X - 01 (32 days until the end of the world)
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or X/1999 (where this idea came from... It was just an inspiration, the plots are not very alike though)
Warning: This story will contain shounen ai (boy/boy love) so beware
Couple: Yami/Yugi
Sided couples: Bakura/Ryou, Marik/Malik, Seto/Katsuya, Hiroto/Anzu and Ryuuji/Shizuka
~ ~ ~
"You look tired, Yugi." A very friendly voice spoke, and Yugi looked up. The school bell didn't ring yet, so he sat on his desk silent as ever, looking lazily through the window with his head leaning against the glass, with unfocused eyes.
He faked a smile, like always.
"I'm fine..." he said, bringing his head to lean against his hand then, his elbow on his desk. "I guess this rain just leave me kind of sleepy." He continued, the fake smile never fading.
His friend shook her head, her hands clasped behind her back, her eyes sad. She didn't speak anything for a few seconds before...
"You went there, didn't you?" she asked when Yugi went back at looking through the window. He blinked and looked at her blankly.
"Anzu..." he spoke slowly, but the girl continued.
"I called you last night, and your grandfather told me that you weren't home. I asked where you were, and he said you didn't tell him. I know he was lying." She spoke, her voice unusually high. "It's been a year... so I figured..."
"I'm fine, Anzu." He assured his friend, smiling comfortingly. He took a deep breath. "I've just been reminiscing for too long..." he spoke in a low voice, and continued his task of looking at the street below. Or trying to. The rain left the vision too blurry. Anzu didn't move for a few minutes until the bell rang, and she sighed helplessly, walking towards her desk.
Yugi was just too lost in his memories to care about the bell.
*** ~ Flashback ~ ***
He stood in front of his mother's grave, feeling too alone for comfort. His grandfather kept telling him to stop going there, to try and adjust to his new life in Domino, but he refused. The hole her absence made in his soul was too big to ignore... And the wound hurt too much to heal. It had been a month already, but did he care? He wanted to die, too, just to join her! To join them!!
But did he actually manage to die? Of course not. That was not his fate. His mother told him to wait for the sign, so he would.
"So you're here again." A voice spoke behind him and he jumped. He turned around and met a boy from his class. They never spoke to each other, but he knew who he was.
Yami Awaikage.
"A-again?" he asked, his voice weak. Yami just smiled.
"Yes. I've been watching you every time you came here." He blushed and looked down. "I-I'm not stalking you... It's just that I was here the first two times you came here too, so I k-kind of... well... I followed you every time when you left school." He raised his hands in an apologizing manner. "I-I'm sorry for doing it, i-if you want I can go-"
"Why were you here?" Yugi asked, tilting his head to the side, while still kneeling in front of his mother's grave. Yami blinked and hesitated, before kneeling beside him, looking at the messages on the grave.
"Are these... your parents?" he asked timidly, and Yugi wondered why he avoided his question at the same time he wondered why he asked that. He remained silent for a while, leaving Yami very uncomfortable.
"Yes." he finally replied, smiling at his mother and father's names on the graves. Yami nodded.
"My father... h-he died too..." he said, and Yugi looked up.
"I'm sorry." he said, meaning every word. Yami shook his head and smiled to him.
"Don't be. Everybody is, and it gets kind of annoying when they eye me with pity..." Yugi blinked and looked down.
"I-I'm not pitying you... I-I know how it feels..." he said, and felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked up and met the comforting eyes of the other boy.
"I know you do." he said, before standing up. Yugi stood up along.
"Why are you talking to me?" he asked, and looked down blushing. "And w-why did you follow me...?"
"What can't I?" Yami asked, leaning forward and staring at Yugi in the eyes, their faces merely inches apart. Yugi blushed at the gesture, and also at how beautiful the crimson eyes seemed when you looked directly into them.
"I-it's not that... I-it's just that everybody in class just... doesn't like talking to me and..." but Yami raised his hand to make him stop talking. He went silent immediately.
"One thing is that I'm not everybody." He said smiling, as if to demonstrate he was not angry about his words. "And two is that everybody in class are stupid." He continued, and Yugi blinked before giggling. He smiled. "And also... I identify myself with you." He finished, and Yugi blinked.
