The next morning, Yugi stood outside Umi's door, banging on it. She was not answering. Yugi hoped that the reason was that she was sleeping as she had not slept in days, but he was afraid that there was something more going on. Eventually, he grew tired of knocking.

"Umi," he warned. "I'm coming in." He pushed the door open, only to see her passed out on the keyboard of her laptop. "So your body finally gave up." he muttered as he lifted her head and tried to rouse her. He was reluctant to wake her knowing as he now did, that sleep had eluded her since she had been placed under restrictions, but he also did not want to waste the opportunity he had prepared. He shook she shoulder.

"Umi. Umi, come on. You promised me." He pressed her shoulders back against her chair as he pressed the feeling of urgency against her mind. She groaned in response adn tried to collapse forward once more. Yugi held her firmly in place.

"Umi!" He shook her shoulders once more as her head lolled back and forth.

"What?" she growled as she opened her eyes.

"You promised that you would come out with me."

"Ugh. Don't wanna." she sagged against the pressure of his hands, hoping to reclaim her sleep.

"You promised." his voice was firm but he felt anxiety building in his stomach. He could not have this fall apart because she refused to wake up. Especially if Mokuba had been able to pull off his part.

"Fine." She groaned again as she sat up under her own strength. She rubbed her face in an effort to wake up further and then slipped on her spare glasses. "Well, let's go." She stood and stretched, feeling her joints pop and her muscles scream from the awkward positions she had locked them in when she passed out.

"Don't you, um, you know."

"Don't I what?"

"I don't know, maybe shower or at least change?" Yugi suggested. Umi waved the suggestions away.

"Why? We're only meeting your friends, right? I mean, they could just come here and," She started.

"No." Yugi cut her off almost too frantically. "I mean, we already made plans to go out." He added with a frustrated sigh. "At least put on some clean clothes? Something you haven't slept in?"

"Guh, Fine." She rolled her eyes as she shoved him out of the small room before closing the door on him. She leaned heavily against the door for a moment before changing into an old ratty robotics team t-shirt and some black leggings that were so faded they were now gray. She pulled on a close fitting hooded jacket and shoved her hair under the hood, wishing that she had had the foresight to keep Seto's jacket. She missed his smell.

Yugi raised his eyebrow as she stepped out into the hallway.

"I guess it's too much to ask you to look cute?"

She scowled at him in response.

Umi did not want to be there, sitting at the table, wedged between Tea and the booth wall as her brother and his friends chatted about school, Duel Monsters, and other things. She wished that they had gotten a seat near the windows so she could ignore the conversation by watching the people on the street, but the group had been seated in the middle of the restaurant. She sighed and pulled her hood further down, trying to hide, hoping that they would simply forget she was there.

None of them seemed to care that she was uncomfortable, or that she felt like she was dying inside. They were all trying to figure out what to do now that the Pharaoh had regained his memories.

"I know that he's trying to keep it from me, or something. Maybe he's trying to find some way to stay longer, but I have this feeling that he will need to leave soon." She overheard her brother saying. His voice was sad, but she didn't exactly care, not like she would have normally. She had lost too much recently to handle herself. She could not find the energy to care. She heard Joey say something that was supposed to be reassuring and Tea being sympathetic, but their words only made her more angry. And she was angry that she was angry. She closed her eyes in let out a huff. She felt her brother's eyes on her, but she could not bring herself to meet them. He tried to pry into her mind, but she did not want to talk about it, so she met his thoughts with resistance. He backed off but she felt that she had not heard the last of his thoughts on her rebuttal.

"I think we'll have to go to the site for real." Yugi said, his eyes not leaving her. "He wants to go, to see where he... fell."

"But we freed his memories from the ring, right? And that should have stopped the darkness, right?" Joey asked. Umi traced patterns in the water ring that her glass of water had left.

"It doesn't change the fact that his spirit is still trapped in the puzzle. And to free him, we have to go to Egypt."

"What does that mean though, 'to free him'?" Tristan asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Umi spat without looking up at him. "Atem and Yugi will become separate beings and Atem will move on from this world, as he should have millennia ago." She felt the rest of the table looking at her. They all were looking at her in various states of shock. Only Yugi seemed unfazed by the proclamation.

"It's true." he said quietly. But his mind pressed her once more. She blocked him with a wall of anger which shocked him more than her words.

"So, you mean we have to say good-bye?" Tea asked. Yugi nodded before he summoned forth the spirit within.

