In the morning, Yugi lifted his head from the floor and rubbed his eyes. He unlocked the door and opened it slowly. He stepped out and almost tripped over Yami and Atem. Yugi looked down, eyes wide. They stayed out here all night? Yugi felt extremely bad for shutting them out. I'm sorry. Yugi thought, then walked across the hall to the bathroom.
As Yugi stepped into the shower he realized that it was Saturday. I should probably go and apologize to Jounouchi for not hanging out with him yesterday. Determined now, Yugi finished up in the shower, got dressed in a light hoodie and jeans, left a note on the kitchen counter, then left the Game Shop and headed for Jou's house.
As he was walking, Yugi found himself taking the long route through the park. With the tall trees surrounding him and the sunlight finding little holes in the leaves making tiny spotlights on the path, Yugi felt relaxed and protected. His parents had always taken him to this park when he was younger and his father would always play a game with him while they were there. It didn't matter if it was hide and seek, people watching, or tag, Yugi would always have so much fun and if he won, his father would take him to get ice cream. But, after his father died in the war and his mother left, Yugi was to live with his Grandpa, and it was never the same.
He tried, but Yugi's Grandpa couldn't replace his parents. Yugi lived in sadness and rarely smiled. But then he solved the Millennium Puzzle, and that all changed. He made new friends, Jou and Honda, he was introduced to Marik, Bakura, and Ryou. He was having fun again. But when Yami and Atem had to leave for the afterlife, Yugi almost got caught in depression again. But Yami and Atem made a deal with the Egyptian gods. Akeifia would get to go to the afterlife, and Yami and Atem were granted their own bodies. Yugi couldn't have been happier.
It's been great now, until those boys started picking on me, Yugi thought. His feet had automatically travelled down the cracked sidewalk and up the fire escape to Jounouchi's window in his room in his apartment. He knocked very quietly on the dirty glass so that Jou could escape out his window without his father hearing. Jounouchi trusted Yugi with the most important secret of his life: that Jounouchi's father abused him. Yugi had found out when he and Jou had a sleepover at the Game Shop one day. Jounouchi had willingly told Yugi his secret and he also told him that the only other person who knew was Honda. Yugi felt bad when Jou told him his secret. They were best friends, and Jou was trusting enough to tell him, but Yugi was too much of a coward to tell Jou his deepest secret: that he was getting beat up. Yugi intended to tell Jou this, but he kept chickening out.
Yugi thought this, and the window opened quietly, revealing Jou wearing a green shirt and jeans, his hair a ruffled mess as usual. He closed the window and grinned at Yugi. "Hey Yugi!" he whispered. "How come ya couldn't come to the movie yesterday? I had to sit next to Moneybags who was complaining the whole time."
"Sorry, Jounouchi. Something came up, and it slipped my mind to tell you guys. I'm sorry." Yugi mumbled, eyes on the ground. Jou smiled. "Nah, its OK man. But while you're here, you can make up for yesterday by hanging out today."
Yugi raised his head. "That would be great Jounouchi." He smiled back. The two boys climbed down the fire escape and started walking, heading nowhere in particular. They talked for a long time, but never got on serious topics. That's why Yugi loved having Jou as his friend. He would never pressure Yugi into telling him what was on his mind. 'We all have our little secrets don't we?' Jou had once said, and Yugi couldn't agree with him more. But Yugi's secrets were building up, and he had to be careful about what he said, because one slip of his tongue, he could land himself in a deep hole where no one could save him.
The boys arrived at a burger joint, and they both looked at each other and grinned. Burgers were both their favorite food, and they could eat burgers for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and would never get tired of it. "Race you to the entrance! Loser pays the bill!" Jou said. "You're on!" Yugi replied, and they started racing towards the entrance. Out of breath and hands on knees, Yugi stood at the doorway behind Jou, who was standing with arms crossed and grinning like a maniac.
"No…fair!" Yugi breathed heavily. "You're more…athletic than me!" "Hey, you agreed to it!" Jou laughed, and Yugi couldn't help but laugh too. They walked in and ordered their food. It didn't take long for the food to get to their table, and it didn't take long for the boys to scarf down the burgers either. When they were done, they both slumped over in the booth and sighed. "That was *hic* awesome…" Jou said, rubbing his stomach. "*hic* Yeah. *hic*" Jou laughed and hiccupped at the same time. "Oh, great, *hic* now we have the *hic* hiccups!" They both laughed. "Oh *hic* well." Yugi paid for the food, and they walked out of the restaurant.
As soon as they stepped out of the door, Jou sensed that something wasn't right. "Yugi, DUCK!" he pushed the younger boy behind him and stooped low. A knife flew above their heads and landed in a telephone pole just to their right. Yugi's eyes were wide with fear, and he clung to the back of Jou's shirt. Behind the telephone pole came a large figure wearing a school uniform that was different from Yugi's school uniform.
"So, Jounouchi, we've finally found you." The figure pulled the knife from the pole and used his sleeve to clean it off. "I believe you still remember the penalty for leaving the gang, don't you?" The man looked up and there was murder in his eyes, and it was pointed directly at Jounouchi.
"Ushio, I left because there was a better place to go." Jou taunted. "I believe you know that your gang isn't the best in Japan, don't you?" Ushio growled, and yelled to his gang members. They came from all sides and quickly surrounded Yugi and Jou. "Heh, Ushio, look at him! He brought a sidekick to this party!" one of the members said.
"Well, you know the saying. The more the merrier…for us." Ushio grinned wickedly and yelled for his minions to grab Jou and Yugi too. Jou's instincts took over then. He got in a fighting stance and started to beat up the gang members. He kicked and punched, badly injuring the men, but they got their pieces of Jou. He got punched a couple of times, and there was a trickle of blood on the corner of his mouth.
Soon, all of the men were either lying on the ground, not moving, or gone from sight because they ran away in fear. Jounouchi brushed his hands off and turned around to show Yugi his confident grin. But what Jou saw wasn't a proud Yugi. It was Ushio holding Yugi in a death grip with a knife to his throat. Jou scowled and put up his fists. Ushio laughed. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. One move, and this boy dies." Yugi struggled, trying to bring Ushio's large forearm away from his chest, but it was useless. Ushio was the leader of that gang. He used to be Jou's boss, and Jou knew that he was serious when he said that he would kill Yugi.
Jou didn't know what to do. If he moved at all, Yugi would be hurt. Ushio casually brought his knife down to Yugi's arm and cut deep. Yugi let out a heart-piercing scream. Ushio grinned and wiped the blood on his knife onto Yugi's arm. Jou got really angry now, and he launched himself at Ushio, who reacted by cutting open Yugi's other arm. Jou tackled Ushio who was still holding onto Yugi and cut Yugi's cheek and forehead. Jou raged and threw Yugi out of Ushio's grip, then punched Ushio senseless. Ushio soon fell into unconsciousness.
Jou ran to Yugi's side to inspect the damage. It looked really bad. Yugi needed to get to the hospital, but the nearest one was too far away to walk. Jou didn't have a choice. He picked up Yugi and ran to the nearest place of help he could find: Kaiba's mansion.
So, it may be just me being a critic, but I'm not in love with this chapter... :/ I'll keep updating, but tell me what you think of this one, I'd love to know! :) Peace out loves!