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.

28. Exhibits

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

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

Chapter Warnings: Misuse of Medication, Implied/Suspected Pedophilia, Character Death

Okay, so! The protein powder Yugi is referring to is one I ran across a while ago. I don't really care to put the name up, just that what Yugi says about it is what I've found online. It's claimed to taste a lot like pancake batter, that it doesn't mix all that well sometimes, and is said to have been the best weight gain supplement from 2009-2011.

So, Yami kind of hinted earlier in the story that he basically has issues gaining and keeping weight or losing his hunger while consuming human food. Here's why: the chemicals in the food; preservatives, things of that nature, get completely cycled out, so in that way the body loses energy working it out of the system. Yami's body, when wounded or harmed in any manner (though especially through the forceful rate of Change he pushed himself through in the chapter prior), tends to metabolize food at a much faster rate. Due to this, he could probably eat as much food as Yugi would have stocked in the house and STILL remain in a state of starvation. He could potentially starve to death due to the food not being enough to fill him and being unable to hunt if he were too weak to change and maintain his energy.

If you've noticed, however, Yugi has only ever really made him lighter meals (pancakes, light and fluffy, eggs, lean protein, protein shakes, quickly metabolized). In doing so, had he failed to drug him, Yami would have been left hungrier than could be maintained between the two of them. In the absence of the drugs to put him to sleep, Yami could potentially metabolize a four course meal of any kind in under about ten minutes. At that rate, Yami could feel full for only about twenty seconds to five minutes, try to find food again, and begin to waste away more due to loss of energy and no steady dietary staple to subdue it.

Now, for this chapter, Yugi brings up the densest foods I could find while looking up the UNHEALTHIEST, FATTIEST Japanese meals. Tonkatsu is double-fried pork cutlet, tempura shrimp rolls are sushi, the gyoza (potstickers) are deep-fried and full of vegetables and pork. The three of them are the UNHEALTHIEST, FATTIEST foods I could find online and if I remember right, they also had some of the highest calorie counts (tonkatsu- 313, tempura rolls- 508, fried potstickers- 214). Anyways, Yugi brings up denser takeout food in order to combat Yami's body potentially metabolizing too quickly for him to keep up. The grease and fat does well to fill him up and slow him down even before he gives him the medicine and protein shake. The grease slows the progression of digestion drastically, stretching it out for hours.

By the way, the pedophilia NEVER HAPPENED. It's a misconstrued thought/perception of a somewhat rather possibly…questionable relationship between a family friend and Yugi himself. Again, it NEVER HAPPENED. But it was suspected.

Okay, so, research says this. The age of consent in Japan IS technically thirteen. But it's misconstrued in a way. See, as far as I can find, on top of this law is one to protect minors (obscenity statutes). That law is stretched to allow each prefecture a certain age of which THEY decree the child capable of having consensual sex. Some areas of Japan it's sixteen, others seventeen or eighteen. It's explained in more detail in this chapter and a later chapter in the story, both of which it is Yugi and Yami conversing about it. Both of these discussions also involve mentions/implications of pedophilia, but again, seeing as it never happened, both conversations drift more towards the age of consent.

Beyond that, again, research leads me to think that the age of twenty-one is when they are considered adults, especially if they should still be living under the same roof as their parents. As far as that goes, though, I skimmed research in order to get more writing done. So, if I'm wrong, I'm sorry and totally apologize for misrepresenting the information.

Okay, so, onto another topic altogether. The Honshu and Hokkaido wolves are SAID to be extinct, but people still claim that they've seen them running around in certain areas (more so the Honshu area than Hokkaido but I DID see a couple of sites that claimed the Ezo wolf had been sighted somewhere north of Sapporo). Regardless, anyways, the point is that, for the sake of the story, the wolves are still considered somewhat sacred within Domino, even if they were eradicated from the area. Because of this, the exhibit is opened to explain why or why not they could still possibly exist within Japan.

Chapter XXVIII: Exhibits

Work Log Entry XXVIII: September, 1998

September 11

His personality has developed a bit more. Exposure to the other wolves for the first time has ensured that he knows the basic functions and hierarchy of a wolf pack.

The odd thing is that he chose the three loners in the pack to acquaint himself with rather than the "alpha" pair who so often bully the others.

One of these loners is his father. We are investigating the possibility that the Pure-Blood recognizes his scent or knows him in any way.

Yugi pressed his lips into a thin line. The argument with his mother had not gone well. She'd gone from his issue of lying straight to the fact that he had skipped school. She had not, however, pointed her finger at the idea of his friends influencing him wrongly—because she knew how great they were—or even said that he was going along the path of a delinquent.

He was too smart to do that. And she knew him too well. She trusted him. But she had let the conversation die, then told him to leave, a tactic that still never failed to make him cringe. She'd been doing it since he was six and it still held the same power now as it had then.

He sighed and shook his head, starting up the stairs. He felt like he had been standing there at the bottom step for hours. But he had abandoned his usual enthusiasm for a much shallower sense of frustration. The argument was still ringing in his ears, especially since he had snapped that he was staying home then too. She had gone quiet, staring at him, and then finally told him to leave.

So he made his way up the stairs now, somewhat exhausted, and pushed the door of his room open. Instantly his eyes sought out the form lying on top of the comforter. The other wolf had still refused to lie under the sheets with him, which he was perfectly fine with. But it would have been easier for him to stem any bleeding if his arms opened again. Since they'd been charred apart violently by the electricity, his skin had both swollen and become incredibly infected. He had been forced to open them again, draining the pus, and then clean them several times to get rid of what he hoped would be the last of the infected tissue.

He had lied awake longer than he thought possible after they had both taken medication. He'd stared at the other boy, watched his arms, imagining more often than not that the blood was seeping through. He'd nearly panicked twice, then relaxed when he realized it was simply his imagination or the beginning of a hallucination that never truly formed.

He relaxed again. "You look a little better," he announced, giving him a small grin. It was a struggle to stay reassuring, especially when the other boy hardly seemed to notice. His red eyes flickered towards him, then to his arms, then his left leg. Very dismissively, the taller teen shrugged. Yugi rolled his eyes. "Nothing? Not a single thing to say?"

The other boy shook his head. At first it seemed he was truly going to remain silent, the thought making Yugi's breath come in narrow groans. He had been fearful that Yami might adopt the silence again as he had when they had first met. He had wondered and grown incredibly terrified of it. His mouth was so heavily blistered and wounded, however, that Yugi could not blame him if he did so around waiting for it to heal.

Then, with a sideways glance at him, Yami muttered, "I feel better."

Yugi frowned, tilting his head. "Do you really?" he inquired quietly, shaking his head when Yami looked towards him more completely. His eyes had grown slightly sharp once more beneath his long lashes.

He lowered his lids halfway. "I am still exhausted. And my legs ache, my mouth is still bloodied, but I am okay." He paused for a moment, watching him, and then closed his eyes completely, tilting head slightly to the side. "But it is just from the events from yesterday. I will heal."

Yugi remembered, unconsciously, despite his better efforts not to, the way that Yami's face had been lined with blood, the shine of red against his white teeth. He remembered wiping the blood from his mouth as gently as he could. He watched him for a moment, then smiled slightly.

"That's great." He hesitated, for a moment thinking to reach out, to perhaps see if he could make Yami open his mouth so that he could see how they might heal. He wanted, for the smallest of seconds, to perhaps touch his jaw and see if he might recoil as he had the day before. "I'm glad you're going to be doing better. Is there anything else…?"

The taller wolf turned to face him slowly, filling in the blanks of his incomplete question. "You really are very kind, aren't you?" he muttered, shaking his head slightly. "Are you truly so desperate to see me healed?"

Yugi pursed his lips. "I don't like seeing anyone in pain, especially a friend," he admitted. But he would have also tried to assist a random person on the streets if ever something happened to them in front of him. He had helped someone on several occasions when such things popped up.

The wolf studied him for a long time, then turned away with a small nod. "Loyalty is always a good thing to possess."

When he did not speak further, the smaller teen frowned and tilted his head in question. Was he upset somehow? Then again, Yami wasn't truly very talkative. Half the time mild conversation was like trying to pull teeth from his companion's mouth. The silence stretched and Yugi shifted his weight. Slowly the red eyes flickered towards him again. For a moment he regarded him silently, and then he smiled faintly, a ghostly tug of his lips.

"Did I say something wrong?"

Yugi immediately shook his head, but the slight sense of frustration did not leave him. "No, I just…I guess I was expecting you to talk a little more," he admitted, all but huffing the words out. He frowned at him when his lips pulled from a smile to a widening smirk. "What?"

"I just find it funny. You never ask anything of me but my attention and sometimes mild conversation. I find it somewhat strange that someone as small and…somewhat lonely has such kindness in them."

Yugi's eyes widened.

Lonely?

He blinked, then swallowed thickly. Yami merely studied him for a moment longer. Then his red eyes drifted towards the window. He looked almost as if he might get up and go towards it, but pushed away such thought as he turned away again.

"I do not mean that negatively. I simply… Loneliness tends to make humans bitter. And yet, despite your abundance of it, you seem relatively content to show people the opposite of what they expect of you." Yami paused, then slowly turned his head. His eyes were sharper than knives, with a force stronger than even his jaws. They glittered with such frostiness it made his heart hammer for a moment. His lips tugged into something of a smirk, bitter and harsh. "It's rather surprising to see someone so lost as to their own identity as you to be so gentle and open in heart, Code Name Atem."

He felt almost dizzy when the name passed his lips. His eyes stretched wide and his mouth opened and closed twice. They looked at each other, silent as a stare of pure coldness bore into one of startled disarray.

"I'm…sorry." They looked at each other, that sharpened, almost hostile stare making his spine tighten. The small teen choked on a breath, then bit his lip until it began to bleed. "I…I should have told you."

Yami narrowed his gaze, then shook his head slightly. "I suppose it does not matter," he stated quietly, "because, if that is who you wish to identify yourself as to others, then that is your right."

He opened his mouth.

"But I like Yugi better."

The admission was so soft he nearly missed it. Then he pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth as Yami tipped his head to the side and offered him a small smile.

"So, don't lose sight of that if you decide to help them. Please, don't lose sight of it."

Yugi was too stunned to speak, but nodded mutely moments later, eyes wide. The taller teen nodded slightly in response, then lowered his eyes and looked at the carpet. The heat turned on, clicking so that the vents vibrated gently. The small boy hated how inevitable it was that he notice it each time, unlike before he'd come to be infected so fully.

Before, he could have ignored it altogether.

Now it was as heavy in his mind as Yami's words.

"Will you…?" Yugi trailed off, then faltered completely when the other's head tipped towards him but his eyes did not rise from the floor. For a moment the smaller boy tried falteringly to find new words, but they stuck in his throat as the red-eyed lycanthrope finally looked at him again. He was waiting, gaze curious but patient though a lingering shadow of hurried urging colored his irises. He still struggled for the words, then opened and closed his mouth twice more. Finally, with what felt like colossal effort, he whispered, "Will you help me if I do lose sight of that?"

Yami was silent for a moment, studying him. His eyes peered both at him and through him, the distance in them miles ahead of anything Yugi had ever known. The red gaze shifted, then burned, and flickered with great strength as he looked at him more pointedly. He sat up a bit taller for a moment, then shifted his legs as if to brace himself to get up. But be did not bother to rise and instead his eyes seemed to focus and grip his with a powerful and irrational surge of strength.

"I doubt you will ever need it."

Yugi would have been proud to have Yami say such a thing if it was not for the way he continued to stare, red eyes sharpening further. He seemed abruptly restless, as if the very idea upset him to the desire of pacing about himself. But he did not move and instead stared at him intently.

"But, should you have reason for it, I will help you, Yugi."

His stomach tossed and he smiled faintly. He was using his name very pointedly now, as if to reassure him that he was not simply Code Name Atem. The thought was both relieving and overwhelming as they looked at each other.

"Thank you."

Yami nodded, at first appearing as if he might open his mouth and say something further, but then turned away again. He nodded a second time, then looked at his nails, picking at the flecks beneath them. The bandages felt oddly restraining and the flesh along his wrists was pale and then bright red, throbbing, as he glanced at it. He had never seen that happen before, even when they were healing…

"Don't bend your wrists that far," Yugi blurted out, eyes wide. "You'll cut off the circulation in your arms!"

He blinked and then very slowly moved his hands away from each other, relaxing their posture with a frown. He rested them haphazardly on his legs, drumming his fingers against his knees. His left leg was riddled with pain when he repeated the gesture. It was like the skin was freshly bruised and each touch made it further bloodied. He allowed his lids to become hooded again, eyes flickering towards the window again.

"I'm so sorry. I thought I had told you," he muttered, biting his lip. "I mean, I thought I had warned you. I didn't realize. Shit, I'm sorry Yami…"

Yami raised his head and turned to him fully. "Why should you apologize? I am the one who did it. And I believe you did warn me. I think I was medicated at the time, however." The memory—or thought, the figment of his imagination, maybe—was but a blur in the back of his head. He could not completely understand his words, a mere babble of noise. But the tone was gentle, though it almost always was, and he supposed that perhaps those were the words his mind found so incomprehensible. "It does not truly matter regardless. I would have eventually lost my care for such sensation and moved my hands."

