Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Memories Should be Treasured ❯ Goodbye Yugi ( Chapter 6 )

It took a few days to see what things Yugi remembered and what he didn't. It hurt Yami the most when he learned Yugi didn't have any recollection of him or of ever having a relationship at all in his life.

Yami even had to cancel his cousin's next trip over to his house a few weeks after the `accident'. Nuka had been upset but he understood and wished them all good luck.

After the call had ended Yami went to look for Yugi and found him in the library. He smiled when he saw Yugi looking at the book he'd been reading; the one about dragons. A twinkle lighted up in his eyes as he realized he finally remembered the name of the book on his own - Dragons Through the Ages. (He'd found it hard to remember only because it had nothing to do with the book other than the `Dragons' part.)

Yugi looked up after getting the feeling he was being watched. He smiled sadly when he saw Yami standing by the door. It seemed like he was always smiling sadly towards Yami now only because he couldn't remember him from anywhere.

Yami shuffled uneasily, unsure of what to say to Yugi anymore. Thankfully though, it was Yugi who broke the silence.

The violet-eyed teen lifted the book to show Yami and let loose another sad smile. "I remember reading this once." He explained. "Only I can't remember what happens."

"You're welcome to read it again if you want." Yami smiled back at him.

Yugi frowned and gestured to the bookmark. "Aren't you already reading it though? Or somebody else?"

Yami shook his head. "It's okay, Yugi. Go ahead and read it and I'll finish it when you're done." He told him. "Besides, I'm a slow reader and you'd never get it a day less than your eightieth birthday," he lied the last part; hoping Yugi would just take the book.

The smaller teen gave out a large smile, overjoyed at being given the chance to read the book over again. He jumped off the large chair he'd been sitting in and hugged Yami tightly around the middle. "Thank you, Yami! I'm going to go to my room right now and start on it." He collected the book and eagerly left for his room. "Can you call me when dinner's ready?" The ruby-eyed teen nodded. Yami stayed behind, well after Yugi had left, with a hurt expression taking over his face and trying to force his tears away at what Yugi had just told him.

Yami had given Yugi the guest bedroom on the other side of the bathroom ever since the day after he came home from the hospital. He'd told him that he wasn't really comfortable sleeping in the same bed with somebody who felt like a complete stranger to him. They'd even tried using different beds, but Yugi still hadn't felt all that relaxed. He'd been hurt immensely about it, but understood all the same and tried not to show how he really felt around Yugi so he wouldn't feel any guiltier with knowing he was hurting somebody.

Yami hadn't seen Yugi the whole rest of the day, not until he went to get him for dinner. He knocked on the guest bedroom's door and opened it when he heard Yugi answer.

"Dinner's ready, Yugi." He told him.

"Thanks, Yami." Yugi replied, not looking up from the floor. The book was closed beside him with a slip of paper holding his place; not only but a few pages were past the beginning cover.

`That's strange,' Yami thought as he saw the book. `He's been up here for hours and he's only gotten maybe five pages finished. I know he's a faster reader than that.' He also noted with a twinge of regret that Yugi wouldn't look up at him for some reason.

"We'll be waiting for you then." Yami closed the door behind him and headed for the dining room. The only thoughts of `what's Yugi been up to all this time if he hasn't been reading' going through his head.

~~

Near the end of the day Yami found Yugi staring desolately at the front doors. Curious, he walked over to him and asked him what was wrong.

Yugi turned to him slowly, a defeated look on his face. He looked as if he was trying to give some kind of smile to Yami but failed miserably. "I'm so sorry, Yami," He cried, tears starting to shine brightly in his eyes. "I've tried so hard for you - but I just can't take it anymore."

Yami took a step back in worry. "What's wrong, Yugi? What's going on?"

"I'm going to go stay with Joey and Seto."

Yami was surprised at the answer, but as soon as he realized what was going on his heart clenched even more painfully than when Yugi had asked him for a different room. At least then he would still see Yugi during the day, but moved out he was sure to fall even further apart than he already had.

"I've already called them and they're going to be coming to pick me up soon," he gestured towards his bags that Yami hadn't noticed earlier.

