A/N: Readers and reviewers, you guys are awesome. It's nice to know that people are actually keeping up with this, me included. This is actually the first thing I've written that's made it past the second chapter and that I haven't quit on. ;) I'm muy excited. This chapter's slightly shorter than the last two have been, and lol, I don't know what it is: even though Yugi's my favorite character, I love putting him in unpleasant, horrible, sad situations. XD Sorry bud! Lol, I need to figure out what I'm going to do with the next couple of chapters. I know ultimately where this is going, (and you don't...muahhaha), I've just got to dawdle until I can get the fic to that point.

WARNINGS: YxYY, Mpreg, Language, Mature Themes

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the characters involved in this fic.

"Yami, stop it. I'm telling you, I'm FINE," he said harshly as Yami, with extreme caution, helped lower him onto a seat in the private compartment they had requested. The two had barely made it to the station on time, and mere seconds after Yami seated himself securely down next to Yugi, they felt a jolt, and the train commenced.

"Well, forgive me for trying to be careful…for both of your sakes," he muttered.

Yugi rolled his eyes and turned to the window, watching as the dark images outside sped up and slightly blurred. Both remained quiet over the next half hour, evident frowns upon their faces, completely lost in their own thoughts and fears. Silent tension filled the space, and soon the atmosphere of the enclosed compartment became nearly unbearable.

"Aibou?" Yami finally spoke, turning to look at Yugi, but unable to see his whole face.

Yugi twitched a little out of reflex, but did not turn around.

"Come now, Yugi. What's wrong? Well, aside from the obvious…," he said with a glance at Yugi's stomach, which still looked to be completely normal. "You're acting cold towards me."

Yugi remained turned away, but Yami noticed the trail of ever-present tears streaming down his cheek.

"I'm just waiting for you to say it."

"Say what, exactly?"

Yugi sighed and turned to him, eyes lowered to floor. "To say you don't want this."

Yami fought off the urge to roll his eyes as he reminded Yugi for the five thousandth time that he wasn't leaving him on his own. Yugi finally managed a weak smile, as he looked at him and shook his head apologetically. "I'm sorry Yami. I just…I'm scared, and really, really anxious. Grandpa…well, I can tell you right now, it's not going to go well…," he breathed before turning back to the window and placing his head on it.

"When do you want to tell him?" Yami inquired as he took Yugi's warm hand in his, locking their fingers together.

Yugi contemplated a bit. "As soon as possible, unless of course, he already knows…"

"Well, he hasn't called you today, and that's a good sign. I'm fairly certain that if he heard the news, he'd be screaming at you right now."

"Maybe he's in shock?"

Yami raised an eyebrow, and Yugi chuckled a bit as he thought about his very vocal grandfather.

"Okay, you're right. But I just don't think I can do it today. Today's been way too…overwhelming. We can tell him tomorrow morning. We're just going to have to be on complete patrol. No newspapers, no TV, and Yami, if anyone sets a foot near our house, mind crush them into the next century."

Yami couldn't help but laugh at that one.

"As much as I would love to for your sake, aibou, you know those powers are gone now."

Yugi sighed. "I know. Just saying it'd be nice."

"Yugi?"

Yugi turned around to face his deep eyes.

"I love you. We can do this."

The smaller boy nodded, and returned his gaze to the window, random word combinations meshing together in his mind as he watched the passing trees. Yami sat quietly, his hand never leaving Yugi's as his eyes traveled over his light's soft face. Their time ticked down…

At nine fifteen at night, they both stood in front of the game shop, various pieces of luggage sprawled at their feet. Yugi's breathing had instantly picked up, and even Yami noticed his own heart had begun to beat at a much quicker pace. Yugi wearily eyed over the shop, and gave a small sigh of relief, causing Yami to curiously turn to him.

"All the lights are off. He must be asleep."

