Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Memories Should be Treasured ❯ Courthouse ( Chapter 12 )

The next morning was a very quiet morning where all three, Kiore, Yami, and Yugi, were edgy and nervous. The ride to the courthouse was quiet as well, except for the occasional baby noises Shiro made.

Upon arriving they were met by Mr. Johnson who led them to the front He told Kiore to sit at the table next to where he would be sitting and then Yami to sit behind her with Yugi right next to him. Before letting Yugi sit down however he pulled him aside.

"Yugi, I know this is going to be hard for you if when I questioned you is any indication to go by. If you wish to leave after you've been questioned there's a room just outside and to the right down the hall that you're welcome to wait in until the session's over."

Yugi nodded. "Thank you, Mr. Johnson. I would like some time to at least clean up since it's pretty much a 90:10 ratio I'll end up crying." He paused for a minute. "Can Yami come with me?"

"Of course. I'll make sure you get questioned after so there won't be any problems with waiting."

Yugi thanked him again and then went to sit down, laying his head on Yami's shoulder and holding his hand nervously.

Not seconds later was Keith pulled in by two officers holding him by the arms and forced to sit down. He was yelling up a storm and cursing at everything in sight. It wasn't long before he spotted the three who were the main cause of his arrest as well (Yugi shivered and moved closer to Yami as he remembered the day he got arrested). "You three are going down." He growled out. "And, Yugi, you will pay for this; just you wait."

A few minutes later a loud voice echoed throughout the courthouse. "all rise for the honorable Judge Perkins."

An aged-looking woman with red hair and gray streaks walk through the back door. "You may sit." She ordered before sitting down. She shuffled through some papers on her desk and looked through them and as she did people waited silently in their seats; surprisingly even Keith was good too (`Must be trying to earn points with the judge,' Yami thought angrily, holding Yugi closer). She then looked up again. "It seems that everything's in order then. Miguel, why don't you start?"

An obtuse, bald-headed man with a sharp black mustache sitting next to Keith stood up. "Your honor, I see no reason why we should even be here today. My client is completely innocent of all his charges and is wrongly accused by who he believed was his family."

"While your opinion is greatly interested, why don't you just call your first witness?" The judge ordered more than suggested.

Miguel only did an unnerving, lopsided smirk and nodded. He turned to the court and said, "I call my first witness then, Bones Gravie."

A small person in the back row stood and walked to the front. He looked dead the way his hair was spiked zombie-like and his face sunken in to nearly inhuman like. He sat in the stand and swore he'd tell the truth when the bailiff asked him.

"Mr. Gravie, do you know my client, Keith Bandit?" Miguel asked, pointing to where Keith sat, smirking over confidently.

Bones gave an unearthly laugh somehow before nodding. "Yeah, we've been buds a long time."

"Does my client strike you as a person who would rape his stepson's boyfriend?"

There was a murmur in the crowd and Yugi pushed him himself still impossibly closer to Yami.

"No, he's always seemed like a caring guy. Me and a few of my friends that also know Keith and used to hang around with him all the time all thought he was a really great guy."

"I see; and why did you stop hanging around my client, Mr. Gravie?"

"Because he got married and became completely devoted to his family. He didn't want us trying to get him drunk like we used to do all the time when he was single."

"Thank you, Mr. Gravie. I think that's about all for right now. Mr. Johnson, I believe he's your witness." He said sickly sweetly.

Mr. Johnson stood up, but didn't move away. "No questions, your honor." He then sat back down.

"Mr. Gravie, you may sit down now." The bailiff told the boy.

Miguel asked a few more people to the stand, the friends that Bones had mentioned, and asked them similar questions to which they all said the same thing.

Kiore leaned over to her lawyer. "David, is this a good thing? They're all just saying this like it's planned."

"I know, Kiore, but I have to wait until it's my turn until I can do anything. If I try to object I'd mostly get overruled or sustained."

"No further witnesses, your honor." Miguel finally told the judge.

"Mr. Johnson, do you have any witnesses?" Judge Perkins asked.

Mr. Johnson stood. "Yes, your honor. I'd like to call Kiore Hitokage to the stand." He announced, using Kiore's first husband's name after a request when the whole ordeal with Keith started.

Kiore stood, carefully passed Shiro back to Yami, and got sworn in before looking at her lawyer once more. She slightly looked behind him to where her son and Yugi were sitting and gave them both a small comfort smile before returning to look at Mr. Johnson.

"Ms. Hitokage, how long have you been married to Keith?"

"For a few months over four years, I think maybe five months or so."

"And in that time did you notice anything strange going on in your house that you were worried about like your son's behavior or anything else?"

"Well, usually Yami, my son, is very polite towards people and is never rude to them, but it surprised me that he was abnormally hateful towards Keith during the summer for his sophomore year, about four years ago, maybe a month over."

"Yes, and did you ever ask him why?"