"We all knew I could not stay forever."

Umi went back to her anger and loneliness as Atem spoke to his friends. She was stewing in her anger when she felt a shock strike through her heart, making her gasp. She turned in the booth, accidently kicking Tea as she turned. She felt her heart race as her gaze fell on the young man who had entered the restaurant.

He looked around as if he were searching for something, or someone. She saw him stop and turn his head toward her. His gaze hit her like a lightning bolt. She was not sure how she got there but the next thing she knew was that he was standing before her. She craned her neck to look him in the eye. His blue eyes seemed to search her face as a flurry of emotions ran rapid fire through his expressions. It was only a moment before his lips found hers and he had lifted her in his arms, pressing her body against his as he stood to his full height. Her arms tightened around his neck and she wrapped her legs around his waist, settling her weight against his lanky frame as his arms slipped beneath her rump, supporting her. She pressed her forehead against his, smiling as she basked in his presence.

"Hello, Beautiful." His voice was husky and low and she could feel his smile in his words.

"I missed you." She whispered before pressing her lips against his once more.

"I missed you too." He buried his face against her neck as he put her back on the ground and pulled her against his chest. With his arms around her, Umi could feel her anger draining away and her grief fractured spirit slowly knitting back together. She started feeling something like human again. She stepped back slightly, so she could look up at him.

His eyes were bloodshot and surrounded by purple bags, as if he had not slept. And he had a faint layer of dark stubble on his cheeks and his hair hung limp and greasy and clung to his forehead.

"You look like hell." she laughed. His trademark cocky smirk landed on his lips as he pushed the hood back from her hair.

"So do you." He stroked her cheek with his thumb as his long fingers tangled in the hair at the base of her neck. "Beautiful, beautiful hell." He kissed her once more, lightly before pulling him into his chest once more.

Umi felt as if time had stopped and she was perfectly happy for it to stay stopped as long as she could stay wrapped in Seto's arms. She felt him exhale a deep breath and his body relaxing against her. He suddenly tensed and pulled away from her. He wrapped one arm around her shoulder and when she looked up at him, Umi saw a deep shade of pink coloring his cheeks as he directed her to another booth. Umi felt her brother's mind, oddly wrapped in the darkness that marked Atem's presence brush her mind with a sense of self-satisfied pride.

"I told you that you should have dressed cute." Yugi's voice echoed through her mind. She glanced at her brother who met her eyes with a fierce grin. Umi felt her cheeks burn scarlet as she settled into Seto's side.

They sat in silent communion, allowing their closeness soothe and heal the wounds recently inflicted. Umi squeezed Seto's waist as she felt hot tears stream down her cheeks. He stroked his fingers through her greasy hair and kissed the top of her head as her body shook with quiet sobs.

"I'm sorry." she whispered through the tears. He only pulled her closer and rocked her gently.

"So am I." He kissed her forehead as she looked up at him.

Seto held her close, rocking her as she looked up at him with tired, bloodshot and weary eyes. She looked as bad as he had felt when Mokuba had dragged him from his workshop where he had been fighting his need for her by focusing on freeing the dragon woman. Her hair was a greasy, unkempt mess that she had tossed into a ponytail, from which strands were escaping and clinging to her face. She looked-and smelled-like she could use a good bath.

And Seto had never wanted her more.

Holding her, he felt his weary soul brighten, like a lightbulb that had a sudden burst of electricity coursing through it, making it shine more vibrantly. He felt the madness that had threatened to consume him, the precipice from which Mokuba had pulled him, fading away in the distance.

When she had apologized, he wanted to ask her why. After what Mokuba had told him, Seto knew that she was not at fault, that their separation was not of her choosing. He felt she had nothing to apologize for. But when he looked at her, he understood.

And he felt himself overcome with guilt. So he apologized as well. He apologized for not believing in her, for not trusting her words and allowing his own demons dictate his reaction. He apologized for not fighting for her, for letting his insecurities-insecurities he felt only when it came to her-govern him. He apologized for not knowing better.

"I love you." he whispered, holding onto her like a life raft and ignoring the server that had made their way to the booth to place menus in front of them.

Umi looked up at him, tears in her eyes and a smile on her lips.

"I love you, too." She kissed him fiercely, before he pulled away.

"You're making a scene." he pointed out.

"Do you care?" She challenged. He opened his mouth to protest, closed it, glanced around at the people looking their direction and the few cell phones that were focused on them. He shrugged his shoulders.

