Chapter Twenty:
When Yugi woke, it was dark, and his mother was sitting in a chair next to his bed. He was so disoriented for a second that he tried to sit up and cried out in pain as he pressed down on his left shoulder.
"Don't move, Sweetheart," Mrs. Moto said, turning on the lamp and leaning over him.
"Mom. Um, what are you doing here?"
"Yami has me set up across the hall," Mrs. Moto said. "So I could be here."
Yugi smiled tiredly with affection for his darkness and his mother. "I'm fine."
"No, you're not," his mother said simply. "So please stop saying that. Your father is here, too, but he's back at the Shop-"
"Dad's here?" Yugi was genuinely surprised.
He didn't miss the shadow that crossed his mother's face, but all she said was, "Of course he is. I called him the minute I heard and he was on the next available flight. He's getting me some more things from home, then he'll be back."
Yugi nodded. He loved his father, but Mr. Moto wasn't exactly the family type. So, he was surprised, and touched, that his father had come home.
"Where's Joey?" Yugi asked he looked at the empty bed across the room.
"Downstairs having dinner with everyone else. I insisted. I didn't know how long you would be sleeping or when was the last time he ate. It's after seven-thirty. I want you to eat something, too."
"Yeah, I can go down-"
"No, no. Maybe tomorrow, but for tonight, I want you to stay in bed. Here." She picked up what looked like a serving tray from a serving cart Yugi hadn't noticed by the door. She laid it over Yugi's lap and lifted the lid. It was a large bowl of beef nikujaga, a hunk of some sort of artisan bread, and a smaller dishes of white rice and sliced fruit. Mrs. Moto went back to the cart, then returned with a cup of hot green tea that she set on the nightstand next to the cup of water from earlier.
"Thanks, Mom."
"Of course, Sweetheart."
She left the room. Yugi ate his meal, realizing that he was famished. At least he was right-handed. He was finishing his fruit when Joey came up. He was dressed, still looking tired, but not as worn down as before. He came over and sat down on the edge of the bed. He moved the tray that Yugi couldn't from his lap to the nightstand.
"How do you feel?"
"Fine." Realizing he was saying that word too much, Yugi added, "Sore."
"Gonna find out who did it, Yug'-"
"Joey, don't. Please don't."
Joey looked at him, then leaned over with his palm braced on the bed on the other side of Yugi's hips, pushed back his bangs with his free hand, and kissed his forehead. Then he rested his own forehead against Yugi's, eyes closed.
"Tell me what happened. Everything."
Knowing what Joey meant, Yugi took his free hand in his and squeezed his fingers. He told him everything that did happen, ignoring the way Joey's fingers clamped down on his as he tried to keep his temper in check. Once he was done, Joey at last opened his eyes and leaned back a little.
"The landlord offered to change the locks. Or break our lease if we forfeit the deposit. Which do you want to do, Yug'?"
Yugi only shook his head wearily again. He didn't want to make decisions right then. "I don't know."
Joey nodded, sat up straight, and reached for the bottle of ibuprofen on the nightstand. The doctor hadn't prescribed anything stronger than that and Yugi was sure it would be sufficient. He took a couple of the pills from Joey and swallowed some more water.
"Get some more sleep," Joey urged. "I called Erica and let her know. She wishes you well and said take all the time you need. Called Akira, too. Sleep some more, Spiky, I'll be right here."
Belly full, pain little more than an annoying throb, Joey's thumb rubbing his knuckles, Yugi did drift off again.
******
Over the next few days, Yugi was thoroughly doted on by Joey, his mother, and Yami, even though he insisted he could do everything himself. Tea, Serenity, Tristan, and Ryou had all spent that first night, then returned to their own places, but Mrs. Moto wanted to stay on until Yugi's sling came off. It was as if he really had broken his neck, but he couldn't blame her.
His dad was still in Domino. Mr. Moto was about as different from his son as it was possible to be. He was about Joey's height, very broad, and while he had the Moto violet eyes and gold lightning-bolt bangs, his all-black spikes lay flat like Mokuba's hair. He was quiet and serious, not very friendly or family-oriented, though his relief that Yugi was not badly injured was obvious.
He'd come up once to spend a quiet, awkward hour with Yugi the morning after Yugi had been set up in the Kaiba Manor. He had taken over Yugi's work at the Shop for the time being, and soon went back there to greet the cashier and introduce himself. Yugi hadn't seen him since.
The man who had broken in was of course never found. There was nothing to go on, no DNA, no one else had seen him.
For the first few days, Yugi didn't even leave the second-floor guest-suite Yami had set up. The pain in his sprained shoulder and wrist was pretty bad every time he so much as shifted and his bruised muscles had stiffened up by the morning after the attack. Yugi kept to the recommended dose of ibuprofen pretty much by sheer force of will, and Mrs. Moto was fanatical about changing the ice packs on time. Yami had Yugi's meals delivered to him by the Kaiba staff and he, Joey, and Yugi's mother pretty much didn't leave his side for a minute.
Eventually, though, the pain became tolerable and on the fourth day of recovery, Yugi insisted on taking breakfast downstairs with everyone else. His mother was worried.
"Sweetheart, we can go back to your room," she said as she and Joey hovered over him when he was at the top of the stairs leading to the ground floor. "If you're not ready-"
"I'm okay, Mom." Yugi looked up at her.
