Disclaimer: Don't own YGO, or the lyrics to the song 'Dare You to Move' By Switchfoot either. The only thing I own is Sekka and the lint in my penniless pocket.
A/N: Well, here I am again and gomen for updating so late! It was my 15th birthday on Saturday and me and my two bff's slept over and well....... ya. Anyways, this chapter is a little on the lighter side and things are headed up for her from here on out until...... well until things get nasty. And as always, thanks for all the wonderfully encouraging reviews:
Cymoril Avalon: Hello again. Does look like I updated so fast this time ne? Anyways, I'm not sure if Marik-sama is going to be in or not, or anyone else for that matter.................. anyways, hope you like this chapter!
Sakura Trees: I know, fucking stupid schools................. anyways, here's your quick update.
suicide-greeting: I'm glad you liked the chapter......... and yes you were very close........ near dead on I'd say! Anyways, hope you like this chapter even if it is a bit late.
The Summer Stars: Lufferly?.................... ok then. Anyways, you collasped? From what? Anyways, hope your feeling soon, and that this chapter makes ya feel better!
Heaven's Angel: Hello. I don't remember you reviewing, you might have been under a different name.......... but anyway, thanks for the compliment, it makes me feel all fluffy inside # Huggles self # Uh, ya, anyway enjot the fic.
serpent-vampfreak: Glad you liked it! Anyways, thanks for teh compliment as well, and i hope you like this chapter just as much!
Ralphiere: Out done myself #blush# thanks. And don't worry about last chapters review, it's my damn fault for not giving you the people the time to review................ but hey I can't help it, this fic has offically kidnapped me! Anyways, hope you like this chapter.
loathed wolf spirit: Yes, Sekka's getting a break.................... for now # evil girn # Anyways, I'm still in writers block with The Gift, I don't know what I'm gonna do............... Anyways, hope you like this chapter.
yami no rose: Glad you love it, it's alwasy nice to know that you people like my work! Anyways, i have no intentions of quitting this fic, I have pretty much all of it planned out. Anyways, I look forward to hearing from you again!
Alright, with that said.........
Like Petals From A Rose
Chapter 7
Alter Of My Ego
For the next two days, I avoided him with everything inside me. OF was in one side of the building, I made a point to be in the other. I couldn't, wouldn't face him like that, so vulnerable and afraid of his kindness.
My leg continued healing so that only the faintest trace of a limp was evident, and the cigarette burn had turned into a circular pink scar amongst all the others that marred my flesh making me even more unattractive. With all my energy being directed towards avoiding Yami, I had forgotten all about my rent problem, that is, until I woke up the next morning..
Welcome to the planet
Welcome to existence
I woke up slowly to the hard knocking outside my door and groaned, wishing that whoever it was would just leave me alone.
"TATE! WAKE UP!" My landlord's shrill voice demanded from the other side of the door. My eyes snapped open and I scrambled out of bed, feeling like I was death warmed over.
Everyone's here
Everyone's here
I threw open the door revealing a pissed looking women.
"What?"
"Where's your rent?" She demanded, holding out her hand expectantly.
Everybody's watching you now
Everybody waits for you now
I groaned, already preparing myself for what was going to happen.
"I don't have it." I answered coolly.
"Not surprising." She hissed before turning back to me. "You have until tonight to pack up and your things and seek residence elsewhere." And with that she turned her back to me with a snobby air that made me what to smash her face in, but it held that impulse back.
Without knowing what else to do I allowed myself to sink to the floor, my head resting on my now-closed door with my knees drawn up to my chest.
This was just fucking great, now where was I going to fucking sleep?
I tried to think of different things, but the only one that seemed practical was the streets with all the other homeless bums..
What happens next
What happens next
I wasn't going to sleep on the streets.
I wouldn't, not in these streets where they had fucked me until I bled.
Then where could I go? As I thought about my options, Yami's words came back to me.
"I was in the cafeteria when you had blood pooling from under your arm. You cutting yourself is a call for help, an SOS whether you realize it or not, and if no-one else is going to answer it, if they won't care, I will"
"I'm not pitying you, that's not what you need."
"Then what do I need?"
"Love."
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
But he couldn't really mean that he honestly wanted to help me, but then again, he had treated me like a normal person and not some disobedient dog in a pound. And still, my heart pounded in my chest whenever he got near me.
Was it fear? Or was it something else that I didn't want to fathom.
"So are you going to let me help you?"
He asked those words with such a serious look in his eyes, and I had ran away.
Yes, I was scarred to death of giving him a chance to help me, but I was destroying myself even worse by doing this. And I couldn't I just sleep on the streets and get raped again......
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
A light seemed to go on in my head, and I almost shouted out because of it.
I wasn't living this way.
Not really. I was existing at best..
I hadn't really lived in what seemed forever.
But was I able to give him the can to re-teach me how to live in this cold and unforgiving world? My heart pounded in response, but I had to.
I was scarred, I'll admit.
Maybe to damn scarred, but he was my only chance if I wanted to live and not end up committing suicide in the end, because I knew that that was what my future was right now.
Get raped and beaten on a couple more times and then give up hope.
Like today never happened
Today never happened before
But maybe I had been waiting for someone to restore me, to fix me.
Maybe this was my chance.
I wasn't meant to be this, I was destined for something greater, and I was threw with punishing myself for existence.
And still I was nervous, not wanting to pledge my trust so willingly into another's hands, but I couldn't sit here and hate my life and have just reason to bitch without trying first.
