And so begins Week Two: Space!

Warnings: Referenced Violence

Prompt VIII: Quiet

Yugi would never forget the shattered look on Yami's face when the pack returned with news that Atem had taken his small group of wolves elsewhere. He'd never forget how Yami had whispered "He left me" under his breath for several hours after. He'd never forget when Yami howled for two hours straight, despite the fact that the rest of the pack had been livid and threatened to turn on him for it. They'd been afraid of attracting attention, but the incident must have been dismissed by human arrogance. They must have assumed it was just a stray dog that had likely lost its mate. No one had ever even spoken of anything different. And no one had ever come in their direction after.

He would never forget when his grandfather pulled him aside to tell him that Atem had adamantly expressed Yami not be allowed to go anywhere near the old territory.

"The hunters are still around that area. Atem was scoping the woods with his…pack to set up a counterattack. He wants them dead, after what they did to their parents." Sugoroku had gone silent, bowing and shaking his head. He'd looked exhausted. "They'd caught Atem for breeding purposes. Apparently they'd planned to use him and his…female companion as the breeding pair to get unique pelt combinations. They'd meant to use them for skins, like they used to with silver fox farms."

It'd taken a month, but Atem had gotten the female—Mai, Yugi remembered now—to trust him enough to implement his plan. Mai had turned human and the wolves had pretended to snap and bite at her as if she were a regular human until the hunter had come out to remove her from the pin. She'd attacked and killed him and gotten the cages open from there. Atem and Mai had apparently formed some kind of loose social structure, one that his grandfather told him was used in pack skirmishes and wars, called "the alpha and the bitch". Mai would not be exclusively his, and she'd be the only female in a group of over twenty.

It happened sometimes when packs went to war with each other.

The female was used voluntarily as the glue to hold the pack together.

Yugi had had nightmares about that for a long time, though he was never entirely sure as to why. He supposed it just scared him that Atem might turn on them in order to get his little brother back.

Yami hadn't been the same in the two years since. He didn't wag his tail as much. He didn't smile. At school he was despondent and quiet and avoided people as much as possible. His grades had plummeted for a while before he'd gotten them up again. He was always the last to eat when the pack hunted and he usually only chewed on bones and slept.

At night, in their room, Yami would whimper in his sleep and shiver and wake himself up if Yugi didn't. Yugi would wordlessly hold the blankets up for him while Yami crawled into bed with him. Sometimes he'd be too ashamed to make eye contact or get too close. Others he took full advantage and snuggled into him, burying his nose in his collarbone and syncing their breathing before falling fast asleep.

Yugi hadn't truly had a day to himself to think everything over for more than a few minutes until now. It'd been two years since then, but he'd never forgotten and he couldn't quite shake the disappointment when Yami sometimes looked at him and then quickly away again. He didn't know if it was because he believed he was partially to blame because he'd led him away when his grandpa had instructed or if he thought he knew more than he was telling him.

And Yugi did. He'd never told him what his grandpa had said to him. He'd simply stayed silent as instructed, careful never to say anything to allude to what had happened. Atem had made it clear he didn't want Yami to know about any of it. Maybe he thought he'd run off to chase after him and try to help. Maybe he was being a good big brother and just didn't want Yami to know.

Yugi couldn't say for sure which was the truth of the matter.

All he knew for sure was that Yami had regressed from the usual sweet, energetic boy to a more withdrawn, quiet and maybe even slightly bitter one. He never lashed out and he was always still sweet in mannerism. But he refused to even try to climb rank as any yearling his age would have. And he sometimes was so withdrawn Yugi was amazed he didn't lash out.

Yugi sighed loudly and tipped himself back in his chair.

Things would have been so much easier if Yami had never heard that conversation. He wouldn't have gone running off to find Atem and he wouldn't have withdrawn so much.

But then, he didn't know that for sure. He could have slowly done so, wilting before his eyes, if Atem had been dead as Yugi had said. Yugi wasn't sure which he should have been more thankful for, Yami having gotten a chance to see his brother again or the idea that Atem would have likely never have crossed paths with him if Yami hadn't run off like that.

But then, what would have happened if Atem had decided then to make his move? The hunters hadn't been too far from them. Why they hadn't come around to figure out who was howling or why or even to try to find tracks Yugi knew had been there. Maybe they knew their pack was too large for them to take on so easily. Maybe they'd been afraid to go against thirty wolves, especially in the dark like that.

Sugoroku had said Atem was planning to kill them then and there. Yami's appearance had startled him enough to prevent the attack for the moment. And the group of ten wolves Atem led had decided then that they would recruit more and strengthen their numbers before going after them. He'd asked Atem not to do it in their territory, but had conceded when Atem had pointed out the hunters would likely run that way regardless when they turned on them. They'd try to use the Motou pack to slow them down and defend themselves, due to the territorial nature of werewolves.

Atem had agreed to meet with Sugoroku the day he planned to do it.

But Yugi had the smallest niggling doubt in the back of his mind.

He'd abandoned his brother for a reason. He wouldn't come back to tell them he was back and when he planned to attack for the sake of protecting Yami. Yugi himself never would have done it, either, so he understood completely why he would not. The further Yami was from the conflict, the better.