"How...?" he asked, tiling his head to the side again. Yami patted his head, laughing.
"You're silent, Yugi. You seem to be kind and smart. And I think we have lots of things in common. In resume" he smiled widely. "I like you[1]." He said, and Yugi blushed.
"Thank you..." he spoke, and Yami laughed, winking.
"Don't thank me. Now what about we leave, huh? Our parents have to rest." He said kindly. Yugi smiled and nodded.
"Yami!! Hurry!!" a voice called from the entrance, and Yami looked up, seeing a woman with long dark-red hair and blonde bangs.
"Kay, mom! I'm coming!!" he called back, before turning to Yugi. "We're going to buy ice-creams, do you wanna come?" he asked. Yugi hesitated.
"B-but I don't have money with me, and I don't want to-" but before he could finish, Yami was laughing and was already dragging him away.
"C'mon, mom will pay for you, don't worry about it!" he said, and Yugi smiled nodding. "To pay back, you could hang out with us more! My friends are out of town for the summer, and I don't want to be stuck alone in my room." He said pouting. Yugi laughed.
"Sure!" he answered happily.
"Now what about a formal introduction, huh?" Yami asked, releasing Yugi's hand and offering his again. "Yami Awaikage." He said, grinning. Yugi laughed again.
"Yugi Mutou." He shook the taller one's hand, and Yami dragged him towards his mom again.
"Great, now c'mon! I'll introduce you to mom!" and with that, they went away.
*** ~ End of flashback ~ ***
Yugi closed his eyes and let himself come back to the present.
Before the teacher entered, however, a boy ran inside the class, panting. His face was red, maybe from exhaustion, and he walked lazily towards his seat, in front of Anzu. He all but collapsed on his chair, and Anzu couldn't help but giggle. Yugi momentarily smiled at him, before drifting his attention to the rain again. The newcomer eyed him while he regarded his breath, before turning to Anzu.
"He's even worse than usual..." he whispered, referring to Yugi's silent and isolated behavior. Anzu sighed heavily and whispered back.
"I know, Honda[2]. I think that's not very healthy..." she said, placing her forehead against his shoulder. Honda blinked.
"Do you know what happened to him?" he asked, and Anzu hesitated before answering.
"Yes." Her voice was even lower. "He didn't actually tell me, but I know... It's been a year, you know..." she said, and Honda's eyes showed understanding.
"So that's it." He said, looking at the object of their conversation. "I can't help but feel sorry for him. Yami seemed even closer to him than to us, don't you think?"
"I don't think, I know it... Don't you remember when we came back from vacation, that year?" she asked, lifting her head.
*** ~ Flashback ~ ***
Anzu and Honda entered their classroom talking cheerfully to each other about their vacation. Both were sorry to leave Domino and Yami, but they didn't have much of a choice.
Their parents were the best of friends and it was a tradition to visit Tokyo on summer vacation and winter break, and Yami's mom, that year, was too busy with work to join them, and she also didn't want Yami to leave. Maybe she didn't want to be apart from her son, now that her husband was gone...
They searched around the class for their friend, and finally spotted him sitting by the window, in front of...
"Hey, aren't you the boy who entered the school before the vacation began?" Anzu asked, walking towards them. Yugi smiled and nodded, but didn't say a thing. Yami was smiling widely.
"Hey, it's great seeing you guys again! And his name's Yugi, Anzu!" he said, and turned to Yugi. "Those are my friends. Yugi, that's Anzu Mazaki and Hiroto Honda. Guys, this is Yugi Mutou, my new friend!." He introduced them, and they all smiled to each other, while Yami grinned to Yugi. "And now that we're all introduced, you guys tell me about your vacation, and Yugi and I tell you about ours right Yugi?" he asked winking, and the boy giggled and nodded.
*** ~ End of flashback ~ ***
"It was incredible how close they became in just a month..." Honda said, regarding that day, and how Yami told them happily about how he and Yugi spent their vacation together. "I don't know how, but maybe it was because they had too much in common... I guess it's just fair that Yugi misses him. I never saw them apart these past 6 years." He continued, and Anzu nodded.
No more words were said as the teacher finally entered and started the day's work.
When Yugi walked back home, the umbrella was not really helping. The rain was too strong and he was getting soaked, having forgotten his raincoat. After a few minutes, the wind finally blew his umbrella away, and he was left unprotected from the freezing raindrops.
