Chapter 12

When the three of them trooped aboard the River Horse a few hours before dawn, the Nile cruiser was quiet, most of her occupants already in bed. A sleepy-eyed sentry challenged them on the gangway, checking their boarding passes before letting them pass. The sentry, who appeared to be eighteen at the most, saluted when Mahaad presented his police badge. He was still standing at attention when Yugi lost sight of him as they entered the interior of the cruiser.

Mahaad quietly went his own way, and Yami escorted Yugi back to his cabin. "I just want to make sure no one's left you any surprises," Yami explained. "Then you should go to sleep. You'll need all the rest you can get for whatever lies ahead of us tomorrow."

That sounded sensible to Yugi, but he knew he wouldn't be able to sleep. Even though he was feeling the effects of the adrenaline crash rocking his system, he was too wound up with worry and fear and pent up anger to relax. Feeling a bit like an observer inside his own head, he watched Yami check under the bed and in the tiny bathroom. While Yami was peeping into the closet, Yugi toed off his shoes and sank onto the edge of the mattress. His heart hammered in his chest as he realized what he wanted to do.

"It doesn't look like anyone's been snooping around in here again." Yami came to sit beside him, one hand reaching out to gently brush Yugi's limp bangs back from his face. "I'll go now so that you can get some rest."

"Stay with me." Yugi blurted out the words before they had even registered in his brain, but he didn't take them back. "I don't... I don't want to be alone."

"Yugi..." Yami's voice was like the caress of velvet against Yugi's skin, and he shivered with sudden need when Yami leaned down to brush his cheek against Yugi's. His warm breath teased across Yugi's ear, tantalizing nerves Yugi had never guessed could be so sensitive. "I want to. But if I stay, I won't be able to keep my hands off you."

"Promise?" Yugi whispered, turning so his mouth caught Yami's. Yami gave a little moan, lips parting beneath Yugi's tongue, and Yugi took quick advantage of it. His tongue darted inside, and this time he dominated the kiss, exploring Yami's mouth even as his hands roamed up the front of Yami's shirt and loosened the first button at his throat.

Fire danced along Yugi's skin as Yami slid his hands up Yugi's back, under his t-shirt. He angled his body again so that he could bear Yami back onto the bed. Yami groaned as Yugi's arousal pressed against him, sliding along his thigh and up to his hip as Yugi moved on top of him. Panting, Yugi held himself up on his forearms long enough to look down at the handsome face below him. Beneath the thick veil of his lowered lashes, Yami's brown eyes had darkened almost to black, and his mouth was soft with desire.

"Stay," Yugi said, and lowered his head to demand another kiss.

Yami obeyed.

Later, Yugi curled drowsily against Yami, his head pillowed on Yami's bare chest so he could listen to the comforting rhythm of the other's heartbeat. One of Yami's hands stroked a soothing rhythm along the line of Yugi's spine. Yugi was almost in dreamland when the sleepy murmur, so soft it might have been nothing but his imagination, reached his ears.

"...I love you, Yugi."

Every nerve in Yugi's body stood at attention as his lethargy vanished in an instant. Eyes wide, he held still, waiting to see if Yami would say anything else, but the only sound was Yami's slow, even breathing.

Before Yugi could decide whether to rejoice or panic, the bed shifted beneath him as if the River Horse had encountered rough water. His tube of emergency hair gel toppled off the nightstand with a clatter as it struck the floor. He jerked onto his back, panting in the darkness, and gasped, "The earth moved!"

"Mm-hm," came the mumbled, but still surprisingly smug, reply. "But this time it w's jus' an aftershock." A yawn, then, "We'll b' gettin' 'em for w'ks..."

And then there were only the quiet sounds of contented slumber.

A tiny grin flashed across Yugi's lips. He shook his head fondly as he slipped out of bed and went to stand by the window. He still didn't know what to make of Yami. He'd never met anyone so... so... Yami-like. No other description did the man justice.

Yugi rested his forehead against the cool glass of the window and stared with unseeing eyes at the night shrouded river beyond. He wasn't sure about what he'd done. He'd never felt for anyone what he felt for Yami, but... Maybe it was too soon, too fast. Making love with him had felt wonderful, but right now he had to focus on more important things than physical pleasure. Things like getting his grandpa back.

A sudden stab of terror knifed through him, doubling him over. Grandpa! Yugi's mind shouted the name into the icy darkness that threatened to engulf his mind. I'll find you, Grandpa. I promise!

He felt the brush of Sugoroku's consciousness, then, just for a second. The terror belonged to Sugoroku, but so did the sense of determination that followed. Determination to be strong, to hold on. Yugi clasped that determination to himself, made it his own. He wrapped his arms around his chest, and his grandpa's strength around his heart.

I believe in you, Grandpa. We can do this. Just don't give up...

Yami rolled over in the bed, arms reaching instinctively for Yugi. When he found only the cold bedsheet, he bolted upright, panicked eyes searching the gloom. He closed his eyes in sheer relief when he saw Yugi by the window, wrapped in a thin cotton robe, his head leaning against the glass. Swallowing his heart, which had leaped up to lodge in his throat, Yami rose and went to him.

"Yugi? Love, what's wrong?"

"Don't call me that." Amethyst eyes made luminous in the moonlight peered up at him through the disarray of Yugi's golden bangs. "I think I made a terrible mistake..."

Fear pooled in Yami's gut. He shook his head, trying to ward off the rejection he sensed coming. In a weak voice forced through the sudden constriction of his throat, he croaked, "It wasn't a mistake--"

"Grandpa's in danger and we're the only ones who can save him. I have to concentrate on that, not..." Yugi made a helpless, inarticulate gesture. "There's nothing more important!"

Sure he wouldn't like the answers to any questions he might ask now, Yami reached out tentative arms and tugged Yugi into his embrace. Yugi resisted for a moment, then sagged against Yami, allowing his head to come to rest against Yami's chest. Not knowing what else to do, Yami pulled Yugi down with him into the armchair by the window and simply held Yugi as he drifted, finally, into an exhausted sleep.

His heart aching, Yami kept watch through the remainder of the night. Knowing he might never get another chance, he held Yugi close, treasuring the feel of him in his arms, the soft caress of Yugi's breath against his skin. When dreams troubled Yugi, Yami soothed him with gentle touches and caring words pressed along with butterfly kisses to his forehead and temple until Yugi quieted.

And when the dawn broke over Edfu, Yami still held him -- and worried about the future.