Chapter 16

For the next hour and a half, I listened to Yami question himself and his existence, while Yugi did his best to comfort him. Finally, he reached the end of book 7.

"I can't believe I was like that..." Yami murmurred. I looked back at the two. I think Bakura was off taking a nap somewhere, probably in my bunk.

"It's not your fault. You didn't know it was wrong, you had cabin fever, AND you were just trying to protect me. All is forgiven in my book." Yugi said, leaning on his shoulder.

"I don't know. I still feel bad about it."

"I know what will make you feel better."

Yugi kissed Yami on the cheek and hugged him.

I guess I was out of luck. My best friend was competing with me for the affection of another, and I had already lost. I took the dog tag out of my pocket and looked at it sadly. I guess it would never hang around his neck.

I guess I should have realized it sooner. Those two already shared an unseverable bond, and who was I to take that away? The Ho Yay throughout the entire series added up to, well, a romance. I crossed my arms in defeat.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Marik asked.

"I've turned into Tea." I replied. He looked at me with slight shock.

"Now what would make you think such a horrible thing?"

"Look at me, Marik. I was prepared to throw myself at a man who clearly doesn't return my affections. I even got the dog tag like in the anime." I held up said tag.

"You got him a dog tag? Why haven't you given it to him?"

"I was gonna wait until we got to the cherry trees. You know, so it would be romantic and shit."

"Well you still shouldn't waste the tag."

"What are you saying? That I should give it to him anyway and blatantly show disrespect towards their bond?"

"It's not disrespect. It's telling him how you feel. If there's one thing I learned from all my years of evil doing, it's that you shouldn't keep your emotions bottled up. It's bad for the immune system and your sanity."

I thought about it for a second, and realized that he was scarily right.

"Marik, how are you so deep and yet so childish?"

"My cat's name is Bakura!" he said cheerfully. I guess it was just a Marik thing. But he was right.

"How long until we reach our destination?" I asked.

"5 minutes in this traffic."

"Great. Plenty of time to get myself psyched up." I said. I stuck my head out the window, getting a great view of our nation's capital. As we whipped past buildings, I let the wind flow around my head and toss my hair around.

Our vehicle came to a stop at the gates to the cherry grove. The petals were already falling.

"Shit, we're too late! The petals have started to fall off!" I said, getting out of the vehicle and pushing the gate open. I ran out along the edge of the basin, ignoring the calls of my friends.

Yami's POV

"Gypsy, come back! You don't know what's out there!" I yelled. She was out of range.

"This is all my fault. I shouldn't have kissed you." Yugi said, looking at the ground.

"Don't-wait what?" I stammered.

"When I kissed you, I saw Gypsy looking at us with sadness. I think she likes you, but was too afraid to-" He got a shocked look on his face, like he had just realized something important.

"Too afraid to what?" I asked.

"Yami. She thinks we're a couple! You've got to make this right!" He snatched a rose from a bush nearby. "Take this to her."

"Why?"

"Just do it! Girls are fragile and easily hurt. Luckily, most misdeeds can be resolved with romantic gestures."

I nodded, and ran off into the garden. I had no idea what a romantic gesture was, but it must have had something to do with giving her the flower.

This place was pretty. It reminded me of Japan in the spring. After wandering around aimlessly, I found her underneath a tree.

"There you are!" I said, grabbing her shoulder. She gasped and whipped around, but once she saw it was me, she relaxed.

"Shit. Don't scare me like that!" she shouted.

"Sorry." I said. "I'm supposed to give you this." I held up the rose. She looked a bit confused, but accepted it, taking a deep breath of the scent.

"How did you know roses were my favorite?" she asked.

"Uh...lucky guess?" I said jokingly. She smiled, but then frowned again. She slipped a hand into her back pocket.

"I know it won't count for anything anymore, but I got you something too." She took out a dog tag that had Atem written on it.

"I know someone did this in your world, or will at least, but I wanted to do it too." she said, holding it out. I dipped my head in the loop and let it fall to my chest.

And that's when I closed the distance between us, embracing her in a kiss.