Dark Spaces

**

Yami had really hoped to never be in this position. It had always been something of a secret dread, but until this moment, the issue hadn't ever come up. And now he had to decide whether or not to cast a Penalty Game on someone he really cared about.

Bakura had made quick work of the explanations of what had happened. He and Marik had somehow decided manipulating Yugi and Ryou's lives would make Yami and Joey happy. How they'd come to that conclusion, Yami only faintly understood. The reasons for it were unimportant now anyway; a punishment was called for, and Yami had the unenviable task of delivering it.

But could he really go through with punishing his own boyfriend, no matter the crimes he'd committed on his hikari? Should he go easy on him?

"Yami?" Bakura watched Yami uneasily. Obviously the plan had ended in shambles, and Yami looked really upset about it. This wasn't going to end well at all.

Yami finally seemed to come to a conclusion, sighing and moving over to Bakura. "Bakura…" His expression was resigned as he kissed the white-haired thief, very gently. "I'll come for you in a few days."

Bakura blinked at him. "What?"

Yami shoved Bakura hard backwards. A glittering black and sapphire portal opened up behind him, and Bakura let out a little yelp of surprise as the swirling vortex swallowed him up, trapping him in the dark nothingness of the shadow realm. Reluctantly, Yami closed the portal, silently moving over to sit on the couch and wait for the sounds from Ryou's bedroom to die down.

Mokuba, who'd watched all of this and still wasn't sure he understood the significance of all of it, moved to sit down by Yami. "I'm sure everything will turn out all right…" he murmured, trying to be comforting.

Yami remained silent, concerned with his own thoughts at the moment.

Finding himself suddenly suspended in the bleak realm of shadows, Bakura sighed and stared up through the dark haze where a ceiling should have been. "Well…  that's not quite how I would have liked for that to go…"

**

Everything was right with the world again.

Yugi woke up slowly, with one of those feelings of utter peace one gets when they're still half dreaming. He didn't even have to open his eyes to know that life had once again righted itself to its previous state of perfection. He was snuggled up warmly against his lover, and things were good. It didn't even matter what he and Kaiba had fought about anymore; he was back in Seto's embrace, and he was happy.

Perfectly happy, until his lover he was clinging to so tenderly suddenly rolled over a little, and his long hair brushed over Yugi's arm. Last time Yugi had checked, Seto Kaiba did not have long hair…

He was suddenly completely awake, and the world no longer looked as peaceful or beautiful as it had a moment ago. Yugi sat up fast, staring in horror at where he was, and most importantly, who he was with.

"Yugi?" Ryou murmured, sitting up and rubbing his eyes sleepily. "What's the matter?"

"Oh my god…" Yugi whispered, staring at Ryou, then down at his own state of undress. "What have I done?"

Ryou frowned, brows creasing with worry. "You, ah… don't remember? Or did you say that in a more I'm-really-disgusted-with-myself-for-sleeping-with-Ryou-even-though-it-seemed-we-were-both-into-it-at-the-time sort of way?"

Yugi was verging on panic, and Ryou really wasn't helping any. Though if he wasn't so busy debating whether to hyperventilate or not, he'd probably have realized that there wasn't much Ryou could have done to be helpful, given the situation. Except maybe turning out to really be Kaiba instead, and then having the whole mess turn out to be just a very vivid dream. Yeah, that would have fixed everything.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, that didn't happen. So Yugi went back to his original plan; panic.

"I… I gotta go…" Yugi pushed back the covers, quickly scooting out of bed.

He was halfway to the door before he realized he was still naked, and a mad scramble to recover all his clothing quickly ensued. Finally dressed, though hardly composed, he quickly rushed out of the bedroom. Leaving Ryou nothing to do but miserably watch his one-night-stand run away from him like a bat out of hell.

"Well," Ryou murmured to his now-empty bedroom, slowly getting out of bed to get dressed as well. "That's not quite how I would have liked for that to go."

**

Yami stood up as Yugi shakily walked into the living room, looking a little traumatized.

"Yugi?" Yami murmured, moving toward his hikari. "Are you alright?"

