Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ Memories Should be Treasured ❯ So That's How it Ends ( Chapter 15 )

Yugi felt himself coming out of the fuzziness of unconsciousness as he slowly opened his eyes, only quickly shut them when brightness invaded his sight. He didn't know where he was and the one thing that was really bothering him was the stinging buzz in his right arm. Deciding to try again, he blinked his eyes open and allowed himself to adjust to the light. He saw half of his friends standing around the room with worried looks on their faces, talking quietly amongst themselves.

"What's going on?" He asked, his voice thick with sleep.

Ryou, Malik, and Joey turned and smiled at him excitedly.

"Yugi, you're awake! How do you feel?" Ryou asked, his voice laced with concern for his friend.

"I feel tired and my arm hurts."

"That's understandable considering you got yourself shot in the arm." Malik explained.

"I got shot?" Yugi closed his eyes to concentrate, a frown spread over his face. "That's right, I remember now. What happened to Kiore, she didn't get hurt, did she?"

"Nah, man. She's alright; she's with Yami in the room opposite this one right now." Joey told him.

"Yami? What happened to Yami?"

"He ran over to help you after he thought he knocked Keith out. Turns out the bastard was just faking unconsciousness though and crawled over to his gun that got knocked out of his hand when Yami tackled him. Yami didn't even know he was being aimed at until it was too late." Joey explained.

"Is he okay? Is he awake yet?" Yugi asked eagerly.

The three of them laughed at Yugi's anxiousness. "Don't worry, Yugi," Malik said, "he's fine. He woke up about an hour again feeling better than ever. Except for when he found out he'd be using crutches for a few weeks; he got shot in the calf on his right leg."

"Oh," Yugi sighed out in relief. "Did anybody else get hurt?"

"Nope; just you two. Do you wanna see him?" Joey asked.

A large smile spread over Yugi's face and he nodded enthusiastically. "Can I?"

"Sure, come on. We'll help you."

Joey and Ryou came over and helped Yugi out of the bed so he wouldn't get tangled in the cords coming from the many machines and pulled him away far enough that he could walk on his own.

"The doctors wanted you to stay hooked up to this for a few more hours unless you woke up." Joey informed the shorter teen, pointing to the medication his left arm was hooked up too. "Want to keep it in to help with the pain or do you want us to find someone to take it out."

"Shots give me the creeps." Yugi shivered, refusing to look at it. "Can you go find someone for me?"

Malik nodded and headed out the door at a fast pace. He came back not five minutes later with a blonde nurse following after him.

"Hello, sweetie. Feeling better?" She asked with a voice some would use for a one-year-old.

"I'm fine." Yugi answered politely, slightly annoyed with the way she was treating him.

"This will only take a second then." She told him before moving to his arm and pulling the needle from it. "All done. I'll send the doctor over for you so he can look you over and decide when we can release you." She explained as she rubbed his arm lightly.

Yugi nodded and followed his friends out the door to Yami's room adjacent to his.

"Yami, there's somebody who wants to see you." Joey joked in a sing-song voice as he walked in, Ryou and Malik rolled their eyes.

Yami sat up in bed and a smile spread over his face when he saw Yugi, frowning only once when he saw the bandage around his right arm, before returning his eyes to his lover's face. "Yugi, I've been waiting for you to wake up."

"Hey, Yami." Yugi looked around the room and, in his annoyance, found that Yami's room was the same as his, meaning that all the rooms in the hospital must be created for the patient's boredom. He glanced back at Yami again with a sad smile. "I hate white." He said, gesturing around the room.

Yami nodded, "Me too." He patted an empty space beside him on the bed. "How do you feel?" He asked when Yugi sat down and snuggled up beside him.

"So-so. I'd feel better leaving though; I hate hospitals."

The older teen laughed. "I know, Yugi. Me too."

"Besides," Yugi continued, "this place reminds me of that one Christmas."

