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.

62. Equal

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh

Update schedule: Hopefully biweekly

Chapter Warnings: SLIGHT Blood, SLIGHT Self-Loathing, Mentions of Hallucinations and Torture

Okay, so I'm going to clear this up. The Werewolf-Witch Trials is technically another name for the Witch Trials. It's called this because there were declarations of being and hunts of werewolves going on at that time as well. Most witches were considered to have clothes that turned them into wolves and werewolves were considered witches because they had that ability as well (if I remember right).

For the werewolves, though, it was a huge event in their history. They consider it basically a mass genocide of their species. Yami knows about it only because he was told about it by his cage mate. He doesn't have enough details to go into conversation about it. But he knows what it was even if he can't name the wolves that got killed in it.

Anyways, so that's why it's referenced.

Yami also brings up a bit more about the creation myth for the werewolves. It's mostly the same. But he brings up something that he didn't tell Yugi when he originally told him the story. So there's some slight altering to the story of the Lunar Ascension.

If there's anything else you feel I should tag with a warning, feel free to point it out. I'm still editing basically throughout the week so I forget some of things I might need to tag.

Chapter LXII: Equal

Work Log Entry LV: November, 2005

November 8

My look alike refuses to respond to his code name but he does answer when he is forced to pay attention. He is going to be assigned to the senior partner of the resurrection program, Maximillion Pegasus. The boss is proud of his choosing the human to keep the wolf in line.

I am somewhat worried about the effectiveness of this choice.

Surely for a wolf to find ease in his being here, he should not be with a human who is so incredibly hotheaded, right?

I suppose it does not matter, however.

Whatever happens is not on my shoulders.

It is no burden of mine.

Yugi was all but silent as he wandered after the other teen. Yami had shaken the fresh snow from his hair for the third or fourth time as they had continued walking. His eyes were on the forest floor surrounding them, the ice glittering in the mild streams of sunlight which came through the dense clouds overhead. He raised his head and looked about them for a moment. And, as the smaller teen considered him, the other boy seemed almost shaken by the idea of his coming any closer. He seemed not to have slept well the night before, lying beside him wide awake despite his initial lack of speaking. Yugi himself had not bothered to try to speak either, but he had wondered at the idea of the red-eyed being awake and uncomfortable.

"Are you okay?"

The words were initially met with silence. Then the taller boy blinked and looked at him sideways, glancing over his slim shoulder and then lowering his eyes towards the snow. He frowned as if in puzzlement, then slowly turned away again and narrowed his bright gaze.

"Yes, I am fine," he answered, but there was clear discomfort in his voice and he seemed too tired to care for much more. The smaller teen doubted there was any sense of truth within his words and the red-eyed teen did not look at him for longer than a moment or two. Then he turned away again and reached up to run his fingers through his hair despite the way that it was slicked slightly with the melt of snow. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you seem a little…unhappy right now."

Yami blinked, pausing in his step. Then he glanced over his shoulder to look at him once more. The smaller teen moved a little faster to reach his side, unnerved by the idea that the other might move away from him entirely. He swallowed hard; their eyes remaining locked as Yami peered at him and very slowly turned away again with a shake of his head.

"I am not unhappy. I am simply…not sure that I wish to truly go back to the camp right now." He drew in a deep breath, then exhaled. Yugi was mesmerized by the way his breath seemed to glitter and dance in that white mist before his lips. "It seems odd to think that I might need to be with them again. I did not consider how uncomfortable I might feel the moment that we would come here."

"You know that I'm not going to let anything happen, right?"

Yami blinked and looked at him pointedly now. "I do not require your protection, Yugi," he answered in an almost annoyed tone. "I am well aware of what I can do and how I might deter them from violence should I need to."

He shook his head. "I know that. But I don't want any of them to think for even a moment that it's going to happen to begin with. I don't want them to even get the idea." Yugi hesitated, then reached up to scratch at the nape of his neck with a sigh and shake of his head. "It's not okay for them to think that they're going to be able to fight with you like that. And if you're going to stay human…"

The red-eyed teen shook his head slowly. He had not wanted to stay human to come here. He had wanted to change but the stress of such an action would do nothing well for him. It would all but kill him should he not have the strength to maintain it for more than a few moments longer. He did not truly think to care to try his hand at such pressure. He did not want to tempt fate in any manner. It unnerved him more than ever to even consider how such a thing might happen.

And so Yami had fallen silent and simply shrugged as if it were simple and easy for him to come to such a conclusion. When Yugi had announced that he was going to the camp, the red-eyed teen had not been adverse to the idea. He had not even bothered to do more than blink and look at him. He did not even consider this more than a moment. And so he had simply followed the other boy out into the woods with a simple comment along the lines of "I'll come with you".

But now he wondered why he had not thought first to try to eat instead of simply following him like he did. His belly did not ache as fiercely as he had formerly assumed it might. He was simply hungry, a moderate sensation that he knew from former days of health. And he was desperate to attempt to fill his belly now. He wished he might have scented the air and tried for a deer once more. He wished more than ever that he could have tried to catch the ungulate without a second thought. He was hungry as his fingers worked lightly at the fibers of his shirt and lightly clicked his nails against the zipper of the hoodie.

"I know that you will not allow it to happen. I am simply…considering it. I would not be surprised should something of that magnitude come to happen." Yami shook his head and narrowed his eyes with a frown. His eyes flickered about for a moment before his lips pulled further back as if to drag into a deep grimace as well. "You have to understand that they might very well be upset that I left as I did. I did not tell them that I would be returning with you. I simply wandered off."

Yugi would have flinched had Yami not been staring back at him so pointedly. Their eyes were locked again and the small teen hated the expression that the other wore on his face. He did not like the grimace or the way he peered at him almost blankly. And so he licked his lips and stared at each other for a few moments. "Okay, but you came with me. And I'll tell all of them if they ask about it."

The other wolf shook his head again, turning away now. "It does not matter if they believe me or not. It changes nothing. I'll still win should any of them be stupid enough to challenge me. It comes down to the simple fact that I'm a lot more powerful than any of them are willing to consider. I can beat them into submission the moment I want to."

The small teen stared at him for a long moment, then looked away with a shake of his head once more. He drew in a deep breath, tired and far too exhausted as he closed his eyes tightly. "You don't honestly think that they would really try to hurt you or anything like that, right?" But part of him was snide as it bit at his question, furious that he would even ask such a thing to begin with. The question was stupid—foolish—he knew, and it surprised him how much it made his stomach ache. "I mean, they wouldn't try to hurt you enough to kill you…right?"

Yami considered him for a moment. "No," he said slowly, caught somewhere between a truth and a lie. He watched the other wolf for a heartbeat, then shook and tilted his head slowly in curious inquiry. "No, I do not think that they would be so stupid as to try such a thing. I do not think that they would be that foolish. I think they're more likely to bicker and argue than do anything else like that."

Yugi shivered, wondering at the words he'd spoken at the moment. "Do you think that we should hunt afterwards? I mean, I only thought about coming here to keep from having to think about going back to school tomorrow," he said slowly, narrowing his eyes and furrowing his brows. "So it wouldn't be too bad an idea for you to go ahead and catch another deer, right? Then you can eat as much as possible before we get home."

The taller wolf was staring past him and into the trees with a somewhat tired, almost dismissive expression. "That wouldn't be a bad idea at all," he said simply, shrugging slightly and nodding. "I think that it would be a mistake should I not do so. It would be a good idea to go ahead and hunt a deer if we can find one."

The other blinked and wrinkled his nose. "You know we can. We can find one if we look hard enough."

"You are very optimistic about this."

Yugi nodded after a moment, licking his lips slowly. "Yeah, I think that we'll be able to find it if we just try hard enough. I don't think for even a second that there will be any problem doing it," he said quietly. The small teen reached up to run his hands through his hair almost nervously, a sense of anxiety threatening to bite at his senses slowly but surely. "I just think that we might have to leave the camp earlier than planned and I can do the hunting while you wait."

Yami tilted his head. "You believe that I should stay back and allow you to hunt for me instead?"

"I think that we shouldn't have you change and potentially make anything worse." Yami stiffened slightly at the words, a miniscule amount of movement that made him appear almost to shiver and twitch. He blinked back at the other wolf with bright red eyes and Yugi almost smirked as he counted the small triumph. So he had been right in believing that Yami had not changed due to the possibility of hurting himself somehow further. "So I think that it'd be smarter for me to track and hunt it down and then you can eat and we can go back home again."

The taller teen peered at him with a look of near amusement. "You want me to eat it as a human."

Yugi nearly trembled, disgusted by the very idea, but shrugged it off again immediately. "If it means that you'll be healthy at the end of it, yeah," he said simply. He nodded and searched Yami's face for a moment. "Yeah, I'll sit around and you can eat for as long as you want. You can eat as much as you want on top of it. I don't mind just watching and making sure that you're feeling better."

Yami stared at him for a long moment, eyes narrowing into near slits as he tilted his head slightly to the side. He nearly grimaced but then shook it off again moments later, licking his lips and watching Yugi with darkened eyes. "We can discuss this further after we leave the camp later," he said almost curtly, shaking his head and turning away. Yugi nodded slightly, following him as well now as the other teen began to move forward. "It is not important now to make definitive plans. It would be wiser to wait until later to do so."

"Is someone coming?"

The red eyes flickered towards him. "No, but we are close to the waterfall. And I do not believe we should bring this conversation into the camp. It would be rather unwise to do so. I do not think for a moment that any of them might stop from fighting with us in turn."

Yugi fell silent after a moment, then shook his head slowly and drew in a deep breath. "Okay," he relented. But his mind was reeling as he considered the idea. He tilted his head and watched the other wolf for a few moments. "That's fine."

The small teen licked his lips again and reached up to run his fingers through his hair. Then he narrowed his eyes and reconsidered the other boy for a few moments. His eyes flickered about them before he exhaled loudly and made a move towards the edge of the ledge of stone which he knew would allow him to leap forward and through the waterfall curtain. He glanced over at Yami sideways, over his shoulder, with a somewhat tired expression. Then he drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes after a moment.

"I can go first if you'd rather," the red-eyed teen commented, startling him enough to make him look over with a gaze that was thrice its usual size. Yugi stared blankly at him for a moment, unsure of what more to say before blinking and slowly tilting his head. He seemed to think of the statement for a long minute before he finally nodded and lowered his eyes.

"That might be a good idea."

It would not do much to allow him to help Yami if something might happen. He might not have been able to catch him if the water was rushing fast enough. But the sight of him getting through the waterfall would do well to relax him, he was sure. Because he was abruptly fearful of the idea that perhaps the red-eyed teen might be swept away by the water all the same. And it was horrifying to think of such a thing. It was stunning and bewildering to him in this sense. And it made him feel sick for a moment.