Yami gave Yugi an encouraging smile, which he gratefully returned, as Yami reached for the key lying securely in his pocket. His movements immediately grew heedful; stealth would be the winning factor at this point. Yugi had to suppress a gasp once he realized he was safely inside the shop; the door had hardly made a single sound. Using the impenetrable darkness as a cover, Yami slipped inside the house with all of their bags; he had refused to let the smaller boy carry anything, much to Yugi's annoyance.

Yami waited for his eyes to adjust a bit before moving the bags to lay against a wall; not daring to risk getting them upstairs. He felt a small hand reach out for his, and he clutched it tightly as Yugi took a step forward in the darkness, using his other hand as a guide. Yami soon felt the comforting familiarity of the kitchen atmosphere, and he was about to change positions so he could carefully lead his love up the stairs…

There was a blinding flash of light, and several dark figures sprang up, causing Yugi to scream loudly and back up into Yami's chest.

"SURPRISE!!!!! HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY!!!"

Before his eyes could adjust, Yami's ears were pounded with the sound of raucous laughter and aggravating plastic horns. After a few seconds, his eyes recognized the figures before him; Yugi's grandfather and best friends. Colorful banners and decorations completely swarmed the kitchen, and Joey happily grabbed a can of silly string from the table and turned it on Tristan. The brunette cursed thunderously, sending Joey into a fit of hysterics, until he realized that no one else was laughing, and that Tristan wasn't even looking at him.

All eyes had frozen on Yugi, whose face had gone completely pale, and was panting heavily. He stood shakily, catching his breath, until his knees buckled under him, and Yami had to tightly grasp his arms from behind to keep him from collapsing.

"Yugi?" Solomon asked as he rushed over to them, his voice frightened.

"S-scared the heck…out of me…d-don't ever do that…again…" he said as he forced a smile to ease the concern on their faces and the color slowly began to return to his face.

"Well, it was Joey's idea."

Yami and Yugi recognized the female voice instantly, and both turned their eyes to the tall brunette standing next to Solomon.

"Tea!" Yugi piped up, and Yami had to keep himself from rolling his eyes again.

"Happy Birthday, Yugi! I'm sorry I haven't been around much, I've been busy."

Yami reluctantly released Yugi as the boy wiggled in his arms, and frowned when he made his way over to Tea and hugged her happily.

"Thanks! It's good to see you!"

Yami inwardly snorted at the comment.

"Well Yug, you've got about five seconds to get your butt to the living room. Yes, I saw the Wii, and ya know, some moron over here hasn't had his ass kicked today."

"And you're clearly that moron, right?" Tristan said with a laugh.

"Shuddap! You just wait! Nothing's stopping me from actually punching you in Wii Boxing, ya nimrod."

They all laughed, but Yami noticed that Yugi's was terribly faked. He quickly alerted Solomon that they wanted to put their bags upstairs, and the old man nodded in response. Yami grabbed all that he could, and the two left for the stairs. He felt Yugi give a small sigh of content as he stepped into Yami's familiar room, his safe place, but it was short-lived as he sat on the bed with his face in his hands and groaned.

"Now what?" he said as Yami closed the door behind him.

"Well, everyone important is here, so at least we won't have to tell it multiple times…" he joked with a shrug, causing Yugi to raise his head and glare at him. Yami's small smirk fell and he stepped over to Yugi, kneeling onto the floor so that his rich, crimson eyes were completely level with pure amethyst.

"I think it might be good to tell them tonight, and just get it over with. Your friends are here; we've got a support system. And they're bound to know regardless by tomorrow. That's my opinion."

Yugi sighed, and looked away for a moment in thought. He finally turned and gazed into Yami's eyes, desperately trying to hold back the fear in his own.

"Okay, but not until a little later. I just, I can't do it right now…"

Yami stood and took his hand, leading the boy down the stairs and back to the small party. Once down in the living room, Yami immediately raised an eyebrow at Joey and Tristan, who were prancing around like a pair of wild baboons, controllers in hand. He sharply turned to Yugi in confusion, and the small boy shrugged and gave a hearty laugh, one so welcome that it raised Yami's spirits as well.

