Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ A Different Kind of You ❯ Skipping Town ( Chapter 8 )

Hey all, sorry about what I said last chapter at the end about the review thing. I hadn't realized the little review thingy had be down otherwise I would've just ignored it. Lol, silly me. Yeah so sorry about that.

As for the inspiration thing *evil look* well let's just say some of the reviews I received for the last chapter gave me a lot to write this one. I got an entire three pages (!) just by reading a few. I was super excited about that.

yaoicrazy-chic() - go right ahead and write your yugi/duke pairing if you want to. ^_^

~~

Yugi looked up at the graying sky miserably. `The weather matches my mood,' He thought distractedly, unable to make his memory forget the phone call he wished hadn't existed.

He'd made it all the way to the train station across down before he realized that he hadn't had any money to buy a ticket and even then he didn't have anything but the clothes on his back and his broken heart; he'd look like a street bum in no time if he went out like that.

More hot tears streamed down his face as he rested his face in his hands, not knowing what to do now.

`I just want to leave this place. Leave everything I've ever known behind,' He thought gloomily.

Knowing there was only one way he was going to leave he stood up from the rickety bench in front of the station and started walking towards the whorehouse.

`I won't stay long. Just enough to get in and get my stuff unnoticed before I come back.'

Arriving at the whorehouse only brought terrible memories back of what he had shared with Duke just the night before. Sighing dejectedly he moved up the few steps and opened the heavy wood door near silently. He walked the few rooms down to his room and started to pulling clothes out of his closet and the few possessions he'd bothered keeping with him over the years.

`Where can I go? I don't know where any other places like this exist and I wouldn't be able to find another job so easily as I did this one.' What thought to come to mind, but he didn't know if he should consider it. `Maybe…maybe I should just go home?' Even the suggestion made him shiver, but he didn't have any other choice.

Loud laughter filled his ears and Yugi tensed considerably when he recognized it. `Doesn't… doesn't Joey have sister named Serenity?' Even the name could bring even the little bit of happiness that had managed to sneak through his torn up defenses down again.

He peaked outside of his room and felt his resolve crumble as he saw Joey. `Did… he know all this time about his sister dating Duke even though he knew how I felt?' He moved back into his room and roughly wiped away his tears, composing himself, as he finished packing. He was about to swing the bag over his shoulder and grab his wallet when his hand wavered, `but… what if it isn't the same Serenity? I've got to at least know.'

He put his bag back down and moved towards Joey's room. "Joey," he said almost silently, not sure if the blonde would even hear him.

Joey perked up a little and looked over at him as he picked up a sheet off the floor and tossed it into the laundry pile he was making, "Hey, Yugi. What's up? You look out of it."

Yugi looked up at Joey with complete exhaustion and distress along with his depression revolving around behind his violet eyes. "Joey, you have a sister named Serenity, don't you," he asked.

"Yeah, what about her," Joey questioned casually as he continued to make his bed.

The younger figured Seto was coming over later and Joey wanted the place to look neat. "Do you keep tabs on her?"

"Once in a while I find the time to call. I've got to be careful though since our… her parents don't like her talking to me."

"Oh," Yugi said as he leant against the wall.

"Why are you interested?"

"No reason," was the reply, though anybody could tell it was a lie. "Is she… dating anybody?"

"She mentioned once or twice the last time I managed to talk to her. She said he was a popular game creator or something, why? I thought you liked Duke."

Tears immediately sprang to Yugi's tired eyes and, without answering, he started walking away. He hadn't even noticed Joey look at him concerned before turning and heading towards Marik's office hurriedly, needing to make a phone call to his sister, praying to anybody listening his suspicions of Yugi's attitude towards the subject to be false.

Joey knocked lightly on Marik's door, entering when the familiar voice beckoned him in. "Hey, Marik, Malik," he greeted politely. "Do you mind if I use the phone to call my sister?"

"So soon this time," Marik asked surprised, but gestured to the phone to show he didn't mind.

"Yugi was asking funny questions about her and if she was dating somebody. I'm not sure why, but he seemed really upset and I'm a bit suspicious about it." He picked up the phone and dialed the only number besides Seto's he bothered using. He waited and tensed when a voice finally answered.

`Yugi's upset? Maybe that's why Duke's been calling like crazy asking to talk to Yugi,' Marik thought, feeling a bit suspicious about what had happened.

"Um…yes, hello Mrs. Katsuya," Joey said in a high-pitched girly sounding voice, causing snickers to erupt from Malik and Marik. He sent them a glare before continuing in the same voice, "Is Serenity there? This is really important."

"Yes, of course. May I ask who's calling?"

"Err..Jooooo-an. Yeah, Joan."

"Oh, are you a new friend?"

"Yes, we met a short while ago."

"Alright, hold on."

Joey sighed with relief and just hoped Serenity would just answer instead of asking questions about who `Joan' was.

"Hello," a confused voice answered.

"Serenity, thank god. I really need to ask you something."

"Oh, Joo-an. I wasn't sure at first," his sister laughed, causing Joey to believe that one of her parents were passing by. "What's up?"

"That person you told me you're dating, who is it?"

"What? I don't see why it's your business."

"Please, I really need to know. It's for a good friend of mine."

"His name's Duke Devlin. Joey, I don't see why this….Joey? Hello?"

Joey had dropped the phone as soon as the name was said. "Oh no," he rasped out.

Marik and Malik immediately became concerned. "Joey, who was it?"

"Duke's dating my sister."

Malik tensed before running out of his room down the hall towards Yugi's room as fast as he could. It wasn't hard to figure it out. While Yugi was over at Duke's he somehow must've found out about Serenity and asked Joey if it was the same person. When Yugi had first come to the whorehouse he was such an emotionally detached person and Duke was one of the first people to help him become a `normal feeling person', as Yugi put it, again. If Yugi had found out Duke was with someone else he might not have taken it all that well.