"No, I like my son to be independent and come to me if he has problems. Although, I did ask him several times to be much nicer and more polite to Keith, but he completely refused every time, which usually led to an argument."

"I see; did you ever find out why he was hateful towards Keith?"

Kiore nodded. "Yes, I did. A short while after Keith was arrested he finally had a chance to tell me after being interrupted so many times."

"And what did he tell you?"

Kiore's throat clenched up, making it hard for her to breathe and unable to talk. Mr. Johnson walked over and held out his hand so she could hold it and he held it in his comfortingly.

"It'll be okay, Kiore. Remember, this is to help." He whispered to her.

Kiore nodded and after a few more seconds she finally took a deep breath and released Mr. Johnson's hand. "He told me that Keith had been raping him since that one summer for his sophomore year when he started to hate him."

"Why didn't he tell you sooner? Was Keith making him from telling somehow?"

"No," Kiore shook her head, "No, he said that he felt ashamed by it and thought that he had to be strong for me and to be that he couldn't tell me."

"Do you know why he decided to tell you then?"

"I believe it has something to do with the `accident' with Keith and his boyfriend, Yugi."

"And what happened then?"

"Yami told me, after he admitted Keith was raping him, that Keith had been lusting towards Yugi since he first met him when he came to live with us nearly a year ago. Yami had been trying to keep him safe and away from Keith and had even warned Yugi about what Keith was going to do, but eventually, when I was helping a friend to the hospital and Yami was away doing some errands for me with his cousin Keith got a hold of Yugi and raped him too, causing him to lose his memory when he hit his head on the side table."

"Thank you, Kiore." He turned to Miguel, who was glaring at them all with a look to kill for ruining his so-called perfect beginning. "You're witness."

Miguel stood. "No questions."

The judge turned to Kiore, "You may step down," and then to Mr. Johnson, "You may call your next witness."

"Thank you, your honor. I call Yami Hitokage to the stand."

Yami went to the stand after giving Yugi a gentle hug and then got sworn in before turning to look at Mr. Johnson.

"Yami, did you start hating Keith before he raped you or after?"

"I didn't like him all that much, but I was polite to him for my mother's sake. After he raped me though I was scared of him and tried to avoid him as much as possible. I only just started to begin hating him though after he continued to do it."

"And why did you decide to tell your mother about what he did?"

"It was exactly what my mother said. I could handle him doing it to me because I knew I could take care of myself, but Yugi's had so much happen to him in the past that I just snapped when I found out what happened."

"Can you tell us what happened that day and then anything else about Keith?"

"Yes, the day Yugi was raped I realized something didn't seem right for some reason while I was out with Nuka, my cousin, doing errands. We ran the rest of the way home and when I did the first thing I noticed was Shiro, my baby sister," he gestured to his mother where Shiro was sleeping in her arms, "was crying and Yugi was supposed to be taking care of her and I know Yugi wouldn't just leave her alone for no reason like that. I found Keith upstairs and Yugi was on the floor unconscious, both weren't wearing anything, and there was a lot of blood on the bed. That's just about when my mother came home. I covered Yugi in one of the blankets my mother keeps under the bed and went downstairs to tell her what happened. Keith interrupted though and told my mother that Yugi was trying to give Shiro a bath and fell down the stairs." Yami took a minute to catch his breath before he continued. "After that Yugi went to the hospital where we found he'd lost his memory from hitting his head on the side table. Keith started to get careless after that and I had bruises all over my face. That's when I decided to tell my mother what had been going on. Keith made a mockery of it though and I just couldn't control myself. He was lying to my mother and he'd already hurt Yugi badly so I ran at him. He beat me and my mother knew about it then too because she was right there when he did it. That's how I ended up in the hospital. And that's basically it."

"I see. Thank you, Yami. You may step down now."

Yami nodded and walked back over to where Yugi was silently shaking. He looked behind him when he saw the Yugi's eyes weren't looking at him though, but instead at Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson also was looking at Yugi with a sad and concerned look in his eyes. Yami quickly sat down next to Yugi and pulled him closely into a comforting hug and gave him a gentle kiss on his forehead; he knew what was coming now.

"You may call your next witness, Mr. Johnson." Judge Perkins told Kiore's lawyer.

Quietly, almost as if he didn't want to say it, but he knew he had to, and looking at the floor, Mr. Johnson said, "I call Yugi Motou to the stand."

Almost mechanically, Yugi pulled away from Yami and wiped his face on the sleeve of his shirt in case there were any tears before standing and walking to where the bailiff was waiting. He sat down and got sworn in before slowly looking at Mr. Johnson, waiting for what he knew would come first.

"Yugi, can you tell the court what happened the day you were raped?" The man asked, looking at the floor.

