Shadows That Bleed

by YamiYugiPuzzleshipper

Pure-Bloods are said to be myths, not even well-known within stories. "A specialized genetic coding of the moon and the dire," their spoken lore proclaims. They are creatures beyond the power of mortality, gifted by the gods themselves. Known as the Eternal Ones, their existence once extinguished, resurrection foretells a powerful omen.

14. Protein Shakes

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

Update schedule: Every other day (no update on June 2nd)

Chapter Warnings: COPIOUS Amounts of Blood, Proper/Slightly Improper Cleaning of Wounds, Night Terrors, Self-Inflicted Pains, Improper Use of Medication

Okay, guys! So I might fall back out of schedule again. I'm not sure but I might. Things got a little out of hand as far as work and a couple of other things went so I started losing some time with writing again. Sorry about that but I should be able to fix it again and get back on schedule at some point.

Chapter XIV: Protein Shakes

Work Log Entry XIV: September, 1996

September 16

The wolf cub has grown healthier after constant hourly feedings and the mixture we give him as formula. We have given him a name, dubbed him with the title of the project that he is living proof of.

His name is A.T.E.M.

September 20

His health has declined rapidly and no amount of formula or drugs has been able to keep his organs from shutting down.

He may not make it through the night.

They were staring at Yugi, sharp eyes framed by long, spidery lashes, irises glinting faintly with an ethereal glow that made his heart hammer. But their tongue was pressed against the flesh of their wrist, where blood was still dripping slowly down in little rivulets of black. He felt small and cold, sickened by the sight. His stomach twisted painfully back and forth, flopping with such immensity as to make his head spin.

Though they were watching him, waiting, Yugi could do nothing more than continue to gape, stunned and unsure of what more to do. The heavy dripping in his ears made him shiver before he shook his head sharply and closing his mouth, staring blankly.

The other raised their head after a moment, tipping it slightly to the side. The shadow of their lashes grew to mere pinpricks and that glow was full force within those powerful eyes. The pupils were blown in the darkness, stretched almost to encompass much of their gaze, but the ringlets of color were still somehow wide where they seemed to swallow the whites of their eyes.

When Yugi looked down, the boy's clothes were wrinkled and his jeans torn only slightly at the knees. Overall he looked untouched, however, though he could not erase the image of his bleeding wrist from his mind. A jacket lay next to him, nearer to the door than the rest of him, and looked immaculate in comparison to the rest of his slender frame. His long lashes flickered upwards as he raised his eyes more pointedly towards him, and Yugi was somehow surprised by his gaze showing such an unmistakably relieved gleam.

He blinked stupidly, then frowned faintly. So he had been looking for him too…

"Um…hi?" Yugi murmured, feeling perplexed and weak for a moment. The relaxation in the other's frame made him fight a tremble. What was it that he had been looking for him for?

But his insides also felt warm and there was another sense of calmness that crept through his bones as if he might welcome the other as a long known friend. It was almost as if Yugi knew this boy as well as he did the back of his own hand, though he had no way of knowing what more to do with himself.

He blinked once, unable to do more, the movement long and slow, and the wolf's lips quirked up on the right side, a lopsided smile that made Yugi want to grin childishly. His eyes had grown a little brighter, as if he welcomed his awkward greeting with all the friendliness he could muster. But it was not enough to make the smaller boy forget the other's bloodied wrist and the pain that he knew he must have been feeling from the wound.

"Still not talking, huh?" he muttered, swallowing hard as he looked down at his wrist again. His stomach grew cold, hollow once more, and his mouth opened in a thin line as he bit his lip and shook his head faintly.

Yugi could see the bone under the other's skin, a spot of white among furious red and torn tendons. Sinewy muscles gaped up at him, causing his stomach to clench and twist painfully, and his head spun faintly as he fought off the urge to heave acid. As if Yugi had drawn attention to it, the lycanthrope turned to look down at it as well. His lips pursed faintly and his tongue flicked out again to press against the wound again. The movement was swift and simple, but he looked incredibly self-conscious, as if he were unnerved by his appearance despite his relief moments before.

"Here, come inside and I'll go ahead and bandage up your wrist, okay?"

Yugi paused when the lycanthrope moved as if to get to his feet. The movement was enough to make him startle, eyes widening briefly. His body was rigid for a moment, frozen in place as he swallowed hard. The last time they had been so close to his home like this, he had lunged and then fled. But then, he had not even gotten this close to the door beforehand, and now he was seated there watching him with those keen red eyes.

Yugi blinked, startled again by something in the way the other moved. His brows furrowed together as he looked at the other boy and his eyes widened in surprise as his thoughts began to slow drastically. There was something unnaturally pale, almost white in color, so much so that he thought of his slender wrist. But it was a much larger breach of color, encompassing most of his arm, making him look as if he were wearing something of a white cuff along his shin. Yugi felt himself swallow back a small sob of a noise in the back of his throat as his tongue began to grow heavy in his mouth.

His head felt as if it might spin, his balance swaying briefly with the force of his newest realization. The boy in front of him remained motionless safe slow passages of his tongue along his injured skin. And Yugi was given the perfect angle of which to view the damage of his left wrist.

The other glanced at it as well, frowning faintly, and then turned swiftly away from it once more. The small teen cringed, recognizing the length of the wound with such familiarity that it made him groan softly between his teeth. The entirety of his arm to his elbow was bright red and sore in appearance, with split tendons visible even with such limited light to take it in. The wound was open and gaping, with white segments of bones and small shards which were littered across the bloodied mess of serrated flesh.

Yugi swallowed hard again, shaking his head briefly, and then frowned faintly. "Wrists," he amended softly, frown deepening as he studied the slightly uneasy distressed glimmer that claimed his bright red eyes. "Come inside and I'll bandage both of them, okay?"

Yugi felt almost foolish for speaking so softly, the words coming from his mouth so slowly, almost as if he were treating the other as stupid. He blinked, knowing that just mere exposure to the other male disproved such a suggestion tenfold. Very slowly, deliberately, the taller teen tilted his head to the side and debated the sensation, sharp red eyes glittering faintly with something almost akin wonder.

The caution was clearly written upon his features, his intelligence only outdone by his open consideration. For a long minute he did not respond, instead twisting around to look at the door as if truly unnerved by it. He pulled himself to his feet, pressing his palms fully against the concrete, peering purposefully at the dark red of the wood of his door. The movement caused the muscles to bunch and ripple beneath his skin like snakes twisting under soft flesh, the sight of it making Yugi almost dizzy.

Finally, as if his decision was summoned by the eternity that seemed to have passed, the newcomer turned back. The expression on his face was nothing short of melancholic with a faint but terribly noticeable desperation in the corners of his dark irises. Yugi nearly flinched, but instead lowered his eyes as if burned, startled by the immensity of such emotions in the other's gaze.

He was all but begging him for help, and had no way of expressing such need but with a crestfallen appearance. But he needed it, and he did not seem to know where else to go to get it. So the smaller teen drew in a deep breath, nodded at him slightly, and then raised his eyes to glance at his still somewhat undone expression, and gave him the smallest of smiles before moving past him.

The wolf rose to his feet as he stepped around him. He watched him in the reflection of the glass, somewhat startled by the sharp detail with which his eyes gave him their images. Normally in this darkness he would see only his shadow there, if he was lucky enough to catch even that. But now he could see such detail of their faces, the way the hair looked disheveled and driven in different directions along the other's head, obviously moved by his long fingers in distress. Something crushed seemed to cling to his long bang where it fell aside his sharp jaw, a smudge of dark black against the pale shade of gold it possessed. There were lines of it along his face, smothering his lightly tanned skin, coating the small pores lying there, as if he had dragged his hands along his face in distress at some point. He could see the way his eyes glittered with obvious discomfort and a mounting tension made his jaw clench faintly, a cord in his throat showing as he waited for him to keep moving.

Yugi twisted the knob, only remembering a moment after opening the door that he was not sure if his mom and grandpa were there. He froze, startled by the sudden realization, and his hand clenched tightly as he started to turn around to look at the other male with wide eyes.

But then he saw his reflection, how hard it was for him to simply stand there behind him, waiting for him, and it made him unable to so much as think further on such an idea. This other teen needed help and he had come to Yugi for it. And, possibly, this was the only way he could repay his debt to him for saving his life.

The thought made his head spin but he did not speak. Rather, he twisted the knob sharply enough that his wrist ached violently with the brutality of the movement. He breathed in hard to keep from hissing at the pain, and then continued forward.

When he stepped inside, the first smell that caught his attention was that of a cleaning fluid. It had been used recently, to wipe down the counters, judging by the direction it came. There was a harsher, stinging smell which drifted from the floor. A moment later came the smell of something gentler, like fingers moving before his face in a casual waving motion. It was that of stored medicines, he realized vaguely, breathing in deeply and grinding his teeth to keep from turning and bolting. There was the airy touch of metal that cloaked his thoughts momentarily, and then he noticed the softest hint of something.

He could not tell them apart from the rest of the smells that hit his senses, however, and so he settled for no longer paying attention to it. There was no reason for him to try an attempt sorting them out at that moment. He was tired, hungry, and the wounds would not heal themselves without proper assistance which he lacked the knowledge of.

He shook his head and the smaller boy did not pause in opening what seemed to be a door leading up into a narrow hallway. In the pitch blackness of the staircase he could not make out much. For a moment his eyes strained, and then his vision sharpened and drew together shapes and forms. The perception of the narrow passage was deceptive, with a lack of depth that made his head hurt momentarily. It would take a few moments for his eyes to make up a true map of depth and distance to coordinate himself enough to truly make his way up the stairs.

But the smaller teen had no problem with his own navigation. He stepped up several of the stairs, at ease with the many times he had traversed them in such a blind state. For the briefest of moments, he did not even seem to consider that his companion had not done the same, making his way up to the second door without so much a glance back.

The taller boy faltered at the unconscious dismissal, then frowned faintly as he looked over his shoulder. The door was shut behind him but it would have been so easy for him to sneak out and disappear into the darkness again. But his arms stung and he nearly groaned in pain at the sensation before shaking his head faintly. He wanted almost for a moment to take the chance to lick at his wounds again and see if perhaps they might still heal without permanent damage somehow.

But the moment of his possible departure fled in a single breath. He exhaled and his feet were already moving forward. In his mind's eye the darkness had separated just enough to make up the distance of one step to the next, the height of each block of carpeted material that awaited his sneakers. The boy was already pushing the door open when he crept over to his side, silent as a ghost and breathing as if he might never draw enough air into his lungs.

The small teen startled when he turned, jumping so hard backwards that the door slammed into the wall beside it. Yugi cringed, biting his lip, and then shook his head as he rolled his eyes at himself. The other boy simply watched him with a gaze narrowed in concentration and the strained effort to remain where he was.