"Not really."

Umi giggled before pulling his lips back to hers. When he met her eyes once more, he could see his own desire reflected in them.

"I want you. And I don't know if we'll get another chance." she murmured. He pulled her fingers to his lips and kissed her knuckles.

"We could go to the car."

"Yugi won't let me out of his sight. He's been watching us like a hawk."

Seto sighed in frustration, ashamed that he did not notice. He glanced at the table, cocking an eyebrow when he saw that Mokuba had joined the motley group.

"Maybe we can sneak out?" He nibbled on her ear, eliciting a slight gasp from her.

"Or maybe we should work out a plan to get around this little obstacle?"

He took in a deep breath of her scent and looked deeply at her face as if trying to memorize it.

"Fine." He released her and picked up the menu. He could feel her eyes on him as he took several deep breaths in an effort to calm his racing heart. "What did you have in mind?" He focused his attention on the menu before him, perusing the options so he did not have to get lost in her presence. His breath was still shaky when she spoke.

"I'm not sure. I mean, I guess I could always runaway."

"That, that is an option, I guess." He flicked his gaze toward her briefly. "Where would you go?"

"That would be up to you." Her eyes burned into him.

"Maybe you should, and then you should come live with me." The thought sent his heart racing once more. He was close, so very close to asking the question that had been on his mind since before their trip through the Pharaoh's memories.

"And who would take care of Yugi?" She asked sadly. She felt her heart pulled and stretched between her brother and the man she needed like oxygen. Seto looked over her head at the group at the other table.

"He seems to be doing fine to me."

Umi sighed, knowing that he was right, but also knowing in her heart that she would have to face her grandfather.

"I can't turn my back on him. I've already lost too much. And it might kill him if I were to leave."

Seto frowned down at her.

"Yugi, or?" he pried.

"Grandpa." She met his gaze and felt her eyes filling with tears once more. "But I will find a way. I will make him see. somehow." She nestled into his arms and felt his head on hers.

"We will make him see. You don't have to do this alone." He whispered into her hair. They sat at the booth for a long moment, ignoring the world around them until Mokuba approached.

"Hey, Bro?"

Seto met him with eyes that seemed more clear and focused than he had felt in days. A small smile had settled on his lips.

"Um, Yugi got a call from his grandfather asking for Umi and him to go home."

The smile on Seto's face faded as he untangled himself from his would-be lover. He kissed her softly before she slipped out of the booth.

"I'll, um, I'll try to call you later." She whispered before kissing his cheek and meeting her brother and his friends at the door.

Mokuba slid into the seat across from his brother, watching him as his gaze followed the girl as she left. Seto's mouth turned up at the corners and he sighed as she looked back at him and then he seemed to sag, his eyes turning to the table top and the menu that lay open before him once she had left the room.

"Are you," Mokuba took a deep breath and released it. "Are you alright, Seto?" As he observed his brother, Mokuba noticed how his pallor had improved and how he no longer looked crazed.

Seto nodded.

"Yeah. Starved, exhausted, but," A smile tugged at his lips. "But I'm alright. I don't care what her grandfather says, Mokuba. I'm going to marry that girl."

The preteen's eyebrows shot up the the pronouncement. He opened and closed his mouth several times as he tried to figure out what to say as Seto waved the server over to take their orders.

"Umi, I'm sorry I had to stop things short. I didn't want to, but," Yugi said quietly to his sister as they hung back from his group of friends. He could have impressed upon her his feelings, but he somehow felt doing so would be rude at this moment.

"I know, Grandpa called." Umi's voice was filled with sarcasm and regret.

"Yes, but..." Yugi sighed. "It's not just that." He chewed his lip as he glanced at her. His friends stopped in front of the shop that Umi and Yugi called home to say their goodbyes and wish then a good night. Yugi's seriousness was masked suddenly with his typical cheerful demeanor as he said his goodbyes and waved as the group disappeared around the corner. Once they were out of sight, his cheerfulness fell away like a snake skin being outgrown. When his violet eyes met her emerald ones, his face was serious once more.

"You look better." he noted, remembering the smile she had worn a few minutes earlier. It was the first time she had smiled in days.

"Don't change the subject. What else is going on?" Umi pressed, sensing his underlying anxiety.

