Hello people! Another chapter complete.

Be nice- I'm sunburnt

Keep happy and reviewing!

Much love!

...

Tears don't fall.

Yugi.

Hearts break in love.

When I was little, a teacher told me homosexuality was wrong. She stood above me, a young, naive child and spoke of the hell I would suffer if I went that way. She struck fear and loathing into a imaginative mind.

"People like THESE," She flashed a magazine title in our faces. Innocent eyes blinked up at her, eager to learn about society, to understand why she was upset "These people are a plague on our society! They will burn in the fires of hell. Their skin shall peel and they'll spend the rest of eternity alone in agony! Do not befriend them children."

Why would she say things like that to a child?

...Why did I carry her hatred for all these years?

Why would I allow her words to shape my reaction to Yami?

...Why wasn't I old enough to understand him?

I wish a thousand apologises would be enough.

Lying on my bed facing the ceiling, I frowned, letting history flow around my mind. A history that had been so perfect, I thought it would end forever. Until Yami started to fade away from me and I stopped understanding him. Frustration at losing him, feeling our link fraying, bubbled over and I lashed out at him. He doesn't know how many times I've prayed I could change the past. Change what I did.

He doesn't know that I spent so many endless nights crying with my face buried in his pillow. Lying in a room that no longer smelt of him. That no longer comforted me, only reminded me of what I had lost. He was never there to chase away the nightmares.

He doesn't know how much I missed him. I have a box filled with unopened presents for him at home. I celebrated his birthday every year, every Christmas I brought an extra present and hid them in my wardrobe. This year, I'll give all of them to him.

I rolled over and reached over the edge of the bed, pulling out the golden puzzle. I had kept his alongside mine. I could never bare to feel the weight of the puzzle around my neck and know it's twin sat dormant. My mind always felt so dead whenever I wore it because I could never feel Yami. He never answered to my cries.

Never...for so long he was lost to me...

...He can't hear what my heart sings...what I'm only just beginning to understand...

I want so much to give him the puzzle, to know he accepts me again. But I think another defence would kick in and he'd run from me again.

I weighed the golden treasure in my hand, my fingers tracing over familiar cracks and dusting over the tip. I balanced it on my chest, knowing instantly that it was my dark's I held. I felt something, maybe the darkness inside reach out to me. I soothed it, sending whispers of safety and calm through them. They curled back into uneasy slumber.

...Someday, Yami...you'll be happy with me...

With me?

Jou threw open the door, abandoning politeness by forgetting to knock. A sympathetic smile flashed onto his face when he spotted the puzzle I clasped. Closing the door softly behind him, he ambled across the room and sat down beside me. He too reached out to run a finger over the golden triangle.

"Yami's?" He asked

I nodded, moving it and placing it on the bed beside me. "One day he'll wear it again."

"Somehow I don't doubt that."

I smiled. Jou had an incomprehensible faith in me, in my ability to return Yami to us. Sometimes, he gets the same look as Grandpa. The one that says he knows something I don't and that he's all right with it.

"Thanks, Jou."

"Anytime."

"Did you want something?"

"As a matter of fact, I do." He turned to face me fully, his fingers folding under his chin. "Yugs, this might be an inappropriate question but if you could I'd like you to answer."

"All right. What's the question?"

"Are you in love with Yami?"

The wind lashed outside, pulling on my hair and biting against my skin. Frowning, I pulled my coat tighter around me, trying to turn away from the frozen fingers. Two hours had passed since Jou's question had been forced into the air between us. Shock had filtered through me momentarily stunning my mind. But as his words were processed I had laughed, it seemed so unlikely that my feelings had shifted that way. The bond I felt between us was a deep, unbreakable friendship. I didn't return Yami's feelings.

...Right...?

"C'mon Yugi. I know you better than you know yourself. You know I'm right." Jou spoke so confidently that I started to doubt myself.

With my head buzzing and my mind turning over new information, I dashed out of the house.

