For warnings, check prologue please

2. The Awakening

Where was this world? Where was he? Was he destined to live in this place forever? It was so dark... could he ever get back home?

'Home... Where is that? I... I can't remember...'

Yugi inhaled deeply, feeling warmth penetrate his small body. Blinking several times, Yugi smiled. He felt good today. He didn't know why, he was just able to sleep really, really well that night. The small boy stretched in his layed position, before sitting up and realizing something was missing.

Blinking several more times, Yugi frowned as he realized a certain pharaoh wasn't asleep beside him. 'Where...?'

"Sleep well?" Came his answer before he was even able to think his question. Yugi smiled as he saw Yami standing at the open window, looking outside. Bright sunlight was pouring from the window, bathing his body in the warn rays. No wonder he had felt so good.

"Yeah... How long have you been awake?" Yugi, still smiling, asked his pharaoh while staring at his back, seeing that Yami was already fully dressed. He made no move to get out of the bed, but just stretched again. He had slept so well...

"...A while."

The blunt tone made Yugi look at his pharaoh again. He raised a concerned eyebrow, but didn't know whether he should question him or not. A second thought popped into his mind, and the small teen frowned, as he looked towards his alarm clock. 'Why hadn't the alarm gone off?'

The bright red figures blurred a number to him. "3.21am... that's not right..." Yugi thought, puzzled as he looked outside the window again just to make sure he wasn't imagining daytime.

The small teen's confused words piped Yami's interest, and he turned his gaze away from the outdoors to look over his shoulder at Yugi and the clock.

"It must have stopped." Yami stated the obvious... which was probably necessary in Yugi's case. Yugi looked at him with wide eyes, a little unsure, but Yami just looked back outside.

Suddenly feeling self-conscious, Yugi blushed and wrapped the sheet more fully around his naked body – naked save, of course, the large millennium puzzle hanging from around his neck. He moved to the edge of the bed and reached down to grab his boxers. After slipping them on under the sheets, the small boy got up and dressed himself quickly and silently. Once he was done, he went to stand behind Yami, who hadn't moved away from looking out the window. He wasn't too close... and wasn't sure what to do next.

"Uh..." He began timidly, looking down at the ground. Yami looked behind him, and turned fully when he saw that Yugi was standing before him. He looked at the small teen expectantly.

"Umm... Yami... did I... do something wrong?" The small teen asked, looking up with wide eyes to his love. Yami slightly raised an eyebrow at the teen's question, and Yugi, apparently taking that as a bad sign, looked away and bit his lip. He looked lost as to what to do.

But after observing his small lover, Yami stepped closer to the youth.

"Why would you think that...?" he asked softly, slightly puzzled. Yugi looked up at Yami with bright, hopeful eyes.

"I... I dunno. You just seem... angry..."

Yami looked down at his timid counterpart. The youth almost looked... afraid. Was he really that scared that Yami would be upset with him...?

The taller pharaoh felt his fingers twitch with the thought of Yugi being scared of something that involved him. He hated to think that he could even take that precious smile of Yugi's away...

With a feeling of guilt, Yami stepped forward and embraced the smaller teen, who just as eagerly hugged back. He had to lean down a bit, but he didn't mind. He just needed to hold Yugi...

"I'm sorry, little one..." Yami began, now caressing the small teen's hair. He kissed the side of his neck, before talking again. "I didn't mean to be so distant. I just have... a strange feeling."

Yugi pulled back from the embrace to look Yami in the eyes. "What sort of feeling?" He asked, curiously but with caution. Yami straightened and looked to the side, feeling the weight of the feeling hit him.

"I'm... not sure, exactly. It's just... not right. Something's not right... I can feel a disruption in the atmosphere."

Yugi frowned at that, feeling rather stupid. All he could think about when he woke up was how wonderful the day felt.

"Ah... okay..."

"It's almost time for school." Yami spoke, as he turned back to look out the window. Yugi blinked at the taller, and tried to refrain from sighing sadly. Whatever this feeling was, it was really bothering Yami.

"You're not coming...?" Yugi asked, trying not to let the disappointment be evident in his tone.

"Not today."

