What up, y'all. Time for another chapter. Slightly longer this time! I'd love to hear what you think and where you think this is going.

I hope you stick with it and are enjoying the story so far; I am excited to take you along for the next few chapters.

Of course, I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh. If I did, I'd have featured WAY more Bakura :'D

Until Chapter 16 my loves 3

~Jehbel

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The young man stood awkwardly, arms crossed over his chest, watching as the others chatted and laughed. He had finally relented in his enforced solitude, agreeing to join the larger group as they gathered about the centre of the café, where several tables had been pushed together. The young woman watched him from the corner of her eye; he seemed out of place and uncomfortable, and her heart went out to him. Pushing slightly through the crowd, she smiled as he met her eyes with faint relief at the familiar face. Wiping her hands on her apron, the girl gave him a shy wave.

"Hey! Nice of you to join us! As one of our most regular… uh, regulars, I'm sure it'll mean a lot to Marco." The two turned to watch as the owner of the café bellowed with laughter at a customer's quip, clapping the young man on the shoulder with familiarity. Marco was an enormous bear of a man, out of place in the small café, wearing his undersized apron and slightly stained tight white T-shirt. Both the staff and customers adored Marco; his easy nature and understated kindness meant that his café retained more regulars than any others in the area. The building was very small and intimate, but gatherings like this were common between staff members and customers alike. This was the first time the young man had joined them, however.

His purple eyes took in the scene tranquilly; only his stance betrayed his awkwardness. "Thank you for inviting me. I thought it would be churlish to ignore the festivities." His mouth quirked a little at this; really, the birthday party was so ostentatious that he would have been more noticed in his refusal to participate than if he just joined the group. The young woman smiled; whatever his reason for joining the little party, she was just happy to see him interacting with others. She had grown progressively more worried about the eclectic-haired stranger, who had continued to sink into deeper brooding silences than ever before; even their tentative daily conversations had become more stilted and awkward in recent days.

A chorus of singing suddenly broke out, as several of the serving girls staggered out under the weight of an enormous cake; there was surely more dessert there than could be eaten by a crowd three times as large as the one gathered in the café. The young man raised an eyebrow with humour, smiling at the brown haired girl when she turned to him with a giggle. Grabbing his arm, she pulled him closer to the table, joining in the birthday song with her own unexpectedly sweet singing voice. Looking at him out of the corner of her eye, the girl nudged him slightly, raising her eyebrows in a silent question as she sang along. Shaking his head with faint humour, the young man would not be drawn into singing, but he did clap along at the end of the song as Marco leaned forward to blow out the single large candle atop the cake.

Still giggling, the girl now drew him away from the crowd, back toward the relative quiet of a nearby table. People were milling about, plates held in anticipation of receiving a piece of spongy white cake that Marco was handing out; some of the pieces were bigger than the recipients' heads, and Marco clearly was not too worried about an even distribution. In the background, mounted to the wall behind the coffee station, a television was switched over to the Entertainment Channel, as somebody clicked through the channels in search of some music to play. At the sight of some reporters haranguing a disgraced actress on the gossip news show, a few people cheered and sat at the bar to watch the drama unfold. The small café was crowded and noisy, the air of celebration thick and infectious.

"So," the girl commented, nodding thanks as she accepted a plate of cake from one of her passing girlfriends, "today is Friday. What do you get up to on weekends? You don't come here on Saturdays or Sundays, do you?" The young man shook his head at his offered plate, smiling faintly at the slightly blushing waitress, before turning to inspect the brunette girl. She felt as though she could feel his heavy stare on her as she picked at the thick foamy icing, refusing to meet his eye, a faint blush creeping up her cheeks. Damn! Was he wondering how she had known his weekend habits? How embarrassing! Now he would know that had been noticing him more than was necessary as a café worker. However, building up the courage to peek up at the teen, she noticed that he was instead staring down at his clasped hands, long slender fingers locked together where they rested on the table top, his face wearing a slight frown of concentration. After a brief pause, he answered her question.

"I… I go for walks. Sometimes I go to a different café. But generally, I wander about. I don't really have anywhere else to go." At his words, the young woman felt tears prick at her eyes; how sad! Was he homeless? She felt a swell of pity rise up inside of her, but pushed it down; while she did not know this boy very well, she could tell enough about him to know that he would be repulsed by pity or anybody treating him like he was a weakling. Reaching out, she tentatively placed a hand over his interlocked two. "You know, you can always come over here on weekends. Marco won't mind if you don't buy anything. I don't work weekends but I would be happy to show you around town sometime, if you'd like that."

