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.

21. Home

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

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

Chapter Warnings: Some Profanity, Boys Being Pervs

Okay, so the way the middle school system in Japan works (from what I've read of it), the grades are sixth to ninth. So the first year of high school would be when they would turn sixteen. Thus, they would be fifteen at the end of middle school. Which totally threw me off so many times writing this chapter LOL

So, recent research done, I found out that some schools in Japan DO have students move about to get to different classes but it's very uncommon. So, for that reason, Yugi calls Domino High "westernized" as a way of pointing this out. Also, after school, most of them have after-school activities that they all participate in; in Japan they're all BUT mandatory from what I read, but in America it's optional, so because of Domino High being "westernized" it also shares this in common with American high schools. After-school activities happen at the discretion of the students in this story for this school. Otherwise they tend to do their own thing and run off to the arcade or cafes to hang out together or wherever else they want to go.

By the way, feel absolutely FREE to tell me if I missed anything that anyone might want a warning for. I was editing four chapters straight over the last couple of days so things kind of began to blur into one huge sequence in my head and I totally forgot some of the things I would need to put warnings in for.

Chapter XXI: Home

Work Log Entry XXI: June, 1997

June 4

The boss has proclaimed this his first birthday for reasons unknown. Though we cannot recover the date that he was born due to the blood smudged on the pages of the report written that day, we all know that it was not this month but July.

Everyone is confused by this procedure but the wolf pup hardly seems to care.

He is growing just enough to be satisfactory for our boss.

But his eyes have not changed.

And looking into them for a long period of time could drive anyone mad.

The small blue-violet-eyed teen looked up from his bento after a moment, just in time to see Jonouchi punch Honda's shoulder playfully. They had been joking back and forth for the last several hours, in between classes and now as they were sitting at the arcade getting food around video games. He had only been listening vaguely to the noise they made and so he had no idea what it was that they had been arguing and kidding about. There was basically no sense to listen to anything they were saying in all reality.

His sense of companionship had dwindled as the hours had gone by. Being at their sides for so long had left him less than keen on remaining with them. It was so loud and tiresome and his irritation was spiking simply because of the glances he had been given by Sozoji earlier that day. Like earlier, he had failed to do more than give him a backwards look upon realizing he was nearby. Because of that, Jonouchi had declared him the official bully repellent of the group.

His declaration had made Honda snicker but Anzu had gotten frustrated on his behalf and Yugi had felt his stomach turning. That had not been less than true in all actuality. He had been somehow scaring his bullies off with simple glances at them. Something about his lycanthropy seemed to make them nervous enough to practically flee away from him immediately. None of them even looked at him for more than half a second. And if they did, it was never with eye contact to be made. They looked at his face, near his eyes, and usually below them instead of above.

In fact, now that he considered it, none of them had dared to look higher than his eyes. Not once had any of them thought to look at his brows or his forehead. It was his cheekbones and his bottom lashes that were in their sights. If they bothered to look at his face, which most of them didn't anymore…

Yugi bit his lip and wondered. When had he last made eye contact with anyone who had bullied him formerly? He could not recall any beyond his being bitten and before then it had been in passing and never taken too seriously aside from Ushio.

He fought away that train of thought. If he continued down it, he was sure that nothing good would come of it. And he'd wasted enough time thinking about it and worrying and considering.

For the briefest of moments he saw Tomoya in the forefront of his mind. His insides shuddered painfully at the reminder but he did not allow it to show. Instead he drew in a deep breath and looked away towards his food again.

"Even Yug agrees with me! Right, man?"

He glanced up and tried to backtrack to the very source of the conversation. But he had ceased to pay attention then and it showed now. He looked up at the blond with an apologetic, distracted expression lighting his eyes.

"Dude!" he wheedled, shaking his head and giving him a sharp glare with honey brown eyes. "What the hell, man? You're supposed to just back me up!"

Yugi obliged, turning to Honda with a small smirk of amusement. "It's true."

"Well, that's funny coming from you," the brunet replied, raising an eyebrow in pure amusement, "considering he was just saying you like rolling around in dog piss."

The small teen blinked, then spun on his blond best friend who was howling with laughter. "What? Jonouchi, you ass!" he spat out in mock anger, grabbing a chopstick and throwing it at his forehead. "What the hell?"

Anzu was smiling, trying her hardest not to laugh. "To be fair, he said it three times and waited for you to notice," she snickered, blue eyes shining with laughter.

He felt his cheeks grow flushed. "W-what? Seriously?"

"You had every chance to defend yourself," Honda agreed with a wide grin. "Every chance, Yugi."

The small teen reached up to scratch the back of his head. "Oh..." He laughed awkwardly. "Just to clarify though, I do not roll around in dog pee. Or pee of any kind for that matter. Just pointing that out."

"Don't worry, your dirty secret is safe with us," Jonouchi snorted playfully.

He rolled his eyes and tossed his other chopstick at him before turning away again. "You're an ass," he grumbled again, balling up his napkin and tossing it as well.

"You're the one who wasn't paying attention!"

"That doesn't mean you start talking jabs at me! I mean, honestly, there wasn't even a warning for that!"

"People who don't pay attention don't get warnings."

"That's messed up."

"But also true."

Yugi rolled his eyes again and looked away to pick at his nails with disinterest. But the color there shocked him. It was not that they had turned bloody like Yami's were. It was the fact that they were thicker and the color near the base of his cuticles a shade darker. His stomach tossed.

The color must have drained from his cheeks because his friends immediately grew tense. Each of them looked at him with the most rapt attention he had ever truly known them to possess. He looked up with his teeth clenched on his right cheek.

"What?" he asked in what he hoped was a mild tone.

They stayed quiet for a moment, collective in their brief silence, then glanced at each other somewhat uneasily.

"You just looked a little upset," Anzu finally said, frowning at him cautiously.

"I did?" Yugi asked, frowning faintly in faux puzzlement. "Oh, well I'm not. I'm just kind of tired. My mom woke me up yesterday night at like three in the morning and had me help her with a shepherd for a few hours. I didn't entire sleep it off last night."

Beside him, Honda raised a brow and narrowed his eyes faintly. His tone was off, too flippant and basic and altogether unconcerned. Yugi usually got slightly concerned when his friends were and he knew his voice to sometimes become apologetic and guilty because of it all. He hated to worry them. And he often showed it in the act of trying to take their minds off things by steering conversation elsewhere.

But he was not doing so now. And there was something strange within his gaze that unnerved the tall brunet. The smaller teen looked, for a moment, almost as if he wanted nothing more than to ignore them altogether. But there also seemed to be something almost blank and reserved and cold within his dark eyes. It was unfamiliar, entirely foreign, and that was the only reason he recognized its alien presence.

Yugi looked distinctly disturbed and angered to such a point as to appear nearly hateful. Whatever had caught his attention now held it even as he reassured Jonouchi and Anzu that there was nothing wrong and he was simply tired.

It was shocking to see such expression in his gaze, whether or not he meant to portray it. He had never once seen him seemingly so furious despite his relaxed features. And Honda wondered, staring at Yugi and then glancing at his other two friends, if they saw it too.

The concern was still evident on their faces, but he was unsure that it was not residual rather than current. They could very easily have misread his eyes, seen them in a light which did not truly exist. Or perhaps that was his own perception. Maybe he was the one who saw something amiss where there was none.

But that alien emotion was unmistakable, especially where it warred so powerfully against the small teen's very nature. It was disconcerting to recognize the emotion he had so often seen when his grandparents had fought hideously over his upbringing with his parents. It was horrifying to see that emotion he knew from his families clashing and butting heads so terribly. The smaller teen had seemed incapable of such a sensation before.

Yugi was so kind and gentle, with such optimism, that it made his insides twist and his stomach drop with discomfort. Sure, Honda knew him to hate violence, but that was not what it was directed towards now. He was not sure of where it was meant to be displayed, but it was not violence by any means.

There was no altercation anywhere around them. Their day, in all actuality, had been relaxed and simple from the moment they had all crossed paths. Not even numerous run-ins with former bullies had changed that.

He didn't draw attention to it, however, and instead played the levelheaded one of the three concerned friends as he always had.

"So, what happened with the dog?"

Yugi blinked and looked at him. That little light in his eyes had deepened slightly, growing just the smallest bit. "He was hit by a car, like most of them are when they cross that road." He appeared almost to have the instinct to shrug, but fought it off at the last second with a tiny twitch of his shoulders. "He had lacerations along the face, his ears were torn open and ragged, he had a lot of internal bleeding, his ribs were fractured, and his back right leg was completely broken. It took about three or four hours to fix it all."

"I can't believe that people would hit an animal and just leave it like that," Anzu huffed in frustration, shaking her head with something of a small glare. "That's disgusting."

"Well, they're not people," Jonouchi pointed out as always, rolling his eyes when she spun on him angrily. "If they were, there wouldn't be laws for people to hunt them."

"Jonouchi, you insensitive asshole," she breathed in an acidic voice, "those are most often people's pets that end up over on that road!"

"Okay, but that doesn't change anything. It's still an animal—"

"You're forgetting that little kids often traverse that street as well," Yugi stated as he pushed his food towards Honda when he noticed his eyes had fallen on it. Beef bento was one of the brunet's favorites, and the food was just making the small teen's stomach twist. The scent made his nose feel as if it were bleeding. "Sure, it's earlier in the day, but there have been a lot of close calls with them too. There have also been daylight collisions where someone runs the light and slams into someone else. It's really just a miracle no one has been killed there during one."

The blond rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, okay, Yugi, but you're missing the point," he argued. "If it was a kid or a person who had been hit—"

"People get hit by cars all the time other places, including parts of Japan. Sometimes it's when someone is walking home from school or riding a bike from the market or whatever mundane thing they were doing. Jonouchi, they get hit. And sometimes they don't get help. Lots of drunk teens get too freaked out to check on them and just call in anonymously so that they can't be held responsible. But in the meantime that person they just hit could be dead."

"Yugi—"

"What? It's true. Just because it's a person who got hit doesn't mean that everyone rushes to save them."

"Okay, but that's still not the point."

"Fine, then tell me what the point is because from where I was sitting, I'm pretty sure we were just at the part where you were telling us that people care more about people than they do animals." When his friend stared at him with a somewhat frustrated expression and Anzu looked between them awkwardly as Honda watched their faces keenly, Yugi simply watched with a blank expression. "Was that or wasn't that the point of your argument?"

Jonouchi waved his hand in annoyance, scoffing, "We need a subject change."

