"I can't believe them!" Yugi shouted as he pushed the restaurant door open. "I'm going to kick both their ass's the next time I see them!"

Yami snorted. "Yugi… Bakura is a black belt in karate…and Ryou is getting his black belt next weekend. I don't think you really stand a chance."

Yugi looked like he was about to protest, but changed his mind and kicked a pebble that was on the sidewalk. After just standing there for a few seconds he lifted up his arms.

Yami raised an eyebrow in question.

"Carry me," Yugi grinned.

Yami gave him a look of disbelief. "Are you serious?"

"Serious is not my middle name, but yes, I am."

Yami chuckled and bent down a bit so that Yugi could climb on. He felt himself blushing as Yugi grabbed his shoulders and put his legs over the top of his hips. Surprisingly, he was actually pretty light.

He felt Yugi grab his bicep and tried to turn his head around when he heard Yugi gasp.

"Is this just from swimming?" Yugi exclaimed in awe as he ran his finger along Yami's muscled arm. "I wish I could get mine like this!"

Yami blushed and grabbed hold of Yugi's legs and began to walk down the sidewalk. But hey, as long as Yugi was impressed, why not brag a little?

"I work out, you know…during the week…sometimes…" Yami said, trying to sound as if it were no big deal.

"I wish I had the time to do that!" Yugi said cheerfully.

Yami couldn't help but grin as he continued to carry his crush in silence. He started to think how lucky he was to have become friends with Yugi in the first place. The smaller teen was a lot of fun to be around and he was just a great person in general. Yami wondered what Yugi thought of him. Was he just friend material to the other or did Yugi see him as possible boyfriend material? Yami couldn't tell. Yugi could be really hard to read sometimes.

Just then a thought occurred to him. He quickly set a startled Yugi back onto the ground and faced him.

"Hey Yugi, I just thought of something," Yami said, making sure to look Yugi in the eye.

"About what?" Yugi asked curiously.

"Well, I just thought that I've been to your house a few times, but you've never been to mine. And…I thought that made you could meet my parents."

Yugi cocked his head to the side cutely. "You mean like right now?"

Yami nodded. "Well, if you want to, I mean."

"Yeah, sure. I'd like to meet them and see your house and stuff," Yugi smiled kindly as he nudged Yami to start walking again.

"Cool, let's go."

Once Yugi and Yami had finally gotten into Yami's neighborhood after walking all the way home since they had no money for bus fare, they picked up their pace so that they could get out of the heat.

"Do you have any pets?" Yugi asked.

"We've got a dog named Anubis," Yami said. "Why? You allergic or something?"

Yugi shook his head. "No, but I've always wanted a pet. Mahado doesn't like them because he thinks they'll wreck the house or something."

"What if you got a hamster?"

"He says they smell."

"Birds?"

Yugi shook his head again. "Too loud."

"Cats?"

"He's afraid they'll shed everywhere."

"Trust me," Yami rolled his eyes. "If you bring home the cutest kitten you can find, I guarantee Mahado will love it. Besides, would he really make you get rid of it if you brought it home?"

Yugi shrugged. "I don't know. I'll try to coax him into the idea or something."

Yami doubted that Yugi would have a hard time convincing Mahado. His brothers would do anything for him, that was easy to see.

"Here we are," Yami announced as soon as they stopped in front of a medium sized house that was made with red bricks and white trimmings.

They walked across the lawn and knocked on the door once they reached the porch. Immediately, the sound of barking and growling could be heard. Yugi looked at Yami nervously as he subconsciously scooted closer to him.

They waited for a few seconds before Yami's mother opened the door. Yugi attempted a smile, but froze when he saw what he guessed was Anubis. The dog was a Doberman pinscher and it did not look friendly. It growled and darted out from behind the screen door.

Yugi gasped and quickly reached behind him and grabbed onto Yami's shirt, leaning back against him in the process.

"Anubis sit!" Yami's mother shouted demandingly.

The dog instantly sat down, although the hairs on it's back was still standing on end. Yami reached forward and rubbed the dogs ears while Yugi stood back in shock.

"I was wondering why he was growling all crazy!" Yami's mom smiled lightly. "I wasn't expecting a guest to show up."

Yugi waited for his heart to slow down before he took a look at Yami's mother. She was a small thin woman with red brown eyes and black hair. She didn't look too young, but she didn't look old either.

"Sorry about that," Yami grinned. "Mom this is Yugi, the guy I told you I was meeting up with earlier."

Yugi smiled politely. "Hi Mrs. Atem, it's nice to meet you," he stuck his hand out to her.

She took his hand in her own and shook it gently. "Yugi… Yugi Mutou…" she repeated as if trying to recall meeting him before. "Oh! I thought you sounded familiar! I've seen you in the paper before!"

Yugi nodded with a smile. It was true after all. He had been mentioned in the paper numerous times for winning his track meets. The only other time he had been in the newspaper was for when his mother died and his whole family had been mentioned in the small article.

"Yes ma'am, I've been in the newspaper a few times."

"That's wonderful!" she smiled. "Why don't you boys come in, you look exhausted from the heat."