Yami nodded after a moment. He did not look at Yugi for longer than a heartbeat more, then sighed softly as he stepped towards the end of the small cliff. He looked over his shoulder, eyes flickering about the small area. Then he turned back and blinked. The snow had lightened drastically in the time that they had been traveling through the trees to find the waterfall. And it was clear that it would be all but gone by the time that they were meant to head home. He knew this because the pressure in the air had lightened drastically. When it was more ionized he knew that the sky overhead would burst open with a more intense shower of ice.

So the threat of blindness in the time it took them to hunt or to make their way out of the camp would not be too great an issue. He drew in a deep breath, relieved by this observation. And then he moved to the edge of the cliff, backed up several yards, and ran forward. When he leaped, Yugi was surprised by how strangely he held his arms behind himself in order to keep his balance in this action. The small teen had never expected him to do such a thing. He had never even considered that the other might ever do this to begin with. But then the wolf disappeared from his vision and Yugi bristled faintly as he began to pace slowly back and forth on the ledge beneath his sneakers.

He drew in a deep breath and narrowed his eyes. He licked his lips and grimaced after a long moment. Then he shook his head slightly and moved to mimic Yami as closely as he could. He backed up, ran forward, leaped off the ledge and through the water. The impact was enough to wind him and he rolled a few feet against the stone. He huffed as he landed on his back, arms tucking around his torso and his legs curling up to brace there. His insides, he swore, were killing him. He thought for certain that the force alone was enough to destroy him.

He had never done this as a human more than a few times. It was incredibly painful to try such a thing. The upright stature of the human body made the action far more dangerous. It was easier to be knocked and swallowed away beneath the curtain of water. It was the longer, four-legged formation of the wolf's body shape that allowed them to leap forward almost effortlessly. His body would lock in place from the frigid touch and the leap itself would push him forward. The human form did the exact opposite, locking in a manner that could easily throw him downward and beneath the crash of the cascading falls.

"Jesus, that hurts." He was moaning as he opened his eyes into slits and looked over. Yami was standing a few feet away, drenched as he ran his fingers through his hair. When he tossed his head back and forth rapidly, the water splashed harshly against the stone cavern about them. Yugi moved to roll over to his hands and knees, surprised when he found a hand stretched towards his face. He blinked, moving to sit up a little taller, and then slowly reached up to grasp it. His palm was icy, as if made from the snow itself, as Yami helped him to his feet. "I wasn't expecting to get hit that hard again."

Yami blinked at him. "I was not aware that you had come here as a human before."

Yugi reached up to run his hands through his hair, surprised by how slick and slimy and cold the strands felt beneath his fingers. He looked at the other teen for a long moment, then offered him a weak smile as he muttered, "Yeah, I…I came back here as a human when I announced Slifer was taking your place as my beta. They're familiar with me this way."

The other teen stared at him, a sense of cold inquiry forming within his eyes. Then he nodded and turned away again. He looked like a rat in the clothing, as if he were too thin to do much more than shiver and stare back at him. He felt sick for a moment, seeing the harsh lines of the various bones beneath the water-logged stature of his clothing. He did not know what it was that he was meant to say at the moment, nor what he should do either. He did not want to make Yami feel alienated by making any comments that might cause the other to bristle in any way. He did not want to offend him. He did not want to harm him in anyway emotionally or mentally.

Yugi licked his lips and tilted his head slightly. His mouth was dry as he looked at the other wolf slowly. And then he sighed softly and reached down to wring some of the water from his clothes. The action made his clothes seem even colder than before. But it made his body warm further and he could feel the fever which burned beneath his skin, just below the surface as it threatened to break forth from his veins. And then he slowly shrugged it off and reached up to run his fingers through his hair once more.

"All right," Yami said quietly. "Let's go ahead and meet up with them, shall we?"

The smaller boy nodded and huffed as he looked around slowly. "It's a good idea for defense tactics, but holy shit it's cold now. And I hate getting so wet."

The other teen smirked at him in near amusement with a raised brow. "You think so? I couldn't tell that it was so cold. Thanks for making a note about it. I was not sure what kind of temperature this actually was."

Yugi rolled his eyes and came forward. "Jackass," he muttered, coming forward and moving to the ledge that would lead the way to the small gap in the stone ceiling. He reached upward and grasped at the stones there. He stretched his hands out further beneath the layers of snow, then out as far as they might go. His fingers curled downward and his nails sunk into the dirt surrounding the stone barrier. He hefted himself up and out of the hole, scraping his belly in the action, then folded his knees to brace himself on the rock. He shifted his weight and moved to straighten his back, dusting himself off.

Yami came a moment later behind him. He had waited until he was sure that Yugi could not hear his movements any longer. But then he too was straightening himself out and dusting away some snow and dirt which had been caught upon his jeans. He licked his lips and looked sideways towards the smaller teen, unnerved to find that Yugi was staring back at him. Then his blue-violet eyes lowered slightly and his lips pulled back into a mild smile.

He turned away again after a moment, then allowed himself to grin a little wider. Yami looked tired but not defeated as he followed him a few feet into the camp. It was odd to find that some of the wolves had changed back into their human forms as well. Many of them were wolves instead, but a small handful had taken to changing back and dressing themselves in jeans and fleece hoodies. The small teen paused with wide eyes, surprised by the sight, but Yami did not so much as wrinkle his nose in that moment. There was not a hint of bewilderment or surprise there. He seemed almost disdainful instead.

And, as Yugi thought to greet them, he understood why.

The voice was familiar, loud and boastful, and he halted curiously. Yami stopped beside him for the sole sake of looking back at him. The alpha blinked and glanced at his beta once more, nearly grimacing before shaking the thought off. He turned away again, narrowing his eyes slightly, and found himself startled by the words being spoken.

"There's no way, you moron!" the louder, boastful voice proclaimed. Yugi blinked and turned his head with a tilt of his head. He grimaced slightly, Yami doing the same as he turned his attention back as well. The words were just startling enough to make them both reconsider the thought of ignoring it. "The war isn't about werewolves versus humans!"

"Then what is it about?" a calmer voice asked, one that sounded almost bored with the declaration from the other male. Yugi blinked and stepped forward, surprised and bewildered by the sound of the words there. He tilted his head, the voice incredibly familiar as it caressed his ears again. Then the smaller teen glanced at Yami and back, turning to make his way there forward.

"The lycanthropes and the hellhounds. We're going to slaughter them like they deserve."

"Why would they deserve that?"

"Are you stupid? Maybe because they're half-bred mongrels?"

"You can't just say that and expect me to believe you," the other commented dismissively. Yugi paused at the edge of a small dip of snow and earth, the tiniest indentation of the earth like a yard-long hole. He did not have to look over his shoulder to see Yami was there a few feet away from him. His eyes were on the smaller boy, he knew, but he was well aware that Yugi had no intentions of simply wandering off again. The wolf speaking in front of them raised his chin and looked towards them both with a somewhat curious expression amidst a rather calm demeanor. "That's a stupid statement."

"Who the fuck do you think you are, you stupid runt?" the other snapped viciously, turning on the other with a furious expression. "You aren't even the same rank as me. You don't get to talk to me like you're the same status as I am."

Yami snorted loudly and shook his head. "Rank did not seem to matter to you much when I beat you into submission," he stated softly. The low tone of his voice, the way that the quiet statement was not boastful or aggressive in any manner, made the wolves in their group look up with widened eyes. Yami did not so much as blink. And his voice remained low and soft, capable then of the ability to stay level and even. "You do not need to be so resentful towards a lower-ranking wolf."

The boy's entire face had turned bright red, making his hardened brown eyes appear almost black as he scowled. Yami peered back at him lazily, red eyes scanning his countenance with little care. But the black-haired boy jumped to his feet, snapping, "You got lucky!"

"Lucky?" Yami repeated softly, lips threatening to pull up into a smirk. When he shifted forward, Yugi noticed with satisfaction that the color drained entirely from the other boy's face. He felt a smirk tugging at the edges of his lips as well now and Yami did nothing more than tilt his head at the other male. "Shall we see if my luck still stands now?"

The boy seated nearest the enraged teen smirked and reached up simply to grip at the edge of his hoodie with long, thin fingers. He tugged lightly, pulling the fabric just enough to make Chazz glance down with a puzzled expression. "Leave him alone," the other chuckled, shaking his head and glancing to Yami and Yugi again almost immediately. "I'm pretty sure he was taking it easy on you the first time. He might just kill you this time."

Chazz's face drained of color immediately. Then he scowled and narrowed his eyes, turning on Yami furiously. "Come at me, bro," he snapped. "The Chazz will kick your ass!"

Yami snorted so loudly that Yugi startled, turning to him with surprised eyes. The taller teen blinked and tilted his head, narrowing his gaze and smirking at the antagonistic male. "Did you just call yourself the Chazz?" he snickered. His voice somehow retained its strength, something that made Yugi nearly sob with relief. "Did you really just call yourself that?"

Yugi snorted, unable to help himself. "Leave him alone, Yami. He's just a kid."

The statement made his red eyes flicker towards him for a moment. All of the wolves in front of them paused, startled by the way they locked gazes for those few seconds. Then Yami huffed and turned away, lips pursed and brows furrowed in an almost bored expression. But his eyes had darkened considerably and there seemed to have been a million words that had passed between them, for Yugi looked just as tired as the other male now. And he looked far more than a little exhausted by the entire event, as if it had been far more than what they had just witnessed.

"Yusei," Yugi commented, turning to the other boy next to Chazz. The wolf blinked and raised his head, royal blue eyes stretching wide in surprise at the acknowledgment of his presence there. Yami looked over now as well, studying the male in front of them with curious eyes. Yusei felt as if he were being dissected as the red gaze peered at him so pointedly, boring into his flesh like claws and teeth that threatened to rip through each and every sinew and muscle. "What's with you guys being in your human forms?"

Yami looked away only when Yusei glanced at him sheepishly, feeling pinned by the way the red eyes continued to peer so intently at him. The pressure lightened immediately from the flicker of his gaze towards Chazz again. And so Yusei relaxed and drew in a deep breath, muttering, "I just got tired of being in my wolf form like that. It gets kind of…stressful, I guess? I mean, trying to remember that you're a werewolf instead of a real wolf sometimes makes it a little…unpleasant."