The smaller teen gladly turned away from the topic, satisfied that he had proven something of his point. "So, what was this game you wanted to see me play?"

The tension which had been accumulating within their small group dissipated almost immediately. The change of topic made Jonouchi jump at the opportunity of showing the small teen the game he had been telling him about earlier that day. Both of them wandered off towards it, Yugi all but ignoring him as he explained the rules.

The hour passed with Yugi defeating the former high score and both of them returning back to the other two. He wasn't sure what it had been they had been speaking about but his approach towards their table immediately made them both fall quiet. Of course, he was sure he wasn't meant to notice that. But he didn't bring attention to it and Jonouchi seemed rather happily oblivious towards it.

He wanted for a moment to challenge them, frustrated with this development, but confrontation had never been very big in his nature. So he took his seat and twisted the soda can he had bought minutes before around in his palms. But the liquid didn't taste as good anymore and the bubbling felt soothing yet somehow harsh upon his tongue, bursting violently against his taste buds.

"Hey, I'm going to make a soda run," Honda announced, glancing at Jonouchi with something of a pointed expression. The blond looked at him in confusion for a moment, then glanced between Yugi and Anzu, and sprang to his feet.

"Yeah, why don't I help you?"

Yugi snorted loudly as they both began to walk off, Anzu rolling her eyes. "They're just so subtle, aren't they?" she muttered.

The smaller teen shot her a wide, amused grin. "The most subtle ever," he agreed, glancing back towards where he knew they were standing around the soda machines watching them. Jonouchi immediately looked away again and Honda covered his face with his hand at his friend's awkwardness. "I guess that gives us room to talk though, right?"

She sat up a little more, with that same hopeful expression he had seen the moment he had said his grandpa was getting better formerly. "Yeah, I guess it does," she agreed quietly.

Yugi looked at her for a moment, mind racing in a direction far opposite of what he had initially meant it to travel. The memory of his lie now made his stomach toss. What would she do if she discovered the truth, that he was housing a boy who had killed two of their classmates in cold blood?

A boy who had subsequently saved his life by infecting him with an incurable disease?

A boy who had killed two other people in the woods and possibly more?

What would she do when she found out that he himself had killed someone?

And what would she do when she realized the reasoning behind it, that he had killed Bakura in order to save Yami?

He nearly trembled at the thought. She'd probably think him just as disgusting and loathsome as he did himself. He swallowed hard, biting the inside of his left cheek.

"I think I need to get home," he announced, his words detached and strained. "If I'm not home by curfew, my mom is going to freak out."

Anzu blinked at him as if he were telling her a joke that she did not understand. She shook her head slightly, frowning at him in bewilderment, and the two missing members of their group hurried to intervene. When his head snapped towards them, it was only when Honda had hissed something about their plan crashing and burning. And Anzu swore she saw something distinctly like alarm within his darkened blue-violet eyes just before it faded. Then his eyes brightened faintly, with something so much like relief that it made her stomach clench.

Something was very wrong with the small teen.

Anzu had never seen him react with such precision and speed before. Even when he played video games and always managed to win, his eyes had never seemed so sharp and focused, his expression so keen and almost dangerous. He had looked almost...feral, in fact, as if their approach was enough to make him flee.

She wanted to ask about this, because the expression of fight-or-flight was so misplaced on her childhood best friend that it nearly made her sick, but to bring it up in front of the others seemed like a betrayal of some kind. She would ask Yugi when she had the chance when they were alone. If not, she feared he would become defensive or perhaps offended, and that was something she did not want to have on her conscience.

"Dude, you look a little sick," Jonouchi commented, frowning at him. He almost reached out to touch his forehead with the back of his hand but Yugi flinched away at the movement and each of them froze in place.

"I just…I don't know. Maybe I am sick?" he muttered uncomfortably, words unsure and somehow flat all at once. "I…I just need to get home. My mom will freak out if I'm not back before curfew."

"Curfew isn't for a couple more hours."

Something flashed in his eyes at this statement, as if he had not expected any of them to notice this inconsistency. Yugi blinked at them in a manner that seemed almost dazed, and then looked away as if attempting to fold inwards upon himself.

"You guys can come over. I mean, maybe I'm just more tired because from playing those games after not sleeping well?" He was fumbling, desperate and small, as they looked at him with such concerned expressions. None of them should have been so worried, not after all of the things he had done behind their backs. "I'm just…getting a small headache."

None of them believed him, Yugi knew, but they also did not bother to call him out on his obvious lie. Each of them swapped looks, frowned at him, and then shrugged it off.

"Sure, let's get out of here," Jonouchi announced. "You've already beaten all of the games anyways. At least at your house there's hot chocolate!"

Yugi glanced at him, all too thankful for the save he gave him at that moment. "Yeah, we can have hot chocolate," he said with clear gratitude in his tone. "Mom taught me how to make it just like she does."

The walk back was laden with awkward tension, pressing harder on his thin frame than even the weight of his jacket over his uniform and undershirt. The others were mostly quiet, though on occasion one of them would say something or other that was enough to spur momentary conversation. Yugi himself was struggling with the task of not backing out of the alley shortcut they took or glancing into the woods where he had been injected with the wolfsbane and silver mixture.

He felt he would panic and flee should he look into the trees, the thought of his own murder in cold blood making his body tight with anxiety. And yet, somehow, he had been able to escape such thoughts days before upon sneaking out into the woods with Yami. He had not thought of it around the Change or the run through the woods but for that brief spat between the two of them.

And why hadn't he?

Was it because Yami was there?

Or was it simply that he had been too focused otherwise to consider it?

Yugi shuddered and the others passed him for a moment before he hurried his steps. If he kept closer to them, anyone considering to capture or chase him or something would second guess, right? In groups there was safety, wasn't there?

He glanced over his shoulder regardless, stomach clenching and his fingers shaking where they grasped tightly at his sleeves in panic. What the fuck was a "Pure-Blood" and why had they called him that? Why had Valon put the words "angel of death" in his mind as well? What the hell was going on?

He nearly stumbled when he saw a flash of something amongst the white of fallen snow. His head snapped towards it forcefully, eyes wide and alarmed. A blur of black was moving in the ice. He froze, eyes widening further, heart racing.

Was it coming towards him?

Was it another wolf sent after him?

But there was no alarm in the form of tension along his spine but that of which he had already pressed upon himself. His heart was still racing and his eyes had sharpened drastically, his sight answering his unspoken panic.

He let out a breath of relief.

It was Yami.

The other boy was rolling around in the snow. His paws were up, his tongue lolling against the roof of his mouth. His head was tilted sideways and his shoulders were slithering downwards, dragging his large body down a small incline of earth. He was literally sliding playfully down the gentle dip of the hill.

Yugi smiled faintly, tilting his head in wonder at the sight. The large wolf looked no more dangerous than a puppy exploring the world around them. When he got to the bottom of the hill, he rolled onto his paws, panting with exuberance. The gusts of air he exhaled came in rapid rivulets of bright white frost. His shoulders were finely shaking with his excitement. His eyes were bright, nearly glowing with happiness, and his ears were twitching back and forth every which way in search of danger. His tail was wagging like a flag behind him, held parallel to his spine, though he halted momentarily.

It took Yugi a moment to realize. He remembered reading that wolves had limited vision. He could not imagine it, however, as he considered his own eyes growing so sharp and powerful.

Yet Yami seemed for a moment not to recognize him. His tail dropped, ears folding back, and his lips curled faintly in a soft snarl of warning. He did not approach and the hairs on his spine began to grow tense. They rose in a ragged bristle for a moment, then dropped just as quickly. As abruptly as his alarm had come, so it was gone. His tail rose, wagging lazily, jaws parted to show his enamel in a goofy grin as his ears pricked and he trembled faintly again with his excitement. He nodded slightly at him, then turned and raced off into the trees.

It took Yugi only a second to realize why he had fled. And why he had come to stare at him in such a way. It occurred to him only as he turned his head, but it came to him regardless.

"That was one huge ass dog," Jonouchi breathed in awe.

Yami had seen Jonouchi, had reacted to him rather than Yugi. But he had relaxed simply because he had seen the small boy there as well. He had not reacted in anger or alarm towards the small teen himself, but to his unknown best friend.

"Yeah, it was pretty big," he agreed, glancing towards the trees again. Yami was obviously hiding, waiting for them to pass before he would come out again. He could not find a single flicker of movement from the black wolf anywhere.

"Almost like that one in the alley behind Burger World." It was said with enough wonder and confusion that it did not sound suspicious but, when Yugi looked at him again, he knew the blond was trying to connect dots there. And he could not blame him. Surely he would have been doing the same.

"Yeah, I guess so," he said in a reluctant voice. "But I don't think it's the same dog."

"No, the other one had a lot of white to it. It looked like a big husky."

"A Malamute?"

"Maybe." Jonouchi shrugged lazily, then turned back to where Anzu and Honda were waiting. "Let's go. I want some of your mom"s famous hot chocolate!"

Yugi rolled his eyes. "It's not famous. It's just amazing and out of this world."

The blond nodded in rigorous agreement. "Yes," he agreed readily. "Yes, it definitely is!"

Honda glanced at them curiously at the statement, eyes wide and open in growing confusion. "What?"

"My mom's hot chocolate is amazing."

"Was there ever any debate about that?"

"No, we were just reiterating it."

"Good, because we would have to fight if someone said it wasn't the best hot chocolate ever."

Yugi rolled his eyes. "You guys are insane. I don't even know why I hang out with you at this rate."

"Because we're awesome and helped you with your bullying issues."

"And now you repel bullies all on your own!"

Yugi swatted at his blond friend, rolling his eyes once more. "I always repelled them, with or without your help. It was just a matter of how quickly the blood loss scared them away," he muttered, flushing when Anzu shot him something of a worried look.

"Well, that's true," Jonouchi said thoughtfully, giving him a wide grin seconds later. "No one can quite bleed as well as you do."

"Or scream quite as loud," Honda threw in, smirking.

"Or curl up in a ball as tightly."

"Or groan as loudly."

"Or piss themselves at will like you can."

"Or—"

"What?" Yugi sputtered, flustered and scowling at Jonouchi. "I never pissed myself, you ass!"

The blond ducked away from him when he went to punch his arm. The thought occurred to Yugi the moment that he missed that perhaps it was for the best that he had. What if he was too strong physically and somehow harmed him? What if he wound up seriously hurting him somehow? And what if he could never control his strength later if that was the case?

"I never pissed myself," he snapped around his two male friends' chortling. "Not even when Ushio beat the crap out of me."

