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.

35. Games

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

Update schedule: Every other day

Chapter Warnings: Mild Bloodshed, Mentions of Sacrifices, References to Death, Slight References to Cult-Like Mentality, Slight Implications of Child Neglect, Mentions of Former Bullying, Mentions of Night Terrors, Mentions of Drug Overdose, Hints Towards Trauma, Slight Puzzleshipping, Slight Peachshipping, Slight Male Posturing

Okay, so I had hoped to post this on the fourth since I was too exhausted on the thirtieth. But then I was exhausted after basically putting away an entire truck of merchandise up by myself. And then I was exhausted after work on the fourth and passed out like an hour after I got home (no writing done, no nothing). I felt terrible but it's over and done with so…yeah. I'm sorry anyways, though, guys. I still feel kind of terrible but yeah, so…anyways!

So, the next chapter is set up for one final polish, and I'm working on editing the next couple as well. I might miss an update simply because it might be necessary due to work because of a couple of small scheduling issues within the company. Hopefully I can get ahead of that and not have to worry, but just in case, here is my warning for it.

All right, so there's a small bit of explanation for Yugi and some of his mom's behavior. That's where the hints towards trauma come in, the drug overdose, the implications of child neglect, and past bullying as well as the mention of night terrors. They're all put up there as warnings, but they're really only mentioned and not expanded on, but it's there just for the sake of any triggers.

Also, so Ryuichi is Fuwa's first name (Fuwa being the game show star from season zero), but Yugi refers to him by his last name. It's not out of respect this time, but mostly because he does not care to call him by his first name as it makes them seem far too friendly. He only really calls Yami and Anzu by their first name, although he's called Jonouchi by his first name, Katsuya, a few times. He doesn't truly use his friends' first names because using their first names is kind of reserved for more important moments (such as Yugi's apology about Shizuka). Anyways, so Yugi calls Ryuichi by Fuwa because he doesn't like him in the slightest.

I will say that a couple of chapters will probably be posted late due to their length and a couple of details that need to be fixed (some spelling issues and descriptions that I messed up on my rough draft because I had not completely finished plotting out certain characters and their interactions). So I will say that a couple of will end up being late due to this, but hopefully I'll be able to make a note of it before I have to post the chapters in question.

Anyways, sorry for the absence and enjoy the chapter~!

Chapter XXXV: Games

Work Log Entry XXXV: June, 2002

June 6

Brain scans have been done to determine the range of emotion A.T.E.M. is capable of feeling. We are unsure of what this has to do with his ability to adapt and live on his own. But we are curious about it all the same.

His lack of depression upon being so constantly exposed to death is beyond us all.

June 16

The scans have proven that A.T.E.M. feels every sense of emotion there is. There is nothing hindering his ability to experience any array of emotions.

His lack of depression is confusing.

June 19

A.T.E.M. shows no signs of discomfort upon being experimented on.

I wonder if it is adaptation that caused him to display shows of emotion.

Perhaps his body provides stimulus but he does not truly understand or perceive them.

I do not know that the boss is worried about the possible evidence of his creation being a sociopath.

Yugi hummed a little quietly, glancing at the other wolf uncomfortably. Thanks…for last night, he whispered quietly, licking his lips as Yami blinked at the snow and then raised his head to look at him in something almost akin confusion. The moment passed, however, and the black wolf merely nodded as he glanced away again. The white canine turned his head towards the snow as well and then began to slowly walk forward, eyes on the trees in the distance. And…thank you for coming with me now…

Yami blinked and raised his eyes from his paws, the sound of a mouse scurrying beneath the surface dying with such movement. He wondered vaguely in the back of his mind if he might find it should he look down again and attempt to listen for it once more. Why are you thanking me? he finally asked slowly, voice tired and somewhat flustered. Yugi could sense his unease towards the entire idea of coming amongst the pack again.

For coming with me. You hate the pack.

I do not hate them. I hate what they stand for. Yami paused for a moment and wrinkled his nose, tipping his head back as a snowflake drifted by. His tail came up and wagged slightly as he looked at it. His eyes grew bright and warm with happiness at the sight of it. And I loathe their idea of who Atem is as well as their thoughts of worship and summoning. I hate many of their beliefs. And I despise their constant willingness to spill blood. But mostly I hate the way they looked at me before, just as they look at you now.

Yugi blinked and fell short a step, considering with his head clocked to the side. Did they look at him in a certain way? Did they tend to watch him as Yami was alluding to? Was there something different in the way they regarded him than they did others?

He felt stupid for a moment. Surely they did. They thought of him as some kind of savior, didn't they? And the gods saw him as a pawn…

I guess I'm just really glad that you see me as a friend instead of Atem, he finally muttered. His voice was small, cracked, and his eyes were on the trees and their jagged, lonely branches. One swayed in the tiniest of winds and the sky seemed to split open. Snowflakes began to scatter in rapid streaks of white, falling in immense clumps. Yugi watched them for a moment, then glanced at the other wolf when he could no longer take the weight of his silent stare.

Yet the expression of pity or suspicion or sympathy or smugness he had been expecting was not there. Yami was simply watching him, his eyes unreadable, his red gaze burning with something he could not recognize. Then he shook his fur out and began to walk again with the laziest of strides.

Yugi hesitated, for the smallest of moments, and then followed awkwardly at his side again. It seemed natural to be a step behind him, but the reality was that the wolves would see it another way entirely. He knew and realized this and it made his skin crawl as he hurried to overtake him by a step. Yami did not so much as glance at him.

Do you think all of the wolves in the pack just spill blood all of the time? he asked quietly, feeling queasy.

Yami flicked an ear. I am sure if they did Mai and Otogi would not be in the pack. Or, at least, they might be starved and picked on constantly. He tilted his head. Then, possibly, subsequently killed for further refusal to accept their way of life. Then again, if they should be giving offerings, then perhaps the wolves were desperate to die.

Yugi froze for a moment, then turned to him with an anxious expression. Desperate to die?

Perhaps they were wolves from the lab. His tone had grown dismissive and his eyes were distant as he looked at the snow which landed on his muzzle. It shrank and melted within seconds. He wrinkled his nose. His body heat must have fluctuated in order to maintain enough of a temperature to make the snow melt so instantly. It is possible that they decided to sacrifice themselves in order to bring you there because of their tortures.

Yugi shivered. The idea made him want to puke. That's… He couldn't find words for it. It was insane and pathetic and ridiculous and…

He faltered. The words rang in his ears for a moment.

Had he just been callous enough to call someone else's solution to their pain and sorrow pathetic? He turned his head away.

And that was the only reason he did not see him.

Yami, however, snapped his jaws. The clicking made Yugi jump. His head snapped around. The black wolf was knocked a step back. The other wolf was shaking with rage. Yugi snarled, drawing his lips back. Yami bit at the air. The newcomer returned the gesture.

Instinctively Yugi began to back up. The two wolves circled once. The movement allowed the smaller wolf to recognize the interloper. He bore his teeth in annoyance. Marik was picking a fight with Yami. He growled in frustration. Why did everything have to be so violent all the time?

Marik lunged for him. Yami waited, then ducked. His teeth snapped at his leg. The bone cracked and splintered. Marik snarled in pain. His teeth caught the other's shoulder. He tore at his skin but barely nicked the surface. Yami clamped his jaws. The bone fractured and split.

Yugi shivered. A sheet of snow was falling. Yami was layered in it. Marik was beginning to become similarly covered. He could barely smell blood. And when Marik pulled back, it was all fur in his teeth. Yami angled away from him. When he tugged his muzzle, the gray wolf stumbled but did not fall. He shook his own coat out. The skin exposed was pale and near icy in appearance along his shoulder. Yugi thought of bone and his heart began to race.

Yami released his leg. Their teeth clicked in the air again. Both wolves were mirror images of each other. Their tails were up. Their backs were covered in a bristle. Their ears were pricked forward. Their lips were drawn back. Their eyes were glittering with anger. And when they circled, Marik seemed to hardly limp.

They sprang at each other. Sheer body weight kept Yami from being overpowered. When Marik attempted to drive him back, he failed. His teeth caught at his cheek. The black wolf tilted his head to the side. The grip was powerful but the pain minimal. The skin would heal immediately. He didn't need to worry.

Marik released, tossing them sideways. The locked formation of their limbs threw them both. They hit the snow. The black wolf used the new position to his advantage. Even as the gray went for his throat, his back feet caught his jaw. He kicked like a cat, pulling at fur along the bottom of his mouth. The force alone made Marik's jaw ring with pain. He backed up several steps, tossing his head. Yami rolled over onto his feet again.

Yugi flicked an ear. More wolves were coming. His eyes shot to Yami's, meeting them. They looked at each other and for a split second Yugi thought he read a million secrets there. But the moment passed. The black wolf sent a simple, They will not interfere his way. Then he sprang at the other wolf.

The gray wolf put too much weight on his broken limb. In the heat of battle, his adrenaline had cushioned the pain. But it did not promote healing. His leg buckled and fell beneath him.

That same moment Yami was upon him. His teeth caught in his throat. He threw his weight. Marik struggled, snapping his teeth. He snarled and growled and then settled after a few minutes of squirming. The black wolf did not release for a minute. And then another passed.

Yugi blinked, startled. And realization struck him. Yami was going to hold him there until he either thrashed so hard he broke his own windpipe or he succumbed to exhaustion. The smaller wolf hurried to his side, panic causing his heart to race.

