A Requiem for Innocence
Chapter Eleven

It took awhile, but Yugi eventually fell back asleep and Yami accepted, reluctantly, that there was nothing else he could do right now. Yugi hadn't wanted to talk further about what happened, not even explain who it had been, he said he'd explain later, right now he just wanted sleep. So Yami turned out the lights and got in bed on his own side, careful not to disturb Yugi, falling asleep into a world of fitful dreams. But he wasn't the only one.

What seemed like only moments later, (but was in truth several hours, for the night sky was starting to lighten outside the window), he was awakened by the sound of someone shouting, a drawn-out wail that was practically blood-chilling, which then faded into whimpers. But before he could quite understand what had jolted him awake, Yugi's hand smacked him in the face and he sat upright, now seeing Yugi tossing in his sleep beside him, as if fighting off an invisible enemy.

"Leave us alone!" he muttered frantically, his voice blurred. "Stop…stop it!"

"Yugi-" Yami began, realizing that Yugi was obviously dreaming, and knowing what it was probably about, "Yugi, come on, wake up-"

"I didn't mean to!"

"Yugi…Yugi!"

It wasn't working, and Yugi looked dangerously close to hitting his arm on the table beside the bed now. To prevent this, Yami reached over and grabbed him by the wrist, unthinking.

Instantly, Yugi's actions went from mild to those of a cornered animal. Thrashing insanely against Yami's grasp, he began shouting again. "Let me go! I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It was my fault, I'm sorry!"

"Yugi! Yugi-will you hold still-Yugi, you're dreaming, you haven't done anything!"

Yugi's nails on his other hand grazed Yami's face and Yami used the chance to grab his other wrist as well and to pin his arms back. Yugi's howls of fear suddenly dropped back to whimpering as Yami held him tight against himself and shouted,

"Yugi, please wake up, it's just a dream you're having!"

Yugi's eyes shot open and he fell silent, wide awake as he stared at the bed, before twisting his head around to look up at Yami.

"What…what?"

"You were dreaming, it was only a nightmare. You're here with me and whatever you were seeing wasn't real."

"A dream…" Yugi trailed off.

"Right."

Looking upset, Yugi wrenched himself out of Yami's grasp and pushed away from him. "I was hoping…that sleeping would make it all seem less real." he whispered feverishly, as if scared of his own words. "But now I just…I was dreaming, and they came back in it, but you were there, and you…"

"What about me?"

"You said it was my fault..."

"Yugi, it was a dream." Yami repeated patiently. "It wasn't real."

Yugi didn't seem to be listening. "If I'd just kept my mouth shut, if I hadn't said anything to them about you-"

"Yugi…" Yami began softly.

"But Akkei had a gun, and I tried to act like it didn't bother me but I panicked and I told them, and I know I shouldn't have, but he was going to shoot me, and-"

"Yugi!" He tried again, this time with a little more force.

"Now I'm having these dreams, I keep having to relive it, I'm trying to be strong Yami, I tried to go to sleep and put it out of my mind, I was hardly hurt, but I can't, and I don't understand why…I'm sorry Yami, I'm sorry about everything, and now I'm-"

"Yugi, STOP IT!" Yami finally bellowed. "Stop it, just…just stop it!"

Yugi stopped, looking terrified.

Yami reached out and put his hand on Yugi's shoulder. Yugi flinched, but Yami didn't move his hand as he said, more gently now, "I don't blame you for telling them. Anyone would have under the circumstances, and personally, I'd rather have them know, than have you get shot. I'd trade my reputation for your life, any day."

Yugi was silent for a moment, apparently thinking that over. Then he replied miserably, "I'm sorry for waking you up for something so stupid."

Yami smiled and reached out with his other arm to pull him closer. "I think you're running out of reasons for me to be upset."

"Why aren't you upset?" Yugi asked as he didn't resist the hug this time and leaned his head on Yami's shoulder. "Why aren't you even just a little bit mad for the pain I've caused you, for letting you down? And for…for acting stupid about it…like this?"

Yami took a long time to say anything. "Because, I've got nothing to be upset about. You didn't let me down, and you are being strong." He finally whispered back. "And I'm proud of you for trying so hard to be, but you don't have to be strong, and you don't have to force yourself into it, especially not tonight."

