Sound.

"My gods! It's me! Almost – my face, my hair, but more, more innocent!"

Movement.

Look.

Crimson. Eyes. Crimson.

Blink.

Gold. Black. Red. Alike. Us. Alike…

Speak.

"Hello…?"

*

Yami stared into the boy's eyes. Violet, he noticed absently. Almost as unusual as his own crimson gaze. But this boy's eyes were filled with innocence, and seemed to hold a pure light inside them – unlike his own. The boy blinked, and looked from his face to study his hair with a childlike curiosity. Yami smiled faintly, realising that they were both surprised by their meeting.

"Hello…?" the boy said quietly, his voice questioning, uncertain.

"Hello. Who are you?" Yami asked, admiring the boy's voice. It suited him so well, soft and pure…

"Yugi." Yami blinked, and raised an eyebrow.

"You're called 'game'?" he asked incredulously. Yugi smiled, and nodded as he shrugged. Yami watched him closely, and noticed the faint shadow crossing his eyes.

"Why?"

Yugi shrugged again. "Good." Seeing Yami's expression, he went into more detail, realising that the question should be answered by more then one word. "Games. Win. Always. Yugi." Yugi elaborated, tapping himself on the chest.

"I see. Why are you talking like that?" Yugi looked at him blankly. "All those one-word sentences," Yami explained. "They sound strange. Why don't you talk the way everyone else does?"

Yugi shrugged again, looking away. Yami cursed himself silently as he saw that the shadows in Yugi's eyes had darkened.

"It's alright," he said hastily. Yugi looked up at him again, faintly – hopeful? "I don't mind your way of talking, it's just unusual." Yugi smiled, and Yami froze again. 'The sun has come out,' he thought dazedly. Then he realised that it had been shining for the whole afternoon, and felt rather idiotic. 'It's his smile,' he realised. 'How can one smile affect me so much?…'

Yugi looked at him curiously, and giggled at the far-away look in his eyes. Yami gave him a strange glance, then stood up and held out a hand.

"We should probably be going," he said. Yugi's smile faded, and he looked vaguely panic-stricken.

"Where?"

"Ohh… You have a home, right?" Yami asked urgently. Yugi shook his head. "No home. Okay, then, are you in an orphanage? No? Motel? No, that was stupid of me, where would you get the money to rent a motel room? Anno… where did you sleep last night?"

Yugi's eyes darkened until they could hardly be called violet, and he started trembling as he realised how hard keeping safely away from the laboratory would be.

Yami misunderstood, and frowned. "Do your parents mistreat you? Did you run away from your home?"

Yugi stared blankly ahead. "Run…" he murmured, then looked at Yami again. "Run. Away. Yes. Home. No."

Yami looked puzzled. "What?" Before Yugi could answer, he shook his head. "Never mind. The important thing is that you have nowhere to go, right?"

Yugi nodded, as a few tears slid down his face.

"Well, uh… let me see… Anzu could maybe take you in, she's always talking about friendship, or maybe Jou or – Honda! Of course, why didn't I think of it before?" He smiled triumphantly, and reached down to help Yugi stand up again. Yugi willingly took his hand, but winced when his feet touched the ground, and sat down again fast. Yami raised an eyebrow questioningly, then gasped as he saw the raw skin on Yugi's soles.

"Your feet! Of course, you don't have any shoes!" He felt like slapping himself for being so stupid. Swiftly, he gathered Yugi into his arms, and carried him. Yugi smiled up at him, and giggled slightly. 'I wonder what you're thinking, Yugi?' Yami mused as he strode through the park.

*

Safe. Fun.

Ouch.

Bumped.

Yami. Concerned. Safe. Nice.

Trust? Yami?

… Yes.

Should?

… Yes. Nice. Safe… Trust.

Where?

Familiar.

Street!

Laboratory!

NO!

*

Yugi suddenly started to struggle in Yami's arms. Yami stopped walking, and looked down at him in surprise.

"Yugi? What's wrong?"

"NO!" he yelled. Yami held him tighter, scared that he might fall onto the ground.

"Yugi, it's alright, you're safe, we're on our way to Honda's, just a few more streets and we'll be there, I promise!"

Yugi didn't seem to hear him at first, but as soon as Yami said, "a few more streets", he immediately calmed down.

"Away?" he asked piteously. Yami stared at him.

"Of course Honda lives away from here! Yugi, no one lives here. Well, apart from squatters, but Honda isn't one of them."

Yugi considered that in silence. Yami walked on, wondering why Yugi would be so scared of the place. He had completely panicked when he noticed where they were, as if he was scared of the place… "Yugi, did someone here try to hurt you?" he asked, his hands tightening on Yugi protectively at the thought. Yugi looked up in surprise.

"No. Why?"

"I thought that might be why you were so scared," Yami explained. "Some of the people around here are scum, and you are – well – you'd draw their attention," he finished, blushing slightly. Had he really been going to say, 'And you are beautiful,' to the innocent boy in his arms? Why was he even thinking like that about Yugi?

*

"Alright, already, I'm coming," Honda muttered to the door. He'd only just gotten in after some punk jumped him in an alley, and had been seeing to his wounds when the doorbell rang. He opened it, ready to punch whoever was leaning on the bell – and felt his eyes widen at the sight of Yami, carrying a smaller version of himself in his arms, who was watching Honda with large purple eyes.

"What the –" was his brilliant retort, before Yami shouldered him aside. "Come in, make yourself at home, Yugioh!" he muttered sarcastically, following his uninvited guests. "And who is that, anyway? You got an innocent twin you never told us about? Come on, Yami, gimme some answers here."

Yami spared him a glance after setting Yugi on the settee.

"Where is the first-aid kit?" he asked curtly.

"On the floor," Honda replied, brown eyes narrowing in irritation. Yami promptly ignored him again, turning all of his attention back to Yugi. Honda scowled at the back of Yami's head, then blinked as he heard what Yami was saying.

"Now, this will sting, but it's going to clean the wounds so that they don't get infected by anything. Then I'm going to smear this on them, and it has a local anaesthetic, so that your feet won't hurt after that. Then I'm going to bandage them, all right?" Yugi nodded, then blinked questioningly at Honda's wide-eyed stare.

'My gods, he sounds like he cares about the child!' Honda thought in amazement. 'Yami, the toughest guy in school, is being – gentle! Jou will never believe me if I tell him about this!'

Yami finished bandaging Yugi's feet, ignoring Honda's presence behind him until he had finished. Honda watched him the entire time, unable to get over how differently he was acting. Finally, he asked, "What's his name?"

"Yugi," Yugi said with his winning smile.

"Hi, Yugi, I'm Honda."

"Yes. Said. Hello."

"Uh… chatty, aren't you?"

"Some of us don't like permanent chatter, Honda," Yami growled.

"Then why are you friends with Jou?" countered Honda reasonably.

Yami shrugged. "I admit, there you have me." He continued working on Yugi's feet, then he turned his crimson eyes on Honda, and asked, no, demanded, "Can Yugi stay at your other apartment?"

Honda stared at him in amazement. "Say WHAT? Yami, you have some serious explaining to do."

"Later. Yugi needs somewhere to sleep tonight, and you're the only person I know with another house who'd be willing to loan it to me."

"Why don't you just share your bed with him?" Honda joked. "After all, the way you've been acting around him it's obviously what you want –" Yami punched him in the gut. As he doubled over, a hand around his throat raised his head to meet the coldest eyes he ever hoped to see.

"Say anything like that about Yugi again, and You. Will. Die." Yami's voice was, if possible, even colder then his eyes, and Honda realised with sudden terror that he meant every word.