Yugi blinked, startled by the words. "Really?" He glanced at Yami, wondering if the reverse could be said for him. The red-eyed teen was so animalistic, much more a canine than a human even when he was in this golden-bronze skin tone with those long black lashes and the warmth of his glittering gaze. Did he feel incredibly stressed and alienated when he was in this form for too long? Did it make him anxious to become a wolf again, desperate to think in a more simplistic manner than the human body demanded of him?

"I just did it because my alpha was being annoying," Chazz commented cynically, sniffing loudly as he took a seat again. Yusei had long since released him, moving to put his elbows on his knees and lean forward. But his blue eyes had fallen on the other male curiously now. "He was just being a dick over everything from before so I got tired of it and changed back."

"You shouldn't have challenged above your rank," someone else snorted loudly. Yugi blinked and turned his head. The new voice was a boy with dark green and crimson hair that pointed downward in jagged spikes all around but for a short upwards pointing one of green. The sight of him was startling for the blue-violet-eyed alpha, surprised by the way he noticed the oddly translucent red eyes that looked almost pale like wine in the sunlight. He was ignoring the way that Chazz was glaring at him, face in his right palm and elbow braced against his thigh. "That was stupid of you."

Yami was considering him now. And, abruptly, as he looked at him, Yugi realized that the red eyes were tracking something that the smaller wolf himself had overlooked before then. Abruptly the other male tilted his head and narrowed his eyes, murmuring, "But, should I remind you that you are the one to attempt to attack Atem in front of the packs?"

Yugi felt dizzy, almost winded with the thought that Yami might know of such a thing. He had not told him about that, he knew, and he wondered who might have told him this story. He wondered if they had been truthful in their description of it, or if they had hideously exaggerated it all for the sake of drama. He wondered briefly if Yami might hold a grudge for such a thing, though he could not assume to know why he would even consider it. Yami was not a petty person in the slightest and it bewildered him to even consider it to begin with. But something in him was alert, alarmed by the very idea that Yami might know.

He'd had no intentions to tell him before, nor did he want to even consider it now.

The wolf blinked wide pale red eyes at him, the shock in them making them almost pink. The edges of his irises appeared almost silver to him, as if he were staring into the veins of his eyes and watching them dance under his scrutiny. The thought made Yami almost snicker in amusement, realization granting him a sense of humor; the boy was not albino but the gene existed within his eyes. Either the boy had been sick when he was born and bitten later in life when there was no further choice or he had been albino formerly and the lycanthropy had altered his body genes enough to change his features in such a manner.

"Uh, I…" He blinked and frowned, then ran a hand awkwardly through his hair. "H-how did you know about that? I didn't think anyone had really…"

Yami did not so much as blink. "Obelisk mentioned it in passing," he said lazily, waving it off nonchalantly and shrugging slightly in amusement. "He said that you charged him."

Yugi swore he was going to kick Obelisk in the balls one day. All he had to do was change into his human form once. Yugi would be ready.

"I, uh…" His eyes flickered rather frantically towards Yugi and back again, eyes wide and cheeks turning bright pink with shock. He had clearly never assumed that the topic would be brought up again and so he looked clearly horrified by the idea altogether. Then he glanced at Yusei and Chazz who were both considering him with surprised expressions, as if stunned by the very idea that he might even think of doing such a thing to the white wolf. He gulped and looked back to Yami from beneath his lashes, terror making his body seize in place.

"It's over and done with," the beta muttered, shrugging. "I was simply curious."

Yugi released a breath that he had not realized he'd been holding. Then he reached up and ran a hand through his hair. He was relieved when he looked to his alpha and saw that Yami had not done more than blink at the wolf in question before him. Then he snorted and turned away again.

"You look like you're about to piss yourself," Chazz taunted, smirking in amusement and raising a brow. The pale red eyes widened and his cheeks heated further. His mouth opened and closed once before he scowled at the black-haired boy in annoyance. "What would you have done if he decided to fight you? Take it like a bitch?"

"Hey, knock it off!" a higher-pitched voice snapped. Yugi and Yami both blinked in unison, then turned their heads immediately towards the other wolf nearest the boy in question. Her hair was dark green with a layer of lighter neon to trace her bangs. It was done into two rather short pigtails, the part of her hair far on the left side of her head, a bright bow wrapped around her hair-band there. She was glaring at Chazz with hard orange-flecked hazel eyes, scowling as she shook her head. "You're not exactly the brightest crayon in the box, are you? You picked a fight with a beta who kicked your dumb, scrawny ass!"

Yugi snorted and reached up to press his hand into his face, snickering. Yami stared at his beta for a moment, smirked in amusement, and then turned back with a shake of his head. Surely the other boy had not been expecting her to use such an insult. The red-eyed teen shook his head slowly and looked to the group for a moment. Yusei and Chazz seemed to be the oldest, though not by much, he realized. He was shocked, eyes widening, as he looked about them for a moment. All of them were far younger than he'd been prepared to address.

"By Lupa," he cursed under his breath, but Yusei and Chazz both blinked and looked up. And Yugi immediately pulled his hand away and turned wide eyes on him, startled by the statement. Yami nearly snarled in dismay as he considered the group of wolves in front of him. Not a single wolf in front of him was older than fifteen at the most—and he felt that that might even be stretching it a little too far. He felt that that might have been far too optimistic for him to feasibly measure.

Yusei tilted his head, then furrowed his brows as he looked at Yami. The beta was bristling visibly, eyes sharp and disdainful of something that he himself doubted he would ever fully understand. There was a shadow within his eyes that seemed to transcend them entirely, burrowing further into the reality of a series of things that he had never witnessed or understood before in his life. And, as he looked at him and then Yugi slowly, he realized with startling clarity that not even the smaller lycanthrope knew just what lay in the recesses of his thoughts and the darkness which clouded his gaze.

"So, uh, Yuya," Yugi muttered, abruptly turning away and towards the boy with wine-colored eyes. The smaller boy turned to him with wide eyes, confused and bewildered. There was a sense of tension within the small clearing that he had not expected to find and now Yami refused to even so much as look at them, as if they were something too devastating to see. "That's your name, right?"

He nodded. "Yep!" he said with a grin and two raised thumbs. Chazz snorted something under his breath about not being important enough to remember. Yuya scowled, the girl who had leaped to his defense bristled and opened her mouth. But it was from in front of them that a noise finally came that startled Chazz to a shocked silence.

Much of the group was too stunned to move, however. Realization had crept through each of them. And Yugi was even shocked by the aggressive display. Yami had turned on Chazz, rounded violently on the other male. His eyes were furious, his irises vibrating with his tension. His teeth had clicked so loudly that it had sounded like a clap of thunder. His lips were drawn back to show off bright white enamel. And his gums were dark red like his glowing eyes. The beta was frozen there, glaring at the other boy until finally Chazz lowered his chin and turned his head, exposing his neck fully.

Yusei was frozen beside him. Yuya couldn't stop gaping. Yugi was staring at his beta with wide, bemused eyes. And then he turned away with a small sigh, so soft that it was nearly inaudible. After a moment he turned back to them.

"Stop picking on Yuya," the blue-violet-eyed teen demanded in a monotonous tone, trying his hardest to keep his voice steady. Yami finally relaxed a few moments after the declaration was made. It was only when Yugi turned back to him and tilted his head, brows furrowed, that the beta turned away from him entirely once more. And then the smaller teen huffed and turned back to them. His eyes were softer now, as if he were studying them for the first time now. "You know, I think those are the only three names I know out of you guys. I know Yuya, Yusei and Chazz."

The statement made the others within the group perk up. In an instant the girl with green hair pointed to herself with a thumb and a huge smile, saying, "I'm Mizuki Koroti." Yugi nodded slightly, amused when she winked bright eyes at him a moment later. He raised a brow and beside him, Yami was watching her with a somewhat curious expression.

"Kamishiro Rio," the girl beside her introduced herself in a calmer manner. Her eyes were icy as she considered the two higher ranking wolves and she froze in place when she saw the way Yami peered back at her in turn. Her eyes were a dark pink, almost fuchsia near her pupils where they were oddly lighter, her skin paler than even Yugi's own, and her hair was blue with a much brighter shade to pronounce her bangs. She was seated in a crisscrossed position, and the longer she stared at Yami, the more she seemed almost to quiver. But as she grew more nervous, the boy beside her grew more annoyed.

His dark blue eyes flashed, a shade or two shy of the royal color Yusei possessed, his skin tone the same as the girl beside him. His hair fell down along to the length of his shoulders, the ends curling upwards, and the base of his hairline was light blue like the girl's bangs. It did not take him more than a moment to realize the familial resemblance. "Kamishiro," he growled, looking straight at Yami with a furious expression. The beta blinked, long and slow, unimpressed by his anger, and tilted his head only a fraction. The predatory response was enough to make his eyes quickly lower away again, though he shot him an annoyed look from the corner of his gaze. "Ryoga."

"We call him 'Shark' though," Koroti said suddenly, interrupting the glares the male kept shooting the red-eyed teen. Yami blinked and looked at her curiously for a moment, then turned back with a small smirk. "Because he's an asshole sometimes."

Yuya snickered and quickly looked away when Ryoga shot him a glare. Koroti narrowed her eyes at the blue-haired boy and Yugi reached up to rub at the back of his head uncomfortably. He glanced sideways towards his alpha but Yami was watching them with interest now. And Yusei and Chazz were both staring past them and into the woods with mirroring looks of boredom.

"Okay, well that's…" Yugi snorted. "A good way to introduce someone, I guess."

"I'll say," Yami muttered. "I'd love to hear what she has to say about her friends."

The smaller teen snickered and nudged him gently with his elbow. Then he turned away and looked back at the other wolves in front of him. "Okay, so, now I know Chazz, Yusei, Yuya, Koroti, Rio and Ryoga. And you guys would be…?"

The girl nearest him blinked and tipped her head up, her eyes locking on his for only a moment. He blinked, stiffening, the sight of emerald green eyes peering at him so plainly making his stomach knot. He had not considered that she would be human as well. It had hardly even been a concept for him to think about before. The wolves within the pack had hardly seemed likely to change forms and become human at any point. His disbelief of it had made him all but forget that they might be able to. And, staring at her now, he felt as if dread were burning its way up the back of his throat with a trail of bile.

Her hair was bright red like orange flames, copper before his eyes. Her wide gaze was framed by long lashes which made him bristle. Her expression was calm, but there was something sharp and probing within her eyes as well. And he hated her for it, intensity making his body tense as if he were preparing himself to be struck. He could feel his muscles bracing themselves despite the effort it took him just to remain staring at her. He hardly wanted to think of what she might say.

