Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ A Different Kind of You ❯ Welcome to Town ( Chapter 11 )

Yugi stepped off the train and into the dankness of the station. He looked around before adjusting his bag on his shoulder and moving on.

`Looks the same as it did when I left,' Yugi thought glumly.

The trek down the road was as he always remembered it as well, uneventful and lonely.

`I just hope they haven't moved and, if they haven't, that they'll take me back in.'

He saw the old burger joint that wasn't much a joint anymore. It had been destroyed by a group of teens about five or six years back. They made the gas leak and lit a match next to it. Naturally, like most people who lived in this part of town, they were stupid and ended up being exploded with the entire restaurant. The amethyst-eyed teen kept moving.

The places and streets he passed reminded him of too many painful things, but he didn't have any other choice. He had no where else to go and… the place he was at he couldn't stay in.

He passed by his old school and quickly turned away from it, running past as fast as he could. That had been his only place of solace from his parents' fighting, but even then he wasn't safe. Bullies there picked on him ruthlessly and he did everything he could to make them leave him alone. That had also been the place where the principle told him about his sister's murder. He would never forgive or forget her `boyfriend' for what he did.

Continuing on down the street Yugi saw a few of the regular hang outs were shutdown with yellow tape and orange cones. He shivered as he realized nothing had changed. His old hometown was still as dangerous as ever with murders and druggies, the place still scared him half to death, but he had no other choice but to be there.

Moving into his old neighborhood and saw his still shabby as ever house and ran towards it. He walked slowly up the dirt filled path, careful not to trip over rocks or the tree roots that uplifted over the years. Shaking with fear, he knocked lightly on the door, praying they were there but wishing they weren't.

And old woman answered the door and glared at him through the small crack she provided herself, unwilling to unchain the door from the wall.

"Uh…hello, m-ma'am," Yugi stuttered, unable to tear away from her burning stare.

"What do you want, boy," She spat at him, literally.

Yugi refrained from stepping away and ignored the spit that was soaking into his clothes. "Well, I…you see…"

"Spit it out, I haven't got all day," she growled.

"S-sorry to bother, you m-ma'am. I was wondering if you knew a M-mrs. Motou that u-used to live here."

"Go away, you brat. I haven't the time to be bothered with you. Get out of here before I call the police!" She slammed the door leaving Yugi to walk slowly back down the path to slump defeatedly on the sidewalk.

`Well, that was useless. They moved and now I don't know where…'

"Yugi," A female's voice called from a car he hadn't noticed pull beside him. "Is that you, Yugi?"

Violet eyes looked up in confusion into dark eyes that belonged to a woman he didn't recognize. Somehow though, he seemed to feel a sense of familiarity.

"I'm Isis; don't you remember me," she tried to help.

A light lit up in Yugi's head and he jumped up in surprise. "Isis, is it really?"

The woman smiled, nodding delightedly. "I'm glad you remember me. I wasn't sure whether to believe it was you or not. I thought you had left for good all those years ago. What are you doing here after so long?"

Isis was a woman who always seemed very sad about things she kept to herself. She moved in a couple years before Yugi ran away and was the only one who cared enough to worry about Yugi's living. He'd been upset to leave her, but he doubted she would ever remember him if she got the chance to be with her. She often spoke of a brother, but he never learned his name, only that he too had runaway years ago and never spoke and saw him again.

"Some bad things happened where I was and I didn't have anywhere else to go. I'm afraid coming here was useless though since my parents don't live here anymore."

"Actually," Isis paused looking away to stare at the passenger's seat, "Hop in."

Yugi was confused, but knew he could trust her so he got in and buckled the seat belt.

She put the car back in drive and started down the street. "After you left and it became evidentially clear you weren't going to be returning anytime soon your parents moved to a smaller house, not needing the extra space anymore. At least, that's what they bragged out to the town when people asked why they just went to a different house for no reason. It's not like there was anything wrong with the old house and they stayed in the neighborhood so it just rose some confusion."

"I see," Yugi looked out the window, "So they didn't expect me to come back?"

"Not really," Isis replied sadly. She stopped in front of an ugly brown house where the lawn was a dead brown and grey and the house itself looked as if it were going to fall apart.

"This is it. Want me to come with you?"

"No, I'll be fine." Yugi gathered his back and stepped out onto the sidewalk.

"Good luck, Yugi. It was really nice seeing you again, too. And if you need anything I'm only a couple blocks away from you now."