I flopped down on a damp bench, cringing when my hand brushed against the damp wood. I looked up into the grey sky, the clouds were bringing rain with them. There was no blue showing and the sun was hiding it's face. I stared skywards as if I was trying to pull an answer from the endless universe. My mind kept turning nonsense over and over again, merging it with the past. I tore every memory of me and Yami apart, trying to decipher my feelings, to find some hidden motive. I was looking deep inside myself, to a part of me I didn't know existed. Now my sexuality was in doubt, something I had always been so sure off. Now, I wasn't sure. There was no test I could do, no way of knowing until I had reached a decision.

Was I in love with my dark?

To love him went against everything I had been taught to believe, against a lifetime of spoken words. It was true that I felt something for Yami, I always had. I couldn't understand what it meant. I closed my eyes and leant my head back against the bench and scowled.

Do I love you?

When he left, my world was ripped apart.

It was worse than losing a friend or a brother. An icy, merciless hand grasped my insides the moment I realised what had happened, and had clenched my heart. I thought my life was over, all meaning was gone. I hadn't understood why I felt like that, betrayed yet so heartbroken. All these years something was missing. Not just half of my soul but the emotions that he brought.

How do you tell when you're in love?

Is it when they're the only thought you have?

When one look at them sends butterflies erupting in your stomach?

The tears of the person you love punches holes through your chest and makes your soul cry out in grief.

Or...is it when you cry at their absence, unable to understand how they could leave you behind even though you know it's not their fault.

Its probaly when you find the courage to say 'I love you'.

I groaned, wishing I could grasp the answer, to understand something my heart already knew. Grandpa and Jou knew, something uneasy stirred in my gut. If it was so painfully obvious, how had Yami missed it?

Was I that much of a monster?

Or was he simply not looking because he didn't expect to find his feelings returned?

For years, I've wished I could hold him, keep him safe and never let go. Now I'd found him again, those feelings had intensified. I wanted to take away his pain, anger, confusion and a hate he openly unleashed on the world. I wanted to shelter him, to bring him back home, to where he belonged. Thoughts of his sent a pleasant heat around my body, a smile flickered onto my lips. He was the reason I had travelled to the city. He was the reason I had cried and he was the reason that my heart skipped a beat whenever I saw him.

He was my everything.

So...what happens now?

I jumped as my phone startled into life, with clumsy fingers I accepted the call without looking at the ID flashing across the screen. I felt a small amount of annoyance bubble through me. Who was this person to disturb me now? Just when everything was finally starting to make sense.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Yugi. It's Atemu. We need to talk."

His voice made the world a little brighter. Finally I understood.

"About what, Yami?"

"Can we just talk?"

"Sure. Where are you?"

"We could meet in the park. Is that OK?"

"It's fine. I'm already there."

"Why are you in the park?" Amusement trickled through his voice. I remembered that tone, his eyes sparkled and he smiled. I hadn't realised how much I missed that, I ached to hear it again.

"It's a long story. I'll tell you when you get here?"

"All right. Later, Yugi."

"Ok. See you soon."

He hung up with a click. Something in his voice was different, unrestrained. It seemed like he'd let something go, a chain had fallen away within him. Maybe, he was finally opening up to me and letting me back in.

A leaf swirled by me, caught in the draft. I watched it spin by in complicated turns. I stretched, wincing when I was unable to find a comfortable position on the wooden bench. Wooden seats were certainly not my friend. I looked up, a figure had appeared beneath the trees. I recognised the confident, regal posture. I stood up as he drew nearer, the light silhouetted him, he was beautiful. I was willingly captivated by him. He paused in front of me, his face portrayed no emotions yet I felt something bubbling below the surface.

"Hello, Yami."

"Yugi." I'd missed the way my name rolled of his tongue.

"How have you been since I last saw you...yesterday?" I rolled my eyes at my awkward sentence

His lips twitched into a smile, his eyes suddenly dancing with laughter. "Very well, thank you. And you?"

"The same...uh...fine!"

"You must have a lot on your mind if you are sitting here, in the cold."

"You could say that."

He sat gracefully down, seemingly perfectly at ease by my side. His crimson gaze stared up at me, calm and collected. They were still dark, secrets still hidden in their depths but suddenly he wasn't unreachable. He really was there at the tips of my fingers.