Yami, let go of him.

The black wolf looked at him, then clamped his jaws harder in silent dismissal. Marik yelped and struggled. Then he panted and grew still again, snarling low in his throat. It was the fur which protected him now. Had his coat been any thinner, the mouthful of it any smaller, Yami would have hit the jugular.

Yami, please!

The black canine stared at him for a long moment. His eyes were sharp and cold as they looked at each other. Yugi could feel ice swelling in his bones. His body felt cold with panic. His heart was beginning to race with disbelief.

Yami, please, just let him go, okay?

And then Yugi saw that his eyes had drifted. And in the surface of his pupils was a new image, a reflection that made him freeze in place. The alpha, an odd red-orange glint against the darkness there, was watching him. Her chin was raised and her face dismissive. They stared at each other for a long minute. Marik screamed when Yami pressed his teeth harder into his throat.

Yami, stop! Yugi spat, flustered. His fur was bristling fearfully now and he felt sick as he looked at him. The black canine glanced at him now. It was the fine tremble which overcame the white wolf a moment later which made him release. He opened his jaws fully, spat a mouthful of fur away, and then snorted loudly.

What the fuck was that? Yugi demanded, hurrying to his side when he took a seat. The white wolf was next to him immediately, eyes wide and dilated with fear. You didn't need to—

Rank challenges can end in death when they happen often enough, Yami dismissed him. This is not the first time he has done this. When I was here prior he did it constantly. And now he thinks I won't fight back because I am not Atem. Next time I'll kill him.

You were just talking about their willingness to kill and now you're… Yugi shook his head in frustration. How could Yami not see what was so wrong with this whole thing? But then, he himself had at some point thought of how nice it would be to be able to get his bullies off his back. He had imagined fighting back once or twice but it went against a lot of his beliefs and so he couldn't bring himself to even truly consider it for longer than a moment.

Yet, now, as a wolf, fighting was second nature. He could respond simply through reflexes and not have a single problem. He felt his skin jerk in a shiver beneath his pelt. He had killed two wolves now, and inadvertently about seven others.

The black wolf flicked an ear in his direction. I only have so much patience for the brainless, he snapped in response. I can only take so much of his constant delight to fight me. There is only so much I can do with it before I have to force him back. Maybe now he will take that as a warning and no longer think to charge me so quickly.

Yugi glanced at Marik and it occurred to him that most likely that would not be the case. Marik had attacked him in the woods and refused to stop even when the alpha commanded it. If he refused even her, it was possible that he would never heed such caution.

He considered him for a long moment. But why wouldn't he? Why wouldn't he think better of it? It seemed so…strange. Was there something wrong with his thought process? Maybe he simply loved to fight and nothing else…

Yami turned now to regard him fully. His stomach tossed and he swallowed hard as he considered his own actions moments prior. It was a stupid idea to have held on so long. He was sure the wolves had to be suspicious of their rank by now.

But then…perhaps not.

Yugi had not snarled at him or vice versa. And no one seemed to be sending images about. Perhaps his protests had been aimed only towards him. That was highly possible as well.

The white wolf did not do more than move over to sniff at his cheek. The blood was dried and the skin closed. He looked perfectly fine. That was a relief at least. Yugi turned away and glanced at the she-wolf and the others which stood there watching them.

They probably saw it as a display of power somehow. Yami flicked an ear and Yugi bristled faintly. Was that a possibility?

And now, as they both turned away, images sprang to mind. The sight of Yami nearly killing Marik, of Yugi standing there all but uselessly. Questioning pictures sprang forward immediately after. Some of them showed Yugi pressing Yami to the ground, teeth in his skull. The white wolf started slightly at the idea of it, eyes widening, but the black wolf merely glanced at him sideways. Another showed Yami biting Yugi, a faceless human with bright blue-violet eyes. Others had the definitive features of his face. Others were of Marik's shattered leg.

Yugi bristled slightly, eyes on Yami. What are those pictures? The ones of me biting you?

Punishment for disobeying your direct order to release him. Yami blew out a deep breath buried somewhere far in his lungs. His nostrils flared faintly and he curled his lip slightly as he drew his jaws apart in a loud yawn. They assume that my disobedience is grounds for punishment and now they wonder if I perhaps bit you.

He blinked. What do I do about that?

Yami studied him for a moment. His head tilted to the side and he considered him thoughtfully. You could attempt the alpha command, but I do not know that it would work. Or you can punish me.

Yugi stared at him and flattened his ears against his skull. I'd rather not do either, thanks.

Yami flicked an ear. Then let them wonder. It does not matter. None of them will truly question you. They all believe in you. None of them will think to challenge your authority.

Yugi stared at him for so long his eyes felt as if they might burn within their sockets. Because I'm Atem, he thought in response to the unspoken question that reared itself in his head. He flicked an ear, moved closer to him, and wondered whether they would allow him to get away with murder without a second thought.

He shivered at the idea. If none of them would have stepped in to stop Yami, then wasn't that just as likely? He wondered if there was a line they had drawn in the sand or if nothing of the sort would ever come to be a reality.

Yami tilted his head towards him. I still do not know her name, he muttered softly, eyes sharp as he considered. I have never known her name.

He blinked, confused. Whose?

The alpha.

Now his eyes fell on Yami's instinctively, startled, and a small bit of fur rose along his back in confusion. You don't know her name? But you were—

A name is of no importance, especially one such as mine, she cut in, making them both turn their heads warily. She was still watching Marik but there was only scorn within her gaze as the wolf struggled to his paws and licked his broken leg. What matters is what I am here to do, what I shall give you.

Give me? Yugi thought with a dizzy head, his fur rippling with a rapid bristle of discomfort. What in the world does she think she can give me?

Yami watched her for a long minute, then looked to his wounded challenger before shaking his fur out. The movement immediately made the white wolf turn to him and the two of them locked eyes for only a moment but a million words seemed to pass through. Yugi drew in a deep breath, looked to the alpha, and in his strongest tone, demanded, What more do you plan to give me? Your pack is mine, isn't it?

She watched Marik a moment longer, turned her head to him, and locked eyes with him for the first time. A great gift, for should you rule my pack you will need power and ability, yes? she said in a tone of both condescension and amusement.

The white canine glanced sideways towards Yami in mounting unease. What is that supposed to mean? he asked him in a low voice, scared and feeling somewhat sick. What does she mean by that?

For a long time he was simply stared at. Then the narrow red eyes flickered, flashing with something dark and unreadable. Yugi, what was it that made you notice this pack that day in the woods?

The smell of blood… He almost trembled. They were performing… Oh gods…

Yami nodded slightly, turning away. Exactly.

B-but she can't honestly think that I want another sacrifice, can she? he sputtered, horrified. He flattened his ears against his skull, heart pounding shakily in his chest. I don't want someone to die again!

Yami's voice lacked any emotion, his eyes blank, and his stance seemed visibly nonchalant and careless. Atem is a creature of myth to them, a god with a face of white snow and bright blue and violet eyes. To them he is a wolf meant to be worshipped and praised. And what other way can one do such a thing without giving life and thus power? Think of the human gods, Yugi. In ancient times, they offered sacrifice to them to keep them strong or gain their favor. Why should this be any different?

Yugi was almost shaking and a fine tremor swept through his tail as he struggled to suppress it. He already looked weak and instinct whispered to swallow such emotion. If they sensed it…

That's disgusting! Most people offered animal blood or burned meat or wine!

Yami tilted his head and watched him with dark eyes. What is a wolf, Yugi?

An animal.

And what is a werewolf's main mentality?

He almost said it was animalistic but a more horrifying thought struck him. The human brain controlled a wolf body. Their main mentality was that of the human. He shivered and his stomach dropped painfully.

That's still not…

Yami cast him a look that seemed vaguely patronizing but mostly comforting in the most awkward of manners. You must remember, too, Yugi, that they were raised to believe in you. It is in each and every one of their stories. It is something that they were taught as pups and reminded of in adulthood. It is the very basis of their lives. You are the core of everything to them.

The words caused his marrow to run cold. He stared at him, eyes wide, and then bristled faintly with disbelief. A cult, he thought vaguely, looking towards them. They are like a cult.

Yes. Yami paused and then looked at him, flicking and then flattening his ears. Do not deny her this privilege, Yugi. Should you do so the pack will become upset and suspicious. They may suspect you to be lying. And you do not want such a thing.

Yugi didn't argue in the slightest. Of course he did not want that. Especially if that meant they came after not only him but Yami as well. They would kill him. They would completely rip him to shreds. He drew in a deep breath, looking at the alpha, and wondered what kind of sacrifice it was she had in mind. Was it special? She said a great gift of some kind…

He shook the thought off. He'd have to figure it out when it happened. There was really nothing else to do or say about it. His eyes were back on Yami again. No, he agreed quietly. What did she mean by ruling her pack?

You are going to take over, yes? That's what Atem is meant to do. He is meant to claim the pack and lead them to battle.

Yugi faltered briefly at the very concept, eyes wide as he looked towards the alpha again slowly. Okay, so I take over the pack, but then what? I don't know what leading an army in war is supposed to mean!

Yami snorted and licked at his paw in amusement. That's not something most people know either. There was a considerable pause before he looked at him more fully, eyes sharp and darkened with some kind of shadow Yugi could not understand. These wolves were raised for war, but I do not expect them to fully understand the complications or the price of such lifestyle.

