Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Gi Oh!, its characters, etc.

Joey: *gasp gasp* I think... *gasp* We lost 'em...
Yami: *not tired at all for... some reason* I see a cloud of dust on the horizon...
Me: Maybe they started fighting amongst each other again.
Joey: Can you just do your little review thing so we can bring me back to life?
Me: Hmph, sourpuss.

Mai Wheeler: Yes, though all my knowledge of intoxication comes from TV and movies, I do know quite a lot about drunken slurs. Thanks for noticing!
Vivia: Looking forward? Glad someone was ^^ Oh, wait, everyone was! Wow, lots of nice reviewers. *dances in the shower of nice reviews*
ObiWanGirl: Hey, it's okay, I like it when people theorize. It shows you're actually listening. I mean, there are three kinds of reviews. The first is yours, where the author really gets the feeling the reader is listening. The second is:
Yami Tangela, pharaohs angel: the simple 'great story, please continue' sort, which are also appreciated. And finally comes the third type:
Blackdragon666: the rant type. *pats on the back* There, you see, people? This is the sort of thing I MEAN when I say 'insane fangirl'. Thanks, BD666, for proving my point! (gawd, I hope I don't get flames for that remark, and I really don't mean to make fun of anyone - but I just seriously didn't expect anyone to ACTUALLY hate Yugi for 'killing' Jou!)
Crystal Knight: *hugs* Thanks for the offer! Now we have a protector, guys! *hides behind CK as army of fangirls rushes over the horizon* You fight them off while I finish the story!

Running From Me
By FekketC
Chapter 3

A week later Yuugi's grades had become nonexistent and he still had not reformed his friendships with Bakura, Honda and Anzu. Mai had left town ahead of the news and probably still didn't know what had happened to Jounouchi. The only person Yuugi found remotely understanding was Grandpa, who still wasn't much help.

"Eventually you'll make peace with it and move on," his grandpa had said several times. But now grief wasn't Yuugi's only problem. First was the mystery of where Yami had gotten to. Could it be that he was trapped inside the Puzzle and unable to make contact? Yuugi had checked a thousand times and was sure that no peices of the Puzzle were missing or damaged. The most that he could hope was that his own greif was all that was holding Yami back, or else Yami was resting and would come out in his own time.

And then there were the dreams that had started to invade his waking life. Walking down the street he had seen Jounouchi countless times, window shopping, playing pranks, sitting on a park bench and staring into space. And countless times Yuugi had walked out into traffic trying to cross the street to get closer to the person he knew wasn't really there. And every time, Jou looked up and noticed him, waved and yelled for him to wake up. And wake up he always did, usually to the sound of a blaring car horn and angry voices.

He saw the... ghost? hallucination? memory? all the time in classes, in the lunchroom, in the men's rooms in stores and at school, even wandering the aisles at the supermarket and reading porn manga off the rack in the dime store. They rarely spoke, but the conversations always ended the same.

"Wake up, Yuugi," he said, and then there was a teacher looking down at him worriedly.

"Wake up!" Jou laughed, and then Yuugi had to jump out of the way of a speeding car.

"Wake up!" he said softly, replacing the manga on the rack, and then the shop owner was snapping "Buy it or get out, but don't just stand there staring at it like some sort of horny retard."

Jou was never sad or angry when Yuugi saw him; instead he was always lighthearted and joking. He seemed to follow Yuugi wherever he went, and Yuugi didn't have the heart to try and ignore him. Maybe his best friend's ghost was looking for peace; maybe Yuugi's own guilt-stricken mind was trying to console itself by convincing itself that Jou was alive and well and happy.

At last his grandfather was called for a parent-teacher meeting after school to discuss Yuugi's failing grades and falling asleep in class. Yuugi waited nervously outside while he was discussed, and when his grandpa came out he was driven to a doctor. The doctor suggested a CAT scan, and since it was in their insurance Grandpa agreed. A week later the results came back: according to the scan Yuugi's brain was in perfect working order. The doctor suggested greif therapy but Yuugi refused; there was just too much to explain to a complete stranger, and just the mention of Jou's ghost and the Millenium Puzzle would get him locked up.

This left him with few options and many fears: could he be going insane? Was he being haunted? Was Yami gone forever? The realization that he may have lost two friends - or all of his friends, if the others continued avoiding him - was enough to form a brand-new thought to his mind, one he had heard of constantly throughout his life but never actually contemplated it for himself.

The afternoon after he received the results from the CAT scan, he walked to the edge of town where a grassy lot met a steep drop to a creek below. With a running jump and leap off of the edge, a person would surely break his or her neck on the rocks below and drown in an inch of water.

Yuugi sat for a long time on the edge of the ravine, thinking about what he was contemplating. If he was going insane, he would happily choose death anyway. Just the greif of losing Jou had pushed him close to the edge, and the thought of losing everyone, including Yami, had been pushing him even closer for weeks.

He heard steps in the grass behind him and didn't turn. He already knew who it was.

"I can't go on like this, Jou. I don't have it in me. I'm not strong like you were... are... I'm not made that way."

"So you're going to throw it away?" Jou asked without emotion. "You realize I can't stop you. I'm... I'm not made that way anymore," he joked weakly. "I'm as transparent as air."

"Then I imagined you, Jou? Or are you a ghost?"

"Sometimes I don't know, Yuug. I've watched you sleep, and wondered how real I am anymore to you. Maybe I'm just a dream. Maybe all of us out here are dreams and you're the only real one."

