The next day, the boys all got up and got ready for school. "ATEM!" Yami pounded on the bathroom door. "You've been in there for an hour! It's my turn!" Yami whined.
"What are you talking about? I've been eating breakfast." Atem said walking up behind him. Yami immediately stopped pounding on the door. "Was Yugi down with you in the kitchen?" Yami asked.
"No, now that I think about it, I haven't seen him all morning." Both boys got very worried. Atem walked up to the bathroom door and lightly rapped his knuckles on it. "Yugi? Are you in there?" He asked softly. They heard the sound of something falling on the tile floor. "…yeah, I'm in here…" Yugi's voice was quieter than usual, but the boys were so relieved to know where Yugi was, it was overlooked.
"Are you ok in there?" Yami asked.
"Y-yeah, I'm just playing around with some of your guys' makeup." Atem chuckled, knowing that most of the makeup was Yami's. He would never share with Atem. But, Yugi almost never wore makeup, why would he be wearing any now? Atem thought.
Atem and Yami both stood outside the bathroom and waited for Yugi to come out. When he finally did, he was wearing his school uniform, and his eyes had dark circles under them. Yami looked at Yugi's face. "Were you up late last night?" he asked, indicating how Yugi's whole face seemed extremely tired.
"Oh, yeah, kinda." Yugi looked down. "I was up reading…" Yami could tell that Yugi was lying. He had walked in on Yugi sleeping last night and he had seen that Yugi wasn't reading. Atem didn't know any better though, so he walked past Yugi and into the bathroom. "What? Oh, come on, 'Tem! Hurry up in there, I'm gonna be late for school if I don't get a turn!" Yami whined. Yugi smiled a little bit and walked down to the kitchen to grab something for breakfast.
He ate slowly, knowing that it would take Yami and Atem some time to apply all of their makeup. He smiled to himself. I wish that they wouldn't, they look just fine without it. Ever since he had completed the Millennium Puzzle, Yami and Atem had been protecting him from everything. And while at times that could be annoying, he was extremely grateful. They all thought of each other as brothers, best friends, partners, family.
Lost in thought, he didn't notice when Yami and Atem walked down the stairs and approached the table. "Yugi? Yugi, helloooo?" Atem shook his shoulder. Yugi snapped his head up and made a squeaking sound when he saw Atem's face right in front of him, then fell off of his chair onto the floor. "Yugi! Are you ok?" Yami and Atem both reached out their hands to help him up. He grabbed their hands, and they pulled him up.
"You ready to go to school?" Yami asked. "Yeah. Let's go." Yugi slung his bag over his shoulder, and walked out of the Game Shop. Atem and Yami made small conversation while a horrible thought entered Yugi's mind. What if those guys try to get me again today? Yugi stopped walking and stared at the sidewalk. What am I going to do? Atem and Yami noticed that Yugi wasn't walking alongside them anymore, and looked back. "Hey, 'Bou, what's up?" Yami asked. "Yugi?" Atem sounded worried.
Yugi looked up. "Oh, I'm fine, it's nothing." He jogged to catch up with the boys and thought again, what am I going to do?
Sitting in his desk an hour later, Yugi almost felt relived. He hadn't ran into those boys yet, and he hoped that they had forgotten about him and moved on to another target. Part of him knew though that the boys wouldn't forget, and they would be after him before long. The arrival of his friends interrupted his thoughts. Honda and Jounouchi were fake fighting, Yami and Anzu were holding hands, Kaiba and Atem were having a heated discussion about Duel strategies, and Marik, Bakura, and Ryou were listening to Marik's iPod. Ishizu and Mai were in a different class than the rest of them, so Yugi wouldn't see them until lunch. Yugi smiled to see all of his friends at once. Any one of them could make his day better instantly.
Jounouchi spoke to Yugi, "Hey Yug', we were all planning on going to the bowling alley after school today, wanna come?" "Sure," Yugi said.
"Hey!" Kaiba said. "Why can't we all go to my new amusement park? I detest bowling!" "Because, not all of the present company are that great at duel monsters, namely these two." Bakura said, pointing at Anzu and Honda. "Hey!" Honda and Anzu said in unison. Yami laughed and squeezed Anzu's hand to let her know that he was just teasing. "Oh, why don't we go dancing instead?" Marik suggested, grabbing Ryou's wrists playfully and dancing around the room with him. Ryou giggled. Bakura glared at them.
Everyone laughed, even Kaiba smiled. "Why don't we go and see that new movie that's playing this afternoon?" Jounouchi said, still laughing. Everyone nodded, and they all looked at Kaiba and waited for his pessimistic reply. Kaiba nodded slowly and said, "That wouldn't be so bad." Everyone cheered, getting some weird looks from the other students. Just then the bell rang and everyone scrambled to their seats.
Yugi sighed and smiled. Being around his friends almost made him forget the situation that he was in. Almost.
At lunch, everyone was outside talking and eating. Kaiba, Anzu, and the rest of the gang were all sitting together listening to Yami and Atem's recent adventures. Everyone laughed when they heard that the reason Atem hadn't been coming to school was because of a couple little kids, and everyone was very interested in the field trip that Yami had been on.
While Yami was explaining some part of his field trip with his amazing storytelling skills, a thought crossed Atem's mind. Where is Yugi?
At the beginning of lunch…
Yugi grabbed his books and told Atem and Yami that he'd go to the bathroom, and meet them at their usual eating place. He walked down the corridors and entered the bathroom. Before he had even closed the door, Yugi could sense that something wasn't right, and as soon as the door closed behind him, Yugi was met with a hard punch in the face. He dropped his books on the floor and grabbed his nose, which was now bleeding quickly, leaving his abdomen unprotected. The boy kicked him in the gut, and Yugi bent over double, one hand still on his nose, the other holding his stomach. He was surrounded by three boys, and part of Yugi thought, There's only three of them, I can handle this. But the majority of his brain was screaming.
The first boy laughed and said, "Look at him, see I told you we could do it! It's not that hard to beat up a wimp like this guy." He laughed, and so did the other two. They kicked Yugi into the middle of the bathroom, where Yugi curled up into a ball, to protect his insides. The boys continued to kick and to laugh, and when they finally got bored with their game, the first boy gave Yugi a final, swift kick in the head, and led his friends out the door.
The entire time this was happening, Yugi hadn't let a sound escape his lips, and he didn't cry either. But now, as he lay lying on the ground in a small pool of his own blood, the tears found their way down his cheeks. He shivered. He slowly got up off the floor by reaching up and pulling down on a sink. He stood shakily, and used the base of the sink as support. He raised his head and looked at himself in the mirror. He looked at his reflection, bit his already cut lip, and turned away from the mirror. He started to cry out loud now. What have I done? What have I gotten myself into? As Yugi asked himself these questions, he heard footsteps outside of the bathroom. He quickly ran into the nearest stall, ignoring the pain in his lungs as he ran.
"Hello?" Yugi softly gasped. The voice was Atem's. I can't let him see me here! Yugi stood on top of the toilet so that his legs wouldn't show underneath. For once, he was glad he was short. "Aibou, are you in here?" Atem's voice was full of worry, and Yugi wanted so badly to cry out to him and say, here I am! But he had made a promise to himself that he wouldn't tell Yami or Atem anything unless it was extremely important. They worried about him too much. He heard Atem's footsteps echo away and let out a sigh of relief. Now to deal with his wounds. Yugi took a painful step forward, and started to clean off his wounds as best as he could.