Yugi had remembered Joey and Seto when Yami showed him a picture of them together. It was surprising to him that he remembered nearly everything about them and with amazing accuracy as well.

The doorbell rang shortly after their short conversation had ended and Yugi opened the door, smiling up at his blonde friend and his boyfriend. He then picked up his bags and headed for the car, turning back to Yami and apologizing once more.

"I am sorry, Yami, please believe me. I wouldn't do this if I didn't think it was for the best. About what happened with my memory, it's my fault too, Yami. It's my fault and I know that only because I can feel it inside and every time I try to remember it hurts even more like I don't want to remember how I lost it." He turned and stepped into the car, Seto's driver closing it behind him.

Joey turned to his best friend and gave him a comforting hug. "Sorry about this, Yami, I know you've probably been hearing it a lot but it's true. He pleaded with us before we agreed to let him stay; we really wanted him to stay with you."

Seto, not knowing what to say, just nodded his agreement with what Joey said and then gave him a hug before they left.

The minute after they closed the door, Yami ran up to his room and locked himself in, crying until no more tears came out and his voice turned hoarse. He didn't leave his room until noon the next day only to wrap himself up in the library, where he noticed Dragons Through the Ages placed on the center table in front of the chair Yugi had sat in when Yami had given it to him.

Yami was miserable without Yugi around, with or without his memory. The house was quiet and seemed too empty. Also, once more, he was the main target for Keith. Every chance his stepfather got he would attack Yami to satisfy his lust for him and leave him soon afterwards to cry for the guilt he felt towards Yugi about letting what Keith did to him happen.

~~

Yugi was also miserable; he noticed not long after he was alone in his new bedroom within Seto and Joey's large mansion how truly alone he felt. When near Seto and Joey it didn't feel so bad, but still a little painful for some reason. It only started to hurt when he had first left Yami's house, but near his two friends it wasn't so bad and thought it to go away soon.

Now, alone, he felt it increase by a hundred fold; he didn't understand it either. He'd never felt it when he was with Yami. He always felt some kind of pulls towards the older teen, but he didn't understand it enough to mention and was still afraid of his loss of memories; afraid he'd get thrown more pity at him for something else he couldn't remember. It only took him but a short while to figure out that he was only hurting because he wasn't with Yami and it was his fault for doing so.

Briefly he wondered, as he cried silently into his pillow on the bed, if Yami was feeling as horrible as him or if he even cared that he'd left.

"Don't hate me, Yami." He chocked hoarsely into his tear-dampened pillow.

~~

After a couple of months Yugi gradually remembered more things, but he still couldn't remember anything about Yami, no matter how hard he tried to.

Joey had told him what had happened to get the two together, but he couldn't remember it happening.

"Don't worry about it, Yuge. If I know Yami as well as I think I do, which I'm pretty sure I do, than he still loves you and always will. He'll wait a lifetime and another for you as long as he knows there's still hope you'll want him. Even if you didn't he wouldn't want anyone else."

Yugi almost told him about how he's felt since he left Yami's house, but decided against it.

That night Yugi could be found sleeping restlessly on his bed, twisting and turning in the thin sheets and shifting from one side to the other, and grabbing the sheets every so often in a white knuckle grasp.

Yugi was standing in complete darkness. Only one light seemed to be coming from somewhere above. No matter how fast he ran towards Yugi never seemed to be coming any closer.

Then a shadowed person appeared where the light was shining. It didn't occur to Yugi that that should be possible if they were standing in a light, but he still tried to reach it. Finally, Yugi could make out the person as the shadows around them faded away into the darkness still surrounding the light. It was Yami; and he was watching him with broken eyes and melancholy and pain etched all over his figure. Somehow though, just by seeing how Yami was acting, Yugi couldn't help but clutch at his heart as it clenched painfully in his chest.

As Yugi could feel himself beginning to wake, unable to force himself to stay sleeping any longer, Yami turned and started to walk away from him and the light vanished turning the entire scene black.

The amethyst-eyed teen collapsed to the dark floor and started to cry.

Yugi's eyes burst open and he lay on the bed in a gasping heap, dried tear tracks coursing down his pink-tinted cheeks.

