Angelus Fletus Est (English translation: Angel Weeping)
Me: *looks at screen, jaw drops to floor, and faints*
Yugi: *looks at screen and is frozen solid in shock*
Yami: oh not again…*looks at screen and jaw drops* oh my...just kidding...*wakes up Yugi and Katya*
Me: *stammering, tears in eyes* g-g-guys...I h-h-have p-passed t-t-the 200 review m-mark...HOW CAN I THANK YOU ENOUGH?!?! *glomps reviewers* NEVER has ANY of my fics made it this far!!!! *sniffs* I-I'm...s-so h-happy...*cries happy tears on yami*
Yami: ...oh for heaven's sake pull yourself together. You have to write!
Yugi: *sarcastically* yami, the ever-sensitive and compassionate one.
Yami: You know it!
Me and Yugi: -.-;;;
Me: there isn't any way for me to express my gratitude. REALLY!!! You've all been so wonderful! Now, to answer a few:
To KarenWindStar: Yes, indeed I did have writer's block. And I'm basing this chapter on your idea. Thanks a lot!
To Moonfairy: is laughing hear that, Yami? Yami: I'M NOT THE ONE DOING IT!!!! IT'S A FIC!!! Me: we know. We just wanted to see your reaction. Yami: ..... . Me: laughs anyways. Yeah that's what I thought, but since a lot of ppl want some slight shonen-ai, then that's what I will write.
To Ihire: Thanks, and yes it does make more sense, though Yugi is very forgiving. winces ouch, that really sucks. I really hope things look up for ya.
To Rutu: I'm sorry if Tea is your favorite, but unfortunately, (to be polite) she's my least favorite. My personal opinion is that she get pushed off the Duelist Kingdom ferry. And that's the opinion of many others. Tea will not come around in this fic, nor will she end up "okay". Neither will she do so in any other fics I write. Gomen ne if you're disappointed, but I just can't bring myself to write her as a good character.
To Neko Oni: I'LL ADOPT YOU, YUGI!!!!!! Yami's sane...for the most part. (Yami: .) Hehe. blushes thanks a bunch. That meant a lot.
To Pia: OMG!!! I totally didn't see that I was doing that! I've reread my latest chapter, and you're right!!! Gomen, gomen, gomen! Over vacation I'll probably repost some of my chapters where that is especially evident. THANK YOU SO MUCH for telling me! I can always use advice that will improve my writing! And thanks a bunch for the great quotes. I'll post them at the end of this chapter.
To Cettie-girl: yeah, it is amazing. Especially if you're the authoress, who wrote this from the heart. Kinda makes you feel less alone, ne?
To Starheart: I WANNA PIC OF YAMI POUTING!!!!!!!!!!! PLEEEEEEEEEEAAAASSSE????? LOL. Yes, Yami is fun to tease. (Yami: thanks a lot...) laughs my Yami will run when he sees my Ultimate Supersoaker and Flamethrower of Doom, isn't that right, Yami? Yami looks terrified lol.
TO EVERYONE!!!!: Three words: I. Love. You. I MEAN IT!!!! You guys have offered awesome advice, and great pointers on how I can write better. Thanks a bunch! BTW, I did notify FF.N about my little summary problem, hopefully it'll work. I didn't get a reply. Oh well. THANKS SO, SO, SOOOOO MUCH!!!
Yugi: Wow. People love us.
Yami: YOU OFFERED TO ADOPT A COUPLE YUGI'S?!
Yugi: *looks very hurt*
Me: *stifling laughter* oh come on, Yami, you know how much I love him.
Yugi: *brightens* I feel appreciated.
Yami: *looks torn between retaliating at Katya and comforting his aibou*
Me and Yugi: *laughing*
Me: Well, Seto certainly kicked butt last chapter, ne? He may again this chapter, too! Depends...I'm not entirely sure where I wanna go with this. Thanks to Pia for her pointers, and KWS for her idea!