He stormed into Yugi's room and froze. The place was bare of anything Yugi had considered precious to him. Half of his closet was emptied out and all of his usual small trinkets he kept with him.

"Oh no," Malik repeated much like Joey had.

Just then thunder crashed outside and it wasn't long before a downpour started.

`He can't have gone far,' Malik resolved, filled with hope as he ran out of the house, not listening for Marik to come back and put something warmer on.

Malik ran all around town before he headed for the lone station at the end of the city before he panicked. The train was leaving.

He ran for all he was worth to the train to try and stop his best friend, but the security guard stopped him before he could even close. Instead of arguing he just started yelling at the train. "Yugi! Please don't do this, Yugi! Duke wasn't worth it anyway, please don't run away from everything!"

The train sped up before it disappeared around the corner. Tears streamed down Malik's eyes as he collapsed in the mud and just stared at where the train had disappeared, his tears mixing with the rain pouring down on him.

"Please come back, Yugi. You're my best friend," he croaked out.

"Sir, you'll have to move for the other passengers soon for the next train," the guard said before going under the roof to get out of the rain.

It seemed like forever before he finally found the strength to get up and walk all the way back to the whorehouse to tell everyone what had happened. `Why did he have to leave,' Malik would ask himself as he walked.

~Minutes before the Train left~

Yugi gasped for breath as he ran all the way to the train station. He was about to go up to the ticket booth when a voice reached his ears.

"Yugi," Yami called, worry slightly in his voice as he watched Yugi through the downpour around them.

"Hey, Yami," Yugi croaked around his tight throat, not wanting to see his look-a-like now. He just wanted to leave this city.

Seeing his bag Yami started to panic. He didn't even know why, but he didn't want Yugi to leave. He was the only person he had ever managed to connect with and didn't have to pretend to be something he wasn't to get the younger to like him. He didn't want to go back to his emotionless self again because Yugi skipped town.

"Are you going somewhere?"

"I can't stay here anymore," Yugi said simply, starting to walk towards the ticket booth.

Yami's eyes widened, he couldn't ever remember feeling this anxious before and he'd been through a lot of things that could make a person panic like crazy. "Why," was the only thing that came to mind right then.

"There's too many memories here. I don't want to remember anything."

"Not even me," it came out before Yami could stop himself.

"You wouldn't understand." Yugi told him after pausing. He did want to remember Yami, but then he'd remember how much fun he'd been having while he was hear, but it the end it would only continue hurting him.

"Then where are you going?"

"Home," Yugi told him, his voice not sounding like his own as he shivered at the thought of returning to the hellhole that made him leave the first time.

Yami froze at the thought, remembering what Yugi had told him about where he lived and how his parents were. He wouldn't - couldn't - let Yugi go back where it only made his life even more miserable than he looked, and probably felt, right then.

He ran up to Yugi before he could get his ticket and turned him around by his shoulders, pulling him in to a hug and holding him tightly. "Don't go, Yugi. I feel different with you in my life. I finally want to live, Yugi. Do you really want to be responsible for somebody's death?"

Yugi was silent before he started shivering and then whimpers reached Yami's ears. He relaxed slightly when he felt Yugi clutching at his form.

"Come with me, Yugi; live with me," Yami asked him desperately, not wanting him to leave.

"But your dad," Yugi choked out.

"Is usually passed out in bedroom or in a bar. The last time I actually saw him awake was about four months ago, but it didn't last very long. Please, Yugi?"

It took a minute before Yugi finally nodded, relaxing into the older's embrace.

Yami sighed with relief and took Yugi's bag for him as they started walking away from the station where the train's whistle was blowing for people to start boarding.

Neither noticed Malik as he skid around the corner towards the train station.

~~

"This is it, Yugi," Yami said as he opened the busted door. "This hinges are bit rusted, but I was going to fix it this weekend."

Yugi nodded, yawning cutely as he rubbed tired eyes.

"You've got to be worn out. What happened to make you want to leave?"

"Nothing."

Yami knew he was lying, but figured he didn't want to talk about it.

He shivered from the cold and pulled his soaked jacket away from him, tossing it onto the brass coat hanger in the corner.

"I'm sure your stuff is soaked in that bag. Would you like me to get you something warmer?"

Yugi shuddered also and nodded, knowing there was probably a lake in the bag with the way it was dripping. "If-if you wouldn't mind?"

"Of course not, hold on," Yami went down the small hall and took out a sweatshirt and sweatpants. He put them next to Yugi on the couch and went to go get a towel. "Why don't you go take a hot shower to get warmed up before you change so you don't catch cold?" It was more an order than a suggestion, but Yugi didn't protest either way.

"What about you," he asked before he disappeared in the bathroom.

"I'll be fine for right now. Just get warmed up. I'll take one after you."

"Okay." Yugi then disappeared in the bathroom and moments later the sound of the water going ran through the pipes.

Yami smiled inwardly to himself, glad that he'd managed to stop Yugi from leaving for good. He didn't know what he would've done if he hadn't seen Yugi running like crazy towards the station and followed him.

He pulled out a few blankets from the closet and placed them on the couch before moving to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate for the both of them.

That night they both were huddled on the couch wrapped in blankets just enjoying the silence and each other's company.

`Just stay with me, Yugi. You give me the will to live; the first time I've ever wanted it in my life,' Yami thought as he played with Yugi's wet locks as the younger slept with his head resting in Yami's lap. `Whatever hurt you enough to make you leave, I'll help you in any way that I can.'