She stepped back inside with Anubis to let them pass through. Yami motioned for Yugi to follow him and stepped inside the house. Yugi looked around and absorbed the modern looking furniture and paintings in the first two rooms.

"I have to say Mrs. Atem, if my brother saw how clean your house is than he would be really jealous," Yugi said.

Mrs. Atem laughed. "Is your brother older or younger?" she asked.

"He's older."

"Is he your only sibling?" she asked.

"No," Yugi grinned. "I have three brothers. Two of them are twins that are older than me and my other brother is also older than me."

"Ahh," she hummed. "So you're the baby of the family."

"Yeah, but I don't really mind.",

"You know, I'm the youngest of my siblings too and I've always loved being the youngest. You get away with a lot of things," she winked.

Yugi laughed. "Don't I know it."

After Yami's mother had asked Yugi a few more questions, Yami took Yugi up to his room.

"So, where's your dad?" Yugi asked as he sat down on Yami's large bed.

"Probably still at work. He shouldn't be home until later."

"Oh, okay," Yugi said as he picked a string off of his pants. "My dad used to come home pretty late when he was still working."

Yami instantly became wary of the topic, not wanting to accidentally upset Yugi.

"Are you still in good relations with him?"

Yugi looked a little shocked by the question, but shrugged it off seconds later.

"Not really…" he droned. "I mean, I haven't visited him in awhile. The last time I saw him he barely even talked to me. I think he's ashamed of what he's done you know?"

Yami didn't know because he didn't know what Yugi's dad had done, but he nodded anyways.

"If you don't mind me asking…how long has he been in jail?"

"I think it's been four years now," Yugi said as he leaned back against the headboard. "I believe he still has another year or two to serve. I'm not really sure, but Mahado knows all the details."

Yami still couldn't see how he talked so easily about his father being jail. The first time he had brought up Yugi's father and mother, Yugi was a little stiff about the conversation. But he guessed that it was a strange topic for him to be talking about since him and Yugi barely knew each other then. But now they were good friends, so maybe Yugi just didn't mind telling someone he trusted.

"You're probably wondering what he did, right?" Yugi asked suddenly, making Yami blink in surprise.

He gave no response, but it was pretty clear that he did want to know what had happened.

"It's kind of a long story…so I'll just summarize it." Yugi said.

"Okay."

"My dad was a guy who lost his temper pretty quickly. Anything that upset him or angered him, he would snap. And so when my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer, he got frustrated a lot. My mom would be going to the hospital for chemo a lot and the bills started rolling in. He had a pretty decent job, but it wasn't anything that could pay for the hospital bills. So he got desperate and started to steal."

"Now neither Atemu or I knew about this until awhile later. When we did find out we told him to stop and that stealing was wrong. We were afraid that he would get caught and then we wouldn't have either of our parents. My dad told us that it was what he had to do, but Atemu and I threatened to tell mom what he was doing if he wouldn't stop."

"And that's when things got really crazy. My dad was so scared that we would tell our mom on him that he started to beat us so that we wouldn't," Yugi turned his gaze to the mattress. "He would do it every time mom went back to the hospital for more chemo."

"Where was Dark and Mahado during all of this?" Yami asked curiously.

"They were at college in Egypt. They knew about mom having cancer, but she told them not to come to Japan unless her condition worsened. So they didn't until she did start to get bad."

"They didn't know what your dad was doing to you and Atemu?"

Yugi shook his head. "No, we couldn't talk to them. My dad wouldn't let us because the long distance call cost a lot of money. So they weren't aware at all. But anyways, my dad was beating us one day and I guess he got carried away because he didn't hear the door open. Well, my moms friend was bringing my mom back home from the hospital that day and they both walked in while it happened. My mom's friend immediately called the police and my mom and dad started yelling at each other."

"My dad started screaming that he was doing it to help her. He let it slip that he had been stealing to pay for her bills. And then it was kind of a blur after that. I remember the police coming and taking my dad away. They had a court meeting and sentenced my dad to jail for his crimes and then shortly after that, my mom died. And he's been locked up ever since."

Yami found he couldn't find anything to say. What do you tell someone who just told you that they had been beaten and their father was a thief and abuser?

"That's…really rough Yugi. I can't imagine that happening to me."

Yugi nodded. "It was really hard for awhile. But we got through it. That's why me and Atemu are so close." he said softly.

Yami smiled gently. "I'm glad that you at least had each other while going through that."

"Me two," Yugi whispered. "More than you could ever know.

A/N- I'm not entirely too happy with this chapter. It just lacks something, but I'm trying to not let it bother me. So the next chapter is going to be quite dramatic. I'm going to try really hard to make one of you cry! Lol that sounds mean, but I want to hit the emotional nerve! So I will try really hard to write the next chapter well. OH and I am amazed at how many reviews I got for the last chapter. I want to thank all of you SO much! You guys are the best!

The thing about Anubis… the way he acted is not how all Doberman's act, I'm sure. I would know because I have a German shepherd and he loves people! But he hates other dogs. Anyways the only real reason I made Anubis was so that I could have that small scene where Yugi clutched onto Yami XD