Yugi pulled the door to the shop open and motioned her inside as the bells chimed against the glass. His thoughts told her that they would discuss the matter in private. Umi nodded as seh stepped thorugh the door, passing through the shop on her way to the stairs that led to the main living area without pause or greeting the old man that happened to be her grandfather. His mere presence still made Umi want to punch holes in the wall, but since she had seen Seto today, she more felt the pain caused by his actions and his seeming lack of caring for her happiness. Yugi, ever polite, followed her only after greeting the old man.

The twins hurried up the stairs and up one more flight to the floor of the house they shared. Yugi motioned to his room where he closed the door and landed with a plop on the floor.

"I think we need to go to Egypt." He crossed his legs and leaned toward her as he motioned for her to join him.

"You mentioned that earlier." She mimicked his posture.

"I didn't think you were listening."

Umi replied with a smirk that definitely reminded him of his self-styled rival.

"So we need to bring the artifacts to the tomb right? The one where they found the tablet?"

"Yugi nodded.

"Yeah, I think so." He watched his sister and could see her mind working through the problem like the puzzle it was. He could tell that she was accounting for bariables that he would barely even consider as she analyzed the situation. He could not help but smile as he watched her quick mind work.

"But we have a problem," she said eventually. "We don't have the ring."

Yugi's grin broadened.

"It's good to have you back, Umi." He laughed. "And you're right. But if we go to Egypt, my money is on Bakura following us."

"So you think he took it." she stated. Yugi shrugged.

"Who else would have? I can't imagine Kaiba taking it. He hates all this mumbo jumbo as he calls it."

Umi chuckled.

"That is exactly what he would say." She smiled at the thought of her would-be lover and how his arms felt around her an hour ago. "Maybe the police?" She suggested. "They did find my stuff."

Yugi shook his head.

"Mokuba said all of the items had been accounted for and packed away before the police were on the scene. At best, it was maybe one of the Kaiba Corp security people, but I can't imagine that."

Umi sighed and Yugi watched her face as she retraced the days events as best she could. She flinched in pain at some of the memories but she did not shy away from them. She shook her head.

"I guess, Bakura's the best possibility. It's at least as good of an explanation as any other. But didn't we free him from the spirit of the ring while we were in your, I mean Atem's memories?"

Yugi shrugged.

"Who's to say it was real?" He echoed her adn Kaiba's doubts about the events of recent days.

"True." She sighed before laying back on the floor and pounding her fists against the surface next to her. "Ugh! things were so much easier there." She complained.

"You mean, with you and Kaiba?"

Umi nodded, and Yugi continued.

"Well, Grandpa wasn't there for one thing."

"It's more than that." She cut him off. Yugi looked at his sister for an explanation but her gaze was distant. She sighed.

"I want him so much, Yugi. I, I've never felt like this about anyone. But since that day at Industrial Illusions, I've wanted him. But now, every time I start to give in to my desires, the fear and shame and pain from before, it comes rushing back to drown me. It paralyzes me, or it's a wall, a roadblock that springs up out of nowhere, waiting for me to crash against it.

And it's frustrating because I can tell he wants me too. There's an electricity to his presence, that's both exciting and strangely soothing. When we were there, in your memories, it exploded. It felt like watching a tesla coil from inside a faraday cage, amazing and beautiful and dangerous, except that you know your are safe. But here, the fear is just too much."

She could feel her twin's sympathetic presence even without looking at him as he laid down next to her.

"He doesn't try to force the issue either, and I'm grateful. But it's still fucking annoying." She took a deep breath. "It was easier there. It was like everything that happened to me, all the pain was a dream, a nightmare."

She could feel Yugi's gaze on her and she turned to meet him.

"You mean to tell me that you and kaiba, that you two haven't, you know, had sex?" Yugi stumbled over the words. Umi chuckled at her brother's nervousness with the topic before she shook her head.

"No, we haven't, well, not outside the world of your, I mean Atem's memories. But it is definitely not for lack of wanting."

"Huh." Yugi turned his own gaze to the ceiling in contemplation. Given what happened, Yugi knew his sister was no stranger to the physical aspects of a relationship. He was less confident about Kaiba's experience and he shuddered slightly at the thought.

"I, um, I had just assumed that you were, you know. Grandpa too."

"What, you assumed I was going to sleep with anyone because I was, what? Used to it now?" Umi laughed to hide the anger that sat at the edge of her voice. Had it been anyone else, it would have gone unnoticed.