Yugi stared at him, confused and more than slightly bewildered by such a thought. Why wouldn't they have understood? They were raised to believe that he would save them and so many of them had sacrificed themselves already. How was it that they could possibly overlook the severity of the situation? They had seen family fighting and killing each other and the alpha preached it!

I do not believe they know what it is that they are to truly do, Yami explained softly, licking at his leg more persistently. The blood was so miniscule that it had dried from the chill in the air. But he still licked at it for no other reason than distraction. The implications of his own words scared even him. But he supposed it mattered to Yugi more than it did him. When it came down to it, he was at the core of it. Yami was simply a spectator, possibly a mentor if he could ever keep up with the other wolf as it was. Death is not something they should embrace so simply.

Yugi felt sick as he looked at him before glancing at the she-wolf again slowly. Their eyes caught and she wagged her tail in amusement upon seeing his expression. He looked slightly older to her, as if something had come to his mind in a brilliant stroke of realization and, though he struggled to understand, it was impossible for him to ignore. She turned to the pack members behind her, raising her tail. The Pure-Blooded One is in need of a sacrifice of blood and great power. Then he shall come to us in all of his glory as our savior.

Yugi shot Yami a horrified, sickened glance. The larger wolf shook his head slightly. The white canine looked away again, but his lungs were tight and his stomach felt heavy and swollen.

---

"I believe you had something you wanted to ask me."

Yugi blinked in confusion and tipped his head towards him in response. He couldn't remember wanting to ask him anything as it was. Had there been something? He furrowed his brows, wracking his brain, and then shook his head slowly.

Yami snorted in amusement but did not supply him an answer. When he brushed against one of the headstones and read it over, his red eyes were wide and glittering slightly. Then he moved and took a seat on the top of it with little thought.

What would he have wanted to ask him? Yami sounded so certain of his words. So he definitely knew he needed to ask something of him. Did he know him so well? Yugi felt flustered as he considered him. He always seemed to struggle with the task of keeping up with Yami. So how was it fair that Yami could read him so well?

And then it clicked in his head.

Yugi looked up at him, eyes bright, and laughed, "Oh, wow. I forgot all about it with everything going on."

He hummed but didn't bother to speak.

"But, yeah, I was going to ask you before I made the announcement to the pack. I'm sorry for not thinking it through. But I didn't consider it before we actually left."

Yami studied him for a moment, nodding slightly.

His cheeks felt hot for a few heartbeats. Yami was staring at him, watching him closely, and his stomach dropped as they looked at each other. Yugi's hand rose and he scratched at the back of his head. "Well, anyways, um… Can you be my beta while we're with the pack? Outside of the pack we'll be right back the same way as we always are, okay? You're my alpha and I'm your beta."

"You say that like the titles mean something," the red-eyed wolf scoffed, but his tone was playful as they looked at each other. "The only time that they have any power is within packs. Then alpha and beta mean something. As for the one who bit the other, that's all they refer to."

Yugi frowned at him, nibbling his lip until he felt and tasted blood. "And when there are only two wolves in a pack?" he asked quietly, nervously. The question made Yami stiffen, the taller teen almost statuesque for a moment. The words made him think of their conversation before, how he had said most bitten wolves were there because they were mates. Or their companionship was so coveted that they wanted to immortalize it.

He finally glanced away, but his eyes were on Yugi's hands tucked in his jacket pockets rather than looking at the willow as the smaller teen assumed they would be. He tilted his head, studying the outlines of his knuckles beneath the surface of the jacket. The implications of the question were lost on neither of them.

"They act as equals unless it is an emergency."

Yugi shivered and his heart raced with the simplicity of the words. He smiled slightly, because it was oddly stunning that the taller teen seemed to be able to make such complicated choices seem so easy. It was almost as if he simply shrugged, decided at random what had to be, and shed away the rest. He seemed to know when to dig and when to barely scratch the surface with most things.

He envied him that.

"I won't tell them you're my acting beta within the pack if you don't want me to. I mean, if it's going to be a problem…"

Yami did not so much as blink when he shook his head immediately in dismissal of his words. "I do not care one way or the other," he said slowly, "but we must watch what we do inside of that pack, Yugi. If we make the wrong move, or give them reason to suspect us of lying, we will not make it out alive."

Yugi bit his lip and shook his head. "But that's why you're the alpha, right? Because you're smarter and you can teach me," he muttered in such a small voice that the other wolf blinked, startling faintly. "I mean, that's why you've survived as long as you have. You didn't have your parents to help you and you know a lot more than I do. And it's pretty obvious that you can do almost anything you decide to put your mind to."

He studied him, red eyes cool and unblinking, and then glanced away almost dismissively. "I don't know nearly as much as you think," he muttered softly, shaking his head. "You simply wish I did."

He faltered, face feeling oddly cold and his skin icy with growing confusion. Yami didn't have much self-esteem at all. The smaller teen glanced away and then back, but his mouth felt twisted and he couldn't tell if it was a grimace or a half-hearted smile.

"You still know more than me either way. Which I guess isn't really hard," he teased, though his voice came out slightly small and Yami did not seem even remotely amused. He sighed, running a hand through his hair, and then looked at the willow tree for only a moment. Then he turned back and the other wolf's red eyes bore into his. "Well, anyways, if you don't mind, then can I ask you to be my beta while we're in the pack?"

"You beat around the bush too much," Yami snorted before shaking his head. "Yes, let's do that. When we are with them, I will defer to you and when we are not, we will be as we always are."

Yugi smiled widely and his expression of absolute happiness and warm relief made the taller lycanthrope feel sick. He looked at him, meeting his eyes, for only a moment longer. And then he turned away and stared at the snow as if it might somehow save him from the disappointment he was sure Yugi would come to know.

He did not look at him again until Yugi yawned, stretched his arms, and muttered, "Want to go back?" after three long hours. He glanced at him more from his peripheral rather than head on, then nodded, and kicked himself off of the gravestone. The smaller boy was painfully aware of the distance between them, which seemed oddly intensified as the seconds passed. Had he done something? He had asked and that had been it, right?

He wanted to apologize, but what was there he was meant to say? Were there any words he could actually speak to make the gap between them lessen somehow? He doubted it. And he had no explanation for the thing he must have done wrong.

"You have school," Yami said quietly, with such lack of preamble that Yugi startled. He nearly tripped and his balance caught just before he fell straight into the other wolf's side. Flushed, he glanced at him, but the other merely snorted, lips tugging faintly into a smirk of amusement.

"Yeah," he muttered, hesitating. "And probably two hours before my alarm goes off."

"Do your mother and grandfather never check on you at night?" His face was more scornful than amused now, his eyes flashing with something Yugi could not define. "There has only been that one instance that I know of upon which your mom entered the room to see you. But there is so much going on within this little city right now! Why would they not take the time to check on you more often?"

Yugi blinked, then shook his head. His face felt colder than before and he reached up to rub at his cheeks. But the skin was warm against his fingers and he felt oddly stricken by the thought.

"She used to check on me a lot. When I still had night terrors almost every night, she would come and check on me. Most of the time she would end up waking me and telling me stories until I fell asleep again. I was around eight when she stopped. I told her I didn't want to be coddled anymore." He hesitated, then kicked at the snow lightly with his sneaker, smiling sardonically at himself. "From eight to twelve my night terrors were so much worse. But I used to get mad when she would try to help me. I felt too childish, like a baby. It started to get to me because I was already dealing with being bullied. It seemed like if they found out about it, that would just give them that much more to attack me for."

Yami blinked, eyes widening, and then furrowed his brows. "That does not explain why she does not check on you now," he argued quietly, when he saw that Yugi was struggling to think of what more to say. "There is a curfew in place and you are out here, in the woods. It is hours past the curfew as well. I simply do not understand how she does not recognize that you are absent."

He bit his bottom lip. "Because when I was twelve I yelled and screamed at her not to do it anymore. I asked for higher dosages for my medication, because I could do that instead of having to deal with my peers somehow finding out about my mom checking on me in the middle of the night all of the time. I realized when I was thirteen that it didn't make any sense that I worried about that. And it hardly made sense that I asked for a higher dosage. I was actually against taking the pills every night as it was."

Yami shook his head, puzzled.

Yugi grinned at him, glancing sideways at his face, and then turned away again quickly. "Anyways, so, they began to taper off. The night terrors became far less frequent and I could deal with them better. I don't thrash like I used to and I don't scream and wake everyone up in the house anymore. I don't have to worry about my dreams most of the time. And my mom realizes she doesn't have to watch me every five seconds. Although, I'm sure my grandpa's attitude that I'm capable of taking care of myself also helped."

He was growing impatient and the smaller teen could sense it. When Yami stepped forward, he spun on him. His blue-violet eyes were narrow and his expression less than amused.

"She doesn't have to check on me. I'm not a little kid. And she trusts me not to do stupid things. I'm honestly pretty self-sufficient for the most part. It might not seem that way, but I can handle most issues." He paused, opening and closing his mouth, and spun on his heel again. "But the thing is, she checks up on me in different ways now. See, she doesn't have to physically check to see that I'm in my room. Because she can check to see where my phone is using hers. If I leave it in my room, she assumes I'm asleep in there. And then she doesn't have to worry about waking me by coming into my room."

"She tracks you using your phone?"

