Angelus Fletus Est

Me: Gaah. ANOTHER two months without an update! *falls over* you readers out there deserve more, REALLY you do! Gomen nasai!

Yami: oh, please, not ANOTHER apologizing spiel. I think I'd puke.

Me: *glares*

Yugi: Oh, come off it, Yami. I think you LIVE to annoy her.

Yami: How'd you guess?!

Yugi and Me: -.-;;;;;

Me: anyways, gomen for the wait and... *grand sweep of hand* onto the reviews!

Agentpudge: *giggles* more and more random by the day, ap, I'm tellin' ya. Not even a 'good chapter' or 'that sucked, you suck, and everything about you sucks'. Lol. Just random musings. You really should listen to Yami sometimes . Hehe.

Mijikai: hehe. Sorry, Yami, but if I had the opportunity to be Yugi's guardian I'd take it and not leave it. Yugi: *giggles* Yami: o.O; *angelic look on face* Me: *giggles* anyways, congrats on your new guardianship. And...*winks at Yugi* if you harm him in any way, I'm kidnapping Yugi and keeping him and spoiling him rotten.

Anubis: got scared into not writing for two months lol. Oh, Yami gets more coming to him, have no fear!

Linchi: grins sowwy. I just had to relieve you all from the angst lol. It gets more angsty here though.

Danielle: sure! Interview us all you likes!

Lavender Wonder: Absolutely NOT! Yugi MINE! *huggles Yugi* Yugi: ^.^;;;

Neko Oni: *giggles* there is no such thing as too much kawaiiness when it comes to your Yug and Yam. Both of them are adorable

Vivian Crookshanks: O.o;;;;;;;;; *dies* Yami: *also dies* Me: YAMI?! My FATHER-IN-LAW?! *dies again* I can yell at him whenever I want to though Yami: *still dead*

A.M.T: Nooo, you can't. See, Yami also made it irreversible. MWAHAHAHA!! Besides, if you took my Yugi, I'd be so heartbroken that I wouldn't be able to write! You wouldn't want THAT, would you?!

Truefan: *giggling like crazy* I likes. *huggles Yugi* I really REALLY likes. Yugi miiiiine

Shadowguardian: *turns red* thanks! I'm glad you likes! More angsty goodness to come, too

Me: phew! I'm getting more and more each chapter! Oh yeah...

Note Go read Truefan's review for chapter ten if you want to see some excellent Tea bashing from us Yugi fans. Lol. GO TRUEFAN!

Well, onto the fic! Oh, and to you hentais: GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER! There is NO YAOI in this fic!

/Yugi to Yami/ //Yami to Yugi// \Private thoughts\

Yami walked to school dejectedly the next day. Yugi had not only rejected his apology, but he'd blown up in his face. Not that Yami could blame him. Yugi's journal was shocking, to say the least. And to think that he, Yami, who was supposed to be Yugi's guardian and protector, was the cause of his hikari's pain.

\How could I have been such an idiot? How could I have left him like that? It's only a miracle that he didn't try to do something drastic before Seto found him...\

Yami was lost in his thoughts as he gathered his books for the day. \I want his forgiveness so badly...I miss him. I really miss him.\

Looking up at the sound of a very familiar voice, he saw his hikari walking down the hall with his rival. He decided to try again.

"Yugi!" He ran to catch up to the two.

Yugi turned, his smile faltering when he saw Yami. "Yami."

Seto also turned, but said nothing, much to Yami's relief. He didn't feel like dealing with him right now.

"Yugi...I..." Again he became tongue-tied. \Goddamnit, you stupid pharaoh! Say it! All those duels, you knew exactly what to say, but you can't talk to your hikari?! What's WRONG with you?!\ "I just wanted to tell you again that I'm sorry." He normally hated doing this in front of Seto, but today he didn't care. "I miss you, Yugi, I do...and I only hope that you can forgive me. Maybe not right away, I don't deserve to be forgiven so quickly, but..."

Yugi stared at Yami for a moment before replying. "You miss me," he said softly. It wasn't a question; however, Yami nodded. "You miss me..." he repeated, this time incredulously.