Yugi couldn't think of a way to tell Yami how much those words meant to him, but Yami didn't seem to need him to say anything. He just held him tighter and said, "Yugi, you can have nightmares, or cry, or scream, or talk, or whatever…and don't be ashamed. You've been hurt, and you have every right in the world to feel the way you do."

"It was your final opponent." Yugi replied softly, after a long pause.

Yami frowned, confused. "What?"

"Your final opponent." Yugi repeated. "From Las Vegas. He was the person that planned this. He paid his brother and a friend to hurt me, just to beat me up, and they…took it further. He's jealous of you. It was his idea. He wanted to prove he could…take away everything important to you. Including me. He hates you because you beat him and you're gay."

Yami went dead silent. He remembered his opponent. An aggressive duelist but a rude person, his name was Akkei Yukimura, wasn't it? So this was his idea of revenge…Yami felt bitter anger rise up in his chest. He'd thought from the start that Akkei didn't look like a nice person. But now Yami couldn't even imagine him as human. What sort of human would have an innocent person raped just to get back at that person's boyfriend?

But it was the final sentence that struck him into silence. Just because he was gay? Akkei had gone through the trouble to set up such an inhuman display of revenge, because of Yami's orientation? How was it possible…that after all this running, all these attempts to escape, that same prejudice was still pursuing them?

"Yami?" Yugi asked quietly. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine…but you're not. How could I let this happen to you?"

"You didn't…I mean, it wasn't your fault. Akkei…he didn't even plan it, he just wanted them to beat me up, but I think he was afraid of them, and when they changed the rules, he told them to do whatever."

"That's no excuse." Yami's voice shook. "No excuse at all."

"No, it's not." Yugi agreed quietly, closing his eyes.

Yami could tell Yugi was tired, and so he stood up, planning to leave him alone to sleep. Even sharing a bed with someone was probably too much on his nerves right now, that might have been what triggered the dream in the first place. But as he stood, he felt Yugi grab the leg of his pants and ask, puzzled,

"Where are you going?"

"To sleep on the couch. I was thinking that…after what's happened…you'd like to sleep alone tonight."

"No, I don't want you to leave."

Yami looked down at him in surprise. Yugi stared back. "Please Yami, I don't want to be left alone. I know it sounds childish, but I don't…I don't want to be alone here in the dark. I feel safe with you, so…just stay here."

"Yugi…"

"Please?"

Unable to think of anything else to say, Yami just sat back down and held him and rubbed his hair, letting him cry when he wanted to, saying nothing till morning when the room was flooded with light; and they both fell asleep, curled up together.

For the rest of the week, Yami was torn between worry about Yugi and the ever-present fury that he carried around in the back of his mind and kept concealed. He wanted more than anything to punish the people responsible. One look at Yugi's fading bruises and his temper would flare up to the point that he had to struggle to hide it. He'd looked up the Yukimuras in the phone book, but that was all. Avenging Yugi was important, but making sure he never had to face his reoccurring fears alone was far more important. So he pretended to be fine, while letting the anger smolder deep down inside.

Till one night, three days later, when they were lying in bed. Yami was reading quietly as Yugi rested his head on his lap. And suddenly, Yugi spoke up.

"Yami, I never thanked you."

"Huh?"

"I never thanked you, for everything you've done for me. For staying up at night to…keep me safe. For not saying I was acting childish. Just for…just for being here for me. Someone else might ditch their partner if they got them into this much trouble, but…you didn't."

"You don't need to thank me, Yugi. I'd do anything for you, and I'm happy to."

"Well…thank you anyway."

"You're welcome."

They were silent for a long time after this, and then Yugi began again, more softly,

"Yami, I know you're worried about me."

Yami smiled sort of sadly. "Guilty."

"I'm sorry for making you worry."

"Don't be. You have every right to feel the way you do, I told you that before."

"Well…I want you to know that I'm going to be okay." Yugi's voice rose a bit in strength. "So…you don't need to worry about me anymore. I'm really glad that you're here for me, but I don't want you to feel like you always have to take care of me, or that I need to be taken care of. Because I…I can make it through this fine."

Yami was surprised, but also proud. "Yugi…"

"I'm really grateful for everything you've done. I know you've been worried…because of my nightmares and stuff. And because I was hurt. But you don't need to worry anymore, Yami. I'm going to be okay."

Yami smiled and passed his hand over Yugi's hair. "Yugi, I knew from the start that you were strong, and that even if I wasn't here, that you'd be okay. I've been here for you because I want to be, not because I think I need to be."

