The last chapter of Mezameru...

Wow... I've been working on this thing for... probably over a year now, since I first posted the original story. o.o

DAMN. I NEVER thought I'd finish this thing! XD

You know what song I found that fits this story PERFECTLY? Anthem of the Angels, by Breaking Benjamin. You'd think I based the entire Radamned story off that song! But today was probably the FIRST time I have EVER heard it! Listen to it, it is PERFECT fir Mezameru's theme song, or something! XD

ENJOY!

Title: Mezameru

Pairing: Puzzleshipping (Yuugi/Yami)

Rating: T

Genre: Angst, Drama, Friendship, Family, Hurt/Comfort, Romance

Full Summary: Yuugi is in a coma. His chances of survival balance on a mere mark of 35% How will his Yami cope when he thinks-no, when he KNOWS- that it is all his fault?

DISCLAIMER: I do NOT own Yu-Gi-Oh, nor ANY characters in this story, unless noted otherwise. I DO, however, own the plot of it. The Yu-Gi-Oh manga and anime belong to Kazuki Takahashi-san.

Please do not plagiarize, copy, repost, nor recreate my hard work in any way.

Or I will sic Yami on you

WARNING(S): Possible Mild Triggering Material. Some Violence.

~ Chapter VIII ~

Tsuneni

'After school,' he kept thinking, 'I will finish the Puzzle after school.'

After all, there was only one piece left. The Eye. Why wait? Because he was scared... He was scared Yami wouldn't remember. Or worse- he'd hate Yuugi for making him return to the Hell he'd already spent over three millennia in. The teen blinked, walking slowly through the halls of Domino High School. He ignored the staring, as usual. He couldn't, however, ignore the whispers.

"He looks so sad..."

"It's a real shame what happened to them."

"Can't help but feel bad for him, y'know? I always thought the King of Games was untouchable."

"Guess he's taking Yami's death pretty hard, né?"

Yuugi stopped abruptly. He heard hisses of "baka!" at the kid, growls to be quiet, but Yuugi had already heard.

"Yami isn't dead."

His tone was chilling, and empty. Like his eyes.

"He wouldn't leave like that. He wouldn't... he wouldn't forget..." that last part was more to himself, than anyone else. The group set him glances full of pity. It made him angry.

"Mutou."

The pale teen stiffened. "Not now, Ushio," he growled, fists clenched. Everyone immediately backed up, memory of Yami's encounter with the bully still fresh in their minds. And right now, the smaller looked like a carbon-copy of his best friend and Dueling partner.

Ushio had no malice in his eyes when Yuugi turned his head to look at him. "Iie, I wanted to apologize."

The whole hallway, Yuugi included, deadpanned. "N-Nande?" the amethyst-eyed teen stammered, not believing his ears. Ushio shrugged heavy shoulders.

"I was wrong about you, kid," he said simply, "I thought... you were weak. Like you didn't understand what the rest of the world went through. Since you were on a pedestal. King of Games is a big thing, né? So.. ano... Gomen."

Yuugi blinked, suspicion in his eyes.

"Sorry?" he repeated. Ushio gave a weak nod. "You... really..." everyone flinched as his eyes narrowed, a dark violet. "You really expect me to just forgive you? After all the shit you've put Yami and I through?"

His voice was bitter and crisp as a winter storm. It didn't suit him at all. "You're the reason he was such a mess the day after my accident, aren't you?" Ushio's eyes widened.

"Ano..."

"Called me a 'piss-ant', didn't you? Né, did I get enough fucking beauty sleep to fit your standards? Or- how 'bout a game of 'Run-and-Hit'? Sound fun?!"

The bully retreated a few steps. "How do you..."

Yuugi snorted. "Look, I may have been in a coma, but I wasn't DEAD. Do you really think the other half of my soul could hide something like that from me? Something that caused him so much pain, and anger?" His question was rhetorical, and dangerous. Yuugi's usually-sweet voice was laced with venom.

Ushio's gaze flickered with confusion. "Other half of... N-Nani?" Yuugi merely crossed his arms, distaste reflecting between the two. He looked like and exact copy of Yami, oozing confidence and rebellion.

