Yu-Gi-Oh is the property of Konami and Kazuki Takahashi, and this work is only a very appreciative celebration, from which we hope to derive no profit of any kind.

For a moment, he didn't know what had woken him.

"Your Lordship, Your Ladyship."

The first voice he heard was Pegasus, followed immediately by his Father's: "Silence, you damned scoundrel. Sit down!"

And his Mother's, as she said, "Oh Max, how could you?"

"Mother?" Yuugi was still so sleep-fuddled that he was halfway surprised to feel the library's carpeting under his feet, instead of the bare floorboards of the nursery, as he stood. He looked up to see his mother standing in the doorway with Father.

"Oh Yuugi!" She rushed across the room to him. "My poor, poor boy!" He was engulfed in the silk and fluff of her sleeves, the smell of her Parma violet sachet strong in his nose. It smelled like comfort.

"Mother…" Yuugi would have thought he was past tears, but he could feel them starting again, soaking the lacy bosom of his mother's dress.

"Oh Yuugi," she said again, and he could hear the tears starting in her voice too. "When I think of Donald, when I picture him as he was the last time… The last time…"

Awkwardly, his father moved close; pressed tight in his mother's arms, Yuugi didn't see him, but he heard the footsteps, and felt his arm go around both of them. "He was so full of life," - Mother's voice was shaky. – "so stalwart."

Yuugi felt the warmth of his father's body close to his. He smelt his smell, pipe tobacco and a faint whiff of aged whiskey, and felt the stiff movement of his muscles, as he moved to pat Mother's shoulder. He felt the vibration of his voice as he spoke: "I know dear," he said. "And Yuugi knows. You are with family, dearest" –

Yuugi also felt the sharp break as Father stopped talking, the tightness that went over his body. He looked up, but he already knew the glare he'd see on his face, as he looked toward Yami and Pegasus.

"Get out." Father's voice was a whipcrack. "Haven't you intruded on our privacy enough?"

"Father, please," Yuugi began, only to feel his resolution die away, as his father turned his glare upon him. "I… They…"

"Your father is right," Mother said, her voice sharp. "These men are conmen, criminals. They've intruded enough on our privacy already," – Here she threw another pained, bitter glance, Pegasus' way. – "I hardly think we're going to discuss our son, D-Donald… Oh, but I thought you were my son," she cried, turning her gaze toward Yami. "I thought he'd come back safely and we would all be together again. How could you, Don – Ohhh, I don't even know your name!"

"It's Yami," Yami said softly. "And I know it's too little too late Your Ladyship, but I am sorry. - We both are. Pegasus and I didn't know your son was dead when we came here."

Yuugi felt his mother's body stiffen. "Silence!" Her voice was shrill. "Be still. Do you think I want to hear your apologies?"

"Mother, please." Yuugi tried to pull away, but his mother's grip on him only tightened.

"You are a liar," she told Yami, her voice harsh, "you and your friend Max, or whatever his name is. Do you think it matters to us that you didn't knowDonald was dead? Would it have changed what you did if you had known?"

"I won't stand for your presence for another minute," she continued. "I want you out of the mansion, right now."

"We want Constable Greer for this." Father's voice rumbled. "Has he got a telephone at his house? Margaret, do you know?"

"No father, no!" His words were disloyalty, Yuugi felt sure, but he couldn't help saying them. "You can't!"

"Yuugi, keep out of this," his mother warned. "This doesn't concern you."

"I'll send one of the footmen," Father said. Henry can get the cart out again and drive him down. The gaol is too good for you," he added, looking toward Yami and Pegasus. "I'd like to see you transported – Or whipped! Look how you've made my wife cry."

"Father, stop! You can't" –

"No, Yuugi." This time the voice stopping him was Yami's, and Yuugi caught his breath, the words dying on his lips. "Your father's right," Yami said. "We're everything he said, Pegasus and I. We didn't think about your feelings when we came here. We deserve whatever punishment the law gives us."

"Whipping? Hard labor?" Pegasus' comment was barely audible, but Yami whirled on him.

"For Christ's sake yes," he said. "Because we broke the law. Aren't you the one that said there's no escaping fate forever? That every new job was a gamble? Well we gambled, and we lost. And if you think about it," – He looked from Mother, to Father, to Yuugi, and then back at Pegasus again. – "I don't believe we'll suffer nearly as much pain as Yuugi's family is doing, no matter what happens to us."

It was a noble speech, Yuugi could not help feeling, but it made no difference at all with Father, who was across the room ready to ring for the butler before Yami had even finished speaking. "We'll sort this out," he said. "The legal system is not what it was, but I daresay a malefactor can still expect some punishment for a crime as flagrant as this one."