"No!" Yugi shot back defensively. "I didn't think that you would do that. But I guess I figured that Kaiba would have, I don't know, maybe pressured you into it?" Saying the words now, Yugi realized how wrong he was. Watching his sister with his rival had been one of the most loving scenes he could recall.

"Seto has been nothing but a gentleman, Yugi." Her eyes were like lasers boring into him. He opened his mouth to speak but she continued. "He has always backed off when I asked. Hell, he's done so sometimes even when I haven't, but was just starting to grow panicked. It's like he could tell, or that he knew somehow that the time wasn't right. But," She sighed. "I want him so much. I miss his touch, even just being near him." She closed her eyes trying to bring back memories from earlier of the feel of his arms around her, his smell, his heartbeat.

"I'm sorry, I went on a tangent." she said finally. "You were talking about going to Egypt?"

"No, It's alright. I'm glad you could see him. You know, when we were going to get you that first time, he told me he was going to marry you one day." Yugi chuckled and Umi felt her heart stop as a smile spread across her face.

"Anyway." she prodded.

"Right, anyway," Yugi sighed as his entire being seemed to shift. It did not feel to Umi like he was becoming Atem, but she could sense the dark voids that marked the pharaoh's presence bubbling within her brother. Umi could see that all of his recent trials had changed him, but in subtle ways, from the boy who had come to visit her when he was lost. He seemed sad but also nervous as he chewed his lip. Umi wondered if something else had changed, something more recently, that she had not noticed while in the depths of her own depression.

"I think it's time, or almost time." He sat up and picked at the hem of his pants as he crossed his legs beneath him. "I mean, I can't use him as a crutch forever, right?"

Umi sat up and looked at her brother. Something in his eyes and the way they darted around the room told her that something had indeed changed for him.

"Yugi, what's wrong?"

"I, um, I kissed Tea the other day." he admitted. "But, it, um, I'm not sure if," he sighed and centered himself. "I'm not sure if she's what I want anymore."

Umi stared at him wide-eyed. He had been in love with Tea for as long as she could remember. She had always thought that his dream would be for them to get married and have little adorable children.

"Yugi."

He laughed bitterly.

"I love him. I just, I don't know what that means. But that's why I can't, let myself rely on him. Not forever. Not anymore."

Umi watched as he brushed tears from his cheeks. She knew how empty she felt without Neferet. The spirit had been a guide, a mentor for her, but she had always been separate, a being with her own mind. Yugi had tried to explain before, but she had not understood then just how different his bond had become with Atem. Even now, she could not conceive of the level of intimacy they shared with their blended being.

"I know that we could never be together, not like you and Kaiba could be, but part of me wishes. Oh Umi, I've wished so hard for him to be real. I mean, he is real, but."

"I know what you mean." She pulled him into her arms as his body began to shudder with sobs.

"But there are times when what we have is more real than anything," he whispered, his voice shaky. "But those are the times that I realize how much I need to let him go. I'm not ready to let him go, Umi, but I have to."

Umi brushed her hand over her brother's wiry hair, trying to smooth down its natural spiky formations. She had not had time to prepare for her separation from Neferet as the spirit was ripped from her soul by the power of the Millennium Rod. She wondered if she would have been as reluctant to give her up as Yugi was to part with Atem.

"What was it like?" he asked once he found his voice again. "What did it feel like?" Umi didn't have to ask what he was talking about. She knew, but she was not sure what to tell him.

"Don't worry. It's going to be different for you." She tried to avoid delving back into the chasm within her soul. Everytime she closed her eyes, she felt a gaping emptiness where Neferet had been. "It might be hard, at first, empty, but you will fill the emptiness." She wondered when her empty spot would be filled. Currently, she felt like she was standing on the edge of a bottomless abyss. "And it won't be so sudden, or you will at least be more prepared for it to happen." She wondered if she was right, or if there is nothing to prepare him for the loss he would soon experience, just as there is little that can be done to prepare for the death of a loved one, whether they are lost suddenly to an accident or slowly to an illness. She wondered if it would really be any easier, but she cooed and soothed him regardless, praying that he would not soon be standing where she was now.

"Do you really think so?" He looked at her with fear-filled, expectant eyes, and Umi feared that he could see through her confidence as she nodded. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath and Umi suspected he was in comune with the spirit nestled within. She was surprised to see his cheeks flush red as he chewed on his bottom lip and his breath quickened. Umi stood and tiptoed from the room as her brother's spirit seemed to fade as it mixed with the void of the Pharaoh's soul.