The words made his body stiffen and freeze altogether. A sense of alarm and confusion crept through him. Had he just alluded to what he thought he had? That was nothing he had meant to—

"That time he beat the crap out of you," Honda grumbled, "shouldn't even be counted. He came after Jonouchi and me, not you. You just got caught in the middle."

Yugi felt almost as if he should have dropped to his knees with relief, gratitude surging through him at the thought that he had not given away his own secret of being there in the alley where Tomoya had died. They couldn't trace Ushio back to that incident regardless, but it was still horrifying to consider. If he rambled about the former student, then what was to keep him from blurting out such a truth? He swallowed harshly and nearly choked with distress.

"But he also screamed a lot and curled up in a ball and bled like crazy then too, you know," Jonouchi pointed out, nudging Yugi playfully with an elbow to the ribs. "That wasn't funny, but it proves my point."

"True enough," Yugi conceded in a nearly breathless tone, "but there was no peeing. On myself or otherwise."

Both of them burst out laughing but Anzu remained somewhat upset by the conversation. Her eyes were wide, her mouth set in a thin line, and he could see sympathy for what he had gone through that, as well as regret that she had not somehow been able to prevent it. Yugi flashed her a small smile, trying to show it no longer upset him by any means, but it seemed only to make her look troubled. He found his own mouth falling into a slight, puzzled frown, but did not question her.

"Just throwing that out there. No peeing of any kind went on that night," he continued in a factual tone. Yugi wondered, slightly sickened by the idea, if perhaps he had done so when Yami had saved him. The thought made him feel slightly dizzy but he could not recall.

All he knew that had covered him that night upon dragging himself home was blood, dried and crusted, and perhaps what he assumed to be vomit from when he had puked upon waking up. But most of it was a blur and he could not think further than this initial discovery.

But then again, he didn't even know if he had puked on himself. He couldn't really remember it completely. But he remembered the blood caking his clothes and weighing him down heavily. And he recalled the way the water had run red down the drain. He knew this with absolute certainty.

It was other details which defied him.

Yugi closed his eyes for a moment. His stomach twisted. When he opened them again, he forced himself to remain calm. It was, in all reality, rather horrifying to realize that, like many other nights upon being infected, this too seemed like a large gaping black hole in the center of his mind. He nearly groaned in distress. How often had he suffered these seemingly empty pockets of time? He thought he had seen their existence during his childhood, small patches in which his memory had turned dark and almost nonexistent.

He forced himself to start moving again, walking and giving them each a false grin. "Let's go get some hot chocolate," he announced, hurrying towards where he could see his house. He wanted to glance back and see if perhaps Yami were back there, watching within the tree line, but he did not want to draw attention to him. Nor did he want Jonouchi to bring up the incident at Burger World. There was just already so much wrong with what had happened there and their casual avoidance of it that he did not care to have such knowledge dug up again.

He paused only to glance around and see if his mom was home or any of the clinic staff there. But if she was, she happened to be in the back, and so Yugi found it more of a hindrance to ask her attention at that moment than he would have otherwise. So he led them upstairs where each of them removed their shoes and quickly went to sit around the table.

Yugi ignored them in favor of gathering a pot and milk and cocoa powder and sugar. The small teen listened to them talking about classes and homework but did not bother to contribute beyond small comments. He stirred the milk, measured out the cocoa powder, poured in some sugar, and then divided it into four cups.

"You do remember that this just came off the stove, right?" he chastised, rolling his eyes when Jonouchi nearly lunged for the mug he set in front of him. The blond instantly halted, pursing his lips, and Yugi lazily pulled his jacket off, dropping it onto the back of the chair.

When he sat down again, he wondered at the sensation of his body seemingly flaring with heat and then slowly losing all sense of fever in exchange of steady warmth. He blinked, startled, and then recalled the morning upon layering himself up in which he had felt this same sensation.

There was a single burst of heat and then he was comfortable again. And despite wearing layers that should have made him feel overheated, his body had been completely comfortable. Was temperature regulation another part of being infected as he was?

He didn't honestly think he could complain about that one if that was the case. Not feeling too hot or too cold all the time was a nice bonus.

The first sip burned his tongue but the taste made him shiver with pleasure. Yugi could have moaned with satisfaction, but instead he grinned as Jonouchi did it for him and subsequently began to down his drink despite its temperature.

"She really did teach you how to make it!"

Yugi rolled his eyes. "Um, yeah, did you did think I was lying?"

"No, but…it tastes just like hers!"

"What did you think her teaching me the recipe meant exactly?"

Honda snorted. "Yugi, he doesn't think, remember? That's a trick question."

"Wow," the small teen snickered, smirking, "You're just going to take that, Jonouchi?"

"If it gets me another cup of hot chocolate, I'll take anything any of you've got," the blond declared, licking his lips. The movement made Yugi stiffen, body suddenly rigid for a moment. Something about the image was eerie, even if for that moment he could not put his finger on it. "Anything for the Motou cocoa."

The small teen rolled his eyes but his unnerved feeling did not change. Something about the way he had licked his lips still seemed decidedly ominous. He looked back at his chocolate for a moment, then swallowed hard. Now he remembered.

Yami had licked his lips with that same ravenous quality when he had swallowed that rabbit in what had seemed to be mere seconds. He had cleaned the blood off his muzzle in swift strokes of the long muscle, and all the while his eyes had shone with predatory desire.

Jonouchi lacked the predatory element, but it had been a mirroring action regardless.

Yugi took another sip, but didn't bother to look up for a moment. "If I make you another cup, you have to agree that we get to put you down like a dog," he announced, smirking widely. When he glanced at him, the blond was wide-eyed and Honda was howling with laughter. Even Anzu was snickering now, glancing between the three of them curiously.

"Fine. Anything for a cup of Motou cocoa."

"I want the first shot," Honda declared immediately.

"I'm making him the cocoa, I'm getting the first shot."

"What happened to ladies first?"

"Anzu, you're a teenager. That's hardly a lady."

"Damn," Jonouchi snorted, snickering, "he just insulted your woman, Yugi. What are you going to do about it?"

"His woman?" Anzu scoffed, turning on the blond. "I'm not some kind of possession."

"It's a figure of speech."

"Can we not get started on this one?" the small teen grumbled, rolling his eyes. "We'll be here all day."

"He just said you talk too much."

"Actually, Jonouchi, I was talking about your loose, flapping jaws. Stop barking."

"Damn, Yugi is in it to win!" Honda crowed, laughing when the blond shot his two best friends annoyed glances.

"Hey, don't scowl like that. It makes you look like a Saint Bernard. Come on, show us that golden retriever smile!"

"You know what? Take all the shots you want, Yug. I'll get you back for them later." Jonouchi rolled his eyes and glanced at Honda sideways. "And you, Buck-tooth Bill, better shut up."

Yugi snorted out loud and choked on his beverage, covering his mouth with the back of his hand and feeling slight tears in the corners of his eyes. "Buck-tooth Bill?"

"I'm guessing Honda never told you he had buck teeth until he was twelve." The blond smirked when the other gave him a somewhat flustered scowl, cheeks slightly red. "Too bad. You should see his pictures. When he smiled, he looked like a beaver."

"You're not supposed to tell people that!"

"Yeah, well, you're supposed to back me up when Yugi starts kicking my ass."

"Jonouchi, he can't even reach your ass."

"Anzu!" the small teen sputtered. "You're supposed to be on my side!"

The other two were chortling and giving her high-fives. He rolled his eyes and looked at his half-downed beverage, wondering for a moment if his lycanthropy might make it toxic to him. But he had grown up drinking it. And it didn't feel as the wolfsbane and silver had upon entering his system. And drinks were absorbed almost as quickly as injections, weren't they? So he should have felt it before now, right?

"All is fair in love and war."

"I wasn't aware this was a war," the small teen snorted, glancing at Jonouchi with a small grin. "You want that second cup of hot chocolate?"

"Well, yeah!"

Yugi nodded, threw his head back, and drank all but a mouthful of the cocoa before pushing the mug towards him. "Here you go."

"What? Oh, dude, that's dirty!"

"You didn't even keep up your half of the deal. I barely got in an insult and then you turned on Honda. So, honestly, that little mouthful is more than you deserve."

"But that's gross."

"My mouth is probably cleaner than yours anyways."

"No one's mouth is cleaner than a dog's," Honda shot back, laughing when the blond turned on him with a scowl once more. "What? It's true!"

"They also lick their own genitals," Anzu scoffed, "so I'm not sure clean is the word to describe them."

"Okay, but if we could give ourselves blow jobs, we wouldn't have to put up with all the bullshit girls bring into our lives," Jonouchi scoffed.

"Oh, by the gods," Yugi grumbled, pressing his hand into his forehead. "Why would you even go there?"

"What? It's true!"

"It'd also make us completely unable to reproduce whatsoever," Honda grumbled. "We need to put up with all that bullshit or else our children would be entirely too stupid to function. If we could even get past giving ourselves blow jobs long enough to have sex with girls in the first place."

"Why do you guys keep going with this? Stop it!"

"Oh, come on, Yug! We've all imagined it at some point or another."

Yugi rolled his eyes, but his cheeks turned red as he peered at the table. "Shut up, guys."

"Oh, it's because Anzu is here, isn't it?"

"Okay, no, knock it off. This discussion is closed!"

The two boys were laughing and Anzu was blushing but Yugi had his head lowered so that his bangs shielded his face and no one could see that he had grown the brightest of reds.

---

"You seemed pretty happy earlier," Yugi commented without preamble, tilting his head towards the other wolf curiously. Yami stood a few feet from the window, stretching his arms above his head and yawning softly as he watched him through heavily lidded eyes. It was clear he had run himself nearly ragged with his own excitement. He grinned lightly at the taller boy. "You wore yourself out, huh?"

The other boy yawned again and his teeth chomped forcefully together. "I would not have missed such an experience for anything else," he said in that same thin, scratchy tone, though now he could hear a beautiful and deep, almost enticing hint of passion within its depths. "It was…invigorating."

Yugi felt for a moment that there was more Yami meant to say but the other boy did not bother. Instead he blinked lazily and his spine popped gently as he stretched backwards. "You'll be out like a light in a minute, won't you?"

"Yes."

Yugi snorted at his lack of hesitation. "Good, I guess."

"Yes, it is always good to spend one's energy and find rest during the time of the wolf."

"The time of the wolf?"

"Winter," Yami mumbled groggily, grabbing his blanket from the desk chair and falling upon the mattress once more. Yugi knew him so well in his slumbers that he realized immediately that the other was asleep before his head hit the pillow. The thought made him smile faintly but also brought with it a touch of discomfort and frustration.