"Sit down, you're making me nervous."

"Oh, right!" I plonked myself down, uncoordinated limbs flying everywhere. A laugh rumbled in his throat.

"I come here to think sometimes, when it gets to noisy at the apartment. Whenever I need to be alone." He smiled wistfully, caught somewhere in his memories. The memories I could never have. Jealousy poked at my mind.

"It is beautiful. Why would you need to be alone, Yami? I thought you were happy here."

"I'm not happy, yet I am not sad. I'm content to be where I am at this moment. But I do not feel as though I can be here forever."

Right there, in his words was hope. Hope that someday he could return home with me.

"I'm not sure I understand entirely what you mean, Yami."

"That's all right, I'm sure one day you will."

We fell into contented silence. I pressed my shoulder against his, he didn't push me away and he body never tensed under my touch. He looked down at me, a small smile filtered onto his face. I grinned at him.

"Tell me something Yami. When did you meet Kyle? You'd never mentioned him until the day you left."

"You remember that day, when we'd had the argument the night before and I didn't go to school?" I nodded. The day he told me he loved me "I wondered around town for ages. When I sat down he sat down with me and we talked. It was nice, someone who didn't know me. Who couldn't judge me. He gave me his number, said I could call him if I needed him. Then we...argued...and I called him. We meet at a bench in the town and we left." He ran a hand over the base of his neck.

"Why didn't you go to school?"

"Truthfully, I was angry but I didn't want to hurt anyone. I didn't want to make Mr Mouto more disappointed in me than he already was. I didn't want to say something that would upset you. As much as I was angry with you, you were still my aibou. That and Mr Andrews wanted to murder me. I never did apologise for insulting him."

"You caused quite a fuss in school when everyone realised you were gone. I think the teachers all felt guilty, that they should have seen the signs that something was wrong. People kept telling me it would be all right. They even put up missing person posters."

"That's silly." He mumbled

"I know. I told them not too, said you didn't want to be found but no one listened. You see, Yami, everyone missed you. There was even a hole in school without you."

"Don't exaggerate, Yugi. I'm not that important."

"Yes you are. I spent months trying to find you. I called out to you, even tried to get into your soul room a few times."

"I know." I looked at him in surprise. "I felt it. In here." He tapped his head. "I'm sorry I never answered back. I couldn't bring myself to face you."

"It's all right. I really understand this time."

He smiled, my heart skipped a beat and my hands started to sweat. I turned slightly on the seat and reached out to touch his face. He watched me cautiously but didn't pull away. I could see in his eyes that he was daring to trust again. He was hoping I wouldn't throw it back at him. I suddenly realised how much courage it must have taken him to call me first. I loved him all the more because of it. My hands touched his face, my fingertips cupping a porcelain cheek. He eyes were wide, I could see him wanting so hard to trust, to give me the trust I used to have.

"Yami...there's something I need to tell you." I saw a light in his eyes dim. He expected to be hurt again. I held his face more tightly. "Yami, I think I love you."

For that fraction of a minute, time stood still. Shock blazed in passionate eyes, before he clenched them shut. I rested my forehead against his, unsure of what his actions meant. My fingertips were suddenly damp. Concerned I pushed his face up. Crystal tears were leaking silently from his eyes. His expression was heartbreaking, he looked so lost yet I knew he wanted to believe me. But years of ice had left him unsure and scared. He was beautiful, something beyond a dream. But I'd never wanted to see him look like this. Never had I wanted to see him cry.

"Don't do this to me." He whispered.

I tugged him close to me, he offered no resistance. "I mean it."

His hands clenched at my shirt. "Please, don't lie to me. I'll break."

"I'm not lying."

He didn't answer, just sobbed in my shoulder. I hadn't realised how broken he was. How much damage I had inflicted on him. Suddenly I was aware that he never owned his own heart, I'd always held it in my hands. It was a fragile as glass and he was depending on me not to break it.

If anyone had looked in the dark corner of the park. They would have seen to men, barely older than boys, trying to hold the broken parts of their worlds together.

...

Um...too much too soon?