Back in her room, she opened her laptop and began researching flights once more, only this time to Egypt instead of America. She double checked the accounts that her mother had established for her, realizing that she would just barely have enough to cover the costs for her own ticket. She knew that Yugi had his own account, but she did not know how to access it.

"He'll have to ask Grandpa." she muttered to the screen. "And he'll have to figure out how to get the Ring back, because I am not talking to Bakura." She shook her head as a fresh wave of anger broke upon her. She felt that Seto would help them if she asked, but she did not want to pressure him. She looked at her phone before she stood and stretched. Suddenly, she could feel the layers of oil and dead cells upon her skin and the stringiness of her hair. She shuddered and then made her way to the bathroom for a long overdue shower.

Umi lay on her bed wrapped in a towel after her shower. She sent a text to Seto, all while wishing he was laying next to her. She felt better than she had in days when she heard a timid knock on the door. She grabbed a t-shirt and threw it over her head before opening the door. Ms. Takanada was standing on the other side with a bag in her hands. She looked at Umi nervously.

"I have a uniform for you to try on since you will be starting school next week."

Umi looked at the bag feeling her own nerves begin to fray. She had somehow managed to avoid joining the school and had thought that her enrollment would be deferred until the start of the school year in a few weeks. But since the fight with her grandfather, he had pushed for her to get started sooner.

"Fine." She took the offered bag and stepped back into her sanctuary.

"It's one of Tea's old ones. We may have to get it taken in, so the sooner you try it on, the better." The older woman followed and helped Umi spread the pieces out on her bed. "The skirt's a little short, isn't it? Maybe there is enough fabric to lengthen it some." She looked at the hem of the pleated skirt.

"Tea's taller than me, so maybe it will be alright?" Umi slipped into the top and buttoned it up as high as was comfortable. It hung loosely in the bust which made Umi sigh in relief. Ms. Takanada frowned.

"You really should wear a bra with it. It would fit better."

Umi groaned and put on the undergarment as requested. The top did fit better, but Umi felt a tightness building in her chest as she looked at herself in the mirror. Ms. Takanada offered her the skirt, which hung low on her hips and fell to her knees. Ms. Takanada pulled the skirt so that it fit more closely to Umi's waist, which raised the hem and Umi felt the tightness grow. She started breathing heavily, as if a large weight were seated on her chest as her thighs were exposed.

"Tsk, girls these days wearing skirts this short." Ms. Takanada said looking at the mirror, oblivious to the panic growing on Umi's face. "I might be able to let it out an inch or so." She pinned the skirt in place so that it sat at the top of Umi's hips. "Now the jacket."

Umi's hands shook as she took the blazer and put it on. The pink jacket hung loosely on her small frame and Umi felt her breathing stabilize some. But Ms. Takanada frowned again.

"I didn't think you and Tea would be such different sizes, but this is too big. It fits sloppy." The older woman began pinching the fabric and bringing the jacket closer to Umi's form.

As Umi looked at herself in the mirror, the image morphed in her mind. She saw Derek and the other men dressing her up, groping her, pulling and pinching the clothes in such a way that she was transformed into the client's fetish. Sometimes the outfit was the sailor uniform that she saw on the middle school girls, while other times it was the uniform for an older student as she was wearing now. The tighter Ms. Takanada pulled the shallower Umi's breath became and the more vivid the images in her head. She could feel the memory of their breath on her skin and their goading to be a good girl echoing in her ear.

"Stop!" she collapsed to the floor at the older woman's feet.

"Umi! Watch the pins!" Ms. Takanada sucked the scratch left by one pin that grazed her fingers as Umi fell.

Umi struggled with the jacket as she tried to rip it from her body, eventually freeing herself, she threw it across the room. She tucked her knees against her chest and rocked back and forth.

"It's all over. I'm safe." She repeated as she tried to calm her breath.

"What happened?" Yugi jumped as the door he had pushed open slammed against the wall. He slid across the floor and was at her side in an instant. "Umi, what's wrong?" He brushed the rocking girl's hair back from her face and tried to force her to focus on him. Umi's eyes darted suspiciously as if she were looking at things that were not there. Yugi pulled his sister to him and pressed her head into his shoulder. He also pressed in on her consciousness in an effort to calm her fear. He gasped at how deeply trapped she was within her own memories.

