Disclaimer: I do not, nor will I ever, have the intelligence to own anything as worthwhile as Yu-Gi-Oh!, so buzz off.
Warning: I have no idea where the story is going, but this WILL have SLASH! Yugi is a bit depressed, there may be a few inappropriate things, and of course, violence. I doubt I own a story without any of the above...
Chapter 3: Realizations
The next day, Yugi trotted into school, trying his best to look as though he had spent an uncomfortable night out in the park again. Thankfully, no one gave him a passing glance or he would have been discovered quickly. His cheerful air was apparent for the first time in months. Yami couldn't sense it (because Yugi had shut down the mind-link) and Yugi had calmed back into his normal depressed state by the time lunch rolled around. Joey ran over him as he fought Tea for room in the lunch line.
"Hey, watch where you're - " Joey looked about for whomever he had tripped over before looking down. "Yug'? Hey, buddy, whatcha' doin' down there? You might get run over!" Mai snorted, but Joey continued, oblivious to the fact that Yugi had already been run over and grabbed his arm, his grip tightening as he gasped. "What happened to your face?!" With the bandage gone, the wound looked as bad as ever. Yugi flinched and ducked his head.
"I – I was…mugged yesterday." Joey looked furious. "But Yami took care of them," he added. Yami was thrown an approving look by his friends. Joey tugged cheerfully on Yugi's arm once more.
"Come on then."
"Come on where, Joey?" asked Yugi, puzzled.
"Ta' lunch!" exclaimed the youth. "Ya haven' sat wid' us for da longest time, buddy. Quit the books an' hang for a bit!" Yugi caught Yami's glare from a little ways up the line. He shuddered nervously.
"Um, that's okay, Joey," he said carefully, extracting himself from the bigger boy's grip. "I forgot to study last night and I have a test in Geometry today…" Before Joey knew what had happened, Yugi was gone. He gave Mai a confused look that she returned willingly.
"Wha'd I do?" he asked Yami, curious. Yami smiled and shrugged.
"I think Yugi has a crush on someone. He's just too embarrassed to be in the same room with her. And he won't confide in me." Yami faked a worried look. "But I got into his head a bit awhile ago, and I think the person's Tea. I can't believe he fell for my girlfriend though! We're supposed to support one another, not take what makes our aibou happy!" He gave the floor a dejected glance. "But – and I know it's awfully horrid of me to say this – Yugi never seemed to trust me like I did him. I've tried so much…" Joey seemed horror-struck, and put an arm around Yami reassuringly, but missed Yami's smirk as he comforted his former best friend's counterpart. Other eyes across the room were not so trusting, and Bakura watched guiltily as Yami smirked before laying on a bout of self-blame for why Yugi had 'gone bad.' He noticed that Mai seemed slightly uneasy as well, but even the Tomb Robber missed Seto Kaiba's pondering gaze from the shadows of the archway into the cafeteria. There was something odd going on. Perhaps now was the time to do something about it.
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Yugi was caught by an older student as he left school, and as a result was late getting home; wincing from new bruises and the fiery lines of the whip slashes on his back. Yami was not happy.
"WHERE WERE YOU?!" he roared; shoving Yugi against the wall. The teen screamed as the fiery ache developed into new-opened wound once more. Yami snarled a bit. "There's no point in your moronic screaming, slave. My shadow magic blocks all sound from escaping this house. Now, where were you?"
"O – one of the se – seniors caught me and b – beat me up," stuttered Yugi faintly. "I tried to get home on time!" he added frantically. "Honest!" Yami didn't look any happier, and threw him to the ground in disgust.
"Pathetic. I could take even a senior out without the use of my powers, and not only do you manage to be defeated, but you also cannot land even a single punch. Utterly worthless. And you put medicine on that slash on your face. I gave you direct orders not to, and yet you disobeyed! I can smell the Neosporin (that's what it's called – right?) on your cheek. What do you have to say for yourself, hmm?" Yugi shivered on the floor and stuttered out his answer.
"I – I apologize, Pharaoh … I … it hurt so much, and I had a bit of lunch money left …and the drugstore was right there … I won't digress again! Please! I swear to you; I never meant to, but I'm still learning and I'll never do it again! I - "
"Shut up!" Yami circled him angrily and contemplated Yugi's punishment. "I won't use the whip today - " Yugi sighed his relief. " – because it might kill you, being so weak. But you, my hikari, must learn." His voice was a low growl. "I will not tolerate such defiant acts! And … You have closed off the mind-link," he interrupted himself, frowning. "Why did you do that?" Yugi just watched with his wide purple eyes. "Never mind." His fist swung down in a hard arc to slam Yugi in the side.
