Chaos: This story written on an impulse, after receiving a burst of inspiration from all sorts of different stories. The Song 'Here is Gone' by the Goo Goo Dolls, first introduced to me by Reiya, Inc, and may we all bow down adoringly before her.

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I'm not the one who broke you,
I'm not the one you should fear,

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Yugi clutched the bedcovers around his shoulders, lying on his side and curling up. He was shaking slightly with dread, knowing what would come next. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later a quiet voice asked, "Yugi?"

He said nothing, feigning sleep, praying that tonight he wouldn't have to go through this torture. "Yugi...I know you're awake." the voice persisted, and he shut his eyes tightly, biting his lip.

The previous night it had been anger. The night before, horror. The night before that, when it had started, disbelief. What would it be this time?

It was sadness. Yami was standing transparent by the bedside, unconsciously clenching his fists. "Yugi..." he whispered wretchedly at the back of his hikari's head, feeling his heart breaking. "Yugi, it happened again...didn't it?" he said, louder, knowing the answer to the question and knowing that Yugi would make no response.

He sat down on the bed with a sigh and touched the duvet where Yugi's shoulder would be. "Yugi...please...you can tell me..."

Yugi pulled the covers over his head and said, voice muffled, "Go away!"

The words tore Yami apart. Didn't Yugi trust him? What could be so terrible that he wouldn't tell anyone? Sadly he activated the Millenium Puzzle, going through the same ritual he had gone through on the nights before.

The room faded to a blank, swirling blue, and the bed disappeared, leaving Yugi standing in midair and Yami behind him, still staring at the back of his head. "Yugi..." he said, not knowing what he could say or do, thinking he had tried everything.

Yugi opened his eyes and felt them brimming with tears. He wouldn't say...he wouldn't tell him. He couldn't. Yami took his shoulder and turned him around so that they were face to face.

Yugi looked away, unable to bear the betrayal in Yami's eyes. Yami grabbed his wrist and held it up, so that the sleeve fell away and revealed a mass of blue-black bruises. Yugi remained looking to the side.

"Yugi, who's doing this to you? Why won't you tell me?!" his voice cracked in the middle. Yugi said nothing, but the tears spilled out of his eyes and rolled silently down his cheeks. Yami had a lump in his throat at the sight; the silent, accusing thought in his mind that it was him who was making Yugi hurt in this way.

No, no, he assured himself, it's whoever's doing...this...to him. It's not my fault! He glared at the bruises on his hikari's arm, angry against the pale skin, the ones that he knew covered the rest of Yugi's body, the ones that were causing all this pain between them.

It IS my fault. I can't protect him. If only he would take the Puzzle to school...

He dropped Yugi's arm and turned away, fighting the urge to cry. The blue faded back into the familiar contours of Yugi's bedroom, brightened by the moonlight that flooded through the window.

Yugi looked up miserably at the back of Yami's head, longing to tell him everything, to tell him about the sneering gang that waited by the road to his house, about how much it hurt to act normally in front of his friends, about his fears...

He still remembered when he first completed the Puzzle, and left school to confront a different gang. He remembered blacking out and waking to find the bullies lying on the ground, faces contorted into horrible silent screams, eyes blank and soulless.

He remembered thinking that it was his fault, and feeling terrible. If he told Yami what was going on he was sure it would happen again...and it would be his fault.

Again.

Yami took a shuddering breath, making a failing attempt at composing himself, and then let himself disappear, back into his soul room. He sat at the bottom of a flight of steps, putting his chin in his hands and staring at nothing.

He missed the times that he and Yugi would talk for hours about...well, everything, how Yugi had laughed when he realised that Yami knew almost nothing about Maths or Geography or any other school subjects.

He remembered how Yugi smiled trustingly and confided his deepest secrets.

He remembered, and felt lonely.

Yugi slowly got into bed, lying on his back and looking up at the ceiling, and let the tears fall. He lay awake for a long time that night.