/Yugi to Yami/ //Yami to Yugi// \Private thoughts\
"Yugi...Yugi, c'mon, wake up."
Yugi moaned and buried his face further into the pillow. He didn't want to get up, didn't want to face another day of being a shadow. He was about to mumble a "go away" when the events of yesterday evening came flooding back to him.
"Yugi..." It took him a moment to register the voice as being Seto's.
Grumbling, Yugi rolled over and opened his eyes. His bleary violet eyes were met with amused azure ones. "Not a morning person, I see." Yugi tried to glare, but he didn't think he got the right effect. "I thought it was for the best, as we have school today."
Oh yeah. School. He'd forgotten about that with all that had gone on yesterday. "Wh't day is't?" Yugi mumbled.
Seto looked very amused. "Thursday. Now get up or I'll have to drag you out of bed."
Yugi moaned again and (literally) rolled out of bed. He blinked when he saw the light blue room; it took him a second to remember that he was at Seto's. He felt a twinge of fear. \What'll Yami—oh yeah. Seto told him. Or, rather, yelled at him...\ Yugi thought. " 'm up. Happy?" He muttered once he'd gotten onto his feet.
Seto chuckled. "My, we are in a good mood this morning. Come on, let's go eat before my stomach eats its way out of my body."
Yugi nodded and they went down to breakfast.
Half an hour later found Yugi able to string together coherent sentences, and checking his bag to make sure that he had everything. \Books, lunch money...hey, Seto even packed my deck.\ This minor detail made Yugi brighten a bit. He swung his bag onto his shoulder and ran downstairs to the lobby (yes, Seto's house was so big that it had a lobby, much to Yugi's astonishment).
Seto was there waiting. "Let's go." He sighed. "Not that I'm looking forward to it..."
Yugi had to smile. "You're not alone there..." he trailed off as they got in the car, suddenly thinking about what was going to happen that day. Yami was in all his classes, save one. Seto, fortunately, was in all of them.
Seto seemed to sense where his train of thought was going. "Don't worry, Yugi. Hang out with me; I won't be going near your yami or those friends of his if I can help it."
His words greatly relieved the spiky-haired teen. "Thanks, Seto."
Seto smiled. "Hey, I've been looking for a good excuse to completely blow them off, and now I've got the best one of all." Yugi looked at him, slightly puzzled. "I've got someone better to spend my time with.
Yugi beamed, greatly cheered by his friend's statement. \It feels so good to know that someone cares...\ He made a vow to get something incredibly nice for Seto's upcoming birthday.
To pass the time before homeroom began, Yugi and Seto had gotten out their decks and were dueling.
"I play the Dark Magician in attack mode. My field card Yami raises his attack power by 200. I'm also playing Reinforcements to raise his attack by 500, totaling 3200 attack points."
Seto grimaced. "Oh crap." His Blue Eyes was on the field...and Yugi's Dark Magician was now stronger.
Yugi grinned. "I attack." The mini-Dark Magician on the board sent a miniature Dark Magic Attack at the mini-Blue Eyes, wiping out the last of Seto's life points. {Score: Yugi – 500 Seto – 0}
Seto groaned in defeat. "I think you're better than your yami. That was close!"
Yugi felt a stab of pain at the mention of his yami, but laughed. "Hey, your loss." Seto mock-glared at the pun. Yugi decided to change the subject before his health became involved. "I like these mini-holographic dueling mats." He giggled slightly, "though I have to say it's a slight let-down after the arenas and the disk systems where the monsters are 10 times our size."
Seto laughed a bit. "Hey, I was getting tired of having to shout up to my Blue Eyes all the time."
Yugi was about to reply when the door opened. Yami, Joey, Tristan, Tea and Ryou walked into the class.
Yugi felt himself freeze. The smile dropped off his face faster than the speed of light. Seto turned his head subtly and saw the reason for his friend's drastic change of mood. Abruptly, he put his cards back into his deck and started talking to Yugi about the new duel mats. \Hopefully they'll see us talking and not interrupt.\ he thought.
