A Yugi/Yami story

Through a Dragon's Eye

Chapter 12-A Good Hard Slap was All It Took

I had chapter 9 fixed finally~!

A terrible pain was what got Yami to come too. His limbs shook as he pushed himself up, his face ached as he looked around him; trying to make sense of everything around him and the first thing that he noticed was that it was pitch black. 'Where am I?' he groaned.

"Yami?" croaked a familiar voice, one that he would recognize anywhere. And it was that voice alone that gave Yami back his strength.

"Yugi?" Yami stared around him trying to find his friend. "I'm right here, Yami," said Yugi's voice from somewhere near. He then felt a small, quaking hand place itself on his own hand. Yami reached out and held onto Yugi's hand as if it were a lifeline.

"Yugi? Are you alright? Where are we? What's going on? What is this place?" Yami would have gone on if Yugi didn't cut him off.

"Yami, one at a time. The last thing that I remember was getting knocked out by those bandits and when I came to I was being dragged into this place. I was trying to wake you up for a while, I was really worried. They said that they just knocked you out and I was beginning to think that you'd sleep for a year. They said that they put us in some prison; I think that it's more of a dungeon than anything, but I guess it's really all the same. Over here there are bars, and I heard some chains in the corner, so I say that we are stuck in a dungeon."

Yami listen very closely, when his memory came back to him. His father was keeping them trapped down here. He was going to wait until the time was right and then force Yugi to get on board Swiftflight and sail to the vanishing isle. He felt sick to his stomach.

"Yugi," he whispered, "I'm so sorry."

"For what?"

"It's all my fault that we're here right now."

(Yugi listened to Yami explain everything that his father had told him)

"He found Swiftflight?" he whispered in amazement.

Yami nodded, but then realized that Yugi couldn't see him in this darkness and said, "If he was telling the truth then yes. I don't think that he'd be lying this time though. And my deranged father is to blame for what is going on here. Yugi I'm so sorry…"

He felt small arms wrap around his waist, hugging him so tightly that Yugi was squeezing the tears out. "It's not your fault, Yami," said Yugi. But then he felt Yami push him away and crawl to a distant corner of the dungeon. "Yami?"

"I've been living a lie," he heard Yami whisper.

"A lie?" asked Yugi in a confused voice.

He heard Yami sigh before answering, "All this time I thought that I was running away from him. Getting away from his control and living on my own. But now I see that I got nowhere fast."

"I used to be happy… once. When mom was still alive, the 3 of us were all happy and living peacefully. My father used to be a great man, someone I looked up to, someone that I was proud to call my father, someone that I wanted to be just like when I grew up. But then…

…mom got cold one night, she got sick, and she died.

Dad was never the same. When she left, it was like she took his heart with her. It was like he lost his mind, and he changed into this monster. I barely recognize him now. I ran away from him, but now I see that I should have stayed and tried to snap him out of it. Tried to bring him back to the person he used to be.

But I let him down. I abandoned him… I ran away from my past… and now I'm paying the price. It's all my fault. You have to pay for my mistakes."

"Yami," said Yugi.

Yami turned away from Yugi and said, "Please Yugi. Just leave me alone. I don't want anyone with me."

Yugi couldn't take it anymore. And what he did next surprised him more than anyone. He walked right over, grabbed Yami by the front of his shirt, and then slapped him as hard as he could across the face.

Yami stared at Yugi as though he had grown a third eye and wings; he put his hand up to his face where it stung. Yugi had never once shown any signs of Yugi being angry or aggressive.

"Yami," said Yugi, sounding close to tears. "Yami, listen to me. You have to stop this. None of this is your fault. There was no way that you could have known what your father was going to do. If you did then you never would have left. Your father wants power more than anything, and gave up everything so that he could get it. No matter what happened before your father made his choice, you aren't responsible for him." As he said all that, tears started to form in his eyes.

"Yugi…" said Yami in hushed tones.

"And besides," went on Yugi, "don't you think that it would break my heart if you weren't here? After all, I didn't leave my village to find a friend like you just to watch you wallow in self-pity."

"Yugi," said Yami again. He didn't have any idea what to say. He never meant to make Yugi cry and he felt his own heart start to break. He hated to think that he made sweet little Yugi come to tears over the things that he said.

"But Yami," said Yugi in a determined voice. "If you really want to be left alone… then I'll leave you alone. But only if you really want me too." Yugi turned away from Yami and actually took a few steps away.

"No!" cried Yami. He ran forward and grasped ahold of Yugi's hand. "No, I don't want to be left alone. I'm sorry, Yugi, I never meant to make you cry and upset… it's just that…" Yami trailed off.

"It's just what?" asked Yugi in concern looking at Yami full in the face.

Yami took a deep breath and went on, "I've always been afraid to let anyone ever get this close to me. Not since my mother died. Every since she left us… I've been alone. I figured that if my family didn't even want me around, then I wouldn't be around. I decided to leave and to just keep to myself and never tell anyone else how I was feeling, and I always swore that I would never let anyone see me cry." But as he said that, Yugi saw, to his astonishment, that tears were beginning to form the corners of Yami's eyes. "But really, I guess… that…all I ever wanted to do was cry."

