Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Heart of the Cards, Guide Me ❯ Explanations and Memories ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Again, I did not create Yu-Gi-Oh. I did create Sakura and Meritaten, though.

Chapter two: Explanations and Memories

Chapter two: Explanations and Memories

Soon they had stopped kissing and Sakura was about to resort to screaming as loud as she could at the voice in her head when she heard whatever Yugi was saying, "What about the spirit that was in your new body?"
"Oh, I was always was subtle. She still sees, hears, feels, but she doesn't have any control over the body," Meritaten said.
"Then we should probably give her an explanation," Yugi said.
Oh, good. Finally, and explanation, Sakura thought. Why give me an explanation? I'm just sitting here minding my own business when suddenly I can't move and my new friend is kissing me. Yeah, okay, I could defintiely use an explanation.
"You see, Sakura, Meritaten and I used to be married, a long time ago. My house was attacked and she died. That ring you have on the chain around your neck, I sealed her soul inside it. I kept her safe around my neck. Then I had to capture other souls including mine inside seven 'millennium items.' Yugi has mine. Bakura has another. What you have is slightly different. The spirits of the millennium items cannot share a body, so the original spirits know nothing of what happens when their Yamis take control. But your item came from love. The others did not. You are going to have to explain this conversation to Yugi, I'm afraid. He doesn't like it when I take over." the Pharaoh said.
You could have warned me, Sakura thought.
Well, what did you expect, an alarm? Meritaten said.
And you expect me to believe all this? Sakura asked.
"Ha! That's not my problem," Meritaten said out loud. "You believe whatever you want, but you can't hide from the truth."
"Arguing, are we? Stop that. Sakura, Meritaten's right, you can believe whatever you want. But what I'm telling you is the truth," the Pharaoh said. "You must never lose that ring, or you may not live," Pharaoh said. Then he kissed Meritaten and sat back down on his own chair.
And he was Yugi again, a slightly angry Yugi with an odd look on his face. "What did he say to you?" Yugi asked.
Sakura sighed. At least she could move now. "Your Pharaoh's wife was locked away in my mother's ring, like a millennium item, but her spirit can share a body, not dominate one." Sakura didn't mind wrapping it all up into a single sentence. She decided to leave the kissing part out. Sakura was really hoping she would wake up in bed in her house and trudge down the stairs with her father, only kept awake by the smell of blueberry pancakes and the prospect of Saturday morning cartoons. The ring would be safely on her mother's finger then, and none of this would have happened. But the only thing that survives of that time is memories, flashes of pictures and smells and feelings. It was all gone. All she had now were her books and her writing and her ring. And, Sakura thought, my friends.
Sakura smiled. Friends. Yugi saw her first real smile and smiled back. "Hey, Sakura, what are you thinking about?"
"My mother and father. Blueberry pancakes and Saturday morning cartoons." Sakura sighed and her smile dropped away. "Just memories that can never be again." This was painful. Sakura felt tears in her eyes. I can't cry, she thought. I have never cried before, I won't cry now. Not in front of Yugi.
But one tear slipped from her eye and slid down her face, making a dark track in the light skin of Sakura's face. She didn't bother wiping it away, but she tasted it as it went over her lips.
"Are you alright, Sakura?" Yugi asked.
Sakura quickly wiped the tear away, saying a mumbled "Yes. I'm sorry," and she went to get up and go home. But Yugi's hand was on her arm.
"We can talk about it if you want. You don't have to bottle it all up inside," He said with sympathy.
Sakura looked at Yugi with piercing green eyes. "How can you know? How can you ever know?" she asked. "Do you know what it's like to be no one's friend and be beaten up every day?" She pushed up her sleeves to reveal bruises. "Do you know what it's like to have people hate you so much they fight so they won't have to keep you? Do you know what it's like to lose everything that you knew and was good in one night when someone who doesn't even realize what he's doing starts fire? Do you? Do you know what it's like to have your only safe refuge and friends in books?" Sakura was shaking hard, her smile but a memory, her green eyes gone fierce with defense. She sat down, for she was swaying on he feet and her legs had turned into jelly. She still wasn't crying, she couldn't and wouldn't. She had almost forgotten the explanation for the fire that had killed her parents. A man had gotten drunk and wandered behind Sakura's house. He tried to light a cigarette but dropped the lighter. He didn't pick up the lighter that was still burning and it had started the raging fire that had burnt the house almost to ashes.
