Chapter 5: Give and Take

Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh nor do I claim rights to any of the affiliated characters.

Warnings/Notes: Basically OOC for the same reasons as the previous chapter. Pegasus is very nurturing towards the gang. (I'm really not sure if Crownshipping will end up plausible in this one….) But for those of you who'd like to see some I promise to write a oneshot that focuses on that pairing. Other than that, Yugi is probably overly emotional in this chapter too, but can you blame the poor guy? Italics are Yugi and Yami's mind link conversations.

Slowly Yugi made his way over to the phone, his hands were trembling, not only from crying but from fear, never before had he thought to say such things as he needed to directly to his mother…or as directly as it got with her.

"Mom?" His voice was soft and riddled with uncertainty; still she didn't turn him away.

"Hello Yugi." Her voice revealed undertone emotions that only Yugi could pick up on.

"Its been a while…" He fought with his nerves, "How've you been?" He asked as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. His friends gathering closer behind him for moral support.

The woman on the other line was once again tentative to reply, "Getting by." Her voice was smug, "Win anymore tournaments?"

Yugi had to bite his lip so as not to laugh at how bitter she was, typical. "No mom." He informed her, "I haven't. What I called to talk to you about was…our relationship…for lack of a better word." His own voice, he could tell, was becoming mechanical, but he did nothing to regulate its tone. "You never see me anymore mom, I never even get to talk to you." The emotion was coming back to him now, the confusion, the anger, the sadness; this neither relieved nor excited him. "I know you fought with grandpa…but I don't want that to put a rift between us." For some odd reason he thought of Pegasus's words to Kaiba.

"Listen." Her voice was angry now, angry in a way he had not known it before, "If you're just calling to guilt trip me your grandfather's done enough-"

"Mom please just listen!" He pleaded into the phone, "I know things aren't perfect between us so maybe if you'd just let me know how you feel once in a while we could fix this! I feel alone mom! I feel like you don't care about me! I can't even help you because I don't know you or anything about what you're going through…" He paused and wiped a few stray tears on the back of his hand. "You don't let me see what's wrong, if you'd just let us help you-"

"I don't need that kind of help!"

"But Mom-"

"Don't call me that!" The four bystanders listened to her slam the phone and watched the trembling boy as he placed the phone back on the wall, swallowing hard. There was nothing he could do…maybe she really didn't want to be his mother. Don't call me that, she'd said.

"Yugi…" Tea's voice trailed off like music rising in the background of a crowded café. Yugi's mind raced as he fought back the rest of his tears, Yami was right, he needed to be strong, there was nothing he could do now but let his mother be angry, since she'd made it clear she'd have things no other way. He drew a deep breath and looked around at the worried faces that met his troubled gaze.

He held their gazes but never connected. He felt the heart beating inside his chest but the life, which he could once feel pulsing through his veins, seemed to have left him then. He feigned a cracked smile and inside his head all thought process stopped. There was just the rhythmic sound of his breathing, and occasionally that of another, their breaths synchronized with his own. For a long while he did not recognize his other half, all he was aware of were his mother's words and the feeling of apathy that washed over him. He stared at Tea's face, her blue eyes dominating his violet irises as she called to him in a voice he was beyond hearing.

Despair caught and ensnared him in a tight embrace that not even Yami could breech. Yugi felt his throat go dry, his body numb and his mind blank. It was all too much. The colors bled into a gray and unappealing shade, a warped reality inside his mind. She wanted no parts of him…he had tried so hard…and all it resulted in was pushing her away. He couldn't make out what Yami was saying from beyond the glass walls, which boxed him into his soul room, it all came out as incomprehensible mumbling.

YUGI! AIBOU! ANSWER ME YUGI!

The boy stood in front of his friends, not speaking, not moving, just staring, they too yelled for him, shook him and tried to force him to reveal any sort of life, any sort of humanity that was left. "Yugi please wake up!" Tea cried as she touched his shoulders, face, and hands, "Please, I know it's hard but you have to snap out of it!"

Pegasus watched the teenagers as they made futile attempts to reach him, for a while he let them, knowing that their efforts were no use. The boy was shattered emotionally; the one he needed most had gotten his hopes up, and ruthlessly crushed them in her greedy palm. He clenched his teeth in anger at the thought of the millenium eye, which had showed him what he most desired…and then taken it away.

He allowed them to try and get to him, do anything they could to make him hear them for a long while, until he knew that they understood that their friend was in no state of mind to hear anything but a resounding sorrow. Then, he gently but sternly pushed through them, knelt down to the boy, and silently prayed for strength.

Snapping his fingers he pulled the boy from his mental trance, the millenium eye's abilities had absorbed into his brain so thoroughly that they were able to be of use in a situation like this even without it at his disposal. "Yugi-boy, I think it's best you go to bed." He stood to full height and turned in the direction of the corridor, which lead to the boy's room.

"WAIT A MINUTE!" Tea pleaded, "What's wrong with you! He's emotionally distressed and you tell him to just go to bed!" She exclaimed, unable to control all of the emotions overwhelming her at once, "Yugi!" She half-shouted as she ran to and embraced him.

He swallowed, "I feel so strange Tea." Her arms felt foreign to him, her warmth threatening and her words deadly. Even so, he knew it was wrong of him to selfishly worry his friends, he sucked it up, the feeling of not knowing whether he was alive or dead was slowly disappearing from his mind.

"Are you okay Yug?"

"Yeah, sorry guys, I'll be fine." He swallowed, "Pegasus." The man immediately turned to face him. "Even though my mom still doesn't wanna face the fact that I'm her responsibility in some way." He let a tear come, determined not to fall back into the darkened haze from, which he'd just come, "I'm glad that you made me do that…I needed to…for me." Pegasus felt himself relax, the boy was much stronger at heart than he had been as a child, now nearly nothing could break him, but he realized as he gazed down at the boy, that despite his perseverance his will to go on was thinning.

