Final chapter. Hope it's well liked (and that Yami fell a bit more IC).

Still not used to using Dub names, so if you catch me slipping please tell me so I can fix it.

Still don't own Yu-Gi-Oh.

Joey was rather proud of himself. For the first time, he had made cookies and hadn't started a small fire. They tasted not too bad, too, if he did say so himself. He had already had four of them, and was fighting himself to not eat another. He was currently taking the rest of them to Yami and Yugi's apartment.

Hopping off the subway and running to the apartment building, Joey hummed merrily. He wondered if Yami even liked chocolate chip – sometimes he seemed so serious and mature that it seemed like he wouldn't like sweets. Which was one of the reasons he had used dark and rich chocolate, instead of milk chocolate like was his own preference.

Not bothering to knock, he tested to doorhandle to see if it was unlocked. Luckily, it was, and he opened it. "Yami! Yugi!" he called out happily, taking off his shoes and inviting himself in.

He went in the living room and froze. His fingers became numb, and he dropped the cookies that he had just been so proud of.

Yami didn't look at him. Yami didn't notice him. Yami was completely motionless, except for the fact that he was trembling.

Joey ran to him, grabbing the gun and forcing it out of Yami's mouth. Yami, shocked, pulled the trigger and the bullet went flying through his window, shattering it. There was a scream in the room beside them.

Joey forced the gun out of Yami's fingers, and threw it across the room, then punched Yami. "What the hell were you doing?!" he screamed.

Yami looked up at him, his eyes blank and emotionless, as though he couldn't hear Joey and as though he had completely forgotten what he had just been about to do.

Yami and Joey stared at each other for what felt like forever, Yami sitting on the ground, a thin trail of blood dripping from his lip but he made no move to whip it away, and Joey stood above him, looking at his friend as though he were staring at some fascinating creature he had never seen before.

Somewhere in the distance, sirens rang out. Joey dropped to his knees by Yami, and wrapped him in his arms. Then, Yami began to cry.

Yugi scarcely left Yami's side in the days that followed. Yami had been admitted into a rehabitation hospital, and everyday his friends came to see him.

Yugi had told the doctors that he was Yami's little brother (they looked similar enough), and was allowed to stay by his side.

Téa had brought over cookies that she had baked, and the three of them sat in silence eating them.

Téa shifted uncomfortably, then kissed Yugi on the cheek. Yami looked away, looked out the window. It was raining heavily out, and he was surprised that Téa had come to visit.

"I'll go now," she said, and he heard her stand up. "I'll... come back ... tomorrow."

Yugi and Yami sat in silence for a few moments.

"Go."

Yugi blinked, then looked at Yami who was still turned away from him. "Excuse me?"

"Go. Go with Téa and just ... just go."

"Yami, I don't –"

"Go!"

Yugi nodded, despite Yami not being able to see him, then headed towards the door. He paused at the door, and looked back at Yami who was still looking at the window, before leaving the room, closing the door softly behind him.

It hadn't gone unnoticed by Yami that the only one of his friends who hadn't shown up was Joey. It seemed as though Joey were avoiding him all together – even his parents who he hadn't seen in six years had heard and sent flowers – Yugi had probably told them, yet Joey hadn't even sent a card.

Yami didn't blame him. He probably wouldn't visit himself if her were Joey. Joey had been the one to stop him, and Joey had been the only one to find out why Yami was going to do what he was going to do.

Hell, Yami didn't blame him for avoiding them. How many people would want to be friends with a bloody homo after all?

For the next week, Yami ignored everyone who came to visit. He'd read when they were around, go out to get coffee, and basically do everything he would've done if they would've not even been there.

Tristan was the first to stop coming. He came for three days, and each day he sat there for hours trying to talk to Yami but getting no response. He couldn't take the uncomfortable silence that seemed to crash down on him like a tsunami whenever he came to visit, and then one day, he stopped coming.

Yami could tell that Téa didn't want to come any more, either. She always did though. Everyday she'd come with Yugi. Neither of them wanted to be there, Yami knew that. Yet Yugi kept coming, and Téa refused to let him go without her.