"I know, Yugi. I want to leave too. I've got good news for you though…Well, it would be good for us considering what just happened, but it just plains sucks for other people."

"What is it, Yami?" Yugi asked impatiently, needing some good news right then.

"Keith put up a major fight when the officers tried to take him downstairs. The bastard finally got what was coming to him when their chief showed up and gave them permission to stun him just until they got him to the new prison they're taking him too. He's on full security this time with no chance of bail for attempted murder, especially when he tried doing twice."

"We went to the trial too." Joey exclaimed excitedly.

"He's got no chance on parole or bail either." Malik smirked, enjoying the memory of what Keith's expression must've been like when they sentenced him.

"It only took a few hours too. No recesses or anything, just went straight through in like two hours." Bakura gleefully told him.

Yugi smiled. "At least now we have a better chance of getting on with our regular lives. When do we get to go home?"

"I get to go home tomorrow; we're going to go pick up my crutches that the doctor sent in for on the way. Have you been checked out by the doctor yet?"

"He is now." A friendly voice called from the door. Everyone waved a greeting to the doctor that they obviously must've recognized. "How do you feel," he looked at a clipboard in his hand, "Yugi?"

Yugi nodded and felt Yami pat him on the shoulder.

"He's very nice, Yugi. He's the one who checked me out an hour ago. It won't hurt at all; I promise."

Yugi smiled, glad for that bit of information, and followed the doctor back into the other room where he first woke up.

The doctor unrolled the bandages from around Yugi's arm where the bullet had been removed when he was unconscious. "Looks like it's doing just fine." He moved his hand up Yugi's arm and squeezed gently, examining Yugi's face for any signs of pain. He moved his hand up further and did the same; this time Yugi's face flinched slightly. "How much does that hurt?"

"A feels like a sharp pinch or a bee sting."

The doctor nodded and released Yugi's arm. "Well you seem to be doing just fine then if it only hurts that much." He bandaged it back up and pat the wrapped up white band gently. "I don't see any reason why you shouldn't be able to go home with Yami tomorrow. I just want to make sure you won't get further inspection so I'll keep you overnight. Just take it easy for a while and I'll call Ms. Kamikage when I want you to come back so I can check and see how you're doing from there."

Yugi nodded and glanced back at the door. The doctor saw his slight glance and laughed. "Go on then. You have a few hours before the nurses go around to get patients into bed and visitors out the building."

The violet-eyed teen thanked him and all but ran to the door. "I get to go home tomorrow, Yami!" He repeated excitedly when Yami asked him when he could go home.

~~

A few days later Yugi could be found up in the bedroom looking through a few of his things Yami had helped him put away back when he was still trying to recover his memory. He didn't want to listen to Yami, who was downstairs bickering with Nuka about going to his own room, the guestroom, so he could get some sleep.

Yami had taken to sleeping in the library on the leather couch since the first time he tried trekking up the stairs with his crutches. That incident almost resulted in another trip to the hospital. Yugi, naturally, couldn't let Yami sleep all by his lonesome self so he agreed when Yami asked him if he would join him on the couch.

The amethyst-eyed teen continued to look through his things that he liked to look at like his old school album where he and Yami were found on one of the benches outside in one of the rose garden's paths sleeping against each other. He also liked looking at some of the old black and white photos of him and his grandpa when he was around three to seven years old. While he was looking for those photos however, he came across and dust covered shoebox that he'd never noticed before. As he pulled down the box and dust fell down, covering his hair in a thin layer of it, the all too familiar twinge of a knot was found aching in his mind again.

He opened the lid and immediately a small, beautiful crimson, velvet covered box caught his eye. He vaguely remembered seeing it somewhere before almost a year earlier, but he hadn't remembered what had become of it. He picked the small box up curiously and looked over the outside for any sign of another reminder of what might be inside, but it was still coming up black in his mind. Deciding he should just open it before Nuka came bustling in shouting out in his usually loud voice that Yami was going to bed, which was usually when Yugi decided to go to bed as well.