Yugi smiled slightly back, one of his first real smiles in days. "I'm glad that you have been, Yami."

Yugi fell asleep in his lap around an hour later, and Yami, stroking his hair and watching him sleep soundly at night at last, knew it was time.

Akkei's day had begun bad and was getting worse. His parents once again were off scrounging for their drug habits, he'd lost his job at the gas station down the road the day before when he got caught stealing gum for the, (according to his boss), thirty-seventh time, his brother had filched the little money he did have and had gone on a binge, (he was passed out in the top bunk of their bed), and the electricity had been cut off again because the bill hadn't been paid-so he couldn't watch TV and the trailer was hot as hell without AC. The only good thing was a letter in the mail inviting him to a tournament in Washington. He'd used a pay phone to call and ask for a list of other invitees, namely Yami. The woman on the phone had told him that Mr. Atemu had declined invitation for unknown reasons. Akkei had hung up feeling more cheerful despite the sweat dripping in his eyes. So, Yugi had done his job and Yami was staying away. Perfect.

There was a knock at the front door and when he opened it, he at first thought he was looking at Yugi, till he noted the height difference.

"Yami Atemu?"

Yami looked back at him mildly. "Indeed. Can I come in?" Without waiting for a response, he pushed his way inside and glanced at the letter on the counter. "Ah, I see you were invited. So was I, but due to some…personal issues, I had to decline. I suppose you know all about those though, don't you?"

"Do you want something?" Akkei demanded.

Yami's neighbourly demeanor vanished instantly as he closed the door. Everything he'd kept hidden…his rage, his pain, his fear, everything that Yugi had felt and he had felt and carried around for the last three days, it all rose to the surface, sensing a release at last. His eyes flashed as he snapped,

"Yes, as a matter of a fact, there are several things I want. Your eternal suffering would be first on the list, but I'll settle for getting that recording you made."

Akkei unwittingly took a few steps back at the sudden change. "You can't scare me."

"Oh, I intend to do far more than scare you." Yami advanced a few steps to make up for the lost room, his eyes unblinking. He'd picked up that trick from his old landlord. "I intend to make you pay for what you did to Yugi. Thanks to you, he's under the impression that he deserved to be raped. No matter how hard I try to tell him he's wrong, I see it behind his eyes. He thinks he deserved to be punished for something he didn't have anything to do with. Until yesterday, he wasn't even able to sleep in the dark without having nightmares."

"Then make him take Unisoft." Akkei replied, annoyed. "In case he didn't tell you, I wasn't involved in the rape thing, I left that to my brother and his weird friend. It wasn't even my idea! I told them to beat Yugi up, they came up with the rest, what was I supposed to do, tell them not to? My brother's crazy, I'm not going to pick a fight with him! What the hell, let them do the nasty part if they wanted to so badly, there was no way I was going to. I'm straight, I'm normal. The very idea was disgusting, but it was the perfect idea, so I told them I needed to get some revenge on you, and they went for it. And duh I wanted to prove something to you. You're a freak, you and your boyfriend. I was supposed to just take you stealing my victory sitting down?"

Yami was becoming more and more upset, his eyes glittering now and his voice shaking. "Oh, so you think that gets you off the hook? You think that being a coward is supposed to be an EXCUSE? It was your idea to hurt him in the first place! You set the ball rolling, you set it all up, and when things got too dangerous, you just let the rape happen anyway! Because of you, Yugi keeps blaming himself for something he didn't deserve!"

Akkei seemed to think this was very funny. "I get it now, you came here 'cause you're upset that we ruined your sex life, is that it? Tch, don't blame me 'cause your boyfriend can't get it up anymore. Go get him some of those blue pills or something." He laughed.

But he didn't laugh for long, as suddenly Yami grabbed the front of his shirt and slammed him backwards into the wall with strength that Akkei never guessed he had in his thin figure. His voice laced in acid, Yami snarled, "You planned it. It's your fault most of all. And you might think that's funny, but that's not why I'm mad. I'm mad because you took away Yugi's laugh."

"Eh?"

"I don't suppose you'd understand, but I shall try to explain. I could be having the world's crappiest day, but if I saw Yugi smile or laugh-about anything, it wouldn't matter what-suddenly my day wouldn't be so bad anymore. Can you comprehend how much I care about him? How much his happiness means to me? Ever since you convinced him that it was his fault I have to stop dueling, he's rarely smiled at all, much less laughed, much less looked happy. And I blame you for that because you didn't have the balls to come to me face-to-face over your stupid grudge and your equally stupid prejudices." He let go of Akkei's shirt.

