Love stinks! *eats spoonful of Cookie Dough ice cream*

Sage:….Uh, there there?

I'm going to take out my teenage angst out on Yugi and Yami!

Sage:…..There, there,…..darling?

Stop trying to be sympathetic. It doesn't suit you.

Sage: Oh Thank Ra. That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Yami stood in shock, his mouth slightly agape. Had he seen everything right? Had what he thought he saw really happen? Did Yugi really beat Kaiba? With Kuriboh? Did his little one really beat his cousin, the international champion, with the supposed weakest monster in the game? Apparently Yami wasn't the only one in shock. He could hear the surprised and confused voices of the spectators that had come to watch the game a long time ago. He heard their voices, but they seemed to linger in the air, not necessarily meaning anything.

"Did that really just happen?"

"That kid beat Kaiba?"

"Who is he?"

Yugi took the duel disc off his arm and walked over to Kaiba, returning it. Kaiba grunted and harshly stole away the device. Yugi seemed unfazed by the rude behavior. He had just won a duel, and taught the CEO a lesson. As far as he was concerned, he had done a good thing.

Yami hadn't even ever beaten his cousin. Kaiba's deck was full of nothing but strong monsters. None of Yami's monsters stood a chance against Kaiba, which may have had a reason to his lack of interest in the game overall.

But Yugi had won? The little, insecure boy he found at the diner beat the world champion, and CEO of KaibaCorp. It seemed like a dream. And Kaiba seemed to be in just as much shock. Yami could see the desolate look on his face. The horror in his eyes. His hands trembling, as though they were cold.

"Alright, Yugi!" A voice called and Yami watched as Joey ran over to his friend, wrapping his arms around him. Yugi smiled and let out a small laugh as Joey hugged him, and Yami could see his lips move as he asked Joey something. The blonde whispered something back into Yugi's ear and Yami watched the smile drop off of his face. He couldn't help but wonder what Joey had told Yugi.

Yugi broke free of Joey's grip and turned to face his friend. From his spot Yami saw Yugi speak, and he tried to read his lips. All he got were a few words that Yami thought were, "I'm sorry", "long story" and "explain". He sighed. He had gotten Yugi in trouble with his best friend, and how he was feeling guilty. He should have listened to Yugi when they were outside the hotel. They should have gone somewhere else, somewhere away from Joey.

But if they had gone somewhere else, Yugi wouldn't have defeated Kaiba. A smile came to Yami's face. Yugi was the World Champion now. He needed to talk to Yugi, and get him out of trouble with Joey. It was the least he could do, seeing as how everything had been his idea. He walked over to the two boys, earning a death glare from Joey as he approached.

"Congratulations, Yugi." He said, forcing a smile as he tried to avoid the uncomfortable glare Joey was giving him. "You won! You've taken Kaiba's championship."

The smile on Yugi's face faded and he looked over his shoulder, catching a glimpse of the CEO walking out of the hotel, his head down, not saying a word. "I didn't mean to hurt him. I just wanted to teach him a lesson." His eyes turned back to Joey. "Only I can give Joey a hard time."

Joey snorted and rolled his eyes. "Remember that when we get home later tonight."

"Joey," Yami said, wanting to clear things up before he got his partner into more trouble, "don't get mad at Yugi. This wasn't his idea."

"Yeah, I know it wasn't his idea." Joey said bluntly, anger lacing his voice. "Yugi's not stupid enough to come into my place of employment with his secret fugitive boyfriend."

"He's not a fugitive." Yugi interrupted, looking sadly at his blonde friend.

"Now's not the time to be giving me a vocabulary lesson, Yugi. Now step back so I can kick this guy's ass." He took a step towards Yami, but Yugi latched onto Joey's arm, digging his heels into the floor for leverage and did his best to hold him back.

"No, Joey!" Yugi said, tightening his grip on Joey's arm. "Please, leave him alone."

Joey turned back and looked at Yugi. He was angry at the Yami person, but seeing the look of fear and isolation in Yugi's eyes made the anger vanish. He felt upset for Yugi. Yugi really didn't want him to hurt Yami, did he? He liked the older man, didn't he? He liked him enough to lie and sneak around for nearly a month.

Joey turned away from Yugi and looked at Yami. He found it hard to look at the man that had been sneaking around with his best friend. Ever since the incident with Jack, Joey didn't want anyone around Yugi; no strangers. He didn't like Yami when he brought Yugi home late at night over a month ago, and he sure as hell didn't like him now.

But Yugi did.