"Of course Yugi-boy!" He exclaimed in tones that were once again forced to contain happiness. He rubbed his hand through the boy's hair and smiled believably through his conflicting thoughts. "You know what this calls for, don't you?" He asked playfully. Yugi raised an eyebrow at him, "Why a midnight snack!" He exclaimed merrily, the only thought that kept his façade going was surprisingly enough not based on his years of experience, but instead on that of a much needed white wine spritzer.

"Thanks but I don't really…"

You should, aibou. Yami stroked Yugi's hair and face through their mind link in a relieved manor. It'll help you to relax and refocus on why we're here. You can't forget to take time every once in a while to worry about yourself. He stood beside the smaller of the two at full height and smiled down at him. Go on, little one. The gentle coaxing was all the persuasion Yugi needed.

"What's the matter Joseph?" Pegasus asked as the gang was once again seated.

Joey raised an eyebrow towards him, "Nothing, why?"

"Well I mentioned food and you didn't cheer." Joey smiled and laughed a bit.

"I'm not that obsessed with food, sheesh."

"I beg to differ." The others all chimed in together.

Before Joey could comment Croquet placed plates of various sweets in front of them, handing them each a glass of milk, excluding Pegasus, who justifiably, took something a great deal stronger.

"Hey Yugi." Tristan spoke up as he bit into a chocolate cupcake, "Wanna room with me tonight?"

Yugi smiled the best he could manage, "No thanks Tristan, I'll be fine."

"It's not like we're going to sleep anyway." Tea put in after she'd finished a small portion of cherry cobbler, "I mean c'mon, we've got tons of things to talk about since the last time we were all here. I know I'm not the only one wondering where Bandit Keith is now." Without knowing why Yugi laughed through a mouthful of cake at the thought of said person and in return the others laughed with him.

"He was quite the stubborn one." The eldest at the table took a long and much needed sip of his wine.

"Quite the dunce is more like it." Tristan mumbled through his food.

It took all of Yugi's focus just to nod and smile in reaction. He was tired, burnt out, and ready to just go to bed and forget the world for the night, however, there was a part of him that understood he needed this and for that he kept himself up. "Hey guys." He had a random thought, and, in order to keep his mind from straying to thoughts of home and his mother, he brought it up. "Do any of you remember that mechanical baby project from Junior year that we all missed?"

All nodded, "Yeah the one with the partners you switched the baby with every other night for a week right?" Joey confirmed.

Yugi nodded, "Yeah, its gonna seem really weird but what would you have named it?" He asked.

Joey and Tristan stared at him while Tea squealed in the way most teenage girls do when reacting to a guy being sensitive. "You know I seriously did think about that." Tristan laughed as Pegasus sat back to observe where the conversation would lead.

"Yeah me too." Joey admitted, "If it was a boy I was gonna name it Aiden 'cause I could use my middle name for him then."

"What about if it was a girl?"

"Tea." Joey said matter-of-factly, "Joey Wheeler does not, will not, ever have a daughter, that would just be wrong."

Tea fumed, "If Serenity was here she'd be SO offended!" She shouted at him as she smacked his arm hard enough to make her hand smart.

"What about you, Yug?" Joey asked ignoring Tea's response. Yugi shrugged.

"I was gonna use Emma for a girl, since if I was a girl that's what my mom would've named me, I wanted to be able to show it to her and tell her that's why I named her that but…it kinda fell through."

The mood shifted and all sat feeling awkward, sympathetic and silent. "I'm sure when you do have children your mother would be honored by such a noble sentiment." Pegasus offered upon sensing the tension rising amidst them.

Yugi smiled, "You really think so?"

He nodded, "I really do." He replied, "Don't worry Yugi-boy, she'll come around in time, every one needs a hand to hold and right now your mother is just having a hard time reaching yours. It doesn't mean she's refusing to take it or that you've stopped offering it to her, it just means that like your little friend-" Yugi guessed he meant Yami. "She's gotten a little lost along the way home."

The smile gracing the boy's features became more genuine then and he straightened in his seat with a yawn. "If it was a boy I was gonna try and combine your names but all I could come up with was Triseph. Then when I wrote it down as a possibility the teacher reminded me that I was naming a baby not a periodic element."

Joey scoffed, "That's because my name needed to come first, "Joestan." He suggested smiling triumphantly.

"Never have children." Tea put in shaking her head as Pegasus did no more to resist the urge to laugh, the mood was lightening now.

"Honestly how do you children manage to drift to such random topics?" He asked as he took the last swallow of wine and savored the bitter medley on his tongue.

All shrugged, "What do you expect with those two around?" Tea replied jabbing an accusing finger in the direction of Joey and Tristan.

"Hey Yug I know the chocolate cake's good but even I used a fork." Yugi blinked and listed his head, brushing the crumbs from the ends of his hair.

"Sorry, guess I'm tired." Pegasus smiled and stretched a bit.

"Perhaps its best we call it a night." He suggested, all four nodded and moved to get up from the table, "My, My, it's been fun." He spoke up as he turned to retire to bed.

"Yeah, fun." Joey replied as Tristan yawned and Tea attempted to wrack her brain to remember where he room was from her current location in the dining hall.

"Remember now Yugi-boy we're not starting anymore lessons until at the earliest the day after tomorrow." Pegasus reminded the boy as they turned in similar directions to get to their rooms.

Yugi only nodded in response, and with that, went back to his room where thoughts of his mother and questions of why this place felt more comfortable than home would keep him up until first light.