Yugi bit his lip harder, watching him closely, and then lowered his eyes with a small frown. "I should have warned you again. I mean, when you took the medicine you were already almost asleep on your feet. I wasn't even sure you'd be awake when I came back with it," he admitted. He tugged on his pajama sleeve and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them again, they were focused on the carpet fibers. "But I guess that's…"

He shrugged, unable to think of anything else to say. He pursed his lips, then looked at him from beneath his lashes. Yami was visibly restless, eyes flickering about the room for a moment before shooting to his. The red gaze widened slightly before he frowned and tipped his head to the side in question.

"Can I ask you something?"

"Yes."

The certainty in his tone made the smaller boy feel better, but the tension did not fully desert him. He drew in a deep breath, then pulled his sleeves over both of his hands and licked his lips. "Why did he choose to electrocute us?" he finally muttered.

Yami did not seem to breathe for a moment, staring at him blankly before finally looking away again. "It's one of the easiest ways to kill us and make sure we stay dead. It normally only lasts for a few minutes. But it's long enough that they can start skinning. And if the wolf comes back during that, then the pain will normally kill them. Especially because the electricity can kill the nerves and sometimes the rest of the cells cannot regenerate and heal." He shook his head, turning to peer at Yugi now. The intensity of his gaze was like hellfire as it seared into his. "But, being as you are immortal, the attack would simply be enough to knock you unconscious after forcing your heart to a stop. Then, when you would recover, you would be feral. You'd most likely attack anything and everything around you until you were in a peaceful enough setting to calm down."

Yugi frowned, nibbling his bottom lip. "Mai said the same thing about you. She said you would be feral and thought you'd attack me…" He hesitated. "Why didn't you?"

The taller teen blinked. "You were talking to me when I was still trying to recover. Your voice was something I recognized. It helped me remember who you were, that you weren't there to harm me." He shifted his legs again, this time gripping his knees with nails so sharp that they seemed to shred the fibers of his jeans. "If you had not been doing such a thing, I would have probably torn your throat out for being so close."

The brutal truth of the statement gave Yugi pause. But it also made his insides feel both warm and surprisingly knotted. He looked at him, somewhat bewildered and curious, and then shook his head slightly. He could see Yami doing such a thing. Even in his weakened state, he could see him being powerful enough to raise his head and tear into an opponent. He shivered but the thought was somehow relieving as well.

Yami could take care of himself.

Yugi had always known he could.

But the reminder did him well.

"Okay."

The other boy watched him for a moment, expression somewhat cynical. "Wow, you seem more at ease with death than even me now," he scoffed, rolling his eyes; Yugi's gaze grew wide and a bright blush began to color his cheeks. "What happened? You came to realize you are Code Name Atem and life is suddenly very hard and uncomfortable for you? You wish for death now?"

Yugi flinched at his hostile tone, shaking his head rapidly. But there was something in Yami's eyes which made his stomach hurt and his mouth grow dry, the marrow in his bones freeze and the breath in his lungs catch.

"No," he managed to breathe out, flustered further by the way his eyes flashed and seemed to burrow straight into his soul. "Of course not! I…I just…"

Yami searched his eyes rapidly, narrowing his gaze as he waited expectantly. Coldly the other boy regarded him, voice a snarl when he spat, "Being Code Name Atem does not make anything harder or easier. It's merely a name, damn it! And immortality is not a reason to risk your life senselessly!"

He blanched, eyes widening drastically. "I wasn't—I just meant… Yami, it… I asked what they did when they electrocuted a werewolf. I wasn't… And you said… I just meant… It…" He trailed off, struggling for a moment. "I meant that I understood what you were…"

The other wolf stared at him, face twisted with a bitter and cynical expression before he looked swiftly away again. He had turned his entire face towards the other wall, hands clenched on his knees. "I know. I am sorry. I shouldn't be…snapping at you like this. I…I simply… I was not thinking."

Yugi stared at him, fixated by the way his shoulders seemed too thin, his arms too lanky. Had the muscle he'd previously seen been wasted away by the Change the day before?

"You're thinner than yesterday," he muttered without thinking, flinching when Yami jerked, head snapping around and eyes wide. But when he did not object, nor open his mouth to interrupt, the smaller teen skimmed his hand lightly over his own wounded side.

The touch was barely noticeable and he did not feel it too terribly, but it still made his stomach twist. His flank shuddered lightly. Had he been harmed more, would his body have done the same to him? Would he look so unnerving and small, like he had not eaten well in days? The muscles were almost completely gone, yet it did nothing to push away the predatory aura he possessed…

"You look really small. Are you hungry? Fuck, I forgot about breakfast…"

Yami gave him a startled look. "You're cursing a lot more…"

"I'm upset. It happens sometimes," he snapped before blushing at the bewildered gleam which entered the other's shocked gaze. Yami did nothing more than stare, unblinking and wide-eyed. Yugi shivered and touched his side more forcefully. The pain brought a hideous focus to his mind. "Is this from the shock you got? Is that what happens when you get revived?"

Yami frowned at him, then curled his lip back distastefully. Blood again coated the front of his incisors. The red of them made the smaller boy queasy. He had forgotten to even look for something to numb the pain in his mouth for him.

"I changed prematurely. It was my own fault. I should have waited until my body no longer felt as badly as it did. I should have laid there until my temperature had regulated itself at the very least. And then I should have rested before I bothered to try it. But I was not willing to stay there. And I chose to do it."

"But…what happened exactly? I don't…"

"My metabolism was too high. It began to burn away at what muscle and fat I had. The Change spurred it further in order to sustain itself. My body was forced to sacrifice some of itself to keep my organs from rotting." He turned away, picking at the edges of the bandage on his right wrist. "As you mentioned, Shizuka told you that the body would sacrifice itself for the womb, for the baby inside, yes? It is the same case when it is weakened and must be forced through the Change. It is quick and instantaneous that the body chooses."

He shivered. "Your organs from rotting…" Yugi closed his eyes tightly, then shook his head sharply. "It's… Damn it, every time I make progress with getting you better, something fucks it up again!"

Yami turned to look at him for a long minute, but the words on his tongue were something he could never bring himself to say and he forcefully shunned them from his mind as well.

"I will be okay," he promised instead. "I will heal. I have had several encounters like this before I ever even came across you. It's not too big a deal."

He shook his head, eyes on him now, blazing and frustrated. "It shouldn't have happened!" he snapped, flustered. "It shouldn't have had to happen, Yami."

He shrugged dismissively. "I will not argue with you further on this matter. The fact is that I chose to do such a thing. I chose the moment I realized that your home was the safest place we could go. Now, as far as I am concerned, this discussion is over. You may continue to say whatever you wish to about it, but know that I will not answer you."

Yugi gaped at him. "What? A conversation isn't over just because someone says so!"

"It is when one ignores you. I will not speak more on this subject." Yami turned his head and gave him a long, cold warning look. "So you will, by all means, be speaking to only yourself and the dead air."

They stared at each other for a moment. Then Yugi shook his head sharply. He glared at him but Yami did not budge in even the slightest. Their eyes were locked and the tension was becoming stifling. The air seemed to grow heavier. Yami curled his lips back, blood on his teeth, and snarled low in his throat. The smaller teen did not mirror the movement, but did not lower his eyes either.

The red-eyed lycanthrope's patience wore thin.

He was on his feet, snarling lower until it was but a hiss of noise. His eyes were flashing with abundant warning, his teeth bared and blood covering them more as the raw skin tore and shredded further. His balance was caught on his right leg more than his left but it was his fingers which were twitching. His fingers were folded slightly, the lycanthrope preparing to lash out with his sharp nails.

Yugi backed up a step when it seemed the taller teen might advance. Then he slowly took another. Yami did not come forward. Instead, he looked at him, snarling, and very slowly stepped back as well. The smaller teen paced another step back, then forced his jaw together into a tight clench. The pain was the only way he could make himself lower his eyes.

He knew he couldn't take Yami on, even with his wounds. He was too small, too inexperienced, and he acknowledged Yami knew some way to counteract his weakness. He would never have survived for so long if he did not.

"I'm going to go make breakfast," he spat out, teeth still clenched forcefully. He was glaring furiously at the floor, his teeth bared when he turned towards the door.

Yami could do nothing more than watch him go. Should Yugi have come within range of him, he was not sure he could have stopped himself. In his weakened state, every word was a threat. Every breath was a painful promise. Every glance in his direction was a search for further ailment.

His rational mind told him that it was Yugi he was lashing out at. But it did nothing to stop him. Common sense was not what the wolf thrived in while in pain. It was brute strength and cunning, then the task of fleeing. That was what kept them alive.

He still felt guilt gnaw at his insides, however. If he could have stopped himself, found the strength to fight such instincts, he would have. It was only for Yugi, in exchange for his kindness, but he would have attempted it. Yet, he could not bear to do so, instead lowering his eyes to the floor as the exhaustion bore down on him.

How long had he even come to know Yugi?

He could not quite recall. The thought made him feel sick.

How long ago had he first come across him?

How long was it before he had come to his house?

How long had he been there?

Wasn't it time to heal and flee as he always did?

He had never bothered to stay in one place for longer than necessary.

Yugi was right. Every time he healed, something else happened. He got further hurt. He reopened wounds. He got infections. He…

Yami was doing it to himself, he realized belatedly, eyes widening. He was hurting himself on purpose. He was struggling to make himself unable to leave. Because the loneliness was bitter and ate away at what was left of him. It was well deserved, but he still could not find it in himself to fully accept it. And his reprieve from it was amazing to him.

He felt the shame crash through him in a tidal wave. He was a fool. He was an absolute idiot. He shivered, refusing to look up as he heard the smaller boy work at making them something to eat. He would have puked his distress if he had anything inside of him to do so.

He looked away when Yugi came back in with the plates. His stomach gargled desperately but he could barely bring himself to smell it. The unearthly combination of shame and guilt made the very idea of eating disgust him. He pressed his teeth into his cheek forcefully. When Yugi paused and then shuffled closer to him, he had to very visibly resist the urge to flinch away from him altogether.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing." Everything. "I just…" I don't know.

"I'm not mad at you, if you're worried about that. I wasn't… I was just upset. I don't want to fight you…" Yugi paused, then exhaled loudly. "Look, I promise it's okay. There's nothing wrong, okay? I just… Come on, let's eat and then we can sit around and talk or something."

He shook his head slightly, unnerved by his apology. He forced himself not to flinch away when Yugi came to his side and extended the plate. The smell was that of eggs, light and fluffy, and some toast. He shrugged, mumbling, "I was too tired to make pancakes. But hey, we can order out tonight. If we get something unhealthy enough, your weight will be back in a couple weeks' time."

Yami finally raised and turned his head towards him. With a robotic sense of touch, he reached out and took the plate from him. "Thank you."

The smaller teen nearly scowled with frustration. The other boy was clearly unhappy, more so than even when he had left him, but now it was different and much too powerful to allow him to remain comfortable. "I also did some research a while back, when I was still looking at the protein powders," he continued quietly, licking his lips and watching him closely. "I found one that seems good enough. The ones who have bothered to review it gave it high marks. And I'm hoping it will work better than trying to get pills… Until I can get it in the mail, though, we're stuck doing what we were before. So, when I'm not feeling like my limbs will fall off, I'll start making pancakes again and then we'll binge on fatty food and you'll drink protein shakes with medicine."

Yami gripped the plate tightly, fingers straining. His nails made a sharp clicking noise but both of them ignored it. The relapse into their old routine made his skin quiver slightly. He nodded after a moment, looking down. "How long do you think it will take to get here?"

"Two days at the most. I was planning to pay the fee for whatever one proved the fastest," he said with a shrug. "There's another one that I was looking at too. It didn't have the same number of reviews, but they were both high-end. The first one was named the best weight gain supplement for three years in a row, though, so I figured that one would be best."

Yami looked at him for a few seconds, then to his food again. His eyes narrowed and he pursed his lips. "You did all of that the first time you had go out and get some protein mix?" he asked quietly.

Yugi nodded. "Yeah. But at the time I wasn't really sure that you would stay after you were okay to leave again," he admitted quietly, looking way almost shamefully. "And it might not have been expensive, but the stuff I got was a lot cheaper either way."

His lips pulled into a slight grin. So the smaller teen had thought to cheapen his expenses and hold reserve should he have taken off in the middle of the night. Yami's grin pulled wider, into a sly smirk of amusement. He would have done the same in a heartbeat.

"A bunch of reviews described it as tasting like pancake batter, and said it doesn't always mix all that well," he continued, taking a seat on the desk and kicking his legs lightly. "But, it won't be forever, and I figure if it tastes bad, we load it down with a bunch of other things—coffee, chocolate, strawberry, banana, you name it."