Despite himself Yugi thought he would have enjoyed rubbing alongside him a second time. He was sure he would be as exhausted and aching just as hard the moment he forced himself through the Change and came home again, but it would have been enjoyable all the same. Unlike Yami, he would not kill and eat a small animal in the woods. It just seemed entirely too disgusting to think to do. It would wear him out just as much as it had the first time, but it was still a better alternative to him.

Yugi took a seat at the other side of the bed, watching him curiously for a moment. Yami had fallen asleep facing him. The realization was somehow amazing and jarring to him. He had never seen him do such a thing before. He had always slept with his back to him and he had done the same. It made their sharing the bed a little less awkward to him. He was sure Yami's own reasons were much less self-centered.

But when he looked at him now, the taller teen looked much more relaxed, gentler, with a tangible softness that made him want to reach out and touch him for a moment. His body was curled up comfortably beneath the blanket, his fingers loose and grasping the sheets beneath him lightly. His nose twitched faintly with each inhale and exhale and his mouth tugged at the corner as if his initial enthusiasm now invaded his dreams.

There was no crease between his brows or even the smallest touch of distress or lack of pleasure to be found on his more mature face. His cheeks looked soft and warm to the touch, his closed lids twitching only finely with his deepening sleep. His lashes draped along the fine curve of his cheeks, touching his cheekbones faintly, and the shadows they cast looked almost like the forest if it were stretched upon the surface of a lake. There was a small bit of frost in his hair, fresh from the new fall of snow while he was running, and it glittered beautifully in the darkness and streams of moonlight.

The smaller boy impulsively thought to reach out and touch him, possibly to push his bangs back or to see if his cheek was truly as soft as it appeared. But then he drew his hand back, unsure of when he had even reached forward to touch him, and placed it in his lap once more. His cheeks flushed faintly and he swallowed hard as he looked at him a moment longer.

Was it personal curiosity or something derived from his disease which made him so easily stretch his hand towards this other boy? He had done it so long ago, in the alley behind Burger World, even if he had simply hovered there with his fingers outstretched and his palm heated by the warmth his body projected in the darkness.

He shuddered, then shook his head at himself to push away his impulse once more. It was a horrifying thought to him that he might touch the other boy, that something might compel him to such an action outside of his usual behavior. To touch someone without their permission was something that he could not fathom. He had never wanted to reach out and touch someone as he seemed to the boy in front of him.

Yugi sat there, watching him for a moment longer, then turned quickly away as his stomach twisted faintly and he swallowed hard. There were so many things that seemed to have gone wrong upon being infected, and this sudden desire to touch Yami was yet another one.

It was not that he was not curious about what his hair might feel like or his skin, whether it was as soft as it looked. It was the fact that this came on top of the animals hating him. It came on top of his grandfather lying to him and allowing him to struggle through with no support. It brought on his mom's disappointment that he could no longer be a vet.

It brought on his inability to truly relax anymore. It brought on his fears of being unable to ever date as he should have been with Anzu instead of holding her hostage with what he considered was most likely a dead end and complete impossibility.

It brought on his night terrors more often. It came with the attack from those wolves and Bakura and that man in the woods. It came with Valon calling him the "angel of death" and that man calling him a "Pure-Blood".

But it also came with Yami.

And, despite himself and more of his growing fears, he thought Yami to be worth it.

He was kind enough, was willing to lead him along as he needed him to, was more than capable of adapting as necessary. He didn't complain a lot, he rarely ever argued with him, he was compassionate enough. Yet, he had also killed several people which Yugi knew of. What if he had killed more than that? And had there been similar circumstances or was it simply just something that he had done?

Yugi could not see him being a ruthless killer by any means. Yami just seemed incapable of it. He seemed like the one who would only harm someone when there was no other way to avoid conflict. He seemed like someone to be pushed over a couple of times and then come back when he had learned his lesson.

But then, could Yugi even judge him? That wasn't his place or even slightly his right to do, and he himself had torn Bakura's head off in the woods. He had not meant to and yet it had happened. He had only wanted him away from Yami and yet...

Perhaps it was something uncontrollable for werewolves.

He shuddered and wondered if he should hope that was the answer or fear it.

---

"Why do you think he hid it from me?" Yugi asked in a small voice, not bothering to fully open his eyes though he knew the other had rolled over and was wide awake. Yami was silent for a long minute and a half and he felt the bed tip as he shifted his balance and stretched himself out with a long yawn. When he settled again, the smaller boy feared that perhaps he still wouldn't answer but then he could feel his eyes on him, burning a hole in his skin.

"Perhaps he did not know how to tell you."

He shook his head, still not opening his eyes. "No, it has to be something else," he muttered uncomfortably. "He would have known how to tell me."

"Perhaps he feared your reaction."

The smaller boy hesitated. "What, you mean like he thought maybe I would get mad?"

"Or subsequently became irritated that he was bringing up stories without factual evidence," the other wolf said in a calm tone, his eyes still locked upon his face, "or maybe even that you might grow depressed."

Yugi grunted. "What's there to become depressed about? It's a disease. I can't change it—"

"Yes, but humans are prone to sorrow when parts of their lives are rendered impossible for them to reach." Yami fell silent for what felt like hours, then shifted away from him somewhat, his eyes finally leaving his skin to peer towards the window. "And if you are depressed as a human, then it becomes amplified as a wolf. If you had been infected while you were under mental duress such as suicidal thoughts or depression, you would most likely be dead. We feel much more than humans do naturally. And it becomes worse when we are around others and can feed off their energy, regardless of what they feel in relation to you."

Yugi finally opened his eyes and looked over. The other boy was facing away completely, peering at the window with sharp but somewhat darkened eyes. The shadow that crept upon them seemed to be the purest embodiment of sorrow he had ever come to know in his short life. It made Yami look older, haunted, as if phantoms swam before his eyes even as they spoke. He looked hollow, as if someone had scooped his insides out and left the husk for him to look at.

"Well, I wouldn't have become depressed over it—"

"But how was he supposed to know that?"

Yugi faltered, then huffed. "Okay, well, even if he didn't know that, he should have told me after he realized I was showing symptoms! He let me go through that alone!"

Yami tilted his head towards him, then turned to face him completely. The barest hint of the baritone came in a small rolling descent through his soft words. "Are you more upset with him for not telling you or at me for not being there?"

"What? Yami, you weren't even part of—"

"I bit you. He did not. If you must blame someone for withholding information and doing you wrong, perhaps it should be me rather than your grandfather. You forget that I was the one who bit you and I should have been there to help you through it all rather than waiting until you first changed."

"Okay, but you didn't really lie to me—"

"Did he truly lie to you or did he simply not say anything?"

"He sat around and let me struggle! He watched me struggle! And then he never said a single thing to make it easier. Instead all he did was ignore my needs and try to see how much my senses had improved!" he spat bitterly, nearly trembling with growing rage. "At least when you came around, you actually did help me! That's the difference! He wouldn't have told me if I had never figured it out that day! He would never have said a single word about it."

Yami frowned at him deeply now, looking away after a moment. "Then I do not have answers for you, Yugi. I am sorry."

Yugi felt his jaw snap shut at the hushed response. His heart twisted in his chest and he stared at him with a somewhat horrified expression as shame made his insides cold. "It's not up to you to have answers," he muttered, swallowing hard and looking away, "I just…I don't get it. And I hate him sometimes for not telling me. And I just…I couldn't stop thinking about it last night. And I'm so sorry for making you think this is your responsibility. But it's not and I…Shit, I'm sorry, Yami."

The other boy stared at him for a long minute, then turned away again. "It doesn't matter," he stated quietly, calmly. "As long as we are both well at the end of the day, that is the most important thing, right? But as for answers, I do not have any. What your grandfather chooses to do is something I have no control or consequence in."

The small teen shook his head again. "I'm just still upset. I shouldn't have even asked you."

"You have every right to be upset. It is what you do in the meantime and whether it affects your judgment that will be of consequence later," Yami murmured dismissively. "When all is said and done, he is still your family. And he still loves you. He just made a bad decision because he didn't know how to tell you something that might have hurt you. That's all it is, Yugi. Forgive him that when you find yourself able to."

He blinked at him, almost stunned by the idea of the words and the intensity with which his low voice carried them. The small boy thought to say something but his tongue felt swollen in his mouth and his throat had begun to ache as if a ball were forming there.

He was so used to forgiving and forgetting that the fact that he was unable to now was somewhat jarring to him. He had not thought that he still held a grudge until Yami mentioned it. But he knew he had; simply talking to his grandpa again had not been the step he had been looking for formerly. It had helped somewhat but it had not mended anything beyond the surface.

"Yeah, I guess," he muttered reluctantly, looking away again. He cleared his throat and made to sit up, the movement immediately causing the other boy's head to turn in surprise. Yugi nearly shivered at the dark red stare the other peered at him with. "I'm going to go make breakfast. Do you want a shake?"

He was not entirely sure why he bothered to offer. Yami had not needed them for a while now. Asking him that almost seemed like tempting fate to give him reason to need one again soon.

Yami shook his head, eyes looking at him when something of bewilderment in their depths. "No, but thank you," he replied, moving now to sit up as well. He rolled his shoulders and the bones popped lightly as he settled back in his spot on the bed again. "Are you going to make pancakes again?"

Yugi snorted, smirking at him playfully and poking him in the shoulder. "I wasn't before but I will now," he laughed, surprised by how warm the smile that bloomed across Yami's face made his insides. He nearly shivered, his spine feeling tight with tension that he did not truly know how to name. He looked away again quickly, undone by the way those red eyes peered at him with growing confusion. His heart was pounding heavily in his chest for some reason as he looked at the comforter. "Anything else? Eggs?"

The taller wolf blinked at him several times, then furrowed his brows and tilted his head in bewilderment. "Eggs?" he echoed, his tongue curling over the word as he thought back to the time that he had sampled them. It took him only a moment to recall their fluffy warmth and the buttery taste with which they had rested on his tongue. "Yes, eggs would be a good addition. They were delicious before."

Yugi smiled, unable to stop himself, and turned to him with a roll of his eyes. "Someone is a little demanding," he teased.

The other boy frowned immediately, eyes narrowing faintly. His lips twitched further and he swallowed slightly. "What was it that you had planned to make originally then? I do not mind eating something else—"

"Yami, I was joking." His lips fell into a deep frown to mirror the other's. It was discomforting to him that Yami would take him seriously over something so beyond his personality. Yugi had never considered him demanding before and yet, mentioning it had made the other boy unbearably uncomfortable. "I was going to make leftovers. But dinner last night wasn't all that great anyways. Pancakes and eggs it is."

