Chapter 7: New Friends and Old

When Chris and Rebecca saw their friend Yugi pulling the unconscious Yami back up the shore towards them, Chris immediately ran to get help and returned with Tristan, who carried Yami the rest of the way to the castle. Although his friend carried him, however, Yugi never let go of Yami's hand until Yami was laid down on his bed to rest, at which time Yugi sat nearby to wait for his awakening.

Around late afternoon, Tea opened the door to Yugi's room. Her friend was at his desk near his bed where Yami slept, editing some of his grandfather's speech drafts while looking up every-so-often to check to see if Yami had woken up.

"Yugi?" said Tea. "It's almost time for dinner…maybe you should go downstairs and eat; I can take a turn watching our guest."

Yugi shook his head. "I'm the only one he knows…he might get scared finding himself in a weird place, but if I'm there, he'll be able to relax."

Tea nodded in understanding and for the first time sneaked a look at the stranger.

'Wow…he's very handsome…'

She forced the blush off her face and turned back to her friend with a smile. "I'll bring something up for you; can't go to bed without eating."

Yugi smiled back gratefully. "Thanks, Tea."

And with that, Tea left.

Yugi got up from his chair at his desk and sat down on the floor by Yami's bed.

'I hope you're alright, Yami…'

Out of nowhere, Yami's strength deflated like a balloon and he nearly collapsed; fortunately Yugi was there to catch him.

"Are you alright?" he asked worriedly.

"So…tired…" Yami murmured fragmentally. "Don't…know…why…"

"Don't worry," Yugi assured him, pulling him onto his back so he could pull him along the beach back to Rebecca and Chris and toward the palace. "I've got you…"

"Yugi…" Yami whispered.

'I guess whatever made you get amnesia must've taken a toll on you,' Yugi thought concernedly. 'But you looked so weak there on the beach…you seem like someone who never looks that weak…' Almost inadvertently, Yugi brought a hand up and smoothed a hair out of Yami's face. 'I hope you wake up soon, Yami…I hate seeing you look so helpless…'

As if provoked by Yugi's thoughts, a moan escaped Yami's mouth and his red eyes slowly blinked open.

"Yugi?"

"You're alright!" Yugi breathed, looking very relieved. "I was really getting worried…you've been asleep almost all day."

"All day…?" Yami repeated absently, sitting up and holding his head.

'Dartz and Seto said something about me only having three days to make Yugi fall in love with me…though they didn't say why…'

The thought dropped from his mind, however; Yami enjoyed seeing Yugi happy too much to care about some sort of deadline.

Then something occurred to him.

"Do you mean that you've stayed with me throughout the entire day?"

Yugi blushed, looking down awkwardly.

"Well…yeah…I couldn't just leave you with someone you didn't know…"

Yami felt a warm feeling in his chest. 'Does Yugi feel for me like I do for him?'

"Thank you, Yugi," he answered. "I don't know if I shall ever be able to repay your kindness to me…but I do hope I can, one day."

"You don't have to repay me," Yugi dissented, going even redder. "You needed help…it would've been inhumane to leave you there. Anyone would have done it."

"Not just anyone would've brought me into their home and stayed with me until I woke up," Yami pointed out. "That shows pureness of heart, Yugi."

Before Yugi could respond, the door opened to reveal Tea holding a tray of food. At the sight of Yami awake and sitting up, she blinked in surprise, her cheeks slightly pink.

'Wow…he's even more handsome when he's awake…boy, am I glad Yugi decided to rescue a naked man!'

She quickly forced a smile onto her face. "He's awake…good. Um…here's your food, Yugi. Do you want me to bring some up for Yami too?"

"No," Yami spoke before Yugi could. "I'll just share Yugi's."

"Are you sure?" asked Tea. "I could get you some stuffed crab from downstairs."

For some odd reason, the notion of "stuffed crab" made Yami feel a little queasy, so he shook his head politely. "No, thank you."

"Oh," Tea said, sounding a little disappointed. "Okay. Uh…Yugi, there's a letter on the tray from the neighboring kingdom…there's a section in there King Solomon wants you to read."

Yugi sighed as if annoyed, but took the tray from Tea nonetheless. "Thanks, Tea."

Tea nodded, shot a quick smile at Yami and left the room.

"I hope you don't mind that I don't have any crab," Yugi apologized, sounding slightly embarrassed as he scanned the letter quickly before throwing it in the trash. "I'm a vegetarian…I just can't make myself eat anything that could've been alive."

"It's quite alright," Yami assured him, taking a roll, nibbling a little off of it and deciding he liked the taste. "Eating something called 'stuffed crab' doesn't sound very appealing to me."

