Me: Damn, damn, damn! T-T

Bakura: What is it now?

Yami: Shut up Thief. She has to delete one of her stories!

Bakura: *laughs* HAHA! Which shitty one gets the ax?

Yami: Protect My Heart.

Bakura: Wait, I like that one! No fair!

Me: Yeah, I know! But I'm re-doing it, and I finally updated this one! :D

Yami: FINALLY! Wait, isn't this the one with me and Yugi?

Me: Yup!

Yugi: *blushes*

Me: Sorry about the long wait, and those who like PMH, don't worry, I WILL NOT FORGET ABOUT IT!

Yami: Jessica doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the songs used in ANY of her stories. Enjoy!

The rocking from someone walking and the sound of voices awoke me. The burning of my arm had become nonexistent; all that was left was a light throbbing.

'I haven't been here a full day and I've already passed out twice. I feel like this is gonna happen a lot…'

My eyelids fluttered open; I already knew it would be Jounouchi who would be carrying me. He looked a bit more calm, maybe not totally relaxed, but better than before. I rolled my eyes to our front. Akarui was giggling and speaking to Bakura and Ryou; Bakura looked quite annoyed, and Ryou looked actually interested in what the hyper girl had to say.

I blinked, wondering where we were going. I couldn't really process things; my brain seemed to feel as if it were full of cotton; smoke filled my vision, and a haze filled my body.

Again, I blinked, and tried to focus on something. I looked to Jou, my eyes were very nearly closed, so he would still think I was asleep.

'How did we get into this mess again? Where…are we? Why do I feel so…weak?' As I thought this, the memories came rushing back; Ryou the rabbit-boy falling into my lap at the park; us chasing him through the woods; falling into a black abyss; meeting Akarui and getting chased by what she had called a "Bandersnatch"; and seeing the rabbit-boy and a cat-boy who looked like a rougher version of Ryou named Bakura; then pain, such pain that I must have blacked out.

"J…Jou?" He looked down, his blonde hair blocking the painfully bright lights from my amethyst eyes.

"Yug'? Ya okay now, bud?" I nodded my head in answer. I vaguely noted that we had stopped walking, and Ryou was standing over me, touching his long, pale fingers to my face; they were cool, and I closed my eyes. Ryou was asking me something, but I couldn't make out what it was.

"Hnn?" I mumbled.

"Hey, what's wrong wit' 'im? He's gonna be okay, idn't he? Jou frantically asked. Ryou must have said something to him, because Jou set me on the ground.

Again, I felt those cool hands on my face and arm. Soon, a building heat- not like last time- was flooding my whole body. It was soothing, and after a while my head felt clearer.

"There," Ryou stated softly. "That should do it. There was a trace of the infection in his system still, but it's gone now. Are you feeling better, Yugi?"

I opened my eyes with a relieved sigh. "Much better now, thanks. By the way, where are we going now?" Akarui bounded in front of me, and once she got to my level, threw her arms around me, making me blush.

"Oh! Yugi ok now? Akarui was worried! Yugi didn't wake up and started shaking! We going to see Hatter! You look like him, but you no have yellow spikies!" She put her fingers up to her hair to show the 'yellow spikies' in this Hatter's hair.

I shrugged, and Ryou and Jou helped me stand; I had to hold onto one of them while the world spun around me. Bakura tsked.

"The shrimp can't even stand up! How do you guys expect him to make it here?" Ryou gave him a glare that looked more like a pout and quietly spoke, "I've lived, haven't I? He's exactly like me; he just needs to find the thing he's good at, and get a suitable protector, and he'd live a long time here." That stopped Bakura from his tirade of insults.

I was honored; this rabbit-boy didn't even know me, yet he was sticking up for me! But wait, what did he mean, "find the thing he's good at"? Jou and I were going to find a way out of here!

"W-wait, what do you mean by that? W-we are g-gonna find a way out of here!" I exclaimed, looking at them all. Jou nodded.

"Nyeh, we'd love ta stay, but we got tings ta do in our world. Plus, we got family back dere." Ryou gave us both a sad smile while Akarui hugged me tighter. Bakura snorted, "Listen kid, no one's left Wonderland in years. The only way to the other world is through The Looking Glass."