He looked up at him again, shifting the eggs on his plate with his fork. "Okay." He paused after a long moment, then shook his head slightly. "Is your mother not going to be upset that you are not at school?"

Yugi hummed and reached over for his own plate which he had set at his hip. He took a bite of toast, looking at him pointedly as if he expected him to follow his lead, and then chewed and swallowed. His eyes were boring into his, increasingly frustrated. "We argued a little and then she told me to go away," he replied simply, then narrowed his eyes, "but you aren't the only one who got their ass kicked yesterday. I think that means I should rest a little too."

Yami might have cringed if he could not see the slight amusement in his eyes. He smiled faintly, then tilted his head. "You just got a chunk torn out of you. I literally died."

"Yeah, for all of five minutes!"

"Doesn't matter how long, just that it happened!"

"You're such a dork."

Yami snickered. "The pot calling the kettle black."

Yugi swiped at him playfully, then turned back to his food. "Shut up," he grumbled teasingly, picking at his eggs.

---

He picked at the pork and vegetable potstickers on his plate. He'd always loved them as a kid and he had not had them in a long while, at least a handful of years. But Yami's loss of weight had done well to give him an excuse. The oily fried batter and the heaviness of it had done well to fill his stomach. But Yami had eaten nearly both servings he'd ordered, most of the tonkatsu and shrimp tempura rolls. Yugi had expected that when it came down to it, but it still somehow managed to surprise him. He'd told him to skip out on trying to eat it with chopsticks, in order for him to be able to eat more before he realized he'd become full again.

Yugi smiled faintly and Yami finally put his plate away on the desk next to him. Unlike the smaller teen, he had refused to put the china on the bed. It was almost as if he were afraid to put it there in case it tipped. But the plate he'd put there had not moved even once so he found it slightly more amusing than he probably should have.

"So, you're finally full?"

Yami glanced at him, but his eyes had to drag themselves first from the television and then from his plate. He blinked, then shrugged, instead murmuring, "That was good. Thank you."

The reply made his lips purse. And it was not as if he was oblivious to the way his eyes had strayed formerly. He stretched the plate out to him, though they were only inches apart. "Here, I'm full," he said with a shrug as the taller boy frowned at him. "I don't want to eat anymore. I think that newscast ruined my appetite."

He took the plate from him, but did not bother to take a bite, instead moving the fork about in a small circle. He frowned again, watching him, and they both glanced back at the screen for a moment. Yami had all but forgotten about the announcement. It had been Yugi to pay the most attention to it, because Yami had been too busy eating and ignoring much else.

He'd more or less drowned it out.

And he'd only realized it was important because of the way Yugi stiffened beside him.

The smaller teen picked slightly at the edge of his shirt sleeve, a thermal pajama top which almost looked like a regular sweater. "Sorry," he muttered, frowning when he bumped his elbow against Yami's arm.

"What was the announcement about?"

He faltered, eyes widening. "You didn't hear it?"

"I was preoccupied with shoveling food down my throat. And I was not interested in the channel flipping. I tend to ignore things when I am uninterested."

Yugi blinked, then frowned and tilted his head. "There were coffins dug up and bodies half-eaten from that cemetery we were in when I ran across…" He shook his head slightly, forcing the image out of his head as quickly as he could manage.

He continued to push the food around for a moment, eyes darkening thoughtfully. "Where you asked me if I thought she and Shizuka were related in terms of ties to Code Name Atem, before you realized you were Code Name Atem. Yes, I remember." He narrowed his gaze and his lashes cast dark gray shadows which looked like the reflection of mountains against the surface of a pool, jagged and immense. "More graves have been dug up?"

Yugi could not remember if he had mentioned it to him beforehand or not, but he nodded. Even if he hadn't, Yami must have noticed the grave the other three lycanthropes had seemed to be uncovering. He watched him for a moment, frowning more pointedly. "Yeah, they said that they're all…older graves too. No one can seem to find any connection aside from the fact that it looks like dogs did it."

Yami nodded slightly, eyes sharp. "I do not know what a hellhound would want with older corpses," he admitted quietly, "nor why any lycanthropes might either."

Yugi frowned. "Do they get anything from the older ones? Or just the freshest?" he asked uncomfortably. Maybe if they could figure out what it was that made them go there, they could find a way to make them stop. They hadn't gotten too close to it, but it was only a matter of time before one of them dug up his grandmother. And that was something that he had to prevent.

He shook his head. "I do not presume to know much about them, Yugi. Hellhounds are not my subspecies. As such they are not my most knowledgeable of subjects," he admitted, frowning. "But I do know that there is a chemical compound which forms in the human body hours after someone has passed. It comes from many of the preservatives and additives and hormones which are put in their food. A healthier person would have much less. A person to binge on fast food would have considerably more. Every human will always have it, however."

"But, do you know what it does for them?"

He felt sick. "Beyond allowing them to become incorporeal? No. I am sorry."

"That's okay. I don't expect you to know everything. But at least tell me if you know whether the compound would have dissolved when the bodies have been buried for years. Because that graveyard hasn't been used for a while. And now it's suddenly being dug up and they're all eating the corpses. And I can't understand why if they don't have it anymore…"

Yami shook his head. "I would think with decomposition, it would certainly mean that the chemical would deteriorate. I do not know how it would be that a body would retain it in any way. It seems unlikely by any means." He paused. "Their hunt for older bodies is beyond me. I do not pretend to understand such notions."

He signed quietly. "Most of the bodies dug up had to have been within the last few years, right? I mean…why else would they…?"

He shook his head again, frowning. "Yugi, I do not know." He hesitated, then put into the air the only option he could think to consider. "Why do you not ask Valon? He is a hellhound, remember?"

Yugi blinked, eyes stretching wide at the concept. He could ask Valon. But would he truly bother to answer him? He had been rather frustrated and put off when he had come by to see him. He had no idea if it was a reaction to Yami for whatever reason, or if it was something far beyond that. And the thought of asking or confronting him again made his stomach twist.

He shook his head, turning away from the other boy. The fork scraped against the plate lightly when he moved a dumpling again. "No, I don't really think I want to hear more about how I'm not meant to exist," he said bitterly, ignoring the way Yami stiffened briefly beside him. "I'd rather not have to be reminded of that fact again. I think I've heard it enough times already."

He hesitated, then put the plate in his lap, frowning. "I'm sorry. I didn't—"

"No, it's not your fault. You only met him once and he told you that neither of us—or even he—are meant to exist. So, I mean, it's not like you could know he's told me that before."

"He shouldn't have said it in the first place."

"Why not? Code Name Atem shouldn't exist," Yugi said, raising his gaze to his, facing him with such strength in his eyes that Yami stiffened considerably once more. "He shouldn't. He was brought around by experiments on innocent people and wolves. The fact that they even managed it is beyond me. His name is one large acronym for how unnatural he is… His existence is something that is…actually insanely difficult to wrap my head around."

Yami studied him for a moment. "I'm sorry…"

He shook his head again, this time smiling gently. "It's not your fault. And maybe if I had known before, I wouldn't have found him saying that so…damaging," he murmured, shrugging. "But I think because I didn't know, it freaked me out a lot more than it should have."

He nodded. "I can understand."

Yugi turned away again, looking at the screen. "Now hurry up and finish the dumplings already. The scraping noise is starting to give me a headache," he complained playfully. "Do you think you'll still have room for a protein shake in a couple of hours?"

"Yes, in a couple of hours."

"Okay, good."

He listened to him finish the last of what was on his plate, then put the plate on the desk next to his. They sat there until the movie ended and the next began. The romantic comedy made Yugi wrinkle his nose and the snickers beside him only came whenever he did so. He grinned slightly, then got to his feet.

"I'm going to go start on a shake. I'll be back with it in a few minutes, okay?" he murmured, raising a brow when Yami blinked at him in surprise for a moment. "What? Did you not want one anymore?"

"No, I…I just forgot you were going to make one."

In all actuality, it was not that Yami had forgotten he would but that that he had assumed that maybe the small teen would decide otherwise. After all the food he'd eaten and settling down for the last two hours, he had thought maybe he would think it enough that a shake would be unnecessary. It wouldn't be; he knew that, but he hadn't been sure Yugi would.

He smiled, tilting his head to the side. "Of course not! How could I forget that you need a protein shake?" he snorted. "Besides, the weight gain mixture is going to be coming in soon. It should actually be here tomorrow morning before either of us get up."

He nodded a little, though he was not entirely sure of what to say, if anything at all. So he watched as the smaller teen turned and trotted off towards the kitchen without a backwards glance.

---

The graveyard was lonely where the trees were bare. He kicked his feet as he took the path in front of him, lightly pushing away and scuffing the snow-laden pine needles beneath his feet. His eyes flickered about the ground, the path in front of him long and silver, glittering with an undertone of bright blue. He shivered, shaking his head, and continued walking forward into the clearing. The stones were scattered around, with their light inscriptions of the words marking their lifespans. He hovered at the edge of the area for a moment, then forced himself to start walking again.

He walked around the headstone, stomach churning. For a moment he wanted to turn tail, but his eyes were already reading the gentle engraving he had memorized so long ago. He had not once visited the grave, but the words had been ingrained in his mind through the years. Yugi tilted his head slightly as he stood there. He was far from satisfied to see it. His body felt too small, too weak, as if the cold and the dark, with the light of the waxing moon were bearing down on him heavily.

He startled when a twig snapped. His teeth bared, his head snapped in the direction of the noise. He snarled low in his throat but it did nothing to stop the figure coming towards him. He was practically roaring with the noise as the other came into the clearing as well.

He froze in place, mouth closing and eyes widening as he saw the skinnier form and the handsome face which was stroked my moonlight. The other wolf tilted his head lazily, blinking at him, and then glanced at the stone next to him. "So this is what you wanted to run off on your own to do?" he asked with a raised brow, turning back to him in confusion.

Yugi winced visibly, then pressed the toe of his sneaker into the snow and shifted it to scrape away some of the pine and rotten leaves. He bit his lip as he looked at the taller boy, at the red eyes peering at him with puzzlement, and then ran a hand through his hair. He rocked back and forth on the heels on his sneakers.

"How did you…? I mean, that I had…?"

"I smelled it," he said bluntly, shrugging. When Yugi cringed visibly, he frowned and tilted his head before glancing at the stone in front of him. 'Michiko Motou, 1928-2011'. Oh… He glanced back and forth between this grave and the next, then drew in a deep breath, holding it for several moments before exhaling softly. He'd been near the grave and never even noticed it beforehand. He'd seen that hellhound snatched up the day he'd had that nightmare, where he'd…

Yami shook his head roughly and turned to start away from the grave and towards a neighboring one. Yugi could mourn in peace, should that be what he was doing. He was quiet with his movements, carefully distributing his weight so as not to make too much noise. The thought that other wolves could be close by was not something he planned to overlook. He was halfway to the recently uncovered grave when he heard him.

"…I just didn't know how to explain."

Yami paused and turned to glance at him over his shoulder with a flicker of confusion on his countenance. He blinked, then frowned, and faced him more completely. But the smaller teen was still scraping his shoe against the earth with his head down.

"Explain what? You're visiting a grave. It is not some terrible crime, Yugi."

Yugi shook his head slightly, raising his hands to run them through his hair in apparent distress. "That's not…I mean, I am, but…" He seemed frantic to find the right words, clawing at his hair with his fingers for a moment, and then looked at him desperately. His mouth opened and closed twice and then he shook his head sharply back and forth in frustration. The taller teen frowned, tilting his head, and made his way over to him. His hands caught his wrists, then pulled them down and away from where they had been tugging too harshly.

Very calmly, Yami pressed his hands to the sides of his hips, leaving them to dangle there a moment later, when he was sure the tension was gone from Yugi's arms. "What's wrong? I don't see that anyone has tampered with her grave," he muttered, glancing about himself to make sure. There were not even prints in the snow along the diameter of her grave, the new snow a perfect blanket but for their own footprints. In fact, it looked as if they were the only ones to be there that entire night since the newest case of flurries some hours back.

"It's not…that." Yugi faltered, because he didn't know what else to say, and then swallowed harshly as he looked at the grave again. "I just… Yami, I haven't…"

He tilted his head. "Haven't what?"

"I haven't visited her since…" He opened and closed his mouth, then reached up again, but Yami caught his wrists once more. He stared at him, brow raised, and the smaller teen flushed as he struggled for words. Very bleakly, voice cracking, he muttered, "She died four years ago, when I was twelve."

He grimaced, mind filling in the blanks. "So this is the first time you've come to visit her since the funeral," he murmured, nodding, and then looked towards the trees for a moment. If he remembered right…

His heart began to race for a moment. There it was. He exhaled, long and slow, and then turned back to him. Yugi was far more curious than he was distressed now, though his face was still lined with confusion and uncertainty and clear discomfort.

"What?" the smaller teen asked, turning to look over his shoulder curiously. His eyes flickered about but all he could see was a single large, draping willow several yards back, the only one with its leaves still intact. The draping branches looked like a ledge of sloping snow, bushy in design and layers. He furrowed his brows, then turned back. "You okay?"