The young man smiled gently at her, making her heart flutter a little in response. However, she could see the gentle unspoken rebuff in his eyes and knew that he would never be interested. But, if she could ease his loneliness in any way, she was determined to do so, and resolved herself to simply being his weekday café friend.

The purple eyes flickered slightly, and suddenly the young man frowned. "I just realised- I do not even know your name. How shameful of me." He shook his head with self-disgust and looked away with embarrassment, over to where the television presenters were lining up their next news story.

The girl smiled reassuringly in response and shook her head. "No, it's fine; we haven't really spoken much before today. You've been a tough nut to crack! My name is Cornelia but my friends all call me Connie." Popping a little bit of icing into her mouth, the girl's eyes widened appreciatively as she stared down at the cake. "Oh, my! This is good! Would you like to try some? Oh! er- what is your name, actually?" Connie dug deeper into the cake with her fork, hunting around for some of the jam filling she had spied earlier. Realising that the boy had not yet answered, she glanced up, to see him staring fixedly into the distance, an unreadable expression frozen on his features.

With a choked exhalation, he gasped, "Yugi…?"

Connie cocked her head to the side with amusement. "Your name is Yugi? You positive? You don't sound too sure about that-" her quip was cut short as she realised that the boy was no longer even faintly aware of her. Following his fixed gaze, she realised he was staring at the television, where a crowd of reporters were following two young men on the street. Connie immediately noticed that one of the boys was strikingly similar to the teen sitting opposite her; in fact, if the news being broadcast was not from earlier that afternoon, she would have assumed it was the same person. This slightly shorter boy had to be a brother to the one sitting before her- likely a younger brother, as there was something youthful and innocent to his features that was missing from the taller teen. "Wow, he looks just like you! Is that your brother?" Again her words went unnoticed, as the youth slowly stood, his eyes not wavering for an instant from the screen.

Barely noticing, he began to move. Slowly, weaving between gathered customers and wait staff as though in a trance, the tall boy made his way to the counter, mouth slightly open, amethyst eyes wide with open longing and fascination as they remained riveted to the scene unfolding. Connie felt a lump appear in her throat at the sight of him; she did not know what his situation was, but the very sight of his reaction to seeing the small boy on the screen filled her with an aching sadness that she could not fight down.

Finally, he could go no further, the bar blocking his progress. His long hands stretched out flat across the dark wooden counter top, gripping at the wood as though it would hold him to the earth. He watched as the reporters crowded about, thrusting microphones and photographs at the small teen, who was looking about him with a bemused expression on his face, as though he could not understand why they were so interested in him. Oh, love, do you not see how special you are, even to those who don't know you?Every time the bulk of a reporter's body blocked his vision of the small teen on the television, he felt like screaming. Move! Get out of the way! Let me see him! Suddenly the image shrank to become a small insert beside the figure of the news reporter, who was continuing with the story. The teen almost ripped his hair out in frustration as the image was further obscured from his vision.

Dimly, the words of the presenter permeated his fogged mind. "…or, as he was better known, the King of Games. Mr. Motou was earlier seen today outside the Palace Cinemas of his hometown, Domino City, with a VERY handsome stranger. When asked, Mr. Motou declined to reveal which movie they were going to watch and introduced his companion only as 'James'. Could this be the reason behind Mr. Motou's sudden departure over a month ago from the massively popular Duel Monsters game? Witness reports state the pair were holding hands, however the duo have so far refused to answer all questions. We will have to keep an eye on this space in upcoming months, Ben, but I have a feeling an announcement may soon be 'on the cards.'"The co-host twittered in response and the two moved on to speculate further, leaving a final slightly blurred photograph of Yugi behind on the screen.

The teen continued to stare, long after the image had faded and more scandalous news was presented, however his eyes no longer took it in. The image of his Beloved was burned into his mind. Yugi… you look happy.His thoughts shifted to the youth who had been lingering possessively behind Yugi, his angry eyes fixated on the camera, as though he were looking down the lens straight into the teen's own eyes.

Please, keep making my Yugi happy. He was right; he didn't need me after all.

