AN: I don't own Yu Gi Oh...and thank you all for reading and reviewing! You guys are wonderful!
...Update! Sorry my lovely peeps, it's finals/papers time/who knows what else I'm forgetting to do time :P...but yay! summer break is almost here for me! While I do need to get a second job, the lack of paper writing should open up some free time to do more of the writing I love! So hopefully we can get some updates going :) Thank you so much to everyone who's been reading and reviewing! I 3 you all!
33. Questioning
He awoke with a gasp and shot up in his bed. Quickly he stole a glance to the side and sighed in relief to see the blankets still rising and falling in compliance with the rhythmic serenity of his lover's sleeping breath. He smiled slightly in spite of himself at the sight before gazing away.
While Yuugi slumbered on he stared down at the foot of the bed where the moonlight cast a spectral shadow over the lumpy hills of his covered feet. He ran a hand through his hair, no longer smiling.
A leaded weight was settling in his gut, pulling him under. He touched his heated chest with cold fingers right over where his heart had turned to stone; a chill came over him and he shivered under the thin sheen of drying sweat.
Careful not to wake his partner he gently pushed the covers to the side, rippling the image of moonbeams. With unsteady feet he crawled out of bed and stepped shakily across the floor, stopping at the wall to press his palms to the icy window pane.
Outside the moon had cast a chilling white light over the ground; all was illuminated with a pale, deathly glow. One look down showed his bare chest colorless under the ministrations of moonlight, making him look gaunt and sickly. He shivered.
This was not how it was supposed to be. Moonlight was supposed to be refreshingly cool after a hot, gleaming day. The night skies were supposed to be majestic and beautiful; they should never have been so terrifyingly still and deathlike.
Everything reminded him of death nowadays; nothing was like it was supposed to have been...
"Are you okay? ...Atemu?"
Yuugi's voice first murmured sleepily, then with the barest of whispers; he sounded unwilling to ask the question, afraid of receiving the answer. Atemu was no fool, and he was just as afraid of the answer as Yuugi was.
He fixed a careful smile on his face before turning.
"I'm just fine, aibou, I simply had a dream that woke me, go back to sleep." For a moment Yuugi stared at him as if transfixed trying to decipher the validity of that proclamation. When the younger man made no move to lie down, gripping at the bed sheet with a resolutely clenched hand, Atemu repeated, "...go back to sleep Yuugi," and the smile was dropped.
It was not as gentle, not as loving, and the pained expression on his lover's face made Atemu glance away from Yuugi's nod and slow slide back down under the bed cover. Atemu was certain that Yuugi knew his frustration was not directed towards him...almost certain.
Atemu knew Yuugi too well to believe he'd actually fallen asleep so easily when he was worried over his own well-being, but he pretended he didn't. Both of them would pass the night like that, Yuugi feigning sleep while Atemu gazed out the window at a world he could no longer see, both questioning whether they had made the right decision at that pivotal moment that now seemed so far away.
Thanks for reading!