Yu-Gi-Oh!
Dawn of Fate

CHAPTER SIX – WHERE THE HEART IS

"Panseru-chaaaaaaaan! Stop tickling me!"

"Give me a good reason to, koibito."

"You got my ribs broken, remember? You're hurting me."

"Awww… Should I kiss it and make it feel better?"

Jonouchi's eyes widened to at least three times their normal size. His one fist was raised, poised to knock on the door to Yugi's hospital room, and his other hand was holding a large basket of chocolates and other candies. He blinked a few times, before turning around slowly to face Seto, Bakura, Marik, and Draco. Each boy had an expression on his face that ranged from, "Good God, not again," to "I did not need to hear that."

"I think we should wait," Jonouchi suggested.

Seto just looked at him with a dull expression. "Really, pup; you think?"

Jonouchi stuck his tongue out at him in response as the five boys turned and started to make their way around the bend and back down the hallway.

"Well, at least they're feeling better," Draco said. "I mean… they're flirting with each other."

"Please, do keep reminding us of this, Draco-kun," Marik replied sourly.

Ryou groaned as the two started arguing with one another, when he spotted Yugi's mother coming down the hallway. He elbowed Marik in the back, the action causing the Gravekeeper to bump into Draco, which in turn caused the both of them to shut up. Mrs. Mutou frowned a bit, before smiling warmly.

"Good afternoon, boys," she greeted warmly. "I take it you're here to see my son?"

"Yes, ma'am, but he's sleeping at the moment," Seto lied smoothly. "I don't think he'd want to be disturbed."

"Now, Kaiba-san," she said, patronizingly. "I'm his mother. I don't think he'll mind me being there."

Mrs. Mutou pushed past the boys. Draco turned to protest, to do something to stop her, when he felt a hand snake its way over his mouth. He protested as loud as he could, but Mrs. Mutou could not hear him as she made her way around the bend on her way to Yugi's room. Once she was out of sight, he elbowed the person who grabbed him and spun around on him.

"Why did you do that!" he snarled.

Yami Bakura smirked belligerently. "Because I haven't caused any havoc today."

The other boys sweatdropped, before nearly jumping a foot in the air as a shrill scream came from down the hallway. The tomb robber started laughing sadistically as two male screams followed.

Yami Bakura sighed happily. "My job for today is done."

The others hit the floor anime style in embarrassment.

-.oOOo.-

Yami Yugi stalked out of the hospital in the company of Jonouchi and the others, a giant red mark in the shape of a hand on his face and a bruise on his hand, looking like he was about two hairs short of strangling a certain white-haired tomb robber. Said tomb robber was nearly rolling on their way to Seto's limo, laughing so hard that tears were pouring out of his eyes and he had to hold onto Marik to walk straight. The pharaoh held onto his Puzzle, massaging one side with his thumb.

"I swear to Ra, tomb robber," he stated, "before this year is out, I will make you pay for this…"

Yami Bakura took a few moments to gasp for breath, before responding, "You know what, pharaoh; I don't care! I would die a thousand times to see that look on your face once again when the shrimp's mom chased you out of the room!"

Yami Yugi just glared. "You'd be surprised what you could live through, tomb robber."

"Yeah, like you haven't threatened me with that before."

"Children!" Seto shouted, massaging his temple. "Fight nice, please; you're giving the rest of us a headache."

Draco sighed. "Well, it's a good thing that you BS as well as you duel, Yami Yugi. At least we don't have to worry about telling Yugi's mum the truth just yet."

Seto stopped at that, spinning around to glare down at Yami Yugi. "My long lost cousin from Egypt visiting for the summer before joining us at school this year?"

Yami Yugi suddenly found his feet interesting at that. "It wasn't that far from the truth…"

Seto's eyebrow twitched. "You're about five thousand years off."

Suddenly, Yami Seto appeared at those words, leaning against his hikari with a casual air about him.

"Now, now, hikari-kun. Be nice," the high priest admonished. "Yugi's mother obviously isn't going to let him stay there at the Game Shop. Panseru's family, and you know that you can't leave family out in the cold."

Seto's eyebrow twitched again. "You've been watching those damned American kiddy cartoons of Mokuba's again, haven't you? I knew I should have burned those things… Next thing I know, you'll be preaching about 'ohana'."

Yami Seto grinned broadly – a smile reminiscent of the tomb robber – before grabbing his hikari in a playful little chokehold.

"C'mon, hikari!" he exclaimed as Seto thrashed, trying to get him off. "Look at it this way: Panseru's my cousin. You're technically me. Do the math from there."

With a grunt of effort, the young businessman tossed his other self off, dusting off his trench coat. He held up his hands in surrender.