Jou and I looked at each other in confusion. Bakura began walking, Ryou followed him. Akarui pulled away from the hug and took mine and Jou's hands. She skipped along the path, pulling us with her. I looked around the nature surrounding us. Different plants, all shapes, sizes, and colors were among them. The same went for the trees; I saw at least four purple one with wide, blue leaves.

One of the flowers was so pretty I had to go closer to it. As I inhaled the sweet scent, an irritated voice shouted at me, "Hey! What the 'ell you sniffin' me foh'? You eveh' hud of pusenal space?"

With a shriek, I jumped back. Akarui popped up, and scowled at the flower. "Th-that's n-n-not possible! Fl-fl-flowers can't talk!" Jou's jaw had dropped; I'm pretty sure I looked exactly like him.

"Oi, Rosan, don't be rude! Yugi new here! He don't know flowers alive!" The flower, which had impossibly developed facial features and was scowling at me, crossed his arms with a "Hmph."

After that, Akarui had a conversation with him, and then we went on our way down the beaten dirt path.

"So, where is this 'Looking Glass'?" I asked, wondering why everybody was so despondent on the topic. Bakura was the one to answer me again.

"It's in the palace of the Queen," as if it were the simplest answer in the world. Of course, since this was a different one, it could be.

"So? What's stopping you from goin' dere and goin' dru da Looking Glass?" Jounouchi questioned. Bakura looked at him as if he were stupid.

"Well, the Queen isn't very….nice," Ryou whispered, looking around in fear. Bakura let out a low growl and pulled him close, his white ears pricked to sense. Ryou's ears were down, they almost matched his hair.

"N-no, y-you don't understand. She- she is cruel! I can't say anymore- she has ears everywhere." Ryou cringed, ducking into Bakura's arm again.

Jou and I looked to each other again; this time, our looks were of worry more than confusion. 'Does that mean we won't be able to get back home? Grandpa will be so- Grandpa! Oh, he's probably worried sick about us!'

My eyes were wide. We had to get out of there somehow!

The path came to a crossroad; roads led in front of us, and to the right and left. The sign pointing to the left read "Umgo". The other two signs didn't have names on them. Bakura and Ryou led us to the right.

Curious about where this "Hatter" lived, I asked Akarui, who was skipping with a bright smile on her face. Her dress also bounced. As I was watching her, Jou nudged me with his elbow. When I looked up at him, he was smirking and wagging his eyebrows in Akarui's direction. My face turned redder than her hair, I'm pretty sure!

I pouted and crossed my arms. He laughed, causing the other three to look back at us. Ryou and Akarui giggled at my red face, making me duck my head. "S-so," I quickly asked.

"A-are we close to where th-this 'Hatter' lives?" Akarui nodded, her eyes bright as she grinned.

"Oh yes yes yes! We close; Hatter's just up the path! You will like him Yugi; he look just like you! But his eyes are smaller and red! And he has yellow spikies!" She pointed up the path, and grabbed my hand and ran up it. Of course I blushed as she grabbed my hand.

I had to be honest with myself, she was beautiful! I was questioning my sexuality, and Jou knew it; that's why he was picking on me.

'Oh dear, I-I hope nothing else happens!' If I didn't lose enough blood from that Bandersnatch cut, I'm sure I would have passed out from blushing.

We came to a bend in the path; there were ferns-or, what looked like ferns, you just didn't know with this place!- that Akarui distractedly smacked away.

Ryou yelled after us, "Do be careful of his arm Akarui; it might still be healing! Wait for us!"

Akarui skidded to a stop; I crashed into her from behind. She giggled and helped me up from the ground as we waited for the others to catch up. Running a dainty hand through auburn curls, she apologized.

"Akarui is sorry, Yugi. Akarui is hyper, and wants to see Hatter; Akarui forget about arm…You okay?" Honestly, I had forgotten about my arm; that's how well it felt. I held it up for examination.

"Oh! U-um, it f-feels well, um…" Akarui had taken my arm and was staring at the once-injured arm with concerned greenish-gray eyes. I smiled and waved her off.

