Yugi woke up to his blankets being ripped off him and someone jumping on top of him roughly, he smiled knowing it could only be one person and opened his amethyst orbs. Kya beamed down at him and gave him a sloppy kiss on the cheek and he heard his other friend Ryou chuckle. "Rise and shine shorty! Its travel time!" she hoped off him and bounced across the room to his wardrobe and chucked his outfit at him he had put aside. "Can you believe it guys! We're really going!"
"Calm down Kya, it's not like you haven't been there before" Yugi grumbled at her, slightly annoyed at being woken up so suddenly. Kya brushed off his comment and bounced on her feet
"I know but I love it on Ruapehu! I can't wait for you guy's to get up there! It's just absolutely stunning and both ski areas are nothing like you've ever seen!" Yugi smiled, the excitement settling into him as he finally realised that he was leaving Japan for the first time in his life
"Hurry up before she burst's Yugi and doesn't give you any time to say goodbye to Sugoroku" Ryou's smile matched those of the other two and Yugi nodded, ushering them out of the room so he could get changed as they grabbed his bags for him. He quickly got changed into his comfortable track pants, t-shit and Kathmandu jacket, Kya had mentioned to him that it was going to be a long flight so comfort won out over style. He grabbed the only two things left, his board and flight bag which held his laptop, phone and passport along with other essentials and ran down stairs to see is grandfather cooking him breakfast.
"Oh grampa, you didn't need to, I don't even think I have time" he looked over to Kya who smiled at him, nodding that it was okay and sat down at the table
"Don't talk such nonsense my dear boy! I will not let you leave this house without a proper meal" His grandfather was a smaller older version of Yugi with grey spiked hair and wise old eyes that had seen many adventures in his time. He plated up piles of food and handed plates to all three of them and then look at the stairs "Yugi, would you mind getting Yami? It's your last meal here for two months and it doesn't feel right not having him at the table with us" Yugi's heart clenched, although it wasn't as bad as normal his grandfather was right. Yugi walked up the stairs, feeling the concerned eyes of his two friends boring into his back. His hands wear shaking as he reached the top of the stairs and knocked on Yami's door
"Who is it?" The deep baritone voice made Yugi wince, it held a sad tone to it and Yugi couldn't help but feel it was because of him
"It's Yugi, Grampa told me to come get you for my send off breakfast" there was silence on the other side of the door and Yugi didn't know whether to leave or not, he was about to say something when the door open and Yami stood there, an envelope in his hands and an encouraging smile on his lips
"Come on then Aibou" He walked past him and left him to trail after him, confused at how cool he was acting he still doesn't care Yugi thought to himself
"Don't worry Gramps! Nothing will happen to Shorty in my care, I'm a picture of maturity!" Yugi laughed at his friend's attempt of acting like the responsible adult
"I doubt that Kya! I'll probably be the one saving your ass on the slope when your ego gets the better of you!" all eyes and smiles flashed to Yugi once again as he poked fun at his sister like friend
"I'm the oldest shorty there for I'm the one that's going to be in charge!" Yugi and Ryou shared a knowing glance, Kya had been spending the past year trying to get them to have more fun and get out of their shells which she had been slowly accomplishing
"Now now, hurry up and eat breakfast you two, don't want to hold Seto's plane up" Yugi sat down and grabbed some bacon, toast and a few eggs and glanced over to Yami who looked deep in thought. He felt Yugi's eyes on him and gave him a sad look before starting to eat "So what's the plan for when you get there? How will I contact you?"
"Seto will drop off all the info for you Gramps when he's done with work today. Pretty much we'll be staying in our own lodges for the time. One on each side of the mountain as were going to divide the time between the Turoa and Whakapapa ski fields" Yugi was curious about how the names rolled off Kya's tongue, he had never heard those kind of words before
"Those are weird place names" Kya raised her eyebrow at Yami who finally decided to speak, he still didn't know where it was they were going and Yugi didn't have time to tell Kya not to mention it before she started talking again
"Oh! It's Maori, native language of New Zealand, they barely talk it there anymore but a lot of place names are in the language" Yugi frowned, concerned crossed Yami's features and he felt him trying to open their mind link "Don't worry! New Zealanders are really cool people, laid back, friendly, wicked sense of humour to"
"You're going so far away Aibou" Yugi felt a protectiveness from Yami's mind link and shrugged, this was not how he wanted this to go
"It's not really Yami and besides when did you start to care" Yugi felt Yami quickly shut off the link and glare at him
"Right, sorry grampa but we best be off, long flight ahead of us!" Yugi flicked one last glance at Yami who was pushing food around his plate, a slight pout on his lips and Yugi felt the urge to kiss him pass over him get a hold of yourself, just because he starts to act like your alive again doesn't mean you can turn back into a love sick puppy again. Sugoroku stood up and held his only grandson in a tight embrace "Hey, I'm coming back grampa, don't worry" the older man had tears in his eyes and Yugi felt himself do the same
"Hey you two no tears! This is a good thing, Yugi's about to embark on his first overseas experience and it's going to be magical, crazy, gruelling hard work and of course fun and I promise I'll bring him back in one piece!" No one noticed but at the last part she looked straight at Yami as if she was making the promise to him. Yugi let go off his grandfather and the older man left the room
"Um…we'll give you two a few minutes…" Ryou awkwardly pulled Kya out of the room leaving Yugi and Yami alone, both staring anywhere but each other
"So….." Yugi breathed out, his palms sweating and heart racing in his chest. Yami's eyes met his and Yugi felt his strong resolve weakening
"Aibou, there's so much I want to say to you but I won't…Not right now. You need to walk out that door right now before I try and stop you because we both know this is the right thing for you as much as my need to protect you is screaming in every fibre of my being" Yugi's mouth dropped open and he felt his heart sear in pain and anger
"Protect me? Are you kidding? That's the only reason you would stop me from going?" Yami stood up, eyes focused on Yugi angrily "I'm going to leave Yami, not because you told me to but because this is what I want, what I need. I couldn't give two shits about what you feel is right and if you think that you have a right to even THINK that you could stop me; you'd be sorely mistaken" Yugi was furious and felt his heart breaking he only think's he cares because he feels he owes me, feels he has to protect me like he use to "I am not weak Yami, not anymore and you can shove your need to protect me because I don't need it, I don't need you" Yugi picked up his board and bag and stalked out of the game shop, slamming the door behind him and leaving a bewildered Yami behind. He wretched open the limo door, chucked his things in and flopped down in one of the seat's, tears flowing freely down his face.
"Yugi…" Ryou's voice was timid and held question but Yugi just smiled sadly at him
"Don't worry guy's I'm fine, once were on that plane none of this will matter anymore, so let's get going" his two friends nodded and Kya signalled to the driver to go. The sooner we're away from here the better.
….
Yami watched the limo leave from his bedroom window and flopped down on his bed, he had never seen his Hikaru so angry at him before and it cut him deep. How did he think he didn't care for him? He loved his aibou with all his heart. He put his head in his hands and sighed, this time Yugi was leaving him behind and now he knew how his other half had felt all those months and he felt like an asshole. Yugi was right, he didn't need protection anymore. Yami had seen that for himself the day he saw him on that rail, his little Hikaru had grown up and gained complete confidence in himself and Yami hadn't supported him at all…he had done it all by himself. He just hoped that once he read the letter he slipped in Yugi's bag it would give him a chance in the future to fix things.