She looked worried, but she didn't say anything more. Yugi turned back to the stairs and started down them. His mother and Joey paced him, but didn't try to stop him.
"Nothing keeps Yug' down," Joey said as they walked.
Yugi made it to the bottom without incident and took a deep breath. He'd faced a lot worse than this, and he was not going to let that man take his life from him, in any sense. He looked up at the other two and smiled. For the first time that week, his smile felt wholly genuine. He still didn't know if he wanted to go back to that apartment, but he wasn't going to hide.
In the dining room, Kaiba was at his place at the head of the table, reading a newspaper, Mokuba on his right and already started on breakfast. Yami came in through the doors that led into the kitchens and immediately came over.
"Are you okay, Yugi?"
"Yes." Yugi looked over his shoulder. "Kaiba, thank you for letting us stay here."
Kaiba's eyes flicked up at him, then back down to his newspaper. "Yami invited you."
/He is being grumpy, Aibou,/ Yami said. /He never once complained./
/Ryou says he knows better. That you'll send him to the Shadow Realm if he tries./
Yami's mouth quirked. /There is that./
Mokuba also asked after Yugi's health while Joey pulled out Yugi's chair. Joey's glare went ignored by their host. The other four settled down to breakfast. Yugi knew that Kaiba's callousness was genuine, but not the whole story. He was well aware of Yami's temper and powers and neither had ever stopped him from speaking his mind before. He hadn't invited them, and probably wouldn't have, but he hadn't protested their presence because he wanted Yami to be happy.
On Friday, Sota, Rin, Mark, and Nadia arrived to check on Yugi. Through Erica, they had all been made aware of Yugi's assault, but had stayed away to give him some time to heal. Now they all piled in the massive sitting room of the manor, joined by Tristan, Tea, Serenity, and Ryou, who had come to visit almost every day themselves.
"Movie's on hold," Sota said as he munched on some snacks delivered by one of the maids. "We filmed a couple things out of order the two of you weren't in, but we're caught up now."
Yugi felt guilty, even though he knew he shouldn't. "My sling should come off Tuesday. I can be back next week."
"Don't rush," Rin said. "Erica says the important thing is that you're okay. You are okay, right?"
Smiling at her concern, Yugi nodded. "Yes, thank you."
"Did you ever get hold of Daisy?" Tea asked Nadia.
"Sort of. We've been texting. She says she's out of minutes. We made plans to get dinner tomorrow. Want to come?"
"Oh, I can't. We have a performance." Tea's dance troupe would be staying another six weeks for performances before heading on to Moscow.
Sota turned to Ryou. "So, Ryou, I've been wanting to ask, my little brother's really into Duel Monsters and he has a fiend deck. Where did you get Dark Necrofear and Destiny Board? When you played them against Yugi at Battle City, that was super cool."
Ryou got even paler and stammered. "Oh, um… m-my dad got them for me…"
Of course it had been Bakura who had played those cards. Hastily taking the attention off his friend and the bad memories associated, Yugi said, "They're really rare, Sota. And they're harder to use than they're worth. Five turns for Destiny Board to take effect and removing from play three Fiend monsters to summon Dark Necrofear with only 2200 Attack Points? Those almost never pan out. You saw."
"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'd have to take advice from the King of Games, right?"
Yugi smiled awkwardly. Joey jumped in on turning the conversation away from Ryou.
"Hey, Sota, did Erica give you guys the second Acts?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah, she did. She'd given them out while we were waiting for you guys. You know, since we didn't know… Anyway, yours are probably in the office."
"Ugh, I'll have to deal with Cara."
"We'll go together, Joey, and I'll talk to her," Yugi said.
"Ah, not that important." He was trying to take any responsibility off Yugi while he was healing. "Anything cool?" he added to Sota.
"Ha, yeah!"
"Don't spoil it," Rin admonished.
"No, spoil it," Joey urged. "Nobody here will leak anything, promise."
"I get done in," Nadia said.
"Oh, no, really?" Yugi asked.
"Yep. Towards the end." She grinned broadly and said with a strange sort of pride, "I get skinned."
"Oh, gross," Joey said happily.
Yugi winced. These were the sort of things he hated about horror movies and that Joey loved. He noticed that Tea, Ryou, Yami, Serenity, and Rin also looked as turned off as he did, while Sota, Tristan, Joey, Nadia, and Mark were fascinated.
"I'm pretty sure I get axed, too," Sota said. "Maybe literally. My character disappears before Nadia's-she goes to find me and gets taken by the killer-and all that's left is blood and a notch in the wall. You know, like an axe makes in a tree trunk."
"What about the rest of us?" Joey asked.
"Make it to the end at least."
"Where do I come in?" Tristan asked.
"A few pages in."
"Yeah, you're the caretaker of the abandoned inn," Nadia said. "You find all of us wandering around and we persuade you to let us wait out the storm. Maybe you're the killer," she added with a grin.
"Oh, that would be so sweet!"
"Where's Mark in all this?" Joey asked, turning to the man himself.
"Dunno yet," Mark admitted. "I haven't shown up at all. My Acts tell me my name is Thomas, but I'm just a spectator so far."
"Maybe you're the killer," Joey said.
"That would be awesome, but I don't think so. I think Erica and Kevin have something different in mind."
tbc...
A/N: Reviews are always appreciated.