No such luck. "Hey, Seto." Tristan said, walking up to the desks. "We missed ya yesterday."
Seto resisted the urge to growl; he'd been interrupted mid-sentence. Instead he gave a stiff nod. Yugi made to get up from his seat, but Seto grasped his wrist and pulled him back down. Tea, Yugi noticed, didn't look happy about that. \She just wants me to be a shadow...or better yet, off the face of this earth.\
Rather than face his former friends, Yugi pretended to be very interested in the top of his deck. \Yeah, I'll just memorize the top of the card even though I did that last year.\ Because he didn't dare look up, he didn't notice his yami looking at him contemplatively.
"Yeah, we missed ya. What gives? You coulda creamed Yami again." Joey gave Yami a strange look when the expected "Again? I beg to differ" statement didn't come.
"I had more...pressing...matters to attend to." Was Seto's stiff reply.
"More pressing than your friends?" Was Tea's half-exasperated, half-biting remark. Yugi's head seemed to droop more at that. \Oh. Wonderful...she's going into another friendship spiel. Why didn't Seto just let me leave so I wouldn't have to face them?\
"Yes, more pressing than my –" Seto paused here, "friends." He said the word 'friends' with a biting sarcasm. "Now, if you don't mind, Yugi and I were having a rather interesting and worthwhile discussion. A very pressing matter, I assure you." Yugi seemed to shrink into his seat slightly. \Here it comes...\ he thought, expecting the worst from the quintet.
Tea looked like she was torn between shock and indignation. Ryou seemed to guess that an outburst was coming, for he quickly stepped in and said, "Well, we'll leave you to that, then. We did walk right in on it. I apologize. See you at lunch, Seto," with a very pointed look in a certain girl's direction.
Taking the hint, Tea, Joey, and Tristan walked to their seats with a "See ya" sent in Seto's direction. Yami lingered for a moment, but when he saw that his hikari didn't look up and that Seto was giving him a rather cold stare, he decided to join his friends as they prepared for class.
"Remind me to thank Ryou profusely later, " Seto said wryly as the bell rang. Yugi looked up at him questioningly. "I don't think I could have withstood the wind current from one of her speeches." Yugi smiled weakly as the teacher walked in and called the class to order.
At lunchtime, Seto steered Yugi towards a smaller table than his usual. As they sat down, a shadow passed over Yugi and stopped. Seto looked up immediately and frowned. Yugi looked up slowly...
...And met the eyes of his yami. Yugi looked down again; he couldn't face him. Not yet.
Yami walked away slowly as Seto engaged his hikari in conversation. That moment when he'd looked into his eyes...and seen for a split second the incredible pain and loneliness in those large violet orbs...
\Yami, you've made the biggest mistake in your life. Some pharaoh you turned out to be...\ he thought to himself. \To have caused his aibou so much pain...and to not have noticed...that was unforgivable.\
Yami looked over at the table where Yugi was sitting. He felt vaguely relieved when he saw his Light smiling as Seto showed him something, then laughing slightly as Seto made a remark. He made a mental note to thank Seto later for taking care of his hikari.
Yami sat down in his usual chair, looking preoccupied. This is where Yugi used to sit... The preoccupied look on his face deepened for a moment before he was jerked back into reality.
"Hey, Yami. You okay? Looks like somethin's botherin' ya," Joey said, sounding concerned.
"Yeah, you've been a bit distant today. Something you want to share with us?" Tristan also looked concerned.
Yami took a breath. "Yeah, as a matter of fact, something is on my mind."
"Do tell," Tea urged.
"When was the last time Yugi sat with us?" The look of surprise on his friends' faces told him that that was the last thing they'd expected him to say.
"Dunno, why?" Joey broke the silence.
Yami was having a hard time thinking of the right way to say what he wanted to say next. "Yugi never came home last night." He said, waiting for his friends' reactions.
There was a pause. "And?" Tea asked, sounding slightly impatient.
Yami was slightly irritated. "He never came home last night because he was at Seto's."