"It's alright, I have you, You're safe." he repeated to her as they rocked together. After a few moments, he turned his eyes on Ms. Takanada.

"What happened?

"She just collapsed. I was trying to fit the uniform to her and she went crazy."

"He can't hurt me anymore." Umi muttered.

"Is she, Is she going to be alright?" the older woman asked as she watched the twins. Yugi looked at her. He did not know just how much of Umi's ordeal he should tell Ms. Takanada or if he should share anything about how Umi was able to survive using Neferet's memories. He wondered if Neferet's removal from Umi's soul had somehow triggered memories that until now Umi had been able to suppress.

"I'm not sure. It feels like she's reliving... that time."

Ms. Takanada put her hands to her mouth in shock and shame.

"I'm so sorry, Umi." She knelt down next to the girl and stroked her hair. "I had no idea."

Yugi looked at the older woman.

"Maybe it's not such a good idea for Umi to start school just yet." He suggested. as he continued to try to calm his sister.

The older woman nodded in response before she left the room in a hurry.

Yugi had gotten Umi to bed but watched her sleeping, worried that she was once more spiraling down into the depths of depression. He thought about what she had told him, about how Kaiba had never pushed her, about how she felt safe with him, even more so than around her own brother. He picked up the cell phone that was laying on the floor next to her bed, forgotten in the incident. He smiled as he saw that she ignored their grandfather's wishes and had taken to texting Kaiba, at least she did so after seeing him earlier in the day. She had several unread messages from him. Each seemed to grow more worried than the one before.

He could sense the mounting anxiety in the words of the other young man as he skimmed them. As he started typing a response, he felt Atem's spirit within ripple in agreement and support.

A few seconds after hitting send, Umi's phone rang.

"Yugi." Kaiba's voice said on the other end as he placed the device to his ear. His voice was strained in a way that Yugi had not heard since the two of them had pulled Umi free from her captors.

"Kaiba."

"Is she alright?"

"She's sleeping."

"Good. What happened?"

"Ms. Takanada was helping to fit one of Tea's old uniforms to her and she freaked out. She wouldn't talk to me and her mind was a mess."

"It still is." Kaiba's voice was quiet. Yugi knitted his brows together, wondering exactly what he meant, before he continued. "I mean, it's going to take time to deal with everything that happened."

"But why the uniform?"

"Because they would make me dress up in one sometimes if a particular client had a fetish for them." Umi propped herself up on her elbow as she looked up at her brother. He perched on the edge of her bed and turned her phone to speaker mode.

"Are you feeling better?" Seto asked, hearing her voice.

"I'm calm now, if that's what you mean by better." She smiled at his concern.

"I'm sorry, Umi. I didn't know..." Yugi started.

"It's alright. I didn't know either." She sat up, sighing. "Everything is so raw with it now. Neferet was able to shield me from so much of it, but now that she's, that she's gone. I never know what will open those wounds again."

"I'm coming over." Seto announced through the small box that sat between the twins. His voice sounded thin and distant through the speaker.

"But Grandpa," Umi started to protest.

"Fuck him. You need me. I'm coming over." He insisted. Umi felt her heart skip a beat at his determination.

"Kaiba, I don't think it's a good idea."

"Too late, it's already done." And the line went dead. The twins sighed and looked at each other.

"This is not going to go well." Yugi noted.

"Nope." Umi shook her head. She picked up the phone and sent Seto a text begging him to not come over, trying to convince him to meet her elsewhere or that they could see each other in a day or so, but he was adamant about seeing her now. "He's so stubborn." she groaned. Yugi chuckled.

"What?"

"Would you like him as much if he weren't just like you?"

Umi shot her brother a challenging look as she began to pull on her regular clothes and toss the remnants of the uniform aside.

"Uh, Umi?!" he stuttered as he tried to look away.

"What? It's not like you haven't seen me naked before." Her voice was muffled by the shirt she was pulling over her head.

"But that was like three years ago. Things are different now." He glanced at her out the corner of his eye and felt himself flush crimson at what he had seen. Atem's spirit aroused his curiosity and begged for him to look again and for longer. Yugi shifted on the bed so that his back was toward her. He could feel her laughter within his mind as she grunted with fastening a pair of her jeans. "Besides, I don't need another reason for Kaiba to hate me."

"Sorry, Brother," she placed her hands on his knees and thrust her face toward his. She cracked up with laughter as he looked back at her in shock. His face was the color of a ripe tomato as she kissed his forehead.