The hulking bully turned with a disgusted grunt. "Faggot."

Yuugi's bag swung with a flash, and hit him squarely in the back of his neck and head. He stumbled, and turned with a snarl. But, his step faltered.

Narrow heliotrope eyes glared at him, dancing with the darkness both his heart and mind contained. A hot, yet somehow chilling, crimson... like Yami's eyes. A mixture of both Yuugi's and Yami's eyes. "I wouldn't do that if I were you," Yuugi muttered with frightening calm. He smirked wickedly.

"You haven't forgotten about Our game, already, have you?"

Ushio paled, and scurried away. Yuugi slung his bag over a shoulder, and stormed down the hall. He felt content with this building anger and pain. However, his fists still itched to hit something. He substituted by clenching them at his sides.

Lessons went by with their usual, boring drawl. He even ignored the teacher during their History unit, which was focusing on Ancient Egypt. Everyone knew of the boy's passion for the subject. It was also Yami's, though, for some strange reason, he seemed to get rather defensive during certain debates... Yuugi smiled faintly at the memory.

'Tyrannical?!' Yami had exclaimed during an argument with the substitute teacher on Egyptian Pharaohs. 'Most Pharaohs were the exact opposite! Sure, there were a few bad ones in the bunch, but... everyone has that problem. I mean, everyone thought they were the living incarnate of Ra or Atum, for- er-... Ra's sake...' he had stumbled awkwardly at that part. 'Anyways, you know, their high Gods? Ra, the Sun, and Atum, the Creator of All Life on Earth? So, they would tend to be worshipped. As long as they ruled Khemet fairly and justly, what's the big deal?'

Yuugi stifled a giggle when he remembered how the teacher, thinking he was being smart, had ordered Yami to come up and teach the History lesson that day. Undeterred, the former Egyptian Pharaoh had obliged.

Never before had the class had such high marks for their History grades.

'If only they knew...' he murmured to himself with diluted amusement. Sure, it had been funny, but the memory brought pain to his heart. Yami... Would they ever have moments like that again?

His head rested in folded arms with a sigh. What little enjoyment he have managed to scour up in their memories quickly died down to nothing but pure misery. No, he thought, that wasn't the right word for it. Simply being miserable... what Yuugi was feeling had surpassed that cheap little adjective long ago.

It was beyond the worst of agonies he had even come across. Even more so than in the Shadow Duel again Marik, when his body was slowly sent, piece by piece to the Shadow Realm. Bending, twisting aimlessly through dimensional planes, yet still attached to his living body, and fully functional.

Words couldn't begin to describe the pain he was in.

'Oh, Gods, please... Just make it stop!'

The wish for death quickly overtook his mind.

He would feel numb forever, should it happen.

He just wanted to be numb. Not tomorrow, or tonight, after his grandfather had fallen asleep.

NOW.

It had only been a week... and Yuugi already wanted to go back to sleep...

Yuugi jumped when the dismissal bell rang, like a grating scream in his ears. As students and staff, alike, began to pack away the day's materials and head for home, Yuugi Mutou took his dear, sweet time. He waved off his friends with a minuscule smile, and was sure to count to thirty before following them out into the hallway.

His legs moved to their own accord. Against what little struggle his mind was putting up. The light... it had vanished completely. Leaving his amethyst eyes so dark, the shade could have been classified as kin to black.

Up the stairwell. Through a metal doorway.

A fresh breeze. The falling sun. A sky painted in fire.

It was quite beautiful. 'My final sights... It's... perfect.' Yuugi's senses had dulled. He felt as if this were a dream. Just one big, bad dream. One that, when he woke, he'd be in Yami's arms. Or waking up in the hospital to see his family, happy and whole, waiting to greet him.

His fingers fed through the gaps of chain-link, staring without a single hope to the blood-red sun, sinking steadily down to the horizon. 'Gods, what am I even doing? Yami would be heartbroken, if he were here...'

Something in his chest winced painfully.

'Yeah. if, he were here.'

He wouldn't take the chance. He couldn't live to see hatred or blankness in his beloved's smoldering crimson gaze.