`Why'd he walk away from me?' Yugi thought in desperation. `He promised he'd always be there for me; he promised!' He cried, tears starting to refresh the dry tracks on his face. "Joey told me he had." He whispered quietly.

He didn't know what had come over him. The teen couldn't even remember Yami and yet he felt terrible pain by being away from him and that the dream that wouldn't seem to get lost in his scrambled mind hurt him the most when Yami had looked at him like he had and then walked away from him.

"Yami, what's going on with me? Why does hurt so much when you're away when I don't even know who you are?"

~~

Yami sat in his bed with dry tears still visible on his face and blood smeared down one side of his face. Keith had just finished another of his play times with him and left him broken just like the previous times. He'd left a `love bite' for Yami on his neck deep enough to draw blood. He licked some of the blood from his neck and swiped it down his cheek instead.

The ruby-eyed teen felt he couldn't take much more of his life if this was how it was going to stay. He'd kill himself before Keith got the chance to touch him again.

`Why do I let him touch me?' The thought often flit across his mind, mostly just after he was used and thrown away like an old toy. The answer always became the obvious soon after, as though somebody inside his mind was answering for him. `You didn't want to see you're mother's disappoint in you if she ever found out.' He'd told Yugi though and he found out Nuka knew all along after the `accident'.

`What if she wouldn't be disappointed though?' He'd then ask; it was almost a routine for him.

`She would be. She loves Keith and you'd be taking that away from her if you ratted him out.'

The voice once again knocks sense into his head. Ever since his father had died Yami promised himself he'd do anything to make her happy and he hasn't yet broken it.

Then thoughts of what had happened to Yugi and how he must've felt when Keith used him and then made him lose his memory, lying about it when asked.

Anger overtook his thoughts and he stormed out of his bedroom and into the bathroom to wash his face.

It felt a little dizzy and it never failed to be noticed by Yami that Keith had started to get rougher and harder with him since he took Yugi. It was sometimes too painful for him to stand and it would worry his mother sometimes when he wouldn't come down for hours.

Looking at his reflection in the mirror the same anger flared in his face. Bruises covered his face and Yami had taken to sneaking his mother's makeup to cover it up; Keith was starting to get careless. Rage then took over the anger as he remembered how Yugi had looked when he saw him laying unconscious in the bedroom. Unable to control his actions his fist came up and before Yami knew it his knuckles were covered in blood and the mirror was cracked into different sized shards.

He ignored the mess he made and all but ran down the stairs to find his mother; he wasn't going to let himself or Yugi or anybody else be touched ever again.

"Mother?" Yami felt like growling, but kept his tempter in check. He was glad to find her alone.

"Yami, dear," Kiore gasped. "Yami! What happened to your face?" She rushed over to him and caressed the cheek with the blood smeared on it. It didn't take her long to look down and see the bite on his neck with a large green and blue bruise forming around it.

"I need to tell you something important, mother." He told her, not bothered she was touching his sours.

Kiore nodded and looked him over, frowning at the bruises also forming on his arms and what looked like red rashes over his wrists. She sat down on the kitchen chair behind her and continued to hold Yami's hands in hers, hoping somehow that it would help the both of them.

"It's Keith, mother. Keith's been doing this since the summer of my sophomore year. I didn't want to tell you because I thought you'd be disappointed and I knew how much you loved Keith."

"What's he been doing, Yami? What's happened to you?" She asked worriedly.

"He's been raping me, mother."

"That's outrageous," a laughing voice joked from the corner.

Yami turned and didn't know why a sudden sense of fear overcame him as he moved closer to his mother.

"Kiore, dear, he'd obviously out of his mind. You've seen how he'd been acting ever since Yugi left for what-his-name's place; he's gone out of his mind with heartache and wants to blame it on the only person in the house when the accident occurred; even when he knows what happened for real."

Crimson eyes flared dangerously and he growled low in his throat. "I do know the truth, you bastard! You raped him and didn't care when he knocked his head on the floor and the dresser!"