It was seven weeks after the incident. The doctors commented on how much Yami had improved. They figured he was good to go. He was smiling again, and laughing with the other patience, even getting some of the worse off ones to laugh. He'd play games, and seemed to especially love playing against some of the younger patience, teaching them new games or helping them improve their old favorites.

When they announced his release, quite a few of the younger ones, there for various reasons ranging anywhere from a particularly hard divorce to drug addictions cried. Yami smiled and told them all that he'd come back to visit as often as possible.

He packed up the few things that he had been allowed to keep with him, and some of the things he had accumulated while he was there, and within two days he was ready to go.

Joey stood in front of a large building. The sign on the front read Domino Rehabitation Centre, and Joey knew exactly what kind of screwed up people were inside. The aura surrounding the building was heavy and made him want to leave right away, but the building itself was a cheery one, with beautifully, elegant marble walls (mostly, with some plaster) and colourful drawings in some of the lower windows.

When Yami was first admitted, Joey's friends told him to visit, and got angry when he never did. But after a couple of weeks they stopped pestering him about it. It had to be at least three weeks ago when they had stopped going all together. Today when he told them what he had planned to do, they looked at him strangely, Tristan commenting on how it was probably a bad idea.

Joey wasn't the type to let people tell him what to do, though. He didn't do the exact opposite of what they said; that was as bad as being told what to do, but once he made up his mind no one could change it for him. He wasn't ready to visit Yami all this time. It did have to do with what Yami had told him, too.

When Yami had confessed his feelings for Yugi, Joey didn't know what he was feeling. He felt like he had been plunged into ice-cold water. It took nearly two months for him to realize what the feeling was, and what to tell Yami.

After standing outside for nearly ten minutes, he finally took a step towards the glass doors of the building.

At the same time, a young man stepped out, carrying a single duffle bag over his shoulders and a young boy clinging onto his hand.

It took a moment for Joey to recognize the man.

Yami had gotten his hair cut, and it now hung loosely, coming just past his chin in the longest section. His eyes had changed since Joey last saw him, and they now looked warm and some-what cheerful.

Yami paused when he saw Joey, froze where he stood. The little boy kept walking, nearly falling over his own feet from recoil.

"Yami, why'd you stop," the boy asked, looking up at Yami. He followed his eyes until they fell on Joey. "Who's that?"

"It's an old friend of mine," Yami said, not taking his eyes off of Joey.

The boy blinked, then looked at Joey and glared slightly.

"I think I forgot something inside. Can you go get it for me?" Yami asked.

"You didn't forget anything. We looked everywhere and made sure to get all your things," the boy explained, his grip on Yami's hand tightening.

"Matt..." Yami said, a warning in his voice. He looked down at the boy, and their eyes met. They stared at each other for a long while, they're gazes filled with defiance, before Matt finally broke away.

"I'll go check again..." He ran off into the building.

"Who was that?" Joey asked, watching the boy slip off his shoes in the doorway.

"His names Matt." Yami looked towards the building where Matt was talking to a little girl, pouting somewhat. She looked out at them and glared slightly at Joey. "Parents died in a car crash last year. He didn't get along well in the orphanage with the other kids, and lashed out at the people who tried to adopt him, so they sent him here to try to move on so he'll be able to be adopted by someone. I just did so."

"Oh. I didn't think you were the type of guy who liked kids."

"I didn't either." Yami looked back at Joey. "What are you doing here?"

"I came to visit," Joey said, then looked at Yami's bag. "I guess I was a little too late though, huh?"

"About seven months too late," Yami said coldly. His 'friends' hadn't visited him in weeks now, and it wasn't until they stopped coming that he was able to improve himself, despite the fact that they had meant the world to him not even two months ago. They were more important than even his own life.

"I had some thinking to do," Joey said. Suddenly his plan didn't seem to great, and he was beginning to think that he should've never came. Tristan had said numerous times that thinking wasn't his strong suit.

"Isn't that illegal?"

Joey glared at Yami, only to be surprised at a small smile that had played across his friends lips.

"Come on," Yami said, walking away a little. "There's a bench in a nice little garden around the corner. We can talk there."