Yugi seemed surprised as he started sprinkling shredded cheese on a salad. "Really?"

"Yeah," Yami replied with a shrug. "I don't know, perhaps I was a 'vegetarian' in my previous life as well."

Yugi grinned as he skewered a bunch of lettuce with a fork. "Wow…I've never found anyone who feels like I do about food before. My friends say it's silly that I don't eat fish since it's one of our kingdom's most stable crops, but…I don't know, it just doesn't seem right to me."

Yami nodded in understanding. "I personally don't know how people can eat food that is staring at them the entire time."

The two tricolor-haired young men talked back and forth, eating and laughing, for the rest of the evening. Occasionally Yugi had to correct Yami on how to eat a food, for it was apparent that eating soup with a fork is more than a tad difficult. Finally they finished all the food and Yugi decided to hit the sack (which he had to explain to Yami meant "going to bed" instead of "hitting a sack"). Yami argued that he wouldn't sleep on the bed while Yugi slept on the floor, and Yugi protested that Yami deserved the bed, and, out of pure dislike of fighting with each other, they declared in unison, "Both."

So Yugi slept on the left side of the bed and Yami slept on the right near the open window that opened onto a balcony that looked out to sea. The cool ocean breeze seemed to sooth Yami like a mother singing her child a lullaby, and he found it very easy, with the breeze in his ear and Yugi beside him, to glide into the world of dreams.

"Hey. Hey!"

Yami's eyes shot open at the feeling of water splashing his face.

"Ah!"

He rubbed the water out of his eyes and looked up to see Joey holding onto the edge of the balcony and looking over it at him.

"What the hell…what are you doing here?" Yami asked, scrambling out of the bed and over to the balcony.

"Checking up on you," Joey responded.

He eyed Yugi still in bed and suddenly grinned broadly.

"You've already slept with him? Man, I thought you would fall in love with him quickly, but I never thought you'd get him to kiss you in one day!"

"Huh?" said Yami, going very red. "I didn't sleep with him! At least not like that…w-we were arguing about where the other would sleep last night and we decided to share the bed, that's all!"

Joey's smile faded.

"So you didn't kiss him?"

"No," Yami replied.

Joey's attitude quite visibly drooped. "Oh."

Yami felt guilty at seeing him so upset, but was too interested in getting some answers to dwell on his guilt.

"Why is it so important that Yugi kiss me?"

Joey sighed. "Lets just say you don't have much time to spend with Yugi."

Yami looked ready to question this, but a moan echoed from behind him to signal Yugi's awakening.

Joey quickly let go of the balcony and fell back into the water below where, Yami now noticed, Ryou, Bakura and Seto were also looking up at him.

"Yami?" Yugi asked, rubbing his eye tiredly.

Yami went back over to the bed and smiled at him. "Good morning, little one. Did you sleep well?"

Yugi nodded with a sleepy smile. "What were you doing on the balcony?"

"Just…looking out at the sea," Yami lied.

Yugi nodded again, this time in understanding. "I like doing that sometimes; it helps me relax if I have a lot on my mind…"

He stretched, before getting up and heading out of the room.

"I'll go get dressed in another room so I can leave you alone…feel free to wear any of the clothes in my closet; they're all a little big for me, so I think they'll fit you well enough. Then maybe we can get some breakfast."

"Alright," answered Yami as Yugi left the room with a smile.

Yami quietly closed the door and headed over to open Yugi's closet.

The flood of choices for outfits made Yami feel dizzy. There were fancy clothes and plain clothes, long clothes and short clothes, proper clothes and revealing clothes, of every color, texture and design. If Yugi's closet were a zoo, it would probably stretch over two continents.

Yami hurriedly ran over to the balcony to look down at Ryou, Seto, Bakura and Joey still hanging around outside.

"Hey!" he called down to them, looking and feeling quite pathetic. "Can you guys help me decide what the hell to wear?"

It was times like this that Ryou seemed like a gift from the gods to his friends. If any of the other mermen had attempted to help Yami with dressing, they could've made him look like a clown.

Yami looked at himself in the long mirror, smiling slightly at the outfit that Ryou had suggested for him. His choice for shirt was sleeveless black with a gold-buckled collar, and two belts, one chain and one leather, held up his shiny black pants so that they could show off his dark blue ankle boots.

"Yugi won't be able to resist," Ryou assured him, grinning slightly.

"Thanks, Ryou," Yami answered, turning away from the mirror and smiling too. "I really owe you one."

"You all owe us, buddy, for us helping you at all," Bakura stated in a snappish type of amusement. "We shouldn't have to pay for your stupidity…OW!"

Ryou had whacked Bakura in the face with his tail.

