A/N: Yay, reviews! They make me happy. Right, I decided to update today because I'll be leaving for Arizona and won't be back for a week, and then two days after that school starts, so I might be a tad busy. I do have most of the chapters after this pretty well planned out, though, so it shouldn't take an incredible amount of work. (I say that now, wait until I'm in chemistry again.) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu-Gi-Oh, I have no relation or contact with its creator whatsoever, I make no money from this (unfortunately), blah blah blah…

In Memories Forgotten

Chapter 5

Yami wandered aimlessly about the house, hoping against hope that he could find something to distract him from his thoughts. The visions were becoming more vivid and the dreams were becoming more frequent, and neither the books in his library nor the sounds of the night forest had been able to stay them. He had become familiar with the sight of the woman crying and the transition to hooded men chanting under the moonlight, but it was as though he was watching scenes from someone else's life; the visions held little meaning for him.

He was also tired, more tired than he could ever remember being. His mind was exhausted from analyzing the visions and finding nothing. His emotions, which had not been stirred up at all for years upon years, ripped mercilessly through his faded heart. Sadness, despair, loss, loneliness… yes, most of all loneliness. It had been only a small thing nagging him at the back of his mind for so long, but now it was full-blown and almost crippling in its intensity.

Yami's body had never needed much sleep in the first place, but now he barely slept at all, and it had taken its toll on him. Thoughts and visions kept sleep from him, and when he did manage to fall asleep it was usually because he passed out from exhaustion. Then, his sleep would be filled with dreams of the things that he now knew so well yet did not understand.

As he descended down one of the many spiral staircases towards the main hall, Yami thought of Yugi. He had slowly admitted to himself that he had rather enjoyed having Yugi in the house with him. The human served as a good distraction from his thoughts; he was intelligent, sweet, and, as a bonus, quite pretty. Yami was going to have to get used to calling Yugi "he" in his mind; he had been rather surprised to find out that Yugi wasn't a female, but somehow it hadn't bothered him very much. No matter what gender Yugi was, he was still the same Yugi, and Yami felt much more bothered by the fact that humans were actually doing things like this to their children.

Yami heard a noise and stopped suddenly, looking down at the bottom of the stairs. Yugi, adorned in a pale blue dress, was down on his knees at the bottom of the stairs and had his head down near the floor, apparently trying to look through one of the cracks in the wall. Yami blinked, slightly curious, and he glided down to stand by Yugi.

"Look, I'm not mad at you," Yugi was saying. "You can come out now, I promise that I'm not angry!"

"Who are you talking to?"

Yugi jumped at the sound of Yami's voice and looked up quickly, then relaxed as he saw whom it was. "It's the kegawa. They won't come out." He leaned down again and said into the hole, "I know you're in there! You have to come out sometime!"

Several frightened squeaks came from the hole and there was the sound of scurrying feet, and then it was silent again. Yugi sat up and put his hands on his hips, letting out a frustrated sigh. Yami looked at Yugi, then at the wall, then back at Yugi.

"I think that they think that I'm mad at them for telling you that I was going up the stairs to the turret yesterday, but I'm not! I know that they were just doing their job and that I was the one breaking the rules!" Yugi raised his voice for that last sentence to make sure that the kegawa heard him, and he scowled at the wall when they stayed silent.

Yami felt a small smile touch his lips, which surprised him, but it had been a long succession of sleepless nights and he didn't have the energy to try and keep up a stoic appearance. He had already shown Yugi that he was soft, why should he keep worrying about it?

"Here, I'll get them to come out," Yami said. He snapped his fingers, and immediately several of the kegawa scampered out of the hole to sit at Yami's feet. They looked up at him expectantly, and he raised an eyebrow at them.

"Don't look at me. He's the one that wants to talk to you." The kegawa suddenly seemed to realize that Yugi was also there, and they tried to hide behind Yami's feet. Yami rolled his eyes and stepped out from in front of them. The little creatures looked at Yami, then at each other, and then back at Yami.