"Yugi," he grumbled, his voice stressed as it rolled from behind his teeth and trailed in a low rumble of growing anxiety, "I can go hunt instead. It's not—"

"Why should you have to go hunting? It's perfectly fine to me if I make breakfast. I mean, it's not even that much work. Besides, you have to be starving after all the running you did last night, right?"

Yami hesitated, but his momentary silence alone was enough to answer the question. Of course he was still hungry. He was probably still somewhat exhausted as well. Whether or not he would admit to that was another question altogether, and one Yugi was sure that would be answered in a firm negative.

"You don't have to constantly try to make things easier for me, especially if you have to suffer in exchange," Yugi muttered, shaking his head and looking at him unhappily. "You shouldn't try to make me feel better than you do yourself, Yami. That's not fair to you or me. Learn to ask for help sometimes, okay? It's not going to hurt you."

The taller boy shuddered and it was clear that he thought otherwise. It took his smaller companion a moment to realize what exactly he had been told just two days prior. Yami had been around people before, but they had not been good, whatever that meant—Yugi tried desperately to push away his worries regarding this—and so perhaps asking for help was something that put him in too vulnerable a position to allow him any comfort.

"I won't hurt you," he stressed after a moment. "If you need help, ask and I'll do it. I don't know what happened before, but if you ask me I'll try my hardest to help you, Yami."

Yami flinched away from him at the statement, a harsh and long shudder running down his spine. He let out a ragged breath that sounded almost like a sob, then growled low in his throat with distress. His head snapped away when Yugi gaped at him in shock, horror pooling into his stomach, and did not look up even once upon the minutes it took the smaller boy to finally get to his feet and wander to kitchen to start on their breakfast.

The red-eyed teen remained seated on the bed, finely trembling as his teeth ground too harshly together, and his fingers kept clenched against the comforter beneath him. It took him a long minute to even relax the tendons which had pulled taut beneath his skin along his long fingers. And the savage jerks of his body took what seemed hours to quell and settle.

He finally loosed the tension in his broad shoulders, his stomach aching as he forced his mind from the direction of painful reminders it had so tediously pivoted upon for that time. He breathed in roughly, nearly croaking with his exhale, and hissed softly a moment later as he uncoiled his muscles and forced himself to relax enough to climb to his feet and make his way to the kitchen.

It was arduous to make his way there as the smaller boy finished the last of the breakfast and placed it on the table with a small sideways glance at him. He gave him a miniscule smile, somewhere between thoughtful and concerned. The taller boy nearly flinched at the sight of his soft expression and narrowed his eyes into slits as he looked away quickly. A small tremor raced up his fingers, making his hand quake for a single moment.

Yugi stayed quiet but Yami knew he saw him. He knew he was wondering at his silence, at his reaction to what should have been a comforting statement. He knew he worried despite the fact that he appeared physically fine. But he also knew that he would not ask.

And because he did not ask Yami felt comfortable in knowing that this incident would die between them here and now.

"My mom and grandpa are obviously already at the main clinic, probably for that shepherd from the other day," Yugi announced, taking a seat and grabbing his fork without a glance at him. "I've got school in about an hour. That means about forty minutes before I have to make a run for it."

Yami hesitated for only a moment before taking the spot across him and grabbing his fork as well. The trembles had left his hand but he still felt as if a residual shake might occur and it made him feel slightly sick.

"Why do your friends not come to walk with you to school?" he asked with narrowed eyes, peering at the two fluffy foods in front of him. "I recall that they walk home with you but not to school?"

Yugi paused with egg in his mouth, startled by the question. He did not sound even remotely upset, but his voice was a little deeper. And his gaze was sharper than usual. The small teen swallowed the mouthful of warm food and frowned at him thoughtfully.

"We do sometimes," he said with a small smile that the other missed due to his head remaining down, "but Jonouchi wakes up late, Anzu likes to get there early, and Honda just goes whenever he wants. And I normally leave as soon as I've eaten, so our morning routines don't really correspond all that well."

The other boy considered this, poking at his food with dark eyes. "So it's not that you all desire to walk alone before school, but that you all leave at different times," Yami muttered, though his tone said clearly that he only partially cared for this subject. "I suppose that makes sense."

The small teen watched him for a long moment, then shoveled a mouthful of food and chewed thoughtfully, studying the lycanthrope in front of him curiously. "Yeah, we're all just really set in our ways so it doesn't always occur to us tat maybe we should wait for each other in the mornings. Besides, less things are likely to happen in the mornings than the afternoons."

Yami raised his head, a brow arching upwards curiously. "What do you mean?"

Yugi hesitated, then frowned as he tipped his head to the side. "Well, I mean, more people are gone and rushing off to work in the mornings and that means that it's less likely for something to happen. At nighttime sometimes you hear about someone being abducted or something like that and that's rare in the afternoon but almost impossible in the mornings."

"Or it happens and no one is there to notice," the other replied cynically. "I know fully well that sunlight does not mean absolute protection. It might be harder for an abduction to truly happen should someone be around, but it is not impossible."

Yugi was quiet for a moment. "You're pretty petulant today, aren't you?"

Yami cringed. "I do not mean to be," he started, frowning deeply. "I—"

"I'm not saying that as a bad thing, Yami. I'm actually really glad that you're getting this way. It makes me feel better right now." He paused, hesitating, and then looked away at his food, poking at the pile of pancakes. "I'm still upset. So it…makes me feel a little justified to see that you can get that way too."

Yami faltered, visibly startled.

"But I don't know what I did to make you react this way," he admitted, furrowing his brows and watching him for a moment. "It's kind of odd that you're doing this now…I mean, there are so many things I've said and done around you that could have easily caused this and yet…"

Yami's cheeks grew bright red. "I'm just…I'm upset. It's nothing to do with…" He shrugged awkwardly. "I am just tired, I suppose. I do not know truly what has made me this way. I apologize."

Yugi rolled his eyes. "I didn't mention it to make you feel guilty. I'm saying it because it's just kind of funny to me." He shrugged and begun to shovel food into his mouth as quickly as he could manage.

Yami watched him, contemplating the statement, and then looked away with narrowed eyes once more. "Well, regardless, you do not deserve my ire."

"No, probably not. Or maybe I do. I don't know that either." He speared his pancake and pushed the entire pastry into his mouth. The other boy looked at him with wide eyes, tilting his head to the side in wonder. The smaller boy worked on the food rapidly, jaws moving intently as he swallowed it moments later and worked to do the same with the next. "I just figure we learn as we go along. It's the only thing I know to do."

The red-eyed teen nodded slowly, then tilted his head again. "How do you not choke?"

Yugi paused with the speared pancake close to his mouth. "I used to wonder that about you whenever you ate. You used to scarf it down. You've slowed down now." He grinned at him playfully. "I used to be late to breakfast some mornings and so I would have to stuff whatever was on the plate into my mouth as quickly as possible. Most of the time it was toast or waffles."

Yami blinked and nodded slowly. The smaller boy snorted and went back to pushing the pancake into his mouth again. He chewed and swallowed just as quickly as he had the first time. The third pancake followed in the same manner and Yami poked at his eggs before beginning to fork them into his mouth. Moments later his fork clanked against the china and Yugi got to his feet with a sense of grace which usually evaded him.

"I'm going to hurry up and grab a shower and then rush off to school. I'm not sure when Mom and Grandpa will be back so just hide out in my room when they do come home, okay?"

He looked at him for a long moment. "Yes."

Yugi paused for a second, then sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "I say that like I have any control over what you do," he snorted, nearly laughing. But the idea occurred to him that perhaps it was the lack of space which made Yami so uncomfortable and annoyed now. Maybe it was growing restlessness which caused his petulant. "But, anyways, be careful, okay? I know that you probably won't have any reason to come out of the room, but I always kind of worry so…"

The other wolf nodded and looked away again. "Yes, I am aware."

---

Yugi flipped the page on the calendar, studying the days until he found the circle which he knew to symbolize the full moon. He ran a hand through his long bangs, curious as he marked the date in his phone. It was no wonder he no longer felt anywhere near as antsy as he had formerly. The moon's full phase was two weeks away, which gave him plenty of time to prepare and not to worry about it all.

He settled back comfortably at his desk and crossed his legs with a sideways glance towards the other boy. Yami was lying stretched out on his bed, reading a book he had borrowed from the library. He couldn't tell if he was actually reading it or feigning doing so in order to avoid conversation. But the smaller boy was not so inclined toward speaking either. A comfortable silence between them was something that he could do well with.

He pushed his homework sheets away, stretching his arms over his head, and yawned softly. The movement drew the other's attention and Yami blinked at him with eyes that spoke clearly of boredom.

"Not interesting?"

"They write as if their life depends on the costly amount of description they place in it." He paused, then sighed. "It does not help that the vampire is boring enough to make my eyes roll up in the back of my head and the girl has no originality in any way. And the wolf is just there. He does not even truly belong."

Yugi raised a brow. "What did you pick up?"

Yami flipped the book closed and then tossed it to the edge of the bed for him to see. The smaller boy snorted out loud upon seeing it. "It's a vampire-worshipping book, Yami; of course the werewolf doesn't really have any reason to be there. And the girl is an idiot because apparently vampires have 'thrall'."

The taller boy blinked at him with a confused expression. "They have what?"

The other boy snickered and gave him a lopsided smile. "Thrall," he repeated. "It's like persuasion over weak human minds and all that. So basically they can control their minds."

The other barked out a laugh. "How humorous!" he declared, sitting up with dark, cynical eyes. "A creature which can control the minds of a weaker species!"

Yugi raised a brow. "What?"

"Well, it is not as if humans have not tamed animals or that they do not manipulate their own into doing things that they know they should not," he said dismissively, waving a hand and shaking his head. "The fact that humans think they must have supernatural powers in order to do so is a beautiful joke."

The smaller boy frowned. "Well, you also have to remember that many people think themselves to great to ever fall for such a thing and that they wish for crazy things like vampires and were…"

Yami quirked a brow. "Oh, we exist. As, I am sure, vampires do as well. But humans are foolish. They think too much of themselves when it comes to such reality. If they truly think that a vampire will fall in love with them, then they are stupid beyond reason, Yugi. And who should wish to be cursed with an immortal lie?"

"Immortal lie?"