After an hour and a half alternating turns on the game console, everyone moved into the small kitchen, where Yugi was met with a large layered chocolate cake adorned with swirly purple Dark Magicians all over it. He smiled widely as everyone circled around the table, Joey to his left, Yami to his right and Tea pulled out a digital camera in preparation. Solomon pulled out a small box of matches from a drawer and made his way over to the group, who laughed heavily when the first match he struck absolutely refused to ignite. Finally, several seconds later, every one of the seventeen candles scattered around the cake were lit, and Solomon begun the simple song, which immediately caused appreciative tears to spring into Yugi's eyes.

Yami desperately looked over to Joey and Tristan since he had no clue what the tune was, and tried to copy, ad-libbing horribly as clear embarrassment stung his cheeks. The blonde and brunette playfully belted the happy birthdays out. Eventually, the song came to an end, and after a verbal battle from the two clowns: ("And manyyyy moreeeee!" "The big fat lady on channel eighty!" "Joey, I heard that was your mom." "WHY I OUTTA-") Tea immediately rolled her eyes and leaned on the table, smiling at Yugi.

"Well, make a wish!" she said happily, camera raised.

And Yugi's smile fell fast. Before he knew it, his eyes were traveling to each of his friends' faces before finally resting on his grandfather's, who he quickly tore his eyes away from. He glanced down at his hands, then slowly at every single candle, then at Yami, so desperately, so intently; almost as if he were trying to memorize every feature of his face. Relunctantly, he turned his eyes to his grandfather's once more, and Yami frowned, knowing that this was it, and he mentally braced himself for what was to come. Sure enough, Yugi burst into tears, just as Tea snapped the photo.

Solomon, although shocked, sensed danger and immediately grabbed at the cardboard under the cake and pulled it towards him. The act proved successful; Yugi's hair did not catch fire as he threw his head down upon his arms and began to weep heavily.

Yami barely heard Joey yell, "I told you to go for the vanilla cake, you idiot! He doesn't like it!" Anticipation overwhelmed his senses and his heart slammed severely against the confines of his chest.

Solomon's violet eyes held full concern as he blew out the candles for him, and made his way around the table over to Yugi, completely unsure of what the problem was.

Tristan shifted uncomfortably. "Uhh, should we go?"

"No." Yami said firmly. "Everyone to the living room; we need to talk."

They all stared. He didn't want Yugi to be in such an enclosed space when he spoke, and immediately thought of the larger living room, where everyone could at least fit comfortably. Solomon hesitantly shifted, pulling Yugi up gently from the kitchen table, and leading him into the living room. Yami suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable when Solomon passed and glanced at him; his eyes were completely unreadable, and Yami didn't like it.

Finally, all were in the bigger room, Tristan on the couch, Tea sitting on an armrest, Joey sitting cross-legged on the floor, and Solomon sitting on a wooden stool in the back, his eyes boring into the Egyptian's, who found he couldn't muster the will to return the stare.

Yami merely leaned against the wall, his eyes to the floor, his heart beating rapidly. He opened his mouth to speak, but froze when he felt a small hand brush his shoulder. Yugi was suddenly at his side, gazing into his eyes pleadingly, and Yami immediately understood what he wanted. Yugi wanted to do the talking; he wanted to be the one to do this.

He slowly nodded before whispering, "I'm right here."

Yugi nodded and took one of Yami's hands, touching it carefully to his cheek and leaning into it as he closed his eyes and a single stream of tears fell down his face. After a few seconds he released Yami's hand and turned, taking a very deep breath as he faced the group. He didn't speak right away, causing the others to grow insanely anxious.

"What is it Yug?"

"What's the matter?" Tristan added, his voice full of concern and slight frustration.

Yugi bit his lip and looked at his grandfather, who appeared to be a silent stone statue; the only part of him moving were his alert eyes as they shifted back and forth between Yugi and Yami.

Yugi took yet another deep breath and paced around a bit, causing Tea to shift impatiently.