"Fuck, you scared me," he grumbled, rolling his eyes again and sighing loudly before shaking his head once more. The door was still rattling from its collision with the wall and he thought momentarily that it might have punctured the plaster. It made him bite back a disgruntled noise before sighing softly once more and wandering forward a step. A sudden and distinct uneasiness swept over his insides as he turned towards his companion and then back away towards the two closed bedrooms.

How was he meant to explain his sudden appearance here? Yugi shook his head, then glanced at the wall as if it might hold some kind of answer. He reached a hand out to touch the plaster, checking for the dent he knew must exist there, but found nothing and instead folded his fingers against the smooth material for a moment.

There was only the faintest touch of moonlight coming for the window of the kitchen, his stomach aching at the sight of the silver against the tiles, as if he might never see it again. He swallowed hard, narrowing his eyes faintly, and then started forward, glancing at his companion over his shoulder briefly.

"I'll go ahead and get the first-aid kit from the bathroom. If you want to sit down I'll go get it and meet you back here, okay?"

The lycanthrope regarded him and, for a moment, his eyes looked like something celestial, as if the galaxies had been bound and retained there amongst the red of his sharp irises. There was a blindness to his gaze, as if he did not fully see him, nor care to, but then he turned away again and started towards the table.

In the darkness, Yugi immediately turned to his own room, breathing roughly as the tension began to pull at his brows and his heart hammered within his chest. His stomach ached as he glanced towards the other two rooms, once more before tossing his head sharply and making his way quickly towards his own door.

Yugi hesitated, reaching for the knob, his fingers grasping at the cold metal, and then froze in place. A part of him, stronger than he had initially assumed, had been dueling for him to hide away inside of his room and avoid his problems for the night. He had been considering that very thing the moment he had crept through the staircase, and his first thought had been to hide away before the other boy became a reality. But then he had crept up on him without any effort, with such speed as to make Yugi jump and startle so violently, and such a reality could not be pushed aside.

For a moment, he still considered it. He could not hear the other boy moving around. And he could not hear his mother or grandfather anywhere within the walls of the house. So he fell silent as his teeth dug into his lips and he forced his feet into a new direction.

He twisted the bathroom door open after what felt like hours of hesitation, then pushed it inwards to step inside. His fingers immediately flicked the light back on, his eyes adjusting almost instantly to the sudden burst of yellow color that splashed into his gaze. Yugi blinked stupidly then crept towards the mirror, pulling the cabinet open and snatching at the red metal box that greeted him there.

The items inside rattled and jerked at his hasty movement, breathing in roughly in order to keep from flinching and dropping it altogether. But there was still an overwhelming silence that greeted him when he struggled to hear into the kitchen. There was not even a hint of noise to be heard from the other, not breathing or the rustling of clothing. He wondered for a moment, anxiety creeping through him, if perhaps he had done exactly what he had wanted moments before and fled.

If he had, Yugi wondered if he might rejoice or grow more uncomfortable and uneasy with it all. What reason did he have for running off when it was obvious he needed his help? And why should he do so unless he truly did believe the same thing as Valon did?

Yugi breathed in so roughly that he nearly flinched away and ground at the way his balance seemed to sway. He ground his teeth together, shaking his head sharply, and clenched his tongue between his incisors painfully. Had he vanished, what could Yugi do? He couldn't chase him down, nor could he find it in himself to think there was a reason to when it was obvious he could evade him just as easily as kill him.

He swallowed a painful whine and made his way on shaky legs towards the kitchen once more. Yugi truly expected him to be gone, considering the silence with which he greeted him, but now he caught the smallest hint of something. There was a soft, almost inaudible lilt of breath being drawn in that made him pause, eyes wide and horrified. He was still there?

He opened and closed his mouth twice, startled by the sight that greeted him as he glanced around. At first he could not find him. In the dark, it was hard to take in his form even with the drizzle of cold light from the window. He reached over to touch along the wall, hitting first the landline that was so rarely used, and then the switch. The moment he touched it, the cold yellow light of the bulb burst outwards and cloaked the small kitchen in color.

In the darkest corner of the room, the other boy was seated in a slumped position at the edge of the able. His shoulders were hunched forward, his wrists were flipped to expose the hideous wounds that encompassed the golden-bronze flesh there. Yugi was stupefied by his appearance, startled and horrified, unable to do more than gape at him as if he had never seen another person before in his life.

His hair was stuck in odd angles, unlike before when he had seen it so much neater, as if it were a dark flame topped with a brilliant red blaze. Now the crest of color was jagged, tangled and twisted as if the entire purpose of its existence was to be knotted painfully. The streaks that had reminded him so much of lightning bolts before now looked like several shards of static yellow spikes of jagged discoloration. The bangs were streaked more fully with crusted blood then he had initially assumed, several strands strung together by black and deep brown. There were smudges around his eyes, along his cheeks, and a single rivulet of dried blood made its way from his left nostril to his upper lip.

His arms were pressed harshly against the tabletop, with such force it made his skin pale. His hands were clenched against the fabric of the cover there, with such power it made his fingers completely white. His nails were unnaturally colored, with such a bloodied shade it made him nearly flinch at the sight of them, the beds were more almond-shaped than circular, the cuticles torn and scabbed. His fingers were thinner than Yugi had ever seen anyone's. They were skeletal and sharp, with grooves like knuckles ground together too tightly. The muscles were corded beneath them, stretched and full of power despite his apparent weakness.

It was only then that Yugi raised his eyes to look towards the boy's face. He had not noticed the hollowness of his face beforehand, the way his cheeks had pulled inwards and his skin stretched taut. Every ounce of his face was paler than it had been before, as if he had failed to see food or sunlight for days. But his head was down, turned away from him, refusing to look in his direction, and yet, Yugi knew he had the wolf's full attention.

Yugi took a small step towards the table and the other boy gave a full body flinch. The small teen froze again. His mouth opened and closed. He flinched at his own hesitance a moment later. He swallowed hard. His mouth grew dry. He flinched again.

"I'm…I'm really sorry. I don't…I…" Yugi opened and closed his mouth again, because his voice sounded choked and almost nonexistent. The other boy's head jerked towards him, eyes full of a stark terror that made him feel sick, and he would not think of anything more than to flinch and hide away. But he had promised to help him with his wounds, to clean and stitch his wrists. "Stay still…I'll help you out with them…"

Seeing as the clinic was beneath the living apartment, the first-aid kit aside from one had been giving completely different materials. The one he was holding at the moment had the standard items in singles, but several others that had been used downstairs had them in doubles or triples. Yugi had been notorious for getting hurt when he was younger, so his mom had packed this first-aid kit with everything ranging from peroxide to sutures and steri-strips, to disposable surgical gloves, to syringes, to a fine needle, to save-a-tooth systems, and oral electrolyte solutions. Yugi had always considered them a little too much to be necessary but he was rapidly changing his opinion at the moment considering the wolf sitting in front of him.

He put the kit on the table between them, watching with slight fascination as the other boy flipped it open and looked it over curiously. There was a strange wonder in his eyes that made Yugi frown faintly, startled by its sudden appearance, and he bit his tongue to keep from speaking. The tension was still clear in his face even as he looked it over, the way his eyes flickered back and forth between the instruments in front of him. He thought he saw his nose twitch several times, breathing in and out slowly and evenly so not as to draw his attention.

He settled back a minute later after he was satisfied with his inquiry and Yugi was slow in moving to pull out the materials he needed. He could list them off in his head with how often his mother had told him about the things inside of the first-aid kit whenever he had gotten hurt. For the sutures he would need clean water, betadine, a needle driver, irrigating syringe, suture material, and gloves. Suture thread size four or five for the arms, and if there was anything on his face that he had somehow overlooked then he needed two or three.

The small teen shook his head slightly, grabbing a cup from the cabinet and snatching a bottle of water from the pantry. It was easier to use bottled water than it was something from the sink, considering tap water was chlorinated and bottled was not. Besides that, he didn't need all that much, just enough for dilute the betadine he knew he would be using to sterilize. As long as the other boy held still he wouldn't have much of an issue. Using only water would have been the easier thing to do but, considering when and where he had last seen the wolf, he doubted it was strong enough to clean it properly.

He shook his head again, twisting the cap off and pouring a full cup of the water before putting a few small droplets of betadine in it as well. He snatched the irrigated syringe off the table a moment later, watching the wolf as he tilted his head but did not object to the sudden movement in any way.

"Hold your wrists out and raise them a little above your head," Yugi mumbled, ignoring the surprised expression on the other's face even as he did so. The smaller teen grabbed the suture next, then the needles. The other was staring at him so intently that he almost backed off at the last second, unnerved by the way his eyes bore into his skin so powerfully.

But he ignored it as he instructed him to lower his arms and then syringed the open wounds, wondering for a moment if he might need to do something similar to want had been done with Valon. Was it possible to pull his skin until it would meet in the middle as they had done with him? Then again, Valon had been something entirely different, with cells that had deceased at rapid rates, healing almost instantaneously when the wound was closed. This wolf had healed rapidly while still fighting the other two in the woods, and had even been completely void of any wounds by the time they had left the trees. He had not been hurt in any way after that, and not once had he smelled of decaying flesh as Valon had.

Yugi shook his head, ignoring the way the other failed to so much as flinch as he continued, and bit his lip to keep his concentration. He threaded the curved needle, pulling his skin and feeling surprised that it even managed to meet in the middle. It seemed odd to see this gaping wound fold beneath his fingers as it was. Unlike Valon's, he was not forced to dig under his skin to separate muscle from flesh and pull it together in such a way.

He kept the sutures an eighth of an inch apart, carefully maintaining the distance consistently enough to keep from tangling as he worked his way up the length of the wound. The stitching was covered minutes later by gauze and tape, then he turned to his left arm and nearly vomited. There was a bit of debris—straw and pine and dirt and possibly rust—caught in the lower parts and the flesh looked far from as flexible as his right had been.

Yugi swallowed a groan, blinking at himself, and then shook his head as he began to syringe it as well. The wolf was watching him with a somewhat impatient but compliant expression, seemingly frustrated by the thought of having to deal with this a second time. But Yugi ignored it, despite the way his face seemed to burn with those sharp eyes focused so keenly on it, and began to work his way through the task in a similar manner. Still, despite the numerous grips he administered to pull the skin together or the way he syringed him a little more forcefully than before, or the fact that his stitching had to pause and restart numerous times, the wolf did not cry out. Not once did he jerk away or hiss or bare his teeth. His lip never curled, his eyes never narrowed, and his expression never wavered.

He pulled away only after he was sure he had done the most he could, the best effort he had to give, and then watched him for a moment. He was still staring at him, but his expression had changed into something for more important or remotely irritable. He seemed, if nothing else, wondrous and fascinated, as if…perhaps…he was waiting for something from him. The small teen stared at him, confused and mystified, but then shook it off, head jerking away when the other boy wrinkled his nose faintly as if in question.

