Disclaimer: Don't own YGO, just my characters and the plot!

A/N: Wow, no song this time! That's weird for me, but there were no songs that really fit this chapter seeing as it has two moods through it so……..ya. Anyways, this chapter is mainly a filler that ties up some loose ends and things are going to be ok until the end of this chapter, then it turns bad again. Heehee. Wow, I'm sadistic, lol. Anyways, thanks a ton for all the support and love that you guys have shown me! I love you all! Ok then, shout-outs:

loathed wolf spirit: Omg...does that time even exist in the morning? Lmao. Anyways, hope you like this chapter and sorry for the short shout-out...not much to day...urg.

WolfOfShadow: An hour? # twitch # Anyways, thanks for all the encouragement and reviews! Love ya, hope you like this chapter!

DreamAnimeKitten: # evil grin # if I told you...that's give away the plot now wouldn't it? Heehee.

Deceptive-Innocence: LMAO! That is the funniest thing I have ever fucking heard # is dying from laughter #

InsaneShadowFan: O.O Oh my...

Blue Savage: Updating! Thanks for liking this so much... heehee, makes me all warm and fuzzy!

GothPoetofDarkness15: Ok dude, no need to beat yourself up, I get the message! Best lemon ever? Wow...o.o Thankies!

CRAZYABOUTANIME: Updating! Yes, there will be a sad ending...when the ;ast chapter comes, have a hankie nearby. Good to see you agin! # glomp #

Alright then, here we go!

Like Petals From A Rose

Chapter 19

Restless Spirits

The summer heat of Tokyo was rolling in faster then normal this year. Spring was coming to an end and it seemed that al the students just wanted the year to be over and done with. I was no exception to this. But it wasn't because of the usual ridicule and hate that I was forced to endure - that had actually died down since the prom last month.

This time is was because I was eager to see what the summer would bring for us. By us, I mean Yami and I, of course. Ever since the Prom, when I had surrendered myself to him, there had been no fear at all. I wasn't leery of him, I didn't jump at his touch, I wasn't constantly looking over my shoulder.

I was at ease for what seemed the first time in my life. My mother had called the other day, asking me if I was ok. I was shocked at first, but in the end I was elated that she still cared enough to drop a line. I smiled at the memory and placed my coffee cup in the sink before gazing out into the sky.

It was still dark out, even though it was morning. I could here the running water from his shower in the other room and was tempted to visit him, but then I would most certainly be late for school. One week left, that's all and then freedom!

But not only would it bring freedom, it would open whole new doors for us. He would be going to college while I was doing remedial courses for the many subjects I had failed as well as taking night classes to help get caught up faster.

The water turned off and the door opened and closed again. I smiled a little to myself and checked over my clothing. I don't know why, maybe it was because I actually had decent clothes. The top was a tank top that showed a little of my stomach, which actually contained quite a bit of weight in comparison of what I was before. I was still slender, but not sickeningly so. With the top I wore a simple pair of jeans.

"I can't believe the school year's almost over." His voice made me jump a little and I turned to playfully glare at him.

"Scare the shit outta me why don't ya?" He just shrugged and opened the refrigerator and pulled out a dish of leftover food.

"Sorry."

"Sure." He just grinned before looking outside.

"It's a beautiful view….you should paint it one of these days."

"Oh yes, Yami." I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "Our shared backyard with a small pool and children's toys all over the place - absolutely breathtaking."

"Not that, you smartass." He replied, swallowing the food that was in his mouth. "I mean the sunrise."

"I guess….." I said, looking out at the colors. It brought back memories of the time before me and him were together. The time when I had stayed awake in an alley from fear that the four men would return and I had watched the sun come up thinking of how so many things had changed.

"Didn't you say something to me once about your mother?" I nodded, smiling a little at the fond memory of us when I was still small.

"We used to watch the sunrise all the time when I was little." I explained. "She would come and wake me up, no matter the day, and we would watch the sun come up. She used to paint from the small balcony. I would be watching her, amazed at her talent. I imagine I'd still be fascinated if I were to watch her do it, even now."

