When I got back from my trip over Thanksgiving, my inbox was FLOODED with reviews! You reviewers are so AWESOME!!! faints of happiness Now I feel bad about making you guys wait so long for the update --u…I spent much too much time away from my computer…not as if I had a choice…sigh. Anyway! Thanks so much for the people who responded to my query in the last chappie!!! It doesn't take much to set my imagination off, and now I have so many ideas now that I can't wait to write!

HAPPY (very belated) THANKSGIVING!!! I am so thankful for my reviewers!!!

THE AMUSING DISCLAIMER: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh. Rino belongs to Auru, but their characters are mine, along with the rampaging plot bunnies responsible for this fic. If you see these plot bunnies, please whack them over the head with a heavy frying pan and send them back to me for...um…undisclosed reasons. Yeah.

Okay enough of me running off at the mouth! A reminder from last chappie and then,drum roll, the fic!

Last time…

I stepped outside and pushed on the door. It was partially shut when I heard Rino moan.

Auru's voice was low and demanding. "Shirt. Off. Now."

I shut the door very quickly. Apparently, my interruption was already forgotten.

Dead & Dying

Fifth

Yami's View

The landscape was as flat as a mirror and blacker than the night. This was my oblivion. The "ground" spread infinitely in all directions; the "sky" rose into endless blackness and disappeared.

The shadows curled themselves around my shoulders, twined around my wrists and ankles, and brushed my face and hands. They were happy to see me again.

I made to sit down, and the shadows whirled their way into a chair. A while ago, I had felt Yugi's presence leave the room. Now, he had returned. One of my shadows guarding the door twitched into existence.

/Yugi's back./

"Tell me where he's been."

/Rino and Auru's room./

Oh, no. I coughed. "Uh…were Rino-kun and Auru-kun making…?" Really, there wasn't a way to say anything more than that in a non-embarrassing manner.

/…Almost./

"And Auru's shadows let Yugi open the door? Kami-sama! Auru needs to keep his shadows under control."

/Why? He no longer needs us—to find prey or for company. He has Rino./ A bit of sadness ran through the shadow's "voice". I held out my hand and let the purple-black patch twine around it.

"Is Yugi-kun alright?"

/He's only slightly traumatized./

"Tell Auru and his shadows to clean up their act in front of Yugi. Kami-sama…." I rubbed my face. "What did they tell him? Or were they…too…involved in each other?"

/No. They stopped. Yugi was afraid you wouldn't wake up./ I felt a strange warmth in my chest at this. I let the shadow wrap itself around my fingers, and it kept "talking". /He remembered Auru had said something at breakfast and thought he knew you were a vampire. So Yugi went to ask Auru./

I crossed my legs. My "chair" became more comfortable, shifting under me. "What did Auru tell him?"

/That you'd wake up in about an hour…and also, that you can't kill him or turn him into a vampire now./

That saved me the trouble of telling him. I had briefly wondered how I'd bring that up. Yeah…since I bit you at your request, I can't kill you now.

Not very smooth. I absentmindedly ran my hand over the shadow that was currently inspecting my sleeve. "Did Auru-kun tell Yugi-kun that other vampires can still kill him, or turn him?"

/No. Auru didn't tell him that he was a vampire either./

"Well, Auru will never bite Yugi-kun, as long as Rino is around."

/Nope. It's quite strange, how Auru and Rino coexist./

"Yeah…but let's not go into the details of their…arrangement."

/No?/ The shadow around my fingers poked at the button on the sleeve of my jacket. /You should know the details./

"For blood's sake, why?" What Rino and Auru did behind closed doors was none of my business. And not something I wanted to think about.

/I think you might want a similar arrangement with Yugi./

One of the bad things about being full of stolen blood is that one can blush. A red flush rose to my cheeks now.

"You go back to guarding the door," I said firmly. "And tell Auru's shadows what I said."

/Whatever you say./ I got the distinct impression that the shadow was smiling knowingly at me as it slithered off.

That was stupid. Shadows don't know anything about love.

Do they?

Yugi's View

One hour. I sat on my bed. The clock on Yami's desk moved as slowly as a Monday morning.