Akkei was starting to realize that Yami was serious, and possibly dangerous, and when he was finally released, he wasted no time in dashing to the counter and grabbing his father's pistol out of a drawer, aiming it directly at Yami and saying,

"You think I don't have the balls to shoot? Because I do! I'll shoot you, I'm not bluffing, just ask Yugi."

Yami scowled and strode toward him across the room. "It's bad enough that you're so childish you can't accept a defeat. It's worse that you're a redneck homophobe with no respect for others. But it's most terrible of all that you aren't even human enough to leave innocent people out of the picture. You dragged Yugi into something he never should have been involved in, and then you just let him be treated like…like some type of trash, instead of the human being that he is. You didn't even think about his feelings!" Yami's voice was growing more and more furious as he spit, "You worse than killed him, you killed his spirit! You hurt and humiliated him, and I refuse to let that go unpunished!"

Akkei's hand was shaking. For all his talk, he'd never actually shot a person before. He was hoping he wouldn't have to let that on. "Don't come any closer." He warned.

Still in a rage and without having to think, Yami grabbed the barrel of the gun and wrenched it out of his hands, turning it on him before Akkei had a chance to even consider pulling the trigger.

Yami's hands weren't shaking at all.

Akkei stared at the gun for a moment and said dimly, "You can't do it. You were just going on about treating people fairly. You can't shoot someone, that's not the way to treat another person."

"Since you didn't respect Yugi, why the hell should I treat you like a human instead vermin that should be killed?" Yami snapped.

"What…what do you want?"

"I already told you. I'd like to know where you're keeping that recording of your conversation with Yugi."

"M-my room, on the desk. It's the door to the right."

"Thank you."

"You can't shoot me, if you do, everyone will hear the shot." Akkei said, starting to panic. "My brother is here too, he'll definitely hear it. You'll go to jail."

"Don't think I don't know there's a silencer on this pistol." Yami looked insulted. "I'm not entirely naïve. You're a duelist, you should know that we pay attention to detail. You wouldn't have pointed it at me unless you'd known the shot would be silent. How do you think you'd explain to the police about killing me? I'm famous, and I've got a clean record, and I really don't think you're stupid enough to shoot me and attract attention with a gunshot. As for your brother, I'm supposed to believe that? If he's here, why hasn't he come out?"

"Because he's passed out in our room! You go in there and wake him up, and he's a witness. You can't shoot me!"

"You know, Akkei, I'm a believer in Karma. You do something bad, eventually you'll get yours in the end. If you had a problem with me, then that problem never should have involved Yugi. Never. That was where you screwed up. Anyone that hurts him is never forgiven by me, do you understand? I don't let anyone hurt him, not his parents, not you, not God, no one."

"You-you can't do it." Akkei tried one last time. "It wasn't…I didn't plan…"

"This is what you deserve for dragging Yugi into something that should have remained between you and me. It doesn't matter what you planned. You hurt him, that's all that matters, you still hurt him and you will still pay for that." Yami backed him up against the wall, till the barrel of the pistol was resting against Akkei's temple. And that was when the younger boy, (for Akkei was only twenty), realized he'd been wrong the entire time about Yami's aptitude to kill. Terror filling his eyes, he just stared at Yami, up at the pistol, then back at Yami, and whispered, "Shit, you're serious aren't you?"

The last time he had gotten angry at someone, the night that Yugi had gotten hit by his father, Yamihad flared into aragethat he could hardly think straight in. But this time was different, it was as if his anger had gone beyond emotion.The hysterical feeling wasnowhere to be found,and replaced by a chilly calmness in his mind as he pulled the trigger andreplied softly,"When you get to Hell, Akkei Yukimura, you be sure to tell them that Karma sent you."

Akkei's brother, (who was named Maanou), was indeed in the house, and was awakened from his drug-induced sleep by the sound of something heavy hitting the floor in the living room. But before he could get up and focus on getting out of bed without landing on his back, a thin stranger with spiky hair appeared in the doorway. Through the fog that the cocaine, (the high itself long since worn off), had induced, he vaguely recognized the person.

"You're that kid." He mumbled.

"Well lo and behold, the little bastard was telling the truth about his brother being here after all." The person's voice, sounding disgusted, floated back.