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Tristan came home to be accosted by Joey and Yami's story of Yugi's evilness. Tea eagerly backed them, though Mai was strangely silent and Yami kept an eye on her. Soon, word had spread, and Yugi was officially out of the popularity levels of the school. The renewed efforts of the bullies alone kept Yugi away from Kaiba Manor and those who inhabited it, and kept Yami from looking for the whip; knowing that such a harsh punishment might very well kill his former vessel before he had what he wanted. No one intervened on Yugi's behalf. Some hacker had nearly infiltrated Kaiba Corp.'s security levels on their computers, and Seto was scrambling to prevent it from ever occurring again; inventing new and stronger systems as he went along. Ryou's father had returned from an excavation and was still adjusting to his son's relationship with a something-thousand-year-old Tomb Robber look-alike, and Ryou was encouraging Bakura to spend more time at home with him and his father. School hours were spent sticking together like burrs. Yugi's friends – all but Mai – either knew of his position or thought him evil because of Yami's lies, and Mai could neither prove nor deny anything concerning the accusations and her own belief of Yugi's abuse at Yami's hands. She began to work on Joey, and the two began to drift away from the group, though not toward Yugi; she was concentrating on getting Joey to know that she would never lie to him; she loved him too much. Only then would she confide her beliefs to her boyfriend.
Two watched this from the shadows. Two watched Yugi. Two did not know exactly what was happening. Until Yami slipped up. Or rather, Bakura and one of the two did.
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"I won!" crowed Bakura as he and Ryou entered the cafeteria ahead of Malik and Marik ('the two'). It was a month later, and the 'largest items of torture collection' winner or whatever it was called had just been determined by Marik's sister, Isis.
"I can't believe you had a shark hide whip!" sulked Malik. "And a 14th century rack! Unfair; I thought I was supposed to be the one with money!"
"Threats go a long way … " smirked Bakura, but Marik was distracted from the conversation as Yami Yugi's head snapped up at their discussion before whipping to glare at a figure sitting in a corner bent over a huge textbook. Yugi stared back at Yami; panic evident for a millisecond before he bolted out of the lunchroom as though the demons of Hell were on his trail. Yami quickly smoothed his glare and smiled thinly at the quartet. Marik's quick mental check assured him that his partner had also noticed the former Pharaoh's extreme reaction, and was thinking hard about it. No longer moaning, Bakura settled down to eat lunch, eyeing the Pharaoh suspiciously. A quick mental conversation between the platinum blond couple ensured that they would be following Yugi home today. Something odd was going on, and the Pharaoh's glare had been disturbingly familiar to what it had been five thousand years ago. Perhaps Yugi's wounds were not just bullies. That cock-and-bull shit about Yugi evil was something neither had ever believed, but only now did they believe something else might be going on than Yami's own misdirection.
*
A/N: I'll work on another update soon, but I wanted to take care of this one first. Thank you to all who reviewed!
September 25th was my Birthday! Yay! Fifteen at last! And I'm already into sophomore year too…hmm…I'll never be eighteen while in high school…odd. Thank you for all the wonderful reviews!
There are more important things occurring, though. Really, if anyone from the website Psyke hangs out on ffn.net, please contact me. Especially if you know or are Manchester_United_Fan (Lee). I miss him; though he's probably forgotten me. We only spoke once or twice.
If you are from ANY self-harm group or on your own, please feel free to write me. I suck at counseling and I guess I'm not all that nice, but…nevermind. I'm probably just saying that to make myself feel better (it's two days after I typed this chapter up and you have no idea how depressed I am at the moment – my subconscious is so going to kill me for actually posting this message – I overreact and overstate everything, and I'm sorry for wasting your time and – god.) Anyway, I suck, life sucks, and I hope yours improves. Right.
I have no idea what I set out to do when I began to re-edit this A/N, so I guess I'll leave now, but does anyone know any hacker things to use on Parental Controls for MSN without letting parents know you've done anything? Please, the situation's pretty bad.
Now that the weird rants are over…
Please review; it means the world to me.