Yugi nodded and waved as she drove off. Taking a breath, he turned and headed to the door. He knocked just quietly as before and tried to calm his racing heart.

Slowly, the door opened revealing his mother's face. She didn't seem to recognize him, or maybe she just had too much to drink if the bottle in her hand was anything to go by.

"Who are you," she slurred.

"I'm Yugi, your son, mom," Yugi sighed, knowing nothing had changed but the scenery. He constantly had to remind his parents who he was when he still lived with them, even more after his sister died and didn't have her to stand up for him anymore.

Once he'd even gone to the kitchen for breakfast and his mother had screamed bloody murder, his father running in with a shot gun a minute later demanding to know what was wrong. She screamed that someone was trying to steal and called Yugi a thief. Yugi never spoke so fast to explain anything in his entire life. He was lucky that time, but he wasn't sure how many times he'd be able to save himself before he was killed.

"Oh, the brat that ran away. What do you want?"

Yugi looked down, knowing he hadn't been missed. "I want to come back."

"Why should we let you back," his father's gruff voice answered him. "You're the one who left to go take care of yourself. What's the matter, ran out of money you stole or whatever."

"No, sir, I'd rather not talk about it."

The familiarly cool touch of his dad's gun touched his forehead and he forced himself not to shiver away from it. "You won't leave again then, you understand, boy?"

"Yes, sir," Yugi agreed, feeling tears appear in his eyes and not caring if they fell. He was as good as a broken doll now. He was forever trapped in the house now, forced to be forgotten and constantly stared at like garbage unable to be rid of because of obligations.

"And you'll do your share of the work."

"Yes, sir."

"Fine then. There's no room for you so you've got either the attic with the rats or the basement with the pipes."

`Be chewed on while I'm sleeping or go crazy from dripping pipes. I'll take my chance of going to the insane asylums.' "Thank you, sir." After his parents moved out of the way he headed for the basement door and moved slowly down the stairs.

"It's your job to see if dinner's ready cause we won't come get you, boy. If you miss any of the meals that's your problem and you'll just have to wait. We don't have the time or money to be feeding slackers. Is that understood," his father growled as Yugi descended the steps.

"Crystal, sir," Yugi called back up. `I can see that your booze and your drugs is much more important than a son who saw you as his last hope for living.'

Yugi found an old, beat up mattress shoved in a lone corner of the basement and knew that was the best it was going to get. He pulled it out and laid it flat on the concrete floor. Testing it out he found one of the springs right in his mid-back was broken and no way around it. He sighed and looked around for something sharp.

He found a screw driver and set to work on opening the mattress and tearing out the broken spring, throwing it into a trashcan by the staircase before using the last bit of duct tape on a role by the door to seal the hole shut. He tested it out and it was the best it was going to get.

The violet-eyed teen pulled his duffel bag opened and shuffled through it. He found the small picture he had of himself, Malik, and Ryou all when they were best friends and inseparable at the whorehouse (unless working, of course).

`I'll miss you, guys. I'm sorry I had to leave, but I couldn't stay where there were too many bad memories.'

"So you just go to a place where there's even more," The little voice in his head countered back. Yugi pushed it away forcefully and laid down on the mattress, curling up into a ball and closing his eyes tightly.

`If I'm lucky, the one who's supposed to be watching over me will take me away from this place forever.'

~~

Ryou sat watching the back of his love's head as Bakura watched the small TV in the corner of his bedroom. He loved watching Bakura when he was calm like this…

"What kind of an idiot are you?! You don't just let the girl run off like that, are you mad!?"

The younger sighed and shook his head, `So much for being calm.' "Bakura, love, you need to calm down. It's just a show and a rerun at that, you know what's going to happen."

"I know, Ryou, but I can't help it sometimes." Bakura looked over his shoulder to look at him, "If it were me, I never would've let the one I love just run away from me, especially after a big fight. I'd want to sort it out as soon as possible so there's no misunderstanding."

Ryou blushed and looked away from a second. "Maybe you should watch something else then. You've still got about half an hour before you can start messing around again."

Bakura scowled and glared at the TV. The only bad thing about his pills was that he couldn't get excited too much or his system would end up having a bad reaction. He was just glad it was only an hour every day that he had to stay quiet because he hated sitting still for very long. "Fine," he finally grumbled, "I promise to stay quiet."

"You better or I'll change the channel whether you like it or not. I don't care if this is one of the five channels that actually come through the antenna or not."