But then he glanced at the other two girls there with him and his stomach felt slick with pain. He recognized them by their eyes as well, feeling almost queasy as they looked up at him as well. He knew the three of them—Mieru, Zuzu and Ruri. He could not recognize their scents but he did not know exactly who they were. So he offered them a small, somewhat strained smile, muttered something about knowing them, and turned back towards a head of light blue hair that looked almost baby in shade.

"Yeah, I definitely don't think I've ever met you," he commented quietly. He raised a brow and wide gray eyes peered back at him. Yami was looking at him curiously now, head tilted slightly and brows furrowed in question. Yugi ignored this pointedly, staring at this other boy and wondering at the sight. These wolves didn't even know each other for the most part, did they? His eyes flickered toward Yusei and Chazz who were watching him with wide gazes, then towards the three members of the original pack, to the pair of blue-haired kids he thought must have been twins. Then he hesitated and frowned and bit at the inside of his cheek.

They hadn't met prior, he realized. They had all taken the time to change back and sit around and talk to each other; it was far more effort than he'd even put into meeting them all properly as he should have. He felt almost flushed at the idea, stomach curling forcefully.

"Uh, I'm Syrus…" The boy blinked up at him and Yugi's head snapped back towards him. The action made a bone pop in his neck. The blue-haired wolf flinched as if he might strike him. Yugi blinked stupidly, lost in his own thoughts for a moment. Then he nodded with a slight sigh and glanced at Yami sideways as he felt the impulse to see him there again. It felt more real if he could just spot him there, in the corner of his eye or face him fully. And the way Yami stared back at him, suspicious more than curious now, was still enough to reassure him and make the anxiety fade somewhat.

The red-eyed wolf abruptly turned away to face Yusei and Yuya and Chazz. "So, what did we interrupt anyways?" he asked, voice light and almost teasing. But his eyes were sharper than ever and Yusei had the feeling that he was paying far more attention to them than he might have been before. "You were saying something about the hellhounds and humans?"

Chazz snorted and leaned forward immediately, smirking. "The war that Atem is going to win," he said without pause. Then he looked at Yusei with a grunt. "And then we were going to talk about the Lunar Ascension a little bit. He insisted that we do that."

"Yeah, cause we all know that there are little details that get changed within the stories. They don't always stay the same when it comes to oral stories," the blue-eyed wolf responded quietly. His eyes flickered briefly to Yugi, searching his face before he looked away again rather quickly. "And I figured it might be fun to hear them. I mean, why not? It's not like there's anything else to do."

Yami was struck with the oddest sense of thought that perhaps Yusei was not quite the oldest in the group of them right there. It was an almost dizzying thought. Because, as he looked at Chazz, he wondered at his ability to become the beta of a pack over twenty large, just as the other handful he knew of had been. And it was enough to make his head spin for a brief moment. The two of them stared at each other for a moment as he considered the other two males in front of him.

Chazz was older, he knew abruptly, staring at the black-haired male. And Yusei, despite his clear calmness and his ability to look on with such simplicity and not worry in the slightest, was younger than him. He was younger than Yami and he was younger than Yugi. And he was younger than Chazz. But he was not as young as Yuya. He was not as young as Koroti. But he was perhaps not as old as Rio or her twin seated beside her, the one that was nicknamed "Shark".

But he did not have the heart to ask. All he could think to do was watch them a moment longer. And the thought of words regarding that situation did nothing to calm him in even the slightest. Yami glanced at Yugi sideways. He'd wondered before how terribly young he might have been before then. He might have been thirteen for all he'd known, fourteen at the most. All he had known was that he had been desperate to save the little teen he'd seen that night, broken against the wall and bleeding so sluggishly that it was clear he'd die within moments had he not acted quickly.

And so Yami forced it away.

He didn't know anything about these wolves. They might have hit puberty earlier than usual. Or perhaps they had simply changed due to exposure to the others within the pack. It didn't truly matter, did it? It was not something that truly had any effect on what had already happened. The wolves in front of him were capable of changing as if they were seasoned warriors. They could change and hunt and run around and they knew how to do these things almost without effort.

"That sounds like fun," he said after a long moment, trying to fight away the urge to snarl low in his throat with growing tension. He had not considered that they might be bringing up such a topic to begin with. He had never assumed such a thing to be on any of their minds. And he was not sure that the sharing of that story was the best of ideas. The wolves outside of their small group might grow frantic or annoyed. And he could see it happening with little to no effort. So he hesitated for a moment, then narrowed his eyes as he considered it. "I think I'll sit in on this."

Yugi looked at him as if he had grown three extra heads and they were speaking ancient languages at him. He squinted, stared at him for a moment, tilted his head, huffed in frustration when Yami did not pay him any further mind, and then moved to take a seat beside him when he did so. Yami shifted just enough to give him more room and the small teen was satisfied in the fact that his body heat seemed to merge with his own. The other wolves were staring at them curiously for a moment, then Chazz awkwardly cleared his throat and Yusei reached up to run his hands through his hair slowly. After a moment he settled again, stretching his legs out and leaning back on his hands.

"Uh," Chazz started awkwardly, clearing his throat again and then sitting up when no one else spoke. But Yugi saw Rio snort and her brother was staring at him with darkened eyes, watching as if he were no older than them themselves, sitting and listening to this story as if it were something incredibly important. Chazz shifted his position, then straightened his back. His voice came out loud again, demanding their attention as he tipped his chin up slightly and began to talk once more. "It was three million years ago."

Yugi smiled slightly, lips tugging up at the edges with amusement. His eyes flickered to Yami who glanced at him sideways in turn. There was laughter in his gaze as well though he kept his mouth in its neutral state, refusing to budge in his reaction. The smaller teen turned away again after a moment, tipping his head up slightly as the other wolf began talking once more.

"The world was covered in ice. It stretched up so high that it blocked out the sun," the younger wolf continued with brightened brown eyes, the darker glint of them making them appear muddy where they had been almost black before. "So the ice wouldn't melt and the world was basically one big sheet of white. The oceans were all but frozen and there were bridges that stretched from continent to continent. A few of the animals were smart enough to use the ice to get back and forth as they wanted. And that included the wolves."

Yami fought away a smirk of amusement now. Yugi bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing.

"They came from Eurasia to North America. And from there they began to populate the entire continent." Yami raised a brow and looked at Yugi sideways. The smaller teen furrowed his brows and scrunched his nose up. Then they both glanced at each other and the blue-violet eyes lit up as the other smirked and shook his head slightly. They swapped knowing looks of amusement and turned away again to listen once more. "They shared the continent with dire wolves and humans and their dogs later. They were so close to territories with the dire wolves that sometimes they would even breed and merge packs. The wolves were still great hunters but prey was becoming scarce because of how many there were. The prey was moving and migrating so the wolves were following them."

"And the humans were following the wolves."

Chazz shot Kotori an annoyed look to silence her but the girl merely smirked at him. Yuya reached up to rub at the back of his head and glanced at Yusei. Yusei didn't blink but he snorted softly. Beside Yugi, Syrus looked like he was trying not to laugh.

"Anyways!" the black-haired beta snapped, turning away again and clearing his throat pointedly. He shot her another warning look and the girl snickered. Then he turned away again and raised his chin once more. "So, the wolves began to follow the horses and the mammoths and some of the rabbits. And the humans began to follow them because they were capable of hunting better than them. They couldn't find more than bare bones from the carcasses and they began to grow pissed. The humans turned their sights on hunting the wolves."

Yami tilted his head. His eyes had lowered to the ground now, staring at the snow. Yugi wondered what it was going through his mind at the moment.

"Humans are despicable," Rio commented quietly. Her sudden comment made both alpha and beta turn to her with surprised expressions. Her dark pink eyes bore into theirs in turn but there was some intense expression of disinterest within her gaze that made Yugi almost nervous for a split second. But it was Yami beside him who stared back relentlessly, until the she-wolf turned away and raised her jaw slightly as if with a sense of boredom upon her face. "I hate them."

Yugi blinked and his stomach turned. He looked at Yami, wondering at the way the other might have felt the same. He remembered that day in their room, when he was still more of an enigma in his head, living in his room with only the intention of healing his wrists. And it made his stomach churn faster.

"They were the wrong kind of people," Yami had told him, that day that Yugi had learned he'd been raised by people. But then, between the three various stories that Yami had told him to hide away his past, Yugi was not entirely sure of what he should believe of the statements. He had told him more than once that he had been witnessed his parents dying. But hadn't he said something about his mother trying to kill him? He could have sworn he had…

"So the wolves turned on the humans. But the dogs attacked them too. They'd been trained to stay at the humans' sides and treat them as their masters. So the dogs forgot where they came from and began to kill the wolves with the aid of their people." He had grown scornful now, Yami noted, though he did nothing more than tilt his head slightly and shift his weight to stretch his legs in front of him. "Because of this the wolves began to deplete. They would be killed with weapons and packs of dogs and they would retaliate and they couldn't keep doing so for long. The humans outdid them at times. And the humans and dogs kept breeding too quickly."

Yugi reached up to run a hand through his hair. Wolves only mated during the colder seasons, then gave birth in the spring after something along the lines of a sixty-day gestation period. Dogs mated twice a year, if he remembered correctly, and humans could reproduce all but year round. Of course, wolves had litters of anywhere from three to six to the very rare ten, and dogs had litters of anywhere from three to six on average. And people usually only gave birth to one or two kids at a time…

He remembered the way Slifer had told him about her family, how her mother had been killed a month or so after her birth. Then, soon after, her aunt to aid her in her survival was killed as well. And now he wondered at the thought of whether any of the others knew that. He wondered if they'd known that Lupa herself had selected the three of them, that she had woken sooner than Yami had told in that original storytelling he'd given him.

"So, as the wolves were being killed, they prayed to the gods Lupa and Fenrir."

The names made Yami shift his position mildly. Something in his eyes had turned darker. And he seemed to lean forward as if the words had beckoned such a reaction. But then he blinked and the tension in his body seemed to fall away once more.

"Eventually the bloodshed and the body count allowed them to wake Fenrir. Fenrir came from the heavens to speak to the wolves there." Yugi blinked and tilted his head. His eyes flickered briefly towards Yami and away again as he considered. Chazz was looking between them curiously for a moment and then tipped his chin up once more in a pointed manner meant to gather everyone's attention. "And he told them that he would give a gift to each of them. For the wolves with dark fur, he allowed them to change into different animals if they could eat the heart of it. Then the gray wolves were able to drink blood and heal from any wounds that they had. And then the white wolves were able to change into ghosts. When he came to the dire wolves he allowed them to spread the disease and change the humans into wolves with them."