Yuugi stood and backed away from the edge, sizing up the short distance to run and how hard and far he would have to leap. There was a roaring in his ears as if a train was rushing at him.

"Before you do it, Yuug, I just have to ask you to do something for me."

Tears formed in Yuugi's eyes and slipped down his face. "Anything for you, Jounouchi-kun."

Jou put his hands on Yuugi's shoulders, gripping painfully tight, and turned him towards him. He was as solid as a real person, and yet the feel of his hands was strangely distant. As if they were part of a dream.

"You have to wake up."

Yuugi stared up at him as the tears continued to flow. "I can't, Jou."

Jou started shaking him violently. "Wake up or you'll die, Yuugi! Wake up now or you'll never wake up!"

Yuugi was suddenly terrified, and wanted more than anything to wake up. Jou was being pulled away, but in a panic Yuugi reached out and grabbed his t-shirt.

"You have to-"

"I'm waking up!" Yuugi yelled quickly, and then everything was still around him. Jounouchi and the two doctors stared at him, and Yuugi stared at them in return.

"You... I can't beleive it," Jou breathed, sitting down on the edge of the hospital bed and wrapping his arms around Yuugi's thin shoulders. "Dude, you're awake! I almost didn't think I could wake you up..."

Yuugi clutching Jou in return as he settled back into reality. "You're not dead?"

"Of course not! But these doctors were about to unplug you! You've been out for a month now, and a CAT scan a few days ago finally came back and said you were brain-dead. But I knew I could wake you up if I tried."

"You're not dead," Yuugi breathed in releif, burying his face in Jounouchi's shoulder and starting to sob.

~~~

After Yuugi had had time to eat a ham sandwich Anzu had brought - "On the vibe that you would wake up today," she said happily - everyone started explaining at once. Yuugi managed to sort out that the accident had been real, but Jou had survived without a scratch while Yuugi had been bashed over the head by the shell of the car as it crumpled. He had indeed been in a coma for nearly a month, with everyone staying near and trying to wake him.

"I read somewhere that if you whisper 'wake up' over and over in a comatose person's ear, they'll wake up," Jou said sheepishly. "Finally I heard that they were gonna unplug you, and I sort of rushed over here in a panic and started trying to wake you. When they came in to do it I really freaked out and started shaking you. I honestly didn't think it would work, but I guess I felt like I had to try something."

Anzu handed Yuugi the Millenium Puzzle. "I've been keeping this for you, Yuugi."

"I would have, but you know what a risk that would have been," Bakura said with a nervous smile.

"In the dream I tried to use the Puzzle but couldn't get past a locked door," Yuugi explained.

Joey smacked his forehead. "That's so weird! The day after the accident I brought it over here and put it on you, to see if Yami could wake you up. As soon as it was around your neck Yami and me were in your mind, but we couldn't get past this locked door."

"You were seperated by the coma," Honda said seriously. "Scary. What was it like to wake up, Yuug?"

Yuugi smiled happily. "Like waking up from a bad dream," he told them, and truer words were never said.

~~~

Weeks later, after a long period of being monitored and tested by doctors to make one-hundred-percent sure that he was alright, Yuugi was finally allowed to go places by himself again. The first place he went was to the place in the dream where the grassy lot and ravine had been. They were still there. He sat down on the edge of the ravine and thought.

I'd never even noticed this place before. I guess I just saw it out of the corner of my eye, and my brain filed it away for later use. Just like Mai's 'motto'.

He felt Yami's presence and smiled. "How are you?"

He didn't look up, but felt the older version of himself smile quietly. "As well as you are."

"I guess I'll never understand the dream entirely. So much is still confusing. I wanted to kill myself because I was alone, but I had Grandpa. And... Oh, I don't know. Everything about the dream seems to make perfect sense, but whenever I go back and try to remember, all I feel is confused. All I really know is, I hated being that alone."

Yami nodded slightly, staring down the ravine at the creek. Both searched for something appropriate to say, but by the time Yuugi stood up in the sunset light and headed home for dinner, all that needed to be said had been said in silence.

THE END

~~~

Yeah, yeah, LAME. Steal a plot from Futurama and put Yu Gi Oh! characters in it, voila! you've got a fic. *sigh* Well, I liked writing it, so who cares what you all think! YEAH, FORGET YOU, YA PANSIES!!! YA THINK YA CAN WRITE BETTER THAN THIS, BUT THIS IS GREAT COMPARED TO SOME OF THE CRAP I'VE READ ON THIS SITE!
Jou: Name one.
Me: Well- *stops, thinks* Well, I know there are worse ones, so we'll leave it at that. *grins* SO YOUR CRITISISMS HAVE NO EFFECT ON ME!!! HA HA HA!!! *starts to walk away, but stops and turns back* Oh, and please please please review!
Jou: *rolls his eyes* What a shizo...
Me: Anyway, future projects! Hmm... I guess I'll take a week's break, and then start updating my Yu Yu Hakusho hyper parody, 'Space Predator', followed by updating my ancient Cowboy Bebop fic, 'Eyesight to the Blind'. So until then, read my other fics and support Fanfiction.net by reviewing every fic you read (including mine, goddamn you!). See ya!
~Fekket Cantenel
Jou: I'm freeeeeeeeeee! *runs away from Fekket*
Fekket: *pouts* Ah, who needs him. I've got Kurama and Amaya.
Kurama/Amaya: Heeeeeeeeeeelp!!!!!!!!!!!!!