"Immortality in the sense of invulnerability is a lie which greedy people came to desire. No creature is beyond death but the gods. And even they wither away within memory and hide behind forgotten beliefs." He shook his head scornfully, red eyes flashing with hatred. "Immortality is something that is subjective. The werewolves know it in the form of eight gods, four for either subspecies. And their body is immortal rather than their souls. See, they can beaten to death and yet they will come back. They can be shot and skinned and mutilated beyond repair and yet somehow their body will mend. It is impossible to destroy them, yes, but with each death comes a violent resurrection which none is free of. They become bloodthirsty and angry and they will kill beyond reason, without the ability to think or do more than tear apart their queries."

Yugi blinked horrified eyes at him.

"I do not know about vampires. They are beyond my knowledge. What I do know of them is that their physical body may last forever, but that is only without wearing its welcome to nothingness." Yami shook his head again sharply, his eyes falling towards the comforter and the book resting there. "Humans imagine immortality to mean invulnerability and perfection. But time does not allow one to learn what they are never to need to know and their existence will grow worthless before their eyes soon enough."

He shivered as Yami fell completely silent once more. He studied him, swallowing hard, and then weakly mumbled, "Yami, how old are you?"

The question puzzled him. His head snapped up and his brows furrowed. "I am sixteen, the same as you," he muttered, frowning. "Why?"

"I thought…I mean, after you said…"

He blinked and understanding dawned within his dark eyes. "No, I am only sixteen. I say such things because I speculate that should I be exposed to such a thing, I would surely become that way." He looked away with a shrug. "But I do not know what I speak of at the moment, Yugi. I say things that are foolish beyond reason and never bother to grasp reality more firmly in my hands."

Yami fell silent, then looked at the book for several long minutes. Finally, drawn by his inability to speak anymore, he plucked the novel back into his long fingers and flipped it back open to begin reading again. Had his words not upset him somehow, Yugi would have thought to fill this new awkward quiet but now he simply looked away again.

It was an hour of silence which had gone from tense to reasonably mellow that passed before either of them looked away from their current preoccupations. Yugi frowned as his eyes flickered to the window, drawn by the movement, and then his lips pulled up into a small smile.

"It's snowing again," he announced.

Yami looked up immediately. "Is it?" His red eyes grew round with excitement as he got to his feet and moved to the window in slow strides. His hands gripped the sill tightly as he leaned forward, his breath that of a wreath of frost as he exhaled against the glass.

He smirked playfully. "You act like you've never seen it before," he teased.

The other boy had turned his head slightly to face him when he had begun to speak but now his body was tense and his fingers curled. The muscles in his neck jumped faintly, cording briefly. His eyes flashed, something cold and forlorn drifting through them, and then he turned quickly away again.

Yugi wanted almost to slap himself. "Damn it," he muttered under his breath. He really needed to figure out a way to converse with the taller boy that did not cause him such discontent. He let out a small breath. "I thought you mentioned living in Japan before."

"Yes."

He waited but the other boy offered nothing more. He faltered, looking away and licking his lips with his eyes closed tightly for a moment.

"But not in Hokkaido," he guessed.

Yami blinked and looked at him sideways. "Hokkaido?" he repeated slowly.

His eyes opened again, confused as he peered at him. "Yeah, the island. There's Honshu and then Hokkaido and a few smaller ones… This is Hokkaido. It snows here every winter and for months on end. Honshu rarely gets snowfall but I think they get more rain than us." He faltered at the other boy's confused expression. "So…I-if you were in Japan and it never snowed before, then you must have been in Honshu."

Yami searched his face for a long minute. He was not sure if he was searching for a lie or if it was something important which he sought there. But the moment passed just as quickly. He turned quickly away from him again to face the frosted window.

"Maybe we should…just stop talking about certain things," the smaller boy muttered in a small voice. "I just…I don't mean to keep upsetting you and…"

"You didn't upset me," Yami objected with little care. "I simply am considering. I believe you when you say that Honshu does not gather snowfall as this island does. But I must wonder. Because if I am sure of nothing else, it is that I have never been beyond this island. I have lived here, in Hokkaido, all my life. Yet, somehow the name evades me and the fact that Japan has two islands is news to me."

"You said you never went to school, right?"

Yami nodded slightly, leaning further against the glass until the chill touched his skin despite not pressing against the pane. "Yes."

"Then…what about your parents?"

He stiffened violently for a moment. "They…died…when I was a child," he said through his teeth after a moment. "I was left to fend for myself."

Yugi gaped at him. "W-what? Yami—"

The other boy held a hand up to stop the inevitable apology. "It happened so long ago I hardly remember. And it does not matter anymore." He faltered, then looked over his shoulder at him. "I must not have known the snow because of the underground tunnel system I made my home. There were fish that came through. I never had to venture outside for food."

The smaller boy could not remember how to close his mouth, staring at him in horrified bewilderment. "Yami, I…shit…" He struggled for a moment, then looked away immediately. "I didn't realize…"

"You weren't meant to." He turned away again.

For a long minute and a half Yugi could think of nothing more to do than gaze at the floor, feeling almost distinctly breathless. When he glanced up again, Yami had not looked away from the window. He drew in a deep breath, then licked his lips uncomfortably. "Do you want to go outside? We can have a snowball fight if you want."

The other boy hummed in the back of his throat, then looked over his shoulder. "Yes, let's do that," he agreed readily, eyes shining at the aspect of being able to go out into the powdery white of the falling snow. Yami grinned at him lazily, much like a tired dog might, with his teeth just slightly showing and his eyes brighter than he'd seen them all day.

"Okay, let me just grab some gloves and then I'll meet you out there," Yugi murmured, glancing at the other boy's hands for a brief seconds. His fingers were longer but he was sure their palms were the same size at least. He didn't think the gloves would fit exactly, however, but it would be a close enough one.

Yami blinked at him, frowning and tilting his head in puzzlement. "Gloves?" he repeated uncertainly, eyes flickering outside and back. "Why would we need gloves?"

"Um, because it's cold and, if we're going to play in the snow, we need covering for our hands so that we don't end with frostbite from the cold weather?" He shook his head in mounting confusion. "Why wouldn't we use gloves?"

His brows furrowed. "We don't need them," he said in a confused tone. "Our bodies adapt to protect themselves against something as small as the weather. Haven't you noticed that the heat has turned on multiple times and yet not once has either of us noticed a change in temperature?"

"Okay, but that's artificial, Yami. If we're playing in the snow, then we need to keep our hands protected. The skin on your palms is sensitive and your fingers could start to freeze."

The other boy shook his head insistently. "I dove into a river that was almost frosted over and swam for an hour," he said with a frown. "If I were ever to get frostbite it would have been then."

Yugi stared at him for a long time, then shivered and shook his head. "Look, Yami, I won't make you wear a second jacket, but at least put on gloves. Even if they're unnecessary, it keeps us from being noticed. If someone just goes out and plays in the snow without even gloves, then someone is going to think they're either they're mental or something is extremely different about them."

Yami frowned, then pursed his lips. "Very well. You'll bring them out?"

The smaller boy rolled his eyes. "Fine, go on."

Yami shot him a grateful smile, then turned and quickly undid the latch of the window in order to quickly step out onto the roof. Yugi realized only after the tall teen had gotten outside how strange it would later to have for sets of footprints on the roof if the snow did not pick up and cover their tracks. He could only imagine what his mom might say or what jokes his grandpa would make about him sneaking off to see Anzu. The thought might have made him snicker before but now it only made his stomach twist.

Yugi pursed his lips for a moment, then headed off to his closet to grab a couple pairs of gloves. All of them were black, so at least the color wouldn't be anything to make Yami wrinkle his nose further than he initially had upon hearing the idea in the first place. Yugi rolled his eyes after a moment.

Even if Yami got annoyed, if he didn't want to get noticed, he would put them on and the smaller boy knew without question that the red-eyed lycanthrope thought more about self-preservation than he did discomfort. He could adapt and ignore it if he had to.

But when he got to the edge of the roof and dropped next to him, Yami merely looked up and then tossed something in his hand. The snow hit him right in the center of his forehead. Yugi yelped more from surprise than the frigid bite of the ice against his skin. He opened and closed his mouth, momentarily blinded by the sensation, and then blinked stupidly. The ice slipped from his smooth skin slowly though some of it clung to his lashes and he could see it at the top of his vision.

Yami smiled at him lopsidedly, eyes bright with laughter, and Yugi shook his head to get the ice from his face. The look on his face was enough to make him smile in return, his face growing warm as a hint of heat began to push through his insides. He tilted his head sideways for a moment, the heat in his cheeks growing tenfold. The other boy looked childish and young, beyond his grasp with a sense of innocence which made him nearly quiver upon seeing it.

He looked so young, his more mature features small and soft and almost so beautiful as to be otherworldly. He could not help but feel his heart race slightly in his chest, skipping a few small beats and making his lungs constrict painfully behind his ribs. Yugi swallowed hard, his fingers tingling with heat as he looked at him, and his mouth seemed to dry out with his churning stomach.

His eyelashes were so long, the light in his eyes so deep and bright that it nearly knocked the breath from his lungs altogether. His skin seemed almost to glow against the white of the snow, a soft and beautiful golden and bronze. The curl of his lips gave the perfect hint of an oncoming smirk while his long bangs framed a perfectly sculpted face. His eyebrows had risen slightly in challenge, daring him to get him back, and the tilt of his head made his hair look more vibrant somehow against the snow.

It made the crests of bright red glimmer as if with starlight and the bolts of golden as vibrant as the sun buried behind the clouds. But it was the black base of it, so much like the night sky, with scattered specks of snow and crystal which glittered as they melt, that made him unable to look away.

All of it made him look every bit a mythological creature, but also lent an edge of innocence that would come with that of a fairytale come true. It made his heart hammer to see, breath catching and eye widening as they scanned his features and tried so desperately to catalog them away in his mind.

"Oh, you're gong to pay for that," he declared after a moment, tossing the pair of gloves to him before he could think to make another snowball. Yami immediately caught it with his right hand, giving Yugi the instinctive realization that Yami was in fact right-handed like he was.

The thought made him smirk but didn't stop him from taking a handful of snow and molding it into a hall to toss at the other boy. Yami ducked lithely, smirking at him return, and slipped the gloves on over his fingers.

"You need to throw faster than that if you really want to hit me," Yami snorted, smiling at him widely. "I might not be as fast as you, but I can still hold my own when it comes to dodging."

"Oh, please, how would you know how fast I am?" Yugi scoffed, shaking his head and forming another ball with snow next to his foot. "You've never even seen me run before."