Yugi blinked and glanced at Yami. He wondered briefly at the idea of what Fenrir might look like. Was he an immense huge monster of dark fur and glowing eyes? Or was he a wolf of the same size as himself and Yami beside him? Could he change into a human? Was it impossible for him to do such a thing? Was he or Obelisk or Slifer or Ra or any of the others able to change? It seemed almost overwhelming to think that in any sense.

"They turned the war back on its head. The humans and the dogs were all but completely killed. And Fenrir was going to let us completely eradicate them."

The small teen tilted his head slightly towards his alpha. Yami was staring in front of him, watching Chazz with slightly cold eyes. And then he blinked and slowly glanced at Yugi as well. Their eyes locking made the smaller teen somewhat nervous. He was well aware of the fact that Yusei was watching them with keen, bemused eyes.

"Are you okay?" Yami said in a breath that was barely there, leaning closer so that his mouth nearly brushed Yugi's ear. The small teen nearly trembled with pleasure with the touch of his exhale there. And he drew in a deep breath and then turned to him with a small nod, blinking wide blue-violet eyes. They watched each other for a moment before slowly Yugi lowered his eyes and turned away again.

"But then Lupa woke up because of the wolves being so angry and killing so much. She sensed that a few wolf pups were left defenseless in their den and so she went to check on them. But when she did, she found a human woman there with the pups. She was feeding the wolves what little meat she could bring them and they were healthy enough that they would survive that day at least. So Lupa realized that if this woman could do this for the pups, she would acknowledge that perhaps the other humans knew how to help them too." Chazz blinked and tilted his head and narrowed his eyes after a moment. "She told Fenrir that they didn't need to kill all of the humans and their dogs after this. But Fenrir hated the humans for what they had done so he refused to stop the hellhounds he'd created."

Yugi blinked. Yami narrowed his eyes faintly. Yusei was watching them more than he was listening now. Something about the way that Yami had shifted his weight and Yugi was biting his lip made him feel almost as if he were missing something.

"So Lupa decided that if Fenrir wouldn't stop the bloodshed then she would. She went and found the pups from a pair of gray and dire wolves. There were only six of them and she decided that they would be perfect to do what they needed. But she knew what the hellhounds were capable of, so she told them that she would make them immortal. She gave them the ability to heal rapidly, to infect the humans and give them a chance to fight back, and to change forms."

"Lupa was stupid for that," Ryoga commented, sharply enough to make Yugi look over with wide eyes. Yami blinked and turned his head as well, confused and bewildered by the idea. He could not fathom for even a moment that another wolf might consider that of their goddess. It was shocking to him. But the way the boy stared at him reminded him significantly of the oceanic predator the girl near him had introduced him as. "She should have just killed them all anyways."

"You're a fool if you believe that," Yami said slowly, narrowing his eyes into slits of gleaming red. "Should the humans not exist, we would not exist either. What would be the purpose of allowing us to change forms if there were no longer humans for us to be forced to camouflage amongst? You do not actually think that just because we are all wolves that we would not cause incidents amongst ourselves and perhaps even kill each other? We could be as plentiful as the humans themselves or kill ourselves simply because of different ideas or anything of that nature."

"You're just as stupid as Lupa was if you think that," Rio sneered beside her twin. Yami didn't blink at her, instead slowly tilting his head to the side as he stared back at her with an unwavering look. "The humans are useless. And getting rid of them entirely would do us better than anything else."

His lips quirked up slowly as he looked at her, then he shifted his weight and leaned forward slightly. "Then I suppose you've all forgotten that the species came from the void in pairs." The statement made Syrus sit up with wide eyes, head snapping towards him with his mouth opening and shutting rapidly twice. Yugi furrowed his brows and stared at his alpha with a curious expression, unsure of what he should say or do in response. "Wolf and man, Lupa and Fenrir and Adam and Eve."

Yusei blinked and furrowed his brows. "Huh?"

Yami turned to him with a calm expression, but Syrus had jumped to his feet, hands in fists and entire body quivering for a moment as he looked at the beta in excitement. "He means from the void, Ginnungagap in Norse mythology or Chaos in others like Greek or Native American! First came the elements, fire and ice, and where the two met in the void it allowed life to be born. And then came souls that were made into physical beings, coming in groups of two with brother species whose survival relies on the existence of the other's! Lupa came with Eve and Fenrir came with Adam! That means that the wolves and humans would die together if one or the other went extinct!"

Yugi blinked wide eyes, then slowly turned her head back towards Yami with a stunned expression. Why had he never told him that? Why had he never mentioned that the first time that he had told him about the Lunar Ascension? And then he wondered at the thought. Adam and Eve had come with Fenrir and Lupa? If that were the truth, it could explain why the wolves were so demonized at times. It would explain why wolves had to be the only animals so tightly intertwined with human mythology and conceptions and were even proclaimed the origins of many races and groups of people. The Romans said Lupa had suckled Romulus and Remus and the same happened in the Turkish lore, though he did not recall the names… And Fenrir was meant to kill the gods within Norse mythology and his sons Hati and Skoll would eat the moon and the sun.

"But that's…" Yusei grimaced and ran a hand through his hair, frowning and looking at Yami with wide eyes. "I forgot all about that myth. But that's not…"

"It's just as important as the Lunar Ascension," Yami cut in rather scathingly. He was getting to his feet now, rubbing snow off his clothing, and he narrowed his eyes into near slits. He finished dusting himself off and rolled his shoulders. "The fact is that many of us don't care to remember that part of the lore because humans aren't exactly very brotherly towards us, are they? They don't care for the natural wolves and they don't care for us either. Because they've forgotten the lore and they've twisted it around as much as they want. And they choose to neglect those things for the sake of their own stupidity."

Syrus blinked at him, eyes still wide and boring into his. Yami didn't bother to look at him at all. And Yugi did not glance over, instead staring at his alpha with that same bewildered expression he'd initially worn moments before. Yugi got to his feet after a moment as well, still rattled by the very idea, dusting himself off a moment or so later as well. He glanced at Yusei, who still looked rather startled by the idea to begin with.

"Is that a real thing?" Chazz asked slowly, unsure of himself as he glanced at Yusei as if the other boy might know the answers. He looked as if he might be sick at the very mention. "I mean… I thought that was just a story to make us not attack them after the whole Werewolf Witch Trials thing…"

Yusei blinked and shook his head. "No, it's always been a story that we should have all known. I forgot about it. But a lot of us just don't want to think about to begin with. There's way too much that happens between us and humans and hellhounds and all of it just kind of tends to make you not want to think about stories like that anymore."

"But remembering them is important," Yuya muttered, frowning and ignoring the way Yugi and Yami both glanced at him. "We need to remember them before we do anything stupid that might cause a lot of repercussions, you know?"

"It's not even that big a deal," Ryoga sneered after a moment. All of them turned to him with surprised expressions. It was only Yami who blinked and narrowed his eyes and tilted his head almost hatefully. "Do any of you realize how much the humans outnumber us anyways? It'd be impossible for us to kill over two billion of them before they'd kill us too."

Yami shook his head. "You forget that a lot of them are likely wolves as well, secluded and hiding away or not. They might seem more abundant but you never know. And don't discount shape-shifters. They breed like rabbits," he muttered, pulling a foot up from the snow and dusting his sneaker off for a moment before moving forward in a leisurely pace. "You don't have to worry. It is not as if the war will decimate either side, I'm sure."

"Either side? There are three of them."

The red-eyed teen paused at the statement. Then he looked over at Chazz with a shake of his head. "I'm sure the humans in question will not be as involved as you might think. They like to kill and maim and torture and run experiments. And I would bet that many of them are probably infected by now due to greed. But I do not doubt that they will simply be bystanders to watch the wolves try to kill each other."

Yugi blinked. Something about the words made the hairs on the back of his neck stand in a bristle. It had not occurred to him before, and he was too afraid then to ask. But the realization seemed to wind him and his mouth was dry as he took to following the other male forward. They didn't glance back at the small group of wolves but he had the feeling that they were all staring after them, eyes wide and horrified. No doubt some of them would be far too scared to even think straight afterwards.

"That's crap, you know?"

Yugi blinked. Yami stopped a couple of steps in front of him. When he turned back, his eyes were full of disinterest and his head was tilted slightly to the side as if the words were nothing more than a hiss of breath from their lungs. Yugi turned back as well, finding himself surprised to see Ryoga and Rio standing and glaring at them as if they were a unified front.

"The whole point of this war is to get ourselves back to the top of the food chain. We're the ultimate predators in the world. We're the apex predators when the humans think they are instead. And that's why Atem was created—to prove what an apex predator truly is."

"You think that wars are that black and white?" Yami asked quietly. "You think that a war comes around because of the fact that a species needs a lesson? You think that the gods are bothering to waken and come here now for the sake of telling us we're right in creating a mass genocide? Are you fucking stupid? Are you fucking ignorant? Should I beat the stupidity from you both now or shall I do it later?"

Yugi stiffened, stunned as the red-eyed teen stepped forward, lips pulled back and teeth bared. His eyes were flashing and his shoulders had risen slightly. "How you've survived so long to see my face is a mystery to me. But I'll rectify that situation now if you'd like." He shrugged Yugi off when the smaller teen reached for his jacket sleeve to stop him for a moment. "Wars are never so cut and dry, not when it involves multiple species. And what gods would send their creations to die for the sake of proving themselves superior? This battle has nothing to do with whether the wolves beat the humans or kill each other. It has to do with arrogance like yours. We'll be killed before we even learn to camouflage properly—"

"Yami, enough, okay?" Yugi muttered, feeling flushed. Syrus looked as if he might flee at any moment, he was quivering so hard. Yusei was stiff in his spot on the ground, horrified and gripping at the snow as if it might ground him. Chazz was frozen beside him, eyes nearly bugging out of his skull. Koroti had sprung to her feet and backed up several feet. And Yuya was shaking, head tilted to show his throat and body angled to drop to the snow at any moment should their eyes fall on him. Rori, Zuzu and Murei were gaping at them, eyes wide with shock; they had moved incredibly close to each other so that their shoulders were pressing together, as if they might possibly shield each other at a second's notice. "Leave it alone. You've gotten your point across."

"Really?" Yami asked, eyes darkening further and voice becoming guttural. "Because I don't think I have. Considering the way they're both staring at me like this, I don't think they understand just what I'm telling them—"

"Enough," the smaller teen hissed, moving to grab at his arm and hold him in place there. He was trying to suppress the urge to breathe harder and all but gape at the other wolf with the horrified expression he knew was fighting for his attention. He drew in a deep breath as Yami forced himself to relax beneath his touch and slowly tilted his head and looked at the ground. The submissive stance was lost entirely on Yugi, who was trying his hardest not to sputter a horrified thanks, but the others seemed to recover from their shock at the sight of it.