Yugi swallowed around the large lump in his throat and nodded. He decided it would be best if he didn't look at anybody, especially Keith, or else he wouldn't be able to finish. Taking a deep breath, he began, starting at the beginning of the day how Kiore kept making Yami hang around with Nuka since he didn't get to see his cousin very often because his parents divorced. He moved on to when Yami and Nuka nearly begged Kiore if Yami could go run her errands with them, then to when Kiore had to leave to help her friend to the hospital, to when Keith cornered him in the kitchen and he tried escaping by telling lies. It seemed like forever to Yugi when he finally told them he awoke in the hospital with a nurse in the room and she told him about his memory loss and then to when Yami came in and the first words out of his mouth since he woke up had been, "Who are you?"

By the time Yugi finished he had tears streaming down his face no matter how hard he tried and he was half glad nobody had interrupted him to object to some of the things he had said and then also half upset that nobody had interrupted him for lack of better of an excuse to stop. Slowly, he looked up and he saw Kiore with tears also coursing down her eyes and holding little Shiro tightly to her, to Yami with a murderous look in his eyes as he glared at the back of Keith's head (Yugi could tell he was doing everything in his power to not go over and bash the bastard's skull in, to Mr. Johnson who was looking reserved at him, and then to the court where some people were from crying to concerned to disgusted looks at what Keith had done.

Mr. Johnson finally moved and walked over to the judge. Yugi couldn't hear what he was saying, but he had an idea when the man moved to in front of him. He pulled out a hanky from his pocket and told Yugi he was excused for as long as he needed did he wish to come back.

Yugi took the hanky gratefully and quickly stood, walking as fast as he could without running out of the room He could hear Yami's steps right behind him as soon as he past by where they had been seated.

Yugi found the room easily and he collapsed in emotional exhaustion on the couch. Feeling Yami's arms wrap around him tightly he leaned into the embrace and hid his face in Yami's shirt.

Yami started rocking Yugi back and forth on the leather couch whispering loving nothings in his ear, glad and relieved that it was helping calm the boy down and stop himself from crying before he did.

When Yugi pulled away from Yami at last Yami was happy to see that very few tears had been shed and he leant over to give Yugi a gentle kiss on the cheek. "I'm so proud of you, Yugi. You're very brave to go up there and tell everybody something like that."

"Yami," Yugi whispered. Yami had to lean down slightly to be able to hear what his love had to say. "Sometimes, at night, I dream that it's happening all over again. I can feel his hands going over my bare skin and I can hear him laughing and calling me all sorts of awful things." Tears slipped over his amethyst eyes as he continued to talk; Yami didn't dare interrupt. "After I wake up I don't scream though because I remember he always slapped when I did and I didn't want to get hurt again. After that I feel so dirty, Yami, and it's hard to go back to sleep feeling like that."

Yugi stopped and Yami guessed that Yugi was done. He pulled the teen into his arms once more and held him tightly and kissed him on the forehead, telling him everything would be all right. The truth was not only that Yugi desperately needed the comfort; after Yami had heard everything that Yugi had been through from the beginning to when he first saw Yami after the `accident' he'd needed the comfort and to hold his small lover in his arms as well.

The smaller teen mumbled something into Yami's shirt and the crimson-eyed teen pulled away to hear. "What did you say, little love?"

"Will it ever go away, Yami?" Yugi asked with a scared, far away tone.

Yami sighed and held Yugi to him. "I'm sorry, but I don't know, Yugi. Maybe someday it will, but for right now I'll just hold you and tell you everything will be okay. And whenever you have a nightmare you can always wake me up. Okay?"

Yugi nodded and wrapped his arms tightly around Yami, holding on in fistfuls of the cloth of his shirt as if it were a lifeline.

They stayed there for a while longer, not sure how long, before Yami finally suggested they should go back to the courtroom, for his mother's sake in not to worry if anything else. Yugi agreed and they stood up.

Looking at the clock Yami estimated that they'd been in the room for a good half an hour at least. He led Yami back to the room and quietly they entered and went back to their seats. Mr. Johnson smiled at the both of them and nodded apologetically to Yami for Yugi since the amethyst-eyed teen was looking at the floor.

It seemed like just as they sat down Judge Perkins spoke up. "Ladies and gentlemen of the court, this has been a hard case and in being so it will take the jury time to come to a conclusion based on the evidence. Mr. Johnson, Kiore Kamikage, Keith Bandit, and Delly Miguel will be the only ones needed tomorrow and you're to show up here at eight `o clock of the closing stages and Mr. Bandit's sentence in his crimes. The court is adjourned." She banged her gavel before turning around to leave the way she came.

After the judge disappeared other people also started to get up and leave. Yugi stopped only once at the door and looked at Keith who was glaring at him with a look of death for Yugi written across his face, causing a shiver to go down Yugi's back. Afterwards, he turned and quickly caught up with Yami, who was walking a few feet behind his mother and Mr. Johnson who were discussing probably the business of tomorrow's meeting.

"I'm glad we can go home now, Yami." Yugi told him as he slipped his hand closed around Yami's.

Yami also closed his hand and looked down at Yugi, a small smile gracing his face. "So am I, Yugi."