"You can sleep on the couch, okay? I would offer my room but I…"

I need to be able to lock the door and hide.

Yugi nearly flinched at the thought but instead offered him a weak smile, glancing at him from the corner of his eye. "The couch is past the fridge. You'll know it when you see it. If you…had anything…I, um…I'll be in my room. It's the first door across the hall."

He paused, frowning faintly as he dug his teeth into his bottom lip. Did he even need to say that? Wasn't it possible that the other boy could just sense him if he needed to find him for whatever reason? He doubted there was a reason for him to say such a thing when he was clearly capable of fending for himself as well as finding him if it was necessary. He shook his head faintly and started for his room with a backwards glance.

He would have to do the laundry the next day and get the blood out of the tablecloth. And he'd have to clean the blood from the doorstep, the doorknobs, but the carpet in the staircase was a dark maroon color, which the liquid might easily camouflage.

But first he would have to find out where his mom and grandpa were, considering they were obviously not there. Yugi frowned at the thought, truly puzzled, and then murmured, "Night" before heading quickly into his room when no reply came. He closed the door behind him almost immediately, breathing hard, rattled by his lack of noise while he was stitching his wrists, as well as nervous by his very presence there as well. He had not considered that leading a werewolf into his home was hardly any good news, nor could it lead to anything good.

He shook his head and pulled his phone out of his pocket. Had it vibrated earlier? He frowned as the screen lit up, showing him several texts from the two mentioned family members.

He skimmed them, lumping them together into a reasonable summary in his head as he nodded briefly to himself. His mother had taken his grandfather with her for an emergency accident just on the outskirts of Domino. The dog was severely wounded and needed overnight care, but the ride back to their home would have killed it. So they had taken up residence at a nearby hotel and would be helping to treat the dog at the nearest clinic for the next few days.

---

The curl of noise which came through his dreams made him jerk. The impact of the noise as it burrowed its way into his skull made his entire body fall over the edge of his mattress. He yelped, then froze in place. He could not move for a long minute, unable to do more than breathe in roughly twice. Then a harsh repetition of the noise made him jerk and stumbled to his feet unsteadily.

For a moment he thought to grab something from his nightstand as a weapon to be used should something be there in the living room awaiting him, and then stopped. All that he could hear was the screeching, horrifying, terrified, whimper of noise that had first awoken him. There was no sound of a struggle, nor snarls from another wolf set upon attacking their victim.

He'd grab a knife from the block when he got into the kitchen, he decided when the noise grew louder. He scrambled forward, startled, and nearly tripped over himself in fear. The sight which greeted him there made him freeze in place, however.

The lycanthrope was writhing on the couch in what appeared to be acute agony. His nails were ripping through the cloth of his shirt where he had gripped at it in his violent movements, and blood was beginning to spray upwards in an arch over the couch as he torn through his own flesh.

The small teen was instantly at his side, grabbing his wrists to restrain them and breathing harshly from fear.

The wolf was immediately frozen. All of the hair on Yugi's body stood on end. Those red eyes snapped open, peering at him emptily. His wide-awake stare was powerful enough to make him stiffen. The small teen instantly released his wrists, gaping as he scrambled back a step. The wolf jerked upright into a seated position, hissing, and then backed up into the corner of the couch. They stared at each other, red eyes wild for a moment before growing cold and distant, blue-violet eyes horrified to the point of near lifelessness.

Yugi looked down at the blood on his hands, then scrambled to his feet again. He was trembling, gaping at the other boy who merely blinked at him slowly in clear shock. Yugi closed his mouth with exhausting effort, then trembled as he stared off towards the bathroom once more.

On unsteady legs, the small teen brought the first-aid kit back to the couch. With each step he took, he could see the way the other began to stiffen more and more. The other wolf finally pressed so far into the cushions that Yugi had to stop before he risked having to watch the couch flip. He froze, helpless, and then sighed weakly as he whispered, "I just want to help you. And those wounds aren't…I just…If there's anything I can…I'm sorry."

The wolf gave him an intensely puzzled look, tilting his head to the side and frowning faintly. He looked for a moment as if he might open his mouth but instead merely tilted his chin up as if to ask what it was he planned to do with the kit in his hands. He hesitated, startled by the way those red eyes had grown fixated on it and then placed it on the coffee table in front of him.

"I need to stitch them again…"

There was a long minute in which the other boy seemed almost as if he might shake his head sharply or perhaps even snarl at him angrily. But the seconds passed and abruptly the wolf nodded and held his wounded arms out for him. The blood dripping from his paled skin made Yugi flinch, but he quickly pulled his resolve back into place, breathing in deeply before reaching out to begin digging through the kit once more.

He spent the better part of an hour fixing the wounds up this time around. The flesh had been torn open drastically due to his nails cutting so sharply and the stitches had been completely ripped from his skin. He had been thinking of the damage done by rings being pulled from one's ears or lips or nose the entire time, struggling to keep from puking at the wounds he was mending. Even as he put strips of gauze inside of the gouges, he could not shake the images that made him heart skip and ache in his chest.

When he had left the wolf to lie back down and had wandered to his room once more, sleep was a long time in coming.

---

It was late afternoon when he finally got up from his bed. It was a strange reality to come to the conclusion that he had slept in so long. But school was off for a couple of weeks now that the festival had passed. Winter holiday was given a little longer than the rest of them to have more fun and freedom to do as they wanted. So he wasn't too surprised by the fact that there were no phone calls to the house to tell on him, though he had initially forgotten in all the…excitement from the night before.

He sat up a little straighter, eyes widening in surprise. Was the wolf still there? The thought of its continued presence made his stomach twist briefly, eyes wide and heart pounding. Was it possible that he was still there? Or was he long gone? He wouldn't have been surprised if it was the latter. He hardly seemed the type to just remain in one place for longer than necessary. And considering his wrists were mended as well as Yugi could manage, he did not think he would stay any longer.

There was a small hollow feeling in his gut at the thought, but not enough to make him hesitate in finding out. If the wolf was gone then he could say that at least he had tried. If he was still there, well that just meant that he perhaps had an extra bit of security for a little while. He shook his head at himself as he crept into the hallway, padding as silently as possible, but did not slow his fast movements.

Yugi hesitated only when he got to the entrance of the living room. For a moment he was unable to do more than contemplate the odds that he might truly exist there as he had that night. His breaths come out short and swift, as if he were running a marathon. A sickly insidious sense of dread came over his skin, surging through his veins, and he felt his head spin as a small wave of dizziness came over his senses. What if he was still there? What if he wasn't? He could pretend that he had not been there that night, or that he had never so much as had to cross paths with him. Maybe he could even pretend that perhaps the lycanthropy was a joke in the first place and its existence was still nothing more than their mundane reality.

But then his eyes flickered to the couch.

And there the other boy sat.

He was blinking groggily, woken he was sure by his footsteps, peering almost blindly between his long lashes. His position was slouched, shoulders pushed forwards, eyes hooded, body completely relaxed. But he seemed to notice him just as he did. Their eyes caught and the wolf was instead alert.

His head snapped up, his gaze growing wide. His shoulders rose faintly. His spine grew ramrod straight. He blinked at him once, then tilted his head to the side.

Yugi was frozen, unable to do more than blink stupidly. His mouth had fallen open. His eyes were wider than before. He opened and closed his jaw and then blinked again. There was nothing more that he could do.

The fact that the other was simply seated before him, watching him, made his stomach ache. There was a chill which crept through him as he stared at the other boy. His lean frame and shallow cheeks made his skin crawl briefly. But with it also came a small, weak sense of relief as well. He was still there, alive and unharmed, with the bandages intact.

But that assured him of nothing in all reality, except that he had not somehow been hallucinating for all that time. That also meant that his mother would not have a reason to throw him into an asylum for the clinically insane because of his overactive thoughts.

Yugi swallowed a small groan. Maybe it would have been better if he might have had such a thing be his existence rather than the disease a reality. If he was insane then it could be cured with medicine and practice at stabilizing his thoughts, right? But there was nothing that cured an infection like lycanthropy, was there?

"Hi."

It was weak and scratchy, with such a gravelly quality that the other boy blinked in surprise and looked almost as if he had snarled at him. He cringed inwardly at such a thought, then shook his head faintly.

"I…" Yugi trailed off, then turned away to glance over his shoulder. He breathed in deeply, swallowing harshly to alleviate some of the tension that made his tongue feel numb and weighted. "Are you hungry?"

He did not get an answer, though he had known there would be no change in his state of silence. Yugi took a moment, biting his lip, then turned back to him as the other tilted his head to watch him curiously. The small teen pressed his canine further into his lip, until it seemed nearly to puncture his soft flesh. He felt as if a bead of blood might press into his tongue at any moment.

It took him only a moment for the wolf to think this question over. With enthusiasm he had never seen before, the lycanthrope leaned forward with a rigorous nod. His red eyes were glowing brightened excitement but shaded with hunger. The way his lashes framed his sharp gaze made his stomach twist briefly, startled by the strength with which it locked on his frame.

He looked almost as he had that split second he had seen him before he had thrown himself along the trunk of the tree to hunt that squirrel in the forest. There was such intense focus and power in his eyes that it made them look sharper, far more dangerous, as if he might launch himself at his throat any moment.

"What do you want for breakfast?" He paused, then pursed his lips faintly, chewing his cheek for a brief moment. "Any ideas?"

Yugi turned on his heel, breathing in roughly once, and gave a deep exhale. He could hear the soft sound of the springs as they were coiled and bunched together under the taller teen's lean frame. The way the cushions gave a gentle rustling as they brushed together made his skin prickle with familiarity, his body feeling almost at ease with such recognition. He heard him moving about behind him with such lightness that it was a mere whisper of noise as he crept along the bare tile floor.

"So, we have…enough to make pancakes, or eggs and bacon, or cereal," he announced minutes later as he dug through the cabinets and the fridge before ducking into the pantry. In his ears he could hear the other boy shifting his weight as if to lean forward and peer over his shoulder. But when he turned his head the other was several feet away from him, eyes narrowed and arms crossed tightly over his chest.

The smaller boy bit his tongue for a moment before looking at him more fully. "I'm in the mood for pancakes," he announced, opening and closing his mouth once as the other boy did not look away from studying his face as if he could not determine his motives. "Is that okay with you? I haven't had pancakes in a while. So I think I want them more than anything else…"

The other boy watched him, studying intently, and then nodded before looking away briefly. His red eyes shot towards the table, then back to him as if asking permission for a seat in one of the chairs. He blinked, startled by the almost sheepish and submissive posture, the way he held himself a little tighter with his thin arms and watched him once more.

Yugi blinked, nodding as if he might need to give him such permission, and then turned away again to look at the pantry. He raked his eyes over the box of mix, the bottle of syrup that he might need to open, and then the other times that littered the shelves. Anything that could distract him for more than a second was considered a blessing. He made a point of staring and reading the labels of several cans of soups and vegetables. There were bottles of sauces that his mother stored, with marinades that he knew she used for dinners when she was too tired to make her own.