Yami opened his mouth to reply, but Yugi cut him off. "Do you know how much I missed you? All those nights when you went out with your friends, leaving me behind...All those times when you ignored me...do you know how much I missed you? Missed goofing off with you, missed just hanging out talking about anything at all...

"I cried all those nights, Yami. I cried, praying it was just a dream, that I'd wake up and you'd be there to tell me that you'd never leave me like that. All those nights you were having fun, I was wondering what I'd done, wishing I could just die. But that would have killed you, too, Yami, and I didn't want that.

"I can't forgive you easily. Sure, I'll be able to forgive you eventually, but I don't know when that will be. Because you tore me apart, Yami. I seriously don't think you would have cared if I'd died. You tore my heart apart, and it's only recently that I've been able to put the pieces together."

Yami was struck dumb. Yugi was still angry, he could tell. He hadn't raised his voice, but the former pharaoh could see the hurt and anger in his eyes. Seto, he saw, was staring at Yugi in shock.

"Aibou..." was all Yami could manage.

Yugi, to his surprise, gave a very bitter laugh. "I ceased being your aibou two months ago, Yami."

Yami couldn't look at him anymore. He averted his gaze to the block of lockers to his left, the guilt coursing through him like poison, not looking up when Seto said, "Come on, Yugi..."

He did look up when he heard two pairs of footsteps walk away from him. \Yugi...\ He watched the billionaire very uncharacteristically put his arm on Yugi's shoulder as they walked away. He suddenly got a feeling of being left behind. \So...this is how Yugi felt when he watched me walk away all those times...\ He didn't see Yugi look back at him, with something like sorrow on his features.

Yami went back to his locker, picked up his books, and went to class. Alone.

~*~*~

Yami was unusually quiet the whole day, not participating in his friends' pointless banter. Tea and Tristan had stopped hanging around him, knowing that they were courting a visit to the Shadow Realm every time Yami glared at them. Still, Yami had many friends, and normally he felt welcomed and appreciated in their presence. Today, however, he felt cold and alone.

His uncharacteristic silence did not escape the attention of Joey and Ryou.

"Hey, Yami, you okay? You've been awful quiet today," Joey remarked.

Yami didn't reply right away. "It's nothing, Joey."

"You talked to Yugi again, didn't you?" Yami's head shot up to look at Ryou, which told the white-haired hikari that he'd hit home.

Yami's head soon dropped again. "He says he can't forgive me."

"I'm not surprised, to be honest," Ryou mused.

"Aw, give him some time, Yami. Ya can't expect him to come running back to ya immediately. He just needs some down time, that's all."

Yami nodded, feeling a bit better. "Thanks, Joey." He had an idea.

~*~*~

"Do you think I hurt him, Seto?" Seto looked over to Yami's table, where he noticed that the pharaoh wasn't chatting animatedly like he usually did. Instead, he ate his lunch quietly.

"I just think you finally got him to think, Yugi."

"Do you think I shouldn't have said what I did?" Hurting Yami was the last thing Yugi wanted. \I don't want him to start feeling like I did. No one deserves to feel that way...\

"I personally think you should have let him have it. Given him a piece of your mind. He can't possibly expect you to come running back to him the first time he asked."

"But I don't want to hurt him..." Yugi knew he was being stupid, but Yami was his other half. And, being the caring person that he was, he didn't want to impose any pain on him.

"Relax, Yugi," Seto smiled, "Yami's just thinking it through. For once," he added dryly. Continuing seriously, he said, "I don't think you should forgive him this soon, though."

Yugi nodded, and continued to eat his lunch. "I don't want to hurt him, Seto. That doesn't mean I'm ready to do anything of the kind."

~*~*~

Yami hurried home after school. He had an idea on how to get his feelings across to Yugi, and was anxious to put his plan into motion.

He stopped when he saw a message on the machine. His heart nearly stopped when he heard who it was from.

