Youth of the Nation
By: Neko-chan
A/N: Wheee~!!! LOL! I'm glad that you all enjoyed the last chapter. It was really, really fun to write--as you all can tell. *evil grin* Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter as well--and here's a sneak peek at an upcoming event: Can you guys say DMV? D
Yami and Bakura: *smirks evilly*
WARNING: SHOUNEN-AI! YAOI! *dances all around*
DISCLAIMER: *latches onto Black Magician* *_* Aishiteru!!!
BM: ...-.-;; Neko-chan, get off.
IIE! *glomps*
BM:... *sighs* ... Neko-chan does not own Yu-Gi-Oh!. True, she does wish that this wasn't so at many, many times--but that isn't going to change anytime soon so she might as well stop wishing.
...heh heh heh... WILL own Yu-Gi-Oh! when I take over the world, though. *smirks*
BM: ... O_O;; Nani?!
^_^ Nooo~ooothing...
Chapter Fifteen
Ryou looked down at the Sennen Ring for the twentieth time that hour and sighed. "Bakura..." he began, exasperated. "Yami won't hurt you. I promise that he won't." The white-haired hikari looked up, saw that Yami was still sitting in front of him (staring at the Sennen Ring, of course) with an expectant look on his face, and then winced. 'Okay... So maybe I WON'T be able to keep that promise...' he thought.
//Do you honestly think that I'm stupid enough to come out of my Soul Room with the Pharaoh no Baka sitting _right there_?! No, I am not THAT stupid, Ryou!!!//
The said hikari sighed once again (one sigh of many that hour) and rolled his eyes. This discussion had been going on since Yami had threatened to kill Bakura--and Bakura had retreated to his Soul Room, where it was safe. At this point, Ryou didn't know who he wanted to strangle. In the end, it all came down to a tie: Wanting to strangle Bakura (for hiding in the Soul Room and refusing to come out; sulking, if you want to put it that way) or Yami (for threatening to kill HIS yami and making him hide in his Soul Room).
It was at this moment that Yuugi decided to pop his head through the doorway and grin at his yami. "Ne, the macaroni and cheese is ready, minna-san," he said, his violet eyes wide and (seemingly) innocent. Yami smiled back, shot a suspicious/dirty look at Ryou's Sennen Ring, then followed Yuugi into the kitchen.
/Yami's gone now, Bakura,/ Ryou began, amusement creeping into his tone. /You can stop hiding now./
With a blinding flash of light, Bakura appeared next to his hikari. "Me?" he snorted, raising an eyebrow at the smaller white-haired youth. "Hiding?"
Ryou answered him by smiling in a too-innocent manner, standing up and moving away from the couch, slowly making his way towards the kitchen where cheesy mac and cheese goodness awaited him. Before he was all the way out of the room, however, he shot Bakura a wicked glance over his shoulder and caroled: "Of course you weren't hiding, Bakura. That's why you ran straight into the Sennen Ring when Yami said that he was going to kill you. Nope, you weren't hiding at all." With that, he disappeared.
Bakura blinked, stared after his hikari, and blinked again. "Kuso. I may be able to make him grow a backbone after all..." He thought about this for a moment more until realization dawned on him: His hikari had MOCKED him!!!
"RYOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!"
It was later (much, much, MUCH later), and the yami/hikari pairs were sprawled haphazardly about the room. It was dark outside, but Yuugi had opted to light a fire instead of turning on all of the house lights. Bakura and Yami--for once--were actually behaving, but that was only because of the fact that everyone had spent about two hours cleaning up the kitchen (due to a food fight that they yamis had started, of course--and macaroni and cheese WASN'T all that easy to clean up, as they all found out) and then each taking a long soak in the bathtub. Everyone was warm, clean, and sleepy.
Yuugi and Yami shared the couch--with Yuugi practically falling asleep on Yami's shoulder. Bakura and Ryou were sprawled all over the floor, both laying on a bed of pillows that Bakura had 'borrowed' from Yami's couch, and Ryou spooned up against him. Every time Ryou shifted to try and find a better position, Bakura growled and pulled him back up against his body.
Slowly opening drowsy violet eyes, Yuugi yawned and mumbled: "'m tired..."
Yami smiled down at Yuugi and moved his arm, allowing Yuugi to cuddle up against him. "Then go to sleep, aibou," he replied, teasing Yuugi gently. His crimson eyes softened as Yuugi smiled up at him and snuggled closer.
"'m tired...'n' also bored, 'ami... Can't fall 'sleep..."
The yami continued to smile down at his hikari and leaned down, burrowing his face in Yuugi's sweet-smelling hair. His hair was so very, very soft--so much softer than what it looked. Yami loved Yuugi's hair and wouldn't have minded the chance to constantly burrow his face in it. But he knew that chance would never come, unless it was one of these sleepy, tender moments that he and Yuugi sometimes shared. Like now. "What would you finally have me do, aibou?" he finally asked, holding Yuugi closer against himself.