"Then cry," said Yugi very quietly. He then said gently, "Your feelings. You can't fight them anymore. Let them win. Just this one time."

As soon as Yami heard that, he felt the tears that he'd been trying to hold back, for so long… finally broke free. He let the tears fall down his face, while he fell to his knees and wept for everything that had happened to him and his friend. He wept for the journey that they were forced to go on… for the trouble that they were in… for everything that had happened.

While he cried he felt small hands on his shoulders; he looked up to see that Yugi was also crying, he was trying to comfort Yami, when it was really Yugi who needed the comfort here. He just held onto Yami as though his life dependent on it and he let the tears free fall.

(Everybody cries sometimes, and if you don't you should. Crying is a natural way of letting go of pent up emotions. It is sad fact that many children are shamed for crying. Adults who are led to believe that crying is not OK may repress their feeling of sadness. Emotions that are not allowed to release tend to leak out in other areas of their lives. The ability to express our emotions whether alone or in communication to others is necessary for a happy life. )

They both cried together for a long time until Yugi let go of Yami and said, "Yami? I think that it's time we got ourselves out of here. Don't you?" when Yami didn't say anything Yugi went on. "How can I blame you for something that your father did? Think of it this way if your father wasn't like this then you might never have run away from home. And if you never ran away then you and I might not have met up and become best friends. Good things, lead to bad things that can lead to more good things.

And that's life. And at the end of the day we all count our blessings. Your dad is just using the story as an excuse to be a real jerk to everyone. And if what you say is true and I'm the one who has to go to the tower and get the power then I just won't take it. If we can get out of here, then we can focus on what to do next."

Yami put his hand up to where Yugi had slapped him. Yugi was so gentle that he didn't feel it too much, but he was so astonished by Yugi actually resorting to throwing a punch that it hurt more than his father hitting him. But he needed that slap right now. He lost his focus and his will to go on.

"Yugi," he said lowering his hand. "You're right, thank you."

Even in the dark he knew that Yugi blushed with embarrassment. "Sorry, about hitting you," he said. "But I couldn't stand to watch you beat yourself up like this. I meant what I said; it's not your fault how your father turned out. I mean, if you could've done anything to have helped him, you never would have left. This was your father's decision. And you have nothing to do with it."

"No," said Yami gently. "I'm glad you slapped me, believe me, I needed that more than anything right now. And you're right. My father chose his own fate; I'm not responsible for him. But it still hurts that a power-hungry, demented lunatic is—was once my father."

He felt Yugi sit back to back with him and heard him say, "Well, I guess it's true. You chose me as a friend but you got stuck with your father. I guess that's why we have friends, to make up for the family that we get stuck with."

Yami laughed at that. It wasn't a happy laugh but it took his mind off their problems for the moment. But he knew that Yugi was right about getting out of here. His father needed Yugi to help him; without Yugi, then there was no way that they could find the vanishing isle. If he could just get Yugi somewhere safe, then, even if Yami was still locked up, at least he could stop his father.

Yami always did go out of his way to upset and annoy his father. The thought made him smile.

But before he could say anything else a door burst open, and the light that came flooding in was blinding. He had gotten so used to the dark dungeon that the light was hurting him so much that Yami covered his eyes, yelling in pain as this blinding light hit his eyes.

Beside him he heard Yugi shout out in pain. At first he thought it was the light hurting him, as it was with Yami… but then he felt strong arms hoisted him up off the ground as easily as if he were a large loaf of bread. He had enough sense to try to fight back, but he was fighting against a mountain for a man, and he knew that he wasn't going to go anywhere.

He had no choice but to be carried off. He hated his father now.

The light was still so bright, that he couldn't open his eyes, but he could hear everything that was going on around him. He heard every step that the large man made on the stone floors, he could hear every breath of air that they breathed in, he could hear their clothes rustling as if they were leaves, he could hear tiny tinkling of something that sounded uncanny like chains being dragged along the ground, and he could hear every whisper that these large bullies were saying.

"I still don't see why these two little brats, are the key to finding the vanishing isle," said a burly, thick voice from somewhere behind them.

The rest of the jerks that were with them chuckled at that remark, "No affence boys," croaked out a guy who sounded like he had a bad head cold. "It's just a small joke."

"Yeah," said Yami. "You know what they say? Small joke, small mind." That remark earned him a pound on the head and a 'Shut up, Runt!'

"Now, I see why you're here, trying to find the vanishing isle," said Yami ignoring the pain.

"Because we deserve that power?" asked another thug with a squeaky voice.

"No because no one hugged you when you were little," and he quickly earned himself another smack on the head.

He went on in silence for awhile, the only thing that he could see through his closed eyelids where the little birds from those hits to the head. All of a sudden the thug who was holding him suddenly threw him to the ground. He opened his eyes, which didn't hurt him nearly as bad as the first time as he blinked. It took a while before his eyes had adjusted to the light and what he saw… scared him more than anything else he'd seen so far.