"Yami?" Tea's voice rang out from behind the door. "Are you suitable?"

"J-just a minute!" Yami yelled back, before turning to Ryou and his mermen friends.

"Remember," Seto prompted. "You only have two days left…make them count."

"We'll try to keep track of your movements," Joey told him, "so if you need our help, try heading toward water. We'll probably be there."

Yami nodded and Ryou let go of the balcony to fall back into the water below.

"Come in!" the tricolor-haired man called in Tea's direction.

Tea opened the door and fought back yet another blush at his attire.

"Wow…um…you look great!"

"Thanks," Yami replied, not paying any mind to the blush on the young woman's cheeks.

Tea quickly forced herself to regain her composure and looked at Yami seriously.

"Yami…I wonder if you could ask a favor of you."

Yami looked at her in surprise. "What might that be?"

Tea looked slightly awkward. "Well…I don't know if Yugi told you, but there are people in the royal court…that are less than trustworthy."

Yami raised an eyebrow. "No, he did not."

"Well, these people are very powerful. They're heads of the estates around the kingdom. Some of them, like Rebecca and Chris's grandfathers, are very wise and just…but others…are just selfish and power-seeking."

"And what does that have to do with me?" inquired Yami.

Tea bit her lip. "King Solomon, Yugi's grandfather, is worried that they might go to extreme means to gain power…maybe even try to dispose of Yugi in an attempt to seize the throne for themselves."

"WHAT?" shouted Yami, his eyes wide.

"Yugi says that he's not worried about those people, because he trusts the justice system to take care of them," Tea continued, "but…you and I both know how innocent he is…he's one of my best friends…I don't want anything to happen to him."

Yami nodded. "What would you have me do?"

"Yugi told me that he wants to take you around the city today to help jog your memory," Tea explained. "I want you…to be Yugi's double today in town. I can style your hair so it looks like Yugi's…you'll be nearly identical…so if something happens…you might protect Yugi. Even if you got captured, I know you're stronger than Yugi…you'd be able to escape. Yugi's so innocent…he'd never see how far some people can go."

Yami looked away. 'Tea's right. Yugi is so innocent…something I love about him…but what if his innocence endangered his life? I can't lose him…'

"I'll do it."

Yugi came downstairs into the dining hall wearing a white shirt, a silver-buckled choker and matching blue pants and jacket set, to find food set at two places on the long table across from each other.

'Yami's not here yet…' Yugi thought, looking up at the stairs. 'I hope he didn't have any problems with clothes…'

He suddenly had a mental image of Yami in one of the more "eccentric" outfits his grandfather had requested for him and shuttered. Shoving it from his mind he sat at one of places at the table and picked up his fork to get ready to eat, only to stop at the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs into the dining hall.

Yami, his hair now styled with gel so that it stuck up off of his head like Yugi's hair, ran down the stairs to meet him.

Fortunately Yugi realized he was drooling fast enough to wipe his mouth before Yami noticed.

"You…you look awesome," he complimented.

Yami smiled as he sat across from Yugi. 'He likes it! Thank the Gods for Ryou…'

"As do you, little one."

Yugi blushed slightly. "Um…who did your hair?"

"Tea," Yami replied, and he became serious at the reminder of his role as Yugi's double. "Yugi, why didn't you tell me about the people at your grandfather's court?"

Yugi sighed. "My grandpa and servants worry about me…they seem to think I'm a child who can't take care of myself. That's why your hair is styled like that, isn't it? Because Tea was worried about me."

Yami nodded. "She asked me to be your double today while we're in town."

Yugi's mouth dropped open. "She had noright to ask you to do that! You're our guest! I brought you here to help you, not to make you be my bodyguard!"

"Don't look at her too harshly, little one," Yami stated gently, putting his hand on Yugi's. "She is your friend, and as such, she is allowed to worry about you…besides, if she hadn't suggested it to me after informing me about your court, I would've suggested it myself."

"Not you too!" Yugi moaned. "Look, I know I look weak, but I'm not-"

"I never said you were weak, Yugi, and I never would say that," Yami interrupted firmly. "I think you are the strongest of everyone here, for you have the strength in your heart to care about others and see the goodness in everyone. If anything, it is the weak that prey on the strong in an attempt to appear strong themselves…and that is what you must watch out for, little one."

Yugi considered Yami for a moment. "But if you don't think I'm weak, why did you agree to be my double?"

"Because I would rather let the weak feed on me than someone as strong-hearted as you," Yami answered. "You saved my life, Yugi, and gave me hope and kindness to lighten up the blackness of my mind…I am indebted to you forever and always for that, and I will never let weak people like those in your grandfather's court get anywhere near you."