Yugi looked over at him, as if just realizing someone was there, like he was waking from a daze. "Y-Yami?" He took a few steps forward, hugging Yami tightly. "Yami… I did a bad thing…" 

Yami sighed, holding his small other-half protectively. "Come on, Yugi… I'll take you home."

Yugi nodded and just allowed Yami to lead him, his gaze fixed on the floor as they left. Mokuba hurried out after them.

It was a while before Yugi looked up to realize they were actually going in the wrong direction. "Yami? This isn't the way to my house…"

"I'm taking you back to Kaiba's. Where you belong. Or am I mistaken on that?" Yami's tone indicated he really didn't believe he was mistaken. It also didn't leave much room for argument.

Yugi was too drained to argue, anyway. After all of this, being back with Seto was the only thing that could make him happy again. Hopefully, with both Yami and Mokuba there, somehow they'd convince Seto to take him back.

"Seto will be really happy to see you, Yugi!" Mokuba added, hoping to clear some of the tension. "He's been so broken up since you left him. He won't even go to work!"

"Left him?" Yugi echoed in confusion. "But I didn't-"

"Hey!"

A call from across the street interrupted Yugi. They looked over to see Duke Devlin running over to join them. Yami sighed slightly; he really wasn't in the mood for this now.

Duke looked a little confused as to why everyone looked so glum at the moment. "Er, hey Yami. I've been looking for you all day. Is… anything wrong?"

"…perhaps." Yami shook his head, thinking back to having to trap Bakura in the Shadow Realm. Yes, something was definitely wrong. But he didn't want to talk about it now. "We're headed for Kaiba's now. It… may be a while."

At the look of disappointment on Duke's face, Yami gave in. "You can come along, if you like…" Yami offered.

Duke was delighted to join them on their little excursion. And so the four of them continued on to the Kaiba estate. Mokuba of course had lived there long enough to be unaffected by the rich splendor of the place; Yugi was too depressed to notice anything around him; Yami was stressed out and rapidly becoming quite tired of everything, and that left only Duke to be awed by the magnificent structure as they approached.

Mokuba led the procession up to Kaiba's bedroom, knocking lightly on the door. "Big brother?" When no reply came, he opened the door and peered inside.

Seto Kaiba was fast asleep in bed, though oddly, he was fully dressed in his day clothes, and looked to have been tucked in. Ignoring the anomalies, Mokuba gestured for the others to follow him in.

Yugi swallowed, looking at his ex-boyfriend nervously. Not giving Yugi a chance to escape, Mokuba just grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the bed.

"He looks dead," Duke murmured, frowning thoughtfully at Kaiba. Yami sighed, gently taking Duke's arm and leading him out of the room.

"Seto?" Yugi whispered, sitting down on the edge of the bed, lightly shaking Seto. "Seto, wake up. It's Yugi."

"Yugi?" Kaiba woke slowly; all memory of being in the shadow realm with the Guardians was only a hazy, retreating dream. Yugi smiled down at him tentatively, and a great sense of relief washed through Seto. "Oh, Yugi…" He sat up fast, hugging the diminutive duelist tightly to him.

Yugi was back where he belonged, and Kaiba couldn't have been happier. Yugi had come back to him… his Yugi…

Only suddenly, he remembered that Yugi wasn't his anymore. Yugi belonged to Ryou now; Seto had seen it, in the Shadow Realm mirror. Disgust and loathing killed Seto's relief, and he pushed Yugi away.

The pained confusion in Yugi's eyes was too painful to look at, so Seto didn't. "Get out of here, Yugi." 

"But-!" Yugi hugged onto Seto's arm, refusing to be thrown out. "No… Seto… it's not like that, I didn't mean…"

"Yugi… what I said to you before on the phone… I didn't mean it." Seto clenched his eyes shut. "But if you can so easily replace me with another… then maybe we don't belong together anyway. Please… just go."

"…but…"

"Go!"

Yugi turned and fled, rushing past Yami and Duke and Mokuba waiting outside for him. He ran all the way home, taking no notice of anything around him, his eyes too clouded with tears to see.