Joey looked once more back at the doorway before hurrying to catch up with Yami. He was slightly unnerved to see no less than five children standing there glaring at him.

Yami sat in the bench, smiling slightly. To the right of him, there was a rose bed, carefully tended so not a thorn was to be seen. They were considered unsafe, after all. Where he had entered the garden from there was a treelike ridge, and just behind him vines climbed up the wall.

Everywhere but the path there were flowers, of all colours, sizes and species, and a willow tree was planted in the centre of it all.

"This is a nice place," Joey said, looking around and sitting by Yami.

Yami nodded. "They say it's a good place to heal. Nature calms people and puts their minds at ease. Suicide and other rates are going up, and lots of people believe it's because there's no more nature, only cement."

Joey nodded. It made sense.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Yami asked. He looked at his hands. His finger nails had been worn down a little, one of the little girls named Sara really liked to play Go and often asked him to play her.

"It's well – remember what you told me when I found you?" Joey asked, shifting a little.

Yami nodded. "I told you that I loved Yugi and he would never feel the same way. That the day I lost Yugi was the day I lost everything." He sighed and leaned back. "Man, was I ever stupid back then. Sorry. I already know what you're going to say." Yami smiled. "I had a lot of time to think about it.

"You're going to tell me one of two things. Either you're going to be honest and tell me that you can't be comfortable having some gay as your friend, or you're going to tell me it's cool and that you accept it, while inside you hate every moment you spend with me."

Joey shook his head. "That's not what I want to tell you. I mean – I had a lot of time to think about it and ... there's this feeling... and it... I don't..."

Yami was staring at him now, looking quite amused. He rested his elbow on the back of the bench, and rested his chin on his fist.

Joey fell silent, and looked at his hands. He leaned towards Yami and kissed him lightly on the lips. Yami's eyes widened, and even after the kiss had ended neither moved, their lips still brushing against each other.

Joey finally pulled away and looked at the ground. "I've always been really bad at expressing myself through words and am better at actions and I'm sorry and I probably just stepped over the line and –"

Yami silenced him by holding a finger to his lips. "I ... Matt's waiting... and I need to get to our new apartment and sign him up for school next year..."

Joey looked at the ground, silent. Yami shifted a little.

"I'm not really ready for that..." he said. "I really need to devote a lot of my time to Matt now. I've got to protect him and stuff..." Joey nodded, and Yami smiled a little. "I'll call you when we get settled in. It would be nice if it worked out."

Joey looked shocked as Yami walked away.

"Yami," Matt said quietly, holding tightly onto Yami's hand.

"What is it?" Yami asked as the two of them walked down the street towards their new apartment.

"You're not going to get sad again, are you?"

Yami looked at him, a little shocked that Matt would ask something like that. "No. Why?"

"Because your friends. They made you sad before and then when they left you were happy. So, now that your friends are back we're scared that you're going to be unhappy again. All of us back there..."

Yami smiled a little, pulling his hand from Matt's and resting it on Matt's head. Then he ruffled his hair. "Joey was the one who never made me feel bad," he said, smiling. "He's the one who saved me."

Matt looked up at him, smiling a little. "And you better stop glaring at him, because you're going to see a lot more of him."

-OWARI-

Please Read and Review. Constructive Criticism more than welcome. Flames will be mocked.

---------Review Replies----------

I luv Kai:

Just a random request from my story "To The Point of Exhaustion". I don't blame you for forgetting. XP Sorry it took so long.

BrightShadowDancer:

I know XP I'm sorry about that. It's near impossible to write an IC Suicide fic for anyone, which is the reason I've avoided them (and would've kept avoiding them if this wasn't requested of me). No more than two chapters though, luckily. And he wanted to move because the living cost in New York was too high XD But thank you for the helpful review.

Merik:

I know. Hence the reason I was hesitant about writing this.

Yami-Yugi3:

XD

Starlit Hope:

Well then, here I am updating.

Misura:

Nope, not much hope for Yugi to come running in at all. XD David is Joey's dad, who I made up a random name for by almost naming him Daisuke but then remembering this was set in America XD