"Yes," Yami said quietly, turning his eyes away and instead glancing towards the grave beside them. "Am I right in assuming that it is one of the reasons you fear death so much?"

Yugi blinked, then swallowed hard. "I found her when she'd had the stroke. She was completely still on the floor and I…" He shook his head. "And then when they lowered her into the ground…I just…I couldn't come back here."

"So why are you back here now?"

"Because this is the anniversary and I…I stumbled across it when I was being chased by Haga." Yugi tugged on his hoodie sleeves, licking his lips, and then looked at him for a moment. The red eyes had flickered back towards the willow tree. He glanced back at it as well but turned back again just as quickly. He did not know what captivated Yami so completely as to keep looking at it. "I figured I would…try to see her this time."

Yami tilted his head, eyes sharp and curious for a moment. "I am sorry for following you," he muttered finally. "I wouldn't have had I known this was what you planned to do…"

Yugi blinked, then frowned. " I know you said you didn't want any pills, but…how did you follow me anyways? I thought you'd be out cold…"

The taller teen tore his eyes from the tree, the draping branches, that large trunk and the enormous grooves of the roots which protruded beneath the snow like silvery dunes. His gaze caught his, boring into Yugi's for a moment, and then he narrowed his gaze and offered him a small smile. "I smelled the pills. They had dissolved but I could smell it whenever I went to drink. And it took me a while to sort it out, but I caught the taste of it. So, I waited until you had assumed I was asleep and had left through your window to get up and puke it up." He frowned. "Which was incredibly gross, by the way. It was actually a very hard struggle. I'm not used to trying to do that in this form. I've only ever done it as a wolf, when I needed to run faster and didn't have the energy to do it without…"

Yugi shivered. He'd remembered reading something about vultures doing that in order to fly faster when they were in danger. The thought made his nose wrinkle and his lip curl. "Gross," he grumbled before giving him an awkward smile when he raised a brow in question at the comment. "Sorry. That was my fault anyways. I shouldn't have tried to drug you like that. I just… I wasn't sure I could actually do it and it seemed so important that I just figured it was best that you weren't here. I thought maybe I'd break down or something…"

The other boy shook his head. "It's not a big deal. I would have followed you regardless. It's late, dark, past the curfew, and with everything going on, I would have been worried that you would have gotten hurt in the meantime."

Yami shrugged and glanced towards the willow tree. Something glowed in his gaze, keen against the low light. It burned in the air, harsh and dark, and it made his brows pull slightly together into something mournful. The lines at the edge of his mouth were pulled slightly downwards. He had narrowed his eyes faintly now as well, a brief tuck there, making his irises that much more vibrant.

"Although, I probably would have waited further in the trees if I had known…"

And Yugi realized he meant he would have been tucked up comfortably within those enormous roots which anchored that immense willow. He glanced at it now again, unsure of what more to do, and then turned back. "Do you want to wait somewhere else?"

The taller teen shot him a knowing look, curling his lips back into a slight smile of amusement. "Do you truly have a plan for what you will do here?" he teased.

Face flushed, the smaller boy shook his head slowly. "Not at all."

"Then no, I will stay here with you."

Yugi didn't argue. That made the entire time spent there much less lonely. If Yami was there then it would be easier to simply relax somewhat, because the other knew boundaries and would not press. And he would be easily persuaded to leave him if he truly asked, though the words were far from his tongue.

"I would, um, offer to make you another shake, but my mom would definitely be suspicious of me still being awake. I made a pretty big point of telling her during our argument that I was still taking my medication." He frowned, biting his lip hard. "So she'll think I'm knocked out for the night. I've never really woken in the middle of the night after taking it unless it's from the terrors."

"I wouldn't have asked. It was really disgusting forcing it back up. If I drank it again so soon I think I'd have a repeat."

He wrinkled his nose again, smiling at him slightly. It was nice to see that Yami had so easily forgiven him for drugging him without his consent as he had. The other boy acted as if it were one of the simplest things in the world to brush off, as if it did not bother him in the slightest, and apologizing to him again seemed almost as if it might be offensive. "Gross," he muttered instead, grinning a little wider when Yami rolled his eyes dramatically. "What? It is!"

"And your face disgusts me, but I don't go around constantly saying that, now do I?"

"Um, ouch?"

He chuckled and the noise made Yugi's insides warm. It was strange to hear that sound and have his heart beat a lot faster. But it, like his voice, had strengthened, and the roll of his gentle laughter was hypnotic and beautiful. It sounded regal and powerful, and the edges of it rumbled like a purr, gentle and inviting.

He blinked at him, then grinned wider as the sound continued for a moment longer. Then Yami fell silent, smirking slightly, and turned his head towards the forest beyond them.

It was a good thirty minutes in which Yugi crouched in front of the grave, careful not to get any snow on his knees or fall back into a seated position. On the off chance that one of his family was awake and wanted his attention, he would have to keep his clothes from showing any evidence he had been elsewhere but his bed. So he simply crouched, reaching out and tracing the words on her grave, and listened to the winter stillness the forest had to offer. Mostly it was the wet, resounding thud of Yami's heartbeat which he kept in his head, warming his ear drums and helping him relax.

"You ready to go?"

There was a faraway expression on the taller boy's face and for a moment Yugi thought he had not heard him. But then the red-eyed teen blinked and turned towards him. His face became blank for a split second, then softened as he nodded and waited for him to start to take the lead. He was just relieved that Yugi did not bother to ask him about his apparent staring problem.

"You think you'll be okay to climb the drain?" he asked, tilting his head and looking at him sideways as Yami took the spot beside him. "You're still limping pretty badly."

"I'll be fine. It's just a limp."

He frowned and searched his face for a moment. "Okay, if you say so." Yami ignored the doubt in his voice and instead flanked him until they got back to the house. The small teen stepped towards the pipe, glancing around slowly, and then turned to him. "I'd feel better if you went first."

Yami raised a brow but did not argue. He stepped over to it, finding the highest grip he could, and started to climb as if he'd never been hurt in the first place. He had scaled the wall and was on the roof in a handful of seconds, leaning over the edge to look at him with a somewhat confused expression. "Someone is knocking on your door…"

Yugi blinked wide eyes, then cursed under his breath. "Do you think you know who it is? Can you smell them and tell me?" he requested quietly, biting his lip and looking up at him with a somewhat desperate expression. "O-or is there a slight wheezing when they breathe?"

Yami blinked down at him, then turned to open the window and poke his head inside. He tilted his ear toward the ground, drawing in as much noise as he thought possible. Whoever had been on the other side of the door had been there for a while. He could tell by how much louder the knocks had become. He hesitated, listening beyond the noise of knuckles against wood, and then turned to Yugi as the smaller teen came to his side.

"Your grandfather," he said in so low a voice that he was nearly inaudible. He nodded slightly, then slipped inside. Quickly Yugi shed his shoes, throwing them into the entrance of the bathroom. They rattled where they hit a cabinet inside and he smacked the heel of his palm against his forehead.

"Are you okay? What was that?"

He forced his voice to its lowest tone, giving it a gravelly pitch. "I bumped into the cabinet in the bathroom. I've got to pee," he managed to throw out, gesturing to Yami to shut the window and settle beside the bed just in case. The red-eyed teen remained frozen for a moment, however, as if something about the situation made him feel beyond himself with confused anxiety. Yugi frowned at him, then gestured again, furrowing his brows. But the other wolf blinked at him stupidly for a moment, as if he could not comprehend. Something was terribly wrong in his eyes.

"Yami?"

The wolf blinked again, then turned quickly to do as he bid, though that startled expression was quickly changing into something almost akin dread. Something had clearly greatly alarmed the other boy, a thought which unnerved Yugi drastically. He heard the slightest static of a phone, a conversation being ended. He could not hear the words beyond his grandfather pleading that perhaps he could wait just a second longer.

The other possibly said no, but under the rush of his own heart and the flare of adrenaline which coursed through him, he could not fully hear them. All he heard was a soft sigh from his grandfather as Yugi hurried to change into his pajamas and then rushed into the bathroom to flush the toilet and run the water. He wet his hands, rubbed them on the bottoms he was wearing, and then headed to the door.

"What's going on?" he mumbled, squinting, voice pitched low and gravelly once more. Yugi wondered if perhaps he should have ruffled his hair, tried to make it appear more like he'd been asleep. But he also remembered he had done that very thing in the graveyard by accident, that he'd been stopped twice by Yami because he kept doing it. "Everything okay?"

"Are you okay? You didn't answer the door for a pretty long time…"

"I took some meds," he grumbled, running a hand through his hair and yawning softly. He pressed a socked foot into the carpet to get rid of a soft itch which burned there for a moment. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong. In fact, I've got some really good news." He seemed to almost vibrate with energy as he and Yugi looked at each other. The small teen furrowed his brows, confused. "Yoshimori is coming back to Domino. He's going to be opening the exhibit about the wolves in Japan. They're going to talk about the rumor that they still survive in Honshu and Hokkaido."

Yugi blinked. He had only met Yoshimori a few times. But each had been a rather pleasant experience. Not once had he felt alienated by him, even if he had seemed rather interested in him at times. He'd told him that his medication was probably the best thing for him, helped his mom to get the dosage right, and sat around watching movies with him a couple of nights when he was babysitting him.

All in all, Yugi had thought he was pretty nice, even if sometimes he had grown to wonder, when he got older, what some of those more persistent stares had been about. They had only ever truly happened when he had sensed things that he shouldn't have—burning popcorn before the smell could reach Yoshimori, hearing the car door close before his parents even arrived inside. He'd never acted differently beyond those few times, studying Yugi, eyes sharp and curious as they bore into his.

Yugi was unnerved now but he had not been then. Back then he'd just been happy to have someone to talk to when his parents and grandparents were not around. It had made him much happier to have someone there. Years later he had seen a movie where an actor had given his victim, a six-year-old girl, a similar look and had wondered if that intensity had been far from what he'd assumed it to be. A couple of years later he had come to realize that, had Yoshimori wanted to molest him as that character had, he would have. It didn't matter whether he was his grandfather's friend or not.

So he had come to realize later that it was his senses which made him so keen towards him. Even when Yoshimori watched to make sure he took his medicine, he had been avidly staring, eyes boring into him. He had been waiting, though for what Yugi had never fully understood.

Now he thought he did.

He had been waiting for him to show symptoms, to prove to him that he was infected. Though he still did not know why.

"Really? Yoshimori is coming back to Domino? But I thought he liked it there in the states?"

"He misses Japan."

He tilted his head. Somehow he found that a little hard to believe. He missed his home? If he had, why had he never bothered to come back in all the time that he had been away? The statement truly made no sense to him. Yugi shook his head slightly.

There had to be something else going on. He didn't know that he had changed somehow, right? His grandpa would never have told him that, would he have? He could not picture it coming up in conversation. Who would bring up if the boy they thought had lycanthropy had finally changed?

"Oh." He struggled for another response, then reached up to rub at his eyes. He had to keep up the facade. If he didn't, he had no idea if Sugoroku might tell his daughter about it. And if his mother came down on his head… Yugi nearly groaned at the thought. "Well, are you two going to spend some time together or…?"

"Well, actually, he invited us both to the exhibit's opening and to dinner afterwards. He's excited to see us again after all the time he's been gone."

He tilted his head. "And Mom too?"

"She's invited, but we both know she won't come. She doesn't like him, remember?" he asked with a frown. He had forgotten the hostility between the two of them until he had had him on the phone trying to get Yugi up from his drug-induced sleep. He had been about to tell Kasumi the news when it had struck him that the hatred she felt for Yoshimori was truly far from undeserved.

He had tried, more than once, to fracture her relationship with Yugi's father, even resorting to trying to get her drunk. Thankfully his daughter had turned down any chance of enjoying a drink in his company, going as far as to legally threaten him for it. Yugi was, as far as he knew, oblivious to it. But it wasn't hard to guess why. When Yoshimori was around Yugi, the boy was the center of his attention, which was something else that made Kasumi bristle when he was around.

Yugi nodded a little. "Right. I forgot."

Sugoroku studied him for a moment, slightly unnerved by the thoughts going on in his head. Yoshimori had been a great friend to him throughout the years. But if Yugi was uncomfortable around him, then he would neglect to spend any time with him. He had often been slightly unnerved by the way he'd focus so completely on Yugi, though many times he had considered it was just his imagination. Yoshimori had never acted on anything he had feared, after all.

And Yugi had never complained about having to be left alone with him.

He let out a small sigh. "Yugi, I want to ask you something. And I need you to tell me the truth, okay?"

The small teen blinked and the feigned grogginess was overshadowed immediately by alarm as they looked at each other. Yugi could not hear Yami behind him but he knew the boy was listening, that he was taking note of any words said.

"What is it, Grandpa?"

"Yoshimori… He never did anything to hurt you, right?"