Turning from the counter, the youth was mildly surprised to see the young woman standing behind him, her large hazel eyes swimming with tears. What was wrong with her? Before he could ask, however, she reached forward to gently touch his cheek with a finger, drawing it away slightly dampened. Alarmed, the teen raised his own fingers to his face, utterly surprised to find tears tracking down his skin. With a shaky laugh, he scrubbed them away, embarrassed. Connie lowered her hand, watching him with empathetic misery. "I'm… I'm sorry." It was all she could say.

Shaking his head sadly, the youth smiled grimly at her. "I am alright. I will be alright."

Purple eyes locked onto hazel, twins matched in sadness.

"My name is not Yugi. Please, call me Yami."

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"Waah! What a great movie!" Yugi gave a little jump and pumped his fist into the air with excitement. "Those robots were so realistic! Do you think something like that exists in real life?" James grinned down at his shorter partner, shaking his head indulgently. "Probably not, but I'm sure one day we'll have technology like that!"

Yugi pondered this as they strolled out of the lobby, surrounded by chatting couples and excited children. "I bet Kaiba could invent something like that. He's a genius you know! I wonder why he hasn't done something like that before… maybe he is and he's keeping it secret! Oh, but I suppose it's impossible for a Robot to actually turn into liquid as well, unless it was made of…" Yugi continued to chatter happily as the two made their way toward the exit. It was dark outside, but the streets were still busy, being Friday night after all. Suddenly, James threw an arm out, halting Yugi's progress.

"James- what?" Yugi peered up at his boyfriend, who was scowling at the front doors.

"Those reporters are still there! Dammit! I thought they'd have gotten bored and moved on by now." James glanced down at Yugi, who was looking distressed. "Let's exit through the back way, and head home that way. It's a longer route, but I suppose that's not so bad. It's nice weather to be outside!" Grabbing his small partner's hand, James turned and led the two of them against the flow of the exiting moviegoers, toward a door with a green Exit sign posted above it. Without pause, James pushed the door open, yanking Yugi through and hastily closing it behind them.

"Uwah! That was close. I don't even know why they were waiting for us; who cares if we're watching a movie?" Yugi crossed his arms behind his head as the two strolled down the sidewalk. It was quieter in this part of town, where the houses were becoming larger and more private. Couples and the occasional jogger passed by them as they walked under the street lights together.

James reached over and ruffled Yugi's hair. "It's because you were with me, silly. You're still fairly well known, even if you aren't playing Duel Monsters anymore, and to see you on a date with somebody is pretty good gossip fodder. Can you blame them for being interested?" Yugi pondered this for a moment, before shaking his head. "I suppose you're right; it's their job to spread gossip and rumour, but I don't understand how they knew to be at the cinema to begin with!"

James shook his head. "Most likely one reporter recognised you, and made some calls, and before too long, they were swarming. It happens all the time." He shook his head with mild disgust. "They're just parasites. Aren't you happy you aren't a part of that world anymore? They'll soon stop bothering you altogether."

Yugi smiled up at his boyfriend. "Hn, you're right. I don't like it when people make such a fuss out of me! I used to tolerate it because of all the tournaments but they have definitely cut back since I left the game. Hey- James! I know this neighbourhood! I think Kaiba's mansion is not too far away! Maybe we should stop by and say hello; I bet Joey is over there too, he usually is on weekends, and I can ask Kaiba about robots!"

James' expression was shuttered, his smile fixed in place. "Sure, we can do that." Yugi skipped ahead cheerfully, not noticing.

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"Goddamn it, when is this brat coming out? Surely their movie has ended by now!" The man shifted in a futile attempt to gain a more comfortable seating position, his large-lens camera bouncing off his chest where it hung on its neck strap. The man's companion, a wiry rat-faced fellow with scraggly blonde facial hair, scratched at a spot on his chin and tried to peer through the glass of the cinema doors. They were not allowed on the cinema premises, but there was nothing stopping them from waiting outside on the footpath.

Most of the other reporters had left already; Yugi Motou was no longer big news, and the little twerp and his boyfriend were barely worthy of the gossip columns anymore. The two men only lingered in the hope that a good photograph of a sneaky intimate moment might force Yugi to agree to an interview or something. The blonde looked down at his considerably chubbier friend who was picking at a food stain on his shirt, and pushed down a feeling of disgust at the sight of him. This is why I prefer to work alone, so I don't have to deal with slobs like this chump, he thought savagely to himself.

