TL: Oh my goodness, I think—this might be the end! It was a fun little story to write. Most of the time it was the story writing itself, it seemed; I had very little bearing over where it went.

Jou: As you can tell, by its rambling nature.

TL: Jou-chan, take off my smartening glasses.

Jou: Damn.

TL: I really hope it's been an enjoyable ride for the rest of you, too. Even if my writing or stories aren't perfect, I hope they are entertaining. Now, since I'm sure you're anxious to continue—do so (it's a longish chapter!)!

"Yami-chan, are you okay? I'm sorry I fell on you that way…" Yuugi looked briefly embarrassed. "I tripped over your, um, well, all of you, really."

"That's all right," Yami murmured distractedly. His mind was working overtime today, and it was grumbling about quitting any time soon. Yuugi's first mental transformation had been quite a gradual process, as he recalled. Now all of a sudden Yuugi was back to normal, albeit very tired-looking. That was understandable; Yuugi had been running around like a mad thing for most of the day. But, more to the point…how did Yuugi recover so quickly?

"Come sit." Yuugi sat up to make room on the couch and patted the space beside him. Yami shook his head slowly. "No, no, I'm all right…"

"That's the second time you've said that, but it doesn't really look like you're all right at all." Yuugi's eyes pooled with worry. "I'm sorry, I've been a real nuisance the past few weeks…"

"Not at all!" Yami blurted out. "It's not that at all, really. It's all my fault, I shouldn't be thinking about these things right now, I'll—"

"What things?" Yuugi cut in with curiosity in his features.

"Nothing, nothing, it's nothing to worry about. I'll get you some clothes, you don't have to get up, here, I'll just—"

"Are you sure it's okay?" Yuugi interrupted again. "I mean, it must have been really hard, making up excuses for school and my friends, and I admit, I wasn't really thinking about any of those things at the time, seeing as I wasn't really thinking about anything rational then, and…"

Yami blinked as Yuugi trailed off, looking near tears. "Really, aibou, it's not a problem. I'll be the first to admit that you were actually rather…cute, as a dog."

"Just as a dog?" Yuugi said without thinking. Yami fumbled for words, but eloquence eluded him at the worst times.

"Well, no," he finally said, lamely. "You're pretty cute all the time. Does that make you feel better?" he tacked on the end, desperately trying to cover up his inadequacy.

Yuugi smiled a little, burrowing under the blanket. Really, such a divine and yet positively adorable being shouldn't be allowed down here with us dirty earth-dwellers, Yami thought to himself. If only for our sake…

"Won't you come sit down, though? You've been standing there for a while." Yuugi patted the couch cushion again, gazing at Yami hopefully. This time the spirit couldn't resist, and he sat down gratefully next to his beloved.

There was a long silence, during which Yami listened anxiously to the clock on the wall ticking its slow way around the hours of the day. There were very few left, Yami noticed. It was just an hour before midnight, the eleventh hour…

Perhaps Yuugi noticed it too, and he steeled himself for the answer before asking, timidly…

"Just how do you feel about me, Yami?"

Yami twitched in surprise. It was a delicate question. Yami knew he would tell the truth, but he was looking for the right way to word it so he could deny the real meaning if Yuugi was taken aback. His mind scrambled, crying out in panic and indignity at this impossible workload.

"Because I… I really…"

Finally Yami's brain had it, and it stomped off angrily without another word. He was sure he could hear the door in his skull slamming as it tromped off, leaving him to his unreliable instincts…

"I love you."

A minute passed.

Another was traipsing by as Yami slowly turned his head to look at his hikari, his other half.

Neither was sure who had said the fateful words first, and both were in shock at the other's response. Both were sweating quietly, wondering if maybe they had said it wrong, if there was something they had missed.

A third minute was on its way when Yami and Yuugi reached for each other, Yami anticipating an embrace, Yuugi aiming for a gentle kiss. The two, therefore, met halfway—rather painfully. Yami smacked his forehead into Yuugi's chin, and Yuugi nearly dislocated his elbow when it was caught up by Yami's arm. Quickly sorting themselves out and quietly apologizing, each decided the other's idea was really best, and so they only collided with each other again. Yuugi nearly collapsed in a fit of giggles, and Yami smiled, not because it was so funny how inept they both were, but because all the worries he had previously had, while still plausible, just didn't matter anymore. As long as Yuugi said it was okay, in Yami's mind, it was okay. The satisfied dark pulled Yuugi into a sitting position (the boy had fallen onto the floor in his bouts of laughter and the wave of relief that had hit him), holding his wrists loosely, and pressed his lips to Yuugi's.

The kiss was chaste, but long, and it was Yuugi who finally broke away. "I think," he began slowly, "that you ought to know something. I started thinking like myself again right when you put that pendant around my neck. The tackle, and the kisses… I was feeling a bit like a dog still, but I really meant them."

Yami, his brain remaining determinedly on strike, nodded and took in the words to analyze at a later date. What was left of his mind was drifting blissfully in the little heaven that was the taste of Yuugi's lips, the warm feel of his body, the smile in his eyes, his slow, gentle breaths that just reached Yami's neck and tickled him there. Even if the words of love had been a lie, and they still only meant so little by themselves, that kiss said all Yami ever needed to know: that Yuugi was his, that he was Yuugi's, and that the two would be intertwined as one forever.

Then Yami realized that Yuugi had become disentangled from the blanket when he fell, and once again sat before Yami almost completely sans clothing. Yami also noted that his body reacted about the same way. The one difference was that this time, maybe Yuugi wouldn't mind sharing in those "guilty pleasures".

And no, that dogwood thing didn't have a purpose. It really was a pointless device for coming up with a story title. I'm a baaaaad person. Also a sleep-deprived one, but I'm sure that doesn't bother you nearly as much as it bothers me.

Maybe I'll change the title someday, if I feel like it… watches out for any flying pigs