Yugi nearly snorted at the incredulous, bewildered tone of voice. "Yep. Technology is crazy. They put chips in animals' shoulders to track where they are. They use collars to correct bad behavior through static or vibration when a dog misbehaves. They can do all sorts of things that weren't possible just a couple of years ago." He hesitated, then looked at him over his shoulder as Yami began to lag behind slightly. He gave him a small smile that made the other boy frown in puzzlement. "But I've always woken up when someone tries to come into my room at night. It's just natural to me and she's always known that. And I think she knows that my night terrors still happen. I think she realizes that I manipulate myself into not reacting sometimes. And I think she has an idea of how much medication I don't take. She's not stupid. But she also doesn't want to make me feel like I am either. So we kind of dance around the subject…"

"But schoolmates are dying, are they not? And the curfew is island-wide, yes?"

Yugi paused, then looked at him as he came to his side. "She isn't neglecting me," he said slowly, frowning at him as he tilted his head in mounting frustration as he struggled to find the proper words. "Yami, she's trying to give me just enough space so that I don't end up relapsing somehow."

"Relapsing?"

"Into depending on the drugs as often." He paused, then huffed. "One night I took so many I should have killed myself. It wasn't even for a malicious reason. I just… I kept dozing and the night terrors would start almost immediately and I would take more and more to keep up. And somehow that basically turned into the whole bottle. The dosages were the highest they could give me for my age and weight. And they just weren't working and I… She's been afraid of bringing it up to me. She says she found me passed out in the living room with the empty bottle nearby. But when she checked on me I was still alive and seemed perfectly healthy. It was a new bottle and there were about fifty pills in there."

Yami blinked, stopping short, and stared at him with something akin horror and disgust.

He shrugged. "I just wanted to actually be able to sleep, Yami. I just wanted to be able to rest. And it just… It didn't happen like it should have. It just… She's been afraid of talking to me about it. And she's even more concerned that I'll end up in that kind of state again." He shook his head. "I think she blames herself for it. I think she's too scared that if she steps on my toes, somehow I'm going to end up like I did then."

"That doesn't make any sense…"

He raised a brow, grinning at him. "Humans are nonsensical," he teased playfully.

Yami shook his head. "So she thinks that one night she'll check up on you, you won't be able to sleep, you'll take too much medication, and she'll find you lying in your room with an empty bottle," he said slowly, narrowing his eyes. "That doesn't make any sense."

Yugi snorted, looking at him. "It makes plenty to her. And I guess I could understand it if I was in her place. She introduced the medicine to me, got the doses raised when I asked, and listened when I told her not to check on me anymore. She probably feels like she should have been checking on me more often and when it happened she was horrified." He shrugged, but his eyes had become distant, somewhat sad, and the taller teen felt sick as he looked at him. "She checks on me by my phone, makes sure I'm not out past curfew that way. And if I am, then she's able to call me basically instantly. So, truthfully, she's still hovering, but she's doing it in a new way."

Yami stared at him, eyes searching his for a moment. It was bewildering to him. Of course technology had been advanced. He had seen new equipment upon escaping the tunnels than what had been there formerly. He understood that. And he knew about the chips and the transmitters to be inserted beneath the skin, embedded deep within the muscles, which tracked their queries.

Fuck, he'd had one in his own shoulder.

Yugi had removed it, after all…

"Was your phone at home…?" he asked slowly, furrowing his brows. Yugi glanced at him curiously as the words left his mouth. For a moment he struggled to speak and then Yami shrugged it off and resumed his question. "Was your phone at home the night of the fire?"

The smaller teen hesitated for a moment. "Yeah," he mumbled, sighing softly. "I was freaking out and thought she would have called the police all for nothing."

The simplicity of the statement made Yami falter and his eyes flickered about for a moment before he shook his head slowly.

"That's…"

"She's not a bad mom. She just… I don't think she ever really wanted kids in the first place. And then she was pregnant and decided that she would figure out how to be a good parent as she went along. She's not the most maternal person in the world. But she does love me." He shrugged now and his eyes were more distant and soft than they had been before. "And she'd do anything for me. She just doesn't show it in the same way other moms do. She's not like Anzu's mom. Her mom likes to text her every day, ask her for every minute detail in her life. Her dad is a police officer who's working on the cases now. She's been freaking out because of it all. Anzu says it's suffocating."

"You almost sound wistful."

He laughed. "Not of that," the small teen said softly, turning to him with bright eyes. "I'm more curious about all of the information her dad has on the deaths. I want to know what they think is going on."

Yami shook his head slightly. "I am sure they have some idea of what is going on. I suspect they will think only that dogs have done it, however."

Yugi smirked. "I'm not really worried about that. I just… I was there around most of the bodies at one point or another. I want to know if they're looking for me."

He startled. "Surely she would tell you if they were?" he asked quietly, biting his cheek. "She is your best friend, isn't she?"

"She is, but it's against the law for her to talk about that kind of thing…"

Yami watched him closely. "But I do not believe that someone would betray you in such a way. Especially the girl who holds your heart." Yugi blinked, head snapping towards him now, as his voice swam in his head and circled almost like a shark. His tone was oddly neutral but there was an underlying heat to his words which startled him. "You are not so foolish that you would trust someone blindly. And I do not believe someone to be so deceitful as to lie to you and pretend to be a friend but not reveal such a thing. Surely if they suspected you your life would be over…"

Yugi nodded slightly but then searched his face. I trusted you blindly, he thought vaguely. I let you into my house when you could have easily killed me. I took you shopping for clothes when you could have easily killed everyone there if you'd wanted. I haven't told you to leave even after watching you kill. I trust you blindly.

Yami considered him a moment longer, studying his expression, and then looked swiftly away again. "I think if she had to choose, it'd be you over the law."

"Why do you say that?"

His red eyes flickered and locked with his, a million and one different secrets swirling within them. He curled his lips back into something that seemed like a cross between a smile and a smirk, tilted his head, and said simply, "Because I would."

Yugi stared at him, stunned into silence, then blushed faintly as he considered. He would choose him too. He would choose any of his friends. But the quickness of his decision regarding Yami startled him. It was instinctive, how quickly he almost opened his mouth to say the same. He kept his tongue between his teeth, watching him, and then looked away.

Yami trusted him. Yami trusted him blindly. He always had. Whatever potential he had seen in him, he'd had to trust that Yugi would not turn into a monster like Ushio. He'd had to put faith in the fact that he was worthy of saving him. He'd had to place himself in his hands to get care for his wrists. He'd had to hand over control every time he took those pills to sleep. Their entire relationship had been blind trust on Yami's behalf.

The thought shook him to his core. His heart felt as if it might shatter. His lungs felt slightly tight. He looked down, staring at the snow, and his head felt light as if it were stuffed with cotton.

"I would choose you too."

Yami stared at him for a moment, only long enough to consider him, and turned to walk again. "You have school tomorrow. Let's go." He did not glance back even when Yugi looked up and took up a slower pace behind him.

---

Yugi picked at his backpack strap, eyes flickering towards the taller teen. Yami had been leaning against the wall, picking at his nails, biting and flicking at the bottom, since the moment he had woken. He was not truly biting away the ends like he had initially assumed he was. But he looked uncomfortable all the same and he had the feeling the other looked like that because of their conversation earlier that day. He sighed and glanced around slightly, looking for anything that might have slipped his mind.

"I'll make a shake when I get home," he announced, looking at the other who blinked and raised his head in momentary confusion. "I don't think I'll have time before I have to get to school. I should have gotten up earlier."

The sigh that left his lips was longer than Yami cared to hear it and the taller teen shook his head with a dismissive glance. "It does not matter," he said simply, giving him a sharp look when the other opened his mouth to object. Very quickly Yugi closed his mouth again and glanced away towards the window before steeling himself enough to look at him once more. He leaned a little further into the plaster behind him, and the cotton of his tank top did well to absorb some of the chill it possessed. "I will go hunting instead, I suppose."

Yugi opened his mouth again, and then felt his cheeks flush at the more annoyed look the other shot him now. "What? I'm not supposed to worry about you doing that? Seriously, Yami, did you forget about the hunters that have been roaming around looking for Code Name Atem?" He faltered and then tilted his head, feeling slightly sick to his stomach. "Looking for me?"

Yami snorted softly. "I am not some mindless pup," he scoffed before he tilted his head and stared at him with a puzzled expression marring his usually unreadable face. "I can take care of myself well enough…"

"And if they catch you off-guard, what then?"

He tilted his head further, then furrowed his brows. "You know I am capable of protecting myself."

"And? What's your point? You got pretty hurt the last time we had a run in with them," Yugi snapped, blushing when the other's red eyes widened in surprise, then narrowed in frustration. He lowered his eyes quickly, puzzled by his own irritation, and then looked at him again with a flustered expression. "I just…I know that you can handle it yourself, okay? It's just…with all of the stuff going on, with the pack and the hunters and everything else…"

Yami considered him for a long minute. "You would rather I not go out," he finally commented, narrowing his eyes into slits before scoffing softly. "You do realize that hiding away will do nothing in the long run, yes?"

"But it doesn't have to do anything more than keep you alive for another day, right?"

Yami stared at him, eyes growing wide, slightly fascinated and minutely shocked. Then he nodded slightly, turning his gaze on the carpet as if it might somehow comfort him. He shrugged his shoulders, flustered, and tilted his head again as he looked at the deep indigo shade of the fibers. "Very well, I will not leave the house until you return," he replied in a low voice, one that spoke of discomfort and frustration more than anything else.