"All right! All right! All right!" he exclaimed. "Besides, it's not like I don't have plenty of room." He whirled on Yami Yugi again. "I just have one rule: no summoning the Shadow Realm inside the house."

Yami Seto crept over to the pharaoh's side. "Notice he said inside the house."

Yami Yugi sweatdropped while Seto growled under his breath. The young CEO proceeded to attempt to beat up his other self (only to have it backfire on him), as the pharaoh sighed half-heartedly. He wanted to be with his hikari as much as possible, spend time with him where it was just him and Yugi; but now thanks to that idiot tomb robber, he had to wait until they got to Hogwarts again before that could happen. He was not joking; Yami Bakura was going to get it before the end of the year.

Yami Yugi rammed his hands into his pockets just as Seto got stuck in another chokehold. "Just lets get going, okay?" he asked. "The quicker the days go by that I'm away from my koibito, the better."

"Awwwww… poor pitiful pharaoh!" Yami Bakura mocked, making like he was all bleeding hearted. "Can't go within two inches of the shrimp without getting whapped by the frying pan of doom wielded by all mothers with eligible girls?"

"Tomb robber, you really do want to die again, don't you?"

Yami Bakura sniggered rather evilly. "Pharaoh, my only purpose is to make your life miserable. Thanks for letting me know I'm doing such a good job."

-.oOOo.-

Yami Yugi sat on the railing of the balcony that was attached to his room in the Kaiba Mansion, drumming his fingers against it in impatience. It was not that he was ungrateful that he could now materialize in an almost perfectly solid body, it was just that it led to problems like the one he was currently in. As his situation stood now, he could not go anywhere near the interior of the Kame Game Shop without Yugi's mother watching him like a hawk. Also, he could not go anywhere near Yugi without his mother breaking out the claws. As much as he loved his aibou and respected his family, his mother could be a bitch sometimes.

That was not the only bad thing, of course. What made things really bad, was that he had no clothes of his own that really fit him. His outfits came from what Yugi wore; when Yugi wore something and Yami Yugi appeared within or outside of his body, the outfit automatically adjusted to him. As of late, however, he had been stuck for the most part in his own version of his hikari's school outfit – which he still wore even though he had not gone to Domino since his freshmen year let out – and it was bordering on the point of annoying.

He loved his hikari to death, but even he had to admit, he had no taste when it came to clothing.

Of course, considering that Yami Yugi essentially had no clothes to wear now, he was stuck trying to borrow clothing from Seto and Mokuba. Yami Yugi was about five foot, one inch. Seto was exactly six foot, and Mokuba had grown to an impressive five foot, ten inches when he hit his teen years. Needless to say, borrowing clothing from them did not work for very long. That meant that he had to buy clothing, which meant Seto had to buy it for him because he had no money, which meant that he now owed Seto close to a hundred dollars, which meant he now had to get a job.

At this point, he came to the conclusion that no one hated Yami Bakura more than him.

The pharaoh stood up from his seat on the balcony and flopped onto the bed. The only comfort he had in all this was that Seto agreed to let him off just this once, and school was starting up again next week. Tomorrow, they were going to fly to London, where they would be getting their supplies from Diagon Alley as usual, and staying at the Leaky Cauldron until the time came where they would take the train at Platform Nine and Three Quarters to Hogwarts. Then, he could have all the alone time he wanted with his hikari… when they were not in class of course. Yami Yugi groaned, burying his head in a pillow; now that he thought about it, he really would not have that much alone time with him.

Suddenly, a clanking sound came from the balcony, making the pharaoh snap his head up. He blinked as he watched a crowbar attached to a rope slide along the balcony until it lodged itself into a corner. A soft grunting sound followed, and it was getting steadily louder, as if someone were climbing up the rope. Yami Yugi stared rather dumbly at the crowbar and rope for a moment, before springing into action when a raspberry tipped spike of black hair came into view.

"Aibou, what are you doing here!" he exclaimed, reaching over the side and helping Yugi up. "You shouldn't be going around breaking into people's mansions and climbing up their balconies! That's the tomb robber's job… no wait, edit to that: 'Especially people with broken ribs'!"

Yugi giggled, allowing himself to be picked up and carried over the railing. "Who do you think helped me get in here? And besides, it's been three weeks, and I'm not delicate."

Yami Yugi gave his lighter half and exasperated look as he cradled him in his arms, before giving up with a sigh and wrapping him in a hug.

"Ugh… koibito, you're going to be the death of me… again."

Yugi laughed, wrapping his arms around the pharaoh's neck and nuzzling his face into his shoulder. "I miss you. I'm sorry mom's acting the way she is. She's more annoyed that I didn't tell her I was seeing someone, not that I got a boyfriend as apposed to a girlfriend."