Running back into my apartment I gathered my things for school and tore out of there as if the devil himself was chasing me.
Maybe he was.
Welcome to the fallout
Welcome to resistance
Within minutes I ran into the school and went to my locker, taking extra time and waiting, just waiting, for I knew he would appear to me, and this time I wasn't going to run.
No, I was done with being weak, and it seemed to me now that maybe you had to go through weakness to find strength. (A/N: Very true people, just keep that in mind)
I heard footsteps come up behind me, and I didn't dare to look up.
I knew who it was, and I knew that's why my hear felt as it would burst from beating so rapidly in what had been the dead cavity of my chest.
He stopped from behind me, but he didn't say anything, and I could feel the tension in the air and clearly as I knew my own name.
The tension is here
Tension is here
Finally, it was me who broke the silence.
"Yes." I said simply, forcing down my blind urge to run as fast and far away from him as I could.
"What?" He asked.
"To answer to your question." I repeated. "My answer is yes."
Between who you are and who you could be
He said nothing for a long moment and I gazed at him, my eyes fixed on his face that clearly showed he was thinking, finally, he spoke.
"I'm glad." He answered sternly. "But why the change of mind?"
"More of a change of heart." I replied, willing myself not to tremble. He didn't reply to that, but I could tell by his eyes that he understood.
Between how it is and how it should be
"Your not going back there are you." He said, and it was more of a statement then a question, and I didn't have to ask to know what he was talking about.
"I'll find a new place as soon as I get a job and get back on my feet."
"You don't have a place?" I shook my head.
"No rent money." He said nothing and nodded, taking me by the shoulders gently, but I still flinched.
"Are you going to tell me what happened?" I knew he was talking about what they did to me. Slowly I started to shake my head then nodded.
"When I'm ready."
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
"Alright then." He replied, and then shocked me by what he said next. "Let's go home."
"Home?" I choked. "Who said anything about-" He silence my questions with a raise of his hand.
"Do you think I'm going to let you sleep in the streets?"
"He would've." I muttered, much to soft for him to hear.
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
"What?"
"Nothing." I mumbled before steeling myself for what I was going to say next. "I'm........... sorry." The words slipped past my tongue as if they were an alien force. I hadn't said those words in years, and it amazed me that I still the ability too.
He seemed as shocked as I was before he smiled a little.
Like today never happened
Today never happened before
"I'm not going to make say for what." He replied. "I already know...... and I don't blame you. I probably would have acted the same way." I said nothing but nodded.
Maybe this was my first towards making amends for the sins of my past, a past I finally thought I might be able to but behind me.
A part of me wanted to kick my own ass for thinking that way, but the spark of hope and happiness that I still had in me.......... the child in me, (A/N: A hint to the dream people) wanted to believe and I felt the walls around my foolish heart start to loosen, and the shadows of my mind recede ever so slightly.
Maybe redemption has stories to tell
Maybe forgiveness is right where you fell
"Thank you." I whispered softly, and the absurd urge to cry came over me, but I forced it down to.......wherever it come from, for that was a mystery even to myself.
More silence followed as he lead me to the car, and I remember thinking that this where we had first met as two real people and it petty highschool philosophies, and he pulled into his parking thought, I though we had arrived at some kind of castle.
I was sure my mouth was hanging open, just the same as I was sure that he watching my reaction with amusement, and I just had say the dumbest thing possible.
"You live here?" He nodded and guided me to the door where a butler answered it, giving me a questioning look. Yami greeted him and handed him his coat before turning to me and jerking his head towards the immaculate staircase.
Where can you run to escape from yourself?
Where you gonna go?
I followed him quickly, feeling highly out of place in a house such as this. I was afraid of touching anything and dirtying it, but my felt that my presence had already done that.
"What room do you want?" He asked me quickly, and I snapped back to reality.
"Whichever." I replied and he nodded at one of the maids and told her to prepare the balcony room for me, whatever that was. "I don't deserve this." I muttered and headed for the door before a felt him catch my arm, and I turned back to look at him.
"Are you done belittling yourself yet?" He asked briskly, and I blinked before slowly nodding, my mind hypnotized by his endless ruby eyes.
Where you gonna go?
Salvation is here
"Good." He replied and gently let go off my arm, seemingly cautious not to alert me or scare me. A pang of anger hit my chest before it simmered away.
What could I blame him for?
Helping me escape the hell of my own mind..........
No, I should thank him really.
Thank him for being the only living being in the world that had showed me him gave a damn, but my jaw was sealed tight.
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor
I dare you to move
I dare you to move
A question sprung into my mind, a question that I couldn't avoid nor did I want to. I needed to know the truth if I was ever to be at peace and it spilled out of my mouth before I could stop it.
"Yami, tell me the truth, why are you helping me?"
Like today never happened
Today never happened
He paused for a moment as if thinking before he turned back to me, his crimson eyes gazing at me as if he could see into my very heart of hearts. That thought made me shiver inside.
Finally he answered.
"Because a bird with broken wings ceases to fly." And then he was gone, leaving me to ponder just what he meant.
Today never happened
Today never happened before
A/N:
Well, there we go, it's finally done! # Does happy dance #. Anyways, I hope ya'll liked this chapter, and I'll warn you, there is some fluff coming up soon, but just remember - happiness is like a flower ...beautiful while it lasts, but it must eventually fall to winter. Anyways, please leave a review and tell me what ya think!