Yugi felt almost sick with relief, grinning childishly at his agreement. "Thank you."

"Go to school."

He nearly cursed; he was so going to be late.

It took him twenty minutes to get to the school and the gates were just about to be shut. A couple of police officers glanced at him, having been stationed there after the recent dead body found. He shuddered, trying to ignore the way his heart raced at the very thought. Then he shook it off, hurrying through the doors and towards his homeroom.

It was surprising, that all of his classmates seemed to be in an uproar about something.

When he slipped inside, he expected someone to notice.

He even expected that they might sneer at him that he had killed someone else and when his killing spree would end.

But none of them even noticed him.

His friends did not even seem to realize that he had joined them.

The thought stung faintly but it was also soothing somehow.

Yugi wandered forward, stepping further into the classroom, then slipped past his best friend's desk for his own seat in front of him. But his stomach tossed and the hairs on the back of his neck rose in a slight bristle. When he turned his head, his skull felt fluffy with useless information, unnerved by the sight in front of him. There was a boy, no older than himself—or perhaps he was much older but looked his age? He could not tell—seated in the desk directly to his side, in front of Anzu, who had taken Honda's seat.

Yugi glanced around for the brunet, relieved that he had not been moved further than the seat diagonal his left side. He nearly laughed with happiness at the realization. But the sensation fled him quickly. When he turned his head again, there was a gaze of purple eyes, somewhat dark, somehow glassy, peering at him, and his stomach tossed more painfully.

He tilted his head. His spine felt tight beneath his skin. His fingers were itching. A million different thoughts sprung through his mind. A million different instincts told him to run. Another million told him to lash out. And only one said to keep still, to pretend that it was normal. He focused on this last one, struggling to maintain his attention upon it. By the gods, it was horrifying to have to try so hard to simply consider this.

He drew in a small breath, holding it deep within his lungs. But all he could catch was spearmint from this other boy. His gum was too strong and it burned his nose. He could not get past such an intense, disgusting scent. He was, in absolution, trapped by the swirl of harsh iciness when he drew a breath in and exhaled it through his mouth. Yugi wondered vaguely if he knew what he was doing. Or maybe he was just one of those people who unconsciously breathed through his mouth.

The thought sent his head into a spiral. He narrowed his eyes faintly. Then he glanced sideways towards Jonouchi, who appeared oddly quiet and only minutely concerned. His absence of conversation made Yugi nervous beyond his own capabilities. His stomach knotted again and his tongue felt dry, pasty where it pressed into the roof of his mouth. He drew in another breath but the spearmint made him dizzy, so he turned away quickly to face the front.

And then he noticed him breathing through his nose.

Yugi blinked and glanced at him from his peripheral. He was studying him, not straight on, but from his own peripheral. And the thought unnerved the small lycanthrope as they stared at one another. He knew the other was well aware of what he was doing, because his thin lips curved faintly and the redhead looked as if he might burst into laughter at any moment.

The thought was nerve-wracking and the small teen fidgeting. His fingers tapped the surface of his wooden desk and his head felt dizzier as the seconds passed. How was it possible that one person could throw him for such a loop? He seemed inconspicuous enough. Was he overreacting? No one else appeared to have a problem with him.

Yet, when he glanced forward, he saw Valon. The hellhound was staring forward, but his jaw was clenched. And his golden eyes were unusually frozen with anger. He was gripping the edges of his desk with harsh fingers. And his nails were breaking at the fibers where his pinkie brushed against the side of it.
Yugi startled.

Did Valon sense it too?

He straightened slightly.

That meant something was surely wrong, right?

Valon had been a hellhound far longer than he a lycanthrope. He had said so himself, hadn't he? So why shouldn't he believe in Valon's senses more than his own? Even if he were overreacting, a reaction from another wolf had to mean something, did it not?

Yugi drew in a deep breath. But, again, all he caught was spearmint from the newcomer at his side. However, he came across the scent of salt as well, harsh and strong, as if someone had broken into a rapid perspiration at some point. And it did not take him much effort to see that it was Valon who had done so. The way he tipped his head slightly to the side, eyes glued to the chalkboard, gaze burning, fingers clenched, his body rigid, pointed to such a reality.

Yugi nearly groaned. Was this newcomer a werewolf as well? Was he someone to make Valon nervous? He ducked his head away, gazing sideways and back at Honda with clear discomfort. The spearmint burned and tickled his nose. He thought it was acidic for the way his nose proved to be against it. He felt almost as if he had pressed his nose into a vat of boiling water for all the pain it brought to him.

"Who is he?" he mouthed, tilting his head only slightly. He did not want to provoke this new boy somehow.

The brunet wrinkled his nose, glancing at the newcomer, and then snorted. "Fuwa Ryuichi," he hissed under his breath, the words just barely reaching Yugi who blinked in confusion. Then his head snapped around, startled, and his eyes grew thrice their average size.

Fuwa Ryuichi?

That was someone just barely a handful of months older than him, who lived his life basically centered around the aspect of winning game shows on television. He had seen him several times, and now his dark red hair and glowing eyes made sense to him.

He grimaced, tilting his head, and as their eyes locked his stomach tossed painfully once more. "Motou Yugi," he finally muttered, giving him a cautious smile when the other turned to face him completely now. Yugi almost reached a hand out but he felt as if his palms might itch after touching him. And he was not sure but he felt they might be clammy and to show that to him when he could potentially be another wolf felt foolish beyond any idea he might have had formerly. "Are you going to be attending here?"

It occurred to him as the words left his mouth that Fuwa should not have been there. He tilted his head and he felt as if the world were spinning for a moment. He lived in another part of Japan, in the Honshu area rather than Hokkaido. He was not meant to be in Domino City of all places. Unless he was a wolf and sensed him as Atem, there was no reason for his being there.

"I am," he said proudly, with a tone of superiority which made Yugi bristle faintly with distaste. In his peripheral Valon curled his lip and fought not to glower. His fingers tightened and the bones looked frail beneath his skin. The tendons were pulsing against the surface. His eyes were glowing with near hatred. "My parents thought it would be a good idea for me to become integrated with the highest-scoring high school of Japan."

The small teen blinked at him. For a moment he could not recall. But it came to him in a rush. Hokkaido had been proclaimed the best area for high schools to be learned within, Domino City the top prefecture. His stomach twisted and knotted painfully again.

He had assumed that they would have declared otherwise after so many deaths. What if that drew more and more attention? What if more students began flocking there? What if there were more schoolmates to die for it?

"Well, welcome to Domino High," he said in as friendly a tone as he could muster. But his attention was on Valon, who seemed to struggle not to snarl in disgust. When he looked away, the other tilted his head. His golden eyes slid over to regard him. Yugi gave him something of a helpless look. But the other boy merely glowered further. Then he turned back to the board as if his life might depend upon it.

"I understand that you are all excited to have such a famous new classmate, but remember yourselves, class. We have much work to do and little time before midterms begin to come for this winter. You can all socialize in between classes and during lunch. Now you have to pay attention to what I have to teach you."

Yugi felt sick. He felt dizzy. When he swallowed, it choked in his throat. He closed his eyes for a moment. He could hear Valon now, snarling low under his breath. He was so tense that his hatred pulsated through the air in waves. The power of it nearly knocked him off his feet.

Yugi reached up, running a hand through his hair. He could ignore the teacher, continue conversing. Some of the other students seemed to be doing that. They were whispering and Fuwa was speaking to them in response. A girl giggled when he flirted. Another seemed to swoon within her seat.

Yugi nearly scoffed. Then he opened his eyes, tipped his head up, and watched as she began to instruct them on the math equations that so many of them had missed upon testing. Chono was a hard teacher to impress and her reluctance to truly teach them rather than punish had always been obvious to each of them.

But none of them had ever argued with her, nor directly disobeyed her. She was ruthless and savage when she was truly angry and set her eyes upon someone. More than once she had gotten students in immense trouble. Beyond his taping her temper tantrum towards Anzu earlier that year, he knew of no one else willing to come up against her as the two of them had.

The class passed almost without any further disruption, but it was as Fuwa leaned forward to ask someone else something that Valon spun around. His golden eyes were glowing around the pupils. His lips were drawn back. His teeth looked oddly pronounced and there was a strange curl to his canines. Yugi sat up straighter, stunned, and then shifted back in his seat. His teeth were spaced as if he were about to change. And his canines were a bit larger, thicker, the edges of them sharpened and curved back. He had dog teeth within his mouth.

Yugi felt dizzy for a moment. Had his own teeth ever done that? He wondered and his head swam with the idea.

"Whoa, what do you think you're doing?" Fuwa snorted in response, backing up with a wide smirk. "You don't have to bare your teeth there, buddy."

"I'm not your buddy," Valon hissed sharply, his voice so low and guttural that everything in the room stopped. His words were the only noise to swell within the deep silence. His eyes were sharpened, glittering, and he seemed to sneer silently for a moment. "And do not lean into my personal space again. I will put an end to you, you worthless bastard."

For all his mocking laughter, something seemed to freeze within the boy. Before Yugi's very eyes, Fuwa seemed to fold in half. His smirk fell from his face and his countenance drained of color. His gaze seemed to darken, growing glassy with fear. But then he shook it off, an almost instant action. He huffed, scowling at the hellhound, offered only the smallest of nods, and then turned away again.