He drew in a small breath, then snatched the box in his hand, clenching it so tightly that a pain shot through his arm and towards his shoulder. The pain there made him hesitate, eyes widening faintly as he blinked stupidly at the sensation. He hesitated, glancing at the other in the corner of his eye, startled to find him staring back at him with a cautious expression. He was seated without much tension to mar his frame, but the keenness that glittered within his gaze made his stomach twist briefly.

It was clear he had no idea what that look held, as evident by the way his gaze would narrow minutely and then flicker between his face and the small package. But he was waiting, knowing that whatever it was, it might sate his hunger as Yugi had promised. So he did not do more than watch, frowning and tilting his head, contemplating him and his proposal thoroughly.

However, it occurred to him, as he averted his eyes to keep him from growing further tensed, that there was something else in the pantry that might benefit the other boy far more. In the corner of his eye, he watched the way the other boy frowned in puzzlement at his sudden movement to snatch something else from the shelves in front of him. Had he been facing him fully, he would have seen that his hands had drifted from their tight position around his flans towards his bandages.

A soft but aching itch had grown within both of his wounds. The sutures were burning faintly along the top of his skin. A dull but noticeable hurt tickled his nerve endings where each thread marred his flesh. And he could feel the gauze beneath his flesh as if it were visible. It felt like touches of embers, an entire hot stone pressed in between his serrated skin as if to offer healing. He narrowed his eyes, his fingers itching to scratch, nails curved inwards despite the distance of his arms.

As the smaller boy pulled out a container, white with a blue and green and tan seal across its belly, the lycanthrope blinked in surprise. The manner with which Yugi drew the container towards his own chest seemed as if he were witnessing some unknown prayer being answered. He seemed as if to almost cradle it in his thin arms, as if it held some kind of secret out of his own reach.

Such intense satisfaction made him lean forward, confused and curious of his reaction. What existed instead of that squat cylinder that might give him such strength?

Abruptly Yugi turned to him, at first with a worried expression, and then with something of a set line to his mouth. He looked unnerved for a brief moment, but determined all the same, and for a moment the lycanthrope thought to frown at him. But the space of such an action seemed to pass as quickly as the idea had formed within his mind. Those bright blue-violet eyes which had dulled with something of resignation upon seeing him earlier now shone with determination and strength. The affect with which it coursed through his system and made his spine straighten made him look almost otherworldly, as if the gods themselves might have bowed before him.

He tilted his head to the side, curious but unable to push any words from his throat. His voice was dead, nonexistent, but he leaned forward somewhat, watching him as intently as he could, questioning with his body as his lungs refused such burden.

"Protein powder," he announced as if the words might take meaning in the other boy's mind. The red-eyed boy tilted his head further, puzzled by such exhilaration in his tone, and felt as if his lips might tug into a permanent frown at his exuberance. In his weakened state, his normal amount of knowledge and the way his mind cycled information to fill in gaps and acknowledge weakness of thoughts no longer existed. His body was so focused upon his wounds, upon the terrible jagged scratches of red and shed blood that it could not offer him the answers he sought.

He supposed himself lucky as the other boy took mercy on his state of alienation.

"It's used to help build up body and muscle mass. But they're also kind of dehydrating but if you drink some water I doubt it'll be an issue. Anyways, you put the powder into a smoothie and drink it. It fills you up and helps with gaining weight and things like that," he explained, taking refuge in looking the container over as a distraction from his eyes.

They seemed to burn his skin as if Yugi were touching a live flame and the sensation was nothing he wished to welcome any longer. He ran his fingers over the ridges that made up the lid, then twisted it briefly to test the grip of it for a moment. It gave after a second, spinning when he flicked it hard with his fingers to see if it might. Never once did the wolf's eyes lift from his face, the immensity of his attention make his head spin briefly.

"I remember Mom gave this to me when I was underweight one summer. It didn't really work for me all that well. I didn't like them so I would dump them in the sink when she wasn't looking, but then again, I didn't think it was all that serious anyways."

Yugi turned his head and when their eyes locked, he knew the other caught the meaning in his statement. It had not been serious then, but it clearly was now. There would be no dumping smoothies down the sink in order to pretend he had drunk them. He would watch them until he was sure he was at the bottom of the cup if he had to, because the state the other boy was in was not one that either wanted to see.

He nodded faintly, looking at the pattern on the tablecloth, but glanced up as the boy's fingertips made a slight drumming noise where his nails clicked against the plastic. He strained his ears to catch his mumbling, raising a brow when he found he could not fully understand his words.

"Twenty-two grams protein, five grams fiber, ten grams amino acids, milkshake taste and texture…" He clicked his tongue and then nodded to himself after a long moment, humming under his breath before muttering once more. "Promotes muscle protein synthesis and recovery support. Take one scoop with a four or five ounce cup of cold water or drink of choice…"

He had always had it with skim milk. Apparently the calories in skim milk had been preferable to anything else they had had in the house. If that was the case, he needed to get more as they were completely out of milk in general. He'd need to get something to help curve the other's appetite as well, as he remembered he himself had not been terribly full after bothering with the meager sips he would take.

"All right, so apparently it mixes really well with water," he announced, turning to the other boy and biting his lip to keep from flinching at the hard exterior that had come over his game over sometime during which he had been reading. Yugi swallowed hard but did not allow himself to buckle as he initially felt the need to do. Rather he let out a deep breath and drummed his nails more noticeably against the plastic. "I'll make you a glass—it should taste it like a milkshake apparently. It's French vanilla flavored, so I hope you like it. But whatever, it's all we have at the moment. I'll grab something else later when I do some shopping."

The lycanthrope merely nodded at him but there was a puzzlement that belied his intelligence. It was clear that he was not sure what he meant, nor did he have the capabilities to express such confusion without opening his mouth. And for whatever reason he still refused to speak, and Yugi might have wondered what his voice sounded like but he was not willing to push him.

He turned on his heel before the other boy could argue, heading for the cabinet to grab a tall glass cup, glancing at the wolf over his shoulder, and considered his next move. If his own metabolism had jumped so drastically, then surely the other's must have been just as high or even somehow worse, right? And if that was the case, should be double the standard recipe of two scoops per five to six ounces in an eight ounce cup? He could not find a reason why he shouldn't. If the protein was too much at one time, he would simply gain weight in a new form like fat, right?

"Considering how thin you look and how much blood you lost just yesterday, I think we need to double the recipe," he said slowly, wondering if the other teen even cared for such an explanation. "Even if it's too much protein at one time, I don't think it'll hurt you. You're a werewolf and besides that, I remember being told in class once that it just gets stored as fat if it's not absorbed properly. So I figure it won't hurt us to try, right?"

Yugi turned away before he could lock eyes with him, breathing in deeply and hurrying to the fridge. It was no surprise for him to find himself cowering once more, as if he might somehow damage him violently with his mere stare. He ducked his head faintly, frustrated, but did not move to speak further as he grabbed a bottle from the fridge to fill the cup with cold water. He spun the lid off of the protein powder, grabbing the scoop inside and filling it with the four of them before huffing out a breath. His hands were shaking, he realized, as he grabbed a spoon to mix the powder into a drinkable solution for the other boy.

His head was beginning to pound as the tension bit at his insides. The wolf was not oblivious to it, he knew, but he feigned such innocence to the predicament as well. As he placed the cup on the table and pushed it towards him, the other boy did not so much as blink nor give him a surprised look. Rather he took the cup between his hands, spinning it back and forth between his long fingers, and abruptly settled back into his seat. The cup was tipped to his mouth and the contents swallowed within mere seconds, as if he had not had food or water in years.

And, had Yugi not witnessed him hunting dogs before or seen him drinking from that pool in the forest, he would have assumed such a thing by the very sight. But the wolf was merely doing as he bid, drinking without argument as he knew no harm would come of it to try to mind by his plan. So the two of them had slipped into some kind of silent truce that neither had fully noticed until the moment the glass was placed aside and they were both caught staring at each other.

His red eyes were glittering with something like discomfort at his stare but Yugi could not help but gape partially at the taller boy. He was breathing through the thin gap between his lips, startled by the chill of his own inhales as he looked at Yugi with wide eyes. But his eyes were glittering with interest and surprise, with such immensity to their expression that the taller boy nearly glanced away.

But there was something in his bright eyes that made him hesitate, as if he were trying to hold his gaze there but unsure of why. And the tension in the air was growing tangible, weighing on them both as the seconds passed. His bones had pulled tight beneath his skin but he did not grow offensive in structure. There was no need to bristle or chomp his teeth. The boy was a safe distance from him, and regardless, he did not seem malicious by any means.

Finally, as if weighed down on, the red eyes flickered to the cup. The drink had not been particularly tasty, far too sweet because of the amount of powder in the water, but he did not complain. It was simple enough, and if that was truly all it took to regain some of his strength then he did not see a reason to object.

He ran his fingers over his left wrist, curling his nails towards the wound where it itched and burned. But he did not scratch, though every instinct in his body begged for just that to be done. He looked up when he heard something being rearranged, and found himself greeted by the scent of a low but steady heat from further in the kitchen.

The boy had moved aside, a little away from him, nearer to the sink, back to him, uneasy in his actions as he began to shift something in front of him. He caught small hints of scent over noise, an airy and yet choking one that made him wrinkle his nose, over the sound of sliding metal against wood and the clicking of the spoon as it stirred the contents within the bowl in front of him.

He crossed his arms, fingers still tracing soothing patterns over his torn flesh, lining the sutures as if to relieve the painful itch, and then lowered his chin to the table. The skin was irritated, prickled and pushed upwards by the wound, the stitches decorating his flesh making a heavy black mark like a child's graphite drawing. He gazed out of hooded eyes, tired mentally but awareness making it impossible to claim such necessary rest. He could do nothing more than frown faintly and watch the boy from his peripheral even as he wished for a blissful slumber to claim him.

How long had it been since he had truly rested?

He flinched at the thought that immediately came to him and sat up straight. The suddenness of the movement made the other boy's head snap around to regard him. His blue-violet eyes flickered up and down his frame, as if to ask without words what might have happened, but he did not gesture for him to look away. It was almost comforting to realize that the other boy was seeing him, that he was in front of someone who saw him by his own choice.

He had been hiding away and drifting along the outskirts of the city for so long that actually having someone within his own sight and allowing them to see him was mystifying to him somehow. It was as if reality had flipped on its side to allow such a transgression to transpire and his insides quaked at the realization.

The boy truly saw him. He had seen him more than once. He was looking at him as if he was more than just a means to an end. He was checking on him as if they were long best friends. He treated him as more than something to cringe away from. It was confusing to see but also extremely refreshing. Despite himself the wolf wanted almost to howl in satisfaction. But to urge died away very simply.