"So that's were you get your artistic talent."

"I would hardly call it talent." I answered with a shake of my head. "My writing, I got from my Dad. He was a guitar player for a band when he was younger. The band stopped, but he never stopped writing songs. He was going to teach to play one of these days……" At this, I found I couldn't talk about him anymore.

I still felt absolutely terrible for not even calling or writing him for three years, and then not even attending his funeral. Yami placed his hand on my shoulders and I leaned into him.

"Yami……" I said, a sudden though occurring to me. "Can you take me somewhere before school. We still have a few hours." He nodded slowly.

"Where?"

"You get in the car." I said. "I'll know my way once we get driving." He seemed confused, but he also seemed to sense how much I needed this. That's what I loved about him - he always knew when something should or shouldn't be mentioned. It was as if we were so in tune with each other that sometimes I wondered why we even bothered to talk at all.

The drive was quite and easy, with him asking me for directions that I struggled to produce from my memory of where my mother had told me it would be, should I change my mind. Slowly the trees began to thin out until tombstones could be seen, shadowed against the early morning sky.

"Is this where………." I nodded slowly.

"Yes, this where my father is buried." He turned at looked at me, silently asking if I wanted to go on my own or have him come with me. I answered him by nodding, opening the door and closing it. I breathed in the morning air as I began walking through the graves, searching for my family name.

I'll admit that I was scared coming here. Afraid that his very spirit would rise from the ground and shout his accusations at me and chase me away. But the yard remained eerily silent and I could hear my own heart thumping inside my chest.

I came across the name 'Tate' scrawled across a whether beaten stone. The name of one of my forefathers was legible through the dirt, letting me know that I was in the right place. My father had always said that he wanted to be buried with his family, where he belonged.

I wished the same. If I was to die, I would want to be buried beside him so that we may talk in our graves. He would tell me that he forgave me for everything and that he loved me, and I would tell him a thousand times that I loved him underneath it all and that I was sorry.

His soul would be at peace and together we may find salvation and wait for my mother to find us and join us. The ground was soft and squished under my shoes but I paid no mind to it. What caught my attention was what was unmistakably my father's grave.

My mother had picked out a beautiful stone. It was fairly large with a flower design over the heading that simply read:

Daniel Tate

1969 - 2002

Beloved Wife Of Leanne Tate

Beloved Father Of Sekka Tate

Everything was fine until my eyes raked over the last sentence. Beloved father. How true that sentence was, and it broke my heart to know that he had dies never knowing how much his daughter had really loved him. Tears leaked from my eyes and fell to the grass in front of the stone.

I reached down to touch the marker of his body. It was cold, cold the way his skin must have been when they had found him. Cold, the way my heart had been to hang up on my distraught mother and not care that my own father was dead.

"Daddy." I whispered, before I had really even done it. "I'm sorry Daddy." I looked and said this to the sky instead of the ground. His body was dead, his soul had left it - it would be useless talking to a lifeless vessel. What I was reaching out to was his soul, praying that he was hearing me and smiling down at me.

I closed my eyes and reached with my mind for his presence.

"Daddy, I know you've watched me from wherever you are. If my hatred has kept you here, then I wish it no longer." I didn't really know why I was saying this, but I felt that I had to let his spirit free if I was anchoring it to the Earth. "Go now, to wherever you must."

My eyes remained closed but I could have sworn that I felt someone's hand on my shoulder and a distant voice whispering in my ear. The breeze picked up for a moment before dying down. I looked to the sky just as the clouds parted, letting the sun seep into the Earth, warming it.

He was free now, I was sure of that. All through my life, since his death, the thought that I could be anchoring him to this earth through my anger or the fact that I had never said goodbye had haunted me. Before now though, I didn't have the strength to come and face what I had been denying for years.

I still don't really understand why I chose now to say my good-byes. Looking back now, however, maybe I knew then that this was going to be my last chance to set him free. The feeling of his presence still surrounded me until we left the graveyard, and then I felt him slip away.