Valon breathed in roughly, eyes still burning. Then his gaze flickered to Yugi. There was a warning, long and sharp and definitive within them, but he could not understand it. And the boy did not wait for him to learn its words. Instead he turned away again, shoulders still rigid, focused on the board in the front of the class. He looked at Chono almost as if she were his salvation even as she stared in puzzlement and considered him for a long minute.

But it was no secret that she felt something beyond mild appreciation towards the golden-eyed boy. Yugi thought perhaps it was a preternatural attraction which kept him in her good graces. Or perhaps he was just as gentle-mannered and studious as he needed to be in order to avoid her wrath.

But he felt, somewhere deep inside of him, that Chono had a more definitive desire for the hellhound than anything else. As he glanced between them, her eyes seemed to sparkle with something akin desire, lust perhaps, and it unnerved him.

He glanced at Fuwa but the boy would not catch his eye.

It was both relieving and unnerving. He looked to Valon again, but he did not turn back for the rest of the class.

"I bet you those games are rigged anyways," Anzu stated with disapproval clear in her tone. Yugi roused from his own task of studying Valon as the hellhound picked at his nails and waited within line to gather the bento dish he wanted.

The small teen blinked and tilted his head, eyes sliding over to her. Her blue eyes were locked on his face, searching it almost desperately. She seemed unnerved, almost threatened and desperate. He wondered if she felt as uneasy about this boy beside them as he did.

"Do you really believe that?" Fuwa asked in a smooth tone, smiling at her in open amusement. His tone prickled at Yugi's nerves and the smaller teen turned to him, eyes flashing with something dark and unreadable. His smirk was teasing but his eyes seemed cunning as he leaned forward to speak again. "Would you like me to prove myself?"

"How would you do that?" Honda snorted, not bothering to look up from the notebook he was writing in. Yugi glanced at him, tilting his head slightly, and wondered at the scornful note in his voice. Something was wrong with the brunet. He had never been hostile like he seemed to appear now. He furrowed his brows. Did he sense something off about him as well? Or was it something simpler?

He felt sick for a moment. Was Honda jealous? But what reason did he have to be jealous of Fuwa of all people? Yugi nearly snorted at himself, feeling oddly mirthful at the idea and somehow beyond himself with disappointment. No, Honda wouldn't be jealous without reason as his own mind was suggesting. It wasn't as if Fuwa were competing with him for Miho seeing as she was no longer there with them.

The thought made him cringe inwardly. His eyes shot briskly towards Valon again. The brunet had lowered his head. His fingers were still working to clean at his nails. Yugi recognized the desperation in the movements and it made his heart ache.

Yami did that when he was unnerved. He did it when he was scared. He did it when he had no words to describe the discontent he felt at times. He did it when he was unable to do anything else.

Yugi swallowed thickly.

The golden eyes flashed. The boy's head snapped up. At first his gaze shot upon the cafeteria in rapid blows of topaz. Then he stiffened. His eyes fell upon Yugi slowly. He straightened. His hands dropped to his sides. The blood red of his nails made his stomach churn. Valon slowly shook his head. Then he turned and headed after the student in front of him to gather his food for lunch.

"Yugi is amazing at games," Anzu declared. The use of his name made his head snap towards her. He blinked, confused, and then tilted his head. The entire table was looking at him, from Fuwa to Jonouchi to Honda to the girl he did not recognize at the end of the wooden furniture. He glanced between them all, unnerved, and then turned to the brunette for answers. She was staring, determined and somehow slightly fearful as well. "If you can beat him in a game, then I'll believe you when you say the games aren't rigged."

"And then what?" Fuwa inquired in a smooth tone, raising a brow. His eyes slithered to encompass Yugi who felt sick upon meeting his gaze. His smile reminded him of the Cheshire cat from Alice in Wonderland. He nearly groaned. "What do I get besides that? There has to be something else for all the effort I'll have to put in against the King of Games, right?"

Yugi felt dizzy. How did he know about that nickname?

Jonouchi looked at him, eyes wide and somewhat suspicious. He looked unnerved and as undone as Yugi himself did for a split second. Then he turned to Yugi and the look they shared had a startling clarity to it.

Fuwa had studied him for some reason.

He blinked and looked at the redhead for a moment. His hair seemed oddly greasy for a second, his eyes squinty. Yugi nearly curled his lips back as he saw his dilated pupils. And the way he angled his body towards the brunette's stroked at his nerves.

"What do you mean?" Anzu finally asked, furrowing her brows in obvious confusion. "I said I'd believe you. What else would you—?"

"If I win, you go out on a date with me."

"That's not fair at all," Yugi spat in response, startling them with the ferocity of his tone. "She's not some kind of prize that you're supposed to get for winning at a crane machine, you ass."

"Did I touch on a nerve, Yugi?"

Yugi faltered, eyes widening. Had he struck a nerve? He blinked, then glanced at Anzu.

The girl was staring at him, stunned, but her eyes were also hopeful now as well. He looked away again immediately. His lungs felt tight and his throat sore for a moment. His head was spinning again. He bore his teeth behind his lips, then shook his head rapidly.

"That's not how you're supposed to treat a person."

"Odd, for a second you sounded almost jealous."

His cheeks flushed and then drained of color. Was he jealous? Yugi considered for a moment, but the anger felt only like indignation on the brunette's behalf. When had he grown so cold towards the idea of her being attracted to someone else or another guy lusting over her? Before he would have been at least flustered, unhappy and annoyed. Now he felt cold. Something was wrong with him. There had to be something…

"No, that's just disrespectful. How dare you think that you can just say that to her? She's a woman, not some kind of doll—"

"Whoa, Yug, relax for a second," Jonouchi commented, reaching over to touch his shoulder. The steadiness of his palm there made him want to melt into his grip for a moment. He felt dizzy, confused, and his insides were burning and freezing all at once. "Even if she agrees, he has to beat you at a game. And we all know that's basically impossible."

He didn't feel so sure. He looked to Fuwa, who seemed as stubbornly set in the idea as he felt unnerved by it. His lips curled into the widest of smirks and the small lycanthrope glanced desperately away from him. His eyes shot to the form of Valon again, relieved when he spotted him leaving the line.

For a moment, as their eyes locked, the hellhound paused. He blinked at him and Yugi wished desperately that he would come over there.

Maybe he could tell him off again, make him back down. But the other boy blinked, glanced at the game show winner, and then turned and headed for the table he always sat at with his friends.

"What's wrong? Are you scared of a little competition?"

He sounded like a snake. Yugi looked back to him. His eyes flashed and his spine tightened beneath his skin again. "Not at all," he snapped coldly. "I'll bury you when we get to the arcade."

And yet, somehow he found himself unable to beat him. It could have been his distracted state of mind, the way he struggled with the idea of what it was he actually felt, if he was jealous or not, the jumbled mess that seemed to have become his romantic interest. After all of those times he'd tried and nearly succeeded in kissing Yami, why was he suddenly so desperate to protect Anzu from Fuwa?

If Yugi was just reacting to him the way he was because he was upset with the idea of him being able to woo her as a girlfriend rather than his being infected with lycanthropy, then what did that mean for him exactly? He could count on his fingers how many times he had considered Yami handsome, had flirted or teased him, had tried to kiss him. But then, he also realized, he could do the same when it came to Anzu as well.

He had never been prolific in flirting or teasing. He had never had the confidence to truly attempt more than friendship for the most part. More often than not he considered himself lucky if a girl called him cute. It was weak, but it was true.

He stared at the screen, the words "You lose" flashing across. He tilted his head, considering, but the idea of playing again made him want to puke. More importantly, however, as he sat back slightly and stared a little longer, he could not believe he had been swept into some kind of pissing contest like this.

Anzu wasn't his. She was free to do whatever she wanted, to date whoever she so desired. And the sting of that realization came only in the fact that he had preached that she wasn't some prize to be won and yet had gone and acted as if that were the case altogether.

He blinked slowly. Then he looked at Fuwa.

"I guess you win." Yugi glanced at Anzu, and that look in her eyes made him cringe

mentally. Why did she have to look at him as if he had just stabbed her in the chest like that? He couldn't believe she had even gone along with it in the first place. "But I don't even know why you think that's going to justify anything. Anzu is the one who can choose who she wants to date."

He nearly flinched. He had held her back from dating anyone else with the false promise that they might truly happen. And, as the time ticked away, he wondered why she even bothered to pretend to believe him any longer. He thought he himself would not have. It hurt but he honestly did suspect that he would have given up by now. Holding out for so long would have simply turned him away. And somehow she had held on.

And he was going to break her heart.

Because he was selfish.

He glanced at her sideways.

But there was no way, however much he liked her, that he was going to let her be put in danger because he was Code Name Atem. He would rather die than let any of them get hurt because of that.

So perhaps hinting that she turn her attention to someone like Fuwa would be a better idea altogether. Then she would no longer be strung along by the idea that they might get somewhere in a relationship and then perhaps things would be easier. His grandfather being ill was hardly an excuse but his involvement with the pack, his time spent with Yami, more than justified trying to push her elsewhere.

He shook his head when Jonouchi gaped at him. "You actually lost?" he cried, staring at him as if he were some kind of new species that just so happened to wear the same face as his best friend. Yugi awkwardly scratched the back of his head and got up from the arcade stool, stretching his legs out.

"I guess so," he finally muttered, shrugging. His eyes flickered to Anzu and the pain seemed to lessen somewhere in his chest. "But it doesn't actually mean anything. You don't have to date him at all if you don't want to."