Joey was looking perplexed. "And this is what's botherin' ya?"
Yami shook his head. "He was at Seto's because Seto found him sobbing his heart out at the park. Because he felt like there wasn't anything for him to live for, other than giving me life." Yami took a shuddering breath. "He heard him ask – plead – for someone who would just acknowledge the fact that he existed at all."
He looked at his friends' expressions. Ryou looked shocked; Joey, surprised; and Tristan and Tea just shrugged. "We've been ignoring him to the point where he questioned whether he was alive." Yami put his head in his hands. "He had a journal...and...Ra...what he'd written..." he couldn't continue. "I want to apologize...but I don't think Yugi will take it."
Ryou put a comforting hand on his friend's shoulder. "We've all made a grave mistake," he said. "It wasn't just you."
"I never thought of it," came Joey's remark. "I never thought Yug' minded."
"He doesn't. Never did," Tea said abruptly, looking angry. Tristan just shrugged.
Yami's head snapped up as he glared at the girl across from him. "Did you see his journal? See the tearstained pages that had his feelings of misery written down? See how he blamed himself for being weak and unworthy? It is mostly my fault, because I didn't even see that he was getting picked on again."
Tristan and Tea just shrugged. Joey looked uncertain. Ryou started to stand. "Well, I, for one, am going to apologize."
Yami shook his head and pulled him back down. "He isn't ready for that yet. He wouldn't even look at me; not this morning, and not now."
"Then get over him and just get on with life," burst out Tea. "You've got us, you don't need him!"
"Yeah, c'mon already," Tristan backed Tea up. "I don't see how this is a big issue. You tried, end of story. It's his fault if he won't accept your apology, though frankly I don't see why you even did that."
Joey didn't say a word. He was torn between backing up his close friends and standing up for one of the few people who had always been there for him and helped him out.
Yami was glaring at the three. They just can't get it, can they? Even Joey, and I would have expected Joey to speak up on my side.
Ryou was also glaring, a very un-Ryou-like thing to do. "Just give him some room, Yami. Things like this take time to heal. Though it seems I'm the only person who knows that..." He added, looking pointedly in the direction of three certain people.
Yami merely nodded and continued eating. He'd tried contacting Yugi through their link, but the realization that Yugi had cut the connection, coupled with the fact that he wasn't wearing the puzzle, had made communication impossible. \Yes, I'll give him some time. I only hope he'll accept my apology...though I owe him so much more than that.\
Seto and Yugi finished their food, and went over some notes for a test coming up later in the day. Seto was glad to see that his friend was looking much happier; he'd gotten him to laugh so hard tears came out of his eyes. I really hope Yami gets it into his thick skull that he owes his hikari one hell of a lot more than a simple apology. Otherwise...I will finally have a good reason to strangle him.
His thoughts were interrupted by the bell. Completely ignoring the quintet at the nearby table, he gathered his things and walked with Yugi to their next class.
Me: The pace picks up a tad, ne?
Yami: Juuust a tad.
Yugi: laughs
Me: Okay, I hope that wasn't as bad as I thought. I don't know what I want to happen next, so there isn't any evil 'coming up next' cliffhanger this chapter.
Yami: That's a good thing.
Me: glares
Yami: Just kidding! nervous look
Me: Think of this as a Christmas present, guys! HAVE A GREAT CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!!!!! hands all reviewers Yugi, Yami and Seto plushies Arigatou!
OH YES!!! Pia had some awesome quotes, and I just have to put them here:
"The hardest thing you will ever learn in life is just to live in it. No matter how hard it gets, there is ALWAYS a turning point."
They say that you should "Live. Live not only for yourself, but for someone else." But what happens when you don't have someone to live for? Do you just not live? Or do you exist, but not live? Only one is a sign of a ruined soul, but the other one is destiny. Which would you choose?
Totally awesome, Pia. Arigatou!
Do I really have to tell you guys to R&R? Naaah, didn't think so. Ja ne!