The other boy wrinkled his nose. "We ran in the woods together, did we not? Besides, your body is built more for speed than it is power," he said dismissively, grabbing a handful of snow himself and watching him closely. The smaller boy looked at him with a startled, confused expression. "I saw it in the woods that day. If you were to grow used to using your wolf form and racing in it, you would be much faster than me."

Yugi tilted his head, confused and undone by the idea. "If I became used to using it? I don't want to use it," he said bluntly, shaking his head as Yami considered his words. "I mean, I'm not a wolf. I'm just Yugi Motou, and that doesn't really involve me changing into a canine more often than completely necessary."

The red-eyed lycanthrope furrowed his brows slightly before nodding. "That is understandable, I suppose," he said easily, despite the fact that Yugi had been sure he would grow upset with such a statement. The other boy had saved his life, after all, and the only reason he had survived until then was because he had infected him. His disease had been the only thing to save his life. "Many humans would feel that way, I am sure. Having your reality turned on its head cannot be easy to deal with."

The smaller boy huffed. "No, it's definitely not," he grumbled, shaking his head sharply, "it's not the slightest bit easy to deal with. It's messed up and totally and completely fucked."

The other boy tossed the ball in his hand, hitting him square in the shoulder. "Truly?"

He paused, undone by the quiet tone. "Well, I, well…no, but…Yami, you don't get how this feels, okay? I mean, just a month ago I was perfectly human and happy, even if I had night terrors and my grandpa liked to test my senses all the time and my mom worried I didn't take my medication often enough. And now, I've got to avoid the full moon, being around others on said day, I can't date the girl I've wanted to ask out for the last year and a half, I have to be careful not to get too upset, and I… Someone fucking tried to kill me with their pet wolf. I just… You probably grew up knowing what you were, happily running around and eating, racing off from one place to the next, with a family who loved and cared for you."

Yami watched him for a long minute. "My mother tried to kill me," he said quietly. "She was cornered by a hunter outside of the den and they were about to shoot and skin her. She realized that they could potentially destroy me, either by doing the same or raising me to do unimaginable things. So she would rather she be the one to kill me than them. She turned her teeth on me and it was only by a miracle that my father managed to kill the hunters and stop her before she ended my life."

Yugi blinked stupidly, taken aback.

The wolf glanced away, looking at the snow as it began to fall in large, thick clumps of bright white ice before his darkened eyes. "You must come to realize, that perhaps your life is not ideal, but there are always struggles shared within another's life, regardless of whether you are told. I was so scared of hunters that, for years after my parents were truly killed, I remained in those tunnels. I grew emaciated and refused to leave even when the prey became scarce enough to be all but extinct within that small river. I don't know how long I remained in the dark like that, only that it's been more than a couple of years, and I still watch my back constantly and refuse to allow others to come too near me."

"Yami, I—"

"I did not say this to make you feel bad. I shared this with you because I might not have been bitten as I did you, but just because I grew up with knowledge of what I was did not make anything easier. I was not allowed to forget what I was, what my existence meant to others."

Yugi opened his mouth with the intent to apology, to agree that maybe he was right and he shouldn't complain considering, but that it sucked all the same, but merely fell quiet. Yami watched him only for a moment, opening his mouth in a similar manner before turning away altogether.

He started to say something a second time, then dropped the half-formed snowball in his hand and headed towards the tree line. He did not glance back and the small boy failed to call after him.

---

He supposed it was for the best that Yami had wandered off as he had the day before. It had not been a great conversation between them, nor had he wished to continue it when the other had come in through the window late into the night. Yugi had only woken long enough to ask if he was okay before falling back asleep as the other settled beside him. But he had woken to Yami watching him with something of a disturbed and troubled expression, though he had quickly looked away him realizing he had been caught.

The red-eyed lycanthrope had promptly ignored him upon asking what was wrong and then settled for further sleep as Yugi turned the alarm off. The entire event had been strange in relation to the other boy that it had taken up most of his morning and afternoon afterwards. But the strangeness had simply come to mind now because he was watching Jonouchi now.

And the blond was acting so strangely that it made Yugi feel sick to his stomach with confusion. The small teen watched his taller friend look about himself urgently, then move away to slip around the corner.

If he were a wolf, Yugi might understand this strange behavior. He would have possibly boiled it down to simple restlessness and frustration due to being cooped up as he was.

But Jonouchi was not a wolf in any sense. And his actions now did not truly mirror those of Yami's when he was about to run off.

He had seen the signs of his growing anxiety now. He knew how he would curl his bottom lip slightly, with just enough space to press the tip of his top canine to it. Yugi recognized when he twitched his nails uncomfortably and narrowed his eyes only faintly. He knew the way his legs would cross at the knees when he would lie on his back. He recognized how he would pick at his teeth with his nails, not in the manner of pulling food from their crevices but in the way of rubbing as if to gather friction of some kind. He knew Yami sometimes pressed his nails into his palms when he read, holding the pages open just enough to shield the action from his eyes.

He did not physically harm himself but it was apparent that his stress of being in one place had begun to make him grow far more irritable.

And that was not what he saw of Jonouchi now.

The blond simply appeared to act suspiciously as he took off down the hall in a much faster pace. The blue-violet-eyed boy looked at him with curiosity and bewilderment. They had been talking only minutes before, though his phone had begun to vibrate and the tall teen had immediately run off with the statement that he had to do something important.

It was against Yugi's moral code to follow him, but his own wonder at a display that seemed so wrong and out of character for him made the small teen start forward. He had never considered following someone, especially a friend, even when the blond had put it in his head that Anzu was sleeping with people for money when she had gotten a part time job at the supermarket during the summer. He rolled his eyes at the memory but it did not make his feet stop.

The thought occurred to Yugi that perhaps the wolf was so curious a creature that it influenced his actions now. He tilted his head. He knew it had caused a spike, rapid and furious, in his own restless nature as well. Yami was not the only one who got anxious and upset upon being cooped up for too long. He just tended to hide it better after so long to practice and he was sure Yami had never had a reason to do such a thing.

But the thought of becoming a canine as fully as Yami had was daunting in every sense of the word. His stomach dropped as he continued his leisurely pace behind him.

The other boy managed to see his infliction as a blessing of some kind. It was as if he would be beyond himself with discomfort if he had ever managed to make so much as a scornful remark about his lycanthropy. He seemed to see it as something almost to be worshipped and praised. And that was, despite everything, disgusting and overwhelming to the small teen.

Yugi's own infliction had not made his life easier in any way. He was always frustrated, annoyed, and he felt sick more often than not with the overwhelming feeling of suffocation which came to him each time. He let out a deep breath, swallowing thickly, and then heard movement somewhere behind him.

He spun, unsure why he thought for a moment that it might somehow be Yami there, and listened harder as he peered at the hall he knew the footsteps to be coming from. His heart was hammering too hard in his ears to allow him knowledge of who it might be there, and so his body had become tense and frustrated. His spine was rigid, ramrod straight, and his muscles had clenched along bones whose marrow had become molten.

Part of him said that nothing would happen in such a public space. But another warned him to simply take off running as quickly as his feet could carry him. Yugi could not truly figure out which instinct was the more powerful one, simply that he was stuck there and his feet rooted to the ground.

What good were these instincts if Yugi couldn't figure out ahead of time if the thing approaching him was dangerous? Sure, his body could warn him all he needed, but the reaction was always the same and incredibly constant.

His spine tightened, his muscles tensed, and his heart pounded. It was the equivalent of an adrenaline rush, but with a stable mind. But, still, that did not help him determine whether whoever was approaching was a threat to him.

Yugi stiffened a little more, bracing himself.

They were just about to walk around the corner and see him.

If it was a situation like that guy from the woods, however, what was he truly meant to do? He did not know if he could outrun them outright…

But, around the corner, came Anzu and Honda and his legs nearly collapsed beneath him with relief.

"Where were you running off to so quickly?" the brunet asked with a raised brow. His hazel eyes searched his face for a moment, concerned and curious. "It feels like we were following you forever."

Yugi glanced over his shoulder towards where Jonouchi had vanished. "I was just trying to catch up with Katsuya," he admitted after a moment, turning back and offering a small smile. "We were talking and he said he had to run, but I wanted to ask if we still had plans for studying."

He shrugged lazily when the other two frowned faintly.

"I'm guessing not."

Honda snorted. "You mentioning schoolwork after school made him run off," he snickered. "You should have known better."

"Probably," he agreed with a slight smirk. "But, whatever."

The other boy was at his side again immediately, wrapping an arm around his shoulder lazily. "Well, come on, let's get to the arcade for a little while. I want to see if I can best you even once at that karate game."

Anzu rolled her eyes. "Not a chance in hell, Honda. Not a chance in hell."

Yugi snorted when the other boy shot her an offended look. "No one asked for your input," he snapped, glancing at the smaller teen who snickered and then looked away immediately again. "Stay quiet over there, peanut gallery. Your girl and I are about to fight."

"Please do that elsewhere then," he chuckled, shaking his head. "I don't want to have to pick sides."

"He'll choose mine," Anzu announced, smirking.

"Actually I'm obligated to choose his because he's got me in a position that could easily turn into a noogie and those are uncomfortable so…"

"You're supposed to side with me!"

"You told Jonouchi I couldn't even reach his ass," the short teen scoffed. "And how all is fair in love and war and all that. So, nah, I'm thinking sides are subjective."

Honda burst out laughing, nearly doubling over and pulling Yugi down with him at the moment. "Holy crap!" he crowed happily. "This is why we all love you. That's the best."

Anzu pursed her lips. "Okay, well, if you think about it, Jonouchi is tall enough that it would take you a really hard kick to reach that high."

Yugi felt his cheeks heat and his mouth twisted into a playful scowl. "I am not that small! I'm not!"

"You're deluded," the brunet snorted, "just like every other short person in the world."

Yugi went to object, then closed his mouth again and huffed. "You try being five feet and two inches, jackass. You're like fucking five-eleven and you want to tease the vertically challenged? There's a special place in hell for you."

Honda and Anzu both burst out laughing and Yugi rolled his eyes but snickered despite himself. As much as he wished he could be upset, there wasn't much that the other two had said that wasn't true. He was incredibly short. And he did always like to pretend that his height was almost the same as anyone else's around him. The concept was entirely too stupid but he would admit he wished himself about the same height as the others.

The walk to the arcade and back towards the house began to grow monotonous almost as soon as they finished their games. It was when Yugi was walking with Anzu beside him after Honda announced he was going to go ahead and split because his dad wanted his help with fixing a car, that the small teen even noticed that there was a subtle difference in the air. He blinked, at first bewildered as to its source, but then shook himself at the thought.