Yugi lowered his eyes briefly before looking back up at the back of his love. He silently walked up behind the strong pharaoh, and wrapped his arms around his waist, resting his cheek against the small of his back.

Feeling his young lover lean against him, Yami closed his eyes and breathed in. He cherished the younger with all his heart and soul... and he wouldn't know what he would do if he ever let anything happen to him. But this feeling he had... it somehow concerned the young teen. He didn't know how... and he didn't know why, but he just knew it did. He knew if he were inside the millennium puzzle, he wouldn't be able to follow the flow of the atmosphere... he just hoped Yugi would be okay without him for a bit. Just as silently as Yugi had approached him, the Pharaoh gently grasped Yugi's hands in his own, and brought them up to his lips, kissing each one before squeezing them reassuringly.

"Go now... You're going to be late. Make sure everyone else is alright, too". He told the youth.

"Okay..."

A few seconds passed without any movement.

"Ah... Yami... I'm kinda going to need my hands back." Yugi smiled behind the pharaoh.

Yami looked down with surprise, and embarrassingly realized he hadn't let go of the small teen's hands. He silently let them go, and made a small movement that resembled a nod.

Yugi chuckled and hugged Yami one last time from behind before running in the opposite direction, yelling "See you later!"

"Hey guys!" Yugi yelled as he ran to his friends, who were already seated at homeroom. There was still about five minutes left before school actually started, but this gave them a chance to talk.

Tristan, Tea, and Duke were all seated with their chairs repositioned to face each other around a table, all talking animatedly. Three heads turned towards Yugi once he approached them.

"Hi, Yugi!" Tea greeted enthusiastically.

"How're ya, Yug?" Tristan greeted with a grin, and even Duke smiled and nodded his greeting.

"I'm doing great, actually. It's such a great day, don't you think?" He said, just as exuberantly as he pulled up a chair. The whole school seemed to be in a good mood with the wonderful, bright day. Yugi thought it was great. "So where are the others...?" he asked as an afterthought, remembering Yami's words.

"Dunno. They haven't showed up yet. Which is really strange for Ryou if you think about it... I mean, doesn't that guy come to school an hour earlier to fit in extra 'study time'?" Tristan shrugged as he attempted Ryou's accent. Tea raised her eyebrow.

"If that was meant to sound like Ryou, you need a lot of practice." She commented dryly. Tristan narrowed his eyes at her, but didn't say anything. Duke sniggered. Smiling victoriously, Tea continued, "And we all know Joey... it's Monday, he probably got lost on the way to school."

Duke grinned at this, but decided not to comment when he saw Yugi's disapproving look.

"That wasn't very nice, Tea."

Tea sighed, but then apologized sincerely, making Yugi beam at her. The bell rang, and the four of them rearranged their seats into their original position as their homeroom teacher entered the room. Just as she was about to close the door, Ryou rushed into the room, and into his seat, panting, but wearing a relieved smile that he had made it on time. He hadn't missed one class yet.

The teacher raised an eyebrow at the big-haired teen, but didn't say anything. She knew he had a perfect attendance record, so there wasn't much point. Yugi smiled at Ryou, who enthusiastically returned it as the teacher started the roll call.

When she had finished, the class began to brightly chat with one another. Ryou moved one seat up, seeing as Joey wasn't there, to speak to Yugi.

"Hi Yugi," He greeted.

"Why were you late?" Yugi questioned, curious.

"Yeah... don't you normally come, like, an hour earlier?" Tristan asked loudly as he leaned over, trying to prove his point.

Ryou looked at him strangely but answered anyway, "Yeah, I do usually."

"...What for again...?" Tristan asked, sounding obviously like he was waiting for something. Tea and Duke rolled their eyes, but Tristan was still looking at Ryou waiting for an answer. The light-haired teen blinked at Tristan's strange behaviour, but didn't want to be rude.

"Ah... for extra study time-"

"See!" Tristan stood up and yelled in Victory. Duke and Tea both looked away and shook their heads, and Yugi just blinked up at Tristan. Ryou looked at the others for an explanation, but didn't receive one. Yugi merely shrugged unsurely, and Tea grabbed Tristan's arm and pulled him forcefully back down to his seat.