Yuya straightened, though he wouldn't look up. Yusei forced himself to relax. Chazz ran his hands over his face. Syrus paced a few steps and turned back with those same wide eyes. Rori jumped up. Zuzu got to her feet and dusted herself off. Murei stared at them with a blank, unblinking expression. And Koroti had moved to Yuya's side as if she were to protect him should Yami so much as look in their direction. Rio and Ryoga were staring at them with somewhat rattled expressions, clearly shocked that Yami might respond that way to begin with.

"Okay, so, uh, you and me are going to go hunting. You guys get back to doing whatever you…want to, honestly," Yugi huffed, gently pulling Yami back a step. The other male huffed, spun on his heel, and started to walk again. He gave them all awkward smiles, turned to Yusei with a slightly hesitant expression, and muttered, "Just stay out of trouble, okay?"

"Don't worry! You've got a beta right here! The Chazz can handle everything!"

Yusei snorted and smirked in amusement. Yugi flashed the black-haired boy a small smile that was a mixture of strained and grateful and then ran off to catch up with Yami. The small teen immediately wished he had changed before then, huffing as he hurried through the snow to catch up with him. And, when he did, he was simply relieved to see that the other had not changed or taken off on his own. He'd gotten to the edge of the camp and turned around to wait for him impatiently.

"You okay?"

"I threaten to kill two kids and you ask me if I'm all right."

"Well, yeah. That was…kind of out of character for you, I guess," Yugi said slowly, hesitating for a moment. He had the impulse to reach out, to try to draw him closer. He wanted to see that he was okay, to put to rest whatever had stressed him out to such a point. But he knew instinctively that no such thing would come to him. And he had no answers for the other wolf as it was. And so he felt that it was useless to try to do such a thing. Because Yami would not accept physical comfort in any sense, he realized. He was still angry. And his temper was lost. He was not amused. He did not want to have Yugi so much as get too close to him. So the smaller teen stopped a couple of feet away and busied himself with the task of putting his hands in his pockets. "So are you okay?"

Yami narrowed his eyes and tilted his head. "Why would you think that's out of character for me? You don't know me well enough to say something like that," he said quietly, searching his face. "I am not that person that you might think that I am, Yugi. You don't honestly think for even a moment that you know me so well, do you?"

The smaller teen stared at him for a moment. The impulse to reach out for him again was almost overwhelming. He was not sure where he would touch him—his cheek, his shoulder, his arm—but the thought of doing so made his fingers clench in his pockets. "I don't know everything about you, Yami," he answered softly. "But I do know who you are right now just like I did when you were living in my room all that time. Are you going to tell me otherwise?"

"I would have thought that the conversation we'd had just hours before would make you rethink that," the other commented coldly, eyes sharpening as he looked away and began to step towards the trees again. Yugi could just barely see the smallest of shivers making his shoulders twitch beneath his clothes. He was shaking his head as he continued forward and Yugi followed a few steps behind. The distance between them made the small teen feel as if a chasm had opened between, fractured and broken.

"I think I know you enough to say that I care about you," Yugi muttered so quietly that the taller teen hesitated in surprise upon hearing those words. He blinked, then slowly turned his head and looked over at him curiously with wide eyes and an expression which neared absolute puzzlement. The smaller teen would not look up from the snow but he could feel Yami's dark red eyes staring back at him. "And I think I know you enough to say that I trust you. If you want to tell me half-truths and hide things at times, I'm not going to ask you to explain and I'm not going to demand to know those things. You don't have to tell me each and every thing."

Yami stared at him for the longest time, head tilted and expression bewildered. He frowned in puzzlement and searched his face as Yugi glanced up slowly from beneath his lashes. As their eyes locked and they peered at each other, the two of them were unable to do more than stare in silence. Finally, after a moment, they looked away and the taller teen narrowed his eyes, muttering, "You are very kind to say something like that."

The smaller teen couldn't stop looking at him now. "I don't know if that's really what it is."

He snorted. "You truly don't think that?"

"I think it's a little odd that you think that I'm such a good person because I respect your privacy," Yugi answered softly, reaching up now to rub at the back of his head. Yami had stopped and was facing him now, red eyes burning into his. "I think you have every right to occasionally hide things that upset you, Yami. I don't think for even a moment that anyone has any right to demand to know every little secret that another person has in their life. It's not logical."

Yami considered him for a moment, then turned away slowly. "If you believe that," he murmured with a small shrug. But then his head turned back around so that he could face him for a moment. "Are you still…? I don't mean to say that you have too, but I…"

Yugi blinked. "Am I still what?" He tilted his head, then tipped his head up slightly and searched his face for a long handful of moments. Then he blinked again, pulled the left side of his mouth up into a crooked smirk, and teased, "Do you honestly think that I'd turn back on helping you catch some food?"

The other boy shook his head after a moment of hesitation, considering him before turning away again and exhaling softly. "No, but I…I do not want you to feel obligated to help me in that manner," he said quietly. "I did not know if you would still want to help me or not."

"And why wouldn't I, Yami?"

Yami snorted. "Perhaps because of the fact that I just threatened to kill two kids? Or what about how I just told you that you don't know me nearly as well as you might think?" he said softly. "I have other things I might list that have happened in just the last few days, but I will leave it at this for now."

The small teen opened his mouth, then closed it again. His heart had begun to ache in his chest as he looked away and glanced at the ground. "Oh, aibou," he muttered under his breath. But the words reached Yami who froze in front of him, so abruptly in his movements that Yugi stepped into his back and jerked away in surprise. He looked like a startled cat for a moment, eyes wide as his mouth opened and closed. And then Yami blinked and slowly turned his head to stare at him curiously for a long moment.

"Did you just call me your aibou?"

Yugi felt his entire face burning as he opened and shut his mouth twice. Then he grimaced and reached up to rub at the back of his head for a long moment. "Uh…y-yeah?" he managed, flustered.

Yami stared at him, a long and intense expression of red boring into his eyes before he shook his head slowly and considered him for a handful of moments. "You think that I am your aibou?" he said slowly, the words incredulous and his eyes narrowing briefly.

The smaller teen furrowed his brows slightly, then tilted his head. "I…uh…"

The other boy shook his head slowly. "I am not your partner."

Yugi blinked and his heart felt fractured in his chest, but there was something in the firm tone which made him curious for a brief moment. There was something within his voice, soft and different, and somehow it made him feel relieved. It was not as powerful a statement as it should have been, despite the firmness in his words. And the small teen was winded for only a moment. "You're my pal," he stated evenly, "and you're my beta. You are my partner."

They stared at each other for a long handful of moments. Then Yami looked away and tilt his head and narrowed his eyes. "You should find better people to spend your time with," he replied in a darker tone. "You do not need to waste your time with people so beneath you."

The smaller teen flinched violently as the words met his ears. He opened and closed his mouth, stunned by the very idea, and then shook his head slowly. His eyes grew wider than before, his mouth drying out and his heart catching in his throat for a moment. The realization of such broken self-confidence made him feel sickened and his bones felt cold beneath his skin and the marrow had to be frozen under those many layers of muscles and sinews. He felt as if his knees might buckle beneath his weight for a moment. And then he forced himself to walk forward again, as he realized that Yami would not stop to allow him time to catch up. Had he needed to, the red-eyed teen would simply consider that Yugi had gone home instead of helping him to hunt and then he would catch his own deer. And Yugi doubted that Yami would then find his way to the house again. Most likely he would simply hide out in the camp with the others.

And so Yugi trudged after him. His hands were shaking, he realized. And his mouth was dry and his heart hurt. He felt as if he had been punched in the gut or perhaps slapped in the face. And he could not think for even a moment what he should do beyond that.

"I'll, uh, change in a minute, okay?"

Yami paused in front of him, turning around in confusion. He furrowed his brows and tilted his head for a brief second. Then he nodded slowly and exhaled softly, muttering, "Okay."

It took another ten minutes of walking before Yugi finally decided it would be best to do so. He shivered, mumbling that he would do so then. Yami had turned around, surprised by the declaration; the expression on his face was incredibly bemused at first before realization made him nod and look away. He had seemed as if he'd forgotten their agreement, thrown off by the very idea of their former conversation.

Yugi changed after a few minutes more, unsure of what more to say or do. And Yami had dutifully faced away from him to give him privacy. But something inside of the smaller teen almost wished he might make him turn around, exhausted by the way the other had turned his back on him. He sighed softly and shook his head after a moment, then drew in a deep breath and ran a hand through his hair.

All right, so where do you think the deer are going to be hiding at a time like this? Yugi asked, turning to him with a small wag of his tail. The white wolf searched his face, then padded forward a few steps. Yami licked his lips and turned away from him after a few moments. If I were a deer, where would I be?

Yami looked over at him, at first with a curious glance, and then with a small frown. He had shifted his weight and his hands had lowered slightly, his left wrist flipped to show the inside. He scratched lightly at his skin there for a moment, then hesitantly, he cleared his throat. The noise made Yugi stiffen in confusion, eyes widening and peering at him with his ears pricked and his tail dropping. "I…I realized that what I said was a lot harsher than I meant it to be," he said softly after a moment, looking him over for a split second. "I simply meant that I…I do not consider myself your equal."

The statement made Yugi blink and falter, eyes wide and startled by the declaration. It was said somewhat easily but the realization made his heart hurt more. You don't think that you're my equal? he asked in a melancholy tone. You honestly think that I'm above you?

The other was silent for a moment. "If you knew half of the things I've done, Yugi..."

The wolf shook his head slightly. I would still consider you just as great as I do now, Yami, he said firmly. But he did not try harder to convince him, as a part of him knew that Yami would not respond well to such a thing. And so he blinked and pricked his ears, looking away slowly. I think that you don't see yourself properly, Yami.

"I think the same could be said for you. I think that the statement applies for both of us, honestly," the taller teen stated quietly, searching his face for a long moment. Then he shook his head slowly and closed his eyes, reaching up to rub at his right temple after a second heartbeat. "You do not ever seem to know yourself very well either."

Yugi wondered at the statement, unsure of what more to do or say. But he remembered the many times Yami had told him that he was kind, when the small teen seemed more curious than anything else. And then he thought of the way that the wolves seemed to believe that Yami himself was more powerful and likely to be Code Name Atem. And so Yugi felt tired as he turned away slowly and flicked his ears.