Yugi was next to her again, making sure she didn't fall off her seat. When Sakura was quiet, he said, "No. I don't know what it's like." He was holding her hand and breathing slowly, waiting for Sakura to calm down. Her heart was beating so fast, he thought she might have a heart attack.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"Don't be. I told you we could talk about it. And you did talk. I think that's the most I've heard you talk all day." Yugi smiled.
Sakura managed a slight quirk at the corner of her mouth. At least I have someone I can talk to, Sakura thought.
"So you're staying at Tristan's? And he didn't want you there? Why?"
"His parents didn't want me there. None of my relatives wanted to bother with custody of me, and eventually Tristan's parents had to take me in because they were my closest relatives and nobody with a drop of blood relation wanted me," Sakura said. "I haven't even been to Tristan's yet. I arrived by train early this morning and I went right to school. All I own are those five books in my bag, my pens, pencils, and my notebook, which is running out of pages fast. And my mother's ring, of course."
Yugi nodded. He looked into Sakura's eyes. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know." He was surprisingly close to Sakura's face. "Your only friends are books? That must be hard. You know...I could be your friend. I hope you wouldn't mind that."
Sakura was nervous. "I've never had a friend before. It's been a long time since I have had any happiness out of books," Sakura said in her whispering voice. She hoped he didn't get any closer; she knew if she did her heart would be broken in two again, and she didn't think she could bear that. He just came closer still, until their lips met, and Sakura was surprised. A warmth spread through her, like honey, and she liked it. Was Meritaten happy? Sakura wondered. Was this not the boy who held the spirit of her husband? When they broke off, Yugi was red and Sakura was white.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"Don't be." Sakura said. Both were embarrassed and didn't want to admit how much pleasure they had gotten. Yugi was hiding a smile with a cough and Sakura was hiding a smile by, well, not smiling, which was easy for her.
Sakura suddenly couldn't contain it anymore and smiled from ear to ear. She smiled right at Yugi, who made a choking noise and started laughing.
"I'll see you tomorrow, then," Yugi said. Sakura got up and grabbed her backpack.
She was just about to leave and realized she didn't know where she was going when she asked Yugi, "Do you know Tristan's address?" she said while still laughing.
Yugi grinned and gave her directions. Sakura said, "Thanks, bye!"
And Yugi said, "Bye, Sakura! See you tomorrow!"
When Yugi turned around, there was his grandpa behind the counter cleaning the glass with a grin on his face.
"Grandpa!" Yugi said, and started laughing again. Grandpa just smiled wider and went on cleaning.

When Sakura got to her new home, Tristan wanted to know what had happened at Yugi's. Sakura told him nothing had happened. Tristan didn't seem to believe her but all the same he let her be.
The conversation at dinner was the most surprising thing of the day, though. It was what Sakura's uncle said. "Okay, Sakura. Let's get one thing straight. You are not a part of this family and never were. You were adopted. Your mother left only one thing with you, a ring."
The look on Tristan's face told he was very surprised. Tristan's mother's face showed she hadn't been let in on this secret. Sakura's expression hadn't changed. Everything happens to me, she thought. Everything. Sakura seemed to have the worst of luck. But Sakura wanted to know who her parents were.
She barely ate her supper and curled up on a chair and read one of her novels. Her books were her only friends. The only world that didn't joke about her, the only place where higher forces weren't betting on what unfortunate thing would happen to her next. She forgot all about her day with Yugi, her new school, Tristan, she forgot everything.
She fell asleep in the chair and dreamed of eating blueberry pancakes and watching Saturday morning cartoons with an Egyptian Pharaoh, his wife, and Yugi.