Joey sighed. These last few weeks Yugi had seemed happy. He was happier than he had been in over a year. Was that because of Yami? Did Yami make him happy? Joey had enjoyed seeing the spark of life return in Yugi's eyes. Yugi had seemed to return to his old self, the self Joey had befriended on the playgrounds back in first grade. What would happen if he did hurt Yami? Would Yugi revert back into that shell he had built around himself? Would he go back to hardly talking, preferring to keep himself locked in his room?

Joey couldn't let that happen. It seemed like Yugi was finally beginning to recover. Joey didn't want him to have a relapse. He wanted Yugi to return back to the old Yugi. And if this man, if Yami, was part of that recovery, then Joey couldn't hurt him. He wanted Yugi to be happy. And if Yami made Yugi happy, then he was going to have to accept that.

Joey pulled his arm out of Yugi's grasp and stood limp for a moment. He wasn't going to hurt Yami, not now. He had brought the spark back into Yugi's eyes. But, what were his intentions? Jack had seemed like the nicest man on Earth the few times Joey met him, but they all knew how that turned out. What if this man was nothing but a cold hearted bastard, like Jack had been? He didn't trust him as far as he could throw him.

But he wasn't going to block him out of Yugi's life. Not yet. They would talk about this later, but right now he had work to get back too. He turned to face Yugi.

"We'll talk about this later, okay? I have work to do." He glared back over at Yami for good measures, and then walked away, leaving Yugi and Yami by themselves.

Yami watched as Yugi looked down at his feet and shuffled them uncomfortably. He wrapped his arms around his chest and seemed to sink into his self. Yami could watch as Yugi went back into the shell he had created for himself; a shell that Yami had thought had been broken moments ago. Surely defeating Kaiba would have given him a confidence boost? But no, that didn't seem to be the case. It seemed that no matter what Yugi managed to accomplish, he never could get himself out of his introverted self.

"He's mad at me." Yugi whispered, his voice cracking as tears threatened to fall. Yami blinked, looking down at his small love. He knew how important Joey's friendship meant to the younger boy, and now he thought that it had been destroyed. Yami put a strong hand on one of Yugi's shoulder. He felt the boy flinch underneath him at the touch, but soon relaxed into the embrace.

"He's mad at me, not you." Yami said, trying to comfort Yugi. The boy needed to know that this was not his fault. It was Yami's fault. Yami had been the one to push Yugi into this relationship, even after the boy's protests that his friends wouldn't approve. Yami had been the one to tell him that his friends were too protective and that they needed to let him make his own choices.

Yami didn't regret any of it. Yugi needed to be able to be treated like the adult he was. His friends were holding him back, treating him as though he were a child. Yami couldn't stand to see that; that was part of the reason he was so adamant about this relationship with Yugi. He wanted to be one of the decisions Yugi could make his own. He hoped that the younger boy knew he was free to leave anytime he wanted, but he hoped that Yugi would chose to stay with him.

"Just give him some time, Yugi. You'll see, he'll cool off."

The smaller boy sighed, still staring in the direction his friend had run off in. "I hope you're right, Yami. Joey's my best friend. If he's mad at me, I don't know what I'll do."

With that, he turned around, and he and Yami proceeded to leave the hotel.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Yugi sat on the couch back at his home uncomfortable. He stared at his hands, constantly wringing them. It was a nervous habit he always had. The constant rubbing of the skin on his hands was a subtle distraction for his mind. Instead of focusing on whatever thought was bothering him, his mind was thinking of the constant pushing and pulling of the skin. It didn't hurt him, though. Yugi had grown a substantial tolerance to pain over the last two years.

Physcial pain, at least.

He could deal with the pink scars that littered his skin; he could deal with the memories of the bruises that once lived on his arms.

But the emotional pain was far worse. He couldn't stand feeling helpless, but he was, wasn't he? Just a helpless little kid. A liar. A filthy, rotten, little liar. He had lied to Joey. He had lied to Anzu. They were his best friends; they only wanted to help him, to protect him. And what does he do? He stabs them in the back by lying, by sneaking around. He goes to see a man they tried to keep away from him.

'They've only tried to help you. Anzu has allowed you to keep your job, even though you don't deserve it. You're terrible at it. Joey took you in. He allowed you to live with him, even when you deserve nothing more than the streets. And how do you repay them? You lie. You sneak around. You're nothing more than a coward.'

Yugi did his best to ignore the voice in his head, his conscious. But the voice was screaming, rubbing Yugi's mistakes into his face. He wouldn't go away and Yugi didn't know how to silence him. He was right; Yugi was a coward. Instead of going up to Joey and telling him the truth, he lied to get away with his outings with Yami.

Yugi groaned and buried his head in his hands. He felt so stupid. He enjoyed spending time with Yami, but was it worth a ten year friendship? Yugi wasn't sure; he didn't want to lose any friends, be it Joey, Anzu, or Yami.