It was the only way Sugoroku could possibly think to phrase it. And, as he looked at the confused expression on his grandson's face, he saw the puzzlement rapidly fade into shock.

"No," he stated with wide eyes, the realization clear in his gaze. "No, never once."

The elderly Motou nodded slightly, relieved but still slightly anxious. "And the stares… That's all it was, right?"

Yugi blinked at him, blue-violet eyes flashing for a moment, and then shook his head very slowly. "There isn't anything else that ever happened. He just stared. A lot." He paused, his eyes sharp and gouging into him intensely. "He always got this weird look on his face whenever I noticed something he didn't. It was never anything past that. Why are you suddenly…?"

"I had to ask. I… Your mother hates him. And I know he may be a good man but he does some very stupid and selfish things. I…I was worried."

He shook his head again. "He didn't. And I would have gone to Mom if he had. I don't know why she hates him, besides that he gives her the creeps, but beyond that, I'm in the dark." Of course, now, with the disease, he could see in the darkness. He could remember the smaller details of things which he had never truly considered before. And he saw them with such clarity that it made him feel something bordering amazement. "But, no, nothing like that ever happened. He liked to…study me, I guess. There was nothing else."

Sugoroku nodded, relieved. "Good."

Yugi searched his face. "Since I've told you the truth, will you do the same for me?" he asked quietly, narrowing his eyes when his grandfather blinked in surprise and nodded. "Does he know about the disease? Is that why he was so keen about watching me?"

Yami sat up slightly from his crouched position behind the bed. His back had grown ramrod straight, his breath catching. His eyes narrowed and a low growl threatened to rumble upwards through his chest. Had he truly just asked such a question?

There was a beat of silence.

"If he did, he never spoke to me about it."

"So you never mentioned it to him?"

"I wasn't even sure you were going to be able to do anything with it. Why would I have told him about it? I didn't even tell you…"

Yugi was silent for a long moment, then reached back for the doorknob, gripping it tightly between his fingers. "I didn't really think you had," he admitted in a quiet tone. "But he always seemed to watch me the same way you did sometimes before all of this started. So I had to ask. But do you think he was suspicious of it?"

He frowned visibly. "I'm not entirely sure it was lycanthropy he was suspicious of. I always assumed he just thought you were hypersensitive to things around you and it interested him."

Yugi cast a small glance towards his mother's room, drumming his fingers for a moment against the smooth metal. "Okay." He was tempted to glance over his shoulder, to see where Yami had chosen to hide away. But there was no way to do so without making it obvious that he was not the only one in the room. He closed his eyes for a moment, then nodded again. "I think I'm going back to bed now."

Sugoroku stared at him for a moment, unsure as to what more to do. He opened and closed his mouth once, then twice, and finally settled for a discontent nod. "Okay."

The small teen was not oblivious to the way he had faltered, but he did not call attention to it either. Instead he simply cast him a small smile, saying, "Good night, Grandpa," before backing up and closing the door behind him. He turned his head immediately to see Yami crouched at the edge of the bed. He frowned, looking him over. "What?"

He had not bothered to even move to the mattress, knees braced for a spring as if he might leap to his full height. The red eyes burned into his, flickering, and they looked at each other curiously for a few moments.

"Do you truly believe that this Yoshimori does not know about your infection?" he asked slowly, moving his hands to touch the carpet for a moment. His right hand was splayed open wide, the tips of his fingers curled inwards to dig into the fibers. But his left barely touched, held like a paw that he was unsure of putting weight on. "Or do you think that perhaps he knows well enough?"

Yugi faltered for a moment, startled by the abrupt, straightforward inquiry. He blinked, then frowned as he furrowed his brows. He supposed it would not truly be Yami if he was not being to the point with him. He paused, thinking for only a second or two, and then sighed softly. "I don't honestly know, Yami. But I feel like he had some kind of idea of it when he was still here."

His red eyes flashed dangerously for a moment. "Why should your grandfather wish to expose you to someone he fears could have harmed you in the past?" he asked slowly, tilting his head. His fingers were kneading at the carpet and the fibers were crunching and scraping beneath the sharp tips of his nails. He blinked wide eyes at the boy again, but Yami merely curled his hand again, relaxed it, and then repeated the gesture aggressively. "He thinks to ask you if he had done you harm as a child and yet he wishes to expose him to you again?"

He ran a hand through his hair. "Well, it wasn't really… I mean…" Yugi shrugged halfheartedly, then moved towards the other teen who still flexed his fingers in a tense kneading movement. The small teen bit his lip until it bled, sighing again softly. "He just used to stare, okay? And when he did, it was only around the time that I accidentally made the error of showing him that my senses were more advanced than his. Beyond that, he would just sit around and watch TV with me or…or whatever it was we were doing. We all thought at some point or another that maybe he had some kind of sick fantasy about the two or us, but it wasn't… I mean, unless he was imagining me biting him as a wolf, I don't think he ever had any idea about what we thought of him."

"But to even consider it—does that not make it alarming to you to go and share the same space as him? What if he was simply waiting for you to grow up a little?"

He furrowed his brows, then shook his head slowly as he looked at him closely. "I don't think he's a pedophile, Yami," he said softly, though he fell silent a moment later and let out a deep breath, "and even if he is…sixteen is three years past the age of consent."

Yami blinked and then curled his lips back. "And twenty-one is the age in which you are considered an adult should you still be living with your parents," he spat. "So what is your point?"

"That the lines blur there. See, a certain age gap is considered rape, but another isn't. Seeing as I'm still living with them, yes, they could charge. But if he were to bring up the argument that I almost completely take care of myself and that I'm beyond the age of consent—"

"You say that like you want something to happen!" he snarled. This time he was on his feet, chomping his teeth at Yugi's startled expression which quickly morphed into pure disgust. "You say that like you wish he was—"

"Fuck you, Yami," he snapped, voice breaking slightly with irritation. "I don't want something like that to happen—ever. Not to me, not to anyone else. I just meant, that if this were to be the truth, by technicality he might actually be able to get away with it. But he's also more suspicious of knowing about the lycanthropy than anything else!"

He frowned at him, at first with clear distaste and disapproval, and then with frustration. "I didn't—"

"No, you just thought that I wanted to get in the sack with someone almost five times my own age. Thanks a lot for that. That's amazing to know."

The red eyes widened, then narrowed in disbelief. "You cannot truly assume that I meant that of all things! I was just… I want to understand! I don't get how you could go back near someone who you suspected at one time of wanting to defile you when you were younger!"

Yugi went to snap at him, then fell silent. The look on his face was now one of pure puzzled confusion, of desperation for an answer he could not truly grasp. Yugi furrowed his brows and then shook his head slightly as he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Because it never happened. And I know it didn't."

"How can you be so sure anyways? What if—?"

"It didn't. Because what we were just talking about? The glances, the babysitting, the possibility of it happening? It's impossible." He grinned when Yami shook his head long and slow, bewildered. "I was still in the lab then."

Yami's eyes grew wide, confused and disgusted, but with something like an undercurrent of disappointment. "The lab…" His eyes grew almost mournful, the red of them seeming to glow with pain, and then he looked down and away from him. "Then why do they all remember it if it is impossible?"

Yugi wanted for a moment to reach out and touch his shoulder, to give him a small smile and offer some kind of miniscule comfort. But then he found himself biting his lip until it bled as he instead shook his head and sighed quietly again. "Because, Yami, it seems more real to someone if there are others to attest to the fact that it happened. If they were to contradict my memory, they would risk me remembering. And I don't know what they expect from me should I have my memory."

Yami raised his eyes slowly, gaze burning into his, and then narrowed them into mere slits. "And yet, should that be true, you have already come to remember. So why have they not figured it out?" he snapped. "Why would they still be in the dark about your knowledge?"

"Because, as long as I don't let them realize it, I keep them just as far in the dark as they think they do me. It's reverse psychology. Or…something to that effect, at least." He paused, then shook his head and offered him a small grin. "Didn't you notice how easily he accepted the idea of me being knocked out by the medication? He just rolled with it. Because that's what I am supposed to be doing."

Yami shook his head sharply, frustrated. "Or perhaps you are simply insane and think yourself to be someone you are not," he spat in a low voice, snarling deep in his throat. The noise seemed to make the air quiver. Their eyes locked, Yugi had the very abrupt impulse to step back. But the more predominant half of him, the human which he had been acquainted with for so long, wanted nothing more than to reach out to him. He wanted to touch his shoulder, to rub gently at the clothing-covered muscle there, to give him a soft smile to calm his irritation. But there was a wariness there as well, for he had seen how easily Yami had managed to rip through the sinew and muscle cords of the wolves in the woods that first full moon. "Perhaps you are simply delusional."

"And how would you explain the fact that I was infected, that it was inherited, but couldn't change until you bit me? I don't see how that's normal. Unless the experiments stunted it, I don't understand it in the slightest."

His stomach tossed as they looked at each other closely for a moment. "And your mother and grandfather? What is it that makes them drug you so that you do not remember?"

Yugi very slowly shrugged. "Fear? Family? The idea that I'll slip away from them at the last moment? The way that I toss and turn and sometimes cry out in my sleep at night? Maybe they're afraid that if I remember I'll turn on them with the idea that they were involved? Or maybe it's because they're scared that I'll lose my mind?"

He bore his teeth. "And you never plan to tell them?"

"Never."

---

"It's going to be good to see him again."

Yugi blinked and turned his head to look at his grandpa with a small smile. He'd been listening to his chatter about the wolves for a good hour, then an apology about his behavior toward his lycanthropy and knowledge thereof, and finally the elderly man was beginning to slow his constant flow of words. The small teen, however, had barely spoken as they had gone about moving around Domino towards the grand opening.

He had been constantly thinking about, struggling with, the way that Yami had looked at him upon his waking him. He'd handed him his shake, studying him, and apologized again for the night before, but the red-eyed wolf had ignored him, downing the cup and then staying in his seated position. His eyes had been exhausted, his face drawn with his mounting fatigue, and the way his gaze had been so distant from him, like the floor had opened into a deep abyss between them, had made Yugi tremble.

"Yeah, it'll be nice to see him again," he agreed with something of a small smile that seemed strained and foreign upon his lips. Yugi turned away again, tilting his head, and then kicked at a pebble in front of him. When they got inside of the museum, he would feel a lot better, safer. But in the open, his cheeks still failed to heat as they should have and the lack of red coloring was obvious. Anyone who passed by him seemed to take a second look, with expressions somewhere between envy and confusion upon seeing him. He had been forced to duck his head far too many times to count.

"You don't sound too happy…"

"It doesn't have anything to do with him. I'm just kind of…tired, I guess? I don't think I really managed to sleep that medicine off." He would have feigned a yawn if it wouldn't have cheapened the statement. He shook his head slightly, then narrowed his eyes as he kicked the pebble forward again. "I wonder what the exhibit will look like, though. Any idea?"

"None at all." He sounded giddy and it made Yugi smile faintly. He continued to kick the small stone with the toes of his sneaker, fighting away the urge to hum. "But I'm thinking it'll be taxidermy or maybe sculptures or something?"

Yugi turned his head, startled. "Taxidermy? But there aren't any more wolves in Japan. He'd be stuffing other wolves…?"

And if he had done that…

Was it possible that they were not simply wolves? What if they were lycanthropes or hellhounds? What if he had known them at some point, but they'd left his life and he'd never truly considered them afterwards?

Oh gods…

"And there isn't one alive that looks like them…"

"The Hokkaido wolf looks a lot like the average gray wolf, remember? But it was smaller."

"And the Honshu? It looks like no other wolf species."

"I said that maybe he would have models instead."

Yugi stared at him, silent and frustrated.

His grandpa didn't understand. He didn't realize just how wrong this all was. If they were truly taxidermy, he was not sure they had not been werewolves. And if they were, he would never know. Because their eyes—oh gods, their eyes—would be long replaced by glass orbs. And he'd never know if they had been among the wolves to escape or if they were sacrificed by the pack to summon him or…

The thought of the pack made him halt for a brief second. He quickly feigned rubbing his shoe on the sidewalk to rid himself of a chunk of ice. But the loss of it felt as if he had abandoned any sense of comfort and cushioning he had come to know upon walking. He risked a small sigh through his nose.

"Yugi?"

"Yes, Grandpa?"

They were quiet for a moment. Then Sugoroku sighed softly and led the way towards the entrance. His cheeks, unlike Yugi's, were bright red from the blistering cold. His eyes were somewhat shiny from the blasts of chilled air when the wind stirred. His fingers were shaking slightly from the icy touch of the atmosphere. Yet, Yugi, for all his pretenses, simply looked small, uncomfortable, with a darkness in his eyes that seemed unfathomable for someone so young an age. For all his effort, his skin remained unchapped. His eyes were as wet as they had always been, lacking the abuse the wind cast to dry them. And he did not even slightly tremble. There was only the faintest hint of his shoulders bunched about his neck, but it held only tension rather than an urge to relieve himself from the cold.

