Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Differences Don't Matter ❯ Yugi's Woes ( Chapter 4 )

Gods, I am so sorry it took so long to get this out. It took FOREVER, I swear. The beginning was all good and well, but I must have worked on the last four pages for weeks before I was finally satisfied. You wouldn't believe how HORRIBLE most of the things I tried sounded like I was a beginner again. Jeez, that was a nightmare. But it's all good now, so enjoy. ^_^

 

 

Yugi cracked his eyes open against the faint light of the new morning. It was Sunday, which also meant his day off. He wasn't sure how he was going to spend it though since he certainly didn't want to go outside and be treated like something lower than a rat by all the people.

 

I'll probably just stay inside today. Clean the place up or something is really all I can do.

 

He pushed away the pale white sheet covering him and stood up, stretching and twitching his pointed ears to listen to what was happening outside.

 

“….hear they got some more of those things last night. Gonna get them cleaned up and put them up at the stage,” a man with a gruff voice chuckled.

 

“Such vile things,” a woman snorted. “I don't see why we need more of them. I think there's plenty enough already. I say we just burn their home and then they won't breed anymore.”

 

Yugi's clamped his hands over his ears and shook his head. Not a good thing to hear first thing in the morning Yugi decided. I wonder who they caught last night though. Mother? No, they wouldn't get old ones, would they? What about father then he thought worriedly.

 

Hearing someone talking with Makoto in the bar, Yugi dressed in some black pants and a loose shirt, part of the neck wide enough to hang off one of his shoulders. Quietly, he moved forward and listened around the corner to the conversation after hearing his name mentioned.

 

“…seems like a nice lad. Not anything like the boy my brother bought lost week. He's all scuffed up and keeps biting everyone and won't listen to a thing they say,” the man, someone Yugi didn't recognize, said.

 

Amethyst eyes widened as Yugi searched for the name that matched that elf. Damien, it has to be him. He's always running around getting into trouble. His teeth have to be the sharpest in the whole forest from how much he spends chewing on things.

 

“Well, he can always just return him. My Yugi is all I could ever need here though. I couldn't ask for someone more hardworking than him. It's impossible.”

 

A light blush rose to Yugi's cheeks at the compliment.

 

“Be lucky someone else didn't get him though. Otherwise I think he'd just be broken. I don't know if you heard or not, but a lot of people were pretty mad that you got him out of all the elves they brought in, even if it was a mutual agreement that you'd get whoever you wanted because you don't live with anyone or have anyone special in your life.” There was a pause. “A lot of people had their eyes on your Yugi though simply because he looked so submissive up on stage.”

 

“I'll just have to make sure everyone keeps their hands off him then, won't I,” Makoto decided. “Yugi's too good to give to just anybody. He's already seen how horrible his friends are being treated and I could tell it took a lot for him not to go after some of them.”

 

“I hear a lot of people come in here just to have a look at him though. Don't want to seem suspicious so they buy a few rounds and stay here a while.” There was clink of a heavy glass being set down and Yugi held his breath to keep from being found out during the silence.

 

“I didn't realize this town was so full of stalkers towards something they seem to detest so much,” Makoto finally said.

 

“They're just being dumb because your elf is the easiest to control.”

 

Yugi bit his lip, his eyes stinging as being called such a possession. I'm not…am I? Makoto's never treated me like anything less than a living creature.

 

“Stop calling him that. Yugi's living just like you or I. I don't control him, I merely ask him to do things.”

 

“But you don't pay him.”

 

“No, but I give him a place to stay and meals to eat. He understands that it's merely earning his keep. If he didn't like that arrangement he would tell me so.”

 

“Would he? You've already said he's seen how others of his kind are treated by people in this town. He might want to say something but doesn't because he's scared of what your reaction would be.”

 

There was a strained silence and Yugi decided it was time for him to leave. He felt horrible for eavesdropping for as long as he did and doesn't wish to hear anymore. He tiptoed back to his room and was careful about shutting the door and putting the latch back in place. He was proud that barely a sound was made for the whole thing.

 

He was about to sit down and figure out how to spend his day without having to go outside and be treated like trash when his eyes landed on his right hand. A pang shot through him and an image of his mother and father and how they would stare at that mark everyday. Yugi curled in on himself, dropping to the dusty floor and ignoring how the wood of the door dug into his back as he cradled his arm to his chest. With uncontrollable shaking he turned his hand over and stared at the black mark he's had all his life.