Slightly irritated and still a tad worried, I reached for the fat brown envelope bearing the Haven's logo. I dumped the contents out on my bed. Pamphlets, a calendar, what looked like a schedule, some legal forms, a bunch of other crap—I wadded it up back into the envelope and tossed it on my desk. I'd read it later.

I looked at the clock again. One minute had passed. Ugh. If my three months at Haven were going to crawl like this, I would certainly find a way to get out long before then.

I looked at my backpack, still propped up against the bedpost. It had been there since I first walked in. Thinking vaguely about writing in my diary, I got up and looked in the front pocket for it.

It wasn't there.

The hair on the back of my neck prickled. I jammed a hand into the back pocket of my backpack. My diary had been tossed haphazardly inside it.

I know I didn't do that. Someone else must have….

Oh, Kami-sama…no….

I flipped my diary open. My hopes, my dreams, my reality, my secret thoughts—everything was written down in here.

Yami must know…everything. Even…how I feel about him.

My face burned with shame. In all my daydreams and random fantasies, that was never how Yami found out.

I closed my diary and let it fall back into my backpack. Pushing back the covers on my bunk, I curled up into a little ball. I pulled the covers over my head and my knees to my chest.

Yami must hate me.

Yami's View

I stepped out of oblivion and into reality. My body still felt uncomfortably warm, but I was not assaulted with the burning heat I had gone to sleep with.

Shrugging off my shirt, I sat up. A lump under the covers of the bunk opposite met my eyes. Yugi must be curled up under there.

Thoughts of cuteness attacked the edge of my mind. I half-heartedly pushed them away.

My feet slid over the side of the bed and onto the cold floor. I wasn't very hungry, and Yugi didn't look as if he was going to lunch. Skipping lunch wasn't that big a deal.

I noticed that Yugi had opened the envelope from Haven. Listening for Yugi's breath, I found it was slow and even. He was asleep.

I slid the various papers out of the envelope and looked at his schedule. At one, he was supposed to go down to the office wing for "diagnostics". I looked at the clock: 2:07. I smirked. Yugi was a good little skipper. I sure as hell didn't go to any of this crap they scheduled for you.

Going over to the window, I sniffed at the breeze that floated in. Grave dirt. The wind must be from the east, where I buried most of my victims.

I pulled a jacket on and crouched on the windowsill. Something was wrong with the scent—too much flesh in it.

I leapt out the window and slunk into the shadows of the nearby forest. Someone or something was digging up a body.

Yugi's View

Yami leapt out the window and was gone. I poked my head out from under the sheets. I was sure my eyes were red from crying. Putting bare feet to a cold floor, I stumbled into the bathroom.

The faucet spewed cold water into my hands, and I splashed it on my face. I yanked the hand towel off the hangar and rubbed my face dry.

Tossing the towel back over the hangar, I twisted to look at the side of my neck in the mirror. The fang marks from Yami were still gone. I stepped back from the mirror.

At first, I thought it was me. My neck was fine, but it looked faded. I rubbed my eyes. The bathroom light was on, and I'd had twenty-twenty vision for years.

So why was my reflection fading away?

Yami's View

It turned out that no one was digging up the body I'd buried. I hadn't buried this one as deep, and if you looked closely, you could see fingers sticking out of the ground. Annoyed at myself for being so careless, I conjured a shovel and dug out the arm. Fang marks, ripped and ringed by dried blood, covered the flesh. I dug a deeper hole and kicked the arm back in it.

I wasn't too thrilled with the remains of my "meals", but I packed the dirt down over the wayward arm. Whispering to my shadows, I chanted the incantation for new grass, which sprung to life above the grave.

All finished, I dissolved the shovel into thin air and headed back to my room in the Haven.

Yugi's View

I curled up under my blankets again. Who would care if I lost my reflection? Was I turning into a vampire? Auru had said I couldn't. What if he was lying?

I was stupid to trust anyone. I felt a familiar aching in the back of my mind. I wanted a blade; I wanted to bleed—to cut deeper than I even had before. But Yami had taken my last knife.

Yami….

I curled up even tighter and tried to block out the world. Nothing mattered anymore.

Yami's View

I was sweaty and dirty from the work I'd done. Once I'd climbed back into my room, I shed my shoes, jeans, and jacket and walked into the bathroom. I yanked the handle to turn the water on.

