AUTHOR'S NOTE: Gomen! This chapter is pretty short… -sigh- Next chapter will be posted probably on Monday, since this one is so short.

sniffle sniffle- Damn Santa Ana winds are irritating my allergies… I am officially miserable. And my nose is running. Great. Just spiffing.

A little depressed because I pretty much a) Don't have anybody reading my Kenshin fic and b) managed to scare away one of the 2 readers I knew about because I added shounen-ai. Grrr. But this fic is still rolling (although it gets much darker 'round Chapter 35).

Replied to reviews by yugikid, blue-eyes, and Raiyne Nagakura on my LJ.

Chapter 26: The Wrong Story

There was no place for me to go. I could run and run and run but I still had no place to run to.

I ran up and down streets, through parks and parking lots. It was, of course, raining. Just like a story, I thought to myself. Only in the stories, the man comes running after the woman and stops her, underneath a streetlight, and they kiss with the rain coming down on them.

Kaiba certainly wasn't running after me.
At last I found myself at the only safe place I knew. The door was shut and the sign said "Closed," but I saw the light on upstairs in Yugi's room. Still crying, I knocked on the door. I stood for several minutes knocking before Yugi heard and came down. His eyes grew wide at seeing me.

"Oh," he whispered. "Are you all right?" he asked me gently, guiding me into the warm front room. I nodded perfunctorily. He didn't believe me; I didn't expect him to. He led me into the warm kitchen.

"Here," Yugi said, handing me a mug. "Drink that…" He was rummaging through a cabinet. "Dry yourself with these…" He handed me some towels. "And then sit here and warm yourself. Here's a blanket." I was grateful that he didn't ask questions and didn't need to know what had happened.

"Yami says he wants to talk to you. Is that all right?"

I nodded, tears flowing afresh. Yugi frowned, and hugged me. "It'll be all right," he whispered into my ear. I nodded and kept crying.
Yugi switched with Yami, and he came over and knelt beside me.

"What's happened?" he asked anxiously, taking a towel from my hands and struggling to dry my hair.

"Oh!" I wailed sadly. "What have I done, Yami? Where did I go wrong?" Sobbing, I explained to him what had passed between Kaiba and me. He frowned unhappily. When I was finished, he wrapped me in his arms gently and rocked me back and forth.

"Don't cry," he whispered softly. "Everything will work out."

"Don't make me go back," I whimpered. "Please don't make me go back there. I can't… I can't live with him anymore. I can't sleep in the same bed and share the same room. Not now. Not after everything he said… and didn't say." I knew what I'd wanted him to say: that he could deal with whatever had happened at the meeting, with whatever people were saying about us, because he loved me.

Yami nodded and comforted me. "Don't worry, my dove, you can stay in Yugi's room. Grandfather's not here this weekend, so no one will know."

"Thank you," I whispered. "I love you so much…"

He sighed sadly. "As I love you. But you still love Kaiba. And sooner or later we'll have to deal with that problem. Tomorrow," he said quickly, seeing the pain in my eyes.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: Awww, aren't Yami and Yugi sweet? (Not together, you yaoi fangirls!)

This was kind of just a transition chapter… the next chapter is more substantive and better overall, but I wanted the whole thing about the rain and the perfect romance story. I also wanted to bring Yugi, instead of Yami, back into the story (which I was only semi-successful at).

Other than that, this chapter was just to have her end up at the game shop and show what a good friend Yugi is.