The person crossed the room to meet him as he sorted himself out and climbed down out of the bunk bed. Maanou squinted at the guy. "You look different."

"I'm Yami." The young man explained. "Yugi is my friend, the one that you raped."

"That was my bro's idea." He defended automatically, and blinked. "Hey…wha'dya got Dad's gun for?"

Yami raised it. "Well, that's a different story than I heard from your brother, but I'm not here to decide who's lying and who's telling the truth. I'm here getting revenge for what happened to Yugi, and you're going to have to go too."

"Man…that was Akkei's idea, not mine." Maanou continued stubbournly. "I told him it was stupid…the brat never listens…" He seemed to understand that he had a gun pointed at him, but the long-lost high made him awfully disoriented. Cocaine had a nasty side effect-it made a person very paranoid, and he was far more concerned about this stranger finding out he'd been doing coke, rather than about the gun pointed at him or about Yami's threats.

Yami noticed this, and lowered the gun. "No…it wouldn't be worth it." He finally said. "You'll pass back out again and won't remember this after you wake up anyway. Yugi…he wouldn't want me to hurt you while you're not in your right mind."

The last sentence finally registered, and Maanou grinned, sensing a way to get the conversation off the fact that he'd been doing drugs. "Hey, I remember Yugi. He bit me…but he wasn't so bad. I can see why you'd keep him around, if you like them skinny anyway. He called for you a few times too, but that was before he passed out…"

This was his first and last mistake. If he had been thinking clearly, he might have noticed that Yami, out of pure pity and against all better judgment, had originally not intended to kill him, but that his joking words about Yugi had just changed the former pharaoh's mind.

Either way, he was completely clueless when the three subsequent bullets tore his head and neck apart.

Yami dropped the gun on the floor, disgusted. Meeting, much less killing, Maanou had not been part of the plan, but he hadn't been able to control himself. And a person that could speak so casually about a rape didn't deserve to be alive, really, drugs or no drugs. Careful to avoid the blood, he glanced around the room, walking over to the desk. Picking up the black recorder, he hit Play, and the conversation Yugi had described echoed back. Nodding to himself, he pocketed itandslipped into the bathroom to wash the blood from the blowback off his arms. The obvious splotches gone, hebacked out of the trailerandwalked down thepaved main road out of the park, giving an old woman on one porch a salute and a friendly smile as he walked home, breaking the recorder in half along the way and tossing it into a construction dumpster, along with the gloves he'd worn as to not leave fingerprints, and his old sneakers he'd worn so that no one could trace any imprints left behind.

He knew perfectly well what he'd just done, having planned it for awhile, and he brooded about it on the way back, knowing that while satisfying, it hadn't been overly smart. He'd gone there planning to choke them or something, using a gun had been a dangerous twist he hadn't wanted to use. But when he returned home and saw Yugi, for the first time in days, chuckling at a show on TV before looking up at him and smiling shyly, Yami just smiled back and knew it had been worth it.

To Be Continued…

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Author's Notes:

Yes…this one is late too. But you guys really don't want to hear me bitch about everything I had to do this last week. Trust me, you don't want to hear it all. And on top of that, I think I'm coming down with a cold. The inhumanity of it all, when will it end! Fact is, it's a miracle I got this up today. I hope you enjoyed it!

Hmmn…yeah, I got nothing to say really about this chapter. I think I'll let it speak for itself. Off the beaten path? Man, I think I've written this fic half-way to freakin' Mars for these poor guys. Could it get any crazier? Well…don't answer that. To be honest though, I liked it. This is also the kind of thing I like to write. People usually portray Yugi as getting hurt somehow, then always "needing" Yami to comfort him. I decided to avoid that by making Yugi speak up for himself and announce that he'd be fine. I think Yugi is an incredibly strong person, and a lot of fans really don't give him enough credit. Yami has said it a good deal of times in the series though, that Yugi is stronger than him. Another thing that bothers me is that many people have this odd idea that after being raped, Yugi's only desire is to make mad passionate love with Yami. Uh…HELLO, he's just been RAPED, for Kami-sama's sake! Arragh! Unless he and Yami are the shallowest people in the world, (and they are most certainly not), I think that lust would be the last thing on their minds in a time like that. Thus, I avoided that type of sl like the plague. :shudder:

Maanou: It's just a random name I made up when I realized if he was going to have his own scene, he would need a name…it sounds sort of like "mano", which is the Spanish word for "hand". I guess it sort of fit because he was acting as a pawn, (a "hand", if you will), for Akkei's scheme. But I added a few other letters to me it look Japanese and not Spanish. It's fun to make up names for other languages!