Kiore gasped and was suddenly reminded of the phone call she'd received from the doctor about Yugi showing signs of rape. `But how did Yami know that? He didn't listen to it.' Realization suddenly dawned on her, not comprehending anything gone around her at the minute. `Keith must've raped Yugi and caused him to lose his memory just like Yami was saying.' It easily became clear why Yami would never try and get along with Keith either.

Looking up she nearly shrieked. Yami lay on the floor in a bloody heap staring daggers at Keith. A large bruise was forming over his right eye, forcing it closed.

"Yami!" She turned to Keith. "What've you done?" She dropped to her knees and cradled her son in her arms, his head resting in her lap still glaring the best he could at Keith.

"The boy's gone mad, Kiore. He was going to attack me and I had to do something to protect myself."

"By hitting him?" She felt like screaming. A loud cry echoed through the house and Shiro made the point of being awakened by her nap. Nobody made a move to go take care of her though.

"It was the only thing I could do; he left me no other choice, Kiore. You're son has been going mad ever since that boyfriend of his left and he wants to place the blame on somebody other than himself. Stop acting like he's five-years-old because he's not!" He argued back.

Shiro's cried became unable to ignore and Kiore motioned for Yami to go take care of her. Yami understood and stood, wobbling a little to gain balance, and hurried off towards his mother's bedroom.

"I'll take care of my son however I want until he asks me to treat him differently!"

"No wonder he's such a selfish snob; you treat him like that he was bound to turn into one! I told you once we married that he was going to have to be taken care of for that attitude of his and you said it was only temporary for the change! Now look what you've done!"

"Yami chooses to act like because of what you've done to him! I envy him for how long he's been able to hold you off on his own!"

"I HAVEN'T DONE ANYTHING TO HIM!"

Kiore flinched at his loud voice, scared of what he would do to her if he would hit Yami the way he had without guilt. Before she could react he had grabbed her wrists and held her back against the wall, raising one of his hands to slap her.

"Mother!"

Before Keith knew it Yami tackled him from behind and Kiore escaped from the kitchen and locked herself in her bedroom as soon as she got there, finding Shiro playing with her toys on the bed.

Minutes later a near silent knock rapped on the door and Kiore hesitantly opened it, keeping sure to leave her foot behind the door so she could close it quickly if the need came. Gasping as she saw Yami collapsed in front of the door she dragged him inside.

"Yami!" She called to him, hoping with her life he was going to be okay.

"He's unconscious, mother." Yami managed to say. He looked even worse than when she last saw her and looked near to being knocked out as well. She kissed his cheek gently and nodded. "Okay, honey. Just rest and I'll take care of it from here." Tears shown in her eyes as she saw her son flinch in pain as she moved him carefully from her lap.

She went to the phone and dialed for the police.

"Can I have officers come to my house immediately, please. My husband just attacked me and my son and we don't know how long we have until he wakes up." She rushed out over he tears, glad her voice hadn't cracked.

"Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. The address it 209 Talino Drive."

She hung up the phone and rushed back over to her son lying in stillness on the floor, blood soaked into the carpet around him. He'd gone unconscious while she was on the phone. Not wanting to leave him again, even if just a few feet, she'd ask the police to give her a ride to the hospital.

Fifteen long minutes later a knock rapped on her door and she asked shakily who it was.

"Ma'am? It's the police; we've got you're husband."

Relief washed over her and she stood to unlock the door.

"Thank you, officer. There's a few more charges on him as well, but may I ask a favor first?"

"Of course, ma'am. What's wrong?" He asked comfortingly.

Kiore gestured to her and son and she even saw the policeman's eyes widen at the sight. "Please, may I have a ride to the hospital?" She pleaded desperately.

"Of course, of course." He rushed over and picked Yami gently up in his arms. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

Kiore followed him downstairs and into his car, watching as he carefully placed Yami in the seat next to her before driving off. She briefly saw in the car next to her that Keith was slowly starting to wake. She'd hate to be in the care when he finds out what's happened.

"You can tell me the other charges once we get your son some help." The man told her as they pulled onto the main road.

"Thank you." She whispered, her eyes turning to watch her son for the ride and hoping he'd be okay.