Yuugi yawned cutely and blinked sleepily. Yami smiled--Yuugi looked like a little baby kitten when he was as sleepy as he was now. All big eyes and wide yawns and drowsy expressions--Yami wanted nothing more than to bundle himself and his hikari in a large down comforter, sealing away the cold and the night, until only he and Yuugi seemed to exist in this world.
"...' want 'ou to 'ing to me, 'ami..."
Yami blinked in surprise and brought his face up from Yuugi's hair. "Nani?"
"...' want 'ou to 'sing to me, 'ami..." Yuugi repeated once again, rubbing his face against Yami's shirt, much like the kitten Yami had been comparing him to just seconds before. "...'negai, 'ami?"
Bakura, listening to their conversation--though he acted as if he wasn't--grinned to himself, hiding his smile by burrowing his own face into his hikari's back. Ryou could feel his smile, despite how hard he was trying to hide it, and nudged his yami in the ribs. /Yami.../ he began, warningly.
//Nani, yadonushi?// Bakura responded, trying to make his sending sound as innocent as he was able to.
/If you _dare_ ruin this moment for them, I swear to Kami-sama that you'll be sleeping on the couch tonight./
Bakura blinked and thought this over--though it didn't need much thinking over. True, he knew that his hikari was dead serious (and therefore no sex for him tonight if he decided to be his usual sadistic self and make Yami look like that baka Bakura knew that he was), but was the chance of making the Pharaoh no Baka look like a baka really _worth_ sleeping on the couch? Finally, Bakura came to a decision.
//I'll _try_ to behave,// he groused out, his thought-speech somewhat grumbling as he let Ryou just how put-out he was. But Ryou responded by laughing at him, sending him an image of himself sulking in the corner with neon sign of 'Time Out' glowing above him. Bakura blinked, looked at the mental image, and blinked again.
Of course, Ryou wasn't expecting it when Bakura crawled out of their nest of pillows, stood up, reached down, and tossed Ryou over one shoulder (Ryou yelping in either embarrassment, surprise, or indignation, Bakura couldn't tell)--and then made his way up the stairway and to their bedroom. The door slammed shut with a resounding crash.
Yuugi and Yami watched all of this with sleep-clouded eyes, both smirking with amusement as they heard Ryou scream "Bakura!" with annoyance, and a resounding 'thud!' as something heavy landed on their bedroom floor.
After several long moments of silence, Yuugi turned his attention to his own yami, smiling happily and burrowing his face in Yami's shirt. "...'m happy 'or 'hem..." he mumbled. "...'you's loved 'im 'or so long... 'nd 'akura really loves 'ryou, but doesn't realize that 'e does... Demo... I 'hink 'e will 'ealize that in time... D'you 'hink so, too, 'ami?"
"Hai, I do, aibou."
"...'ood. Will 'ou 'ing to me, 'ami? 'negai?"
Yami smiled slightly and held his hikari tighter against his body. Sing to him? Yuugi? But what to sing? ... ...a long, almost forgotten memory came to him. The faces were gone, no longer recognizable and the details were hazy. Everything about the memory seemed surreal and untouchable--but it was still a memory of his past, one of the very few that he had. ...there was a woman in the memory. He didn't know what she looked like or her name. He didn't know or remember anything about her. But from her presence, the way that she held him, Yami knew that it was his mother. And... And she was singing a song to him.
So Yami sang along with her, the tune and rhythm oddly familiar, but still so distant it was strangely foreign. Yet... It was still a song that his mother sang to him--that, he could never forget, no matter how many thousands of years passed.
"Sweet dreams, sweet dreams, my precious... The night is long, the darkness fades... Look up, look up, the dawn has come... Awake, awake, my precious... It is time to welcome a new day..." Yami's voice sang on, deep and rumbling, yet still somehow soft and gentle--caring. His voice was filled with love.
Yuugi's eyes slowly drifted shut and he smiled, half-asleep, and cuddled closer to his yami, mumbling in a soft, drowsy voice: "...'ishiteru, 'ami..."
But Yami didn't hear.
And still--he sang on.
At one point in the song, he thought a high, clear female's voice join him in the song--but it lasted for only a moment. Unknown to him, the wind carried the voice away, still singing on in the night. For a moment, the image of a tall, slender woman with long black hair and crimson eyes, smiling gently, formed in the wind...but then that image was gone.
"Sweet dreams, sweet dreams, my precious..."
A/N: Short chapter, I know. But I just had to leave it right there. Next chapter will be extra-long to make up for the shortness of this chapter, okay? ^_^ This chapter was harder to write, I don't really know why. I guess it's because of the fact that I was so hyper last chapter, but then wanted to make this one a little bit more touching and serious. More sap next chapter, too. But no proclamations of love/realizations of love yet, gomen nasai. I already know when I'm planning on doing that. Anyway, hope you liked this one and see you next chapter! Ja ne!
Thank-Yous!:
~Thank-Yous! for this chapter and last chapter will be posted next chapter. Gomen nasai, minna-san! *bows*