The building of Domino High School towered four stories above the concrete. And there was a hole in the fence. A place which Yuugi's deadened amethyst eyes kept flickering to. Just... off the side of the building... Away from the eyes of others. His shoes were quiet as he absently stumbled to the place that would bring him sanctuary. His bag dropped to the ground, pulse excelling with both mortification and sick eagerness.

'Do I... really want to do this...?'

Maybe he'd go to Yami, in the Millennium Puzzle. Or maybe he'd just rot away in the Shadows of his heart.

'Shadows,' he realized quickly, body squeezing involuntarily past the clingy metal fencing. Shadows... fed on despair, and negativity. Anguish. Heartache. With Yami sealed, and unable to control them... By using them to set Yuugi free...

They had attached themselves to him.

He leaned outwards, fingers clinging into the linked fence as he looked blankly below him. 'No...' his mind murmured weakly. 'W... Wait...'

But he felt cold. So very, very cold, here. By himself. He needed to be with the Dark Angel of his dreams and nightmares.

'Follow Us, Little Master,' the Shadows soothed like a cooling balm, 'We shalt take thee to wheresoever thy Heart most desires.'

He heard a voice, somewhere, from the Outside.

'Jou... Jounouchi... kun?' Yuugi thought.

'Come hither, precious, Little Master of Light,' They insisted quickly as Yuugi blinked, dazedly. He shook his head lightly, as more voices began to call up to him. 'Thy sanctum is nigh. Follow Us. To thy Heart's Darkest desire.'

"Yuug'!"

"Yuugi, what the Hell are you doing?!"

"Get back, you dumbass!"

Yuugi shook his head again, eyes squeezing shut, groaning as if in pain. There... were people below... His friends... Looking up. Pleading to him.

'Release thy hold to cruel life, sweet Light. Utter unto the world thy suffering, and release thy hold on truculent world's burdens.'

His foot stepped back, Yuugi's eyes flying wide in realization. His back flung itself against the rattling metal fence, quaking in his shoes. 'N-No...' he managed weakly, a tear tracing down his all-to-pale cheek.

'All is well, Light. Step forward. Embrace thy solace.'

He was still, chest heaving for air that refused to come. He heard something pounding at the door, beyond the chain-linked border behind him.

'Dost thou not wish to see thy lover again?' Yuugi winced. The Shadows were cruel. So very cruel.

'I do,' he replied at once, 'Oh, Gods, I want to see him again!'

'Step closer, dear Master. Acquiesce to Our request. Embrace Darkness with open arms, heart and soul.'

They began to snake down from his body, unbeknown to Yuugi's mind. Black began to edge and lay heavy filter over his eyesight, as concrete below him began to crumble away...

His hands tightened into fists over the barrier his back pressed to with almost painful force.

He took a step back. Back towards the gap he had come from. Encouraging, but still terrified calls rang from his friends below.

'I... can't... I won't... do it...'

'Weak, insolent little whelp!' the Darkness howled with deafening anger in his mind at his refusal. The stone cracked. It crumbled away.

His footing slipped.

In a single, heart-stopping moment, Yuugi felt his weight and sense of reality shift as it was thrown to the wind. There were screams.

There was a small feeling of free-fall.

'Gods, I'm going to die, aren't I?!'

\Yuugi!\

He hit the ground a surprisingly short time later, with a huff, the air forced from his lungs.

Ache, but no pain.

He inhaled a shaky breath.

Yuugi's pulse thrummed frantically beneath his skin.

Warmth.

Yuugi opened his shocked eyes. There were arms, around his waist and chest. Holding him, cradling him, to a solid chest.

In a crushing wave, the scents of sand and spice and shadow attacked his senses. A breath, deep in tone, warm and moist in feeling, panting into his ear. Sending shivers down his spine. Fingers, clutching possessively at his skin. Lips, warm and slightly chapped, pressed to his neck.

Completeness filled him on waves of love and fear and pure obsession sent into his head like a crushing tide.

His fingers moved, closing over the hand that pressed above his palpitating heart.

