(A/N: You're going to kill me this time. I take a lifetime to update and I give you this. You won't have any mercy. You're gonna fucking murder me, I just know it. It's okay, I deserve it. I wanna murder myself for writing this.

BEFORE YOU TELL ME HOW HEARTLESS I AM, LET ME TELL YOU THAT THIS HURTS ME MORE THAN IT HURTS YOU. BUT IT'S ALL DONE WITH A PURPOSE. THE FLUFF WILL COME BACK SOON ENOUGH. I HATE DRAMA, I HATE ANGST, I ALREADY SAID IT, BUT IT'S NECESSARY.

WARNINGS: VIOLENCE. A tiny 'mini-me' appearance. Just... read under your own risk. If you're too emotional, you're gonna need tissues.

P.S. Do you know how ANNOYING it is to have my "g" and "h" keys loose on my keyboard? They're two of the letters I use the most and they keep popping off the keyboard. ACK.)

Chapter 14

The first time they break up, it's short, quick, and without any explanations from Yami's part.

But we shall we go back to the first fact that started the snowball effect, which would later lead to their breakup.

Yami is still sitting with his face on his hands when Mr. and Mrs. Mutou break through the doors of the hospital. They reach him and ask thousands of questions, questions Yami cannot answer. He stands up and tries to tell them that he doesn't know anything, that he just knows they brought Yugi in and that's it—but the tears won't let him. He opens his mouth yet no sound comes out of it.

Behind Mr. and Mrs. Mutou, his own parents run towards him. Yugi's mom figured that Yami wouldn't call them, so she did it herself. And Yami is sure glad she did, because his dad and mom are the only ones who truly know how scared he is.

It's like with Becky, he thinks, crying into Chiyoko's arms. It's the same as Becky, all over again.

"Mom," he sobs.

"I'm here, sweetheart."

"Mom, he…"

"He's going to be just fine," she says, but Yami catches her shooting a worried glance at Amelia, and he can't help but wonder, will Yugi really be just fine?

Don't worry about it! There's the little guy again, sitting on his mom's shoulder, patting the top of Yami's head. You have to trust him! You have to believe in him!

Why are you referring to only me now?

'Mini-me' is quiet for a second. Because I already believe in him. I know he can make it out of this. It's your turn.

Amelia and Aristos go in as soon as a nurse comes out of Yugi's room and tells them they can come in. Yami honestly wants to be the first to go in there, but his parents are the main priority here. So he patiently waits, his arms hugging himself, for what seems like an eternity when it's probably just a couple of minutes.

Suddenly, he hears a broken voice talk.

"Is he here?"

It's Yugi.

Oh, God, he's awake.

"Of course he's here, dear," says Amelia. It's funny how she doesn't need to ask who the "he" is.

"Can… can I see him? Can he come in?"

Yami doesn't know how he did it, but he's already standing at Yugi's closed door when he hears the question. He doesn't knock. He doesn't ask to come in. Instead, he waits until a nurse opens the door to walk through it. He's looking at the floor, at his feet moving, because he needs to prepare his mind for whatever he'll see. What if there are bruises all over Yugi's face? What if there's a bandage over his head? What if there's a cast on his arm or leg?

What if there's…

"Hey."

Yami looks up.

And he feels like crying again.

Yugi has a bandage wrapped diagonally over one of his eyes and the back of his head, more than four purple bruises on both his arms, a cut on his cheek… and that's just from what Yami can see.

"Mom, can—can you leave us alone for a second?" He hears Yugi ask. Amelia nods her head and walks out of the room, but not before softly and encouragingly patting Yami's shoulder. "Hey," Yugi repeats once his mom's gone. There's a smile on his bruised face that should look beautiful but doesn't, not when you see the bandage covering half of his face.

"Yami?" Yugi calls, because Yami hasn't moved, hasn't said anything.

"Hey," Yami whispers, not knowing what else to pronounce that doesn't sound overall stupid.

But then Yugi opens his arms and mutters something that sounds suspiciously like "C'mere," and Yami doesn't know how he does it, but he's hiding in his boyfriend's arms before he realizes it and why is he crying, he shouldn't be crying, Yugi's the one that got hurt, not him, he should be strong for Yugi, why is he crying?