She shook her head slightly. Her expression was a mixture of sorrow and bafflement. He felt the smallest touch of embarrassment but turned away from it. He tried his hardest to give her a sheepish grin but it felt twisted, almost scornful, upon his lips. It still amazed him somehow that they all stared at him as they did. It was not impossible that he lose at some point. It seemed only logical that he would eventually find someone who could beat him at a game.

Yugi tilted his head and then narrowed his eyes. Yami could win at games. He just had to have Yugi teach him once. Then he'd turned around and won that second match. He did not take long to figure out what it was that was needed of him in order to win. He tipped the odds in his favor in mere seconds when he thought it over.

He worked backwards, then forwards. A loss never seemed to truly daunt him.

It was only when it came to battle that he became aggressive and vicious beyond understanding.

But that was because he knew what survival dictated of him.

Yami could easily kill and had proven that several times. But Yugi had seen him also show that she-wolf mercy. He had allowed her to live. And he had backed away from Marik as well when he had asked him to. It had not been his first instinct to let him get up again. He had only done it because he had objected to it.

Yugi chewed the inside of his cheek until the tissue felt raw and sore.

Yami knew mercy.

He just did not always show it when it was unnecessary, when he was cornered, when the battle had no other way of being won. He understood that.

What he had said about Haga and Ryota and Ryuzaki was true. They had all known him. They could have all turned on him at school, led the humans to him to capture him and run experiments on.

Yugi felt dizzy for a second. Something about Fuwa was off.

Maybe he should try harder to persuade her not to do it. Maybe if he gave her a reason, she would listen to him, like Yami did—

He felt the color drain from his face.

She wasn't Yami.

Yami wasn't Anzu.

Comparing them, when their situations and personalities and everything about them was so vastly different was unfair by far. There was, truly, no ground between them to compare them evenly upon. The only thing that stood between them steadily was that he was a friend to them both.

He glanced at Anzu more pointedly as Fuwa came to her side. A small, shallow flicker of shame lit at his insides. Was this some kind of territorial debate between him and the other boy? Or was he actually dangerous? Yugi couldn't tell at the moment. He had always kind of assumed that he and Anzu would truly end up together, being that sweet high school couple that everyone often loved and simultaneously hated.

The reality of that had spiraled out of control long before she had ever gotten the nerve to ask him out. And it was clear to him that there was one too many barriers that had appeared that could cause them to take various steps back rather than forward. Yami was only one, the hunters another, his mother and grandfather one more. There were so many others on top of it however—Atem, the humans running the experiments, his night terrors, his medication, the lycanthropy, his murdering of others.

There was far too much that he could not stop by himself. And he was too young to be able to juggle so much at one time.

He was already struggling as it was, just lying and keeping up with them. Then he had to help Yami with his wounds. Then he had to remember the full moon each month. Then there was the effort he put into trying to keep his grades up.

It seemed endless.

But it also seemed almost mindless as well.

When he did not focus on it, it did not seem so terribly daunting as it did now.

"Well, what do you say, Anzu Mazaki?"

Yugi startled at the way he said her name, the way it spilled off his tongue. It sounded like some kind of sordid secret rather than a simple acknowledgment of another person. Yugi almost thought he could see his thoughts, the way she would lay sprawled across his bed beneath him, in his eyes. He bristled faintly but did nothing more. He had no right to say anything to object further than he already had.

And, if Anzu had agreed to this entire thing, that meant she was at least somewhat interested in Fuwa, right?

Or—as he glanced at her, his stomach sank in confusion—had she thought that he would win as some kind of token of his affection?

Was that possible?

Anzu always had been the hopeless romantic type growing up…

His head spun for a split second. When he got home, he could sit with Yami and watch television until they both fell asleep. He could relax and put everything aside and…

"It would be pretty cheap of you to back out after making a deal with me."

"Don't pressure her," Honda snapped icily. "That's not how you treat a potential girlfriend."

Jonouchi glanced between the two of them again. Then his eyes flickered to Yugi slowly, widening in apparent confusion. It was clear he did not understand, perhaps that he didn't want to either. The smaller teen held his gaze only for a moment longer, then turned away again. His own thoughts were more traitorous towards the brunette, flickering between disbelief and scorn.

She shouldn't have made that bet if she didn't think that he would hold her to it.

They shouldn't have bet on me at all.

Why had they? Just because he was good at games did not mean that he would never be beaten at some point. Yami had proven that. If they had been there for that, however, he felt that they would have been more amazed and disbelieving than they were now. Yami wasn't the famous lucky game show champion that Fuwa was. He had just been playing with him, curious to learn the art of chess and checkers, and had used his time to strategize until he'd come upon the solution necessary to win against him.

He had to pick up games. Yugi had to do the same. Once he was taught, he could beat almost anyone. Normally he could strategize enough to actually win that first time. But he had a feeling Yami shared that ability. He just had not used it against him. He had, most likely, wanted to see a victory in action before he attempted to claim one for himself as well.

"If you don't want to date, you don't have to," Fuwa commented, but his smirk was devilish and his eyes a little too dark for Yugi's liking. "But you did agree to the terms."

She shot him an annoyed look, feeling almost helpless and cornered now. Yugi really wasn't going to fight back and argue with him anymore. He really wouldn't help her stand up to him anymore than he already had. The thought made her stomach queasy and she almost wanted to puke in disgust.

The thought occurred to her, however.

When had she become someone who needed to rely on someone else to save her?

She had always been able to stand up for herself before. Was it the idea that Yugi was drawing away from her so completely that made her so uncomfortable now? Was that what had thrown her off her feet like this?

"Let me sleep on it," she snapped in a tone that startled the four males. Yugi shot her a shocked glance but quickly looked away again when she turned to him. Honda and Jonouchi both wisely swapped looks, stayed quiet, and stared at Fuwa instead, almost as if they expected some kind of objection.

But the other boy merely nodded, inclining his head in something almost akin the bow of a tourist, and said, with something an almost predatory smile, "Of course, Anzu. Take as much time as you might need."

---

"You look…rather exhausted," Yami commented upon seeing him enter the room. He was seated in the corner, his jacket in his lap, bundled up and yet somehow neatly spread on his legs. He looked extremely relaxed, his face warm as he stared up at him. His eyes were gentle, curious and wondrous, and he tilted his head in consideration. His bangs fell to frame his face more noticeably and his gaze seemed to be half closed.

"Yeah, a little bit," Yugi agreed, his voice slightly gruff before giving him a small grin as he started forward. He considered the position Yami sat in, how comfortable he appeared, and then turned away. Unbidden came the thought that he looked preternaturally beautiful, like some kind of exotic creature wearing a human skin. He supposed it was true, especially when he considered that Yami was born as a wolf rather than a human. He dropped away his backpack and moved to his bed, groaning as he dropped onto the mattress. "Today was kind of crazy."

Yami tilted his head, silent encouragement to either continue or leave it be. The fact that he did not push made Yugi feel better as he raised his head and turned to look at him more completely.

"There's a new student at school named Fuwa Ryuichi. He's from Honshu and for some reason he's decided to go to Domino High now. He said something about it being a good school but I kind of doubt that's why he's there. He's famous for being able to win at any game he plays when he's on TV." He watched him, biting his lip hard enough that he felt almost sick. "Valon got really upset about his being there. He threatened to kill him, actually."

This peaked the red-eyed lycanthrope's interest. He shifted his weight and sat up a little further where he was resting against the wall comfortably. "Valon did not seem like the type of wolf to be angry over nothing. He does not seem like the needlessly violent kind of person."

He shook his head. "He's not. He's never even gotten in trouble at school before. He's actually really cool and super polite."

"Then he's the hellhound version of you," the other snickered, grinning when Yugi startled slightly before blushing slightly and shaking his head.

"If you want to think of it like that, I guess." Yugi shook his head again, scratching his cheek, and then looked quickly at the comforter before turning to him. "But he's really easygoing and not the least bit violent most of the time. So I don't… It could be that he's another wolf or something that just rubbed him the wrong way…"

"But he rubbed you the wrong way as well, did he not?" Yami inquired quietly. "I feel that this is where the story is leading."

"Yeah, he did—he does. He rubs me the wrong way. And I thought that, actually, it might have been because he was flirting with Anzu—"

Yami shook his head. "You don't smell as if you were jealous. It tends to linger on your skin like a fever. And it smells more like your blood rushing to the surface."

Yugi blinked, at first startled and then disgusted, and blushed faintly as his lip curled. "That's so gross," he muttered, blushing harder when the other wolf cocked a brow and seemed to smirk at his childish reaction. "Well it is! I don't want to smell people's emotions like that!"

He snorted. "Too late to change that." He lowered his head, moving to scoop the jacket up a bit more comfortably into his arms. He pressed it into his neck and closed his eyes lazily. "You just haven't fully noticed it yet. Just wait until you do. You'll find out a million and one things about people that you never knew before."

"I don't want to do that! That's horrifying! They'd have no privacy and I…I don't want to be like that."

Yami scoffed quietly. "A wolf. You do not want to be like a wolf." The look he shot Yugi was both frustrated and slightly sympathetic but they were both well aware he lacked the ability to truly empathize with him. "But that's what you are, whether you like it or not. And if you ignore it, you'll find it harder than ever to survive around here. You'll find it incredibly hard to adapt to the situations you'll need to."