"Well, go on," Yami said, gesturing vaguely at Yugi, who was still crouched on the floor. Very reluctantly, a few of the kegawa inched forward. Yugi smiled, and stretched out a hand.

"See, I'm not angry," he said, letting a few of them crawl onto his palm, then he giggled as they scampered up his arm to his shoulders. Yugi stood, still cradling a few of the creatures in his hands, and smiled at Yami. He was surprised when Yami smiled back. There was an awkward silence for a few moments.

"Do you…" Yami started, then stopped. Yugi looked at him curiously. "Do I what?" he asked when Yami hesitated.

Yami wasn't sure why the thought had suddenly popped into his head, but as his confusion about his past grew he found himself becoming more and more desperate for a distraction from his thoughts.

"Do you want to take a walk outside?" he finally asked.

Yugi blinked. "But… the sun… wouldn't it…?"

Yami shook his head. "No, it's nighttime now." With all of the shutters closed and the curtains drawn, he sometimes forgot whether it was day or night himself.

Yugi blinked again, then smiled shyly. "I guess I've lost track of time… I don't know anymore whether it's day or night." Yugi looked down at the purring kegawa in his hands, a sad look coming over his face, but it quickly passed and he looked up again with a smile.

"I'd love to."

Outside the air was cool, a soft breeze rustling through the branches and caressing the somewhat overgrown garden around the ancient house. The waning moon cast an eerie light over the strange plants that grew there, bathing everything in silver shadow.

Yugi was so happy to finally be outside again, even though it was night. He had always treasured the times when he was out of doors, as those times had been few when he lived with his father. Not having bothered to put any shoes on, Yugi walked barefoot past enormous purple flowers with curled petals and ferns with thin leaves and tiny red blossoms that were beginning to droop. All of the trees in the garden were bare except for a few leaves that clung stubbornly to the branches, refusing to let autumn overcome them.

Yugi walked ahead of Yami, unaware that the dark creature was watching him closely in fascination. Yugi had a sort of grace that Yami had never seen in any other human, and despite his dark past he still remained in awe of the world and had a need to explore it.

In Yami's experience, humans that had gone through pain and suffering tended to isolate themselves and shy away from anything new. They had lost their trust in the world, and held it in contempt rather than in esteem.

But Yugi, though he was scarred with loss and abuse, was somehow different. How had he managed to survive the destructive tendencies of the vicious scum he called a father without losing himself? It took Yami a moment to realize that he admired Yugi for this. While Yugi had managed to hold on to a scrap of his innocence, Yami had lost himself completely. There was no clear memory of a past, and no hope of ever having a future.

The woman in the green dress was crying again. Yami tried to reach her, but something was pulling him away. Slowly, the woman became farther away and her sobs became fainter.

/They're taking me away… I'll never see her again…/

Yami blinked, shocked back into the present by a pair of large violet eyes staring at him.

"Are you all right, Yami?" Yugi asked, concerned. The kegawa on his shoulders cooed uncertainly, looking back and forth from Yami to Yugi.

"I… I'm fine. Just… thinking."

"What about?" Yugi asked as he sat down on a stone bench beneath one of the skeletal trees. "If you don't mind me asking, that is," he added hastily.

Yami sighed, and sat down next to Yugi. "I'm not really sure myself," he said softly. He rested an elbow on his lap and set his chin in his hand. He looked over at Yugi to see that the boy was mimicking him. Yami raised an eyebrow at him, and Yugi did the same. The kegawa purred loudly on his shoulders, a few of them scurrying down Yugi's back to crawl up onto Yami's shoulders.

"Mai told me that if you start forgetting what you're thinking about, then it's the first sign that you're losing your wits," Yugi said cheerfully.

"I must have lost my wits a long time ago, then," Yami said, and smiled when Yugi laughed. It was such a pretty sound.