He hugged his schoolbag to his chest and ran towards his grandfather's Game Shop, his house, as fast as possible. It was not like he was going to get sick, that hardly happened, but he just didn't like the cold.
It gave him horrible memories.
The streets were almost deserted as he ran, so when he saw a shadow in front of him, he stopped. One thing was that this person, dressed in a white trench coat and white clothes, had also white hair and warm eyes. It amazed him. And also... he could feel something about this person that was not normal...
"Who are you?" he asked but the person, a boy, only smiled.
"Be aware, Yugi, for what is about to happen. You must be aware of what is about to come, and what your role will be." He said in a soft voice.
"What... is about to happen...?" he asked.
"The end of the world." Was his answer. Yugi widened his eyes, but the boy said nothing else. He just smiled and walked away, vanishing in Yugi's blurry vision.
The end... of the world? My role? He wondered, but his answers were not about to come soon.
Darkness. Was all that was visible if you looked left, right, ahead, behind, above and below. There were voices everywhere, some sad, some angry, some desperate, some yelling. There wasn't a single one that seemed happy in any sense.
After all, this wasn't a place for happy souls.
His icy eyes wandered around, not minding anything disturbing from his surroundings, searching for one single soul. Could be a difficult, if not horrible task for someone else, but for someone like him, it was nothing at all.
He knew there was worse.
"Yami!!" he called out, and it would seem stupid to call out for the darkness if one did not know what he was calling for. A calling was heard somewhere in the mist of the dark and he followed it, until he was face to face with two crimson orbs.
Easy? Perhaps. But it avoided any harder task.
"Are you Yami?" he asked, and several shadows backed from him. Maybe it was because he had wings, or maybe because they just knew he was a dangerous one. The crimson orbs narrowed.
"I am... him..." was his answer. One weak answer.
He smirked.
"You'll come with me." he declared.
~~~ end of chapter I
A/N: Strange? Maybe. Original? I hope so ^^U The flashbacks were necessary in case YY/Y fans wanted a bit of fluff. Well, they'll be your source of fluff from now on, so don't complain about them, okay? The next chapter will come out soon (or maybe only next month...), so if you guys could please review, I'd be greatly thankful ^^
[1] Hmm... it's not in the sense you're thinking. He meant as in a friendly way... They're too young to love anyway. (Iris: What are you saying? Your first serious crush was when you had 11! Lily: Shut up...)
[2] Huh... is his first name Hiroto or Honda? O_o Hiroto is one strange name, but I can't let his childhood friend calling him by his last name...
:: Replies to reviewers ::
~ Koishii no Tenshi ~ I'm glad you like it! I hope this was a soon update and that you liked the chapter
~ kIm ~ I hope this was interesting too ^^
~ YumeTakato ~ Was this good too? I hope so!
~ Destiny ~ *laughs* Yeah, people may be mad at "destiny" now, ne? ^^U CLAMP is really good, I just LOVE their work. The artwork is perfect, now ain't it? The bishies... yeah... *drools at Kamui before coming back to normal* *ahem* Well, I hope you liked the update
~ Hime no Ichigo ~ Actually I was lazy enough to grab the name of the fic from the manga I got the story itself from XD Shame on me!! But I have reasons for doing it... Anyway, hope this update was quick ^^U *somehow knows it wasn't* OH, and Sugoroku is alive, don't worry. ^^ *cheers* Yay, someone who liked my made-up language!! Even if it's strange ^^
Iris: Oh and Kouichi, don't feel too special about your hikari... Lily WAS thinking about Legolas when she was writing the bow-thing..
Lily: *sweatdrops before continuing* Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter!
~ miami-chan ~ Hmm... Because Yugi was "talking" to Yami, not his father. So that means... yeah, Yami's dead... *dodges a lethal weapon (Evil Table of Doom, maybe?) thrown at her* O.o Eeep, sorry!!
~ Pretenna ~ A bit freaky, huh? I like freaky stuff =P lol ^^U Hey Momiji, they were compliments! Anyway, I'm glad you thought the grave inscriptions were nice, even though I don't know a thing about them ^^U lol, and I'm glad you're back ^-^ *glomps*