He could not do something like that.

And he doubted that he ever would find it in himself to do such a thing ever again.

He frowned at his own musings as the other boy satisfied with his visual inspection turned away again. Whatever it was that he put on the heated metal sizzled and then perfumed the air in much lighter and fluffier, almost sweetened smell that made him sniff in surprise. The powdery scent that had threatened to suffocate him minutes before was long gone.

It took him several minutes to return to the table and on a plate were several rounded pieces of what looked like flat bread. The wolf narrowed his eyes in contemplation, considering the sight before him. Thin streams of white mist rose from the little flat cakes, and there was a light and earthy scent which crept through his senses. He was drawn to the warmth that radiated from this small stack of food, to the scent which claimed his attention so fully. He leaned forward, wishing for nothing more than the ability to lose himself in its presence somehow.

"I forgot the syrup," he smaller teen muttered, jumping to his feet where he had been sitting for only mere seconds. He made his way to the fridge first, finding exactly what he had hoped would be there. His mother had more expensive maple syrup that she loved to buy and use for holiday breakfasts. Considering she was not there and his winter "vacation"—as Jonouchi so often called it—had begun he saw no need to bother with discretion towards his desire of it.

But when he got to his seat again, something was amiss. Taking the spot in front of the wolf once more made him blink several times. The steam was rising from the cake in harsh rivers of white, as if it had been smothered and only now gotten the air to release some of its heat. He blinked again, then frowned and looked at the other boy, lips instantly pulled into a wide grin as his right brow rose.

"You stole a pancake," he accused.

The other boy shook his head rapidly but Yugi merely raised his brow higher. His cheeks were puffed outwards with the food in his mouth. He was struggling to chew it from the large size and his reaction of stuffing it in his jaws. His eyes were wide, feigning innocence, but everything about his posture said he was caught.

"You actually stole a pancake."

For a moment the wolf shook his head again. Then he pursed his lips and his jaws worked to chew as his shoulder rose and fell in a brier shrug. His eyes narrowed with concentration. He ran a nail along the top of the tablecloth and both of them listened to the soft scratching of it. Then he sat back in his seat fully and blinked lazily, content with his catch of such defenseless food.

Yugi rolled his eyes and smiled in amusement. "I go to get syrup and you steal my food."

He held up a finger and scowled at him.

"One pancake is still stolen goods. I'll have you know that that one pancake could be the very reason that I don't go hungry all day. But we'll never know now, will we? Because you ate it."

He clicked his tongue in clear dismissal and the smaller boy snorted as he shook his head again. The red-eyed teen crossed his arms and settled his chin on the tablecloth behind them, watching him lazily. He looked almost like a content canine preparing to snap its teeth on an unsuspecting family member's meal when they turned away.

Yugi considered for a moment whether the protein shake might have even put a dent in his hunger. The thought made him frown. Was it even possible that he might have such hunger satiated by something so slight? He did not think it was possibly by any means. And the thought made him frown deeper as he leaned back in his seat and looked at him for a moment longer.

He looked so thin and frail, though his eyes said otherwise. There was such power and stubborn ferocity to give them such brilliance in color that it made his insides twist to even question it. But he did not bother to show his discomfort further as he pushed the plate forward.

"Here, go ahead and eat the rest. I'll make some more."

He gave him such a startled look that for a moment Yugi thought he might have given him something more than just food. They blinked at each other and the smaller boy immediately looked away to avoid his curious expression.

"You've got to still be hungry. I'll just make some more and then we'll see if it helped out later, okay?" Yugi paused to consider his words, what he might do to make them lunch or dinner in order to gather as much weight as the other boy could manage. Protein shakes would have been used at both meals as well, in order to make sure he benefited from them more than a simple morning cup.

The wolf gave a curious glance towards the syrup he had brought to the table, clearly questioning its importance. Why had he left the table to grab it, leaving his meal behind for him to snatch away so easily, was a clear inquiry which made his eyes dark with confusion.

He smiled faintly, then grabbed the lid on the syrup, twisting it off. The edges were nearly glued to the glass from where the syrup had dripped into the grooves. He smirked when it popped softly from the pressure where it had crystallized and threatened to hold them together like super glue.

"It's sweet and it makes the pancakes more filling." He wanted to think of something more to say but instead found himself unable to think of further words. He scooted the bottle to the other boy who hesitantly looked it over and then sniffed at the rim of it. The red eyes grew wider, startled by the sweetness that greeted his nose, and then looked the bottle over for a moment longer. "Just tip it to the side and drizzle it over the pancakes. They're a lot better that way."

Yugi left him to his own devices as he went about making more pancakes for himself. He could hear him moving about behind him, the soft clatter of the plate where the fork touched it. He even caught the soft thud where the syrup touched the food on his plate and grew unnerved by the realization as he poured more batter into the skillet. The soft sizzling seemed almost life altering in its familiarity within such an abnormal and almost terrifying new reality for him to reluctantly grasp at.

He kept his head down, looking at the way the batter bubbled gently around the edges and one seemed to burst from the middle. He watched it as it seemed to grow larger for a moment, then slowly deflate into nothingness as if poked by an invisible pin. In the back of his mind he could still hear him, clothes rustling, the sound of his fork working against his plate, the softness of the syrup touching his food.

He clenched his eyes shut, reaching upwards a moment later to run a hand through his hair slowly. The softness was deceptive somehow, as if he might move his fingers a certain way and feel something harsh and sharp sink into his skin. For a moment he thought perhaps such a thing could happen, that maybe it was the wolf under his skin begging to tear into his flesh. But he doubted it was possible unless the disease should work like double identity disorder and he might somehow see and speak to the creature that now shared his flesh.

The thought was horrifying enough to make him drop his last pancake into the burner, flinching back and then quickly turning it off. He frowned, looking at the charred mess that had formerly been as close to a pancake as he had ever assumed he might get. His lips pulled further downwards and then abruptly upwards as a twinge of hatred filled his gut. The pancake getting burned was ironically like his own life and the decisions that were thrust into it now.

He spun around with his plate, leaving the blackened mess on the burner when he felt the heat in his belly growing wider in range and mounting briskly. He nearly slammed the piece of china onto the table the way his hands were gripping it so tightly and the suddenness of his movements. The impact made a hideous thudding and clicking noise that caused the piece of furniture to rattle weakly.

The other boy glanced at him slowly, more curious than even cautious. Yugi frowned, slightly puzzled, as he considered how clean his sharper facial features appeared. Despite the clear fatigue and physical exhaustion which held so tightly to his thin frame, making his cheeks so sunken, he could not find a single speck of syrup among the smears of dried blood on his golden-bronze skin. There was no stickiness there to make him assume he'd missed his mouth or gotten too generous with the syrup.

Instead his face looked as clean as possible around the thin marks of dark reddish-brown. He looked as if he had always eaten with such swiftness and his accuracy might never fail him, his cleanliness always apparent. And he was stunned by his fact, stupefied even. He looked childish and normal for a moment, as if he had enjoyed himself and wanted nothing more than to do it again.

And for a moment Yugi despised him for it.

How dare he find such simplicity and relaxation in a situation that so clearly made him want to flee. How dare he manage to ward such a serene expression, without caution or fear to be shown, when he was struggling with the very idea of his presence there.

And, despite himself, he was even angered by the fact that he, the lycanthrope who seemed more wolf than human, managed to eat without making a mess. Because he usually wound up with something on his face while he was eating, no matter what the meal. He could eat peanuts and find salt all over his face from the corners of his mouth to the bottom of his nose.

And yet, this boy who he thought seemed so animalistic, had the capability to eat without making a mess.

He should have had worse table manners than a caveman…

Yugi nearly cringed at his own pettiness, sighing softly as he lowered his eyes to his plate. Why he was so upset about something so simple was beyond him, but he would have to let it go. It wasn't a reason to be so undone and angry as he was.

"Did you like them?"

He looked at him from the bottom of his long lashes, surprised to see him nodding almost enthusiastically. But there was something in the way he held his jaw and looked at him closely, as if he might vanish from his sight, that made him falter. He raised his head, sitting up a little straighter, and shifted uncomfortably in his spot.

The other boy gave him something of a small, miniscule smile, a ghostly tug of his lips, and then looked away quickly. Yugi watching him, surprised, but his stomach was beginning to ache, feeling hollow and empty, and so he turned to his plate a moment later. With his head down, he watched him in the very corners of his vision. The wolf was unnaturally still for the most part, with only his breaths to make him resemble a living creature.

He did not look at him again, as if trying for a moment to blend into the background of the medium-sized kitchen. He was somehow startled by the idea that he might not raise his eyes to him. He wondered at the idea, curious about how immediately he had turned away when he had looked up. Was it a wolf thing?

He frowned faintly as he took another bite of his breakfast and felt almost burned by the hot butter as his tongue seemed to dwell for a moment. Wolves rarely made eye contact in the wild to avoid fights being unnecessarily brought to the surface within their pack. Was that what was happening here?

He watched him for a long minute, eating what felt like scolding pieces of sweltering metal as he studied him fiercely. And then it occurred to him slowly but surely. The wolf had failed to make eye contact not out of fear of raising his ire, but because he was not focused on him. Like Yugi, he was watching him from the corner of his gaze, studying him intently only where he entered his line of vision.

His eyes were lowered considerably in comparison to him, as at first glance one would assume he was looking at the table. But he was studying, staring, giving him a blatant look that resembled something akin disregard towards his returned attention. He seemed almost be studying the pattern of the woven cloth in front of them. But he was staring at him in a way that made it seem impossible to tell. Because his main objective was the food on his plate which caught and held his attention more fully than even his own eyes burning into his skin.

Yugi frowned, shifting his weight uncomfortably. "You're still hungry," he muttered, almost dumbfounded by his own discovery. But the moment passed swiftly. Of course he was still hungry. Had Yugi not rationalized his need to hunt that poor dog only the day before? Had he not come to realize that not only did he turn his nose up at his former favorite meals but that the very smells seemed to repulse him now? And was it not he who had sworn only hours before during the night while bandaging his wrists? Hadn't he mentally cursed those wounds with fear that his exhausted and famished state would never allow him to heal properly?

He bit his lip, feeling blood well up to coat his tongue. Of course he would not heal from something as simple as one nourishing meal—if one could consider pancakes that much. And the protein shake might have helped, but he had drunk it in one gulp and even with four scoops of powder, he doubted it could hold his hunger. His metabolism was too high, far too fast, and it would devour anything that he put into his stomach within minutes, he suspected.

He hesitated, drumming his fingers against the table. He could drug him. There were drugs in the clinic that he knew the effects of which might help to keep him stable for long enough amounts of time for his body to claim some kind of nourishment. There were some that would put him to sleep and some that wouldn't. Although, with his obvious fatigue, he would not have been surprised to find him asleep even if he picked something that was meant to be non-drowsy. He looked almost as if he might drop where he sat in front of him, though the hunger in his gaze made it clear that he was more focused on food than he was the prospect of rest.