I think that we both have a few things to learn from each other, huh? he murmured with a much more abundant wag of his tail. Yami blinked at him, surprised, and they looked at one another almost curiously. I think that we can both discover it later.

Yami blinked again, considering his face. Then he nodded and smiled, slightly amused but clearly troubled as well. The red-eyed teen reached out to run his hands briefly over Yugi's head, around his ears and down his face to cup his cheeks. Yugi wagged his tail a little more, opening his mouth slightly to show off his bright incisors. Then the wolf jumped slightly, standing for a moment on his back legs, to stretch his neck forward and lick at his nose. Yami snorted loudly and shoved him away with a hand to his forehead, and the white wolf wagged his tail a little faster.

---

Can I ask you something?

Yami looked up from where he had taken a seat in front of him and was lounging with his weight on his arms. He had been somewhere between dozing and watching the snow for a brief moment. Then he stared at the bright-eyed wolf in front of him with a tilt of his head. He did not have to speak to let the other know that he had no issues with his possible inquiries.

I wanted to know if you still remember what happened the night that you… But then he fell quiet, almost as if he could not find the words to continue speaking. Yami frowned and considered him, but the wolf kept staring at him with a somewhat anxious expression. And soon his ears flattened against his head. The night you…

Yami leaned back again, rolling his neck. Then he fell back into the snow. Yugi immediately leaped to his feet and came to his side. It was odd to see that the teen was lying there so comfortably. He'd almost worried that he might have fainted for all he'd known. But the red eyes were wide open and staring up at the dull gray sky overhead.

"Pure-Bloods have to be in a calm surrounding," he muttered softly, voice low and tense with fractures as he refused to look towards him, "when they…are reborn from healing from a bad enough wound."

The white wolf stiffened at the declaration, then pricked his ears forward more pointedly. You truly think that the Pure-Bloods come back to life after they've been hurt to the point of being killed? he asked slowly. But he remembered the way Obelisk's throat had snapped in the snow beneath Yami's attack. And he remembered the way that he'd gotten back to his feet again. He even remembered the way that the gray wolf had snarled at him that he'd just killed him and he'd do the same to Yami if Yugi had not helped him to subdue his alpha in the first place. I mean…all of them?

Yami blinked. "All of them?" he echoed, turning his head. But the snow was feet deep and he swore the white beyond his face seemed to stretch for miles. And Yugi's fur was just as pristine as the other leaned a little closer to look down at him more pointedly. His bright blue-violet eyes were hypnotizing against the black almond shapes of their lids. "You don't think that you would survive a killing strike?"

Yugi watched him silently for a long while. Then he shifted his weight and took a seat, peering down at him for a few moments. I don't know. The idea that I'm immortal doesn't seem possible, he answered quietly, almost nervously. I think that the gods might be powerful enough to do that, but I don't know that I could myself. It doesn't seem like it's… I just… It still seems kind of like a fairytale or something that I can even turn into a wolf in the first place, you know?

The red eyes peered back at him for a long moment. Then he smiled slightly and shook his head. "I don't believe for even a moment that the gods would have come to help you so often if you weren't able to do it. I think they're scared of the consequences of what might happen if you did have to be reborn."

Consequences? Yugi pricked his ears forward pointedly. You mean like me attacking or killing someone else by accident?

"I think that if you had to come back to life during a fight, it would be far more dangerous than one of the gods themselves having to do such a thing," he replied softly, looking at him again now. He could see the smallest bead of sweat at the tip of his nose, the calloused muscle soaked from his task of hunting minutes before. "They might know themselves and their circumstances and they might be able to very easily reclaim their knowledge of what was happening. If that should ever happen to you, I do not believe that it would be so easy for you. I think that it would cause you to fall into a more violent state, as is said of what happened with Pure-Bloods altogether."

What do you mean?

"Do you remember the day that that hunter managed to herd us into the greenhouse?" Yami closed his eyes and did not bother for even a moment to try to raise his fracturing voice. "When I was electrocuted…"

Yugi blinked and tilted his head curiously for a moment. Yes, I remember that. He nearly shuddered. Yami had been lying there, so incredibly still and exhausted before he'd finally breathed in again. And he'd looked ready to attack, just as Mai had warned him against, before, finally, the black wolf had relaxed upon seeing Yugi there. But he'd still glared at Mai and Otogi and he'd rested there watching them before he'd limped off to change back into a human. Mai had said that you'd be feral when you came back.

"Normally what happens is, if the circumstances are not peaceful and calm around you, a Pure-Blood becomes vicious and feral. The pain will still be very clear in their senses and it tends to cause a lot of issues for the wolves in question. It causes them to think that they are still under attack. And, if there are any others around them, they tend to lash out against them in a panic. And that usually triggers the adrenaline rush and that makes them more likely to kill them." Yami fell quiet for a moment, then sighed loudly and shook his head. "Should the area around them be peaceful and easy, they tend to be able to regain themselves and get up without too much of an issue. They tend to be able to understand the things that had happened beforehand and relax long enough to heal more properly than if they are under the impression of being in the center of a fight of any kind."

Yugi watched him with a simple tilt of his head and a prick of his ears. I understand. It makes sense.

"They lose any sense of identity or allegiance. They don't know or understand what is happening before they lash out again. It's as simple as that. You do not want to be around a Pure-Blood when they are revived in that way."

Have you ever been around one before?

"Me? You are the Pure-Blood I am around most often. And I do not recall you dying."

That was only because Yami so often helped him in the first place. It was only because he had tried his hardest to help him as it was. And it was only his guidance which had so often helped him to avoid such consequences. It was daunting, almost horrifying, to consider it. Because he knew very well that the other teen was the only reason that he was even still alive. It was not even just that he had bitten him and saved him then. It was the various times that he had come about to his rescue afterwards, powerful and knowledgeable beyond anything Yugi might have known before.

But, as he looked down at the lycanthrope in front of him, a new thought occurred to him and the relief that came with it was overwhelming. His heart had begun to pound in his chest and the noise made Yami tilt his head slightly in the snow, visibly bemused by the new pace. I just… You're healing nicely, he said quietly, flicking his ears and shifting slightly closer. You're not suffering any night terrors and you seem to be gaining at least a little weight. I just… I'm excited! This is great.

Yami snorted, then chuckled and shook his head. "You would think of that when I'm telling you about Pure-Bloods coming back from the dead," he commented softly with a smirk. He reached up to swat at his muzzle when Yugi wrinkled his nose back and showed his teeth in a mixture of a sneer and a smile. His fingers touched his nose where the warm sweat quickly chilled upon encountering his skin.

I was thinking more about how happy I am that you don't have any health issues, Yugi said as he leaned forward a little further and tilted his head. He shifted a fraction closer still, then peered at him as if he might leap at him at any moment. His tail was wagging slightly, his eyes bright as they stared at one another again. That's pretty amazing. I mean, it's not that drastic a change. You haven't completely gained any weight back or anything, but you don't look as skinny as you were before. And your clothes kind of fit better, I guess?

The other teen didn't respond to this, instead looking up at the sky again and muttering, "Did you realize how close we are to the river?"

Yugi froze in place for a moment. Then he stiffened, bristling, and shifted somewhat closer. The movement made the snow at Yami's hip fall inward to cover his jeans. The taller teen glanced at for a moment, then turned away again. And the wolf flicked his ears briefly before sitting more comfortably as he tilted his head and they looked back at another. I didn't really think about it, he admitted, turning his head to glance over his shoulder and towards the snowy expanse. Where the trees thinned out properly and seemed yards apart, he knew the river lay beneath all the snowflakes, the ice thick and perhaps reaching deep enough to freeze most of the water there.

"I broke through the shallower ice on the banks before I would have frozen to death," he commented quietly, almost listlessly, the tone of it disinterested and mild. The words made Yugi look immediately over at him again, heart pounding a little faster. Was he truly talking about this right now? He had imagined that Yami wouldn't want to take the invitation to tell him such a thing when he'd asked. He had not thought for even a second that he would consider it for more than a brief heartbeat. "The ice was shallower around the end where it would have gotten to the pier. And I suppose that's where he found me."

Yugi stiffened, bristling. Fuwa had found him then? Or had it taken him longer? Had it taken him a little while to find Yami? He had been so hopeful that perhaps Yami had been safe enough for a short amount of time that he would not have been found and harmed immediately…

Of course he'd always known otherwise but he'd just wished…

"I think I was out of the water for a few hours. I think the ice had been broken there and I'd gotten caught there. Because I was hallucinating for a long time. I was…" He fell silent for a long while, staring blankly up at the sky where the clouds were silver and white and incredibly crowded. He could not see the sun in any manner overhead and it surprised him for a moment. "It doesn't matter what I was hallucinating about. It was…traumatic enough without speaking about it. I meant to say that the person to find me drugged me soon after."

Yugi blinked and bristled further, feeling his lips pull back furiously. He was shaking, trembling, with his growing rage. The blue-violet eyes had turned darker, full of resentment and disbelief, and his heart was racing faster than ever in his chest. He pricked his ears forward, narrowed his eyes, and fought the urge to snarl out loud.

Yami stared at him for a moment, then reached out to touch his muzzle. It startled Yugi enough to make him jump, eyes wide and startled as he stood a few inches from him. It took only a handful of heartbeats before the white canine finally moved forward to sit close enough to take the spot at his hip. The two of them considered each other for a long moment. The red-eyed teen blinked and watched him with his head tilted and his ears pricked further forward than before.

"You can relax, Yugi, it's over and done with."

But I never wanted it to happen to you to begin with.

The teen shook his head. Yugi could see the smallest smear of blood at the corner of his mouth, bright red and smudged. He remembered the way the red-eyed teen had dug into the deer without much more of a thought. He had rubbed his sleeves against his mouth in order to clean his lips and had done a rather sufficient job for the most part. But now he noticed that slight smear and his first thought was, admittedly, to lean forward and lick it away. He had never considered it before that moment, but the sweet smell made his mouth water and he had not eaten any of the deer for the sake of allowing Yami to eat his fill…

"It would have happened to someone else if it was not me." He paused. "Well, truthfully, it did happen to another wolf. I don't remember what happened to them after I'd broken their shoulder. I just remember that he moved them away after I shattered the bone there."

Yugi tilted his head, remembering the wolf that he'd killed in that maze of mirrors in the greenhouse. He remembered the way he'd initially met that wolf in the alleyway. The Burger World employee had attacked him in that alley in front of his friends. He remembered that very clearly.