The shower nozzle spat at me, and I smacked a fist into the wall to get it to work right. It did.

I slipped off my boxers and got in the shower. The cool water pounded against my back and ran in rivulets down my chest and legs. I closed my eyes.

Yugi's View

It was 5:32 when Yami got back from wherever he went. I could hear the shower start to run.

Still curled up under the blankets, I shifted and pulled the covers down tighter around me. Kami-sama, was I ever pathetic.

Miserable, I dozed off. I woke up to the bathroom door banging open.

It was getting a little hot under the covers, so I stuck my head partway out of my nest of blankets to catch a breath of cool air.

Yami was standing by his closet, facing away from me, and he was wearing a towel. A very…low-riding towel.

Heat rose to my cheeks. Yami was lithe and strong-looking. A couple scars curved over his smooth skin; a trail of soft black fuzz led down from his navel.

Oh, Kami-sama…I can't tear my eyes away….

Yami reached in his closet and pulled out a pair of boxers.

Please go back in the bathroom to change! Part of me screamed out in my thoughts, but the other, sinful half of me didn't want that at all….

Yami let the towel drop. He thinks I'm asleep! Someone "up there" must HATE me….

I snapped my eyes shut and buried myself under the covers. But it didn't help. The image of Yami with no clothes was burned into my mind.

I heard some indistinct sounds, and then the soft thump of Yami sitting down on his bed. He yanked a pair of socks on and then got up.

"Yugi-kun?" Yami put a hand on top of the blankets. "Yugi-kun, wake up."

"Yeah?" I pulled the blankets off me, trying for the life of me to act like nothing was wrong.

"I'm going to dinner—aren't you coming?"

"Oh." I felt my face heating up. How could Yami act so normal? "I'm—I'm not hungry."

"Well, keep me company then." Yami latched onto my wrist and pulled me up.

"Okay," I stammered. My clothes were rumpled from sleep and I attempted to straighten them with one hand. Yami pushed open the door and let go of me.

My wrist felt branded. Yami touched me. He doesn't think I'm disgusting, or weird. Yami held the door and I walked through, a tiny, hopeful bubble inside me. A couple other boys were in the hall, walking towards the cafeteria.

Yami and I joined the crowd. We shuffled down the hall and down the stairs. The large double doors to the cafeteria had been closed, and another boy I didn't know yanked them open.

Yami strode over to the line and flipped a tray up as though he'd done it a million times.

"Come on, Yugi-kun." Yami beckoned me into the line with him. I stood beside him, hands resting on the counter. Sighing exasperatedly, he reached across me and yanked another tray out. "Eat something," he ordered.

Yami grabbed a plate and piled it high with lasagna, a salad, and breadsticks. I just grabbed a salad, and at Yami's insistence, some pasta.

We sat down at the table we had used before. Yami began eating as though he was ravenous.

…Ugh…this is awkward. I hate uncomfortable silences.

Yami noticed I wasn't eating. "Don't make me force you to eat," he said, and motioned his fork and my untouched plate.

I picked up my fork and stabbed at my salad. Yami nodded and went back to his lasagna.

Three bites into my light dinner I found that I was hungrier than I thought, and I ate with a little more enthusiasm.

Still, my stomach was still churning over the dilemma sitting across from me. Yami took a drink from his glass and met my eyes. I broke the eye contact. It felt like he was looking into my soul.

Of course. He read my diary.

Did he?

I took another bite of salad, more to occupy my mouth than anything else. It tasted bland.

But I had to know. I took a deep breath.

"Yami-kun?"

Yami swallowed. "Yes?"

I felt my courage melting away like an ice cube in summer. I took another deep, shuddering breath. "Yami-kun, did you—did you read my di—?"

The double doors of the cafeteria crashed open, with a scream from outside.

"Body!" A girl ran into the room, panic apparent on her face. "They found dead bodies in the east woods!"

Yami's crimson eyes widened.

GASP :O

REVIEWERS: This chapter was extremely hard to write, and I ended up starting over about three times. Constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. The next chapter will be better, since you reviews last time sent my imagination into overdrive and I know what's going to happen!

Next update: TT Over Christmas break, since finals are coming…agh…the dreaded finals…. I'm so sorry ;;…

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