"Well, that's a slight relief," Yami Yugi commented dryly, carrying him into the room and setting him down on the bed. "At least that means I'll be able to set foot in the house again."

Yugi pulled him down so he was sitting next to him. "We just have to be careful after school lets out this year," he cautioned, holding his hands. "It's going to be getting harder and harder, now that you're practically becoming your own person. I just hope that…"

Yami Yugi cupped his little one's face in his hand. "Koibito, I'll never leave you… well, not for someone else anyway. I didn't exactly have more of a choice a few weeks ago."

Yugi giggled again, throwing his arms around the pharaoh's neck. "I know, I know. I just hope that nothing bad happens to us. That we'll never have to…"

He trailed off at that, looking away. Yami Yugi frowned at his behavior.

"Aibou…?"

Yugi leaned toward his shoulder a bit, and the pharaoh pulled his hikari onto his lap so the two of them could be comfortable.

"I don't understand what's going on, mou hitori no boku," Yugi began. "Somehow, Harry was just the one involved in the beginning, and now we've dragged Hermione and Draco into it as well. It's just… I don't know what 'it' is at all!"

Yami Yugi held onto him, hugging him for all his worth. "Koibito… I don't know what's going on either… I just know that no matter what, I'll always be there to protect and love you."

Yugi looked up at him again, giving the pharaoh the opportunity to wipe away the tears that had streamed trails down his face. The teenager smiled halfheartedly.

"Promise, mou hitori no boku?"

He smiled, before giving his hikari a kiss on the forehead. "Promise, mou hitori no oré. Now… how are we going to get you out of here?"

-.oOOo.-

Ryou ran as fast as he could toward Domino International Airport, cursing the fact that he did not have enough money for a cab as he dragged his suitcase behind him. He was supposed to meet with the others around eight 'o clock at the airport so they could take Kaiba's private jet to England. However, he had had a slight… disagreement with the alarm clock that morning. Disagreement as in the blasted thing was set for seven PM instead of seven AM. Add that to his miscalculation of current funds, and you had one cranky and late white-haired teenager.

I blame you for this, he accused. I don't know why, but I blame you for this.

The tomb robber gave him the mental equivalent of a glare. What the hell did I do?

You didn't set the alarm properly, Ryou shot back lamely as the airport front gate came into sight.

Bakura cursed. I don't even know how to set an alarm clock, so you can't pin this one on me.

I still blame you, he shot back as he dashed into main terminal and up to the counter to present the pass Kaiba had given him the day before.

Ryou looked around as the woman behind the counter checked to make sure his pass card was legit, and spotted Yugi and Yami Yugi off in a corner talking to Yugi's mother, who had a very stern look on her face. The woman at the counter gave him the okay, just as Yugi's mother said something that made the pharaoh's eyes grow wide. She left their company as he made his way over to them, but the unnerved look never left Yami Yugi's face.

"What'd she say to you?" Ryou asked.

Yugi gave him a sheepish look. "Something you wouldn't expect from my mother."

Yami Yugi gulped down his nervousness as Draco joined them, coming from the bathrooms. "Let's just say she threatened my manhood if I ever harmed Yugi, and leave it at that, shall we?"

Ryou gave the pharaoh a bland look. "Panseru-kun?"

"Yeah?"

"You realize my other self is laughing his rear end off right now, right?"

"I figured," Yami Yugi replied dryly. "He's still going to get it before the year is out."

Draco just sniggered. "No offense or anything, Yami Yugi, but… what's the worse you can do to him?"

The pharaoh smirked. "Oh, I'll find something. Everyone has a weakness."

Ryou looked in on his other self for a moment to see he had tensed up slightly, as if afraid the pharaoh already knew his "weakness". The hikari laughed, which earned him a glare, before turning his attention back to the real world.

"Anyway, sorry I'm late," he said. "Several morning problems."

"Don't worry about it," Yugi assured him. "Seto-kun hasn't even shown up yet."

Draco scratched his chin. "It's his plane; you'd think he'd show up early."

"What'd I miss?"

The sudden voice, coming from directly behind Draco, caused the young wizard to jump at least a mile in the air before coming down to earth. He whirled around and glared at Marik, who was grinning from ear to ear at his accomplishment.

"I swear, you're almost as destructive as Yami Bakura!" he growled, getting a laugh out of the Egyptian.

"Draco, Bakura almost brought down an entire country," Marik pointed out. "I just cause a little chaos here and there."

"A little chaos here and there?" Yugi and Yami Yugi asked dully.

Marik sweatdropped. "Oh… eh heh… is that Kaiba I see?"

He quickly raced off for where the tall brunette was standing at a counter, getting his pass approved. The other boys shook their heads and sighed before following. There was really no time to be bickering back and forth; soon they would be on the plane and on their way towards England…

…and another year and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.