Disclaimer: Yawn…go check chapter one.

Author Note: I think this was, by far, the hardest chapter to write. And, it really actually made me sad. I wanted it to be serious, no screaming, and no yelling. Just…quiet pain. Honestly, I need a hug.


Yugi held the cold millennium puzzle in his numb hands, and sat on his bare floor. He didn't want to do this, but he had to; he had to know. The teen boy shook the puzzle in annoyance. Normally, Yami came out whenever he felt Yugi's presence. When the spirit still did not appear, Yugi frowned. "Of course you won't make this easy." He muttered out loud. "Of course I have to go in there and get you."

Reaching inside his mind, and through the bond he shared with the pharaoh, Yugi mustered up his courage, and yelled. "YAMI!" He felt the pharaoh jerk in alarm in his soul room. Darkly satisfied, Yugi opened his eyes, still keeping the puzzle loosely held in his hands.

The spirit materialized in an instant, and his crimson eyes were alarmed. "Yugi? What in the world?" he scanned the room, but saw no threat, just his partner seated on the floor, the puzzle in his hands, and his eyes hidden. "Why did you call like that?" a hint of irritation had crept into his voice.

The boy did not bother to respond. "We need to talk, Yami. Though, I probably don't want to hear what you have to say." Yugi's voice was cold, and he dragged his finger over the sharp corners of the item in his hands. "I talked to Anzu."

All the irritation Yami had at being called so abruptly, shattered. He suddenly felt very small, though he stood in front of his seated friend. "Aibou…"

"Don't." Yugi's voice was sharp, and the pharaoh was sure something was terribly wrong. "Anzu told me…" his eyes stung, and his grip on the puzzle increased. "You used me, Yami." He did not sound angry; but so very sad.

The spirit had never felt like this before. So many things rushed through his mind, and yet he could not force any of them past his tight throat. "She…told you, then." It was not a question, but a statement of dead acceptance.

"I don't understand why you would do that to me. You were my best friend." Yugi did not look up, but spoke in a whisper to the puzzle.

"Were?" Yami echoed, a sharp pain in his soul. He knew he deserved every word, every scorn, but he had not guessed that it would actually hurt to hear. The pharaoh looked away from Yugi's form. He couldn't stand to see the boy so full of pain, and to know that it was his selfishness that had caused it.

The hikari ignored the question. "You have to know, that what you did hurt me, Yami. I sometimes wonder—" Yugi swallowed hard, and forced his hands to stop shaking. "I wonder if I am your partner, or just your pawn."

Yami stepped back, as if his friend's words were a blow. Do you truly think that of me? He felt only resistance from Yugi's mind, and realized that for the first time…he had been shut out. He had not felt this alone since before the time the puzzle was put together by this gentle soul; who sat so close, yet Yami knew he could never reach him. Not now, and maybe, not ever again. He wanted, with every part of his soul, for Yugi to understand. "I would never have…done such a thing, if it hadn't been important." Why were the words hard to say? He felt like he had already lost.

"Aren't I important?" The boy whispered, rubbing the gold of the item absently, to hide his trembling. "Did you even bother to think of me, before you just used my body?" anger had crept into his tone.

"I…" in truth, had he thought about what Yugi would feel? Or, had he just assumed that the boy would either never find out, or not care if he did. Had he been so blinded by his own fear of the shadows, that he had hurt the only light that dared come close? Yami looked at his hands, transparent and pale in the darkness. "I…don't know how to tell you how this makes me feel. I can't find the words. But, my soul is heavy with guilt. I couldn't stop thinking about what I had done to you, Ai—Yugi." He changed the word quickly. He had no right to call Yugi his partner; he knew that now.

"But you didn't talk to me about it. You sat in the puzzle, made me feel like I had done something wrong. You never once tried to tell me what you had done. If you had just tried to say you were sorry, Yami!" Yugi's words were harsh and bitter. "Maybe it wouldn't be like this. I…can't trust you anymore, and that hurts worst of all, because you, of all people, betrayed me." He still could not look at the spirit.

Yami pressed a hand to his chest, alarmed, as a sudden pain lanced through his consciousness. He looked down at Yugi's bent head, but the boy gave no indication he felt anything other than sorrow. What was that pain? Yami asked, but his words felt strangely detached in his mind.

His crimson eyes widened in shock as he understood. The pain he felt, it had been Yugi's soul door slamming shut. The boy had not just blocked him, but completely and utterly locked him out, forbidding Yami from speaking through their mind link. "Yugi," he said desperately out loud, his chest still aching. "I had to talk to Anzu, please understand. I was hesitant to have you overhear. I was trying to…"

I was trying to protect you.

"If you didn't want me around," Yugi's voice rose in pitch, and the pharaoh was sure that the boy was crying. "All you had to do was ask." He finally looked up, into the wide crimson eyes of the person who had let him fall. "You know that I would do anything for you, if you asked me."

Yami knew it was true. Yugi had never said it before; but he hadn't needed to. The pharaoh could not look away from the amethyst eyes that burned into his soul. "Will…" he had no right to ask, but he knew he must. "Will you forgive this? What I've done?" it hurt to speak,from thepain of Yugi's recoil.

The teen stood up, his eyes still on the pharaoh, and held the puzzle out, by the long chain, letting it dangle. "No, Yami. I can't do that," He whispered, and let the chain fall from his open hand.

In an eye blink, Yami faded from sight, leaving Yugi standing alone in his room, the puzzle discarded on the floor. The boy let the tears come, hard and fast, his small shoulders wracked with sobs. One tear fell onto the sennen eye of the item below, rolling down. It seemed that even the gods wept that night, at the broken bond of true friendship.


Ok that was sad. Leave me your tears in the reviews.