The larger man gave a great heaving sigh, pulling himself to his feet once he realised that no change in seating position would make the footpath more comfortable. "What did the text message say, again? Maybe we missed some detail."

The blonde rolled his eyes, but pulled out his phone anyway, flicking through to the text message that his boss had sent them earlier:

**Anonymous tip-off from member of public: Y. Motou and stranger will be seeing a movie at 5pm at Palace Cinema.**

The skinny man sighed with exasperation. "A little more information would have been nice. Anonymous tip-off, huh? I wonder who wanted us to know they'd be here tonight?"

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Yugi pressed the doorbell, listening as the heavy chimes sounded throughout the house. Normally the butler or driver would be on hand to immediately open the door, however this time it remained resolutely closed. Yugi pressed the doorbell again, his excitement fading a little as he began to feel slightly silly for bothering Kaiba at home; the two were not even very close.

Turning, Yugi shrugged at James, indicating that he had tried, and was happy to leave. As the two began to walk back down the expansive gravel driveway, Yugi heard a rustling underfoot; looking down, he realised a piece of paper was stuck to his shoe. Stooping, he pulled it clear of the bottom of his sneaker, shaking the piece of crumpled paper to get some of the dirt off. It still had some slightly gummy sticky tape stuck to the page, and Yugi realised it must have been originally stuck to the front door. Peering closer, Yugi immediately recognised Joey's distinctive scrawl:

Hi Guys, don't bother knocking, door is locked. Just make your way around to the side garden!
-Joey

Yugi looked up at James, who had sidled closer to read the paper over his shoulder. "I wonder who this was meant for? What's happening in the side garden?" James silently shook his head to indicate that he did not know, reaching forward to take the paper to read it properly. "Looks like they are expecting company." Looking up, James squinted in the direction of the side garden, which was around the right-hand side of the mansion through a small hidden gate; the gang had met there several times before, generally when Kaiba did not want visitors entering the house.

James looked back to Yugi, who was frowning slightly. "Well, should we go check out who the 'guys' are that this is addressed to?"

Yugi's eyes widened and he shook his head emphatically. "Oh no, we can't do that! Obviously they are expecting guests, we can't barge in!"

James rolled his eyes good-naturedly. "Come on Yugi! Aren't you curious? And if Joey is involved I'm sure it can't be that sensitive; Kaiba would never let him attend a business meeting or anything. I know- how about we sneak around and just take a peek over the hedge? We don't even have to tell Joey we're there!" Grabbing Yugi's hand, James yanked him along, ignoring his small partner's protestations. Eventually with a nervous giggle, Yugi gave up his struggles and scampered alongside James, his eyes swivelling about as though expecting to be caught out at any moment.

The side gate was open; with a glance at each other, the two boys slipped through, backs hunched as though their regular height would make them too visible. The side garden was beautiful, with large hedges and thick bushes dotted throughout, so that several small private grassy clearings were created by the natural barricades. As the teens continued their explorations in a half-squat, half-run, the faint sounds of laughter and music became louder through the hedges. Yugi cocked his head; it sounded like quite a few people were there! His heart started to beat a little faster with excitement; he hoped they weren't caught! Grinning, Yugi watched James' long hair sway as the taller teen led the advance; he was fearless! Yugi marvelled at the fun James helped him to have in ways that he never normally would have considered.

Finally, James' back came closer as the long-haired teen slowed, eventually stopping. Catching up, Yugi looked up at his boyfriend, breath coming slightly quicker, a result of nervous excitement and their speedy progress through the maze of hedges. Eyes twinkling, James looked at Yugi in the darkness, raising a long finger to his lips. Nodding, Yugi shuffled a little closer; they could now hear voices on the other side of the hedge, obscured by the thick undergrowth which formed a natural sound barrier. James turned to the hedge and pushed his hands into the thick leaves, trying to separate them; however seconds later it became apparent that there was a brick wall on the other side of the hedge. No wonder the sound was so muffled! Yugi realised. James thought for a moment, his eyebrows drawn low with concentration, a finger tapping his bottom lip. Then, his expression suddenly clearing, James stooped down to Yugi's level, looking the shorter teen in the eye, quirking his mouth a little. "Right. Yugi, I'm going to lift you-" he ignored the start of Yugi's refusal, swooping his boyfriend up around his waist- "I'll hold you there for a few seconds so you can look over, and then I'll let you down; easy!"