 

The mark sat right below his palm on the heartbeat of his wrist and stretched out so it covers most of the skin there. The black stretched around to a circle and a disconnected triangle sat in the center of it. Yugi didn't know what it was, but he did know he was the only elf with such a mark. He often asked his parents about it, but they never told him. His mother would just cover her mouth while tears burned at her emerald eyes before he hid herself in the bedroom. The first years of his life, a little before he turned ten, he finally asked why he wasn't allowed to go outside and play with the other elves his age. His mother flat out refused to let him go anywhere, but his father finally spoke up and said he could leave as long as he was careful. It was never explained to him why he'd always been protected so harshly from everything before, but after thinking it over he realized it had to do something with the mark on his right wrist. There was nothing else that would cause it.

 

The friends he'd made and stayed close with sometimes asked about the mark but Yugi would always hold his wrist behind him and shake his head, saying he still knew nothing about it. Inwardly though he would blame the mark for the years he'd been cooped up in his house with nothing much to do except read and stare out the window watching the other elfin children play with each other. He often felt disconnected from them and once tried scrubbing the mark off so hard that he'd rubbed the clean off.

 

I guess now I'll never find out what it means.

 

A knock on his door pulled him out of reverie and he stood up quickly to answer it, not wanting whoever it was to try opening the door only to find he was sitting against it then start asking about it.

 

Makoto stood there with a man behind him, someone Yugi now recognized as the man who often sat in the corner table furthest from the door. The reason he hadn't recognized him sooner was because he never heard the man speak until now.

 

“Yes,” Yugi asked quietly, dropping his gaze to the floor.

 

“It's such a beautiful day, Yugi. What are you doing still in here?”

 

“I…” Yugi didn't want to admit he was scared to go outside and hear all the things the people were sure to throw at him when they saw him. Instead he clenched his fists and replied, “I wanted to stay here in case you needed me for something.”

 

The usually quiet man chuckled into his fist, but he was quickly stopped when the bartender shot him a glare.

 

“It's your day off, Yugi. I won't need you for much,” Makoto answered.

 

“And here I thought he was going to say something about the town's people,” the man laughed again.

 

Yugi's eyes widened and he knew he'd been caught when the chuckle suddenly turned into a cough. Makoto kneeled down so he was looking into Yugi's eyes and smiled gently. “Yugi, you shouldn't worry about what those people say. Humans are just fickle that way. Some can't bear the thought that there's something else out there that's probably more intelligent than humans.”

 

Yugi nodded, knowing there wasn't any way Makoto was going to let him stay inside unless a sudden blizzard or thunder storm started. He walked passed him towards the front of the bar and pushed open the door.

 

I don't want to be out here Yugi panicked as the first person that passed by him shot him a glare. A shiver ran up his spine and he quickly walked in the opposite direction.

 

He almost made it to the alley next to the far side of the bar where he'd sit until the sun started to set when he ran right into another person and landed on his back, hearing the other person do the same as well.

 

“Master Yami,” someone shouted.

 

Yugi held his head, trying to make the dizziness pass, as he blinked rapidly to make the dots in front of his vision fade away. During all that, he heard various things pointed at him that were the exact reason he hadn't wanted to go outside at all that day. Knowing he'd have to face it sooner or later though, he glanced up and stared right at a hand offered to him.

 

Swallowing around the lump in his throat he glanced past the hand at the familiar face staring back at him. Feeling a blush rise to his cheeks, he looked away and took the hand still held out to him.

 

“Are you alright? I wasn't paying attention to where I was going,” the crimson-eyed teen asked.

 

“Yes, yes, I'm fine,” Yugi quickly answered, pulling his hand away from the other's rough one. “I didn't hurt you, did I?”

 

“Just a little dizzy, but it's nothing to worry too much about.”

 

Yugi nodded and quickly turned away. He decided to head towards the stage to see if he would recognize any of the new elves that had come in. There wasn't much else to do and sitting in an alley didn't seem so much a good idea anymore. If anyone saw him and were one of the people who detested elves or one of those people that man had been talking about that watched him while in the bar saw him huddled in a corner there wouldn't be any way of him escaping from them if they tried something.

 

Walking up as close as he dared to the stage he noticed one just bought was being taken away to her new owner and five others remained on the stage, one of them being dragged up closer so people could get a better look. He didn't recognize that girl either, long, sea green hair and bright blue eyes with two black stripes on either of her cheeks. In a way, Yugi was glad he didn't know who she was, but in others he wished he did. If he did know her, he probably wouldn't be able to stand there and watch her sold off to be treated like a piece of property.