"I don't know what's going on in your head, but I don't think he knows about…"

Sugoroku trailed off and the small teen shook his head slowly, eyes sharpening faintly with disdain. They both knew how unlikely it was that Yoshimori was left in the dark. They had both spent part of the night analyzing the way he'd looked at Yugi, the way he'd studied him and often teased him to prove his senses better than his. They were both very aware that, if not a pedophile, the only explanation was that he had been taking note and studying Yugi for signs of lycanthropy.

There was nothing else.

"I don't even know what's going through my head," he bit out quietly, curling his lip slightly as the elderly Motou opened the door. His hand was freezing even through the thick gloves. It reminded him too much of the winter the small teen in front of him had been born in. "But I'm pretty sure that's not true."

He grimaced but did not answer. Yugi stalked past him, head raised and eyes sharp as they shot about. He was barely paying attention again when they got to the front, his grandfather mentioning Yoshimori's name, receiving the free tickets he had apparently acquired for them. The small teen still did not have much focus to spare even moments after when they began to walk again.

It was only when he looked about the displays of stuffed animals, stomach clenched, that his attention became riveted. A sense of familiarity had come over him, despite the tension along his spine. Yugi blinked, eyes widening, and then turned his head slowly towards the source of it. At first the crowd was so immense, the squabbling voices so loud, that he could not find it.

And then it seemed abruptly to shift and clear slightly for him to see. His eyes grew owlish, the size of saucers, and his mouth opened and closed with shock. Standing a few yards away was a figure, hidden with barely the smallest hint of definition to tell him apart, a low slung hat hiding away his hair beneath a gray hood. The more he stared the more apparent it became to him. Very slowly their eyes flickered and caught with his, a hideous and dangerous emotion gleaming there. A clear message of caution was written on the flare of bright red. The lips curled into something of a snarl but Yugi could do nothing more than stare blankly.

The other lycanthrope barely looked at him for more than an instant. But it was enough to make Yugi's legs somehow weak. He blinked and the other was almost gone from the exhibit before he could even breathe properly. He hurried to move after him, confused and unnerved, but could do nothing to break through the crowd around him.

Oh gods, what was Yami doing there?

Was he planning something?

Had he simply followed them with the intention of meeting up?

Or…was it something else entirely?

He had looked visibly upset, more than a little irked. He had appeared mad, vicious, almost bitter. Yugi blinked as he recalled that expression. But he could do nothing more than shake his head slowly and frown in growing confusion.

What was it that Yami had been looking for in coming there?

And the hat?

Had it been necessary?

What was the reason behind it?

He frowned. Now that he thought about it, his clothes had been baggy. He'd been wearing something like a loose-fitting gray winter jogging suit of sweatpants and a thick hoodie, the same that Yugi had put in his closet and never really looked at again. He'd worn it only once during winter because the fleece insides were comfortable. And, like Yami now, he'd looked completely unlike himself.

What the hell was going on?

Yami wasn't truly planning something, was he? He was not going to do something stupid, was he? The thought made his stomach clench. He felt sick and dizzy for a moment before he managed to squeeze his way between some of the people and flee for the direction he had assumed him to go. In his rush he had to circle back as Yami had simply moved to the edges of the crowd. Yugi spun immediately around.

"What are you…?"

The red eyes flickered away from him, towards the door behind him, and then they settled back on him abruptly. "The exhibit," he said so quietly that Yugi could barely hear him over the gentle rumble of chatter coming from the people surrounding them. It was nothing more, truly, than a rather hoarse whisper, as if Yami were not willing to speak any louder.

"What?"

Yami tilted his head, blinking at him long and slow with an expression of something akin disdain. He shook his head slowly, eyes flickering away, and then glanced towards a high up corner. Yugi did not need to look to realize he was glancing at a security camera.

"I came for the exhibit."

"Dressed like that?"

"Don't you think if you had a twin, it'd be much more noticeable?"

Yugi didn't care for the cheeky grin. He shook his head sharply. "You stick out like a sore thumb even without looking like me, Yami." He was flustered. "And security is going to end up watching you like a hawk!"

Yami shook his head. "No, they won't. Because they have nothing to worry about."

"Except for the fact that you look like a potential delinquent."

He snickered and pointed to someone else in the museum. Yugi turned his head and nearly groaned in the back of his throat. There were a group of people, standing in the next room, that were wearing something entirely too similar to Yami.

"Well, aren't you lucky?" he grumbled, turning back. "Although, they're in a group, and you're not. You're still the oddball out."

Yami raised a brow. "They'll be watching them. Because one of them keeps trying to touch the displays and the guard is getting frustrated with him," he stated simply. "The whole group is arguing with the man as we speak."

Yugi cast a weary glance over his shoulder. "Fine, Yami, but—"

He turned back to face him and fell instantly quiet. The other lycanthrope had used his moment of divided attention to disappear into the crowd again. Flustered, he started forward, only to halt as a familiar voice called loudly for his grandpa. The greeting was enough to make him pause, startled, but when he turned his head he had difficulty seeing Yoshimori through the crowd.

He listened to his grandpa for a moment, straining his ears, then began to pick his way through the crowd towards them. He stopped short when he spotted him, though he was unsure why his spine tightened and his skin felt abruptly hot, as if he might break into a sweat.

Yoshimori looked different than he had last seen him. His hair had receded the slightest bit, and it fell sloppily to either side in seven-inch-long strands. The clear part of his hair fell evenly in the center of his head. His eyes were shadowed by the presence of his bangs, his brows thick, his eyes narrow in design, with the slightest squint along the edges. His large nose was straight, and the bottom was the exact length of his mustache, almost making it appear as if he simply had a large expanse of nose hair. Under his bottom lip was the cut of his beard, trailing to his jaw and trailing a couple of inches outwards on either side.

Yugi frowned faintly. How hair was still that dark brown it had always been. He couldn't even spot a gray strand. Not a single hair was out of place despite his older age. The thought was unsettling. He could have easily been dyeing it, but to risk his eyesight for the sake of his brows matching? He could easily lose sight from the fumes. Beyond that, he still looked as if he was barely over thirty, when he was already reaching the point of twice that age.

He bristled. How was that possible? Was he a wolf? Was that what had alarmed him? Maybe that was why he had watched Yugi so sharply for all that time when he was younger. Maybe he'd been hoping that he would bite him should he ask. But he didn't sense anything to hint at the infection. And he couldn't smell anything truly different from what he remembered of him. Maybe he had always been infected and had been curious whether Yugi would change?

But somehow that seemed entirely too dubious to him and it made his stomach ache as they looked at each other. He narrowed his eyes almost imperceptibly and shook his head slightly as the older man considered him for a moment. When his lips pulled into the widest of grins Yugi found himself almost sickened.

"Yugi! You're all grown up," Yoshimori crowed, looking him over once. No doubt he saw the keenness in his eyes because his own gaze grew a miniscule wider and then his lips tugged back a bit further. It unnerved him but Yugi refused to let it show. "It's been, what? Almost nine years since I last saw you?"

He offered him a smile but it felt cold and unusual on his lips. "Yeah," he agreed quietly, unable to say anything more. It was only when his grandpa shot him a curious look that Yugi blinked and then forced his smile to widen slightly. "How were the states?"

Yoshimori gave him something of a more complacent smile, but his eyes were practically glowing with something Yugi was not quite sure how to read. It was similar to how he had looked at him when he was younger, but there was also something to it that made it appear a bit more unwelcome. "The states were…as you would expect them to be, I suppose. They were lovely to stay in for a few days, but they quickly lost their charm."

Lost their charm? Yugi vaguely remembered going to the states a few times. When he had, though, it had been to meet with his father and most often they had gone on rather extravagant little trips to keep him occupied. He had never really thought too much about them until now. The realization made him tilt his head slightly. Shouldn't he have minded more that he had not seen his dad for over two years now?

"Really? Where did you stay?"

"New York."

He remembered being there for a little while too. It had been a briefer visit, though, and Yugi could only really remember the heat and the way everyone seemed to honk at each other whenever they were driving. California hadn't been much better. But he'd liked the trip to Florida even though it was mostly the thunderstorms he'd enjoyed because the heat had made his skin too sticky. The mountains in North Carolina had been a lot more fun, but they hadn't had wolves like he'd been hoping when they'd gone.

"New York is…pleasant," he muttered, though he could not find anything else to say about it—except that it truly wasn't. It was the furthest thing from pleasant he'd ever really thought of. The state was more miserable than anything else. The heat made people cranky and their accents made him bristle. They were all much louder too.

"New York is definitely not pleasant," Yoshimori snickered, shaking his head. "You're a terrible liar."

"Then it's a good thing I don't make a habit of it."

Sugoroku was unnerved by the way his grandson peered at the other man. It had been a surprise to him as well that he looked so young, that the muscles had not worn away as they should have. And perhaps he was still unsure of it, how such a thing was possible, but the aggression Yugi was displaying, even without attempting to, made him swallow thickly.

Was there truly something threatening about his old colleague?

Was there truly something that warranted the way the teenager was bristling so fiercely?

Was it something that he could detect as a werewolf that he himself could not?

And, if that was so, what was it?

Was he a threat to Yugi?

He wasn't sure what he could do himself to help his grandson if Yoshimori truly was a threat. And he did not know if Yugi would be okay to defend himself. He was still new to his lycanthropy, wasn't he? He didn't know what that meant for the small teen. If he was a threat, could Yugi handle it himself?

He was not sure how much help he could possibly be. He wasn't young anymore, even if he was not completely hindered by his old age. He was very capable of doing things despite pushing at the edges of eighty-seven. But his height was so limited and he was nowhere near as lean or spry as he had been when he was younger. If there was a fight, he would be utterly useless.

"I was thinking that we could go to a restaurant in Sapporo after the exhibit has closed." His dark brown eyes flickered to the elderly Motou and his grin grew a bit more confident. "That amazing sushi restaurant we both used to love. I think I remember Yugi enjoying it too."

Yugi blinked, then furrowed his brows. "Sapporo?" he echoed quietly, looking between them slowly and then towards his grandpa. "Didn't they open another of those Bonnokaze restaurants here in Domino? They opened it last spring."

Yoshimori nearly rolled his eyes. "You can't trust an expansion. The original is always the best."

The small teen eyed him coldly for a moment, though the sense of disbelief was more apparent. Why Sapporo? Why was he so keen on taking them? The snow festival wasn't even going to happen until later in the year. And he was certain that the food he was so intent on getting would be the same in Domino as it was there. He chewed at the inside of his cheek, studying him.

Was it a trap of some kind?

His eyes flickered towards Sugoroku for a moment. Was Yoshimori really so intent on whatever it was he desired so much that he would risk his colleague like that? He glanced back to the tall man, eyes burning into his for a long minute.

"We were going to wait to go to Sapporo," the elderly Motou said suddenly, making both of them turn to him in slight surprise. "We always make it a family trip to see the snow festival. It's basically our family bonding."

"You don't have to wait until then, Sugoroku."

"We don't have the funds to get there and back," Yugi put in, eyes sharp, daring him to argue. "Between all of the rescues Mom has done without pay and the recent hospital bills, we don't have anything to spend on going there tonight."

"No one said anything about you paying. I invited you. I would pay for the fare and back."

Had Yoshimori rehearsed all of the answers to the obstacles he would put between them?

Had he truly come up with a solution to any problem he thought they might come across?

He had something planned. He had to. He wasn't even pretending to pause and think of the things he needed to say to throw his excuses off balance. He was throwing them out rapid-fire. He was forcing Yugi back even further and further by the seconds. He was going to run out of excuses before he could even process the fact that he was still arguing…

And Yoshimori made no point of even pretending otherwise. His eyes were smug, burning into his, and the small teen felt a small bit of panic in his belly at the thought.

"I don't know if Grandpa told you, but I recently got hurt. The wound kept reopening for the last few days," Yugi said through grit teeth. He was desperate already, flailing for any sense of ground he could regain. "I've finally gotten the infection to disappear. But it's not healing right. I was supposed to get a checkup later tonight—"

"We can eat after."

What is it about Sapporo? What is it over there that you want us at the restaurant for? What is it that you have set up?

He ground his teeth for a moment, then shook his head.

"They wanted to do a scraping and drain it and everything—"

"You look fine."

He felt sick to his stomach. "It's not my face," he snapped in an icy tone, startling his grandpa who blinked wide plum purple eyes and immediately looked between them. "It's my side."

"I don't see why that would take too long to go to Sapporo, eat, and come back, Yugi. I'm sure the staff at the hospital knows well enough what they're doing. After all, you are right next to the Kaiba Corp Hospital, are you not?"

He could have punched him for his smooth his voice had become. He breathed in roughly, then clenched his jaw for a moment. "They wanted to run some blood tests—"

"It takes all of a minute to get a vial of blood, Yugi."

"I bleed a lot," he growled out, struggling. "They'll have to stop that before they can let me go. And my side is going to be much worse when they do the scraping—"

"The restaurant is open until three in the morning. It's barely even three in the afternoon now." He quirked a brow. "Unless you think the entire thing will take over twelve hours. I find that kind of impossible."