"Yugi-" Yami started.

Yugi closed his eyes and slightly raised his hand, silencing the boy behind him. He finally opened his eyes and faced his almost statuesque grandfather for a last time, his gleaming violet eyes full of nothing but immeasurable shame.

"I'm pregnant."

The statement was met with complete silence. Yugi's eyes never left his grandfather, who sat unflinching as Tristan and Joey eventually burst into laughter.

"Yeah, good one Yugi. Good one. But ya know, you're a little late…"

"April Fools was like two months ago!"

Their laughter faded, and another horrible silence filled the room as Tea scanned Yugi's eyes desperately for any sign of a lie.

"Um guys, I don't think he's kidding…" she concluded, her voice barely above a whisper.

And yet Yugi's eyes never left Solomon, who stared at his grandson's face, completely unblinking.

"But, dat's, dat's not possible! Boys can't have babies…"

"Well, Yugi's the first."

They all froze as Yami finally stepped forward from his position against the wall, and put a hand on Yugi's shoulder as he spoke.

"He wasn't feeling well in Dylar, so I took him to a hospital," he started, careful to leave out the whole terrifying fainting bit. "And those were the results. Yugi's four to five weeks right now."

Joey fell back against the couch with a sigh, head shaking in disbelief. Tristan and Tea just stared at the former Pharaoh, their eyes the size of saucers at the confirmation.

Suddenly they heard a light creak as Solomon rose from the wooden stool and quietly made his way over to the standing pair. Yami raised his fierce crimson eyes to finally challenge the deep, worn violet ones before him, and Yugi couldn't contain the sob that rang through the room when Solomon's hand deftly struck Yami across the face.

Yami's head snapped to his right, and he remained stunned in that position, his mind racing, his veins pulsing, biting his lip to control the hurt fury that, after the immediate shock, crawled through his body and into his very soul.

Yugi could only beg and plead as Solomon sharply turned to him, and he shook so horribly in terror that he was going to be hit. Hit again…just like…

Solomon only stared at him and shook his head, eyes brimming with tears that finally cupped over and ran down his aged face.

"You let me down."

The words hit the boy deep, worse than any hit ever could have, and as he stared back at Solomon, rough sobs overcame his entire being.

"I'm sorry…Grandpa, I'm sorry…"

"I thought you were ready to make your own choices. You said you were ready to take responsibility for yourself, and now look where you are. Do you understand exactly what you've done? You've put your life on hold, you've put all of our lives on hold, for your mistake. What are we supposed to do? We're barely making a living as it is; we won't make it with another addition. You're not married, and Yami has no job-"

Yugi only managed an insignificant squeak in protest, and Solomon bitterly raised his voice. "Yes, he duels, but big tournaments don't come around often. A baby is twenty-four seven Yugi, do you realize that?"

Yugi was now completely unable to speak properly; his attemped words were only leaving him in harsh gasps.

"You have proven to me that you are nothing but an irresponsible child, and a child will not run my game shop. A child with a child, at that. You can forget about what I said yesterday morning. The deal's off."

A particularly sharp intake of breath was heard around the room and Yugi's vast eyes blackened immediately; his entire body convulsing as tears fell yet more rapidly, and his gasps grew in intesntity. His friends watched on helplessly, and Yami finally snapped to his senses, turning around to glare at Solomon, who angrily rounded on him once more.

"And you, would it have killed you to use a condom?"

Yami's eyes grew wide once more, completely speechless, and Yugi sharply trembled as Solomon cursed loudly and threw his hands into the air.

"God! I don't care if this shouldn't have been possible, you were completely unprotected and unsafe! I would have hoped you'd both have had more sense than that, at least!"

Yami shuddered as he watched Solomon violently tremble in rage. This was a side of Yugi's grandfather that none of them had ever seen, including Yugi, and it was hard to believe that this red-faced, shaking man was the same one who contently swept the sidewalk out front every morning. Yugi must have promptly sensed something, for he had stepped directly in front of Yami, and threw his arms around his grandfather, whispering, begging, pleading for Yami to be able to remain in the house. Solomon merely stood, unwilling to return the firm hug, his mind racing over the idea. Yugi looked back up at him, searching his eyes, until his grandfather gave a defeated sigh and broke away.