"It's okay," Yugi tells him, rubbing Yami's back. "It's okay, I'm fine, see? I'm fine."

"No, you're not," Yami sobs, his chin resting on Yugi's shoulder. "You're not fine. You're bruised and hurt and—"

"I'm fine," Yugi insists, kissing Yami's temple, caressing his hair. "I'm alive, aren't I?"

But that's the worst part—he's barely alive.

If Yami hadn't gotten there when he did… if those guys hadn't stopped pummeling Yugi…

He doesn't go there. He doesn't think about that because he's already had those images in his head before with what happened to Becky and…

STOP IT! There's 'mini-me' again, smacking him on the head. He's alive! He's okay! Sure, he's got a few bandages and cuts and bruises, but those heal! he yells at Yami, and he's never been this angry. It's just a matter of time, buddy, but he's going to be okay!

The thought calms Yami down. It calms him down enough to think straight and to thank God that Yugi got out of this hate crime alive.

The authorities of this town are seriously starting to piss him off.

"What was your son doing outside school grounds?" asks an officer, whom Mrs. Mutou called to report the crime.

"He was still in school grounds! He was just waiting for his boyfriend to come out so that they could walk home together!"

"Ma'am, I beg your pardon," the officer says, "but it seems hard to believe that a group of kids would attack a student just because he was standing there."

"And I'll beg your pardon, sir, but I'll have you know that as a lawyer, I've seen more of these cases in one week than you in your entire lifetime!"

"Honey, honey, take it easy," Mr. Mutou says, holding his wife's shoulders.

Yami tries not to listen to the conversation. He's still in Yugi's room, and a nurse closed the door to spare them, but Amelia has raised her voice so much that the officer needs to yell to be heard. Which, in turn, results in both Yami and Yugi being able to hear the entire thing.

"It's no use," Yugi says.

"What do you mean?" Yami holds his boyfriend's hand, running his thumb over his knuckles.

"Even if my mom were to convince that man of my innocence, it'd be of no use. I couldn't see the guys' faces."

Yami grits his teeth in anger. He should've at least tried to catch a glimpse of the bastard's faces. Now they'll get away with beating Yugi and probably also with beating more innocent people whose only crime is to be different.

He wishes being different wasn't seen as a crime by the rest of their stupid, screwed-up society.

That night, and during the next four nights as well, the entire week Yugi has to stay in the hospital, Yami has nightmares, and they're all horrible, gruesome, worse, much worse, than the ones that plagued his mind when Rebecca died. In all of them, he sees Yugi screaming for help, and the danger he's in is different each time. Once, he's tied up with someone holding a robe to his neck; one time, there's a gun to the back of his head. Another time, his lip is bleeding and he gets pummeled every time he cries for Yami to help him.

And in all the nightmares, there's nothing Yami can do.

And every night, he wakes up in tears, thinking that he could've helped Yugi, he could've stopped him from getting hurt. But he didn't.

He couldn't.

So he comes to a painful conclusion.

Yugi would be safe without him.

Without him, no one would call him fag or homo or queer.

Then he comes to the second conclusion that Yugi needs someone better than him.

Someone who can be with him and still keep him safe.

Yami is not that someone.

"Wait, you're… you're what?"

"You heard."

"I did. Are you really—"

"I already did."

"Did I do something wrong?"

"No, no, you're… it's my fault. It was my fault. You're perfect."

"Clearly not enough for you."

"That's not what I mean."

"Then what do you mean? You're sending me mixed signals here, why are you—"

"Because you need someone better. You don't need me."

"But I—"

"Goodbye, Yugi."

And just like that, he closes the door, leaving his boyf— ex-boyfriend standing outside his house, tears swelling his only good eye, his fingers tightening into fists because he still can't process what just happened. He slides to the carpeted floor of his living room, his back against the door, crying his heart out because he just did the most hurtful decision he's ever had to make.

"I'm sorry, Yugi, but… I'm breaking up with you."