Yugi gnawed his bottom lip for what felt like an eternity, trying to think clearly of what he might be able to use to make him sleep. What could possibly slow his metabolism and give him more room for rest as well? But would slowing his metabolism halt his healing? He still had such limited knowledge of how this disease worked, whether or not this idea might even benefit the weakened lycanthrope.

But what kind of option did he have beyond that? He didn't have time for further investigation, especially upon knowing that his mother and grandfather would not stay away for much longer. Or perhaps they would and he and this lycanthrope might be safe in the meantime. But there was no telling how long the dog might need their help and so he could not truly waste his time.

He rolled his eyes upwards, glancing at the chandelier and taking note of two burned out bulbs that rested across from each other. His lips tugged downwards and he pushed unhappily at the reminder of his breakfast with a distracted movement of his fork. The wolf in front of him did nothing. He swallowed thickly, turning to him again. He could give him the rest—considering he was no longer hungry due to such a harsh realization of his apparent famine—and then look around for something.

But would the wolf see it as a possible threat? Did he know anything about drugs? Did he know what to do with them, how they might affect him? Surely if he was careful and calm when he presented them to him, he would have no reason to lash out or act angrily, right?

He gnawed his lip until the skin tore and the blood that touched his tongue made him flinch. The movement startled the lycanthrope enough to make him raise his head but did nothing to leap his attention. He merely glanced at the blood, then at his food once more. It was as if the pancakes were across him and Yugi himself just a possible object that added to the décor of the room.

He rolled his eyes. In his state of mind, he might very well be the same.

Yugi pushed the plate forward. "Here, you can have the rest." He got to his feet, then flinched. The wolf had lunged forward, snatching his plate so harshly that it rattled where it hit the table hard. The way it was dragged back to the other boy made the table squeak with the force. He cringed, frowning as the wolf dug into the diminished pile with such hunger as to make him feel sick once more.

"I'll be right back. Just…stay where you are until I come back, okay?"

It was the last thing he said to him until he returned about twenty minutes later. As he had instructed, the wolf was in the exact same spot. He had even pushed the plate towards the other end of the table and laid his arms out to rest his chin on. He looked tired but the inner circle of his irises sparked with that apparent hunger as it had minutes before. In this position it was clearly visible how much elasticity his skin had lost. His flesh had pulled tight along his collarbones, and the harshness of his skeletal structure beneath it made him cringe. And then, as if to add to the despairing image, he could make out his veins like rivers beneath the paled pigmentation.

He swallowed hard, nearly choking a she looked at him with wide eyes. His hands were shaking again when he lowered several bottles to the table. The contents rattled in his trembling fingers. The wolf blinked dulled red eyes, then sat up as if he had not noticed him before. The movement made his shoulders jut painfully beneath his tank top and Yugi thought they looked like sharpened knives.

He squeezed his eyes shut, counting the seconds before he could open them again, and blinked to focus his gaze on him after he got to twenty. His mouth was dry, pasty, his tongue pressed firmly against the palate there. His head was spinning for a moment, as if he might heave with desperation and then he ran a hand through his hair in distress.

What if nothing worked? What if he did not heal? What if he had another nightmare and tore his stitches all over again? What if the wounds became infected? What if he developed gangrene? What would he do then? What if he died?

He opened, then closed his mouth immediately.

The wolf blinked up at him.

The seconds seemed to pass with the slowness of thickened honey dripping from the end of a spoon. The clock from the bathroom ticked away without the tension to weigh upon its hands. The fridge hummed without the suffocation that cloaked the room and passed upon the two occupants' throats. The heater clicked on loudly as if to fill the air with a new madness.

He blinked. The wolf frowned minutely.

The seconds passed.

Yugi opened his mouth to try again, then halted once more. It seemed impossible to draw a breath in to speak any longer. He hesitated, then slowly pushed the bottles towards the other boy. It was all he could do, head snapping away to look at the woven white strands of cotton that made up the tablecloth.

There was a distinct but soft rattle that reached his ears. There was a twisting. Then there was a deep and long breath. Another rattle came to him. Then another twisting accompanied it. A sharper breath was drawn. The process was repeated twice. Finally, when he felt his knees might buckle beneath his weight with the strain of such tension, the wolf seemed to take pity on him.

He flinched at the way the pills began to shake violently in their container. But the movement made him raise his head. He blinked, startled, then frowned as he reached forward for what was in the other's hand. The long thin fingers grasped at what he had thought to be the lesser of three evils.

He frowned and took it from him. His strongest night terror medication had some ingredients to put one to sleep. They were meant to knock them out for hours, to allow them restful nights. When he had taken it on those nights he was unable to so much as close his eyes without feeling immediately sickened by the sights to greet him behind his lids, he would be knocked out. But it would not be for the whole night and the dreamless quality it was meant to give him was always filled with images that scared him more than anything.

"Okay," he whispered, shaken as he looked the bottle over again momentarily. He put it aside, looking at the other boy beneath his lashes for a moment, and then twisted the cap off. What was he meant to give him the pills with? He could hand him a glass of water or possibly another protein shake. Perhaps the latter was the best option, but did it not involve him possibly making him sick? What if sugar intake had to be limited for werewolves?

He shook his head, frowning at himself, then looked at the other boy. "Do you want water?" he muttered, unable to raise his voice from its previous volume. But it did not sound as weak as it had before, with a former edge that made him frown faintly. The other boy tilted his head curiously to the side, watching him with knowledge that seemed so far from the capabilities of a normal teenager. Of course, he was not normal, but such a depth of intelligence seemed so surreal in such a moment that he nearly had to swallow a groan. "Or do you want another…protein shake?"

It wasn't technically a smoothie if it wasn't blended with fruit or ice, was it?

He furrowed his brows at the thought but blinked in surprise, expression morphing into curious wonder when the other boy sat up straighter and held up two fingers. He tilted his head, interested in such a movement, before blinking as the wolf frowned faintly and then pointed past him towards the counter. He turned, frowning in puzzlement, and then blushed at his own obliviousness.

He had been answering his question in the only way he knew how. He had meant the protein shake, as he was directing his attention to with his finger pointing. Flushed with embarrassment, Yugi scrambled for the container of powder, ignoring the way he swore he thought the wolf was laughing at him.

But when he turned around the boy was merely watching, eyes hooded with apparent exhaustion. Yugi frowned, then hurried to grab his cup from before and rinse it before assembling a second shake for him. The lycanthrope took the two pills he handed him, looking them over and even momentarily breathing in deeply to take in their scent, and then popped them into his mouth. It was somehow fascinating to watch the way his throat arched and bobbed with the task of swallowing his cup, the way his pulse seemed to jump and the cords in his neck pulled taut beneath his skin.

Then the moment passed. The cup was pushed away. The wolf furrowed his brows and licked at his wet lips. Then he got to his feet and wandered for the living room.

Yugi saw him settle on the cushions in a slightly pensive expression that mellowed minutes later when he began to nod off.

It was with groggy red eyes that he regarded him again as he moved towards the doorframe. The long lashes made cutting shadows from the light's touch and his gaze seemed dilated with the medication. But still he managed to raise his head, to tilt his chin upwards in something mirroring a clear display of defiance. There was a glitter in those dark red orbs that made his skin prickle for a brief moment. Even as his head dipped and swayed as if to some kind of supersonic music only he could hear, his gaze was harsh and full of caution. It spoke of a warning so deep that his bones felt hollowed with the ice that seemed to claim the marrow within them so swiftly. He was placing just enough trust in him to allow this to happen. He would rest. But should Yugi move even an inkling closer the wolf would not fail to protect himself.

The small teen looked away immediately.

"You're safe."

---

There was something raw and bright that flashed through. White-hot fire raced through his blood. His nerves tingled and twitched. The reflection swept through his entire being. Then it fell towards his palm and wrist. The ache dulled somewhat, but flared and flashed upon his nerve endings. His mind twitched and pulled in on itself, twisting inwards. Weakly, as if touching with the only the barest of intentions towards his consciousness, an image passed through his mind.

The edge of it seemed frayed with the way it moved so lazily within his mind. It was if mist had drifted through his skull, weak and small and gossamer. The tendrils were of silver and then of color. They trickled together, swirling as if blown in a circle by wind, and then formed into a sliver of a picture.

There was a shallow but noticeable dip to be seen in the mixture of sun and bulb light. There was a glitter of white, reflected harshly towards his eyes. The dip was wide, rounded out almost perfectly, with smooth rings to make up inch-high sides all around. The white reflection that so burned his eyes was given only the smallest inch of space to exist, and as that area got closer to him, it was swallowed away. Ridges rose like noticeably grooves within a small net of dark gray.

Yugi could not understand it at first. For the longest of seconds his mind circulated this image. Even as sleep attempted to sink its claws within his flesh, he could not shake the picture. It was like viewing the world and his own thoughts in a haze. And it seemed to drag for hours.

It only lasted a handful of moments, he knew, yet it seemed a lifetime.

It cleared within his mind almost immediately after his full focus was allowed its clarity.

The stinging in his wrist and palm pulsated for a moment. He blinked his eyes open stupidly. His mouth was slightly dry. His palms itched and tingled. A soothing, weak, yet hypnotizing touch chilled his skin. It came to him that his body was healing itself. It was a stunning thought. He had not been burned on the stove as the other had. Yet this phantom pain was given the same treatment as his body would have granted should he have.

He slowly got to his feet, distracted by this soft but intense chilling tingle which he had first been greeted during his recovery from Ushio's attack. It was amazing the strange connection that seemed to have come into existence overnight. He had helped him with his wounds and other such things and now he himself was experiencing a flesh wound the other had accidentally inflicted upon himself. His lips quirked in curiosity and slight amusement, shocked by the very thought and the intensity of such a strange concept, and then stumbled forward.

His feet felt unsteady for a moment. But he did not argue as he wandered forward. He was tired, exhausted even, as he continued forward towards the red-eyed teen's place in the kitchen. He was leaning against the counter, frowning thoughtfully, with narrowed eyes and crossed arms. His right hand was gingerly held further beneath the fold of his elbow, fingers stretched out. He looked almost offended by the very existence of his wound as well as the fact that something could do such a thing to him. And, even though he glanced at Yugi sideways, it was clear that he was not amused by the burner that he'd turned on.

"You can't touch the metal when the oven is on," Yugi muttered, shrugging when the other turned to face him more fully with a tilted his head. "You can feel the heat for several inches past the rings of metal, so you need to remember if you can feel it you shouldn't get too close to it. And never reach for it, obviously."