The sound of a door opening caught Yugi's attention. He looked up and saw Joey entering the apartment slowly. Their eyes locked for a moment and at that instant Yugi wished he would just die. He saw the disappointment in Joey's eyes. He couldn't bear to look at his friend any longer and jerked his head away.

Joey didn't say anything. He went over into their small kitchen and pulled out a soda from the fridge. He pulled the tab, the hissing sound being the only noise throughout the entire apartment. Joey walked over quietly to the living room where he sat on the couch next to Yugi. Neither boy spoke. The tension hung heavily above Yugi's head, it was choking him. What was he going to say? He had no excuse for his lies, for his defiance. Nothing he could say would be enough. He never should have gotten involved with Yami.

After several minutes of awkward, deafening, silence, Joey spoke. "Are you going to start, or shall I?"

Yugi inhaled a shaky breath, doing his best to keep his emotions in line. He could hear the disappointment in Joey's voice and that was what hurt the most. He wanted Joey to be angry; he wanted the blonde to be screaming at him, his face flushed red. The anger would subside after a while, and it was something Yugi could deal with.

But the disappointment was something else. Joey had been nothing but kind to him ever since they had known to each other. Joey only wanted to protect him, to keep him safe. And Yugi betrayed him.

"I'm s-sorry, Joey." Yugi said shakily. He could feel the tears stinging at his eyes, but he held them back. He wasn't going to cry, he wasn't going to be weak. He was going to be a man and face the consequences of his actions.

"How did he get out of jail?" Joey questioned, but deep down, he already knew the answer. He just wanted to hear Yugi say it. He wanted Yugi to confess.

"I went over to the jail…and I…I asked for the charges to be dropped." Yugi admitted, still avoiding Joey's gaze.

"Why?"

"Because!" Yugi screamed, out of nowhere, turning his head to face Joey. Angry tears were beginning to leak out past his eyelids, and Yugi cursed himself for being so weak, but he wasn't going to not say anything. "He didn't hurt him! He didn't need to be in jail!"

"He was harassing you!" Joey argued, getting to his feet, with Yugi following his actions. "I wasn't going to let him hurt you!"

"He wasn't hurting me, Joey!" Yugi pleaded, folding his hands. He hated fighting with Joey. He didn't think he had ever fought with the older man before, making this all the more difficult. "He just wanted to get to know me. He wanted to be my friend."

"We don't know that Yuge. You can't just take everyone by their word. That's how people get killed!"

"And you can't just assume that everyone in the world is out to get me! I'll be eighteen in a few months. I don't need you babysitting me every hour of every day!" The anger Yugi was feeling was intense. He had always tried to control his anger, because it was pointless. It didn't get anything done and only made things worse. But, he couldn't control it this time. Something in him snapped. "I want to be emancipated."

As soon as the words left his mouth, Yugi wished they hadn't. He clasped his hand against his mouth and began to slightly tremble. He was terrified. He looked up shakily into Joey's eyes and saw the hurt in them.

"Is that how you feel, Yuge?" He asked softly, all signs of anger lost in his tone. "You think I baby you?"

Yugi didn't answer. He turned his head away and instead chose to look at the corner of the living room.

"Yugi, I…" Joey was at a loss for words, which was extremely out of character. Joey was never quiet. He always had something to say. "I…I'm sorry." He whispered, unable to fully comprehend Yugi's feelings. Had he been babying Yugi? He didn't mean too, he only wanted to keep safe. There were too many people that had tried to, or had, hurt Yugi in his life. Whether was school bullies, or supposed partners, people in the world seemed to want to harm Yugi. And after Joey sat by his hospital bed for those excruciating three days, while Yugi sat in limbo, he swore that he would not let anyone hurt him ever again.

But had he gone too far? He had only done what he did to protect Yugi. Was he keeping Yugi on a leash?

"It doesn't matter." Yugi said softly, turning his back to Joey. "What's done is done, right?" He sighed and began to walk towards the door. "I'm going out."

Joey just stood there, frozen. He didn't want to keep Yugi on the leash anymore. Yugi was right; he was an adult and deserved to be treated as such. Joey was worried about Yugi leaving the house at a late hour, and not knowing where he was going, but, he trusted Yugi.

At least he thought he did.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Ra. This is starting to sound like a bad soap opera. Poor Yugi. I should probably give him a break, tone down the drama some. But, then again, I'm a sick person, so what fun would that be?

Sage: I know I've said this before, but again: Are you sure you're not the yami?

Positive. Thanks for reading, and please review!

To SoundlessMusic: Thanks so much for the review(s) It's okay, I understand. I don't like reading duels that much either, but I wanted to write one out. I'm glad you're enjoying the story!