"Oh, cease talking rubbish," Pegasus (of all people) broke in. "You're a nobleman, naturally everything is going to go your way. You sit here in your fine castle, with all your millions, and all your treasure tucked away. The pain of the world isn't supposed to touch you, is it? That's for the lesser sorts. – The rich man in his castle, the poor man at the gate and all that rot, eh? Your kind make me sick!"

"Shut up, both of you!" Yuugi was as surprised as any of them, when he shouted over the talk that filled the room. "Father, you can't arrest Yami, you can't!" Yuugi broke free from his mother to stand in front of Yami, his arms out as if he could protect him with his own body. "I love him," he said. "We're lovers, and I won't let you send him to gaol."

The silence that settled on the library was deafening. Mother stared. Father goggled. Pegasus did …something. There was a choking sound coming from his end of the room, but Yuugi didn't look over to see his reaction.

"Wh…what?" It felt like it took several minutes before Father's mouth could frame even this reaction. "What, Yuugi?"

"Yuugi," Mother stammered. "Y-you… you can't be serious. Do you even know what that means?"

"Oh I know what it means," Yuugi said. "And it's not dirty, it's beautiful and true. We love each other, Mother, and I won't be separated from him. Wherever Yami goes, I go too."

"It's all your fault," Mother said, turning to Yami. "You and Max. You filled my son's head with these horrible, disgusting ideas. And now look what he's done – What he wants to do!"

"Your Ladyship…"

"Silence!" Mother cried, sobbing through her words. "Aren't your lies about Donald enough? Did you have to pervert Yuugi as well?"

"Enough," Father boomed. "No more distractions." He pressed the button on the bell, summoning the butler. "Yuugi, we'll talk to you later. Gilmour will be here any moment. I don't want him hearing any of your disgusting talk."

"Really, father?" Yuugi swallowed. He summoned nerve he'd never known he had. – Yami must have been his example, he thought, and the courage he'd shown in standing by him when he could have escaped. "You think I care what the servants think? I don't care what the whole world thinks, Father. I love Yami, and if he goes to gaol, I'm going with him."

"Disgusting," Father sputtered. "What rot. He's filled your head with delusions, Yuugi. Your place is here with your family."

"Father," - Yuugi smiled. It felt good to take a stand. It felt right. – "Yami and Pegasus are not the only lawbreakers here. I have committed a crime by loving Yami. If Constable Greer arrests him, I'll confess and he can arrest me as well."

The general shock at his words must have distracted everyone. Surely Gilmour had knocked to announce his presence as he usually did, but it seemed like the whole room jumped in surprise, as the door to the library opened, and the butler poked his head in.

"You rang, Your Lordship?" he said.

"Yes, yes I did." Father didn't seem to be in a hurry to give Gilmour any orders. He kept glancing from Yuugi, to Yami, to Mother, and then back again. Gilmour waited patiently; he kept standing in that attitude of his, that Yuugi thought of as his butler-attitude, that looked like he could stay there forever, and still be just as ready to help "His Lordship and the youngsters", but no orders came. "I…I," Father stammered.

"Father," Yuugi urged. "Think about what you're doing."

"Your Lordship?" Gilmour repeated.

Yuugi saw his father's gaze flick past his shoulder, to where Yami and Pegasus, stood behind him. Then he looked back toward Gilmour.

"Show these two…" He swallowed, his face more troubled than Yuugi had ever seen it. "Show them," - He pointed toward Yami and Pegasus, not saying their names out loud. - "to their rooms and make sure they stay there for the night."

"Master Donald and Colonel Crawford, sir?" Gilmour sounded confused.

"You don't know what you're doing, Father." Now that he'd taken a stand, Yuugi wasn't going to back down. If prison was in the future for Yami, and it seemed his father was going to take it that far, well then he would be going there too. "I'll only go upstairs with them."

"You'll do nothing of the kind," Mother put in, her voice shrill.

And at the same time, "nonsense," Father thundered. "You're going to your own room, Yuugi, and you'll stay there. It is a child's duty to obey his parents." He looked toward Gilmour, who was still standing in the doorway, still looking mostly expectant, and only a little bit confused.

"Well," he said. "What are you waiting for? Haven't I given you your orders?"

"Very good, Your Lordship." For once in his life, Yuugi saw Gilmour's butler-attitude crack. The man's face was unhappy, his manner unwilling in the extreme, as he stepped away from the door, ushering Yami, Pegasus, and Yuugi as well, into the hallway. ""Do forgive me, Master Donald," he said, after the library door had been shut again. "I have no grudge against you. But I have to obey your father. – Oh, son, son, can't ye get right again with him, and save this old man having to do it?"

"I'm afraid there's no chance of that," Yami murmured.

"I'm going up with him," Yuugi put in, and Gilmour nodded.

"Of course," he said. "I won't tell your father if he asks."