About cocaine: The details are true, doing it will make a person extremely paranoid about things. Don't use it, it's one of the more nastier drugs, and nothing particularly good can come from doing it.

Unisoft: It's a sleep aid. I heard a commercial for it on the radio as I was writing this and decided to use it for that line. Otherwise I was going to say Tylenol PM or something…but Unisoft is cool too.

Guns: If you want to kill someone, you're really better off going with poison...or choking...or something that doesn't involve blood. Just keep that in mind, all right?

The good news? The recording is gone, and Yugi is avenged! The bad news? Yami's temper, (oh, how we all love that temper!),has caused him to just kill two people and leave their bodies there, and people saw him coming and leaving. Will they put two and two together? Will Yami and Yugi ever stop facing abuse just because they're gay? Will I get a good grade on my Chem project that was due yesterday? (Oh, I hope so…)

Ah…you'll just have to wait and see! xD

Replies:

Yami Yuugi: Wow, seven AM…how do you get up so early on Saturday to watch them? Well, Yugioh is worth getting up for, that's very true. xD I hope Rita was kind to you! I guess everyone in a coastal state is all in the same boat during hurricane season these days. I'm glad you liked the chapter, see you next week!

Serena the Hikari of Love: The age old good-bad guy struggle…this is a new take on it. :laughs: That was very entertaining to read.

Marikslildevil: Aww, Mokuba is awfully cute…well, the fact that he's actually nice to people might have something to do. People look a lot cuter when they're kind. Look at Yugi, he's the kindest person, (and easily one of the cutest), in the world! There's got to be a correlation…:plots: Anyway…it sounds like Yugi's getting off easy with me, considering what you do to him. xD One of my friends up in NY is terrified of hurricanes…I told her one was heading my way, and she goes, "You FREAK! Get out of there!" Oh, yes, it's possible…to make them forget everything for a long period of time would be much more difficult, that's why his memory came back fairly quickly. Made it more realistic…I like to try to stay realistic. Well, as realistic as a story can get when you consider that one of the main characters is 5000 years old and…yeah. :laughs: Yaay…I'm happy now:niko:

Spidy007: They got their treatment. Well, two of them did anyway. :wink: Yami made sure of that! Well, that's what they deserve! Mwahaha…ahem. Anyway! Thanks for the review and all your kind words!

Yami Riyunoa: Yami has always seemed to me like someone with a slow…yet very combustible temper. It takes him awhile to blow up, but when he does…oh boy, run for cover. xD That's why he didn't really show his anger till this chapter. Plus, he was trying to stay calm for Yugi, I think…we all know he loves him very much. And that's okay, you are supposed to hate them! I hated them, and they were my own OCs. I'm glad you think that…I worry too much about reader response, I think, but it's still very nice to hear you say that.

Cherry Romancer: Whatever you did to Kaiba, I'm sure it was well-deserved. xD

Bombay-Elk: :niko: Thank you so much! Yay, I brought you back! I knew it would surprise a few people, but I'm very glad it caught your attention again. Reality bites…but hey, this is it, hiding isn't going to make it unreal, right? Thanks again! That was a very inspiring review for me to get. :smile smile:

Red Dragon of Egypt: Yes, I think that about sums up how a lot of people feel about them. xD Well…they're dead now.

Fallen-Angel-of-Repression: Well, that sucks! I'm sure you'll get a chance to see it eventually though! I hope you will, anyway. :niko: Thanks for never leaving! SL is short for storyline…cause "storyline" gets a bit long to be always typing all the time!

Pharaohess1: Yes, yes, I agree! Thus, it got posted. It's nice to hear that you'd stick around, but I promise not to get too crazy…well, maybe not. :smirk: It was a lucky miss on Rita, really…but I can't complain! Had lots of time to work on the fic. :wink:

Atemu Yugi Lover34: Exactly! Very well put. Taking out your own troubles on someone else is very low. And I think he's regretting getting Yami's attention now, too. Yeah, that was supposed to be a sort of confusing scene for everyone. I guess it worked!