/A... Atem.../

The reply was hoarse, and thick with emotion, the figure curling more tightly around them on the rooftop of Domino High.

\Yuugi...\

He gasped softly at the sound of his love's mental voice. A deep rumble, like distant thunder.

The taller of the pair eased them into a sitting position, thought his hands refused to release their hold on his smaller duplicate. The shape of their Millennium Puzzle, hung by chain from Yami's neck, pressed to the small of Yuugi's back. Fully completed.

"What... what happened?" he murmured quietly, shivering with the knowledge that something dark had nearly taken place. That, or it was about to.

"You don't remember?" Yami murmured, voice hushed and scared.

Yuugi blinked, turning to stare into the intoxicating ruby jewels he loved so deeply. "Iie," he murmured, before quietly adding, "You... do?" It was scared, reluctant, yet hopeful.

"Hai. I remember, Hikari." His lips suddenly left a heated pressure on Yuugi's. It sent shudders and tingles down Yuugi's spine. "How," Yami murmured, placing another quick kiss to the smaller's cheek, "How could I ever have forgotten-" another to his neck. An involuntary whimper left the teen's chest. "-this?"

A blush quickly rose to Yuugi's cheeks at the deep husk his Other Self's voice had taken. He hid it by burying his face in the fabric of Yami's uniform jacket. (Where had that come from? he briefly pondered.)

A silent mixture of acceptance, realization, forgiveness, longing, and countless other emotions passed between the pair in their solitary minutes together. They could both sense their friends, pounding up the stairwells to the two. It was ignored.

Yuugi's arms quickly wrapped over his Darkness' torso. Long, muscled limbs of Yami's returned the gesture whole-heartedly. As Yuugi snuggled to his Mou Hitori no Boku's chest, Yami buried his face in the junction of his Mou Hitori no Ore's neck and shoulder. Tears glistened silently down sharp cheekbones, while the slim shoulders below heaved with quiet sobs.

The beings that had flown so quickly to their position had stopped at the doorway to the roof, watching the scene before them with relieved, hopeful smiles, with lingering traces of sadness for the grief the pair had been forced to face.

"You're back..." Yuugi breathed harshly through his joyful, relieved weeping.

"Hai, Yuugi. I am back."

"...how?"

"Jii-chan made a wish," was the simple, cryptic reply.

Yuugi shifted, moving to press his ear over where Yami's heart pulsed. The slow, rhythmic beat sent him into a relaxed daze. His own would pulsate along in harmony. Two hearts, beating in perfect sync. Bonded in more ways than one.

Mental. Spiritual. Emotional.

Eternal.

"I missed you," Yuugi murmured, cleaning into the warmth and basking in his Dark Side's presence.

"I missed you, as well, Yuugi." The reply was loving and gentle.

"Aishiteru, Yami..."

"I love you, too, Yuugi... my Aibou, my Guardian Angel, my Light..."

They shifted again, in unison, pressing more comfortably, more closely, to one another.

"Always, and forever, Aibou."

Finally... after nearly a month of the two's own, personal Hell, it was over.

Each was back where they belonged.

By each other's side.

*Collapses, panting*
It's... over... Finally, it's over... I spent nearly TWO WEEKS trying to figure a way to write this bitch after I finished chapter seven. Be grateful I even GOT to it at all! XD

Personally, I kind of like this ending. A little tiny bit anticlimactic, but... I think it fits. With just simple, quietly, tearful cuddling in the twilight...

Wow... Did you guys know that it has been over a year and a half since I first started drafting/plotting out this story? SWEET MOTHER OF RA, FINALLY IT'S DONE.

But in all honesty, I'm also a little sad to see this one being wrapped up. It WAS my first serious Puzzleshipping fanfiction, after all. Its been my baby for quite a while now. :')

NOTE: There will be one more chapter after this, but it won't be the actual STORY. It will he about the chapter and story names, along with their translations and the meanings behind them. Pretty much why I named them what I did. If it doesn't interest you, oh well. Just skip it.

You know... in actually tearing up a little bit here. Anyone else? .^^.

Review, because you love me and this story. ;)