When he gave him a small smile of something like fondness and amusement, eyebrow very slowly rising into a curious expression, the quirk of his lips to the right side of his mouth was extremely noticeable. His fingers were still tingling as he flipped his palm over to show him that he was not holding anything. The red-eyed teen blinked then frowned faintly as he looked his short fingers over and then the pale flesh of his palm. For a moment his gaze seemed to grow faraway, darkened and drifting as if his consciousness was not held in one place. Then a small fleeting light crept through his gaze, dangerous in intent, with a faint sense of familiarity that made his lips pull up into a slightly more surprised expression. His brows rose minutely, his eyes narrowed faintly, and his lips parted the slightest bit.

However the red-eyed teen did not respond further. His expression grew more neutral. The darker shade came to his eyes once more, the distraction which had claimed his thoughts so fully fleeting now. His head tilted towards him after a moment and his vision locked upon Yugi's. The eye contact made them both frown faintly at each other before he abruptly stepped back.

Both of their right wrists flashed with pain as acute as lightning the moment he flipped it to gesture for him to take the lead. The smaller teen was frozen for a moment, startled by the gesture, and then frowned as he glanced at the skillet and the box of pancake mix on the counter next to the spatula lying there. He was not sure the wolf was giving him leadership because he was wounded or because he realized that the advantage was in Yugi's favor. The fact that he knew the house as his own living space and thus could use all of the facilities that was offered there meant that he knew more than the other.

"Are you okay?"

The wolf blinked at him, studying him for a long moment that felt as if hours might have passed, and then finally turned away. The movement was abrupt and sharp, and his chin jerked down in such an angle as to make it clear that he was unsure of his concern but was attempting a nod all the same.

He was frozen for a moment, startled by what seemed to be something akin ferocity in the other's actions. "Do you want pancakes and a protein shake or do you want the protein shake first like yesterday?" he asked, looking at him closely.

It took a moment for the other boy to answer. His head tilted, his eyes narrowed faintly, and he debated. Finally, a little while later, he held up two fingers, watching him as if to see if this time he might understand the meaning behind his response.

Yugi wanted almost to laugh wryly at him but swallowed the response. This was not Jonouchi or Honda. This was, without a doubt, a werewolf who could grow offended and easily decide to destroy him should he wish it. So he did not think to respond verbally and instead started for the cupboard to grab a glass as he had before. In the moment it took him to do this, the wolf was gone.

When he turned around, at first he was shocked. Then he felt a small spark of indignation light his insides. His eyes narrowed and his jaw clenched for a moment. So the wolf had just given him a direction and then wandered off? He opened his mouth to snap that he should make the protein shake himself when something caught his attention. In the corner of his eye a flash of color made him freeze.

It looked as if blood red gems were pressed hard into the shape of four almonds.

His head turned, startled, and he nearly dropped the cup.

The wolf was seated at the table. And while his shoulders were not raised, nor his body rigid, his eyes were blazing. It was clear that he had sensed Yugi's change of attitude, that he had felt it, and so grown irritable in response. His lips did not curl back nor did his jaw clench. But he was leaned forward just the slightest bit and where his nails pressed into the fabric of the cover, he swore he saw the threads breaking. It was a trick of his mind, he knew, but it did not stop him from thinking such a thing.

He froze for a moment, then blinked and looked quickly towards the table with a slight frown marring his features. It was surprising to Yugi that the other might look at him with such ferocity one moment and see it wiped away so efficiently from his face the next. He merely watched him again, lazily turning his head to face his stinging skin. Yugi expected for a moment that he might snarl but rather a second passed before the red-eyed teen slowly pressed his tongue against his stricken flesh. It was so awkward and animalistic that it made him halt for what felt like an eternity, watching with a startled and almost dazed expression.

The other boy did not so much as raise his eyes to him, intently focused on his wound and soothing the pain even as the smaller went about pushing the protein shake across the table towards him. His tongue continued lapping at his reddened skin even as he caught the perspiring cup by the tips of his fingers, halting it with no effort.

Yugi shuddered, somehow shaken by the display of his incredible reflexes, and swallowed hard as he continued watching him with wide eyes. The reality that he himself might move that quickly, with such efficiency and power in even the simplest of actions, made his heart pound even as hi mouth grew dry. An exhilarating sense of fear coursed through his jumbled senses, forceful enough that his stomach dropped painfully and his head pounded faintly along his right temple.

Only days ago, he would have been awed by the idea of being presented such ability. The thought of hearing such easily controlled and perfect reflexes was something that would have made him practically jump for joy. But since then he had seen someone die in front of him, watched someone else turn into a wolf, and he himself has struggled bodily thorough his own unnaturally change into one. He spent more of his time wondering about what horrors he might be capable of rather than the ones that he normally feared from others.

He had not fully spent time with his friends in a while, nor had he completely wondered at such an absence. But that, like many other things, had become something that he could not fully bring himself to care about. He did not think he had the energy to truly care about it all. The circumstances surrounding his very existence had changed so irreparably, with such intense speed, that he felt almost as if he could not fully remember what it was like before then.

He closed his eyes tightly for a brief moment, exhaling deeply, and then turned on his heel to return to the newest task that he had decided to busy himself with. Turning his back on the other teen should have made his nervous and he was almost thrown by his own lack of caution as he grabbed the mix. The fact that the other boy's presence did not make him question his own safety made him wonder as he adjusted the temperature on the burner.

The art of making the pancakes themselves was mindless. Yugi had done it so often that now that to use the stove and proper measurement tools was practically without thought. And so, as he flipped the first one and let his mind wander, he found himself wondering at the idea of Valon's words before.

What exactly was an "alpha"? Had he ever truly explained the concept to him? He did not think he had but he could have easily forgotten it sometime with the stress of the whole situation. Obviously thoughts of the Change and trying to hunt down this red-eyed creature behind him could have easily distracted him by all means. And that was to go without even taking into consideration this new idea of testing his healing through bloodletting.

He could hear him as he moved around behind him, gentle shifts of balance rather than getting to his feet or walking elsewhere. The chair let out a soft rustling as his weight pressed more fully into the bottom. He was slight but they were old, had been in the family for years.

Yugi reached up to rub at his temple, pursing his lips faintly as he shook his head slightly. He could not remember if the other werewolf had mentioned an explanation. If he had, it must have gone completely over his head as it was. He had a habit of letting things slip right past his understanding due to too much tension at times. It was no question that it might have been with distraction that he was given his answer.

But he mostly just remembered what he had said about the bloodshed, how he wasn't supposed to exist. How was one supposed to shake a comment like that? Yugi shook his head with a small frown and bit his lip as he glanced over his shoulder with every intention to ask what it was that he meant.

It occurred to him immediately after his head turned that perhaps this wolf was not the one to ask. If he had any idea what Valon meant, he might turn on him. And Yugi wasn't entirely sure, but he thought with relative certainty that he would not survive that. This wolf knew how to survive, had knowledge of fighting, could kill him easily if he only tried. It was clear in his mind's eye just how easily he had overpowered both of the wolves multiple times before he'd inevitably been overcome.

Yugi put the pancake on the plate and went to the next, furrowing his brows faintly. What if the wolf attempted to kill him later? When he was healed and healthy again, would he turn his teeth on him? The thought seemed almost impossible but with all the things that had happened only recently he did not think there was much to truly be considered as such any longer.

"Here," he muttered a few minutes later, turning around with the plate in his hands and the bottle of syrup held tight by his pinkie where it was braced against the china. The other boy sat up and his eyes lit up as if someone had just given him the best gift in the world. Yugi faltered for a brief second, then placed the dish down and pushed it towards him. A small tremor ran through the other boy's frame and he could see him gripping at the tablecloth with excitement. He looked almost as if he might drool at any moment as Yugi blinked at him stupidly and then smirked in amusement and shook his head slightly.

The red-eyed lycanthrope ignored his existence the moment the plate was fully in front of him. The smaller blinked and tilted his head, brow rising and a warm feeling of amusement creeping through his insides. His visitor launched himself at the plate, snatching the fork and easily cutting through his breakfast. He practically shoveled them into his mouth, not once even pausing as if to give him a glance. Instead the teenager watched him with an amused, childish wonder as he continuously dug into his food and got syrup across his mouth but did not once pause or even choke.

It seemed as if only a second had passed before the wolf was staring at his plate with a slightly bemused expression. A thin ring of bright brown traced the corner of the china, a little mote of syrup that he had failed to mop up with his pancakes. Little soaked crumbs were like mountains where he spotted them sticking out of the sticky river. The scent made his nose wrinkle faintly, a sweetness that made him blink, but there was nothing that his mind picked up as unnatural. The pancakes themselves were another matter altogether, but he was hungry and then sated it if only faintly. They made the pain bearable enough to relax and sleep later.

He glanced up at the other boy. At the other end of the table, the smaller boy had propped his chin in his hand. His lips were pulled back into the widest of grins, eyes sparkling with laughter. His fingers were positioned across his lips as if to shield his expression from him, but they were too small and the curve of his mouth too great. His eyebrow was still raised, his head faintly tilted to the right, and he could hear the way he struggled to smother the laughter that he knew lingered in his lungs.

He pulled his brows together and pursed his lips, unimpressed with his amusement. The other boy's shoulders moved once and his breath came in a full snort of laughter. His blue-violet eyes flickered towards the tablecloth almost immediately after, snorting again as he shook his head faintly. He'd never seen someone so excited to eat food and then so mystified by how quickly it was gone when they'd practically wolfed it down without chewing.

---

The wolf stretched and curled up tighter on the couch nearby, the sole attraction in his peripheral. His hair was tangled further, darkened by the blood that he still had yet to clean from the long strands. His bangs were frazzled, greasy, and Yugi pursed his lips as he tried to keep his attention fully on the television in front of him. His frame was small when he pulled his legs to his torso and seemed to collapse within the cushions. His breaths came out slow and even, a gorgeous and mesmerizing melody in his ears, with the gentlest of whistles to accompany each exhale.

The pillow beneath his head was wrinkled against his skin, marking half of it red with the force of which he had burrowed into it. A moment passed and then his arms stretched outwards and his legs pressed into the armrest at the end of the couch. His breath came out long and slow, a hissing quality replacing that of the whistling that had once served as its undertone. It curled into a gentle sigh then became momentarily silent as his eyes blinked open.

Yugi did not look at him for a long moment, instead staring at the screen where the reporters were, again, stating that the police seemed to have no leads as to what had happened regarding the deaths of Miho, Kokurano, Ushio or Tomoya. He swallowed hard, remembering for a second the way that his mother had explained Kokurano's death, that his entire body had been incinerated from the inside. The thought made him want to puke but his head turned instead and he gave the other boy a small smile in greeting, forcing away his nerves for the moment.

"Sleep well?"

There was only silence to meet his question but the other boy nodded at him as if to make up for his lack of communication otherwise. The taller teen moved to drape his legs over the edge of the cushions and then pushed his arms towards his lap. His elbows touched his hips with the position and his eyes were somewhat groggy as he began to sit up fully. His long lashes made them look narrow, and unnaturally so, as if he had but only half the size of the average human's. They looked almost more…wolf-like in expression, narrow and perhaps even almond-shaped.