Faith68: Oh, no, that's good! I want you to be honest in your review, and if I took offense, that would be very childish, not to mention shallow, of me. Had you said you didn't like it, and left it at that, I might have, but what you said made sense and you even gave me reasoning behind it. I wasn't really going for Yugi being brave…more for him being confused. Because let's face it, no one is fearless before a gun, right? Confused though…yeah, definitely confused. xD Glad you liked it past those things though!

Padfoot13: Aww…thank you! I was hoping that was the case…oh, do you live over there? I hope everything went okay during the storm for you!

Dani Wheeler-Kaiba: Depressed and happy at the same time…nice! You picked the fairly dark time to enter the fic. xD But…romance always makes things better, ne? O.o Really, you do? xD Awesome! A few years ago I would have wanted a Ryou pillow…but then my obsession took a 360 and landed on Yami. Thus, the Yami pillow. How fun!

Darkyami7: :pats: He killed them! Ding dong, the evil dudes are dead! Well, two of them anyway. The ringleader is! It is surely very bad…not a good thing at all…but I think a lot of people are happy to see them dead. Yep, Kaiba's old clothes came back. I'm really not much of a Kaiba fan, but…I have to admit that his choice of clothing is sometimes rather dashing. The suit made him look younger. More his age. The coat though…well, it's a trademark!

Karui Kurayami: Hey, no problem! To stretch it out further would have been unnatural anyway. When people get mild amnesia after a rape, it doesn't last very long. (Hahaha…Chey did her research for this fic!) Dragging things out makes things very tedious! I want to avoid that, and I'm glad you appreciate it! Thanks!

LiNes: Hello Celia! xD Nice ta meet 'cha. I'm sorry Liza has so much work to do…boy do I know how it feels, and I wouldn't wish that on anyone. Moochers rock. :niko: It's okay, I don't mind the wait. Like I said, I know how workloads go. If by some chance you survive it, the last thing on your mind is such mundane details as fics for other people. Hope everything works out!

Sansi: Tehehe, that certainly would be…although it makes Yugi look rather shallow. But, if it was written from that theory, with Yugi pretending to need protection to win Yami's affections, but ending with Yugi realizing he never had to pretend, (since Yami loved him no matter what), that could turn into a very cute fanfic. :niko: He went after them! And since this is modern day and all, I decided to go with the cruel cold steel of a pistol instead of magic, (although I do love magic…). Eek…good luck to you as well!

You Know Us: Ah, it's true. And since this is a real-life sl, I went with real-life statistics. Oh, I just love those wonderful, wonderful mind crushes…but, since Yami doesn't have his magic, I went for the next best thing. Bullets. Mwahahaha…Yami could have contacted Bakura…that would have been very funny though, and this is a very serious sl. :nod: But the idea of Bakura bursting into the trailer with a loaded Uzi brings images to mind that make me snicker. Then again, the idea of Yami doing that makes me snicker too…and squeel like a fangirl! It didn't take Yami long…Yugi told him, after all! Well, three days…that was long enough.

HeavyMetalRequiem: Hehehe, HE DID:bursts into laughter: But yes…it was very cruel of them to do that to Yugi, which of course is why Yami wouldn't stand for it. Oh, he was watching it because he's CRAZY! The guy's just weird…so anything that the landlord guy does, just don't question it, he's one of those random charrahs.

MANIC-DEMON: I will!

Yami Adritha: I guess that's true...xD Yeah, but it was only temporary, because any longer and it would have been unrealistic. The bad guys are dead! Well, two of them anyway, and the ringleader is gone which is the most important thing, ne?

Tears of a Mermaid: I do tend to punish those poor guys fairly often, don't I? At least they have each other!

Well, Genecs, (hereafter called GX, I suppose), is starting Oct. 10! To be honest, I'm really looking forward to it. Jaden…:niko: I like that name! If I ever have kids, and one's a boy, I think I'll name him Jaden…and doom the poor guy to a lifetime of teasing, but still…I like it. GX sounds fun, like a cute series, and I look forward to seeing a school where you go to play Duel Monsters. Man, I'd love to go to a school like that! Scratch hating school, I'd be thrilled to go to class each day! Plus, there's a lot of hints of things to come in the series that I really like the sound of…guess we'll wait and see. :clasps hands and prays in hope of Atemu's incarnation and his confession of love to Yugi and Yugi's confession back and a big sappy hugging scene: What? I can dream, can't I? xD

Ahem. Now then. xD Not much else to say…have a good weekend, and I'll see you all on Friday! NEW EPISODES TODAY!