"Hi, Yami. And hi, Yugi. It's your grandfather. I'm sure you're still at school, if my calculations on the time difference are correct. Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to come home. I expect to be back within a week. Hope you didn't miss me too much, boys." Yami smiled at the teasing remark. "See you in a week." Beeeeeeep...

\Gramps is coming home...what will he do when I tell him what happened?\ Yami rushed upstairs. \Hopefully, Yugi will have absolved me by then...\ He didn't want to think about what Solomon's reaction to the past events would be.

Sitting at Yugi's desk, Yami pulled out a piece of their stationary. He smiled; no wonder Yugi saved it only for special occasions. The paper was of good quality, with a Dark Magician down the left margin, with his staff raised above the top margin. He picked up a pen, and, after thinking about what he was going to say, put the pen to the paper.

~*~*~

The next day at school, Yugi opened his locker to find a small box inside with his name on it. Puzzled, he took it into the classroom and sat down at his desk, looking it over. There wasn't a clue on it as to who it was from; in fact, there wasn't anything on it at all save Yugi's name.

Shrugging, Yugi opened the box. He was shocked to find a sealed letter and the Puzzle inside. Yami sent this, he thought. Curious as to what this was for, he opened the letter and read what his yami had written.

Dear Yugi,

If you're reading this now, then I have to thank you for opening this in the first place. I'm sure you guessed who it was from as soon as you saw it.

I haven't been properly able to apologize. I've always gotten tongue-tied when I've tried in the hallways, and that won't do. So, I figured I'd get what I wanted to say on paper. It did, after all, work somewhat for you.

Yugi swallowed a lump in his throat as he remembered his journal, but continued reading.

I told you today that I missed you. I didn't tell you how much. You were the one who brought me life, Yugi, and I am forever in your debt because of that. That gift you unknowingly gave me is more to me than anything else in my life. It was so wrong of me to take you for granted, when it was you who brought me here in the first place.

I did some serious thinking after our discussion in the hallway. When I got home, I realized how incomplete I felt. How, on all those nights when I left, I had 'fun', as you said, but how I felt that something was missing. That 'something', I see now, was you.

I want to tell you something, Yugi. I've cried several nights, too, ever since I realized what I'd done. Realized that I nearly threw away the most important person I would ever know. Realized that I can't live without you, my other half.

I can't believe how blind I was. I can't believe how many times I left you alone, and I can only thank the gods that Seto found you that day.

You are wrong on one count, Yugi. If you had died, I would have been distraught. I can't imagine life without you, and you can't imagine the guilt I feel over having taken you for granted.

I'm very ashamed of myself, Yugi. I made a huge mistake, and now I must face the consequences. I don't expect you to forgive me after reading this; I hurt you too badly to expect that. Just know that regret everything I've done over the past two months, and that I will wait any amount of time for you.

Take the Puzzle. It is yours, after all.

Stay strong, hikari.

Yami

Yugi stared at the letter. Then he stared at the Puzzle.

The Puzzle. It had taken him almost seven years to complete it. It brought him and Yami together. It was the reason they had their link, the reason why they shared souls.

Yami missed him. He cared about him. He regretted what he'd done.

Yugi traced the contours of the Puzzle, an almost wistful look on his face. If he put the Puzzle on, his link with Yami would be restored. Yes, they would be able to shield each other from their thoughts and feelings, but the link would be reestablished nonetheless.

Should he put it on? Did he feel ready to reestablish the mental bond?

Yugi thought for awhile, then made a decision.

Slowly, he put the letter down. Then, taking the Puzzle's chain in both hands, he lifted it over his head, letting the weight of the Puzzle settle on his chest.

Me: well? Still think Yugi should chew out Yami some more?

Yami: *pouts*

Yugi: *giggles* I think so.

Yami: AIBOU!

Yugi: It's fun!

Yami: -.-;;;

Me: *laughing*

IMPORTANT I'm entering a fan fiction contest for Yu-Gi-Oh. I encourage all of you lovely readers out there to do the same.

This link will take you to the rules section. I hope this will be a successful contest. Oh, nudges readers the prizes are awesome.

R&R, people! Arigatou!