He bristled further but fought to keep it down. "My mother expects me home. I have to help with a surgery—"

"She has technicians."

"Who don't know what they're doing and aren't as skilled as I am."

"She can teach them."

"It's a corrective surgery. The cat was hit by a car, its organs got rearranged. There's no teaching someone how to do a procedure like that while in the midst of it."

"What about that girl you both started training a couple of years ago? The one who absolutely loves your mom and would follow her anywhere if she left Japan?"

Immediately he scrambled for her name, then nearly cursed under his breath. "Rebecca Hawkins? She went back to the states for winter. She's all about warm weather."

Yugi felt sick to his stomach. He was used to the blonde being around, big blue eyes and laughing voice. It surprised him how much it scared him that she might be around now. But he had to remind himself that she was in the states.

And she was.

She was in the states with her parents at the moment.

And she would remain there until the next summer.

But now, for the moment, his mind was racing. With the careless nonchalance Yoshimori had brought her up, Yugi felt almost dizzy. The fact that he even remembered her sent alarms off in his head. What if she had wound up like Shizuka herself had? And what if no one were to ever find her again?

What if the experiments had already destroyed her?

It had been around almost the exact moment of those six months prior that Atem had been released. No doubt they had been searching for and hunting down wolves to replace them, right? What if someone like Yoshimori had gotten their hands on her? Maybe they had snatched her up when they saw her there and—

He forced the thoughts away.

But he couldn't help remembering the way she had pledged that one day they would end up getting married one day. It had been a joke, but Yugi had found it hilarious and flattering all the same. But he'd also feared that perhaps she had been somewhat serious.

And he hoped to the gods that she would not be hurt in any manner, that the people in the labs would never come to get their hands on her. He was breathing hard at the mere thought, a current of hatred pushing its way through him now. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he were ever to find out that she had been captured and experimented on.

He blinked.

"She's not coming back until summer," Yugi stated in a firmer tone, trying again to force away the thoughts. He forced himself to remember those words, to consider them more truthful than the lie he felt he was reciting. She would be back, and eventually she'd take his place at the clinic where he was unable to help his mom any longer. She'd been so interested and Yugi had shown and told her a lot of the things she would need to know. If there was anyone his mother would truly allow to replace him in the clinic, it was her by all means. "And she's the only one my mom would trust to help her with the procedure besides me."

Yoshimori gave him a look that bordered pure frustration but when he blinked it was gone again. "And there's no one else that could possibly cover the surgery for you? Really, Yugi, with a staff of over twenty people?"

Yugi ground his teeth together. His grandpa was wisely staying silent, unsure which lie he might spew next, uncertain that he wouldn't step on his toes at some point. Sugoroku was merely watching them, eyes flickering back and forth between them. The small teen stared at the man in front of him for so long it felt as if his eyes were going to burst forth from their sockets.

"Most of them are just training to have job experience before they go to college and open their own practices," he growled, "and none of them are actually helping with surgeries. They're just shadowing."

"What a shame." He turned to Sugoroku, smile firm on his face and so predatory that it made both Motou's stiffen faintly. "Well, I suppose it could just be the two of us then."

The elderly Motou hesitated, for a moment desperate to look to Yugi for help. His tongue was knotted and his lungs felt tight. The way he looked at him, with some kind of savage cunning, made him think of murderers in movies. He opened his mouth to respond but it was Yugi to speak.

"Maybe if we did it early enough, we wouldn't have to worry about it," Yugi said slowly, narrowing his eyes as he stared at Yoshimori who turned with a widened gaze full of false delight. "I mean, if it's early enough, maybe I can still make it to the hospital on time…"

"When is the appointment?"

How long did it take to get from Domino to Sapporo? His mind raced rapidly for a moment. An hour and a half by train, then at least thirty minutes to eat, and another hour and a half to get back—that was three and a half hours. He pulled his phone out, checking the time. It wasn't fully three yet.

"Seven-thirty," he replied after a long moment. That gives us just enough time to get there, eat, and come back, right?

Yoshimori gave him the smile of a shark with uneven rows of teeth and eyes with power and intelligence far surpassing his own. Yugi bristled faintly at the manner he looked at him, the way his mouth reminded him of the jagged teeth of a jack-o-lantern in the darkness. "Excellent," he announced, reaching out and touching his shoulder. The small teen ignored the urge to shudder as Yoshimori patted him there twice before turning and starting away, pausing only to say, "Enjoy the exhibit. I have a phone call I must make."

His vision was dizzy, swirling. A phone call?

As he faded into the crowd, Yugi turned to his bewildered and alarmed grandpa. "I…I need a second to get some fresh air," he mumbled, shaking his head. In the corner of his eye one of the kids in their jogging suit had passed by him. Had he looked back he might have noticed the golden-bronze skin tone that they boasted. But Yugi was headed for the door and the other in the opposite direction, moving further towards the second floor.

It was several floors above that he caught up to the businessman. He did nothing to disguise his approach, lazy and assertive as he strode behind them. He slipped into the space needed to catch the door with the heel of his foot to keep it propped open when the other headed towards the desk. His head was lowered, his body crouched, so that he could not look through the narrow window of glass above him and see him there. He kept his eyes locked on the slit in the door, pressing his ear towards the small gap to hear his words.

"Kanekura."

The name made him tilt his head thoughtfully. Had he heard that name before? He could not remember. Yami shifted his sneaker just enough to push the door open a bit more, though he did not move inward yet. His eyes flickered about himself. He'd broken each of the cameras earlier, before his run in with Yugi on the first floor.

He had originally assumed it strange that there were even offices for the workers there, until he had realized those teenagers dressed in their track suits were holding a class there. It was a study seminar, on some kind of history lesson, but he hadn't paid it any attention. He had simply seen it, realized their placement, and then gone back to borrow Yugi's own suit, which was a bit too large for him, he knew without question. Yugi wasn't even a person to embrace physical exercise, so why had anyone bothered to buy him those?

He shrugged it off. It didn't really matter, did it? The point was that he was there and he had to wait for the right moment.

"I was right, Kanekura! The lycanthropes have come to Japan. They're all flocking here, summoned by what they think is the incarnation of those stupid legends. They are all ripe for the picking, the perfect prey," he drawled, snickering. Something about his voice had a slurred undertone, almost as if he was drunk, or like he was speaking with an accent too thick.

A deep-bellied laugh came up from his throat and Yami bristled as he shifted his weight. How did he know about Code Name Atem? Was he part of the human group who had tried to resurrect him?

"And all that it would take to make all of them come running? Just the tiniest little threat to their precious Pure-Blood. All of them would come racing. They would lay their lives down for them senselessly. Do you know how powerful we could be if we could harness that thing? If we could make it call out for help when it was wounded?"

The other person was quiet for a moment. Then, slightly timid, the voice came saying softly, "And risk war with Gozaburo Kaiba? You imbecile, he'd rip us to pieces before we could even blink. That is his creature—"

"No, it's whoever his boss is—that anorexic guy. Gozaburo is a businessman, however. He would easily pay billions to have this wolf returned to him. If we were to find it, we could make a trade with them and we'd never have to skin another wolf or set traps or anything of the like. And, once it's caught again, the wolves will keep coming. They'll practically beg to be captured with it."

"That is far from how that works, Yoshimori. You and I both know that not only would Gozaburo turn his nose up at an offer, he'd also very easily kill you and I both. He loves money more than he does anything else. That's why he sacrificed his children to be experimented on! Do you not remember that?"

"And both of them are long dead." Yami cringed at the steel edge of his words, shifting his shoe further inside to push the door open a small fraction. He remained crouched, listening, and bore his teeth as he waited. He had to hear the noise of the chair turning, swiveling, and then he would be able to push the door back all the way. Then he could sneak in. "Regardless of Noah, the other two are dead. The only two who could have qualified as a Pure-Blood between the three of them are dead. Seto and Mokuba have been dead for years now. And Noah's mother had already infected him. Gozaburo was lucky."

Yami strained his ears. When would the chair swivel? When would he turn all the way around? When would he turn his back on him so that he could sneak in? Then again, he supposed he did not truly need to sneak into the office. But he did have to be wary. The gun on his hip said as much.

"Gozaburo is not a man to play games with, Yoshimori. He will kill you. I am having no part of anything to do with the Pure-Blood. I don't want to die yet. You do as you want where it's concerned—"

"You say that as if there's such a thing! Pure-Bloods are fairytale monsters! They don't exist! They're every werewolf-loving, role playing freak's wet dream because they're supposed to be immortal. No creature is immortal!"

"Just because you fail to believe in something means nothing! The fact is that they created a creature beyond your imagination and so you're lashing out. The Pure-Blood is a monster that kills with efficiency, can sneak as silently as a cat, and has the speed of a Ferrari! You refuse to believe in anything that defies your logic."

Finally the chair swiveled. Yami pushed the door open enough to squeeze himself through. His fingers caught the edge of the wood, holding it, and he sank his nails into the firm pine. Easing it gently, he allowed it to fall back only when the red-eyed wolf was sure it would simply click when it slid into place. He was already halfway across the room by then, low to the ground, moving towards the desk.

"There is no animal that can run a hundred and forty miles an hour! None!" Yoshimori spat, freezing when the soft click echoed throughout the room. He turned around immediately, phone cord tangled around his wrist in his growing anger. He blinked and furrowed his brows. Was that the door? Or perhaps the air conditioning? But he could not hear a gentle humming to accompany the noise…

"The cheetah runs at over seventy. The Pure-Blood is twice as fast. It's got the speed of three different animals tied within it. It's the gray wolf, the dire, and the human! They clocked him at twelve years old. He was already running that in his human form."

"You superstitious coward. No wonder they fired you."

There was a long minute of silence. Yami nearly snickered. Then a long, exasperated sigh came from the other end of the phone.

"But all of that is far beyond the point, is it not? They've resurrected the Pure-Blood and when they do it with the Harbingers too, it's going to be amazing, don't you think? Wolves of both species will come racing in to help them, because they've all got that pathetic mentality. They all think they have to lay their lives down for them!" Yoshimori paused. "And then, whatever they're truly trying to make happen in that lab will be expanded on. There will be no end to the specimens."

"You and I both know that if you go against them, you will die. I don't understand how you feel the need to ignore something like that, but your naivety will catch up with you. Let's hope you aren't dead from it."

"I don't know about you, but I am tired of constantly catching and killing those damn wolves. I don't want to be stuck doing this forever. I want to be able to sit back and relax. I have a right to!"

"You won't have anything to sit back and relax on when you're dead, you idiot! You expect to mess with them, with Pegasus and Gozaburo, two of the richest people in the world, and get away with it? And the wolves? Do you honestly think that they will not come for you? That they won't destroy you? That Pure-Blood will kill you all, mark my words."

"Oh please, save your stupid prattling for someone who cares to hear it," Yoshimori snapped.

"When it kills you, I swear I'll laugh and dance atop your grave."

"Stick to your pathetic fears if you so wish but do not try to force them onto me."

Yoshimori reached over to hang up but the dial tone was already in his ears. Had his partner finally decided to grow up and show his backbone? Well, in that case, perhaps his brain would show up late too.

The opportunity to retire early was something that no one should ever turn their nose up at. And he was sick of the killing, of having to skin them and wasting his money on weapons and traps, betting his life on the off chance that they would not be experienced enough to handle him.

He sighed softly, content for the moment. He would have to try to figure out a more suitable trap for Yugi. The boy was far too intelligent, had seen through him as if he were not even there. He had been able to detect the lies just as easily as he could his. The small teen was never good at fibbing. It seemed to have only gotten worse with age.

He chuckled, then turned around.

Fingers were splayed across the phone's base, the cord dropped to the floor. Long, red nails were curved against the metal top of his desk. The white tips of keratin were long, unusually so, and the beds were a perfect almond shape. The digits were long, reaching outwards like claws.

Yoshimori blinked, then slowly raised his eyes. His face drained of color.

How had anyone managed to get so close to him? How had he failed to notice? The blood had given him advanced senses, had allowed his maturity to begin to drop and resist, his body still younger than it should have been. Yet, somehow, it had failed to pick up this presence.

The boy stared up at him, a face of sharp features, with glowing red eyes. He looked regal, like a true predator, with a grace he had never seen before. He opened and closed his mouth, eyes wide. The boy merely stared, unblinking, cruel. His gaze was savage, deadly, and the power which showed in the muscles of his jaw as he flexed it slightly before him made him quiver.

"Who…?"

Yami hummed softly, then reached slowly for the phone receiver in his hand. They looked at each other, the werewolf lazy in his movements, slow and graceful, willing to bide time before going for the kill. He took the phone from his shaking palm.

"Who are you?" he managed to breathe out now.

Again the red-eyed boy did not even so much as truly look at him. His gaze flickered towards the phone, where he placed it in its cradle. He did not raise his head for a moment, but he could see his lips, twitching with pure amusement.