"Fuwa found me with a little extra help," he continued, moving to sit up now. Yugi licked his lips and watched the red-eyed teen in front of him. The boy got to his feet after a moment, dusting himself off. The white wolf looked at his imprint in the snow and for a heartbeat or two why it was that he had not told him to make an angel there. But the moment was broken already as he turned back to the teen who stood with his eyes fixed on the carcass a few feet away. He did not look hungry, however, Yugi noticed, but he thought that Yami looked slightly stressed, perhaps annoyed at the moment. "When he originally found me, his plan was to shoot me. I wasn't the one he wanted, was the way he phrased it. So I assumed that meant he was after you."

Yugi shivered and looked at him with widened eyes.

"He had planned to just shoot me in the head with a silver bullet, from what I understand of it. But I think he was convinced to keep me and cage me in one of the factories in order to run tests on me and see about my endurance levels." He reached a hand up to press the heel of his palm into his temple for a moment, breathing in deeply as if doing so might help to clear his mind. "Or maybe we were always in that damn greenhouse. I don't honestly remember. I can't recall much of that time due to the various black spots in my memory. Regardless, he ran tests and he tortured me for a while…"

You don't have to tell me if you don't want to.

He shook his head, continuing in a quieter tone. "When he drugged me, I woke up there, wherever he decided to drag me. And it was a trap—or maybe an arena or something of that nature. I'm not entirely sure. I don't remember. I was so tired and in so much pain that it eludes me. But he did have me set up to play with a series of traps that led me to…various new traps." He looked into the trees for a long moment, at the soft shadows that were cast about the snow due to their presence there. He narrowed his eyes and looked sideways towards the bones that were poking out beneath a light pelt of bright red and brown fur. "I would end up going too close to a wall and the metal netting would snap and the boars would come out."

The boars?

The boars?

Yugi was salivating now, drooling heavily as his lips pulled back furiously. Each tooth glittered in the low light and his breathing was harsh as he fought away a snarl. He couldn't think straight for a moment, the idea infuriating him. He was shaking furiously now, his eyes glowing. His ears were pricked forward and his nose was sweating harder. He could see the mist leaving his mouth in ragged gasps. And he hated it when his chest vibrated with a snarl that he could not suppress.

The noise made Yami look over his shoulder. The sight of white gums against white teeth, of saliva dripping from his long canines and sharp incisors, of snowy fur risen in jagged spikes and the shaking that the other wolf possessed made him frown. And then he sighed softly and shook his head slowly, reaching up to run his fingers through his hair in frustration.

"You do remember that he's dead, right?" the teen said slowly, narrowing his eyes. Yugi was shaking and his tongue came out to run over his nose. He blinked at him but he could not stop snarling and breathing hard. And his entire frame was stiff with the forceful shudders that ran through him. His fur was in a ragged bristle, his blue-violet eyes full of hate and bitter despair. "You remember that, right? Cause I'm pretty sure tearing his throat out and eating some of those boars gave me the runs."

Yugi blinked. His tongue flicked forward to run over his nose again. He could not think straight for a moment. He could not stop himself from snarling a little louder. The entire noise was so guttural that it made his head spin and his heart race where it rested in his throat. He flattened his ears against his head and tried to stop himself but the drool falling from his jaws was heavy and came in thick rivulets of clear saliva. He stared back at Yami pointedly for a moment, unsure of what more to do than quiver as he blinked at him.

The red-eyed teen tilted his head and considered him for a long handful of seconds. "You need to relax, Yugi. I promise you, he's very much dead. I ripped his throat out and I'm almost a thousand percent sure even biting him like that caused me to get the runs later." He paused and sighed, shaking his head as he turned away again and glanced at the deer carcass once more. His mouth was watering for a moment but not enough to make him truly want to eat. His belly was too full, his stomach heavy with the task of digestion. So he simply turned back around after a moment and considered him. "The point being, the trap was basically like a maze where if I moved too close to the netting, it would trigger a mechanism to raise it. And then the boars would come out. They would stampede me and rip into my flesh as much as they could possibly desire."

The words made Yugi shudder but then he sputtered a noise. It was like a cough and a bark, or perhaps a cackling, and Yami startled as he looked at him with wide eyes. His mouth opened wider than before, his jaws parting and showing bright white teeth and gums. The wolf blinked and spat the same noise out a second time, a sputtering laugh which made the other startle and stare in shock. Yugi stared back at him, his mouth a hideous gaping formation of a sneering grin that showed all forty-two of his immense teeth.

I just… Oh my fucking gods, Yami. It's insane, he managed to croak out, his voice uneven and unsure as he looked at him with wide eyes. He wasted so much time and energy to capture and torture and kill two sixteen-year-old boys. Do you understand how absolutely ridiculous that is? We're sixteen and he wasted all that time just to…

Yami tried to return the smile, but it was exhausting to do so and he could feel it straining at the edges, as if he had forgotten how to do so. His amusement was limited as he stared back at the wolf. And Yugi seemed to lose his laughter the longer he looked at him. The wolf fell silent after a moment or so, then moved to his feet and slowly stepped towards him. Another time, perhaps Yami might have moved away from him. But now he was simply tired and so he let the blue-violet-eyed wolf come closer. His muzzle was lowered, pressing his forehead into his hip gently. It was a tired motion, one that mirrored the exhaustion that Yami could feel biting through his senses altogether.

Let's go home, okay?

---

Yugi had gotten Yami settled in the bed next to him. The red-eyed teen had fallen fast asleep beside him, curled up facing the opposite wall. He had drawn the sheets up to cover him to his shoulders and had taken the spot next to him. They were so close that Yugi could have reached over and settled comfortably in a spooning position had he truly wanted to. But instead he moved to lay with his back against his. He could feel each soft breath the other wolf possessed, the way that his spine lightly moved and flexed to brush against his own with each action. It was somewhat surprising to the smaller teen to feel such a thing. But it was not uncomfortable and so he did not bother to think twice about it.

The smaller teen was staring at the wall as he tried to think to find some rest as well. It was odd how warm the other wolf was, how much heat he seemed to exude in the cold room. It was almost amazing to him how comfortable the sensation was. Yami's even breathing against his back, the way he gave off so much heat, the way the air conditioning clicked on minutes later as if to combat it. It was curious to him at the moment, the way the air seemed to swell and almost expand as if to blanket them as well.

But the moment passed. And Yugi felt himself growing comfortable as the air became the smallest degree warmer. He listened to Yami's breathing intently for a moment, the pattern soft and beautiful in his ears. And the way his heart sounded in his ears was mesmerizing, drumming there within his senses. Yugi loved the warmth of it in his ears, the way it calmed him and heated the marrow in his bones. It was enough to put some of his worries to rest, if not all of them. But he still wondered at the idea of his place beside him.

In truth Yugi almost wondered what it was that kept him there. It was not just that he offered him a sense of protection in allowing him to live in the house with him. He knew that well enough. Yami was not so selfish as to simply remain there for that reason. He was attached to him in a manner, though Yugi was not sure what that truly entailed for either of them. And the thought made him mildly anxious at the moment.

The sky blue wall in front of him looked incredibly warm, soft and almost silken. He remembered that now would have perhaps been the time that he would get home from school. Now would be the time that he would try to make a smoothie for him to help him, get him to take some medication and rest. He wondered now what it was that had changed in that time he was gone from his side.

Was it truly possible that Yami's body had been unable to metabolize the pills he'd offered him before? Had he truly been so starved at that point that he didn't know that his body could metabolize them in any way? Was that…? He wondered if that was possible. It was not that he did not believe Yami and his explanation for what had happened. It was simply that he had not anticipated it in any way.

He was exhausted as he looked over his shoulder at the red-eyed teen. The other teen was still fast asleep. And his breathing was soft and even and easy. And the sight of the way his sides rose and fell so easily was a relief. He wanted almost to sob with happiness, but the other half of him was tired and he found himself yawning when he turned away again.

He blinked once, then twice, and finally a third time before he shifted and comfortably pressed his face into the pillow beneath his head. The small teen yawned again, closing his eyes and feeling comforted in the way that the darkness seemed to embrace him with such open arms. He was exhausted as soon as he did so, small multitudes of colors and images appearing behind his lids.

The pictures trailed into a steady sequence, leading him to dreams that ensnared him entirely. He was comfortable and relaxed beneath their embrace, soft and warm and beautiful. And then, as the hours began to pass, Yugi found himself slowly but surely startled awake. He was still groggy when he realized there was a lack of support behind his back. It was a startling reality, something that struck him as utterly odd. And it seemed to drag him down for a moment, the thought pressing upon him until he felt that his head was spinning.

He blinked dreary blue-violet eyes towards a sky blue wall that looked ribbed with yellow as weak sunlight stretched about to touch the room. He shifted to sit up slightly, then to glance over his shoulder. There was a touch of fear in his gut as he did so, heart in his throat for a moment. He shivered and his mouth grew dry as he looked towards the door, tilting his head and considering it with wide eyes.

Yami was not in the bed with him anymore. But the door wasn't open either. He glanced swiftly towards the window but the pane of glass was tightly locked and the snow outside swirling downwards from the clouds was not getting into the room. He blinked and ran a hand over his eyes, dragging it across his face for a moment. Then he looked back towards his bedroom door and then the bathroom. He did not remember the door being closed before.

In fact, more often than not he kept it open for easy access in the middle of the night should he wake up with the need to pee. The realization struck him that Yami must have wandered inside and it allowed him to relax as he drew in a deep breath and reached up to run another hand through his hair. He licked his lips and shook his head slowly. A yawn escaped his mouth before he could think it through. And then he dragged his fingers backwards to trail down the length of his forehead and down his cheeks again.

He shook his head and palmed his eyes for a moment.

There was a soft clicking noise which made his head turn in surprise.

And he relaxed visibly once more upon seeing Yami closing the door behind him. He was yawning as well. His eyes were squinting, his lashes clumped together in parts. And his brows were furrowed incredibly, his forehead wrinkled as if with contemplation. The red-eyed teen shuffled with weak, baby steps, and initially Yugi almost thought he was hurt. He was shocked, bewildered, and he wondered if he had somehow developed a wound that Yugi himself had never noticed in the first place. He did not know what he was supposed to do if he had pulled a muscle in any way. Was he meant to simply ice it for a few days, use Epsom salts?

He drew in a deep breath, about to ask, when Yami grunted and ran his hands through his hair. Then he yawned again and snorted softly. "Fuck, my feet are still asleep," he muttered. The smaller teen blinked, considering him, then blinked, snorted, and let out a small laugh. Yami cast him a quick grin and then turned to shuffle back into the bed beside him. It was surprising when Yami faced him as he pulled the blankets over his shoulders once more. And, as Yugi himself moved to face him as well, it was oddly amazing to him that the other still did not turn away.