavior today, Yami half-expected to see him bouncing back holding every fluffy happy thing in the store. What he did not expect to see was Yugi shuffling towards him with just a small smile on his face. Shifting the basket to his other hand, Yami started over to him.
Smiling, he greeted his smaller counterpart. "Hey! You all ready?"
Slowly Yugi began to nod, gradually lifting his face from the ground to his new-found friend and confident. "Yeah..." he replied while forming a smile on his mouth.
Concern creased the older boy's forehead. "Are you okay? You seem a little... distracted."
"Huh?" Yugi started. "Oh. Oh yeah. I'm fine. Just tired." He forced his grin just a little bigger.
Yami laughed. "All that skipping around can do that to you." He regarded the smaller boy before him carefully.
'I guess he's just tired. It would make sense.'
"Let's pay for this stuff and get back, then. I don't want you to collapse from exhaustion." The red-eyed boy laughed at his half-joke, hoping to cheer up his tenshi.
"Yeah," Yugi chuckled. "Let's go."
'Yup. Just tired.' Yugi repeated to himself.
They stood in the short express line, paid for the items, and left the store. Though the walk home was quiet, it was fine enough. Well, for Yami anyway. Yugi could not think of anything other than his history of bullies.
'Why do they pick on me?' he cried to himself. 'There are tons of other people around, so why is it always only me? I'm so sick of it all! Every year, every week, every day! They never have a reason, so why do they do it?!'
Meanwhile...
'Today is a nice day...' Yami decided after listening to a bird sing for a while. 'Hm... That's a nice lookin' dog. Someday I too shall have a dog. Why? I don't know. Just want one, I guess.' He heard the teen beside him emit a soft sigh, and his thoughts were diverted. 'Is he really just tired? It could make sense... [4]' He shook his spiky head at himself quickly. 'Yami! Just leave it alone! He said he was tired, so that's all it is! Trust him!'
They reached the shop just after he finished his silent argument, though Yugi was still yelling at himself silently. Walking inside, they set the groceries on the counter and Yugi found a note from his grandpa.
Yugi and Yami,
I've gone to see a friend for a while. I'll be home later tonight, and Yami is more than welcome to spend the night again.
Love,
Grandpa
"Oh," Yugi exclaimed as best he could with a small tired voice. "Grandpa went to visit a friend of his. You can stay over again, if you want..." Yugi trailed off, hoping that the taller teen would stay.
"Sounds good!" Yami replied from inside the refrigerator. A spiky-tri-colored head popped out and grabbed the cheese to stick inside the cold box. "What should we do tonight?" Yami asked as he once more popped inside the fridge.
The smaller of the two boys grinned, grateful that the taller one had chosen to stay. "I don't know, really. There isn't much to do."
Yami emerged completely from the refrigerator and looked around thoughtfully. "Well, you're tired so it shouldn't involve the use of too much energy..." He thought for a moment, one hand on his chin, the other folded over his chest. An idea finally came to him. "I know! We could watch movies! You like movies, right?"
"Of course I do," Yugi answered, somewhat distractedly as he put away the cereal. "What did you have in mind?"
"I have no idea. Something fun! [5]"
"Okay. Follow me and you can pick one out that we can watch." Yugi led the way to where the movies were kept in the living room.
After a thorough inspection, Yami apparently found something. They watched six movies, all the while Yami expected Yugi to fall asleep at any random minute.
After the sixth movie, Yami once more inspected the selection. "Haha! You have that one funny American movie!"
Puzzled, Yugi scrunched up his nose and went over to Yami. "Which 'funny American movie'?"
"This one!" Yami threw his arms up to Yugi's face, and in his hands was a copy of Braveheart [6].
"What?" Yugi asked. "This isn't a funny movie... It's sad... Or maybe it's happy. There's mixed emotions in there."
"No, trust me. It's hilarious!"
"Okay..." The short boy took the movie and popped it into the VCR.
"Ha! This is gonna be great!" Yami plopped back down on the couch and beckoned Yugi to come sit next to him. He rejoined his taller image right after putting in the tape. "Just you wait," Yami reassured him. "This is going to crack you up."
Yami was asleep within forty-five minutes into it.
'Wow.' Yugi thought while looking at his friend. 'He got loopy just like me. I wonder why we did that...'
Stupid, pathetic, annoying.
Yugi turned around, looking for the source of the words.
Nobody wants you.
It was then that Yugi acknowledged the voice was his own in his mind. He jumped up and started pacing the shop, getting further away from Yami with each step he took.
'I know they don't want me. But maybe Yami...'
No. Nobody. Not even this one who you think will make everything okay. He'll end up just like all those others. He'll forget about you, he'll leave. He won't care.
Tears try to force their way to Yugi's eyes, but they would not come. He was dry and had nothing left to cry. He choked as he whispered, "It's true... He couldn't possibly want to stay with me. Nobody could..."
Now you see the truth.
Yugi turned and ran up to his room as silently as possible. He raced in and threw his door shut, resting on it and panting softly. "They don't want me. I can't live like this any more!"
The spiky-haired short boy walked around his room, searching his mind for what he should do. In mid-step he stopped, looked up, and paused. Suddenly he darted out of his room and into his grandfather's bathroom. Flinging open the medicine cabinet, Yugi thought of what could help.
Everything.
Yugi obeyed the voice and grabbed every bottle of medicine in the cabinet. He had no idea what was in any of the bottles he took, but he figured that there was no way they could not hurt him if he took them all. Clutching all seven bottles he ran back to his room and into the bathroom adjoined to it. The seven containers were thrown into the sink, and Yugi braced himself against it. He looked up into the mirror.
Stupid.
The teen lost it and threw his fist into the mirror, sending shards over the floor and cracks throughout the whole of it. Staring at his broken reflection, he smiled. 'This is the last time... The last time I'll have to face myself."
He opened his first bottle. He downed half of its contents of blue-colored capsules before he remembered something. Walking back into his room, he grabbed a pen and two pieces of paper. His heart spilled out onto the papers, and when he was done he folded them and wrote names on the surfaces. The sheets were placed carefully on his bed where they were sure to be seen.
With that, he walked into the bathroom and shut the door.
[1]- Well isn't Yami just snoopy little bastard! Knowing that there was absolutely no alcohol in the entire house must mean he inspected it quite thoroughly! Lol!
[2]- I suck at making up names, so I thought of two from... YuYu Hakusho, I believe (I'm a thief! WhOOt!). Anyway, please just ignore the names, or call them something else (whatever you do, don't think of the people in YuYu Hakusho because this is NOT a crossover ficcie thing and they weren't meant to be those people. I just needed names! sobs). These characters aren't all that important anyway.
[3]- Kursoyaro= little shit (gasp!)
[4]- Yami: But we've been sleeping for this whole damn story!
DarkOpalDragon: shifty, nervous eyes It's not my fault. Blame the naked mole rats. It's always worked for me... runs away
[5]- I guess Yami is having a Yugi moment. (He's being hyper and weird. Not typical for his character. I guess he's trying to wake Yugi up or something.)
[6]- I couldn't think of anything else, and I just watched it the other day. 'Tis one of my favorite movies! WhOOt! (I bet you're getting sick of these numbered interruptions, huh?)