His gaze was that of a deep and burning ember, so bright red that it seemed almost as if it were made of fire. When he looked through his lashes at him, the shadows of them long and dangerous like jagged black peaks that made them nearly invisible, he felt his stomach twist faintly. It was not an uncomfortable sensation, more just a curious and confused one which made him bite the inside of his cheek.

"Are you hungry again?"

The wolf blinked at him slowly, then tipped his chin up just enough to look at him more fully. The smaller teen blinked in confusion at the more direct nature of the glance, tilting his head curiously at the expression. It was something important that lingered in those red eyes, which he thought now glittered like rubies in direct sunlight or blood against snow. He blinked at the image in his mind and then frowned pointedly as he watched other boy calmly.

His head shook after a moment and turned to the television as if the scene which played across the screen was truly worthy of his attention. Yugi was unable to look away for a moment, somewhat fascinated by the way the lights played across his gaze in jagged discoloration from the length of his lashes and the dark shadows that they cast. He shivered faintly, turning away again as he thought once more of blood and wondered at the news report that they had gone towards instead.

Had any of them come to realize that there were wolves involved in the kills? Or was that still something that non one had put together with each murder? And, if they were still concerned about the drug use that they had initially assumed Kokurano's death to be involved in, did they have any leads towards it? Yugi would have loved to hear that his own disease had nothing to do with the entire incident, that the other boy's eyes had rolled in the back of his head and he'd choked on his blood and his insides destroyed so completely because of less than that. He would have loved to know that he would stay alive and healthy throughout it all instead of seemingly destroying him slowly but purposefully as the days progressed.

It was ten minutes later that the other boy shifted his position again. His entire body tensed slightly, his shoulders rising faintly, and his elbows moved from his hips to his kneecaps. He hunched forward, his long, thin legs moving faintly forward along the wooden floor. His eyes were still on the screen, head still turned towards it, but his attention, he knew, was on something else entirely. He shifted again moments later, this time a little louder than before.

"You okay?" Yugi asked, turning his head in confusion and frowning faintly. The other boy blinked at the screen and then looked towards him after a moment. His head tilted to the side and he fidgeted again under the smaller boy's gaze.

It occurred to him, watching him as his nails began to drum against his knees and shook his head, that he had not used the bathroom since he had gotten there. Yugi blinked stupidly at the realization, stomach flipping as he wondered at the idea that he had not eaten or drank enough to have to use the bathroom, but they also complained loudly to their parents that they needed to. The fact was that this boy was neither extremely young nor did he speak. Those two ideas made it more similar to the idea of a dog whining at the door to him than anything else.

He got up, dusting himself off to get rid of some crumbs from the sandwich he had eaten before and not bothered to clean up after, and turned to him. "Come on, I'll show you where the bathroom is," he muttered, gesturing towards him with a flick of his wrist. The other boy scrambled to his feet immediately, steps behind him as he looked at the blue-violet-eyed teen eagerly.

He led him along the hallway and then towards the bathroom outside of his room, somewhat unnerved but the idea of allowing him entrance into his own safe haven. He cast a glance towards it, however, feeling almost sick to his stomach as if the red-eyed teen knowing his nervousness would then ensure use against him later. Yugi shook his head sharply, then grabbed the knob tightly as he twisted his wrist and pushed the door in for him.

The other boy came to his side, stepping in when he gestured around turning the light on, and both of them raised a brow at each other. The smaller teen blinked at him, gesturing again, and mumbled, "Okay, so this is the bathroom."

The lycanthrope tilted his head to the side and his brow arched higher.

Yugi blinked at him, confused, and shook his head. "What?" he muttered, frowning curiously as the other boy continued to simply stare at him. Both of them stared at each other, almost mocking him with a question in his eyes that he did not fully understand until then. Yugi reached up to run a hand through his hair, groaning softly and shaking his head again faintly as he bit his cheek hard.

"You don't know how to use the bathroom…?"

Where had he grown up? Where was it that he had come from in the first place? Wherever he had come from, had it not had plumbing?

A thought occurred to him and it almost awed him as he looked at the other boy again with widened eyes, a sense of despair and sympathy curling his way through his insides. Had he been born in the woods? Was it possible for werewolves to be born as canines instead of human? Was it possible that they might be born in the wilderness and raised there as well? Or was it possible that perhaps he had been lost on his own but learned to survive one way or another?

Hadn't he read a book at one point where a boy had survived in the desert eating bugs and cacti and eventually relearning the way to speak to people again?

It was possible, however, that he had been found by an animal at some point that had adopted him as their own. That would explain why he didn't talk, though he probably knew how to—or at least he seemed to. No, he did; he remembered. He had asked him, hadn't he? He had asked him if he knew how but did not like to. And, if he was raised in the woods, that might explain why he was unfamiliar with the house's plumbing. It might also explain why he had reacted so strangely when he had first tried to bring him inside.

"Um, it's…" Yugi paused, biting his lip, then gestured vaguely towards the toilet again before shaking his head and chewing his cheek. He wondered if homeless people had to be reacquainted with things like this for a moment and then shook his head sharply at himself. He looked at the toilet, then raised the seat of it and bit his lip. "Okay, so…this shouldn't be too hard. Wolves pee standing up—or at least the males do. So, I mean, maybe you'll be a little familiar with this…"

The other boy was watching him such rapt attention that Yugi felt his cheeks heat with embarrassment as he tried to consider another way to teach him. His mouth pulled at the corners into another, more pronounced grimace, and he reached a hand up to run through his hands again. "Well, o-obviously you're not going to…lift your leg—you just…"

His entire face had grown engulfed by flame, every hint of his skin burning with sheepishness. Oh gods, how was he really meant to explain this…?

He opened his mouth again to speak to the other boy, but his mouth found itself shutting abruptly. The lycanthrope had pulled his right upper canine to puncture his bottom lip, red eyes lowered towards the floor and his head tipped slightly away from him. But Yugi could see the edges of his mouth curving the slightest bit, stretching only minutely, and when he glanced sideways at him from the corner of his eye the smaller boy nearly groaned in frustration. His red gaze had grown bright with mirth, but darker with smugness, and his eyebrows had pulled faintly together, his bottom lip bleeding from the force of his canine pressed so firmly against it.

"You little shit," he whispered, almost awed by the very fact that he looked so playful at the moment. If he had been Jonouchi or Honda he might have slugged him in the shoulder, but the other was so far removed from such a friendship that Yugi did not even fully consider it. Instead he gave him a sharp look and shrugged his shoulder in amusement, watching the smug expression on his face grow much stronger in appearance. He chuckled after a moment, then snickered, and finally burst out laughing. "Use the bathroom, you jackass."

He wandered back into the living room, still laughing in amusement, and took a seat in his grandfather's recliner once more. He snuggled into the softened, worn leather material, and closed his eyes as he settled against the headrest comfortably. It was a lazy and familiar position, even though his throat ached gently as he continued to snicker softly in amusement.

He tilted his head when he caught the sound of something heavier moving about in the bathroom. The toiled had flushed seconds before, he realized as he turned his head and listened harder, and now there was a heavy barrage of noise to make him frown in puzzlement. It occurred to him that the uneven but powerful pattering of noise was that of the shower being turned on. He stepped short, surprised by the sudden action, and newly gaped as he continued listening.

It became a slow, steady droll of noise after several minutes and Yugi found himself eventually pushing it away into near nonexistence as he stared at the television in front of him. It took another few minutes for him to realize that the water had even been turned off. And by the time he turned around the other had already come back to take his place on the couch.

His hair looked shaggy with the weight of the water, but he seemed much happier with himself as he ran a hand through the soaked strands and fluffed up his long bangs. When he shook his head, droplets glittered and fell like heavily discolored with the weight of the former flakes of near black dried blood. However he noticed that his nails were still that deep, bloodied red, thick and almond-shaped, with the tips long and curved as if inwards in design like then talons.

His face was the same beautiful golden-bronze of the rest of his skin, glorious and almost like sun-baked sand beneath the heat of the desert. And, as it began to rapidly dry, the base of black hair looked as beautiful and striking as the plumage of a raven, the crest of it dark red and almost rustic in shade.

His long, slender fingers moved to reach up and touch his chin as he propped it in his palm and ran a few digits over his right cheek with an expression that spoke nearly of boredom. The nail beds caught his attention again, however, striking in shade and making his stomach twist faintly as he looked them over uncomfortably.

He had not noticed before, but his left thumbnail was twisted, almost mutated in shape. The thick almond shape was notably absent, the color still as deep and terrifying as it had been upon first glance. The cuticle had grown inwards and upwards, a faint and almost unnoticeable formation. It was a gentle, nearly nonexistent curve, the pale skin discoloring it only faintly, and the shape of it was almost like that of a full moon with only the edges curled away as if it were waning.

Yugi looked down at his own nails, curious and somewhat mystified by the shape of it. But his own still looked softly rounded, nowhere near as sharp in definition and shape as the other teenager's, and the color was a little darker than he had noticed before but it still lacked the blood red shade.

His nails were thin, nearly nonexistent lines of white against the pale, pink base, and his lips quirked to the side at the realization. If the color was already growing darker, did that mean that he would soon have the same shade of blood red as the other boy? And, if he did, what was there he could do to hide it all away? Would his cuticle push upwards as well, to make his left thumbnail look similar?

He looked back towards the screen, then glanced sideways at the boy again, feeling sick to his stomach for a brief second. He had not taken notice of his scrutiny, at least visibly, though he was sure that he was paying attention without turning to look at him as well. The small teen took another moment to scrutinize his expression, to see the relaxed position he sat in, the way he so obviously kept tabs on him from the corner of his eye.

His clothes looked a little better-fitted on his body now, as if his frame had somehow filled in his sleep. But his shoulders were still sharp and his collarbones remained painfully visible. His stomach lurched at the way his arms seemed unusually thin even from beneath his teal jacket which hung limply along the limbs but it was obvious in the way that it hung there that his form was still far too skinny and he looked almost sickly when he tilted his chin and his neck corded.

Altogether, however, he looked better than he had seen him before. His wolf form was far healthier in expression, he knew, but his human one lacked such consistency. The smaller boy leaned back against the chair again, visibly relieved that the protein shakes and pancakes seemed to do well with the combination of sedatives. It was gaining him some weight—in fact, it was more than he had expected considering it had only been a couple of days. That fact alone was good enough for him.

He was sleeping through the night. And, in the daytime, his eyes were bright with life and emotion. He looked healthier, somewhat stronger, and he was visibly more relaxed after eating all of that food and medication. He had woken up fine, even taken a shower and used the bathroom. As far as Yugi was concerned, that was nothing to complain about.