The box opened with a quiet squeak and Yugi gasped at what he saw. A gorgeous band of gold with small white crystals forming a heart and small black crystals forming a heart, both intertwined with each other. He lifted his hand and picked it up carefully, almost like it were made of glass. Looking it over he remembered that he had given Yami a locket with the same intertwined hearts, except they weren't in small crystals just engraved and painted on, while they were still in school during Christmas break.

As the band slipped over his finger his skin brushed tiny indents and he pulled it off to see if anything were written on the inside. His eyes widened and he felt his breath catch in his throat. Inside was written `til death do us part.' He suddenly remembered what that life-altering knot was that he couldn't seem to remember!

Carefully storing the ring back its box so the hearts were facing upwards, he closed it and ran downstairs just as Yami convinced Nuka to go bed. Yami smiled when he saw him coming downstairs and used his left crutch to wave at him happily. Yugi smiled back at him and waited for Nuka to leave before telling Yami he had something important to tell him.

"Something wrong, Yugi?" Yami asked when he noticed the strange look glowing in Yugi's joyous orbs.

"I've never felt happier in my life than at this moment, Yami." Yugi told him with a dreamy look coming over his face. "You remember the knot I told you about nearly half a year ago that seemed like it could change someone's life, but no matter what I couldn't remember it?"

Yami nodded with a curious look on his face.

Yugi dropped to his knee and smiled up at Yami. His lover gave him a questioningly look, but refrained from speaking. Yugi took a deep breath and brought out the crimson box from behind his back, handing it up to Yami.

Yami eyed Yugi once more before opening the small box and gasping at what he saw inside.

The amethyst-eyed teen let out a small smile to his beloved Yami and took another deep breath. "Yami, my love, the only one I can only ever think of ever spending any life with for the rest of my own, would you please do me every honor ever been given and marry me?" Yugi asked hopefully, his words dripping with his love and complete sincerity.

Yami dropped to his knees and gave Yugi a deep hug while whispering, "I would love nothing more, koibito," he quietly nobody, if anybody else were in the room, would've been able to hear it except for Yugi.

Yugi carefully took the ring from its box and placed it onto Yami's ring finger.

After standing and sharing a passionate kiss for minutes that seemed to go by much too quickly for both lovers, Yugi blushed and admitted he had lied to him and now he could finally tell Yami what he'd done.

Yami spends the next five minutes or so being told how Yugi liked about him looking out the window when he heard the car start up and the leaf falling in his hair the day he went to buy the ring and told him what really what happened instead. Yami ended up laughing about it and telling Yugi he wasn't mad about him lying as long as he told him about it sooner or later, like he just did.

The ruby-eyed teen gave Yugi another sweet kiss on the his lips and mumbled something about having to find a ring for Yugi. When he pulled away though he added that was probably going to be one of the hardest things he's ever done in his life.

"Why's that, Yami?" Yugi asked curiously. "You know I'm not picky so how could it be hard?"

"Because, Yugi. I like only the best for the one I loved and there isn't a ring out there that could ever match your beauty, let alone ever come close to it."

Yugi blushed but decided to add on, "I'm sure you'll do a wonderful job because I'll love whatever you get."

Yami kissed Yugi once more and held him closely to his side all the way to the library, hobbling mostly the way there. When both fell asleep they could only dream of the day when they'd finally be able to be joined together for the rest of their lives.

~~

There's the end people. I hoped you loved it as much as I loved writing it for you. I know this is usually when I put up votes for my next story, but I still haven't decided if I'm going continue "With You" or not. If I do decide to continue with it if I ever find out how I'm going to (reincarnations remembering the ancient past is so over used, don't you think? Besides, I've already done that in another fic I've written and I think it would just be boring writing something similar to it again) then I'll put the votes on the last chapter for the next story when it does finish and then also add it to another `chapter' after this one at the same time. If not then I'll put the votes up on both fics in `chapters' after the last one. Sorry if that seemed a bit confusing.