Yami didn't say anything to me for the whole drive home. In fact, he didn't even try to speak to me until we were back in out apartment, gathering our things for classes.

"So, how you said what you needed to?" The sudden end of the silence startled me for a moment until I could respond.

"I believe everything's as it should be." He seemed to accept this vague answer, knowing about my spiritual beliefs, but not fully understand the concept of them. That was fine with me, at least he didn't ask too many questions and just accepted it for the most part.

I was still saddened by the time we reached the school but I pushed my feelings aside as soon as I entered the building. There was no point of dwelling on my mistakes and living a life of regret. All I could do now was try to fix them and see where that leads me.

The halls were missing their usual taunts and snide comments, even the usual looks of disgust weren't as strong anymore. I couldn't tell you the reason for their change in behavior except for the theory that they may have seen how I had changed.

Or maybe that had stopped solely from the fact that I really didn't care anymore. Whenever they'd try to make me miserable I would just ignore them completely. They must have not had that much fun bugging someone that didn't care.

The day inched by slowly as they always seem to when you just want them to end. I think that Time itself actually had the ability to slow down or speed up - whichever one made us more anxious. The phrase 'a watched kettle never boils' is probably truer then most people think.

It seemed that it took hours for the end of the day to roll around, but time couldn't prolong something forever and eventually the last bell did ring.

I hurried to my locker, throwing it open and gathering all my things. He wasn't far behind me and I turned and smiled at him when he approached me.

"Another day, another homework assignment." I sighed. "Exams are killing me." He just smiled.

"Hey, you have to study if you have a prayer."

"You can say that again." He chuckled as I threw some of my things back into my locker, just my sketchbook and pencils with me.

"What's that for?"

"Art club." I answered. "I mentioned it last night……I just signed up a few days ago."

"Do you want me to wait for you?" I shook my head.

"You'll die of boredom for sure." I answered. "I'll walk home afterwards, it's not that far and I've had to walk farther in my lifetime."

"That's what worries me." I laughed and shook my head, playfully punching him on the arm.

"I'll be home by 6 at the latest, now move your ass." He held his hands up in surrender and gave me a peck on the lips before heading towards the car.

"Ready?" I jumped at the sudden voice beside me and relaxed when I saw that it was only Anna. She was a member of the art club and the one that I seen about signing up. She hadn't bothered to hide her shock at first that me, the infamous Sekka Tate had decided to mingle with society, but she was a sweet girl and more then ready to give me a chance.

"What? Ya." I answered quickly. "Let's move." The club was a small one, but it was still fun nonetheless. We were able to work on anything we wanted and that was a good thing. I had never really been one for being told what to draw. Whatever flowed onto paper came from my moods and feelings at that time.

My mother had often told me that if I was allowed to, I could lose myself for days in my work. When I was still at home, she would have to come up and remind me to eat or I would forget. The world just slipped away whenever I was drawing.

Whatever room I was in was my own little universe and I didn't even know that other people even existed. This is what it was like now. In the end, Anna was the one to come up and tell me that everyone was leaving.

"Really?" I asked in surprised, looking at the clock that read 5:30. "I didn't realize." She just shrugged.

"Some artists get like that." She answered casually. "My mother could eat nothing but peanut butter for days and not even notice."

"I know what that's like." I muttered and gathered my art pencils. I figured that I'd just leave my sketchbook there for tomorrow.

"Anyways, you'll be here tomorrow right?"

"For sure." I said with a nod. We said our good-byes and I headed to my locker, pulling it open before I could a arm shot out, the palm of the hand slamming loudly against the locker, making me jump.

"Hello, hunny." The voice sent a cold bucket of ice water into my stomach. "Miss me?" I didn't even notice that my hands were shaking until I heard the pencils clash to the floor, the sound mixed with the sound of my own terrified scream that echoed down the halls, resounding in the recesses of my own mind.

A/N:

MIWHAWHAHWAHWAHWAHAHWA! What that and evil ending? Heehee. I told you that things were going to go on, just guess who that is, guess! You know, I think I'm having a little too much fun with this! Anyways, you know the drill - the faster you review, the faster I update!