"I can't continue right now. We will discuss this more tomorrow," he said with a shake of his head. "Go to bed," he muttered to Yugi, and with that, he was gone. Silence filled the room until they heard the door slam upstairs, and Yugi slowly sank to floor. His friends immediately rushed to him, voices low.

"No, Yugi, no…" Tea soothed quietly as she tried to wipe away his unending tears. "Everything's going to be okay…you'll see."

"Yami man, you okay? He hit you pretty hard," Tristan noted as he turned to Yami, who had knelt beside Yugi, and was holding him tightly. Yami didn't respond; he was too busy whispering words of comfort into Yugi's ear. Yugi merely looked on to the floor, his eyes blank.

"The worst is over, Yugi," Tea said as she rubbed his arm. "The worst is over...you've got to calm down. You know, stress can cause miscarriage..."

Yugi shook his head slowly. "Maybe that'd be a good thing."

"Yugi..." Yami warned.

"Okay, okay..."

"Come on Yug, do you know what this means?" Joey said enthusiastically, trying to brighten up the atmosphere a bit at least. "Joey Wheeler's gonna be an uncle!!!"

Tea looked at him sharply, but Yugi actually chuckled once through his tears, so Joey continued.

"Heck yeah! I'll teach him all sorts of cool things, like how to duel, and how to get dates...how to-"

"Umm, yeah, no, Joey. I'll be doing the training on this one. If you do, the kid's gonna grow up to be a total moron, just like you," Tristan said nonchalantly.

Joey's mouth dropped, and Tea suddenly squealed, "Let's not rule out that it could be a girl!!!"

Soon, all three were arguing over visitation rights, and Yugi despite all of the trauma that the day had brought, leaned back against Yami and smiled lightly as his tears began to recede.

"So," Joey turned to him sharply. "What is it, girl or boy?"

Tristan whacked him on the head, "He won't know yet, you idiot."

"Yeah, it'll be awhile until the gender can be determined," Tea added. "Not until he's like five months-ish."

They bickered on for the next few minutes, and Yami drowned out their voices as he turned to his hikari.

"You were very brave Yugi. I'm proud of you."

"I'm not."

"You'll see it one day. You're stronger than you know."

"I love you Yami. And thank you," he whispered after a few seconds.

"I love you too, aibou. More than anything..."

"Hey, you two, cut it out!" Tea said as she turned to Yugi, whose left hand was cupping Yami's face and was kissing him gently. "Remember, that's what started this in the first place!" she said with a wink.

"And that's all the updates we have on the museum at this time. For more information-"

Ryou hastily shut off the old television and threw the remote to the ground, just as Bakura materialized next to him, an unpleasant grin on his face.

"Now now, I was just having a bit of fun."

The slightly smaller albino spun and glared at him. "You killed thirty eight people, you bastard."

Bakura merely shrugged. "I told you, if you want me to help you, then you've got to help me and keep your nose out of my business; I do believe that was the agreement."

Ryou scowled. "I just don't like seeing people get hurt, innocent people…and knowing that I'm responsible..."

"They had it coming to them. And besides, we're on the right track. I may have a lead now on how to get your father back. And hmm, what do you know, the Pharaoh has yet to bother us. Perhaps I was successful? We must pay him a visit someday; if the whore's miserable, I want to see it."

"You're insane," the white-haired boy said as he shook his head.

"Well, no shit. Although, I must say I've really been enjoying myself lately. Now if you don't mind," he said as his spirit rushed into Ryou's body and took complete control of the vessel, "I've got a date with that fucking library. It's going to burn so wonderfully..." he said as the thrill of the idea sped up his movements and soon he was out the door, rushing into the darkness.

By the next morning, the building was no more.