Stolen Innocence

Summary: A vicious attack leaves Yugi broken, but Yami's determined to pick up the pieces. Yaoi
Fandom: Yu-gi-oh
Pairings: Mainly Yami/Yugi, some side-pairings
Warnings: Yaoi, non-con, bad language
Disclaimer: Don't own shit - poor me. Except Hiroko, Yoji and Kaori…they're all mine, and I'll kill anyone who tries to steal them. I own Tenchi too, but you're welcome to him. He's an asshole
Author's Note: I know the last chapter was pretty pointless, and I apologise for it. Hopefully this one will be better. It was actually originally very different, but a lot of people wanted background on Hiroko. I hope you appreciate how damn hard it was to tie her story into the main plot

I pulled an all-nighter to get this finished, so I apologise if it's a little incoherent, especially towards the end

Chapter 3

Hiroko Shima was generally considered to be a very good doctor. It was odd, in that case, that she had never actually wanted to be a doctor. She had wanted nothing more than to marry, settle down, and be a good wife and mother. The person who changed that irrevocably was her stepfather.

At the age of eight, Hiroko hadn't quite understood why her parents divorced. And even now, at the age of twenty-eight, she still didn't understand why her mother had chosen to remarry the man she did. The way he treated her mother put Hiroko off of men for good. He regarded Hiroko as nothing more than irritating baggage and had abused her physically and mentally, constantly telling her that she was useless and stupid. It was purely to prove him wrong that she picked the hardest university course that she could think of – medicine.

She hadn't seen either of her parents since she left home, and frankly she preferred it that way. In hindsight she realised that it had been a ridiculous reason to become a doctor. But she wouldn't trade it for anything – well, except maybe a life of idle luxury, but that was hardly likely to be an option at any point in the near future.

The only person to know the full story was Kaori. The motherly nurse had been a friend of the family, and she was the one who had convinced a depressed and hopeless fifteen-year-old Hiroko that she had the talent to do whatever she wanted. But she had never got the family she had dreamed of as a child. Perhaps it was due to some long-suppressed maternal instinct that she was so determined to help the younger patients that came her way.

And perhaps it was because she saw a shadow of the frightened child she had been in Yugi that she was more determined to help him than she had ever been to help anyone else.

XxXxXxX

It was a week later Hiroko reluctantly conceded that Yugi had recovered enough to be discharged from the hospital. She wasn't really happy about it, but the rules were unusually specific about patients outstaying their welcome. Normally she wouldn't be averse to discreetly bending the rules, but she was probably right in suspecting that Tenchi would jump at the chance to rat her out to management.

The standard follow-up was counselling a couple of times a week. Hiroko took a very dim view of psychiatrists in general, and the ones at that hospital in particular, so it was with a marked lack of enthusiasm that she arranged the appointment. A preliminary session conformed her views – Yugi came out muttering furiously that psychiatrists were irritating, smug hypocrites, and the only thing bigger than their wage packets was their ego. Hiroko's understanding of the matter was clearly backwards if that was meant to be an improvement.

"You'd better take good care of him," she told Yami warningly as the pair left together. He didn't even dignify that with an answer – of course he would. It was already dark outside as they started the long journey home. She watched them walk away from the hospital from the window of her office. Yugi cringed away as someone passed too close, and Yami put a protective arm around the smaller boy. Hiroko couldn't help but smile.

Perhaps he would be alright after all.

XxXxXxX

Author's Note: I could have ended it here. For a while I was going to. But I think I owe my beloved reviewers more than that

XxXxXxX

The bus was very crowded; which, given the circumstances, was inconvenient. It was only natural that Yugi would be extremely twitchy about strangers coming too close. There was standing room only left on the bus, and people were crammed into that in a way which even sardines would have been appalled by. As he tried to shield the trembling boy from the rest of the crowd – which was becoming increasingly impossible – Yami mentally cursed himself for the worst sort of idiot.

Yes, public transport at rush hour - the perfect place for him to be. Nicely done, you moron…surely someone could have given you a lift…

A person can only spend so long brooding over their stupidity before becoming severely depressed, so he was rather relieved when the bus reached their stop. It was late when they finally got home and they were both tired. Yugi was understandably insistent about making sure the doors were locked before they went to bed.

Yami had been running all day on less than four hours of sleep and an obscene amount of coffee. He collapsed into bed, profoundly grateful that he wouldn't have to get up till the following afternoon, and was asleep almost instantly. When was the last time he'd had a decent night's sleep? Certainly more than two weeks ago. Now seemed like the perfect opportunity to make up for lost time.

XxXxXxX

Yugi, on the other hand, had far more trouble getting to sleep. It was not that he wasn't tired, because he was, but he knew that as soon as he fell asleep the nightmares would come again. He had also drunk more coffee than could possibly be healthy, but the effects were wearing off. Sleep was a sly creature, and it pounced on him the second his mind wandered.

It was dark and cold, and he was becoming increasingly lost. He wasn't entirely sure where he was or how he'd gotten there. Or, most crucially of all, how to get the hell out of there. And then worry was suddenly turned to outright terror as rough hands grabbed him and he was dragged into an alley, a coarse palm slapped over his mouth the stifle his screams. After that, all he really remembered clearly was laughter and pain. Laughter as he cried and struggled uselessly, screaming for help that wasn't going to come. Cruel laughter mocking his pain…

He woke up screaming.

XxXxXxX

The terrified scream that echoed through the house immediately jerked Yami out of his shallow sleep. His body was already halfway to the door before his brain had worked out what the hell was going on. Almost instantly, he was down the hall and into the next bedroom. Yugi was sitting up on the bed, wide-eyed and terrified, tears streaming down his cheeks. Yami sat down next to him and wrapped his arms around his sobbing hikari.

"It was just a nightmare, aibou," he said soothingly; "It's alright."
"But it's not!" Yugi sobbed, burying his face in his hands, "I know I should g-get over it and move on, but I c-can't. I'm useless. Why do you p-put up with me?"

Yami held him until he had calmed down a little. He reached out and gently but firmly lifted the smaller boy's chin so they were looking straight at each other. He didn't even have to think; he just opened his mouth and spoke the truest words he'd ever said:

"Because I love you, my hikari," he replied, gazing straight into violet eyes still shining with tears, "And I promise that as long as I'm here, no-one will ever hurt you again."

TO BE CONTINUED

And the end bit there is dedicated to my dear Ashley, a self-confessed sucker for hurt-comfort pieces.
I will hunt down and kill each and every person who reads my fic without reviewing it!