"No one cares what he sounds like!" She yelled at the brunette, who was rubbing his arm from where Tea had grabbed him.

"Alright, alright!" Tristan looked away from the girl. Ryou frowned at this...

"What's wrong with the way I sound...?" the teen asked, suddenly insecure.

"Nothing, Tristan's just a dork." Tea supplied smugly. Tristan fumed, but didn't say anything. He was twitching with the restraint of keeping from fighting with a girl.

"Anyway..." Yugi said loudly, so everyone would pay attention, "as I was saying... why were you late today? Did you're alarm break? Mine did..." the small teen trailed off in thought.

"No actually. It was strange. Bakura didn't want me to come to school today. He said he had a strange feeling..." Ryo shook his head at the memory, as if it were ridiculous. "Anyway, it took me a while to convince him that I'd be fine. Of course he didn't admit that he was scared for my safety... you know Bakura." Ryou suddenly reddened, remembering that his secret love wasn't very liked by the others. Tristan had crossed his arms and looked away, but Yugi was looking at him wide-eyed.

"He had a strange feeling?" Yugi asked. Ryou pursed his lips suspiciously at the question but nodded. "Yami said the exact same thing!" Yugi explained. Ryou frowned at this news. He had thought Bakura was talking about something silly, like a person at school planning to trip him or something. He didn't really think the spirit was being that serious.

"Is he here?" Ryou asked, referring to Yami. Yugi shook his head and the others looked at him strangely.

"He decided to stay home today... I think he's meditating or something..." Yugi shrugged.

"Yeah," Ryou said, "Bakura decided to stay home today as well. I wonder if this is something serious...?"

They all looked a little nervous before the bell rang for classes to start. They agreed to meet at lunch to discuss this further, before they went their separate ways.

Joey stirred in his bed, sweat pouring down his forehead and screwed eyelids. He was panting while he twisted and turned in the thin sheets, and every so often a soft whine would emit from his pursed lips.

He was having another nightmare.

Inside of the blonde's head was images of nothing... there was nothing but it was the worst thing in the world... just blackness. A blackness that was consuming everything around him, taking everything away from him... leaving him in nothingness...

Joey gasped in a breath of air, as he swung up into a sitting position in his bed. His mouth gapped, eyes wide and body shaking, Joey looked around, trying to remember what was going on. There were so many dark images...

As Joey got in more breaths, he managed to look around at his surroundings. He was in his room. It was just a dream...

'Again...'

Joey closed his eyes and exhaled deeply as he came back to his senses. He rubbed the sweat from his forehead before rubbing his eyes. He appeared to have calmed down, but he was still shaking.

'That stupid dream again...'

Joey swallowed hard, before opening his eyes again. His eyes hurt... his head hurt. He could feel a splitting migraine coming on, and blamed the dream for it. He could never remember what happened in those stupid nightmares... all he remembered was the feeling he had experienced. For the last few weeks, he had been waking up every morning with deep fear and darkness embedded in his mind. He didn't even know why... there wasn't even a logical reason as to why he should be feeling that way. But for some reason... it always lasted much loner than his nightmares had...

Joey sighed, and outstretched his arms so he was looking at his hands. They were still shaking. It would normally take a nice warm shower to calm his nerves and ease his emotions after the reoccurring nightmare. But for some reason, he didn't think that was a good idea right now. He felt... weird and just wanted to stay in bed. The nightmare had somehow been different this time... worse this time. Sure, he could never remember what actually happened in the dream, but he could just tell. He didn't need to remember what happened in the dream to know that it was really, really bad. He wasn't even sure he wanted to remember.

No, this dream had definitely been worse. It seemed to have lasted longer, too. Normally, his watch alarm would wake him before the dream went on too long...

'Wait a minute...' Joey narrowed his eyes as he remembered his alarm. Puzzled as to why it hadn't gone off, Joey reached for the watch that peacefully sat on his bedside table. Grabbing it, Joey blinked. The digital figures had gone red...

'That's strange...' Joey thought, 'I thought I set it on blue... 3.21am? What the hell?'

Joey looked outside. Definitely not 3 in the morning... it was so bright outside, it looked almost midday. 'Midday...?'

Joey's eyes widened.

TBC