"But you have to sit in my lap."

"What?"

"I'll be quiet if you sit in my lap. That way I'll have something soothing to hold and help calm me down when this guy messes up again."

Ryou rolled his eyes, but scooted off his desk chair anyway. He loved these moments of the day. In fact, this was usually how he ended up keeping Bakura calm most of the time after he woke up from the pill's effect. He'd end sitting or cuddling with Bakura on the bed just talking to him in `that soothing voice' Bakura just loved. It worked a lot of the time, but Bakura sometimes wanted to watch TV too, in which case Ryou mostly had to turn it off about half way through the hour because of the very reason he was moving into his lover's lap.

After getting comfortable in between Bakura's lap Ryou felt his love's arms wrap around him and he looked up at the screen, knowing he was about to regret what he was doing when this day was through. The couple was now arguing again and the hold around his waist was getting tighter as Bakura forced himself to control his temper.

`This is going to be a long half an hour,' Ryou concluded.

~~

"Marik," Malik asked dully from where he laid.

"Hmm."

"You're still here, aren't you," he asked, slightly afraid he wasn't.

"Yes, love. I'm still here just like I always will be."

"Are you mad at me?"

"For what?"

"You know, what I did?"

"Malik," Marik pressed his lips to the back of his neck, letting them drift across the skin as he continued, "I could never blame you or be upset with your for something you can't control."

Malik was silent before a slight nod was answered and the younger shifted to face his lover. "I'm sorry. I just can't help but think I'm burdening you with all my problems."

"One problem, but it doesn't make you any less perfect in my eyes, Malik. How do you feel," he asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Better, thanks. Can we get out of here?"

"Go where then?"

"I don't care, anywhere but this room though."

Marik glanced at the clock and nodded. "I've probably got a zillion phone calls on that blasted answering machine, but I think they can wait a little longer. Let's go for a walk around the park."

The younger nodded wanting to go anywhere right then. They both dressed warmly and stepped out into the cool air.

"Thanks for coming with me."

"I wouldn't be leaving you alone so soon after an attack, Malik."

"I know you wouldn't and I appreciate that. I'm lucky to have someone like you with me."

"I'm the lucky one, Malik, trust me."

They walked around to the park in silence and sat watching the last of the visitors walk around and converse with each other. They watched as two teens were throwing a Frisbee back and forth. The orange disk caught in the wind though and nearly landed on Malik's lap, but slipped to the ground instead.

The younger of the two picked it up and glanced at Marik pleadingly.

"Go on, Malik; just because you're sick doesn't mean you can't play. Have some fun before we head back."

A bright smile was his answer and Malik jumped off the couch and ran over to the two boys with the Frisbee in hand. The boys were soon laughing and throwing the disk back and forth energetically.

Marik watched his lover with a soft smile on his face. He was glad that his true love didn't get so sick that he still couldn't do things someone his age should be doing. He knew that Malik hated the whorehouse with a passion, but he didn't have anywhere else to go. He knew that his younger half had an older sister living on her own somewhere, but he also knew that Malik lost complete contact with her after running from home. Marik was sure he regretted it sometimes, not having some sort of family member to contact once in a while like Joey did, but he'd always be there for him when he needed him.

"Hey, are you all right?" It was one of the boys playing Frisbee.

Marik focused back on his love and saw that he was starting to drag a bit on his movements. He stood and walked over to him, helping him to stand straight. "Sorry, guys, but I think he's worn out now. Maybe you'll be able to hang out later, but it's been a trying day for the both of us."

"Okay, dude, get better soon okay. It was cool hanging out with you," the second boy told him as they started to walk off towards the whorehouse again.

~~

I know this wasn't the best chapter I could've done and I'm going to see if I can fix it up a bit later. I figured I was keeping you guys waiting long enough for chapters these days so here's a little gift. I'll fix it up though if I find out how to. If you've got any ideas I'd be very appreciative for the help. ^_^. I was told I was doing a great job with the whole Malik and Ryou things and to try working on them a bit more so I'm going to try to do that also without having to ruin the whole plot. I'm just going to wriggle them, since I seem to have already emphasized on them a lot more than I had originally planned. To tell the truth, this story isn't anything like how I wanted it, but it's definitely a lot better than I had wanted it to be, so I'm glad about this.

I'm glad you're all enjoying it so far and if you've got any suggestions you'd like to make go right ahead.