The brunette beside him bit her lip softly for a moment and then looked at him with a shy expression on her face. "How is your grandpa?"

If Yugi hadn't known that he had used him as his lie, he might have wondered if her tastes ran for older males. He rolled his eyes at himself mentally, but found himself unable to keep from sighing softly.

"Oh…"

Yugi shook his head immediately. "It's not that he isn't getting better. He is! He's getting a lot better, actually. It's just that…" He hesitated. "With everything just finally beginning to settle down, I don't want to commit prematurely. I mean, it's possible that I'll say yes now and he'll suddenly have a relapse in health or—"

"Yugi, it's okay. I get it," she said gently, frowning at him faintly in bewilderment. "I understand. If you don't feel able to commit because you're worried about jinxing it, I can totally understand and agree. I wouldn't want your grandfather to get hurt because you couldn't help him because you were spending all of your time with me."

Yugi shivered. The brunette was watching him with such sympathy that it was almost overwhelming. His stomach tossed sideways for a moment but he ignored it steadily, sighing softly after a long second.

"I just…it sucks. I don't want to do that to you again."

"You're not 'doing' anything to me, Yugi. It's not like you demanded that I wait around for you. I said I would. I offered. And, besides, it'll be worth it when everything settles, right?"

Would it?

He swallowed harshly. "Yeah," he murmured in a voice that seemed strangled. He was not sure if she heard it as well or if it was simply him, but either way she smiled at him, a gentle and warm expression upon her soft features.

"I'm going to go ahead and head home," she announced after a moment. She shrugged when Yugi blinked in surprise. "My parents wanted to go out for dinner before curfew."

He nodded slightly. "Oh, okay."

Anzu leaned forward, then pulled back at the last second. He thought for a moment that he might cringe at the missed opportunity. He had not moved, he had been so undone by the suddenness of the action. He had not even considered moving in any way. He shivered as she turned and started away from him, turning back only to wave with a small smile that he knew was hurt around the edges.

Yugi closed his eyes tightly for a moment, then hurried towards his house. He needed to get a move on, to go inside and lie down or maybe just start on some homework to distract himself. His mom glanced up and called a greeting around organizing her paperwork.

He looked at her, smiled faintly, mumbled a quick hello, and fled up the stairs. He knew she would not continue the conversation simply because she was busy with the papers. And he himself sought no sense of discussion from her.

Yugi passed into his room without looking into the kitchen, though he heard the discovery channel playing and knew his grandfather would be seated in his recliner in front of the television. He froze, however, upon seeing the sight to greet him there.

Yami was curled up on his side, fast asleep. His sides were rising in gentle folds of breath. His eyelids were twitching faintly. His blanket was wrapped tightly around himself. His right cheek was pressed completely into the pillow. His hair was ruffled and his bangs gently knotted against the sheets. He looked as young and innocent as he had before, pressed into that gentle fetal position he always slept in.

Yugi immediately stilled any movements he had been contemplating making. His tongue flicked along his lips with unease. He knew for certain that should he have opened the door again to make his way out of the room, Yami would wake up. It was honestly nothing short of a miracle that he remained resting now. He would have expected him to be wide awake, yawning and watching him.

Yami looked so peaceful and the thought of causing him to abandon his dreams seemed a crime. But Yugi knew he could not bother to stand around for hours just to allow him more rest. That was beyond even his capabilities. He thought to go to the desk, maybe to place his backpack down and take a seat near the piece of furniture. He could not sit in the frame of metal itself, however. It always creaked noisily when someone put their weight in it, no matter how slight it was.

He moved to place his bag down gently on the carpet, relieved when the other boy still did not react. Yami continued to breathe in evenly, eyes closed, lids flickering, his blanket pulled to his neck, his body curled snugly beneath it. He smiled faintly at the sight, then caught the edges of his uniform jacket, pulling one sleeve so that he could stretch his arm and remove it from inside. He slipped out of it, the material feeling heavy and harsh for a moment, and put it down next to the bag.

Yugi glanced up and his eyes grew thrice their regular size. A pair of bright red gems peered back at him. Framed by long black lashes, they looked like deep and beautiful rubies, with the faintest hints of frosted gray edges along the edges. The boy peered at him lazily, with a weariness that made him nearly tremble, then stretched his body out to its fullest and yawned with a snap of his jaws. There he curled up the once more, staring at him through his long lashes for a moment.

"Sorry," Yugi whispered in a tone he could only equate with pitiful. He opened and closed his mouth, then ducked his head and blew out a breath of air. "I didn't mean to wake you. I thought I was being quiet."

"You were," the red-eyed boy replied in that same lazy tone, closing his eyes again and stretching once more. "It was simply the rustling of clothes which woke me. That is, of course, nothing you could have prevented no matter how slowly you might have moved."

The small teen sighed softly. "I figured it would work. I didn't want to wake you. You rarely ever seem to actually sleep without being drugged."

The word made Yami pause for a brief moment. Then he pulled the blanket a little further up along his neck before closing his eyes tightly and pressing his face more forcefully into the pillow. "Yes, well, it does not truly matter," he muttered with a soft edge of amusement. "I would have woken soon either way. My dream was coming to an end."

"How do you know?"

The taller boy smirked slightly. "Because I could feel my thoughts beginning to change and they had nothing to do with the dream."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I was dreaming about running in the woods. Then I started thinking you would be coming home from school soon," he admitted with a shrug. "Which is not something that I normally think when I am asleep."

Yugi smiled faintly, rolling his eyes, and turned away slightly. "Oh, well, yeah, that makes sense. I would realize I was waking up too then."

"Yes…" He fell silent for a long minute and the smaller boy looked up to see if perhaps he had fallen asleep again. But those red eyes were open, peering at him curiously for a single moment. "How was school?"

He paused, tilting his head in confusion. Yami had never bothered to ask him that before. He raised a brow slightly. "It was fine, I guess. Jonouchi was acting a little weird. He ran off in the middle of talking to me." He shrugged. "My teachers asked me if I was okay because I spaced out a couple of times. I have a bunch of homework that I don't want to do. A couple of people literally ran off when they saw me so I thought maybe I looked hideous but no, I'm beginning to think otherwise. There wasn't much else that happened. How was your day?"

Yami looked at him silently for a moment, considering his words, and then muttered, "Uneventful. I slept and snuck out to hunt and then I came back and slept again."

The small boy raised a brow, a slight sense of relief and amusement as well as awe creeping into his tone. "You slept that much?"

He stretched again. "Yes." For a moment he stayed quiet. Then he finally moved to sit up, putting his hands in his lap and peering at him. "Tell me more about your day."

It was a simple request, yet it stumped the small teen. He blinked at him, startled and more than a little confused. The idea of relaying his day in further detail seemed somehow beyond his capabilities. Yugi frowned slightly, nibbling his lip, and hurried to speak when he saw the way Yami began to offer him the opportunity to say no.

"I just forgot for a second…that you don't know what school is like," he explained as his small frown began to slowly deepen. "I just… It's always a little weird to me. Sorry. So…let's see. What can I say about school?"

Yami blinked at him, and for a moment his eyes were sharper than usual, but they grew vivid with wonder as well now. He did not lean forward, but Yugi knew and understood the anticipation which made his gaze grow a little rounder and his shoulders pull a little closer together.

He smiled lightly at the taller boy. "Well, school is basically a really large building that people send their kids off to in order to have them receive an education. It goes by age and then dictates where you are placed among your peers by your birthday," he began, moving to take a seat on the edge of the bed now. The mattress dipped comfortably beneath him. "So, say your birthday is—"

"July 26th," Yami interrupted, looking at Yugi as he stiffened slightly in surprise and then stared for a long moment. His blue-violet eyes were wide, flickering as they searched his, and something shocked and almost horrified claimed his gaze. "What?"

"Nothing. I just…" Yugi shrugged it off, first mentally and then physically with a small jerk of his shoulder. He cleared his throat. "Don't worry about it. Anyways, if you were in school, you would be in the same grade as me. Schools get divided into age groups. So from six to eleven you are placed in elementary, then from eleven to fifteen you're in middle school, and from fifteen to eighteen you're in high school. After that you basically decide what you plan to do with your life and pick a school that will get you to that point."

Yami nodded slightly to show he understood, the light in his eyes brightening somewhat. Yugi could see his thoughts flickering, blank spaces and unknowns beginning to fill themselves in.

"Anyways, so you go there for eight hours a day or sometimes more. When you do that, you get to be around your friends. The only difference between Domino High and a couple of neighboring schools is that Domino is slightly westernized. So, at other schools, when they go to their first room for the day, their homeroom, they stay there and the teachers start to go back and forth to their next classes. At Domino, we go back and forth and the teachers stay in their rooms all day."

Yami nodded again.

"Anyways, so one teacher gives us instruction and guidance on one subject. They teach us what the school thinks is necessary that we learn. Then they quiz us and decide whether we are really learning through testing our memory on that stuff." Yugi paused, frowning faintly, and then crossed his legs as he looked at the other boy more completely. "Honestly, Yami, you aren't missing much in staying home. I promise."

The way he said the word "home" made his heart ache. The taller teen looked away, nodding slightly, and licked his lips after a moment.

"I am just curious. I do not wish to go there myself, but I do wonder."

Yugi nearly cringed at the statement, then bit his lip harshly for a moment. "During lunch everyone either picks a spot outside or they settle somewhere around the school. The teachers all go to their lounges while we just sit and talk and enjoy time together for a little while." Yugi rubbed the back of his head as the other boy looked up again with that same intense wonder and slight excitement. "Then, eventually, we come home. There are five main classes and then there are two that we're free to choose for ourselves. Besides that, there isn't much to say about it. Occasionally teachers give us work to do at home and bring in the next day and sometimes we have massive tests that require more studying than usual so we get home with packets to finish and turn in for extra credit on our tests. It's basically just extra points in case we really need them."

"Do you ever really need them?"

The small boy frowned thoughtfully. "Well, no, I…normally just do them, but I know that I could pass with or without it."

Yami nodded and looked away. "Thank you." He stretched, then pulled his blanket up to wrap around his shoulders. "I think I will rest some more now."

Yugi stiffened slightly. "Are you okay? I'm not used to you sleeping this much."

He nodded with a slight shrug. "I am. I am fine. I am simply tired, I suppose." He paused as he began to settle against the pillow again. "I did take some medication earlier. I could not sleep otherwise so I took some."

He furrowed his brows but nodded and relaxed some. "Okay."