"Umi!" He cried in frustration, scowling at her as he fought off the desire that Atem still pushed through to him. "Atem, stop." he told his Other Self aloud as he tried to gain control of the situation.

"What has been going on with you and Atem lately?" Umi ask as she pulled her hair back into a half-ponytail. Her eyes grew wide as she watched his face darken further. "I did not think you could get any more red." She laughed.

"Between the two of you, I'm surprised I'm not this red all the time." He pressed the backs of his hands into his cheeks.

"Between the two of us? You mean Atem teases you too?" Umi was surprised at the look of desire that passed over her brother's face. She had seen the same look on Seto's face any number of times, so it was a look with which she was familiar, a look of unfulfilled passion and need. The look was only ever fleeting on Seto's face, but on Yugi's, it lingered.

"Whoa. Really?" She placed a hand on his shoulder as his expression deepened.

"Yeah. I, uh, I'm not sure what to do. That's why we need to go our separate ways."

"So, when I left your room earlier..." She chewed on her lip as she considered how to ask the question that was on her mind. She had a strange sense of her brother the last few days, especially after her grandfather's pronouncement for her. He seemed somehow both distant and near, and she could feel patches of him that were missing somehow, as if his spirit was marbled with something to where that was unreadable.

"It's crazy, Umi," he began. "Even kissing Tea the other day, something I've wanted for, I don't know how many years, holds no comparison to how I feel when he and I," His face screwed up in thought as he searched for the best word to describe what was happening. "Blend. I guess, at least that's one way to describe it. It's not physical, but at the same time, it is. It's strange. And there are times when I feel like I could lose myself if I'm not careful."

"Do you want to? Lose yourself, I mean."

"Sometimes." he admitted.

Just then, a commotion echoed up to their rooms at the top of the building.

"Oh no." Umi sighed as she ran down the stairs with Yugi hot on her heels.

"I am going to see her, old man, and you will not stop me."

Umi and Yugi came upon Seto and their grandfather glaring at each other across a counter in the shop as the barrelled out of the stairwell.

"Seto, Seto, stop." Umi slipped between him and the counter.

"Umi! What have I told you!" The old man roared.

"Grandpa." Yugi said softly as he gripped the old man's arm. "Grandpa, just stop."

Umi placed a hand against Seto's chest, drawing his eyes to her at the touch. His face softened and anger feel away from his eyes.

"Are you alright?" He squeezed the hand she had placed on his chest, his other hand sliping instinctively around her waist.

"I'm better." She stepped into his touch and pressed her ear against his chest. She could hear his heartbeat as it steadied and slowed with his breathing. His other arm wrapped around her back and her eyes drifted shut.

"Just watch them, Grandpa." She could hear Yugi whisper, but only faintly as if from far away. In Seto's embrace, the rest of the world seemed muffled and buffered. Nothing could touch her here, nothing that she did not want. She was safe, as safe as she had ever been, safer, perhaps than when Neferet was guarding her from the trauma. He kissed the top of her head as she felt the mild panic that had been her companion since she had put on the uniform ebb.

"I knew something was wrong, I..." He stopped himself. "It's crazy, but I just knew."

"It's ok. I'm better now." She squeezed his waist and was met with his arms tightening around her and his cheek resting on the top of her head as he nodded. Umi pulled her head up as she heard heavy, angry footsteps echo up the stairs. She watched the door swing shut.

"He's still not happy." She said.

"I'm only concerned with your happiness." Seto said. Umi could feel the rumble of the words deep within his chest.

"I'm trying." Yugi said from behind the counter. "I thought if he could see," He sighed as he looked at the door. "But he's too blinded by his anger."

"I'm not going to stop." Seto warned over Umi's head. She looked up at him and watched his jaw clench and release several times. Her eyes traced the movements of the tendons in his neck. She felt a strong urge to nip at them.

"I know. And like I've said before, I think this." Yugi said. Umi imagined that he was gesturing in her and Seto's general direction. "This is a good thing."

She felt Seto's lips press against the top of her head once more before the phone in his pocket rang. Seto sighed in frustration as he pulled out the device and answered.

"You know I hate answering this damn thing. What's so important that you couldn't text me?" Seto's voice changed back into the demanding CEO. And then his face fell. Umi felt a jolt of sadness and anger as she looked at him. He tilted her head to his and kissed her gently.

"I have to go." he said, his voice straining against the panic that she could see in his eyes.