"Well?" Yoshimori spat when the seconds passed by with agonizing slowness. He ground his teeth together but the lycanthrope ignored him as he had before. "What is your name?"

Yami very slowly turned his eyes to him, the dark hues burning with distaste. His gaze was hardened, his pupils flaring with darkness, brimming his irises like shrouds of smoke. The man began to quiver.

"My name is of no importance. The thing that you must truly be worried about is, what am I?" he drawled, voice an alluring constrictor, colorful as it weaved itself around him, stroking at his insides, warming his blood. The wolf chuckled, then tilted his head. "Take a guess."

"A hellhound," Yoshimori snapped. His hand was inching towards the gun. Yami ignored it for the moment. "You're a hellhound. Probably that brat Noah, sent by your father."

"My father is long dead. And Noah is not my name." He allowed him to slide his hand further towards the holster. "Nor is my species a hellhound. Try again."

"Lycanthropes don't have eyes like that."

"Hmm. So then what would you think I am?" When his fingers nearly touched the black leather, Yami snatched at the phone. The air seemed to ripple with the movement. Yoshimori screamed. His face was burning. His eyes were watering. Blood fell from his mouth in rivulets. The wolf calmly set the reddened receiver back down. "I know that you know I am going to kill you. But let's not make it more painful than it has to be, yes? I rather enjoy killing quickly. Brute force is more efficient when it comes only once."

Yoshimori whined, cradling his mouth. The teeth in front of his tongue had fallen away. He spat them into his palms, then looked up. He should have been able to sense him. He should have known that he was coming up behind him. Why hadn't he known?

"I know I knocked a few teeth out, but I'm hoping you can still speak." Yami hummed again, lower than before, then narrowed his eyes slightly. "What do you think I am?"

"A hybrid of some kind. No lycanthrope has eyes like that. Only hellhounds."

"If one were to mix our genetic coding, we'd die. Lycanthropes and hellhounds cannot breed. Genetic modification would destroy the host completely. Try again."

"I don't know."

"Pity." Yami shrugged and then turned back to him fully. "All right then. Tell me something, what do you know about the Pure-Blood? Code Name Atem, was it?"

"Only what I was told by my partner."

"Kanekura, yes?"

He blinked wide, glazed over dark brown eyes, a sense of horror lingering in them. "H-how did you…?"

Yami tilted his head. "Can you hear through walls with that blood you've been ingesting, Yoshimori? Does your lengthened lifespan offer you heightened senses or is it only your age it affects?"

He gaped at him, moving his hands away from his face. His lips were quivering and his mouth looked like a slick chasm of bright red. His chin was coated in it and it had been smeared unconsciously upon his cheeks.

Yami hummed again. "I can smell it on you. You drink it so that it will not change you. You don't want to be infected, you just want to live longer and be able to help outwit the wolves you hunt. But you cannot even heal faster than your weak human frame."

Yoshimori stared at him, eyes a bottomless pit of confusion, heart beginning to hammer in his chest. This wolf could smell it on him? He had last ingested it a month ago. How was that even…?

"The mouth retains trace chemicals of food and drink it invests for a month at a time. Or at least, I believe that's how it goes. It doesn't matter either way, however. What matters is that I know what you do. And I want to know more about what you know of Code Name Atem."

"You're a lycanthrope…"

"Yes."

His head was swimming. The pain in his jaw made it hard to speak. He shook his head slightly in shock but Yami merely stared, unblinking, unamused, head tilting to the side with dismissal.

"I don't…know much of anything. He—he said he was helping them to create it. But he was let go only a year after Code Name Atem was conceived. He said…that Atem got loose recently. And Gozaburo and Pegasus were offering two million each in order to get him back alive." Yoshimori paused, then smirked, sneering, "Your precious Pure-Blood has a bounty on his head."

Yami struck out again. Blood welled up on the surface of the desk. A tooth was caught in the tangled mess of bright red. The teen hummed again, dropping the receiver back. "Speak to me when you are spoken to. Do not forget who the true predator is here. It is a mistake you will regret."

He groaned, covering his face again. His eyes were squeezed shut, tears leaking from them. His nose was a bloody, dangling clump of flesh above his mustache. His entire face was all but invisible beneath the mass of red.

"Kill me already."

"We're barely ten minutes into our fun time together. I know your face hurts but get over it. You have things I need to know." He turned away from him, yawning. "Tell me, four million dollars on the head of Code Name Atem. Are there any leads?"

"All anyone knows is that he's clearly here in Japan. And wolves from the states are here searching."

Yami froze in place, then turned his head slowly. "Wolves from the states have come to Japan to find Atem?" he asked softly.

"They're all here because of that bullshit that they're needed for whatever reason."

He blinked slowly, then nodded slightly. "Before I kill you, would you like to know what I am?"

Yoshimori stared at him, startled. "You're a lycanthrope," he spat, blood flecking the desk. Yami moved a hand away before he could be touched by it.

He smiled, wry and small, edged with bitterness and disgust. "But what kind am I? Are you no longer curious?"

"Fuck you."

He hummed. "I do not wish to."

He spat at him but missed by inches. Yami raised a brow, looking at it sideways, and then eyed him with disapproval. "I don't care what you are anymore," he snapped. "All I know is that I'll see you in hell when you're dead."

Yami laughed softly, a hysterical noise, then burst out with the noise, the sound pushing up from deep inside his belly. He was looking at him, red eyes wide and keen, glittering, and then shook his head slowly. "The immortal don't die," he barked.

The look of hatred turned into blind panic, then crushing realization and abundant horror. "The Pure-Blood," he rasped out, throat closing with pain.

He shook his head. "A Pure-Blood. Not the Pure-Blood," he corrected. His hand moved with the swiftness of a striking snake. His nails cut through him like butter. Blood welled up and outwards, a bright and hideous shade to announce its altered state. Yoshimori's eyes were still wide, though now they were lifeless as well. His chin dropped to his collarbone.

Yami did not waste a second glance back. He did not even check himself over for blood. He had been entirely too conscious of it all. The only blood he would have to deal with was that which was under the long nails of his right hand. He shut the door behind him, then trotted back towards the staircase.

He was two floors down when a realization crept over him.

Someone was coming up towards him. He faltered, hesitant, because he was not a killer by nature. He had never wanted to murder someone in cold blood as he had moments before. And he could easily slip past this person if he pulled the baseball cap further down and did not answer them if they spoke.

They would most likely link him, but he would be out of the museum long before anyone thought to give chase. But the moment of opportunity passed. His heart in his throat, he flinched as a very familiar face appeared in front of him.

He swallowed thickly, the urge to duck and hide away from the approaching boy overwhelming him for a split second. But the other had already caught his eye and the way he stared at him made his stomach flip. Yami lowered his head when Yugi came to the bottom step of the flight he was on.

"Hey, what are you…?"

Yami couldn't stand to see the shame and disgust he knew would soon cover Yugi's face. He furrowed his brows and tucked his head towards his shoulders for a brief moment in something that almost looked like a simple shrug. He sighed quietly, "I had to deal with something."

"Deal with something?" Yugi blinked and then looked him over for a moment. He seemed okay. He looked as healthy as he could with the wounds on his arms and the slight limp still plaguing him. He reached over to touch his hand, lifting his fingers and looking them over. They seemed perfectly fine. There was only something slightly brownish red beneath the fingernails of his right hand.

Yami pulled his hand away after a long moment. "Yes. There was something that needed to be done…" He fell silent when he could not think of anything more to say.

The smaller boy frowned, reaching out slowly to touch his hand in confusion. Was he okay? Was he sick? Maybe he just hadn't noticed because of his head being down. Yugi shook his head as he flipped his palm over and studied his hand for a long moment. Nothing seemed wrong. But what was there really that he hoped to find from staring at his hand like he was? It seemed rather stupid that he was doing that.

"But you're okay, right?"

There was a moment of silence. The taller teen struggled to understand his misplaced concern. Then he nodded slightly, feeling small and flustered for the briefest of seconds. "Yes, I'm okay."

"Good." He paused. "So then, what happened? What did you need to—?"

They both heard footsteps and fell immediately quiet. Yami moved quickly to wrap his hand around his wrist and hurry towards the door. Yugi stumbled slightly but kept his balance and hurried forward to match his pace. The footsteps had halted and a high-pitched scream trailed through the air towards them. The smaller boy halted, dragging Yami to a stop as well. The doors were right in front of the taller teen.

"What's going on?" He turned his head to Yami immediately. "Can you hear her?"

He wished that he couldn't. With a fine sense of disgrace coating his insides, he nodded slowly. "Yes." He hesitated, refusing to speak, but the pointed look on Yugi's face made him falter further. "She's screaming for security. She's yelling at one of the guards that Yoshimori has been murdered."

His breath left his lungs in a rush. "W-what? H-how is he…?" He trailed off, stunned, but his mind was already racing a mile beyond his focus. And something very slowly slipped within the forefront of his thoughts. He tilted his head, leaning forward, teeth bared behind his lips, eyes sharp and fierce. His hand moved to tip Yami's chin up and the taller boy merely stared at him in response. "You killed him, didn't you?"

The defiance in his gaze turned them into glowing gems of bright red. Though somewhat flustered by Yugi's anger, a cold sense of priority came over him as well. He had done as was necessary. He would not have done it if it was not. With a blank look, though his eyes glowed, he nodded.

The small teen was immobilized behind him. But Yami walked out the door and did not bother to wait for him. For a moment he was able to move about, past the growing crowd that was listening to a small speech announcing Yoshimori's arrival to speak to them about the wolves. Then he felt a hand grasp his wrist, tugging hard and pulling him to a stop. He didn't turn around, eyes narrowed and focused on the floor for a moment.

"Yami, why would you do that?" he hissed, pleading with him perhaps to lie and tell him that he hadn't really. Yami hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to truly say or even to think. He let Yugi keep his grip on his wrist, allowed him to hold him there in that spot past the crowd, where he saw Sugoroku from the corner of his eye as he looked around in confusion. No doubt he was searching for his former colleague who would never come.

He felt dizzy as the thought was truly considered. His stomach ached, his heart pounding forcefully in his chest, and he tightened his grip on the other wolf's clothing. The material was slick against his fingers, though not with blood as he had first assumed. His eyes squeezed tightly shut.

"Why…? Why would you…?"

Yami didn't want to truly destroy the memory of what Yoshimori meant to the family, but lying seemed out of the question as well. Between the guilt and the shame, his selfishness was borne.

"He was going to kill you."

Yugi stiffened. "You overheard the conversation we were having over there, didn't you?"

"A conversation?" Yami peered forward, towards the doors, eyes sharp and fierce. "Between you and him?"

"You heard us arguing…"

"Arguing?" Yami still refused to turn around. Had there been arguing? How could he have missed that? He frowned. He'd given Yugi privacy. He'd allowed him to speak without his eavesdropping to hinder him. "Were you arguing?"

Yugi was frantic when he spat, "You heard us! You had to have! You wouldn't have done this otherwise!"

Slowly the other boy turned his head to look at him, then very gently pulled his hand away from him. Yugi was shaking, practically vibrating with desperation for him to agree, to justify his words and his loyalty. He was right. Yami would not have killed him without meaning. But it wasn't as he so incorrectly expected, so desperately assumed.

"I never heard you argue."

"You did!" Yugi snarled, the noise strangled. "You did! You had to have! That's why you went after him!"

Yami shook his head slowly. "I never heard you argue."

It was so calm, so quiet, that Yugi could not argue any further. His breath caught, eyes wide, a sense of betrayal making his gaze almost appear to glow. It was wet, shiny, and the fear and horror stared at him like a gaping wound. The smaller teen slowly shook his head, back and forth, desperate that he might say something else.

"I never heard you argue."

He felt as if things were spiraling around him, spinning out of his control. His head ached as he stared at him, mouth opening and closing. The room was a blur around him. The cacophony of noise from others in the room was a chaotic roar. He swayed on his feet for a split second.

Yami watched him for a moment. But then his eyes flickered away. In a show of cold indifference, he spun on his heel and rushed out. He blinked stupidly after him, all but gaping, as his name brought at his attention. Slowly Yugi turned his head, queasy and small, as an officer made his way over. He almost wondered at the idea of them responding so quickly. But they were only a block down. They were right there.

And Yami had done this.

With the police right there.

He must have been banking on the exact time it would take them to get there. He must have known something about it even though Yugi had no idea. He wouldn't have taken the risk without knowing something about it.

He had said it himself.

He didn't go into something not knowing how to escape as well. No fight he threw himself into was only half-calculated. He considered the odds and knew he would come out alive before he fought anyone. This…

It had to be no different.

"Mutou Yugi?"

He blinked, then frowned as he raised his eyes, tilting his head. His mind was racing but the decision was already made. "Yes, officer?"

For the gun ownership, I'm still researching. But anyways, so I was reading somewhere that said something about some citizens going through lengthy LENGTHY licensing procedures. In that case, they would get a shotgun and after ten years of ownership would be able to buy a rifle. Yoshimori carries a shotgun.