 

The girl glanced up and straight at Yugi, tears building in her eyes as she tried reaching for him and he turned away.

 

“Why,” she heard him whisper. The amethyst-eyed elf looked up again and shook his head.

 

“I can't help you,” he told her.

 

“You're just going to stand there and let them do this to us? Do you like being treated like common trash on these filthy streets? Don't you want to go back home?”

 

Before Yugi could respond the girl was yanked back by the human on the stage, yelling at her for being so bold as to thinking she was allowed to speak while people were trying to buy her. The girl bared her teeth at the man and struggled to get away from him. She did manage to get a good kick in his shin and she jumped off the stage and ran through the street. Yugi thought she would make it before some of the townsmen jumped on her to stop her. She struggled a bit more, but cuffs were placed on her and kept her form getting more than a few steps before she was tugged back when she got back up.

 

The girl was yanked back over the stage, causing the large crowd that had gathered for the commotion to back off. She stopped walking when she was in front of Yugi, the only one in the crowd who hadn't moved out of her way, and she glared so harshly at him that Yugi could feel it piercing into his very being.

 

“You're just like them,” she snarled before allowing herself to be pulled away. Yugi just watched her go, looking at his wrist where he hid his mark. He turned away, trying to ignore the hurt he felt from the truth that was beginning to seep into him.

 

Maybe I am turning into one of them. Just pointy ears and strange hair and eyes he told himself sadly.

 

Walking down the street again, he resisted the urge to run from all the dirty looks both his own kind and the humans were sending him. He couldn't believe what kind of mess he'd gotten himself into. He felt so lost, so lonely, and he didn't have anyone to hold him and tell him he was imagining things.

 

I want to go back home he thought, looking up at the sky. Tears blurred his vision slightly, but he ignored them and continued walking back to the bar.

 

Standing in front of it he could only think about barricading himself in his room and not coming out for a very long time.

 

“Yugi, are you alright,” Makoto asked, having come out of the bar and startling Yugi.

 

“Yes, yes, I'm fine, sir,” Yugi said, looking down at the ground.

 

“You know you don't have to do that, Yugi. I would never treat you as anything less than what you should be treated as.”

 

Yugi glanced up slightly, wrapping his arms around him self and rubbing his arms up and down.

 

Makoto smiled at him and moved to go rub his shoulder. Yugi stepped away from him though, knowing it would remind him too much of his father when he used to do that. “I saw you earlier, before you went back to your room.”

 

Amethyst eyes widened and Yugi started stuttering out apologies. “I'm so sorry, sir, I didn't mind to overhear so much. It was an accident and I - ”

 

“Yugi, it's fine,” the bartender interrupted. “What my friend said, that you heard, do you really feel like I'd treat you like you've seen your friends treated?”

 

The elf didn't answer for a long time. He looked around him, everywhere but at Makoto, not knowing what to say. “It's not like I think you'll do those things to me,” he finally decided on.

 

A confused expression overtook Makoto's face and he stepped away from Yugi, gesturing for him to continue.

 

Taking a deep breath, Yugi licked his lips and looked at him guiltily. “I don't think you'd do those things, but I'm just afraid. All the things I see when people treat my family and friends like they're really lower than them. How can I not be? I was just called a human to my face because I couldn't help her when she was trying to escape.”

 

“Yugi…”

 

“I know that I probably shouldn't listen to what other people, or elves, say or do, but it still hurts to hear it.”

 

“There's something you want to say to me. I can tell by the way you're acting that you do.”

 

Yugi looked away, watching the people go along their daily business. “That man said I was afraid to ask or say anything to you.”

 

“You are,” the bartender asked, confused.

 

“If I asked you to let me go…”

 

“I can't do that, Yugi. You know if I just let you go back they'd only go after you again. At least this way, I'm able to take care of you and know you're safe. Don't you want to be safe?”

 

“Right,” Yugi looked down regrettably. “I'll…come in later.”

 

“If I could, Yugi, you know I'd let you go.”

 

“I know.”

 

Makoto was about to go inside when he stopped at the door and looked sadly back at Yugi. “I like having you here, Yugi. I enjoy spending time with you and getting to know you. You know that, right?”

 

Yugi didn't say anything at first, he just nodded and didn't look back. After hearing the door close behind the bartender he waited a few minutes before going in himself.

 

Home, sweet home, I guess. There just aren't any trees and my family isn't waiting for me to come back with open arms.