"I see you're still wearing dresses," Yami said, eyeing the pale blue of the fabric that Yugi had on. It had long, snug sleeves, a skirt that reached down to his toes, and a v-shaped neckline embroidered with golden butterflies. Yugi looked at him quizzically.

"Still?" he repeated.

Yami shrugged. "You don't have to wear a female's clothes if you don't want to. There are probably some men's clothes somewhere in the attic, and I don't really care either way."

Yugi smiled shyly, still ecstatic that the deception involving his gender hadn't made Yami angry. "Okay… but I've never even tried on men's clothes before. Father never let me because he was so afraid of someone seeing that I wasn't really a girl." Yugi fell silent, his gaze drifting away from Yami.

"Hey, Yami?" Yugi said, fixating his gaze on a bluish fern next to his foot.

"Yes?"

"I… I'm sorry if I made you mad when I asked you those questions about your past a few days ago. I didn't mean to be nosy, I really didn't…"

Yami snorted. "You've been worrying over that?" He suddenly found himself regretting that comment as Yugi's face colored in embarrassment. He held back a sigh; all these unfamiliar emotions were giving him a headache, an ailment that hadn't affected him for decades.

"No, you didn't make me mad. I just…" Yami searched for any sufficient explanation that didn't involve the truth, "I just don't like to talk about it, that's all."

Yugi nodded. "Okay."

Yami blinked. That was it? It was all okay, just like that? Yugi just accepted that Yami didn't want to tell him anything about himself, something that Yugi probably had a right to know seeing as he was a guest in Yami's house. He felt his admiration for Yugi go up several points.

"Yami? Can I ask you something else?" Yugi asked quietly.

"Yes."

"Why did you help me in the forest?"

Yami sat in shocked silence for a moment. Where had that question come from? He hesitated, then his mind latched on to what he had been thinking about only minutes before and he blurted out, "Because you're different from other people, Yugi," he said. Yugi blinked at him.

"Other humans, I mean," Yami went on. "The only humans I've ever come into contact with have hated me. Hate is an easy thing to see in a person's eyes if it's strong enough."

Yami looked at Yugi with a mildly curious expression. "But in you, all I saw was some fear, which was understandable, and maybe some curiosity. You had no hate for me, and that was something that I'd never seen before. You didn't hate me before you knew me…" Yami fell silent, and the only sounds were the wind in the trees and the soft purrs of the kegawa.

"I don't like to judge people that I don't know," Yugi said softly, and he looked up at Yami. "And now that I do know you a little, I see no reason to hate you." Yugi blushed a little, averting his gaze again. "In fact… I see lots of reasons to like you rather than hate you."

Yami's sense of time screeched to a halt. Yugi actually LIKED him! Yami felt something that he faintly recognized as hope surge in his chest, the intensity of it managing to make his headache worse. It took him several moments to realize that one of the kegawa was nudging at his hand to get his attention. Yami looked down, and the little creature looked over at Yugi. Yami followed the gaze, and saw that Yugi was hugging himself and shivering. Yami hadn't noticed that the breeze had gotten stronger and colder since they had come outside.

"We ought to go inside," he said, and Yugi nodded. He stood, and out of the corner of his eye saw Yami taking his cloak off. Wasn't he cold? Then, to Yugi's surprise, Yami wrapped the thick cloak around Yugi's shoulders, and then before Yugi could even blink Yami had turned and was walking back towards the front door. The kegawa purred happily, evidently pleased with the kind gesture, and Yugi smiled to himself as he followed Yami back into the house.

A/N: dances I'm actually pleased with this one. I had so much trouble getting in everything that I wanted to get in without it sounding awkward or choppy. Or does it sound awkward and choppy? I dunno, I'm just glad that I'm done with all that #&$! editing. Takes longer than the actual writing, don't ya know. Review, all you lovely people, or I shall pulverize you with decorative soap!