Yugi bit his lip but shook his head again regardless. "I don't want to sense things like that, Yami. That's not… I mean…" He trailed off and looked at the comforter. "I don't want to sense someone's emotions when they don't want to show me. And I don't want to know what someone is actually thinking when they don't want to tell me."

Yami shrugged. "You'll find it's actually a very liberating experience to know that someone is not preparing to trick you when you need them most," he said quietly, voice so low it was almost a whisper. The edges were sad and almost wistful and Yugi felt his head turn immediately towards him again. The taller teen was no longer looking at him, but rather at the teal fabric of his jacket and Yugi's stomach knotted at the forlorn expression on his face.

"I'm sorry…"

He blinked and his eyes flickered to his face, gleaming now with open confusion.

"I'm sorry that you've been hurt so often."

Yami narrowed his eyes, shaking his head, and then shrugged. "It's part of life," he said shortly. "It's a part of life that one suffers."

"But it doesn't mean it should happen," Yugi argued heatedly, blushing again when the other stared at him blankly. "And especially to someone like you. You don't deserve that!"

Yami watched him for a moment, then tilted his head. "Then what do I deserve, Yugi?" he asked quietly, lips tugging into a smirk. "You don't know me well enough to know what it is that I do and don't deserve. And I am sorry for giving you the impression that you do—"

"I know you," he objected harshly, "even if you don't want me to. I do know you. Or at least a considerable chunk of who you are. Don't act like I don't."

Yami raised a brow. "If you truly knew a considerable chunk, as you just put it, you would not be so willing to have me here."

Yugi scoffed, going to snarl at him, and then paused. "I know a lot more than you think," he said quietly, the words small and weak on his tongue. They seemed to crystallize and shatter within the air. The other wolf froze, stiffening in his spot, and the way their eyes met made his heart skip beats. There was such sorrow it seemed to swallow his entire world. Then Yami abruptly looked away, nodding slightly, and Yugi rubbed at the underside of his wrist.

"Yes, yes, I suppose you do," he finally grunted, reaching up to bite at his nail lazily. "How unfortunate for you. Now you're dealing with the mess."

Yugi felt sick when he looked at him for a moment. "You say that like I didn't know what I was doing," he said quietly, slowly, shaking his head.

Yami eyed him now. "Did you? Do you? Can you honestly tell me that you know anything of what you've set into motion by doing this?" he demanded icily. "Because I do not think you do. And I fear for you."

He startled at the broken tone the last few words took on, then raised a hand to scratch at the back of his head. "I can figure it out."

"You will not have much room to maneuver for such understanding. And you do not leave yourself much time to figure it out as it is. Do you understand what it is that is happening now? I feel that you fail to realize it truly. If you did, you would not be so blasé about it."

Yugi looked at him, studying him for so long his eyes felt they might burn and his vision blur. "Maybe not. But I…I'll figure it out, Yami."

"How? If you do not even wish to use your lycanthropy to your advantage, then how do you expect to survive to see the end of this?"

He looked at him, swallowing hard. "I'm immortal, right?" he said quietly. The other boy stared at him, eyes glittering with alarm. "So I think I can figure it out with a few fumbles…right?"

The red-eyed boy stared at him, then shook his head harshly. "I should hope so, for your sake," he finally spat. "For you have no idea what it is that you've done to yourself."

Yugi turned away again, shaking his head. "I'll have to have faith that it'll work out," he said wryly. Then he turned his eyes onto his backpack for a moment. "Anyways, so Fuwa challenged me to a game for the right to date Anzu. It was basically one big pissing contest. He said that if he won he would get a date with her and she said that I could beat him at any arcade game."

He stared at him, still angry, but allowed the subject change for nothing more than his own desire. "You lost."

"You could at least pretend to be surprised," he teased, turning to him with a small grin. "I mean, I held my own against you several times in chess and checkers."

Yami raised a brow. "Yes, but you weren't distracted then. Did you even manage to hold your own for a few minutes?"

His cheeks flushed. "I… Not really. I think he kicked my ass in five seconds flat, honestly."

And, then, to add to the humiliation, he had made a point of saying, in a loud and jeering voice, "Oh, Yugi, you don't have to keep calling me Fuwa. You're a friend, right?" before he'd left. Because, as he had stared at the redhead, he had remembered never truly giving him permission to call him by his first name and extending the common courtesy of using his surname had been automatic. And Fuwa had wanted to make a point of how Yugi was forced to respect him but not the other way around.

It was another posturing game, one that Yugi had bristled at only long enough to offer him a strained smile and wander out the door. But he had made sure to push home the fact that he did not care to show him decency by using his last name, nor had he allowed him to use his first name until the moment he'd managed to knock him off the pedestal his friends had placed him on.

And Yugi was abruptly aware now of just how much it had been akin to kicking him while he was still down. Had Yugi been more about self-respect and full of the same need to posture, he would have gotten angry. Rather, he'd been mildly irritated before leaving, though Fuwa's eyes had been hideous and mocking despite his lack of care towards such a thing.

Yami snorted. "And you thought it was because you were jealous?" he inquired playfully. "You probably got just as uncomfortable as Valon was when he saw him."

Yugi bit his lip. "I still don't understand why he…"

"He's probably another hellhound and he's drifted into the wrong territory," he said dismissively, but there was something cold and dark in his eyes. It was considerate and iced over, like a thought from long ago. "Or a lycanthrope Valon has crossed paths with before that he was not happy to see now."

"I guess so." Was it just him or did his voice seem somewhat reluctant? He wondered briefly; had he been hopeful that there was something worse between them? That Valon might attack the other boy? He sighed and shrugged when Yami's gaze grew curious. "But he kept watching me. Even when he was messing around and teasing Anzu, I swear every time I looked he was staring at me."

"Maybe he's attracted to you."

Yugi chucked the pillow at his loud snort and the guffaw that followed quickly after. "You ass," he laughed, shaking his head. "Be serious!"

Yami held a hand up, chuckling. "I can't help it. You left yourself wide open. I almost feel like you were fishing for it."

He rolled his eyes. "No, you jerk, I wasn't! I was just… It was weird," he huffed. "I didn't realize that he was going to do that."

The red-eyed wolf studied him for a long time, then looked at his nails as if they were the most important thing the world had to offer. "I would not assume him a threat for the moment. He may just be messing with you. Some hellhounds tend to do that."

"You seem convinced that he's a hellhound…"

"No, not at all. But, otherwise, he's a human and that most likely means he's a hunter of some kind. And that would mean far more suspicion is needed whenever you are around him. That also means more trouble is likely each time you should interact with him."

"You think one of the hunters figured out that there are wolves in my school?" He bit his lip. "Do you think Espa and Panik saw my jacket?"

Yami shook his head. "I think he is working separate of them. Otherwise I do not believe you would have made it home okay."

His stomach dropped. "Do you think he'll try something with the others there too?" he choked out. "I mean, he…"

"You worry more about others than yourself," Yami muttered softly before shaking his head slowly. The observation was brushed away again almost immediately. "I do not know. All hunters work in different ways. Some will use friends and family. Others try to simply lure their one target away to kill discreetly."

"Based on what I've told you about him already then, what do you think? Give me an educated guess."

Yami tilted his head and watched him for a long minute and a half. "I think your friends will do nothing to deter him should he come up with an idea of attack."

His stomach sank. "So he'd probably kill them."

The taller lycanthrope watched him for a few seconds. "Yes." He tilted his head. "If he's skilled enough, he'll find a way to do so discreetly."

Yugi trembled faintly. "How can you say that so…easily?" he whispered shakily.

"It's not done easily. But I am not attached to people the same way that you are—"

"So, if it was me in their place, you wouldn't even care? Is that what that means?"

Yami rolled his eyes. "Of course not. I mean that I do not have to worry quite as much. As far as they and I are concerned, you are not an innocent. You placed yourself directly within the path of a possible death. Your demise would not be a casualty."

Yugi gaped at him for a moment. Then a cold splash of realization came upon him as well. Yami was right. He had more or less embraced the entire thing. He was, irreversibly, caught in the midst of it all. He had placed himself there consciously. The moment he had declared himself Atem he had drawn a line he could not cross back over.

He bit his lip, then ran a hand through his hair. It would be so easy to snap at Yami now. It would be so easy to snarl and sneer at him. He thought about lashing out and screaming. But it lasted only a split second. Then he deflated and his anger drifted as if it were but a passing breeze.

He glanced at Yami, the white bandages on his arms, and his voice came out small and yet somehow slightly hopeful. "We should see about getting my mom to let you stay over here." The change of topic made Yami blink, mystified and confused. "I can talk to her about it tonight. I can at least put it in her head that you exist and we're friends…"

Yami nodded slightly, but the change of topic still startled him and he felt almost sick as he considered his words more fully. He wanted to begin to weasel him in at dinner conversations today? But had he not just been insufferably rude and inconsiderate moments before? His cheeks felt cold and he could tell the color had drained from his face.

Yet Yugi failed to notice. He was watching his backpack, thinking a million miles ahead of his own infrequent, halting thoughts. "But first, I think we should get your wrists cleaned up again. This is probably the last time we'll need to do it."

Until the next time, I suppose, he thought distastefully. Until I next dream of it all and freak out or I push myself too hard. Or I just get hurt. Because I am prone to such things as well…

The smaller boy had gotten to his feet. "I think if they aren't already healed then they will be by tomorrow morning."

Yami nodded. "Yes, most likely."