Chuckling, James hoisted Yugi up, shushing him as the shorter boy began to cry out. "Be quiet! You don't want them to hear you!" He laughed quietly as Yugi immediately went silent, his hands moving to grip James' hair gently to keep his balance. With Yugi held above his head, his hips digging into James' collar bone, the brunette moved carefully backward until he felt the sharp twigs of the hedge dig into his shoulders; Yugi was now up against the wall now, at a height to be able to see over.

James felt Yugi still as he peered over the hedge. Suddenly, the small fists bunched, pulling his long hair slightly. "Ow! Yugi- quit it!" James whispered harshly, as the small fingers did not relent on their grip. Closing his eyes to the sharp pain, James remained for a few seconds longer, before slowly sinking into a crouch, until Yugi's feet were back on solid earth. Releasing his boyfriend's waist, James reached up and gingerly removed his long hair from Yugi's frozen grip. Once his hair was free, James looked up at Yugi, noticing immediately that the small teen looked shattered.

"Yugi? What's wrong? What did you see?" James stood up, reaching out to clutch Yugi's shoulders. The smaller boy was staring blindly, his eyebrows pulled together in confusion, his mind clearly in overdrive. "Yugi. Talk to me. What's wrong?" James gave Yugi a little shake to snap him out of his silence.

Yugi looked up into James' amethyst eyes, his own swirling with tears. "James," Yugi gave a little hiccup of distress. "It was all of them…" James cocked his head in confusion.

"All of who?"

Yugi closed his eyes, a single tear escaping to run like quicksilver down his cheek. "The whole gang were there, James. Tea, Duke, Tristan, J-Joey… even Ryou and Bakur- I mean, even Bakura was there." His lip began to tremble slightly as he breathed deeply to keep the tears at bay. "Everybody except us were invited, James!" Turning, Yugi stumbled blindly away, toward the direction of the exit. With a muted exclamation, James followed, his eyes never leaving Yugi's small form up ahead.

Suddenly, they were both back outside; the return trip had seemed to take far less time than their journey into the garden. Yugi stood with clenched fists, staring up at the sky where a few stars were weakly twinkling through the urban smog and light pollution. His breathing was shallow and ragged. As James approached, Yugi spun around, his expression one of anguish.

"Why wouldn't he invite me, James? I thought we were friends! He's mybest friend! Is he still mad about the fight? What did I do wrong? Why… why didn't he invite me?" Yugi's face crumpled and James moved to embrace him, the two boys standing in the dim shadows of the mansion's front lawn.

"I'm sorry, Yugi. I don't know why he would do something so cruel." James rubbed Yugi's back soothingly, allowing the shorter boy time to collect himself.

Some time later, James pulled back to look Yugi in the face. The smaller teen's eyes were red but he had managed to keep the tears mostly at bay through sheer will; his expression however was defeated. Looking into his large purple eyes searchingly, James murmured, "Yugi… do you suppose it's because you left Duel Monsters?" Yugi peered back at James, confused. "I mean, maybe Joey wasn't as close a friend as you thought, Yugi- perhaps he was more of a Duel Monsters companion?" Yugi's eyebrows knitted together as he considered this; could James be right? Had Joey only been his friend so that he could learn to play the game from Yugi? A fresh tear beaded at the edge of his eye but was captured by one of James' long fingers.

"I hate to sound mean, Yugi, and I'm sorry if this upsets you… but haven't you only been good friends with Joey since you started playing Duel Monsters? Perhaps he was only interested in having a Duelling buddy, and now that you aren't playing-"

"-he isn't interested anymore." Yugi finished the sentence for him. It all made sense; perhaps Joey had never really been his friend. After all, things had all gone wrong after Yami left. Perhaps… perhaps Joey was actually friends with Yami, not me. Now that he's gone, there's no need for Joey to spend time with me anymore.

"Come on. Let's go home. If they're going to exclude you from things like this, you don't need such lousy friends anyway." James looked down at Yugi fiercely, bringing both hands up to cup his small face. "I will never treat you so poorly Yugi; if, as it seems, I'm the only friend you have left, well, I'll make sure every day you feel special and loved."

Another traitorous tear spilled down Yugi's cheek as the small teen gazed up at James with adoration and sadness.

"Thank you James. If you're all I have left, well, that's all I need. Let's go home."