"E-eh! I'm okay! Ryou did a good job healing me!" Akarui hesitated, then let my arm go. "Yeah! Ryou a good, good doctor! And Bakura his protector! He safer than almost anything in this world!" She giggled and hugged Bakura and Ryou, who were approaching with Jou.

Jou, making me wary of the leery look in his brown eyes, slung an arm around my shoulders. "Yug'! I'm glad ya feelin' better! I was worried!"

He ruffled my hair in a joking matter, making me pout.

"Jou!" I whined with a smile. "You know I hate it when people ruffle my hair!"

Bakura chuckled, "If anyone- aside from Ryou, that is- tried to do that to me, they would lose their arm. Why don't you fight back?" With a pout, I shouted, "I hate violence!" Everyone cringed and covered their ears, Ryou put his down against his head. Jou mumbled, "Wrong thing to say, dumbass."

"Damn, runt! You got a loud voice!" Bakura hissed, rubbing his ears in pain.

Akarui whimpered, "That hurted.." I instantly felt bad. I pushed my index fingers together in shame.

"I-I'm sorry, I just….don't like violence…there's no point in it!" Akarui shook her head and hugged me.

"Yugi no worry. Akarui not a fan of violence either!"

Bakura snorted. "That's a lie Akarui! 'Akarui not a fan of violence either!' Bah!" He threw his head back with a laugh. "How about when Ticklan stole your hairbow? Hmm?" Akarui frowned, and out of the corner of my eye, I could see her small, dainty hand, close into a fist. Ryou apparently saw it too, for his eyes widened, and he started trying to get Bakura to back off.

"Um, Bakura? I think it might be time for you to stop now!" Ryou's soft and gentle voice went ignored by Bakura, who kept egging on Akarui's anger.

"If I'm not mistaken, you beat the shit out of him, he carried bruises for weeks!" By now, the kind girl's eyes were shining with anger. Jou and I slowly backed up-Akarui was about to blow, and we didn't want to be in the warzone.

Ryou, still trying to save his look-alike protector, started trying to bribe him.

"Bakura, if you shut up right now, I'll let you ravish my body later, when the Queen sends me home for the night!" Foolishly, Bakura ignored him, again.

"He also avoided being within fifty feet of you! It was hilarious! You say you hate violence? You beat him within an inch of his life! He had a cracked jaw, a broken arm, and I'm pretty sure you made it to where he can't have any k-"

Akarui snapped. She punched Bakura in the jaw; he went down with a grunt. Ryou leaped back with shriek.

"I SAID, I NO LIKE VIOLENCE!" Akarui roared, who knew such a gentle girl could roar? She grabbed the cat-man's ankle and swung him into a tree.

'Note to self; DO NOT MAKE AKARUI MAD' I gulped, and backed up, my hands were in front of me, in case Akarui saw my movement, to promote peace. Jou was frozen to the ground; he obviously didn't think a girl could do that much damage to a guy who was about two times her size in width, and about a foot and a half taller than her with corded muscle all over his body.

I on the other hand, kept backing up. In my partially terrified state, I wasn't watching where I was going- how could I when this tiny, energetic girl was beating the shit out of Bakura, a badass, with little to no trouble?

When something hard and warm met my back, I gasped and turned around.

There, with his arms crossed, was the very definition of a sex god. Sure, it might have been narcissistic, but damn was he fine!

He had hair similar to mine, but with more blonde spikes, and the tips were crimson instead of amethyst.

He had a tan that made me question if he was Egyptian or not and all over his body were black leather, chokers, spikes, bracelets, and leather boots. Everything he wore was black, except for the golden inverted pyramid hanging from a thick chain around his neck.

A deep, sexy chuckle drew my eyes to his face. My heart very surely stopped. His eyes, oh his eyes, were a deep, bloody crimson; they held amusement, lust, and dark promise.

"Well, well, what do we have here? Who might you be, little one?"

Yugi: So I finally meet Yami? *jumps up and down in delight*

Yami: took you long enough!

Me: Oh be quiet you!

Bakura: Where's my hikari? *goes off to find Ryou*

Yugi: ...Okay...Please leave a review! :)